ACI-2000

Enjoying my half-day Friday, I read through the muggy afternoon. After realizing I'd missed the Brazil soccer match I sent a mass text (which right now means a total of 3 texts) asking where would be a good spot to watch the Ghana vs. Uruguay game. We decided to go to Christine's, where we had gone the week before to watch Ghana vs. U.S.

Flagging down the taxi was the easy part, but next came the hard part: describing where I wanted to go in French when most taxi drivers only speak Bambara. She lives near Hotel Columbus, so I tried puckering my lips just so to push out "Co-lom-BOOSE" in the French way, then listed off other landmarks that were around there: "Air France," "US Embassade"...then he kind of cut me off and said what I thought was, "Assez; deux mille?"/"Enough; 2 thousand?" to which I replied, a little taken aback, "Non, non. Mille cinq cents" 1,500 fCFA, or roughly $3.

When I got in the car, I didn't realize there was another girl in the back, so per usual we had to make another stop along the way. At last on the way to Christine's, I told him that this was a new route, I hadn't gone in this direction before. He got excited and started talking about how there are different ways to go everywhere, how Bamako is so spread out, etc., and his demeanor surprised me after he had earlier barked "enough."

He then points to where his family, led by his two wives, live in this spread out, crazy city. When I ask him why he has two wives, joking that one's expensive enough, he goes on to say "les femmes Malian ne sont pas...reconnaissant..."/"the women in Mali are not...grateful." He continues: having more than one helps solve this problem. I finished his sentence, "so having more than one wife creates some sort of competition, so that they're just both so eager to give you their thanks?" "Exactement!"

I don't know whether his side of the story is true, or if what I'd like to believe is true: these women would rather split the time with him, with all this recognition talk, rather than have to keep him around full-time!

Nearly 30 minutes of this nonsense later, thanks to traffic, we pull up to "Hotel Libya" for what I think are directions because we are no where near the correct hotel. Unfortunately, he says "voila" and I realize he thinks this is where I'm trying to go. I explain to him that Hotel Columbus is next to the OTHER Air France in another neighborhood, but then he huffs up and says that he had asked me if it was "assez deux mille," and then I look confused, wondering why he's bringing up the price discussion. He plugs again, "le quartier, assez deux mille!" Ah yes, the "ACI-2000" quarter, the section of town where the correct Air France sits!

I had completely bunked that entire taxi ride before it even happened.

After all, we do end up having to ask for directions at Hotel Libya, and when we get into ACI-2000 I'm still so clueless that we have to pick-up a friendly area neighbor to direct us to Hotel Co-lom-BOOSE. A few droplets of stress sweat and three dollars later, I'm more than ready to take out some aggression by cheering on this football match.