So finally, after much ado (and many false starts), Jenna, Phoebe (a co-worker of mine) and I will be going to Boali this weekend (this is the waterfalls, dam and hydroelectric station). We’ll be making the 70km trek from Bangui in a cab: apparently the road is quite good and there are only two road-block/toll stations on the route — so there’s little need for a more “official” mode of transport.
We’ll also be taking a “trusted driver” — he gives everyone in my office lifts around town, making him more reliable than a random off of the street (as I learned very early on, cabs around here have a funny habit of changing the price between when you leave a place and when you arrive at your destination).
One of the highlights of the trip (that is if Phoebe and I can convince Jenna to do it), is a crocodile pond. The entry fee to the pond is a chicken that kids sell by the side of the road: you feed it (alive) to the crocs while you’re there. Alternatively, you can feel good about yourself and not feed the chicken to the crocodiles and just give the operators the chicken, but the chicken will likely get eaten by someone or something anyway.
Anyhoo, the total price works out to about $80 for the whole trip. Not bad considering we basically have a car and driver for the whole day.
On a more somber note, just about 80km past Boali, the Minister of Forestry was shot to death in his car by bandits. It’s a reminder of the fact that this place, no matter how accustomed you get to it, is never really all that safe — although I really don’t think we have all that much to worry about.
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Speaking of which, I was almost pick pocketed last night on my way home from work. It was, honestly, the most low-budget, after-school-special attempt at a robbery that I’ve ever seen. First, I got out of my cab on a somewhat busy street (busy for cars, but because it was late, there weren’t a lot of people); for those of you that have been following along, it’s the street that has all the stolen library books for sale on it (in fact, right at that point in the street).
Once out of the cab, I waited for traffic to clear so that I could cross the little intersection. I crossed the street and I notice two guys were walking behind me on the “sidewalk”, both moving pretty quickly. One of the guys sped up, cut in front of me quickly and bent over to “tie his shoe”, while the other is maintained a very close clip behind me.
Now, here’s what I was supposed to do (if I wanted to give them my wallet): I should have stopped, said “excuse me” and then the guy behind me would have “bumped” into me and lifted my wallet.
What happened was that, when I saw the guy in front of stoop to “tie his shoe” I turned around, saw the guy behind me stooped over driving towards my wallet, and I just moved out of the way . . . and to my surprise, they both cursed softly, turned around and walked in the other direction . . . To better illustrate, I’ve written a dialog that is relatively analogous to what happened and shows both how obvious and nonthreatening the situation was:
“We want to rob you.”
“What? No.”
“Shit. Fine. Ugh, let’s go.”
“Ok. Bye.”
