Well, we both survived our experiences - Ron in the bush for the first time and me alone with 3 children in Africa. Ron will post about his experiences - without photos (sorry Amie).
To sum up my time, I successfully took 3 taxis, ate at a restaurant, went fabric shopping, had a skirt made, and bought groceries. And, I need to add only 1 out of the 3 taxi drivers spoke French! We went to a restaurant that serves American food and enjoyed some pizza. On the way out the parking person asked me where I wanted to go and I pointed up the road - he then hailed me a taxi. He was the 1 that did speak French - at the end of our trip I got in a quarrel with him! He said a price to go literally up the road (but across the main road, with 3 children), so I said yes - I thought he said 50, he said he said 500. It cost me 1,000 cfa to go from my house, so 500 cfa for a short distance was absurd. But I did not want to cause a scene for a dollar (exchange rate is around 510 cfa = 1 dollar), so I paid the man and got out of the cab. My children were only slightly frightened at this point! Bad Mom for scaring the children over a $1. But hey a buck is a buck right? Anyway, by the time we finished grocery shopping it was dark and I had to manage a taxi home. Once again standing my ground, the first 2 taxi drivers were going to charge me 1,500 cfa, but I only paid 1,000 to get there - we both refused to budge. So here I am standing in the dark street - my children up safely by the grocery store - waiting for another taxi to come by. Praise the Lord I didn't have to wait long and the parking lot security guy arranged it for me since he spoke Bambara and I didn't.
All in all - I would say it was successful. Now I am off to bed, I am exhausted! I will post pictures of some of our new african outfits tomorrow.
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