Day six

Our plan for tomorrow includes doing a little bit of le shopping which means spending hours locking horns with determined tablecloth hawkers. We needed today to be a day away from the market and the general mayhem that is the downtown area where our hotel is to mentally and emotionally prepare for tomorrow's battles over prices.

We took a taxi to a part of town called Point E to just wander around with the ultimate goal of eventually finding a restaurant I head read about online. 

My impression is that Point E is more calm than downtown is on any given day anyway but today was particularly quiet. Today is the first day of the Muslim new year so many businesses were closed, as was the university. Further, one of the large roads running alongside the neighborhood is closed for construction so there were no cars for a good part of it. I saw no other tourists. It's definitely not a touristy part of town. The looks I got from some of the locals told me they were surprised to see us. A very different feel than downtown, where one is routinely accosted with cell phone charges, calling cards, etc.

I had fallen behind a little because I had stopped to take a picture of something. When I lowered my camera there was a guy walking towards me on the sidewalk. I stopped to let him by and he stopped. He said hello in French and I said hello in French. He asked in French if I was a tourist and in French I said sort of. Then he asked me in Spanish if I speak Spanish. I said no. Then he asked in French if I speak French and in French I said sort of. Then he asked in French if I speak English and in English I said yes. Then I asked him in French if he speaks Spanish and he said yes in Spanish. Then I asked him in English if he speaks English and in French he said sort of.

He ended up walking with us for a while and joining us for a drink and a chat. He then walked around the neighborhood with us trying to find the restaurant but to no avail. We finally gave up and caught a cab back to the hotel. Before we did, I asked the guy, Cherif, for his email address. He said he didn't have one. I gave him mine and told him to go get his own and email me. We also exchanged phone numbers. I'm not sure why because international texting is expensive and anyone who knows me knows I use my phone for anything but phone calls. I half expect my phone to ring in six months and it will be him, asking me to show him around DC. That would be pretty cool.

Lunch, rest, evening promenade, dinner. Easy day. To the marché tomorrow. I have two friends I promised I would visit, Mwaz and, uh, the other guy. I can't remember exactly where his stand is but I'm sure he'll find me. 

Thursday Mom and I leave for Johannesburg. That's another 8 hour flight. I will spend several of those hours choosing and prepping pictures for uploading when I have a more reliable internet connection. I'll also write a bunch of tangential, unrelated posts for uploading when we land if the hotel in Johannesburg has internet. That's the other thing: tomorrow might be the last post for a while until after the safari because I'm not sure when we'll have internet and when we won't. I'll try to find out ahead of time so that I can warn you. That way you won't think I was eaten by a lion or a hippo. If I do end up being eaten by a lion or a hippo I'll try to get some good pictures.