We’ve been away for a week, and what a week it has been. After a full day of running around yesterday, we decide to stay put in our apartment today and do what we have come accustomed to doing...and getting very good at it....waiting. Wait for the TV guys to come by and see what they can do to connect us to the world via the satellite dish that I had bought from Greg, the guy that I am replacing. Yesterday, they had told me that they were going to get here at 10AM. At noon, I get a phone call, asking me how to get to our apartment. I have no idea, other than its in a fairly new apartment building, in the Camayenne district, close to the Camayenne Hotel. Streets here do not have names, addresses don’t have numbers. Finally, I give the guy the apartment managers number and told him to give him a call and he could probably do a better job than I in giving him directions on how to find us. He laughed.
Two guys show up at our door at 4PM. They look at the satellite dish, look at the wires coming out of the wall, look at the satellite dish again, look at the wires coming out of the wall, again, and then ask to go on the roof of the building. Finally, they come back and attempt to explain what needs to happen to get hooked up. First of all, I need to go back to their office and pay for an installation fee and subscription fee (rather steep, twice what I’d been paying with SHAW), then they will come back and install the dish on our roof, but we need to coordinate this with our building manager because he needs to be here to tell the cable guys which wires goes to our apartment. So...to connect with the world, logistically speaking, the following 5 things need to happen:
1-) get a quote from the cable company for the amount of money we need to show up with (no credit cards here...and don’t even think about online payment or banking);
2-) phone the driver so he can bring us to the cable company to pay for installation and subscription;
3-) find someplace to exchange money at a reasonable rate (banks are a no-no, supposedly, this is where one gets really ripped off). To exchange money, we need to phone Djeina and she will bring us to someone (usually someone on the streets) and barter for a good rate; installation and fee will cost us around 2,500,000 francs...the biggest bill is 10,000...that’s a big wad of money we’re talking here!;
4-) go to the cable company and pay, and arrange for a time when the installation guys can come an install the dish, thus permitting us to go to # 5;
5-) phone Kaba, the building manager (the only overweight African I know who wears jewelry and a Rolex (faux I’m sure) watch....wouldn’t be surprised if he has shares in that hotel I was talking about in an earlier post)...and arrange that he be here for the cable guys’ visit.
Things are complicated in Africa...get used to it.
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