Being Back
Well, I may have spoken to soon about how I feel about being home. It’s so weird, but I had the hardest day yesterday and it made me realize how easy things are back at home. My whole day got fairly bummed by one little miscommunication: mainly, I forgot I was talking to an African and not an American.
It all started when I got off the 9 hour bus ride coming from Cotonou (where I flew into) to Natitingou (the next biggest town from Boukoumbe). There is a little Peace Corps building in Natitingou where I have a locker, so I stopped off and put some stuff in the locker before my ride came to pick me up. I had gotten lucky and gotten a ride from a friend from Boukoumbe who has a truck. Anyway, we go and load the truck full of the other people and head out, and then I realize that I left all my keys in the lock to my locker back at the PC house. I didn’t want to hold everyone up for me, so I decided to go on and just call someone and pay them to bring my keys to me. Fair enough, right? I usually pay $4usd to go between Boukoumbe and Natitingou on a motorcycle taxi (called Zemijhans, or just Zem’s). I called my Zem that I usually go with and told him I would pay the usual price if he would just bring me this ‘package’ that I had left, and that I need it tonight. He agrees, picks up the package, then seeing that he can make more money if he has a client as well he decides to go look for a client. He didn’t find one, so he decides to wait till the next morning. All this time I’m sitting outside my house or with my neighbor with my 2 huge suitcases, helmet, backpack, and groceries… so basically a huge mass of stuff. I finally get a hold of him, and he tells me that he hasn’t even left, and I tell him how urgent it is, and then I start thinking he’s stalling because he’s making a copy of my keys. I also hadn’t slept in 48 hours from jet lag, so I was a little tattered to begin with. After this conversation, he now sees how urgent it is, and leaves right then. He gets here an hour later (dirt roads slow things down), and he demands that I pay $10usd instead of the usual $4, because he had to drive in the night, and he didn’t have a client. My argument was that I was paying him the price of a client without the weight of one, and so the $4 was fair, plus if he had left when I first called then he would have still had daylight left. We haggled, and I ended up giving him $5usd, but I felt bad because I think I might have hurt my relationship with this taximan.
From his point of view he needed a client to come, and since he didn’t have one I should have to pay what I promised plus the fee of a client. I do understand that that is normal here, and I maybe should have given him more, but the American in me was livid!!! How could he tell me he was leaving right then, and then decide to wait till the next day?!?! Doesn’t he know I’m the customer, and that if he wants repeat business he should do what he said, or at least keep me updated if it wasn’t possible??!?! If he HAD to have the fee of my package and a client, why did he accept my offer, why didn’t he tell me I needed to pay more for immediate service?
Luckily, I see his side and mine, and I realize that his logic was logical for the people here, and that I should of just assumed that he would need to take a client as well so that he could make more money. I should have realized that gas prices have shot up since I left 3 weeks ago, and that my $4usd wouldn’t cover it for him. I should have also realized that he showed great devotion in that he actually did come after I called him the second time while in complete distress.
The weirdest thing about all this is that before I left 3 weeks ago this would have all occurred to me at the moment, and nothing would have been stressful about any of it. Granted I hadn’t slept in a while, but I realized that this was a usual situation with my life here, and that I better get used to it again. I just can’t help to think about how things like this would go in the States. There would have been a set price that he would have told me, I would have accepted it, he would have left the second he hung up the first time, and my keys would have been there by 8pm instead of 10pm. Still yet though, in the States I would probably have a vehicle of my own, so I could jump in my one-man vehicle and run and get them myself. What a life. It’s so convenient.
What’s better: Convenience, or a difficult appreciation for convenience? I definitely do appreciate the ease of the life in the States much more than I ever did before. I need to ponder this for a while.
Sarah
It all started when I got off the 9 hour bus ride coming from Cotonou (where I flew into) to Natitingou (the next biggest town from Boukoumbe). There is a little Peace Corps building in Natitingou where I have a locker, so I stopped off and put some stuff in the locker before my ride came to pick me up. I had gotten lucky and gotten a ride from a friend from Boukoumbe who has a truck. Anyway, we go and load the truck full of the other people and head out, and then I realize that I left all my keys in the lock to my locker back at the PC house. I didn’t want to hold everyone up for me, so I decided to go on and just call someone and pay them to bring my keys to me. Fair enough, right? I usually pay $4usd to go between Boukoumbe and Natitingou on a motorcycle taxi (called Zemijhans, or just Zem’s). I called my Zem that I usually go with and told him I would pay the usual price if he would just bring me this ‘package’ that I had left, and that I need it tonight. He agrees, picks up the package, then seeing that he can make more money if he has a client as well he decides to go look for a client. He didn’t find one, so he decides to wait till the next morning. All this time I’m sitting outside my house or with my neighbor with my 2 huge suitcases, helmet, backpack, and groceries… so basically a huge mass of stuff. I finally get a hold of him, and he tells me that he hasn’t even left, and I tell him how urgent it is, and then I start thinking he’s stalling because he’s making a copy of my keys. I also hadn’t slept in 48 hours from jet lag, so I was a little tattered to begin with. After this conversation, he now sees how urgent it is, and leaves right then. He gets here an hour later (dirt roads slow things down), and he demands that I pay $10usd instead of the usual $4, because he had to drive in the night, and he didn’t have a client. My argument was that I was paying him the price of a client without the weight of one, and so the $4 was fair, plus if he had left when I first called then he would have still had daylight left. We haggled, and I ended up giving him $5usd, but I felt bad because I think I might have hurt my relationship with this taximan.
From his point of view he needed a client to come, and since he didn’t have one I should have to pay what I promised plus the fee of a client. I do understand that that is normal here, and I maybe should have given him more, but the American in me was livid!!! How could he tell me he was leaving right then, and then decide to wait till the next day?!?! Doesn’t he know I’m the customer, and that if he wants repeat business he should do what he said, or at least keep me updated if it wasn’t possible??!?! If he HAD to have the fee of my package and a client, why did he accept my offer, why didn’t he tell me I needed to pay more for immediate service?
Luckily, I see his side and mine, and I realize that his logic was logical for the people here, and that I should of just assumed that he would need to take a client as well so that he could make more money. I should have realized that gas prices have shot up since I left 3 weeks ago, and that my $4usd wouldn’t cover it for him. I should have also realized that he showed great devotion in that he actually did come after I called him the second time while in complete distress.
The weirdest thing about all this is that before I left 3 weeks ago this would have all occurred to me at the moment, and nothing would have been stressful about any of it. Granted I hadn’t slept in a while, but I realized that this was a usual situation with my life here, and that I better get used to it again. I just can’t help to think about how things like this would go in the States. There would have been a set price that he would have told me, I would have accepted it, he would have left the second he hung up the first time, and my keys would have been there by 8pm instead of 10pm. Still yet though, in the States I would probably have a vehicle of my own, so I could jump in my one-man vehicle and run and get them myself. What a life. It’s so convenient.
What’s better: Convenience, or a difficult appreciation for convenience? I definitely do appreciate the ease of the life in the States much more than I ever did before. I need to ponder this for a while.
Sarah
posted by sarah at 9:07 PM
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