Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Whew. What a long lunch I had today. Today I had plans to eat a salami sandwich, and maybe a little salad. I thought to myself "hmm, 100 CFA is always way to much... today I'll get 50 CFA worth". Bam. I was so freakin' wrong. Turns out that when you eat a salami sandwich and the vegetable ladies get to know you... 50 CFA (~$0.10) is way to freakin' much salad too. Oh my gosh is it too much. After eating my sandwich, which was generous in and of itself, the salad was too much. I think I'm going to die from pains of anti-hunger.

Yeah, but before all that. Grr. Annoying situation. So my carpenter is awesome, nice guy, and I don't think he's taking too much advantage of me. The last time he was at my place installing the mosquito net holders on my bed (hereafter referred to as "mosquito sticks") he notice that I had a lot of laundry. This is true. He asked if I had someone to do it for me. This was (and is) not true. He asked then if he should ask a friend of his to come and negotiate a price to have it done. "Sure! What the heck." I thought. This was like 2 weeks ago. I assumed that he forgot, which is fine... since doing my laundry is not that big of a deal (and I'd rather spend the money I save on cheese). In any case, riding my bike home I'm stopped by the carpenter's apprentice. He's saying something in French, but at that moment a motorcycle brigade was going by... so I couldn't hear him. Then this lady comes up and says "He's saying that his master told him to tell you that the laundry lady (me) wants to come by and see your place". Ooookay. So off we go, she on the back of a zemi and me on bike.

So we get to my place, and I'm not really sure what she wants... since I did laundry yesterday. She comes in.

"The zemi is waiting to be paid"
"So why don't you pay him?"
"I don't have any money"
"And why do I have to pay him?"
"Uhhh"

So fine, no big deal. I hand her the only coin I have in my pocket; a 500 CFA piece. The zemi ride should have been less than 100 CFA. She comes back.

"I argued, but he insisted on 150 CFA"
"Yeah, right."

So at this point, I'm already annoyed with her. If she wants to come and work for me, why the crap do I have to pay for her to get there? Grr. So she comes in and looks at my clothes. She says she generally charges 200 CFA for a full outfit to be washed. She says it as if she's being so generous too. I nearly fall down laughing. I tell her that my entire pile wouldn't ever have cost more than 750 CFA in Azove. She knows I'm telling the truth (well, about the pile she was looking at. There was another humongous pile in the bedroom), but thinks I'm loaded.

"Well, if you buy the soap I'll think about that price. Can I do these now?"
"No, I did those yesterday. Everything is clean."
"Oh, well you have to tell me a day in advance when you want me to come. I live on the other side of town near the Grand Marché."
"Yeah, that's like 200 CFA each way"
"Yes, make sure you have change when I come next time"
"Excuse me? I'm not paying for your zemidjan to come over?"
"Why not?"
"Well, that just wouldn't make any sense. Say you're 'being nice' and charging me 750 CFA to do my laundry... but I have to buy soap too. So that will cost me at the very least 150 CFA more. Then if I have to pay for your zemi that's another 400 CFA on top. That just doesn't make sense. If I want my laundry done that badly I'll find someone in the neighborhood to do it."
"Oh. So we'll just leave it then."
"Yeah, I think so."
"But why?"
"It doesn't make sense"
"Fine, we'll leave it then. But give me 200 CFA so I can get home"
"I will give you 100"
"But that's not enough!"
"I didn't invite you over here, the carpenter sent you here. I didn't say I wanted a laundry lady, he offered. It's not my fault."

Yeah, so I paid 250 CFA for the joy of talking to an insane old lady with a crazy scheme to take all my money. Grrrr. It bugs the crap out of me that people just think I am completely composed of money, that if you cut me 100 CFA pieces start pouring out. The entire situation above is of course paraphrased, the actual words were about 100 times more infuriating. Gah!