guides on the street

6-15

I spent a good amount of yesterday just sitting around. I made the cd for Ya-Ya that I offered gratuitously. After having spent a good two hours at the market collecting ancient colonial coins, I made my way to the interent café with the intention of calling yaya from there. I spotted his friend who repaired my shoes\ I purchased some air time to try and call yaya, but to no avail. I was quite knackered myself, so I pressed to find some espresso. Yaya’s friend, who had made a preventative adjustment to my sandal at no cost the day before, asked if I would return the favor with a cadeaux today. I offered him an espresso and we sought on for a hotel that would offer one. Cady (prounced Cah-dee), a friend of Ya-ya’s who had already made some blunt overtures, strung along and here I found myself footing the bills. The espresso wasn’t bad, but I had to make the mistake of asking if people wanted a second round. What I got in tow was a heavy bill as he ordered a flag beer and she ordered a soda. The beer set me back by about two dollars, which is no large sum, but frustrating when it was not intentioned. I let it slide however. We then set out to find yaya so I could get him this cd. All the activity ensuite, however unplanned, was quite interesting. Yaya lives in the old quarter, which is next to the ancient mosque. As we walked to there, I was able to get some photos of the mosque, and while they were hoping for me to take a tour, I diverted them, with honest intentions, to another day. I was on a mission to find yaya. I had, afterall, spent the last 2 hours entertaining his friends in an effort to give him this cd.

We entered the old quarter, without having purchased a ticket, as we were on a mission and not set for tourism. This tourist quarter was quite similar to the slums that I had seen in Uganda. The difference here is that the houses were traditionally built. Yaya proved not to be at his house, so I left the cd with his brother. We set off to the cabare to find him. As we were walking along I came across a traditional music group practicing away. I pulled out my recorder to capture the moment with their permission.
Having left our well dreaded musicians, we came across a courtyard where they made traditional beer. Omar repaid my previous beer with this much cheaper, local one. It was quite enjoyable. I offered my first tast to the mama who made the beer, and she crossed herself before sipping. I showed her my cross, which she quite enjoyed.
Finally yaya arrived on the scene, acting like we were best friends. Having been searching for him all afternoon, I did feel to some degree that this sentiment was mutual. We did have a slight falling out later that night as he told me that his price for guiding through the mosque and the old town was 15,000. No thank you. We hit the music scene later that night, enjoying both traditional djembe music, as well as funky blues and jazz.
Heading back finally from the club around 12:30, I joined the guards outside the hostel, who offered me some of the bat that they were cooking. I took some nibblings, but couldn’t bring myself to dive head on into it.