African cliche, update and vow: a strange mix
"Please 10000 CFA (about 15 euros) for the formality"- Him
"Excuse-moi, 10000 for the passport stamp?"- Me.
There isn't a more stereotyped way to enter Africa than with a passport officer trying to get a bribe from you. Actually not directly from me, from a Spanish couple to whom I offered my free translation/guidance through last-minute yellow fever vaccination services.
I got very mad because the given officer took the passport and refuse to give it to me unless we'd pay. My stubbornness is not easy to bend, not even by the authority if I feel unfairness and abuse in the atmosphere. I was not mad for the 10000, I was not mad the victims were Spaniards, I was extremely pissed off that in the brain of that officer getting 10000 from a tourist was still possible, I am mad at his mentality and how he can rotten others.
We all won. He maybe understood his wrongness. I probably believe in only one thing fully: in the power of learning, in the power of making mistakes and learning from those and in the endless capacity of human beings to rectify. I might be the second naive in Cotonou (the first is Hugo).
Benin has welcomed me with an African monsoon. We are apparently in the short rainy season. Please God, let it be very short. While I was trying to catch some sleep it was raining so, so hard that I could not stop myself of designing a plan of water collection to irrigate Niger with Cotonou's rain surplus. Call me a freak.
In the next two months I will be working in microfinance; or on the investment side (with Horus Development Finance) or on the program management one (Planet Finance). One pays, the other doesn't. The choice should be evident, but at this metaphysical point of my life it is not. I am willing to explore as many things as possible as long as I learn, build marketable and human skills and the dollar keeps on gaining strength and making my declining savings last and fly long. If my lifestyle continues as erratic as the last months, I might become a client of the microfinance institutions I work for. On the dollar issue, I've been saying that if Obama wins the US election the impact on the market would bring strong confidence on the dollar back. I am not Nostradamus. It might be only wishful thinking, but listen to me and the FT analysis.
After that, back to my lovely India, the beloved IFMR Trust and hopefully if he stands me for the next weeks, my love Hugo joining me there. Love comes and love goes, new loves appear and others remain for the rest of your life. Isn't it enough to live your life fully and passionately? This is my vow.
Not bad for an update.
"Excuse-moi, 10000 for the passport stamp?"- Me.
There isn't a more stereotyped way to enter Africa than with a passport officer trying to get a bribe from you. Actually not directly from me, from a Spanish couple to whom I offered my free translation/guidance through last-minute yellow fever vaccination services.
I got very mad because the given officer took the passport and refuse to give it to me unless we'd pay. My stubbornness is not easy to bend, not even by the authority if I feel unfairness and abuse in the atmosphere. I was not mad for the 10000, I was not mad the victims were Spaniards, I was extremely pissed off that in the brain of that officer getting 10000 from a tourist was still possible, I am mad at his mentality and how he can rotten others.
We all won. He maybe understood his wrongness. I probably believe in only one thing fully: in the power of learning, in the power of making mistakes and learning from those and in the endless capacity of human beings to rectify. I might be the second naive in Cotonou (the first is Hugo).
Benin has welcomed me with an African monsoon. We are apparently in the short rainy season. Please God, let it be very short. While I was trying to catch some sleep it was raining so, so hard that I could not stop myself of designing a plan of water collection to irrigate Niger with Cotonou's rain surplus. Call me a freak.
In the next two months I will be working in microfinance; or on the investment side (with Horus Development Finance) or on the program management one (Planet Finance). One pays, the other doesn't. The choice should be evident, but at this metaphysical point of my life it is not. I am willing to explore as many things as possible as long as I learn, build marketable and human skills and the dollar keeps on gaining strength and making my declining savings last and fly long. If my lifestyle continues as erratic as the last months, I might become a client of the microfinance institutions I work for. On the dollar issue, I've been saying that if Obama wins the US election the impact on the market would bring strong confidence on the dollar back. I am not Nostradamus. It might be only wishful thinking, but listen to me and the FT analysis.
After that, back to my lovely India, the beloved IFMR Trust and hopefully if he stands me for the next weeks, my love Hugo joining me there. Love comes and love goes, new loves appear and others remain for the rest of your life. Isn't it enough to live your life fully and passionately? This is my vow.
Not bad for an update.
Comments