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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part II

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:00:16

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French travelers. Despite the fact that both the
widow and I like to travel with our guidebooks rather than guides in the flesh, we are
more than happy to go with a responsible guide. This is why.

Right off the Dakar- Ziguinchor ferry the widow and I are harassed by a gaggle of guides,
one of whom latches onto us and will not let us out of his grip. I, for one, am very good
at convincing the local touts that I will have nothing to do with them (they usually depart
cursing me in numerous languages and dialects), but the widow, bless her soul, is a kind
person who never wants to hurt the feelings of others. But even she is getting exasperated
at this fellow?s pestiness, so instead of heading toward prospective accommodation, we
duck into a restaurant for safety. The pest follows, sitting down at our table and inviting
himself to join us for lunch, surely at our expense, of course. We finally persuade him to
remove himself to another table so we could eat in peace. Nevertheless, he proceeds to
talk at us, insisting that he book us a hotel room (he explains he works on commission
paid by the hotels so it won?t cost us anything; and he needs the work because tourists
have abandoned the Casamance because the guidebooks say there is still a civil war but in
fact there hasn?t been a tourist killed for over six years, and only he, a tout among touts, is
capable of showing us what we want to see, because only he knows how to manage our
transportation, accommodation and culinary needs, etc.). As we are finishing our meal,
the pest affixes himself to our table again. He attacks the bread basket and feasts upon the
free mustard that he plops on the free bread, and then orders more bread and spreads on
more mustard (again explaining that this is costing us nothing, as he remains unfazed by
the waitress who is blasting him in the local dialect).

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