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Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 09:37:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Hannah Koenker <hannahkoenker@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: ebola update
hi dad,
kara and i were still in town so we stopped by the email place again tonight. yesterday we went to mont bouet, the big marche area where you can buy peeled garlic from mamas sitting on the ground, covers for your cell phone, ginger, all kinds of fabric, pots, plates, fish, bush meat, pumice stones, you name it its there. we went to get new outfits. in the moutouki (used clothing section) it's covered (so it's dark) and constructed on boards so the rain falls through. it's extensive. each merchant has two square meters to sell his stuff, so there are generally frames of wood that hold two levels of clothes on hangers forming a square. in the middle they have a few special items on hangers. you flip through the tshirts or pants or dresses or skirts and you change in the middle of the square - not completely private but no one seems to care and now I don't either.
because of all the squares the place is laid out in a grid and the guys have named the alleys/paths/hallways different things like 'dakar' 'new york' 'paradiso' and 'touba'. they're almost all malien. i got a pair of saucony running shoes and two pairs of cropped pants that are super duper cool. we left when everyone was closing up and got in the taxibus to go home and kara realised she'd lost her wallet. not that much money in there, but her carte de sejour was now gone, which will get you thrown in jail should your taxi get controlled. she was planning to travel to coco beach and of course now it's impossible.
we went back and ate our leftover pizza and went out to karaoke with the gang. this morning we slept late then went to email, and meet michelle at CK2 to get flea collars. in the parking lot jean luc our doctor and charles the EE director were sitting in the suv; they honked and we went over and they said ca va?
kara explained that she needed a new carte de sejour and they asked what had happened. 'oh no,' said jean luc. 'that is no good. was there any money in there?' just five mille, kara said, and some numbers. her bank card and her account number were in there, but not her pin, and since the banks are closed on the weekend there was no real worry that someone would try to get money out (we just got paid). 'so what will you do?' said charles. i don't know, maybe someone can go with me to sedoc to get a new card, said kara. 'oh dear. but do you have any other documents?' no; they're all in tchibanga. 'you know if you don't have your carte the police they can throw you in the jail,' said jean luc. 'my menagere she just spend two days in the jail.' well how much do you think it will cost to get a new card? said kara. 'oh, i think 100,000 CFA' saidjean luc. well shit, said kara.
then charles held up a card that had kara's face on it and the gabonese flag and said CARTE DE SEJOUR on it and we did a double take. 'is this you?' he asked. turns out some guy had found the wallet, or at least the stuff in it minus the money and the wallet, and had used the phone numbers to track kara down. we all have a laminated list of peace corps phone numbers and so thats what he used. charles and jeanluc just wanted to string her along a little more, but they had been searching for her all afternoon.
with no radio in the case i am less informed in the capital than at home. what is this shadow government business?
love,
hannah
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Hannah Koenker
hannahkoenker@yahoo.com
www.econ.uiuc.edu/~hanko/
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