taxi

Mrs. B and I had a fight the other night. One of those typical 'you're throwing our money out of the doors and windows' fights every couple will eventually have when they're transforming the house. I want things to move on  - especially with a new baby coming soon - so I'll pop out to buy 'a couple of things' in the DIY shop. And then Mrs.B will go ballistic when she goes over the accounts and sees that I surpassed my 'monthly budget' (her idea).

So we had a lovely scene in the garden right in front of the neighbours and then some more - calm - discussions in the middle of the night. But still she feels I buy too much on credit and still I feel she treats me like a little baby with no sense of responsibility.

This morning Mrs.B took Wolf with her to buy some bread. Ten minutes later, I heard to doorbell. It was a taxi driver who'd lost his way and asked me if I knew a certain street. The streets behind our house are a typical 1980's maze of dead ends connected with footpaths and bicycle roads. I'd never heard of that particular road, so the chap asked me to come see on his GPS. 'Sure', I said.

So Mrs.B turns around the corner and sees me climb into a waiting taxi.

An icy feeling of panic grips her.

Meanwhile, I notice her and Wolf calling my name, as I apologize to the taxi man because I still don't know where that street is. So I get out of the taxi again and not realising at first what this must have looked like I say: 'you're back already? Did you find any bread?'

If you want to get around in Niamey, you take a taxi. They're cheap and usually in reasonable working order thanks to a regular control by the authorities, but taking a taxi here is a bit different from other places.

They don't necessarily take you where you want to go. When you stop one, the driver will ask where you want to go. If you're the first costumer, he will take you there but on the way he will pick up other people. If there's already someone in the taxi, it depends if they are going in the same general direction. So a taxi ride is never direct from one point to the other, but eventually you will get there. But the price for a ride is cheap because of this taxi sharing tradition. Although it can get quite cramped with five or six people in one cab.