11th to 21st of January, 2018.
First of all, the apartment it is not where he said on CS. He tells me had moved just a few months before. People have not respect for CS and changing information.
The apartment has three bedrooms, one bathroom and a kitchen. I am already thinking I would have to sleep on the floor because in his bedroom there is just one double bed. The other bedrooms are one for his brother, Michael, and another for a guy who is working in the new airport and Henry rents for him. Luckily, Henry says the bed is just for me because he would sleep on the floor. According to him, his guests always would have a separated bedroom but he just had rented the other one for the guy and he really thought I needed help so that is why he decided host me anyway.
Of course I am a little uncomfortable with the situation: is not nice when the owner of the house has to sleep on the floor for you to be able sleep on the bed.
Henry go out to buy some beers and ask me if I am hungry. I am starving! He calls his brother and ask him to buy a Fatai: the same thing I ate with Elhadj in the night we were at his parents home. By the way, this place here is really near to the Lake Rose.
It takes a little while to Michael arrive with our food. They have a shoes business and they opened around midday to closed after midnight. It sounds crazy but is what most of people in this kind of business do it here. When I call “business”, I want to say put a lot of shoes in the sidewalk and wait to sell. Is a open sky showcase.
We talk about some stuff. Even back on the car we were already talking about my different way to see everything. The same thing I tell everybody: how I do not want to get married or have relationships, to have kids, my travel plans…
What I remember about my first impression of him it is someone who try to look better at the eyes of society. Better than he really is. Even his bedroom represented this: so well decorated and clean, completely in an opposite way of the kitchen or the bathroom, which are not dirty but very simple places.
I do not remember exactly what we do the next day but at night he want to bring me to some bars he used to go when he lived in Keur Massar. The information that keep still in his CS profile. Of course I would prefer stay at home but to make him a little happy I decide to go.
At the first bar, the only other women are the waitresses. It is a local bar. He spend a lot of money in a big bottle of local beer. I did not ask. And I even let him take some of mine because (and I would realize that was a very common thing in Henry) he let very clear how much he had paid for it.
While we are there, he tells me that in the next bar everybody knows him. Because he has a lot of friends, of course. And also, how he used to go sometimes in there and pay some beers for everybody in the bar. Which makes him go around there sometimes and just order one beer and have a lot of more because then people would always pay beers to him. He is loved by everybody. But no.
In the so called bar, he say ‘hello’ to a few people. Four guys in total I guess. It is a big place so it really means nothing. Still, he keeps saying “You see?”. I tells him I do not want anything so he just order a small beer. We sit beside this fancy old guy who also speaks English. They talk a little bit; Henry is a lot inconvenient (as usual), trying to convinced me (I still do not know why) that the guy is rich; their is some drunk guy doing stupidity (as usual); and we are invited, for the fancy old guy, to go to a wedding next day. To be honest, I am curious about the wedding but my main reason to want to go it is because I think it might be cake and sweeties. We leave the bar not to late because we need to take a bus. At that time, Henry keep paying my bus tickets.
Even back on the bar, I realize that Henry is acting different. I do not know if is just because he is in front of some friends or even if it is the small quantity of beer he took. So when we get back home and he start asking about my tattoos I knew something not good would came. I am already in the bed, completely covered with my sleep bag and the asshole is sitting in the chair beside me when he ask: “Lei, can I ask you something?” I said – of course. “Can we have some fun tonight?”. What do you mean about ‘fun’? “You know, I mean sex”. I laugh. I swear that my first reaction is laugh. He could not being serious. And I ask him that before to answer that it is completely out of question. He try to explain that are some women who get shy and do not talk about when they really want something or that another CS, who also did not say anything but when he asked she said it was OK (what made me really think about how much they really wanted or if they were just afraid to say no, because Henry can be such a jerk sometimes that I cannot imagined someone getting attracted by him). For me it is repulsive. It is my second night with him: he could not wait? Wait a little more until realize I definitely would not demonstrate a tiny single sigh of something? How he could not get me at all after everything I already had told him? It would be obvious for anyone that I am definitely not a ordinary kind of woman who sleep with any stranger they just meet. He does not convince me of his “good” intentions at all. And if is not because of guys like Ahmed, Oussama or Moulay I would say some really bad things about CS in my profile.
The wedding would be in the morning and the reception in the afternoon. We should go just to the reception. I confess I do not wake up in the mood to go but Henry insists. My clothes are the next topic: I have one dress, not a fancy one, but do not have shoes. After laugh a lot but not taking any solution (even selling a lot of shoes and having a lot at home, which I could just take one, for one day and then give it back) he says it is OK going with my All Star. I did not give a shit since the beginning but anyway.
Henry is not a smart guy. He pretend all the time that he is but actually is the opposite: he is pretty dumb and not too much intelligent. If he was a humble person I would never say something like that but since he is always trying to look better than anyone, I have to say the whole truth. So when he calls the man who invite us and asks for the information about the place, I knew he would do some shit. We take a bus to Keur Massar and if he had asked for the right information, the only thing we had to do it was keep in that bus a lot more further and we would get in the place. But since he is really dumb, we get out in Keur Massar and when he call the guy again, he is convinced that we should take a taxi. The taxi coast him (yes, him because I refuse to pay for somebody’s else stupidity) two thousand Franc. And when we get in there he still got a lot lost, calling the guy and passing the phone to the taxi driver (for our luck a nice man) instead of talking to the guy himself.
The marriage it is… almost not worth it. There are a lot of people and they have to divide them in two different places: a fancy one, well decorated, where probably those ones who came since the church are, and just some tables outside with regular chairs to the other ones. Apparently it is something common here to guests from the marriage invite some friends and at the end there is a lot more people than supposed to be. It is our case.
The food is OK: white rice with fried onions, chicken, Chebujen, a sort of salad and red meat. Unfortunately I just eat a bit of Chebujen. The salad does not come and I am not feeling that comfortable to ask for anything else. The drinks are other story: Coke and Sukita freely, some wine, local drinks like Bissam and a white wine, which is natural made from the Palm trees. We even get some cold beers! It is a kind of “surprise” to the guests. We could have had some more but the workers at the party decide to take some for them.
But what about the cake and the sweeties? I see some workers giving some sweeties, simple ones, for a few people. So when I come back from the bathroom, I go to the fancy saloon to check. I do not see the sweeties but I see cake! We wait a little more and when I realize they are serving the cake just inside, I walk in and ask for a piece. It is really small but at least I had some. If it worth the whole thing? Probably not. I was expecting eat sweeties until could not more like we used to do back in Brazil. So we decide not even wait for the evening food and drinks and left around six.
The traffic is impossible and we get back home real late. I forgot to say but, at this point, we were already eating rice with a sauce that Henry prepared for three times. The problem it was he put meat on the sauce and after two days the taste of the meat it is almost impossible for me. So after eating that again on Saturday night I decide that next day I would just fry some onions and put in my rice.
Henry asks me if I want to go to the church Sunday morning. At this point I am divided between going to check how it is or not going. I decided to go.
Again, the clothes subject comes along when Henry tells me they could not wear anything to go to the church. Bullshit in my opinion, of course.
I wear my regular pants and the plaid shirt Ndéye Fatou gave to me.
Luckily, there are just a few people in there. Maximum ten. It is nothing that different of other churches. The minister reading some parts of the bible and prays. The most different things are: a woman translate, who is trying to understand what the minister is saying in English (if that was English) to translate to French; and Henry trying to show up all the time. First of all, he corrects the minister when he say something in French that is wrong. Laugh. And he has the ridiculous mania of laughing when he does something he know is inappropriate. And he has a ridiculous laugh (probably I think that because I do not approve him as human being). Second of all, he does not even know the bible. He keeps looking on the index to find the pages of the names. For the last, he is in a kind of competition to try to find the part mentioned first because he had to read. He definitely believes his English is so good that he has to show up to other people. And you all know that if there is something who make me laugh it is see some not humble person pay for your foolish pride. So when he is getting lost and reading everything wrong, having the minister or other people correcting him, I have to hold my breath to not laugh. At this point, I do not think I even need to say how not good his English is.
Of course at the end of the cult, there is this nothing embarrassing at all moment, when they make me stand up because it is my first time and then they sing something.
Back at home, I fry the onions under the disapprover eyes of Henry. At night I eat another Fatai.
Monday morning we plan going for my backpack. It is far away from his place and it costs me one thousand six hundreds going and back for both. Yeah, because Henry let it very clear I should pay. Of course I would not find a backpack exactly how I wanted. I just though it would be a little better. At the end, I am between a REI one, which is actually more a sac than a backpack but at least I new the brand, and another one with a few pockets but which look to old and since I do not have a rain cover anymore, would be more vulnerable at the airport. I do not know how I would fell if I had chosen the REI one but I pick the pocket one and sometimes I feel regret.
There is no Supermarket around here or in any of those places we go by bus. I am really pissed off because I want to buy some yogurt and maybe coffee and milk, some biscuits too. I think because of that, the shops around here do not charge too much more in their products. It is just hard for me because at least in the Supermarket I can check all the prices and always buy the cheapest one without any problem or simply not buy. But in the shops you have to ask the prices of everything and when you decide to leave without buying, people look like not understanding you at all.
That night, going back home after buy my backpack, me and Henry start a conversation about human beings being an animal. I already met a lot of people who do not know that and even get offended when I tell them that. But most of them are just ignorant people without education or simply do not remember. With Henry is different because he is ignorant and religious.
It is a little difficult for me because I have to remain calm even front a lot of bullshit he is saying. Of course that is also my triumph because he is the one always speaking louder or almost losing control. And I cannot describe my joy when at the end of my speech I let him without answer and he try to hide that changing the subject. He says some really stupid things like that everyone who is not a believer and help somebody else is doing because they think in the other like a pet and not for love. Or how no one who is not a believer can be good by heart because if they do not fear hell or wish for heaven, they cannot avoid to do bad things. Or even the classical one: that knowledge is a bad thing which just confuse you and make you become crazy. How they accept everything around us which came from a lot of knowledge? He could not answer me that either. His only excuse is keeping focusing in a guy, a mathematician, who he knows and became crazy for being to intelligent. So yeah, this it is the kind (level) of the conversation we had.
Wednesday we would go to the market where I could buy some vegetables. But before we have to pass in the church. I really do not know what crosses religious people’s mind. They think that bring me there one more time will make me change my mind and star to believe again? Anyway, after church, on the market, it is almost impossible deal with Henry silliness. He simply does not understand anything I say and makes everything more complicated that supposed to be.
In the shops nearby, he buys some bread and milk (just for him) and instead of carrying back home in his hands, he asks me to put in my bag. I refuse and say that my bag it is full (it was) and we are by five minutes from home so he could carry.
I do not know if it is that which makes him angry or the fact that I bought some vegetables or simply because I am not accepting his orders anymore, but that day he does not prepare anything for lunch. Without any warn. I eat one apple, some peanuts and around four in the afternoon I walk until the shop to buy some oil and make pop corn. As it is not enough, at night, he says we should use my tomatoes (which I spend a lot of money and time choosing because it supposed to be my salad) to cook some spaghetti. I tell him we should go to the shop and buy some tomato sauce because those ones I bought for my salad. I decide to pay for everything we need to buy.
We go to the beach Friday morning. At the beginning, he tells me it would cost us one hundred Franc to going over there. At the moment I do not realize I suppose to pay for him also. So at the bus when I have to pay three hundred for both of us I start to get pissed of again. Then when we leave that bus to take another one I am really upset because at the end, the trip to the beach would cost me one thousand Francs. Just to going to the beach? No way. I am just thinking in how much food I could buy with that money. I would like to have the choice, if I knew exactly the value and that I would have had to pay for both, to decide not going. I mean, I understand paying for him coming over with me to buy my backpack but going to the beach it is something he also would enjoy.
He notice I am pissed off so when we get to the beach he start to announced a ridiculous speech that it is basically throw in my face how much he has spent with me since I arrived. Everything that I had presume about him it is right. I even discover that he use to have another CS accountant but for some reason he deleted. The first reason that come to my mind it is because he had some really bad reference and decided to delete.
So after Henry acting like a completely idiot, a wild animal out of control, making weird and terrifying faces and point his finger on me, I try to answer him, very calmly, all my point of view. But of course, he is that kind of person who not even listen the others, just keeping in mind how much they are right and that the world belong to them. I give up after a few minutes, not of course before saying everything I had to say, but I just could not keep arguing with some one who is deaf for the others opinion.
We walk on the beach and I decide to take a bath to try wash the bad feelings of him. The water is pretty cold and the weather, with a weak shiny sun, it is windy. The weaves here in Senegal are so big and strong, that to someone who do not know how to swimming (yet!) it would be too danger to dive a bit so \i just play around a bit.
Back to the beach, Henry shows me some photos he took of me. On bikinis. I start to think that would not be a good thing. Again, I am right.
At home, after taking a shower, we eat good Nigerian soup that Michael cooked. It is basically a sauce with fresh toasted peanuts, onion, palm oil, spices and herbs, and in case you eat meat, meat or fish. To eat with it, you used some floor, a mixed of Rice and Corn grain, put in hot water until turning into a kind of bread uncooked. But of course in this case, the water boiled the mixture get cooked. So you use your hands to make some small bolls, which you dive on the sauce and eat. It is really different and I liked because of that. And it is tasteful also. Really good.
At night, Henry start to take some photos of him, for no reason, and ask me to take some for him. Then ask me to take some with him. It is when I see my pictures from the beach. A lot of them and all just of me on bikinis. A long journey of begging him to deleted all the photos started. He “does not understand” why I do not like to have photos like that and then why he could not keep them. What? Yes, what a jerk! He even dare to say it is his camera! Laugh. I say it is my body and he took the photos without asking my permission. I feel really uncomfortable with someone, who I almost do not know, having some pictures of me on bikinis, when even I do not have. After some long minutes with me sitting really close to him (what was already making me nauseous) and when he looked at me with the ridiculous look (that almost made me vomit) he delete at sounded of “Look, I do not need your photos…” So what a hell you insisted so much in keep them, you asshole? Not satisfied in being already a jerk, he had to go further and started to ask why some beautiful girl like me would not like take pictures on bikini or even show my self on public? Then he evolved to why I did not have a boyfriend, do not have sex and those kind of stuff. Fuck you, asshole! I do not own you any kind of explanation! This is how I am and you are to dumb (damn he is so stupid that even know how to use his camera or how to type on the computer correctly) to understand anything that is out of a regular ordinary situation.
I even think he had some hope I would change my mind from the beginning of the week and ask him to have sex with me. Laugh. Laugh. Laugh.
Saturday, M’s daugther, B, came to stay for the weekend. She is a seven years old little girl, really beautiful and full of energy. I am, unfortunately, a little surprise that her intellectual development is not that big as Shawna’s daughter, for example. Of course we have some fun together and she is looking for some love from me. But what surprised me more it is Henry’s behaviour with her. So rude and mean, saying he would beat her all the time. I mean, it is not a surprise coming from him, but she is his nephew! And she is just seven. Later, when I ask him why he did that, he gave me the excuse that she is too bad girl and deserve some tough conduct. No way, man. You are just a bad person that will be a terrible father. I really hope you do not get any kids. Inshallá!
After printing the bordering pass and the booking reservation to Kampala, I finish packing. The backpack is fine and actually still have a lot of space. I even could put my mattress inside! But I still really miss a rain cover. Maybe in the future I could by some kind of cover. Now I am just concern about the airport. Should I cover all the bag in those plastics machines? Should I trust that nobody would try to steal a very old backpack from someone probably really poor? At the end, tomorrow I will decide based in the price of the packing thing.
The guy who is renting the bedroom from Michael is working in the airport as I already told you. When we ask him if he work on Sundays he said ‘no’ but offered to drive me over there. Henry said he will come with me.
I will cook some potatoes with green beans for lunch, bring a sandwich for Monday morning and some delicious chocolate with coconut biscuits as treats on the flight. We leave at 10 a.m.