We stay home when it rains if at all possible. To get a taxi I have to do a 5 minute walk out to a main road, and before today I didn't even have an umbrella. Besides, its pretty hard to find a taxi when its raining, so its just not a good plan to go out. Sometimes there will be light rain for a while, but typically when it rains, it really comes down hard. And you can see in the picture what a lot of roads here look like when that happens. So its just better to wait out the rain like most Malians do.
Well, the rain stopped this morning by 11 and it was still clear at 3pm when I decided to go downtown to the post office to get the package that my mom sent to me. She sent it 2 weeks ago and I figured it must be here by now because previous packages she sent to us here in Bamako had arrived in 8-10 days. (there are dates stamped on them when they arrive at the post office) When we lived in the small town the postman knew my name and he would give me a phone call if a package came for me. That's pretty good service - not as good as home delivery like in the states, but I was quite happy with that system. Here in Bamako they put a notice in your post office box when a package arrives. The problem with that is that the post office box is for my group and I might not get the notice for quite some time. Someone from the group (not me) checks the box periodically. If there was a notice they would bring it back to the base with them and give it to me the next time they saw me I suppose. I knew when my mom sent the package and I thought it must be here already. Plus, there are some things in it for my English classes that start on Monday.
So I got dressed in a nice Malian outfit and walked the 5 minutes to get a taxi. The rain started up just after I got in the taxi and we started heading downtown. The rain continued until I was in the 2nd taxi to head back home again. No joke. The whole time I was downtown it was pouring rain.
I got dropped off across from the Central Post Office. It was my first time there. I ran across the street and up the steps and I was basically soaking wet just from the few seconds it took to do that. Inside the post office there was some random man who asked me a lot of questions and then told me to follow him to the package place. I ran behind him, jumping over puddles and getting even more wet, to another building. In that building a woman looked in a register book to see if she could find my name/my package listed. This is the Central Post Office in the capital city of a country with 16 million people, and the woman is looking at a hand written ledger to try to track my package. I guess there are bigger problems here that need to be tackled before getting a computerized postal system, but still... The woman said that my package hadn't arrived yet. The random man (who was waiting there with me) told me to follow him to another building. I had no reason not to, so I ran through the rain again with him. He asked where my umbrella was and I said I didn't have one, that I needed one. We entered a door and could see nothing but P.O. boxes. I've never seen so many P.O. boxes. Then we went upstairs and there were more. He found a worker behind a little window and I talked to him. His name was Augustine and he was really nice. He told me he was Catholic. I don't know if that was to explain where his name came from or if he is just really proud to be Catholic or what. He looked in our box to see if the package notice was there, but it wasn't. He gave me his phone number and took mine and said that he would call me when my package came. Isn't that nice? The random man told me we could go check somewhere else, but I figured it was pretty sure that my package has really not arrived yet, and I didn't really want to keep running around in the rain. Back on the first floor of the P.O. box building, random man found some guys sitting around seemingly doing nothing. I guess they were waiting for the rain to stop, but I bet they do a lot of sitting there seemingly doing nothing even when it isn't raining. One of them was wearing a uniform and the others were in regular clothes. Random man started telling me about how he has some lovely umbrellas to sell to me for a good price, then he stepped out in to the rain to go find them. I was left with the doing nothing guys and I waited there and wondered why random man didn't think to try to sell me an umbrella before we did all of that running around in the rain. Random man came back with a small selection of umbrellas and quoted me some ridiculous prices. I told him I simply didn't have much money with me today so I couldn't buy an umbrella. There was then, of course, a whole lot of discussion and negotiation interspersed with some joking between me and my new "friend" random man. I kind of felt obliged to buy an umbrella from him after he had given me such a nice tour (though in the rain) of all of the post office buildings. Beyond my feelings though was the fact that I could really use an umbrella! I finally bought one for about 40% of his original asking price, and I probably still overpaid a bit.
By this point it was only drizzling, so I didn't even open my new umbrella as I went outside and found a taxi to take home. (I did open it to test it before buying it though, I didn't get here yesterday after all.) Once I was in the taxi to come home the rain stopped. But I got to see all the puddles, or rather small lakes and rivers, that were now the road.
I could be upset that I made a trip across town and back and didn't achieve my purpose of collecting my package. But honestly, it was kind of a good time. I have been doing too much work with my books and papers and computer in the last few days, so it was a nice break for me to get out and have some interaction with some interesting characters. My mind needed a chance to think about other things for awhile. Things very often don't go as I plan or as I wish, that's just life, and maybe especially life in Mali. If I can accept it with a smile and find something good in the situation, I think I'm coming out ahead. After all - I got myself a nice new umbrella today!
A good attitude is sometimes the best thing to have with you.
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