Reimbursements Don't Exist

Hello Ev-er-y-bo-dy.
I've been really busy these past few weeks procrastinating and pretending to work on my thesis. Its a daunting task making believe that you're working when you're really just busy watching episodes of The Office and catching up on Senegalese cinema. What a job. Plus I've been touring the neighborhood and have been taking pictures of the beautiful scenary. These pictures are of rice fields, farms, and palm trees that are about a 2 minute walk behind our house. Our neighborhood is called Las Palmas. I think you can figure out why by the name. If not, email me and I'll explain.

Anyhoo. . .I am actually writing this email from the comfort of my living room. Having internet access at home will further permit me to mindlessly surf the net and look for meaningless information on Wikipedia and not do any work. For instance, did you know that the origins of the word ketchup is a highly disputed topic? Wikipedia has a very fascinating article dedicated to ketchup, its emigration from Asia to Europe and its transformation from a fish-sauce to today's highly favored tomato based condiment. Fascinating.

So, I finally got internet at the house and it was a bitch and a half to do. First I needed to go to the Chef de Quartier to get a form that need to go to the mayors office to get another form that I would then have to present to the telephone/internet company. Very bureaucratic. When I finally got through all the paperwork, the rep I was dealing with gave me a simple modem to hook up. I went to pay for everything at the cashier only to return and find out that the service was no longer available. SO! I had to go back to the cashier, get refunded and get the Wifi connection (which was my original choice but didn't want all the frills that came with it). Here is where the whole office almost went up in flames: canceling an order and reimbursing me my money. OMG. First, the cashier looked at me like I had 3 heads. "What do you mean you want your money back? We don't do that."

"Yeah. . .the representative gave me a service that no longer exists. Since I already paid for it, I would like my money back now please"

". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .but we collect money here. We don't give it out"

"But I paid for a service that no longer exists. So now you need to give me back my money. Tell you what, I'm getting another service, why don't you just credit my account? That way you don't have to cancel anything."

"WHAT?!?!?? No no no no no no. Tell the rep to come here. We need to figure this out."

I call the rep over and it seemed as though he knew that he caused a problem. Next thing I know there are 3 extra people at the cashiers stand and he's closed his box to customers. Next, there is a bunch of wispering and eye popping going on. "But what do you mean cancel? The system can't handle this! The system can't handle this!"

"God, you spelled her name wrong; you forgot the N!" - I know you Senegalese love this one, especially since my name is not Anta. Apparently, most people have never heard of the name Ata. Thank you Ami-Colé and Aziz.

"Why would she pay for something and then change her mind 5 minutes later?"

"The system can't HANDLE THIS!"

"Call the director!"

Apparently I caused some type of malfunction in their system along with some other major catstrophes. I think my favorite part was the confusion I caused with the language that should be spoken. We started with French, then merged to Wolof cause the cursing is just so much more pronounced and to the root of where you want to stick what, then to broken English when I had to show some form of ID.

An accountant was later called in to try to handle the problem since the I.T. guy was out to lunch. . . . .for 3 hours. "No, that will erase EVERYTHING!" was all he kept saying. I think I heard that about 78 times in 3 hours. Oh, did I mention the fact that I was there from 2pm to 5:30pm. . . and I didn't get reimbursed until 2 days later. Gotta love the system. . . . or lack thereof.

Other than that, not much has been going on. At least not anything that I would put on here. Just kidding. . . .a little. I haven't gone out since being here. I just go to work, come home, and leave again only in the morning. If I start going out I'll never get any work done.


Then again, maybe I should go out. One thing is for sure: I am all caught up on the office. Now I need 24, the Wire, and the L Word. I guess I can work on my thesis until I get them.

Laters!

Ah