And Back To Conakry

Freetown on Monday morning looked a lot less decrepit than on Saturday night. Almost pleasant. In the middle of downtown is a humungous and gorgeous cotton tree. I got a taxi to the border, and this time only paid for one seat, so I had someone sharing my front bucket. He turned out to be a really nice and intelligent young Sierra Leoneon.

As we motored along I told him about my lost camera, and when we reached the border we set about trying to get it back. The immigration and customs people at the sleazy little Guinean border town just shrugged their shoulders. So we started asking questions on the street. After about ten minutes some guy came forward and said he could lead me to the camera for 100 bucks. I told him 16, and he'd have to bring it here. I thought he was lying, but he headed off somewhere.

Meanwhile our new taxi had filled up and was waiting to go. At the last moment he returned, this time with an old man who furtively showed me that he had the goods. Now the negotiations began.

This was the big find of the old man's life. But I pointed out that I was the only person in the entire world that could use the electronic camera, and that once I was gone nobody was getting nothin'. This prompted the finder's fee guy to pressure the old man, and in the end a total of forty dollars changed hands and I had my camera back.

Just like in the movies.

Now I'm back in Conakry and probably heading north to Bamako tomorrow. If there's any leg I've been dreading it's probably this one, since it's at least 24 hours.

I think I'm going to buy two seats.