A dangled carrot

Mental cruelty for sure regarding the home internet. "Here you go! Now give us back that router!" It does depict how business usually operates here in Niger. Everything is doable. It usually requires more time and patience than you anticipate. Sometimes more money than you expect. But eventually, you are successful with a long story to go along with the experience and some good people along the way.

For instance, our neighbors here on a Fulbright, moved into the house next door to us and the AC didn’t work in most of the rooms and suboptimally blew wisps of cool air in others. They refused to pay their second months’ rent until it was repaired (all in their contract). A whole band of contractors and plumbers showed up with their hammers to do the list of repairs. They removed the air conditioners and took them outside and sprayed them with a water hose, "to clean the dust filters," they said. Most of us are taught at a very early age not to put water on electrical appliances! One of the units already gave a small electrical shock when they turned it on! When Jennifer told them that cleaning the filters wouldn’t fix the problem, they patronized her. And of course, that didn’t fix the problem. The unit that was shocking users, he claimed to have fixed and when she touched it and didn’t get shocked, she enthusiastically asked how he fixed it. He responded by sternly saying, "What?! Are you trying to take my job now?!" And sure enough, that evening, their housekeeper got an electrical shock when she turned on the AC.

We know we can get internet (even on an Apple) here in Niamey. It could be better but it works. I’m hoping that once we get a good router, most of our problems regarding the internet will be over.

I’m looking forward to our trip to Ouagadougou scheduled in two weeks. They can’t take that away from me! – or can they?