Car troubles in Senegal
After leaving Djenné we were held up a few days in Bamako while David recovered from malaria. The past few days kept us on our toes, we didn’t wander too far just in case he needed to go to the hospital. Once recovered, it was a surprisingly quick and uneventful trip through the rest of Mali until we reached the border with Senegal… and then problems emerged.
With the amount of stress we are putting on poor Priscilla, something was bound to happen. The battery was the culprit once again. It is possible that the last mechanic’s work on the regulator fried the battery. Luckily, we made it to Tambacounda which is large enough of a town to have car parts stores. It was not the greatest selection and the Wolof man working the shop seemed unsure if we were to add sulfuric acid and distilled water to the battery. We were later led to a workshop, not a store. We sat there for a few hours while mechanics banged and took apart poor Priscilla; we were just happy to at least be in the shade.
The mechanics decided that the regulator is fine, the problem is the alternator and then finally they decided that all of that is fine and we just need a new battery. This guy tried to sell us the same battery that we nearly bought from the Wolof, of course this time for a considerably higher price. He insisted that this was a very different battery and pretended to not know of the car parts store that is around the corner from him. After a good deal of haggling, we got the price down and left towards the border with The Gambia.
I’m sick of the theatrics of haggling here. The Chinese do it best; more comical than anything. Africans are more like the Egyptians, they take on an angry or offended air when you question their price or quality. It is so much easier when there is just a set price; decide how much profit you want and lets just be done with it!
