Taxi Ride From Hell

I have completely sworn off the taxi trip from Djougou to Bassila. For some reason something bad always happens, its always worse than the normal level of annoying things. Well my last taxi trip has definately taken the cake. My friend was coming down to Bassila to get a kitten, and we were planning on taking an afternoon bus to Djougou and then catching a taxi from Djougou to Bassila. I explained to her that the trip from Djougou to Bassila was always more obnoxious than it should be, and there was really no reason for it to be like that it just was. We couldnt change our plans but I just wanted her to be warned.
So we head out in the afternoon on Sunday. The bus ride was actually really nice, air conditioned and relatively quick, also there was a beninese soap opera playing, plot line: woman sleeps with man... man finds out that woman has a husband... husband gets very angry at this man and proceeds to beat him up or scare him away with a lot of drama... woman says shell stay loyal with a lot tears... husband sleeps with other woman... wife gets angry... wife screams at other woman... man goes back to wife tells her hell be loyal... and the cycle continues again.
So we arrive in Djougou, and get to the taxi station. There is a guy that says he is leaving right away, lucky sounds too good to be true. So we get in his taxi he says there are 6 other people waiting for him and then he will have a full taxi. We get to the place where the 6 people should be and guess what no other passengers are waiting so the taxi driver is pretty pissed off, he finds the 6 people on the road ahead in another taxi, and while hes driving side by side with the other taxi he proceeds to yell at the other driver for stealing his people. He has complete right to be angry these people have effectively ruined his ability to get some cash before the day is out. My friend and I explain that we would like to take his taxi but we want to get back to Bassila before nightfall, he agrees this is a good idea, and that if he can find another 6 people to fill his taxi and leave BEFORE 5pm we will take his taxi but if not we have to look for another taxi, no offence thats just the way it has to be. He thinks that this is reasonable, but also that he can find 6 more people to fill his taxi on a Sunday afternoon in under 30 minutes. We get back to Djougou taxi station. Our taxi guy isnt looking around for other passengers as actively as we would like, in fact hes just talking to his buddies while sitting on the hood of his taxi. We look around for another taxi.... no other taxis. We decide that we need to get back to Bassila so we tell him that we will pay for 3 extra places in the taxi if we can leave right now. note its 5:30. He agrees so we get on the road and we have a seat all to ourselves due to the increased price we had to pay. Looking good. So we get on the road. As the car jerks forward the seat rocks back about 3 inches. It was like the middle seat at one point could be moved forward and backward a little but now the locking function is broken. Lucky us, we get the car thats like a rollercoaster! But were moving. Not even 5 kilometers outside of Djougou the driver stops the taxi and pours more water in the radiater, not too strange that a taxi has to stop and add more water but its a bad sign that its doing this only a few minutes into the journey. So we continue and every few minutes the guy stops puts more water in the radiator continues. We get the post of a friend, shes only a little ways down the road from Bassila, drop something off and we tell her about the seat and the fact that taxi isnt doing so well she says, oh yea i took this taxi once and everyone was pissed and telling him to fix his taxi he had to blow gas out of the carberator with a tube every couple kilometers before the ride was over. Oh man, at least it hasnt started doing that. Just out of range of a cell phone tower the taxi driver stops to put more water in the radiater, then we see him take a tube and begin to blow. It starts to smell like gasoline. Great...... We go another few kilometers he does the same thing, we go 1 kilometer he does it again we go 800 meters, he stops again. Everytime he starts the car he puts the gas pedal as far down as it will go then to get anywhere he stomps on it repeatedly, this does not look good.Then it starts to rain and he doesnt want to get out the car to fix the problem because its raining, granted it was downpouring but still we were pushing it really close to get back to Bassila before nightfall. In the front seat the roof is leaking, and its not a drip drip kind of leak its like someone turned a faucet on full blast and is landing in the front seat. It rains for a good 45 minutes and the sun is going down, the taxi is quite humid and stuffy all the windows are fogged. The guy gets out and continues to blow the gas out of the carberator. We finally make it 6 kilometers down the road, finally there is some cell phone reception, but the taxi will not go any further. Thats ok the one lucky break weve had all day. Its raining and dark were sitting in the taxi waiting for it to stop. A few taxis go by and nobody stops even though we try to flag them down, thanks guys karma will catch up to you even if I cant. So then we wait.... and wait... it stops raining, we get out of the taxi and wait outside where its cooler and less humid... I finally call my friend the zem, I know hes just sitting with this moto near the taxi station and I ask him to find us a taxi, he doenst understand the driver then explains to him, and hangs up. Nothing was figured out only that now the driver is a little more annoyed having to deal with my crappy zem. I then try to call my friend who has a car. I get ahold of him after a few tries I explain my situation and he says, yes I will be right there Im leaving now. This is just another example is african time, it was once described as elastic to me. It should only take 20 minutes to get from Bassila to where we are, there are no other cars on the road, so really like 15 minutes. But my friend arrives an hour to an hour and a half later. Now really meant he was leaving in 45 minutes to an hour later. But I am greatful that he came at all. We finally arrive in Bassila at 9:30. A normal trip from Natitingou to Bassila should only take 3 hours, our trip took 6, 5 of which was from Djougou to Bassila. I realize I say this a lot but I really mean it this time I will avoid the taxi trip from Djougou to Bassila AT ALL COSTS. Never again will I leave from Natitingou to go to Bassila via any other mode of transport except bus.