taxis

Taxis are not my most faveorite mode of transportation in Benin. Loyal blog readers already know my luck with taxis. Normally the problem is not the taxi from Bassila to Djougou but the other way around. But to the story, so I was going to deliver a kitten two days ago. My plan was to get to Natitingou, drop the kitten off with the volunteer and then go home the next day. Because I was traveling with an animal I was forced to take a taxi. I was going to leave in the morning and get to Natitingou in good time. I get all my things together, and put the cat in the box, and then I get a knock on the door. I open the door and it's a guy covered in paint splatters says to me 'guess what we're going to paint the doors and window frames in your house today!'
'Seriously?'
'Yes aren't you excited!'
I really want to say to him 'No I'm really not actually, you've totally messed up my day.'
But what i say instead is 'Oh you can't paint tomorow when I return?'
'No'
We go back and forth for a few minutes but the result is that I cave and let them do it, I had promised my landlord that they could do it. There are 3 of them and there aren't many windows or doors in my house and they finish quickly but then i have to wait until at least the paint is tacky. I end up leaving to go to Natitingou at noon. I go to the taxi station and wait for 3 hours, with a kitten. I told my taxi driver that I wasn't going to leave with him if he didn't leave before 3:30, it was 3:00 now. If I waited until after that I wasn't going to make it to Natitingou before nightfall. At 3:25 he pulls up and says 'Ok we're ready!'
I reluctantly get in the car and then he says 'We're towing the car behind us.'
'how far' I ask
'Only a little ways' by this he means the entire way.
The car behind us is making us go about twice as slow as we normally would. the taxi driver also stops at every single village between Bassila and Djougou. Overall it takes 3 hours to get from Bassila to Djougou. A trip that should only take 45 minutes to an hour.
I finally get to Djougou, and it's 6:30, only half an hour until dark. No possible way that I get to Natitingou now before dark. So I call up some friends and ask to crash at their place, with my kitten. I spend the night and Djougou and have a very easy trip to Natitingou in the morning via taxi.
A trip that should only take four/five hours took more like 24. Figures. Foiled again by the taxis.