Furnishing

I think we're just about done getting the things we need for the house. We still need some curtains, but I bought a rolling computer chair while walking around downtown this morning, and on Sunday we picked up a living room set. We opted to buy it from a roadside stand rather than a regular furniture store. These are all over Bamako - someone sets up a little stand on the side of the road and starts building and selling furniture.

Here's one selling wicker furniture...

And another with tables and wardrobes...

Most of the furniture that these places sell isn't anything that stunning, but we did our best to find something that was reasonably comfortable and not covered in animal-print upholstery. We settled on a four-piece black pleather set (two chairs, a loveseat, and a couch) for the princely sum of 230,000 CFA (about $475). The salesman encouraged us to go for the white pleather over the black, noting that the white would match the beautiful white of our own skin (his words). A good point, but we ended up going with black since the white would have lent our living room a Miami Vice sort of look. The price even included delivery, which was the most exciting part of the transaction.

As you might suspect, a low-fi roadside operation such as this didn't have their own fancy delivery truck. Instead, all four pieces were piled on top of a beat-up taxi that resembled a 1988 Ford Escort. All four pieces of the furniture set were roped into place, and we guided the driver and the furniture salesmen to our house which was about a mile and a half away.

Here they are, posing in front of our house. The salesman is on the left, and the taxi driver is on the right. The taxi driver was a pretty tall dude.

And here they are again, posing again from a different angle...

The furniture isn't too bad - I've already logged a couple naps on the couch. If we get two years out of it, I'll be happy.

No luck in finding any furniture at the embassy garage sale a few weeks back, although we had some major scores such as an ironing board, a few sets of bedsheets, a toaster, and a brand new pair of Levi's 501 jeans in 31/32, which is a size I can never find in America, let alone at a garage sale in Africa. That toaster was key - there are no toasters to be found around Bamako. Don't people want toast with their eggs in the morning? Or a tuna salad sandwich on toast?

Once we get some curtains up in the next week or so, we'll have pictures of the house.