A Saturday Morning {Mis}Adventure

It actually started Thursday night.  Late, late Thursday night.

I got home close to midnight, exhausted.  I opened the front door, and there was the water bill waiting for me.  I picked it up and inspected it.

Payment due date, 5 March 2015.

"What?  It's already the 12th!"

I turned it over a few times, hoping I was somehow missing something, but alas, it was definitely overdue.  I was not particularly happy with whoever had delivered the bill - it was printed the 11th of February, which means that said "deliverer" had been forgetting to give it to me for a month.  A whole month.

Anyway, it was too late that night to call anyone to see what I should do about it.  The next morning I had something going on early, so I couldn't take care of it then, either.  Julien told me I should pay it as soon as possible, although the amount was so small (the equivalent of just over $2.00) that they probably wouldn't turn off the water.

So the next day, I got up early - far too early for a Saturday morning.  I showered and got dressed - far too dressed up for a Saturday.  (It's not really appropriate here to take care of business in casual clothes, and paying a bill seemed to fall under the category of "taking care of business".)

I got a taxi for 1000 francs, and told him I only had a 10,000 franc bill.  He stopped at the first gas station and asked if they had the change.  No luck.  He stopped at another later on, right near where I wanted to get off, and still no luck.  He was a bit at a loss.  He made a big U-turn and asked a couple passers-by...and still no luck.

"Wait," I told him.  "I'll go back to the gas station and buy something in order to get the change."

So I dashed across the street.  I scanned the shelves in the gas station boutique.  (Side note: one of my fellow E2ers observed that of all the cultural institutions, gas stations seem to be the most similar between West Africa and the US.  So when I say gas station boutique, imagine your average convenience store at a gas station in the States.  It's pretty much the same.)  I grabbed two unnecessary packages of cookies, carefully calculating so that the cashier would be forced to give me a 1000 franc bill.  If I had bought something worth less than 1000 francs and paid with a 10,000 franc bill, he would give me a 5000 franc bill, two 2000 franc bills, and the rest of the change in coins.  However...being the genius that I am, I bought something over 1000 francs, so he would have to give me a 5000 franc bill, one 2000 franc bill, one 1000 franc bill, and the rest in coins.  I ran back across the street and handed the prize 1000 franc bill to the waiting taxi driver.

Whew!

I crossed the street again and walked up to the guard shack at the water company, smoothing my scarf back into place.

"Excuse me, sir," I began politely, "can you tell me where I can pay my bill?"

"Oh, sorry, you can't pay it today.  Come back Monday morning."

You've got to be kidding me...