Customers vs. "Customers"
Day 10
Wed July 27th
All Day: Nouakchott, Mauritania
One of the volunteers said I could stay with her for the night and so to thank her I treated her to dinner of her choice. We ended up at this Chinese Restaurant a block away from her house. They had a regular menu and the “Peace Corps” menu. For P.C. you could get maybe a $10 meal for $3 or so. Another interesting thing about this restaurant was that it was a brothel. Their were customers and their were “customers”. We were seperated by a glass partition from the “customers”. One kept on coming in and talking to us in English. The owner and manager tried to get him back inside their area.
“[french] You are drunk. Don’t disturb them.”
“[english] I am not drunk! I am not … wait. Yes. Yes! I am drunk! I am not disturbing them. [to us] Am I disturbing you [before we could answer, to the owner who doesn’t understand English] See! I am not disturbing them. But yes, I am drunk!”
He then bounced back and forth like a ball in a pinball machine trying to find the glass door in the glass partition. It was quite enjoyable seeing how the managers interacted with their two types of customers. They try not to make them interact with each other, but they depend both of their money. They don’t want to kick out the customers since the restaurant makes a significant portion of their profit. However, they also don’t want to kick out the “customers” since they drink the most – in a country where alcohol is illegal for nationals to buy or sell, and so each can of beer is equivalent to $5.
In the end, they tolerate the side-business but try their hardest to keep the actual restaurant respectable. It was quite good food and fun entertainment.
Wed July 27th
All Day: Nouakchott, Mauritania
One of the volunteers said I could stay with her for the night and so to thank her I treated her to dinner of her choice. We ended up at this Chinese Restaurant a block away from her house. They had a regular menu and the “Peace Corps” menu. For P.C. you could get maybe a $10 meal for $3 or so. Another interesting thing about this restaurant was that it was a brothel. Their were customers and their were “customers”. We were seperated by a glass partition from the “customers”. One kept on coming in and talking to us in English. The owner and manager tried to get him back inside their area.
“[french] You are drunk. Don’t disturb them.”
“[english] I am not drunk! I am not … wait. Yes. Yes! I am drunk! I am not disturbing them. [to us] Am I disturbing you [before we could answer, to the owner who doesn’t understand English] See! I am not disturbing them. But yes, I am drunk!”
He then bounced back and forth like a ball in a pinball machine trying to find the glass door in the glass partition. It was quite enjoyable seeing how the managers interacted with their two types of customers. They try not to make them interact with each other, but they depend both of their money. They don’t want to kick out the customers since the restaurant makes a significant portion of their profit. However, they also don’t want to kick out the “customers” since they drink the most – in a country where alcohol is illegal for nationals to buy or sell, and so each can of beer is equivalent to $5.
In the end, they tolerate the side-business but try their hardest to keep the actual restaurant respectable. It was quite good food and fun entertainment.
posted by Mike | 9:57 AM
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