Watch out for the Cockroaches!

Last weekend Travis and I went to the movies. Along came Anne-Marie from Ottawa and Marie-Helene from Montreal. Together with another Canadian, Mathieu, they constitute our little Canadian family living with us at the Centre. We arrived a bit late at the theatre, so Mission Impossible 3 had already started. Yes indeed, no current blockbusters here! Admission was about $1 (since 6:30pm is still considered ‘matinee’), and after passing several ‘no smoking’ signs we were led into an extremely dark, large room. From the noise and rustling it seemed to be full, but it was impossible to see anything of the audience even though the screen was lit up. We sat down in some very dirty yet comfortable movie chairs (most of which were broken), and settled in to watch the show. Suddenly the sound of clicking filled the room as the audience as one lit up, the cigarette smoke wafting to the ceiling in a big cloud. The room was clearly some kind of old garage, because it was like watching a movie in a tin can. The echo and sound quality was so bad that even the native French speakers among us had a difficult time understanding. As a dubbed movie, the words didn’t match the lip movements, so lip reading was impossible also. Luckily about half of MI3 consists of Tom Cruise running, rather than conversing, so it was still entertaining for all. During the climax of the movie, Tom Cruise rescues his wife from evil-doers, and then electrocutes himself. He then lies motionless for several minutes while his wife performs CPR on his lifeless body. Just when you think all hope is lost, Tom gasps for air, sits up and grabs a gun. That is the end as far as the Senegalese are concerned. After this moment the entire audience got up and left the theatre, with a good 10 minutes of the movie left to go. Our small Canadian contingent stayed until the lights came on, at which time we noticed that all the seats in front of us were benches or chairs with no cushion! As we made our way to the theatre exit a big cockroach scurried under foot...