January 1996 Abidjan, Ivory Coast While having breakfast in the hotel’s dining room, I met this interesting English gentleman named Fred in his mid 50’s. After chatting with this bloke for a while, I find out he’s working in Africa as a civil servant for the British government. Stationed in the Ivory Coast for the last year, Fred had some very colorful stories to tell about his tours of duty all over Africa. Men being men, the conversation eventually drifted to ladies and where to find them. Living in Abidjan for awhile now, Fred seemed to be quite familiar with the turf and asked me if I wanted to accompany him for a night on the town. As I was game for some carousing, I tell Fred I’m good to go. So we make arrangements to go out later that evening

Stepping into a taxi, we headed towards Treichville, a popular tourist district. Shortly into the journey, we unexpectedly hear sirens. Looking into the rear view mirror, I see it’s the local Abidjan police. The taxi pulls over by the curb as the police get out their car and approach the taxi. Fred, sitting in the front seat, rolls down his window and asks the young police officer nonchalantly, what‘s up? For the next 15 minutes or so, Fred and the young cop are engaged in a heated conversation. I hear some mention of passport and papers, but I really don’t understand French. At some point, the cop motions to me sitting in the back seat and Fred says to him in clipped French, my friend is American.

After what seemed like an eternity, the police finally let us go along our merry way. Fred explained to me that the local police wanted to collect some money from him because he didn’t have his passport on his person. Just a couple of cops trying to pick up some spare change. Luckily he was able to bullshit his way out of the jam by telling them about his important assignment in Abidjan. The cops never talked directly with me – while I wasn’t carrying my passport with me, I did have a Xerox copy on my person. Fred and I laughed and continued to one of his favorite watering holes in Treichville. The rest of the night was without incident – downing a couple of Guinness, Fred and I chatted up some Nigerian tarts before returning to our hotel empty-handed.

Factoid: When you’re traveling to a foreign country, I recommend that you make a copy of your passport and carry it with you at all times. Store your passport in the hotel’s safe deposit box.

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