Word: bishaq
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...driver, but Bishaq was also a truly rotten human being. He enjoyed insulting refugees, whom he claimed were "lazy" and "naughty" and whom he would taunt by slowing down as though to offer a ride, only to refuse when they asked. Once, when a family asked us to take their shaking, malarial father to hospital, I agreed, only to be overruled by Bishaq who insisted the decision was his alone. Another day, I caught Bishaq poking and laughing at a mentally disturbed...
...Obviously, Bishaq didn't like me, either. On our second to last night, he drove 100 miles out of our way to a town called Biltine, persuading me with the promise of a "great hotel with plenty of cold beer," only to disappear once we arrived and leave me to discover that there was, in fact, no hotel in Biltine and I was sleeping in the street...
...hurry. "I've never met someone so busy," he would say. "It's not good. You should never hurry a driver. You should leave timings to God." When I replied that God and I had different deadlines, and that anyway I wasn't a believer, that only confirmed Bishaq's low opinion of me. After that, my every request to speed up or please, please skip just one meal was met by his invoking my "godlessness...
...mutual antipathy reached a climax on our last night. We had been driving all day and were just two hours outside Ndjamena, where we could finally be rid of each other, when Bishaq pulled off the road in the village of Bokoro, and announced that it was 6 p.m., and company rules stated he could drive no further. The prospect of one more day with Bishaq was more than I could bear: I shouted at him in the street, calling him "thief," "liar" and much, much worse. I demanded he give me the keys, saying I would drive...
...lost. The chief chided me for my flurry and bustle, saying I should learn from the serene and conscientious example set by my driver. As punishment, he ruled I would sleep once again in the road. In a concession to my pleas of being in a hurry, he added Bishaq and I would continue on our way at 4 a.m. Naturally, the next morning Bishaq, who had partied into the wee hours with yet more family and friends, was two hours late. And he grinned all the way to Ndjamena...