The best pickup lines are delivered by your wife

I have several “what is the deal” moments every day. Today for example: what is the deal with Mauritanian men making my connaissance, hitting on me obviously, pathetically, then peddling their wives on me?

I know this is a polygamous society, but why, after having met a full grown man’s barely post-pubescent wife, would I want to entertain more conversation? Much less enduring company? Or worse, some arrangement of wretched concubinage?

I am familiar with the drill: he makes his home “safe” for me to visit, I stop in for lunch, and then struggle in vain to spend ten seconds of face time with a timid (read: stone silent) wife. Meanwhile, he reaps the benefits of my company. Resourceful. Perhaps the first dozen times. But eventually, my patience wears as thin as his hair and I am decreasingly inclined to smile at random strangers.