Sa Majeste

The Mac saga continues. The new mother board finally arrived from China. I went to Douala (a horrible 5 hour uncomfortable, overcrowded bus ride) to retrieve my computer.  It worked perfectly while in the office of the tech there. I arrived home the next day, started up my computer and it began to beep, lose pixels and then went dark. I ended up having to send it back to Douala via an iffy delivery service (but what choice did I have?) for the tech(?) to see what the problem is. Oh! Africa!

Here’s the up side. Douala is the largest city (a major port) in Cameroon. I spent the night in a hotel with a swimming pool and running water, which means I had a hot shower…..oh the glory! And!, the bed was very comfortable. This is a popular hotel among “les blancs” (whites) when they are in town for business…mostly French and German. I found a pizza restaurant run by a Greek woman and I ate a fabulous pizza!  All the customers were blancs…..none american however.I introduced myself to the Greek woman (of a certain age, like me) and she was completely charming. I have a new friend in Douala. On the ride home, most of the women had babies with them, all of whom, I noticed, though adorable and well-behaved,  had flemmy couphs.  Of course, upon my return I came down with a chest cold complete with flemmy couph, pluggy ears and a sore throat. I am still struggling with it (5 days now) and feel miserable. But…..this too shall pass….

Tomorrow eve (Tues, 6 Novembre) I am going to a fellow PCV’s house in Nkongsamba (3 hours give or take) to watch a live stream of the election results as they come in.  This will be happening in the middle of the night here, but who’s counting. I hope to be feeling better, but if not, I’m going anyway. The Africans are all VERY aware of the elections and watching with great interest.

I struggled up the hill today to buy some fresh bread at a small market, and ran into a (male) teacher friend of mine who asked to come over later and use my internet. I said “sure”.  He then asked me, in the company of his male buddies, what I would be preparing for him when he comes over.  I said “nothing”. He asked if I knew how to prepare various African dishes which he listed (taro with yellow sauce, ndole, foo foo, etc etc) and I said no. He said….”but how do you expect to find a husband?” ….   “Oh, I already have one, and he’s a very good cook!”   … and continued down the road with my bread. (Ah, the samll pleasures in life.)  Actually, I AM interested in learning to cook some Cameroonian dishes, and have some nice mama friends who have offered to come over and teach me. Many of these dishes are truly delicious and most of them are an enormous amount of work. I LOVE the mama’s!!!!!....but they gotta rise up!

I’ll try to post a picture of the Grand Chef (chief) of Batie…..Sa Majeste. He is a descendant of the original chief who conquered the other tribes to found Batie.  Batie means “to push out” which is what he did to the other chiefs. He (the current chef) lives in a large compound with many wives and over 100 children. As I said previously, the Bamileke are polygamous…..especially the chiefs!  If it fails, I will post it next time I’m at the PC office in Bafoussam.  A bientot!