Heloooooooo

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am spending it with a friend who lives pretty near Batie in a little town called Bapa.  She is a quality individual and I am very happy to know her. We will have a strange combination of cranberries, apple pie, tofu (my contribution as a lady in my village makes it) and a nice bottle of wine. (She’s a vegetarian and I can’t kill animals....what a pair!) I went to Douala again yesterday to  get my computer which seems to be working perfectly now. Yes!!! Picked the wrong bus to come home on.  Hellish 7 hours on the worlds slowest bus.  All the passengers were angry and tormented the driver mercilessly.....I joined in with relish. 

I threw a party a couple of weeks ago.  About 10 people came from around the western region and we ate and drank and laughed and stayed up too late.  We built a big fire in the middle of my back yard (anything goes here) and made a lot of noise until very late.  Everyone spent the night. Waking up in the morning with a house full of people was wonderful. They hung around until early afternoon and then everyone departed to their various posts. The volunteers are really supportive of one another here.  It is a real joy.

Dry season has officially begun, which brings with it wind and lots of red dust which coats everything. (The soil here is red.) This means the end of planting and harvesting and the official beginning of party season.....funerals and weddings. I have only been to one funeral and no weddings so far, but am sure I will be participating in more as the dry season progresses. Also, it will be interesting to see how Christmas is celebrated here.  I am told there will be a big party at the Carrefour. But the guy who told me that was a bit (understatement)  drunk (men get plastered here often) so I can’t be sure.

I have met a couple of youths here that I really like. (Actually, I have met a shitload of kids, but most can be pesty and demanding and I have to get stern and chase them away or they keep knocking on my door and looking in my windows and asking for bon-bons.) Anyway, they are the daughters of my two favorite Mama’s.....funny how that works out.....  One is 13 and one is 18, both in high school and they are completely charming and sweet. They stop by to visit and just say “salut” from time to time. The conversations have been just superficial so far, but they are becoming more comfortable with me and starting to laugh easily, I look forward to some good conversations.  I hope I can have a good influence on them.  There is also one little girl at the carrefour (about 7 or 8) who actuallly works at the bar serving beers (yes, it’s true, kids work in bars) whose spell I have fallen under.  She likes to parade around in my hat and sunglasses and asks a lot of really sweet and innocent questions. 

Anyway, that’s the deal.  Haven’t done anything meaningful yet, just making friends and trying to understand this really rich culture and walking (sometimes by choice, sometimes not) all over the place. Here’s a picture of my little “bargirl”. (I hope)

                                                       Makko, my little "Bar Girl"

                                                       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!

 

    
                                       Beautiful "downtown" Batie on a busy weekend.

That's the Route Principale that passes thru Batie on the way to Douala or Bamenda,  If you look hard you can see the yellow bush taxi I spoke about in my last blog complete with a chubby mama getting in. That is actually right across the street from where I tasted my first (and last, I hope) Rat.

Well, I have found a computer to use while I am waiting for my Mac to be repaired(?).  It’s  clunky and slow, but I’m thrilled to have it.  It’s so great to be reconnected again right here  in my very own village and to be able to access info when I need it.  Phew!  What a relief!

 I am still trying to integrate into the culture and have met many interesting and friendly people. The culture is very rich.  I have not started actual work yet. That will happen after IST….In Service Training…that will take place in early december.  We (the new volunteers) will go to Kribi for about a week to learn the various tools and organizations that are available to help us, among many other things.  Kribi is on the ocean, so that should be fun and a nice change.  My young friends are very excited and one of them told me how she had brought 7 different bikinis for just this occasion. Hmmmmmm.  My speedo will have to do, and a biiiiiiiiiig towel. I don’t want to scare anyone too badly!

I have requested a site-mate, but that won’t happen for at least a year if at all.   It can get pretty lonely in this little village with nothing to do.  I get home before dark and go to bed early.  Unless there’s a wedding….an all night party…. there is absolutely nothing to do at night.  But, I am told that during the dry season, which will start in a month or so, there are many weddings as there is not much work to do at that time (no planting or harvesting) so people get married instead. There is nothing about “love” that is involved in these weddings.  It is about culture.  A woman reaches a certain age and must marry and start popping out kids.  Quite often her father picks someone who quite often already has several wives and many children. You rarely meet a woman who is over the age of 20 and not married with children, unless she is a widow with children .Average family size is around 9. Not that anyone can actually afford 7 or so children. It is simply what is expected, but it causes a great deal of hardship. The women pretty much accept this without question.  All I can do is speak of a different way.  They listen with interest and complain a lot but are not willing to change anything…..even though, to a woman, they consider men “useless”.  Sigh.  I think that working with the children is a better answer, teaching the boys respect and responsibility and the girls their own value, but you have to catch them early. There is a wonderful non-governmental organization in Bafoussam that works with youth and they welcome PC input. We’ll see.  I have to pick and choose where I will put my efforts, as there is so much to be done.  That is why PC asks us to lay back for the first 3 months and just integrate and learn, so we can pick wisely.  Otherwise, we will be spread too thin and get nothing done. …. or so they say.

The mama’s here are quite striking in their beautiful Pagne’s and head wraps.  They are all chubby and full of life and always trying to give me food. It is rather rude to not accept, so I try not to eat before going to visit someone.  To get to the city, I have to take a taxi, which  is usually a small beat up Toyota that they insist on cramming 7 of us into before departing.  I am almost always in the back seat crushed among 3 hefty mama’s.  We usually end up having a good laugh over it.  There are no seat belts, but we are usually so wedged in, that should there be an accident, we probably wouldn’t budge.  So I will leave it at that for now. More to come…