Monday, August, 11, 2003

I'm back in business for a couple of weeks, I hope. I didn't exactly get my computer fixed, but they set up a couple of old Power Macs for general usage, so I'm here in our makeshift computer lab in the "conference room" of the hotel where some of our trainers are staying. Its technically our "day of recovery", but I have lots of little things to do today, so I got an early start... I need to update this, my blog, and a couple of other emails. I also need to work on my two major presentations which occur on Monday and Tuesday of next week. To show our technical and language competencies, we must present in French in front of our trainers and counterparts. The first presentation is a "research" topic about an aspect of Cameroonian culture- I picked "La Mort", which basically emcompasses what happens between the time someone dies and the time they are buried. The variance from region to region and from religion to religion is quite interesting, and I should have quite a specialized vocabulary. The second presentation is a "technical" presentation, which includes a written report detailing all of the findings and recommendations for my assigned company, the Vitrerie. That should be a bit easier to discuss in French, and its important for me to get down basic business vocabulary.

It has been a few weeks since I have been able to write a full report as to what is going on in my world... First of all, of concern to many who write and/or call me, is my health. I have been, with the exception of the one week over a month ago that I had the flu, very healthy. I have been taking vitamins every day and my malaria medication and that really has been it. I eat well and sleep fairly well (about 8-9 hours per night, but not usually solid sleep due to external factors). I do try to walk a bit, especially on weekends, but other than that don't get a whole lot of exercise. I beleive I have lost a little bit of weight, but not much. And, the important thing is that I feel good most of the time.

Next... I have taken several trips both large and small in the last month, which have been quite fun and interesting. About 3 weeks ago, I mentioned that I had gone to Bamenda. This is sort of the capital of Anglophone Cameroon, and also the seat of opposition politics in the country. I must say that to call the area anglophone is a bit misleading. There are two kinds of English there, what I speak normally is what they call "grammar", and what they speak on a regular basis is called "pidgin". Most people only understand "grammer" if you speak in what Peace Corps people call "special english", which occurs when you talk slowly, in simple words and phrases and enunciate very clearly. Pidgin is essentially the original "jive" talk which somehow came to Cameroon via the Caribbean, from returned slaves or slave traders, I am assuming. Sentences go something like, "Whati be yo name?" and, "Walka fyne" (which means "Be Well" and is said when you're leaving someone). I have only picked up a few words here and there, but the folks going to live there for two years have begun official classes.

Bamenda the city, is essentially in a valley surrounded by mountains and cliffs. Shooting out of several of the cliffs are beautiful waterfalls. There is only one straight street in town, Commercial Avenue, where many of the "Whiteman" stores and restaurants are located (yes, that's what they yell at you as you are walking down the street- sometimes its just to say hi, other times its to ask for money or to try and get you in their stores). The rest of the roads curve something fierce, and I think it would be difficult to get around without a knowledgable taxi driver. There were about 24 of us who went that weekend, so we amused ourselves in the Hotel Mondial- a Peace Corps favorite, and a number of western-style restaurants. We all took long showers in the hot water, which was a real treat, hung out on our balcony which looked onto the facing cliffs, and watched several hours of CNN International (news is not that easy to come by, and the only American news we get is how many soldiers died in Iraq that day and every once in a while something about Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations). We also ate ourselves silly. In two days, I had pizza (frozen, imported pizza, but it still tasted good), cheeseburger (it wasn't beef, but it tasted good, and I didn't want to ask), grilled chicken and fish (excellent) and some croissants for breakfast. Dee-lish.

The weekend before last, we had a big family party. One of the relatives had just finished his undergraduate degree and a number of the kids had done well in school the previous year. Some of the kids were only around for the summer, and so my Papa decided to throw a big party. Both moms and many of the kids cooked all day long, and some the day before. At one point, they had three cook fires going at the same time. We had grilled fish, spaghetti, rice, plantains, salad, beignets (not quite New Orleans, but still tasty) and a couple of other items. All the chairs were placed around the perimeter of the living room, and the big table was loaded with the food in the middle for a buffet-style dinner. There were about 45 people who came, all members of what they called the "petite famille", in other words, most aunts/uncles and cousins were not invited. One set of grandparents came as well. I had gotten two bottles of wine and a large bag of candy for the kids as my contribution to the party. Papa also hired a photographer and a DJ who brought his own stereo for the party. It was quite a rockin' time. I broke out my large Nikon Nikkormat EL (30 year old manual camera) and am picking up the photos from developing this afternoon. After pictures, we ate and after that, the tables were cleared and we all danced. I danced with Grandma and a bunch of the kids (grandma doesn't speak French, so we just smiled at each other). Papa decided to use my candy to have a dancing contest for the kids. The best dancers got the most candy, as judged by me, Papa and Papa's best friend who was there for the festivities. Some of the kids began pandering to the judges, but most were just having a good time. Even Letitia, the 20 month old girl was dancing.

That reminds me, I wanted to say that after 9 weeks, I finally learned all twelve of the kids names in my family.... here it goes from youngest to oldest, roughly and likely not spelled correctly: P-faun (Little King), Constantin, Letitia, Ivan, Stella, Brandon, Willie (girl), Manilla, Nina, Francoise, Fifi, and Cederic.

This past weekend, I went with Cathy to visit two other current volunteers, Leslie and Niff who live in the city of Foumban. It was about a two hour trip, all together, and its a very interesting mostly Muslim city. It has some very beautiful mountains surrounding it, as do many of the cities in the province. Saturday night, we went to a bar where we met some of their friends, many of whom we had met weeks ago in Foumbot when we stayed with Vijay. One of them is a guy named Hoon, who is Korean and runs a photo developing store in Foumban. He doesn't speak English, but speaks good French. Apparently he enjoys spending his money on his friends, and bought all of our drinks and dinners. He was quite nice and I enjoyed getting to know him. After dinner, a few of us decided to go dancing- Niff and Cathy went to sleep, so it was just Leslie and I as the two white folk, with one Korean and about five Cameroonians. We had a really great time and danced quite a bit to both American and Cameroonian music. The place was packed, and I enjoyed myself fully, as it was the first time I have been to a dance club in quite a while. I also met a Spanish guy named David there who works for the European Union doing water sanitation projects. We saw him the next day when we decided to visit the Faun's Palace and Museum. The Faun, or king, of the Bamoun people who live in and around Foumban is a direct decendant of the first Faun of Bamoun who took power around 1392. The palace was built in the early 1900's and has a heavy European influence. The art and artifacts inside were quite interesting with many of the ceremonial outfits and decorations. We even got to see the actual thrones for the last three fauns. The one for the current faun looks very modern and has polished wood paneling and chrome edges with a gaudy fabric- its actually quite pimpish. After the tour, which was in French, we walked down to the famed Foumban Artisenat, which is a large group of houses/workshops where they make and sell handcrafted art. Some of it was quite amazing, including this one guy who did embroidered designs for things like tablecloths and pillow cases. Another guy hand carved large wooden doors and a third guy did some interesting brass pieces, some of them quite large. I didn't buy anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if I went back for a visit and got something. One of the reasons is that I keep hearing horror stories about the destruction of termites here. I don't know if they are in Edea or not, but until then, I'm going to hold off on buying wood products.

On the reading front, I recently finished Catch-22. It took a while to get into it, but after that, I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it to those who haven't read it. I started a new book, "House of Sand and Fog" by Andre Dubus which was given to me by Niff this weekend who insisted that I must read it before I see her again at swearing-in in two weeks. I'm going to try...

We have less than two weeks left now before we all separate and go to post. Its going to be a fun and sad time, as its likely I won't see most of my fellow trainees until our in-service-training which occurs in December. As several people have asked, you can continue sending mail to me at the Yaounde address- that's Peace Corps headquarters, and they will forward my mail wherever I am.