Sunday, September 21, 2003

Sorry about that! I had thought that after writing my last post on the 7th that I had actually pushed the "Publish" button. Apparently not. But, it was still there, so I've published it unedited for your reading pleasure.

The past couple of weeks have been quite busy in a mostly good way. I have begun to settle into my new home in Edea. I have to say though that I had quite a rough patch over the anniversary of September 11th. It provided a serious mental check to confirm why I'm really here and where I have come from, and all of the wonderful people in my life who have helped me along the way. In some sense it made me sad that I don't see or talk to my friends and family as often as I would like. On the other hand, it helped me understand that being here is a wonderful opportunity to do something to improve the lives of people without any access to knowledge of how to make a bank run or how to create a successful enterprise. This country is in many ways like the wild west, with people doing whatever they can think to do to make a life for them and their families. When someone has a good idea and executes it well, he can be very successful. And when someone here is successful, often he shares it with not only his extended family, but friends and people in the community.

The days after the 11th were much better, and life has continued to get better here since then. I met a really nice guy who is the manager of a supermarche here, named Gabriel. Gabriel is single and he thinks that the woman he is involved with/living with is cheating on him. I have yet to meet her since she has been in Yaounde for the last several weeks, but from the stories he tells, its not good. Gabriel speaks French, English and German, so I'm not only improving my french when we hang out, I'm also getting a little German bonus. He actually lived in Germany for several years, near Hamburg.

My friend Cathy came to visit down from Kumba that weekend. She has yet to work at her bank, since the people who run it are corrupt to the point where a couple of weeks ago their suppliers repossessed their computers, office furniture and files. Its kinda funny in a really not funny way. She is planning on finding another bank in town to work with as well as helping the large women's group that's there. We took a nice trip up to Douala to get lots of fun groceries, like pasta with cream sauce in a bag- just add water! I also found HoneyNut Cheerios, which I have been savoring. Sadly, the ants have figured out that I have them too, so I've learned to keep everything in a ziplock container. Cathy and I also made it down to Kribi for a day at the beach and hanging out with our friend and fellow volunteer Zal, who lives there.

The weekend after Cathy left, I went back to Kribi and Grand Batanga for a regional meeting which featured a grilled seafood dinner in swimsuits on the ocean. We had shrimp, fish and stingray- all caught that morning. You know, sometimes being a volunteer has its benefits.

Last weekend, I met a really nice French guy who works with Alucam, the large aluminum factory in town. He's a friend of Gabriel, and made a fantastic shrimp and pork dinner for me, french style, with some nice bordeaux wine. Sunday, Gabriel and I went to visit Lake Osso, which isn't far from Edea, and is a beautiful virtually untouched lake in a valley. I took some photos...

Ok, my time is up for now. I'm helping the bank buy their first computer, so I hope to have time to prewrite these in the next few weeks!

Sunday, September 07, 2003

Its now into my second week at my lovely new home of Edea, and things are starting to get settled. I do have a great deal of furniture and a semi-working fridge that the previous Peace Corps tenants left me. Its made my life quite a bit easier. In fact, to cinch my semi-laid-back lifestyle, I hired a housewoman this week. She started on Thursday, and comes twice a week to clean the house -mostly the floors- and hand-wash my clothes and linens. Its really a wonderful thing, and I highly recommend it. For this, I pay her 12,000 CFA per month (including 2000 for moto transportation, since she lives a little too far to walk)- this is about the equivalent of 22 dollars, but represents a third of an average secretary's monthly wages. In Edea, they get paid about 35,000 per month.

I went to the market this morning to do a more thorough check of what was available. I came away with a papaya, five oranges and five mandarins for a grand total of 650 CFA, a little over a dollar. Sometimes, I love this country.

My neighbors have gone from overly curious to decidedly indifferent. In general, I think they've decided that I'm not going to open my doors and talk to them all day or whatever. I'm not sure exactly the best way to handle the situation, but I think I'll let it evolve over time. Some of the neighbors who are not adjacent to me seem to be quite happy everytime I see them though, which is nice. Work on the other hand is going quite well. The people I work with and the current clients of the cooperative have all been great to me, and have taken me out to lunch several times this past week. We've already started talking about how we can help the cooperative and even some of the members who have outstanding loans. Work should continue to get better and better.

On the free-time front, I've had a lot of it. I have completed the Salman Rushdie book-interesting, but not fabulous. Not a must-read, unless you're interested in Pakastani history, in which case its quite fascinating. I also finished "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kuntera or something like that. I think they also made it into a movie. Anyway, highly, highly recommended. I really did enjoy it. Its a bit deep at times too, which is a little different for me. Now, I've switched things up a bit and am halfway through "1st to Die" by James Patterson. Quite fun to read.

I'm out of time, so until next week- keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!

Monday, September 01, 2003

I'm here!!! I finally made it to my new home in Edea! I moved in on Wednesday night with the help of Carolyn. Its a decent sized house in the middle of a crowded neighborhood. Lets just say that when I leave the house there are about five families totalling about 30 people who know. The upside of that is that once I get to know them, they will be my best source of security. The house itself is up a little slippery rock hill and has three bedrooms (one of which is quite dark and small and will probably only be used for storage). There is also a large living room and a back deck from which you can see the Sanaga river. In addition, there is a separate outdoor kitchen totally detached from the house. In fact its closer to my neighbor's house than mine. I have decided, as did the previous tenants, that I will be using my cookstove inside the main living room area instead of going out to the dank kitchen alone to cook.

Right now I'm in Edea's brand new internet café! It opened about two weeks before I got here! Lucky for me!!

On Tuesday last week, I helped Carolyn move into her house in Akonalinga. She didn't have power or water, so we spent the evening drawing water from her landlords well and buying candles. Its amazing what you can live without if you have to. Her house is decent and actually within the gated compound of her landlord, who is a very nice woman.

Before I forget, here's my new address that should take about 2 weeks less time to reach me, on average:
Peter Bine
CPC-FIMAC
B.P. 508
Edea, Cameroon

You've got to love how easy the addresses are here. Mail is never delivered to a place of residence or business, but only to post office boxes. Mostly that's because there are rarely street names and never street numbers!

The city of Edea seems pretty nice, and I am getting more and more comfortable here each passing day. People are already starting to get to know me and recognize me. As soon as I find someone to wash my clothes and clean the floors all will be good (by the way, that's normal and expected around here- some of the women neighbors seem surprised that I haven't starved to death yet since I don't have a woman living with me!)

I went to work for the first time this morning. The Gerant (manager) told me to go home at lunch time since it was raining and it wasn't likely that there would be any business for the rest of the day. I took the bank charter with me to read tonight! Fun, huh?

I have resumed my intensive reading program, which is being helped by the load of books left behind by the previous inhabitants, Pam and Patrick. I just finished the third Harry Potter book, and have delved into something a bit deeper- "Shame" by Salman Rushdie (interesting so far...). If nothing else, I will come out of this whole experience a better read person, which is something I have sorely lacked in the past.