my last day!!!

today was my final day in the office, even though it was my second day with nothing to do! i know the whole "nothing to do" concept doesnt make sense to you americans, but here it understood. in the morning, sophie and i went shopping. first we went to the mokolo market, which is a huge market that is not exactly indoors but it is under a roof. it felt like we were in a cave. we only went to the textile district, but that was big enough! the stalls were middle-eastern style (doors with rounded tops and wooden doors that swing open during business hours and lock up afterwards). it was cool. then we went to an arts and crafts market for souveneir shopping. i really hate shopping in that way, with bargaining and people chasing you with "very good price, just for you." i get defensive at first, then i relax and joke around with them, and get more comfortable with walking around. africa always has great stuff. because of the ethnic diversity in cameroon, there are a lot of styles of masks, which i really like. my grandmother collects masks and i used to be afraid of them as a kid, but now think they're beautiful. a neat item they sell is the cameroonian passport, which are tiny clay masks which are painted in a specific style depending on which tribe they belong to. formerly these "passports" were used when travelling around cameroon through the various tribal regions to identify the tribe of traveler. i didnt get any because they make them really sloppy for us silly tourists. i did get some cool stuff though.

so, ive realized i havent really told you about what ive been doing in the office. yes, yes, i actually do work here. first, the pictures are of my desk and office, the hallway that the office is on, and a large red button which i think is the fire alarm, but which looks like a cartoon eject button and which ive wanted to push ever since i saw it. but alas, i did not. the project ive been working on is the editing of the website content. the french content was literally translated, probably by a computer program, into english. as you can imagine, this does not make for an accurate translation. all the content made up a 50 page document, every sentence of which i had to fix. it was nice though. i was qualified for the work as an english speaker and it was a job that had to be done and it gave me a purpose. sometimes it was quite comical too. for instance some of the literal translations were "flaps of society" (levels of society), "Patricia of Mowbray" (Patricia de Mowbray), and, this is my personal favorite, "wrinkle of an eye" (twinkle of an eye! haha. i love it). anyway, tonight i am staying up late so hopefully i wont be too jetlagged when i get home. two more days until my chocolate cake!!!!!!