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!!!!!!

kribi, which includes a pierced-eared kitten

sorry i have fallen so behind! the truth is, my latest assignment (which i finished today!!!!!!) involved staring at the computer screen all day so my eyes were always tired and i didnt want to spend even more time on the computer with this blog. however, my eyes are doing much better and i am feeling guilty.

this weekend sophie, i, and two people from the office went to a town called Kribi on the southern coast Cameroon. the two other people were Veronica (Colombian) and Lucas (Dutch). both were about 30, probably alittle over, but they were both fun to hang out with. there was not alot to do in kribi, but as you can see, it was beautiful. we stayed in one of the nicest hotels, which was more of a small resort. it had only 13 small cottages, but it was nice, and for $60 a night, it was amazing. everything was well-decorated in natural wood and flowers, and the service was excellent. we mostly just sat on the beach and read and talked and played games. on saturday we walked down the beach to some waterfalls. UNESCO was investigating the falls that weekend in order to make it a world heritage site. i mean, i dont know about that, but they were ok. they were unique in that they were freshwater falls going directly into the ocean, and i suppose they had some tribal use at some time. on the way we met a tiny white kitten who wore a beaded necklace and a beaded earring. lucas and i were both very fond of cats, so we made the most of this singular occurance. as you can maybe see, the falls were more horizontal in nature, so we climbed around on them for awhile and then returned. for lunch we went farther down the coastal road to a restaurant (which means a kitchen and tables on a porch) owned by a french lady. it was good, although i had shrimp in the whole form, so i had to tear off the head/abdomen and peel off the remaining exoskeleton before enjoying the flesh of the animal i had just disected. i know that meat was once a living animal, but i dont like seeing the animal in its previous form, especially with eyes and little legs and...ugh. but i perservered, and it was tasty. then we went to an art museum (a small private collection) and some shops. the weekend, on the whole, was very relaxing and i read a whole book of chinese short stories while i was there. on sunday we stayed until 1:30 and then took our 3 hour drive back, on which i saw i pigmy woman! anyway, now i have 4 days left, but who's counting, right? ME! im counting, i'll admit. i am looking forward to a nice chocolate cake from chili's, amazing house chicken from pick-up-sticks, driving myself on good roads, hearing the english language, and seeing dan perez (not necessarily in that order).

the fon of bemenda, etc...

last sunday, sophie and i left for a "mission," which is an exciting word for a business trip. our destination was a town called bamenda. bamenda is located in the english-speaking part of Cameroon, which was quite a relief to me. i could actually have intelligent conversations with people! before we got to our hotel, we stopped by a lake outside of the city. it was nice, but on the way up the dirt road to the lake, we were exeptedly detained by a fallen tree. so we walked the rest of the way, which was probably 3 kilometers away. it was a good hike though. the hotel was the nicest in the city, but dont read too much into that. it was plain, which would have been fine, but the water didnt work. i worked 1 out of 10 times, which was puzzling, so it was like hotel camping. good times. that night we went and had a great dinner with a bunch of retired Cameroonian UN workers. it was so interesting being with them, hearing what they thought about the government and what should be done and what their region was like. they were retired politicians but they farm now. the food was great too.

the next morning we went to a smaller town called bafut and visited a palace there. this palace was a compound which housed the fon (a big chief) and his extensive family. by extensive, i mean extensive. this fon had 16 wives and about 50 children. alot right? his father had 150 wives and over 400 kids! in the compound was a temple that was 600 years old (pictured), devoted to ancestor worship. only the fon and his family could enter it. the fon (pronounced "fawn") gave us a tour of the palace and then took only sophie and i into a small shedlike place in which was kept sacred elements of their religion, like masks and jewelry and ornaments. this place was separate from the public museum and only certain people got to see it! it was incredible. the public museum was interesting too. there was a bible in their native tongue translated by SIL. it was great to see so much cultural identity in a country that has lost so much of it. after the palace, we visited a businessman who started a charity foundation. he was quite eccentric. he wore a white sports coat and and white shirt with rhinestone buttons, which made me feel like i was back in the 50's. that night, we went to a man's house for dinner. he was the head of the opposition party in Cameroon politics, so this dinner was also idealogically interesting. after the meal he presented sophie and i with woven straw bags. the next day we returned to Yaounde, and that was that.

not in california, part II

one of the most distinct differences here is the attitude of the people. many times attitude is something you notice as you go along in a new place, but here it bites at you from the first minute you arrive. in a place where people dont have much control over their situation, they value any degree of power they have. there is no respect for lines, right of way, and especially no customer service. the other day i went to a cafe for my lunch break and ordered a pizza. after an HOUR (no jokes), the pizza was still "on the way, just a minute." our car was coming soon and we had to go, so we asked our waitress to either bring the pizza or let us know if its not coming. she said she would go get it so i tried to pay the bill. i went to the counter and the woman put my bill and money on the counter, ignoring it, and started dealing with other bills brought by the waitresses. coming from california, wher customer service is vital to the success of a business, it is definitely something to get used to.

on thursday night, sophie hosted a cocktail party here at the house for a group of consultants and donors. the consultants were there on an investigative mission regarding anticorruption. it was alright. its interesting to be around such qualified people, but i still miss being around people of my own education level, with similar interests. some great people came though: the secretary general of the central african republic, the french ambassador, and the consultants were from all over the world.

well, two more weeks. ill have some pictures next time i write. sophie and i are travelling from tomorrow until tuesday! keep it real over there.

not in california anymore, toto

regarding jon's post: no. no anacondas yet. the only really exciting fauna ive seen so far are these cool geckos. except the species that are here are tri-colored. i think they have a brown head, grey body, and red tail.

this morning i woke up to a choir of sorts. outside, not 40 ft. down the street, there was this little group of singers outside one of the house's gate. they had muslim clothes on, and played the drums and an eastern-sounding instrument. it was interesting. and why were they outside, playing to one specific house?

today i am sick again. last night a stomach thing came on me suddenly. i was shaking and i almost threw up. i fell asleep with it really bad, and woke up better, but not great. i stayed home today and worked from here. i think it might have been from an accidental bit of water i had. it wasnt even an ounce, but i dont know what else it could have been. the tap water here is practically brown. the first time i took a shower, i looked at the collecting water at my feet and marveled at how dirty i had been. but no, that was just the water. usually i remember to use the bottled or filtered water for cooking, but this time it just slipped my mind.

so, speaking of work, i havent told you what ive been doing here. thats mainly because i wasnt doing anything for the first couple weeks! i interviewed people around the office for my own benefit and for some school requirements, and read up on the UNDP and learned a bit of french. so basically i did nothing to help. it was very taxing for me to do nothing, honestly. those first weeks passed by like a parked car. however, this week was quite different. i was given the task of reformatting some "problem trees" (charts of developmental problems) that were being submitted this monday in a big report to the prime minister. there were about 20, and they were in various styles depending on the teams that created them. so my job was to put them in a single style and clean them up. this (formatting, editing, designing) is actually something that i like and that im decent at. and its something that they really needed. so thats what ive been doing. not life changing, but necessary.