SATURDAY Feb 19
Field trip! Met at 8am (ah! Why so early??) to go visit caves and a waterfall! 1 ½ hours is a long ride on dirt roads; I was in the 7th of 7 rows in the van, and I SWEAR at one point the trek got so bumpy a got a foot of air (times like these make me miss seatbelts). Anyhoo, the waterfall and surrounding jungle were gorgeous and caves were pretty great too. I’ve got pics….it’s just too much work to put them up.
Afterwards I hit up an internet café (wow, less than a $1 for 2 hours) to apply for next year’s housing, do a bit of homework, blow some time on facebook, etc
Spent awhile with the kids at the salon on my way home and then spent a couple of hours helping Mimi make dinner: bananas with peanut sauce. Apparently you can eat unrippenned ba-nay-nays, and they taste sort of like potatoes. Not bad. Based on the number I peeled, we’ll be eating them for every meal until I go…
SUNDAY Feb 20
Silly me—thought for once I’d get to sleep in. Nobody stopped me from doing so per say, but the rest of the house got up at the usual 6:30 hour, so the noise woke me pretty quickly.
Got the kiddos to de-tresse (whee! Franglais!) my hair (OW) and wash it. Never have I ever gone so long without washing my hair. Never have I ever shed so much hair in one day. Next thing I knew, I was headed back to the salon for more tress-ing. I like my new hairdo even better, but it took even longer (5 hours!). Sped things up at the end so I could go to mass with Mimi and the kiddos (Mom was at a reunion—I’ll explain what that is some other time—and dad’s an animist]. Catholicism is a really good bonding point for Mimi and me, because she’s currently going through catechesis classes to be confirmed. This mass was less westernized than the one I go to in Yaoundé, which means that 1. The priest was 20 minutes late 2. Mass was pretty much outside 3. Got some sweet African beats. Also, people were clapping and cracking up during the homily…wish I had understood it better (microphones are the worst!)
A bit after mass Mimi wanted me to go out with her—we met a friend of hers at the bar a couple minutes from the house. Oops, definitely got chewed out for this the next day for not telling Papa where I went.
MONDAY Feb 21
3 new people in braids when we got to school this morning!
At 12:30 Ellen and I were supposed to do our governmental interview for our Women and Work project. Got a little taste of Cameroonian time…we didn’t get to meet with the minister until 4:30 (She had lost her keys, so she left to fetch a blacksmith or something and they literally broke into her office and replaced the locks while we were waiting. For real?)
Also went to the bakery to pick up birthday pastries for my host brother since I was delegated the task of providing the par-tay. Along the way we encountered our most persistant suitor yet; I’m not joking when I say he walked with us for 30 minutes.
Also at the bakery we saw a white couple. They waved; I mostly refrained from waving back. Race is an odd thing, n’est-ce pas? For some reason we white folk all feel the need to befriend one another—starting to see how ridiculous it is. Just this weekend at the waterfall, we met French botany students and swapped phone numbers without hesitation. Now, let’s think about this: how many times a day do we lie and tell Cameroonians we meet that we don’t have phones? (correct response: a lot)
At the salon Maman was so excited for Daril’s birthday. (PS while he’s turning 3, my real bro is turning 18 back at home!) I was excited because I got to carry the baby home on my back!! I didn’t drop her!!
Once at home she thoroughly enjoyed carrying out the plan she had hatched: she brought Daril in and told him that even though they couldn’t afford tocelebrate this year, that we would sing nonetheless. As we sang people gradually brought in all his goodies on trays—pop, pastries, kebabs (meet is such a treat for them!), and candy. I think he was a bit overwhelmed at first, but he eventually ditched the shocked silence for his usual giggle.
Whew! We didn’t eat until 10:30. Question: when will I ever do homework?
