Sunday, April 17, 2011

Crumby Days

In one of our early classes this semester on Cameroonian history, our prof told us that ‘Cameroon’ came from ‘Kamerun’, which in German, has something to do with crumbs. I couldn’t resist the play on words.

Thursday April 14
I’ve got two days free to do work since everyone at Heifer is in Bamenda. Thank goodness! I need it!
I needed a place to go to transcribe and write, and since they don’t have practical things like libraries or coffee shops here, I finally broke down and went to Espresso. It’s an internet café that some of the other kiddos go to a lot. Probably the nicest internet café in all of Cameroon if I had to guess. I just went in, bought my drink and camped out. It was a $3 drink, which is outrageous, but I did then proceed to stay for 6 hours, so I think it was worth it. Besides, I heard Ke$ha come on the flatscreen tvs and used the nicest bathroom I’d seen since January 24th.

Friday April 15, 2011
Back to Espresso! Got a break from working when I met an American there today…whoa…I think the only other Americans I’ve spoken to since I got here have been
1. SIT students
2. US embassy workers
3. Peace corps workers
Anyways, he’s here searching for a market for his business. I was a bit shocked to find out that this business in online gaming. First of all, there can’t be much of a market for that, and second of all, what good can come out of encouraging gambling, especially in a country like Cameroon?
Magnus made crepes as a snack tonight….whoa! beware! Cameroonian man in the kitchen!! Rather nice of him, though—think he did it as a treat for Therese, because she’s in the middle of finals.
In other news:
-the water’s been cut for two days now
-I haven’t shaved my legs in over a month
-it’s mango season!! 10/$1

Saturday April 16, 2011
What are we going to do today Brain? Same thing we do every day Pinky, WORK ON ISP.

Sunday April 17, 2011
So apparently Therese’s oldest sister is loaded (ie she was sporting LV, and her two twenty-something sons had on Lacoste and Polo); she’s in town for the weekend and staying at the Hilton, so after mass we went and had continental breakfast there with her. Yes, you heard me right, I said Continental Breakfast. I felt minor waves of culture shock as I walked through that lobby…
Dinner tonight was a total crackup--Magnus excitedly sang through every song he had every learned in elementary school.
ISP update: I’ve finally started translating my paper into French! Woot!