Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Nasara! Nasara!

Wednesday March 30
A very full day of IDI presentations; Ellen and I are officially done thinking about “women and work!”…time to focus on ISP!!
When I got home we had a precious moment where the children of the compound swamped Maria and played ring-around-the-rosy over and over with her.
I got to serve myself at dinner for the first time in awhile. That might not sound like a big deal, but it was—nice break from forcing down 2x as much rice as I think I can possibly eat.

Thursday March 31
Whew! Long day. We spent the last 2 days listening to everyone’s IDI presentations, and today we sat in that stuffy room from 9-5 presenting our ISP proposals. It was really good for swapping ideas though. Tomorrow’s our last day of classes…weird!
Got home and discovered the 4 and 6 year old had left again and won’t be back for a few days. Bummer because that means I don’t get to say goodbye.
I noticed that tonight my host sister Koulsoumi (14) knows how to time her prayer perfectly during the commercial break between El Diablo and The Gardener’s Daughter—2 of Cameroonians’ favorite soaps [I swear everyone watches at least one of these]. What’s interesting is that she’s the only ne I ever see doing the daily prayers; Dad goes to the neighborhood mosque, the other kids are too young, and maybe mom’s exempt because of the baby?

Friday April 1
Woke up happy because Balla was all snuggled up against me.
Used the morning to finish up my ISP proposal and then had our last class of the semester (research methods). Then we enjoyed a lovely lecture on the dangers of cholera, because it’s apparently cruisin’ around Cameroon at the moment. I was worried, but then I learned that Doxycycline helps prevent the dreaded disease. Who’s already on doxycycline for malaria prevention? MARIA’s already on Doxycycline. [BOO-YA]
Waking hoe I got chased down by a young gent who was quite sad to hear “we leave tomorrow”, but was somewhat appeased when I gave him my email address. Except apparently NOT.
He. Showed. Up. At. My. House. Later that night. I was sitting with my host parents when he came in. Oh man, was I mortified. I asked “oh are you guys friends?” and someone said “yes”, but after he eagerly handed me a piece of paper with his name, email, phone, AND his mom’s phone number (huh?) and headed out, I asked again, and my parents said they’d never seen him in their lives. Good times.

Saturday April 2
Perfect last wake-up in Ngaoundere—Balla was all cuddled up by me and petting my hair.
Went to the little market near our house this morning with Koulsoumi…It’s HOPPIN on Saturdays. I found a SWEET pair of hot pink rubber shoes (think Jellies material, Keds style), but could not convince the man to sell them to me for 800, all I had on me. I seriously went home and dug through the bottom of all my bags until I found another 200 (40cents). I’m offish broke (simply to stubborn to go to a bank, because I know we’re getting a hefty ISP stipend soon) but am wearing the shoes as I write!! Back at the house I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon hanging out with the family neighbors and getting saddened by all the “don’t leave us!!” comments.
There was, however, a slight interruption for “Maria’s lover: THE RETURN”. He CAME BACK to my house, this time with a letter in hand. I must explain, he is very friendly; however, that doesn’t mean I didn’t burst out laughing once he left. For the record, I’m laughing at the cultural difference and not at him. For everyone’s enjoyment I will now translate the letter in full…
[note: for some reason he has neglected punctuation]

To miss Maria
Hi maria how are you I’m very well we just barely had our first meeting and you’re leaving me already. That’s normal because you’re rejoining your family but I’m very sad because I would’ve liked to get to know you better and the only chance is that we can see each other on the we and get to know each other better but promise me to never forget me even at home because me I even think that we could get married one day I would invite you one day to meet my family but one think can you give me your number that you use in America I will call you from time to time to know the state of your health and that of your family I await your response even if you give it through Koulsoumi she will give it to me
Have a good trip kisses goodbye
[He then proceeded to sign both his name AND an alias. Guess I’ll protect his anonymity just in case…]

Remember readers, all I did was say ‘hi’ to this guy.
Must say, all the girls are pretty jealous of my letter (minus Rebecca, because she already got one when we were in Dschang). I’m sitting next to Araba as I write this, and I commented “aw, I feel kind of bad”; she notes, “it’s hard to be a heart breaker”. So true, so true.

Sitting on the train headed back to Yaoundé as I write this. Leaving today was hard. This is my favorite (Cameroonian) family. I truly feel at home with them. I enjoy chatting with Koulsoumi and kids are fun and adorable. Not only do I approve of mom and dad’s parenting style, I’ve even seen them exchange small gestures of affection. Plus, I love living on top of a bunch of neighbors…I get so much attention and people interaction!
Ngaoundere: it’s been short, but it’s been real. We may have had a rough start (crazy lady), and you may be less beautiful than other places I’ve visited in Cameroon, but it wasn’t long before I realized how good you were. With your squishier baguettes, gorgeous pagne, and sense of peace, I practically want to write you a love letter, even if we did just meet…
Bye bye Ngaoundere, bye bye ‘nasara’. [I’m telling you—never have I ever learned a new word and then heard it so many times in rapid succession. ‘Nasara’ means white person in Fulfulde, and I swear I must have heard it 50 times a day for 2 weeks straight.]
…so as I mentioned, right now I’m sitting on the night train, but it’s much less exciting this time since they skipped buying us beds. Did just buy some bananas out the window at a stop, though. Great service, but I must say they’re crazy! It’s nearly 1am, and there are still kids out there!
All right…they haven’t bothered to dim the lights, but I should try to get some sleep anyways…

Peace out girl scouts,
Maria