Last Weekend in Bamenda

Jane in Cameroon:

Today begins our last work week in Cameroon. It's going to be pretty calm around here compared to last week. To recap, Adam and I visited Akum on Monday and Tuesday.

On Wednesday I took a taxi to Bamessing to attend the village healer's meeting. Thank goodness for Theo, who met me at the Nkwen 'bus station' to put me in the right taxi! I was pretty nervous taking an 8-person taxi (tiny Toyota+4 people in front+4 people in back+lots of luggage). Especially after our near spill on the mountain roads last time, I was very anxious. Luckily all that weight and the poor condition of the car meant that we traveled at a comfortable 30 mph. Got dropped off and waited 2 hours for Raymond to come meet me. I checked out the handicrafts store, where a very nice gentleman named Peter, who is a sculpture and town historian, showed me around the place. I later found out at the meeting that he was also a healer! I had an audience with the Fon's son, who was having 'open office hours' so that people on the way to the market could come greet the Fon's representative. The conversation started getting a little creepy when, FINALLY, Raymond showed up and started the meeting! Great timing! Got home at dusk, where Adam was waiting to break open the ramen.

Not much happened for the rest of the week besides office work. Tried puff puff at lunch. It's like a giant ball of fried dough. It tastes awesome warm, and is cheaper than most other lunch options. We went out to a bar Thursday night to watch the Champions League finals between Manchester United and Barcelona. Everyone went crazy when Samuel Eto'o, a Cameroonian player, scored the first goal for Barcelona. Friday morning we headed out to the market for Adam's food research. Given how much people usually earn here, the food market prices were still pretty steep! Tried to get US dollars exchanged downtown but none of the banks would exchange 'officially' except EcoBank, which charges a 2% fee. Afriland bank was so shady! They'd be open but say they were closed and not let you in. Finally we got them to agree to exchange but it was all off the books! So Adam and I left and decided to ask Theo to help us exchange money again. Friday evening we went to the ex-pats weekly gathering. Good fries.

Saturday morning we took Evelyn and walked down to Commercial Ave. which is surprisingly not that far from the clinic. Bought some cloth to make a traditional African dress out of. Went souvenir shopping at PresCraft again. Evelyn introduced us to her friends and family all around the market. There's a long narrow alleyway where all the women go to get their weaves done. It's a little scary thinking about how much hair is flying around there. Adam and I had been wondering when all the women had time to get their hair done. It seems the women here change hairstyles a couple of times a week! Where does all this hair come from?!

Sunday, we went without power pretty much all day until around 6 or 7 in the evening. Fortunately Adam lent me his copy of "Atlas Shrugged" which I can't seem to put down. We were really disappointed to miss the American movies (w/ French dub) they show here once a week on Sunday afternoons. So far we've seen Bourne Supremacy and some Harrison Ford chick flick. Had more ramen and a can of baked beans. Mmmm, whiteman food.