Harry bought a machete (and other stories)

Life has been pretty chill since returning from the trek to Bamenda that I last wrote about. Last weekend, I decided to stay in Yaoundé and take a break from traveling, while others headed to the beach town of Kribi and the north-western village of Kumbo. Katelynn, Emileigh, Cecilia and Alie also hung back, which definitely called for a girls’ night, complete with chicken and D’jino and…MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM SUNDAES (followed by raspberry sorbet!)!! Unfortunately, the power went out for something like 8 hours, canceling our chick-flick viewing, but we improvised with story time and ice cream by candlelight. The rest of the weekend was very relaxing, spent with my host family. My host- grandma was in for the village so this past week has been one of traditional food and cute cousins. I’ve palated three new dishes: gombo (not the same as in the US, rather mucus-y, but delicious, and eaten with fufu, which is impossible to describe), nkui (an even more mucus-y substance kind of resembling The Blob and eaten with fufu-corn and vegetables to counteract the spice), and coquille (a spongey orange loaf made of mashed-up beans and cooked in banana leaves, also wicked spicy). It’s been an experience, and I’m always incredibly thankful for my bottle of water, and even for the Top Grenadine I used to hate but have come to appreciate as a spice-killer! We unfortunately missed out on the Cameroonian premiere of High School Musical 3, but it was worth it to have that quality time with the extended family.

This week, things were back to normal with everyone together again. I don’t have my internship because schools are on a two-week spring break, which leaves me more time for exploring. However, I did have a frustrating experience with the director of my school this week when he set up a time for us to go and meet the school’s proprietress and never showed and expected me to be available all the time in order to fit her schedule. In other news, the stomach fungus is gone, thank goodness! The rainy season has really hit, and we are faced with a torrential afternoon downpour each afternoon at almost exactly the time we need to go catch a taxi to go to class (it’s super difficult to find empty seats in taxis when it’s about to rain!).

Thursday, I had my first “exam” here, which was multiple choice and pretty much a joke. C’est la vie! After the exam, no one had class for the rest of the day, so a bunch of us decided to head back to la briqueterie, the Muslim neighbourhood I’ve mentioned before, for some shopping and street food. We arrived right about the time of the first afternoon call-to-prayer, which is a sight I will never tire of. It’s so powerful to see all these men rushing to position their prayer mats towards Mecca and wash their hands and feet in time to pray. Ben and Harry devoured some streetmeat (washed down with the aforementioned Grenadine) and we hit the street for some serious fabric finding and hardcore bargaining. Successes in briqueterie: traditional tie-dyed shirt with elaborate embroidery (originally asked 20,000 francs, I paid 6,500) and typical Muslim scarf (originally 5,000, I paid 3,000 francs). Needless to say, I’ll definitely be paying several more visits before I head back to the States!

Soon after, we were joined by some other friends and trudged up the hill to Marché Mokolo. Now, I had heard some crazy stories about Mokolo by people who had gone already, about pickpockets and hassling vendors and sheer intensity. I was excited. We split up, and Ben, Morgan, Harry and I steered our way through the stalls of shoes, trying not to trip and fall in piles of trash and trying not to vomit due to the smell of dead, drying, fresh fish. We weaved in and out of sections containing kabas, jewelry, bags and almost anything else you can imagine. Prescription meds, knives, bras, Obama shirts – you name it, they’ve got it! I was in the pursuit of a Lions football jersey, the Cameroonian soccer team. This quest was probably the single-most overwhelming experience of my life, and I live in Cameroon currently, so that’s saying a lot! I walked up to a vendor selling the green, yellow and red jerseys and started bargaining. Before I knew it, I was SURROUNDED by vendors telling, or rather shouting, at me that their jersey was better quality and real and the like. I couldn’t hear myself think or talk for that matter (and I’m pretty darn loud!). I ended up screaming at the vendors to stop yelling at me or I wouldn’t buy and that worked for about 3 seconds before the voices overtook me again! All in French, I asked about quality and insisted that I had eyes and could see the two jerseys they claimed were the same were simply not! I ended up walking away with a nice jersey for myself at 7,000 francs/ 14 USD (down from 15,000) that is allegedly real and the kind the team wears to play in. And it has Eto’o #9 on the back. Oh but wait, the jersey endeavor hadn’t ended. Five minutes later and many stalls away, the guys were still following us trying to get us to buy more. So, Morgan got a legit jersey for 5,000 without even having to bargain! As we moved through the crowds and grabbing hands (at one point a guy would not let go of Morgan’s arm and Ben had to say something to him), we perused the wares, and then crossed the street for a cold drink and a look at the CDs for sale on the sidewalk.

This was when we made a new friend, Olivier. We discussed music and then Harry, after a thus-far unsuccessful quest for a machete, asked for some advice on where to get one. Olivier took charge, finding a good price and then leading us down an uber-sketch back alley to get it sharpened, while telling Harry the story of the time he was in France at a bar and got arrested and deported because it “looked” like he was doing heroin. Good. Once the two foot machete was sharpened to the appropriate point, we attempted to ditch Olivier and head back to briqueterie for some soya and yogurt, but with no luck. So we ended up sharing yummy roasted meat kabobs and beignets with the man and then catching a taxi back to the apartment before it got too dark. Completely exhausted but thrilled with our adventure, we took some funny pictures of Harry pretending to kill Ben with his new weapon (which is sheathed in our weapons corner now, don’t worry!), I decided to spend the night at the apartment and we went out for chicken and drinks and spent the evening relaxing.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with Jason and Bambi watching an unhealthy amount of My Super-Sweet 16 on MTV (no, this is not what life is like for the majority of Americans, I tell them). We played some frisbee and ate dinner with Mama So and Papa Fernand before I left for the apartment for the night. We had been invited to a party at a neighbor’s bar/restaurant which ended up being awkward yet fun, dancing the night away and trying not to have to dance with that many Cameroonian men! Today was lowkey with quality host-brother time and tomorrow we’re having a potluck at the apartment with all the host-families which should be really fun and a great way to try different food!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world, wherever you may be! And to all my lovely friends turning 21 soon or who have recently celebrated, my host-mom told me last week that bananas are the best cure after a big night out, FYI! Also, thanks to all who have sent mail, I love every bit of it! But you should probably not send anything else or it won’t get here until after I leave! I still love email updates though!

AND…t minus 9 days until our big trip to the Extreme North and safari time!

Love from the continent that inspired The Lion King,
Kait