Baby farts

So I’m sitting in a bar with Kate and Rachel, fellow PCV’s, and we just finished watching the Cameroon-Sudan game in the Africa Cup (Cameroon won easily…nothing like being in an African country when they when a soccer match!) and this song is being blasted that sounds like the typical Cameroonians beast except for the mix track of a baby crying that randomly pops up. This is already kinda funny (maybe you had to be there) but then the baby crying turns into a these wet fart sounds. Me and Kate look at each other and just burst out in hysterics, I have tears running down my cheek. Looking around everyone else is just drinking their beers and acting like nothing’s going on while these wet fart sounds are being remixed into this song (and after each fart some French chick says “ohh that kills” in French) are being blasted out the speakers so loud that no one can hold a conversation and you can hear it throughout the whole neighborhood. It was a 10 minute song too. It’s moments like these that make life here so special. I hope

 

I was down in Ndélélé with my counterpart while he was doing a check up on the Centre de Santé to see how their medicals supplies are doing and to see how their education program was working. It was a painful ~100km motto ride over unpaved washboreded (is that a word?) roads squished in between my cp and a huge box of med supplies strapped to the back of his Yamaha. By the time we got to lélé I was so sore I had to use my hands to pry my leg off the motorcycle. The town was great though- Rach, my stage mate seems to be integrating much better than I am in Batouri. But in a smaller town like lélé it’s much easier. Everyone was so laid back and friendly and inquisitive but not in a harassing (or deranging as we say in franglais)  manor. I have to say I was more than just a touch jealous or Rach’s poste, though we have a lot more food stuff up here. I guess every post is a trade-off. My upside is running water (usually), electricity (again usually), a western toilet and some great biking in the area. Rachel’s is a better sense of community and thighs of steel if you get diarrhea (shitting in a squat toilet 8 times a day will do that for you!)

 

Oh, Andy, I was talking to my neighbor who used to live in lélé and he said he worked with you on a project, his name is Ndomo (or at least that’s how it sounds like it should be spelled)? And I think I saw your house, Kate lives in the ‘girls’ house in her compound, but the ‘boys’ house (which I guess was yours?) was taken over by a doctor because there was only one volunteer in town for a year and a half. It’s a small world sometimes! Thanks for you comment by the way! It’s good to hear from other people that it can be tough sometimes. Though it’s going to be a little while longer before I start gulping down the termites…

 

Speaking of tough, I think I’m really starting to get a hang of my life here. I’ve been getting stuff sorted out at work (figuring out how I fit into my host organization and how I can work here without displacing local jobs and providing sustainable solutions to problems) which has been providing me with the bulk of my stress recently. That’s not to say I’ve figured everything out but at least now I can see how I might be able to figure it out in the future. After all I’ve got two years, it’s a marathon not a sprint. I also started working with a local youth organization and one organization in the health sector. It feels great to be finally doing some work that I was trained for in my PC training!

 

Ops, time to go. We are at an expats house and he brought back Cheese from Doula, the biggest city and main seaport for Cameroon. It’s where you can find all sorts of delicious edibles from the Western world. We’re gonna make pizza tonight!!! I don’t think I can make you understand how excited I am!

 

Bonne week-end tout le monde!