Maybe it's not normal...

SO this week was a busy week full of stalkers, art shows, sheesha and even a deadly, cramped car rides in the night.

One thing that I think I haven't made quite clear is that nearly everytime I am in a taxi, or standing still somewhere, or sitting somewhere, men approach me. Now, in the first few days/week, it was difficult for me to walk by someone when they said 'Hello' and not at least say hello back, as it is very rude here not to say, for example, "good afternoon/morning/evening" when you get into a cab or someone walks into a room (no one says hello only good aft/morn/eve). I have learned quickly that everywhere you go as a white woman in Africa, nearly every single person that you are within eyesight of will stare at you, and many will say, "hello" or "WHITE MAN!" or 'white man! buy this!' etc. etc. What is also quite enjoyable, is the hissing that is prevalent in Cameroon - this hiss is used to get a persons attention and is quite irritating as it is something that has been typically been associated with prostitutes in history, but I am informed and have observed that many people do it to many people...fine... but still rude and odd. SO, what I have learned is that replying to these men gets you into trouble and they will harass you and not leave you alone, so you need to ignore it and keep walking which is difficult for me because it feels rude. ANYWAYS, the problem for me, aside from the rude-nature of it all (on their part and on my part in terms of my necessary response) is that I don't want to be THAT type of foreigner. I can see why people get bad impressions of foreigners here, because you appear snobbish. I don't want to do that or come off that way. The other more important thing to me is I don't want to become a citizen of the 'expat community'; this is a community of foreigners within a community. Basically all the foreign people only or almost only hang out with other foreigners. I have been so dead-set on travelling southern africa without the aid of a tourist group/trekking company because I wanted to meet and interact with locals. I want the same here, but is it ever difficult. I have been trying to selectively give people chances to prove that they're not like every other hissing, gocking and drooling man here. So, so far, I have given my number to a few different guys I thought were nice enough; the main recipients being Ahyuckfuc Alfonz, a taxi driver who wanted to take me out for dinner, Fredrick, an attractive, bearded economics student at the University of Buea and Derek, the DEPUTY MAYOR of Buea. I thought, ok these guys seem decent... however I have soon discovered that all the warnings about the true intention of Cameroonian men is for the most part, true and will reveal itself in a absurdly short period of time. Prime example, Fredrick started calling/texting, and days after we first met in a taxi, I received a text (following a simple enough text of good morning, hope you have a good day) which said, and I quote, "Hi baby, how is ur day? Hoe cool, Missing u. Take care of ur pretty soft body. Urs in lve." to which I of course replied that those types of words were inappropriate for two people that just met (baby, soft body and love that is). To which he replied "Ok, i am sorry maybe I am a litle too fast. But then i think I am begining to fall inlove. Maybe love is blind. What do u think? Pls kate i will not hide my feelings from u. Is life. Never knew i will c u. But i saw u n i like u. I have been thinking abt u since ystdy. pls accept my request. Reply + n u shall discover true love. Fredrick" (Please note: I copied these texts verbetum (with spelling, punctuation etc exactly. Also, people can't say names like Kasia or Amber here so I go by Catherine and the associated nick names - aka Kate). I of course replied telling him that you can't love someone without knowing eachother etc. Anyways... that's a fine example. Friday night, I went out with Derek, who I thought must be decent as he was the right hand man of the mayor...must be a decent, educated human being right? Nope! I brought a couple friends with me and we went for a drink with Derek and his friend Derek (funny I know). Both were completely silent while my male friend Awa was present, afterwhich he got talkative. Immediately afterwards, we were outside for a cigarette and he asked something along the lines of (i can't remember the exact phrase) but something like 'so are we dating now?' I was like.. um... PARDON? I don't even know you! Anyways, he had a very strange sense of humor characterized by lying, then saying he was joking, such as saying he was 45 when I think he's 31 etc. etc. He listed his interests as 'drinking, smoking and having a good time' and when i asked him what he did at work he said (and this is ENORMOUSLY reflective of the prevalent attitude of nearly all Cameroonians), "i go to the office and I collect my salary." I of course followed up and said, right but what do you do at the office, and he basically said that he reads a newspaper. THIS is the man who is responsible for development of Buea, for water, roads, garbage pick up etc. that is very lacking in this town... and what does this elected official (who won my 82% because 'the people knew I was trustworthy and would get things done') do with his time? 'Go to the office and collect his salary.' To say the least, I was extremely unimpressed. Ah well, he paid for our drinks and the taxi....hahaha. The final character, Alfonz, is a taxi driver that is stalking me. He calls me 5 times a day, from different numbers so I can't block him or avoid the call and actually stalks me. I was at the seamstress getting some clothes made and he called. I told him I was too busy with work etc. to get together and hung up (as connections are poor here so I essentially pretended I couldn't hear/understand). I walk outside and who is sitting there in his bright yellow taxi? Non-other than my personal stalker Ahyukfuc, or however you spell his name, aka Alfonz. He proceeds to interogate me about 'being at work' etc etc. and asked that he could have 10 minutes of my time, just to talk. None the less... i'm a bit concerned that he was able to find me since I didn't tell him I was at the seamstress and he also informed me he had seen me out the night before with friends... CREEPY to say the least. SO I've decided to learn to lie so I can avoid this all, however, how the heck am I supposed to meet anyone here? Women don't talk to me and when I try to talk to them they become veyr suprised and reclusive, and tend to laugh a lot when i try to make conversation...not too hopeful. Oh well, going to keep trying I guess. Anyways, those are just stories to convey what day to day is like here and how TRUE stories of women in foreign countries and marriage proposals are. OH, p.s. derek called on Sunday and ended the call with 'love you!' i was like um... ya... ok bye. GOD!

So other than my fun adventures with the creepos of cameroon, I have been out with people here for food/drinks a lot this week and started going to church groups where we're recruiting people to get trained as peer educators (to teach others about HIV) which was great since it made me feel like I was actually doing something; I also got to see some drumming for the first time. I was amazed by this people's ability to harmonize and lead song... so wonderful! I also got the opportunity to go to an art exposition at this really amazing/beautiful french cultural centere here in Buea. The art was pretty great, it was catered and of course I got hit on by one of the artists and had the opportunity to make use of my new 'turn down' skills. I have been really really emotional all week (hormones) and was having a really rough day as the night before, after hours of discussion, my boss was unable to conclusively say exactly what I was supposed to be doing here or day to day for work etc. So i really didn't feel like being around people or chatting, yet we were supposed to be leaving for Douala that night after the art show to go to a house warming for another intern in Douala. Of course, Awa bailed, so did Robert and Amber and I, two white girls, ended up going to Douala at 8pm (not exactly safe at night). So we arranged for the car driver to take us directly to the address so we wouldn't have to get out and get a taxi (we paid a pretty penny for it but definately teh right decision, although the driver had to ask directions and the only reason we found it is that a guy going to the party noticed us in the cab and thought 'hmmm white girls...must be going to the party' and asked us exactly that through the window and showed us to the apparetment). THe drive to douala was pretty brutal, 7 people in one small compact car for over two hours in the heat, traffic and on the bad roads. None the less, we made it there and were surrounded by AIESEC dances... which I wasn't too excited about as a result of the mood I was in. Amber and I, instead, ended up at the appartment of 4 Lebanese guys upstairs smoking sheesha, eating pineapple and talking about our countries. It was pretty awesome as all I wanted was something that i enjoyed like sheesha, or a nice sit down meal or a coffee shop (all things I've been craving lately). We went out for food around 1 am and because of our fine lebanese connection, were seated at an already closed FINE restaraunt where we were treated to steak and fries with warm (non-dirty) bread and avocado! What you need to understand is that Buea has no 'fine dining.' most restaraunts are actually very dirty wooden tables with table cloths that are plastic, with turkey's on them and are from approximately 1981, you are served out of coolers that have been probably sitting there since morning... SO Amber and I were in heaven by the time the bread was brought out. Bread in Buea comes from these very dirty wooden display cases that are never cleaned, so we were excited for the non-yellow, actually fresh, non-dirty bread. It was exactly what I needed and our friend paid for it too! He then took us to L'orange Metalique, a club full of white people (young and old), asians, black people (of course), lebanese and even asians! It was more white people than I had seen since I had been in Africa, and it was really odd but we had a good time dancing! It was like we were home again, dancing up a storm amongst a mixed crowd of people and not feeling completely like foreigners, when the power went out and we were reminded of where we were. We eventually made our way outside to see the owner running with a fire extinguisher....not a good sign, so we left. Amber and I wanted to go home but our friend (neither of us knew his name/couldn't say it properly), tried to take us to a different bar, eventually we convinced him to get us home. We had a great sleep on clean sheets! (also a novelty), and had hot showers in the morning in an actual bath tub. We went to a bakery in the morning and got ham/cheese croissants and it was quite the weekend! It was these experiences that made me once again realize....hmmm this isn't quite all normal... where I live, how i live, what I eat etc..... actually quite different. Don't underestimate the worth of a warm shower and nice, quiet meal... this is what I learned. Luckily though, i wasn't cast down into sadness by this experience, into missing home and the pleasures of Canada, but instead was simply revitalized to keep living with my toilet without a seat, cold showers and dirty bread! Why not! I haven't really gotten sick and it's all part of how people live here! It's simple and it works! Anyways, my point is that although I've said in previous blogs that it's strange that I don't find all of htis strange, well it's because it's so easy to just adapt and forget, it's so easy to just be glad you're not in a thatched hut, sleeping on the floor and eating dog, but sometimes, when you are reminded that nice restaraunts and hot showers exist, you remember again...hmmm this isn't how I normally live! Anyways, glad I went even though I totally didn't want to.

Some other things to mention. On the way home, there was a man on the side of the road holding up an alligator he had killed; he was simply standing there trying to sell an alligator. The things people do here for money, thye things they sell....pretty interesting!

Another thing; as I noted earlier, I was very affraid I was here for no reason. I ahven't done much work at my NGO since i've been here and the more I pester my boss for specific tasks, the less she has to say. The saturday, the conversation we had on saturday, kind of crushed me because it became clear to me there was very little i would get to do here. So i spent all weekend in torment, only to get back on sunday having found out that somehow things had been worked out and it looks like we might be able to get the project, the project of my dreams which aims to help orphans and vulnerable children, off the ground (i'm doing everythign i can to show her we can do it and did some work over the weekend and so did she), as well as work will be possible at the HIV/AIDS clinic... so i'm a bit more hopeful now... but the weekend was full of listing pros and cons about whether to start looking for something else. I have also started to reconsider med school, perhaps somewhere in Africa (so I can get resource-poor training) or in Poland... that's some other stressful news but we'll see how that all works out!

Anyways, sorry this was so long, I'll try to write a little blog about small things I haven't yet mentioned about living here! Thank you all for your emails (i've gotten a few) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep them coming! They are lifesavers when you're feeling down! And believe me, i don't find your lives in Canada boring (as some of you have told me is your reason for not writing), so please keep me up to date!

The Land of Juxtapositions

Hello ALL! Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote, but to be completely honest, I've been at a loss of what to write. Basically, after you get over the fact that everyone carry's things on their heads (for example, my friend Danielle carried my 55 lbs suitcase on his head up the mountain), everyone stares at you and little kids whisper, 'white man' as you walk by and some of them cry, every price you are given is just a starting offer and you should start the bargaining by cutting that price in half, everything comes with little black plastic bags from beans and rice to a pair of sandles, everything is dirty, slow (except for the taxis) and broken...kind of looking like it's 30 years old but it's new, and everything you eat is made with orange, incredibly staining palm oil...it's just like any other place!
When I got here, everything was SO interesting and I walked around sort of wide-eyed, but now it all seems pretty normal to me. Everyone sings, no matter who is around or how quiet it is, a typical taxi fare (you take a taxi everywhere) is about 100-200 Francs (500 francs = 1 dollar), oranges are 50 francs each and you squeeze the juice into your mouth, a cell phone (basic) costs about 20,000 francs ($40) and EVERYONE has a cell phone which is pay-as-you-go and you can buy 'credit' for your phone EVERYWHERE as their are 'call boxes' and trasfer places, hundreds of them, everywhere you go. All of this seems pretty normal to me. I moved to Kingston in first year and things were odd but eventually became normal; given that Africa was a little bit more different, somehow you adapt just the same. I'm used to power and water being out for most of the day, I'm used to haggling and walking away when i don't like the price and i'm used to eating rice, beans, water leaf and kasava every day. It is kind of odd that where I am is normal to me, but it is and that's why I haven't written for so long.
The reason I chose the title I did is because I feel as though I understand a little bit more about uneven development... or aspects of 'modernization' mixing with the lack of actual internal momentum for that kind of 'development' or modernizing (all of you who know me well know that I'm cringing every time I use those kinds of words, but for a lack of a better term, I must use them). Although the government here is completely corrupt and disfunctional aka voting is complete joke (for example my boss told me this morning that what happened in the last election was that the register simply didn't contain your name unless you belonged to the ruling party, so those who weren't going to vote for the president who has been ruling since 1982 couldn't vote = landslide victory), there is absolutely no concept of 'garbage' here meaning that there is simply trash everywhere because the city council can't organize pick up, all these types of things being true... somehow there are cell phones, computers, internet and modern clothes. I feel like it's so bizarre to look around and see people in traditional clothes next to dolce and gabana. I feel completely underdressed here next to either of those people because the traditional dress is beautiful and I didn't bring regular clothes here really, mostly t-shirts and the like. I'm sorry this is SO rambly but i'm just trying to write something so that you have some idea of what's going on...what i'm trying to say is that it's just so odd that you have some things that are totally normal and 'western' and then other things outside of the towns that are still very traditional that sort of permeate into the city and this makes for a very intersting mix.

Some other general things to mention are that although there are restaraunts and bars everywhere here they typically serve 3-5 items that are the same aka some traditional dishes, rice, beans, stew and tomato sauce (that is just runny). In addition, the bars and little huts have women with several coolers that serve food (the same food) out of them an a typical meal costs about 300 francs. This is mostly what I eat. I am now in my new host's home, the doctor I am working for and she has 4 children, variously related to her living with her. Something that is quite odd here is that children do ALL the house-related work; they cook all the meals, they clean, they do laundry and basically anything else that needs to be done so that by the time they are about 12, they can do anything for themselves. I guess that gives you a new perspective on children-run households where the parents have passed away - we don't need to teach them how to cook and clean we need to educate them so they can support their families. Speaking of education, what I have discovered here quickly is that unemployment is the BIGGEST problem in Cameroon. The joke in Canada is that we'll graduate and work at Starbucks or McD's but here...they would be greatful for that job. Most university students are lucky to get a manual job or a job driving a taxi or sitting in a call booth (call booths are stands with a phone and person and you pay 100 francs for a call that is under 60 seconds - this is if your phone is out of credit or you don't have a phone). Basically, university students are to work in the government, schools etc but there are NO jobs yet they continue training students in these fields. Basically what that means is that most, probably 90% of the population is either unemployed or self-employed, self-employed being sitting at a wooden stand all day trying to sell oranges, tomatos, accra or smoked fish. I don't understand and I can't conceive of how each person makes a living doing that but I have been told that farmers do alright here in the market... but i see this tiny little table full of handful of fruits/veggies and they sit there all day...I wonder how much they sell... in fact i am tempted to sit all day one day just to see how many oranges they sell. At least they are keeping 'busy' is what some people say. On that note, it doesn't seem like 'poverty' is a huge issue here... what I mean is that you don't see some starving child on the street or some destitute looking person. I guess I came to the wrong place if I want to see that kind of thing - apparently you need to be in a more rural location for such a thing. But I wonder, there must be some of that here... I just don't know where? What this means for me is that it is QUITE difficult to assess what is needed here and thus what I should be doing. Although my doctor is brilliant and great, I haven't had too much to do thus far...i'm sort of working on a survey that is pretty much done, I am supposed to be recruiting people from groups to train them as peer educators but the person i was supposed to be doing that with today didn't show up and i'm supposed to be running a meeting for previously trained educators. I will also (hopefully) be volunteering at a hospital, an orphanage and an HIV/AIDS clinic, and also maybe an NGO that helps widows - widow rites here are CRAZY - I was just told about some of them last night by a friend who's aunt runs the widow NGO. Basically it includes things like no showering, shaving your head, sleeping on plantain leaves and one of the most shocking, rolling a plantain leaf (HUGE), putting some oil on it and putting it in your vagina for a few days in order to protect yourself from the spirit of your husband or other dead men that may want to 'lay with you.' I can't imagine! Right now, my boss found out I can type, so i'm typing BOOKS of notes for her nursing school/institute that she's starting. What i'm going to do is read a bunch and come up with a bunch of things I want to do and get going on those which is apparently doable. SO that's my plan for now in terms of my NGO.
Other than all of that, I was actually really bored this weekend because other than wandering, eating and drinking (pop and MAYBE some beer), therei s really nothing to do here. This weekend I'm going to Douala for a housewarming party for another intern and hopefully next weekend I'm going to Limbe, the beach with black (volcanic) sand. I am planning some trips to the north which is supposed to be really cool and different as well as to Egypt and people's villages to see more 'cultural' stuff. I am much less bored now that i'm at Dr. Khumbah's because there are 4 kids around and Dr. Khumbah is basically the African version of me; really loud, into politics and into AIDS and loves to talk about all those things and more, so we get along and I feel really comfortable there - I even have my own bathroom with a shower head that works (although it only produces FREEZING cold water in the morning and night when the water works...so cold it makes it hard to breathe). I am already feeling better there and my stomach is just fine. I'm trying to think of other interesting things to say but am at a bit of a loss so i hope this satisfies everyone's appetite for news on what i'm up to and how things are! Basically the lesson learned is that not all of Africa is what the pictures show! (although it is really run down and dirty). Hope all is well with all of you at home and PLEASE email me about your lives at home!

Buea at LAST!

I am finally in Buea, the city my internship is in and it is BEAUTIFUL. I am seriously in paradise. It is tropical essentially...palm trees, lots of big green palm-esque plants and vegetation, kind of wet feeling and warm/hot but not too hot for the most part although i haven't been wandering around too much in mid afternoon. Anyways, it was another sort of frustrating day yesterday when I got into Buea as I was sort of dragged all over the place, but really nowhere at all and for nothing at all. It was sort of just really disorganized and just a lot of 'chilling' as they say here. For example, we would say, 'ok so we just go get your bag here and then go home.' But in actually fact, we walk there very slowly, all sit down for some reason and do nothing for quite some time and then EVENTUALLY and I mean EVENTUALLY, everyone sort of decides ok lets go... even though all i had to do was pick up a bag and go. I know i'm being a baby and things are not like they are at home but all I wanted to do was put my stuff down and be at home, wherever or whatever that means. Anyways, i started thinking perhaps this is how it is here amongst everyone, but after meeting my NGO/Host, I discovered that it's a student thing; student's take their time and are disorganized...so I'm hoping it is just a student thing and things move a little bit more 'my way' here. Anyways, I know it's a minor fact but i'm still not feeling well and I just wanted home base if you will. SO I finally got to my 'home' that i will be staying at for the next week to get 'oriented' by AIESEC and to Buea. My NGO is none too pleased as their was a lot of miscommunication and she has been expecting me since saturday and has my room ready. None the less, the house itself is quite large and clean, a change from the last house i was at that was quite dirty; an interesting contrast to the house itself is that it is like a mini farm with chickens, ducks, turkeys in a pen behind the house and some gardens. I love all of that, however, the problem that is only a problem because of the state of my health, is the bathroom. The bathroom which is actually the toilet is an outhouse with a hole in the ground (all made of cement) with a waste basket for toilet paper which i have discovered is not in any public or most private bathrooms here if there is a bathroom at all. To be honest, i've roughed it lots before and have no qualms with outhouses and this one is extremely clean... however it is I guess this fact that is hard for me as being sick... usually means using the bathroom in an intimate way and in a way that perhaps isn't pretty. I tried to ask my house how you 'clean up after yourself' aka do you wash/rinse it with water when you're done, aka can i clean up the mess i may make and she said, 'oh no we clean the toilet when we clean the house.' at this point i was uncomfortable and did not want to ask the more graphic and straight forward, 'what if you miss!' So my stomach is not doing so well and i haven't eaten again since this morning... my plan of action is to let my system recover and only drink water until i am feeling 100% again. Ah well! the joy of travel really. Other than the house itself, (which i made a video of and will hopefully be able to post somehow), I ate an orange the Cameroonian way which is to peel the very outer layer, cut off the top and squeeze out the juice, like a portable real orange juice-box. it was great! I also tried some sugar cane which you don't eat but rather chew on and suck the juice (it is very tough/fibery but FULL of water/juice) which of course tastes like sugar and is very enjoyable. I had a pleasant sleep (even though my mosquitto net was a difficult procedure and i basically just slept undder the covers and had the net over my face and arms), which was ok since it gets cooler at night here. I had a wonderful sleep, that is until, at 4:30 am-ish the rooster (which was so evil it pecked most of the chickens to death) started crowing, it seemed, right in my room SO loudly my ears hurt....talk about a wake up call...yes that lasted 2 hours or so when i was asked to get out of bed (aka 6:30am).
I was very lucky however, Mary my host, offered me a 'bath' and asked 'very hot or normal?' to which I replied, 'oh just warm would be wonderful' as another intern here warned me all of her 'baths' had been regular cold water. What a bath is here, and why i mentioned it was called toilet not bathroom is the bathroom is next to the outhouse with the exact same set up, cement with a hole in the floor. I got a bucket of water and some soap and i simply splashed myself and washed myself that way... it was quite nice and refreshing, kinda cool as I could see the steam rising off my body from the warm water. P.s. she warmed the water in an external house on a wood fire and held the pot up on rocks, above that pot was things that were being smoked/dried I guess, various vegetables and corn drying in little bundles as well. It was really neat but quite smokey. That is where they cook and keep their food, a lot of yams, coco-yams and kasava, the main thing here.
I had a breakfast of egg, fried like an omlette, bread that looked normal but a bit yellow and had a slightly different taste and ovaltine made with powdered milk. It was good but my stomach is still affraid unfortunately. Mary was very nice and prepared all of this while i just layed on my bed begggin for the stomach pains to go away.
Anyways, other than that, spent the morning doing recruitment for AIESEC on the university campus which was interesting as everyone starred at the white girl and i felt so uncomfortable approaching people but i did it anyways and got some people signed up. The BEST part was that i had to speak in front of a lecture (large sized hall) group receiving orientation. I was fairly calm but I said only three words and the WHOLE crowd started sort of laughing and gesturing and sort of yelling, which I was informed later was a collective 'WHOA!' Apparently, although people speak english here, most people speak mostly pigeon, a mix of english, spanish, portuguese... basically english with a twist and when they speak english it is slower and with a very differnet accent. Anyways, I asked if it was that I was speaking to fast, as my partner Mary also had no clue what had happened, and I received a collective "YES!" SO i spoke slowly and had a good laugh. I was told later that people here are ver impressed with how we speak English as it is very fast... so now i know to slow down as I think that has explained a lot of the lack of response in conversation and blank nods.
I finally met my NGO today and the doctor that is accepting me as an intern and it was the best thing yet. We totally were on the exact same page and she was visibly excited and seemed to think it was amazing that I was sent sort of since I knew all about what she wanted to do and why it was imporatnat. It made all that work before rewarding and i know it's going to work great. Ok gotta run before my time runs out. p.s. tonight i'm going to a football game. Email me soon!

in cameroon

Hello from Cameroon! the enter key on this keyboard doesn't work so please forgive my structure! Well I just woke up and it is my second day in Cameroon. I flew in the night before last after some 3 days of flying and waiting in airports. The flights were decent with of course the exception of screaming children kicking your seat, a elbow-happy man who has no sense of how to share an armrest and the airplane food that I think made me sick. None the less, I am finally here and loving it. The night I got in, I will be honest, I got pretty freaked out and thoughts such as 'what am I doing here?', 'are you crazy?' and 'what have I gotten myself into?' most certainly passed through my mind that first night. On that note, I advise you never to fly into a city at night...everything is much more frightening at night. I say that becaus the next morning I was perfectly fine, it just all seemed so crazy when i got in. I had heard all about these 'porters' that try to 'help' you with your bag and sure enough I had my own personal stalker at the airport. He literally followed me from the gate all the way outside. I tried to loose him and tried to politely decline his services and actually walked away, and at one point ran, to try to loose him but to no avail. Finally I spotted my bag on a different carosel and I took off running when his head was turned. I busted through the croud and got stuck at the huge mob in front of customs. A woman stopped me and asked me for my luggage tags. I was told not to trust anyone at the airport other than cops, so I asked who she worked for and she was in uniform, so I showed her my luggage tag and somehow just ran through customs without anyone stopping me. In addition to my stalker, a lot of screaming was going on at customs because a fight had broken out and two men were kicking the crap out of eachother...security eventually broke it up but the scene was definately a good introduction into Africa. I make it outside into a swarm of people and unfortunately do not see a sign saying my name or AIESEC, but do not fear, I was not alone as my stalker had followed me all the way outside! Not only this but he brought all his friends over to meet me and offer their many ways of 'helping' me; I met money exchange lady, several taxi men, mobuto man (bus) and several others offering various assistance, much of which I wasn't even sure of because they were all speaking french. Finally, a white guy wearing an AIESEC shirt came to my rescue and we proceeded to the taxis to bargain our fair, it was like a mini wall street, bids going here and there, yelling and gesturing. Finally we agreed on a price and settled into the seat belt-less taxi. We got dropped off and walked home, at one point going through the sketchiest of sketchy alley ways. We got to the AIESEC house that has a locked gate and door and waited for its inhabitant to let us in. I was just starting to calm down as I was finally safe when I was suprised by a giant cockroach crawling near my bag. None the less I hadn't slept for three days so I crawled into my sandy bed under my pink mosquito next with no blankets and no pillow and fell sound asleep. I was awoken the next morning and we went out for breakfast the same place we had eaten the night before when I got in. A little 'cafe' where I ate oeuf spaghetti (egg spaghetti) a concoction of egg, 'egg spice', pepers, perhaps cilantro and spagetti fried into a patty on a flat pan. It's actually quite tasty along with my ovaltine made with sweetened milk out of a can. Unfortunately, something I ate that day caused me to have the pleasure of 'traveller's sickness' for the entire day, allowing me to get much more comfortable with the sketchy bathroom in the house. We continued on into town to exchange my money and buy a cell phone. I bought a pineapple on the street to get some smaller demoninations as hotels don't usually have smaller bills to give you when you exchange money. Something I've noticed here is that when you go to a business, they act as though they are doing you an extreme favour. We handed over the money for the pineapple, he kind of stood around continuing to chop up his goods, then brought some pineapples to who I was informed was his family, he finished chopping and then eventually gave us our pineapple and change. It was the same situation at the restaraunt...all you want to do is pay and they huff and take their time...it's quite funny actually, but I can see why everything takes so long here, no one, I mean NO ONE is in a rush. I enjoyed the pleasure of taking a moto-taxi, a motorcycle while in town and it was great! So dangerous, but totally fun! My doctor in Kingston said, 'the thing you must really be most careful about in africa is traffic.' I laughed at this and then had a bigger laugh when i came here and understood how right he was. There aren't really any rules here and no lanes and tonnes of these little honking motorcyles and taxis screaming around with no care for anyone else really. Honking is used to warn oncoming traffic of your presence rather than to show anger about being cut off; the idea is more like, i'm here so move it rather then 'excuse me!' We headed back home and stopped in for a 'Cameroon juice' which was like grapefruit pop, quite refreshing. Soon after returning home, we (tiery my host and I) were joined by Awa, one of the AIESEC people for Buea, where I will be going for my internship (currently in the city of Douala about 1.5 hours away). Although Tiery was very nice and accomodating, he didn't have a lot to say. Awa on the other hand was the exact human being I was so excited to meet here in Africa. He is an English and French major at his university, incredibly intelligent, philosophical, loves jazz and writes poetry! We had the most amazing 3 hour conversation about everything in life and it was so great. I found out that he is one of 16 children and his father had two wives and is a prince of Buea. His grandfather was the king of his town/village and had something like 8 wives. Polygamy is still legal here in Cameroon but is not practiced as much in people my age, but their fathers, if within their means, can have more than one wife. Awa certainly expressed to me that he would never want two wives and said times have changed; he's looking for love and complete longlasting committment to and from one person. Anyways, i was relieved to meet someone that I was hoping to meet here and luckily he is from the town I am going to. The night was fairly uneventful as we were joined soon after our conversation was nearing it's end by Bernice, a very humorous young man who would not leave me alone. He followed me around the house and later on in the night took me to the equivalent of 'look out point', the train station, i think in an attempt to 'make his move.' Luckily however, i kept my distance and conversation going on a very non-personal/sexual topic of development in Africa. He is so nice and sweet but just a little bit much for me, haha. I did however get an invite to his village where they also have a king protected by things like lions and leopards apparently and still have very traditional values and ways of life. I am very excited to see more traditional Africa! Other than all of this, right before I took my first shower since I left (which is a shower head on a hose that you hold over yourself and drain in the floor), I was greeted by a spider the size of my hand. I of course said 'holy shit!' and jumped back and called Bernice over who proceeded to of course laugh at me. Apparently that's 'small' and he said there are even butterflies with wings the size of his hand (that being the size of one wing). I guess some other fun tidbits to mention is that there is power and running water here but the power i constantly flickering and going out, in fact it was out almost all of yesterday and was out for several hours at the nairobi airport. Other than that, right now I'm waiting for a text from Awa saying when we are leaving because of the rain. I can't wait to get to Buea as i don't much like the city or cities in general and Buea is a much smaller community at the root of mount cameroon, cooler and fresher (apparently, as it is QUITE muggy here) and only 20 minutes away from Limbe where there is apparently a black sand beach on the ocean! I can't wait to meet my host family, although it'll be interesting to live with a family and a curfew again. Oh, i just remembered, i forgot to tell you about Amsterdam! I had a stopover in amsterdam for about 9 hours; I met a girl in line for the plane who was also going to africa (nairobi for a tour) and so we decided to tour amsterdam on our lay over. We hoped on the train and went downtown. We wandered around people watching and observing oddities such as a carnival (like with titla-whirl and such) right downtown amsterdam in the city square...it was really odd. we finally settled down at a table outside a small pub and began pounding back the pints, soon enough (due to lack of sleep etc.) we were well on our way to intoxicated. Then of course we were only meters from the 4 20 cafe...so we enjoyed all the most obvious aspects of amsterdam while we chatted with some aussies next to us. A little less coherent we stumbled back to the airport (thankfully finding our way in this state after only half of what we purchased from the cafe) and found our gate. It was a great little stop and MUCH better than my 10 hour layover in the Nairobi airport which is filled almost exclusively with duty free shops, about 95% of the stores are duty free and the other 5% selling the exact same souvenirs...it was really quite odd and painful layover as it was long, i hadn't slept in days and there was nothing to do and little options in terms of food; the power went out and no gates were posted for most flights so I had to run end to end to find my gate. Anyways, sorry this was so disorganized and random but I tried to update the blog earlier to keep events and thought seperate but the power and later the internet was out yesterday, SO, here it is in it's glorious form. I miss home already but am excited for my adventures! I have a cell phone and apparently it doesn't cost me anything if someone calls me so if you feel like it and have a phone card, give me a call at + 237 75 89 17 53! hope to hear from you all soon!