Buea in the shadow of Mount Cameroon

What a long, almost 4 days. Almost a lifetime.

Since I last sat down to write, I witnessed Chance's epic battle with American Airlines for his luggage, Jason (the senior volunteer from Scotland) drink Aloe Vera to cure his malaria and yeast infection, Hendrika (one of the newer volunteers from the Netherlands) laugh at everything, a long, very long graduation and more.

Chance finally got his luggage when on Tuesday morning he got a call from Brussels Air saying they would send it on their next flight down. He and I drove, passed rubber plantations and banana groves, with Mr. Orock and Antwan into Douala and picked up the bags. This trip showed me the genious of Mr. Orock (who we discussed should have a book written about him titled just OROCK) - his unmalicious anger at the luggage pest which was conjured because of their annoyance and because it is the only way to get them to flee, his smooth French talking to get through customs, and his Bond-like sterness and mind when telling Antwan to "go with speed" when leaving the airport. Then soon after this at the black market, trading in the donation money and personal funds for CFA, Mr. Orock dealt like a dealer. All of this was shown in but 30 minutes but I could tell that Mr. Orock was a true street-wise, patriarch of southern Cameroon.

On the drive home, in between my inquistiveness and Antwan's savvy manuervering around trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians, a car u-turned in front of us causing Mr. Orock to say, "stop here" and Antwan backed up so Orock could demandingly say out of the window to that driver, "What kind of driving is that?"

Chance and I didn't say anything immediately but later that night we laughed about the comment in relation to all the driving here.

On Monday, Chance battled with American Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and the Douala airport to find his luggage. He was told it was in Brussels and after $20 of international calls and more on Skype, he had no luck until the morning with that special call.

Monday night, after spicy peanut beef and rice, a man named Shuh came. He is friends with Jason and came and immediately fell in love with Kait. He sang her a song, asked her about life, et cetera. He is still coming around. In general nights consist of hanging out on the porch of the rooms of Kait, Jason and Hendrika. There Jason and James play guitar.

The other volunteers here are Jason (five months), Hendrika (one week), Weitzel (spelled wrong but said sort of like Riesha, one month, from the Netherlands), Valerie (3 months, from Canada), Biret (2 months, from Denmark) and Sophie (2 months, from Denmark).

Breakfast is at 7:30 every morning where we enjoy meals with Mr. and Madame Orock (the book OROCK should actually be written about her) and their five children, their nieces and nephews, their neighbors and local orphans. Everyone is in and out of this house and we as volunteers eat in the front room while they all sit, stand, play music, watch television and live their lives. The two children who I have gotten to know are the youngest - Evelyne and Clara. They are sweet and have taken to braiding my hair (at least Evelyne has).

Other meals have been crepes, salad, eggs, always bread, good banana/plantain/ spaghetti omelets, and friend beniget like things.

On Tuesday, the volunteers who had been recieved within the last week were given a tour of the facilities. At the new school we arrived while they were taking graduation photos. We talked with the office manager, Henry Sako. We also saw the new facilities and got to see Tako's electricity class. The students at the new school are from the surrounding villages and walk up to 2 hours to get to school.

I finally soaked my clothes in permetherin. While hanging them to dry on "the" porch, Kait had an episode with the dog with a bloody ear. I had to physically push (with my foot) the dog out of the house and when on the porch he sprayed blood on me from shaking. So I was dirty.

That night, after the Douala trip, we had the pleasure of listening to Aaron and Jeff play. They were amazing. Aaron is blind and plays the guitar and they both sign and have wonderful voices. They are friends with Jason. After enjoying some of the music I called it a night and updated my budgets to give to Mr. Orock in the morning with the donations.

Tuesday morning was a breakfast of omeletes. We walked to school where I registered the donations from those who gave to support UAC and its programming. I also played jacks with rocks - good thing Ms. Sweat taught us back at Carver Magnet.

We were then charged with the task of decorating the Catholic hall (up the street) for graduation the next day. We were sent to load 300 chairs, which we did while sweating. We also swept and watched the children. I played some more jacks and we went home for lunch which was a wonderful beef and okra stew with rice.

After lunch, and some time on the internet, we met Valerie, Biret and Sophie and all sat down for drinks at the bar. We spent a while here but I got to know these other volunteers (who had been in Kribe, a beach town in the very south, for a several day vacation).

Before dinner we discussed with Mr. Orock our coming trip to Mamfe and food accomadations for the time there. After dinner, a glass of wine on the porch and music discussion with Chance and Biret, I called it a quick night again.

This morning we had omelette toast, I bathed from a bucket, put on my nice clothes and headed up at 9 a.m. to graduation. This was a chaotic ordeal, lasting until 2 p.m. and raining for 3 hours (cats and dogs) during. After, on the way out, Kait and I were pulled into some graduation photos for 10 minutes. We lost the others (except for Biret and Sophie) and were caught by Tako who told us our lunch would be served at the hall. On the walk back in we were caught for some more photos. People ask if they can "snap" you. After lunch and conversation with the three girls, I took a nap and finally walked up here to write this long update.

I haven't even begun to talk about the language. When we walk we (girls and boys) are called "white man." At the school they are told to be more polite, and as they call most adults, we are called "uncle" and "anty." To eat, they say "chop." In the future tense you would say, "I go chop chop," meaning, "I am going to eat." Asking how are you is "How now?" and answering fine would be "I de fine." One child wanted to race and said, "I will fast you." It is amazing to hear this mix of English, old English, French and native languages. Most everyone speaks proper English as well, though.

Well, I'm off to celebrate our last night in Buea, under the shadow of Mount Cameroon.