this is dedicated to

the language, food, and people of southwest province cameroon

Language
“Asha” – “Sorry” or “I’m sorry”, but not meaning to apologize but instead being sorry for someone (e.g. I step into the mud, all my fault, and Sharlotte says, “asha,” because she is feeling empathetic), but then someone has said it means “well done” (e.g. George Bell entering the kitchen during our party for the community and saying to us while looking at the food being prepared, “asha”)

“We are together” – I took this has three meanings, one being that “We agree,” another being “We understand each other,”and the final being “We are one” as in “Everything is okay” with the final meaning being the one most accurate because it is more an expression of “Don’t worry, we are together” as in the only thing that matters is that we are in each other’s company, safe and healthy (e.g. Takor couldn’t not reach the motorbike up the hill with Chance on the back and they both fell getting small injuries, Takor’s statement was “We are together” similar to what someone would say to you in a wreck in the U.S. stating that “As long as we are all okay, than everything is fine)

“Fakatos” – old and crappy (e.g. George’s car is called “Fakatos” car)

“Spintoros” – active and energetic (e.g. Hunter is a “Spintoros” man)

“Chop” – used as either a noun for a meal or food, but also as a verb to eat something

“I de chop” – the present tense of eating (i.e. I am eating)
“I done gone chop” – the past tense of eating (i.e. I have eaten)
“I de go chop” – the future tense of eating (i.e. I’m going to eat)

These previous three tenses are all part of Pidgin and can be used to describe many actions (e.g. one if have heard many times is “I de go field” meaning “I’m going to the field”)

“How?” or “How now?” – “How are you?” to which the normal response is “I de fine” or “fine”

“Small small” – very little (e.g. “My appetite is small small” meaning that “I’m not hungry”)

“Plenty plenty” – a lot (e.g. Obie Joe stated about the Mamfe Central debt problem, “We owe plenty plenty”) or just many or much (e.g. when someone has many children Mr. B.B. stated, “when you born plenty”)

These previous two phrases are part of Pidgin and illustrate the use of repetition with one word to emphasis a condition. This method is used with many adjectives. These words can also just be used once to mean a similar condition.

“You people” – y’all

“Pressurize” – to pressure someone

“Sensitized” – to know about something, be used to it (e.g. when I asked if the children understand community development or participate in the UAC activities, like the clean-up campaigns, often, the Besongabang community leader stated something along the lines of, “They are becoming more sensitized to UAC and these activities and the more sensitized they become the more they will participate”)

“Trek” – to walk

“White man with a long nose” – what I have heard some of the children singing when we drive by, George told me that this is a common song that they sing and he was shocked that I started singing along

“Clothes vs. empty skin” – Shirts vs. skins

“Picking” – your own children (e.g. Mr. Agbor B.B. was stating when discussing Child Abuse in Egbekaw, “As you treat your own picking, treat all children”)

“My own” – instead of just saying mine, people say this (e.g. when finding a phone on the table that looks like someone else’s one would ask, “Is this my own?”)

“Ease” – to pee (e.g. Doctor Peters replied to me when I asked for the toilet while at the bar, “Do you need to ease yourself or poo poo?”)

“Hawking” – selling (e.g. the children around town who hawk groundnuts, which are peanuts)

“Peace Corps” – this is not widely used but I have heard it sometimes to describe us, even though we are not with Peace Corps, but just as general development workers or general “white man” from out of this country (many times people refer to us as just being from Europe, as encompassing all “white man”), and since their experience with these development workers is most with those volunteers with Peace Corps this is how they simply refer to us when explaining to others who do not know us

“Current” – to be up to date on current events or knowledge of a subject (e.g. at the Egbekaw thematic discussion George stated that these would help others “become current to what is being discussed,” or something like that) but I have also seen it used to describe “your current” meaning a current photo of you

“Craze” – crazy (e.g. when referring to a man who she doesn’t like Delphine said, “He de craze”)

“Dash” – to give (e.g. when I gave a bottle to a boy at the field, he had seen me give one to another kid and asked before, but when I gave it to him he questioned with eyebrows up, “you dash me?” or just now Esther, the new wash lady, saw my soccer ball and knowing I just gave Aloys a pair of shorts said, “Hunter, You dash me this now”), kind of as in a gift


Things eaten/drank
Palm
Palm wine
Red wine and Coca-cola
Red wine and Guinness
Guinness – a different taste and everyone has their own thought about its effects such as the man last night, and many other men, who say it helps the machine (the payness, penis)
33 Export – Aloys says this means Friendship
Castel –
Mutzig –
Castle Milk Stout – George says this makes you infertile, decreases the sperm count
Unknown bark – that Dr. Peters gave me that is supposed to give strength and make you anxious as well as an herbal mixture with the same bark and whiskey and many other herbs from Dr. Peters that is to help with everything (like many of his remedies)
Nigerian whiskey (Heatman)
Indian whiskey and scotch (8 PM)
Bitter (Bitta) Kola – helps with constipation and acts like Viagra (according to many people here)
Kola Monkey – a cool looking fruit that villagers harvest in the bush
Boiled (gran) groundnuts – peanuts
Pepe – really good spice paste they use here
Coconut right off the tree that I harvested
Spaghetti Omelet
Egusi green vegetable (really good)
Egusi pudding
Koki – a really good spicy bread-like meal that is made from koki beans
Casava
Fufu (tasteless dough) and eru (a leaf vegetable)
Gari (yellow tasteless dough) – people compare these two (Fufu and Gari) to mashed potatoes but they aren’t really
Yam
Plantain (in almost every form)
Slowboys – Escargo, Snail
Cow or pig liver (I don’t know which one) and intestine
Cow skin


Observations – people have no hesitancy in keeping their finger in their nose (opposite of the social construct we abide by with that being appalling); teeth here are beautiful; all children have short hair (as is mandated by the schools) so I have a hard time telling some of the younger ones apart by gender; I have taught Elvis and other volunteers how to toss the Frisbee and Elvis learned the fastest and then taught a friend; there is a game called Draft I have seen people playing which uses a checkers board and checkers but they play it so fast that I do not understand the strategy or rules, I would like to learn;

and the almost arrests in Yaounde

well, here are the photos i promised, and hopefully as many as i can post, i am spending this next 45 minutes doing so,



but before that, a quick review of the trip to Yaounde - first a crazy bus ride there to make it at 12:45, a crazy cab to the hotel, a bargaining show down at the hotel, showers and then to the party 2 hours late, arriving to paradise in Cameroon (a swimming pool, hamburgers, brownies, beer, music and other Americans, one of whom worked at Camp War Eagle in the Ozarks - but no photos because it was not allowed)...then getting pizza near the hotel and later in the morning finding the best bakery which we frequented over the next day for eclairs, icecream, hamburgers and hot dogs, walking around town trying to find postage and postcards but postcard were $1 to $2 a piece and i ended up only buying some basil to throw on some of the bland meals but after a morning and afternoon doing that on the 4th we went to find the Vietnamese restaurant but ended up taking two cabs and consulting with many people to only find a Chinese restaurant (which didn't look so good, but my meal was good) and then going back to the hotel and resting until one of the coolest nights i have had so far began at a Jazz Club named L'awale where the Embassy guy who runs Cultural programs told us to go and so we went and it was amazing, starting off with just jazz and some singing by the crazy entertainer who was also playing at the independence day celebration and then some beautiful voices from both men and women and Lanissa - a young woman who works at the embassy - and we sat there and enjoyed for hours and then to bed to wake up to more of the bakery, changing money at the Hilton in a nook illegally and then almost getting arrested for taking a picture but working our way out of it with Courtney's French skills and telling them that we needed to call the embassy and see if sending us to a military office and buying them a whiskey each was really how things worked and then more unsuccessful shopping and then to the bus station while almost being arrested - probably not so much us as the cab driver - because the driver saw the cops and knew that we had illegally fit 6 into his cab and so he drove through the middle of traffic to allude them and after clipping another car's side mirror and almost hitting a bike the cops stopped us and we jumped out, grabbed the bags, tossed the money and got to the bus company and finally, an hour late, hopped on the bus and made it to Buea after passing a bad wreck on the bridge over the bay from Douala where one person must have fallen from the bridge because of all of the people peering over and into the water but we mos def saw an old man with a bloody broken leg and motorcycle on the ground and a younger man with a bloody arm and body after having apparently smashed into the windshield of the car stopped near by, but home and drinking with Jason, the Scottish volunteer whose last day is tomorrow, and trying to leave in the morning but Tako couldn't find a bus but Loan left instead and fit on to one of the 3 spaces left and so we are here where i am now about to post photos, i actually earlier bought some Heinz ketchup and then having the dinner celebration for Jason's last night at the Orock's and tomorrow to Mamfe and continued life on the project and in the Heritage Inn with the others and our game of settlers



photos, now, (and for more, see Berit's photos on facebook),



well, it doesn't seem to be working, so maybe haynes will have time to download some i will try to send him over e-mail and then post them for y'all

until next time, and as always, whenever that may be, enjoy your summer while i enjoy Cameroon

c'est L'Afrique (this is africa)