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;