Christmas in Cameroon

Before anything else let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, wishing I could be there to bake you all cookies and decorate gaudily and wear Christmas socks and knit mittens…thinking of everyone, very often. Well…let me qualify this blog post by saying that I have had quite the streak of bad luck in the past two weeks and am a little bit…shall we say…displeased with all that has transpired. Christmas here is apparently one of the most dangerous times of year because all the kids are home from school with nothing to do, and lots of crimes take place. So I was told, and have begun to witness…
I think I complained enough about my house situation throughout the past few weeks, but I did get my keys today and am told I will possibly be able to move in tomorrow…however tomorrow being Christmas eve day it may be a little tricky. BUT my house is hopefully finished.
Secondly, 2 days ago my postmate, myself, and 2 Cameroonian friends were out for the night…we went to a bar, had one drink and went home around 10 pm. I went via motto with the Cameroonian girl but my postmate wasn't feeling well so decided to walk home with the guy, her neighbor and close friend. They got to the lake in town and were approached by 5 young guys with machetes and knives! The guy she was with tried to tell them to back down but they weren't leaving so he yelled for my postmate to run. She took off, but was wearing highheels and didn't get very far before they grabbed her shirt sleeve and demanded that they give them her cell phone, which was pretty much all she had with her. At this point the guy friend had reached the nearby town hall and was coming quickly back with a night guard…so my postmate yanked away and took off running again and by this point the guard was close enough, so the 5 guys took off the other direction. By the time she got home she was a little shaken up but the adrenaline was still pumping and since she was totally unharmed everything ended up well enough. They went back the next day and spoke with the police, and they found a knife down by the lake that the guys must have tried to stash… So a little scary, eh?
Thirdly, SIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK. And then this…last night after talking to my parents on the phone, my battery was dead so I plugged my phone in to charge in the front room. I went to bed and my postmate and her friend were in the living room. The light in the front room got left on until about 4 am, when my postmate went to bed…and sometime before then someone somehow from the street THROUGH the window (bars, screen, window panes and curtain) noticed my phone plugged into the wall, hooked it SOMEHOW and pulled it through and took off with it! I woke up this morning to see the charger still plugged into the wall, with the phone nowhere to be found. We attempted to call it, but the SIM card (all the info for the phone) had already been removed and the number was no longer in service. This is also after I JUST bought credit for my phone about 2 hours before I went to sleep. So (here's my list of negatives before I do the positive…bad news first because then only the good sticks in your mind)…due to the fact I'm trying to move, I have absolutely nothing for my house, I have no income, I'm not to keen on the idea of having to spend another 50 bucks I don't have to buy a new phone…this is a lot of money here. Add to the fact it's Christmas time and no stores are open to do this in the first place…But the thing that makes me the saddest of everything is that my family is suppose to call on Christmas eve, and I will most likely not have a phone or anyway to get in touch with them. I know this is long and rambling, and nothing but a list of my frustrations…but what a Christmas. :>( I know things will turn around…first you step in shit, then you fall, and roll around in it a bit before you're able to realize how dirty you are and get up and wash it all off. Moving to my FINISHED house will be a very positive thing and from that point on I'll be able to start getting my things in order and actually start to do some productive work, which I am very excited to do, I get my new camera soon, I have a cross stitch kit coming in the mail (what could be better, right?), and today I ate some M&Ms…so with the light at the end of the tunnel…bring it Cameroon. I'm not posting this till after Christmas…that way it's not TOO much of a downer and by that point everything will hopefully have changed!

Alright, I decided to just leave everything I wrote last time and add on, it's the day after Christmas now. Everything with my phone got straightened out, my postmate was in Yaounde, got me a new phone, lent me the money for now, and spent a lot of time to get me the same number and had her neighbor bring it back to me, and I even got it a few hours before the family phone call!!! So that went about as well as it could have, AND my phone is blue now woohoo The other volunteer who lives 45 min away came down and spent Christmas eve and Christmas day here with me, and she knit ME a pot holder…which was exciting. We made no-bake cookies (no oven required!) and watched movies on her laptop. My postmate's neighbor even brought us some of the Christmas dinner she had made. This morning we decided to go into town and get my mattress and a shelf for my clothes and then take all my stuff (trunk, backpack, and other small bags) out to my house. It's an interesting process hailing a taxi and trying to explain that you need to take this here, get this other stuff, then take all this stuff to the other side of the city…but we got this older guy who drove nice and slow and helped us carry everything…and I don't think ripped me off too bad. My house now has some glass in a few of the windows, the painting is finished and the floors were all done and cleaned, and the electricity worked! Which was a big surprise…but…I still can't live there because they aren't done with the septic tank yet…still just a big gapping hole in the back yard…and since there is no outdoor latrine (and I, being myself, could clearly not live sans toilette)…AHHHH! It was actually a major comfort though to go out to my house and talk a little with my neighbors, and just get the majority of my stuff there. One of my neighbors does almost all of the landscaping in Ebolowa and is excited to do my front porch area and take me on a tour of his work…which sounds wonderful to me! My supervisor, Hans, and another guy who's always with Hans, showed up at my house when we were there, so it's good to know they are checking on the progress of the work. I'm back at my postmate's house again, alone for tonight and then the 2 volunteers from Mvangan are coming tomorrow morning, then 3 more on Friday to spend the weekend and have a huge white people new year's party…what could be better? Everyone might be stuck here for a while, since rumor has it there is no gas available in the entirety of the South Province…!

Alright, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!