December '06 - Its hot

Hello again from deepest Bafoussam

Well that’s my first quarter here completed, only another 7 to go, and if that sounds a bit negative well – this has not been my best month so far – mostly for work related reasons, more of which in a minute.

The biggest change since last time has been the advent of the dry season, which finally settled in during the first week of November. It’s hot, probably in the 80s most days, but not too humid, but its also cloudy quite often, so not the most pleasant climate I have experienced. But the main issue the weather has brought on is dust – all the mud lying around after months of rain is now brown, sticky dust which combined with the traffic fumes – and I am talking serious black, smoky exhausts here, there is obviously a good trade in old bangers from Europe to Africa – and the smoke from the many roadside eateries – all of which burn wood, goodness knows how there are any trees left at all – makes the atmosphere quite poisonous most of the time- and for me it has brought back my asthma, which I last suffered from seriously in my teens – so I am back having to use an inhaler every night to get some sleep – plus most days coughing and spluttering – marvellous! This, as you might imagine, is not adding to my good humour right now. I am reduced to hoping that my body will eventually acclimatise but almost one month in it’s not looking good.

And so to work – as I hinted earlier this has not been the best of months, I have been getting very, very frustrated with the difference in attitude to time and task management, even though I knew it was going to very different its only been the last few weeks that I have been letting it get to me. A “short time” means several hours, “today” can quite easily mean tomorrow and as for keeping to an appointed time – forget it! The whole situation was heavily compounded by a major financial crisis at the bank, which led to the suspension of lending and a (fortunately) temporary spending freeze – but for a couple of days I thought the whole project might be cancelled. Finally, the difficulty of what I am trying to do has hit me hard as I have realised that the level of competence is really quite scarily low e.g. a branch manger who does not understand double entry bookkeeping, a chief accountant who appears not to understand what a General Ledger is – all being managed by the guy who is my main contact being the worst manager of time and staff that I have ever experienced - so the whole month has been very frustrating. Anyway, enough moaning, no one ever said it was going to be easy etc, and we did end the month successfully installing the package we have selected in the training room that we have set up, so the month finished on a relative high. Plus I must be able to make a difference I think, given such a low start point!

Just returning briefly to the setting I am in, its difficult to describe really, but imagine a combination of a large bus terminal, combined with a very busy street market and you might get an idea. Add to this constant loud music from either the local shops and / or the many local churches – it’s a people watchers dream, especially as the dress mode is bright, almost blinding colours, combined with every style imaginable from western to Muslim style – its an amazing mix and very enjoyable to watch. Music is hugely important here, for example just down the road from me there are 2 telephone rental companies, on opposite sides of the road, who are waging a constant sales war fought through the means of who can have the largest wall of sound – and I mean loud – with dancers, musicians etc – to try and woo in the customers. Needless to say there appear to be no noise control measures in place – it’s really funny to walk past and be blasted in each ear!

My little flat continues to get better organised – one major breakthrough this month is that I have managed to rent S3 which is the equivalent of SKY – so I can watch as much British football as I like! In fact I am quite comfortable now, apart from the crickets and roaches, which on the one hand drop in to your cooking quite often (the crickets) and on the other hand scuttle out of the most unexpected places (the roaches) e.g. switching my printer on one morning – out pops a roach – I guess they like the warmth or something. One little puzzle on roaches, I often come across a dead one in the flat, which is always upside down – how does that happen I wonder – do they have a final death thro that upends them – can any naturalists out there enlighten me?

I am sorry this is such a long email, I guess I am using this to get things off my chest a bit – I am actually still enjoying this experience believe it or not!

To conclude on an upbeat note I am really looking forward to the next few months – the rest of December comprises another two weeks at work, then one week up in the north of Cameroon (which is quite different, being mainly desert and very Muslim apparently), at the annual VSO conference, then back to work for a couple of days before Xmas which I will be spending lying on a beach in a resort collect Kribi - meant to be very beautiful and laid back. Then in late January I will be back in the UK for a week as Jacqueline is now getting married on Jan 31^st, which will be a great occasion - then in late February I have 2 weeks off on holiday as I have a friend coming to stay, we plan to climb a mountain, hit the beach again and hopefully see some gorillas – so lots to look forward to.

I’ll close now, I guess not many of you will have read this far, if you have thanks, and as ever look forward to news from you – I have received a lot of emails in the past month which is great!

Until the next time, enjoy the run up to Xmas – that’s one thing I am not missing here, all the commercial rubbish in the UK at this time of year – I have yet to see an Xmas advert and have seen only one Xmas tree – I will send you a short Xmas message nearer the time!