Its me again, reporting in after two months here – time is beginning to pass quite quickly which is a good sign I think.
Over the month I have seen quite a few really interesting things concerning the local culture, as I have spent a couple of weekend visiting the homes of my work colleagues – both of which are in quite remote rural areas, going towards the Nigerian border (indeed both of them were in Nigeria at one point in the past). These areas are very agricultural; everyone makes their living from the land, in some cases purely subsistence, in others as a business venture. The land here is very fertile. It is difficult to describe quite how rural it is – no electricity or running water, no TV, no lights – you get the picture – and very strong family ties. The extended family is hugely important here, and a lot of time is spent meeting and greeting uncles / aunts / cousins/ second cousins / wives (polygamy still a big part of things as well). Last weekend the main reason for the visit was that the guy I was with – a work colleague – was going to ask the family permission to take possession of his son – the mother, who he had not married, had subsequently married someone else, and they had agreed it would be better if the father brought the child up. This involved a very prolonged ceremony, with senior members of both families present, lots of palm wine being drunk, a goat slaughtered, then the father and mother being beat about the head with a live chicken, and chased out the room – the symbolism of this was not really clear!. The evening ended about 1am with agreement that the son could be brought up by his Dad, and then the whole company drank a toast to me as the first white man to visit their village – quite an honour I suppose! Altogether a fascinating night. The next day, whilst waiting to leave, I was handed a “book” to read which turned out to be a description of a recent visit by a local celebrity witch doctor, full of descriptions of all the great things this guy had done, curing illness etc, discovering local bad magic and driving it out – my host explained that this was all genuine, and that it complemented their strong Christian beliefs – very odd, but that’s rural Cameroon I suppose.
The other major highlight of these visits has been the chance to eat some really local food, which I have liked in most cases. The people find it very odd that I do not eat meat, which is a big luxury here, and have gone out of their way to supply local non meat specialities – one of which was crickets in a sort of sweet brown sauce – I tried these as they were offered as a great delicacy – they were delicious although I have to say the sight of their little legs, wings and antennae sticking up through the sauce was a bit much to handle! Even if I was meat eater, the local butchers would be a bit much as well, forget any thought of nice pink pieces, resting on a nice blood absorbing bit of blue cloth, covered in cling film – here it is the whole animal presented in its component parts – the head, the skin, the guts, the tripe and the body, chopped up into one or two sections, which you then select your piece from – all covered in gore – charming! Goats head is particularly popular here – I saw a chap eat one in a restaurant the other day, the horns made handy tools for picking it up and getting a good gnaw.
For you IT freaks out there, a quick update on the project – its going well if a little slow – I have had my recommendations accepted regarding hardware upgrades for all the branches (those years in IT infrastructure came in useful!) and selected a software package, which the suppliers have agreed to upgrade to include a basic current account for a reasonable price – so if all goes to plan we will have computerised the bank by about the middle of next year. More on work next time regarding the cultural differences.
One major piece of personal news – I am going to be a grandfather next year, all going well – my eldest is expecting next June – so I will be coming back to the UK for a quick visit around then – or maybe earlier if Chelsea get to the Champions League final!
Thanks to all of you who responded to my please for news from home by the way, keep it coming, it’s very welcome. I also finally started to receive my copies of the Guardian Weekly and my first parcel of books arrived from the UK – well done Jenny – although all mail seems to take about a month to get here. I will not be sending Xmas cards this year!
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