May '07 - International Labour Day

Hope you all had a good May bank holiday / International Labour Day or whatever you celebrate in your neighborhood. Here it was ILD, another big thing in Cameroon – people here do like parading for sure. The whole bank turned out, resplendent in specially made shirts and caps, including me, then we had to march down the boulevard past the grandstand with assembled local worthies – lots of cheering for “Le Blanc” – who was marching splendidly – any of you who have been lucky enough to see me dance to the Proclaimers will get the picture! The rest of the day was one long party back at the bar next to the bank (which the bank happens to own – very handy) with lots of excellent food and drink. The day was only slightly spoiled by me being offered a live parrot – only £1,000 – and if that didn’t take my fancy, would I be interested in buying two children! The evening of course turned into a major disaster with Chelsea going out of the Champions League to the dreaded Scousers – just have to be a treble I suppose.

In the last month or so there have been quite a few other interesting experiences, the major one being a branch opening / dedication ceremony at one of the most remote RIC branches in a place called Andek Ngie – a 4-hour journey by 4WD from Bafoussam, up in the hills towards Nigeria. This was a major event, local dignitaries, speeches (including one from me!), blessing of the building, tribal dancing, singing, loads of food and drink – a great day out – bit better than the usual dull cut the ribbon stuff we tend to do in the UK. I was a great hit in the dancing apparently – laying to rest that old myth that “les blancs” have no sense of rhythm! It is not just us westerners that have racial stereotypes.

On another weekend, I did my bit to drum up some more business for the bank by going along to a local pig farm, trying to appear as if I knew something about the finances of pig rearing. It was very interesting and afterwards the owner took us to his compound, where there were about 5 wives and umpteen children – then later he took us back to town where his main wife lives in a very smart house – apparently the two sides know about each other but don’t mix much. Polygamy is quite common and accepted here – so the extended family is normally huge.

A rather less amusing cultural incident (well in fact, it could happen anywhere) was being pick pocketed in the market here in Bafoussam. I realised what was happening and without thinking starting shouting “thief” (the French word having quite escaped me in all the excitement), the guy dropped my wallet and legged it – so I lost nothing, which was lucky. It was only afterwards that I realised that if I had held on and the crowd had got hold of him, they would have beaten the shit out of the bloke – not something I would have wanted to be part of, but that’s how a lot of “justice” is dispensed in Cameroon it seems.

Some of you may be wondering how money works out here – the idea is that I should live like a local. Well I am sort of doing that – my income (part VSO, part RIC funded) is around 200,000 Fcfa per month, which is around £200 - so I am living on £50 a week. This might seem like not a lot, but my rent and services are paid by RIC on top of that, so my £50 has really just to cover food, drink and entertainment – which is drink! Given that a beer costs 35p and a meal out perhaps £4 and that would be top end, the money goes quite far. Normally I cook for myself and a typical meal might cost me £1 to £1.50 in ingredients, plus a bottle of wine is around £3 (which the more mathematically inclined of you will have worked out I am not buying every night!). I have not been able to get a good feel for average income, but I am sure I am being very well paid in comparison, the average person thinks very carefully about spending even 50p, and would not dream of eating out except on very special occasions.

You might have noticed I have said nothing so far about the project – let us just say I will be taking up Zen Buddhism when I get back! Progress is being made, but slowly, slowly.

Weather wise the rainy season is now in full swing, and it rains- thunder and lightning, torrential, bouncing off the pavements (if there were any) - most days. It’s actually quite exciting for me, but the locals I’m sure are less enamoured! Only problem is that my roof leaks, so my bed is now strategically placed in the centre of my bedroom to avoid the drips. To think that I used to worry about Feng Shui! Rain seems to have emboldened the local wildlife as well, but I am now quite blasé about the mice / rats / stick insects / roaches / lizards that roam about the flat of an evening – I even have names for some of them (sad)!

Health wise I am fine, my foot is almost healed, no problems – so I look forward to your news – stay well!

Until the next time