Hey
Just finished a great week showing around Bob and Susan and their two sons – Alex and Andrew - who were good enough to come and visit me here in Cameroon.
I think it is fair to say they saw the good and bad sides of Cameroon in their week here. Starting with the bad – the mud, the heat, the flies - passing over a large amount of cash just to get through customs, having to bribe a police officer one day when we forgot to take their passports with them and many , many times waiting for ever in restaurants for our food. All of this I had seen before but it was interesting for me as well to see it through their eyes. It is funny how quickly you get used to things. Even the toilets were beginning to become acceptable by the end of the week – the boys were sent on in advance and reported back with a scoring system – anything lower than a five and Susan just crossed here legs!
The good things I hope far outweighed all of this however – the weather was largely excellent – although the wet season has not totally given up yet – and we visited some very interesting cultural sites, especially the “chefferie” here in Bafoussam, which I had not had the tour of before. This is a still fully functioning 900 year old kingdom, with its own very distinctive culture, social and legal system – including as a last resort if no one could decide who is telling the truth in a legal dispute – the tortoises are deployed – if they walk away from a witness then the witness is lying! We also heard about a very practical test of a new kings suitability – upon being anointed he is sent into a special wood for two months with a selection of wives – if he does not manage to impregnate at least one of them then he is deselected! More fun than voting I would imagine, even if you lose!
My work colleagues also made them very welcome, including throwing a party at the boss’s house, with a great spread of Cameroonian delicacies, lots of wine of course and dancing.
All in all a great week for me and I hope them. This will set me up nicely for what is going to be a very busy period work wise – we plan to implement Current Accounts and Loans in the next few weeks, which will be the biggest test yet of the system we have developed – if it all works then we will have completed here in Bafoussam – fingers crossed.
As ever I welcome your news. Until the next time
A bientot
1 comment:
Duncan,
Looks like you had a good time with Bob, Sue and the boys. What is worrying me is what rating the loos in RLC would get these days with our overcrowding. I would rate them sub 5 but I guess everything is relative... we do have toilet seats and loo paper. I would be interested in the marking system employed to see if there can be any re-use by Facilities!
Cheers
Clive
Post a Comment