Cameroon

Walking around town

Can you find me?

All of the Peace Corps Volunteers who entered Cameroon with me in the summer of 1986.

Living in Bamenda

After a couple months, training was over, and I was on my own. I was posted in Bamenda, the largest English speaking city in the country. I was expecting to be posted to a village and live a more traditional life, but Bamenda was a fine and fun city. It is situated in northwest Cameroon and is at a crossroads to neighboring Nigeria and other parts of the country. Take a look at the map of Cameroon and imagine it is a chicken. Bamenda is just above the center of the tail. Even though it was a city, there was plenty of nature. Mountains surround the area with lush forests, waterfalls, and farms. Even though it was a city, most of the roads were red dirt. I never imagined this before, but they have special trucks that spread the red dirt on the roads and press it down flat so that the roads are smooth. They were quite similar to asphalt trucks I've seen in the US that fix up roads. It made sense, since after a few downpours, of which there were very many, large potholes formed in the road. These were more like meteor craters sometime. So, every few weeks while walking around town, I would see the trucks re-dirting the road.

This was one of my neighbors. The first time I met him, he scratched my skin to see if the white would come off. Many were convinced that white people were really covered in paint. They also loved to touch the hair on my arms and legs. I was often literaly petted, like a cat, since most Cameroonian men did not have body hair like mine.

Different Housing Expectations

When I joined the Peace Corps, I was expecting to live in a traditional looking hut like I had seen on TV and in the brochures. I was given nothing of the sort. I actually resided in two houses. My first house was tremendous: 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, a few bathrooms, a few living rooms or dining rooms, and a servant's quarters outside. The house was only one floor, so you should be able to imagine how much land it occupied. There were several trees and bushes on the property, and the undergrowth grew unmanaged. There was a dirt driveway leading up to the house. I could go in the front door, but that mean passing lots of undergrowth where many spiders, other bugs and probably snakes lived. Usually, I entered through the back which was mainly gravel and dirt with a few plants and trees.

Cleaning the inside of the house was a monstrous job. The smells were horrible, and the dirt was so thick. Plus, there were very large spiders in so many places, and there were giant cockroaches that flew. I can't say how many times I screamed while cleaning that place.

I usually walked to and from school, which was a bit over an hour away on foot. Sometimes I picked up a ride from a neighbor or I took a taxi. The government gave me a moped, but that hardly worked and was basically useless.

One day when I came home, I saw a large group of children and their mothers gathered around a spot in my yard. They were all talking and laughing. After I put my bag down and washed myself up a little, I went outside to see what all the fun was about.

Well, let me put it this way. I have seen many surprising things in my life, but this will probably rank always as the most surprising.

Out of the ground were swarming thousands of newly born termites. I didn't realize that termites flew, though I guess I should have guessed since that are insects, and I never imagined seeing any insect swarm out of a few holes in the ground. Not only had I never expected to see that, but I had definitely never expected to see a group of children reaching into the swarm to grab the insects and then shove the insects into their moths like candy.

I shrieked. Everyone turned to look at me, and they burst out laughing. They told me to try some, and I told them no way, but they insisted, and then the little children looked me in the eye and said please, and I thought to myself, "How can I say no?" I couldn't. The eyes and the smiles were too much to me and I succumbed to peer pressure.

Without going into too much detail, let me just say, yes, I ate some termites, and they were alive, and I felt them moving in my mouth. Icchh! Uckkk! I did it. I chewed, and I swallowed. And the taste wasn't even good. How could I have done that? To this day, I still don't know.

Regardless, while I was agonizing over eating living termites, the mothers were collecting the termites in buckets of water. Then they took the termites inside, fried them up with some salt and then brought them out to me try.

Those were definitely yummy. Just like potato chips.

While living in Cameroon, I ate a variety of insects, including grasshoppers (which taste rather like British chips).

As I said, this house was quite large, and it was far from school. After a couple of months, the government gave me a new house. This was smaller, with only 3 bedrooms, and it was brand new. I would be the first person to live in it. Plus, it was only a 15-minute walk to school.

The house was painted bright yellow. It had a long porch and railing in front. There was no grass, and the front was just grass and cement. So, while there were fewer bugs overall, the place was hotter, and there were still plenty of snakes and spiders. At least there weren't any cockroaches.

Also, even though the house was new, it was built terribly. For one thing, the house was falling apart already. The cinder blocks thy used to construct the house were poor quality. I could easily scape the blocks with my fingers and cause the blocks to fall apart. Eventually the house began to warp, and I couldn't close any of the doors all the way. That was a problem. Regardless, the house was comfortable enough since I had electricity and a fan. I decorated the placee and even adopted to cats, Black and White. The best part about the house was the view. I spent many mornings on the front porch with a fresh cup of coffee, fresh peanut butter, and a fresh baguette watching the waterfall on the cliff in front of the house. While the house had no vegetation, in front of the house was lush with trees, and behind it all rose a cliff with a magnificent waterfall. I knew then that I would never live in a place again with such an incredible view.

Looking out my front door from inside.

Welcome to the Country

Suddenly, it seemed I was disembarking from an airplane in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the capital city. We claimed our bags, went through customs, and then were shuffled into waiting mini-vans, which I later learned were called bush taxis. It was late at night. It had recently rained, and nearly as soon as we left the airport, we were on dirt/mud roads rolling up, down, and around holes of mammoth proportion. A couple hours later we arrived at our training facility at at a missionary school in a small city called Mbalmayo. We met some of the trainers, who showed us to the common shower area and the large room where we all slept. We each had assigned beds. I felt like we were in the army.

As the lights were turned off, I said in French, "Bon nuit (good night)," but people thought I said "Bon huit (good 8)." They laughed, and I was embarrassed as the lights were turned off. I was reminded of the need to speak clearly.

The morning began before sunrise, because that's when roosters wake up, seemingly every rooster in the country. Once they started crowing, there was no way I was going back to sleep. It seemed like I was the only volunteer who was bothered by the roosters. At least I was the only one to get out of bed. I slipt on my sandals and then went outside to watch my first Cameroonian sunrise. There wasn't much to see, since the sky was completely overcast with building thunderclouds. It was very noisy from all the insects, and the the air was quite humid. There was a distinct musty smell, almost like mildew permeated the air. As I waited, I saw a lush forest of all sorts of tropical trees and plants slowly emerge from the shadows and turn into a vibrant pantheon of colors and life. While I had seen plenty of documentaries about life in the tropics, I had never imagined the absolute richness of life. Birds and insects filled the air, their sounds became near deafening. As people slowly emerged from the dormitory, we had to raise our voices to be heard.

For the first few days, we had little training, and were given thge opportunity to acclimate. We also received more vaccinations, and we took care of paperwork regarding our visas, work permits, driver's license, and so on. So, basically, we had much time to explore the neaighborhood nearby the training area and walk to the river that could be found by following a path through the forest.

I did a lot of walking and observing. There was so much new for me to see.

The center compund of our training facility was used for many purposes, such as barbecues, football (soccer) matches, and drying the daily laundry.

Illustrating your writing

Sample Paragraph

During my first week or so in the country I tried to observe and learn about how Cameroonian people lived. I basically noticed three areas of interest: the nature and environment, the lifestyle of the people, and how the town looked. Regarding the nature, the first thing I noticed was the heat and humidity. It seemed ever present, and mosquitos seemed to be everywhere. At night they were around any light, and mosquito repellent didn't always work. It seemed that people were always fighting against nature, because the trees, plants, insects, birds, snakes, and other animals were always encroaching on any empty space. The town itself was simple, with many small structures made from cinder blocks or planks of wood. I didn't see any building over three floors. However, life was vibrant in the town. There were many markets and places to eat in specific places, and just anywhere along the road. For sale I saw fruits all sorts of fruits and vegetables I had never seen, and I even saw wild animals for sale in the market. This broke my heart, but it was their culture, so I tried not to judge. The food all had different names, and the tastes were different. Some I liked, and I some I didn't. The roasted fish and plantains were great, though it took time for me to get used to fufu and ndjama ndjama. The most obvious feature I noticed about the town was that the people were so lively, and they seemed very social. Music played from nearly every establishment and people could often be seen dancing while they walked and talked. The music was mostly Reggae, West, Central, and Southern African music, but also some English and French pop. We were always shaking hands and patting each oter on our legs, back, and shoulders. All this touching took some getting used to. I also noticed that even though the weather was so hot and humid, and the ground so muddy, the people were generally very clean and tidy, as well as polite and respectful. I was often the sloppy or disrespectful one. My biggest problem was language of course. French was the official language, but most people spoke their local language, of which there were an estimated 200, or they spoke Pidgin English, which was a simlified form of English, but was still difficult to understand. Even with the people who spoke English, I had difficulty communicating, since I had difficulty understanding their accent. At first I felt lost in Cameroon, and I wondered if I could ever get used to life there, since it was so different from what I was used to, but I knew that time would tell.

These are my neighborhood friends. They taught me how to eat termites.

Making writing descriptive, part 1

Sample Paragraph

When I was there, I didn't have much to do, so I often just sat and observed, trying to use my senses to really understand my location. It is difficult to say which sense was used the most, since most of them were being used so much, but sounds were so mixed and varied. Birds, insects, frogs, and other creatures hooted, croaked, whistled, chirped, groaned, blared, yelped, and made sounds that have no word. At first, I noticed only the very loud deafening noises, but when I sat still and concentrated, I could hear the clickety noises of ants marching in endless row upon endless row, the rustle of grass as snakes slithered and other animals moved, and the soft humming and buzzing of bees, mosquitos, and other critters with needles. Of course, I could always hear children playing and music coming from people's houses. There was also so much to see. In addition to all the trees and plants, I could see bright green moss growing on trees and the house, and flowers of seemingly every color in bloom. Dirty old white paint was peeling from the wood portions of the house, and many rows of ants marched in different directions. I was amazed to watch rows of ants intersect each other seemingly oblivious to the others. I could always smell meals being cooked by neighbors over open fires in their backyards, and the scents of different flowers wafted gently through the air. The odor of rotting wood and mildewy surfaces pervaded the air everywhere. Since my house did not have electricity, in the evening I always smelled acrid burnt fumes from the lantern oil. I had to be careful of everything I touched, because most everything was either dirty, or might have some sort of life on it. Surfaces often felt slimy or gritty from moisture in the air and whatever creatures having done their business there. Basically, the only time my body didn't feel sticky from sweat was when I was in the shower. In other words, for practically my entire time in Cameroon I was never actually dry. However, since the city was in the mountains. every so often I felt a cool refreshing breeze. Finally, regarding taste, sitting outside my house often brought many great taste sensations. For one thing, because so many people were cooking, the air seemed to carry its own special flavor; I could almost taste my neighbors' cooking along with the mildew, fruits, and other scents in the air. The air seemed to literally have taste. But also, my neighbors often visited to share with me fruits and vegetables, dishes they had made for their families, snacks, and of course, termites. While my house was too large, and I only remained there for a couple months, I lived in a great neighborhood, and I often wondered what happened to my termite eating friends.

Making writing descriptive, part 2

Looking at the front of my house.

Sample Paragraph

My new house was very nice for the most part, and it became my home in Bamenda. The first nice thing about it was that it had electricity. So, I bought a fan. What a delight that was! Suddenly, I had a way to cool off. There was also a refrigerator, so I could buy food in the market to keep for more than a day, and I could have cold drinks. Cold drinks were a luxury. Since this house was in a new neighborhood, and was completely enclosed by a wall and fence, I had almost no interaction with neighbors, so I didn't play with many children, nor did I often hear them screaming or get a chance to try their snacks and home cooked meals. Even though there were fewer neighbors, there were still roosters to keep me awake in the morning. There was not much to see on the property itself, since it was mostly cement, but beyond the house, the view was great, with forests and mountains visible in every direction. There was a single red dirt road in front of the house, but it was hardly used by any vehicle. So, when I sat outside, usually I only heard the sounds of nature and the roar of the not so distant waterfall. Since there wasn't much grass, it was easier to spot the snakes. A student from the school who lived with me, Joseph, often caught the snakes and cooked them. In the evenings, I often enjoyed the savory aroma and flavor of his snake stew while sitting on the porch. Joseph liked to play guitar, and I spent many evenings listening to him play Reggae and African music. At first the house was so clean and perfect to look at. There was no mildew, and the air smelled relatively clean. Over time, however, as the cinder blocks began to crumble, dust began to accumulate, and the house began to become misshapen. Another problem the house was the roof. It was made from aluminum, and when it rained, the noise was loud. When the rain fell, it was a deluge, and it fell hard. When it hit the roof it was like the sound of an explosion that would not end. The only noise louder than this that I have ever heard was the thunder from the lightning that struck during these storms. The lightning was directly overhead and completely blinding, and the resulting thunder made the sound of the water deluge seem muted. It's a wonder I can still hear. Both my homes in Cameroon were clearly unique, as well as a feast for the senses.