Au Revoir

Well, my time here in Cameroon is coming to a close. In less than a week I will be out of Ngong and on my way. It’s been a terribly interesting experience here, both with Peace Corps and Cameroon. Some other volunteers have had their problems with PC and the Cameroonians they work and live with but the vast majority of my experiences have been very positive. If you’re thinking of joining the Peace Corps, I strongly suggest it—but only if you’re open enough and flexible enough to do it. I'll be doing some traveling in the coming months, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to or want to continue blogging. If I do continue, it'll be here on this site. Anyway, I don’t really know how to say goodbye on a blog or anything so instead I’ll just make a list of a few observations I’ve made and experiences I’ve had here…

Malaria sucks. There’s no other way around it, I’ve never felt that sick in my life.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, soccer is actually pretty cool.

No matter how awkward anyone is at dancing, Cameroonians love it. One of my favorite things about this country is that in almost any social situation, somebody can stand up and just start dancing (with or without a dance floor, usually the latter) and nobody thinks anything of it.

From everything I’ve seen, corruption and aid money are the two biggest deterrents for actual development.

Big 66 cl beers are far superior to small 33 cl beers.

Traditional wine—like bilbil or palm wine—is awesome, but don’t expect your bowels to agree with that statement.

Moto accidents suck. I’ve been in two but luckily neither of them was that bad.

Some people are just small-minded assholes. I sat at a restaurant in Yaounde once talking with somebody for an hour who accused me of being a spy. At the end of that hour, he still wouldn’t shake my hand. I’ve also seen volunteers berate Cameroonians for not being open to new things and then refuse to even try a meal that a friend prepared for them.

People can survive in 120 degree weather. But they don’t have to like it.

“Africa” by Toto, in all its kitschy glory, is actually a fantastic soundtrack to my life here.

Who knew grown men would follow Brazilian soap operas that are dubbed (poorly) in French?

The more it happened, the more it pissed me off when people would call me “white man” 40 times a day. I thought I would have gotten used to it. A good response, though, is “villageois”. Kinda like just calling someone ignorant or a redneck.

Cameroonian food can be amazing. With the right ingredients and spices it can be some of the best food I’ve ever had. Without those two things, though, it can be some of the most boring food I’ve ever had.

Having a cell phone that plays music is actual quite handy when packed into a bus and the only music playing is an auto-tuned woman singing in Hausa about cows.

I’ve gotten really comfortable being uncomfortable.