James Bond

Since coming back to Cameroon there have been a few little things that i remembered from the decades ago since I was here last that I remember all, or at least everybody I came across, Cameroonians doing. You have to realize that Cameroon is an incredibly diverse country with over 200 ethnic groups that speak as many if not more distinct and incomprehensible languages. Desert, high mountains, beach, rainforest, savannah and everything in between. Muslims, christians, African traditional religions all are represented.

You can get these little packages of roasted peanuts everywhere here for vingt cinq, vingt cinq (CFA 25). The peanuts come with the outer skins still on, and i have yet to meet a Cameroonian who will eat the peanuts with the skins on - everybody insists to take the time to separate the skins from every single peanut. When you take a taxi, motorbike, big mercedes super-bus, any vehicle anywhere, the driver will inevitably give one last super rev before shutting off the engine. It helps you if you have no idea where you are or if you've arrived safely, cuz once you hear the rev, you know you're there and that's the end of the road. I visited the village of Aissa Harde (more on that later) where Kristie was posted and where I spent a lot of time and made good friends. I pulled up to Kristie's best friend's house across from the Boukarou where Kristie lived, and there were three men I didn't know sitting on the ground playing cards. There are lots of card games in the world and it's been a long time since I've been in Cameroon. It's always good and enjoyable to make small talk with people, so I asked them "tu joue aux cartes" (are you playing cards) "oui" "c'est le James Bond" (is it James Bond) "oui". James Bond is a game I've only ever seen or played in Cameroon. It's a fun game that was one of the things i wanted to re-learn during the stay here. What was amusing to me is that I only ever played it with friends in Mbongo and maybe with people in the Northwest province. Aissa is in the way extreme north of the country, pretty far out in the countryside, about as far away from Mbongo as you can get and still be in Cameroon, and James Bond was the game.

All the hotels we've stayed at have had a pair of flip-flops waiting by the side of the bed. When we saw that at the first hotel, we thought it was a forgotten pair, but we've seen it at every hotel we've stayed at at lower (CFA 5000) to higher (CFA 9000) budgets. The Cameroonian equivalent of a terrycloth bathrobe or piece of chocolate on your pillow. The only place we didn't have a pair of flip-flops (called slippers in pidgin or pantoufles in french) waiting for us was at a tourist lodge at Waza park. Most foreigners don't know about or aren't discriminating enough to demand for a pair of slippers.

This is about it for this time. We had an enjoyable time up in the Extreme North, and arrived in Ngaoundere yesterday. This is where our Peace Corps training was so I have spent a lot of time here, probably 5 months or so in all including the work i did up here with Dale at the end of our Peace Corps service. This evening, we are taking the beloved night train to Yaounde which is a 14 - 20 hour bruiser. The big question is how much to drink to stay hydrated but not so much so you have to go pee very often. The bathroom is, well, not the best one in Cameroon. But it's a fun, long trip that we need to arrive for early. The train station is a mob of activity - people, goats, millet, construction supplies, produce, you name it it's going on the train since it is the only connection between northern and southern cameroon. Always lots to watch.