Saturday Night, Jan. 22

Akobe, David (the baby) and I left the house and headed over to Deanne's salon to meet her. She was still working and the wedding started at 5 pm. We didn't leave the salon until 6:30, so much to my disappointment, I did not get to see a traditional African wedding.

I knew the bride because I had met her just a few days before the wedding at Deanne's salon. She greeted us on the pathway to the house we were going to, and she was dressed in a shorts jumpsuit. When we arrived to the wedding reception, I was fairly surprised at the mix of informal/formal wear. The older women were all wearing their traditional cabas (dresses) with headwraps while the younger people were all dressed casually (tank tops, t-shirts, jeans, etc.). We entered a house where the sitting area had a buffet set up (of course we missed all the food) and music was playing. This small room also served as the dance floor, which was only about 5' x 5', so needless to say it was just a little cramped. We were all offered a beer and needed a bottle opener for them (no twist caps here). A guy used a soda bottle with the plastic cap on it to open the bottles, and when it didn't work, he just used his teeth. Yikes!

After we were served a beer, I was immediately invited to the dance floor where only women were dancing. I guess people wanted to see the white gal's moves-lol. I got up and started dancing, and the women on the floor started clapping and yelling as I danced. The music was jammin', and we all had a good time dancing. It was hot as hell though in that tiny room!

I decided to take a short break from dancing and went outside. I thought I had seen a calico kitten earlier, and I saw a little boy petting it. The poor thing was skin and bones, and it was probably only about 5 weeks old. Of course, you know what a sucker I am for cats, I picked it up to pet it and love on it. Somehow I was able to hear it purring in my ear over the music. Even if it was hungry, I think it would've chosen to be loved over eating. Unfortunately, something startled it, so I put it down soon after.

I stepped up to the porch to rejoin my friends when I encountered a young baby boy. He was walking, so he was probably about a year old. As soon as he saw me, he started to cry uncontrollably. The closer I got to him, the louder he cried. I'm assuming that I'm the first white person he's ever seen and that I scared the bejeebus out of him-lol. I had to walk around him to get up to the porch, so I walked up the porch steps as far away as I could get from him. In the meantime, another little girl had walked up the porch steps to console him and was hugging him around his neck. It was soon after my scaring the poor child and David falling asleep in my lap that we decided to leave the reception.

We grabbed a taxi and headed up to Roundpoint, a roundabout section of the city. There was a diner-type restaurant there called Glacier where we decided to grab a bite to eat. It was nice and cool inside. It was rather dark though, but had a bluish glow inside. We ordered and then Akobe paid; apparently, one must pay prior to dining due to previous customers walking out. We all had a hamburger to eat, and I must say that the burger was much better than Europe's burgers. It actually tasted like it was real meat-lol. It had onion, ketchup and mayo on it. Afterward, I had a small cup of chocolate ice cream. Much to my surprise, the ice cream really didn't taste all that sweet. (The ice cream I had a Deanne's home was so much better, especially since it had the small bits of shaved chocolate in it. I'm going to have to track that ice cream down now that I think about it...)

After eating, we all decided to head back home since it was about 10. It was past the baby's bedtime, plus we were all tired and hot. Deanne works on Sundays too and had to be up early.

More random observations...

If you're a man and have to pee, just go on the side of the road. No need to worry about being arrested for public urination. I've seen 3 men urinating with no attempt to hide in order not to be seen. Yuck!

If you have a nice home or own a nice apartment building, it is fenced and has a security guard at all times.

All TV commercials have white actors. It's hard to understand this since the majority of Cameroonians are black.

The SyFi (Science Fiction) channel is here.

I rarely watch TV here, but I have seen the following American TV programs/movies on TV here when passing by the TV: X-Men, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Curious George, Yo Gabba Gabba and the A-Team.

I saw an advertisement for the Super Bowl on TV the other night when watching a football (soccer) match. I'm curious to see if the same commercials are shown here during the SB. My guess is probably not...

If you drive a motorbike and get pulled over, you just pay off the cop for your not having a driver's license. (It's no wonder people can't drive here if they've never earned/received their licenses!)

Why there aren't more pictures...

I haven't taken many pics here because I've learned that you need to know someone personally before taking a picture or ask a stranger if it's ok to take their pic. I am going stir crazy from not photographing everyday, but I'm weary that I draw so much attention with my being white and am afraid I may be robbed of my new camera since white people are assumed to be rich. My being white and having my camera on me just screams "TOURIST!!"