Some things are apparently universal…
The time I have stayed here in Douala, it seems just the same as at home bathroom-wise. Gawd forbid somebody replace the empty toilet paper roll with a new one. Maybe that’s a universal thing rather than a cultural thing-lol.
At the apartment…
At the beginning of February, the house help returned to the apartment. Apparently she had been absent for quite a while due to a broken leg. Her name is Myjolie, which means “my pretty” in French. She’s looks to be in her early 20s, and she works 8-5 Monday-Saturdays. She does the laundry, helps prepare meals, cleans the apartment and helps with the baby when needed. The work ethic here is rather odd because I’ll sometimes come home to her Myjolie on the floor or watching TV (with Georgette around and sometimes even Akobe), and this seems to be acceptable. I can only imagine how much that behavior would be rejected in the U.S.
Akobe doesn’t have a vacuum, so a “balet” is used for sweeping dirt off the carpets and on the floor. A balet is a bunch of palm tree stems that have been tied together. They are only about a foot and a half long, so anyone using it has to constantly bend over to sweep/brush. Myjolie mops the floor with a rag, bending over. I can’t tell you how much I’d love to introduce these people to a mop and small vacuum…
Speaking of floors, decorative, sticky flooring is very popular to use here. If the previous owner had an ugly plastic floor or it was damaged, sticky flooring is the way to cover it up. It’s a real pain when Boo Boo zooms around in his walker because he always gets caught on it and pulls it up. I guess it beats having to pay to have flooring replaced and is much cheaper I’m sure!
Clothing
I have noticed that gender and what people wear here really doesn’t matter. For instance, Boo Boo will wear pajamas with pink flowers on them or wear Hello Kitty underpants. At the orphanage, I’ve noticed both the boys and girls wearing something of the opposite gender whether it’s pants or a t-shirt. Same thing goes for people out in public. I’ve seen men wearing pink helmets or powder blue helmets. Now you know that if that were back in the states, a man would catch hell for wearing a pink helmet…
Another popular thing that motorbike drivers like to wear are toboggans or some type of fuzzy, winter hat. This is hard for me to comprehend since they live in tropical weather year round, and it’s just hot here! Why you would want to wear a hot, winter hat in 80-90 degree weather is beyond me. Sometimes you even see motorbike drivers wearing a coat too. As the saying goes, to each his own…
I’ve seen Michael Jordan wear here everywhere. I have seen a Texas A&M sticker on a 4Runner, a Texas A&M hat, a Rutgers t-shirt and an Ohio State t-shirt. I’m thinking I may leave my NC State t-shirt to Larissa at the orphanage in order to introduce a North Carolina University to Cameroon-lol.
Forgotten Mentionables
I forget to include the following in my blog about Limbe and Mt. Cameroon. On the way to Mt. Cameroon and coming back, we saw a few men herding oxen on the main road! I got some good pics of the one we passed coming back to Douala. Also, when we reached the edge of Douala, the rental car died. The driver let it run out of gas, so Daniel and the driver push the car up a hill to the nearest gas station. Now at this point I’m irritated because I’ve been crowded in the back of the car with 3 people for an hour and a half, ready to get back to the apartment. No gas? Really?! I did manage to get a pic of the guys pushing the car to the gas station though.
In case you are wondering, it looks like I may have to wait until I return to Raleigh to download the rest of my pics. Oh how I miss my laptop…
This Week & Shopping
The usual occurred this week, taxi drivers and various people wanting my phone number (shocker). I had one taxi driver whose finger nails were so long that I wanted to ask if he ever got manicures-ugh.
Solange and Marie asked me to go with them to shop for orphanage items on Thursday. The previous volunteer, Vanessa, had raised $3000 for the orphanage and sent it to Solange. $3000 is equal to
$1.5 million francs, so they had quite a list of things to buy. I managed to get the guy at the electronics store to knock of 15,000 francs on the TV cost and 10,000 francs for the office chair (and yes, the broken office chair is gone!). The Arno store reminded me of a Big Lots/Walmart store, as it had everything from office supplies to perfume. Arno gives the orphanage a discount, so we wanted to be sure to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, we were unable to buy a discounted TV there because the TVs were not owned by Arno (outside vendor), which I thought was rather weird. They did buy the first full broom, dust pan and blender for the orphanage. We went to the hardware store and bought light bulbs and new netting to cover the current netting with holes on the orphanage windows (gotta keep those pesky mosquitoes out!).
The kids were so excited when we returned to the orphanage with a new TV. Parfait set it up immediately, but sadly, we couldn’t get a picture to come through. But when I showed up the next day, there was a picture and sound thankfully! The old TV had been without sound for over a year!
Yesterday, Solange, Marie, Jessica (another new volunteer named Jessica) and I went shopping again. We bought these adorable little plastic chairs of various colors for the kids to sit on, new pots for cooking (big ones!), a meat grinder, and various foods. Solange wanted to buy some new glasses for guests and decided to get 2 boxes. The guy wanted more money after what he had quoted her, so I took the 5000 note back, handed the glasses back to him and walked away. He immediately said ok and handed the glasses to me while taking the 5000 note back. My bargaining trick works every time-lol. We also bought curtain material to replace the curtains in the sitting room area. I got the guy to come off the cost by $2000 francs, but no more since it was his brother’s business. Oh well!
I had a guy come up to me and start talking to me at the market after I corrected his friend (and calling him ‘’Le noir’’) when he referred to me as ‘’La Blanche.’’ Then ALL of his friends gathered around me to talk to me. This guy called me the ‘’American Princess’’, and all Solange and Marie could do was laugh at the male audience I was surrounded by and my comments to the guys. I asked if they worked at all since they were all standing around having nothing better to do than harass me. I told the guy who called me ‘’La Blanche’’ that he talked too much and his friends laughed at my comment.
The new volunteer, Jessica, is Korean and was adopted as a baby by an American caucasian family. She grew up in Seattle and just finished a year and a half working as an au pere in Paris. When we walked through the market, I would hear sounds like ‘’Ching chong chung’’ as males commented rudely assuming that she is chinese. I was so ticked off yesterday, that I’d turn around, look at anybody who made those types of noises and inform them that we were American, where race and color do not matter. Let’s just say that my comments shut anybody up who had something to say about Jessica or this ‘’La Blanche’’…
Water Treatment Update
In case you were wondering why a water filter or water treatment system was not purchased when we were shopping this week, it is because we were not in the area where they can be purchased (Douala is a huge city divided up into various sections). Plus, I am waiting to receive a lump sum donation from my parents this coming week that will pay for it, which I will give to the orphanage as a gift, hopefully along with other items they need (mattresses, clothes, underwear, crayons, etc.). I cannot wait to go shopping for the orphanage with the donations that I receive!
No comments:
Post a Comment