Now for the fun stuff...

The last post was serious. Now for the good stuff...Most of it random thoughts

I made a point to come here today and write this stuff down, if not for anyone else but myself to remember the good times. But check it because the laughs never stop...

The dog at our house is in terrible condition. Its got scabies or something and most every visitor to the house is afraid of it and wont go near it. "Gunshot"(later found out his name to be Joseph) is determined to kill that dog...carry his gun to Kumba and shoot it, and carry it back to the village for Theodore to eat. Its not unheard of to eat dog, but because that dog is so mangey it leaves for some good laughs.

In the evenings you can hear all the sounds of the jungle around us. Its pretty loud, and every night one sound is distinct above the rest. When we asked the villagers what it was, they told us it was an "animal" also called "the one with three toes". Thats all we got as to what it is called, but Karen the girl who lives in the house with us is afraid of it. She wont go outside at night. Even the girls in the group as well. So in the nights its not common to hear one of the guys say,

"Pray you no go far, animal de chop you, nam nam nam nam nam."

Translation: "Do not go far from the house because the animal will eat you"

I had the chance to travel to "Wise Dog City" saturday and what a trip it was. Wise dog wanted to take me to his area, and to great his aunt and family. First we went to his place, one room in a plank house, basically like an apartment. He had posters of 2-Pac, G-Unit, and the like all over the walls and an old pair of Timberlands with Wise DOG, NYC, and dollar bill signs inked on them. Everyone called him "Wise Dog" as we passed through the area known as Danykash so he was not joking when he said that was his name. His aunt received me (across the road in a block house) and she was very gracious. We had some snaps (pictures) and took one bottle of Export "33" and some ground nuts. When I left for another "program" she was upset I was not going to stay around and eat her food and made me promise to return once more for lunch.

The "area boys" are the group of young men in the village. They can be called rascals as well, just young guys that get into mischief. They keep late hours, sometimes steal corn from others farms,and just like to clown around. Sexy provides us with "sound" as he is always singing. The Game chain smokes because he thinks its cool. Gunshot just talks about killing that dog. Nokoka (introduced earlier as another name I wont repeat) talks to me in pidgin and refuses to use English. Most of them come to the house in the night to play cards or drink some mimbo. The white stuff is great. I also tried afofo, African gin, which is made from distilled palm wine in the village. It was pretty smooth, but not nearly as nice as mayanga (white stuff).

We went to a place in Kumba called "Classy Burger" They have burgers and Kentucky Fried Chicken that is so good it tastes like the real thing. The owner spent some time in the states, and specialized in cajun cuisine. He seems to be doing well for himself with his take out business here in Fiango, a section of Kumba. He is called "Burga Burga" by locals simply because of the restaraunt name.

One of my friends here, Samuel, is called "School fees". When I asked him why he told me a story of when he was young in primary school his father gave him money for tuition and he never got his receipt. After asking for months, the father called the schoolmaster and demanded to know what had happened to the tuition money. When he found out his son never paid the money he and the schoolmaster embarassed Samuel in front of the entire class. Since he chopped (ate, embezelled, stole) the money for his school fees and everyone knew it, he got the nickname
"School Fees". He still keeps it to this day, probably 10 years after the fact, and he proved it when someone greeted him on the street and also with the name on the back of one of his t-shirts.

I gave some dresses (mostly t-shirts and some collared shirts) to my friend Alain's family. After 5 minutes of opening the parcel, every man in the house had a new shirt on. Know that my Kennedy Union Operations shirt is resting on the back of one young Cameroonian right now (hope I wasn't supposed to return that).

They prepared pepper soup at Alain's house with porcupine. The"bush meat" was nice, but the soup was so hot my eyes were tearing. I spilled some of it on the table and when it touched my arm, it swelled up and I swear I had some sort of first-degree burn from that pepper soup. Those African peppers are no joke.