Life is so good in the village I almost did not want to return to Kumba for the weekend. I am coming back next weekend because it is a big weekend around here as most of the secondary and highschools are finished with exams so every young person will be out. Also there is some kind of competitions going on at Soba Park ((Shacking Home)) on Friday and Saturday there is a football match for that charity organization i joined (CLICKS) and then in the evening one hip-hop artist is releasing his album and he asked me to come to check it out. I met him at the club Olabi Maze last weekend and thats another story in itself.
Before I get into the village, one story of Soba Park last weekend...I was getting a bit annoyed with some of the songs the DJ was playing (American joints) and when he played a Cher song, I was determined to do something about it. So I requested Usher and Lil John "Yeah". The place went insane. Mass people started break dancing in a large circle. It was extremely impressive some of the moves these kats had and it was pretty wild. After that we moved to the nightclub, I was a guest of some of the other whites in town here with a human rights org. Free entrance to the club and free whiskey proved to be a pretty good time. My friend Capone was with me and we ended up moving back to the house around 4am.
OK now back to the village....The second week proved to be more fun than the first. Work was a bit more difficult and my friend Mark and I worked pretty hard. Thursday we did out part of the community work and carried around 50 lbs of sand on our heads over 1 mile. It was excrutiatingly painful but I endured. No joke, I wanted to drop after moving from lakeside to the school house, and there was still nearly a mile left to trek through the bush....it was raining and we were crossing over again and again the trench we had dug, and uphill for a good section of the trek. It was killer. But in the end I felt like a badass, and I feel even more like a Cameroonian after doing it.
Got two goals in the football match on Tuesday night!! It was great because I had been on a 6 game dry streak in the village after many misses and a lot of talk. My team still managed to lose after two defensive breakdowns in the last 3 minutes of the match.
The girl who lives with us in the village can cook like a maniac. Ive been eating like a king I tell you. One morning for breakfast we had potatoe omlettes, another we had coconut pancakes. She made plantain and potato chips for snacks in the after noons. For dinner, every night we have the best African cuisine, from fufu and arrow, to garrey and ndole, which are traditional meals of starche and vegetables.
We were invited down to Pa Georges places on Wednesday night for some white stuff. He turned on his generator and we listened to music and drank the palm wine for a good hour. Three glasses and ya man had a decent buzz. That stuff is powerful and one must take care when drinking it. Its very nice though, and the village seems to have a steady supply of it. Its funny though, because every morning they have some and by evening its finished for the day.
The "Area boys" of the village are the guys who keep late hours in the nights and were integral in the pouring or the concrete dam. The main dudes in the crew are Gunshot, The Game, and Sexy, and we've been having some fun times working in the day, footballing, and then relaxing afterwards. To pass the time and make work go faster, we sing one song in particular "Do Me" by P-Square, some Nigerians. You-tube it because the song is sweet. The music here is some of the best and the dancing compliments it very well. Yesterday we went to a 40th anniversary in town and after a long church service, waiting forever to eat, we enjoyed plenty of dancing and then some ladies you could find at "grab-a-granny" night at Tony and Cleo's gave me a run for my money on the dance floor. By the time it was finished, they said I was a white African. Thats cuz I got killer moves...
I have been working on my pidgin and its getting better and better. Now I am even having small conversations and am struggling to hear some of the guys in the village as they talk very fast, but I will only get better.
Too much more to tell, but times short. "stay blessed"
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1 comment:
It totally makes my day to read about your adventures in Cameroon, Justin! I'm so happy that your experience there has been as good as it has and that it seems you've made as much of an impact on Cameroon as it has on you. :-) Keep up the wonderful work!
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