My Life In 30 Seconds

Hard to believe I have been here for less than 3 weeks. I’m starting to get used to the city, but nevertheless, I’m still on major sensory overload. Lets just say the cultural whiplash hasn’t stopped, but I’m loving it (for the most part…until, for example, a lizard runs over my foot, which just happened by the way. WAWA).

I’ve started to have moments where I am incredibly comfortable and then something little happens (such as the lizard incident, the ants in my pants…and in my shoes, and shirts, and food, the cockroach that ran across my chair at lunch today….)and I’m instantly snapped back into the reality that is Cameroon. For example, this weekend I had a totally normal conversation with my dad about the weekends events, the fantasy draft, family updates, US Open, yada yada over Skype. I walked out of the Cyber Café and BAM. Cultural Whiplash: here is a snippet of the very non-normal 30 seconds that ensued…

(Shout out to Mom’s 7th grade homeroom reading this blog, I’m going to use the 5 senses my 7th grade English teacher drilled into my head!)

SOUNDS: Across on one side of the street there is a drumming session going on, while on the other side, a spontaneous dance party has broken out around a large speaker system blasting Maino’s “All the Above.” Symbolic of the traditional vs. modernization clash we have been studying lots in school.

SMELLS: There are little food stands set up all down the sidewalks…. A woman is making the most amazing smelling beignets in a huge iron vat over coals.

SIGHT: I watch as a full taxi (4 people squeezed into the back, 1 person in the front) makes room for one more person, a well dressed middle aged man who plops down on the front seat with another larger man. Totally normal here. I’ve accepted that sitting in the front seat probably means I will end up sharing the seat, and most likely I’ll exit the car with the imprint of the clutch in my left leg. Public Transportation isn’t very available, most people take Taxi’s everywhere (typically a flat rate of 200 CFA= about 40 cents. It’s going to be hard to take a NYC cab after this…) I also observe a crippled boy crawling across the very busy street in the same set of dirty clothes he wears everyday. I see him at least 2 times a day, everyday, and it is such a reality check and leaves me with such a feeling of helplessness.

TOUCH (this is kind of a stretch….): It has to be about 90 degrees- it is sunny and bright out, but weirdly pouring rain. I see a rainbow pretty much everyday.

TASTE: I can’t resist, I pass 2 Boulangeries on the way home, and convince myself the price is just too good to pass up. 1 large beignet= 100 CFA= 20 cents. I don’t even think you can buy a stale Munchkin for that.

Learning about “Paludisme” or Malaria today… it is the number one killer in Cameroon (the life expectancy is 53 here). I am living in a wealthy neighborhood and have seen my fair share of Land Rover’s. Our teacher informed us that the price of 60 Land Rovers (about $180,000) could provide enough money for every one of the 18 million Cameroonian people to have a mosquito net. This would drastically reduce the death rate, as only female mosquitoes, and typically at night.