November

07/11/2006

I take a moment to pause and note that I am watching a low quality bootleg of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest on my laptop in Africa. After a long, difficult day at school I returned to discover that the files I’d transferred from another PCV’s computer do actually work and I am thrilled. I’ve been waiting since July 7 to see this movie. I consider it my great sacrifice that I can no longer play the Pirates drinking game with my best friends. I may have to bust open the 800 CFA box of sangria (yes, a box of wine for less than $2) and throw a party.

This is a great day.

09/11/2006

Unfortunately part 2 of POTC did not work properly, so I’ve only seen the first hour and a half. Someone please remedy this.

29/11/06

Shortly afterwards my voltage regulator died and my laptop batteries discharged. I took it to a technician in town and he got it working. I realize it’s been a very long time since I’ve posted. Sorry. The internet café in Bokito is complete but not operational because it lacks machines. Oh, quel village!

What have I been doing in all this time? Well, I’ve been teaching, writing tests, grading papers, and filling in report cards. I also went au village with one of my students. That was quite fun, although I fell in the field and scraped up my knee badly. Then we fell off the moto when in slid in a muddy patch. All’s well.

This past weekend I celebrated Thanksgiving with a group of PCVs in the Littoral province. I climbed a mountain. Then we ate a lot. It was fabulous. Now that I’ve left the Center province I’m excited to see the other parts of Cameroon. Soon enough we’ll be on the beach at Kribi for IST.

2/12/06

I have now been told that the internet café in Bokito is actually working. I’ll have to go investigate further when I return. It’d be nice to have the internet right here. Yesterday was the Kermesse, a sort of “cultural day” but really an excuse for the students to do provocative dances for their friends, and somehow it’s sanctioned by the school. I was appalled at the disrespectful way they mocked the teachers and the tiny outfits (miniskirts and bras) that students danced in. Plus everyone has a tendency to give money to the performers during their act, but it’s usually boys who want to feel up the female dancers. And it’s not just my American sensibilities; my Cameroonian colleague called them “seductresses” and we decided last night that the administration’s attitude is partly to blame. Of course, my Anglophone friend thinks that in general Francophones are more disrespectful and impolite. She would say that.

A funeral was held at a house next to the lycee last night, so mourners were walking past my window at all hours of the morning. I did not sleep. The cats have also discovered they can come in through the bedroom window (if a cat can come in through the mosquito netting I’m sure the mosquitoes themselves have found a way), which they do around 4 or 5am.