Brad in Cameroon: Happy Valentines Day

...Which they do celebrate here surprisingly. Nothing too fancy like giving a valentine to everyone in your class, but people made them for people they had crushes on (I didnt get any). And now to my pretyped entry:

Howdy folks... oh I heard the first slang that was started since I've left, but I forget what it was…it was a version of "how you doing" but I didn’t understand it at all. Very strange. Also that computer world still going on? 2^nd life? I read about it in newsweek and it seemed like it was getting big but I couldn’t really tell. If anyone has any epiphanies about things that would be new to me that I might not read in Newsweek or about the elections (the elections are really all I read about online, takes too much time to surf) send me an email (or an old fashioned letter). My addresses again:
bradford.melius@gmail.com

for packages:
Bradford Melius, PCV
B.P. 215
Yaounde, Cameroon
Africa

for letters:
Bradford Melius, PCV
B.P. 217
Dschang, Cameroon
Africa

NOTE: do NOT send packages to the Dschang address, unless you want me to have to pay a rediculous amount of money to get it and risk having it already opened and searched through.

Also anyone who wants an email penpal here I have hundreds of students who would want one. Again, there would be no pressure you could write about anything and they would be interested to hear it, and would respond. Just send me your email address and Ill give it to one of my students.

So, I said I would give a talk a little more about life here. Let me start with safety in Cameroon, because right now I have a friend who wants to visit, but his parents think Cameroon is too dangerous. Is Cameroon dangerous…yes and no. There are definitely places in the country where if you walk alone at night, you are likely be robbed. That being said those places exist in the US too, and we avoid those places just like we do in the US. There have been many cases of volunteers being mugged (and this is mostly at night in cities), but I haven’t heard a story about volunteers getting hurt in any way. A lot of the time volunteers are pick pocketed and don’t even realize they don’t have their phone, wallet, until later. If you stay in populated areas, don’t put anything in your back pocket, watch your bags and don’t go out at night, there is very little that can happen as far as burglary.

The thing that I fear most is traveling. I talked about my traveling experience once but in case you forgot or missed it, they cram people in cars. It makes perfect sense to me now, because the people here would much rather fit 8 people (not including small children who sit on laps) into a small car than pay 25% more to travel. They always fit as many people who can squeeze in, which in cars usually means putting someone in the drivers seat with the driver. The cars are also not too well kept. You are lucky if you get in a car that has all its mirrors. All this being said the drivers are used to having another in the seat with them, not having mirrors, etc. and tend to drive very well considering. Also in some areas the roads are so bad that the car cannot go more than 15 mph, meaning even if there were an accident it wouldn’t be too bad. I estimate that my chances of an accident are 2 to 3 times more likely here than in the US, but since I take a car much less and I haven’t gotten in an accident in the past 6 years, so hopefully Ill be ok here. Also, not that I deserve it but I know that if something were to happen I would be the first to be taken care of. Whenever a car breaks down I am the first one the drivers find another car for. They may try to charge me more because I'm white, but I get service too.

As far as people breaking into my home, I have almost no fear of it. I lock my doors of course when I leave and at night, but my village is not too big and people just couldn’t get away with breaking in here. Very few people (especially those who don’t own the house) have their own room. If they show up with a camera or a computer or a lot of cash, people will know where it came from because news of the white man getting robbed would travel faster than a PK taken by eto'o (our star player. Not sure if you would have seen it because I don’t remember it, but the Africa Nations Cup was in Jan. Cameroon lost in the finals, very upsetting). I have a friend in a smaller village than mine and his house was broken into twice. They found the kids both times, and he got all of his things back. Im sure the kid was punished beyond what we want to know.

The final thing that reassures me is that people here are so nice. Most know that if an American is here its to help them, and they treat us with respect and kindness (they do try and charge us more, but that’s because they think we have the money…they have relatives in the US who send back money…but they don’t realize I have school loans and am on a Cameroon-set stipend. That being said I still do have enough money to pay a little more here and there, I argue mostly for entertainment. Shopping when you don’t really need something is the best, you can get very good prices.

All in all, I worry about transportation the most, but I travel maybe 2x a month maximum, and its not too bad. In other words you don’t need to worry about me, and if you want to come and visit (everyone should) youll be ok. If youre really worried about transportation we can depot buy the seat next to the driver or the whole car if you prefer, wouldn’t cost too much on an American salary.

If anyone wants to know anything specific, add a comment or send me and email and Ill write about it…remember things got less weird to me so I might not realize a certain topic would be interesting. Whutoh (means bye around here, sounds a little like ut-oh, somethings wrong)

Pictures from the waterfall, about 2 hrs away from my house. Its a bitch to get there, but so worth it.