We had a little trouble round these parts

I wrote as the blog was happening, more for my benifit than yours, but here you go:

26/02/08 4:00pm - So, my last blog was about safety in Cameroon. This blog will be about the riots that have broken out in some of the major cities over the raised gas prices. Since the new year, gas and consequently almost every basic product…vegetables, rice, drinks, etc. have risen, totaling in my estimation about a 5% raise. Monday morning, taxi drivers in Douala (called the "financial capital" of Cameroon as opposed to the real capital, Yaounde) started protesting. Not unreasonable, but the protest involves throwing rocks at any cars carrying passengers for money. That turned into riots and looting, and pretty soon all transportation at least in the central area of the country stopped. Other cities followed, and at the moment several cities are still in the midst of the riots. I have been talking to volunteers in a few cities and Cameroonians around my town, and this is what Ive gathered so far:

The worst city right now is Douala…there have been burned cars, a burned gas station, and several deaths. Almost every other city in the W, NW, SW, Littoral, and Center provinces has incidents of rioting and most shops are closed. Dschang which is close to me has had trouble at least 2 places that I frequent regularly in town, and 1 person has died. As for me, my town is business as usual. There was school today, there will be tomorrow, people are in the market, drinking beers, eating fish. No one is worried because rioting couldn’t really happen in our town everyone knows everyone else. Still if this were America people would be glued to the tv screen, here people tell me theyre not worried because it happens every once in a while and it will be over soon. Im hoping so because its been 2 days and as one Cameroonian told me "people have to eat". That’s when normal people (nonrioters) will be out during the violence and bad things could happen. Ill be hanging out here. Im really not worried except if it were to turn worse and I was to be evacuated, I don’t know how I would do it with all the vehicles not running.

26/02/08 9:00pm - I have just gotten back from town and it was interesting. I watched the 730 news while eating poisson brase, baton de manioc and drinking a beer and the first story wasn’t even about the riots, it was about the Saudi Arabians meeting with Paul Biya….maybe important but not as important as the riots. The story about the riots told of few casualties, some burning cars. My friend next to me then told me that in the town they covered several gvt. buildings were burned and the brasseries (beer factories) were also burned. I don’t know how much of that is true because most of the buildings in the country are made of stone, but I think there was more to the story than they portrayed. At the very least all the Cameroonians were suspicious of the report which shows me the distrust they have for things run by the government. A report "just in" later in the broadcast showed clips from at least hours ago (it was still light outside) saying that the official strike would be ended tomorrow, but the Cameroonians around me said they thought the strike would go on longer, until the prices were lowered. We will have to see what happens tomorrow. Unfortunately for me although my mind is elsewhere I have classes tomorrow, and plan on going in without a lesson plan because I don’t have the patience to make one right now knowing I might be going home.

28/02/08 – 12:20am – I didn’t end up going into school at all yesterday, I really just couldn’t concentrate on teaching with so much going on. Today they were a little bit more serious than yesterday, but Im getting ahead of myself. The 27^th was supposed to be the breaking point, where it would either die down or get worse. In the morning I was hearing that there were a few cars traveling, and it sounded like it was getting better. Then I talked to a volunteer in Dschang who said it was a lot worse than yesterday, police were throwing tear gas and shooting rubber bullets and someone was killed. The bakery that I buy yogurt at when Im in town was torn apart, and the bar which I usually go to may or may not have been burned down. I heard similar stories from other places and I sent some phone credit to a few friends who couldn’t leave their houses to buy it. I took a nap in the afternoon and when I woke up heard Paul Biya was going to address the nation. My friend brought some of his friends over and we played ping pong, I cut a Romeo and Juileta in half and we smoked it…a nice way to forget about what was going on. I went to the internet to watch the president's speech. The Cameroonians laughed most of the time, and though I didn’t get most of the French it was translated in English (Everyone here is bilingual or trilingual, most are quadralingual) and said the translation was very bad). Basically he blamed people for playing politics and generally it seemed threatened the people more than anything. It was definitely a Tipping Point (I just read the new book titled that I should be an expert). The Cameroonians at the internet and at the bar where I enjoyed poisson brase for the 2^nd night in a row were immediately saying it wasn’t a good speech, and the next morning a few teachers confirmed. People didn’t like the presidents reaction to the riots, and if people who weren’t involved at all in the riots were thinking he was wrong to address it like that, I didn’t think the protesters would either. I didn’t hear as many bad stories today (one story about 2000 children being held hostage apparently made it on BBC) but mostly it was the tone that I was surprised at. The bars in town were unprecedently(word says its not a word but I disagree) empty tonight. No one was talking about anything other than the riots, some were saying its war, and no one was saying it should be over soon. I am now facing a real possibility of evacuation, in fact with the difficulty they would have evacuating us when there is no public transport I don’t see how they can risk stranding us out here if this gets better only to have another incident happen in a few months. Tomorrow or maybe after I finish this Im going to start seriously packing and choosing what to take and leave. It sucks that its so sudden, Im holding onto hope that I don’t have to leave but I don’t see another option. Im taking my camera into school tomorrow to take pictures with my students. I am just starting to get used to life here, Im either going to change programs entirely or go home, both of which will take serious adjustment I am not prepared for. More pressing, how am I going to get out of here? People are throwing rocks at all the cars passing and both towns with an airport are the worst to be in right now. Now that I face the prospect of leaving I feel like I haven’t been useful and I'm wishing I had started more things than I have, I'm not sure I've accomplished anything meaningful (not that I necessarily would have accomplished much but I haven’t even finished teaching a full year…).

a week or so later….That was the worst day. The day after I wrote that things calmed and cars were able to pass in most cities. There were rumors that the strikes would start again on Monday, so all the volunteers stayed in consolidation but it turned out that things were peaceful and everything went back to normal in the next few days. There are still rumors that the strike may start again but at least for now its fine. My feelings on the strikes are:

- Im very very glad its over, it was even exciting at first but then brought only stress

- I fear they will come back, since not much has changed as far as prices go

- I think most of the rioting was actually caused by people taking advantage of the situation, not the protestors themselves

- I feel safe here, I have heard that no matter how awful the protests get they take the weekends off to give people a chance to move, to buy rice and those things and get ready for the next week of staying inside. At least I will be able to stay in village until a weekend and then be evacuated.

18 March 2008 - Welp, that was fun, but as I said the riots are over and theres no looking like theyre coming back soon, but we don’t know. Life is usual, Im getting ready for summer break (theres not summer here, they just call it third term break). I found out a few days ago that Ill be helping with training, which is a relief because itll give me something to do for our 3 months off (besides travel around Europe which im also excited for…Ill be there in 3 months, it feels like no time). Right now time is flying. It seems like every day is two weeks later on the calendar than it should be. I've officially been in Cameroon 9 months now. Looking back on it it does seem like a long time that I've been here, but training was the longest I think. Post is flying by. The head of the focalari movement (Catholic mission in my town) died today. I really respect those people who came here when it was just starting out, deep into the bush without water, electricity, a mailing system. I feel like Im cheating when I hear people describe it. I said this before but they saved this village, the infant mortality rate was something ridiculous, over 90%. Most of the people in this tribe are alive because of the focalaris (I don’t know how to spell it Im sorry). Getting ready to submit my basketball court proposal, everyone get your checkbooks ready!

Brad