Frigo (Thursday, 2011 October 27)
Today I took another step towards domestic African satisfaction. I purchased a fridge, frigo, from a neighboring Volunteer who’s near the end of her service and therefore won’t need it any more. Here’s a picture.
It’s in my bedroom, next to my bed, so I can keep it with all the other things I don’t want to share with people. I even took this picture and then deleted it off my camera immediately so that when Brondon decides to flip through the photos I’ve been taking (as he inevitably will) he won’t find out I bought a fridge.
Unfortunately all my subterfuge was for naught because the woman who lives across the street that sells bread and food saw me rolling up in the car that was carrying the fridge and told Brondon. So the secret’s out. He’s already asked to see the fridge, and among other stupid questions, he asked (while the fridge’s door was wide open and the fridge empty) if it was plugged in and if someone had taught me how to use it.
Liz (the woman who sold me the fridge) herself bought it from Wendy, who was here in my village before I was, so it’s a venerable and time-worn machine. Singsung brand. Liz bought it for 80,000 CFA, and sold it to me for 50,000. (I don’t know how much they are "new".) Liz says if you freeze bananas you can blend them and make something that tastes remarkably like soft-serve ice cream. Suffice it to say that my taste buds have been whetted.
So this is the day my service utterly changes. Now I can buy canned things in bigger quantities and keep leftovers for later. I can cook and not have to consume it all within a day. I can have cold beverages. I’m really excited about the world of potentialities. It’s going to be grand.
That’s not all, either. Yaya explained to me that a lot of spices and herbs that I assumed didn’t exist in Cameroon are actually quite common. I’m sitting next to a bag of feuilles de l’oreillier or something like that, which are bay leaves, and while I was in Bafoussam I managed to buy thym, herbs de provence, menthe, and anise. (I forgot what it was but was able to figure it out because it tastes like licorice.) So I’m pretty thoroughly kitted out as far as feeding myself goes. And since food, like alcohol, candy, and video games, is one of my best coping mechanisms, I’m that much better equipped for the remaining 294 days of my service.
In other news, Yaya’s got her own laptop now, a 14 or 15 inch Toshiba that her family managed to acquire for something like $350. I helped her transition the last of her data onto her new machine and picked up my little netbook jonah-hex. So if anyone (is still reading this and) needs to borrow my spare netbook, just let me know. In the meantime I guess I can still use it to play Desktop Dungeons!