Went to Bafoussam today to buy a ton of groceries and some housewares — specifically something to use with the non-stick frying pan that I bought, since I don’t want to scratch it up any worse — and wound up with a bleach explosion. This makes the second time since I got to country! Not […]
Today’s post is titled after the third and probably least significant part of the word Camfranglais, which was coined to describe the mélange of languages that one speaks here. ("Il va die", "he is going to die".) It happens to be the part I know best, which is why Parfait and Bonheur have been coming […]
Today I finally received a substantial part of my kitchen. Voila: I "ordered" (commander) this table about two months ago. He said it would take a few weeks. Then there was some stuff about how he was sick, and then he was helping at the hospital doing vaccinations or something. But today he brought it […]
[Edit: this post was once called Déconnecté, but that name was taken by a post on 2010-10-15. The new name, Éloigné, translates as "made distant", and corresponds to the fact that I’d left my Internet key in Bangangté.] Haven’t had Internet for the last few days due to stupidly leaving my Camtel key someplace. Should […]
I was struck for a moment by the feeling this weekend that although this country often presents itself like a wacky stereotype of itself, there’s a certain amount of darker shit that happens too. We’re never in any danger directly, but every now and then you hear something that makes you think hard about the […]
Continuing to work on the backlog of stuff I want to do. Finished filling out report cards today, even the troublesome Premiere class. Here is my most recent edit to OpenStreetMap based on the traces I’ve been taking. Edits as they happen are here. Here is the thing I’m writing for the other teachers about […]
So hungry. But it’s kind of OK; I finally feel the balance swinging a little bit towards "catching up on things" instead of "falling further behind on things". Specifically: Tests are all graded. Grades are all calculated, with one or two bizarre exceptions. All that remains is to fill in the bulletins, report cards. Each […]
Last Saturday I went to a deuil, which literally means "bereavement, mourning", but is probably best translated here as "wake". First there was a church service under these tents. Matching fabrics is a done thing here. I saw a few t-shirts that said "[Name of person], we will never forget you", but I don’t know […]
Here is a fruit that I want to know more about: It grows in these little pockets, and you sort of pinch the pockets to make the things come out. Inside it looks like this: The locals call them "cerise" which means "cherry", but it seems to be acknowledged that there is another fruit that […]
Connection has been shit over the last 36 hours, for reasons that I am pretty sure are not mine. I haven’t even really been able to get online to check mail or anything. So I’ve had to get creative to keep busy. Here’s a slide rule I made out of cardboard to demonstrate the relevant […]