Nurse Ann apparently got clearance to get my root canal done locally, in Yaoundé, by the same Adventists that drilled the same tooth twice. I politely asked if I could maybe go to any other dentist in the country, since I didn’t have a lot of confidence left in those. Nurse Ann demurred but the […]
A few weeks ago I played in the students-vs.-teachers soccer game. It was a shitshow. Here are some pictures of me being sprotif. Yeah, you know, wearing my sport outfit. No big deal, guys. Warm-ups. Most students aren’t capable of doing thirty of these. Don’t have sneakers? Boots’ll do in a pinch. Children! Madame Ann […]
[Note: my fridge is doing nicely since I can’t cook at the moment. Also, I read a review of Cory Doctorow’s newest book; sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?] In all honesty, my little Sumi training manual is an amusement, a project I work on when I’m too angry to work on anything else. It’s a little […]
Halloween is one of those holidays that we celebrate way too much here, like July 4th and probably like the upcoming Thanksgiving, because it’s one of those ways to revel in your Americanness. This year the place to be was Buea, although there was a simultaneous party in Bangangté. It’s kind of a tragedy that […]
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 […]
I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first blog post I’ve titled "voyage" but I really have no other idea what to call it. It’s just one of those "day in the life" posts that you write because you don’t know what the hell else to do, to try to give those of you following along […]
Today was a good day, my first good day since before exams, possibly my first good day since the beginning of the year. Good days make me happy, and technically French for happy is content — my neighbor Marie-Cha, approx my parents’ age, could tell I had been drinking wine the other weekend because I […]
Uploaded: Samy Diko – Anaïs.mp3 (Audio file with ID3 version 2.3.0, contains: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz, JntStereo, 4.0 MiB) Here is a song that I heard once upon a time in the weird linguistic limbo at Up Station in Bamenda, neither wholly Anglophone nor wholly Francophone, but somehow a little […]
Today’s the start of "standfast", our state of heightened awareness due to elections. Naturally, I’m tipsy, just got back from drinking with M. Teukeu (have I told you about M. Teukeu? Only my FAVORITE CAMEROONIAN EVER including my host family) and my neighbors (all teachers, so like family). M. Teukeu somehow got appointed to an […]
The closest deadline at present is the Saturday deadline for our Trimestrial Report, 2011 June-September. So that’s what I’m working on today, my "day off", after I went shopping at the market. Un rapport is a report, but it’s also used in le rapport sexuel, sexual contact. My dictionary gives "contact" as a general meaning […]