HEADINGS
I’ve decided I want to theme my journal entries with headings. They add a professional tone to my thoughts, are succinct, prepare the reader for what’s coming, and they look snappy. Also, I like the allcaps look. Finally, they allow the gentle reader to bookmark for future reference. For example, if you reached the heading, “Santa”, then realized you left the baby on the treadmill, you could say to yourself, “I shall return to Eric’s journal entry and recommence reading, starting at the heading, ‘Santa’, but first I will reduce the speed on the treadmill”.
You’re welcome.
Feel free to provide feedback on my new format, but I’ve made up my mind. Read on….
AN APOLOGY
A two-word heading, you may have noticed. Well done, Eric.
I’ll start with an apology to those of you out there wondering why you haven’t received responses to emails, etc., lately. Unfortunately, internet access is far from my fingertips, and is very slow when available. I will keep in touch as much as possible, but please expect long delays. The slow systems here also place limitations to the number of photos I’ll be posting, since they take a month of Sundays to download.
BAMENDA
I’ve made my way to Bamenda (pop: 500,000), and to Santa (pop: 6,000, or 1,000, or 8,000, depending on who you talk to), here in the NW Province of Cameroon. Santa is about a half hour drive from Bamenda, and is where I will be living for the next year. Although the nation’s capital, Yaoundé, was a far cry from feeling ‘metropolitan’, Bamenda feels even less so. Many of the roads are unpaved, but the worst were paved many years ago, then partially dug up or eroded, and never repaired. There are streetlights, but I have yet to see them on at night. It may not hit home as you read this, but that is because I can’t do justice in writing to what it’s like to experience the darkness in a congested city of a half million, in combination with the general mayhem of the traffic, dust, and noise all around. It has to be experienced to be appreciated. I’ve never seen anything like this in all of the travelling I’ve done. Needless to say, I don’t go out much at night in Bamenda, and never alone.
SANTA & ST. PATRICK
I arrived to Santa on March 17, which, as you all know, is St. Patrick’s Day. Except for the highway that passes through town, there are a total of zero paved roads in the entire region.
I met for the first time with Mayor Clement Wankie Atanga (NOT a stage name, as one might stray to believe), who graciously showed me around town and brought me to my new accommodation. We later went to the Mayor’s house for lunch, where he happily joined me for a Guinness in honour of St. Patrick and our mutually shared Irish heritage. Admittedly, that’s not quite up to par with my pal Frank, who opened a pub in Yemen for 2 hours while he and his colleagues also had a pint or two, nor does it compare to the nuthouse we (Frank, me, and a whole mess of ex-pats) experienced in Istanbul last year. But hey, I celebrated St. Paddy’s day drinking Guinness with the Mayor of a small village in Africa, and like I always say, “that’s ok”. I tried getting him to join me on a chorus of “It’s Not Unusual”, but he could tell I was bluffing. I don’t know the words to that tune. Besides, Tom Jones is Welsh.
MY APARTMENT
A quick tour of my apartment revealed a few minor issues that held me back from moving in immediately. For instance, there was no furniture, appliances, or running water, and the floor wasn’t visible through the dirt. On the plus side, the living room was approximately the size of a basketball court, and the lights worked in at least a couple of the rooms.
We decided to go for the back-up plan, a tiny little (yes, tiny AND little) one room place just a stone’s throw from the Council building. It’s awesome. They fixed it up, and even did some over-the-top stuff like installing a sink in the bathroom. There is no hot water, but the cold water works fairly dependably almost every second day. Needless to say, showers are brief, strategically planned, and my Freddy Mercury impression has never been better.
I have to admit, despite joking about getting my own sink, I do feel quite spoiled relative to much of the population of Santa, which lives & works in more dire conditions than I have, which, of course, is my reason for being here. My neighbours, for example, are 4 guys living in a one-room place the size of mine (about 200 square feet), and have no water at all (there’s a pit toilet out back). I’ve attached a photo of their cooking and eating facilities.
I haven’t had a chance to wander around & take photos of what the rest of the town looks like, but will do so for my next instalment.
FINALE
I’ve barely touched on what it’s like to be here, but will stop typing for now. Having said all I have thus far, I hope you’ll note from the photos that, despite the poverty and lack of facilities here, the people are incredibly, genuinely friendly, and the landscape (at 2,000m altitude) is absolutely beautiful. This place has so much to offer, I would love to know someday that the rest of the world will know about it. Likely not tomorrow, though.
I hope all is well with everyone. Will catch you all on the next round. As we say in Pidgin, “Small time.”
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