Puppy Hunt 2010

So I had a regional meeting in the provincial capital of the west last weekend. Even though I’m technically in the Adamoua it’s really difficult for me to travel to our capital, so Aislynn and I have joined up with the west for regional stuff. The place we met is called Bafoussam, and it’s a very big bustling city with aggressive vendors and lots of traffic (with no traffic laws mind you) that takes me 5 hours to get to on a good day. The only two things that make traveling to Baf worthwhile is that it’s where I do my banking ($$$!) and they have a huge outdoor market where you can find just about anything. Literally I found chalkboard paint, an iron, fabric, a cake pan, a soccer jersey, and parsley all in the same place! The place is freakin enormous and it’s a maze so it’s very easy to get lost. I recommend the buddy system. The time before this Aislynn and I were shopping in it and at one point we ended up in a part of the market where you couldn’t see the sky anymore and everything was black lighted and they were selling some pretty scandalous cloths… SKETCHY ! Needless to say we hightailed it out of there.
The meeting itself was on Saturday morning and it was fun because I got to see some of my friends from stage. It was great to get together and share stories and it seems like everything is going well at post for them. Oh ya and we also did talk a little about Peace Corps stuff, since that was kind of the point. It looks like the higher ups are thinking about creating an office for us in Baf, which will be really nice for those of us who have to travel a long way to get to the capital.

I got back to Bankim on Sunday and since then I haven’t really done too much work work, but I have been keeping myself busy with a little something I like to refer to as Puppy Hunt 2010. Here’s how it started; Aislynn has been talking about wanting to get a dog for the last two months, and her counterpart was supposedly looking for one, but it’s proving very difficult to find one in Mayo Darle because in general Fulbé don’t really like dogs. So I decided to find one for her here in Bankim and give it to her as a birthday present since her birthday is this week. I had no idea when I started my search that it would end up being such an adventure. The first place I went was at the house of a friend of one of my favorite vendors, Juliette. There were indeed puppies there, and they were so cute they made me melt a little on the inside, however they were two days old, so a little too young to take home. From there I left puppy litter number one with my new friend Martin and went to checkout litter number two. When we got there, there were two dogs left at about 2 months old and they were just adorable, the only problem was they were both females and I definitely needed to find a male. Here’s my logic; one if it gets pregnant in Mayo Darle no one will want the puppies cause they don’t like dogs, and two getting a dog neutered is very invasive and dangerous and pretty uncommon so no one will do it according to my neighbor the vet. After litter number two I was walking back into town and ran into another friend who told me his older brother had some small dogs and so he took me to see them. Turned out when I got there, there was only one dog left and the owner wanted to keep it for the farm so he wasn’t selling, but the visit wasn’t a total bust, because now I can officially say I have seen a puppy and a monkey wrestle. The monkey was ahead the whole time. I think it was probably the opposable thumb and the prehensile tail that really gave him the advantage. At one point I bent down to call the puppy over and play with him and the monkey came over to. Ultimately I decided not to touch it because images of the movie Outbreak kept flashing through my mind as it got closer and closer. The family kept saying oh it’s really friendly, but I opted not to take my chances.
As of Tuesday night the search continues but I’ve got a good lead to go on after work tomorrow with puppy number 3/monkey owner. I hope I can find a dog soon, but even if I don’t Puppy Hunt 2010 has been a great way to meet new people and visit them in their homes. Who knew looking for a dog could be such a great way to integrate?

One final thing for this week; Monday Cameroon lost to Egypt in overtime so they’re out of the African Cup of Nations, but not before I got to debut my new number 9 Lion’s jersey. I put it on and my neighbors loved it. I ended up watching the game in town at this little restaurant and I think the jersey earned me some major “street cred” with the 16 to 20 something boys in town. I had to laugh because one of these guys told me he thought if I was willing to wear a Cameroon jersey and root against white people (the Egyptians) then I must really like Cameroon a lot and that made me ok. Hey whatever it takes to integrate right… ☺