A Lot of Ups and One Big Down

Since the moment I landed in country I’ve been hearing trainers, directors, and other volunteers saying things to me like “brace yourself for the ups and downs”, “get ready for the highs and lows”, “hold on tight it’s a roller coaster ride.” Now, I know what those words mean, and I THOUGHT I had experienced them plenty of times in the past, but it seems I was mistaken. I can hands down say nothing has even come close to topping this week in both good and bad ways.

Ok, I think I’ll start with the “Big Down” so we can end on a happy note. If you don’t want to read my ranting skip down to the bottom ;) Without going into too much detail, I’ll just say I had a very loud, very public, and very unpleasant argument with the man who lives in the apt. next to mine. I guess I should explain first that this is a man whose views on gender relations are eerily similar to what most people would identify as indentured servitude and he has probably never in his life had a women talk back to him (needless to say I’m not his type). I should also say for the record that he is an individual and doesn’t by any means. represent all Cameroonian men, just the ones I share a compound with.

Ok so the argument itself started over something small (unattended one-year old meets puppy meets face plant into the grass) but quickly snowballed into a full-scale confrontation when he began to address me like he does his wife (aka like an inferior being). With this the flood gates flew open and I let out six months worth of all the things I wanted to tell him but had held my tongue about (it was major case of verbal diarrhea and once I started I couldn’t stop). His first reaction (and mine too for that matter) was shock, then embarrassment, and finally he ended with a good old round of “I have to win this so I’m just going to yell even louder at you even if I’m not being coherent.”

Now were in an awkward stalemate. He’s not talking to me, and I haven’t said anything to him (which is hard because we live in the same house), but he’s been telling anyone that will listen to him that I’ve insulted him. Part of me wants him to see that he’s not the only one feeling insulted here, another part wants to take a stand to prove a point, and another part of me wants to go back to our peaceful (all be it just barely) coexistence. I know what I should do, and I probably will do it in the next day or two, but I just don’t want to.

So that was that, definitely the lowest low thus far. It’s kind of put a damper on things and it’s been on my mind a lot lately, but it has also made me see that they’re right; highs and lows really do come in pairs. For all the things that made this past week headache inducing I think it was also one of the most fun weeks I’ve had in a while.

It started with an unexpected visitor to Bankim. I was in the market last Monday and imagine my surprise when I turned around and found myself face to face with another twenty something year old white girl. Her name is Julia and she’s in Cameroon for two months to work with the Catholic mission. She spent most of her time in the East but somehow ended up in Bankim for a week to finish out her trip. The Mission is right across the street from me so we ended up hanging out a lot, and she was really nice company. I got to show her around town and show off my friends and some of the work I’ve been doing to her.

The other big thing to happen this week was the start of the World Cup. Football is a way of life here. Everyone plays, everyone watches the games, and everyone is a fierce fan of the Indomitable Lions (side note: Cameroonians kind of remind me of WVU football fans… they go crazy when they win and they go crazy when they lose). Cameroon played their first match on Monday, and the village literally shut down to watch it. People closed up shop, came back from the farms early and glued themselves to their TVs (another side note: TVs and satellites mysteriously popped up all over the place last week… people literally had satellites and cable installed in their mud brick houses so they can watch the World Cup). The Lions ended up losing to the Japanese 0-1 but I still had a blast watching it. Julia and I went to the “Big Man” bar with some of my friends and spent the game enjoying cold drinks and yelling at the TV. Excluding the fact that I’m on a different continent it was just like downtown Blacksburg on a Game Day J.

Now as much as I enjoy rooting for Cameroon and as much as I know Team USA is far from the best, I had to support the Motherland for their opening match against England. It turned out Julia is British and we both decided that it was just to perfect of a situation not to do something fun. Julia procured the use of the nun’s television and we made up a spread of munchies that included tortilla chips, bean dip, guacamole, and bear battered onion rings. The sisters weren’t crazy about the dips, but they really loved the chips. And so there we were; 2 Cameroonian nuns, one American volunteer, one British traveler all enjoying some Mexican food and watching football…talk about a cross-cultural experience ;)

I took Julia to see the lake and these little guys wanted to get in on the picture action

My phone after Beamer decided it was a chew toy

Kind of an awkward picture of me but the only one i got of Julia

Gameday num-nums :)