Got It Made Now…..and Headed for Croatia in April.....

…..I’ve only got one student for the final program and am going to work with him Saturday so that means I have tomorrow (Friday) off as an unexpected layover day. Since I get paid nearly as much on layover days as on work days, I welcome the unexpected chance to rest up before the flight back Saturday night. With just one student, Saturday should be short and sweet before I fly out for Paris around midnight.

In some ways, it’s hard to believe it’s been four weeks since I arrived here but, surprisingly, I’m not in that big of hurry to get home. Looking forward to it for sure, but I don’t feel that sense of urgency to “get out of here” like I have on some jobs. Not getting out and visiting the beach resort was another disappointment but I did really get familiar with Douala over the past four weeks. I’m not sad to leave, but after four trips here (five if you count Chad,) there is a sense that I’m probably seeing this place for the last time. Of course I said two years ago, I wouldn’t return.

Just some last minute random thoughts: Beside the Christmas tree at the headquarters this week they have a large brass camel statue. It’s really neat—I’d like to have one like it—but what is intriguing is the fact that the crescent moon on top is definitely Muslim. I’m not sure if it’s there to recognize Islam during the “Christ”mas season or what, but it is a really neat touch. So much, I guess, for the theory that the two religions can’t coexist.

We’ve been training this past month outside the city at a place called Lima Base. Each morning, and again at noon, COTCO has been catering food out to us. And it’s been really good. Last time I was here, we always ate lunch at a small restaurant called the London Belle. Now they are catering and have been providing the food we’ve eaten for the past four weeks including my Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s an interesting story: the London Belle is owned by a brother and sister and is pretty much a two-person operation. The brother used to work at one of the very few hotels approved in Douala for Westerners to stay in and he observed how stringent the kitchen standards were for those hotels. COTCO and the other oil companies here routinely inspect the kitchens and food to prevent any kind of food poisoning. Water is especially suspect here and since dishes are washed in the local water and almost all vegetables are predominantly made up of water—vegetables are almost always a no-no in developing countries because they use the local water source (which may contain fecal bacteria) to water the plants which is then sucked up through the roots into the vegetables themselves.

Anyway, the brother decided there was a real niche for food that met Western health standards so he and his sister opened the London Belle and, later, the catering service. All their vegetables are raised organically including the use of processed drinking water from the local bottling plant. They then rinse and soak the vegetables three times in decreasing percentages of chlorine water. The result is salads and vegetables that sometimes have a faint Clorox odor but also are completely healthy to eat. There is a local distributor that warehouses inspected meat and they use him to provide their fish and meats. Some of the meats are local but are closely inspected (I think including medical inspectors) and are fresh and uncontaminated. Milk here is not homogenized or pasteurized, so all dairy products are flown in from Europe. Actually the “powdered creamer” is very popular over here.

So they created a restaurant and catering service that is completely healthy and reliable and, in the process, have become almost exclusive caters for many of the oil companies over here. They, in fact, catered the company Christmas party for 200 people last weekend. They also bake their own pastries.

I have really enjoyed their food for the past four weeks. I’m including a photo of the two of them with the office manager of Lima Base (the woman with the red hair.) I’m also including a picture of the local “hot sauce” which they call pilli pili. It is made of red peppers and is probably of the same heat index as Thai peppers. They dish it onto virtually everything—kind of like me with Tabasco sauce.

To get to Lima Base we had to drive through an industrial area which included logging trucks. This morning I shot a photo through the windshield of one of the trucks being loaded. These trees are massive redwoods—but they’re not cedar—and are cut into large planks for building construction. They are a semi-hardwood and the local craftsmen use scraps for wood carvings and the color is really beautiful. The truck in the photo was only partially loaded—probably at least two more trees would be placed on top. When the trucks are moving, they almost always have someone sitting on top of the logs which I thought was not all that smart. One day we were following one of these trucks and I noticed a low-hanging electrical wire across the road. These electric wires are unlike anything you see in Texas—they are old and frayed and it is not unusual to see where people have “tapped into” them with illegal splices. Anyway I was wondering how the truck was going to go under this one wire and then I found out why the man was sitting on top. It was his job to stand up, grab the wire, and hold it over his head then walk the length of the tree trunks to drop the wire behind the truck. And all of this in open-toed sandals. The sad part is that if he were electrocuted or fell off the truck and got hurt they would probably hire somebody along the road on the spot and continue driving. Safety is non-existent here outside the oil companies and life is far too cheap.

This may be my last post before I get home. I have been alterted that I have a tentative 2-week job in Croatia scheduled for April.