…..it’s Wednesday afternoon and I’m half-way through my second week here. Last Friday was a Muslim holiday—the end of Hajj—and the entire country took off. We, however, worked. I was originally scheduled to work six-day weeks but after I got here they asked me to scale it back to five. Really, I don’t care either way—it’s one less day of work and one more day stuck in the hotel room.
Still, since we worked Friday, we were able to observe a lot of the celebrations. Muslims and non-Muslims alike dressed up in their finest African clothing and I so much wish I was allowed to take photographs here. Imagine all the National Geographic photos you’ve seen of African women with the long, colorful robes and colorful jewelry and that’s what we observed all over town. Again, tribal (or clan) affiliation affects the colors and designs of the clothing but all are bright colors and really make for an amazing scene.
C
ompared to neighboring Chad, Cameroon is a relatively prosperous country but in many ways still reflects the vestiges of the old colonial past (which, in the case of Cameroon included German and French colonization.) The company I’m working for—COTCO—just built a new four-story office building and it is one of the nicest buildings in Douala. It’s so new they’re still striping the parking lot out front but one thing I found very unusual is that the brand-new restrooms feature the “stand and squat” toilets. When I was in Chad, my hotel room had one but at least here they have toilet paper available. Usually, in places like Chad and Senegal, they only have a bucket of water beside the unit and that’s why you never eat food with your left hand in those countries. This particular unit was manufactured in France so there you go…..
Partially because of the geographical “hook” along the western coast of Africa, Cameroon is often derisively called the “armpit of Africa.” Cameroonians seem to either have a great sense of humor or really misunderstand the nature of insults because one of the Cameroon tourism websites introduces itself with the announcement: Cameroon is known as the armpit of Africa.
Part of that nickname, however, may come from the fact that the climate here is very hot and very sticky which leads to a great deal of fungus and mold and foul odors. Right now the temperatures are in the low to mid 90s but the humidity is every bit as bad as Houston in August. As a result, everything here appears and feels grimy. Older buildings have that brownish, dirty look about them.
The streets, however, although in bad repair, have very little trash. That’s because Cameroon, like most Third World countries, is very, very efficient at recycling. Very little is thrown away here—there’s always some use for everything. America, with its disposable mentality, could learn so much from many of these countries. Monday when we were driving about, we went down one street where some men had climbed palm trees along the street and were trimming the branches back. The result was that there were palm branches knee-deep all along the sidewalk. Tuesday when we drove by there must have been 20-30 women sitting on the sidewalk weaving baskets. Today when we drove by there was nothing—literally nothing left lying around.
Although there is plentiful electricity in the city, I still find it amazing that many of the sidewalk entrepreneurs have found an old gas pump somewhere—the old gravity feed pumps with a large glass bowl at the top. They sit the pump on top of a 50 gallon gasoline barrel and then hand crank the gas up into the bowl which is marked with liters and then let the gas flow down into a motorcycle gas tank. No electricity is needed—the pump owner can charge the motorcyclist, and a barrel will probably keep him in business for a week or so.
You also see women—usually near corners—who have an old Singer sewing machine on the sidewalk doing alterations and repairs. I’m talking about the old foot-powered trundle machines probably a hundred years old. Again, no electricity is needed. Today I saw a man with a foot-powered grindstone sharpening kitchen utensils. I’ve seen a number of people grinding corn into meal for money—the old hand-cranked grinders with the hopper on top—we used to call them Armstrong mills. Everybody is looking for a niche to fill and, combined, Cameroon gets along pretty well without iPods, the Internet, plasma TVs and the other things we think we can’t live without.
One exception, though, it the cell phone. Virtually everybody here has one. In Senegal, I took a photo of an old man in a cart pulled by a donkey talking on his cell phone. It seemed so iconic—2nd century transportation and 21th century communications. When you think about it, though, it makes perfect sense. I’ve been told that requesting a land line to have a phone installed in your home here can take 15 to 20 years and then it won’t work half the time. Cell phones bypass all that but over here the cell phones don’t take photographs, text message or play music—they make phone calls.
Getting back to the Cameroonian sense of humor, I’ve also been told the favorite Internet game over here—for those with access to the Internet—involves rescuing hostages from the Douala airport. Kind of an Entebbe-raid sort of game. I mean, that’s got to be kind of insulting, but it’s a popular game over here.
Like I said earlier, everybody is looking for a niche over here and the streets are lined with vendors. I’ve only seen one grocery store over here and I got the impression it caters to the Western workers mostly. You see all kinds of food for sale in these kiosks—every fruit and vegetable imaginable and raw cuts of meat hanging in the open. As I also pointed out earlier, nothing is thrown away—everything is recycled—but that can lead to some humorous uses for old stuff. One boutique near the company headquarters must have found some old mannequins somewhere and now use them to display their clothing out on the sidewalk. Problem is, the mannequins are male and the clothing is female so you have these guys standing outside on the sidewalk in lingerie and dresses. Still, it’s advertising at its best…..
As far as I can tell there are no sports played over here except soccer and, as a result, Cameroonians are near-fanatical about their soccer. The Cameroon national team has qualified for next year’s World Cup and you see advertising signs everywhere and jerseys on people in the streets. Soccer is a real unifying factor for this country and they take pride in their team and their country. As it should be…..
Anyway, just some random thoughts…..two more working days and then a weekend free. I seriously doubt I’m going to be able to arrange a trip to the beach while I’m here. Until later……
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