First Impressions

I know I've been saying for a couple posts that I would put up my first impressions of Cameroon, but I keep on forgetting or coming up with more exciting things to say!

En route to Cameroon, I was constantly cold (thin-blooded Floridian) and when I finally stepped off the plane in Cameroon 6 days late, I was finally warm. I took off my 5lb sweater and let my skin soak up the humidity.

I made my way to Passport Control, clutching my diplomatic passport and attempted to make my way to the right booth. The diplomatic line was closed, so I was stuck at the end of the line marked Autres Passeports/Others Passports (not a typo on my part).

I got my bags with the help of my Program Manager and a couple of PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers. By the way, this organization uses entirely too many acronyms). We hopped into the official Range Rover and left the airport, passing people holding things up for sale. Being from Florida, the land of Disney, my natural assumption was that these must be last-minute souvenirs for tourists.

Boy, was I ever wrong. They were holding up boa constrictors, still filled with meat. They were not souvenirs; they were for welcome home dinners.

In Yaounde, I saw people wearing pagne (think traditional African clothes) of all styles and colors, women balancing plates of bananas, avocadoes, mangoes, pineapples and peanuts on their heads, and houseplants from the US that were 2 stories high.

My first meals reminded me of the kebabs from Metz- sauce blanche and everything!

My second day I was driven from Yaounde to Bafia (where I am now) and I would love to tell you a tall tale about a herd of elephants causing a traffic jam, but I'm afraid the most exciting wildlife I saw were some bright yellow birds that are actually the weaver birds from the Disney Channel original movie "The Color of Friendship." I almost peed my pants in excitement, when someone pointed out their nests in the tree that shades our table at the bar.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General update: You know how in my last post I talked about the moutemoutes and how they love me so much and that the bugspray is only like piment (the local hot sauce) for them? Well, those suckers not only made my legs look like something off National Geographic and my toenail polish look truly absurd, ....

They gave me a staph infection. Now I'm on two different antibiotics and I think that I'm going to have to be on a third for another infection that's brewing. Vie de merde. BUT I do know how to make yogurt and it doesn't need to be refrigerated, so there we go! Evidently, staph infections are pretty common here, but they're checking up on me all the time. My hope is that I am getting through all my medical nonsense here, so I won't have to deal with any of it later.