September 15th : Life in another universe

September 15th : Life in another universe

The trip
Like I said in my last post, Christine and I waited a long time on Saturday morning for the bus to Mokolo. We expected a bus at 7, but it only came at 9:30. Once we left, the road there was pretty good (by Cameroonian standards). When we arrived, we were greeted by the Inspecteur and a director of a school in Soulédé. Together, we travelled by motorcycle on a country road. What a ride! I had all my bags strapped on to the back of the moto. The road was terrible; we swerved left and right to avoid potholes, rocks and puddles. At times, we crossed right through small streams of water that flowed across the road. I was happy during this ride. I was heading to my village and looking forward to it. The scenery was beautiful; we were entering the mountainous area. Everything is green at the moment because we are in the rainy season. In a month, the scenery will be very different. The downside of the rainy season is that it destroys the roads. People manage to travel however, as we saw a few other motorcycles travelling to and from Mokolo. Everyone that happened to be on the side of the road stared. They must have wondered; “what is a white person doing here?” The more people we past, the more I saw that people in rural areas were poorer than people in urban areas. We saw many little huts on the side of the road. The huts, the people, the road, the mountains, the moto; I really felt like I was on an adventure during the ride. After about 25 minutes, we arrived to my house.

My first place
I guess it is different than most people’s first place. Since pictures speak louder than words, I posted a whole slew of them on Facebook. I also posted a video. Check it out and let me know what you think. I guess the best way to describe is: “charming.” It looks like I have three little huts all too myself. The first hut is my executive bathroom suite. The toilet is interesting. First, the water at the bottom of it is dark brown. There is no running water, so you can’t flush. You just pour water in when you are done. Also, there is no toilet seat. The shower is a nice mould-green colour. There is often a toad there in the morning to great me. We are not friends. When you are naked in a hut, washing yourself with cold water from a bucket, it is not fun when a slimy creature jumps on your feet. The second hut is an empty room. I haven’t figure out what to do with this circular, cement space. The third hut is my home. It is my kitchen and bedroom. The kitchen is quite filthy. There is some sort of sink that drains very slowly, a counter top, and some shelves. I am looking forward to cleaning it, but I do not have those supplies right now. My bedroom is pretty big. I guess I can also call it my living room. There are many shelves, as well as a storage unit. I set up my mosquito net over my bed. It is an adjustment, but I guess I am pretty comfortable there. During the day that is…

Alone
What do you do when it is pitch black outside at 6:30pm in a small African village? Go inside. What do you do inside? Turn on a light. Wait! You don’t have electricity. What can you do then? If someone can answer that, I will be very grateful, because so far, I have no good ideas. It can get very lonely very fast here. Especially if you are stuck cooking your supper or washing yourself in the dark. At 5:45, you will notice there is a little bit less light. So, from 5:45 to 6:30, I usually have a race against time to get myself set up for bed. If I do not to take care and prepare for this, I will be stuck stumbling in the dark trying to get organized. After the craziness, I usually end lying in my bed. How can you fall asleep at 6:30? So usually I am left wondering and worrying. Thinking about how much it sucks here. Thinking about how much I miss home. I know it is unhealthy, but very often I think about all the great things I will do when I get home. I want to go to a restaurant, I want to play basketball, I want to get ice cream, I want to see this, to do that, I want to hang out with this person, etc. I know I can’t keep doing that. I have over 5 months left! I have to find more things here that make me happy. I guess that will come with time. But for now, I can say that being alone in my village is tough.