Mothership Cars and Rose-colored Glasses

Welp. I’m still chillin’ here in Yaounde, trying to get work done on the computers (it’s likely that I won’t have a computer ‘til I come home in December…) Though I’ve been pigging out on some delicious food, I’ve also been attacked my mosquitoes. Last night the mosquitoes managed to infiltrate my mosquito net, so I ended up getting bitten up until I just switched beds. Sigh.

Last night, though, we went to the apartment where there is a Peace Corps Response Volunteer “apartment-sitting” for a US Embassy worker. It was insane. The entire neighborhood consisted of just really well-built houses that looked like they wouldn’t collapse if you leaned on a wall too hard. Every house/apartment complex was walled off with a security guard, making it seem like no other place I’ve been to in this country.

Then we walked in. Holy. Cow. Once you walk in, you completely forget that you’re in Cameroon. It’s a nice apartment, even by American standards. There was a large TV, projector, completely modern bathroom, a range over the stove, and even a bread maker!!! When we took a peek in the pantry, it was stocked full of all these American goods that made me start drooling on the spot. I was totally blown away. Where are we, Toto??? I was scared that once I plopped myself down on the cushy sofa seat that I would never ever want to tear myself away from all its fluffiness and the goodness of “How I Met Your Mother” episodes that were being projected onto the wall.

This brings me to Story #2.

The other day, while coming to Yaounde, I ended up basically hitch hiking onto a bus from the nearby town towards Yaounde. The bus was basically empty when I got on. So even though I had a “comfortable” seat (ie window seat), the bus was going to make a bazillion stops along the way until it was jam-packed with people. I realized this rookie mistake about 30 minutes in after having stopped multiple times already to load on the people, their plantains, sacs of cassava, tarot, veggies, goats, you name it, they got it on the bus.

So while I sat in my seat catching whiffs of fermenting palm wine that made me want to vom, I saw The Mothership pass me. There, in front of our bus, was a Peace Corps car – American stickers and all – whizzing by us. I got so excited to see something familiar that all I could think about was how to get into that car. I was thinking along the lines of that movie, “Speed” when they had to go from one moving car to another (I think that’s how it went?) Too bad for me, because my Mothership car ended up passing us and was able to quickly leave our big clunky bus in the dust. If only I had just waited 10 minutes more while hitch-hiking, I would have seen the Peace Corps car!

About 30 minutes later, just when I was forgetting about the Peace Corps car, I saw them stopped on the side of the road at a big market area!! I got so excited and was trying to figure out how to make a dash for the car. Luckily, the bus was stopping for someone else, so  I jumped off and told the surprised driver, “I need to get my bag off the roof of the car!!” He gave me a strange look and asked me, “I thought you were going to Yaounde?” I quickly spouted off that I had seen my Mothership and needed to board immediately! The guy still looked at me funny and asked me if I was sure that this car would be headed to Yaounde. I hastily said, “Yes yes yes! Of course!” and he handed me my bag as I handed him a fraction of the normal cost to get to Yaounde, and I raced off to find the Peace Corps car.

As I walked towards the car, it was like comin’ home to America!! I waved (maybe too) excitedly at the Peace Corps driver and asked if I could bum a ride. “Sure,” he said. “But we’re only going to Bafia.”

“Oh.”

Bafia is about 1.5 hours outside of Yaounde, so that meant I had to find a ride…again. Oh well. I’d take it. Sitting in a nice, air-conditioned car, not crammed in with 50 other people plus palm wine under my seat and goats up top? I’d take it.

We waited for a while for the other Peace Corps staff member to finish buying some stuff in the market, and then we headed off. Being inside that Peace Corps car was like a little slice of paradise. Along the way, I just stared out the window and enjoyed the scenery fly by. This was the first time in a long time that I felt at ease in a vehicle in this country and got to really just enjoy the trip.

So finally we get to Bafia, where they dropped me off, and I waited on the side of the road, yet again, to flag down another car that would be able to take me to Yaounde. Well, whadya know. The first vehicle to come barreling down the road is the SAME bus that I had been on just hours earlier! There were a bunch of other people waiting to catch a ride, and when the driver saw me, he gave me a strange look and basically said, “I told you so,” when he asked me why I wasn’t still in the Peace Corps car. Embarassing. Then some old lady points at me and yells out the window, “She’s trouble!!! Don’t take her! She left us!”

Well, no worries, Granny. Cuz that dumb bus didn’t even have room in it anyways.

Great. So now I was rejected by my original bus. Not awkward or embarrassing. Whatever. Within a few minutes a large bus pulled up to the large intersection, and I boarded this “VIP” bus that had lots of room on it, individual seats, and even AIR-CONDITIONING!!! And the beautiful part was that I paid even less for this than they were charging for the other bus.

Even though it was much more complicated than it needed to be, it turned out that my hitch-hiking adventures were well worth it, and I made it alive and in one piece!

So after we got back from the Embassy palatial apartment yesterday, I pondered for a bit about my two experiences of being in the private car, and also being in the nice apartment.

Things look pretty different when you’re sittin’ high up (be it in a fancy Land Cruiser car or a nice apartment). From the car, I was so at ease and I could finally admire the beauty around me. Something that I rarely do when I’m packed into a bus. And as I was in that apartment last night, I thought about how incredibly different a State Department worker’s experience is from a Peace Corps Volunteer. While I can’t say that anywhere in Cameroon is the easiest place to live, that apartment with all its fancy amenities certainly does make life a lot easier and comfier.

Just my one year in village though has really done a lot to help me get a better view of life for “the rest of them.” I can name off all the local dishes (although I have yet to learn how to make it…), I can at least greet people in the local language, and I can say that I spend the vast majority of my days with your typical Cameroonian. I’m not sure if I can honestly say that I love Cameroon as a country, but I can say that I do love my experience.

Last night, I wondered if maybe it would be easier to love Cameroon if I had my rose-colored glasses on, and only drove around in a spiffy new car and had a really nice place to come back to each night. It’s funny how just the perspective that you have can change so much in how you view something.

So, yeah, I’ll admit that I am completely jealous of the lives that people get to lead when they are working for the State Department, but at the same time, there is something about the experience that I get to have, as a PCV, that makes me love being Volunteer for Peace Corps.

I think I meant to write a blog that made a little more sense…but whoops.  I’m not sure if that did. Anywho, just my two cents.

HIGHS

– I bought pagne fabric to make dresses with again

– I’ve eaten some really delicious food here, including smoothies, ice cream, and Indian food!

– I got to meet the new Peace Corps Trainees that just arrived on Friday. They’re all great!

– One of the new PCTs has family in the same town as my parents, and she was kind enough to bring me goodies from the US – including Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!!!

– I had a pretty productive few days here in Yaounde, trying to get all my work done

LOWS

– I got eaten alive by mosquitoes under my net last night

– I’ve spent way too much money here!

– Wifi has been down, and computer lab internet shuts off at 10pm each night. Boo.

– I got a little sick while I was here – nothing horrible, just a sore throat, but still.

 

Love,

Wes and Pumba