There and Back Again

I arrived safely back in Nanga on the train from Yaoundé at about midnight last night. It was a busy but productive trip that netted me four used computers for the second lab I've been putting together. Some highlights of the trip:

• On Friday I had a province meeting in the village of Makak pronounced ("muh-cahk") with other volunteers in the center province. Makak is really big. Feels bigger in the dark too. No one was really ready for Makak and none of us could stop talking about it. I had a lot of fun with Makak. (Yes, yes, I am very immature.)
• Saturday I made it to the Southwest by way of Douala. Since I would have arrived in Buea too late to do much work, Bill and I decided to meet for dinner in the nearby beach town of Limbé, stay at a hotel and hit the beach for a few hours the next morning before heading back up to Buea to prep the computers. We found a place that made great cheeseburgers and had a good view of the water for dinner.
  
• After dinner Saturday we walked around Limbé eventually settling at a nice bar frequented by foreign expats and tourists and the Cameroonian prostitutes that service them. Two of these prostitutes followed us out of the place when we left. The ensuing dialogue went something like this:

Bill: (as we see them coming) Uh-oh.
Brian: (under my breath) Walk faster.
Prostitute 1: Hell-ooh! Hell-ooh!
Prostitute 2: Hell-ooh! Where are you going? Can we talk to you?
Bill: Umm ... sorry, we have to meet our uh, wives.
Brian: Uh, yes, we're meeting our wives.
Prostitute 1: No, don't go! (Grabs my hand)
Brian: Don't touch me.

• After breakfast we spent Sunday morning at the beach. It's normally rainy there now but it cleared for us and we got a couple of hours of sun. We also got to eat coconuts fresh off the tree.
• Spent Monday and part of Sunday testing and packing the computers and arranging transport for Tuesday.
• Monday night while walking around Buea I fell into a three foot deep rain gutter in the dark. Lost my glasses in the garbage at the bottom for a few minutes. Scraped my arm and leg but otherwise unhurt. Bill gave my fall a perfect "10". I think it was me yelling "MOTHER****ER I JUST FELL INTO A GUTTER!" that put me over the top.
• Bill's friend Hans invited me to come back for New Year's to participate in a sacred Bakweri ritual that will give me protection from witchcraft. He was pretty insistent, and since I live in perpetual fear of witchcraft anyway, I think I have to go.
• Tuesday morning Hans helped me haul my four PCs to the bus company, where after haggling with the porters and probably being overcharged, they were loaded on top for the trip to Yaoundé. After an extremely uncomfortable five hour ride (how long after you lose circulation in your legs does it start to do permanent damage?) I made it to the capital, where the pickup truck owned by the University came to get me. Because they were taking other passengers back we had to lock the machines up in storage until their next trip. I took the train back to Nanga, which turned out to get there in about the same time and in far more comfort than the people who rode in the University pickup.

Good times.