Swamped

The last few weeks have been a bit overwhelming. At the moment I'm in the capital doing some banking (money ran out) and running numerous errands. I haven't posted in a while because I've just been too busy the last few weeks. Here's a quick run down on what' has been going on:

• My dean is trying to jam in most of the classes I teach this semester in order to finish them before the second semester. As a result I have been teaching two English classes and two computer classes simultaneously. On the schedule, this has meant I've had twenty-eight hours of classes for the last three weeks straight. 10 AM to 10 PM with an hour for lunch and two hours for dinner, four days a week. (I actually let the students in my night class go a bit early, so it's more like twenty-four hours., but still...) As you can imagine, I'm pretty exhausted and constantly busy. Quite the contrast to last year. The depressing thing is that even with all these hours I may not be able to finish on time. My poor students...
• Had a quiet Thanksgiving with friends. Turkeys exist in Cameroon happily, so I was even able to arrange a nice (if pricey) Turkey dinner.
• Just planned out my holiday vacation schedule. Going to spend Christmas with my host family from training in the town of Mblamayo, then going to visit Bill in Buea for New Year's, and then I'm meeting up with Volunteer Kirk in Yaoundé for a seventeen day trek to the north of Cameroon, which promises to be very different from my post. We are going to visit Waza National Park in hopes of seeing some giraffes or lions or other cool animals. Haven't seen too many yet outside the national zoo here in the capital. (And they were even sadder looking than most animals who live in zoos.)
• In preparation for the trip I've started studying Fulfuldé, the dominant language in the north. More widely spoken than French apparently. So far I've learned that "jam na" is how you greet people, "jam" is the proper response to this and just about every other greeting and most questions, and that "Nassara" means "honkey." (I hear that one in my village all the time. My friends from the north are very excited I'm trying to learn their language (well, was before I got overwhelmed with classes) and have started trying to speak to me in Fulfuldé a lot. I just smile and say "jam" a lot.
• I'm working with a former student from the university to put together a series of health education activities for Nanga's schools and hospital around February or March, so we sat down today and started working out a budget, plans, etc.
• While going to the bank today the motorcade of the President of Cameroon (Paul Biya) passed by while I was standing on the curb. A long black limo and an escort of police cars and motorcycles whipped past at high speed. Surprisingly, since their were police and security everywhere, the windows were open and I got a fleeting glimpse of the Big Man, and his wife Chantal, and her very very very Big Hair.

So that's where things stand at the moment. I'm taking the train back to post tomorrow night. I still have a lot of errands to run but if I have time I will try to write one or two more posts before leaving Yaoundé and diving back into the grind.