24.11.07
"Paris a tout prix": a cinematic experience
saw a movie tonight at the university of yaounde's amphitheater. only $1 (500cfa), sponsored by the sociology department and the european union (interesting in itself?), "paris a tout prix" ("paris at any cost") is a film directed, written by and starring a cameroonian actress. the film portrays the main character's life of poverty in yaounde; her struggle to get out of it through escape, betrayal and prostitution; her success and arrival in paris; and finally, her misfortunes and return home. the amphitheater was pretty full -- films aren't shown that often on campus, maybe once every three months according to my friend aziz, a soc. major. the sociology dept. has been promoting this for a while, but it's not a campus-wide event. we got seats on the wooden benches and listened to an announcer ask trivia questions while music blared behind him. as soon as the lights went down, a big round of applause went up, only to become wild appreciation when the first frame of the intro credits came on the screen -- overhead helicopter shots of yaounde! our town! for the first ten minutes, almost every new camera angle got applause and whoops of laughter: a nicely dressed young woman walking through her slummy neighborhood, calling a motorcycle over to get to work, arriving and interacting with her boss, a customer in a business suit buying johnnie walker whiskey. the entire two hours were spent in fits of hilarity, confusion, agreement or disagreement, anger, frustration when the projector image broke up or the sound cut out, all at the decibel level of a lively american basketball crowd. it was a truly collective experience in a way that film is not in the states. such unabashed passion from all members of the crowd! man, what a trip. i cant wait to go to the theater next time i get a chance.
18.11.07
Taxi!
here i am in yaounde, a week into the independent project process. many things to write about my experiences, but at the front of my mind i am now constantly focused on research: meetings, interviews, finding libraries and professors, creating schedules and lists etc. that makes it sounds like im incredibly busy, but in fact this past week has been a nice change to the usual chaotic quality of traveling. now im settled here, and its nice to find a routine so i can find time to do the things i want to do. i can exercise, i can hang out with my family, i can explore the town and see friends, and i can do these things while a huge project is going on. its pretty cool.
im slowly starting to find out more of yaounde this time around, geographically, historically, and socially too. its hard to get around here unless you take a taxi, and it's easy to get swindled price-wise when you dont know which destinations are two blocks away and which will take a half hour. not to mention everyone in a hurry around you. unlike a big city in the states, though, people will stop whatever they are doing to help you if you're lost or need an answer. this has been my experience without fail. all you have to say is "bonjour," and immediately a whole bustling metropolis is your friend. i cant say how many times a stranger has helped me out in the past 2.5 months, not to mention the generosity of those who have taken me, a complete stranger, into their homes to live as a part of their family. the kindness i have experienced here is unfathomable.
i have had some interesting experiences in taxis, though, to the credit of my own cluelessness. heres the system for taking taxis in yaounde:
1) stand on the side of the road with your arm down and one finger raised. watch out! there are motos speeding by close enough to sideswipe you, and if you hold your hand in any other way (a fist, for instance) this can indicate a price. finger counting is different here: if a taximan sees you making a fist or all five fingers touching, that means "five hundred" ($1); making the OK sign without fingers splayed means "three hundred", and grabbing your index finger with your other hand means "six hundred". ive had some price mix-ups because of this.
2) pay attention to your accent and pronunciation. i once asked for "alike sono," a neighborhood near my house, and was taken somewhere on the other side of town.
3) there are two universities and two supermarche mahimas and two congolese embassies (drc and brazzaville), and if you dont specify which you will probably end up paying for your mistake. sometimes you might think one thing is near another if they have similar names...not always the case...
4) when yelling at a taxi to take you, one of two things works: yell the price before the destination, or yell the destination before the price. if the former, be prepared to watch your self esteem drop lower and lower every time you get passed up until you'll pay any price to go anywhere. if the latter, be prepared to barter while you're being driven to your destination, at which point you no longer have much leverage as far as price is concerned.
all for now, internet minutes up. chao!
im slowly starting to find out more of yaounde this time around, geographically, historically, and socially too. its hard to get around here unless you take a taxi, and it's easy to get swindled price-wise when you dont know which destinations are two blocks away and which will take a half hour. not to mention everyone in a hurry around you. unlike a big city in the states, though, people will stop whatever they are doing to help you if you're lost or need an answer. this has been my experience without fail. all you have to say is "bonjour," and immediately a whole bustling metropolis is your friend. i cant say how many times a stranger has helped me out in the past 2.5 months, not to mention the generosity of those who have taken me, a complete stranger, into their homes to live as a part of their family. the kindness i have experienced here is unfathomable.
i have had some interesting experiences in taxis, though, to the credit of my own cluelessness. heres the system for taking taxis in yaounde:
1) stand on the side of the road with your arm down and one finger raised. watch out! there are motos speeding by close enough to sideswipe you, and if you hold your hand in any other way (a fist, for instance) this can indicate a price. finger counting is different here: if a taximan sees you making a fist or all five fingers touching, that means "five hundred" ($1); making the OK sign without fingers splayed means "three hundred", and grabbing your index finger with your other hand means "six hundred". ive had some price mix-ups because of this.
2) pay attention to your accent and pronunciation. i once asked for "alike sono," a neighborhood near my house, and was taken somewhere on the other side of town.
3) there are two universities and two supermarche mahimas and two congolese embassies (drc and brazzaville), and if you dont specify which you will probably end up paying for your mistake. sometimes you might think one thing is near another if they have similar names...not always the case...
4) when yelling at a taxi to take you, one of two things works: yell the price before the destination, or yell the destination before the price. if the former, be prepared to watch your self esteem drop lower and lower every time you get passed up until you'll pay any price to go anywhere. if the latter, be prepared to barter while you're being driven to your destination, at which point you no longer have much leverage as far as price is concerned.
all for now, internet minutes up. chao!
10.11.07
fickle, and putting me in a pickle
so the internet has been down all over cameroon since my last blog post. it will work for about 5 minutes, then take literally 1/2 to one full hour to load a page. i am physically affected by the anxiety i feel -- i actually get heartburn as i wait for that one page to load. especially when that one page is a letter from a friend or an important correspondence for next semester. what does this say about me as a human being? i dont know, i'm just glad the internet is working today.
spent sunday to wednesday in the extreme north -- the "chicken head" of cameroon, as my friend matt likes to call it. IT IS HOT THERE. i mean the kind of hot that is dusty and sweaty and dry -- it's in the sahel region of the sahara desert, after all, that strip of land that encircles the largest desert in the world. maroua has been affected by western tourism and has large tourist markets where you can buy crafts, and also smaller markets where you can find less touristy things like pagnes and traditional northern garb. there are a lot of beggars, too, i would say more than in any other city i've visited. this is also due to tourism; children and the unemployed end up begging instead of going to school or finding jobs because it's more lucrative.
we camped outside waza national park on monday and tuesday night. tuesday was spent on safari! 15 students, seven staff, and two guides piled into the back of the SIT pickup truck and braced themselves on top of the van's cargo grate and we took off into the savannah. we only got halfway to the halfway point of the park's diameter on a six-hour tour -- that's how big the park is. in many places the grass was burned down so to make viewing animals easier. we started at 6:30am and didn't see much til mid-morning, just a few wildebeasts and some brush hens. then, as we came over a small rise, we saw something against the trees in the distance: GIRAFFES! we stopped right across the watering hole from them -- there were about 21 in the first group we saw. what a crazy-looking animal. when they run, it looks like they're in slow motion with their huge legs loping along and their long necks hurtling forward and back. altogether we saw 72 giraffes that day! no lions, no elephants, but a parkfull of giraffes. it was cool.
it's now my last day in ngaoundere. tonight we take the train to yaounde, where i will start my independent research project. i'm scared, but moreso really excited to start!
spent sunday to wednesday in the extreme north -- the "chicken head" of cameroon, as my friend matt likes to call it. IT IS HOT THERE. i mean the kind of hot that is dusty and sweaty and dry -- it's in the sahel region of the sahara desert, after all, that strip of land that encircles the largest desert in the world. maroua has been affected by western tourism and has large tourist markets where you can buy crafts, and also smaller markets where you can find less touristy things like pagnes and traditional northern garb. there are a lot of beggars, too, i would say more than in any other city i've visited. this is also due to tourism; children and the unemployed end up begging instead of going to school or finding jobs because it's more lucrative.
we camped outside waza national park on monday and tuesday night. tuesday was spent on safari! 15 students, seven staff, and two guides piled into the back of the SIT pickup truck and braced themselves on top of the van's cargo grate and we took off into the savannah. we only got halfway to the halfway point of the park's diameter on a six-hour tour -- that's how big the park is. in many places the grass was burned down so to make viewing animals easier. we started at 6:30am and didn't see much til mid-morning, just a few wildebeasts and some brush hens. then, as we came over a small rise, we saw something against the trees in the distance: GIRAFFES! we stopped right across the watering hole from them -- there were about 21 in the first group we saw. what a crazy-looking animal. when they run, it looks like they're in slow motion with their huge legs loping along and their long necks hurtling forward and back. altogether we saw 72 giraffes that day! no lions, no elephants, but a parkfull of giraffes. it was cool.
it's now my last day in ngaoundere. tonight we take the train to yaounde, where i will start my independent research project. i'm scared, but moreso really excited to start!
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