Alat, Internet cutting out, and National Youth Day

On Sunday, Bob, Abdu, Sulemanu, Mosa, Dayyibu and I went to a town called Alat for church. It was a very rough, 40 minute or so drive away. I met a man named Isa at the compound there. It was just us seven guys there in a bukaru (a place for meeting/gathering). Bob did the service. Afterwards, I went on a quick tour of the compound. There is a hospital there built by the Cameroonian Baptist Convention, like the one here in Wouram. They have a workshop for building stuff like buildings and little portable household flashlights. The flashlights are basically small-diameter PVC pipe perfect for AA batteries. They then put an end cap on each side with a few LEDs on one of the end caps. They have a battery recharging station nearby for the flashlights. This way, people in the town can take these flashlights home, hang them from the ceiling and have some light for the night time. The batteries last for a few days, and when they’re depleted, for a small amount of money, they can exchange the depleted batteries for charged ones.

After we got back and had some lunch, I taught Abdu how to play Rummy 500. He seemed to get it the first hand. But then the second hand he started having trouble which confused me. He understood it fine the first time, then seemed to lose what he learned. Oh well. He started complaining it was too difficult and by that time it was time to leave to go watch a soccer game. Bethany, Joan, Abdu and I walked towards town for about half an hour to go to a soccer game very close to where the talent show was. Anna, the Peace Corps worker I spoke to at the talent show told me about it and invited us to come. She coaches an all girls soccer team and they compete against other all girls teams in the area.

They were supposed to have a match that was supposed to start at 2pm. We got there at 2:45 and they hadn’t started yet. The whole time we were walking there Abdu told me we were going to be too early. “Anna says it starts at two. That’s in Africa time. The game won’t start until four!” Well, luckily they started not too long after we got there, around 3ish. It’s very true about Africa time. When someone says 10 minutes, they mean 20-30 minutes. When someone says an hour, expect an hour and a half to two. The main reason they started so late this time is that the other team didn’t even show up. Anna had enough of her own girls show up for the game that she just split the whole team in half, and they played against each other. Anna asked Abdu if he’d be referee and he willingly said yes. He refereed the whole game which lasted about two and a half hours. I think the score was somewhere around 2-1.

Then, we walked back to Wouram. On the way back, I stopped to take a picture of a sign that was nearby some gendarme (national police) on the side of the road. Joan came running up to me and said “put your camera away!” Apparently, the gendarme have been known to demand cameras, especially if you try to take pictures of them or of official signs. I was doing neither of which but I could have easily been mistaken for doing so. Luckily they didn’t cause a problem and we kept walking. She told me as we were walking about one missionary who came, had a really nice camera and the gendarme demanded he hand it over. The missionary then called the local king, essentially the governor, and had the king speak to the gendarme. It was all worked out and the missionary kept his camera but learned to be more careful next time.

On Monday, I worked on the Mitsuba motorcycles’ electrical problems. The orange one was used and abused as a taxi and had been worked on by the mechanics in town. Its electrical system has been completely butchered. Wires are cut, joined with other wires they’re not supposed to be, some are fried, and some are completely useless. I found one strand of three wires that ran through the motorcycle but weren’t connected to anything on either end. It’s no wonder the machine doesn’t work well. The blue one on the other hand hasn’t been messed with at all but for some reason nothing electrical on it works except a useless alarm system’s “chirp chirp”. These motorcycles have all the bells and whistles: an alarm system, fuel gauge, and even a remote starter. Those are things you wouldn’t normally find on a motorcycle back home because they’re usually unnecessary. Here, however, they’re considered essential. At least, that’s what the Chinese manufacturers want you to think. However, all these bells and whistles just create more problems when they break. There are more wires in these motorcycles than in a Toyota Corolla. It’s ridiculous. And it’s a headache. Needless to say I didn’t have much luck on Monday.

Tuesday, I got Dayyibu to help me translate some songs we sing at the Tuesday morning devotion each week. Tuesday’s devotional occurs in a different bukaru than it usually does and we sing a few songs. By writing down the song in Fulfulde and then in English, I’m hoping to learn some more words. I picked out a few words I see/hear frequently and wrote them down separately as well as a reference. Afterwards, I helped Yusufu and another boy named King do some work for the store Bob is building near the hospital. Specifically, I helped dig a trench in front of the store to help prevent flooding by allowing rainwater to run away from the store. It was harder than I thought it would be. I only worked for half an hour and I was exhausted. I don’t know how these guys can do it for a couple hours at a time. I guess you get used to it and built up the strength for it. I forgot to bring some gloves with me and got a couple calluses but nothing too bad.

On Tuesday, I tried to find wiring diagrams for the Mistuba motorcycles but the internet cut out before I could really get too far. It was out for the rest of the day and on Wednesday too. That’s why I wasn’t able to post a blog then but I’m doing that first this time in case it cuts out again. The internet here occasionally cuts out and it happens for one of three reasons. 1) The electricity in Banyo is out, which happens on weekends and for a few hours in the afternoon every couple of days, 2) the internet sever at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention in Bamenda, which we get our internet through is out, or 3) the connection between here and Bemanda is out. There’s no telling how long I’ll have internet now so I’m working as fast as I can.

Today is a national holiday called National Youth Day. It’s a day for celebrating the children. There was a parade near the soccer field which Joan and I walked to. There, kids from all different ages from all the schools in Banyo marched in the parade holding signs, Cameroonian flags and singing songs. We walked around for a bit after the parade, chatting with some people Joan knew. I bought a pastry that looked a lot like a funnel cake without powdered sugar. It was pretty good. Then, Bob picked us up and took us into Banyo. Joan went grocery shopping and Bob and I bought some wood to make benches and tables for the store that is opening up. I think tomorrow we may start to build them.