Sunday, November 25, 2007

Yaoundé

Greetings, all!

I’m not sure if I ever explained the nature of the job that I’ve undertaken – so, at the risk of boring some of you, I’ll take a couple of lines here to do so.

The Centre de formation professionnelle de Mimboman is a training school run by the Salesian order. It is situated in a suburb of Yaoundé, about twenty minutes away by car (on a good day!), and offers training in furniture-making, metal-work, sewing and information/communication technology. The latter subject area is the focus of the education-based project that is funded by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) and for which I am the person responsible on site. I hear sounds of laughter at the idea that I should be “responsible” for a technology project! Tut, tut… my duties are mostly administrative, that is, making sure that the various activities that are planned are carried out in a timely fashion and within budget, but I’m also expected to provide some teacher support (basic pedagogy, classroom management) in order to improve the training. The teachers are all well-versed in the technical aspects of things (thank goodness!) and have received some pedagogical training already, provided by the New Brunswick Community College in Dieppe, which is one of the two administering bodies for this project (the other being LearnSphere, based in Fredericton).

One of Cameroon’s goals, within the context of a ten-year economic plan, is to facilitate the integration of non working youth into the employment market, by offering them training in new areas, or improved training in “old areas”. Thus, within this particular project, courses in secretarial duties (basic secretary skills, secretary-bookkeeper, bilingual secretary), and technology (graphics, networking, troubleshooting) are offered. The centre is now the proud owner of a number of the latest version of computer terminals, with the latest gadgets (and, of course, Internet connections), and has very motivated teachers. The main problem, from what I’ve been told, is that the training will take place on computers that are more “high-tech” than the ones to be found in the workplace, at least in offices where there are computers… ah well, our students will be ahead of their time!

The last week has gone well. There are, of course, a number of things one needs to get used to – even if expected, strange things happen! For example, the other day, I needed a stapler. Not your regular stapler, but one of those industrial-sized ones for documents that contain between forty and a hundred pages. The section where I work doesn’t possess one (it will soon, though!), so I went off to the Director’s office, where, I was assured, there was indeed a large stapler of the type I needed. Once there, the Director’s charming secretary, Laurentine, started hunting for it. “There is one here,” she said, “I saw it the other day.” After a few minutes search, she admitted that it must “have taken a walk”, but she’d find it, and come to my office with it. So, back I went to my office (a pleasant spot, actually, about three times the size of my former office), and carried on going through the documents that needed stapling (and immediate commentary!), trying to make sure that I didn’t mix the pages of the various documents. Finally, about three hours later, Laurentine showed up with the said stapler, which, alas, was not strong enough to do the job, even though she tried, helpfully, to staple the documents. Very sad… And, of course, there were no big clips, no elastic bands, etc. with which to keep the documents in one piece. That afternoon, when I got back to the hotel, I went to the business centre, and asked if they had such a stapler. “Hmm,” said the two young ladies, “yes, somewhere…” Again, a fruitless search, but a phone call to another office provided hope. There was such a stapler in the Accounting Department, and would I please wait? So, I dutifully sat down and waited – and, lo and behold, fifteen minutes later, there appeared the most beautiful stapler in the world! Yee ha! Victory!

From mini problems to a slightly larger one – the finding of housing. I’m pleased to report that the problem of the lease has now been resolved, and, therefore, the opening of the bank account should take place (without fanfare, but great relief!) during the coming days – unless some other unexpected hurdle appears! Yes, I found a place to stay!

The search for housing continued during the week, and, finally, I decided to take a little apartment not far from the Centre. Actually, it’s almost in its backyard. This is not the apartment that I mentioned last week, but a different one, unfurnished. It’s a bit small, but given that I shall be single for a little while, it will meet my needs for the first few months. It has two bedrooms, one full bathroom (shower only), one guest toilet, a kitchen and a largish living-room opening out to a small balcony (yes, it’s on the second floor). Given its price (very reasonable, thank you very much), and the fact that it was found by one of my colleagues (so I felt I should take it!) and also that I will be car-less for a while, I decided that it would do. I asked that the living-room and the hall be re-painted – firstly, because they needed it, and secondly because of the colour, a rather gloomy dark yellow. I asked for white, and white I got – as I type, they are in the midst of doing the job (I went to check!), and the hot-water heater is to be installed tomorrow.

You may wonder why a hot-water heater is necessary – the water coming out of the taps is exceedingly cold, and on cool mornings (ie, when the temperature has dropped to 20 C), it is difficult (well, for my old bones, anyway) to take a cold shower! Speaking of cold mornings, Friday was such a one, as it dawned grey (sheets of rain) and cool (20 C). For the locals, this was the equivalent of one of our January mornings – not only were umbrellas out, but hats and coats also. On a quick visit to the director’s office to tidy up some work, I felt sorry for poor Laurentine, bundled up against the cold. Poor wee thing! She wore mittens, the ones where your fingers can come out, a thick woolen hat, two scarves, and two sweaters under her winter jacket. I almost suggested that I should order long-johns, but didn’t think that that would be appropriate! She looked so cold, and got me to touch her fingers with which she was having trouble typing, and I have to admit that they were freezing!

One of the peculiarities has been keeping names straight – most people use Western type names (John, Philip, Mary, etc), so that hasn’t been too difficult – except that meeting so many new persons can get quite confusing. Still, at least I know who my immediate colleagues are, including three secretaries (in various parts of the building) who, to my chagrin, have very similar names. There is Laurentine (mentioned above), Laurence and Laurentienne. I’m sure they did it on purpose! Fortunately, they all get a kick out of my mistakes, and I’ve told them that I’ll call them all Laurie for short…

Global warming (in spite of the cold Friday morning!) is also a concern here, I found out from my favourite taximan, Njikam. I’ve been using his services when needed, and on one of our journeys, on one particularly hot day (I think it went up to 32 C that day, although I’m not sure; it was a day for two shirts, though), he told me that he was getting quite concerned. He moved to Yaoundé a number of years ago to get away from the heat to be found at the coast, where temperatures regularly rise to the mid-forties, with high humidity. He was thinking now that he might have to move further north, and higher up the mountains, because it was getting too hot here in Yaoundé. However, he did say that it would be difficult to make a living driving a taxi in a smaller centre. He tried to make me believe that the temperatures up north were equivalent to ours in Canada, although he found it hard to believe that it could be colder than a freezer in my country. Perhaps that’s a bit too cold, he said.

As I don’t have a car, I have to use a taxi to get to work from the hotel. There are taxis attached to the hotel, but they are very expensive (although it’s rather nice to zoom around in a Mercedes!), so I have been using the regular taxis, all painted a bright yellow. These function as mini buses, and pick up passengers as they toodle along. One stands at the side of the road yelling out one’s destination, and if the taxi driver hears you, and has space, he stops (they are all men, as far as I’ve been able to see) and picks you up. Travelling this way is quite the adventure, although very inexpensive (from 50 cents to $1.50 one way), but there is no guarantee of reaching your destination within a certain time. The alternative, which is the one I use, is to hire a taxi for yourself only. That way I don’t have to yell out my destination, I just flag down an empty taxi. Please note that I don’t flag down just any taxi – it has to look like it will be able to survive the journey – there are some amazing sights on the road! Before getting in the taxi, you announce how much you’re going to pay for the journey (I was given the prices by my colleagues, fortunately), a total of about $4.00, and get a grunt in reply. Then the fun starts…

Given that it’s rush hour when I head off to work, the roads are grid-locked – not as bad as the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, but nonetheless, pretty bad! And when it’s not grid-lock, it’s chaos! First, you have to understand that to drive here, you have to decide where you’re going, and go straight there, no matter who or what is in your way – whether it be other cars, taxis stopping for clients (in the middle of the road, on the side of the road, wherever), pedestrians trying to cross the street (so they can catch a taxi going in the right direction), vendors setting up their stalls, other vendors pushing their carts, and the odd mo-ped (motorized bicycles, for those who may not be aware that such things exist). Gritting your teeth (at least, I do, and I’m the passenger!), you twist and turn, overtaking as you can (sometimes two cars at once, while the Toyota Land Cruiser opposite seems to heading for your windscreen), avoiding the potholes (sometimes not) and generally having a good time. Of course, traffic can come to a standstill near a market, where there are too many taxis, cars, pedestrians, hawkers, etc, at which point the horns start blaring, and imprecations start being thrown about, especially at passengers opening the doors of their taxis (in order to get out) and narrowly missing scratching our taxi (trying to squeeze by)… what fun!

Anyway, having found one taxi driver who isn’t too much of a menace, the aforementioned Njikam, getting around hasn’t been too bad. He’s always happy to come and get me, and I just have to call and announce that I’m ready to go. Now that I am the proud possessor of a cellular phone (expensive phone calls, though, 60 cents a minute!), I can call people including taximen, who all possess a phone. I’m still working out the various features of the phone, but have managed to work out how to place calls, how to answer them and how to terminate them. The essentials, basically. No doubt I’ll work out the rest later!

Of course, as Njikam could be anywhere in the city when I call, it can take a while for him to show up. “I’ll be there in fifteen or twenty minutes”, I’m told – this translates into at least forty-five minutes, just as “I’ll be right there” means “in fifteen or twenty minutes”. Still, it’s worth the wait, because his car is in pretty good shape (it still has springs!), and he takes pleasure in taking different ways back to the hotel, so that I can get a sense of the city. Another advantage of hiring a taxi for personal use is that one can ask him where one gets “such and such”, and he’ll take you to one of his friends who just happens to deal in this. The other advantage (apart from the feeling of relative security) is that he’ll stop and let me do errands, and there is no extra charge, it’s all part of the “personal hire”.

So, yesterday, I hired Njikam to take me around parts of the city that I haven’t seen. We had a pleasant drive around the administrative centre (where most of the government offices are located) and where, unfortunately, it is forbidden to take pictures (and developers are supposed to denounce you to the police if they find that you have taken forbidden pictures). It is a pleasant part of the city, lots of green spaces, and some buildings dating back to the German colonization of the late nineteenth century. While some of the buildings are quite stunning, there is not as much grandiose architecture here as there seemed to be in Lomé (Togo), when we were there. All fairly low-key. There is a pretty lake, in the middle of this part of town, where one can go and rent a sort of canoe (with its pilot) – very nice, I’m sure, although the water looked pretty slimy. The French embassy is in the area – a veritable fortress within which lives 90% of the ambassadorial staff. Njikam told me that they removed a whole neighbourhood in order to build this place – he didn’t sound impressed, to put it mildly. The American Embassy is another fortress, built near the airport shortly after the September 2001 events in New York. Our High Commission (Cameroon is part of the Commonwealth), however, is right downtown in a “normal” building, although you do have to go a very thorough security screening before being allowed in.

After this, we explored another section of town, called Mokolov (I think!), where there is another huge market, surrounded by a multitude of businesses and stores. Then a quick tour of one of the University campuses (I believe there are three in Yaoundé), the main one, and the “student city”, a crowded area, lots of little eateries and mini boutiques. Finally, we took a four-lane highway – where we hit a dizzying speed! – and went up to Mont Fébé, one of the hills on the outskirts of town, driving by the presidential palace (quite the building). There is a hotel mid-way up the hill, called the Hôtel Mont Fébé, coincidentally, from which you get a stupendous view of the city. I’ve taken some pictures (from this you will have gathered that I purchased one of those throw-away cameras), but I’m not sure how they will turn out, as, due to the heat, it was quite hazy. Also, to be honest, I’m not sure of the quality of the camera – it may have been sitting in the shop for years, for all I know. Still, I do what I can.

Today, Sunday, has been quiet, and spent composing this! I’m looking forward to opening my bank account, getting some furniture and other household goods – no doubt more adventures to recount soon – and getting settled in my new place by next weekend. I’ll then have to see about having Internet installed at home – I’ve been told it’s easy, but of course, I’m not sure of the costs involved, nor the delay in actually having the work done – no matter how easy it is! Still, it will happen!

Cheers!

David