Happy New Year to you all! Sorry about the delay in adding to this blog – it has been fairly busy, and, as I announced before Christmas, I didn’t have access to Internet for a while. And, of course, I’ve been enjoying myself relaxing!
Life has been fairly quiet here, I must admit, which was to be expected. Once a routine is set up, things do carry on same-old, same-old, and that is fine. The Centre closed on Friday afternoon, December 21, and I didn’t do much at all over the Christmas week. I did go into town on the Saturday before Christmas to visit a couple of supermarkets and get the food I needed for my Christmas dinner, and also to pick up some reading matter from the two libraries that I’ve found (one French, one English).
On Christmas Eve, I went to midnight mass, at the chapel (rather large for a chapel, but that’s what they call it!) up the road. It’s run by the Salesian order (the same order that runs the Centre where I work) and serves as the parish church until the new church is finished (half-built across the street). The mass started at 8 and finished at 10:15 – quite the ceremony! It was a high mass (everything being chanted) interspersed with hymns and various songs in the local dialect, sung by a very energetic choir. There was a bit of a theatrical set-up, the complete significance of which escaped me, which consisted of members of the choir entering the chapel from the back, leaning over towards the floor, chanting something in the local language and bursting out with “Hallelujah” every so often while waving what looked like mops in the air. Most amusing! There was quite a crowd there, of course, including a couple of my colleagues, who explained that the mass was held early so that the priests could then attend the midnight mass being celebrated at the Basilica by the papal nuncio. There was also a splendid crèche that had been made by a local sculptor.
I stayed up until just after midnight, chatting with Aurel, the night guard on duty (Lordy, how he talks!) and then opened my gifts – books, a 2008 calendar and the most exciting one which was the tub that held all my favourite candies: Mars bars (not soggy, fortunately!), Kraft caramels and jelly beans. Yum! I think the tub was the most appreciated! A good size and just the kind of thing that is needed. Tubs can be found here and are not too expensive, but there is not much variation in the size. I can’t find little jars (great crisis, of course!) in which to put the few spices that I’ve purchased, so I’ve been using the tubs for storing that kind of thing!
Christmas Day was spent doing nothing much – although I have to confess to doing a bit of work every day, since, although the Centre was closed, December 24, 26, 27 and 28 were not official holidays. I spent a lot of the time cleaning up documents that have to be ready for the end of February (and still lots to do), as well as revising a report whose first draft I’d submitted in June. You may remember that I went to Wales last spring for a week, and I had submitted the first draft soon after my return to Canada last June, but hadn’t heard anything back until a couple of days before leaving for here. So it had been sitting around looking at me with woebegone pages, while I wondered if I could still remember what I had meant by the various recommendations made in it! Life as a second language consultant seems so far removed now, that I think I’m forgetting everything that I knew on the subject of language teaching. I wish I could say that the brain content is being replaced by masses of technical knowledge, but I fear that that is not the case – yet! I’ve only just managed to figure out how to zip photo files!
Christmas dinner was quite a success, although I ate it alone. I managed to cook my leg of lamb – the oven will take some getting used to, as it has no indication of temperature (just hot and various gradations down to low), so I had to guess a bit about the temperature. I still have to buy some baking dishes, but managed to place the leg of lamb on the tray that comes with the oven – no grill, to my surprise, but I’ll see if I can find one somewhere. Most inconvenient not to have a grill, as it means that there is only one level that can be used in the oven. And no, no turkey story this year. Perhaps there will be one next year, but I was unable to find even a part of the said fowl. How sad!
Judith, the housekeeper who had been recommended by a former colleague here was away until after New Year’s. She moved from Douala, the economic centre of Cameroon, in order to start work with me and had decided that her children should remain in there until the end of the school year, so I gave her the week off, rather than put her to the expense of paying for two trips to Douala. She had suggested that she would come back for the Thursday and Friday between Christmas and New Year’s, but I thought that was a bit excessive. Amazing how these people feel that one can’t survive without help!
Speaking of help, we now have a third sentinel (I’ve decided that that is a great word!) – I’d given the thought some matter, since the two hired so far, Dahirou (I finally learned to spell his name!) and Aurel were each working seven days a week, a fact that caused me some discomfort, to put it mildly. Anyway, Aurel, who has decided that he’s the sentinel-in-chief, duly found a young man willing to be the replacement guard. Mustafa will be working two nights a week (replacing Aurel) and two days a week (replacing Dahirou) and a fifth day in order to get the washing done. No, I don’t have a washing machine, and Judith has a slightly handicapped left hand which makes it difficult to wash by hand. Plus, I imagine it’s not much fun, either! Anyway, Mustafa started work just before Christmas Eve, and I must that he’s a very conscientious fellow – in addition to doing the washing, while Judith’s been away he’s insisted on cleaning the house. No complaints from me, that’s for sure! He’s a very quiet young man, in his late twenties, with two children, one of whom, a daughter, lives with him. Aouah is just over four years old and an absolute sweetheart and has become an adoptive grand-daughter. Mustafa had been jobless for a while, so he’s delighted at having found work.
Aurel continues to be a live-wire, with dire warnings about security problems, and an incessant stream of demands – or perhaps I should say requests – he’s still angling for his TV (three mentions during the course of every evening that we chat). The TV is garnering even more importance as a great soccer tournament is about to start in Ghana on January 20 – The Africa Cup of Nations (I think). Obviously he doesn’t want to miss any of this, although I pointed out that he could listen to the matches on the radio. He doesn’t have a very high opinion of this, I must admit, although I have told him many times that I would find it difficult to purchase a TV for people who work for me, since I don’t own one and never watch it even if there’s one in the room. I also said that I’d been enquiring around and I haven’t heard of any sentinels who have TV provided by their employer. Dear, dear, what shall I do? Aurel also thinks that I should buy a phone for the sentinels so that they can call me if something happens during the day, etc. I told him that I wasn’t going for that, because then I’d be responsible for the bills. He’s also mentioned the fact that he’d like to have a digital camera, one that takes videos as well and can be recharged at the wall. Asked why, he explained that this would allow photography to become a source of income. He asked how much these cameras cost in Canada, and I said I would ask my wife to enquire and let him know. He wants me to purchase it and take out the price of his monthly income. Of course, he no doubts hope that I will be kind and offer it to him as a gift. And so on, and so on…. I tend to escape into my study shortly after his arrival, which means that my balcony time during the evenings is sorely curtailed. Sad, isn’t it?
The third sentinel, Dahirou, who was actually the first to be hired, had to be spoken to. He’s a very nice man, a tad obsequious mind you, but, alas, addicted to drink and to taking off at all times of the day when he’s supposed to be working. I caught him drinking on the job one day (I think he thinks I didn’t see the glass), and noticed that he was spending a lot of time at the snack bar (with a bottle of beer in front of him) during the day. The snack bar is in the same building as the apartment, and I can see it from the office (a fact of which Dahirou was unaware!). Difficult to be guarding the premises when one isn’t there and knocking back the beer elsewhere! Anyway, one morning I spoke to him, explaining that I realized that this might be the first time that he was being a sentinel, but that I expected him to stay put (the odd short excursion to get food being allowed), since that’s what I’m paying him for. I can understand that it can be a bit boring, as there is no garden to work over, but still… So far, it seems to have worked, but I did tell him that he was under observation – especially since I found empty sachets of whisky lying around one afternoon. Yes, my friends, whisky can be bought in little bags, about the size of those that contain towellettes, and there were quite a few bags around one day. It’s hard not to feel sorry for Dahirou, though, as he lives in a wooden shack just behind the Centre – it seems that he has another job (no idea how much it pays, but obviously not much!) looking after a half-completed house. The shack is more of a lean-to, actually, a bit depressing, and seems to be full of little children. I’m not sure if they’re his children or grandchildren, but anyway, as I said, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him – but nonetheless, I need him to do the work for which he’s being paid.
New Year’s was equally quiet, although I treated myself to some beer with my meal – one whole bottle. When I say quiet, I mean here in the apartment, where I saw the New Year in with Aurel and Mustafa. It was decided that two sentinels were needed on New Year’s Eve, with dire warnings from Aurel about young hoodlums coming home after the fireworks downtown. The snack bar (really, just a bar!) downstairs was doing roaring business, and I got a couple of loud invitations to come and join the festivities. Very kind, but no thanks, since I knew that I would end up paying for the whole night – and not my kind of scene anyway! It was fun to sit on the balcony (being pressed for a TV, etc) while watching dressed-up people on their way downtown, where there was a big party going on. Ladies are to be admired – teetering on extremely high heels over the rutted roads takes quite a lot of balance! The three of us listened to the President’s speech, who said that things had gone fairly well during 2007, not as well as he had hoped. He put out a call for action in 2008, putting his ministers on notice to get things done, as well as announcing that the fight over corruption was going to continue (Cameroon is in first place in Africa with respect to corruption, not a glorious record!). He also announced that, due to popular pressure, another look was going to be given to the Constitution in order to allow presidents to offer for more than two successive terms. Biya will be 77 when the next election comes around, and, of course, there is “popular pressure” to have him remain. They never learn… ah well. Biya is one of the “young” ones, he’s only been around for twenty-five years…
Hmm, what else has happened? Nothing exciting, really, except that I managed to get a hair-cut. Phew… I was starting to look very shaggy. In fact, I was starting to look a lot like Father Natalino, the director of the Centre, who boasts of a very shaggy head and long, long beard. This was no doubt why I was being called “Mon père” by people, so I wrote to a contact at the High Commission and asked the helpful lady if there was a salon that she could recommend for bald men. I was given directions and went there one morning, driven, as always, by the ever faithful Njikam. Very pleasant experience, thank you (the hair-cut, I mean). One is greeted by a charming lady, who gently leads one to the washing chair and then proceeds to wash the hair (the scalp, I suppose I should say!). Then, she gently escorts you to the coiffeuse’s chair, and sets you up with all kinds of do-dads around the neck. The coiffeuse then came over, with her tray of instruments – an equally charming lady, but older, with nicely streaked grey hair. I didn’t dare ask her if the grey was natural or not… Anyway, she asked me if I wanted it short, and I said yes. Mon Dieu…. Short it is! Basically, I got a buzz cut, nothing left to brush, in fact! I look even more like a père, I think! However, it was a relief to get shorn, and it wasn’t a bad price – about what I paid at home.
After the hair-cut, off I went to the various supermarkets and also to the libraries to exchange books. On the way to one of the libraries, I had a mishap, alas… I guess I wasn’t watching where I was putting my foot, trying to avoid passers-by and taxis etc, and I lost my balance and fell. My greatest fear, as I was falling, was that my glasses would break! Anyway, just a few scratches, and a bit of blood – two scrapes on my right hand (they looked rather ugly, I must admit, and a couple on my right knee – fortunately, I didn’t tear my trousers. Anyway, I nobly carried on to the library, got my new books, dropped in to a supermarket next door to the library, to pick up my weekly Jeune Afrique (a magazine like TIME, focusing on Africa) and a bit of food, all the while dripping blood from my right hand, and then got Njikam to take me to a pharmacy. There I got some rubbing alcohol and some iodine, as well as advice from the pharmacist about leaving the sores open to the air. Needless to say, it was a sore business cleaning up, but I got the dirt out, which was my main concern. I did this three times over the next twenty-four hours. Of course, I felt terribly sorry for myself as I hobbled around for a couple of days, but everything cleared up quickly. That will teach me to try to walk quickly!
And to top it all off, my favourite supermarket stocked maple syrup over Christmas – at a price, but I allowed myself to get some – yum! Far more expensive than wine, though….
The Centre re-opened on January 2, and I spent that day preparing for workshops that I ran on the Thursday and Friday. Part of my role is to offer pedagogical support, and, as the students were not returning until January 7, it seemed like a good occasion to offer a workshop, based on themes requested by my colleagues. This basically kept me busy – it was quite fun to lead a workshop after a few months of not doing so!
It’s been quite busy on the work front. As I mentioned briefly above, I’ve been working on these documents called “référentiels”, which are like curriculum guide outlines, and “documents d’accompagnement”, which are like the curriculum guides themselves. Quite a slog, although I have a lot of experience in the type of thing, but the subject matter is not in the least in my frame of reference! This is a sort of sub-project done to please the local Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, and the documents that we are working on are to be the template for myriad others that will be developed over the years. Basically, the Ministry gets all the work done by others and then validates it. The référentiels then become the master documents, I guess you could call it that, for any training establishment that wants to offer courses that meet Ministry guidelines. The Ministry will also offer national exams once in a while, so there is a “national interest” to all this.
In order to accomplish part of this task, the services of a local consultant were retained. The man has quite the pedigree, with a couple of Masters’ degrees (Université du Québec à Montréal and Université de Montréal, as well as a PhD from the University of Ottawa. He’s done a lot of consulting work for various Canadian firms as well as for the UN, and LearnSphere (the consulting firm that has hired me) asked him to carry out the work, as it was then understood to be: ie, consult the industry (employers) to see what it is that they are looking for in terms of technological employees (ie, secretaries, systems maintenance, etc.). Basically, the idea was to make a list of necessary skills, and then consult with trainers to see how these skills could be acquired (training modules). The referential lists the skills, if you like, and the document d’accompagnement lists the ways of getting the skills. It’s a bit more complicated than that, of course, but that’s basically it…
One of the minor problems with this whole mini project is that the demands of the Ministry changed from the time of awarding the contract to the time when the first documents appeared. I liked what I saw of the documents, and felt that, basically, all that was needed was some proof-reading (what else is new?), some formatting and then have someone who knows about the various technical courses go through it for consistency. After that, it would be a case of having the Ministry look things over and give it the final go-ahead. The idea also is that there would be some Canadian input and visible Canadian content. However, the new demands by the Ministry mean that there will be a bit more work to be done.
Other than proof-reading, I spent some time reformatting the documents to meet the ministry’s guidelines (new). There is a fairly short timeline for this part of the project, as everything has to be completed by the end of March, so the next few weeks will be quite busy with meetings and, no doubt, rewriting bits of the various documents, eighteen in all.
Other than that, life continues in its very relaxed way. It may sound as if I’ve been doing nothing but work, but there have been many hours spent sitting on the balcony, doing some reading. I think I’m reading more slowly, because I haven’t started a number of the books that I brought with me, nor the books that I received at Christmas. It is wonderful to have a job where most of the work can be accomplished within working hours – and no snow!!!
I’m not sure how often I will add to the blog in the next little while – not that I won’t want to, but I’m not sure to what extent you will all want to hear about the hum drum of daily life. Of course, if anything wildly amusing were to happen, I will add to the journal! In case you’re wondering, I’m consuming loads and loads of pineapples, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, and drinking lots of iced tea (hot tea in the mornings, though). Still having fun with the shower in the mornings!
Well, my friends, that about sums it up! Hope it hasn’t taken you too long to go through this, and also hope that things are going well with all of you. I do try to reply to e-mails, but until I get Internet at home, replies will be sporadic…
Cheers!
David
Bedroom
Kitchen
Kitchen
Living room
Living room.
Hallway (isn't it fascinating?).
Study
Colleagues at my housewarming party.
Colleagues at my housewarming party.
Before midnight, December 24.
After midnight, December 25.
Yum - Christmas dinner!
View from the balcony.
My building - the apartement is the one behind the long balcony.
View of my building - with the office building in the background!