Yaoundé, June 19, 2008

Greetings!

It has been a longer silence than planned originally, I must admit, and as a consequence this will be a very long posting. A lot has happened, some amusing and some not so amusing! Of course, things happened at the same time, but I’ve separated the various narratives for ease of reading.

I left you with a promise of amusing stories about the move that finally took place on May 24, much later than I’d hoped, so I’ll start with that. The constant delays in fixing up the little bits in the house were starting to annoy me, to put it mildly, but things finally worked out, and the important repairs were made (including a leak in the water system!). But, alas, no funny stories to tell about the move – it all went smoothly, to my amazement!

Roger had said that they would start moving stuff at 7 a.m., starting with the furniture that had been stored at the Centre. I took that to mean that things wouldn’t get going until at least 8 a.m., so was quite happily taking my time doing the final packing at the apartment (checking cupboards, etc), while waiting for Judith to show up – she wanted to do a final look-around before heading off to the new place to supervise things at that end.

At precisely 8 a.m., two of my colleagues showed up, Raoul, the Teacher Supervisor at the Centre, and Manga, one of its carpenters. They were carrying a long aluminium ladder, and announced that the furniture from the Centre was on its way to the new house, and they were at the apartment to start shifting stuff downstairs. So, that’s what they did! Judith showed up in the middle of this, took a quick look around, and decided that she’d better hurry off to the new place before “these men” put things in the wrong place!

The truck showed up at about 9; Raoul and Manga, helped by Njikam and Simplice (my two taximen), whom I’d hired for the morning to transport delicate stuff, had everything downstairs, except for the huge china cabinet, which had to be levered over the balcony and down to the neighbour’s courtyard, as it was too big to fit down the spiral staircase. Hence the need for the ladder. This operation was more scary than funny, I must confess, but it went very smoothly. The ladder was set up against the wall, coming up to just below the balustrade of the apartment, and a second ladder, borrowed from Dahirou (it was sitting in our courtyard), set up next to it. Roger climbed up one ladder, and a young man called Dieudonné climbed up the second ladder, and a third young man, whose name I don’t know, stood behind the ladders. Then the fun began – I started off by saying I couldn’t afford hospital stays for anyone, so please be careful, which, of course, was the cause of much merriment combined with scornful glances – I mean, they knew what they were doing! So, the cabinet was lifted head over heels over the balustrade, with three chaps holding on to it (fortunately, it has little shelves on the side that afforded a good grip), and it was slowly lowered down (no ropes!) until the two men on the ladders could get hold of it. It was then lowered down slowly, rung my rung, until the chaps on the balcony could no longer hold on to it, at which point the chappie behind the ladder took over. The whole operation took less than 5 minutes, and I’m sure that it was easier to take away than it had been to put it in the apartment in the first place.

So, there we were! Everything out of the apartment, and, as always when involved with moves, I was amazed at the amount of stuff that had accumulated!

At the house, Judith marshalled the forces and I must say she did a good job of that! She had all the men working up a sweat… She had brought along one of her cousins, Frédéric, to help with the unpacking and various things that need to be done when moving in. André was co-opted to go and clean the apartment and duly went off to do so, taken there and back by Njikam. Simplice, meanwhile, was put to work, along with Frédéric, cleaning windows and washing floors. I was surprised that Simplice accepted, I must admit, since I figured he’d want to get back to driving his taxi. In my case, I was firmly told that I was the boss and to go and sit on the little veranda and stay out of the way. I would be called if needed! By the end of the afternoon, the heavy work was done, my helpers left and I spent the rest of the day unpacking suitcases and various boxes.

I must say that I felt a bit lost in the vast expanse of space that was suddenly mine, but it hasn’t taken long to get used to it! It took a couple of days to figure out where to put all the furniture as there is so much of it, but it was finally done. The walk to work is a bit longer, a good ten minutes rather than one, but I’m sure that I’ll survive!

Speaking of work, things have been busy on that front as well. A number of colleagues from Canada “dropped in” to provide training in various areas. It took quite a bit of logistical juggling to arrange the various training sessions, since members at the Centre all wear several hats and were to receive training in two or three areas at the same time. Still, it all worked out, with colleagues duly trained in publicity and marketing, team work and various administrative practices.

It was also time for the annual meeting of the project’s Board of Directors, and there was a fair amount of preparation involved for that. LearnSphere, the organization that hired me for this job, also has a project in Douala, and it had been decided that, accompanied by Père Natalino, the director of the Centre, and by Spyros, chair of Technology Department, I would go to Douala to get to know the people there. It is hoped that we can set up a partnership with the other establishment that offers training in a number of areas, including information technology.

Douala is about 250 km from Yaoundé, and I must admit that I was pleased to be able to get out of the capital and glimpse a bit of the country! I went down to Douala with my Canadian colleagues, in a Toyota 4 X 4 (very comfortable, I must admit!) that we rented from the Canadian High Commission (a service they offer) and we arrived at about 4 p.m. The hotel where we were staying is in the administrative quarter of Douala, and I had time to wander around a bit before it got dark. Very nice area, I must admit, well-kempt. As Douala is the economic capital of the country, there were an awful lot of huge stores and, of course, many businesses of various sorts. Our meeting was held the next morning, and I returned to Yaoundé right after lunch, driven this time by Roger in the Centre’s pick-up, accompanied by Spyros and le père. The trip back took less time than the trip down, as Roger drives like yours truly! The countryside is very lush, but as the road is built through various valleys as it climbs to Yaoundé (700 m above sea level), there were no stupendous views.

On the home front (apartment), things were relatively quiet during the first few weeks of the month. Aurel, one evening, asked for leave to go and visit his sick mother in Ebolowa (120 km away) as he had just found out that she was in a coma. What could one say? So I told him to go ahead and made arrangements with André to stand guard in his place. Aurel tried to wheedle some money out of me prior to his departure, and managed to get 5000 francs (about $12.50), although I’d announced at the beginning of the month that there would be no cash for extra help this month. On his return, a couple of days later, he tried to get me to agree to purchase about $200 worth of medication for his mother, but I said (truthfully) that I didn’t have that kind of money. I was also not very pleased with Aurel at this point, so it was easier to refuse him. Read on…

André, therefore, stood guard at the apartment for the time that Aurel was away. On the Thursday evening, Aurel called me to say that he was back in town, but, poor wee man, all wet because he’d been caught by the rain just as he was returning, and of course was tired, etc, etc., so could he have the night off? I agreed, although I knew that André would be late that evening, since his wife had been taken to hospital that morning – it was only after I’d agreed to give Aurel yet another night off (am I too kind?), that André called to say that his wife, Josiane, had given birth (a bit prematurely) to a big healthy boy, and was Aurel coming in? I congratulated André, and said that I’d just given Aurel permission to stay away, but that André didn’t have to come in, given the circumstances. The apartment was fairly secure, being on the second floor and with numerous doors and locked gates, so I wasn’t particularly worried about being unguarded for one night. So that was that… At about 11 p.m., André showed up after all, to my surprise. He was both delighted at being a new father and annoyed at Aurel, whom he’d called after talking to me, explaining his situation to Aurel and would Aurel be so kind as to go and do his job instead of yet again taking time off. Aurel, of course, (selfish of him) refused. I wasn’t too pleased either – so much for solidarity (about which Aurel talks a lot) among the guards. Of course, if I’d thought of it, I should have been the one to call Aurel to countermand my previous permission, but anyway… Aurel, as a consequence, was not in my good books for a while.

Now, to get to the main happening of the month of May! Good time for a break, my friends!

May 20, a Tuesday, was a national holiday (National Day), and the Monday had also been declared a day off so that “the people” would have a good long weekend. One of my colleagues from Canada (providing training) was still in town, and as her flight wasn’t until the Monday evening, we had agreed to meet over lunch to discuss her week here and what she was going to propose in the area of marketing and publicity. It was also a way for me to find out what I should be doing in that area (i.e. making sure things get done). After lunch, driven as almost always by Njikam, I went by the bank to check on the account balance at the ATM. Yes, there are ATMs here, but one has to visit the bank building to use it.

That done, the wallet in which I keep the bank card and my credit card (should I need it) went back in the pocket where it lives (you can see what’s coming, can’t you?) because Njikam, bless his heart, noticed me putting it in there. I asked him to drop me off at the office because I wanted to check e-mails as it wasn’t a holiday in Canada. I didn’t stay long at the office, perhaps forty-five minutes, and then went back to the apartment, where Dahirou, on duty, was sleeping as usual! And as usual, I took out my identity card and the wallet from my shirt pocket and put them on the desk. (One has to have one’s identity card at all times.) I eventually put the wallet in my briefcase, where it normally lives. The briefcase, you see, never leaves my hands when I go to and from the office, and I lock the office when I leave it, no matter for how short a time.

My evenings are usually occupied with doing a bit of work (the occasional e-mail requiring quiet thinking in order to reply), playing solitaire and, when possible, doing a bit of reading. I say “when possible”, because Aurel does tend to come in and yak away at me, instead of guarding, a fact that I had pointed out to him often, to no avail!

This being a Monday evening, Aurel was in and out a lot, since he hadn’t seen me all weekend, poor man! I can’t remember exactly what he was on about that evening, but it concerned, it seems to me, another money-making project with me as main investor – he does have a lot of ideas in that area, all destined to separate me from my money. He was also hoping, I believe, that I’d “found” some money to help him out with his mother’s medical bills and his own, etc, but I was quite adamant that I had no money for that kind of thing. In desperation, I showed him the pictures of the flood in Fredericton and explained that there was damage to the house back in Canada and that life was going to be tight while we paid for repairs. I couldn’t think of anything else to do to get him off my back, and I must admit I get annoyed at his constant begging, given that he’s very well paid compared to the others. And anyway, Aurel wasn’t in good odour at that point anyway, as related above.

Tuesday, I stayed at home all day, pottering around (making iced tea and other concoctions), reading, napping, playing solitaire etc. I think I did a bit of work, planning my future training sessions. Nothing too taxing as you can see. It was Mustafa’s day on, and washing day, so he was in and out of the apartment in the early morning taking the clothes out, along with the wash tubs, the soap powder, etc, etc. He was also in and out of the apartment in the late afternoon, when everything comes back in. And, as usual, he was in his cups, as far as I could tell. He has a different way of walking when he’s had a couple of drinks (or recovering from the night before, perhaps) and mumbles even more. Aurel, of course, was in that evening, in and out, although not as often as usual.

Wednesday morning rolled around, and off I went to the office and followed the usual routine of turning on the computer, emptying my briefcase of necessary work papers to put in piles of “things to finish off that day”; knowing that I was going to the bank later on, I looked for the wallet in its usual place – chequebook and receipt book present, but no wallet. Annoyed with myself for having left it at home, I went to the morning assembly, a daily occurrence, before moseying back to the apartment to pick up the wallet. Poor Dahirou, on duty on Wednesdays, wondered what I was up to, since I don’t usually come home at 8:15 in the mornings and I’d interrupted his (first) nap! And, my friends, you guessed it, the wallet wasn’t there! I started to panic, I must confess (who wouldn’t?), and looked all over the desk, under every sheet of paper, in the couple of books that were on the desk, under the desk, under chairs, etc. No wallet. So off I went, back to the office to do a more thorough search.I emptied the briefcase, literally turning it inside out, picked up every sheet of paper that had been on the various desks (I have a computer desk, a paper desk and a conference table in my office), looking everywhere I could think of, in case I had taken the wallet out of my pocket while I’d been at the office on the Monday (although it would have gone in the briefcase had I done that). Couldn’t find it! So, still in a panic, I called Njikam and went to the bank to report the loss of my bank card, before anyone could use it. Of course, it’s totally useless unless one knows the PIN, and the PIN was in my head; on the other hand, I’m told that sharp people with special equipment can decode these things, and at that point I wasn’t thinking very straight. This is when Njikam confirmed that he’d seen me put the wallet back in my pocket on the Monday.

At the bank, they blocked the card right away, and said that a new one would be issued right away, but that it would take 10 days for it to arrive, as the cards are manufactured in Ghana. This didn’t represent a huge problem, since I can check the balance at the reception desk and withdraw money in person if necessary. I then went back to the office (it was about 10:30 or so), went through the office and briefcase again; at that point, I remembered the credit card, and tried calling the VISA number in Canada to report its loss. As often happens in these cases, I was put on hold, and there was no way I could wait for an hour or so while paying for an international phone call! So I e-mailed Marion and asked her to call VISA to report the loss. This was done, and a temporary block was put on the card. After doing this, I went back to the apartment to do a thorough search there again, waking Dahirou once more (this didn’t help my temper, I must confess). Judith, just so you know, wasn’t around since I’d given her the long weekend off so that she could go and visit her family in Ebolowa, and I wasn’t expecting her back until that afternoon. I went through the home office again, and then through the whole apartment, looking in every shirt and trousers’ pocket, poked around in the fridge (stranger things have happened!), rummaged through the garbage can (well, I said I looked everywhere!) wearing a plastic bag over my hands as I did that. Still nothing. By then, my panic had subsided, since I knew the cards couldn’t be used, although it meant that I didn’t have access to personal funds, but that was a minor problem. Annoyance and anger were the order of the day at this point. At one o’clock, I decided I might as well go back to work, and left the apartment, telling Dahirou, rather shortly, I must admit, that I was calling a meeting for 6 p.m. (when Aurel arrives) and would he tell Mustafa when the latter dropped in, as he did most days.

Of course by this time, since I hadn’t been able to find the cards during my various searches, I was convinced that they had been stolen. During the course of the day on Tuesday and the two evenings (Monday and Tuesday), it would have been possible for either Aurel and Mustafa to have come in while I was in the bathroom, having a nap (during the day) or having one of my showers (May 20 was quite hot, so I had a mid-day shower as well). Dahirou might have entered the apartment on the Monday afternoon, but as he has never done so before, I didn’t really suspect him. Plus, there wasn’t much time for him to pop in and out after my return home on the Monday and his departure, and he always stays downstairs when he’s on guard (sleeping!).

Back at the office, I went through everything again in the vain hope that I’d missed a spot, but no luck. I then whipped off three dismissal letters and showed them to my colleague Achille, who has a diploma in Human Resources management and knows the various ins and outs of the Labour Law. I asked him if I had the right to go ahead with instant dismissal of the guards, given the circumstances, and he said yes. Roger, whom I’d called of course, came in and said that he thought that I should simply announce that I was missing my wallet, since I had no proof that anyone had taken it and there was still a possibility that I’d find it. By then, of course, my anger had abated somewhat, so I thought that Roger’s suggestion made sense.

At about 2:30, I went back to the house, just to have another look, and Judith, who had returned, helped me look everywhere again. She was aghast, of course.

That evening, then, all four guards were there – I’d dropped in on André during the day, just in case I had dropped the wallet at the house on a previous visit – and I simply announced that the item was missing, that I had last seen it on my desk in the house on the Monday afternoon. I asked for help in finding it, and Roger, in his imitable way, said that if the wallet reappeared then there would be no problems. I also stated that the cards were useless now, but that, unfortunately, the loss of the cards meant that I couldn’t withdraw money from my bank account in Canada, and that as a consequence, I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to pay them. Of course, everyone protested innocence and tried to blame the others, which was really not a very nice show of solidarity.

Once the meeting was over, Roger came up to the apartment, and together, we went through everything again, including boxes that I’d packed in preparation for the move that was coming up. We upturned sofas, looked inside them, felt all along the cushions, etc. Nothing to be found. We sat around for a bit and then Roger sat up straight and asked me to write my name down on a piece of paper and then the names of the four guards a bit further down on the same sheet. He said he had an idea and was off to consult someone. He didn’t say anything more than that. He asked if I had any money for a taxi, and as I had none, I called Simplice to ask if he could come by (Njikam stops working at 6, he told me) and take Roger wherever it was he wanted to go. Simplice, bless his heart, wasn’t far away and duly came by. I told him I couldn’t pay him until later, and explained why, and this didn’t bother him at all, although he too was aghast by this event. By this time, it was about 7:30, I think.

Roger was no sooner away than Aurel was up and full of anger and sorrow at the loss, protesting his innocence, saying that he was an honest man and what a shame the whole world wasn’t like him. Anyway, he didn’t stay long, and went back downstairs, where he promptly lay down under the stairs and fell asleep, as I discovered later! Honestly… At about 8:30 or so, Roger came back and I had to go down to let him in, which is how I found out that Aurel was quite fast asleep! Roger looked quite stern, and asked if I would allow him to go away with Aurel and the other three. So Aurel was awakened (another black mark!), and Roger went off to find Dahirou and Mustafa and to pick up André. All Roger said was that they were off to consult “seers”. I began to wonder what Roger was up to, but as he is an honourable man and has the full confidence of the père, I didn’t say anything. They left, and I went back in, locking the whole place up. By 11:30, they weren’t back, so I went to bed. I heard the bell at about 1 a.m., which was Aurel’s way of letting me know he was back, but I didn’t open the door, just rolled over and went back to sleep.

It was quite late for me when I opened the doors on the Thursday morning at 7, as I usually open them at about 6. Aurel was still around (he usually leaves at 5:30 if not earlier!), waiting to speak to me. He seemed quite upset about the doings of the night before (he didn’t go into details, I got those later), and said that nothing like this had ever happened to him, protested his innocence again, saying that he wouldn’t jeopardize his job that allowed him to put food on the table in front of his children, etc. He added that he hoped that I didn’t think he was the guilty one. I think I remained fairly stony-faced throughout all this, just saying that whatever had taken place the previous evening had been Roger’s idea and that I was simply concerned about recuperating my cards. Aurel went on to say that all these people, the seers, were charlatans, at least the ones in town, and that the only good ones could be found in villages, and that he was sure that it was a set-up by the others, since some of the seers spoke the same dialect as Dahirou and Mustafa, etc. etc. At this point, I had no idea what had happened the night before, but from the way he talked, it was obvious that whatever had been done had pointed to Aurel as the guilty party. I must admit, that’s what I thought too, and here’s why (I’ll resume the narrative in a bit!).

Back in January or February, on one of his forays into the apartment to talk to me, Aurel had noticed the wallet sitting on the desk and, as ever curious about everything (“I need to know everything in order to guard you better”) had asked me what it was. I just said that it contained my bank card that allowed me to withdraw money from the bank account, and didn’t add anymore. Of course, I should just have said that it was none of his business, but I must confess that I didn’t see any harm in telling him in a general way what the card was for. Ah, he said, I’d like to have a card like that, you can just take money out when you need it. I laughed, and said that one had to have money in the bank in order to use the card, left it at that and put the wallet in the briefcase. So, as you see, he knew what the wallet contained and that it allowed this miraculous operation at the bank. Not that this knowledge makes him the guilty one, but it does point to him, in a way.

Back to the narrative…

Anyway, once Aurel had gone, I went off to the office. Roger popped in shortly after the morning assembly, and said that he’d asked Simplice to come back in that morning so that consultations with the seers could continue. Aurel, who had complained to Roger also that it was a set-up, wanted the group to continue consultations, but with seers that he (Aurel) would choose, or at least that none of the group would choose. I found out later that Aurel had called one of his aunts who had recommended a particular lady seer, and I guess that, at Aurel’s insistence, that’s where the group went first (without Roger, who had to work). André told me later that the aunt had sent along her son to show them the way to the first seer, who refused to hear the case (as it were) and she sent them off to another person. It seems that Aurel mentioned Judith during the consultations, and the second seer said that it was a lady that had touched the card. Well… So, Aurel called Roger who came to see me to ask if Judith would join the group for the next few consultations. I said I had no objections if Judith was willing, but that I didn’t see the point, since she hadn’t been around until the Wednesday afternoon. I called Judith to see how she felt about it, and she said why not? So, off they all went again, still with Simplice. I guess they went to see three other seers, and all of them fingered Judith as the guilty one! André told me afterwards that they were all aghast (other than Aurel) since they knew that she couldn’t be the guilty one (André, confirmed by Simplice later on, said that Aurel found a way, each time, of somehow implicating Judith).

At noon, Simplice called to say that he was at the Centre’s gate and could he see me for a bit. When I went out, I found Roger there as well, along with Aurel, who was talking furiously to Roger. The latter dismissed Aurel, and came over to tell me that the day’s seers had all fingered Judith! I was furious, of course, and pointed out that she couldn’t have done it. Roger suggested that Judith might have come back on the Monday, since Aurel claimed to have seen her going into the apartment that afternoon (!!!!!). I pointed out to Roger, quite forcefully, I think, that a) Judith had been taken to the bus station by Njikam on the Friday, accompanied by one of my Canadian colleagues, who had bought her ticket and seen her on the bus; b) I had given Judith the whole long weekend off, until the Wednesday afternoon; c) that Judith had not been in the apartment until Wednesday afternoon, and that Dahirou could confirm that, and since I’d been in and out of the apartment many times on the Wednesday, d) how would Judith know that the card was waiting to be picked up, since to my knowledge she has never seen it, since the card was always with me or in the briefcase and e) this was another example of Aurel’s lying. I added that it was strange that the previous evening’s seers had all fingered Aurel and that Thursday’s had all fingered Judith, leading me to the conclusion that it was difficult to believe in these people. Anyway, we left it at that, I saying that there was nothing more to be done and since the cards were useless in any case, there was no more need to worry. They’d eventually be replaced. So that was that.

Aurel was quite cheerful on Thursday evening, marvelling at the wonderful “charlatans”, which is what they call them, who had pointed out who the real culprit was. This was a change from his story in the morning, where none of the “charlatans” were any good, and the only good ones were to be found “au village”. I didn’t say anything, I must admit, just didn’t react, even to his professions of loyalty. Maybe I should have, but I wanted to see how things would play out later on. And of course, mulling over what was going to be done about this parlous state of things!

The following morning (we are now Friday, the day before the move), I went around to the house at about 7:30 to wait for the plumber whom I had called to set up the outside toilet (at my expense, to be subtracted from the next rent payment) and to have a chat with André, who’d phoned me to say that there was a lot to talk about. It was quite interesting, as André told me what had happened both on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. He’s the one who explained the seer’s way of working. It seems that, of course, there are incantations of some sort, and a circle is drawn on the ground. Two small brooms are just outside the circle. Then each person asks “Did I take the wallet” and tries to enter the circle. Innocent people manage to get in, but guilty persons are blocked by the brooms that emanate some kind of force against nasty people – or so André said. And you can’t force the brooms to let you through. One wonders how it works! On the Wednesday evening, all the brooms had blocked Aurel, and on the Thursday morning, they had blocked Aurel (once) and Judith twice, although all the seers claimed (on the Thursday) that Judith was somehow involved. The first time that Judith was blocked was at the seer that had been warned of their arrival… (André thinks that the aunt called the first seer to warn her, and thinks that this seer warned the second one; and if you can follow all this, you’re doing well!). André also went into detail about the way in which Aurel had behaved, making sure that he (Aurel) was the one to explain the situation and making sure that Judith’s name was mentioned. It was at this point, I gather, that Aurel mentioned he’d seen Judith entering the apartment on the Monday. Most distasteful… Dahirou, poor wimp, didn’t have the courage to contradict him on this point. Earlier, when I’d mentioned to Roger that Dahirou should be able to confirm that Judith had NOT appeared on the Monday, Roger had said that perhaps Dahirou had left the compound, as he did often…

The plumber duly arrived, and shortly after him, Njikam, since I’d called the latter to show up, knowing that we’d have to go and get bits and pieces to finish the plumbing job. So off we went, leaving André to guard the house. It took us about an hour to get everything that was needed, and when we got back, Judith was there. Not a happy lady, to put it mildly, although, thankfully, she wasn’t mad at me. She was just plain furious at Aurel (and Roger for having the idea of consulting these people). While the plumber was doing his thing, Judith, André and Njikam let off steam about Aurel – I hadn’t realized to what extent the man had had such a negative effect on everyone. Njikam, of course, knows Aurel from the latter’s mother-in-law experience, and told us some of the tall tales that Aurel graced them with; André talked about a few incidents where Aurel had tried to implicate André (like the time he tried to get André to say that Aurel had been around to see André in the middle of the night, one of the times Aurel left early) and so on. By the time the plumber had finished, everyone had calmed down, and I had reached the decision that Aurel would have to go along with the other two – if only because there would be no harmony in the Macfarlane household if he were to remain employed there. In addition, I would never be sure if he were staying around all night (awake or sleeping!) and, to be honest, the accusation against Judith still rankled, not to mention his unwillingness to help André in his time of need.

Once the move was over, on the Saturday, I told Dahirou that he had the week off and asked him to tell Mustafa the same, and said that I hoped to be able to have access to funds to pay him by Friday. Dahirou was quite delighted to have the time off, although he seemed to be a bit puzzled. I explained, as I’d done to Aurel on the Friday evening, that it would be good to take a break from each other and that this was a good time to do it, since I was paying André to be sentinel 24/7 until the end of May.

So, on the Thursday of that week (the last week of May), I prepared my little envelopes, along with testimonials for the three soon-to-be-fired sentinels. I checked with Achille, the human resources expert, to make sure that I was acting correctly, and was reassured that I was acting properly and in accordance with a) the Labour Code and b) the contracts that I had drawn up.

On the Friday morning, I sent a message to Aurel, from whom I hadn’t heard all week, asking him to show up at 1:30, and left a message for Dahirou and Mustafa at the local bar, where they were sure to be at some point. Aurel showed up first, shortly after 1, signed all the receipts etc and then sat down and asked about the schedule at the new house. I must say that I wasn’t looking forward to this particular interview. I told him gently that I was handing him his month’s notice, as per our contract, and that he should spend the month looking for other work (i.e., he would have two months in which to do so, June and July). He looked quite stunned, although I think he may have been expecting the move (he’s not stupid, to say the least, and certainly very foxy and, as recounted before, quite a good actor). Mustafa, reeking of drink (the secretary even said so to him!) was waiting for me as Aurel left, took his money, and wasn’t surprised when I said that I wasn’t renewing his contract. He announced that he was taking his children away and going back up north, shook hands and teetered away. Finally, Dahirou came in, took his money, took the news of the non renewal of his contract quite well (obviously expecting it), and left. The ordeal wasn’t too bad, I guess, although not a pleasant task to accomplish.

I guess that’s the end of that saga, for now… At the time of writing, I’m still waiting for my new bank card, and the new VISA card is waiting for me in Fredericton… and at the house are Judith, André and her cousin Frédéric, whom I’ve decided to try out as a day sentinel. I’ve also hired a chap called Umaru to be a night guard two nights a week, to give André some time off. Umaru is one of my carpenter colleagues who was looking for a way to make a bit of extra cash and has worked as a night guard before.

On a more exciting front, I was able to get out of town again! Woo-hoo! The Centre arranged an end-of-year activity for its staff and although attendance was not compulsory, I thought it would be a good thing to participate, especially as there was a training session (another one!) on team-building, so I decided I should be part of the team. We went to Kribi, a port south of Douala, which boasts, I am told, the best beaches in Cameroon. The Salesian brothers have a sort of summer camp (it’s always summer!) about 10 km out of Kribi and that’s where we stayed. We left on Friday morning, June 6, I sitting in the cab the big truck (yes, it’s the truck used for children and for moving my stuff, you see the kind of thing, open top, rickety), and came back on Sunday. I very much wanted to sit in the back of the truck with the majority of my colleagues, but this was vetoed by all, alas! Probably just as well, as it was very sunny and I would no doubt have got a deeply sunburned during the 5-hour trip (that long because of various stops along the way). Kribi is also about 250 km away from Yaoundé.

Once we arrived at the “camp”, we duly set up. There are two huge dormitories, each for 50 persons, as well as a number of smaller rooms, one of which was given to me. First on the agenda was a visit to the beach for a couple of hours, where a good time was had by all, followed by a meal – yum, spaghetti with a very palatable sauce, which made a change from the eternal fish and chicken served at all other meals I’ve had here. After supper, we went out on the town – honour was salvaged and I was allowed to travel in the back of the truck, woo-hoo! Of course, there was not much to be seen, as all was dark, and we were deposited on the main drag of the town, where we all promptly retired to various bars and sat drinking our beer for a couple of hours before returning to the “camp” for lights out at 10:30.

Saturday dawned clear (in fact, it didn’t rain at all while we were there, a fact for which travellers in the truck were very grateful!), and a bunch of us went down to the beach as soon as we got up. This energetic action was followed by breakfast (a baguette each, with chocolate spread), and then followed by the training session that had been planned – a session on team work. This was going along really well when, all of a sudden, there appeared a vision straight out of my past! A priest, decked out in black surplice and broad-brimmed hat, wandered in, wished us all good morning, and sailed into the back of the office. We all murmured good morning and watched, mesmerized, as dozens more surplice-clad men billowed in, together with one nun. There were 120 of these priests – actually, it turned out that they were seminarians – in for a few days of rest and recreation prior to final exams. What a hoot! It seems that they had booked for the Sunday, but decided to come on the Saturday, without checking first, and were quite surprised to find people in THEIR camp! The meeting broke up, of course, as we tried to figure out what to do, since there wasn’t enough space for all these people. Ultimately, we moved “our women” out of one of the dormitories and into the smaller rooms (moving beds too), and “our men”, including me, moved into the other dormitory. This left the seminarians with about 50 beds for 120 people, but we figured they could work out their own problems! This was all done in highly good humour, of course, although Père Natalino was a bit put out that the team-building effort couldn’t be finished. Such is Africa, he said…

The town of Kribi itself, where we spent Saturday afternoon, isn’t spectacular, but a pleasant spot, nonetheless. All flat, of course, with a couple of markets and some interesting shops. I didn’t get to see the whole place, unfortunately, although I’m told that it’s quite the touristy place. The port is to be expanded, I’m told, so the town could grow quite a lot over the next few years.

***
At the moment, I’m deep in planning for a training session that I am to offer from July 28 to 31, making sure that I apply lessons learned from the training session that I have just finished facilitating (two days last week). The Centre will be very quiet as my colleagues will all be on vacation, and I’ll be left holding the technological fort! What a laugh!

Well, my friends, that brings you up to date. There may be one more posting before July 31, when I leave for a three-week break in Canada, but I am making no promises. As always, I’ll let you know when the posting is posted!

Cheers!

David