November 6, 2006

It’s just normal…like Asian window decals and Nigerian Christian music turned up so loud you can’t understand a word…


So, like many things, the simplicity of daily conversations barely fazes me anymore. However, I feel it is my duty (in accordance with Peace Corps goal number three) to educate you, all my friends and family not in Cameroon, on some facts about the commonplace interactions that occur.

Person: “Ah, Miss Ally. You have come?”
Me: “Yes. I am here. How?”
Person: “No, fine. It is just normal. How for you?”
Me: “No, fine. It is going.”
Person: “So, you are here?”
Me: “Yes. I am just here.”
Person: “Ashia.”
Me: “Thank you.”
(Awkward silence)
Me: “Well, see you.”
Person: “Yes. Next time.”

So there is it everyone…amazing huh? It still strikes me as wonderful (wundaful too) that I can have a conversation and say only about ten different things. One key lesson learned is that when asked how you are, you always start with “no.” This indicates to the person who asked that, in fact, nobody has died. Neat.

Life in Ndu is fine. Same old. Aside from lots of travel coming up, both for holidays and Peace Corps stuff, I haven’t been doing much—planning a girls club that’s only happened once and continuing to plan our “hike tour” which may or may not actually happen in February—we’ll see! The rain is letting up; the dust is already piling up and my water supply dwindling. The neighbor kids are about to start working a lot harder to supply me enough water until I can get running water back (note, I’ve been saying this about the water coming back since March). But, thankfully, I am lucky enough to have wonderful missionaries with hot water heaters full of water that has been readily offered to me to use at my disposal. I may make it a weekly event. Showers at the Seminary…Maybe that’s what I’ll entitle my first novel! Now I’m rambling.

A recent discovery that I’d like to share is espn.com scoreboard. For a few of the past Sunday nights we’ve (we being my “trio” of Americans who also happen to be missing NFL—hi again, guys. Ashia) pulled it up and watched anxiously every two minutes or for each update—scores, yards, possession, etc. It’s almost like watching a game on TV…with a few minutes delay and no actual football. We’ll take what we can get at this rate! Go Broncos (and the Pack…we’re still hopeful).

That’s all from here…over and out.