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5:00 AM: I awake, to the sound of my neighbour’s radio, blasting it’s usually tune from across the street. Every day... the same tune. I rummage around for my ear plugs, shove them back in my ears and drift in and out of sleep for the next hour or so... fighting the comfort of my bed and the sounds of roosters and pigs and life and activity outside.
6:00 AM: I get up, finally. I chug some water and go for jog, dodging mud puddles and rocks, and greeting all the neighbours with a “goodmorning”. People shout: “Whiteman, you go for make sports?” And, sometimes, the children try to run along, giggling, behind me.
I get back home and attend my very own private yoga class (my yoga dvd) in my very own private yoga studio (my spare room, with a straw mat and towel on the floor, very luxurious yoga stretching and meditation). Then, as if I haven’t woken myself up enough... I enjoy a refreshing, freezing cold shower and prepare for the day. I usually pack some fruits and porridge for breakfast and munch on my home-made chapathis with fake nutella on top, Cameroonian styles.
I say “see ya later’ to all my neighbours, who are already outside and have been chopping wood and washing dishes and working for two hours already... and walk down to Mile II Junction and bargain with the usual moto guys. I hop on a motorbike for the bumpy ride through the bustling morning traffic to work... zooming past all those yellow taxis stuck in a pile up!
8:30 AM: I’ve arrived at work, NWADO – the North West Association of Development Organizations, and throughout the day, I will chit chat with my colleagues, review proposals, debate gender issues, plan activities, meet with member organizations, talk with VSO volunteers, edit documents, review our strategic plan, or facilitate workshops or meetings, you know... work stuff. I’ll just leave it like that.
12:30 PM: I’m hungry. So, I’ll usually slip out across the street to “Central Restaurant”, where I’m greeted with “Sister, sister, long time.” (Even though I’m there all the time!) It’s where one can find the best food in Bamenda, (even vegetarian-friendly options) and I’ll have an omelette or salad or beans and rice or njama njama or maybe ndole for lunch... with nice, fresh fruit juice too, usually pineapple or papaya and if mango’s are in season, that’s my favourite.
4:30 PM: By now, I’m heading out of the office and perhaps I’ll wander down the big hill into town to do a few errands in the shops or head to the hectic food market and buy some nice fresh veggies and green chillies and garlic to cook something scrumptious for dinner. The vendors say: “Sister, sister, nice carrots today”. I’ll put them all in my back pack and hop on another motorbike to get home. Many people will request that I “Dash” them my helmet or “whiteman, you buy, you buy!”, but I just keep mov’n. It’s usually a tough bargain to get the right price on a motorbike home, but I stand my ground... convincing them that “I no be stranger for town, I pay 250 francs every day.” I walk home from the junction, on the opposite side of the street from the bars, that are now filling up with men having their after-work beers. Later on, perhaps I’ll go for a walk, observe a football game taking place, visit my neighbours and watch Spanish soap operas, play peek-a-boo with the local children, or even visit the call box. If it’s Friday, then, I’ll head to the International Hotel for beers and talk over the week’s events (or lack there of... hehe), with my VSO volunteer colleagues (there’s almost 30 of us in the North West Region now!).
6:00PM: I’m cooking dinner and thoroughly clean-up the kitchen, in an attempt to reduce the interest of mice and cockroaches... ewwwww. I sit down with a glass of wine and eat my usually Indian-veggie cuisine, while watching a movie or reading a book. Sometimes, (a lot lately) under candle light, cause the electricity is OUT.
9:00 PM: I read in bed and contemplate the day’s adventures, put those ear plugs back in and to the sound of the thump thump of my neighbours’ music, crying babies, a mice stampede overhead, and shouting on the street, I eventually drift off to sleep, ready to do it all over again the next day.
5:00 AM: ...
