07/02/08

Alright, today was much better. The last couple of days I've been adjusting a little bit, more so to the insect situation than the work situation, which remains dubious. But I had a good meeting with the head of VSO in Cameroon who was very focused, clear-headed and efficient, and it was useful to have a lengthy one-to-one with my Country Director. The VSO guy gave me some useful contacts and a lot of useful information, so I have a lot more to chew on now. And it turns out I will be having some kind of formal induction in the office after all so that's good. Plus I'm starting to find cheap ways to do things – 250CFA (30p) for rice, beans, fishy sauce and bread from a guy just outside the office, 200CFA for most taxi rides in a shared taxi. It's really good to know I can get by on so little if needs be. The taxi system is great – you just shout your destination and the price you want to pay at passing taxis and wait until one of them honks at you to confirm they'll take you. It's really quit efficient, although I've been warned that it gets dodgy at night – fake taxis who'll mug you.

I've taken my friend-finding efforts to new lengths. Last night I went out looking for somewhere to watch the England game, hoping to snare some kind of company in the process. I sat at a bar called JC, coke in hand, before realising that I was much too early and the game wasn't on for an hour and a half. After sitting there, very much resembling a lemon, for about 10-15 minutes a middle-aged woman who was patently drunk and had been shouting at the bar staff came over and asked me if I was waiting for someone. Clearly she saw fear in my eyes as she quickly emphasised that she was married. That was good enough for me and I joined her and her friend, who it turned out managed the place, for some broken French, good humour, food and drink until she got bored of me about 20-odd minutes later. They were both Moroccan and very pleasant. A big step up on no company at all.

Today I really stepped it up a notch. Besides untactfully mentioning to the VSO guy that I could use some company, I went onto Facebook and searched for 'Yaounde', which yielded about 450 people. I went through, picking anyone who looked western (white) and sending them a moderately pathetic message. As I said in the message, dignity is no obstacle at this point. From 9 messages sent I've had 4 replies so far, not bad at all. I will probably meet two and I tried to meet up with a third tonight. She told me she'd be out watching the Cameroon-Ghana match tonight with friends and later called to tell me they were in an area called Essos, in a bar called Phoenix. I had no clue where that is but figured it out eventually and took a taxi there with a bit of help from a local, only to realise that no-one in Essos had a clue what or where Phoenix is. I wandered back and forth a bit in the dark, asking people, but no joy. By this point the football was in full swing, and when there was a goal and people spilled out into the streets from a multitude of roadside bars, jumping, running and dancing, I realised it was time to call off the search and get quickly into one of these bars. I chose the noisiest, rowdiest one I could see and hovered for a while, to see if I could fit in, still a bit cautious. I'd been standing at the back for a few minutes when a couple of young kids hovered towards me carrying a chair and sweetly offered it to me. Nothing could have made me feel more welcome.

When the final whistle went and Cameroon had won the whole place went mental. Many people just jumped up and ran, knocking over their chairs, jumping, whooping into the street to join others running down the street with flags, shouting and cheering. Many started to dance manically to the music that immediately began pumping out of the stereo, while the older heads gathered in the corner looking serious and presumably discussing very important matters; who Cameroon would play in the final for example. Meanwhile groups of little kids got their groove on to the music, cars honked their horns constantly, people blew whistles and horns, and everyone wore a big fat grin. I've never seen anything quite like it. At one point I was walking up the street and the group of kids and teenagers running up and down the street ran directly towards me. I stuck out my hand and got a series of high fives, big grins and shouts. Later on another teenager befriended me and took my phone number, promising to call for the final so we could watch it together. Eventually I found the bar I was looking for but my Facebook acquaintance was no longer there. It really didn't matter, and I just took a taxi home.