We had a moderately busy weekend, particularly by our own current a standards, as weekends are sometime rather quiet round here. On Friday afternoon, there was a march in Buea. The Tole Tea workers were striking, as they haven't been paid for some time (some say a week, a month, a year - no idea what the truth of it is).
We got post!
There are quite a few packages we've been waiting for, so we've been going to the Post Office once a week, each time to be greeted by an entirely empty PO Box.
Then today...
Five packages!
They're all stamped with 28th August, Douala, so either they all arrived at once in Douala (which is unlikely since some packages were posted several weeks apart), or they've all been sitting around in Douala for weeks. I suppose they do periodic shipments up from Douala to Buea.
We went to Douala for a few days last week, which is the economic capital of Cameroon (the big city...) Douala's not too far from Buea, but it's on the coast and at sea level, so it's a lot hotter than Buea. It was nice to get some sun, though we did get caught out without our umbrella and got soaked.
Sunday, rather than Saturday seems to be the main day for footie here in Cameroon, which as it turns out, is rather handy, because I can play footie while Hev goes to church. I've started going down to the main stadium in Buea on Sunday mornings to play in a training game for a football club.
(I'm not quite sure which football club it is, but I'm making arrangements to join. This has all been arranged by my New Best Friend Didimus, the man is a star.)
Well, the inevitable has happened: someone's tried to convert me to Christianity. I suppose in a way I'm surprised it's taken this long, but I do find it quite annoying.
The guy's a friend of Genesis', his name's Pastor Moses (so I suppose the name did give me some forewarning). He dropped in on me in the office and asked about my ministry or something (I'm not really up on the terminology).
So big decision number two of McClaren's reign is something of a stinker as well. All this stuff about dropping Beckham to prove McClaren is his own man is bollocks. This is exactly what Eriksson would have done: a big gesture to please the fans and make a statement of independence - classic Sven.
So Mclaren's gone for John Terry as England captain. It's not a decision you can really quarrel with, I'm sure Terry will do a good job, but personally I'd have preferred Steve Gerrard to get the gig.
Partly this is because I like Gerrard more than Terry as a player and as a person (not that I've ever met either of them, but hey...), but also I think Gerrard would do more to fire the team up when it needs it (as they certainly needed it this summer...).
We've met a lot of really nice people here, and have become friendly with a few. I'm sure in time we'll make some good friends here, but because we're from different cultures, establishing an understanding wil ltake some time.
I'm realising just how important it is to have people around that understand where you're coming from. It's quite a fundamental thing. Right now I'm missing being able to chew stuff over (and maybe moan) with friends who know what you're on about.
We went to the Post Office today to send a package to Australia. my friend Nanu is currently resident in Queensland, Oz (g'day Nanu!) and emailed me the other day to suggest that we have a postal incompetency competition. Apparently his confidence in the swiftness of the Australian postal system is not the highest, and he reckons he'd receive something from Cameroon before I from Australia. the rules of engagement were these: we each purchase a small item not exceeding £5 in value. We send them to each other.
Our office is a casual three minute stroll from the house, which is handy whichever way you look at it, but particularly so given that there are no toilet facilities at the office... So sometimes the stroll back to the house is not-so-casual.