Walking

In Cameroon, kids walk everywhere. Poor people walk everywhere. Old mamis walk miles with trees on their heads. However, when I walk to the city (about 4 miles) I get comments from everyone who sees me. It is not -just- because I am white. If you are of an age that you can make money, this means that you can take a taxi, and everyone (at least in my village) does. Taxi rides are ridiculously cheap (~30 cents to town, less than 40 cents anywhere in the city).

I have been told that many of the teachers felt sorry for the volunteer before me because he almost always walked to town. They thought he couldn't afford the taxi ride, and some even were tempted to offer him money.

some comments I have gotten recently that I thought were interesting:

"You can not walk, because then you will get red, and everyone in America will blame it on Africa and hate us"

"Madam! You are pedesting!"

"Madam, you are so strong, you could walk forever" (right before I went to my house and they continued another few miles)

"I thought Americans were lazy and drove everywhere, but every American I have met walks all the time" -to which I explained that many Americans were lazy, but not all

The concept of saying sorry

In Cameroon, the idea of saying "sorry" is so ubiquitous that in pidgin, the same word is used for "sorry" and "hello". I rarely go anywhere without hearing a flurry of "ashia". "Ashia for work" "Ashia for sport" "Ashia, how you dey?". Earlier this week I brought one of my form 1 classes to the computer lab. I have them the last period of the day, so half of them are wound up, and half are tired, but none of them want to listen. After 15 minutes of rushing around making them close games and trying to get them to open word, I gave up and told them to go back to the classroom. They know that if they don't behave in the lab, I revoke lab privileges, but that doesn't seem to stop them. After I herded them all out, they started begging. "Madam, sorry, madam, forgive forgive" They seem to have little understanding of consequences, and want to go back to the lab as soon as they apologize. I tell them that if they behave, they will go back next week. They stood outside the computer lab for 10 minutes after school singing a song they invented on the spot. The lyrics are "Madam we are sorry -oh". They also wrote on the computer lab door (in chalk) a 3 sentence dissertation on them being sorry. Since we have been through this before, I know they will still misbehave. I know part of it is simply their age, but some of it is the culture as well.

A teacher at my school recently asked for time off, ostensibly to go to a brother's funeral in Nigeria. The principal said he could only approve 3 days leave, so the request was sent higher up, and she was granted a 3 week leave. The secretary at my school agreed to give the students notes for these 3 weeks. 6 weeks later, she has not returned. After the first 3 weeks, the secretary was told not to give any more classes, because she would be responsible if anything happened during the hour. There were rumors going around school that the teacher was actually vacationing in America. This was confirmed when she met with another (retired) teacher who now lives in D.C. and communicates with friends in Cameroon on a regular basis. I asked what would happen to the teacher when (if) she returned. I was told that as long as she goes to the principal and says she is very sorry, she would be forgiven (without being fired and with no dock to the pay)