twenty ten calling
on Camarooned Clara (Cameroon), 06/Jan/2010 15:09, 34 days ago
hello and welcome to 2010! woo hoo january!back in maroua after the great southern getaway... dare i confess to being happy to be back? Turns out i missed these extreme parts! Who knew! Guess a certain fondness has developed between us despite my occasional resistance and/or assertions to the contrary.Covered a fair bit of ground this last coupla weeks, felt great to be back on the road again. Nice to get to see some of the country– and what a truly diverse one it is too. Linguistically for one – yes i will not lie – it was an unbridled JOY to reach english speakin' parts once more! Albeit fleetingly – Christmas itself was spent in francophone kribi. Coupla wild days out at sea with some local fishermen there. Surrealnow I think back to it. Sadly no prawns but a few lil fishies did for supper ok! Tried to profit from the occasion by lamenting to our two fishermen the lack of such hands-on physical skills in today's modern western man. 'ah but you whites have skills all of your own. You know how to... dramatic pause... switch on a computer!'yeah well i'd know which i'd rather!Christmas day itself was somewhat wretched– when your family and friends are as gorgeous as mine the separation is an ongoing source of difficulty i must say.Anyways, as i took the 20 hour train/9 hour bus back up to the north, the phrase 'i'd go to the ends of the earth for you' took on quite a literal meaning. Think I've found that in extreme north Cameroon. So please imagine MY delight to announce my first visitor making the trip in just under three weeks! Could only be you da mama– cannot wait to see you.When we finally pulled into Maroua central bus station, couldn't help but think back to the lost little stray who first appeared there back in September. Still lost, still wandering, but hailing down the mototaxi, jumping on the back without being adamant he was gonna ambush me in a ditch somewhere (!) and even conversing with him in (albeit terrible) french, well it kind of felt like home.happy new yearCS