These Magic Moments
on Notes from Quite Far (Cameroon), 13/Jan/2010 14:44, 34 days ago
It’s a good time to be back in Cameroon. The rains have been gone long enough that mosquitoes are scarce in Yagoua, and it’s the “cold season”, which means that for the next six weeks the heat will be bearable.Grahame and Bronwyn are looking healthy and tanned after their beach Christmas and a 3-day trek up Mount Cameroon. Conversely, my Cameroonian friends all agree that I look much whiter and fatter than before. They say this approvingly, clenching both fists and bringing their arms up in front of their stomachs as if to demonstrate just how much fatter I have become. And I smile and say thank you, clenching my own fists, but for rather different reasons.Various colleagues and neighbours have now seen some pictures I brought back of the winter snow (thanks Gareth for those). They were completely awestruck, and I have to admit that when you’re not trapsing through it the snowy landscape is absolutely beautiful. Like babies and camping, the British winter is a lot easier to appreciate when you don’t actually have to deal with it first-hand.There’s not much to say about my return really. If I were arriving for the first time, I would describe the sand and the animals and the people and the houses and all the other things I’ve already described. As it is, I can only tell you that that’s all still here.Things that have changed:The director of the teacher training college has decided to get a move on with the IT programme and this has made me immensely happy.My entire house and its contents are coated in a thick layer of dust and this has made me immensely sneezy.One of my neighbours has bought me a padlock for my door, and I don’t know the names of any more dwarves, but it was very nice of him. He even put the padlock on for me while I was away. (And kept the only key. And went out for the night on Sunday. Which was when I got home. But that’s another story.)Apart from that, everything is the same as ever, and I feel glad to be back. Glad to be where I am and doing what I'm doing. Glad that things seem to be working out. There was even a moment last night in the garden when I got a lump in my throat. I had been watching the fireflies on my porch. There seemed to be at least twenty of them and I watched their rhythmic flashes for a good fifteen minutes, thinking all the while about how lucky I am to be here, and to see such amazing things in my own back garden. I felt very contented, and very peaceful, but mostly I felt grateful, and I took a moment to commit the scene to memory.And I promised myself that I will be more aware from now on of all these small and seemingly insignificant moments, that are actually quite momentous and beautiful when you take the time to enjoy them.And I had further such profound and meaningful thoughts which I shan’t bore you with, but which made me feel quite overwhelmingly happy.And then I realised that the“fireflies” were in fact just the light from the toilet reflecting in drops of water from my washing.And I went back inside feeling a bit embarrassed.