Devin and I have been taking French lessons every afternoon together. Whew! It’s an uphill battle for me! He asks things in French, and I understand…which is awesome! But then I almost always answer in Spanish! Or, I think of an answer in English, then Spanish, then try to translate it from Spanish to French. My mind is messed up! Or, I just sit and stare while trying to think of what the answer should be…and then when I get home, and the right words and phrases jump to my mind. Blah. I think I’m going to have my housekeeper speak only French to me. I’d probably learn faster that way…and we’d probably understand each other better. It’s like when I was on my mission…my trainer was from Jolly Old England…and I understood her Spanish much better than her English. She kept saying everything was lovely!! (I loved that girl—she was lovely! She also did a FANTASTIC American accent that always cracked me up!!)
Anyway, I’ve joined a Creative Writing group here, and our next months’ topic is: “Are We There Yet?” Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what I should write about? :P When I get it written, I’ll post it—but no one is allowed to say anything bad about it, because I’m not in school, and I always HATED that when I’d get my paper that I worked so hard on and have red marks and teachers’ opinions written all over it. Talk about discouraging! Who wants to keep writing if the audience rips it apart????
My kids are so interested in what is around them now in this ‘new world’….they are curious about everyone and everything. Luckily, many of the people don’t understand what they’re saying. Unfortunately, our housekeeper and guard do! :/ Oh well. They’re outside right now with them, and I think Josh and Claire are trying to steal tastes of the native foods that Pascaline and Napoleon have for lunch today…Oh dear.
I’ve sent my kids off to playgroup without me. They seem to enjoy it more. They told our housekeeper: “Are we going to playgroup today without mommy again?” She said that , “No, she’s going to come, too!” And then the kids said, “NO! We don’t want mommy to come!” I felt sad! But, I am going to go to a get together with some other women from the area. It’s called a Coffee Group, and when I was invited I was a bit hesitant, and told the lady that I didn’t drink coffee. She just laughed and said that was fine, that there was also tea and juice, so I said juice would be great, and then it was all settled. Funny. It’s so interesting to me to see all the activities here; that every get together involves alcohol or coffee or both, and 90% of the people smoke. They’re still all very nice people, it’s just very different than what I’m used to.
Another interesting thing about Cameroonian society: They don’t have stores. None. Everything that everyone buys is either done in the outdoor markets (which are MANY, HUGE, and CROWDED!!!!) or from people walking along the streets!! It’s crazy! If you see a man walking down the street balancing a shoe on his head, it’s not because he lost the other one, or because he’s working on his posture. That is what he is selling! He displays a shoe on his head, and then he has a huge backpack on full of shoes that he is trying to sell! Anytime you see anyone with things on their heads, they’re not just carrying it for fun—they’re trying to sell you something! I’ve seen shoes, bread, blankets, cream (in baggies), notebooks…you name it! So fun! And the markets are CRAZY! I wanted to find a big rug, so my housekeeper took me to Mocolo—the biggest market in the area. WHEW!! It was nutty! Thousands of people there, and I had no idea what they were saying (unless they said, “La Blanche!!” and then I knew they were talking to me, as I was the only white person there!) and the scariest part, was when they would grab my arm and try to pull me over to their little ‘shop’! I thought it was just because I was foreign. Apparently not. That’s what they do to try to entice you to buy what they are selling. I was not enticed! It really freaked me out!! And it was HOT!!! And then we found the carpet place, and my housekeeper set out to haggle! That was fun! Ha! Our French teacher has been teaching us phrases to use in the market, and says that next week, he’s going to have us all go to the market, and have Devin and me go buy something, and try haggling en francais!! Whew! I don’t know how I feel about that!! :P Super nervous…but I have at least until Monday to practice…Maybe someday all the French stuff will start to really click in my mind. That would be nice!
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