They're not ants!!

Ants are a big problem in our house. They are everywhere, shouldn't complain as they are not the worst creepy crawly we could have in the house. We get them in all sizes, huge ones about 1cm big to tiny ones that manage to get in to out foil wrapped biscuits grrrrr!

Leave any food on the table and they are all over it. Forget to screw the lid down on the sugar and the jar is full of them. They get everywhere. Thankfully they are not the type that bite that we encountered in Guatemala, that would be a problem.

So this morning I am eating my breakfast which is a hot cross bun type thing, cake with raisins in. I am picking out the raisins as I do not like them. Jeff is sat at the table and said to me, you can eat the black things, they're not ants!!

We've got mail

OK so receiving post may not seem that exciting!! Everyday you receive post, a lot of it junk its really just part of life. For us it is contact with the outside world. For about 4 weeks we have been trundling up to the post office every week to check our PO box and every week there is nothing and we get all upset. Last week we were beginning to worry a bit, so was my Mum so I played it down "Oh Cameroon post will be slow, do not worry" I said on the phone. Even though I too was beginning to think it had all be stolen and nothing would arrive.

Then today we went up. Have not been for about 10 days because of going to Douala last week. We were thinking what if there is none today, its over a month since the first things were posted. Well we were not disappointed I even let out a squeal of excitement when our PO Box was crammed with packages!!

You may have read Joe's post about the post saying how there is a holding fee you have to pay on packages that do not fit in the box. We were worried that we would have to pay out to receive our packages but each one was in the PO box with no slips of paper charging us to collect them. This made us even more happy!!

We also received Nanu's package from Australia. He has not yet received ours from Cameroon. So does this make the Cameroon postal service better than the Australian one?!

We got 5 packages in total including a CD Joe ordered from Amazon our first week here. He tried to buy it in HMV in Ipswich but it cost £17, to get it shipped from Amazon to Cameroon and pay for the CD only cost him £12. Even better it arrived without getting stolen, I have faith in the Cameroon postal service - I am sure this will not last long!!

Some of the packages had 28/08/06 stamped on the back, I guess they were held at Douala where they flew in for days/weeks until the next lorry headed for Buea. So maybe in a couple of weeks the next batch of parcels will arrive!!

The downfall of having exotic trees in your garden

This area Cameroon is very lush and green due to the amount of rain it receives (and don't we know it). There are loads of exotic fruit trees about. In our compound we have palm trees, mango trees and plum trees (not the nice plums that we eat but the minging ones they have here). In the compound next door there are banana trees also.

I thought it was wonderful living in such an exotic garden. That is until the fruit is ripe. Over the last few weeks there have been rather loud THUDS on the roof at night that wake me up from me deep and peaceful sleep. We have discovered this is mangoes falling from the tree. On occasion a neighbour has been asked to climb up the mango tree to shake the mangoes down. Which he did but then he cleared them all up and took off with them all. Leaving no mangoes for us. Will not be asking him to do anything for us again!!!

Then yesterday we were walking home from work in the evening just going through the gates of the compound and there is an almighty crash. Then a coconut rolls along the ground. So the coconuts are now turning ripe and falling from the tree. We must remember not to stand under the palm trees. I am sure if it hit us on the head the least it would have done it knock us out. The coconut was pretty heavy and fell from quite a height. However it missed us, by about a meter!!

So other than being woken up my mangoes and almost killed by coconuts (which so far appear to be the most dangerous thing about Cameroon) it is wonderful living in an exotic fruit garden. We have even been able to eat some of the fruits.

There is nothing like a good cup of tea

While I am in the mood for commenting on news stories I will aslo talk about this story that my Dad sent me, tea is healthier than water. I love tea. I have a cup of tea every morning, I cannot function without it and I quite like numerous cups throughout the day!! When I was a kid, I did not like tea, my Mum drank it all the time and I could not understand the attraction. We used to call her a caffine addict, she now drinks decaffinated tea. However in my view decaffinated tea is just wrong, I drink it to pick me up when I am tired.

So it is a good for you as water. I thought tea was a diruretic and would dehydrate you but looks like I am wrong. The artical states it does not dehydrate and it as good as water, or even better. So now there is no excusse it cups of tea all round.

I brought some left over tea bags with me to Cameroon, they only lasted a couple weeks. Now we drink the local tea, Tole Tea. Its nice I will bring some home and invite you over for a cup next year. However it does not come in nice little tea bags like English tea. The only tea that comes in bags here is Lipton Yellow Label. I appoligise to any Americans reading by yellow label tea is wrong and not nice!! I much prefer the local Tole tea its just a hassle, what we need is a tea pot and strainer.

The second problem with tea in Cameroon is there is no milk. We do not have a fridge so even if fresh milk was avalible we could not keep it. We have powederd milk and it does not make a wonderful cup of tea. I have actually taken to having black tea with one sugar lump. They think we are crazy just having one lump, the rest of the family have 3 or 4 or 5 in each cup of tea. The other option for milk is condesed milk, which is even more wrong than powdered!!

I do look forward to getting home and having a nice cup of tea made with fresh milk.

There is just not enough time

I know that this is really a blog about my time in Cameroon but I had to comment on this. Everyday I look at the BBC news website to keep in touch with news at home. On the front page today is this story about nurses monitoring patient food intake. Although currently my life is really detached from this I am a ward nurse at heart. The story mostly talks about the effects of malnutrition and as a surgical nurse I agree that diet is a very important part of the healing process, especially of wounds. However blaming nurses for the problem of malnutrition I do not think is fair.

Meal times always coincide with drug times. Its a difficult question. Whats more important, drugs or food? However only the qualified nurses can give out the drugs. There are housekeepers and health care assistant to help with meal times. It is not as if nurses already have enough to do. We basically do everything for our patients. It is not as if we just have one patient to look after, usually its six. That's alot of drugs to do, alot of doctors orders to fulfil, alot of phone calls to take and alot of food to monitor. That's not including the trips off the ward to theatre, endoscopy etc. Oh and on a 14 hour shift we need to eat too!! So yes nurses are too busy to monitor food intake. We are busy looking after the patients. We need help from others. Do not blame us for the problem of malnutrition. We have enough to worry about.

Bright lights of Douala

Last week we went to Douala for a couple of days. Douala is Cameroon's biggest city although it is not the capital, which is Yaounde. Its about 70km from Buea. We went for a bit of a break and to explore. We went by bus, which was interesting. There is no timetable the buses, they just leave when they are full. It cost 1300 CFA which is about £1.50. Which is cheaper than a bus from Kidlington to Oxford city!! The rules of the bus are quite simple!!

A bus is full we discovered, when there are 4 people sitting on each row of 3 seats. The forth person on our row ended up being a rather traditionally built lady. So the ride was not too comfortable. It took about 1 1/2 hours as we stopped every so often for some random reasons. When we arrived in Douala we had to get a taxi to a roundabout where we had to get another taxi to our hotel. Douala is in French speaking Cameroon.The taxi drivers did not understand what we were saying. In the end some motorbike taxi drivers said they knew our hotel. So we ended up on the back of two motorbikes. Fun but scary!! Once we had got change and managed to pay them we went in to the hotel. It is a haven in a hectic city. Gorgeous pool set in a beautiful garden. Lovely restaurant and bar and hot showers.
We do not have many photos of Douala. This is for two reason. Firstly there is not much to photograph and secondly I was too scared to get my camera out! When we first arrived there were pickpockets everywhere. A guy had his hand in Joe's pocket as he was getting on to the motorbike (did not get anything) and my bag had been opened (nothing taken).

Douala is expensive, as every big city does, it eats money. Beer cost more than a pound for a small bottle. We are used to getting big bottles for half the price. Food is expensive a meal cost us about £10. That's alot of money in Cameroon . Taxis cost more, everything costs more. We were getting quite used to only spending about £10-15 a week!! It will be hard adjusting back to Oxford prices.

While we were in Douala and spending money fast we went to the cash machine to get more money. Armed with our money belt we braved the hectic streets. Took a while to find a cash machine that was working and took out card but we found one a got the cash. Then on the walk home it started pouring with rain. We had taken out brolly to Douala but did not bother taking it out as we were only popping to the bank!! We got absolutely soaked. I was wearing a cream skirt which when wet meant my money belt was on full view!! Fortunately all the street traders were hiding from the rain so we had a hassle free walk back to the hotel. Blessing in a wet disguise. Must remember to go and get cash in the rain more often. Not wearing white or cream though! As we were soaking wet we decided to go for a swim which was great. I love swimming in the rain, it reminds me if school.


We went to the Museum of Douala. Had loads of artifacts from Cameroon's past. Including original agreements with Queen Victoria to end the slave trade. We looked at the cathedral (pictured above) and went to the craft market, bought some masks. We ate some nice food, including pizza did not realise how much I missed cheese!! Went for a swim (in the rain) and had hot showers. Wondered round the shops, stalls and supermarket. Great few days away but glad to get back to the friendly sleepy Buea.

Rain rain go away

We did know it was going to be the rainy season when we arrived in Cameroon. However English rain does not prepare you for it. Here in Buea we are not far from second wettest places in the world. I think this is because we are close to the ocean and next to a mountain.

The rainy season is approximaly April/May to September/October. It rains just about everyday. Sometimes all day and sometimes for days in a row with no break. We have to take our umbrella everywhere we go. You get no warning we never know when it is going to rain. The sky opens an it pours. Sometimes it is so heavy you cannot hear each other speak. It keeps you awake at night. I feel sure the roof with cave in sometimes with the power of the rain. We have a couple of leaky spots in the house, often you get up in the morning and the parlour floor is one big puddle.

Life will begin when the dry season starts. We will visit the villages. Many roads are impassible during the wet season.

This is our road, we live just down on the right. It is a dirt track, after a days rain it is a mud bath. You have to jump over puddles. If we come home late (by that I mean after 7pm then it gets dark) we need a torch to see the puddles with.

I am sure in a few months time we will be complaining its too hot!! But at the moment it is just too wet!!

There's a moose loose aboot this hoose

OK so I am just getting over the whole cockroach thing, have not seen any more! Then a new pest come to bother us.

So Saturday night I went in to the suitcase we use to store all our spare stuff in to get a fresh loo roll. I took the packaging off and noticed it looked pretty nibbled. So I turned to my brave husband and told him a mouse had been at it. He lifted up the lid of the case and immediately slammed it shut, jumped back and zipped it up. There is indeed a mouse in our case. Now what freaked my out more: the fact there is a mouse in our case or the fact I had just been the in case to get a couple of things out and did not notice!!

So we wheeled the case in to the parlour and told the girls. Shelia went to get three brooms, her Emilia and their mum were each armed with a broom. And we set the mouse free. They chased it around the room trying to beat it, I wish I had a picture to show you it was really something. Unfortunately they did not catch the little terror and its back in its home. A sofa.

These sofas are not even ours!! A friend of Marcleine's brought all his worldly belongings to store in our house as he is in between houses. His stuff included said sofa, which at first was quite exciting. We have wooden benches and quite liked the thought of a sofa to relax on. It is not actually that soft or comfy as like the mattress the foam just gets squished so all you can feel under your bum is wooden slats. So it sits in the corner and the mice live in it. Hopefully it will not be here for long.

We have now been keeping everything zipped up. I am extra vigilant and checking in my shoes before I put them on as my father-in-law told me too. I suppose I am lucky really. None of the pests bothering us are dangerous. We will not get stung or bitten, may be nibbled by the mouse though!!

Dont let the bed bugs bite

When we arrived in Cameroon we were pretty chuffed that we had a proper double bed. There are some great shelves built in to the head of the bed. Very useful storage for all our books and other bits and pieces.

It is pretty comfy, the pillows are not great as mentioned before. Really miss my duvet too, sheets and a blanket are not the same. The mattress is just one big piece of foam and after a few weeks it had two huge dents in it where we sleep. So we decided to turn the mattress over. The first problem with this that we encountered it that the underside of the mattress cover was mouldy.

We are really suffering with mold. Last week we had to wash nearly all our shoes as they were covered in mould, as was a few of Joe's jackets and his glasses case. We decided best to leave that side down and worry about it later. We just top to tailed the mattress instead.

The worse part of the whole story is that when we lifted the mattress we found a cockroach underneath it eek!! The base of the bed is made up of slats of wood covered in cardboard. This little mite was hidden between a couple bits of cardboard.

We have been pretty lucky with creepy crawlies and hardly seen any. We have only seen a couple of cockroaches. But when they are in your bed it makes your spine shiver!! Marceline keeps saying she will spray the house to prevent them from entering. But she has not been able to go and buy the spray yet. PS I hope this little tale has not put off any prospective guests!!

Spot the difference

This is a photo taken from outside our office. It is the view we usually have on a day to day basis. Turned out a little dark, so I have tried to make it brighter.
This photo was taken about 10 minutes earlier. Can you spot the difference?

Most the time we are completely unaware of Mount Cameroon. Yesterday we were going back to the office after lunch and could see the whole thing. Its massive and looks so close. It was the first time we have seen the whole thing. It is amazing how we can never see it because of clouds.

Give me oil in my lamp

Power cuts are quite frequent here. We are trying to get used to it but it not easy. Most the time it is just a few second blip. Of course all the computers go off. Apart from the server as it has about 5 minutes of power from the uninterrupted power supply. Sometimes it is a much longer power cut. About an hour or two.

Most the time its just the hassle of starting up the computer again and carrying on from when you left off. Sometimes its the most annoying thing in the world. Well it feels like it at the time.

For example last week I managed to kill my computer - not really sure how doing updates or installing fonts or something. So clever Joe managed to get my files off for me then I had to reinstall the machine. It takes well over an hour to install the machine I had got to the last stage so thought we would go home for lunch. When we returned there had been a blip in the power. So yep you guessed it I had to start the whole install again aaaarrrggh. I finally managed to get some work done by about 3:30 that afternoon.

OK so not every day we are installing machines when the power goes down. Usually we are in the middle of a download, email or blog entry and have to rewrite the whole lot. So that is why we now write these things in text editor!! Yesterday Joe lost the whole file he was working on as it became corrupt and had to start again. These are just parts of African life we have to adjust to.

At home it is not so bad. At the moment we have no power during the day. I believe this is because the previous tenant took the electric meter with him when he moved out, which is illegal. It left us with no meter which also is illegal. We could get fined millions of francs (which is thousands of pounds) for not having a meter. So to hide this fact they disconnect the electricity during the day and reconnect at night. Eventually it may get sorted out!!

So last night we got home from work about 6:30 when it starts getting dark and the electrics had not yet been connected. Soon after the electrics were connected we had a power cut again (the third lengthy one that day). Marceline got out her oil lamp (which unfortunately soon ran out of oil), or black mans lamp as she called it and we got our torches (flashlight for American readers) or white mans lamp as Marceline calls it (and the batteries ran out). Our neighbour donated us a candle.

Strangely when I went to our room our bed room light was still on. No other light in the whole road was on apart from our bedroom, Marceline's bedroom and the kitchen. We think this is because there was actually very low power and our low voltage strip lights still worked, just a little dimmer than usual. Very bizarre. As we hung out in our room the girls were in the kitchen making us some supper. We then ate our supper by candle light - very romantic pancakes by candle light!!

One month old

Today Naomi is one month old. To celebrate, Marceline's eldest sister, Constance came to Pierce her ears. All girls have their ear pierced at this young age. The ear is softer and its easier to do they tell me. Using a needle and thread the job was done. Fortunately we were at work at the time but we have been told she did not scream too much. She now has a couple bits of thread tied in each ear to keep the holes open. It will stay like that for a week then earrings will be put in. Marcline said that now she looks like a girl. I would rather she was just dressed in pink.

Fork Handles

These may look like four candles but they are actually some kind of fruit!! Yes we actually eat these strange waxy looking things. They come about 5 or 6 in a big pod shaped thing. There is the waxy outer coat then a seed inside. They are not really very nice. A world of wrongness according to Joe. I have eaten one or two. First taste was a bit like an apple. It is crunchy but does not really taste of anything.

A month has passed

We have been here for one month now. So I thought I would reflect on our time here.

What have we achieved?

Well at first glance it feels like nothing!!! I have not met anyone with HIV yet. But we have settled in to African life, which is a task in itself. We have got in to a routine. Adjusted to the food (mostly) and starting to remember everybody's name. People know who we are in the area and why we are here. Cameroon is very welcoming, every time you arrive somewhere they say "you are welcome" We have been on the radio twice (three times if you include the repeat due to popular demand, so we were told by Bob the director of programs). At work Joe has set to work on the website. Completely redoing and updating it. We have been investigating becoming a UK charity and getting a bank account so we can take on-line donations. It is a slow progress but moving. I am in the process of writing a training manual for HIV awareness training. As well as speaking to local people about HIV. I will be training a group of volunteers to continue the work in the future. Genesis is currently away so I have not been to visit any villages yet. We will go once the rain stops. So now I am doing preparation work.

What do we miss?

Before we left people asked us what we would miss. It was hard to know as we had no idea what life would be like. Here is a list of the things I miss.

Washing machine, see previous entry
Hot showers
Chatting to friends and family for hours about nothing (My friends from work Becky and Louise I can spent ages chatting to on the phone, putting the world and the ward to rights when I will be seeing them the next day anyway!! And chatting to my Mum and Mum-in-law about life the universe and everything. Once we get skype sorted there will be no stopping me!!)
My Mums fairy cakes!! (We have a table cover on the dining table. It is a scene of a room in a posh flat. The table in the picture is laid out for afternoon tea and on there just staring at us are fairy cakes just like my Mum makes. Ooh I could just eat one now!!)
A comfy pillow (our bed is pretty comfy but the pillow is made up of chopped up bits of foam and some bits have really hard corners that dig in to your cheek at night)

What I amaze myself being able to cope without. I don't really mind not being able to get most food. I only miss the fairy cakes as we see them everyday. The local chocolate is pretty poor but the fruit is lush so its OK. Joe is always lusting after something, usually hamburgers. We have no telly which is fine. The local bar has one. Whenever we go in the barman changes the channel to CNN. We really must tell him we are not too fussed about watching it.

All in all its been a great first month and maybe after one more the rain will stop and life will really begin!!

Comments

Just a note to say that I love people to leave comments on my blog. I love to hear your reactions of what I write about. Little words of encouragement. Its all links with home. However I am experiencing a lot of spam comments. To try to stop this I have set up word verification. I am sorry it is pain to fill it out when leaving comments but it saves me having to delete loads. Please do not let this stop you having a say. I love to hear from you all.

PS I have just run the blogger spellchecker on this entry and found it rather amusing that "blog" is not stored as a word!!

Laundry day

Households do not have washing machines, I suppose it is to be expected but I did not think of this before we left. So we (no sorry I) do all the washing by hand. This is not an easy task. I am used to washing the odd delicate item of clothing by hand, but jeans, muddy football kit and towels are completely different.

We have two bowls or buckets of water, one with soap and one to rinse. We do have soap powder which makes things a little easier and we also use a big block of soap, the same soap (but different blocks) is used to wash the dishes and people. We have no washing boards or any other things you now find in museums in the UK to help with washing. We just scrub the clothes together using our hands. Focusing on the dirty parts. Once washed cloths are transferred to the rinsing bucket. Then wrung and hung out to dry. This is of course not as effective as spinning so the cloths take days to dry, especially in the rainy season. We have washing lines undercover but usually the washing goes out while it is not raining. Then as soon as the rain starts you run out and bring it all in, then put it out again, then in again and so on. Cloths are usually dry after about 4 or 5 days.

The first time I tried Marceline's mum was showing me what to do. She spent most the time laughing at how clueless I was!! She tells me my hands are too soft, I need hands like an African women. By the time we leave here my hands will be really rough. Everything is done by hand. Poor Marceline is washing nappies just about everyday. Then desperately trying to dry them, each evening is spent trying to iron them dry. We actually have an iron, so no getting out of the ironing!!

Meet the family

I thought it would help if I showed you some photos of the family we live with in Cameroon. Then you will know who I am wittering on about.


This is the Tinshu family. Genesis, Marceline and Naomi. Genesis is the founder and president of Helps international (HINT) the organisation we are working for.


These are Marceline's sisters. Emilia (on the left) and Sheila (who does not like having her photo taken so this is a sneaky snap sorry Sheila). They are both junior sisters. Family ranking is very important in Cameroon and your siblings are always talking about as junior or senior. They are shocked we each only have on sibling and when ever I talk about Richard I always have to say he is my senior brother. Marceline has 7 sisters and 1 brother. The eldest is 32 and youngest is 6. We have met Marceline's mother a couple of times and she is an amazing woman.

Emilia works in China where she teaches English. She is over here for the holidays and will soon be going back to China until Christmas, we will miss her. She is very bubbly and good fun. Emilia thinks Buea is boring. Sheila is the youngest in the house so is always sent on errands or doing the chores. I feel really sorry for her I often hear "SHEEILA" being shouted though the house when Marceline needs her. Sheila has just done her A' levels and is hoping to go to University of Buea to do nursing. She may stay in the house or may move down the hill to Molyko to live the university life.


Then finally there is Jeff. This is Genesis nephew who is 7. He lives in the city and has come to stay for the holidays. He is sweet but occasionally quite annoying. I feel sorry for him no friends to play with apart from when Amelia's son comes or the youngest brother. We often play cards with Jeff but usually he does not abide by the rules. Joe has tried to teach him chess, which I thought was brave!! He understood he had to protect the king and that was about it, saying check after every go having no real clue what he was doing.

Others have popped in and out various members of Marceline's family to visit the baby. They are all very welcoming and lovely.

Do not feed the pidgin

Although the official language in the South West Province is English most the local people converse in Pidgin English. It is a form of English but not really recognisable most the time I have not idea what people are saying. A pidgin language is spontaneously created as a mixture of different languages.In the case of Cameroon it is English and German. There are different dialects of pidgin so even some of the locals do not understand each other. Everybody also speaks English so we do not have too much trouble understanding people. In the villages where I will be doing some work people may only speak pidgin so i will need to take a local with me. I understand a few words and an sure I will pick more up. Chop is food. Marceline says that all Naomi does is chop, sleep, chop, sleep etc.

Today I went to the University of Buea as I needed to go to the bank. It is the only anglophone university in Cameroon and they are very proud of this (All the magazines at the bank were french though). When walking though the campus I saw this sign amongst others and it made me chuckle.

The food we eat

Before we left people kept asking what the food would be like, we really had no idea. We had read about Cameroonian food in books but it changes in different regions and times of year etc. So for I have enjoyed most the food, some very bizarre stuff has been presented to us and some of it actually tasted OK. We do not have a fridge so the girls have to go out everyday to buy supplies. Sheila (the youngest of the sisters) is usually sent. Vegetables are bulk bought on a Tuesday at the market but all other stuff is on a day to day basis from the local stalls and shops. Packaged, processed stuff is very expensive so mostly avoided. To cook on we have a two ring gas stove. Gas is expensive so to save money the outdoor wood stove is sometimes used.

Hear are some examples of meals.

Breakfast: Mostly bread if we are lucky we get an omlette sometimes made with mixed in spaghetti. We have had pancakes, one day filled with carrot and fish, not my favorite but most the time just plain. We have also had the gloopy liquid stuff made from crushed corn which is nice but very strange. Its eaten with deep fried bread balls which are yummy. We sometimes have avocado or pear as they call it which is delicious.

Lunch: The main and only real meal of the day. We usually wonder back from the office about 2pm and by about 3pm we are starving and have lunch. Spicy beans and rice must be the best we have had so far. Lots of fish, almost everyday. Joe is not too keen on the fish bones. Chicken is an expensive rarity and we love it. We have had fufu a couple of times. This is made from mushed up cocoyam which is then molded in to a sausage shape and boiled. Fufu is eaten with something like okra soup and used instead of cutlery. It is not chewed and just swallowed in chunks. The scariest meal we have had was mushed up yam wrapped in yam leaves then boiled. It actually tasted OK but we had no electricity and it was getting dark so could not see or figure our what we were eating. We have had groundnut (Peanut) soup which was nice and not too peanutty. Food is sometimes quite spicy which we like. The chillies that they mostly buy are scotch bonnets!!

Potatoes, plantain and rice are the main carbs we eat. Mostly boiled, we have had plantain and potato chips (the potato chips were actually at breakfast!) Lots of things seem to be made with pounded mushed up yam or cocoyam. Everything is cooked in lots of oil so I do not think I will be really skinny when we get home.

For desert we have fruit. Pawpaw, banana, delicious pineapple, melon, grapefruit and this horrible plum things. Nothing like plum as we know it. The stone is really big, purple skin and white stuff inside. They are boiled and I really do not like them. Joe eats them but does not really enjoy them, Jeff happily consumes my share for me.

Our supper is mostly bread. the bakery down the road (the one we were going to be living behind) makes lush baguettes so we often have these. We also have pancakes and sometimes popcorn.

To drink we have mostly water. The tap water in the house is treated so we decided to try drinking it to save money and waste, so far so good!! We have tea, I brought some left over teabags but the local tea is nice too. Although we have to use powdered milk which is not so great. As a treat we have Top. This is a grapefruit flavored fizzy pop and is very refreshing.

For snacks we buy stuff of roadside stall or people carrying stuff on their heads. Joe has peanuts and we have plantain crisps, cakes and biscuit type things. In the house a treat is this mushed up yam stuff. It is wrapped up in palm leaves when it is sold and stored. Then unwrapped and eaten. They are long chewing snake like things and not really that nice.

So far we have not had to do much cooking as the sisters are here to help after the birth of the baby. As they all go home we will be more involved in the kitchen, well cooking is a girls job so they may not let Joe help. So far I have been helping a little chopping veggies and stuff.

All in all we have eaten pretty well, other than those minging plum things there has been nothing I cannot eat. I have been eating my carrots (this will not continue in the UK) and thankfully there has been no sign of mince. If we can get the ingredients we will try to show that family what we eat in England. As time goes by I may update you on the highs (and lows) of Cameroonian cuisine.