Musings on Cameroonians

I thought I would share with you some of my observations of Cameroonian people.

They are very friendly, welcoming and helpful - although if you are not careful you have to pay for this helpfulness.

Anything can be settled with money.

Nothing costs the original price, you usually get it for half.

They hiss to get your attention, it amazes me when Genesis can stop a cab by hissing at it.

They love Eto'o (Cameroonian footballer, plays for Barcelona) When ever Joe wears is t-shirt with Eto'os name on the back we constantly have people shouting ETO'O at us.

Genesis' view of America was that 'the drivers actually stop at stop signs'.

There is no such thing as time keeping.

As mentioned before, they eat everything.

There is great respect for elders.

Most people speak 3 or 4 languages (English, Pidgin, their own dialect and some French).

The Anglophone people hate the French.

No one ever has any change - when you give them a 10 000CFA note (£10) they look at you as if their world is about to end. Thankfully there is no 20 000 note.

Half the time I cannot understand people when they are supposed to be speaking English.

No one appears to have a job - they all just do stuff.

There is only one anglophone University. This is because they fear that if there were two, the anglophones would take over the country! However many francophones are desperate to learn English as it is the language of the world.

People are desperately entering the DV lottery. This is a lottery for a US residency visa. I never knew such things existed. Are the the streets of the US really paved in gold? they just think about how much they could go and earn. They cannot comprehend the cost of living though.

They think that westerners eat lots of raw food.

Because we are white we are rich. Yes we are rich, we are millionaires in their currency. But we are earning no money and do not have the infinite supply of cash they think we have.

They have no comprehension of it being really cold. Sheila was amazed when I told here we have to heat our house.

Many people do not have water in their homes. But they piggyback electricity so they can have a telly.

They do not want water in their homes as then they will have to pay for it. They would be happy with more public taps.

It is very important to greet people when you see them for the first time in a day.

In the wet season they think it is too cold do drink cold beer. When you arrive in a bar you are asked if you want it warm or cold.