A taste of the first few weeks...

Writing my second post in record timing, I am pretty impressed with myself. But this time I’m typing on my own laptop, which is clearly much easier to do. My last post was also created within a time limit, because that is how the “cyber cafes” here work; you pay for a certain amount of time and are given a code to get online, once the time is up, the computer logs you off. I finished and posted my last entry within 50 seconds of my limit, so hopefully the writing is better this time around.

There are so many things that we’ve done so far that I can’t do them all justice in one blog post. Some of my favorite places we’ve visited are the markets. The first market I went to was called Marché Mokolo. My host brother Loic took Anne, Grace and me there to look for Samuel Eto jerseys. Soccer (football) is religion here, so of course one of the first purchases to be made was a jersey. It was a twenty-minute taxi ride to Mokolo, and to say that the market itself is overwhelming is an understatement. Everywhere you turn there are people selling fruit, vegetables, clothing, shoes, fabric, household appliances, and anything else you could want from stands (comptoirs, in French) and blankets on the ground. The walkways are so narrow that you must walk in a straight line, and the air is filled with the sounds of, “la blanche! La blanche!” in a higher decibel than usual. We found jerseys right away, and it was a good thing we had Loic there, because he was able to get each jersey for 4,500 francs (about ten dollars). This price was down from 15,000 francs, which is absurdly high but not unexpected. High prices are a common occurrence for us due to preconceptions about our wealth. We spent some more time walking around and turning down marriage proposals, before heading home.

A couple other markets I’ve been to include Mfondi (mostly food, but a huge market), Acacia (for fruits and vegetables), the Artisanal Market (artists selling jewelry, paintings, and much more) and Marché Mendong (very close to my house and very small). We’ve visited restaurants, learning how to order on our own, supermarkets (whenever we need a taste of home), and my favorite, the fabric store. Learning how to bargain is difficult but very rewarding when you get the price down to less than half. I still need more practice, but I’ll have plenty of opportunities to get it right.

In addition to intensive French, our other classes started today. Each meets once a week for two hours, and this afternoon I have Women and Gender Studies. Next week will be a full week of classes so I’ll have to get back into school mode, after a good two months of freedom. Better get started!