Waiting for George

Organising my day is not possible. or rather, I do attempt do do it but have never got to the end of it having achived all I set out to do. For the first few days i found it intensely frustrating but now I just accept that the day will unfold how it unfolds and some new knowldge is always gained. I make sure that if a meeting has bee set up, we get there on time and belive me, that is an achievement here. Those of my council collegues who have traveled to the UK  all comment on how organised and efficient our working day is and how they would love to work like that but, it is 'out of their control'. They work in 'black-man time' which bears no resemblane to my watch at all. 

A typical day in Ndu starts at 5.30am when I am woken by the sound of Kevin, my houseboy, chopping wood and lighting a fire to boil water for my morning wash. Kevin and I have made a pact to work in ‘white man time’, which means that when the radio announces it is 6.30am, my water is hot, in a bucket and in the washroom. I then leave at 7.15am for a 25 minute walk to Jane-Frances’s house for breakfast.

From here onwards I lose a little control. Breakfast is planned for 7.45am, then George the driver is supposed to pick me up to take me the 4 miles to my office. Waiting for George is a full time occupation here. He may come within 30 minutes of the agreed time or, he may not come at all. But that is OK because my office keys may or may not be at the office. The administrative staff have the bunch of keys and as there is not a powerful enough current to operate the computers, they may be in town, where computers function.

I have discovered that my best plan is to wait at a place where I can work. So, I agree to meet George either in the internet cafe or I walk all the way home and wait and work at the desk in my room. But, on my way home I often get a telephone cal from SG MT or the mayor, arranging to pick me up to take me to some unplanned destination. I may be taken to hear a choir competition, to meet a family member, or to a dressmakers to arrange my outfit for women’s day. I have also been taken to the market to see the slaughterhouse – which is simply an area of the open market where live animals turn into meat in front of everyone present.

Today George took me 30 miles down the road to Ntumbaw for a meeting with councillors and local people. It is a dirt track and when I say dirt… I mean dirt. I have finally realised that women here wear headscarves, not as a fashion statement but to protect their hair from the dust.

So we set off and George dropped me at 1.30pm with the promise to pick me up at 3pm. I was expected at my friend’s house at 4pm as she was going to give me a Cameroonian cooking lesson, preparing supper for the family.

The meeting went very well. Three Fons and over 60 others turned up. I greeted the Fons in the traditional way, now I have been initiated. As usual this caused great mirth from the locals, who have never before seen a ‘white-man’ do this.

Just as we started the meeting the rains fell. These were the first rains for six months and I have never seen rain fall like this. We were all packed into a grain warehouse which had a tin roof. The noise was so deafening that the meeting had to be postponed for 90 minutes because no one could hear anything but the sound of water crashing on sheet metal.

So, once the meeting had ended and everyone had had their picture taken with me, it was 4pm. George had not turned up and there was no mobile phone signal to call him. I thought that I would miss my cooking lesson, when my colleague and interpreter, Felix, offered me a lift on his motorbike.

This journey would have been impossible if the rain had not fallen. He roads are so covered in red dust that I would have been unrecognisable after 30 minutes on the back of a bike. But, the dust had settled and the air smelt so fresh.

We were 3 miles outside Ndu when George pulled alongside me in the jeep. I declined his offer of a lift and was dropped off at Jane’s house in time to cook pepper soup for 6 on a wood fire.