My Fellow Americans,
I have safely arrived in France. I am in Toulouse (we call ourselves the “Tou-Losers”) in the south of France. It’s a beautiful and friendly town, but way too cold after Cameroon. The SIT program here really doesn’t know what to do with us. It is going to be difficult for the other students to do their research here because a lot of their plans were very Cameroon-specific. My plan was to research the conflict between the Bali and the Bawock peoples. Yeah, not too many tribal conflicts in France. So, I decided to take some intensive French classes instead. Right now I’m staying with a very nice French family with 3 kids and a west highland terrier (et j’aime bien les westie).
We left Cameroon saturday night thanks to the awesome people at the US embassy. They let us make free phone calls back to the states and then found us some early flights out of the country to France. It is both annoying and fascinating to have to go through culture shock again. However, this time the culture shock is far more complicated. I am not only an American in France, but one who was just getting used to Camerounian culture. It shouldn’t be too bad, though. The Family here is very chill. They’ve hosted many Americans in the past and they know that we like our privacy.
Anyway, that’s all for right now.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Leaving Cameroun...
Hello Friends and Family,
I'm sorry that I haven't updated my blog yet, but it is suprisingly difficult to do that here in cameroon. Cybers are hard to come by, expensive, have french claviers where you have to press a shift key to get a period, and the internet connections are pretty unreliable. Right now I am in the Yaounde Hilton on SIT's/US embassy's dollar, because they are ordering us out of the country. The President of Cameroun, Paul Biya, have been the veritable dictator for 28 years and he is trying to change to constitution to remain in power even longer. There have been riots in the streets in protest and the goverment has sent to army into the cities to quell them. the day before yesterday 20 people were killed by soldiers just here in yaounde, but things are suprisingly stable today. mostly because Biya's personal presidential guard are protecting the hotel and therefore, me.
Its somewhat odd here, because the goverment of cameroon is evil and oppressive, and the average citizen is entirely justified in revoluting. However, it would be violent protesters who would, if anyone, harm us, while the oppressive goverment is assisting in our protection and evacuation. it messes with the mind.
The riots started with a taxi drivers strike on monday. I was talking with a law prof at the university of dschang, while the other students were at the cafeteria. about 400 young men with sticks and bottles broke in, and ran through the campus whacking various inanimate objects (cars, signs, buildings) with their clubs. They ran right past me, but cornered the other students in the cafeteria, threw bottles at them, manhandled them, and then threw them out. scary stuff. we hid on the floor of our class room until the mob left and the we sneak off of campus through an empty field.
we spent the next three days hiding in a hotel on the outkirsts of town. Once a mob came by and stopped in front of the hotel because they saw us through the windows. they aren't specifically targeting us, but they are targeting the french, and a white american can be very easily mistaken for a francais. While we were having dinner on the 3rd night, christane, our director, came in and told us that the mayor of Dschang was evacutating with a military escort to yaounde, and he was giving us 5 minutes to join him at the commissariat. I had to ditch all of my clothes and books, and only took my camera, passport, and credit card. Oh and my french grammar guide, a man has to prioritize after all.
At this very moment I am wearing the borrowed women's pants that I was wearing that night. I am, therefore, a man sans pants. anyway, we got to the commissariat in time, and joined a suprisingly large convo to baffousam and then on to Yaonde, the US embassy, and finally the hilton. On sunday we fly to Zurick, and from there to Paris. Things are stable in Yaounde today, I know because I left the hotel this morning and walked the streets a bit. the average camerounian is calm but seriously pissed off. Rumer has it that the unions and the SDF (the opposition party) are planning something big for mondy morning. I'm glad we won't be here for that.
I am very sorry to be leaving cameroon so soon. I have enjoyed living with two wonderful camerounian families who adopted me as one of their own without question. Also, I am worried about their safety, and i hope that they don't run out of food be for the street riots end.
I will be starting classes in Toulouse in the south of Franch in a few days, but I'm not really excited about them...
Anyway, I hope you are all well and can understand why I have been out of contact for so long.
I'll be able to update more often once I am in france, but i have a feeling it will be much more uneventful. Au revoir.
I'm sorry that I haven't updated my blog yet, but it is suprisingly difficult to do that here in cameroon. Cybers are hard to come by, expensive, have french claviers where you have to press a shift key to get a period, and the internet connections are pretty unreliable. Right now I am in the Yaounde Hilton on SIT's/US embassy's dollar, because they are ordering us out of the country. The President of Cameroun, Paul Biya, have been the veritable dictator for 28 years and he is trying to change to constitution to remain in power even longer. There have been riots in the streets in protest and the goverment has sent to army into the cities to quell them. the day before yesterday 20 people were killed by soldiers just here in yaounde, but things are suprisingly stable today. mostly because Biya's personal presidential guard are protecting the hotel and therefore, me.
Its somewhat odd here, because the goverment of cameroon is evil and oppressive, and the average citizen is entirely justified in revoluting. However, it would be violent protesters who would, if anyone, harm us, while the oppressive goverment is assisting in our protection and evacuation. it messes with the mind.
The riots started with a taxi drivers strike on monday. I was talking with a law prof at the university of dschang, while the other students were at the cafeteria. about 400 young men with sticks and bottles broke in, and ran through the campus whacking various inanimate objects (cars, signs, buildings) with their clubs. They ran right past me, but cornered the other students in the cafeteria, threw bottles at them, manhandled them, and then threw them out. scary stuff. we hid on the floor of our class room until the mob left and the we sneak off of campus through an empty field.
we spent the next three days hiding in a hotel on the outkirsts of town. Once a mob came by and stopped in front of the hotel because they saw us through the windows. they aren't specifically targeting us, but they are targeting the french, and a white american can be very easily mistaken for a francais. While we were having dinner on the 3rd night, christane, our director, came in and told us that the mayor of Dschang was evacutating with a military escort to yaounde, and he was giving us 5 minutes to join him at the commissariat. I had to ditch all of my clothes and books, and only took my camera, passport, and credit card. Oh and my french grammar guide, a man has to prioritize after all.
At this very moment I am wearing the borrowed women's pants that I was wearing that night. I am, therefore, a man sans pants. anyway, we got to the commissariat in time, and joined a suprisingly large convo to baffousam and then on to Yaonde, the US embassy, and finally the hilton. On sunday we fly to Zurick, and from there to Paris. Things are stable in Yaounde today, I know because I left the hotel this morning and walked the streets a bit. the average camerounian is calm but seriously pissed off. Rumer has it that the unions and the SDF (the opposition party) are planning something big for mondy morning. I'm glad we won't be here for that.
I am very sorry to be leaving cameroon so soon. I have enjoyed living with two wonderful camerounian families who adopted me as one of their own without question. Also, I am worried about their safety, and i hope that they don't run out of food be for the street riots end.
I will be starting classes in Toulouse in the south of Franch in a few days, but I'm not really excited about them...
Anyway, I hope you are all well and can understand why I have been out of contact for so long.
I'll be able to update more often once I am in france, but i have a feeling it will be much more uneventful. Au revoir.
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