Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Same day, in the evening

Ruth said she was very surprised and impressed with my French. My confidence is increasing, and I try to think about how to say things in French even when we are chatting in English. But I can hardly understand anything a French speaker says.

Today Ruth awoke me at about 8:30. I have slept so well. It was time for breakfast which we ate in the formal dining room, like all the meals. We took our time getting going, letting Joe sleep in longer. Finally, we got in the car and departed for Edea, where they lived until about 15 years ago. We drove in busy traffic for some distance, through a large vendor area with many people walking among the heavy, slow-moving traffic to peddle their wares. After about half-an-hour Ruth said, “You all do have your passports with you, don't you?” We didn't. She apologized for not having asked us at home but said we had to go home to get them. She said we may not need to identify ourselves, but that we should have them just in case. She has frequently said that often police will set up seemingly official check points and ask for a fake fee to let you through. She said we needed to protect ourselves in as many ways as possible against such things. On several occasions we have seen our driver just confidently drive through such stops. The police are there to “take” the innocent. So we had to drive all the way back to the house to get our passports. Then we were off again.

It took over an hour, after that, to get to Edea. When we arrived it became apparent that Ruth had reserved a place for us to have lunch. When we went in, we realized it was the same place that Raphael was having lunch. He had told us that he would be meeting with a large group of village chiefs. They wanted to talk with him, before he retired, about the expectations they had for assistance from Alucam. We stopped for a moment at their table; Raphael introduced us all around. Then we were led to our table in a wonderful “boucalou” with a straw roof, looking towards the river.

Interruption. Monsieur Jean Francois, the owner of the restaurant we went to yesterday, has just arrived at Ruth's house. What a pleasure. His English is very poor (much poorer than my French!), so we couldn't converse very well until Ruth joined us. He told Ruth to tell us that if we want to take a couple of days off from our work with Ruth's NGO, we would be his guests at his hotel.

Anyway, yesterday he came and had lunch with us. He's a Frenchman married to a Cameroonian. But the Cameroonian wife is in France, while he is here. They visit from time to time! The lunch was magnificent, beautifully prepared. A salad, which included celery greens, and then a plate of local fish from the river. It was not at all “fishy.” I think Sam would really like that fish – and the one we had for dinner the day before, too. When Raphael was done with his lunch he came to our boucalou to say good-bye. I joked, “Raphael, nous avons une personne tres important ici!” And I gestured to Jean Francois. Everyone laughed. It was great fun.

When I finished my first French CD course a few weeks ago, the teacher – Michel Thomas – said, “Congratulations. You have learned a great deal and you will find that now you can express yourself with confidence.” I didn't really believe him at the time, but it's true. I'm so pleased. I'm very unclear about past tense, and my vocabulary is limited, but I really can express myself.

After the magnificent lunch, we drove some distance through rubber tree plantations and rural vegetation. Ruth wanted to show us a Catholic mission where many German missionaries died in the late 1800s from dysentery and malaria, some very young. We were given a tour of the mission and we signed the guest book. I expressed that in England I had celebrated the mass in a church which goes all the way back to the days of the Catholic church there. The priest smiled. I could not tell how he felt about that.

We got away at about 5 p.m. So it was dark by the time we got home. Once again, we drove through the part of the highway with vendors on all sides. Frankly, I can't believe that we haven't had a fender bender already, or at last seen one. Yesterday we drove by a couple of damaged vehicles by the side of the road.

We rested a bit at home until Raphael got home from work. We ate dinner at about 9:30 p.m. A wonderful soup again, and then fish. Once again it did not taste fishy. Sam would like it. Afterwards we retired to the “family room” and ate fresh, locally roasted peanuts. Delicious.

Time to go to bed, nearly 11:00 p.m.

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