commencing countdowns engt

i have foiled the attempts to slow down my typing by switching the keyboard to english. i am taking about three hours of french classes every day and i have to talk to my family in french at night, though they often speak in gomala, their native tongue, which shows through the french easily. there are few smells here except in the latrines, for the rain that comes once or twice daily washes them away. i live on a steep muddy road that gets my shoes dirty every morning and evening. i will be put in a place called wum in august close to nigeria, the place of the skull. there are few proper restaurants here, even in bafoussam, the third largest city. what you will do is ask around and find a woman who is carrying a bucket of food, some bowls and forks. you will get rice, then sauce and/or beans. yesterday i went to a plays that is permanently a restaurant but usually a bar. people aren't big on gastronomy here, always eating at home. there we got rice with peanut sauce and beans, then you pay 100 CFA extra and she'll put a chunk of beef in the sauce. also you can buy a pinapple on the street and have them cut it up for you. of course beer is easier to find. tomorrow we can take the cassava out to dry in the sun

ghetto celebrities

i live now in mbo, on the outskirts of bandjoun, though we are actually closer to bafoussam. this is the first internet cafe i find. internet and cell phone technology is exploding here. i bought a cell phone that appears to have an eternal battery life and a high intensity white LED on the top that also serves as a flashlight. things that are cheap are food and transportation, that which is essential. mama angeline peeled about 30 kilos of cassava, which she got at the market for 2000 CFA (4USD) and i helped chimelle to wash it and put it in hand-woven wicker baskets lined with banana leaves. the earth is a deep red, like a rusty metal plate shining in the sun, and it creeps everywhere so that everything may as well be adobe. each short-distance taxi holds up to six passengers and is 150 CFA between each of Bafoussam, Mbo, and Bandjoun. the long-distance bus goes from yaoundé to bafoussam for 500 CFA. today mama gave me what turned out to be a tamale wrapped in a banana leaf with gumbo. if you like tamales and gumbo it is a good combination. on the ride from yaoundé we saw little black monkeys, biches, and antelope quarters at the bushmeat market \ gendarmes control point. the gendarmes do not appear nearly as corrupt as the nigerian police, but i know they try their best. you just can't beat nigeria, pal. my family speaks french and the language unique to bandjoun, Gomala. our french teacher Djenabo taught us to haggle in french using common camerounais slang. i have to remind the cabbie to Mbo that i will pay him 150 or else he will help himself to 175. the family has a hut outside where the chickens hang out and they cook things that they wish to cook with wood. the smell of burning will hit you upon entering any large african city since most people cook using wood. on the road all bags they are holding up are 100CFA. produce is sold by le tas and if you want to haggle you ask them to add more to the pile, unless you are buying by pi?ce, in which case you negotiate the price. it is apparent that the people getting rich here are the french cell phone companies, whoever makes maggi cubes, and brasseries generaux de cameroun. as the economist claimed, it is clear that cell phones have the biggest impact in improving the economy. mine gets reception just about anywhere in the country. there is a outdoor gathering in Bafoussam with the billboard DECOUVREZ LES RICHESSES DE L'ECOUTOURISME, for which cameroun has great potential, but the more tourists come, the less foreigners will feel welcome here. the lady on the cooking show sprinkled some of the Maggi msg bouillon cube on her fish soup as the voiceover sponsor discussed how all happy families who enjoy taste and flavor have mothers who use Maggi. as robert and i drank our lukewarm oversize bottles of trente trois i noticed a poster advertising a system of points offered by another beer company, whereby, with a certain number of points one could a kilo of rice, a can of tomato paste, cooking oil, 400g of soap, a bag of spaghetti, a bag of rolls, or a bag of maggi cubes. alcool, c'est la cause et la solution de tous les probl?mes de l'homme

.

i dedicate two minutes of precious internet time to this post. candied ginger coming in from singapore and cotton cloth coming in from indonesia are all things that are coming in constantly the red bus we always ride around is operated by this driver that said fermez and that means he wanted the door closed. the health advisor advised us to not believe the theory that illnesses are caused by witches and please filter and boil our water accordingly. we are also told by others that many would like to believe that a young man in his 20's died of tuberculosis and not AIDS. there is a huge bill board that says "Cameroon needs more AIDS-free men and women to succeed," but the word AIDS was so huge it took up half of the board. it was a translation of le cameroun a besoin de plus hommes et femmes libre de SIDA, so it had a good effect in french, but anglophones will be troubled. the country is technically bilingual but french is the only acceptable legal language

para todas ustedes que no saben vacilar...

there is controversy about the malaria pills, but i for one stand apart from it and am glad to support my country by taking methloquine weekly. we should leave for the airport in a bit to get on a plane to paris. one guy said that he would be glad to finally get away from technology and the rhythm of life here. mostly everyone brought at least two of the following: ipod, digital camera, video camera, laptop. it is also rumour that most people arriving in cameroun of my type buy a cell phone so they can text message eachother and keep in touch. we read from our glossy program books quotes made by foreigners about americans and say what is it about american culture that makes the person say this and how could you adapt. i am tired of waiting to arrive in cameroun so i will make it unclear when i actually arrive.

we had to wait for about four hours in the gate at the philadelphia airport because they wanted us to check in early. i thought i could pass all the time studying my french book. i read it for a bit and stopped i couldn't say why to stare off at the advertisement about the new way to conduct business the revolution to be inspired by some portable electronic device, the utopian world "a world on time." i sat back. on the plane there wasn't enough leg room but i brought some vodka to supplement the wine that air france would give to us. i entertained myself by trying to make my back as straight as possible so that in the event that i were to fall asleep i would not wake up with an ache in my neck. i didn't fall asleep for a while becuase i kept chewing the ice cubes that come in the cup and sneaking to the back of the cabin to steal pretzels.

we landed first in douala and according to airline policy they have to spray the plane down with some antiseptic spray. many africans came on the plane with tons of luggage and dried meat and fruit. just like bedreddin's blog said, i got third in line at the customs line in douala. they searched the first guy, the new jersey one afraid of blood draws, until they noticed the line filling up. they opened up a new line so i was in the back of this original one. the second one got a brief leafing through of books; they just looked up briefly at me and waved me past. there was a huge bustle at passport control but some peace corps lady an african lady had all our passports in hand and got them stamped en seguida everyone was talking so loudly. i shaked some guy's hand on the street and they told me not to draw attention to myself. so we are at the jouvence hotel in cameroon. i have arrived safely. we have some meetings here then will go to bandjou in this red bus they showed it to us. once we get to bandjou we will stop speaking english officially but i know the group will group up and speak english in circles. i will try to avoid these circles. they say spanish is spoken in the centers of the big cities here. it is cooler because of the high elevation. cargos of candied ginger, cloth from bangladesh, groundnuts and cashew butter, make their way up from the coast to be eaten on thin wavers of fried and salted cassava. i have to start calling it manioc. i am going to sneak out and buy a grass cutter from the man on the motorcycle and cook it one day.

they're histo

i saw the famous liberty bell. in front of the liberty bell there is a cart with an italian woman selling cheesesteaks. some guy with his family said to his son "a bacon sandwich--you want egg on that?--ok then a bacon sandwich." the kid was looking around a bit uncomfortable, as though he knew that at this age he grows tired of spending time with his family because they are total lameasses, yet he has not grown up enough to know anyone else to spend his time with. i went to the polish-american cultural center and bought two pins of american-polish flags crossed to give to my host family. this is to demonstrate them that the united states maintains friendly relations with poland and hosts a happy immigrant community. there is a group of peace corps people leaving to tanzania today. someone in charge of them stuck his head in the window and said they had ten minutes. they seem to be using the ten minutes as best as they can. one girl is doing something so important that she is holding a sheaf of papers in her mouth so that she can type with both hands, and she borrowed the pin from me that is next to my computer although it isn't mine. now i can understand if the vendor and the father were the only ones to speak a certain language or for the sake of timeliness the father was going to have all the orders ready in advance, or the child was shy

a+

this is the free hotel internet center. the computer i use shuts down every five minutes, perhaps to encourage me to buy the wifi service for my own laptop, rather than the complimentary demonstration service. i don't know why i made another post

when i

just kidding. i am in philadelphia at a sheraton hotel in the historic district or the government subsidized monument district. my roommate seems to be much older than me and i imagine he is one of those guys that travels to random places for humanitarian organizations. he has the nasal berkley accent. he told me to lay low and not answer many questions. did you bring a lot of medication? no. did you bring camping gear? no. did you bring a sleeping bag? no. did you bring a laptop? no. did you bring gifts for your host family? no. this guy seems to be the networking king. he tells me about all class of lunch meeting he had recently.

in the morning i bought two empanadas and two cartons of avena to drink on the plane.

ibadan mesiogo

i packed up my computer and anything else i won't take with me or throw away. i will play a game with frank later today, wherein i say "do you want it?" if he answers yes, i give whatever i am pointing at to him, if he says no, i throw it in the dumpster or donate it to charity. my departure is so imminent that i am not even using my own computer. said computer is in the attic of my professor's house, whose computer i use and whose culinary skills gave a proper ending to fluffy and precious. we enjoyed the animals with some rice boiled in their stock and a tomato sauce almost exactly like that once served in world beat restaurant-closed since april, along with afia.

i can be reached by phone for the next three days, after which the best way to get my attention is by leaving a comment on my weblog or email to jlovegren AT nomadlife DOT org

anyone wishing to see my village in Cameroun is welcome starting in september.

i will come up with several posts in the future full of quaint phrases like "in this way," "dialectical transformation," "the common impression," "one must understand that," "fuck tha bullshit."

goodbye, Americas.

have you wildin' out when we bump this drugs fo' yo' eardrum

an elaborately crafted practical joke i devised horribly backfired last night. i discovered that the chiles arboles make a devastatingly hot salsa, even when the seeds are removed, that has a consistency and color similar to that of ketchup. so i made a large amount of sauce, this time leaving the seeds in, then added a bit of tomato paste to it to make it smell like tomatoes. i got a new bottle of ketchup, dumped out half of the ketchup and replaced with the new sauce, and shook it up, put it in the refrigerator. then i commissioned for a large bag of cheap hamburgers to be purchased. everyone knew except my roommate frank. as always he, looked around for ketchup for a while until i told him we had just bought some. he put it all over his burger and started to eat.

"hey, this burger's a little bit spicy. but not bad, not bad at all."

i figured the sauce had been diluted too much, so i spread some of the pure sauce on the buns of the remaining hamburgers, and offered frank another one. he said that he wasn't hungry, but, since no one wanted them, he was going to go upstairs and offer them to some girls at a party, hoping that his offer of a very cheap and low-quality burger would entice the girls to sleep with him. sarita went up to see what would happen. the girl had eaten some of the hamburger.

"wow, is this a new spicy bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's? I love it, i'm gonna ask for it next time."

i need to go back to the drawing board.

recipe for success in Congo

The men with guns must be given the right mixture of threats and inducements not to wreck the peace. People must feel they have enough stake in the new regime not to try to overthrow it. And donors must be shown enough progress that they do not walk off in disgust. (Economist)

torta ahogada

torta ahogada
Originally uploaded by jlovegren.

today i bought some professional's pants and shirts for my upcoming life as an important person. i wore them to the supermarket to buy chiles arboles, jitomate, and carnitas to make the tortas ahogadas, which i discovered in guadalajara. the only thing i would change is to add a bit of sugar to the salsa picante and use sourdough rolls instead of white rolls.

suba la mambo

i was able to fix my camera with the aid of a tiny screwdriver used for eyeglasses. after i buy some pants and my favorite shirts arrive from dody, i'll have all the clothing i need to leave.

i have the 30 minute passport application down:
245: take duylinh's photo
255: it is photoshopped and formatted for passport standards
258: she fills out the application in the car
315: print photos at automated digital photo printer in grocery store
326: i drop duylinh off at the post office, with a minute or so before the deadline

i have officially decided i am pro-bedreddin. i will do a cameroon-niger road trip around new year and borrow some tips from his weblog, though i will bring a small water filter.

aid

President Bush kept a remarkably straight face yesterday when he strode to the microphones with Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, and told the world that the United States would now get around to spending $674 million in emergency aid that Congress had already approved for needy countries. That's it. Not a penny more to buy treated mosquito nets to help save the thousands of children in Sierra Leone who die every year of preventable malaria. Nothing more to train and pay teachers so 11-year-old girls in Kenya may go to school. And not a cent more to help Ghana develop the programs it needs to get legions of young boys off the streets.

(New York Times)

things i learned about mexico

1) Daddy Yankee (of gasolina fame) is a video directing and audio engineering genius, having combined the elements of screaming, drag racing, and ass shaking into a highly provocative piece of art on loop in various mexican music video channels, morning talk and gossip shows, reality shows, vegetable stands, etc.
2) The road transit system is highly developed and much more user friendly than in the United States
3) Mexicans are genetically predisposed to prefer Buchanan's Scotch over all other brands
4) Anything that anyone is proud of has etymological origins in the tongues of the noble Nahuatl, Zapotec or Aztec indians, not the same noble indians who once lived in the town ten miles away
5) if you wish to indicate that a matter is resolved, you simply say the word which means "envelope," (sobre) as if to say that any debate over the matter is sealed

rosie's that's cool out of sight man

i learned all about the tequila making process and how to select a good bottle of tequila. pedro and i stole the last part of a bottle of premio and añejo from the tasting table provided for a group of japanese tourists, and revived the leadership game. my newest get-rich scheme will be to introduce tortas ahogadas to austin and the levant. i am back in monterrey for one more good meal.

pa' que mi gata prende lo' motore'

arrived in guadalajara this morning. today i have eaten tortas ahogadas and tacos de labio. we went to a place with a lake i forgot the name. rode on a boat. that tired leitmotiv. time to sample some tequila. duylinh has found out she will go to Niger in 3 weeks. this will confirm the reception weekend in the Sahara

greets the world

hier soir on a mangé chez pipo. we went to super G to get supplies and got thick cream, pourable cream, parmesan cheese, gouda cheese, shredded and in a block, butter, ham, pasta and potatoes. with this we had enough for a light and refreshing french dinner on a hot night in monterrey. we had pasta with ham and sauce mornay for a refreshing starter, then cooled off with a three-layer tartiflette. it was a good idea since we ate at around 11pm. in the morning we had the barbacoa tacos of the franchise tlalquepaque, got lost in the vegetable vendor district, tried on some pants, went to the national history museum, and enjoyed the margaritas of nueva luna. tonight we will take the redeye estrella blanca with janeth and matthias the soon-to-be pareja and get to guadalajara in the morning