A Day in the Life

Wake up in the morning feeling like...... a Cameroonian. Although it's only three am, the rooster crow's are like clockwork. Only about three at this early hour. But at four there at now at least nine. And by five there must be 27, as even the late risers are singing their earlier morning song. Six o'clock comes and I hear the all too familiar screams of my young neighbor, which sound as if he is being strangled to death. And the way his wailing disturbs my slumber makes me want to strangle him to death. But apparently bucket baths are very painful when you are a child. Seven comes and I decide it is time for me to rise, or I guess roll out of my hammock. I turn on some dmb, ants marching, of course, and now I'm ready to begin the day.
As always, breakfast is very routine for me and is a meal I enjoy thoroughly. I wash  my plates and egg pan in buckets filled with soap and bleach. I then start the process of preparing a delectable spaghetti omelette. Eating this so often during training got me hooked. I was somewhat surprised to see that they weren't really available in the northwest. But after watching them being prepared countless times making them on my own was simple. Chopping up plenty of fresh pepe (Cameroonian jalapeños) and including heaps of onions gives it the flavors that I will remember Cameroon fondly by. After brekky I begin lesson planning for the little nuggets I'll be teaching later that day. After my physics notes are complete I sit on my porch in my bamboo chair for at least an hour, thinking, but not really thinking about anything. In these moments time almost stands still, but before I know it, time has flown by and it's time for me to walk to school. Along the way I greet my neighbors with a routine "good morning" and "how are you? " In the staff room I quickly converse with some of the other teachers, talking mostly about the weather and how the dry season is coming very soon. If we're lucky the electricity is working and we can watch the news to see the latest on Ebola and other engaging topics. I then march to the trenches, and attempt to teach physics to a bunch of uncontrollable teenagers for three hours. If I make it out alive I leave school and head to the village square to enjoy one of my favorite dishes, water foufou and erro. If I go for only a few days without having this I start to crave it insatiably. I should probably ask them to put slightly less black tar heroin in the fou fou. Once "my belly done flop" I begin the walk back to my house with a very full and satisfied stomach. I politely decline countless offers to join friends for a drink of palm wine and I explain I have classes to teach the next day. I return home and say hello to my landlord/neighbor. Our conversation, as always, establishes many redundancies. "You are coming back to the house?" "Yes, just coming home." "You are from school?" "Yes, I have taught for many hours today." "Good this is good, rain was threatening today but it did not come." "Yes, I think dry season is coming soon." "Yes, it will be here shortly, ok, I must collect the goats, next time." "Ok, see you." I enter my house, prepare for a French lesson I will going to shortly. As evening sets in I do some light cleaning around my house. To close out the day I return to my bamboo chair and play guitar. As the sun sets it paints the sky with a myriad of colors. Eventually Enyoh is covered in darkness. If we're lucky we have power, but the past four weeks were spent without it, so the village is used to getting along with "no light" as they say. Just before bed I'll read something or other, maybe grade some quizzes that I had given that day. As I go to sleep I think about how nice it is to have a day filled with such little stress. I then start to dream about a trip to Limbe which is soon to come.