Not finished and not entirely true.

Two priests, count ‘em, TWO tried to run me over with their pickup trucks within the last week.

Now these interactions were of course, quite jokey-friendly (?) and resulted in giant hugs that basically dragged me through the driver’s side window of each, but it does not change the fact that when they saw me they increased the speed of their big metal trucks in my general direction resulting in my having to dive out of the way. I don’t think showing affection needs to be quite this violent and dramatic.

Things are getting exciting around here in Bertoua as we are preparing to have this nice little intercultural celebration where an American blues group, the Taproot Jazz Trio, is coming into town and we are having a concert which will feature them as well as the University Choir and some local musicans in a group called Patengue as well as some Baka (the pygmies) to highlight the diversity in culture of the East Province. I, for one, am super pumped.

Next week I have my last two classes on the Nkolbikon campus and I already had, without my knowledge, my last class on the Enia campus because the schedule dramatically changed as schedules seem to here. Yeah, so now I don’t have to teach three classes? I wonder if I can just recycle the lesson plans for next semester. Probably, there seem to be very few rules. Sigh.

Not finished and not entirely true.

Two priests, count ‘em, TWO tried to run me over with their pickup trucks within the last week.

Now these interactions were of course, quite jokey-friendly (?) and resulted in giant hugs that basically dragged me through the driver’s side window of each, but it does not change the fact that when they saw me they increased the speed of their big metal trucks in my general direction resulting in my having to dive out of the way. I don’t think showing affection needs to be quite this violent and dramatic.

Things are getting exciting around here in Bertoua as we are preparing to have this nice little intercultural celebration where an American blues group, the Taproot Jazz Trio, is coming into town and we are having a concert which will feature them as well as the University Choir and some local musicans in a group called Patengue as well as some Baka (the pygmies) to highlight the diversity in culture of the East Province. I, for one, am super pumped.

Next week I have my last two classes on the Nkolbikon campus and I already had, without my knowledge, my last class on the Enia campus because the schedule dramatically changed as schedules seem to here. Yeah, so now I don’t have to teach three classes? I wonder if I can just recycle the lesson plans for next semester. Probably, there seem to be very few rules. Sigh.

Well I was certainly trying...

Well, so much for being a better blagger.

Since we last talked I have officially hit my 7^th African country. South Africa! It was amazing and a much needed break from constantly feeling lost, confused and oddly overworked. I went down to South Africa, planned nothing, did no research and read about ten books. It was much-needed.

It’s also kind of moved me to seriously consider moving to Cape Town, a beautiful town AND UCT has this African Gender Institute that really works on policy….hmm. This is just to prove that I’d like to spend more time there based on the fact that there is something to do other than it’s pretty. Which it is. Really, really pretty.

One of my favorite views in Cape Town was the clouds pouring down Table Mountain like a waterfall…err cloudfall… I wish I had a photo of it but I think I left those thirty to seventy photos on Rob’s camera.

In Bertoua right now life is kind of a mess—a literal mess. When I left I had finally gotten my piece of wood so I could actually hang clothes in my closet. So I left with no time to put anything away. When I got back I found out that my chairs had been delivered. There are more chairs than space in my house—though I must admit they are deliciously comfortable! At the moment my house is MASS CHAOS. I’m having people over tonight so this should be one of those moments where I need to get my act together and clean my house before Nadege and Ewa come over for dinner. Rats.

However, because I’m still procrastinating because of how overwhelmed I feel about my house I kind of want to document what I’m doing and where things seem to be going at this moment. (I say where things seem to be going because everything changes from moment to moment here.)

**Note** after writing this sentence the computer crashed and Meera ended up cleaning her house really well. It is now beautiful. And functional.