C. goes Africa

In spite of everybody reassuring me there are a lot of Foreigners (French, German, Chinese,..) living in Yaoundé I most of the time felt quite lonely in my “whiteness” (not counting the numerous albino people). Still gathering some curious looks on me in the streets, people in the neighbourhood had already accepted my presence and probably assumed me being the wife of one of the Yimga sons´. Anyway still I´m often spontaneously addressed to “Bonjour la blanche”, and more than once I had the discussion about European women marrying Cameroonian men – leading to more or less obvious marriage proposals (none of which I have accepted so far!)Most of the times I encounter curiosity and friendliness and though German colonisation didn´t seem to be one of the funniest times ever, people are still rather thankful towards the ´goods´ the ´Germans´ brought – to the very contrary to what´s the general mood towards France. But colour of skin is not the only characteristic by which I differ to the Cameroonian. I´m probably the person moving the fastest in whole Cameroon. Never met anybody being able to go a distance that amazingly slowly. Every step seems like an effort, every distance invincible. As mentioned definition of time is different. Therefore you´re never really under pressure. If I don´t come today, I´ll be there tomorrow. Things happen when they happen. Work and people can wait. A delay of some hours should always be taken into account. Actually I think I did a very good job in assimilating to this characteristic of society.  Anyway this understanding and mentality makes things so extremely difficult to organize. I rewind whatever I might have said earlier about the political situation in this country. Stable still (already for 25y with the very same president – who´s right now trying to install the law for “vote for lifetime” – and passing on of the title to his son after death). Anyway no dictator regime, but far off from democracy anyway. Anarchy rules this country. Pure anarchy. Everybody does what he wants and tries to get a piece of the cake. Corruption is prosperous. Actually a quite sad situation. Which maintains itself in a vitous circle. The government doesn´t show any interest in changing anything or developing the country and unfortunately the intelligent force of the society is leaving for better opportunities abroad. Brain drain is reality.