Pretty, pretty cameroon

My mom, after seeing the photo that included the car full of corn, realized that I have never really illustrated Cameroon on a large scale... I think she saw the clouds in the background and mistook them as mountains. So I guess that my blog is lacking in scenery photos and what-not. This is partially due to the fact that the scenery in my immediate area is beautiful, but... I live here, I guess. Not that interested in shooting photos when I walk to get my tomatoes, not to mention showing everyone in my vicinity that I have a shiny camera. In moving around the NW province, I have largely travelled inside 2-door toyota corollas packed to capacity with 8-9 people and enough cargo to turn the hatch-back into an exhaust-catch. I tend to find that the scenery is not beautiful at all when my neighbors armpit is raining on my shoulder and i cant see through the window because the right windshield wiper fell off and was never replaced (really, how necessary is it to have both?).

But lately, knowing that my work (my fine fine work) is coming to a close, I have done my best to take some photos despite the circumstances. So, here is a smattering of Northwest province photos. It really is beautiful. If only it had roads. And jobs.

This was a big guy... probably 3 inches long in his body with equal sized antennea. Just moseying along a cable line next to the balcony where we ate. It's not really scenery, but you can see that there are hills surrounding Bamenda in the background.

Hill with nubbin.

Again, not scenery. But cute. The baby is getting "baba," or strapped to his mama's back with a piece of fabric (or sometimes a towel). I would like it except that babies here tend not to be diapered.

The mountains and valleys on the kumbo side of the plain. The whitish spots are the rain falling and making the grasses oh-so-green.

We had to take an hour and a half detour so the driver wouldn't have to pay at a "mixed control".... it seems he had none of his "books" and it would have been expensive. But I got to walk a bit in the beautiful countryside near Reese's old post.

This waterfall is just up near Sabga, about 35 minutes from Bamenda.

This is coming down the hills of Jakiri, where the foulani people raise cattle and horses. It's a spectacular view, especially in the wet season when you can see all the rain falling. You have to cross that big plain below to reach Bamenda, and the entire road is unpaved. Its.... really muddy.

The road just after Sabga hill, a decent (though steep) portion of the road to Kumbo, which I travelled many, many times.

A waterfall near Sabga. Some of them are really roaring.

Thats my house... hills in the background and the cocoyam/plantain farms in the foreground.

A big storm moving in over the Bafut palace.

Small Small, No Be Sick

This car was coming from the farm, I suppose. It's full of corn!

This moth was almost as big as Kate's hand. It was really big. She touched it.

I did not touch it because it had these alien stingers. I'm sure they were stingers.

I'm sure that Africa is not the leader among natural medicines. I would guess that that would be china (since many Cameroonian medicine stores sell chinese teas and chinese-processed things). But the Africans are serious believers in most natural medicines (at at times very distrustful of Western medicines). This can be great, in the case of some properly manufactured concoctions (and decococtions), the likes of which we produced during my medicinal plant workshop this past June. But it can be obnoxious and possibly very damaging (as is the case of the "shiny shiny" powder sold on the busses going to Yaounde or other weird medicines sold off the top of people's heads). Furthermore, since a lot of things can be produced locally, its likely there are a lot of people getting duped. You'll see guys pulling up with their car and hawking curative venereal medication from the trunk, saying they can cure HIV and talking through a bullhorn (these are not my favorite people). I guess you just don't know who to trust, and nobody is prepared to say they can't cure something. I'm therefore not big on purchasing these sorts of remedies...

But then theres white cat. White cat, or "small small, no be sick" is a little tin of balm that you can use on/in just about anything. I had heard about the use of small small no be sick before, but had never bought it with any seriousness. Recently, i've been having some sinus problems (either that, or brain worms... i'm not sure). Bought some, placed it around my nose, and voila.... instant cool healing power of the white cat. Amazing! So, brain worms down, I'm now going to try in on cuts and scrapes, scars, dry eyes and ear aches. Really, its just cheap vicks vapor rub in a little tin... but they changed the name and sell it off the tops of their heads, and therefore it seems more like an obscure local medicine to me. I can take orders now if you want to try. I'll need to buy a bullhorn.