Dutch, Deutsch, Neerlandaise, Allemande...

When my bag was stolen, I also lost my residence permit. So I needed to renew it. That sounds much easier than it turned out to be!

After being sent up and down between Immigration and Judicial Police and waiting for two hours for the Commissioner to arrive and sign my document, I finally got everything ready and paid. But now, the real challenges came in…

I found out they have a new computer system since about one week. It will (hopefully) give me a nice new permit, and much sooner than it used to be. However, it seems I was one of the very first ones (if not the very first!) for who they made the permit like this. So the officer had to try out the system on me...

After an hour, he managed to fill in most fields on the screen. But, ‘what is your nationality?’ I explained; ‘I am from the Netherlands, so I am Dutch, neerlandaise’. ‘So you are from Germany?’ ‘No, from the Netherlands, Pays Bas’. ‘Ok, so your nationality is German?’ ‘No, it is neerlandaise.’ The system knew Hollandaise Caribbean, but I don’t think I am very Caribbean. ‘So, NO I am from the Netherlands.’ ‘Yes, but Netherlands is part of Germany right?’ ‘NO!’ ‘Ok, has it ever been part of Germany?’ ‘NO!’ ‘But your parents are German?’ ‘NO!’ ‘So you are not German?’ ‘NO!’ ‘So what is your nationality?’ ‘I am Dutch, neerlandaise.’ ‘So, German?’ I spent literally more than half an hour like that.

When he finally thought he found my nationality (Hollandaise Caribbean, so not even the correct one) he had to scan my file. That was a step too far…

Then the next problem, they needed to take my picture… Before that could happen, we were already four hours later and someone had come to support the technical process. At least he pretty much understood the program.

So, the picture… I understand taking a picture of a white person against a white wall can be difficult. But that was not the challenge. After twenty tries they came to the conclusion: ‘Madam you are too tall to take your picture!’. I agree I am not the smallest person you have ever seen, but I am not extremely tall either! So in the end we had to put the chair on its side and I had to sit on it. Then they finally managed, but: ‘Madam, you are laughing at that picture!’ (Yes, sorry, I just find it funny!)

At this point they had to take my finger prints and signature. And scan my documents. One scan went wrong so they wanted to delete it. And then all information got lost so we needed to start all over!

By now they figured out what my nationality was. (‘So you are Dutch right? Not German? Not Hollandaise Caribbean either? So Dutch?’) That saved quite some time. But now they managed to mix up my father’s and my mother’s name. Fortunately, the technical guy was able to change it without deleting everything again. In the end I got my temporary permit, which even says I am Dutch.

By that time, the office was already closed. There was a Nigerian guy who came in together with me who was still waiting. They still wanted to attend to him though. I only hope they do know the difference between Nigeria and Niger…

Expat dilemma

Compared to Ilorin, Kumbo has quite a white community. There are always numerous volunteers, American PeaceCorps volunteers, Belgian interns, German volunteers and some more. But there is not much of an ‘expat bubble’. There are no expensive restaurants where only white people go, there are no fancy European shops.

In Yaoundé, this is all different. There is quite a big community of expats, working in NGOs, embassies and commercial companies. There are European and Asian restaurants, European supermarkets, European style bakeries etc. I have been in places that you don’t realize you are in Africa; fancy furniture, real croissants, mainly white people. Kind of a new experience to me!

At the same time, it brings me dilemmas. If I see how much people earn working in NGOs, I feel bad (also Cameroonian NGO workers earn quite a lot of money, although probably less than the foreigners). I really don’t mind if people make a lot of money in commercial companies, that is part of the game for me. But in NGOs? People with a very average salary earn easily enough per month to execute all Knowledge for Children activities in a school for a year.

For me it is kind of difficult to understand that people work in an NGO and then earn so much money. I understand other people make more costs than I make, sending children to school etc. I also understand you may want to be compensated for living far away from your family and I also know the salaries are still lower than what you should earn back in Europe or the US for this job.
But, how can you face a class of children knowing your monthly salary is higher than the entire school budget for the year? How can you face a mother who just lost a child because there was no money to buy medication for the child?
Sometimes I am just wondering what people spend their money on. Yes, there are great and not very cheap restaurants, but going out for dinner every day? I was really wondering, until I met a Cameroonian friend. When we went home I said; ‘I need to go to the market and buy some tomatoes and other vegetables’. She was just staring at me and then said; ‘You buy tomatoes in the MARKET? You are really a strange expat’.
It never came into my mind that I could also buy tomatoes at the European supermarket. She told me she once went with a friend and bought three tomatoes for sevenhundred francs (a bit more than one euro), while I pay one hundred francs (about fifteen euro cents) for four or five tomatoes on the market close to my house.

I hope I will be able to get the best of the two; enjoy the European supermarkets to treat myself to cheese or chickpeas, enjoy fancy dinners every now and then and hang out with some Europeans. But also keep enjoying cheap lunch on the street, eating grilled fish with my Cameroonian friends and buy vegetables in the market!