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!

Discussing politics

When I lived in Kumbo, I had a good friend. He has the same deficiency as I have; we love to discuss about world news and politics. He moved to Yaoundé last year, but now I am also here so we can have our (pretty much endless) discussions again.

For me, these discussions are very interesting. He is from a completely different background than me. I grew up in a pretty left-orientated and progressive Dutch family, as a woman. He is a Muslim man from a relatively traditional (though educated) background. So the worldviews we got from home are pretty different.

Sometimes I feel kind of sorry. For example, when we talk about terror attacks. These terrorists attack in name of his religion. He is very clear; this is not my Islam. We agree that these terrorists are mainly using the religion to mobilize people. But still, it has consequences for Muslims. Populist politicians blame all Muslims, not distinguishing between these people misusing religion and the normal Muslims who also reject this.

Another ongoing discussion topic is politics. The role of France and other Western countries in the Middle East and Africa, the weapons distributed which are later used against Europeans in other countries etc. As many Cameroonians, he has some sentiments against France (Cameroon used to be mainly a French colony).

What I hear more often from Cameroonians is that they feel that the West (especially France) wants to keep their influence here. They want Cameroon to be like them. That of course leads to the following discussion topic; what is the best government system, democracy or something else? We didn’t really agree yet but so far we came to the conclusion that for a real democracy you need people how are sufficiently educated to make an informed choice, and media that are free enough to provide the information you need for this informed choice.

I believe this is also what went wrong in the UK. The decision to stay or leave the EU is so complicated, you can hardly expect people who are not working in this field every day to really understand the consequences. From here you get, of course, to the next topic; Brexit… And from Brexit you get to all the new female leaders; May, Merkel, Clinton… And from there to the populist men who all seem to have foreign women (Thanks for that insight Andre!) and from there…

As you see, our discussions are just endless. I am already looking forward to the next one!

City life

Not as nice as the view in Kumbo,
but still not bad

Some time ago I wrote about my adventures looking for an apartment in Yaoundé. Since last week I officially live in Yaoundé.

While I travelled to the Netherlands, my landlord finally managed to remove the previous tenant from the house. The landlord told me he disconnected that guys four years ago from water and light because he never paid the bills. Can you imagine living without water for four years? At least, the pipes and taps in my house didn’t really survive that. So plumbers have been working in my house for three days.

Luckily, my colleague moved my belongings while I was in the Netherlands. Most things made it, except for a table and my toothbrush… I borrowed a table from the landlord, so the house is fine now. Only the toothbrush is still missing!

The house is quite nice and until now the water and light have been really reliable. At least once it was fixed! It is quite a delight to just have water whenever you on the tap. Or to feel you can take your laptop off the charger as light will still be there by the time your battery is empty. Of course, you never know for sure but until now it works!

I live in a quite central location, but outside the real expat quarters. I like it, I can go there easily but I still feel like living in Africa. My neighbours already know me, when I came back from Kumbo I got comments that they missed me. I already have ‘my’ sandwich boy, tomato lady, onion lady etc.

After a few days in Yaoundé I had to travel to Kumbo. It was really nice to meet my colleagues and be in the office. But when I saw all the mud and entered the hotel without water, I remembered why I wanted to go to Yaoundé. 

I still need to get to know the city. Mission for next week is to get an office. For now, I have been working from home but that is kind of boring. Hopefully I can find someone who could sponsor Knowledge for Children by giving me a free office space. And, as a real Dutch, I want to get myself a bicycle. So; slowly getting a city life!

 

 

 

 

Councils

Before I came to Cameroon, Knowledge for Children started trying to work with Councils. The idea was that Councils have an interest in the education in the schools in their municipality and they have a budget for education. So they should be able to contribute financially to our programs for schools in their own region.

This has always been a difficult issue. Most mayors are used to NGOs bringing them things, not NGOs asking them to help. Besides that, a mayor is a chosen position. According to some Cameroonians, that means people who are now mayors had to spend a lot of money for campaigns to get to that position. Once chosen, they need to get money back and that means they don’t give it to projects. I don’t know if it is true, but I am afraid in some cases it looks like it!

In the past two years, we tried different strategies to approach councils. We tried to invite Mayors to book donations, we tried to work through the Deputy Mayor in charge of education and more.  In the end, I think the Lord Mayor has to be convinced about the importance of our work. But how to get the Lord Mayor to understand this differs per Council. There are also some Councils where the Mayor is not very welcoming. They forget about appointments or refuse to receive us. We decided to leave them; if people are not ready it is their problem.

Signing with the Lord Mayor (left) and the
Deputy Mayor in charge of education

Last week, we finally signed a partnership agreement with the Nkambe Council. In the next three years, they will support eight schools. They will pay almost € 2300 per school. The community will still contribute their percentage. The support of the Council really helps us to be able to do everything we need to do in the schools.

The Lord Mayor of Nkambe really values education. He told us in our very first visit that he used to be a teacher. He always wanted to become a head teacher. He never made it to be the head teacher, but now he is the Lord Mayor and can still support education. And of course I am happy he does this by supporting Knowledge for Children so the children of Nkambe will Read Today and Lead Tomorrow!

House hunt

In June I am travelling to the Netherlands. When I come back, I will move to Yaoundé to work from there on fundraising for Knowledge for Children Cameroon. So, last week I travelled to Yaoundé to look for a house. Quite an adventure!

I have to admit it was not as bad as in Nigeria. I tried to find a new house there and I even got offers of apartments on the first floor, without stairs; Madam if you rent it we may be able to build stairs!

In Yaoundé, houses are very expensive. At least, the houses in the better areas, which are safe and central, are expensive. I have really seen apartments (so not villas with a swimming pool, but an apartment) for 1,500,000 CFA (almost € 2300) per month. Just imagine the salary you should have to live there! And especially, consider that the GDP per capita is $ 2300 (data from 2008). So, renting that place for a month is literally the year income of an average Cameroonian.

After looking at houses and rooms for three days, I got the idea it was quite terrible. Places were very expensive. Or the walls are covered in mould (we will paint it Madam, so you will not see it anymore! That doesn’t really solve the problem…) Or there were big puddles in the bedroom (we will dry clean before you move in Madam!). Or they could only be reached through a small path which was already very slippery without rains falling. Or they were right above an evangelic Church.

In the end I found a place where I will move in July. From the outside it looks pretty bad. The landlord said they used tiles from China. And instead of protecting the walls from water, they absorb the water. But the inside is very fine, and that is what it is all about.

So, I'm getting ready for the city life!

Highways

The Cameroonian ‘highways’ are quite an interesting experience. Of course, many highways are covered in potholes. Between Kumbo and Bamenda they broke down four bridges last year. They are still trying to build them up again. Now that the rainy season is coming, we know that in a few months it will be almost impossible to go to Bamenda. I heard stories that the taxi takes you to the bridge, then people carry passengers and luggage through the water and a new taxi waits at the other side. How this will really work with four bridges in a row is not yet very clear to me, but maybe I will experience it soon!

Officially we are supposed to drive on the right side of the road. But in reality, we drive on the best side. That means the left, the middle and sometimes even next to the road. Sometimes the best part of the road is simply besides the road.

Another interesting thing is that it is totally acceptable to stop on the highway to talk to your friend who you see in the car coming from the other direction. Or to turn around on the highway if you miss an exit. I did that some time ago when I missed the exit in the dark. There was a taxi behind me who followed me and also missed the exit, and also turned around. Nothing strange!

Cows passing

Did you ever try to cross (as a pedestrian) a Dutch highway? No? Well, here it is very normal. There are zebra crossings on the highway. But of course nobody uses them and crosses anywhere. Even cows are passing the high ways. Some time ago I ended up pushing our car uphill as we needed to stop on the steepest point because of cows and the car couldn’t continue anymore.

Regarding this, it is not too surprising that you use your horn all the time. To pedestrians who may be crossing, to other cars who may change lanes because of the potholes, may just stop or turn around. I have to admit that this horning is less here than it was in Nigeria, where you horn also to people who are not there, but may be there at some point.

Soon I will be in the Netherlands and enjoy our Dutch roads. It is always a bit strange to keep my own side, to drive straight instead slaloming around potholes. And I tend to horn to every car that should give me priority, or every bicycle I want to take over.

Do you dare to enter my car in June?