our man in cameroon

With less than a week till I finish work for good, and just over a month till I depart, Cameroon is understandably taking up more and more of my thoughts.

It seems incredible to think that such is the pace of change that my preparation has been dominated by the Internet. Last time with VSO, only four years ago, I simply read the Lonely Planet.

This time I’ve been setting up Google and Technorati searches and filtering them with RSS. I want to know everything I can about the country.  I am saving the more interesting links to my del.icio.us which is now set up to dump here at sporadic intervals.

I’ve also looked for Pidgin English podcasts but have come up short. The best I could find was this YouTube film and this glossary.

Yer Man in Cameroon provides the fabulous “10 Things to Bring to Cameroon“.  Number ten is: Raincoat – the words ‘when it rains it pours’ have never rung truer for me.

Judging by the Flickr picture above from Friends of Cameroon he may well be right.

In general Flickr has been a rich source of images for me to pour over.  Elsewhere I’m starting to catalogue Cameroon English languague blogs which you’ll see on the right hand side of this page. I’m also enjoying Ethan Zuckerman’s thoughts on Africa.

Not much in the way of Cameroon Twittering out there, though I am following, and have signed up to Afrigator.

More problamatic and a million times more importantly, I am still not entirely sure what to bring with me.  You can take as much advice as you like but in my experience it’s so highly subjective.

Before Vietnam I was told I didn’t need much as you could buy it all there or get it made.  Which may be true if you’re five foot six and like wearing man made-materials in 45 degree heat.

Yer Man said to bring a raincoat but VSO briefings say there’s no point because they’re too hot to wear.  I’ve also been told that jeans will take days to dry but that they’re also very popular.

Last time I didn’t quite get my packing right.  I bought clothes for traveling – a very different deal to living and working in a foreign country.  I needed less shorts and t-shirts and more trousers and shirts will collars.

This time hopefully I’ve got it right, though shoes are causing concern.  In the end I’ve opted for Birkenstocks for warm days (i’ve been told flip flops are a no no) and big clumpy walking shoes for when the rains come (though it looks like I should consider wellies).

Other than that I have been Ebay-bothering for gadgets that I don’t need but can’t resist:  A wind-up shortwave radio, a solar recharger, and wind-up torch.

Also, since I have recently developed an addiction to The Wire I’m going to pack the newly purchased series one to four.  Something tells me that there are plenty volunteers out there who’d appreciate borrowing them to watch on laptops.

In truth all this preparation is just treading water.  Never ending net surfing and Ebay shopping is just scratching the itch because what I really want is to be there already.

It can’t come soon enough.