Nothing works
I am sitting writing this at 19.44 on Monday night.
I am writing it by laptop battery power. The power has gone again.
It was off all day yesterday – I eventually gave up around eight and just went to sleep. There was literally nothing else to do.
The lights came back on earlier but the internet was still down.
When I tried to flush my toilet there was no water.
Talking of my toilet, when I first moved in to my temporary flat it still needed to be installed – in the short term I used my neighbour’s. Eventually though my toilet was ready.
Within a day it started to overflow. I recognised the problem, took off the cistern lid and tried to adjust the mechanism. Despite being brand new, it snapped in my hands.
Later when it was replaced, water started gushing out of the pipe at the wall end. The metal nut had cracked.
Last week I bought flip flops. They came apart in two days. This weekend, in a bid to stop using plastic bags, I bought a rucksack to shop with. The effort of taking half a dozen cans to a friend’s house ripped off a strap.
Earlier when the lights went we tried to fire up the, still new, generator. It whirred into life – then spluttered out. Dead. It wouldn’t start again.
You can buy DVDs on the main street. In order to make them as cheap as possible they cram 20 – 30 films onto one disc. Each film file size is a tiny percentage of what it should be, leaving the movie so distorted and pixelated they are virtually unwatchable.
The TV series I bought wasn’t even that good. I took it home only to find the disc was blank.
The mains adaptor I bought blew the first time it was plugged in.
A friend bought a blender that made a single turn and blew.
The house I am still waiting to move into is finally going to get connected to the (intermittent) electricity grid. Nearly three weeks of a colleague visiting the power people every day has finally got them moving. But now we are told that we have to wait for another person to fit a meter.
Nothing works here. Not for long anyway. I thought I was experienced at living and working in developing countries but I am genuinely shocked by it. Is all Africa like this or just Cameroon?
Or is it just Bamenda?
This is where the products that China makes, and the West doesn’t want, end up. They tell if you want anything to last you have to buy second hand. Nothing new here is good.
This includes absolutely everything – from clothes to pots and pans. I can’t imagine where the second hand flip flops come from but there are thousands of them in the market place. Dead men’s shoes?
This will be reality of my time here. What I am describing in my domestic life will be writ large across my working life. Just as I can’t fire up the internet, my employer can’t reach patients in remote villages because the roads simply don’t work.
We left the office at two today and went home. There was nothing we could do without power.
What you must remember is this:
This is not a warzone. Nor is it an area of famine. It is has been hit by no major recent natural disasters. Political turmoil is limited. As I understand it the economy is in no great shape but there’s no rampant inflation either.
As TV news reporters say: “These are the lucky ones…
But everything takes several times more effort than it needs to, just to achieve anything.
I wonder how people manage to live like this. I wonder how it got so bad.
Suddenly it’s not hard to see how diseases take hold and remain unchecked.
And I’m starting to understand why some people just give up.
Tags: cameroon, chinese products, corruption, nothing works
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September 30, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Welcome back to the real world
Most of the world lives like this, of course. Can’t say i envy you choosing this way, but there must be bags of positives you can take out of it. How about writing the Dummies Guide to what to do during a power cut? Ach, it’ll get better.
September 30, 2008 at 1:23 pm
‘Is All Africa like this’, Never having been there, I should not comment, but I will.
The answer is probably. I am now 70 and when we went to Sunday School it was a penny for the collection and a penny for Africa. I am still looking for improvement and wonder where all the pennies went. Well not really, probably straight in a Swiss bank account.
So when Water-Aid started up, years ago – that was the only Charity for me.
I was confident, that under experts the local people dug the wells and then had clean water. So the people at the bottom of the heap actually had some improvement to their lives. And I knew where the money was going.
September 30, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Graham, it’s okay but it has been a shock. In Vietnam you can blame problems on centuries of wars. In Nicaragua you could blame it on wars, earthquakes floods and volcanos.
And here? Well, lingering colonial issues i guess but mostly just corruption. In the seventies this country was richer than China.
My life is actually okay – it’s just been harder than I imagined. That’s no bad thing. Funny – its so much easier to do good things in Asia where everthing is moving in the right direction. I always suspected Hanoi was a cushy posting and I was right.
DG – It’s has to go where local people can make tangible things with it. That’s what the project I am working on it all about. And it should be sustainable.
I read a fabulous Paul Theroux book in my first week here that advocated getting rid of aid because it hasn’t worked. I am not convinced but everything appears to be getting worse not better. I wonder if the turn around will come.
September 30, 2008 at 3:54 pm
“I always suspected Hanoi was a cushy posting and I was right.” Of course it was. An absolute doddle. I can remember laughing my head off with a diplomat-come-boss about getting hardship posting bonus. We couldn’t believe it. I don’t think they don’t do that any longer… Of course, bits of Vietnam are an absolute nightmare to live in for a tonne of reasons. Hanoi and Saigon are not. You must have known the weekenders who managed to make it into town from Vinh, Plaiku or some other grim pit plagued with paranoia, depression and alcoholism. You can get all those things in Saigon and Hanoi, but they may develop over time. There are other distractions
I’ll keep you busy on Frontline from end of Oct/Nov. Try and get you a few commissions – interested?
September 30, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I read your post and thought `enough of the good news already, there must be a downside, surely?’
Steve, shock is good sometimes. I’m not being flip, nor tryin’ to be a wise-arse.
Shock is good.
It can help us re-assess `expectations’ ( most often internally imposed on oneself by oneself ) vs. `goals’ ( stretch-targets other wise-heads would consider `stunning results’ if ever achieved in any given reality e.g. `Africa’, e.g. `Cameroon’ rather than, say, Asia, HCM…).
The expectations we self-impose, whether on the golf course or over the course of life, are what generally bugger us up rather than elevate us or our `performance’.
The Buddha said that. So did Marcus A. So did the frog whose name I momentarily forget…Montesquieu, that’s the boy!
Actually, I made that last bit up. I said it.
You cannot and will not `change everything’.
But, change yourself ( i.e. your expectations) over the next couple of months or so, and you WILL change the lives of many you may never meet, for the better.
Bon courage!
Be warned: you are not alone!
Hope the leccie is back on soon!
October 1, 2008 at 1:46 am
I have to agree with Brian’s comments. Reframing (maybe even throwing out) some of your goals and expections is pretty important, now that you are getting a sense of what life in Bamenda is like on-the-ground.
As someone who spent a good portion of my teen years in Bamenda (almost all of the 1990s), I see it quite a bit differently. Do you know? There was a time when there was NO INTERNET in Bamenda. For many years, I did not even know such a thing existed. There were no cybercafes. A smattering of computers, maybe, but rarely seen. We got along just swell without these things. We were pretty busy living our lives. And we accomplished quite a bit WITHOUT electricity. Without functioning flush toilets. I know this is not a romantic existence for some (it was pretty hard for me and I am a person of privilege!) and certainly not a comfortable one for many, but it is not a condemnation either.
A great deal of things in Bamenda/Cameroon do not work. But a great deal of things also work and they work beautifully. You’ll just have to look with different eyes, I’m afraid, than the eyes you are used to making use of.
I am here to bear witness to the fact that things do work. I suspect a lot of people you’ll meet in Bamenda will also bear witness to this. They just might not work the way you want them to.
By the way, can you imagine a person from Bamenda going to your own hometown as a volunteer and setting up goals for some kind of project? Bringing aid? Working for change? What would that look like? It is something I think about.
Please consider that, in all of this, if Bamenda and its people welcome you, they are doing you quite a big favour–even the welcome you get is not quite what you’d like on your plate. You chose to be a volunteer. Let’s hope Bamenda and its plumbing and wiring choose to accept you. They certainly have a right to reject you and whatever it is you have to offer.
My heart goes out to you as you adjust to things in Bamenda. You are my brother in Bamenda, so be good to my town and my people, as best you can. Can’t ask for more than that.
October 1, 2008 at 6:46 am
Bamenda seems an extreme example of an Africa-wide problem. Here in Nairobi, one of the most afluent cities in Africa, I can count on electricity 95% of the time, can always find an internet cafe with a working connection and pirated DVDs aren’t bad. But I haven’t had water in two months and my house is also littered with cheap Chinese stuff that has packed up.
What drives me nuts is that so many people here put up with it. There are many who are dirt poor and can only afford cheap Chinese rubbish. But when it packs up they shrug their shoulders. Their whole lives have been defined by lack of power and control so why should this be any different? Things are changing with a growing middle class. But it takes time.
No-one outside really gets it. (Even those who have travelled extensively in other parts of the world). People still seems shocked when I ignore their Youtube links because they take too long to download and express irritation when they can’t get through on the phone. That’s life. The trick is to enjoy the good stuff and not let the irritations get you down – but it’s difficult when your power goes off 30min from a deadline.
October 1, 2008 at 6:50 am
I should probably add that I’m not very good at following my advice, but today will be spent driving around Nairobi National Park and petting cheetahs
October 1, 2008 at 7:12 am
I normally try and address comments individually but there is a thread to them so I’ll try to answer as a whole.
Firstly, without getting all arty on you I can only write when something moves me enough to do so. Or rather I’ve a number of posts that I have posted because I felt it was time I did. Or I felt I should really write something positive although I didn’t feel it. In general they suck and I look back on them and cringe.
So I write when I am most moved. Sometimes sheer happiness, sometimes sadness, sometimes – like the post above in desperation. So a lot of the day-to-day OK stuff gets missed. Life is not bad here. Far from it. And that post was a snapshot of a mood that’s all. I stand by it but it’s not everything. Yes there are things that work here.
I am spoilt. Spoilt by Vietnam where sometimes it felt that everything was moving in the right direction so much that we couldn’t possibly fail – we just had to hitch more people to Tiger Economy bandwagon and make sure as few as possible were left behind.
I am also spoilt by the fact that I have “done this” before. I’ve worked in developing countries. When it comes to being moved simply “being here” and maybe “I can’t believe this is me doing this” just doesn’t cut it any more. I mourn that. I wish I was the wide-eyed innocent again.
To address one person individually BamendaBabe, I think I have already mentioned how hard I see people working here. Bamenda is not the African stereotype – and I am sure that is largely inaccurate anyway. I am sure that great strides have been made.
But even taking into account natural cynicism I hear my colleagues complaining that everyone is getting poorer. The electicity used to go off once a week for maintenance and now its daily. I am spoiled by flushing toilets and the internet and all that – but if I didn’t have it I would managed. I would accept that. It’s just frustrating to have that stuff and not be able to rely on it.
This is an incredible town, in an incredible country and like every country and every individual the world over it’s flaws are there for a reason and are as a result of how it has been “brought up” for the want of a better word. Don’t even get me started on the trouble with my own country.
And no I am not about to give up and go home. I can work with all of this.
I think what is saddest is that in an African context Cameroon’s strength is also its greatest weakness. It is “stable”. In other words no war and people are grateful for that.
The trouble is the democracy is a sham and without real elections the powers that be will continue to keep people like this. It’s hard to know whether it’s better for the people of Cameroon to accept a lack of control or to fight for more power.
At times Hanoi convinced that me a lack of democracy isn’t always a bad thing. That a single leadership voice can “do the right thing” without having to play to the crowds. Now I am not so sure and I am seeing how people need more control and governments need to be accountable.
Interesting times and thank you for all your responses. And BamendaBabe my apologies for being harsh on your town – trust me I will make it up to this place.
October 1, 2008 at 7:13 am
Oh and Rob – enjoy the cheetahs. Wish I was coming with you and good to have you commenting. Stick around. You can by my African Yoda figure – just as Graham was in Vietnam ;o)
October 1, 2008 at 8:45 am
“Is all Africa like this or just Cameroon?”
Rob seems to have summed it up well, but if it makes you feel any better what you’ve described so far sounds pretty familiar to me in Ghana (except the fear of crime), albeit not quite as intense, and Ghana is wealthier than Cameroon.
October 1, 2008 at 10:05 am
Tim,
It’s very hard to judge about the crim situation here – it seems very very low but perhaps the fear of crime is greater. I am routinely told not to go out after 8pm and to lock the door of my office even if I am in the meeting room across the hall.
However…it seems safe and crime seems low.
I guess we’ll see.
October 3, 2008 at 10:14 am
“I recognised the problem, took off the cistern lid and tried to adjust the mechanism. Despite being brand new, it snapped in my hands.”
I think the same plumbers work here in Nairobi, too.
October 26, 2008 at 11:16 am
[...] met she told me that she had Googled “volunteering in Cameroon” before her departure. What she found nearly put her off. I very nearly didn’t admit that it was me who had written it. In my [...]
January 23, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Bored (from over- rather than lack of work) on a Friday afternoon in January so thought I’d take a look through your earlier blogs and compare them to mine..
Don’t know if you ever came across my predecessor Glenn ‘A Canuck Amuck’ Hodge but he wrote a beautiful poem that I think you will appreciate.
http://acanuckamuck.blogspot.com/2008/10/batauri-blues.html
Note: NEPA = Nigerian Electricity Power Company or Never Expect Power Again which recently became PHCN = Power Holding Company of Nigeria or Problem Has Changed Name… For Glenn’s description of our electricity situation read this – it will make you feel better….
http://acanuckamuck.blogspot.com/2008/01/never-expect-power-again.html