Fighting the Dust

After a day in Yaunde, we moved on to Bafusam, the hometown of Guy's father to get ready for the wedding. Bafusam is a dusty place. Red dust that is everywhere and permeates everything - your feet, clothes, hands, lungs.... This perhaps is the first image in my mind when I think of Bafusam. Red dust everywhere.




Let me back up a bit. We arrived after a long bumpy bus ride spent munching boiled peanuts, that was preceded by an almost fist fight, plenty of shouting, the throwing around of luggage and the squeezing of many many many people into a vehicle not fit for the squeezing of so many people. If this sounds a bit confusing to you, I'm sorry. I can't really explain what happened, as I don't know myself. All I know is that there were some negative feelings and it may have had something to do with the price of the tickets and the asking of more money, and the throwing of luggage, and the firm lady sitting behind us that absolutely refused to move over because she paid for one seat and she was darn well going to get her one seat and not share it with three other people. (That is my translation based on her tone of voice, crossed arms, and refusal to move despite much yelling, and the resulting moving over of people in the row behind her and man that then sat on the little piece of floor between the sliding door and the seats.) Someone said to us once that in Cameroon you have to learn fight for everything - not only the things you want but even the things that you should be entitled to.

We tried to stay out of the fighting - but from what we saw, it was true. It takes a significant amount of struggle and fight to move the smallest bit in the direction you want. And for most people the struggle is over issues like food, housing, clean water, health care, getting a job, and supporting your eight younger siblings through school, not to mention things like fighting corruption, greed and injustice. We on the other hand had the luxury of fighting over things like making sure some guy didn't steal our bags out of the trunk of the cab with the lid that didn't close (good eye Scott!), and keeping the red dust off. Nothing to complain about.