Playtime’s over : A day alone

Holiday break is over. Today was Akilah’s first day back to work so that meant I had to find something to do. What did I choose? I stayed in the bed of course. Why get up? By the time she returned I was really just getting up. Later this evening she’s teaching an adult english class, so maybe I’ll go for a walk.

So, about that walk, turns out the school where she teaches the adult class is on the same road I took going to the Artisnant area yesterday. When we arrived there the students were standing outside because the gate was locked. So Akilah and I took a walk around to the HeadMasters’ (Mistress’) house. Wasn’t too far from the school.

All during the walk, I’m just continually taking in the sights. Kind of getting used to the environment. I’ve been here for so many days and have yet to really adjust. Haven’t really done a speaking as related to french; not yet anyway.

We pick up the key, head back to the school. I continue walking on, saw a Mobilis sign, yesterday, I wanted to check out. Mobilis is one of the two major companies (MTN’s the other) providing cell phone access here. I arrive back at the shop only to find that neither the sales woman or gentleman are Anglophone. Oh well, here goes my communication lessons.

Actually what I did was just input the phone and price information into my handheld, by the time I was done I think I’d peeked some interest. As I was putting the handheld back into my pocket, the gentleman – who I noticed was sitting at a laptop – was motioning for me to come over. Don’t know exactly what he said, but I did gather that much. Body language, that’s good.

As he tried to ask me questions, in french of course, and I tried to understand, somehow we reached a common understanding where he wanted to see my handheld communicate with his laptop. Though I didn’t have a cradle, I at least wanted to see if he had the necessary software. After about ten minutes of sitting in front of his laptop, I determined he didn’t have what was necessary. I wrote down for him the websites of the two companies he could get the information he obviously wanted (Palm and Handspring).

He, Sylvester, moved on to the next question. For some reason Sylvester asked if I knew how to do graphics. Being the modest graphic designer that I am, I just responded, “Me? Well certainly.” Next thing I know he’s asking (still in french, but now accented with a few english words) if I would be able to recreate the logo of the pre-paid cellular calling card. Looking it over a few times I told him, scan it in and i could recreate it in no time; but not with his laptop, I’d have to use my own.

Sylvester, however, informed me that the scanner wouldn’t be in for three weeks. Still looking at the logo, I mentioned that I could do it without the scan, but to get the proper proportions, I would prefer the scan. So maybe in three weeks I’ll be donating or bartering my services, eh?

Since someone is asking about my design abilities and is interested in seeing them first hand, I’m excited. Maybe during these days while Akilah is at school teaching, I can take a walk around here and kind of hang out. Nah, too much of a thought.

After leaving the store, had to rush back to the apartment and pick up a maglite. There’s nothing worse than coming home and having to walk up three flights of stairs in the dark. Not good. Of course while there I decided to quickly load a few sample fliers into my handheld; just in case someone wanted to see samples when we stopped back there later.

There’s something about the stares you get when you’re walking the streets in Cameroon. Without fail, no matter what province or city I’m in, I continually get these stares from folks. After a while you kind of stare back so they’ll feel the way you do. It usually works.

These stares happened while I was walking to the apartment and back to the lycèe to meet Akilah after class. Its interesting that right near this primary school (literally next door) is a bar. Ironically, owned by a Gendarme. Hmmmm. What type of image is that sending?

Once all the farewell formalities are in order, we head back over near the store, there’s a restaurant there we wanted to go to for dinner. Just didn’t feel like playing the chef tonight. We did stop back in the store but only to view some of the pagne for sale, and take a look at the cell phones in the case.

Afterwards, we went upstairs to the restaurant for our meal, and took sometime to contemplate the value of her getting a cell phone. Hmmm. She’s gonna listen to a guy that has two in the states? Which way do you think I’m leaning.

Look at it like this, there are a ton of folks throughout the African continent that don’t even have residential phones, but my personal philosophy is that this is one convenience westerners should not try to do without for long periods of time. Yeah, there are cabine’s, but what if someone needed to call late night, say after eleven or midnight, what happens then?

What’s good about this service is that it would only cost 1200 CFAs for a one minute call to the U.S., and in one minute you could easily give your party you’re number so they can return the call immediately. What’s even better is that all incoming calls are FREE!

Now that’s my language. So why not invest in it? It would even be cheaper for someone from the states to come to Cameroon, buy a cell phone (did I mention its prepaid service only?) and a few prepaid cards, and still come out cheaper than if they were to rent a satellite or GSM-type phone from one of the cleverly marketed companies.

While we’re eating our rice and eggs (mixed) and waiting for my omelette and her avocado salad, we’re going over the conveniences of owning the phone. After this conversation it was more than obvious its a good deal. Now to get the phone.

Dinner was good, and topped off with a bottle of d’Jino and pampelemousse. What a night.