My New Normal!!!

So here it is, another random update! Life is good, normal and so not usually worth writing about, yet at the same time, so very odd in its normality! I’m getting the food side of things sorted to a certain extent, though this has been the week of montezuma’s revenge, aka wicked sick, so I’ve not been that concerned about eating!

I should explain my new posse so that you don’t get lost in my randomness! Meh is my roomate, and the best thing in Calabar! She takes me everywhere, she knows everyone and she likes to go out, so every day we are out doing something somewhere! Her boyfriend G works for the Water Board, another expat from the UK, cause they all are, and he has been here for 7 years or so and loves everything about it! His son D is here visiting for 3 months, and is volunteering in my classroom, so I spend most of my time with him! That’s my main crew...there’s also the compound peeps who I work with and talk to on the bus ride, but they’re not super happy people, so I limit my time bitching with them! Then there are the people at school, the principal, the First Lady and her entourage, Mr. Cameroon (the consulate of Cameroon), the folks at the Water Board, Zea and her circle and then just other expats...all that said, they keep me busy and I get out a lot and I have it pretty good! I see a lot of people that come here and spend all of their time on the compound, never see anything or go anywhere or meet anyone, and I think I would lose my mind!

I can’t remember what I wrote about day to day life, so I’ll write more now! My house on the compound is quite nice - Meh and I each have our own bedrooms with king size beds and bathrooms, with a kitchen, living room, dining room and shared bathroom. We have a dog called Alex who apparently is great at catching rats (which luckily I have yet to see), but useless with lizards and cockroaches! Mostly he barks a lot, which wakes up the guards who are usually asleep! Meh spends almost every night at the water board house, which is also nice...nicer in that it has consistent power and television! At the compound we have a generator, but it’s turned off for parts of the day! So I spend a fair bit of time at the water board house as well, and stay over whenever anything is happening, like two weekends ago when there was an election so no one was allowed to leave home for 12 hours!

School is fine...I’m finally getting a grip on the behaviour issues in my classroom...at least I think that now, but Monday is always a whole new deal! I’m off on a four day weekend at the moment as it is a national holiday for the end of Ramadan. We were going to go camping, but we’ve been so sick that it’s not quite a good time! Today Meh and I are doing some cooking...so spending a lot of time driving to various places to buy everything we need...because we are having a party tonight at the water board house! That should entertain me most of the day, and of course somewhere in there we are stopping for a pedicure...which I haven’t done yet and am interested to see what comes of that!

As for crazy shit...well, last saturday I ventured to Tinapa, which is really the worst place ever! It’s a “mall” but no one here can afford to shop in it, so there are no stores! There is T-Mart, which is a sad version of Walmart, but everything in it is super expensive! After coming home from that, my neighbour, the consulate of Cameroon, aka Mr. Cameroon, came over to have Cameroonian beer, and invited me for dinner at the residence...turns out it was some sort of crazy swearing in ceremony and I was seated at the head table next to “His Excellency” and people kept taking my picture and bringing me odd food...that was perhaps the craziest thing that has happened yet! Every night, though, is a new adventure! Sundays we walk...which means G drives till he finds some random trail on the side of the road, and we get out and walk for as long as it takes...sometimes an hour, sometimes we get lost for 5 hours...you just never know!

I’m enjoying myself here far more than I expected, and feel safe and happy, so no need to worry! My life is nothing like it was at home, but I like it! And now, I’m off to see what happens next! Peace!