Spills and Skills

I’ve been very busy lately preparing a course I’m delivering on the managing of change. The usual stuff: PowerPoint presentation, flipcharts and handouts. I’ve tried to allow space for participants to interpret my pearls of wisdom in their own context.

You’ll remember that I’ve mentioned the issue of waste disposal before. The local council has reacted to criticism of its waste disposal policy by putting up signs on either side of the stream into which market traders routinely push all their unwanted material (maize husks, plantain peel, and rotten oranges. In the photo you can see the consequence of the brand new signs. In my presence people carry on using the stream for disposing of their rubbish.

I’ve met some impressive people since I’ve been in Cameroon. The long-term volunteers show a quiet determination to make things happen. I am particularly impressed by the commitment of the VSO volunteers located far from Bamenda. In the past week I’ve also met Penny Fraser, Director of the United Africa Association, with a strong interest in conservation work, and a clear lover of Cameroon and its people.

I remain amazed at skills demonstrated by local craftsmen. Here I don’t mean the manufacturers of wooden masks for tourists, but local furniture producers, who work in the open air, turning out wooden and even cane furniture. The photo shows the cane worker.

The first picture shows a craftsman - wearing a top with a Dutch company name - and the second shows his raw material. The third shows a rubbish sign, with rubbish on it!

Signs and wonders

I sat with a group of Cameroonians yesterday to watch the inauguration of President Obama. There is tremendous enthusiasm for the man here and hope for the future. I hope that they are not disappointed.

It seems to me that Africa gets a lot of Europe’s rubbish. Most of the taxis I have ridden in so far have been imported from Europe, mostly from Germany and Holland, when they are no longer good enough for use on the roads of those countries. Cars which can no longer be used on the roads of Europe because they do not meet environmental demands are clearly good enough for Africa.

I looked at a stall of electrical products today. These too are all old fridges and other electrical goods which have been shipped over by the container load. One has to wonder how environmentally friendly these fridges are, and whether the electric kettles are safe to use.
Another aspect of this concerns men’s clothing. You see lots of younger men here wearing t-shirts bearing logos and wording which do not relate to this part of the world. Many have texts on them in German or Dutch advertising schools or garages in small towns. I even saw the name of the electrical company Philips printed with the first “i” missing!

I have also been looking a lot lately at the signs by the roadside. They reveal a different sort of English from that spoken in the U.K. The two signs here are on the road which I walk down every day from my workplace into the town centre. The third shows a mechanic's shop near Douala. Note the spelling.

A quick word of thanks to those who have sent emails and made comments. Thank you! Dioch! Dankon!