Perspective

So, I'm in France.

I have had the wonderful fortune to be able to come back to Montpellier (my favorite city on earth and where I studied abroad) to visit my sister for almost TWO WEEKS!  Over the three days that I have been here already, I have devoured all of the cheese, bread, wine, and vegetables I can get my hands on.  Being back in a place that I have spent an obscene number of hours day dreaming about has been wonderful, but it has also given me a new appreciation for my current country of residence, Cameroon.

To be honest, I expected to step off the airplane and spend the next two weeks dreading going back to Cameroon.  Don't get me wrong, I've had a wonderful experience there so far and I love my village, but COME ON it's the south of France!  Happily, I've found myself appreciating both countries in equal parts.  Yes, the food and beautiful architecture of France is a dream come true, but I also miss the crazy chaos of Cameroonian life.

On my way out of country, I had to go through Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon.  Because it is a huge city and tends to be an ideal place to get robbed, volunteers are not supposed to spend time there.  I had permission to fly out of Douala, but the idea was that I would go straight to the airport.  Well, at the bus stop where I was supposed to catch a cab, I got off the bus and before I realized what was happening it pulled away with my luggage.  I talked to the other woman who got off at that stop who rushed me onto a moto to follow the bus to the bus station.  Before we pulled away, she gave the driver a serious look and said, "Be honest," which I couldn't decide was comforting or unsettling.  Of course, taking a moto straight into Douala was not exactly in my travel plans.  Well, long story short, after a good thirty minutes or so of riding a moto through the crazy traffic of Douala I got my luggage back at the bus station.  The same driver then took me out to the airport with hours and hours to spare before my flight.  Upon dropping me off, of course I got taken for a ride regarding price, but it involved a lot of joking and no hard feelings.  At the airport I spent some time looking at the gift shops and made friends with one of the owners who was from the north by showing off my excellent Fulfulde HAHA.  (A greeting was enough to convince him that I was his "sister" and he should give me a good price.)

My last afternoon in Cameroon was spent in a typically chaotic manner, but it also showed me how far I've come.  I realized how much I've learned about negotiating my way through the less formal, but equally efficient systems here.  The craziness of the market used to be really scary to me, but now it is just exciting.  I will definitely be enjoying my time here in France and all of the perks that go along with the "developed" world, but I also can't wait to get back to Cameroon to see what the next two years will bring.