A frustrating day with things that I would rather, and probably should not go into. But I wanted to share this passage from another PCV’s blog that spoke to me. She was describing a terrible day with many things going wrong. If you spend even a few weeks actually working in this country, you can relate perfectly with her sentiments. She ended with this wonderful paragraph:
No. Don’t pity Africans their poverty. Pity them the colonialism, the traditions, and resulting clusterfuck of disorganization that many countries on the continent have suffered and which crushes hope of making a difference insidiously, beginning with early childhood, until the people become docile and incapable of getting angry in the face of injustice, chalking everything up to fate.
Working in this country can be extremely frustrating. Your emotions are often heightened and when things go wrong, you can’t just meet up with good friends at the end of the day for a drink at happy hour. My bad day didn’t have anything to do with Cameroonians, but still. The more time I spend in this country, the more I am used to using the phrase “on va faire comment?” (what are you gonna do? – the answer to every difficult, unpleasant situation in this country) sometimes, circumstances don’t allow you do do anything but sit and say, “well, that sucks”. Unfortunately, those circumstances occur at a much higher frequency in this country than elsewhere that I’ve lived.
