Going to Buea...and thanks for your sympathy

Just a note to let you all know that we are going to Buea this Monday for a couple of weeks to do some research in the anglophone archives there. Will try to update the blog at least once while we're there. Looking forward to some time on Mt. Cameroon and getting on the beach at Limbe! And thanks also to many of you for your sympathy in our archival trials and tribulations. Things have happily gotten better. Barbara has come around a bit, though two of her assistants are lost causes. But alas! There is a new assistant that is fabulous and he works really hard to get us what we need. We told him we owe him a few beers for all of his help. Diana K. also tried to post the following comment in response to the archival blog--which we will definitely heed--but it didn't show up:

"Is there anybody else working in the archives? Or do you know anyone
who has? I'd be willing to bet that "no typing" and "we stop bringing
documents after 2" are NOT rules.

"If you were in Russia, I'd suggest getting the archivist a "present"
and explaining that really, you'd much rather type, because you can't
possibly carry all that paper back. Perhaps a present for the
assistant, too. But you should find out the culturally appropriate
way to do it.

"(to add to this, again, if you were in Russia, I'd see both "rules"
as pretty explicit requests for bribes)."

Harmony has actually already been told by her prof here that we need to pay the taxi fare of the archivist in Buea to give him a little incentive to actually show up!

C'est la vie...of doing research in developing countries!!