A glimpse into our daily life

1. No fridge (we did have one for a couple days...but we decided that having an appliance in the house that causes all the electricity to go out and simultaneously shocks sisters was not such a good idea after all).

2. We drink powdered milk that's imported from the Netherlands (the best part of waking up is NIDO in your cup!).

3. We haven't had a hot shower since we left the U.S.

4. We handwash all our clothes.

5. The only processed foods we eat are bullion cubes for cooking and chocolate...oh yeah...and NIDO.

6. Dusty as hell here -- it's the dry season and the Harmattan winds from the north are relentless! Two days after washing the car, it's completely covered with red dust. Ugh.

7. A lot of our friends and acquaintances are from polygamist families.

8. Weekly, sometimes twice weekly, trips to Fish Point, the main food market in Bamenda, where one can buy the following for roughly $4.70: 8-10 tomatoes, 3 onions, 10-12 peppers (hot ones!), a pint-size bag of chopped green beans and carrots, 10-12 plantains, 4 small papayas, 6 bananas, a small bucket-full of Irish potatoes, fresh herbs, huckleberry leaves (njama njama), and two cups of red beans. Yeah…food is NOT a problem here.

9. We boil all of our drinking water.

10. We've been reading the same August issues of _The New Yorker_ and _Rolling Stone_ for the past three months now (though some of the pics and cartoons have graduated to wall-decor status).

11. Harmony finally learned how to drive a stick...grace à Dairou. Now we're free as birds in our used Euro Toyota Corolla.

12. A one-liter-plus beer costs a dollar.

13. Fried plantains.

14. Mornings are filled with landmark African neighborhood sounds: the crowing rooster, the radio beats, chirping birds, the repetitive swoosh of sweeping brooms, a baby crying, and a little later on the chatter of women as they wash and hang their clothes out to dry.

15. Missin' home.