My colleagues took me to a nice place by the beach where we ate good fish, fresh potato chips made from real potatoes and fried plantain, accompanies with a good red wine. I know that normally fish should be taken with white wine but they say red is good for the heart, although I’m sure my heart is probably swimming in it.

On the way home we listened to the sounds of R Kelly, his second album, I think it was the best. There’s a particular song on this album, I can’t remember the name of it, but the lyrics go “girl I’ll be right there when you need me, all you have to do is just call me, I’ll be there for you, girl it’s true, only for you”. It took me back to the good old days, when you could appreciate the lyrics to a song, no B* word or N* word just straight up songs to make you feel good.

Listening to the song made me think about my first love. Dean Duncan, I broke up with him because I felt he spent too much time chasing after friends, then I started dating Matthew, can’t remember his surname, big mistake that was, far to freaky and advanced for my young age. He dumped me by inviting me to a party and turning up with his new girlfriend. I went back to Dean and we had an on again off again relationship thing until we both realised that it was done. They say your teenage years are the best of your life. I say it is just a learning curve, you break a heart, your heart gets broken but you know what, those days should remain in a locked cupboard labelled the past, do not return.

Two years ago I came to Douala and I was out and about with the night owls, from one club to another, I think I was out every night that week. Tonight it was very befitting that the first place I went to last time is the last place I went to this trip and I’m in bed by 9.30, maturity be what. I’m exhausted, and although I had many offers to go out, my body tells me that its time to hang up my dancing days boots, for tonight anyway.

Speaking of offers, I’ve had a few since I got here. There was the Alaghi guy, who wanted me to come up to his room to teach me French, ooh la la. There was also a guy in the office, he had lived in the states and was giving me his French/American slangs. I asked a colleague if he knew anywhere I could change a 5 dollar bill. The yankee guy gave me 10000CFA and told me not to worry about the 5USD. Okay it was a minute amount that I wanted to change, but I only needed to buy a few ladies things and didn’t want to break into the 100 dollar bill. The following day yankee guy asks me if I managed to buy my stuff, I thought he was just showing concern, that was until the next time he asked. I said I had, the man goes and asks me for his change. Now I don’t mind giving back the money, he gave me more than the 5 USD was worth but was a bit taken aback, because if I give out small amounts I don’t really go asking it back, and never has an African man asked me for his change before, but hey what can I say, he claimed he had been back from the states less than a year ago, and it was his money so I just gave it back.

One thing I have noticed about here is that some people carry a scent. I also noticed that some people where the same shirt more than once a week and sometimes, they where the same outfit consecutively. This is a hot country people, you need to wash your clothes frequently. As you know I have issues with my sinuses. In one meeting my nose got blocked up so got my decongestant. Well when my nose was clear the scent of the guy next to me wafted up my nose and it decided it would rather be blocked then have to endure the agony. And it is not just the guys who have the scent, not a nice thing to go through first thing in the morning

What I do find cute though is the accent. I cannot differentiate the different Francophone country accents but when the Cameroonians speak English it is straight up Nigerian. In fact their everything is. Taxi’s, tro-tro driving, time keeping everything. We share different colonial masters but some things are very consistent throughout Africa especially in the West and Central coasts.

Well sleep is about to take over so given you a brief rundown of the end of the week. Until the next time