Lo Tov
Imagine the sound of an open palm repeatedly slapping the plastic window of a storm door. This is the sound that precedes the rooster’s song – the waking noise that breaks my dream flow and welcomes me to another African day, from less than 3 feet away from my head.
A wonderful Sunday. Simon and I drove to Bata early, had some coffee, and then picked up a colleague, Sofia, that he had chosen as a possible friend for me here. She’s a wonderful Portuguese woman who speaks perfect English among other things and has lived here over 3 years total. The three of us went to the American oil compound for their monthly BBQ/blood drive.
Most of the doctors doing the pricking were from a hospital nearby and were Israeli. The funny thing that happened was while the first doc was pricking my arm for the second time looking for a good vein, the other doc came over and said one of the three things I know in Hebrew: lo tov. What is the likelihood of that?! My ears pricked up and I was like, OMG I just understood what he said. And then the realization of what it meant. The puncture was no good. It was only the second hole in my arm, but the 7th attempt to get a clean hit. It was almost too much. They switched to the other arm and the other doctor and it was fine. (A week later, my arm still has a gigantic bruise)
Here are some unsubstantiated facts that I have learned about the country:
*Almost all of the produce comes from neighboring Cameroon.
*There is a plethora of Chinese construction workers here who are convicts from China, shipped over to work their sentence off.
*The people of China and the US are the only ones who don’t need a visa to come or go from this country.
*The Fang people don’t like to have trees next to their houses. Remnants of living IN the jungle and having a lot of things destroyed by fell trees.
*You can hear a tuning fork with exquisite precision on your skull. (Maybe that should have gone with the Art of Doing Nothing list I am compiling).
Simon is dutifully working through the first Lord of the Rings book. Here is a haiku summary he wrote:
Hobbit with a ring
Who likes to snack on mushrooms
Goes for a long walk
Lordy he makes me laugh.