Sovn European Sleep Systems Cost

01/18/2007: I'm alive and I'm fine

Dear friends,
sorry for the wait, I'm alive and I'm good, I had promised to write but here the very first time really flies, there is always something to do and I realize that eventually those who puts you who live reflection of my adventure. Last night I said goodbye to the chagrin of Yaounde with when you return home after the summer holidays in two weeks when you have so much affectionate to people, places, habits that you seem to be part of your life forever, but then you are obligated to understand that those faces and those images were not merely content with an open parenthesis in the economy of a long novel. Semicolon. Starting over.


My two weeks in Yaounde were intense, chaotic metropolis, but is a very lively: the red dust that rises with the slightest hint of wind accompanying gestures, dances, brawl of thousands of Cameroonians that every day populate the streets, the old, multi-ethnic and westernized, forgotten neighborhoods, which happen to find one or two years of children who have never seen a white (there's a lot of white in some places but obviously we do not pass) .

Maybe I won because it is similar to my Milan, although more extreme and intrusive.
Yaounde is a city where everything is more aggressive.
Yaounde are taxis yellow for 200 francs take you everywhere and fill until you see the people sitting on the handbrake, Yaounde is the sound of car horns, the streams of people, military parades, Yaounde are the chickens who try to escape from bags where they were strung together with just tomatoes and a bag of rice for lunch on Sunday, Yaounde markets are endless, the smell of dried fish and the colors of spices, Yaounde Hilton is looking through its windows lit the finely "palace of death", day dilapidated building that you only notice the enormous votez Paul Biya written in black spray at night without laws home for street children.
Yaounde are beer 33 express and castel , T-shirts eto fils proudly worn by adults and children, women working in Yaounde are combing sisters, daughters and friends in the street at any hour of the day.
Yaounde are invented football fields in any open space and crowded from dawn to dusk.
Yaounde shops are tuned to Canal Plus.
Yaounde are the churches, cults, religious gatherings, associations of tontines .
Yaounde are embassies, Italian restaurants, cultural centers, the desire to emerge.


But the capital Yaounde is above all an African country where it dominates la contraddizione.
Difficile farci un'idea da su; difficile anche per me. Tina mi ha raccontato di un prete italiano a cui erano stati donati dalla sua chiesa un milione e mezzo di lire per la sua missione in Cameroun e alla domanda di due parrocchiani "Padre, dipendesse solo da lei, come impiegherebbe questi soldi?" questi aveva risposto "Vi pagherei il biglietto aereo perché possiate scendere giù a vedere le cose coi vostri occhi". Da noi domina ancora troppa mala-informazione (o comunque informazione ridotta) e appena sentiamo la parola Africa il nostro cervello la associa alle pance gonfie dei bambini, alla povertà, ai tamburi, alla gente pitturata. E già inconsciamente ci poniamo in una situazione di superiorità. Nella nostra head just can not see an Africa that is walking.
This is not a day passes without at least one person you have addressed the fateful plea " pleasant moi mon ami en Italie avec toi" (friend, take me with you in Italy). Italy then what they know? What they saw? Absolutely nothing. We respond that we have is good and beautiful. Po'circoscritta an analysis for the Eldorado. Why

last mail you wrote that the fault is a po'nostra and po'loro? And 'our (as West) because we have plundered the continent and continue to do so, we come down and not happy with our strong currency - many members of NGOs, researchers, volunteers, missionaries, volunteers civil service are paid in euro and then down in our countries can make a living from nabobs; stand the choices of people living real experiences to share. even the money - and without understanding of what is passed on the cultural context, spending and scatter, we give money, do not just beg our sympathy has been teased a minimum. Results: Children who will constantly yell cadeaux, cadeaux (gifts, gifts), the inability to relate on a par with a friend because it knows you have more, and then ask you forever (not a relationship of friendship because are similar, but because I can get something from you), people who invented sisters grandmothers, children and sick people because the white gets excited without investigating, and trust bestowed.

But the Cameroonians are certainly not exempt from blame: first people work little, the work lacks a po'perché po'perché and we do not strive to look for or create. Even those few projects of whites willing to put up a firm with local staff to teach a business and create jobs, eventually ending, since it disappeared three days after a drill, after four ten employees will already have applied for a loan, people come to work one day a no.

Going around you feel a state of backwardness widespread but little effort to get out (not none, few). The problem of Cameroon is not poverty. They are mostly water, education and health. Problems related. Some examples? At the top of the list of causes of death in the country are malaria, AIDS and road accidents (in that order).
The last is not even the case to analyze it: if you go to 200 per hour and you crash you're an idiot. Both in Italy and in Cameroon (and do not cite the excuse of the condition of the roads, if you go to two hundred per hour on a rough road you an idiot twice).
AIDS kills in Cameroon as in few other countries in the world (it is second to South Africa to other African countries). The money to buy condoms do not miss anyone, use it or not is a choice. That the disease is spread by sexual contact, perhaps in a few villages still do not know, Yaounde know well the walls. But here the head always tells you that you must have a personal and immediate return in full. Apply it to the sphere of pleasure and you explain the 9.9% of HIV in the capital.
Malaria is the most difficult case. The reasoning to do is this: to cure, to treat other diseases as the government and families spend a ton of money. NGOs are raising awareness in the districts saying that to avoid to prevent typhoid fever, and Ebola verminosis must be careful to water putrid and infected (for malaria in not near as it attracts mosquitoes, in the other three do not drink or eat things that have been surrounded by bad water), not considering that few people in the house running water and even less to have it filtered, purified and ionized salinized. And wherever open sewers, marshes, streams of black water that flow through the houses. Why was the money he spends in the care and raising them at least the capital invested to build a sewer system of respect? Maybe because in this way the money coming from international organizations, which can then turn round to your liking without realizing it-and often then again to swell the coffers in the West? Maybe because the long-term projects are not even provided - as recently from the rest of us - why not give immediate results? Perhaps because the projects are faced with a slow bureaucracy, with thousands of permits and authorizations and with a lace to be paid to any official in the word you ask? I a response when you do not provide the know. Documentatevi you, think, debate, stimulated contradditemi.

All this I am writing from my bed Mbalmayo. I will miss the community of the CASS: Tina, Claire, AnneMarie. At home with them was just a nice atmosphere enhanced by pleasant chats and long debate on what everyone (who is here for many years and who has just arrived) see, appreciate or understand of this country.
In these two weeks I was welcomed by children's soccer despite my sore ankle, and it was really nice to know, know the way they play, share training, participate in challenges, solve problems together.
I watched the boys dance dance and percussion group play and was surprised by the talent of some of them and afternoons spent tirelessly to try to improvise, to play with the body and the rhythm in a masterly way.
I spoke to children, so curious, with a surprising range, often in search of a hug or a hand, a po'd'attenzione a summary of affection, which may not always home è dato.
Ho conosciuto gli animatori, preparati e determinati (non sempre presenti e coordinati), ho imparato ad apprezzare i loro metodi di lavoro e la loro passione. Ho visitato le altre strutture del centro, mi sono fatto un idea di cosa fanno e come lavorano.

Tra i momenti più forti ricordo le visite in quartiere: un occasione per uscire e cercare di dare testimonianza tra gli ultimi con la nostra presenza; la presenza di bianchi che non sono qui né per dare né per insegnare, ma solo per ascoltare. Con la voglia di capire.
Mi porterò dietro il sorriso di Lela e gli scherzi di Georgette.
La voglia di Moise di imparare a suonare la chitarra.
L'estro calcistico di Alexi e Sussa.
Le prime parole Gaetana
spells and lies of Anjo.
The beautiful voice of Junior. The big face
Aisha.
Daniel and Ezekiel.
time delivery with an extra suitcase: a wealth of positive memories that I carry around on the road. With great affection

JJ


ps de Andre said that the flowers come from manure. Look at this flower born a few years ago in a mud hut, where he still lives

Cruising Spots Portland Oregon

01/09/2007: Under a blue sky

Under a blue sky dominated by hawks, rising to nottegiorno vigilant guardians of the cities and countryside, between echoes of bikutsi and makossa (the most popular music in the central region) which confused with the notes of the nearby radio tuned to 24 hours on some 24 local frequency exclusively female pop, with a blocked nose - cold-but forced to give in to that mix too strong odors in the air with an incessant background of verses , singing, movement of animals and animals that chatter incessantly, a po'stanco,
sit on my bed by the window to tell us a bit of Cameroun to each of you.
Every day I try to write down in a notebook the things I'd like to let you know but the bombing (as opposed to what makes us passive after 3 hours of television) pictures, stories, feelings are so strong that I do a large selection in my head because the time to write, however, is always very low!

This weekend we made a trip to the West, one of which is divided into ten regions in Cameroon. The regional capital is the africanissima Bafoussan, Bamiléké stronghold, one of the dominant ethnic groups in the area, with a culture and traditions are still very much alive. We started at 5, Yaounde are more or less four-hour drive (I drove myself to the 4x4!) And it is wonderful to observe that as the tropical forest landscapes to leave more open space and thinning of the typical pre-savanna. Travelling by car is sensational: the roads, until you get to town, they are quite manageable, wide and completely paved. The eyes have the red earth that marks this country, the markets and stalls of pineapple and papaya at best, cooked and kept hanging mice by the vendors, when you're less lucky, never take a skewer of meat on the street because their rats eat more than normal so that Tina said that once two guardians of the CASS in the evening were presented at the door asking if he could lend them a po'd'olio soffittino and onion for a rat to get the flavor just captured - .

is through groups of houses, villages and larger towns, but all (or at least most) share a similar fate: the names of these places cominciano tutti con la B, perché in Bamiléké la B indica la pluralità, dunque tu non ti ricordi mai qual è l'ultimo paese che hai passato, di indicazioni ce n'è poche e quindi va a finire che sei costretto ogni 10 minuti ad interpellare degli autoctoni pronti a darti qualsiasi indicazione, se non a salire in macchina con te, ma spesso non molto preparati 

Nell'ultimo tratto di strada lo sguardo cade inevitabilmente sui tetti conici in lamiera tipici delle chefferie, luoghi dove i capi tradizionali ricevono in udienza i loro sudditi, diversi dalle regge, che sono le loro abitazioni vere e proprie. I capi tradizionali sono riconosciuti dal governo statale e sembra, dalla comunità internazionale, hanno pieni powers in the judiciary (whether a person is sentenced to death by a chef the government can not intercede for the offender) and the power handed down by heredity, while the hunter was once more able to gain the throne. We visited the Chefferie Bandjoun of one of the finest in the area, despite the deliberate fire (patterns of inheritance) that has devastated two years ago. Between Chefferie and the other a time there was hostility, now there is more cooperation (because their representatives to make lobbying the government absolutely must be a united front) while maintaining each one's center of power, their costumes and his rituals. Traditional ceremonies are an incredible sight- I only saw a video that would be really interesting to attend as spectators. In the museum I saw the splendid thrones, the scepters and other gift items in wood and pearls that pertain to each new king along with a sacred animal that distinguishes him.

The western area is also known for the rich waterways (especially in the rainy season), us between Saturday and Sunday we got to see the crater lake of Baleng, a valley in the mountains, of clear water with lots of canoes but also the indescribable waterfalls EKOM, eighty-meter jump in the middle of nowhere, if anything can be called a green valley, lush that suddenly opens after 10 km of unpaved (Other than Balistra, killer ... holes meters and branches that get into the windows in the car) through the dried coffee in front of small houses in the mud of the locals, who still live in the wild, but on mobile phones! Out of curiosity I I say that Chutes d'EKOM are the place where he set the Tarzan movies ... I try to send you a picture but I assure you that does not make the idea of \u200b\u200bdepth, a glance, but most of might with that this amount of liquid hitting the rocks, creating a magnificent and well visible rainbow. One of those places where even the goofy photographer, like me, that has to do is push the button on the machine and it is certain that his photos will be however, a masterpiece.

splendid place, to stay with his mouth open. Why then Cameroon is not even considered by our travel agents, some say that the phenomenon is growing in recent years-? It seems that the government does not care, it seems that the one-way trip costs in Cameroon as a round trip to Senegal with a one week stay at the hotel of good quality. So many taxes on flights, very few facilities (and that only in these few days there I can confirm) and therefore another source of income that goes away. But where does the money that the state then if the streets and restaurants and 15 who are in the hands of Chinese and Greek buildings for the most part are the property of Japanese, France and Belgium contend the food and products from supermarket (the first also has one of two mobile phone networks found in Cameroon, the Orange, the second, MTN is South Africa) Americans have water and electricity, and of course the oil and transport. And I speak of a country which is the second largest producer and exporter of timber in the world, the first in aluminum and copper, cocoa and coffee you count the top with other West African countries ... to make you understand that money will run a lot. Social policies wrong, little public spending, but also lots and lots but just so much corruption.

I would still have plenty to tell you one thousand points to start but then I realize that then can get a better determination of the stories in a kind of reportage in installments, which I hope will interest you and please.
I communicate to all those who do not know that my luggage arrived a few days now, and I'll be in Yaounde until next weekend, then most likely (again, here there is never anything for sure) will start my adventure in the north.

again I thank all of you who write to me is great to see your name appear in the inbox, read your thoughts and your reportage from my world away.
I feel that you are traveling with me. A hug jj

Chicken Wings Wholesale

03/01/2007: The adventure begins

dear friends is wonderful to receive all your mail your thoughts, statements of the New Year, the confessions. I wish I could answer one by one to make you understand what your words give me strength and make me feel good. I hope you all can understand that what you do for me is important. This may seem an email but it is a collective-to-face chat with each of you.
are in Yaounde, the administrative capital of this amazing country. the economic capital, as well as the largest city and commercial hub instead Douala, located on the coast. 50 km from Yaounde and Mbalmayo sono sostanzialmente solo brousse (spero si scriva così) foresta tropicale a tutti gli effetti. il verde qua è un altro colore che penso non corrisponda a nessuno di quelli che ognuno di noi ha impressi nella sua tavolozza immaginaria. noi li abbiamo percorsi col gippone, la strada è asfaltata e scorre benissimo senonchè qui vanno come dei pazzi e quindi ogni tanto ti trovi una sagoma nera sul ciglio con scritto sopra 16 morti e allora magari un po'rallenti..sui lati baracchini ogni tanto, pedaggi legali o meno, bimbi di 3-4 anni che camminano da soli chissà alla ricerca di chi o di cosa.

poi arrivi in yaounde. e te ne accorgi. la massa di gente taxi ovunque senza un codice ne stradale ne morale galline polli baracche mercati, pompe funeral every ten meters (for now and win the paradis and the voyage Derniere ), anyone who stops you, your partner who was in grade school and who offers to take you on a tour of città.gente, people, and people. and then the myth of the fetus. Here this man is a god, is a kind of prophet. The Pope, presidents and movie stars make him a mustache. is untouchable. everyone has his shirt, murals, posters, publicity is a product qualisasi .. why? in '94 because Cameroon has successfully participated at the World Championships and from there the football has become THE OPPORTUNITY '. now think that this is one of the strongest players in the world has fueled the phenomenon because if the fetus has made you too maybe you'll make it (though I think it is very different from what it was for maradona napoli even though it was a compatriot, but here the discussion is open. just amazing the power that can have a man who pulls kick a ball. power that influences the choices of millions of people, an entire people and therefore the story)
the CASS Yaounde where I stay for ten days immersed in the district of nkolndongo, and clay huts, those who are fortunate concrete walls and asbestos roofs but they are few. children play quietly in the huge boxes of garbage. marshes with sewer rats as big as cats run in the midst of the "case", impressive number:
a) of the hairdressers - women and girls every day have a different hairstyle, but always fascinating, often unlikely
b) of the Church, understood as congregazioni.sette.ce is something each of the sorta.e chicanta race is longer and stronger. The first night I stayed here the church lawn has gone on to sing in the streets with megaphones to 20 meters from the house up to seven thirty in the morning.

the CASS what? Literally Centre d'Animation Sociale and Sanitaire. but large compared to the center of Mbalmayo and functional utility of this structure, I learned much more immediatezza.c 'is a pregnancy. women are giving birth, costs less than clinical state and the service is better. on average there are 10-15 pieces per day. then add to the screaming fanatics Batisti excruciating (and motivated!) of women who give birth to a son. a few steps from my bed. One of these days maybe I'll see a live birth.
addition there is a maternity clinic, the apartment where we live, some classroom and a soccer field. We are here every day after school because boys 60-70 offer a social alternative does not exist. children up to eleven years do not pay anything, then a contribution from the eleven in CEFA of 1000 francs a year (and half a euro). the proposed activities are very beautiful and varied, there are 4 Cameroonian leaders each with a specialization different: those involved in sports (football coach, tournament, handball that here is a lot), some of the theater (with the kids writing lyrics, creating scenery, shows), some of the games, some of communication (poems, Themed debates, reading newspapers), some of film (usually film and discussion). clearly, my traveling companion in this experience, she will stay fixed in Yaounde-you are entering your time in each of these activities and gives appoggioche and large. often it is important for children to even talk, have a point of rierimento.ed addition, despite the undoubted willingness and preparedness of youth, a coordinator is not absolutely necessary because sempre sono affidabili. io ho fatto la mia prima esperienza oggi. i ragazzini mi hanno invitato ad allenarmi con loro a calcio, a 13-14 anni ci sono già dei potenziali campioni, quindi etò probabilmente serve davvero a qualcosa (comunque calcio tecnico, passaggi di prima, dribbling, manovre costruite..non è il calcio veloce e senza schemi che avevo conosciuto in kenya).

in casa è fantastico. chiara è aperta, critica, ma molto volenterosa e solare. poi c'è annemarie che è una donna camerounese che lavora al cass e che ora è incinta. e poi c'è tina, la "capa" che è un mito. non penso di potervela descrivere a dovere con le parole. dico solo che è una donna che si è made 40 years of africa. I
Cameroon is increasingly a country of contradictions, the people are poor but not to eat potentially missing anyone. southern regions favor crops that cover the whole year. I was told that poverty is poverty in the north for food. here there is a paucity of education and we put little to notice. Tomorrow does not exist, often even each other. you're here and now. irritates you sometimes but it's a fascinating question to be exhausted.
set up a partnership with camerounesi is virtually impossible, because white is always a chance anyway and then get the same level is not even thinkable. the fault is a bit 'us and a bit' loro.

c'è gente che fa morire un bambino perchè non ha soldi per le cure e poi organizza due giorni dopo funerali spendendo cifre follli (qui il funerale conta ben più del matrimonio o di qualunque altra celebrazione), ogni tanto si presenta qualche mamma in maternitè che non può pagare il parto ma si porta dietro un fotografo ufficiale che costa un occhio della testa, gli investimenti non esistono anche se sarebbero fattibili per la maggior parte della popolazione per uscire da una condizione di miseria, gli uomini spendono un sacco di soldi in birra e magari non mandano i bambini a scuola. di esempi ce n'è tanti e ve ne riporterò ancora.

gli aspetti comunque non sono solo negativi, ad esempio mi sono accorto che il cosidetto digital divided (il gap informatico che sarebbe causa di tutti i mali dell'africa) è una bufala assurda. qui sanno usare gli apparecchi elettronici molto meglio di parecchi di noi...
la sveglia di norma è alle sei e mezza mi spiace non poter andare avanti ma sottrarrei del tempo al sonno mentre invece domattina devo essere in forma perchè dobbiamo scegliere il film con gli animatori e programmare le attività. ma soprattutto la giornata è lunga, calda e faticosa. ma davvero bella.
spero prima o poi di riuscire a rispondere anche solo con qualche riga a tutti voi che mi avete scritto. mi fa piacere sentire che un po'di cameroun in questo modo lo state vivendo anche voi. se un giorno ho un po'di tempo I put this blessed online blog, for now I leave you my number camerounse: 002379473521
with great affection
jj ps

New Year's Eve we were invited by the Italian Consulate in the district of sciuroso yaounde.villa beautiful, finely crafted interior details, people of high rank, a garden complete with a traditional group and myself that he has performed on stage with a duet of Madame soul camerounese of 200 pounds. and the band playing, I'm going to find in Douala, the keyboard had gabro. indescribable moments

Happy Birthday In Arabic

12/30/2006: JJ is in Cameroon


JJ is in Cameroon. After less than 24 hours spent there are already a thousand or things I want to tell you that I'd like you saw with your eyes. The flora and fauna are impressive. Tall trees and green, lush vegetation and animals absurd. the lizards running everywhere, butterflies and tropical birds of many colors emerge from every cave, at night singing and if one imagines that Africa is a silent place are wrong! warm, almost forty degrees, but bearable. my bags have not arrived but we gave money to a guy who from what I understand he lives at the airport and call us if there is something new. but I do not miss anything: I mbamlmayo here in a room all to myself, even with a sort of shower. you eat a lot and well, today I have prepared large grapefruit tipo come meloni con sopra zucchero e liquore. gustosissimi. ho fatto un petit tour dela struttura per vedere le svariate attività; anche se ogni impressione risulta falsata perchè, come da noi, in questo periodo é vacanza (si segue ancora il calendario francese) e quindi c'é in giro qualche ragazzino, un po' di "personale" ma nulla in confronto ai 1200 ragazzi che vi approdano ogni giorno durante l'anno scolastico. ho visto pero' aperto il nuovo (ha 4 anni) centro di arte applicata (CAA per l'appunto) che è un un funzionale e moderno laboratori per la ceazione, la produzione e la vendita di oggetti in ceramica. le prime due fasi vanno alla grande la terza no, anche perché qua un insegnate di scuola primaria guadagna in media 10000 franchi CEFA (valuta dei paesi francofoni dell'Africa occidentale) al mese, che sono più o meno 15 EURO. indi, avendovi citato una categoria già considerata benestante o perlomeno inborghesita, mercato locale è chiuso, se non per i camerunesi d'alto rango e per i diplomatici, gli ambasciatori o gli impresari che vogliono fare un bel regalo alle loro mogli. peccato perché sono oggetti di altissima fattura, realizzati da artisti a tutti gli effetti. qui c'é anche un ospedale, un centro di documentazione per la prevenzione dell'AIDS, un centro di formazione per animatori, più tutto il ciclo di scuole dalla prematerna al college. tutto privato, perché bisogna pagare il personale (tutto camerunese, più o meno 150 people) and other revenue is not there a lot. I have yet to figure out if this thing is right or not. I leave tomorrow anyway Mbalmayo to move capital and will remain 'very likely for a couple of weeks. this period is mainly for knowledge, then I move to Garoua where I gradually feed into. do not worry because there are risks and they treat me well. I salute you for now we walk into the city center to buy a sim Cameroon for myself. I wish you good year and you think, remember everyone. any questions, requests for curiosity here, not only guarantees the quickness of a response.
vs. JJ

ps with the French thought the worst but I can say things that seem intelligent