One thing I have enjoyed so far is the amazing politeness and formality of speech when the Cameroonians speak. I had needed to make a short phone call to the United States yesterday and the internet connection has not been fast enough to use Skype so I had to purchase an African SIM card and phone credit for my phone at the market outside of the hospital. They have a man in a hut there that sells phone credit, but also has constructed a phone booth for locals to use when they do not have cellular phones themselves. I think he was initially surprised at how much credit I was putting on the phone. Normally I think they are charged per second for local calls and they probably keep the calls as short as possible. Needless to say calling the other side of the world is a fair amount more costly (although maybe not as costly as you might expect considering this hospital did not even have phone service to the outside world prior to cellular phones). He checked my number several times and counted all the digits to make sure he had my number correct prior to sending the credit over. When I had to return for more credit he was closing up shop.
Me: "Can I buy more phone credit?"
Phone man: "I am very sorry . . . they are finished . . . I will make preparations for you to return tomorrow."
The next day . . .
Phone man: "good afternoon doctor"
Me: "Can I buy 1,000 CFA phone credit"
Phone man: "you are very welcome to . . . I was praying that you should come to have it today"
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