I lived two years as a German Volunteer on the school compound in a village in the tropical rain forest of Cameroon from 1983 to 1985. At the beginning many things were new to me, but people were patient and friendly with me and so I got more and more familiar with the live in Cameroon. Africa either “chops you raw” as you say in pidgin or you do not like it at all. I think I was eaten raw. Let me just mention a few things as I experienced them in Cameroon. This is my personal view. If you come from Cameroon, you can see whether what I say is true or not. I am not saying that I am an expert, but I lived two years in Cameroon, we had 20 years of a school partnership where I came to Cameroon at least every two years, we had a nice Cameroonian living with us for 10 years and I have really good Cameroonian friends.

• Cameroon is a beautiful country. It is called small Africa because it has all climatic zones of Africa from the dessert in the north till tropical rain forest in the south. 
• In Cameroon its difficult to be lonely. In Europe that’s a big problem.
• In Cameroon people are chatting, quarrelling, singing, dancing, children are playing – there is live everywhere. 
• The language - I like pidgin. It’s a really nice language. People in Cameroon are often in a good mood, making jokes, singing despite the problems they are facing. Pidgin has a melody when you speak it. It reflects the live feeling of the people. Words like “ashia” do not just exist in other languages. You can say ashia when somebodies mother died. Then it has a deep meaning and says “I am really feeling with you”. Somebody said that one has to be careful because his or her ashias can get finished. You can also shout ashia when somebody has a flat tire at the road side and you are just driving by without offering a helping hand. I was confused at first when people said “I go come”. What did she mean. Was she going or coming? 
• Being direct. It took me time to understand that Cameroonians are direct. Before we Germans ask a favor from somebody, we think about whether we can ask the favor or not. When finally, we ask for it, we expect the person to say “Yes”. The Cameroonian just asks. Let me give a hypothetic example. Somebody loves you. In Germany he will think it twice to ask you “Do you want to marry me?” When he finally asks you, he expects you to say yes. In Cameroon the person will just ask and accept a “no”. Of course, that just the cliché. Not everybody acts like that. Let’s say you have not seen somebody for quite some time and now you meet the person. The person could say “Long time. Nice to see you. You have grown fat.” In Germany almost nobody will say that you have grown fat but many people will think so. For the Cameroonian that statement is mostly just an ascertainment without an assessment. In Germany the thought is an assessment. Once you get used to being direct, you will like it. It makes life easier.
• The food – people live from and with the tropical rain forest. They do not destroy it. When they want to fell a tree, they have to contact the forestry department and get a permission for that. Then they fell the tree and make squared timbers and 3cm thick boards from it which they carry on their heads to the next road (which can be far). Their farms are in the forest. They plant crops (plantains, cassava, egussi, jams, cocoyam, ground nuts, and vegetables) in such a way that they protect each other. Things grow really fast in the tropics. You plant a plantain soccer and after 6 month the plant is already higher than 2m. For food crops people do not use chemicals.  Everything tastes very good. The species are still the original ones. So, the tomatoes for example are smaller than the ones in Europe, but they taste better. There are people here in Europe who say that our food no more contains the micronutrients we need and that because of that we develop certain diseases. Here people have all kinds of allergic reactions. In Cameroon that is rare. I like pepper soup, fufu and eru, stew with groundnut soup, achu and other dishes. I also like pepper. 
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