No, man...I live here!

Despite being an introvert, I (Chris) enjoy a little bit of small talk with random people from time to time.  When we lived in Virginia, I got into the habit of talking a bit with grocery store checkers, bank tellers, whomever.  It's kind of fun.

While in France for language school, I really went out of my way to speak even more because I was always looking to improve my conversational skills.  The French are generally less outgoing than Americans, so sometimes I caught people off-guard with the attempts at conversation.  Sometimes I embarrassed myself with silly mistakes in the language.  But all in all, it was beneficial.

And now that I'm in Cameroon, I've discovered that people enjoy friendly chit-chat quite a bit more than in Europe or even the US.  It's still an opportunity to practice my French and now maybe I can also pick up some new cultural tidbits with each conversation.

Yesterday, I was in centre-ville Yaoundé with a friend going to look at a car.  It's the busiest part of town with tons of traffic and people going in every direction.  It can be sensory overload.

Rond Point de la Poste, or Score Circle...the center of Yaoundé.

While my friend was looking for his contact that was going to take us to see the car, I was approached by a man wanting to change money.  He asked me if I had Euros or Swiss Francs or US Dollars that I'd like to exchange for Central African Francs.  The best moment was when I responded (in French, but I'll loosely translate here), "No, man.  I live here.  I only have Central African Francs."

He smiled and wasn't sure he understood.  So he asked if I needed Euros before I went back home (I took this as a compliment of my French, that he thought I was European).  I said, "No.  This IS my home!  I live here!"  And then we shook hands and laughed a little.

As a man trying to conduct business (not sure if it's legal, doing currency exchange on the street like that...but whatever...), he certainly made a logical assumption that I was a good person to approach.  It was fun for me to be able to trump the typical and share a laugh - and then a bit of conversation.  And it was fun, even if in the context of a joke, to call Yaoundé home.  It doesn't quite feel like that yet, but it's getting there.  A few more days like yesterday and it will soon enough.