Employee discipline
Several weeks ago, I was called early in the morning to be informed that one of the Embassy drivers, who was traveling with Embassy staff on official business outside of Yaounde, had been attacked at night and the Embassy vehicle had been stolen. The driver had woken up his passenger at the hotel where they were staying and explained that he had heard noises in the parking lot, saw thieves trying to break into the car, and went down to confront them. He was shot in the rear end and beaten up, and the thieves took off with the car. The driver was taken to the hospital and in the morning, after getting the call, I made arrangements to send an investigator and another vehicle to get our staff back to Yaounde.
Over the course of the next two days, further details made it clear that the driver's story wasn't accurate. In fact, the driver had gone out with the official vehicle late at night to meet his sister-in-law who lived in the area. They alledgedly had an illicit affair, and he was dropping her off around 2 a.m. in a "less secure" part of town when bandits made the attack. After the attack, he managed to get a ride back to the hotel on a taxi motorcycle. His story was "adapted" to hide the facts that he was out late in an unsafe area with an official vehicle on personal business, and that he was having an affair with his wife's sister, and that he was probably drunk at the time.
The vehicle was eventually found intact hundreds of kilometers away, where the bandits must have run out of fuel. Evidence of sexual assault was found in the vehicle. The driver, who still had a bullet in his backside, was brought home to Yaounde, where he is recovering. Once he came back to work, I had to meet with him to inform him that he has lost his job. He accepted it fairly readily. It was good while it lasted, I guess.
Health "care" ?
A few months ago our gardener Solomon got married and adopted his new wife's one-year-old child. She is a day younger than our Ivy, but has had a rough time. At half of Ivy's weight, she is very small and underdeveloped. When she became very sick (again), Solomon called us for help. The baby had been taken to the hospital, and Stacey went out to see her and see how we could help. The doctor had prescribed a half dozen medicines, including anti-malarials, antibiotics, even sleeping pills (valium). No tests had been performed. When Stacey approached the doctor to ask about the prescriptions, he would barely lift his head from the Solitaire game on his computer (not kidding) to look at her. Stacey was asked if she was a trained medical professional, and if not why was she doubting the authority of the doctor.
Stacey got her out of that hospital and took her to another hospital. (In Cameroon, doctors rarely maintain private practices but work out of hospitals, even for most out-patient visits.) The new doctor prescribed another handful of antibiotics (without reference to what the baby had already started to take). Stacey realized after a while that her "help" was actually a liability, because the presence of a white American just made it that more likely that high-priced medications would be prescribed (with certain kick-backs to the refering physician).
After a few days, she began to recover - despite all the over-medication. She's doing well now, but her future is still uncertain as tuberculosis, malaria, or a variety of ailments are common and she's unlikely to get correct treatment if needed. Millions live in Cameroon this way, trusting ignorantly doctors who are undereducated, underpaid, and sometimes totally corrupt.
Elections
Parliamentary elections were held in July, and Embassy staff spread out across the country to observe the process. By all unofficial accounts, the elections were a huge farse. Less than half of eligible voters are registered, and less than half of registered voters voted. Most didn't bother to vote, and those who did felt like it was an excercise in futility. At polling stations "irregularities" were the norm and systems (like "indelible" ink that easily washed off) failed to safeguard against fraud. Cameroon's president (25-year long dictator) had the roads in town blocked for over an hour (as he does every time he dares to leave the security of his residence, which is thankfully not too often) to cast his vote at a local school that had been fixed up and repainted just for the occasion.
