We’ve been asked many times since June what we have found different or surprising since we left the USA in 2009.  Below are a few of the things.

The QR Codes are foreign for us to see in advertisements, on billboards, on products, etc….  We’ve been told that people with iphones can take a picture of these blurry, square bar codes and it will take that person to a website.

We were in a drive-thru and were the third car in line.  When we pulled up to the window the person continued to apologize for the long wait (might have been 3 minutes).  We were baffled as to why the person felt the need to apologize.  Nothing happens quickly or conveniently in Yaounde, so we were impressed with the 3 minute wait.  The same day at a clothing store, we were behind a woman disputing her total because she thought her coupon would make the total much lower.  We waited for about 5 minutes and when we were helped, the associate apologized and gave us a discount for our wait and inconvenience.  Again, we were baffled and weren’t upset or impatient at our wait, we were thankful for having the convenience of a store and of a drive-thru available to us.