So, when I want new clothes, here is what I do.
I walk down the the center of town, where I go to a panya stores. Panya is a term for about six yards of cloth. And panya is a national passtime. Whenever somebody holds an important meeting or a public holiday or wants to thank their workers, they get panya. The idea is that you then get some clothes made and all wear your new things to the big event. You can find panya commemorating everything. Around here, the pink checkerboard of International women’s day is the most popular, followed by endless premutations of our favorite president, Paul Biya. If you are hooked up, you can get really cool ones, like “Hilton Yaounde” or “Mutzig Beer”. But people without good panya connections have to make due with the traditional bright patterns and occassional oddity (I just bought me some awesome tie-dyed sattalite panya). A half panya- enough for a dress for a skinny person- costs around five bucks.
Then you take your panya to one of the dozens of seamstresses working in tiny concrete cells (think “storage unit”) and wooden shacks ringing the market.
Then you need to pick out your model. You do this by consulting flimsy faded newsprint-style posters with names like “Hot Africa Kabaa Millenium” emblazoned with countless increadably fat black ladies wearing the latest styles. Butt bows and poofy shoulders are big. But sometimes you can find something reasonable. Occassionally you can find some more reasonable posters featureing an extremely skinny girl from somewhere in southeast asia (the posters, mysteriously, claim to be printed in Nigeria) with nice looking clothes that would probably cause a riot (exposed calves!) if you tried to actually wear them here.
Then you point out what you want and begin the bargaining process. This will take about half an hour and involve talking about each other’s patriotism, religion, mothers, etc. Eventually she will agree to make you something for around $8.00 or so.
Then you wait a few days, come back to the market, and discover your dress isn’t done. Repeat a few more times. Finally, it will be done. And it will be gorgeous. The clothes here are simply unbelievably beautiful.
And that is how I get my clothes.