Black man & his visa / Jean Tardif Lonkog.

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The author is the son of a medical practitioner, an herbalist, and a spiritual healer in northwestern Cameroon. When his father eventually gives up his practice, his mother struggles to put him and four of his sisters through high school. Financing university is a challenge. The author works for seven years in the farms and as a school teacher and seeks help from all quarters of the globe to try to raise money for university in his home country. Then one day he finds himself in China, studying Chinese medicine, and hoping for a better life than the one he had in Cameroon. The predicaments are as challenging as they are profoundly instructive. The author poses as a Dutchman and as an American to get jobs teaching English and to survive in his host country. He ends up earning the respect of his students and employers, but not without everyday encounters with precarity. Just as one problem is resolved, another always seems to be brewing on the horizon.

Circumstances that led me to travel to China -- Where did the idea to travel to China come from? -- Visa process at the Chinese consulate in Douala in Cameroon --How could I raise 700 000 francs (1400 dollars) to buy my ticket? -- A medical student at the Taiyuan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine -- Teacher at number 1 middle school in Xian Yuan -- Back to Taiyuan and the shock of seeing my visa expired -- The period of September 2006 to July 2007 -- Black Thursday, 25 July 2007 -- September 2007 to June 15, 2008, the day I left China.

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