Kwakoko and Banga soup
Mbongo tchobi with fresh fish (my new favorite!!) with ripe
plantain.
Grilled bay fish with bobolo (last time I had only morocco fish)
Njama njama (leafy green vegetables prepared almost like a
stew and similar to Ndole)
Corn chaff with rice and beans (corn chaff is just some sort of stew like dish with oil, corn and beans that is put with rice and beans).
Koki beans and cassava (a type of beans that are cooked with red palm oil inside of a large banana leaf)
Pepe soup with goat meat (very very spicy soup)
Cow skin (it is very chewy and tough)
Snails (tastes like a bunch of spices trying to cover up a
bad taste)
*You eat all of these things with pepe – a mix of many
spices and peppers usually prepared by using a rock to mash and mix ingredients
on a flat surface.
 |
| Mbongo Tchobi - at first sight I didn't think I would like it, but I always try new things.. my taste buds were in for one delicious surprise!! It's my new favorite food! |
Elephant Dance aka Mali Dance
Last month I was invited to witness a Bakweri ceremonial
event called the Elephant Dance. Since then, my work has become more time
consuming but I am trying to collect names for interviews and am in the midst
of writing an ethnographic essay on the dance. I hope to have it finished soon
– but I want to make this one more than just a story with pictures. I am really
trying to get the meanings behind things and interview a variety of Bakwerians.
More to come on this…
Mini Tour of My Home in Buea
Monica (my coworker) and I live in a small separate house
just behind the families large house. We have our own kitchen, living
room/salon, bathroom and separate rooms. I feel spoiled here in comparison with
my living situation in Ndejje, Uganda. This area and Cameroon in general, has a
very large middle class. Here is a mini video I made real quick to show you our compound and house :)
I de try talk pidgin small-small
My Pidgin-English is really picking up. Every time I am out
with my friends I encourage them to speak to me in Pidgin and I try to say
whatever I can to anyone throughout my day to others. People are always
surprised to hear a white man speaking (or trying to speak) Pidgin but they are
always happy and helpful as well. When I take taxis or am just talking to people on the street, if there is something I can ask or say in Pidgin Enligsh I do - they usually laugh but not in a bad way. I came here to learn French but that is just
not going to happen in this region…I will have to wait until I move to Yaoundé.
If you want to work on your Pidgin-English or just to see what it’s all about,
check out this worksheet I found written by both Cameroonians and a foreigner.
Muea Teen Mother Empowerment Workshops
Upper and Lower Muea are my babies. They are the first group
of girls that I have been working with from step one. I went to see the chiefs,
I talk to the social mobilizers, I met with all the teens and after 2 weeks of
identification, 2 weeks of Mutual Health coverage paperwork the real lessons
and workshops are finally underway! Last week we talked about a variety of
topics that fall under the category of ‘sex education’. This week we worked on ‘setting
and achieving’ goals. I brought markers and poster paper so the girls could
make a “vision board” to hang in their house which reminded them of their long
term, medium term, and short term goals.
Bolifamba Teen Mother Empowerment Workshops
Although at first I felt like the social mobilizers of
Bolifamba somewhat exploited Social Development International for payment, I am
very happy with the turn out we have had. For the identification we had 96
girls show up!!! NINETY SIX!! The last 2 weeks we have been filling out Mutual
Health paper work and have been averaging more than 70 girls. The only problem
now is keeping them quiet and focused. Also, many of them are over our age
limit of 20years so I am just not sure if they will be allowed to participate
in the project fully. It’s up to the director.
Other News with Teen Mother Empowerment
Once a month we are planning on doing a combined workshop
that will cover 2-3 topics and run all day long. This weekend workshop was
necessary so that the girls would graduate by the time my internship was
finished. Their graduation date is set for Sunday August 4th! I was
fortunate enough to speak with the owner (who happens to also be the chief of
Upper Muea) of King David’s Hotel in Muea and he is allowing Social Development
International use their facilities/conference room free of charge for the 3
dates I’ve selected for weekend workshops. This is huge! It should have cost
100,000cfc per day ($200)!!
Today I went with one of the Bolifamba social mobilizers to
Dibanda village to meet with mobilizers there. I will meet again with them on
Monday to sensitize them about the program and will give them one week to work
their magic. I will be identifying teens in Dibanda on the 27 May hoping to
target 20.
Here is our GlobalGiving site where we get most of our funding for the projects from.
My field partner has been MIA (he has had family visiting
from US and other regions of Cameroon) so I’ve been very busy facilitating
workshops alone, creating curriculum and continuing the social mobilizing of
other villages. I was quite nervous at first but its been rewarding and now I am more confident in my abilities :)
“Black-man time”
On of the most difficult challenges I have always had on
this continent is TIME. In the U.S. you always hear people say “Time is money”
and it’s very true. Growing up my Father used to tell me, “Being on time is
being 10 min early”. I remember showing up for work everyday, 10min early just to
be sure I am not late. Here, it is the exact opposite. No one likes to wait for
people so they always show up late. 10am mean 11am sometimes closer to noon. I
even went to a fashion show which had “5pm prompt” on the ticket…I had never
seen the words “prompt” appear before so I figured they had to be serious about
starting on time… nope! 8pm rolls around and finally the event was starting.
I call it “black man time” because that is what everyone
refers to it here has. When I speak with Cameroonians or even other Africans
about this time issue, they say “its black man time” or in french “l’heure
africaine”. I always tell my girls at the workshops, “See you next week at 4pm! 4pm white
man time!” and they always laugh. Their time has been improving greatly.
A Short and Sweet Visit to Bamenda
Just before arriving in Cameroon, I went to visit SIT
Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont. While there, I met a wonderful
women named Kellen who was from Bamenda, Northwest Region, Cameroon. It was
such a conscience that I met her, what a blessing. She sent me with some things
to bring to her family so last weekend I finally had time to take the trip up
to Bamenda. I was there for less than 2 days because of work commitments, but
what a beautiful city it was – I know I will be back to see more. I took the
night bus after my workshop on Friday and arrived at maybe 7am. Whenever you
take a long journey (more then 1hour) there is always someone who is either
preaching the word of God or trying to sell you something throughout the
majority of your ride. This time it was an herbal medicine man. I usually tune
out by listening to music but thankfully I was between songs when I heard the
man say, “The use of knowledge is power.” I was impressed with that quote if you will so I thought I would share.
The bus got a flat tire along the way, but I was sleeping
for most of the journey. The family was absolutely charming and so hospitable I
couldn’t believe it. They picked me up at the bust station, brought me to their home, gave me a place to stay, food to eat and even sent me
with clothes on my back!
Before taking the night bus back on Sunday evening, I
attended Pidgin-English mass with them at their church, it was great! People
always ask me, “What do you like about Africa?” (as if ‘Africa’ is one place) - as if the answer was that easy… I always have a hard time describing what
it is that grabbed my heart so many years ago, but my weekend experience in
Bamenda with this family encapsulates it all. A family who within less than 48 hours accepted me as their own and became my own family in Bamenda. I really can’t explain it – you
just have to live it, feel it and breathe it yourself to really understand.
I will be back in August to see Angle’s First Communion and
possibly sooner just for a visit. I will also be hoping to do 'The Ring Road' (just North of Bamenda) during
that time too - hopefully the rains have stopped. The Ring
Road is circular route through epic Cameroonian
mountains. Along this road is Mount Oku, the Kimbi River
Game Reserve, the Menchum River waterfalls, a huge chief's palace, a pyramidal
thatched shrine and tons and tons of tiny chiefdoms. To greet a chief you kneel
down not looking him in the eyes, clap three times and then bring him a gift,
like palm wine or something. Unless you are in the Southwest or Littoral
regions which are more 'liberal' therefore shaking hands with the chief is
acceptable.
Rain Rain Rain
Rainy season is definitely coming. It has been raining more
and more and the roads are getting worse and worse. I need to pick up
rain-boots before its too late. Getting to the villages will be a task in and
of itself. I predict participation dropping. My field partner said that this
was the worst time to start a project like this, right before rainy season
which generally falls during June, July, and August.
Limbe’s Beach Yeilds First Class Sun Burn.
I took a one day trip to Limbe this weekend. Limbe is where
I spent 3 weeks in 2011/12 doing the ‘tourist’ thing. It’s a beautiful beach
town with Mount Cameroon in the backdrop and oil rigs off the coast in the
distance. It’s a short 45min drive from Buea and makes a perfect cheap day get
away. The downside of going alone to get some ‘alone time’ was that I didn’t
apply my sun block properly and am now suffering from extreme burns on the
backside. My friends here don’t have to worry about sunburn and the majority of
them don’t even really know what it means or understand it. I just say its “white
man problems”.
Buea the Beautiful
When I first arrived I thought Buea was a huge city –
200,000 people…that is 10x the size of my home in Arcata, California and more
than 20x the size of my hometown Montreal, Wisconsin. But now, after more than
two months here (seems like so much longer) I am seeing that it is quite small.
I find myself bumping into friends and people I know on a regular basis and
when I meet new people, they often know other people I know – its fun :D
I am also really impressed with how CLEAN Buea is! Especially compared to other places I have lived it is just remarkably well kept. Every Wednesday morning all the shops close and the whole town is cleaning! The initiative is called "Keep Buea Clean". They sweep out front and pick up all garbage around. There are city workers who sweep that garbage into bins and even sweep the gutters and streets.
Strikes and Teargas!
On the 15th, my host sister returned shortly after she had
left for morning classes saying that many of the students at University of Buea
went on strike. This wasn’t the first time. I have heard 2 rumors as to why
they were striking: #1 (and most likely) the Vice Chancellor was threatening to
take away receipts for exams. At first I didn’t understand what that meant so I
inquired from other students. At the end of the term there are finals exams, if
a student fails the final they can take a receipt during the summer so that
they don’t have to repeat their entire term again. Unlike in the US where you
choose the classes you take so if you failed you would only retake 1 – here you
would have to come back and take all of the classes (even the ones you didn’t fail)
again. Or at least that is how it was explained to me. So many students pass
classes from taking the receipt exam during the summer. If she took that away,
many students would have to retake several terms and they were not happy about
that. Reason # 2 (less likely) someone has told me that it all started when a
guard at the school yelled at a young man for his trousers being too low (there
is a dress code throughout the country and authority has the right to enforce
it). He wasn’t cooperating and began yelling at the guard, one thing led to
another – rocks were thrown and the strike started. The first one is more
believable but who really knows.
A few hours after my sister came home from school we heard
some ruckus outside our compound gate which is situated directly next to
University of Buea (UB). We ran to the gate to see 3 huge Cameroon Police
trucks packed with fully armed policemen entering campus at high speeds. Then
an hour or so later we heard more noise and went to see students marching
towards the entrance/gate of campus. They were climbing on things, jumping over
the walls and yelling. I went to talk to a few students to see what was going
on and that’s were I got the rumors I mentioned. It quickly died down and soon
there was no one around.
Mid afternoon I decided to go get some photos printed for my
workshops. On the way home I bumped into a friend who offered to take me out
for some fresh squeezed sour sop juice, I couldn’t say no to that! As we waited
in the restaurant for the juice I heard POW!! The restaurant was full and
everyone was a bit startled and began looking around. Then all of a sudden –
POW POW POW POW POW!!!!!! Nearly everyone rose to their feet and several ran
into the room just behind where clients take their food. I was still unsure of
what was happening but there sure was a lot of commotion going on. Soon I saw
clouds of grey smoke bellowing into the restaurant – I turned to see one of the
waiters signaling for me to come into the kitchen so I ran that way! He
directed me out the back door and as soon as I hit the back door I realized –
they had thrown tear gas. My eyes and nose began to burn and water uncontrollably.
My throat swelled up and it became hard to breath. I followed a rush of people
who had cloth covering their faces into a small tailor shop behind the
restaurant. We quickly shut the doors and windows! Everyone inside the shop was
suffering with the same conditions – I joked with them and said it felt like I
had ate too much pepe…they laughed. Things seemed to have simmered down a bit
and the air lost its haziness that came from the teargas smoke and people
slowly started to come out from hiding. I stepped out and met my friend who I
was taking juice with. Since we had already paid for the juice, we waited for
things to calm down a bit and then we sat and drank the juice. I was a bit
scared and shocked at the time, but not too much. In hindsight, what an
experience! As my sister Olivia joked, “You can put that on your resume!” The
thing that really botheres me about the whole situation is the excessive and
unnecessary use of force by the Cameroonian police. This took place in Molyko
(which is a neighborhood in Buea) where I live, where the University is placed
and is one of the busiest places in Buea…but, this restaurant was NOT on campus
nor were any of the patrons participating in the strike on campus or having
anything to do with it. We were all minding out own business – just eating food
and drinking juice.
Later that night as I wrote in my journal I heard more
commotion outside – no people or voices just the same similar POW POW POW
sound. Within minuets I could smell the odor of smoke coming in through my
bedroom windows. I recognized the smell – my nose began to burn and that is
when I knew…more teargas. I don’t know why they decided to throw it at that
time of night when nothing was even going on.
You can read more about the events here and here.
You can read more about the events here and here.
Rasta week
This week is called Rasta week by several school kids. Reason
number one is because its like a ‘lazy week’ where most students don’t go to
school unless they are writing exams (meaning they are graduating). Since the
whole school body and faculty are busy preparing for exams, they don’t have
time for the other students so the other students don’t really have class. The
second reason is because last Saturday (the 11th) was the
anniversary of Bob Marley’s death.
Merrily Singing
Always when I walk around the city people are just singing
to themselves. They can be walking, selling fruit on the street, sweeping or
just sitting and enjoying a rest. It’s so peaceful hearing others sing just out
pure enjoyment and contentment with life. At the end of all of the workshops we
sing songs as well. Most of them are gospel songs but everyone participates and
it’s quite fun!
Puff-Puff and The Missing Camera
My dear friend Charlotte invited me to learn how to make and
fry puff-puff at her house. I was delighted and jumped on the offer! I woke up
and left my house early so that I would finish before noon and still have the
other half of the day to work on SDI projects. Before leaving the house, I
scanned my room for my camera so that I could document my puff-puff making
experience. It was no where to be found. I don’t use it much and it always sits
in the same place so I have concluded that someone stole it. I usually but not
always lock my door. If I go out just momentarily when someone is in the other
house I usually leave it unlocked with the door closed. It was taken between
Monday and Wednesday because I found it missing Thursday morning. OH WELL! Life
goes on right?
I wasn’t able to document the puff-puff activities with a
camera, but I did get the recipe:
Puff-Puff
Ingredients:
1 liter warm water
½ cup sugar
1 tbs salt
1tbs yeast
1-2 tbs baking powder
1 kilo flour
½ liter oil
Directions:
Add sugar, salt and yeast to warm water and stir.
Slowly add flour and mix with hands.
After more than half the flour is mixed, put 1-2 tbs baking
powder and mix.
Add the rest of the flour.
Stir with hands until smooth and runny like.
Let sit for 1 hour (or even overnight if you would like).
Put oil on large pot and heat for deep frying.
Scoop up batter with one hand holding it palm up. Its runny
batter so be careful!
In one quick motion you must tip your hand so that your
thumb and pointer finger are facing down towards the oil and quickly (but with
grace) let a small amount of batter run between the pointer finder and thumb.
Then cut off the stream of batter by closing the gap/hole between the thumb and
finger. It’s like you are trying to make small round droplets of batter plop
into the frying oil.
Let them turn golden brown before taking them out, check the
center to be sure they are cooked, and let them cool in a metal strainer.
ENJOY!
*You could half this recipe and it would still yield a lot
of puff puff to share*
