Not all of this is African tunes but most of it is :)
Some major events have happened throughout May and as much as I tried to
stick to the good ol' Morzenti work ethic sometimes there is just
nothing that can be done to fix a situation that has gone bad. May was
one epic roller coaster of emotions and to save all parties unnecessary
stress and bad feelings I made the decision to resign from my post with
Social Development International. The director and I had contradicting ideas and opinions which began to cause conflict and made not only the
workplace uncomfortable but made my job as the Teen Mother Empowerment
Project Coordinator impossible. I am sad to be leaving the girls in
Muea, Bolifamba and Dibanda - but after meeting with them a final time
and explaining the situation, they understood.
Muea teens creating their 'vision board' at the final workshop I facilitated.
I am disappointed in the end result of not finishing what I came here
to do. I came here to get solid work experience. I had intentions of
improving the sustainability of projects by finding funding so that
projects can run more smoothly, setting up a better system of
records/project reports so new comers could continue working with ease
and working to find qualified and more full time volunteers/interns so
that there will be someone working on the project throughout the year. I
was hoping to get experience writing annual, quarterly and monthly
reports - managing and recruiting local and international
volunteers/interns, improving financial accountability and transparency
all on top of some project management experience. Lets just say, J'ai appris des autres lecons.
Since
I am no longer part of the SDI work force I have to leave the wonderful
host family that I have become so close with.
My beautiful sister Bernadette and her baby Jason.
The Teuma Family (less Jose)
My papa who has left to visit his children in US.
In a matter of days I became unemployed and homeless...
Because of my commitment to Omprakash and the grant that they awarded me, I am tied
to working with an Omprakash partner until August 5th. Thankfully,
there is Green Cameroon in Buea. I met with and spoke to the director of
what I can do for them for the next 2 months. They are in the middle of
trying to develop and Environmental Education Curriculum so that they
can give the packet to local coordinators who are working at
primary/secondary schools and brief training so that they are able to
teach and continue the class for the entire year without too much
outside support. There was also mention of my helping with the
coordination/managing of local volunteers and grant research and writing. I will also help with updating/improving their visibility and connectedness to the
Omprakash network.
My birthday is coming up (June 27th) and I am trying to plan and epic trip to Adamawa the North and possibly even the Extreme North. I will be traveling alone or with one friend and have connections up there already who will be helping me arrange accommodation and activities. There are several Peace Corps volunteers up there, so as a last resort I can always stay with them.
Below is a map of all 10 regions of Cameroon. I live in the Southwest which is #9. I will be traveling to Adamawa (#1) and the North (#6). I will have to go to Yaounde (#2) to take the train north.
My dear friend and 'sister' Sara has left us this last weekend. We were sad to see her go but celebrated our time together with a dinner and a 'send off' party at our host family's house.
My first and only little sister!
Goodbye SARA dinner party!
Thankfully I was not homeless and unemployed alone... Monica was by my side and we found an a nice little one bedroom apartment not far from the host family. We moved in and have 1 bed and 2 chairs. If you are in the Fako district of the Southwest Region of Cameroon and have some extra furniture, donations are happily accepted.
Living room/salon
Kitchen
Bathroom
Monica and I took a mini-trip to Limbe to just have a day of relaxing and not dealing with stress or people. It was raining the whole drive there and flooding when we got to town. We stayed in the very same taxi we drove there in and decided to just head back to Buea - we came for the sun that was not there. Here in Cameroon, a taxi that sits 3 in back and 1 person in front (not including the driver) actually sits 4 people in back and 2 passengers in front. As we waited at the taxi park for more passengers the taxi driver said "Do you want to drive" because I had moved into the drivers seat just for more space. I said "Of course"! He handed me the key and I started the car. "Wow, a woman can start the car!" he said as he directed me to "Just drive up there then turn around and park." So I did as he said - in the pouring rain I drove down the roan in Limbe scared out of my mind because you never know what other drivers are going to do here - there are no rules. I was on a hill and burned the absolute crap out of his clutch and then safely returned us to the parking spot but not before a guy tried to pass me on the left as I was doing a Y turn and nearly T-boned us :)
You can see my fear...
I miss Canada. I miss ILSC. I miss learning and improving my French everyday.
Helping the family to prepare fufu for a church event!
FUFU
Because of the recent series of unfortunate events here, I am no longer certain that I will be moving to Yaounde in August and am starting to look at going back to school for my masters then continuing with the Peace Corps. Or doing AmeriCorps then Peace Corps then grad school. Either way, life will go on! I am comfortable with my place 'in the middle' of this fork in the road... not knowing what to do or which direction to go. I know I have all the tools I need and I know I will figure it out when it's meant to be figured out.
Soon to come in the next post:
-Mbongo Chobi recipe and video
-Elephant Dance/Mali videos and ethnographic field report
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 thisworksheet 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.
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 RingRoad' (just North of Bamenda) during
that time too - hopefully the rains have stopped. The RingRoad 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.
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*
To kick things off this week I would like to play a song by Don Tom - a very popular Nigerian artist. There is such great music to dance to here! It is not all Cameroonian though, the majority of the popular music comes from Nigeria. This song is super popular here and played all the time :)
Here is another popular song, the video is not very great but the song is :)
I have been busy busy busy and need to make more time to write in my journal and on my blog.
Yoga on the rooftop
I have began teaching yoga classes Monday-Wednesday-Friday at 6:30am on the rooftop of a friends apartment building in Molyko, Buea. I have anywhere from 4-8 students a day. They are really enjoying it and I am having fun too. We started doing classes in the bottom of an apartment building next to my colleague Delegate's (his real name is Max but everyone calls him Delegate pronounced 'Deli-gay') house. It was almost like an open garage and the doors to two peoples' rooms were located just there - so if they stepped outside to go to work or for whatever reason...they were in our yoga class. It was also distracting because on water day (Buea has water every other day) everyone would be filling up their buckets and jugs from the tap that was literally right behind the class. So people would just be staring at us and even sometimes saying things - all in good fun, but it was hard for me to teach and to keep my students focused so we found a better place - right on top of the very same building is a beautiful open rooftop that overlooks Buea and Mt. Cameroon. That is where I teach now, people can't distract us but the noise from the busy street is still there. I will have photos soon :)
Networking and Civil Society Strengthening
Last week I was invited to attend the Press Conference for the launch of the project “Action for Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Strengthening in the South West Region- ACSOS”. It was implemented by Reach Out Cameroon (and NGO in Buea) within the framework of the Civil Society Strengthening Programme- PASC. PASC is a Cameroon and European Union partnership. It was interesting to see where CSO like Social Development International are going in the next year to come and what the Southwest Regions plan is to strengthen their capacity. It was a good networking event and I made a couple of contacts. They plan to made a database of NGOs/CSOs in the region by their themes (what they focus on: eg: health, micro-finance, water/sanitation, youth empowerment, etc) and their location so that organization can work together to meet common goals and objectives. That was a problem I noticed from the start. There are hundreds (literally) of NGOs just in Buea and they are all so small and trying to do all the same things....if they just worked together it would be much more beneficial to the community, the region and the country.
Moving Foward
Things are really starting to come together with the organization I am working for, Social Development International. I said I wanted to start at the grassroots level in this "international development" field...and boy I sure am. I had a meeting with the organization founder (Suliman) discussing transparency, accountability, record keeping, volunteer recruitment and project sustainability/success. The money and finance part sort of went in circles and got no where, but I think he understood my concerns about the way volunteers are recruited and the way programs are run. As a man said during the ACSOS program earlier in the week "If you try to do everything, you will not be able to do anything well" and since Suliman was at that Press Conference, I refered to that quote several times as I was explaining how we shouldn't be running 10-12 different programs with SDI ...we need to focus on a few and see them to completion.
Because of this discussion and what I have seen so far with the way the organization is run... I am in the process of leading volunteer/intern recruitment and orientation section of SDI. I will be creating job descriptions for the interns and start looking for people to fill the position. I am creating intern policies that will list all of their job duties and what is required out of them when they are working. Since there is literally NO record of what people do here, that is one of the first things that needs to change.
Tribal Wrestling in Bakwai village
I was invited by some friends to go see Tribal Wrestling in Bakwai village which is the 'brother village' of Bonduma village (where the SDI office is located). I was so impressed by the quickness and strength of everyone who fought!! We arrived early and sat in chairs behind the elders of the village underneath a makeshift bamboo shelter. I saw the chief and introduced myself, thanking him for allowing me to bear witness to such an event. This event takes place every Sunday for 4 weekends and then it moves to another village. Participants started to arrive by foot singing, chanting and dancing as they neared the wrestling field. Directly across from where I was sitting there was another bamboo structure that held drummers 10feet or so above the ground. They played the entire time :) Soon about 3 villages and their wrestlers had showed up, each taking different corners or sides of the field.
You can tell who the winner is in this one...
Men/boys and women/girls of all ages are allowed to wrestle but it was dominated by males. I saw women whom my friend said were going to wrestle, but time did not permit so I was not able to see them. Things worked like this: if you saw someone you wanted to wrestle, you approached them and bowed, if they accept, they return the bow and you both walk to the scored table (which was right in front of where we sat) to sign up together. If you were looking for someone to wrestle one people had started you walked around doing various things that symbolized you were looking for someone to fight. Some walked around with long large grass leaves in their hand shaking them and singing, others wrapped themselves in a Cameroonian flag and just walked with their arms spread open like wings. The matches started with the youngest age group, maybe about 5-7years old and they continued up to full grown adults. You could see the skill level and pure strength increase with every change of age group. I was impressed by even the youngsters... they do not joke around - they take this wrestling very seriously.
Drumming away with an attentive crowd.
When the match would begin, they would be escorted out by their village coach who always seemed to be giving them some sort of inspirational pep talk. The ref would check the two opponents for 'illegal' things such as sharp objects, shoes, etc. He would have them shake hands and then the fun would begin. It wasn't the wrestling I was exposed to in the US... if you are whatsoever flipped on your behind/back area - you lose. There is no 'pinning' for 3 seconds or anything like that....it is all about staying low to the ground and keeping your balance. As the age category increased so did the competitiveness and seriousness. If there was a very good match, were it was going into the 3rd round (the final round where if no one was flipped on their back it would be called a tie), the crowd would start going wild. Whenever a person would win a match like that... it was like making a winning shot at the buzzer during a state championship basketball game - everyone from the crowd would just pour out onto the field screaming and cheering and then soon go back to their respected sides for the next match to begin.
I am seriously considering training for a few days and wrestling one of these weekend - I just dont know if I can find the time between travel and work. It looked like so much fun!! I hope you enjoy this video I made of just some of the matches I witnessed. I had to pay 1,000 cfc to photograph (2USD) but it was totally worth it, and I don't mind supporting village activities like that...even though I'm sure the money just went to palm wine :)
Muea Teen Mother Empowerment Workshops
After working with a handful of social mobilizers in Muea our second Identification workshop had a phenomenal turn out of 30 girls!! We had the mobilizers make lists of who they talked to, so when we arrived at 4pm we called many of them and sent the mobilizers out for one last round of reminders. We explained the program several times, since people kept coming in late, and made it clear that if they didn't want to be there - we didn't want them to be there either. Everyone seemed interested and on board. We helped them fill out paper work and set the date for the next and first official workshops.
A Delegate from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment opened up the workshop with some motivational words. She was actually really inspirational and got the girls singing, smiling and laughing. We stood and sang a couple of songs before our next speakers. Mr. Bate and the Manager both attended on behalf of Buea Mutual Health Care and they gave an introduction on the importance of good health, the benefits of having Mutual Health and how it worked. We had a total of 15 girls attend, which in my opinion - is excellent. We took photos of the girls and their children (if they had any) and also chose topics for the next few months of workshops.
The photo is quite blurry but here we are at the first official workshop in Muea! :)
After all the difficulties in Maumu and talking to several Cameroonians (and a friends/family at home), I am realizing that the way we were trying to go about this program wasn't the best idea. We are complete outsiders, especially me. These girls and their families wont trust me and our project for months. Instead of trying to target 20 teens from 5 different villages, I think it will be better to stick to 2 villages and work with whoever wants to attend. Soon the community and other girls will see the long term and short term benefits of the program. They will see out faces and become familiar with the project and our presence. I am thinking after some weeks or so, more girls will want to join in which case I will start a new series of workshops for a new group of girls in the same village.
Reaching out to Bolifamba (aka Mile 16) with Social Mobilizers
The Manager of Mutual Health has paired me with two women from Bolifamba whom I met with last week. I will be seeing them tomorrow and be doing a training of social mobilizers in the village. I will sensitize these social mobilizers on the Teen Mother Empowerment program and all of the benefits. From there, they will go door to door (as was done in Muea) to tell the community about the program and answer all questions. The identification will be set for sometime next week at the Bolifamba hospital, they already agreed to let us use their room once a week for our workshops.
Epic Bakossi Wedding
Last week on Wednesday I went with Delegate to Douala for his nieces wedding which was a 3-4 day event. We had planned this for about a month since he knew I was interested in seeing 'traditional and cultural activities'. Wow!! What an event! Although it was in the Littoral region (which is Francophone) his family is Bakossi which is an Anglophone tribe so all week we spoke English, Pigdin-English, and their Dialect (Bakossi).
The traditional wedding was on Wednesday evening and it consisted of a massive party with tons of music, dancing and a lot
of traditional activities. We arrived around 5pm and rested a bit as
more and more family started showing up. Everyone was ridiculously
welcoming and kind. After some introductions and some activities we ate.
There was SO much food I thought I was going to explode.
Main guys are in the two white shirts. One was the elder brother of the
groom who is in the blue on the right.
So. Much. Delicious. Food.
After we had
finished eating it was nearing midnight and I was already beginning to
feel sleepy - I was just not used to staying up late. There were 2-3 men
who were leading all of the festivities. There was a lot of palm wine
drinking from a calabash. As the festivities continued I had one of the Aunties as me to help her with part of a traditional ceremony. I was a bit confused and embarrassed but agreed without knowing what I was doing. She brought me in a room with a couple of other female family members and the bride, Ida. The told me that part of the Bakossi tradition, and many other tribes for that matter, is the 'choosing of the bride' ceremony. The groom is tested by being approached by several women covered from head to toe in fabric and he must choose the correct woman that is his wife. This is what they wanted me to do - cover myself in fabric and walk/dance/sing together with the aunties as we approached the groom to test him. Of course I participated!! As we entered the house and the living room where everyone was gathered, someone spotted my white feet because the sheet/fabric was not long enough... the whole room was bursting with laughter, excitement and surprise! It was hilarious!!! I was told that in some tribes it is very serious, there is no laughter and if the groom chooses the wrong woman he is fined by the brides family. Afterwards, the aunties even gave me 2,000 cfc ($4) as part of the tradition... it was nice...bought my airtime (phone credit) for the next few days!
DJ Delegate and I getting ready to dance Wednesday night!
The men of the families always did this high five hand shake thing the whole weekend. Someone told me that it represented unification of the family and the amount of times that they 'high fived' represented a persons rank. (men of same age = 3, women and young men = 2) They would give three high fives with their right hands and then on the third high five they would grasp hands and then shake their hands as they brought their hands down.
I was warned that we would be dancing until DB (dawn break) but I knew I wouldnt be able to make it that late. I finally called it a night at about 2:30am and the house was still rocking with music. I woke early at about 5:45am and could still hear the music going and people hooting and hollering. I pulled myself out of bed and thought, well, 3 hours is enough sleep - these guys havent even went to bed yet! As I get upstairs I see the house is a mess and people are half a sleep and half dancing and just spread out all over the place.
By 8am those who had went to be (like me) were all awake and the ones who had never slept were still awake as well. The women started preparing the breakfast (tea and bread) while the men just hung out and BSed with each other. I moved back and forth between the men and the women. At about noon or so, everyone slowly started to fall asleep and begin to rest for the day. Thursday, as Delegate had explained earlier, was resting and preparation day. The men slept and the women cooked copious amounts of food for the next day...the court ceremony, church wedding and reception. I helped with whatever I could...washed dishes, peeled carrots, talked to so many family members, politely denied marriage proposals, etc. It remained a pretty low key day for the most part - everyone was just recuperating from the festivities the night before and preparing for what was to come the next day.
On Friday we had the court ceremony at 9am which was really 10:30am. Delegate had to go back to Buea to pick up a niece so thankfully I was in good hands with his family and just went with them. Everyone loved my dress; I had it made especially for the wedding. After court I came back to sleep a bit because I knew I would be up late that night. Delegate made it back in the early afternoon. The church wedding was at 2pm but I went with the second round of family members who arrive closer to 3pm (we didn't miss anything). We were out of the Church by 5:30 and taking tons of photos for at least and hour.
Groom and Bride at the Wedding on Friday.
Beautiful flower girls!
My new family :) I love them so much!
Some of the youngster of the family, they were
calling me "auntie" by the time I was leaving.
By the time we got back to the house, it was just about time to head to
the reception. I changed into my 'dancing outfit' and we were on our
way. Things started at about 9pm and dancing started veeerrry late, probably after 1am. I danced danced danced until 5am with everyone else!!
Hanging out at the reception, waiting for the dancing to begin!
By the time we got home after dropping everyone off, I wasn't even tired
anymore. So I watched the sunrise and chatted with family. All of a sudden I heard large pig squeals coming from the back of the house. I went to watch the Saturday pig slaughter...another part of the wedding tradition. The husband's family gave a pig to the wife's family as part of the bride dowry. It is also like some sort of test - if the family eats it and is sick, then the marriage is not true and it will not work but if the family eats it and it is OK, the marriage will last and it is true love. The pig was huge and it took 5 men to hold him down and kill him. It was really intense but the men insisted that I watch so I can learn all about the traditions :) They then cut up all the parts of the pig and made a list of all the boys in the family (because the big is for the men [although they did share with the women]) and divided up the meat depending on age. Soon I was eating cooked pig skin with pepe (mixture of ground peppers) and holding my own raw chunk of meat to bring home. They really accepted me into the family as one of their own.
The festivities were slowly coming to an end and I started backing up to leave. I found one good cup of coffee and ice cream before I left the city and headed home with other family members who lived in Buea. I made it home before 5pm and tried to catch up on work, but the electricity was out so I just hung out and went to sleep early.
Future Plans
This week I am meeting with the social mobilizers of Bolifamba to set an Identification date for the village and better explain the program so that they can go door to door sensitizing the community about the program. On Friday I will have my 2nd Muea Teen Mother Empowerment workshop and am very much looking forward to it.
I need to find a job in Yaounde because I've made up my mind that
that is what I want to do when my contract is done with Social
Development International. I am going to Yaounde next weekend (April 27th) to do some
networking, apartment hunting and job searching. I was accepted to SIT Graduate Institute for the Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management Masters Program which I would pair with Peace Corps but I will post pone that until fall 2014.
The following weekend, May 4th-5th I will be traveling to Bamenda, Northwest Region to meet/visit a family there. While I was visiting SIT Graduate Institute in February, I met a woman who was going to school there who was from Bamenda - she sent me to Cameroon with a package for her family so I will be bringing things for them and celebrating her younger brothers birthday with them. The Northwest also speaks English and Pidgin and has many historical chiefdoms. I also believe it is the largest exporter of palm wine in the country.
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