Hello Everyone!
Season’s Greetings From Cameroon, or as they say here, joyeux noel, and happy ex-mas (yes we really do say x-mas here and we really do spell it with “ex”, I’m beginning to think that Cameroonian English spelling might actually be worst then mine. Those of you who know me well know that’s saying something!). I had a very busy week and I would love to tell you about all of it, but that would take forever so I’ve picked out three major highlights and were gonna go with that for this week.
A CAMEROONIAN CHRISTMAS
The first one is obvious, last week we celebrated Christmas. Aislynn, the closest volunteer to me (about 2 hours away) came to visit for a few days and we both had a great time. She got here on Christmas eve and we spent most of the day at the market visiting people and using the internet. When we got home we walked across the street to visit the nuns and find a Christmas tree at the catholic mission. The story of the Christmas tree is actually kind of a funny one. Last week I was over there and I commented on how nice looking the sisters’ tree was. It was a fake tree with lights, and tinsel, and ordainments. It was a little Griswold”esqu” but I know they worked hard on it and they were very proud of it because as a general rule of thumb Christmas trees are hard to come by in Cameroon. When they asked me what mine looked like I laughed and told them I didn’t have one, but I did tell them that I had a green wall I’m my house and that I had drawn a tree on it in chalk. They looked at me like that was the strangest thing they had ever heard and told me, “That was no good” and then asked if I wanted to go cut down a pine tree branch from the property back behind the mission. Of course I said yes, but asked if I could wait till my friend came to town, because I knew she would want to help. After dropping off the goodies we had bought in town we walked over there at about 5:00 pm to begin the search.
The sister’s were excited to see us and quickly rounded up two little boys to help us out. So there we were, 2 Peace Corps volunteers, two Cameroonian kids (one of which was wearing a screen print t-shirt with Leonardo Decaprio’s face on it) armed with a butcher knife and my little Leatherman’s tool and we were off to find the prefect Christmas tree. We walked all over the grounds for about a half and hour till finally we found it, the prefect branch. One of the kids rigged up this forked stick to pull the branch down and then I hacked away at it with the butcher knife till it came free. It was a pretty funny scene to behold. The two kids were hanging on the branch to bend it down, I was chopping, and Aislynn had the camera to document the whole thing. All four of us were cracking up the entire time.
With our prize held proudly in our hands we headed back to the house to put the tree in some water. We had to cut it back a little to fit it in the Tangui bottle we were using as a makeshift tree stand, so we used the extra to make a wreath. It was getting pretty late by this point and time was of the essence so we quickly changed into nice clothes and caught a moto out to the protestant church for their Christmas eve service. I had been invited to both services (24th and 25th) but made the executive decision to just pick one. The service turned out to be really long so we ended up skipping out after an interesting rendition of silent night.
The next day for the first time in 22 years I woke up on Christmas morning without Andy and Sean jumping on me to get up. Without Christmas quiche, no stockings, no Christmas bow on the dog, no feeling jipped because I got the practical gift and not the trendy fun gift the Sean and Andy inevitably get each year. It was strange, but not in a bad way, just in a dang I’m a grown up now and I’m living on my own in Africa kind of way.
In the spirit of giving I decided to give myself some extra sleep and didn’t get up till 8. Crazy I know! I tried to sneak out of the house to get Aislynn’s present from next door, but she woke up as I was walking back in with it. So much for the element of surprise. We had decided a couple of weeks ago to exchange small gifts so I gave her a bracelet I found in the market and a bouquet of wild flowers that were in a vase I decorated with fabric scraps. She made me a chocolate cake (AMAZING!!!) some apricot thumb cookies, and butterscotch brownies. It was amazing; best Peace Corps Christmas present ever! Her birthday is next month and now she’s set the present bar pretty high. I’ll have to think about what can beat a chocolate cake, no food though, my culinary skills are pitiful compared to hers (actually they’re pitiful compared to everyone’s).
We ended up spending the morning decorating the tree and just relaxing (it’s the most Charlie Brown looking tree you’ve ever seen, but I love it), and then in the afternoon we headed out to visit with people and checkout the scene in town. The first stop was with one of my neighbors named Etienne. He had asked me a while back to stop by for a visit, but when we got there I quickly realized that come over for a visit actually meant come over for lunch, we’ll be waiting for you. I was already full from the late breakfast we just finished, but in Cameroon it’s considered very rude to refuse food. So I did my duty and ate something. I say something, because I’m actually not quite sure what it was, but it was definitely some kind of meat and meat’s expensive to I knew it was a big deal. After lunch we hung around for a little while, till it became clear the palm wine was working its magic and we decided to move on.
Next stop was chez Teresa. She had invited us to stop by the day before, but in usual Cameroonian fashion she wasn’t there when we got there. We asked around as to her whereabouts and ended up running into one of her kids who walked us to their house. When we got there the party was in full swing. Teresa was so excited to see us that immediately she invited us in, gave drinks, and fed us yet again. After my third lunch I was pretty sure I was going to explode if made to eat anything else. The two of us hung out with Teresa for about and hour and then we all decided to head to the market together. Walking through the neighborhood was fun because all the children were running around in their new outfits and the parents were visiting neighbors, and enjoying the holiday. It kind of reminded me of a giant block party. When we finally got to town it was a mad house. People were in the streets everywhere laughing, drinking, and eating. It was like a giant street festival. While Aislynn and I were walking around taking it all in we ran into this guy who was taking peoples pictures in front of his Christmas tree. The tree was decorated in pink toilet paper and we both looked at each other and decided this was way too good to pass up so we stopped for the best Christmas card photo opt in the history of Christmas cards.
We made one last visit with the nuns across the street and guess what, they insisted that I stay and eat something. Thankfully for my digestive tract it was only cookies and juice and not another full meal. I think I would have cried if I had to eat lunch for the 4th time in one day. After a little small talk we came home and retired for the day to watch Christmas movies and let the food coma set in. I have to say for my first Christmas away from home it was a pretty great one!
A PEACE CORPS CONFIDENCE BOOST
Sunday I had a meeting with a men’s community group that I’ve been visiting with since I got to town. This Sunday was a big deal because it was the first time I actually did any real work with them (I had been observing up to this point). I decided to do some basic background on myself and the Peace Corps approach to development and so on, but I was really nervous because it was the first time I ‘d run a part of the meeting, and I was attempting to do it in French. Long story short I didn’t finish with everything because they started to call prayer in the middle of my talk, but what I did get through went over really well and the men seemed to be fairly receptive. I knew it hadn’t been a total bust because at the end I asked for questions and instead of the usual blank stares I get at this point two people actually asked me questions, which I was actually able to answer!
THE KATE SONG
This is just a funny story that makes me feel like I’m doing a good job integrating into life in Bankim. So Monday afternoon I was in town and I walked by a small shop with two big speakers out in front of it. I wasn’t really paying much attention to it, I just figured the music that was playing was a CD or something. But then I heard my name in the song, and then I heard them say the local word for white man (Nassara). This is pretty much how the song went…
“Kate, Kate, Kate,
Nassara, Nassara, Nassara,
Bevenieu du Bankim.
(repeat. for the whole song)”
I quickly realized that in the shop there were two guys with microphones doing a karaoke type activity, so I popped my head in, told them I was a huge fan of the song and then went on my way.
The next day I was eating lunch in town when I hear the song playing again at about 100 decibels in the bar next door. Turns out they were recording it the day before in the little shop and now there’s a tape being circulated around Bankim with the Kate song on it. Never have I laughed so hard in my life!
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