Hell Freezes Over!

Yesterday I sat down to write this but I really didn’t have anything to exciting to say, so I opted to wait a few days and I’m glad I did because I have I got a story for you, but first some background: Monday March 8^th is International Women’s day, but in true Cameroonian fashion you can’t just party for one day, you need a whole week of celebrating to lead up to the big day. Thus Women’s Day is actually Women’s Week, and the official festivities started today with Sports Day (kind of like a field day). Also in true Cameroonian fashion the planning process for women’s week didn’t start till today either. Now I’m not complaining, I’m all for a week long throw-down ;) but it does make it hard figure out what exactly is going on. So difficult in fact that one might find herself signed up to run in a foot race through the center of town…

Yes that’s right, unbeknownst to me one of my community groups, Femme Pour Christ, volunteered me to represent them in the “cross country” race (they call it cross country here, but It wasn’t as long as a American cross country race. However, it was still far for me; the non-running, walk-loving, Kate Millman. If you know me at all you know exactly what I’m talking about). Anyways after breakfast Beamer and I walk down to the Sous Prefecture (kind of like the equivalent to fair grounds) to watch the festivities. I was planning on doing the March with Beamer and Bernadette so I had my “fair de sport” clothes on, but when I got there to sign up much to my surprise I was given a runners ticket. My initial reaction was there’s no way in hell I’m running in a race in front of everyone in Bankim so they can see me red faced and wheezing, but then I figured if 40 year old mamas can do it so can I (and at least I wouldn’t finish last) Only problem was that I was in the youth bracket so i didn’t end up running with the mamas, I was with the very physically fit (because they work at the farm all day) twenty-somethings. By the time I realized this it was to late to back out, so I reasoned everyone would already be staring at me so what the hell… let’s do this.

The course itself was probably about a mile long and it went down main street, through the market and then back to the Sous Prefecture. Not super hard except that because everything runs on African time it didn’t get started till almost noon, so it was HOT HOT HOT!!! About half way through the race I had to run past a bush taxi passing through and they had opened all the windows and slowed down to a crawl to get a look at me. At first no one was saying anything, just staring, and it was kind of awkward because I was running at the same pace as the car, but then i heard a familiar voice. I looked in and it was Haua hootin and hollering for me (she’s on her way to Banyo for her sister-in-law’s wedding). Finally I was reaching the light at the end of the tunnel and I heard yet another familiar voice, only this one was on a microphone. Bernadette was the M.C. for the event and right as the finishing line was coming into sight I heard her on the loud speaker cheering me on. It was cute and it gave me a little extra push for the finish.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the race itself was actually kind of fun. Granted my performance was nothing to get excited about, to quote an old coach, “I looked like a fright train going in slow-motion”, but I did run the whole thing, and I didn’t finish last (or second to last ... or third to last for that matter J ) and I enjoyed seeing and hearing my friends in the market cheering me on by name. When I walked home later on every person I saw on they way said I “made sport quite well” and that they were happy to see me in the race… total lie about the running, but go for the ego none the less ;)

Other events for sports day included a speed walking race, sack races, basket ball (quite literally so, the object was to toss a ball into an actual basket) football, handball, and my personal favorite a beer chugging. The icing on the cake for that one was that the contestants for the chugging event were these two old beignet mamas.

So there you have it, it’s officially women’s week …let the festivities being!!! Not a bad way to celebrate being a member of the fairer sex if I do say so myself ;)