An Overcast day Africa
Yesterday was quite the experience for me. I woke up early to find that I was very happy. I was leaving in about a week for a tropical beach get away and I was going to see my friends for the first time in months. I decided to finish some work at the high school and whistled all the way to the school. I then came home to find out I had inadvertently put A Charlie Brown Christmas on my Ipod, which to my delight rang out proud and clear in my little house as I decorated it for Christmas. I found a huge leaf shaped like a tree and taped it up and then took silver rapping from the awesome cookies my mom sent me and made little Christmas decorations. I then scavenged for the right greenery to make a Christmas wreath. I even colored some pages in my Candyland coloring book and put up the peppermint man and the gingerbread man. I was feeling really good, even though a mist of rain kept disturbing the drying of my sheets outside. I knew in the afternoon I would be going to a funeral, but I had heard funerals in Africa were really like parties so I was thinking of it like a cultural observer and not really a person. The funeral was for my post mate’s counterpart whom she worked with everyday and who was an incredible man, he died suddenly and because there wasn’t the right medicine or medical care in the East and he was on his way to Yaounde when it was too late. He left behind two young kids, I teach the daughter at the Lycee and she is an incredible girl, one of the good ones. He also worked at the Catholic Misison so you can just tell this guy was good stuff.
Well I arrive to the house of the family and it seems that all of Ndelele was there. They had created a little courtyard with a trellis decorated by local plants and flowers and they had the white casket set underneath that. A large picture of the gentleman was set out and a sign that read in French: You will be able to go to the sky, after you are on the earth. (that’s the exact translation but I’m sure its more poetic). I recognized groups of my students from the Lycee, the mayor, the principal, all of the important people in town, and then the family sitting on the stoop of their house. Hundreds of people were standing including Rachel and I and they had marimbas playing and awkwardly jolly calypso type tune.
First they had a Catholic mass and then they had speakers. The son spoke in Kako so I didn’t understand but he was pretty composed and for being about 16 or 17 he seemed to be taking on the man of the family responsibility pretty seriously. Then the sister went up and in the fashion of Cameroon she recounted his last days. She told about how he kept telling everyone he would be back to work in a few days and it was just a passing sickness. Then about how he went to Bertoua and they told him they didn’t have the medication that he needed so he would have to go to Yaounde. At this time he was so weak he could barely travel, and the conditions here for travel are horrendous. He was in the car on the way to Yaounde when he died. As the sister was telling this story she was very animated and clear spoken, but as she got to the end she became very emotional. She knelt by the casket and started to talk to her brother asking where he had gone and why God would do this. She then became hysterical and had to be walked away from the casket. The principal then gave a short speech that sounded like a well known poem and everyone was invited to walk around the casket and say goodbye. I followed the crowd and was very surprised to see that it was an open casket. They have these little door type things on the top of the casket, like a Christmas advent calendar, and you could look in and see him. It was very disturbing and Rachel got very upset because we were not prepared to see that. At this point his daughter, whom I teach became very hysterical and her sobs were horrible. They seemed to go out over the crowd and touched everyone. The wife was too weak to help her daughter so her friends and the other English teacher from the Lycee tried to calm her down. You always read about people wailing and knashing their teeth, its one thing to read about it and another to see it. But in a way, I think it really said something about the quality of this man, that he could inspire such sadness.
Next they buried him in their family’s compound about 20 feet from the service. It wasn’t the choreographed burial that Americans have, there was a huge pile of dirt and they had to try and put the casket evenly into the ground with ropes. Then they put long cement slabs on top, I’m not sure why, and finally the dirt. Then we were invited to go to the Bar to eat and drink. The family stayed at their home completely numb. The night before everyone was invited to the Catholic Church for the wake, which consists of everyone singing and sleeping in the same room as the deceased. Overall, it was an intense experience and I can’t help feeling helpless and very worried for the family. He had a really good job and was the sole provider for the family so you have to worry about what they do next, especially with so much grief. As an American it is hard ot imagine someone dying so quickly from something that can be cured. This man grew up in the East, went to school in the east, spoke the padua and was proud of this province, but ultimately it was the lack of development in this province that killed him. It’s just sad and needless for a good man to die when the world had come so far in medicine. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to read about let me know what you think.
elyse
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Thanksgiving
Greetings everyone,
sorry its been so long, evidentially when things actually happen to me I have no time to write them down, so now that I’m back in my village I’m ready to write my narrative! I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and ate tons and prayed or listened to Godspell songs if you were around my mom! All good gifts baby! Anyway, my thanksgiving was in Batouri where my friend had been raising turkeys just for the occasion. Has anyone ever seen a turkey in real life before, they are freakin huge and pretty scary if they charge you. I decided to forgo the meat again seeing as how we had looked each other in th e eye and bonded for three months before he was dinner. Anyway, my friend is the chief of the tobacco company in Batouri so he’s sort of a big wig and has all of the amenities, he even has a pool which I mentioned before! So I got to Batouri on Wednesday night to see everyone else in the East province and we met a the bar and ate some bean sandwiches and caught up. We are quite the site, all speaking English and scaring the locals with so many white people together at one time. On Thursday we went shopping in the market, I was incharge of the salad, deviled eggs, and helping make key lime dessert bars, I also insisted on a lot of stuffing. We then headed over to Bens where he has a gorgeous kitchen with a Refridgerator and tons of good booze like Scotch and cold soda and vodka and beer! I helped prepare the stuffing I helped with the turkeys a bit and made my deviled eggs which let me just say were phenomenal. I was in the kitchen for the better part of the day sweating my butt off most of the time. We also had a makeshift green bean dish sorta like a casserole! It was pretty great though because as the turkey cooked I got to drink a beer in pool in November . But like every holiday we had a couple of people have a huffy misunderstanding. Between all 20 of us at the house we used up 10,000 gallons of water swimming and taking hot waters and ended up drinking the really good wine that we were supposed to save. Some people got upset and it really felt like a holiday with people being all emotional. Anyway, the holiday was good and I think everyone had a good time.
On that Saturday we went to a big party at the tobacco company for their 10th anniversary. It was the best party I have been to in Cameroon. They had a live band from the Anglophone region called Daddy Black that was really good and great dancing and a lot of good scotch. I ended up opening the dancing with my friend Ben and then danced with everyone he asked me to including the man who sweeps the floors, the best driver, the best guard and then the drummer of the band who evidentally had a thing for me. I was a dancing fool, one of the guys even picked me up and swung me around- which let me tell you is not easy to do! I think my favorite thing about the ‘roon is the great time I have when I go dancing, they don’t seem to mind my crazy moves here and can keep up with anything I throw at them, it also helps that everyone I dance with tends to have a superior talent and make me look good. Either way it was a great party and I stayed out until 2:30am for the first time since I got here!
Well that’s all I have for now, I hope everyone is having a good December. Sing come carols for me, I seem to have forgotten to bring some. Christmas won’t be the same with out you guys but I am going to kribi to hang on the beach and see all of the Americans because we have our In Service Training! I can’t wait, I leave next Friday! Love you all
elyse
sorry its been so long, evidentially when things actually happen to me I have no time to write them down, so now that I’m back in my village I’m ready to write my narrative! I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and ate tons and prayed or listened to Godspell songs if you were around my mom! All good gifts baby! Anyway, my thanksgiving was in Batouri where my friend had been raising turkeys just for the occasion. Has anyone ever seen a turkey in real life before, they are freakin huge and pretty scary if they charge you. I decided to forgo the meat again seeing as how we had looked each other in th e eye and bonded for three months before he was dinner. Anyway, my friend is the chief of the tobacco company in Batouri so he’s sort of a big wig and has all of the amenities, he even has a pool which I mentioned before! So I got to Batouri on Wednesday night to see everyone else in the East province and we met a the bar and ate some bean sandwiches and caught up. We are quite the site, all speaking English and scaring the locals with so many white people together at one time. On Thursday we went shopping in the market, I was incharge of the salad, deviled eggs, and helping make key lime dessert bars, I also insisted on a lot of stuffing. We then headed over to Bens where he has a gorgeous kitchen with a Refridgerator and tons of good booze like Scotch and cold soda and vodka and beer! I helped prepare the stuffing I helped with the turkeys a bit and made my deviled eggs which let me just say were phenomenal. I was in the kitchen for the better part of the day sweating my butt off most of the time. We also had a makeshift green bean dish sorta like a casserole! It was pretty great though because as the turkey cooked I got to drink a beer in pool in November . But like every holiday we had a couple of people have a huffy misunderstanding. Between all 20 of us at the house we used up 10,000 gallons of water swimming and taking hot waters and ended up drinking the really good wine that we were supposed to save. Some people got upset and it really felt like a holiday with people being all emotional. Anyway, the holiday was good and I think everyone had a good time.
On that Saturday we went to a big party at the tobacco company for their 10th anniversary. It was the best party I have been to in Cameroon. They had a live band from the Anglophone region called Daddy Black that was really good and great dancing and a lot of good scotch. I ended up opening the dancing with my friend Ben and then danced with everyone he asked me to including the man who sweeps the floors, the best driver, the best guard and then the drummer of the band who evidentally had a thing for me. I was a dancing fool, one of the guys even picked me up and swung me around- which let me tell you is not easy to do! I think my favorite thing about the ‘roon is the great time I have when I go dancing, they don’t seem to mind my crazy moves here and can keep up with anything I throw at them, it also helps that everyone I dance with tends to have a superior talent and make me look good. Either way it was a great party and I stayed out until 2:30am for the first time since I got here!
Well that’s all I have for now, I hope everyone is having a good December. Sing come carols for me, I seem to have forgotten to bring some. Christmas won’t be the same with out you guys but I am going to kribi to hang on the beach and see all of the Americans because we have our In Service Training! I can’t wait, I leave next Friday! Love you all
elyse
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Weekend update
happy Birthday Jaime! My reso has been down so my phone works half of the time and doesnt have a signal the othe rhalf, but finally I was able to get on the net! I love you darling and I hope your day was fabulous! Wish I was with you.
This was an interesting weekend, and by interesting I mean pretty freakin awesome! I had a really bad day on Thursday because it was the president’s anniversary of getting inaugurated the first time (he’s been president for like 20 odd years) but they decided to still have class because we were going to have a fete Wednesday night but the power went out so they figured the kids wouldn’t be tired so we’d have class. Well the kids were insane and I’ve never seen them so unruly it was like a mob not a class of students. Well I went home and had a few drinks because sometimes you need to relax after such a crappy day. Well I get a text message from my friend whose birthday was Friday the 7th. She said they were going to do a lot of fun things in Batouri and she wished I could be there. So, not having anything to do on Friday and being insane (because it would mean traveling for about 8 hours in crappy Cameroonian conditions to be in Batouri for a day) I decided to go. I left the next morning and gave my very silly present to Lisa. Then we made omelets and took a long bike ride into the forest where there is this amazing rock formation that is like a mountain. We climbed up it and you could see the whole countryside. It was very cool and really beautiful, I have pictures and one day I’ll try to upload them. Then we raced back to her house because we were trying to beat this storm and we were GOING SWIMMING. That’s right folks, swimming! We changed into our bathing suits and let me tell you that was a weird feeling because we dress so modestly here that I haven’t showed that much skin in a long time.
So there is this ex-pat and former volunteer named Ben who works for a Tobacco company in Batouri and he has this house that has an above ground pool with chorine and no creepy diseases and its amazing. We got to his house and met his pet monkey who was very friendly and enjoys climbing on people’s heads! Next, we made a whirl pool and swam for about an hour or so and it was awesome. I’m an Aquarius so I love to swim! Then Ben, who used to manage a ton of restaurants, made us this amazing pizza because he has an oven! We ate two kinds of pizza- with real cheese! It was an amazing day and we stayed up very late talking about all manner of things nad drinking good wine- from a bottle not a box! It was really great and Ben has had quite the life so it was fun to learn about that too. I left at 5:30am the next day because I had stuff to do in lele and unfortanuetly got a bit sick and I’m feeling a bit better now. I have had a fever since I got back but it broke last night as I was trying to sleep but was listening to this huge storm with the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard! Anyway, it was a great day.
Happy Birthday Lisa!
This was an interesting weekend, and by interesting I mean pretty freakin awesome! I had a really bad day on Thursday because it was the president’s anniversary of getting inaugurated the first time (he’s been president for like 20 odd years) but they decided to still have class because we were going to have a fete Wednesday night but the power went out so they figured the kids wouldn’t be tired so we’d have class. Well the kids were insane and I’ve never seen them so unruly it was like a mob not a class of students. Well I went home and had a few drinks because sometimes you need to relax after such a crappy day. Well I get a text message from my friend whose birthday was Friday the 7th. She said they were going to do a lot of fun things in Batouri and she wished I could be there. So, not having anything to do on Friday and being insane (because it would mean traveling for about 8 hours in crappy Cameroonian conditions to be in Batouri for a day) I decided to go. I left the next morning and gave my very silly present to Lisa. Then we made omelets and took a long bike ride into the forest where there is this amazing rock formation that is like a mountain. We climbed up it and you could see the whole countryside. It was very cool and really beautiful, I have pictures and one day I’ll try to upload them. Then we raced back to her house because we were trying to beat this storm and we were GOING SWIMMING. That’s right folks, swimming! We changed into our bathing suits and let me tell you that was a weird feeling because we dress so modestly here that I haven’t showed that much skin in a long time.
So there is this ex-pat and former volunteer named Ben who works for a Tobacco company in Batouri and he has this house that has an above ground pool with chorine and no creepy diseases and its amazing. We got to his house and met his pet monkey who was very friendly and enjoys climbing on people’s heads! Next, we made a whirl pool and swam for about an hour or so and it was awesome. I’m an Aquarius so I love to swim! Then Ben, who used to manage a ton of restaurants, made us this amazing pizza because he has an oven! We ate two kinds of pizza- with real cheese! It was an amazing day and we stayed up very late talking about all manner of things nad drinking good wine- from a bottle not a box! It was really great and Ben has had quite the life so it was fun to learn about that too. I left at 5:30am the next day because I had stuff to do in lele and unfortanuetly got a bit sick and I’m feeling a bit better now. I have had a fever since I got back but it broke last night as I was trying to sleep but was listening to this huge storm with the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard! Anyway, it was a great day.
Happy Birthday Lisa!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Traveling, and Minoing
Blog: October 31st
Wow, have I got an update for you folks! It’s been one heck of a week and I am in very high spirits. Its funny how you realize how alike your parents you really are. For instance, I knew I had this big trip to go to the provincial capitol of Bertoua and meet up with the other volunteer of the east and talk about business, but some of the anticipation for weeks was the best part. I packed and unpacked my suitcase. I made a Halloween costume from scratch, and I got new clothes from the tailor. I even made travel tortillas for when we got hungry and saved my last pack of gum to share with the Americans who would appreciate it. My dad taught me that half of the fun of a vacation is looking forward to it and researching, so I did and it was great, except it turns out the actual meeting was just as fun as the planning, even more so! So here’s what we did.
I left Thursday morning with my postmate to Batouri where my close friends live (about 5 hours away). It’s rainy season so the roads are horrible, you wouldn’t think it was possible for a bus to get through some of these potholes (I’m not sure that’s what we can call them though because they are so massive- lets go with craters). Well one crater was so big that when we went through water actually came up through the floor of the car, which is pretty crazy! So we got into Batouri at a good time and I ate waffles, and homemade yogurt and a very cold Sprite. There is the Catholic mission who has a waffle maker and we always go there to eat, and I’ve never really seen anyone else in there, but I’ll tell you, its heaven. Next we went to the bank and finally picked up some more money so I could go shopping and buy exciting ‘white people food’ as the locals call it. I got food such as Ketchup, sweet corn, and laughing cow cheese. Then we had dinner at my friend Mattie’s house, we had Senegalese rice, which is sorta like rice with a tomatoey sauce. The next day we traveled to Bertoua and the road was a lot better. We had 5 people in the bus and we created quite the stir because people don’t see that many white people together everyday. Every baby in the car starred. We were also talking really loud in English like giddy school kids on a fieldtrip (which is sorta what we were). We even tracked our progress on my friend Mattie’s GPS (he personally designed a map for Cameron because there weren’t any existing ones that were cheap). Next, we arrived in Bertoua where we were staying at the Peace Corps Leader’s house, she is actually the girl that lived in my house and had my post before me so we had a lot to talk about. We came in and saw CNN on the television and got super excited, about television and American television no less. She also has Discovery channel so we watched animal shows for quite a while. Then, I was lead into the back room where in a huge pile I found 6 packages all for me. Christmas came early folks! I want to thank my mom, Jaime, Chiggie, and both my grandmas for sending me such great stuff! People laughed atme as I got teary looking at Jaime’s package and all my letters. I also ended up sharing a lot of food with people because there’s nothing like Americans to appreciate why ranch sauce or Starbursts are so good.
The next day was our meeting where we all give reports on what we are doing and discuss a possible project for the whole province to participate in. A lot of people wanted to go to the most remote village in the region and do a sort of workshop so we could teach about health and whatever else we could fit in. I proposed an idea where all the schools have there students create an artistic impression of how they view themselves and their local trips. I though we could pick a theme and then compile a book or a slideshow to show in the capitol as a representation and expression of who the East is. It’s a sort of undefined idea but I hope that we try it, I was the only one pushing an artisitic idea and people where a little hesitant but some people thought it was cool. Later that night I went to the market and shopped for our dinner which was for 16 people. I ended up making tacos with beans, Spanish rice, and tons of tortillas. The tortilla crew which I was a part of, worked for about an hour and twenty minutes and made about 60 tortillas or so, I was pretty proud of us! Then had our party for Halloween! My friend was a hick because she found overalls at the local Frippery (or goodwill sorta), one guy was a moto driver (taxis here are just motorcycles and the drivers all look like they are dressed up for winter because of the wind I guess, and they have numbers on their chest), three people decided to be beer girls for the beers (there are about 4 kinds you can get anywhere- Castel, 33 trente-trois, Mutzig, and Guiness). And of course there was me, I dressed up like an add for condoms. I made a shirt with the local brand of condoms- Prudence and made this huge graduation type hate that looked like the packaging. I figured since we are all out here to promote AIDS prevention, why not be blunt about it! It was pretty funny and I think I won the contest because everyone kept taking pictures of me. We then got changed and went out to the dance club. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a celebrity? Just be white and come to Africa! We showed up and they let us in for a discounted price and gave us two bottles of whiskey and played American music for almost 2 hours (which is pretty unheard of- but we out numbered the locals so I guess it was a smart call). We danced our buns off and I ended up dancing with one of the other volunteers friends who she works with and he was an amazing dancer. We salsaed and swing danced, and everyother type I can think of. It was a great night and not one I’ll forget soon. We ended up going home and talking and joking around until early morning.
The next day was another travel day and when I got back to Batouri I found out I had to stay for two more days for a teaching conference that no one told me about. I got to hang out with my friends for even more time and it was awesome. I ended up getting home Wednesday night carrying a ridiculously large bag full of my new treasures! I just set up my kitchen and it looks like I went to America and not Bertoua! I also spent last night eating tuna on crackers and having raviolis that I found at a ‘white man store” in Bertoua! The only problem with the trip was that its going to be really hard to get back into the working groove. It was great to speak English and be around people who get you! It defiantly didn’t help my French, but I’ve got time to get better and I’m surviving. I hope you are all well and are feeling optimistic about the upcoming election! Love you all and miss you!
Elyse
Addition: So I got my cat, my very own little ball of joy. She’s super small and we are not sure is she should even be away from her mother yet, but the people that had her were not nice to her, it would seem that s got bleach poured on her, or she got into some bleach, and she’s so young she doesn’t eve make a meow song, instead its like a half meow. Anyway, last night we started to get to know each other and she ended up peeing on me and puking on me through out the night. I do not think we will continue to be bedfellows! She is super cute though and she keeps me company which is good. They don't say meow here when they are talking about cat noises, they say meeno- its pretty cute. Oh and I found a leech in my bathroom! Oh Africa!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I'm a rural woman!
utoCher e famille,
Greetings from the land of rain and more rain. Not that I mind it, but I guess if I decide to move to Seatle it won’t be much of a transition. Except there are paved roads there so you can actually get from point A to point B with out getting your feet and the back of your dress totally dirty, not htat I’m complaining mind you, I still find all of this adventurous. Give me another couple of months and I’ll start complaining like a real native! So I have some updates for you. This is my 7th or 8th week in Ndelele and I feel as if I’m starting to get the hang of it. This week was exam week, which is sorta the best for a teacher because you just play fun revision games and the kids actually care about learning because they are able to imagine an actual grade they have to give their parents. I’m starting to actually like teaching again, which I find a relief seeing as how I was going to kill someone if things kept going the way they were. My 5eme class which I have now deciphered has 108 students in it is actually my favorite. I know who the trouble makers are and they are the kids who are older and haven’t made it past the class yet, I’ve decided to use shame with them or just to give them some more respect so that they’ll see I recognize they are older but I’m still not going to let them give me crap.
This week was also Rural Women’s week! Talk about awkward. I had this big moo moo (totally not how you spell that) dress made that was pink and had the different plants that the different regions cultivate on it (all fabric or pagne here is totally busy- those crazy Christians on channel 23 would love the flash). It also has pictures of women with babies on their back and working these grinding machines they have here. I felt like a poser because I do not carry babies on my back, I don’t really eat the local plans (because maniac has no nutritional value and is the consistency of snot), and I don’t work in the fields. POSER! Anyway, I still went with Rachel and we ended up having to be in the presentation. We mouthed the songs we were supposed to know and we danced and ended up parading down the street of Ndelele. This was funny because it was a very simple song and I caught on fairly quickly, even though the words were in Koko. Well after a refrain you turn 3 times and bend down and then continue walking. Well when I joined in people started laughing and pointing and getting all around crazy! I guess if you are a crazy white girl and you are actually doing some passable French dance moves its funnyi I guess it’s the same when we hear a non native speaker try to speak English and we think its adorable. Anyway, rural women’s day was a success and people were very exicted to see me in native dress and all day people yelled ‘Bon fete’. The only problem is that I have no women friends in the village because getting to know women is super hard, especially because there aren’t any at the Lycee. For example, today I brought some Papaya to my tailor and her friends (or her husbands other wives, I haven’t figured out how exactly the family is set up) and I passed out the fruit and they continued to talk in kako and it was really awkward until I took some pictures of them and then left. Aww well small steps I guess. I do have one woman friend and she’s Anglophone and the directrice of the Bilingual school.
I started working at the Bilingual school last week and its totally the best thing I do here. I just show up and sing songs. This week we sang about the face and drew a face together. We are working our way down to the torso next week. Who’s excited? The kids are! They are so cute, none of them speak English because this is only the second year of the school and there are only 2 classes. The youngest kids are 4 and the oldest are 7 so it’s a pretty awesome crowd. Some of them only have little chalk boards to write on and I find myself thinking about little house on the prairie when I show up. I hope to increase my time there and start some theater exercises. The teachers give me complete reign of the classroom and anything I want to do (which doesn’t seem very organized, but they are tired and they don’t get a reprieve all day) so I play games and try and throw in some interesting things for them to learn English.
Now for the most frustrating part of this week, we had a ‘debate’ at the school Thursday about discipline. The sous prefet (big guy) came and watched viewed some posters and left, but here’s how the day went. The students stopped their studies at 12 and stood in the hot sun for an hour and a half. They had not gone home to eat yet. Then the sous prefet arrived and they sang the national anthem and then stood in the sun some more while he looked at posters. Then they sat down in the conference class room (which is just a bigger classroom with a tin roof and goat poo everywhere. There were 4 teachers who were giving the points of the debate and everyone was supposed to listen. Well it started raining, crazy loud rain where you couldn’t hear yourself think. We ended up waiting another 30 minutes so it would let up and we could hear the speeches. Then the teachers gave these ridiculous 10 page long speeches where they rambled about discipline and the problems of the school and how the students suck. Well I though this was a very important assembly and it was handled so poorly. The students weren’t listening because they weren’t being talked to they were being talked at. There was no participation or interesting activities or simple activities like asking the students questions. The teachers just droned on and on and on. Wow don’t give some of these guys a stage or you’ll be there to the end of time. So finally the speeches were done after an hour and a half and we opened the floor for questions. At this point it was 30 minutes after the actual school day and the students still hadn’t eaten. The kids asked some questions most of them about how the teachers were disciplined if they didn’t come to school or weren’t prepared or had relationships with the students (these questions made me laugh). I’ll tell you what though, the whole thing was totally frustrating. As someone that helped set up performances for the better part of my life and who understands how to get people interested in a topic, it hurt to watch. Later as the teachers were congratulating themselves I asked me head of department if I could give some suggests for the next time or be involved in the planning. I was obviously passionate about this and he listened to me when I gave some ideas and explained what I think the problems were. Then he condescendingly told me he would take my thoughts nto consideration and that they didn’t have a lot of time to plan and this is just how they do things here.
This is not what you tell a riled up volunteer that is here to make change, so now I’m determined to help the students. I have talked to 3 teachers about my thoughts so far and most people agree with me so I’m hoping I can change the program for the next time, if not to spare the students at least to make it worth their wile. The language thing is starting to get annoying though, because when I become passionate I am the worst at speaking in another language and it’s a lot easier to condesend me, and how I hate condescension! Anyway, I’m happy to report that I understood almost everything said during the debate and I no longer just nod my head to agree with people because I actually know what they are saying. All I need now is to be able to respond in kind.
Love you all, thanks for reading this, I know they tend to be long and ranty! Miss you all and love you.
Weece.
Greetings from the land of rain and more rain. Not that I mind it, but I guess if I decide to move to Seatle it won’t be much of a transition. Except there are paved roads there so you can actually get from point A to point B with out getting your feet and the back of your dress totally dirty, not htat I’m complaining mind you, I still find all of this adventurous. Give me another couple of months and I’ll start complaining like a real native! So I have some updates for you. This is my 7th or 8th week in Ndelele and I feel as if I’m starting to get the hang of it. This week was exam week, which is sorta the best for a teacher because you just play fun revision games and the kids actually care about learning because they are able to imagine an actual grade they have to give their parents. I’m starting to actually like teaching again, which I find a relief seeing as how I was going to kill someone if things kept going the way they were. My 5eme class which I have now deciphered has 108 students in it is actually my favorite. I know who the trouble makers are and they are the kids who are older and haven’t made it past the class yet, I’ve decided to use shame with them or just to give them some more respect so that they’ll see I recognize they are older but I’m still not going to let them give me crap.
This week was also Rural Women’s week! Talk about awkward. I had this big moo moo (totally not how you spell that) dress made that was pink and had the different plants that the different regions cultivate on it (all fabric or pagne here is totally busy- those crazy Christians on channel 23 would love the flash). It also has pictures of women with babies on their back and working these grinding machines they have here. I felt like a poser because I do not carry babies on my back, I don’t really eat the local plans (because maniac has no nutritional value and is the consistency of snot), and I don’t work in the fields. POSER! Anyway, I still went with Rachel and we ended up having to be in the presentation. We mouthed the songs we were supposed to know and we danced and ended up parading down the street of Ndelele. This was funny because it was a very simple song and I caught on fairly quickly, even though the words were in Koko. Well after a refrain you turn 3 times and bend down and then continue walking. Well when I joined in people started laughing and pointing and getting all around crazy! I guess if you are a crazy white girl and you are actually doing some passable French dance moves its funnyi I guess it’s the same when we hear a non native speaker try to speak English and we think its adorable. Anyway, rural women’s day was a success and people were very exicted to see me in native dress and all day people yelled ‘Bon fete’. The only problem is that I have no women friends in the village because getting to know women is super hard, especially because there aren’t any at the Lycee. For example, today I brought some Papaya to my tailor and her friends (or her husbands other wives, I haven’t figured out how exactly the family is set up) and I passed out the fruit and they continued to talk in kako and it was really awkward until I took some pictures of them and then left. Aww well small steps I guess. I do have one woman friend and she’s Anglophone and the directrice of the Bilingual school.
I started working at the Bilingual school last week and its totally the best thing I do here. I just show up and sing songs. This week we sang about the face and drew a face together. We are working our way down to the torso next week. Who’s excited? The kids are! They are so cute, none of them speak English because this is only the second year of the school and there are only 2 classes. The youngest kids are 4 and the oldest are 7 so it’s a pretty awesome crowd. Some of them only have little chalk boards to write on and I find myself thinking about little house on the prairie when I show up. I hope to increase my time there and start some theater exercises. The teachers give me complete reign of the classroom and anything I want to do (which doesn’t seem very organized, but they are tired and they don’t get a reprieve all day) so I play games and try and throw in some interesting things for them to learn English.
Now for the most frustrating part of this week, we had a ‘debate’ at the school Thursday about discipline. The sous prefet (big guy) came and watched viewed some posters and left, but here’s how the day went. The students stopped their studies at 12 and stood in the hot sun for an hour and a half. They had not gone home to eat yet. Then the sous prefet arrived and they sang the national anthem and then stood in the sun some more while he looked at posters. Then they sat down in the conference class room (which is just a bigger classroom with a tin roof and goat poo everywhere. There were 4 teachers who were giving the points of the debate and everyone was supposed to listen. Well it started raining, crazy loud rain where you couldn’t hear yourself think. We ended up waiting another 30 minutes so it would let up and we could hear the speeches. Then the teachers gave these ridiculous 10 page long speeches where they rambled about discipline and the problems of the school and how the students suck. Well I though this was a very important assembly and it was handled so poorly. The students weren’t listening because they weren’t being talked to they were being talked at. There was no participation or interesting activities or simple activities like asking the students questions. The teachers just droned on and on and on. Wow don’t give some of these guys a stage or you’ll be there to the end of time. So finally the speeches were done after an hour and a half and we opened the floor for questions. At this point it was 30 minutes after the actual school day and the students still hadn’t eaten. The kids asked some questions most of them about how the teachers were disciplined if they didn’t come to school or weren’t prepared or had relationships with the students (these questions made me laugh). I’ll tell you what though, the whole thing was totally frustrating. As someone that helped set up performances for the better part of my life and who understands how to get people interested in a topic, it hurt to watch. Later as the teachers were congratulating themselves I asked me head of department if I could give some suggests for the next time or be involved in the planning. I was obviously passionate about this and he listened to me when I gave some ideas and explained what I think the problems were. Then he condescendingly told me he would take my thoughts nto consideration and that they didn’t have a lot of time to plan and this is just how they do things here.
This is not what you tell a riled up volunteer that is here to make change, so now I’m determined to help the students. I have talked to 3 teachers about my thoughts so far and most people agree with me so I’m hoping I can change the program for the next time, if not to spare the students at least to make it worth their wile. The language thing is starting to get annoying though, because when I become passionate I am the worst at speaking in another language and it’s a lot easier to condesend me, and how I hate condescension! Anyway, I’m happy to report that I understood almost everything said during the debate and I no longer just nod my head to agree with people because I actually know what they are saying. All I need now is to be able to respond in kind.
Love you all, thanks for reading this, I know they tend to be long and ranty! Miss you all and love you.
Weece.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Fete- Africa Style
5/10/08
Today is teacher appreciation day and it is a big deal in Ndelele. I don’t know why it’s a Sunday but not a lot of what they do here makes sense. So this morning we started the day with a ‘Marathon’ at least that’s how it was explained to me. All of the teachers were to meet at 6am at ‘the meeting place” yes, there is actually a place called the meeting place and people meet there even though it sorta in the middle of nowhere. Well I’m not a big one for completive running but I wanted to be part of the gang and at least represent the women seeing as how I’m the only female teacher. I was also quite inspired by miss Maryann Green and all of her running (if you are reading this I hope you are doing well and kickin some butt). So last night I have all of these dreams about running, and in one I’m stealing Tyler’s running shorts and Ethan’s shirt that is supposed turn your sweat to a cooling system or whatever- the ones he got from working at U of A. Anyway I’m all hyped and I get up at 5:30 and do some stretches and run to ‘the meeting place” and of course, as Cameroon will do, no one was there. I don’t know why I thought this would be different, maybe because it was a race and I didn’t want to miss the start. Anyway I stay there for about 30 minutes and the Chef shows up and then slowly a couple people come. After an hour and a half the proviseur (principal- I will call him proviseur from now on so keep up) he shows up on a Moto (of course he wouldn’t walk, or even run!) and he gets all upset because there are festivities all day and we need to be on time and where is everyone. I was glad he was as impatient as I was. Finally he calls a bunch of people, and my friend who has just come to say ‘go’ and write down who won, gets yelled at for not participating and has to run in a sweater and sandals. So it ends up that there are just 4 people running and it’s not a marathon, we are just running about a mile around the village (that’s how big the village is). We have a couple of media people there (but they are at everything and they know when the Chef coughs or sneezes because its probably news). The race starts and we run behind some guy on a moto who is blowing a whistle- I guess this was so that people would make way for us. 3 of us are jogging together pretty nicely but when we hit the last stretch, which is of course up hill they put the fire on and start running very fast. I’m proud of myself for not stopping, not being winded, and pacing my breathing, anyway I’m not that competitive. But then my friend with the sandals and sweater starts to gain on me and I have to leave him in the dust as I cross the finish line (which they have written in chalk on the dirt). I came in 3rd of 4 and 1st of the women, but I was the only woman so I guess I can’t be that proud. I also got interviewed and was very political by giving my comrades props and saying, “they challenge me in sports as well as in the classroom to be the best I can be.” People will love this!
Later there will be a parade where everyone is supposed to wear the same teacher’s day fabric (but it didn’t get sent to Ndelele so that won’t happen) Anyway if you know me you know I’m not into matching people (I made fun of ethan a lot when I heard him and Becky wore matching Easter clothes)- but any time I cannot stand out here is good! After the parade we will go to the stadium and there will be a football match and a handball match. I hope not ot have to play football because they are so serious about it here and I’m horrible, also I have twisted my ankle a couple of times and its starting to get pretty swollen. After that there will be a ‘balle” yeah that’s right, another name for fete is ball- like Cinderella. But really there will just be food and drinks and the party should last all night long. I asked about school the next day and my friend said that the proviseur will just change the start of school- he can do that, he’s the chef.
I find it very funny that the people here told me at that the fete would have a lot of Castel beer and legumes (veggies) I didn’t realize everyone knew my beer preference and that I’m a vegetarian! It’s pretty funny, but as long as I’m not eating monkey and drinking a cold beer the night seems like It’ll be really fun, maybe I’ll break out some of my famous dance moves. Sometimes I like to decide what beers my family would like the most here, I think dad would like Castel and ethan would like 33 and mom, she would hate them all, and chiggie would go for a Beauforts light, Tyler would hate them all but drink Fanta or Pomplemouse (grapefruit soda)or Grenadine (red soda) with wisky- you should come to Cameroon and see if I’m right! I love you all and miss you!
Elyse
Continuation of the Fete of the Teachers!
So I ended up not going to the parade because the leader of it was supposed to call the white people and tell us that it had started, but he forgot to call and I had to lay low because my proviseur was a little upset- but it was a fete so no one really cares that much, and my friend Mattie from Batouri was in town so we had him as an excuse too. We then went to the dance party and here are my impressions:
First of all, I think it was Jane Austin meets Africa. Its very interesting because there is strict protocol here for everything. When the ‘grandes’ or people who have important positions in society arrive you have to greet them a certain way and say certain things. Well because we were at party and there were grandes around they invite the important people up to ‘open the dancing’. Of course because I am one of only about 8 women at the fete and I’m the new white woman they choose me as one of the couples. Turns out I am introduced last with the sous prefet- who is the big cheese in my village. He’s the top dog, and technically this means I’m the most important woman at the party- no pressure. Then we do some awkward slow dancing to some saxophone jazzy versions of bad r and b songs. Turns out the ‘opening of the dance’ is only about 30 seconds which suits me fine. At least I didn’t fall on my butt!
So next we are all served a round of beers and people get up and cut a rug. Now let me just say I expect everyone to be great dancers, but even the best dancer can not be brilliant for the 8 minute Cameroonian song. (do you know how long 8 minutes is when you are dancing?) The music here is like a mixture of a Salsa type and African drums. Its really easy to dance to and they are minimal on movement. Even the worst dancers would do great here because it doesn’t really take any skill.
Well, I hate to say it but this is sorta the first time I’ve been on stage in a while (because everyone is watching the white woman to see how she dances) so I am hamming it up. The best dancer there keeps stealing me from my partner and we are doing all these crazy turns and shimmying down and stuff. I guess lots of people formed a circle around us as we were dancing. It was really fun and really tiring but I totally loved it. This is where the Jane Austin stuff starts though. I get asked to dance and led out to dance by a number of my colleagues from the Lycee including the Proviseur. It was one of those- wait how many times has the white girl danced with so and so and does that mean she’s interested in so and so. I guess everyone was keeping tabs on my dance card. One guy in particular who has been paying a little of attention to me tried to dominate my dance card but I gave him a lecture on how American woman are independent and can handles themselves and I went and asked some new people to dance. Anyway, what ensued was a sort of pissing contest between a lot of my admirers in ndelele and it made me a little angry. I was there to have fun and people were more interested and showing off that they were dancing with the white woman instead of dancing with Elyse. It’s not very fun to be a symbol of something instead of a person. But, either way the night ended up fun and I defused a lot of the situations by hanging out with the happily married men and women or talking to the men that are old enough to be my grandfather and have no teeth. I wish there was a way to go on the radio and say “I’m not here for romance people so move along” Anyway love you all and miss you!
elyse
Today is teacher appreciation day and it is a big deal in Ndelele. I don’t know why it’s a Sunday but not a lot of what they do here makes sense. So this morning we started the day with a ‘Marathon’ at least that’s how it was explained to me. All of the teachers were to meet at 6am at ‘the meeting place” yes, there is actually a place called the meeting place and people meet there even though it sorta in the middle of nowhere. Well I’m not a big one for completive running but I wanted to be part of the gang and at least represent the women seeing as how I’m the only female teacher. I was also quite inspired by miss Maryann Green and all of her running (if you are reading this I hope you are doing well and kickin some butt). So last night I have all of these dreams about running, and in one I’m stealing Tyler’s running shorts and Ethan’s shirt that is supposed turn your sweat to a cooling system or whatever- the ones he got from working at U of A. Anyway I’m all hyped and I get up at 5:30 and do some stretches and run to ‘the meeting place” and of course, as Cameroon will do, no one was there. I don’t know why I thought this would be different, maybe because it was a race and I didn’t want to miss the start. Anyway I stay there for about 30 minutes and the Chef shows up and then slowly a couple people come. After an hour and a half the proviseur (principal- I will call him proviseur from now on so keep up) he shows up on a Moto (of course he wouldn’t walk, or even run!) and he gets all upset because there are festivities all day and we need to be on time and where is everyone. I was glad he was as impatient as I was. Finally he calls a bunch of people, and my friend who has just come to say ‘go’ and write down who won, gets yelled at for not participating and has to run in a sweater and sandals. So it ends up that there are just 4 people running and it’s not a marathon, we are just running about a mile around the village (that’s how big the village is). We have a couple of media people there (but they are at everything and they know when the Chef coughs or sneezes because its probably news). The race starts and we run behind some guy on a moto who is blowing a whistle- I guess this was so that people would make way for us. 3 of us are jogging together pretty nicely but when we hit the last stretch, which is of course up hill they put the fire on and start running very fast. I’m proud of myself for not stopping, not being winded, and pacing my breathing, anyway I’m not that competitive. But then my friend with the sandals and sweater starts to gain on me and I have to leave him in the dust as I cross the finish line (which they have written in chalk on the dirt). I came in 3rd of 4 and 1st of the women, but I was the only woman so I guess I can’t be that proud. I also got interviewed and was very political by giving my comrades props and saying, “they challenge me in sports as well as in the classroom to be the best I can be.” People will love this!
Later there will be a parade where everyone is supposed to wear the same teacher’s day fabric (but it didn’t get sent to Ndelele so that won’t happen) Anyway if you know me you know I’m not into matching people (I made fun of ethan a lot when I heard him and Becky wore matching Easter clothes)- but any time I cannot stand out here is good! After the parade we will go to the stadium and there will be a football match and a handball match. I hope not ot have to play football because they are so serious about it here and I’m horrible, also I have twisted my ankle a couple of times and its starting to get pretty swollen. After that there will be a ‘balle” yeah that’s right, another name for fete is ball- like Cinderella. But really there will just be food and drinks and the party should last all night long. I asked about school the next day and my friend said that the proviseur will just change the start of school- he can do that, he’s the chef.
I find it very funny that the people here told me at that the fete would have a lot of Castel beer and legumes (veggies) I didn’t realize everyone knew my beer preference and that I’m a vegetarian! It’s pretty funny, but as long as I’m not eating monkey and drinking a cold beer the night seems like It’ll be really fun, maybe I’ll break out some of my famous dance moves. Sometimes I like to decide what beers my family would like the most here, I think dad would like Castel and ethan would like 33 and mom, she would hate them all, and chiggie would go for a Beauforts light, Tyler would hate them all but drink Fanta or Pomplemouse (grapefruit soda)or Grenadine (red soda) with wisky- you should come to Cameroon and see if I’m right! I love you all and miss you!
Elyse
Continuation of the Fete of the Teachers!
So I ended up not going to the parade because the leader of it was supposed to call the white people and tell us that it had started, but he forgot to call and I had to lay low because my proviseur was a little upset- but it was a fete so no one really cares that much, and my friend Mattie from Batouri was in town so we had him as an excuse too. We then went to the dance party and here are my impressions:
First of all, I think it was Jane Austin meets Africa. Its very interesting because there is strict protocol here for everything. When the ‘grandes’ or people who have important positions in society arrive you have to greet them a certain way and say certain things. Well because we were at party and there were grandes around they invite the important people up to ‘open the dancing’. Of course because I am one of only about 8 women at the fete and I’m the new white woman they choose me as one of the couples. Turns out I am introduced last with the sous prefet- who is the big cheese in my village. He’s the top dog, and technically this means I’m the most important woman at the party- no pressure. Then we do some awkward slow dancing to some saxophone jazzy versions of bad r and b songs. Turns out the ‘opening of the dance’ is only about 30 seconds which suits me fine. At least I didn’t fall on my butt!
So next we are all served a round of beers and people get up and cut a rug. Now let me just say I expect everyone to be great dancers, but even the best dancer can not be brilliant for the 8 minute Cameroonian song. (do you know how long 8 minutes is when you are dancing?) The music here is like a mixture of a Salsa type and African drums. Its really easy to dance to and they are minimal on movement. Even the worst dancers would do great here because it doesn’t really take any skill.
Well, I hate to say it but this is sorta the first time I’ve been on stage in a while (because everyone is watching the white woman to see how she dances) so I am hamming it up. The best dancer there keeps stealing me from my partner and we are doing all these crazy turns and shimmying down and stuff. I guess lots of people formed a circle around us as we were dancing. It was really fun and really tiring but I totally loved it. This is where the Jane Austin stuff starts though. I get asked to dance and led out to dance by a number of my colleagues from the Lycee including the Proviseur. It was one of those- wait how many times has the white girl danced with so and so and does that mean she’s interested in so and so. I guess everyone was keeping tabs on my dance card. One guy in particular who has been paying a little of attention to me tried to dominate my dance card but I gave him a lecture on how American woman are independent and can handles themselves and I went and asked some new people to dance. Anyway, what ensued was a sort of pissing contest between a lot of my admirers in ndelele and it made me a little angry. I was there to have fun and people were more interested and showing off that they were dancing with the white woman instead of dancing with Elyse. It’s not very fun to be a symbol of something instead of a person. But, either way the night ended up fun and I defused a lot of the situations by hanging out with the happily married men and women or talking to the men that are old enough to be my grandfather and have no teeth. I wish there was a way to go on the radio and say “I’m not here for romance people so move along” Anyway love you all and miss you!
elyse
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Rambly mc rambleson
Just another Wednesday in Africa,
Today was a very good day. I woke up feeling not up to the craziness of teaching, because yesterday was the end of Ramadan and we got a day off (though I realized this after meeting some people in the market who were confused why I was dressed up for work). Its nice to have a surprise day off but it really screws up your week and your mindset. The next day to work is always a bummer. But yesterday I spoke with the two Anglophone teachers at their house and they seem very interested in my help and my ideas, though I think I overwhelmed them because I throw so much at them at once, they seemed a little confused. I guess if you are Anglophone it doesn’t mean you can understand American English, I guess it’s the same with me when I try to understand Cameroonian English- its very funny.
However, today my students were angels. I’m not sure if someone scared the life out of them or what happened but they were great. They were interested in the lesson and I varied the lesson and they were understanding things and motivated it felt like teaching mattered again. Then I taught an hour early in my 4eme class because they don’t have a professor before me and I used the idea of getting out of school early to make them behave. This lesson was productive but we are already totally behind. I also taught the kids how to do the I-love- you sign language and they keep doing it to me and I think they are raising their hands, its very annoying. But what can you do?
Something very interesting happened today though. I was out for my run- which was incredibly brutal because its been terribly hot all day- there’s nothing like Africa with no air conditioning, tin- roofs, and no air-flow to get you sweating! Anyway, I’m running down a particularly rural road which I run down often and this woman stops and starts doing this interesting hand gesture to me and muttering lot, so I take out my ear phones as I’m running past her and say Bon Soir, and she continues in sorta a daze and looks as if she is either blessing me, protecting herself from the white woman, or sending me courage and health on my run. She didn’t seem upset or scared so this leads me to believe that I’ve been blessed today, literally, which is sorta cool.
I’m sorta mad though because now as I’ve been running more my knees and my ankles are killing me, is my young body not as awesome as it used to be? C’est vrai!
So I’ve started using a new tactic in my English classes, I’ve started using a lot more French. I find that the kids are behaving themselves and very happy with me because I’ve relented, maybe we’ll get somewhere now.
Also, tonight my neighbor who I made tortillas pb and j sandwiches and popcorn for came over and gave me dinner- legumes (mixture of vegetables that has an interesting taste to it and looks like its made of grass) and plantains (these can taste like potatoes if boiled, sweet French fries if fried, and a mixture between a banana and potato of heated and that’s my favorite way and that’s how he made htem. It’s pretty exciting to not have to cook one night, but now I have to eat the veggies I bought this morning for breakfast or they’ll go bad. Anyway, this post is really random, I’m watching diamonds are forever as I type- Connery is a bit old in this movie- but at least they aren’t dressing him like an Asian.
Cheers,
Lov eyou all
Thanks for the emails from everyone- elyse
Today was a very good day. I woke up feeling not up to the craziness of teaching, because yesterday was the end of Ramadan and we got a day off (though I realized this after meeting some people in the market who were confused why I was dressed up for work). Its nice to have a surprise day off but it really screws up your week and your mindset. The next day to work is always a bummer. But yesterday I spoke with the two Anglophone teachers at their house and they seem very interested in my help and my ideas, though I think I overwhelmed them because I throw so much at them at once, they seemed a little confused. I guess if you are Anglophone it doesn’t mean you can understand American English, I guess it’s the same with me when I try to understand Cameroonian English- its very funny.
However, today my students were angels. I’m not sure if someone scared the life out of them or what happened but they were great. They were interested in the lesson and I varied the lesson and they were understanding things and motivated it felt like teaching mattered again. Then I taught an hour early in my 4eme class because they don’t have a professor before me and I used the idea of getting out of school early to make them behave. This lesson was productive but we are already totally behind. I also taught the kids how to do the I-love- you sign language and they keep doing it to me and I think they are raising their hands, its very annoying. But what can you do?
Something very interesting happened today though. I was out for my run- which was incredibly brutal because its been terribly hot all day- there’s nothing like Africa with no air conditioning, tin- roofs, and no air-flow to get you sweating! Anyway, I’m running down a particularly rural road which I run down often and this woman stops and starts doing this interesting hand gesture to me and muttering lot, so I take out my ear phones as I’m running past her and say Bon Soir, and she continues in sorta a daze and looks as if she is either blessing me, protecting herself from the white woman, or sending me courage and health on my run. She didn’t seem upset or scared so this leads me to believe that I’ve been blessed today, literally, which is sorta cool.
I’m sorta mad though because now as I’ve been running more my knees and my ankles are killing me, is my young body not as awesome as it used to be? C’est vrai!
So I’ve started using a new tactic in my English classes, I’ve started using a lot more French. I find that the kids are behaving themselves and very happy with me because I’ve relented, maybe we’ll get somewhere now.
Also, tonight my neighbor who I made tortillas pb and j sandwiches and popcorn for came over and gave me dinner- legumes (mixture of vegetables that has an interesting taste to it and looks like its made of grass) and plantains (these can taste like potatoes if boiled, sweet French fries if fried, and a mixture between a banana and potato of heated and that’s my favorite way and that’s how he made htem. It’s pretty exciting to not have to cook one night, but now I have to eat the veggies I bought this morning for breakfast or they’ll go bad. Anyway, this post is really random, I’m watching diamonds are forever as I type- Connery is a bit old in this movie- but at least they aren’t dressing him like an Asian.
Cheers,
Lov eyou all
Thanks for the emails from everyone- elyse
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