These last two weeks have been very busy, stressful, and extremely interesting.
A quick update on the new furniture in my house... it is not wise to get white furniture when you have children under the age of 12 and a kitten in the house. As much as my parents have tried to preserve the white leather, it seems to have a new mark on it every other day. Other than that, there have been no issues in my home stay; I’m really happy to be back with them.
So after we came back from Bamenda we had to seriously start working on our IDI project. I haven’t mentioned this project yet, but it has been eating away much of my time as of late. Essentially the IDI is a miniature ISP (the four week research project we do at the end of the semester) which we complete in a group on a subject of our choice to prepare us for doing the ISP later. We chose our topics about five weeks ago and have had to meet certain deadlines along the way. I am in a group with my friends Margo (University of Oregon) and Jaclyn (Duke University). We chose to research the relationship between the Catholic church and traditional religious African customs. We are learning a lot. The Catholic church has realized over the years that they must open their arms to the African traditions because they are so engrained in the lives of Africans. Some traditions include praying to ancestors, sacrificing animals, or traditional healing. The church’s position we have found is not to say that all these traditions are bad and should be abolished (if they were to do this they wouldn’t have a congregation); their position is rather to preach that God is the only truth and you can continue your practices as long as they aren’t harmful nor take priority over the worshiping of the holy trinity. Anyway, we have to pass out surveys to members of the church, interview two NGOs or development groups and interview two people after they take the survey. Our biggest stress has been working on ‘Cameroonian time’. We find ourselves waiting for hours after the scheduled time of appointments. Thankfully though, people have been very willing to take our surveys and the Catholic church with which we are working has been extremely welcoming.
In French classes I have read two wonderful novels by Cameroonian female authors in the last two weeks. Je Vois le Soleil dans Tes Yeux by Nathalie Etoke and Walaande: l’art de partager un mari by Djaïli Amadou Amal (in case you’re interested in Cameroonian literature). Consequentaly, reading these books are really exciting for me because of what I will be researching for my ISP.
When we aren’t working on IDI or in class, we are all trying to develop our ISP topics. My topic is generally about the influence of Francophone Cameroonian female authors in Cameroon. The ‘in Cameroon’ part is crucial because these women tend to be more read and more appreciated out of country, since books are extremely expensive here and thus people don’t read much, and read female authors even less frequently. Christiane, our director, has been so helpful to every one of us. One day she took me to a bookstore and two different publishing companies in Yaoundé to find contacts for me. I was really lucky because I have the numbers now of about 15 different Cameroonian female authors and a few editors who I will interview in the coming weeks. Side note- when I said books here are expensive, I meant it. At the bookstore, I saw a book that we had to buy for the program. I think we paid maybe $10 for it on Amazon; here the price was 16,000 CFA or $32 which is more than half of a months earnings for a person working a minimum wage job in Cameroon... no wonder people aren’t rushing to the bookstores. Anyway, I was lucky because I was given the number of Djaïli Amadou Amal from a person at Harmattan publishing company. Christiane bought me Amal’s second book which I am currently reading, so I might end up focusing specifically on her writings.
When we aren’t working on IDI, French or ISP we have had NGO and development organization visits these last two weeks. The organizations we have seen are: LAGA (The Last Great Ape Organization), ANACLAC (Association Nationale de Comités de Langues Camerounaises), RENATA (Réseau National des Associations des Tantines), MUFFA (Mutuelle Financière des Femmes Africaines), Peace Corps Cameroon and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). I will explain some of those briefly. LAGA is trying to cut down on the illegal bushmeat trade and foster great ape habitats. They are a wonderful success story. They started from absolutely nothing and now are turning away donors. They really promote activism and hard work. ANACLAC works to preserve the education of maternal languages in Cameroon; they are struggling to find funding. RENATA works to educate teenage mothers to become teachers for the community about sexual education and safety. Their work has helped a lot of women and men. MUFFA is a micro-finance agency that works specifically with women. They have given so many women incredible opportunities to change their lives. I think Peace Corps and IMF are well known. These organizations have been so interesting. I have learned that having a specific goal for the organization and working with people who are passionate about the cause and not just about money are key aspects to fostering a successful NGO. Also, most of these organizations stressed the importance of letting local peoples run projects rather than outsiders. Often foreign aid is most wanted to come in and teach skills and then leave and let the locals reap all the benefits.
Last weekend was the first completely activity-free weekend we have had. I took full advantage! I went running, hiking, went to the market, went to new restaurants, cooked for my host family, and went to a three hour long Catholic mass (it was for IDI research but it was still pretty interesting).
This past Tuesday however was probably the biggest activity of the last two weeks. It was “la fête du mouton” or the festival of the sheep which is essentially like Christmas in the Muslim community. My family is the only family in Yaoundé which is Muslim and we live in the Muslim neighborhood, so needless to say, it was a BIG deal. About a week before Tuesday my host mom’s cousin came over with two suitcases full of beautiful fabrics from the North (the Muslim region of Cameroon and where my parents are from). I was just in awe looking at the fabrics and then, out of nowhere, my Papa trows me a blue and white fabric and tells me it’s his gift to me and to take it to the tailor! If I wasn’t already feeling spoiled, he ended up buying me a purse and a bracelet that same night! That was when I realized how spectacular this fête would be. My host parents told me to invite all the exchange students, so everyone was looking forward to the day. We saw shepherds in the streets herding their sheep for days before the festival; I met the sheep that I ate Tuesday on Monday when my host dad came home with him in the trunk of the car... Monday and Tuesday were both public holidays, but SIT still had class. My dad wasn’t happy that I was going to school Tuesday, he really didn’t want me to miss out on the slaughtering of the sheep... I was happy to miss out. That night there was music, an abundance of food (I contributed a huge pot of fried rice to go with the meat), laughing and talking. It was just wonderful!
Next up on the agenda is Kribi, the coast of Cameroon where we will get to see the beach and learn about the social minority: the pygmies. After that we will be off to our third home stay, a week in Ngaoundéré, the North region. I am really looking forward to Kribi!
The weather is changing. We are moving into the dry season so during the day it is really sunny and extremely hot, but at night, around 6 or 7 pm the rain rolls in and it rains a lot. Apparently that means that the rainy season is moving out!
Until next time!
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