birthday breakfast

March 2nd has come and gone. Maintenant, j'ai 23 ans. Incredibly strange, this growing up thing, but full speed ahead! Thanks to Jacqueline who baked me this surprise lovely cake (butterscotch/chocolate/peanuts combo) for my birthday. Regardez, the cake's a beauty. J's got skill, to concoct something like that in the spur of the moment, in a dutch oven. I even had a Swedish birthday song. Voila, I fine-dined that morning.

Happy Women's Day

Tuesday, March 8th was International Women's Day. It was my first Women's Day celebration and apparently outside of the U.S., it's a pretty big event. I wore a dress made from this year's Women's Day fabric and the color choices were pink or green. I marched with the ladies of the University of Bamenda on Commercial Avenue, in front of the grand stands where the governor was sitting along with other VIPs. They get to sit in chairs nicely in the shade(!) while the sun was beating down on all the women waiting to march. I got to hold the sign board and I was lucky enough to have marched with my group early, so I could grab lunch at a local bar (grilled fish with manioc sticks, fresh carrots & onion with pepe sauce) and head out of town before all the restaurants and streets would be filled with beaming women ready to celebrate. And celebration in Cameroon is DEFINED by food and drink, so you can imagine....

It was hot, chaotic, and the MTN phone network was so backed up that calls/texts wouldn't go through. Apparently there was a promotion of 500 francs and unlimited calls for the whole day. Anyways, we were only a small group of women from UniBa. Earlier that day I asked a female student at school if she was going to celebrate, and she emphasized that "only WOMEN only celebrate, I am still a girl." Aren't we women? I asked her but she said that it was for women with husbands, children and families. hmm... In the future, I can envision an event that unites women (especially women in academia and in education) and will be a bigger platform for discussion (of not only this year's theme of 'gender equality for girls in science and technology) but for many other topics, issues, round tables, conferences etc. In general, it was a day for dialogue and pride and oh, it has so much potential for later years to come. There was a women from the SWAA (Society for Women and AIDS in Africa) organization who was giving out female condoms and doing demonstrations. I looked up their org, here it is: http://www.iwhc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=137&Itemid=70 That was pretty neat because it represented women's empowerment, freedom, education and choice- which is what this day is all about. So... happy belated Women's Day! (It should happen more often, yea?)

i'll make it up in pictures...

A little yoga by the lake... I felt like Wai Lana, the yoga guru who twists into poses next to beautiful landscapes. There is this narraw rock with a steps to the top. A breathtaking view, really.

In the Adamawa region, about to climb Mt. Ngaoundere....I climbed boulders to reach the summit.

"PINNNED YA!!!" Think Simba and Nala. Puppies playing in the yard by my house.

whizzzing by. Meera and I on a moto in Ngaoundere visiting Lake Tison with Krystina. This is after one tire puncture, getting lost for 40 minutes, lunching with some village women and being driven around by two frustrated moto drivers. As you can imagine, the driver in the back (with me & Meera) was more angry at the one up front (with Krystina), but in the end they ended up becoming semi-friends. I guess a visit to a gorgeous volcanic crate lake will do that to you.

Taxis

I always enjoy taxi rides, especially from Bambili to Bamenda which takes about 40 minutes (for loading and unloading of passengers) to head into town. The ride usually costs 300cfa and if you don’t have exact change, you need to tell the driver before getting in the car so he will know to have change ready. To signal for a taxi, you extend your pointer finger in front of you and just wait on the side of the road. A passing taxi will slow down enough to hear you announce your destination and if he’s going in that direction, he’ll honk the horn for you to board. If not, he’ll just drive away without saying anything. No offense taken. Make sure to greet the passengers to be courteous when you board. It’s usually a simple “morning” “afternoon,” or “evening.”

There is something neat about sitting in a car and briefly sharing someone’s company, then parting for different destinations. I look out at the mountainous landscape (it is all downhill from Bambili) at the people on the side of the road, selling oranges, dozing off at MTN call-boxes, pushing a wagon or carrying rice bags bursting of produce. Friends greet each other with a hearty handshake. People are skewering the day’s soya to grill. Mommies are frying beignets or arranging tomatoes to sell. Small children in bright uniforms are walking to school, the older ones holding the hands of their younger siblings. Each time I head into town, I notice something new. Plus, it’s a chance to listen in on the latest gossip in a mix of English, local dialect but mostly pidgin.

Besides looking outside, it’s very entertaining to observe how a taxi’s interior is decorated. It is fun enough to be squeezed inside a car with four people in the back, and three people in front (with babies and small children the number can be up to 10 )… but crazy decorations are even better. I’ve seen stuffed animals hanging from the rearview mirror, fake flowers carefully placed on a furry spread on the dashboard, dangling second-hand Happy Meal toys, and lacey cloth covering the ceiling. I’ve also seen a plastic skull as the stick-shift knob, and a sticker of Spiderman by the speedometer. There are also stickers on windows ranging from “I love Cameroon” to “Jesus Carries Me” to a smiling Malaysian girl with quotes about friendship to angry-looking green bulldogs. Nearly all taxis have flashing colorful lights in the evening and I’m absolutely positive that no two taxis in Cameroon that are the same.

While I am riding in a taxi, I also read what is written on the bumpers of other taxis while they zip past or cut us off. Taxi-drivers personalize and “jazz up” their vehicles by painting sayings like “Praise Be To God” on their bumper. I’ve come up with a tentative list of the ones I’ve seen:

“Love”
“Les Beaux Sont Tous Rares”
“Shame to Mr. and Mrs. Wicked”
“Plan with God”
“There’s Time for Everything”
“Active Boy”
“Chop with Long Spoon”
“Thanks be to God”
"Bishop"
Well Done
New York City
Even Ballam Cannot Reverse God's Blessing
Baby Take Care
Victory Only Comes from God
Jesus is Lord
The Young Shall Grow
Cover Me with the Blood of Jesus

... so anyone can get their daily dose of advice or philosophical thought from the back of a taxi!

I’ve had to take time to learn and ask the prices to certain locations. Sure, several times the taxi I was in nearly collided head-on with oncoming traffic but … the driver was swerving to avoid the enormous pothole. One time I was in a slow-moving traffic jam and the front right wheel of my taxi fell off, and all the passengers had to continue walking to find another taxi. While this was happening a herd of cattle was coming down the road towards me, making the traffic jam worse. Thank God the wheel fell off when the taxi was moving slowly. All the passengers including me, boarded the same empty taxi up ahead. Oh how taxi rides are an unpredictable adventure.

more on food...

This is "achoo." It is a specialty of the Northwest Region in Cameroon. It's pounded tapioca mixed into a paste with "yellow soup" as a sauce, and there is lots of palm oil involved. Taxi drivers will end their day craving achoo, babies grow up eating achoo, grandmothers eat plates spilling over with this heavy, thicker-than-mashed-potatoes goo. You get the picture... people love this stuff and grow up on it. In my opinion, you either love it or you hate it. You eat it with 3 fingers on your right hand. Be careful not to rupture the nicely formed pocket that holds all the oily, salty & tasty goodness, or you'll get stared at from seasoned achoo-eaters. In the pic above, it's served with a piece of grilled chicken and a strip of cow... something.

bagel & chai

Behold a picture of my breakfast. They have BAGELS in Foumban!! Or, if you're not convinced, it was at least soft yummy bread that resembled a bagel in shape. Meera, Mackenzie and I attended the Ngoun Festival in Foumban, and we were led to a hole-in-the-wall chai tea place for breakfast. It was delicious. You can get a "bagel" for 100 francs and "chai" (i.e. 90% sweetened condensed milk) for the same price. Food is in "quotations" because it is slightly different in Cameroon, but it doesn't make it less good. Plus, we had to descend these stairs to reach it which made it more of an adventure...

festival ngoun