angel at a crosswalk

Last week I went to Willaimsburg, Virginia to visit the old colonial town with some family. We attended a Sunday service at a gorgeous white-columned Methodist church, where elderly couples wore their Sunday best, and kind ladies wore their hats and pearls. Just after we filed out and were about the cross the street, I spotted this sign at the intersection. The angels have got our backs.

The church was also right across from the College of William and Mary. The weather was 90 degrees plus with sweltering heat. So... despite that we had to explore a bit of their campus before leaving. Below is their new campus.

And we paid a visit to our old pal Thomas Jefferson. The bronze statue that was a gift from the University of Virginia. We all wanted to be like him. (Being bronzed is in, haha.)

The colonial town was picturesque, with occasional reenactments of speeches, of lovers separated because of the war and slaves dreaming of freedom. Men "fenced it out" to take care of their problems, women wore bonnets with full-length dresses. They shot cannons. They read the Declaration of Independence.

The entire district was renovated and restored with buildlings dating from the 1700s, funded by the Rockefellers. There were apothecary shops, hat shops, metal working and a historic insane asylum, now a museum. It is pretty cool to see the evolution of this country over the past few hundred years.

summer time

it's the summer.

there are many things to be thankful for.

je suis reconnaissante.

(this feeling, reflected from the water)

ladies in the kitchen

me, Ada, Isaora, Mackenzie

I continue to blog because it's the first month being back from Cameroon and honestly... I miss it. I get into a nostalgic mood and then I stay up and blog about it. Memories are sinking in and the realization that I'm back in the States seems unreal (I guess you can call it reverse culture shock). If you've ever stayed in a different country for an extended period, or studied abroad, you know what I mean. C'est normal. This might be the reason for my recent bout of insomnia, but it's no biggie because my brain will soon revert back to 'America.' So...

In mid-December I tagged along with my friend Mackenzie (a fellow Fulbrighter) to visit her extended host family in Douala. It is an extremely hot coastal city and has one of the biggest ports in Cameroon. We stayed at Ada's house and during those few days there she was the most excellent host, cooking for us, making sure we met all of her friends and taking us out and about. It was certainly a fun, adventurous and crazy few days.

Before I went, people kept saying that it is so hot in Douala that people slept outside. Well it was true. The air was so thick with heat that after taking a shower, I was drenched right back in sweat again. You can't escape it... Man it was hot there! I compare the current heat wave in Chicago to the weather in Douala. haha.

Anyways, four ladies: me, Mackenzie, our friend Isaora and Ada were having some fun in the kitchen. We were watching Ada cook and she was explaining what she was doing while stirring a heavy pot of pasty flour. Her instructions were all in French (and I was appalled when I realized the deterioration of my French)! Coming from the Anglophone region, I had forgotten a lot and strained to understand. After she cooked, we all sat outside in her backyard under the shade of a giant tree and enjoyed our meal in the coolness of the shade. I will just upload a series of pictures.

The end result: A delicious-okra-filled-slippery-finger-lickin' meal.

the good earth

AgroFest December 2010, Bafut

While I was in Cameroon this past December, I went to an AgroFestival. It's an annual event that takes place across the country, essentially farmers show their best produce at large festivalsand prizes are given to the farmers with the biggest, freshest, most interesting produce. Prizes included money, buckets, hoes, and other farm equipment. Most farmers (who are mostly women) do their work ALL by hand. It's really amazing. One AgroFest was held in Bafut, about 40 minutes away from where I lived. Cocoyams are shown above.

This was the ginger aisle and it came in different varieties. This type looks very wormlike...

There were beautiful displays of corn too. Endless stalks of corn grow in the NW region. Wherever people have space, they will plant a patch of corn, even in front of a one-room red brick house right next to the road, there will be a patch of corn outside the door, planted in their mounds, as commonplace as grassy front yards in the US. It's no surprise that corn is a staple food here.

These are spices. I don't know the official names, but the one on the right (skewered on a stick) is called "achu spice." I mentioned what achu was on a previous blog, but it's a traditional NW dish, and these spices are roasted and then ground up with a stone to add flavor to achu. It's very aromatic.

Melons that remind me of starfruit...

The land in the Northwest Region is as beautiful as it is fertile. Everywhere I turn, especially during the rainy season, the fields are a bright rich green. People have a deeper connection to the soil. They depend on it, it is their life source. People really work the land; they use their hands, they bend their backs, they sweat in the hot sun, and then carry their crops and spades home. When have I ever worked like that for my food?

It feels almost unreal when a woman unearths a yam from the ground from her farm, hands it to me all caked in soil and says, "Here, take this home with you!" Haha, maybe it's because I'm from Chicago where farmland doesn't exist or because I was never an avid gardener but I felt such a pure connection to the soil in Cameroon. All this musing about farming/land reminded me of the book, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. If I were subjected to grueling, back-breaking work and reliant on the rains and soil for my well-being, how would I fare?

look what the mouse did!

The pesky mouse, that Jacqueline and I "lovingly" nicknamed Mickey, ate my chocolate! what the..!? It got through the plastic wrapping and the foil, and probably sulked back to its hole with a stomach ache. Mouse ruined my candy! Oh well. I got over it. All just part of a normal day.

now these are the types of roads a 4x4 would love

university games

Forget cheerleaders. We've got 10 drummers, 30 dancers and one unstoppable Fans Club to cheer on the sports. Members of the Fans Club were at the University Games in Dschang to energize their athletes, catch the attention of the judges and also to put on a good show for the spectators. Every school that participated sent their own Club, and they were on the field much longer than any athlete. They spent hours everyday (during that week) on their feet, swaying to the rhythm, beating drums and performing quick, fast-footed cultural dances. They ran around, energized the crowd and then paraded around the entire campus like it was Mardi Gras.

2011 was the first year that the students represented the University of Bamenda and participated in the annual University Games in Dschang. I was filled with pride, ownership (I'm with these guys, this is my school) and a sense of je-ne-sais-quoi... that burning inside your stomach when you witness someone fighting so hard and waiting so long, and they finally get it. This was it. Our school became a university, and we finally had a team. We were all in good spirits, and completely fraught with anticipation... (or maybe, it really was just me, haha). Regardless, nothing like sports can bring people together like that. We even took home two bronze medals in judo. Bravo.

"Our fulfillment is not in our isolated human grandeur, but in our intimacy with the larger earth community, for this is also the larger dimension of our being..."

- Thomas Berry