Weekend Post

I can’t believe I’ve only been here for two weeks! I’m at the weird in between where it feels like I’ve been here for much longer than that but it also feels like I just got here. 

Friday morning we started off with French class in which we discussed the book we’re reading, “Une Vie de Boy” by F. Oyamo. During the second half of the morning we had our first weekly review. We talked about classes, host families, cultural uncertainties and everything and anything that came up in relation to those. At 1:30 we had our first dance class. Throughout the semester we will have traditional dance classes culminating in a performance at the end of semester party with our host families. Our dance classes are broken down into 4 regional styles based on certain characteristics that traditional dances in each region have in common. The dance class was probably the highlight of most of our weeks. It was an incredible work out and as well as a ton of fun! We did a lot of following the dance teacher as he taught us the moves through repetition. After the warm-up games that simultaneously taught us some of the basic moves, we learned the beginning of the dance that we’re performing at the end of the semester. The bottle dance is based off of a mix of traditional moves and colonial-based ballroom dancing. The dance teacher described the history of the dance as the Cameroonian people having watched their “colonial masters” dance in the evenings and attempting to dance like them. During the bottle dance there is a caller like in line dancing and a basic set of steps that everyone knows. It is a partner dance but does not hold the rigidity that many ballroom dances do. The dance class left us sweaty and content. We hung out at the office playing cards and dancing some more until we cooled off enough to head home. Friday evening as usual, I hung out with my host family watching TV. I also taught my younger host brother, Glendon, to us the photo booth application on my computer to take silly photos. We spent a long time doing that together and got Gael to join in as well. 

Saturday we got up earlier than usual and Glendon, Gael, and I headed to the SIT office where we met other SIT students and their families for an optional day trip to a gorilla sanctuary and the Centre d'Art Appliqué, and art school in Mbalmayo. Mbalmayo is about an hour away from Yaounde by bus. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket to get food for lunch. We also had an unplanned stop at a police barricade where an officer demanded to know who we were and what we were doing. Upon learning that we were American and Cameroonian only he demanded a specific bribe fee of the group. Serge, the coordinator who was with off scoffed and handed him a note from the chief of the Yaounde police with whom the SIT program has an understanding. He left after that however, had he asked to see out notarized passport copies and one of us had forgotten to bring it, that person could have been arrested. 

After a 45 minute or so bus ride we had it to the gorilla sanctuary only to find that some of the primates has escaped so, for safety’s sake, the park was closed. My host brother was bummed that we didn’t get to see the animals, as were we all. We continued on the art school where we got to the traditional pottery work that the students did and they walked us through their creative processes. We also had the opportunity to purchase some of the finished products is we wished. 

On the return bus ride home, Serge proposed that we go to the Yaounde zoo in lieu of the gorilla sanctuary. I wasn’t particularly excited to go to the zoo and wouldn’t have minded getting dropped off with the other students who opted not to go but my host siblings were into the idea. I guess one could say that it was interesting to see a Cameroonian zoo but it was also sad. Even zoos in the US make me sad sometimes and the animals there have even more space and cleaner conditions. We got to see crocodiles, lions, many kinds of monkeys, snakes, and birds all of which are native to Cameroon. Glendon was super stoked to get to see the lions. My favorite were the monkeys, especially the baby ones. There was also one monkey that has escaped but apparently he wasn’t a bother so the zoo keepers let him have free range of the facility. 

In the afternoon we returned home just before the rain came. I needed to do laundry so I had to ask Gael to teach me. I think that she, and those where were watching thought I must be helpless because I had no idea what to do and there were several times that I was apparently doing things wrong. To do laundry, you take a large basin, toss your clothes in, fill it with water and sprinkle in some detergent. After letting it sit for a minute or two you add more water and then take each piece of clothing and lather is up with a block of soap before scrubbing it. Once it’s been scrubbed, you wring the article out and put it in another bucket filled with water. After all the clothing has been transferred to the second bucket, you empty the first one. Once again you scrub out each article of clothing and put it in a third bucket of water before wringing it out and hanging up on the clothes lines. It all sounds very simple but Gael kept having to tell me, “No, in Cameroon, this is how we scrub it.” or “In Cameroon, this is how we wring it out.” “In Cameroon this is how we hang up out clothes.” I finished feeling sufficiently inferior but with clean clothes nonetheless. Just as I finished, it started to pour rendering all my wringing out pointless but I just figured my clothes were getting an extra rinse. 

All in all my Saturday was long, exhausting, and satisfying. Come Sunday though, I found myself facing a lot of homework assignments and other smaller tasks that I had been putting off throughout the week. I also got to sleep in for the first time since I’ve been here, staying in bed all the way until 8:30am! My 19 year-old host brother, Sony, beat me however and didn’t get up until after 9:15 when the rest of the family was on their way to mass. I wasn’t invited to go to mass with the family, not that I minded, but it made me wonder if they were trying to respect the fact that I’m not Catholic or if they thought that I wouldn’t want to go to mass with them. Maybe next time, I’ll ask to go with them. Actually, Glendon did ask me to go with them but that was only because he wanted me to take him to the store after to buy another popsicle like I did on Saturday. After I told him that I wasn’t going to buy him a popsicle today, he lost interest in my going with them. The majority of my Sunday was spent doing homework an activity made difficult by the fact that the power was out from before I woke up until 11:30. Gael and I also cleaned our room. In the evening my host mom took me to the fruit market where she introduced me to her pineapple seller. We also went to the bakery to buy bread. Instead of going in, she just rolled down the car window and selected one of the men selling wares on the side of the road to go buy her bread. She gave him money and instructions. While we were waiting other men tried to sell us items. One man was selling pirated copies of movies and TV shows. He didn’t have the TV show that she wanted but they exchanged numbers in case he got a hold of “Pavitra Rishta.” Basically, Sunday was a productive day.

Cora (Bates College)  and Christelle (University of Yaounde) at the Art School.

Kiln full of finished pieces.

Some glazed pieces ready to be fired.