My Kribi Weekend

Marie and Ange at the Waterfall

Saturday we got up and washed dishes at 6 am as per usual but when we had finished, I went back to bed until 7:45. My host sisters and Danny and two of his brothers headed down to the hotel. Once everyone had arrived we all piled on to a bus and headed to a local waterfall. On the way to the waterfall, we stopped at a fish market to look around and purchase fish for lunch. Christiane bought enough fish from all of us and then gave it to the fisherman’s wives to cook them for us while we were at the waterfall. Although it was a very rainy day, we spent a long time at the base of the waterfall and wandering around the sandy beach between the river and the ocean. It was a lot of fun getting to know everyone else’s host siblings.

After the waterfall, we returned to the fish market to eat our fresh fish and plantain fries. We spent a lazy afternoon at the fish market and then some people headed down to the beach down by the guest house. My host sisters didn’t have their bathing suits and it would 8have been a long walk so we opted to be dropped back off in town. Khalilah, Marianna, Me, my sisters, and Elias’s host siblings went to a soccer tournament put on by on of Cameroon’s major cellphone services. The soccer pitch was a sandy patch along the beach. 

Marie, Ange, and I

We took a very winding back short cut to get home. Once home, we hung out and watched a “The Popstar and the Princess” a Barbie movie to which Marie and Ange knew all the words. We made pasta for dinner and ate in front of the TV. 

Sunday we got up a little later than usual. After bathing and getting dressed we immediately headed to Mass, skipping breakfast. I’m pretty sure this was my first Catholic mass. The service was about two hours long and we were squished into a pew with two other older women who took up more than half the row. I was pretty hot and tired and didn’t try that hard to follow the service. Even if I had been paying attention to the sermon I would have had just as lost when the entire congregation said or did the same thing all in unison. The church had clearly been created by missionaries at some point in time. The paintings on the wall portrayed the most anglo-saxon baby Jesus I’ve seen. As an foreigner I was definately a rare sight at the church but I was glad that I was not called out or specially mentioned as many of the other students have been at church. 

Elias's host brother and Nathan, Christiane's older son.

When we got home, the three of us immediately changed into more casual clothing and watched some more TV while eating leftover pasta. My mom went to mass at 9am. I spent the rest of the morning watching TV, napping, and doing homework. Around 1:30pm I was called away from my homework to help cook dinner, which we all ate together at 2:30. While cooking, we all sat in the kitchen chatting. While the food was cooking, my host sisters asked me to teach them English. They would choose things they saw in the kitchen and ask me how to say them in English. They would then write the word down. It was great because it allowed me to learn new words in French too. This “dinner” was the first time I’d had a whole family meal in Cameroon. I went back to homework after eating.

Marianna

Marie

Playing Frisbee on the Beach at the Base of the Waterfall.