Mountaga

This is where I spend a lot of my free time. It's a fairly big compound with a bunch of children and this one in particular is definitely my favorite.

Tabaski

It's that time of year again when all the Muslims in town shell out money and buy new outfits and the best looking ram they can afford. Yes, fete de mouton happened - this past weekend (november 6) and it was even better than last year. All the regular activities - prayer in the giant filed, sacrifice of the first ram, eating lots of food, Fantasia - all that fun stuff. But rather than write, here are some pictures....

Prayer

After prayer

Fantasia

After Fantasia

So if you happen to be in Cameroon and are looking...

So if you happen to be in Cameroon and are looking for places to visit, you should definitely consider Banyo. It’s in a strategic location particularly if you want to travel north but avoid taking the train. From Bafoussam, just take an agence car straight to Banyo (about 10 – 12 hours – have some music). Once you arrive, spend a day or so hanging out in town. Here are some of the ‘hot spots’ to see….

The market

Now only when you up for peopledisturbing you and trying to get you to buy their products at for much more than you should (just because you’re white of course), you should take a stroll through the market. There are all kinds of boutiques and sometimes you really can find a great item like clothing, fabric, shoes, household supplies and food. The busiest days are Tuesday and Friday but it’s open all week during the day (just try to avoid afternoon prayer times as many of the shops close)

Djouta Fada

The main strip and only stretch of paved road in town – Djouta Fada. The pavement starts right around the market where you can do all your fresh food shopping. Then along the actual road, there are restaurants, bars, the bakery and lots of other boutiques in between.

Chez Denise

If you’re looking for a decent restaurant that isn’t right on the road for everyone to watch as you eat, head to Chez Denise just down a little alley way. It’s still right one the main strip and there’s even a sign to point you in the right direction. It’s private, has a television, cold drinks and usually pretty good chicken and rice.

Dandy’s

For nights out, Dandy’s is the place to go – the biggest, most hoppin bar in Banyo and it’s location is ideal. It’s right in the center of the strip and has lots of good street food mommies who come out at night with dishes like fish, meat, omelettes and fries. The music can be a bit loud sometimes, but there are always cold drinks and a nice atmosphere.

Oasis Boulangerie

A little down the road from Chez Denise and Dandy’s is the fairly new bakery – Oasis Boulangerie. It has nice outdoor seating, a great spot for people watching and if everything there is running smoothly, you can get ice cream, slushies, rotisserie chicken, French fries, burgers and of course pastries like sugar beignets. It’s a nice place to hang out when you’re tired and want to relax but don’t want to be in a bar setting (like Dandy’s)

Lamidat

The chefferie or Lamidat is where the Lamido and his family and entourage live.It is full of history and in fact the current lamido has even written a book about the lamidat in Banyo that you can pick up for 10.000CFA.

The main mosque

The biggest mosque in Banyo and directly across from the Lamidat, it can be a sight to see any Friday afternoon and particularly on fetes like Ramadan and Fete de Mouton. Huge crowds gather here regularly for prayer and of course Fantasia.

Mt Djoumbaul

If you looking for some adventure and activity, you can always take the morning to walk up Mt Djoumboul. It’s not too bad a walk and takes approximately 4 -5 hours up and back. Also at the top, you can see remnants from when the Germans where in Banyo and used the top of the mountain as the location for prisoners.

Now these are just some of the more popular places to visit, but there are many hidden treasures throughout Banyo and nice places to just take a stroll. It really is a nice town and although it’s a bit removed from the major cities, it does have a lot to offer and is worth visiting.

Presidential Elections 2011

Although they're not completely over (as the results haven't officially been announced) all the campaigning and voting is finished for the presidential elections in Cameroon and so far everything has been calm and kind of interesting to observe.

So here's how things went in Banyo...

Leading up to elections, there was various campaign meetings and about a week before elections, tons of campaign posters (mostly for Biya) went up all over town. And the day before, there was a little parade through the middle of town with motos, trucks, cars, posters, loudspeakers, etc.

Parade for Biya in Banyo

On the day of elections, polls were at various schools throughout town. And I actually live right near two schools that we holding elections so I had the opportunity to see 'democracy in action' as some people said. At the schools, lists were posted with the voters registered for that particular locations (they're name, birthdate, profession, etc). Voters brought their voting cards and got in line. I believe the way it worked is that they picked up pieces of paper for each of the candidates then went behind a curtain to make their decision by putting one candidate's paper in an envelope. Then they put their vote in the ballot box. Oh also during the day, nothing was open in town - apparently an order from higher up - not even moto taxis or anything out. So for the whole day, just stayed at home basically. But after polls closed around 6:30pm, was able to go out and about.

So now we are about 9 days from the date that the results are to be announced so be on the lookout...

Voter card - the boxes on the back are for the voter to be fingerprinted once they vote

Women lined up to vote - awesome to see so many of them out

Woman putting her vote in the box

School: Year 2

Well the 2011- 2012 school year is well underway and the first grading period is almost finished. With a new year, there are new teachers, new students, new classes. At the start of the year, I thought that we would have even more English teachers than last year. But I was mistaken and in fact it’s quite the opposite – this year it’s only me and one other English teacher for a school with approximately 1,000 students spread over 7 grade levels (6^th- 12^th grade). Needless to say, we are both teaching more classes and hours this year but of course it still isn’t enough and there are still classes without an English teacher yet. That’s Cameroon.

So this year I am teaching one class of 6eme, all of 5eme (divided into 2 sections), seconde, premiere and I am about to pickup a class of terminale. Most of the classes have about 60 – 70 students although I did luck out with seconde this year – there are only about 20 students and wow what a difference a smaller class size makes. But even though my other classes are still big, it’s not as bad this year because I know the majority of them. So particularly knowing names already helps some with classroom management. Resources are still limited of course but I’m really trying to make more photocopies for students since maybe 8 out of 60 have the book.

There are also lots of new teachers and a new principal all of whom really make it a much more pleasant atmosphere this year. And unfortunately there is still amicale but I’m hoping it will also be better this year – we will see. Oh and teacher’s day came and went this past Wednesday. I bought the tacky fabric again but there weren’t really to many events because of the upcoming elections. So that is something to watch out for – Sunday Oct 9 – presidential elections….

A Weekend Wedding

This past weekend I attended my first wedding in Cameroon. The son of a neighbor was getting married. We have been waiting for the date of the wedding for a while (the date continued to change every couple of weeks). So it finally happened.

Things started bright and early Friday morning with the doting ceremony. You could kind of consider this the exchanging of vowels in a church – it’s what ‘seals the deal’. The man basically gives his bride offering. Next there was lots of cooking for the women. Peeling potatoes with dull knives, plucking chicken feathers, cooking over a wood fire – fun stuff. Later in the evening there was some celebrating at the mother of the groom’s house (where also all the cooking had taken place). We ate food, listened to music, some dancing. Then about 8, all the women loaded into cars to go ‘take the bride’ and bring her back to her house (you could kind of say the equivalent of a bridal suite except she never really left it and stays there for a week).

The next day started again with more cooking which this time I actually helped with a little, kind of, by cutting potatoes. But I had to leave to pick up my outfit for the rest of the event. We had ‘team fabric’ – matching fabric for the party. Then about 5, there was another small event involving the groom. Dancing, music, shouting, throwing of money, painting his hands – all of this was involved. After a short break to rest up some, there was another brief ceremony involving the groom that took place in the ‘bridal suite’ house. I think it was a story or a blessing or something (it was all in the local language so I pretty only understood the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife’). Then the real event- the evening party. It of course followed African time – starting almost 3 hours. There was a ton of food and drinks and music however no dancing (rather odd). The groom was there again but still no bride. This time there was at least bride stand-in – her younger sister. Everything wrapped upabout 1am and although all the events were finished, we still hadn’t even seen the bride. So the next day, westopped by to see her and take some pictures. Altogether a very fun and tiring weekend but I don’t know if I’d want to have a similar wedding – the bride not attending a single event – quite the opposite of how things are in America.

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Reception

Stand-in Bride and her bridesmaids (+ us of course)

Ramadan

Well after 30 days of fasting, the month of Ramadan is coming to an end. The festivities started yesterday with the prayer outside of town in a large field. Then parties, lots of food, gifts and greeting people – barka de sallah. And things are not over yet – there’s still Fantasia tomorrow.

Here are some photos from the first day :

Prayer

After prayer...

Friends at prayer

Hanging out with some neighbors

Another neighbor

Home Décor

I still don’t quite understand people’s sense of style here and what’s considered nice, acceptable, etc. And my lack of understanding style here also applies to not just what people wear but how they decorate their homes. There seems to be a few basic essentials that most Cameroonians include in decorating their room or house. Here are some of the basics:

fabric draped over the walls (in lieu of paint)

fabric in every doorway even if there is a door

placemate-like pieces of fabric for the sofa

giant posters with either Arabic writing or half-naked couples hugging with the writing ‘Romance’

fake flowers

other various random decorations such stuffed animals, glamour-shot like photos, Christmas lights year round

Notice the fabric on the couch, the hanging various trinkets along the wall including an old balloon

Fabric everywhere, fake flowers on either side of TV, heart shaped pillows oh this is a male's room

Games

In a place where Toys-R-Us and Walmart and all those other fabulous stores don’t exist and therefore don’t allow children to buy every possible toy they could want, children here have to be a bit more creative when it comes to playing games and having toys. There are a old school basics here like cards, marbles and a board game like Parcheesi but most of the time, children end up recycling things to make toys. Here are some of the most common games kids in my town play:

An old tire and a stick - they run as they push the wheel with the stick

Just about the only board game available in town

Toy cars made from wood, old cans, rubber, etc

A game kind of like tic-tac-toe

Fasting for Ramadan

Well it’s that time of year again – Ramadan. Last year, I had just arrived during about the 3rd week of fasting and didn’t really know what exactlywas going on. But this year, I really wanted to try fasting if not for the whole month then at least a couple of days. Most of the community is Muslim where I am and I felt like it would be a good experience and opportunity to better understand and be a part of my community. I asked friends here about the exact times and other details in preparation for fasting. Then as themonth of July finished, I waited for the first day. According to the projected Muslim calendar, the first day was to be August 1. However, about midnight July 31, I got a couple calls from friends waking me up to inform me that fasting would actually start that morning. So Sunday I got up at 4am to eat breakfast then didn’t eat or drink again until the 6:30pm prayer. (I would later find out that actually some people started on Sunday while others started Monday – either day would have been fine. It’s based on the moon so some say they saw the moon Sunday while others say Monday).

Today makes almost a week now of fasting and I hope and plan to keep going the whole month. Days 2 and 3 were kind of difficult but now I am more ‘adapted’ as people say here and it isn’t too bad although I do really have to be conscious of not eating the whole day otherwise without even thinking I pick up a cup of water or start to grab something to snack on.

As another part of integrating during this time, I’ve been working on trying to cook traditional foods. So first, not really something I cook, but many people break fast by eating dates so I try to make sure that I eat a couple of dates first before eating or drinking anything else. Then I usually eat bouille and gossay (like beignets). The bouille I make and am still kind of trying to perfect and then I buy the gossay but hopefully will learn how to make that too in the near future.

Dates from Saudi Arabia that a friend gave me

Women selling food by my house for 'breaking' fast

So here is one way to make bouille (there are many different variations this is just the particular one I know best).

Ingredients :
small amount of rice

peanut butter
sugar (add to your taste)

corn starch

Cook the rice first. While the rice is cooking, sift the corn starch (at least here you need to – it has to be really fine to make the bouille smooth). Then put the peanut butter in a bowl and add water. Break up the peanut butter – basically you dilute the peanut butter. You will want to sift that peanut butter water as well to get out any big parts of the peanut butter.

Once the rice is cooked keep the pot on the stove and add the peanut butter water. Stir preferably use a gourde (apparently special for making brouillie). Then before adding the corn starch, dilute that as well with water – make sure to mix well. Then slowly add corn starch while stirring. Keep stirring while the mixture cooks. It should start to get thicker. Then you add sugar depending on how sweet you like it. Then once it all thickens up a bit – it’s finished. You can eat right away or likemost people here, store in a thermos until it is actually time to break fast.

bouille

gossay

Summertime

School’s out and summer’s in full swing. And just like back home, students take summertime to enjoy hanging out and taking a break from school work. For a lot of students here, that means traveling. After getting their final results from exams and school they hit the road – they go back to their village or to a bigger city like the capital. They usually go work or visit other family. So now at the end of July, Banyo has just about no students left which can make doing work and activities a little difficult when you don’t have participants. However, there are initiatives going on that focus on educating youth. Here are some from this month:

- Vacances sans SIDA which was organized by a youth club and held sessions and debates at the hospital for a week

- Colonie de Vacances which my postmate and I organized to teach about HIV/AIDs and theatre. Participants created skits at the end of the week.

- Weekly activities such as learning to cook, sew and about HIV and STDs organized by the youth delegation

All the activities are meant to empower youthand alsoobviously give them something to do when there’s no school. The activities arefree and open to all youth which here a youth is anywhere from about 10 – 25 or older (kind of like as long as you aren’t married and have kids).It can be difficult sometimes because of student’s unpredictable schedules and also because everyday students leave for vacation. But for those who do attend, they really learn a lot and have fun. And with only about a month left before school starts again, students are really trying to make the most of their time left.

Hand Holding and more...

So I know it’s been a while – not much I can do about that. But it is summer break here now and pretty much that means everyone goes on vacation and I have lots of time to enjoy just hanging out and noticing the simpler things of life in Banyo. So here are in fact some daily habits from life here that would probably not really fly back home:

- the lack of tissues - people just kind of lean over and blow their nose into the air/ground. Oh and putting your finger in your nose is also quite acceptable.Pretty much tissues are strictly for wiping dust off a chair or bench before sitting down

- brushing teeth while walking around outside, maybe down the street – stroll and brush

- going to the bathroom in public – quite acceptable particularlyfor men to just go on the side of the street – I mean I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go and out in the open is probably cleaner and less smelly than a latrine

- hand holding between men – good friends like to hold hands sometimes right? This does not have the same meaning at all that it may have back in home

Now while some of these actions may be seen as inappropriate back home, there are things we do that are not really accepted here. Apparently for a woman to cross her legs has some negative meaning so important to try to remember that when meeting with big wigs. And then of course there’s the left hand – no eating or handing or taking things with your left hand which can be quite challenging to always remember particularly being left-handed. But at least sometimes after they reprimand you about it, they do point out that Obama is left-handed too.

Some good hand-holding shots

National Day

May20^th – National Day for Cameroon. Activties in Banyo began with a parade – a rather long parade with the military, students, youth clubs, and everything else marching. After the parade, a quick drink before off to the Prefet’s house for lunch. And we even had extra special invitations and got to sit and eat inside his house rather than on the lawn. Then a quick rest before the grand evening... the gala de soiree.

The evening party 'began' at 8pm meaning we arrived at the time on the invitation and then things actually got started closer to 10. But no complaints - we had lots of food and drink and dancing continued all the way till about 1:30. We ended the evening by going back into town and of course visiting our favorite bakery (just because we were told it is open 24/7 - and yes we confirmed it is).

Gala Meal

Dance Party

Fete du Travail

May 1st Labor Day or Fete du Travail
What does it mean? One of the best fetes ever basically.

You don't have to buy ridiculously tacky pagne. You don't have to pay money to go to parties. In fact you don't even have to walk to the field for the parade. Everything is taken care of for you. You get free t-shirts from companies in town (unless they forget about you as the bakery which I am at everyday did). You get rides to and from the field to go parade. Then after there's juice and pastries. Then therest of the day you just hang out with people. It really is the best fete so far.

The parade continuing into town

Right about to enjoy some juice and pastries

Group photo after the march

Making Sport

So if you didn’t know, Cameroonians are really into sport. Of course they love football (soccer) but they also enjoy lots of other sports. In Banyo, Saturday is sport day and people small to old come out to ‘make sport’. Most people come out to the stade municipal where they warm up with a few laps around the field and then take their pick of activities. There’s soccer, basketball, volleyball, aerobics, gymnastics, handball or some more running. And then you can always go run out to the Baptist Hospital if it’s too crowded for you. And if you really want to get out of town, you can take a few hours and scale the mountain.

Soiree Culturelle

As far as entertainment and leisure activities go, there really isn’t too much around town – don’t expect to see a movie theater or park anytime soon. And without a tv or radio or even power a lot of the time, reading is about all you have left whichobviously isn’t bad but not exactly something to do with other people. However,there are a few events that come around that allow you to enjoy yourself, have some laughs and be with others. One of those is a soiree culturelle.

Some traditional dance and costume

Soiree culturelles are in the best terms like comedy variety shows. Groups of people put on different ‘acts’ – a lot of dances, some lip syncing, fake news reports, fashion shows, skits, etc. Most often it is a school that puts on a soiree and the students present different acts.

First soiree I went to a the bilingual school - these girls were dancing

In my time at post so far, there have been numerous soirees at my school, the other schools, in my neighborhood, for weddings, etc. And I must say most soirees are similar. You usually receive an invitation which tells you a time. But of course it’s African time so it’s best to have a student or someone just call when the event is about to actually start (let’s say if the invitation says 2:30pm, you come around 4:30-5). As a foreigner, I usually get a seat good seat near the center front. They usually block off an area and maybe even make a stage (like desks pushed together with words boards on top). There is always an MC who hosts and introduces each act. On the program, there may be upwards of 30 acts however because it started so late and there isn’t usually outside lighting, many of the acts willbe cut because the sun will set before it’s over. There’s lots of dancing to the latest songs like ‘pinguiss’ or some Lady Ponce even some Shakira and of course some traditional Houssa music. Then there are some skits or maybe even clown acts. And of course there’s news where students just talk about maybe what’s going on at school. During different acts, members of the audience will get up and put money on performers’ heads or intheir pockets if they really like the performance. The audience can get really riled up and excited about some of the acts and altogether it’s really a fun time and better than just sitting around the house. You get out, see lots of people and some great performances. And even though the events are always behind schedule and technical difficulties occur with speakers, etc., every event has a slightly different part to it that makes it exciting to attend and watch.

'clowns'

News Report

Two little kids lip syncing at a soiree for a wedding