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

My Students

Some of my younger students and I on a Saturday

Of all the people I meet here – teachers, parents, functionaries, people in the market, neighbors, other volunteers- I must say that my favorite peoplewho I enjoy the company of the most, who I share and learn from every day, who inspire me, make me laugh and support me, the people who I will miss the most are my students.

I teach approximately 210 students ages maybe 10 – 24. And now I will be the first to say that I do not always enjoy my time in class teaching and that I do not think that I am really making that big of a difference as far as their English skills are concerned. But it is the moments in between classes and instruction, the times outside of school whether passing them on the street, attending a cultural event with them or visiting their families in their homes that I truly enjoy my students and get to see them as they really are.

One of my funniest students

Particularly in the past few weeks, as I’ve had more time and energy to spend time just chatting with people, I have spent a great deal of my free time meeting some of my students’ families and seeing more of their life outside of school. And in doing so, I have begun to appreciate and love even more my students. They are caring; they are inquisitive, funny, understanding. They are actually interested in things and ask questions. They are not afraid to chat or joke with me. They are the people I trust the most and who I go to when I have questions. They welcome me into their lives and want to be a part of mine.

Some of my 1ere students

One of my 6e students met me at 5:40am just because he wanted to go to do sport with me on a Sunday. And the same day another student in the same class came as well andran for an hour with me. Just the other day, I was at the field running at 6:30am and a boy came and began running. I quickly recognized him- another different student who had just come to see me and chat for a bit. I climbed the mountain earlier this week with a student. Last week, while I traveled, I left one of my 6e students the key to my house to look after my cat. In the past week, 3 of my students’ families havewelcomed me into their homes, offered me food and chatted with me. Students stop by my house just to say hi. I see them all the time just walking down the street – they always have a big smile and are glad to see me. When I came back from traveling last week, a number of my students told me how much they had missed me. And I too had missed them. They also think to the future and clearly hope to have me in their lives – some of my younger students have already asked to marry my daughters one day and older students have already invited me to their weddings in the next 10 years or so.

My students at home with their other siblings...of the 4 who go to my school, I teach 3 of them

The students who asked about marrying my daughters

Although there can be rough days in class with them, there have been many a bad day when it’s just being with them that puts me in a better mood and reminds me why I enjoy being here. I don’t think I will ever have relationships with other students like I do here with them. They are more than my students- they are my neighbors, my friends, my family. And I already know I will miss them the most when I leave.

6e Students on a Saturday

Women's Day 2011

A lot of planning and preparation went into the celebration of Women’s Day in Banyo – I was actually even at one of the meetings held at the Prefecture with women and delegates in charge of organizing events. Activities lasted an entire week starting with the first event on Wednesday March 2 - a ‘sport walk’ around town. The next day was kind of like community service work – women’s groups went to different places in town to do ‘public service’ aka clean floors and buildings.

The third day (and first activity I was actually able to take part in because I didn’t have class) was on Friday – we went to the prison to donate food and clothes. It was quite interesting. I had heard stories about the prison but actually wasn’t how I imagined. I mean it was stinky in some parts but the prisoners greeted us with some songs and we said some prayers-it was a nice little visit actually.

At the prison with our donations

Saturday there was a roundtable discussion on the following theme: Egalite d’acces a l’éducation, a la formation, a la science et la technologie: Sentier pour un travail décent pour les femmes. Basically the panelists spoke about how women are equals and should be able to do things like men. It was an okay roundtable but would have been better if it hadn’t started 2 hours late. Oh Africa time.

Roundtable...before it started

Sunday was the big sport day – there were handball and football matches between the girls football group and a women’s group. Activities on Monday included marching practice for the parade and a cultural party- women put together skits and dances basically and present them. However this activity was like the roundtable in that it started 2 hours late and after being at school since 7am I was a bit tired when it still hadn’t started at almost 5 and hence I missed this event.

But I certainly didn’t miss events the next – Tuesday March 8 – Women’s Day. I started by going to my classes which I was told that yes there was school but it was optional to come (only in Africa) so as I only had 2 hours of class anyway and finished by 9:30, I did go to school and wore my Women’s Day pagne so as to go straight to activities once I finished and I did just that. The parade was first at the place des fetes and actually started fairly on time. Different women’s groups and associations walked across the field and lots of people came out to see everything.

Parade

After the parade, I went with my postmate into town for a quick party with the nurses from hospital who she works with. Then we kind of quickly had to get to the Sous-Prefets house for the invitation cocktail. Got lots of food, chatted with the prefetand lamido (who told me I looked handsome- this was said in English and obviously English is not his first language). After the cocktail, we went off to another food event- different women prepared food from different areas that you could buy and taste. There was also music and dancing. By this time, it was ahbout the afternoon and I was also quite tired, sun burnt and had ripped my skirt so I was ready to go home. So the evening was not quite as eventful as others’ evenings were, but overall, I was quite pleased with how the event was celebrated...lots of fun and food.

Yay Women's Day

Holiday Season

Happy Holidays !

While holiday season may be over back home, here things are just picking up. I think this month alone there are 4-5 different fetes. And really I think pretty much year round there are all kinds of fetes going on- In the summer/fall, they are more Muslim holidays (like Ramadan) and now in the spring it’s more about national and international fetes. But no matter Muslim or non-religious, the big fetes are all just that- big- lasting anywhere from 3 days to an entire week. Here’s a calendar run through of recent fetes and upcoming fetes:

National Bilingualism Week: January 1-February 4

Youth Day/Actually an entire week: February 4- 11

Women’s Day/Actually an entire week: March 1 - 8

Commonwealth Day (kind of like Bilingualism Day): March 9

National Arts at School Day: March 11

Open Door Day (have no clue- guess I’ll find out): March 17-18

Francophonie Day: March 18

Labor Day: May 1

National Day: May 20

Celebration for fetes can range from big parades and soirees with the whole community to small things like maybe events just at the lycee. Sometimes there is no school for a fete (like Youth Day) and other times there is kind of school (like Women’s Day) which means officially there is school however most likely many students won’t come and neither will teachers (although no going to lie, that’s pretty much every day).

So in case you didn’t notice the dates, right now we are actually in the middle of celebrating Women’s Day. Activities started Wednesday and continue until actual International Women’s Day- March 8. Now I could write all about the activities butttt I will wait until after the 8^th when everything is finished but I will say it involves a visit to the prison, football, a parade and really cool pagne. But until then, Happy International Women’s Day! I think someone should celebrate back home for women, it is an international holiday.