Feb 2009 part 2

I keep saying I’ll update soon, but so many things happen to delay me. We just had a few weeks without light or water, so there is also no internet. I’ll start with the end of February.
After the Mt. Cameroon race, I returned to mamfe. I had school during the week, and each day was pretty busy, going out for lunch or meeting friends or other teachers in town. The first weekend I returned, I went to visit will in okoyong. His school (a private catholic all-girls school) is made up of 4 houses, just like Hogwarts. Once per year, each house has a feast, so I was invited to the Lourdes house feast. Each teacher received a drink and snack, and the students made announcements and had a fashion show. Each house chooses students that they think represent their house, and when called they show off their fancy outfits. The other students bring them flowers and spray perfume on them. It was very strange. After that, the girls from that house sang songs. Some of them were religious, but the younger girls sang ‘DO RE MI’ and ‘goodbye farewell’ from the sound of music. It was really cute. After that, all of the students came out in the center of the hall to dance to popular music. All of the teachers are invited out to dance for the first song, including me. Luckily, by the time I made it to the dance floor the song was ending. Soon after, Will and I left, but the event was relatively entertaining.
The next weekend was pretty exciting. Women’s Day was celebrated on march 8, so there were activities all weekend. First was a concert. There is a man called Awilo that sings controversial anti-government music here. He’s pretty popular, and his songs are interesting. They argue against corruption and power in government, and he sings in English, pidgin, French, and his dialect. I have a cd that you can all listen to when I get home. Anyway, I took my neighbor to go to the concert with me. We met Will and our friend George, and we were on the guest list, so we didn’t have to pay, and we got to skip the line. The concert was more like a talent show, with many different acts before awilo came on stage. There were comedians, dancers, and singers, and when awilo came on, he was pretty good. He played quite a few songs, and when he finished we all went home. It was a fun Saturday night though. I did not expect to see a concert while in cameroon. The next day was womens day, so in the morning I went to the grandstand. I wore my women’s day outfit (the fabric says womens day on it) and watched all of the women march past. My womens group did not register to march, so we didn’t, but it was still fun to watch. I’ve never seen so many women in one place. After the marchpast Will, Felicia and I went to Edwards house. I acted in a film back in December, and my film was released. The director was in town, so we watched my film debut. The film is called ‘Clash of Inheritance’, and its actually pretty good, all about tribalism. All of the movies here try to teach a lesson, so this one was anti-tribalism. I was horrible though. I should NOT quit my day job. My part was only about 2 min long though, so I guess it wasn’t too bad. Incidentally, the posters just came out, and I am on it for my tiny little part. I am huge and look very silly. I was told that I am on there for marketing, since i am the only white person in the film. I’ll be sure to bring home a copy of the dvd.
I had been feeling kind of run-down for a while, and that Thursday I went to my womens group, Hilltop Ladies. The whole meeting I felt really sick and thought I might pass out. I went to the hospital the next day, and found that I had malaria and strep throat. They loaded me up with medicine and then I rested for a couple days. I had so many visitors coming to the house that I couldn’t rest, so I went to visit lauren in kembong. The phone network was out, so I didn’t realize that I couldn’t receive calls. I found out later that my mom and Kevin called me many many many times freaking out about my malaria. I know that it is a serious thing, but its so common here that I wasn’t that worried. (it’ll never happen again mom). While I was visiting lauren, she took me to villages so I could see what she does for work. Basically she works for an NGO that donates farm supplies, cassava grinders, palm oil presses, and school books and uniforms. We traveled to 3 different villages for the ceremonies: okoroba to give school building materials, mbakang to donate farm tools, and kembong to give a cassava grinder. At each place there was singing and dancing. It was nice but exhausting. Later that night, one of the neighbors showed me a turtle that they found in the bush, then a bush baby. The bush baby was really cute. I feel so bad for animals here. Kids are really rough on animals. They dropped the turtle on the ground, breaking off a part of the shell. I’ve never seen a turtle bleed from the shell before. Then they were poking the bush baby and it bit one, so they threw it across the room. it’s the same with dogs and cats though. There is no respect for animals here.
The weekend after that, Brad and Kat came to visit. They trekked here from Fontem. It was nice to have my first visitors here. Basically, we just hung out and relaxed. They had trouble getting used to the heat here, and there was no light, so we couldn’t even turn on the fan. I showed them the town though, and our famous hanging bridge. I tried to show off mamfe a bit. It has a bad rap, since all of the roads to get here are terrible. I love it here though.