Back from Site Visit... So Much to Tell... Plan Visits NOW
Well, I just got back from site visit, and boy am I tired! Wow. Site visit was an intense piece of two weeks. When I packed my bags, I really hadn’t considered how different life would be in the village. Bandjoun is America in comparison.
I met my counterpart, Madame Beatrice before we left Bandjoun last week. She looked “bad-ass,” some might say. Hair all permed-up in a Jelly Curl, all denim, clean Adidas sneakers. She speaks pretty good English-english, and a handful of local dialects. At 7am Friday morning, we headed northward for Bamenda on an autobus. My voice had returned from the laryngitis little Boogers had given me. The autobus ride was incredibly scary, though the calm visage of mentor tata Katie gave me hope, and her words… “If this is your day to go, its your day to go. Just don’t look at the road.”
Bamenda’s nice (I am there now). Clean, somewhat resembles a city, lots of places to do things. Once in Bamenda, Mme. Bea and I broke from the group and headed to Akofungubah. Orrrr… no. We headed to her brothers in Bamenda. There was some confusion here. I had to look at photos for a good hour. Then we headed to Akofungubah… no, again. She wanted to stop and see her out-of-wedlock child that is living at the Presbyterian mission. We stopped to buy cabbage and cookies for him. Little Paul was cute, but I was really hoping to get to my site.
We finally hit the road in a small Toyota taxi. We paid 500cfa apiece extra to have only three people in the backseat, as opposed to the typical four. So, it was a comfortable ride… Mme. Bea made me tie one of the plastic bags she held around my head. She used the one that held the fish, I used the one that was used to double-wrap the fish. Dust. Welcome to the dry season. The temperature in the car was a stifling HOT, and I had a plastic grocery bag tied around my head. I had to laugh. I had to sweat.
Hour and a half of seriously ridiculous roads. All dirt, all dry… cant imagine what the canyons and slopes turn into in the wet season. We went very slow, but I was thankful for that. The scenery changed into beautiful grassy hills, then into bigger hills, with more hills behind that. It’s hilly. We crossed a few big rivers with decent bridges… by decent, I mean not made of bamboo. Arrived at Akofunguba. Its on the side of a hill, kind of nestled in (awww…). It’s a collection of maybe 20 or so buildings at a gentle curve of the road that crests a hill if you continue on. We are on the eastern side of the hill, and when you cross to the West, you enter the mountainous area of Mundum (another village in my work area).
Alright, so this is typical… I was greeted by a ton of people. Everyone wanted to shake my hand. Tell me “you are welcome.” Ask me why I am here. What I am doing. Will I come see their farm, etc. etc. Joyous. I drank at least a gallon of coke in the first two days, because the custom is to buy the person a beer. After a few marriage proposals…many questions… I am shown my quarters for the week. The room is on the other side of a room where Mme. Bea’s elderly mother sleeps. Next door is my apartment for the next two years. The whole building is pink… one of the only buildings in the village that does not have exposed red mud bricks. She shows me the three room apartment, all wired for electricity… and no where to go. The toilet is around the back. My two stalls are locked from the outside… two simple chambers with holes cut in the back and two pieces of tin roofing hinged on the front. One has a big hole, one has a smaller hole. Spiders live in both. Big spiders. I’m going to have to work on that.
The first night, Mme. Bea serves up rice with large pieces of meat on top. Looks like tongue. No problem, I can handle it. Its cow intestine. Now I’m having a bit of a problem. Gag reflex. I get one piece down and smile for Bea, but when someone calls her to the get a beer (she owns the local bar), I swiftly bring my plate down to the floor and ladle the pieces back into the pot. Seinfeld moment that kept me chuckling well-after I blew out my lantern.
Sooo! That was only the first day. To save your eyes, I will not go too much further. I rode on the back of Mme. Bea’s 20-year-old blue Suzuki motorcycle every day. I only thought I would fall off about 30 times… We traveled to all the big sites in the area… probably 50 or 60km of coverage in all. This is my work area. Its huge. We visited the mayor of Bafut, many chiefs. Went to the Palace of the Fon in Bafut. Very big Palace. 48 wives or something like that. I met the newest queen, a 16 year old girl named Maria and her 1st daughter-by-the-Fon, Violet. I told her my middle name was Rose, a flower like her daughter. She said, “Now I will have to name my next daughter Kelsey Rose.” Ah, so that’s cool. My African Princess namesake. I have been invited by special invitation to a dance at the Fon’s palace in Decemeber. I gave him a Vermont calendar. They had their last human sacrifice there in 1945. Ha. All this makes me laugh.
Visited Mundey. Incredibly mountainous. Motorcycle had some trouble and I had to let Bea ride ahead while I walked uphill in the 90- degree heat with my 6 lb red ninja moto helmet on. Oh, what a laugh. Met a new young chief and didn’t know it, tried to shake his hand. You don’t shake the chiefs hands! Ugh. I ate two kinds of fu-fu and more cow intestine, went to the market and saw the butcher block, was installed as a Assitant Chairwoman at the Presbyterian Church on the hill. I ran out of pages in my book on Wednesday afternoon. I took to sketching palm trees, then reading the bible. I will be better stocked when I come to live.
That’s about it. As I was leaving this morning, a report came in that an Old Pa that had been in village yesterday had done some wizardry on a mute man that lived in the Bush. The mute man was found dead this morning (sounds au naturalle to me, but this is Africa). There was some kind of a man-hunt type thing going on as I was pulling out in the taxi. Sista Bea thought it was funny, so it couldn’t be that serious! Very happy to be back in town and will have a very good idea of what I need to bring when I come back in mid-December. But all-in-all my village seems really great, the people are something else… real characters. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a ton. More stories to come, I am sure!
Sorry for the change in tenses and probably spelling errors… Have a great week… I will get photos up just as soon as I get my camera connected!
P.S. Akofunguba means “Bush of Fungubah”. Laugh on.
I met my counterpart, Madame Beatrice before we left Bandjoun last week. She looked “bad-ass,” some might say. Hair all permed-up in a Jelly Curl, all denim, clean Adidas sneakers. She speaks pretty good English-english, and a handful of local dialects. At 7am Friday morning, we headed northward for Bamenda on an autobus. My voice had returned from the laryngitis little Boogers had given me. The autobus ride was incredibly scary, though the calm visage of mentor tata Katie gave me hope, and her words… “If this is your day to go, its your day to go. Just don’t look at the road.”
Bamenda’s nice (I am there now). Clean, somewhat resembles a city, lots of places to do things. Once in Bamenda, Mme. Bea and I broke from the group and headed to Akofungubah. Orrrr… no. We headed to her brothers in Bamenda. There was some confusion here. I had to look at photos for a good hour. Then we headed to Akofungubah… no, again. She wanted to stop and see her out-of-wedlock child that is living at the Presbyterian mission. We stopped to buy cabbage and cookies for him. Little Paul was cute, but I was really hoping to get to my site.
We finally hit the road in a small Toyota taxi. We paid 500cfa apiece extra to have only three people in the backseat, as opposed to the typical four. So, it was a comfortable ride… Mme. Bea made me tie one of the plastic bags she held around my head. She used the one that held the fish, I used the one that was used to double-wrap the fish. Dust. Welcome to the dry season. The temperature in the car was a stifling HOT, and I had a plastic grocery bag tied around my head. I had to laugh. I had to sweat.
Hour and a half of seriously ridiculous roads. All dirt, all dry… cant imagine what the canyons and slopes turn into in the wet season. We went very slow, but I was thankful for that. The scenery changed into beautiful grassy hills, then into bigger hills, with more hills behind that. It’s hilly. We crossed a few big rivers with decent bridges… by decent, I mean not made of bamboo. Arrived at Akofunguba. Its on the side of a hill, kind of nestled in (awww…). It’s a collection of maybe 20 or so buildings at a gentle curve of the road that crests a hill if you continue on. We are on the eastern side of the hill, and when you cross to the West, you enter the mountainous area of Mundum (another village in my work area).
Alright, so this is typical… I was greeted by a ton of people. Everyone wanted to shake my hand. Tell me “you are welcome.” Ask me why I am here. What I am doing. Will I come see their farm, etc. etc. Joyous. I drank at least a gallon of coke in the first two days, because the custom is to buy the person a beer. After a few marriage proposals…many questions… I am shown my quarters for the week. The room is on the other side of a room where Mme. Bea’s elderly mother sleeps. Next door is my apartment for the next two years. The whole building is pink… one of the only buildings in the village that does not have exposed red mud bricks. She shows me the three room apartment, all wired for electricity… and no where to go. The toilet is around the back. My two stalls are locked from the outside… two simple chambers with holes cut in the back and two pieces of tin roofing hinged on the front. One has a big hole, one has a smaller hole. Spiders live in both. Big spiders. I’m going to have to work on that.
The first night, Mme. Bea serves up rice with large pieces of meat on top. Looks like tongue. No problem, I can handle it. Its cow intestine. Now I’m having a bit of a problem. Gag reflex. I get one piece down and smile for Bea, but when someone calls her to the get a beer (she owns the local bar), I swiftly bring my plate down to the floor and ladle the pieces back into the pot. Seinfeld moment that kept me chuckling well-after I blew out my lantern.
Sooo! That was only the first day. To save your eyes, I will not go too much further. I rode on the back of Mme. Bea’s 20-year-old blue Suzuki motorcycle every day. I only thought I would fall off about 30 times… We traveled to all the big sites in the area… probably 50 or 60km of coverage in all. This is my work area. Its huge. We visited the mayor of Bafut, many chiefs. Went to the Palace of the Fon in Bafut. Very big Palace. 48 wives or something like that. I met the newest queen, a 16 year old girl named Maria and her 1st daughter-by-the-Fon, Violet. I told her my middle name was Rose, a flower like her daughter. She said, “Now I will have to name my next daughter Kelsey Rose.” Ah, so that’s cool. My African Princess namesake. I have been invited by special invitation to a dance at the Fon’s palace in Decemeber. I gave him a Vermont calendar. They had their last human sacrifice there in 1945. Ha. All this makes me laugh.
Visited Mundey. Incredibly mountainous. Motorcycle had some trouble and I had to let Bea ride ahead while I walked uphill in the 90- degree heat with my 6 lb red ninja moto helmet on. Oh, what a laugh. Met a new young chief and didn’t know it, tried to shake his hand. You don’t shake the chiefs hands! Ugh. I ate two kinds of fu-fu and more cow intestine, went to the market and saw the butcher block, was installed as a Assitant Chairwoman at the Presbyterian Church on the hill. I ran out of pages in my book on Wednesday afternoon. I took to sketching palm trees, then reading the bible. I will be better stocked when I come to live.
That’s about it. As I was leaving this morning, a report came in that an Old Pa that had been in village yesterday had done some wizardry on a mute man that lived in the Bush. The mute man was found dead this morning (sounds au naturalle to me, but this is Africa). There was some kind of a man-hunt type thing going on as I was pulling out in the taxi. Sista Bea thought it was funny, so it couldn’t be that serious! Very happy to be back in town and will have a very good idea of what I need to bring when I come back in mid-December. But all-in-all my village seems really great, the people are something else… real characters. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a ton. More stories to come, I am sure!
Sorry for the change in tenses and probably spelling errors… Have a great week… I will get photos up just as soon as I get my camera connected!
P.S. Akofunguba means “Bush of Fungubah”. Laugh on.
posted by K at 1:39 PM
3 Comments:
hey sis, sounds like your making some friends over there...try to get a princess to name their next son christopher chase
Happy Thanksgiving! I know that you said that you and the other PCT's will be making a Thanksgiving dinner. It will be interesting to see what you make! Love you! ~Mom
P.S. We have about an inch of snow on the ground from last night and it is still snowing.
Kelsey they gave you a moto helmet!? Im impressed. There was one time I fell over on one of those suckers goin through the mountains (I wasnt driving). Dont ride on nasty roads in the rainy season! Your thanksgiving sounds wonderful. And the picture of your bar makes me laugh! sounds like your doing well though, so thats good to hear. ~Frick
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