Africa welcomed me back with open arms, and by this I mean that there were only a few hiccups on my trip back from France. Traveling through the Douala airport is an experience in itself, leaving was okay but a book could be written about arriving, and I hope to never use this airport again. After making it through customs (which is fairly simple as a Peace Corps Volunteer) I entered the baggage room which was crowded with Africans, expats, gendarmes and custom officers. I began standing patiently to wait for my bag to come around but it became apparent very quickly that it was not going to be that simple. What ended up happening was the biggest cluster I had ever seen in my life. Luggage was dumping onto the carousel but people were not taking bags off and space was growing extremely short. Before I knew what was happening the luggage was getting caught up and making the bags behind it shoot off the carousel. We quickly acted and start shoving the luggage along which only helped for a short time before we had to begin shoving bags along again. At one point during the fiasco a bag came shooting off the carousel at me knocking me down, somehow I managed to not take out the mother holding her infant behind me (thank God for small miracles).On top of the baggage debacle the lights kept going out and the temperature had to at least be around 95 degrees. Needless to say it was almost three hours after landing that I walked out of the airport to search for my shuttle to a hotel that didn’t want to take me in. Luckily it all worked out and I made it safely back to Bamenda the next day. I mean if this all hadn’t of happened I might of thought I had returned to a non-third world country, TIA.
Life in Cameroon came back together quickly for me. On the Friday after arriving home I attended a funeral for two people related to Nkumu Fed Fed members. The funeral was at the Catholic Church and once again I enjoyed the minister’s message in Pidgin, he has a great sense of humor and is extremely captivating. I know I have stated this before, but it has to be said again, I was amazed by the way deaths are celebrated here. At the first reception I sat with a group of NFF members and soon after arriving we were ushered down to get food and then had a crate of beer, wine and Chivas set in front of us. The day progressed nicely with the NFF women having a great time and enjoying being with each other and supporting their sisters. It was nice to be involved and I enjoyed discussing a few projects with some of the members.
A couple of days later I headed to Njinikom to celebrate Women’s Day with Kristin and her good friend Bassy. Women’s Day is an international holiday that celebrates “the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future”. In some countries it is a national holiday. The day progressed with Kristin and I sitting behind the Mayor and Divisional Officer of Njinikom and watching the parade of 70 something women’s groups march past. After the march a couple of groups had skits, participated in a three legged race, and then performed dances. It was fascinating to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The rest of the day was for eating and drinking. And we did both well.
I taught my first business class at Nkumu Fed Fed’s Multi Purpose Center last Friday. We were expecting twenty women but sadly only three showed up. I am trying not to be discouraged and to remember that at least those are three women that will gain some knowledge they didn’t have before. I am keeping my fingers crossed that more will show up this Saturday and might continue to come throughout the next eleven weeks of classes. The other daunting factor was that one of the women was illiterate and the other two had difficulty understanding my English. We had asked the women’s groups to send only literate women but somehow that message did not get across. The situation is manageable, I will just have to become more flexible and imaginative in my teaching style (maybe I can channel Mama and Eve).The course is well planned and goes over basic business principles such as types of business, marketing, budgeting, income statement, balance sheet, goals and objectives and so much more. If you have any ideas about how to teach these topics to women who do not read or write and can barely understand proper English, please send me your ideas, they would be greatly appreciated.
Another project that I have been working on is helping to expand a scholarship to the North West Province. The charity provides educational scholarships and support to girls and women so that they may increase their knowledge and empower themselves to lead healthier, more productive lives. The scholarships have been extremely successful in another province of Cameroon and we are now hoping to make it happen in my province. The communities are asked to take part financially by either matching or paying a portion of the scholarship, but the majority of money comes from donations state side. Please visit the website and read what an incredible idea this is, www.A2Empowerment.org. Please know that the more money that comes in means more girls will have the chance to continue their education. I will leave you with a quote by Greg Mortenson who the book Three Cups of Tea is based on, "You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change."