Een lange zomervakantie

Hello everyone! It's been ages since I last wrote to all of you... I've decided to update my blog in English from this moment onwards, since so many volunteers have left, and they will be interested to hear what's been going on here in Buea! :) So welcome to all of you, new readers, and sorry to those who do not particularly enjoy reading in English...

I've been feeling SO guilty for not keeping you up to date, but really, it's been chaos. My last update hadn't witnessed the opening ceremony of the vocational unit yet, nor had it dealt with the good byes of so many volunteers, Mark's arrival, Mark's malaria, our holidays to Kribi, the job interviews for the teachers... and my malaria.

*Opening the vocational unit*
Finally, it was THE day for Bram and Rosemary during their stay in Cameroon. Not so much because he could add another year to his already skyhigh age (sorry Bram :p), but more because the building of the vocational unit had been finalized and it had succeeded very well. The room was exceptionally well decorated for African standards, and even the vocational students were almost all there - a relief.

After many speeches (among which also one by me - which I was informed about a few minutes before the start of the ceremony), Bram and Rosemary were given traditional African names (a true honor) and they got to cut the ribbon. Really nice!

Since we had picked up our new volunteers Wil and Nat from the airport, we were exceptionally tired. Especially so regarding the fact that we only got home at 6 am and really, work had to be resumed again at 9 am. Painful, especially if you've gotten used to going to bed around 9.30 and waking up around 7. This is probably also the reason that I do not remember very much of this festive event... ;)

*Send-offs and Dieudonnee's oral presentation*
At night, we had to say goodbye to Bram and Rosemary as well as Isa and Javi, volunteers from Spain. This week was definitely meant to be busy. On Tuesday, Sebastian from Switserland arrived, and I went to Dieudonnee's oral presentation of his bachelor thesis (or something like it, but I still don't quite know what his qualification is - it's in Civil Engineering for sure). The way there already was an adventure: sitting in my African dress, next to a rather substantial Cameroonian lady and a skinny man, the first part of the journey was fine. The trouble started when we stopped for a MASSIVE lady and we already had 4 people in the car. It's customary to have two people in the front seat, it works, provided that the people sitting there have some sort of shape. This one did not, so she had to move in the back and the skinny man moved to the front. So here I was, a white girl in an African dress, sandwiched between to HUGE African women that bad that the door had to be closed by the skinny man who just got out. I was glad I hadn't bothered to iron my dress :)

The oral presentation was in French. Fortunately, I do understand some, so I managed to even come up with some sensible questions for him after the whole ceremony. The most amazing part was how the jury really seemed to want to kill everybody in front of the audience and how one of the members of the jury did not only not bother to switch off his cell phone, but even answered it in the middle of a presentation! All in all, it was a very interesting experience.

Wednesday it was time to say goodbye to Petra, which was something that I'd not been looking forward to. She arrived at the same moment as I did, and she had been great to work, laugh and chat with. I still miss her now sometimes (Petra, there's just those situations in which I would SO have wanted to see your face :D).

*Death ceremony*
Thursday was the death ceremony for Mr. Orock's late brother and Chief in the region of Mamfe (a.k.a. important person). This meant that the volunteers were used to help setting up the party tents that were rented for this event. This was particularly useful - not so much because there weren't enough people to help, but merely because really, some party-tent experience was desperately needed (it would have NEVER worked out). That very day, when I was working my ass off, I got the worst insult. A man stands next to me. Has a look at my arms. "You have pretty small arms". So I turn around, thinking that this is a very interesting way to flirt with someone. "Well, to be honestly, my arms are really quite substantial for a girl...". The man's face twists for a second in disbelief: "Aren't you a man?"... aaautsj, thank you very much! It took all of the volunteers a few hours to get me back to myself - I do look at least sort-of female. Really. How could he! Then again, he probably doesn't see many white girls. I got revanche at night though, when he looked incredibly embarrassed as I walked past him in my tailor-made, well-fitted, shiny dress suit. And we could leave after 2.5 hours already! Good times! :)

*Mark and Kribi*
Mark's arrival was good and happy. I'm so glad he's here! No more details are needed, I believe.

After a week of work and showing Mark around (some urgent stuff for the sponsorship program and a few meetings which were postponed AGAIN), Mark fell ill on Tuesday. Wednesday he had malaria and a drip, on Thursday we were already on our way to Kribi. Pretty awesome!

Kribi was beautiful, though quite rainy. Nevertheless, we had a great time - it would have probably even been too hot when the sun would have been full on anyway. After two nights in a low-quality, high-price hotel, we were planning to go to Londji, about 24 km further North of Kribi.

Somehow, we decided to walk there, with our backpacks, over the beach. It's beautiful, so why not... After a few hours (maybe two, three?), we were yelled at by a man. "Hello, where are you from and where are you going?"

The man calling us was named Ignatus, and has a son of 9 years old. We ended up staying at the house of one of his 'brothers', because we would not have been able to walk on as a result of high tide, and Ignatus understood that travelling is awesome and that we were students. We had a great time there, even though the man screwed us with the payment. It was still affordable.

Ignatus made us dinner twice, and it's one of the best experiences I've had. The meal was great, but the hospitality of this man was even more overwhelming - at some points even too much. His little son, Fortunien, was really cute and went with us a lot: very productive in terms of French practise!

A long day at the waterfalls of Lobe turned us into lobsters of the brightest variety, but was nevertheless worth it. I hardly ever have time to upload pictures because that has to be done in the morning, but I'll surely try. Soon!! :) After this great last day, we say goodbye to Fortunien and Ignatus and had an exceptionally efficient and relaxed trip home.

We went to see Mark's place together in the weekend, I really love the place and the two Dutch girls gave us an exceptionally warm welcome. For Mark's experiences in Banga Bakundu, visit his weblog at http://markinkameroen.waarbenjij.nu.

Coming back from Mark, I started to feel sick. I was covered in mosquito bites, so I should have expected this: malaria. Wednesday I was fine again, only to fall ill again the Sunday afterwards with another episode of malaria and numerous IV drips. I've been incredibly weak and tired, sick, headache, feverish, diarrhea (an amoebe in addition to the joy)... no fun! Good news: I'm up and running as of last Sunday, and it's great to be alive and kicking again! And it had been a month since I'd last been sick, so I won't complain :)

Well, that brings me to the here-and-now. Oh, I still need to mention that in between my sickness-episodes, I have made a mural in Dieudonnee's shop, he's really completely happy with it. And it was a great experience! Ariane, Tim, Martijn & Natasja, Walter... it reminded me of some great days back home!

It's time to finish, I've really written too much again. But it's a month worth of experiences!
:D

I'll tell you something about organizational stuff soon!

All the best,
Mirte