04.03.06 It is Monday morning (11 AM) and I’m in the office to “work” for a little. Just to make myself feel productive, I don’t have much to do today. We were in Talla yesterday for the Foundation Stone celebration for the Presbyterian Church. I’m exhausted! The night before, we spent two hours watching Rent on Kelsey’s laptop (amazing!!) while the boys cooked. We drank wine and didn’t eat dinner until 9—way too late for me. There ended up being a few fights (not serious fights, just fun ones—involving brooms and air pumps) wherein Matt became a ninjap-see above picture-and then Reese whapped him in the face with a portable tire pump. We laughed to the point of tears a few times. The next morning we walked down the hill—dressed in our African clothes—to the church, I—of course—rolled my ankle so I limped down. We were immediately ushered straight to the front of the church where we sat with the D.O., Fon, and other important people. The service itself lasted about 5 hours. The first 4 we were really patient—I had to stand up and introduce all the whites since the pastor only knew me and we danced up front while making our donation—which they loved! We heard a few new great songs including one that went: “Allo, Allo…Allo, allo…Allo Jesus me telephoné. Allo, Allo!” Each time they “allo”ed they’d make the phone sign, like they were actually chatting with Jesus. Too funny. Then we took a short break, walking to the market (really just about 15 shacks along the road) to have some mimbo (palm wine). After finishing off three bottles we went back to the church where the crowd had dwindled greatly. They were auctioning off donations of food…it’s really fun. We went to sit with the kids who were staring at us…hoping that us sitting with them would be exciting/scary enough so they’d stop staring. It worked; they kind of freaked out and just sat very still :). Then we all auctioned—mostly against each other—for a calabash bowl full of fruit and some pink sparkly wine of some sort. Everyone thought it was great, cheered and laughed each time we shouted out prices that were usually much too high. Afterwards we were ushered to a meeting with the Fon. It was a small room with only men and two of the queens (who aren’t married to the Fon but are his second in command and just take concubines—I think). We were allowed, against tradition, to sit inside with the men. Matt and Reese drank palm wine from horns with the Fon. As we were leaving to go eat, the Fon signaled to me…then asked why I had not been answering his calls (apparently people are catching on to the fact that I don't answer my phone, ever…oops). He said he wanted to see me before we left to go back “up” (meaning to Matt’s village). Being the paranoid person that I am, this made me nervous, but slightly flattered since the Fon is pretty much as powerful as it gets aside from the president. Especially in the Northwest province, tradition is much stronger and more respected here than any other province.
So we ate lunch, drank some more palm wine, chatted with some of the pastors and funny women from Talla, and realized that it was already 5—we had to make the hour hike up the hill and get back before dark. So we went outside to go meet with the Fon again only to get sidetracked by a dance party…we were handed pompoms and danced around the drums with some women for a while. I kept pulling little kids in the circle to dance with us…they got nervous but became popular after dancing with the white girls. We greeted the Fon and agreed to come meet with him on Wednesday when we go back…I was informed later that he wants to talk about going to America (I made sure they knew I was “engaged” at home so I couldn’t bring another man back…they assured me he was only kidding about marrying me but did want to give me a position in the palace. I said only if I got a higher position than Matt…that spurred another “argument” and disagreement of cultures. It’s all just one big cultural exchange!) We then hiked back up the hill, I walking with a few Cameroonians explaining how they could prevent bird flu…they got very sad when I said the fowls shouldn’t sleep inside. We got home just after dark, tired, hot and full of palm wine. I am exhausted today!
I wish you could see us, five Americans dressed in African clothes, sharing palm wine and kola nuts with Cameroonians and explaining one thing or another about America…yesterday it was how cold it was there, what you make houses out of, what sort of alcohol we have and some gender equality things…it’s always entertaining!
Pictures:
#1. Ninja Matt
#2. A mimbo break with the men of Talla.
#3. Just us girls with some more kids...we pulled out the camera and they came runnin'!
