Cameroon Dana

In response to a well recieved comment on this blog, here are e-mails Dana has sent to a group of family since we've been in Cameroon. As editor, I have deleted all expletives and heavily censured the text. Other than that, I have left everything as is.

Cameroonian Ministry of Information


MAROUA DANA

Hi Everyone;
just a super quick note to friends to say we,re
happy and well in Northern cameroon; it,s lovely: so many
things to say -the second day here we were walking
through the market and a guy that lived in
pauls friends village (from 9 years ago!) recognized him
and said 'mr. paul?' it was great! totally unexpected
out of the hundreds probqbly thousands of people in the
market - granted we kinda stick out being the only
white people weve seen but still. No one up in this
part of the country knew we were coming so in a day
or so we,ll go to the viilage to visit kristies other
friends. We,re trying to figure out how to go to the
game park in the next few days then we,ll start
heading south again: its lovely up here dry and
sandy feels kinda like home: people stop for daily prayer
where ever they are since many folks are muslim.
there are sandy resting places all over the city for
people to sit in rest or pray - every city should have
spirit places like that. we took a plane than a bus to get
here _ through georgeous country side with rock
formations like cochise stronghold: and little
vilages zith mud brick houses and thatched roofs: lots of
goats and supper yum food - I just had my first real
cameroonian meal - foofoo made from rice, gumbo with
meat and greens with fish. the markets are nuts and
super fun - I could wander for hours just looking at
food: but so what else is new. kids yell out to us
'hey white§' but Its in french or the local language
so I,m pretty able to block it out: generally I,m
having a blast: so gotta go do some figuring for Waza (the park)
more in a while:love dana (ps pardon the french keyboard°

NGAOUNDERE DANA
Hi everyone

thanks for your messages fun to hear updates and kelly
thanks for the haiku: I only have time to write one
message so sorry I cant reply individually. a few
business things. Peter or Alice could you forward my
emails to the buseck;bolton;levine;lerner clan since i
dont see to have everyones emails; peter thank you
again for the baggage work; the claim ticket we will
continue to hold on to and it has both huston the
first stop; and then cdg as the final destination:
thanks!

things are good with us both we have left the north
and are on our way by overnight train to younde to
meet pauls friend then off to mbongo! we had a
great time at waza park saw lots of giraffe and many
other cool things too many to list now. no elephants
which was a bummer as they left the park more or less
when the rains started but oh well giraffes are pretty
damn cool. more on animal adventures later.

we visited haissa harde which was the village that
kristie lived in that was fun. everyone was surprised
to see paul and we spent most of the day lounging on a
mat in pierres compound playing french and english
mixed scrabble with the doctor cant think of his name,
and two friends. we took pictures of their family to send, it is
expensive to get your familys picture taken here: then
we went to meet others families and take their picture
but on the way we met an old man who wanted his
picture taken with his best bull cow, then we went to
meet kristies friends daughters and second wife who were wt a
wedding in another part of the village; it was neat to
see people getting ready for the celebration; women
singing and dancing in a circle: it felt kinda
disruptive cuz everyone was stairing at us so we left
pretty quickly, gave a gift to the family and went
back to mora. so many interesting sights and sounds:
its sometimes hard to put it into word so I;ve been
keeping lists of things to remind me heres a few of
the things on my list

woman at the market carying live chickens in a basket
on her head.

a village where to chief has 50 wifes; kinda
nutty if you ask me but it was beautiful country side
with thes crazy rock terraces up entire mountains for
planting millet: and I thought we had rocks!

people out in the fields planting the first millet of
the season with hand hoes and planting sticks there
are farms and millet planted everywhere right up to
peoples compunds. we learned a lot about food stuff
from the driver that took us to waza. he said most
people in the north that live in cities still have
fields out side of the city where they grow millet.

waking up each morning by the call to prayer.

we took a bus here all day yesterday and have
definately left the desert. the soil is red red red
here and the mountains are green and thick with trees.
people here plant yams and beans and corn and chiles
and cassava. we got here just as a rain storm came and
while waiting under a tin roof off the street I asked
paul, if the desert smells like rain what does the
rainforest smell like? i laughed till i cryed when he
suggested plainly the rainforest smells like dust.
arizonans will get that one I,ll explain it to the
rest of you later.

anyway we are well dispite a few bouts with loose ends
and a mild head cold and a little dehydration. its
been fun traveling together. pual does most of the
talking and navigating with people since I don,t speak
french. I am now able to understand much of the
conversation but cant really talk back to people. at
first I thought i:d go a little nuts having paul talk
for me all the time but hes done a superb job
translating my questions and patiently translating
conversations he has so that we can make desions
together. that he knows how to navigate the markets
and knows what much of the food is makes it very very
nice for me. in the other part of the trip we;ll be in
english speaking parts

well gotta go times almost up

love you all!!
dana


YAOUNDE DANA

hello all

we;ve been in younde for the past two days and
tomarrow we finally head for mbongo _ the village that
paul lived in. we will be there for at least a week.

younde is a big city - the capital of cameroon
actually, where we have learned, a ministry for
everything. it has been a joy meeting pauls friends who have been our hosts and tour guides here making food for us and taking us out around the
city and filling us with good rich conversation about
life in cameroon. Pauls friend is finishing his masters. we have learned so
much form them about daily life here, finding a place
to live, navigating the university which is just starting to get computers for its professors, doesn't have a bookstore and has a library with little in it from the last 20 years. so many things we take for granted. more on this later. i
enjoy everytime we go to an internet cafe or make a
cell phone call at a talk box - women who sit on the
sidewalk with a little table and charge you 100 CFA
per minute to place a cell phone call to anywhere in
cameroon - i feel like we are participating in an
important part of emerging tools for people here. and
these technolgies are so useful but the infrustructure
and training will take time when priorities need to
first be good hospitals, clean water and jobs for
people. i,m impressed with their hopefulness inspite
of so many daily frustrations. so much to say about
all I,ve learned from them here.

we,ve been eating much cameroonian food that they have
been making. it,s mostly good although the pasty
texture of fufu takes some getting used too. they make
foofoo out of all sorts of things; corn; pounded
casava, coco yams, rice, millet - depends where you
are in the country. I like corn and rice foofoo the best.
for those of you that dont know what it is, imagine over boiling red potatoes for mashed potatoes and getting that starchy mass and
then making it a smooth consistancy. mmm that doesnùt
sound too apetizsing but it can actually be pretty
good. its always eaten with your right hand - tearing
of a little piece of the ball rolling it in your
fingers and dipping it in some kind of stew or
vegetable dish usually chopped up greens with spices
and meat or fish. not sure what we,ll find in mbongo but i,ve found many
things to supplement - amazing avacados; pineapple,
mangos, the best bananas that youve ever eaten an
mandarin oranges. well enough about food.

last night was our first night dancing. that was fun
to dance to local music and watch people in the dance
club do their thing.

I may not have access for a few weeks so love to
everyone.

dana