I haven't written for a while so I hope you all haven't given up on me. We
have been very busy these days. We are experiencing the shift between the
dry season and the rainy season although it is coming very slowly.
According to Roy's rainfall records this has been a drought year as any
African here can tell you. All of the water holes have dried up. We have
got a few rains this past 2 weeks so we have been madly digging holes around
the hospital and in the gardens so we can plant trees as soon as the real
rains come. Without rain the ground is impossibly hard to dig into.
We have yet to go up north and now it looks as though we will not be able to
for some time yet as the bandit activity north of here has not subsided. I
even heard about it on Voice of America this morning, only because Fulani
are going into Cameroon to get away from the bandits. International news I
guess. We are perfectly safe where we are and south of us if fine as well.
We will be going to Bayanga again for all of July. In August we will be
leaving from Bayanga for a three week road trip along the southern edge of
the country to visit many pygmy villages, planting trees and giving seminars
as we go. We will be travelling with Paul and Dianne Ohlin. We are really
looking forward to being down in Bayanga, getting down into the nitty gritty
of the work, not that we aren't working in Gamboula, on the contrary! It is
just that we really want to get to know the pygmies; learn about their
lives, their values, their practices. From talking with the two couple
already in Bayanga, the pygmies lives are on the balance. We look forward
to being of assistance.
Yesterday we went to Berberati, the second largest city in CAR, about 3
hours from Gamboula on the worst roads we have driven on yet. Berberati has
some electricity, a few telephones and two banks, including a Western Union,
although we aren't to sure about the reliability of their service. The EEB
church headquarters is in Berberati as well as the head Swede, Anita, who
does all of our banking for us. We went yesterday to look at a gardening
project that was started a few years ago by the EEB, to see if we could give
any suggestions for improving the place. We also went to Sango Forage, the
only well drilling outfit in the entire country. It is run by a Swedish
company who are retiring soon and will be handing the business over to an
NGO in the US. With the water crisis around Gamboula and in our own house,
Darren took it upon himself to try and fix the foot pump on the station.
The station has a foot pump that was installed a few years ago but has not
been working for sometime. Darren was able to get it going again much to
everyone's happiness, including the missionaries. Without the pump, people
from around here have been using the water at the hospital and the mission,
draining our water tanks just as fast as they get filled. While in
Berberati we were able to buy some spare parts for the foot pump to replace
the worn ones.
Just before we left for home I was able to peak into a couple of shops in
the centre of town. They are not like shops you and I would normally
picture. They are basically one largish room with shelves on all the walls.
The shops in Berberati have much more than in Gamboula and at more
reasonable prices. The two shops I went into were owned by Lebanese
shopkeepers. I was extremely surprised and overjoyed to find all of my
favourite Mediterranean foods lining the shelves along with the usual
powdered milk, sardines and soap. I bought falafel mix, humus, tahini and
cherry jello. You can't even buy cherry jello in Cameroon. The other
surprise was cans of vanilla coke, imported from South Africa. That's what
you call soul food, the kind of food that makes your heart happy even before
you even eat it. No one else seemed very excited by my find in the store,
but then again, for them, meat here is cheaper than at home and for most men
that is soul food enough for them. I, on the otherhand, am looking forward
to a meatless meal of falafels and humus and am planning on having it on May
14, in celebration of my sister's birthday, as I know she would appreciate
this remarkable food find as much as me!
When not planting trees, grafting or going on day trips I have found myself
continuing in language studies with Clarisse. Last Saturday, I went out to
her garden, about 2.5 km from our house and helped her plant cassava around
a newly planted peanut field of hers. When the rains start I am going to
help her plant fruit trees and bananas around her manioc field. She has
water close to her field so that makes it a good spot for trees. One of her
fields is along a large path and a lot of people stopped to look at us, or
should I say me. Here was me and Clarisse, chatting and laughing, planting
gozo as though it were perfectly normal. For anyone walking by it would
have been a strange sight to see a white women working for one, and planting
gozo none the less. I plan on helping with the weeding when I can. There
is a fine balance to be found here between working and building
relationships and I plan on finding this balance if it can be found.
Clarisse is most gracious and I feel that I can ask her culturally sensitive
questions that you could not pose to just anyone. Clarisse's daughter,
Jurette, who is 8 is starting to write to Nicole our niece in Victoria.
Penpals, I guess.
I have heard that people have been posting comments on our blog site.
Unfortunately we can't read any of them since we don't have the internet so
you are welcome to respond directly to us if you wish at bossbugs@yahoo.ca.
Angela
