Tuesday, August 3, 2010

the ride up


















 


10/4/2002:
"Breeding Grounds" July 8, 2002 Newsweek ...good article on bushmeat/SIV/HIV.

back in Wum. short journey from Yaoundé to Bamenda yesterday. stopped a bit in Bamenda. safe journey to Wum. bad road. good car. John Fru Ndi's truck, to be exact. well, his wife's. Alhadji in Bamenda hooked that up. it cost a pretty penny, but was worth it.

mama enjoyed the ride up. impressed by how green things are now. i forgot she hadn't seen it like this. the contrast between dry and rainy season. this is probably a good time of year to visit. glad to have her here. still an exercise in patience, understanding and respect. that's good for me. she does so much. God bless her.

just need to carve out my own time for work. i'm sure days will become busy. it's almost 11pm now. didn't accomplish much today. Maggie did eat dinner with us, though. she had a good convo with mama. her and i also talked about family and friends.

tomorrow is Teacher's Day. not much planned. people couldn't meet on account of a ban because of October 1st. which passed without incident. mama and i will buy meat tomorrow. then i'll check out the [teacher's day] program.

here's a thought connected to what i just wrote in my peace & freedom journal... here's to saying all that we know, doing all that we say and, of course, thinking about all of that before we say and do.

1 comment:

  1. IMAGE: this is page 76 of a book i finished reading recently, Mango Elephants in the Sun by Susana Herrera (RPCV Cameroon '92-'94).

    i wanted to add this page of the book to this post for a couple of reasons. first, i make only passing reference to cameroonian politics above. susana goes into a little more of the background in terms of the tensions between the different parts of cameroon that our respective posts (her's in the francophone, mine in the anglophone region) represent. and thus why that date, october 1st, is so significant in the northwest province.

    second, i mention this book b/c it mirrors my own experience as a PCV/teacher in cameroon... and of a multi-cultural background, at that. i'm surprised that it's only now, probably 9 years after i first heard of the book, that i picked it up. it's worth a read! susana's storytelling is very compelling. she's a wonderful writer and did well to capture so much of what saw/learned up in guidiguis of the far north of cameroon. a very different place than wum and the northwest.

    more on Mango Elephants later, i'm sure...

    peace
    mohamad

    Mango Elephants in the Sun: How Life in an African Village Let Me Be in My Skin

    ReplyDelete