Neighbours and Friends

The people here are very friendly, rather like Irish people in rural areas, and I am gradually getting to know some neighbours. Apart from an existing volunteer, Ruth, who has been extremely helpful, my first contact was with a sixteen year-old boy, Kalifa, who introduced himself on my first morning. He told me that he used to act as “petit frère” to the volunteer who was in my house before me. He is very resourceful and street wise, he has fixed all sorts of things for me, sorted out all sorts of problems and has even shown me how to cook a number of local dishes. He is one of a number of youths who tend to turn up at my house around meal times. In Cameroon, no matter how little you have for a meal, if anybody turns up you share it with them. I am quite happy to share but I keep finding that my provisioning and shopping schedule are derailed and I seem to have to go shopping at least once a day. Some of my neighbours and colleagues have invited me to dine with them. In one case a man whom I had met in the town invited himself to dinner one evening, offering to bring cooked fish if I would prepare a salad to go with it. It turned out a very pleasant evening.

Ruth teaches English in a local school and I asked her if she could suggest somebody who could give me some French conversation practice. She introduced me to Halidou, a 30-year old man who teaches French in the local school. This has turned out to be a significant breakthrough. He is very intelligent and speaks not only French and English but several local languages, including Fulfulde, Mousgoum and Arabic Choa. In my first two weeks at work I visited the chiefs of around 50 villages in the area and most of them do not speak French (none speak English). Halidou, who is employed by the council but is seconded to the school, came with me (it was during the school holidays). He was able to fill me in on the background to everything, as well as translating. He is some sort of national volunteer and is paid very little and treated badly. Cameroon’s graduates, of whom he is one, find it extremely difficult to get work and one option for them is to work as a volunteer and at least get experience. Last week-end he got engaged. For years his parents have been pressing him to marry but he resisted up to this. He finally gave in and consented to meet a 17 year old girl at their request. He met her for the first time on Saturday, got on well with her and agreed to marry her.

I have scripted a play for a workshop which I need to run with all the councillors and with the local dignatories. A local group of actors have agreed to do it for me and they come to my house to rehearse. They are young, energetic and talented. Their main strength is improvisation, which is not good news for me since I am trying to communicate particular messages and I never know when they are going to take off at a tangent and abandon the script. One of them is referred to as “Princess Diana”, being a princess herself (this distinction is not what it seems since the chiefs tend to have so many children). There are some original names here: one very assidous student at the local school is referred to as “A-B-C-D”.

The mayor has introduced me to all the important people in the area. These are a mixture of elected representatives, such as the mayor and his executive, state-appointed representatives, of whom the Sous-Prefet is the most important, and traditional chiefs, of whom the Sultan of Pouss is the most senior. The latter has an impressive palace in Pouss as well as a house in Maga. The mayor brought me to the palace in Pouss on the first day and after we had taken our shoes off we were brought into a very large room with sofas around it and carpets on the floor. When the Sultan entered with his retinue we bowed respectfully and all conversation was restrained and at his bidding. He is extremely tall, as are most of the Mousgoum tribe of which he is part. The mayor sat under him and talked up to him, and on subsequent visits to the palace the only person who sat at his level was the Sous-Prefet. On one occasion there were around 50 men in the room and a select few, including myself, were invited to lunch with him (lovely beef, lamb, chicken and fish, plus vegetables and sauces). He turned out to be quite genial. He took pity on my efforts to eat with my hands sitting on the floor (the Cameroonian way of eating), without staining the carpet and my clothes, and he produced two chairs – one for me to sit on and the other to use as a table. I was quite embarrassed but it seemed to amuse him, and of course all the others. Ruth lives in his Maga house and shares a lovely big living room. He has frequently asked her to become his sixth wife, which she has declined. His fifth wife, who was 14 and was an “esclave” since his religion only permits four wives, ran away, causing a scandal. He has also offered to marry Ruth to one of his sons.