This past week I finally made it to
the beach and headed to Limbe in the Southwest Region for the National Girl’s
Forum. The event is in its third year and each attending Peace Corps Volunteer
brings a counterpart and girl from their respective post. The conference
focuses on issues specific to girl children in Cameroon, and this year’s theme
was “A Future for Girls”. I travelled down with my counterpart Aisha (also my
next door neighbor), and my friend’s daughter, Kelly. In Cameroon, youth are
classified as being below the age of 35, but this conference limited invitees
to those between the ages of 14-24. I invited Kelly before these age
limitations were announced, so at age 12 she was much younger than many of the girl
participants, a few of who were older than me. This conference provided yet
another example of how different my life would have been had I been born in
Cameroon. One of the girl participants brought her 18-month-old child and
another was seven months pregnant. The sessions covered topics such as avoiding
sugar daddies and delaying sex, (which is why I had thought that a 12 year old
was in the intended demographic) topics that don’t quite seem applicable to my
peers.
But the
conference and the week in Limbe were a wonderful break from Bamenda and
finally provided me with some beach time. Unfortunately, I’m something of a
baby when it comes to the ocean (so many waves!), but the water was gloriously
warm and we all had a great time splashing around. Many of the Cameroonian
girls didn’t know how to swim but I was proud to see that Kelly wasn’t in that
category and was quite comfortable in the water.
As great as
our time in the water was, my favorite part would have to be the meals we ate
on the beach. There were stands of mamas frying up fresh fish and they brought
them right to our table on the beach. It’s been something of a struggle, but I
think I’m finally figuring out how to eat a fish that hasn’t been deboned.
Hopefully before I leave Cameroon I will have learned how to do it nearly as
gracefully as most Cameroonians.
The only
downside to the trip came on the last day, when I decided to brave what looked
like gentle surf and head out to swim with my friends. I should have known that
the ocean always wins. As I was making my way out I found myself in that
terrible part where all the waves are breaking just as a big (well, big enough)
wave came in. The next thing I knew I was underwater and although it felt like
much longer, I popped out a second later only coughing a little bit. My pride
at surviving what had been my big fear all week was quickly replaced by panic
when I realized that the ocean had taken my glasses along with my trust. Our
search was completely fruitless and I resigned myself to dealing with a blurry
trip back as penance for wearing my glasses in the ocean. Of course, I quickly
found my contacts that I had brought when I packing up to leave. Too little,
too late.
On the way
back I made a small detour to visit my friend Lauren in Buea, which is the
capital city of the Southwest Region and quite close to Limbe. It was great to
see her and a taste of Limbe and she even took us to a semi-legitimate ice
cream parlor. Sometimes Cameroon is pretty surprising. The trip back was a little
brutal, as my friend Rachelle and I braved the car park and found ourselves on
a 30 person coaster with 36 or so other people. Each row was supposed to hold
four people, but here they hold five. And that’s not even including any
children sitting on laps. Children don’t count as people in this country, at
least not when it comes to public transport. It was more than cozy, and took
the better part of eight hours. Luckily, Cameroon provides ample scenery and
the trip passed without incident.
The day
after I returned from Buea marked the first night of Passover. Unsurprisingly,
there was no seder in Bamenda for me to attend, but it seemed strange to let
the occasion pass without some kind of celebration. Luckily, I have tolerant
and adventurous postmates and they let me throw my own mini-seder at their
house. We had to make some adjustments-no available cocoa powder meant that we
made macaroons instead of flourless chocolate cake, as was the original plan.
But the biggest hiccup came when we started our attempt at homemade matzah and
found a large population of weevils in the flour. As Cynthia put it, they had
created their own little ecosystem in there. There were so many that the
standard Cameroonian procedure of sifting all flour through fine mesh was insufficient-the
worms and larvae made their way through. But no matter, we had a fine dinner
and even managed something resembling a Seder plate, complete with charoset.
Why is this year different from all other years…?
TL,DR: Girl’s forum was a huge success and all the
participants learned a lot. Personally, I learned that my fear of the ocean is
completely justified. You never know when or how it’s going to strike.
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