Field Trip To Mbengwi Monastery

By Joshua, Jessica and Emily
(Joy's comments in parenthesis)

On March 20^th, we went on a school field trip to Mbengwi Monastery.  It was exciting and we learned a lot. It took a lot of sport (exercise----walking all over the grounds).  But it was worth it.

We learned that a Monastery is a place where monks live where they can pray and work. There are no women there.  They have to live at a convent. The men pray six times a day as a group and many hours alone. When monks aren’t praying, they are farming, raising cows for dairy products and creating medicine from herbs. They also raise pigs, make honey and candles.  (We buy our yogurt from them as they have a small shop in Bamenda.  We heard they make cheese too, but it was not mentioned on the tour. Unfortunately the honey was not for sale there or I would have bought several for gifts.)

We got to walk down a stony path to a fish pond.  Primary 5 and 6 got to feed the fish some bread. We also saw how they pumped up fresh stream water to the Monastery.

After our walk and tour, we got to eat and drinks and take some pictures. We were disappointed that we did not get to see how things were made just heard about it.

(The field trip was nice for Pete and I to go on, though a bit hot.  It was disappointing that the tour wasn’t better.   I would have loved to have actually seen how the honey and the candles were made. Perhaps next year we will go back on our own and get a private tour.)

 

Story of One, Story of Many

I have been working with the Archdiocesan HIV group for 18 months now and I feel like I am just at the tip of the iceberg of understanding AIDS in Cameroon and Africa. There are over 370,000 people living with HIV (2010 est.) which is down from 2007 (540,000) of the total of 20 million people in Cameroon.

A new woman joined the group last week and was very friendly with me and open about her story.  This is unusual.  Not the friendly part, but most of the women and men in the group are reluctant to talk to me about their HIV status.  Some of it is the language barrier as they are most comfortable in their native village language and most can communicate with each other in Pidgin.  All know some English, but not very much so they only understand the basics of what I say.  I understand some Pidgin at this point, but don’t speak it well at all. But there is also the denial factor, anger issues, grief, shame and other emotions which inhibits them from sharing. 

Anyway, this dear woman told me the story of how she had moved back here from Yaoundé (the capital city) to Bamenda to be with family after her husband died. He must have had a good job as her children all attended private high schools and universities.  She still has two in school and is struggling to pay the school fees.  She did not know at the time of her husband’s death that he died of AIDS, but discovered after his death that she was infected. She was completely shocked by the news.  

When I worked with HIV positive people in Washington DC, the population was entirely IV drug users and gay men. Here most of the HIV positive are married women who contracted it from their husbands. They have to deal with a lot of anger issues and betrayal issues.  Then when the husband dies first, they are left with the financial and emotional burden of caring for the family. 

We only have two men in the group out of 40. Many men refuse to get tested.  Some are still working, others are in denial or just too ashamed.

Our group provides spiritual guidance, emotional support, 1 ½ hot meals, social companionship, educational information, health information, medical guidance, transportation cost, and periodic family financial support.  Most of the group members are involved in the NGO provided and other support is given to people to start small businesses. As far as we know, there is no other such group in Bamenda.

Sr Shelia--founder of the group with a group member

I went to an Orphanage on Sunday and a two week old baby had been abandoned by the mother because they thought she had HIV.  Time will tell if this is the case, but there are too many babies who are born without the mother even knowing she is ill.

I don’t begin to judge the people here, but I do feel incredibly sad at how HIV affects the lives of so many. It is particularly difficult to see the innocent babies affected. But it seems that a least the reported cases are going down, that those treated are living much longer, and that more medications are available.

-Joy

Special Events In Cameroon

Wow, it has been a busy thirty days with lots of fun events. The kids celebrated Youth Day on Feb 11^th and Marched down Commercial Avenue with a million other preschoolers through high school.

I celebrated Valentine’s Day with my HIV group with a gift exchange.  I got a “Caba” an African dress from Monica who also happened to be the name that I drew. The dress would look great if you are 9 months pregnant. But we all had a grand time with food and drink and thanksgiving for life and health.

Women’s Day is a big event here.  And a big “ta do” is made about the material for the dress.  We had a seamstress come and fit us for dresses (Esther and Nicolette from Europe) And then with the left over material I had a “down” (skirt) made for Jessica who came down with me to the March.

We also went out to a village for a Bazaar at a Parish run by a priest friend of ours from Brazil.  The kids loved winning the prizes for games (a cube of sugar, a cube of maggi, a safety pin and two matches were won in addition to the balloons and candy). It was fun to get out of the city and see life in the village.

We had a quick (early) St. Patrick’s Celebration with the Martins and Burkett/Thoenes.

That same weekend we attended the SCA (Sunlight Christian Academy) closing ceremonies for their two week educational session for homeschoolers. They did some cute songs, memory verses and sang all the bones in the body. We then got a steak and mashed potato dinner.  YUM!!! 

 Josh’s birthday was a sleep over for four boys in the sky house and a cook out with homemade marshmallows by Josh and hotdogs that suddenly arrived at the butchery for the first time. The next day ten more children arrived for games, lunch and cake. It was so fun to see Josh having fun being a kid. 

Life in Cameroon is never dull.  We are still learning so much about the culture, spirituality and the hearts of the people here. All of us agree our time here is flying by.

-Joy

Bambui And The Taxi Ride

Pete was asked to teach Pastoral Counseling at the Seminary. He was thrilled because he feels this type of training is often lacking at Seminaries both in the US and Cameroon. Priests are asked to wear so many hats. It is hard to be good at all.

Pete asked if I would “co-teach” the class.  I was a bit reluctant because of the prep time and, the commute and speaking to bunch of young men (I am much more comfortable in front of women).  But how could I pass up the opportunity to teach at a major Seminary and to give these men a lay women’s perspective. Besides, I  feel like I am building up my resume if I ever decided to go back to work in the US.

So last Wednesday we had our first class. Pete did 90% of the prep, so that was relief. The class went very well and we ended the class with a human knot exercise.  I wish I had had my camera to catch two groups of twelve seminarians trying to untangle themselves from the knot. Their homework is write about the experience (frustration, teamwork).

After class, I said goodbye to Pete  ( he stayed for his 2nd class) and began my taxi ride home.  It takes about 45 minutes even though it is only about 8 miles. When the taxi stopped, it looked full, but I squeezed in the back seat with the three other passengers.  Shortly, the man in the front got out and I offered the front to the older woman next to me.  When she declined, I assumed she was kindly deferring to me.  But I soon realized she was  just being smart and understood how these cabs worked.  When the car stopped again a heavy set man climbed in with me and had me shift (sheeft we say) over  and onto the parking brake I went. Every time the driver had to shift the gears I had to lift my left leg or be groped by the driver.  I had nothing to hold onto so I kind of swished back and forth between the driver and the other passenger.

How in 18 months had I never noticed this?  Probably because I am usually in the backseat with the kids.

The next week, Pete gave me the car and he taxied back after his 2nd class.  I got some shots of what I see while driving.

Cow herding down the main road:

Car washing by the river:

Buying a gas tank for the  oven:

And my favorite.  A quick stop into the new Butchery.  Totally clean and now serving cheese, bacon, Italian sausage and ham!!!!!!!! YUM:

-Joy