Fantasia

This weekend the lamido of Ngaoundéré celebrates the 13th anniversary of his reign as Muslim king of Adamaoua, our province. Idunn, Trude the missionary, Kristin the missionary kid, Thomas the new volunteer, his father and I went to town to watch the fantasia, a spectacular event which is quite hard to explain with words.

There were men riding horses decorated with colourful clothes, people in traditional outfits carrying spears, knifes and guns hailing the lamido, women dancing to the music from at least two different bands playing different songs at the same time, and a lot of people watching.

It felt a bit like being far, far away from modern civilization, as even the main language had changed from French to Fulani, even though we were still in the middle of town. In everyday life, my friends in town do not live so differently from any other modern person, but it is on occations like this I fully realize that Africa is different.

Different, not only as in dark skinned people, dusty roads, food, language or poverty. Different also in the sense of a rich culture developed in way other circumstances. Full of history, music, habits and interesting people. A culture worth experiencing.

 

 

 

 

 

Fasting

"Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"

(Isaiah 58,6-7)

In about three weeks, the 40 days of the fast begins. Most of my life this period of the Church year has passed by without much attention, to be honest, it is not before the two last years I have even offered it a thought. What is the point of not eating for fourty days, anyway?

After having further studied the Word of God, I realise that it is not really about the food. It is about focusing on living a Godly life - to DO his Word, not only listen to it. Reading these verses from the Prophet Isaiah back in Norway, I thought, "wow, how will I be able to do this?" There are not so many hungry, poor or homeless in my neighbourhood...

In Ngaoundéré, on the other hand, my extended neighbourhood is the poorest part of the town. You do not see many streetkids or extreme poverty on an everyday basis, but life is tough for a whole lot of people, not only in Burkina (the poorest part of town).

Now, as I actually am in a place with the poor people, with the hungry, how should I fast? 

Feedback and ideas are welcomed with thanks! 

New beginnings

The holidays have gradually finished, and now we are back at work, and we are going to work more than ever. Before infield we had a feeling that we maybe had a little bitt too little to fill our days with, something that was confirmed to us by everyone on infield (Maria and Merethe, how are you doing now?)...

Anyway, today we started working at an orphanage called Rainbow Children's Fund, where we are going to work long Mondays and Friday afternoons. The place was founded by South Korean missionaries about a year ago, and is now the home of ten lovely children aged between four and twelve years old.

In Cameroon the chidren go to school in the morning every second week, and the other weeks they go in the afternoon. It works this way because there are not enough school buildings for everyone to be teached at the same time. Due to this, our days at RCF will vary a bit, since the schoolchildren attend a public school.

The plan is that we are going to do whatever the staff wants us to, and today that was to help the children with their homework and help out in the kitchen/learn how to cook Cameroonian food. Some days we will help out in the kindergarten too, where two of the orphans go together with other children, while the older ones are in school.

We were told that it was important that our clothes did not get dirty, so we got some other clothes to wear (they did not get dirty at all, as Pauline did everything that could make you dirty)

Idunn crushing white beans (HARD work!)

Pauline, our lovely teacher in the kitchen

It is not only in the working hours new things happen; I am proud to tell you that today I am going to have my first practice with the girls' volleyball team at Collège Protestante. If things do not turn out too bad, maybe I will write an update about that later...

Litter

Ngaoundéré is a clean town, compared to many other places in Africa. You can see rubbish in the streets and ditches, but there is a renovation company that continually cleans the town. The Norwegian camp is tidy too - the maids have one place they always empty our litter bins.

That place happens to be quite near our house, and so I become aware of the fact that throwing my trash in the bin does not make it go away. It is just moved somewhere else, so that my house is clean. But the more I use, the fuller that garbage hole grows. Is that the way it should be? Which right do I have to buy, spend and throw away so much that Mother Earth is afflicted?

Ashamed of being one of the Earth's spoiled litterers, who buys things I could manage without quite problemfree, I decide to try my best to think critically about what I buy and how it is packed.

I am troubled by the fact that I actually am in a position to choose whether I buy environment friendly packed food and other stuff - useful or not. Every afternoon, as they finish school, three or four boys on their way home stop by that rubbish hole. As I sit in my comfortable chair, listening to beautiful music on my Mac or iPod in my clean apartment, they are digging in my dirt. I bet they do not think about whether my litter will vanish in one year or a hundred, or if it will let out poisonous gasses. They jump into the hole with their clean school uniforms, hoping that they will find something of value. Some valuable leftovers from one of the World's fortunate litterers...

Holidays

Christmas came right after Infield Course in Kenya, and surprisingly enough the homesickness was not too grave. With Idunn's family and my dear Magnus visiting, we made Christmas cookies and decorated our appartement with snow-crystals on the window, candles in red and green,  and even a homemade Christmas cradle.

On Christmas Eve we had a Norwegian service in a little church outside of town. In my Norwegian eyes, it actually quite much resembled a stable more than a church. In addition to this, a little local boy wandered in during the sermon, whose name coincidentally (?) meant God has come to save... 

 Picture: Magnus Hagland

After the celebration of Christmas, we headed South for the beaches. The journey was long (three long days of driving) and the roads bumpy (picture the bumpiest road you have ever seen in Norway. Even now you are nowhere near imagining the main road that connects North and South in this country).

 Picture: Magnus Hagland

Nevertheless, the beaches of Kribi was worhwhile the shaky trip. Most of the days were spent on the beach with books, volley ball, swimming and playing in the water (which I must say, is not the worst way to spend the Christmas holidays). Pirogue trip up the Lobé river and loads of delicious seafood were other ingredients.

 

 

 

Pictures: Magnus Hagland

Back in Ngaoundéré, I still have some days left with my fabulous visitor before the everyday life sets in again. The recreation has been very good, and now I am ready to start off. I really look forward to spend three more months here in "Miniature Africa"!

Picture: Magnus Hagland

Joyeux Noël!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

-Isaiah 9,6- 

Infield Course in Kenya

Wow! Ngaoundéré is not really a big town! Coming to Douala (the largest city in Cameroon) was one thing; a place where they had at least three different brands of bottled water, a big variety of spreads and cheeses and even freshly baked pizza in ONE place.

No matter how big Douala seemed, there are no words that could express my amazement over Nairobi at our arrival. With big eyes and my mouth wide open, I saw giraffes, streets without potholes, well-organized traffic, wonderful buildings, street signs and no dirty ditches when we drove from the airport to the Norwegian school.

As we were the first ones to arrive, Idunn and I spent a relaxing Sunday at the Norwegian school, before our teachers and fellow students who are in Kenya, Uganda and Madagascar came. It was a happy reunion, with lots of laughter and experiences to share.

During the Infield Course, we have had teaching, counselling, safari, time to talk, laugh, play and relax. Apart from this, we spent Tuesday in the slums, which was a very special experience. On one side, Nairobi is so developed and organized, a town greater than anything I have seen in Norway. Still more than half of the city's population does not have the opportunity to appreciate this, or even get to see it. More than half of Nairobi's population live in slums, in extreme poverty.

First we visited the slum of Mathare and saw the project that the Kenya team from Hald has been working in for almost three months now. After this we drove to Kibera, Kenya's biggest slum, to get introduced to the Church Army's project there. I am really impressed by the work of the churches there. They really live out God's Word by feeding the poor, sharing the Gospel, loving the loveless, caring for the sick and helping people to get an education and possibilities to get a better life. The churches in Norway really have something to learn about being a holistic church and reaching out to those who need it! If they can in one of the poorest places in the world, how much more should not we be able to make a difference in our society?

Returning to the richest area of Nairobi (where the Norwegian School is situated) was hard for me. The contrasts are so vast, and it felt terrible to just leave the people like that. I am grateful to have everything I need, but the fact that I have so much more tears me apart.

Nevertheless, this is an experience I highly recommend to everyone. Feeling the unjustice of the world so closely changes something in you, and that change is something everyone in the rich parts of the world should go through. Finding words that could describe is too difficult, it has to be seen, smelled, touched and felt.