After some hours in Yaounde and a meeting with the GIZ (Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit) about Safety Issues (what an irony, having travelled through half of Cameroon for a one hour meeting) I went to visit friends in the South, at Ngoulegmakong.
I found myself in another space. Huge butterflies, thick and dense forest, the purple colour of the sky in the dawn, and the stars seemed to be closer and brighter to my eyes.
Just some words about the inhabitants of this place: While I couldn't make a difference from their physiognomy, their way of dressing and behaving seemed to be the same than in any "developed" country: Their ears listening to American Pop Music, their hands touching each other's, their hips shaking to African as well as Latino, RnB or House beats and rhythms...
In my observations appeared a lot of contradiction - one of them concerning the so often heared sentence "On est ensemble", the pendant to the English sentence "We're together"... I heared this sentence mostly when going away from someone,and as I was told, it is said to emphasize that people don't quit each other in fight or anger. But most of the time it is hard to feel that togetherness: The threshold between harmony and fighting is very easily passed - just a minute after joking and laughing together the speech tone may have completely changed to the opposite.
I am not used to these quick shifts in talking and being together, them mostly speaking in their native language, and just laughing when I asked to explain to me what was happening didn't make things easier. Something else I had to get used to was the obligation to always move in a group. When going out together, noone was allowed to go home if not everyone was willing to join. Everything had to be decided as a group and as soon as I went a few steps away from them (being a group of friends and neighbours) I was called back to the group, and everyone wondered what I had been doing for the last five minutes.
Anyways, I wanted to tell about the American wedding taking place in the middle of African rainforest between Yaounde and Ebolowa. I didnt know anything about the event and just found myself in a big compound full of elegantly dressed people in Smoking and long dresses. Every group of friends or family sitting at a table with diverse alcoholic drinks including whisky and other strong stuff. Around ten, after unbearable amounts of cheesy french 70's music THE song started: tatatataaa...you know what I mean, bride in white dress with meterlong (how does she manage to keep it that shiny white?) the buffet was opened, but people had to pass according to the order of importance, I guess. Anyway, we didnt get anything of it.
y
After hours of sitting around the fun (African) part starts. When overtuned bikussi beats come out of the speakers the young folks enter the improvised dance floor and more and more come and join. So do we, and the hours pass and the dances follow one another - I have to get used to the physical contact that is not always of my choice and hard to get rid of, but hearing this rhythms I can't but dance.
The night gets long and a bad surprise waits for us ... around four we realize our driver has already left the party. Everyone tries to convince us to stay until the morning, but feet are hurting and the air is cold when the sweat has dried on our skins. We ask for a way get home, and after a while we succeed to get a ride from a tipsy woman. 3 minutes later, 11 people are sitting in the car, which of course doesnt get started... oh well... then, break down on the way, just some minutes later. Waiting for petrol at the edge of the street, listening to the lively discussions between the members of the adventure, struggling with heavy fatigue...and getting home around six, with the sun rising and the first people carrying home the water they got at the well.
I found myself in another space. Huge butterflies, thick and dense forest, the purple colour of the sky in the dawn, and the stars seemed to be closer and brighter to my eyes.
Just some words about the inhabitants of this place: While I couldn't make a difference from their physiognomy, their way of dressing and behaving seemed to be the same than in any "developed" country: Their ears listening to American Pop Music, their hands touching each other's, their hips shaking to African as well as Latino, RnB or House beats and rhythms...
In my observations appeared a lot of contradiction - one of them concerning the so often heared sentence "On est ensemble", the pendant to the English sentence "We're together"... I heared this sentence mostly when going away from someone,and as I was told, it is said to emphasize that people don't quit each other in fight or anger. But most of the time it is hard to feel that togetherness: The threshold between harmony and fighting is very easily passed - just a minute after joking and laughing together the speech tone may have completely changed to the opposite.
I am not used to these quick shifts in talking and being together, them mostly speaking in their native language, and just laughing when I asked to explain to me what was happening didn't make things easier. Something else I had to get used to was the obligation to always move in a group. When going out together, noone was allowed to go home if not everyone was willing to join. Everything had to be decided as a group and as soon as I went a few steps away from them (being a group of friends and neighbours) I was called back to the group, and everyone wondered what I had been doing for the last five minutes.
Anyways, I wanted to tell about the American wedding taking place in the middle of African rainforest between Yaounde and Ebolowa. I didnt know anything about the event and just found myself in a big compound full of elegantly dressed people in Smoking and long dresses. Every group of friends or family sitting at a table with diverse alcoholic drinks including whisky and other strong stuff. Around ten, after unbearable amounts of cheesy french 70's music THE song started: tatatataaa...you know what I mean, bride in white dress with meterlong (how does she manage to keep it that shiny white?) the buffet was opened, but people had to pass according to the order of importance, I guess. Anyway, we didnt get anything of it.
y
After hours of sitting around the fun (African) part starts. When overtuned bikussi beats come out of the speakers the young folks enter the improvised dance floor and more and more come and join. So do we, and the hours pass and the dances follow one another - I have to get used to the physical contact that is not always of my choice and hard to get rid of, but hearing this rhythms I can't but dance.
The night gets long and a bad surprise waits for us ... around four we realize our driver has already left the party. Everyone tries to convince us to stay until the morning, but feet are hurting and the air is cold when the sweat has dried on our skins. We ask for a way get home, and after a while we succeed to get a ride from a tipsy woman. 3 minutes later, 11 people are sitting in the car, which of course doesnt get started... oh well... then, break down on the way, just some minutes later. Waiting for petrol at the edge of the street, listening to the lively discussions between the members of the adventure, struggling with heavy fatigue...and getting home around six, with the sun rising and the first people carrying home the water they got at the well.
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