A weekend of Funerals and Hippos
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 15/Mar/2010 08:21, 34 days ago
This weekend was fairly busy for me. On Friday evening I was invited to the funeral of Danedjo’s husband’s grandmother. I went to Danedjo’s house were they were finishing the preparations of Dolo which is a drink that is very popular here. It has Maize flour in it, as well as peanut butter, sugar and ginger. It definitely has a distinctive taste and I can’t say I liked it all that much. We brought the Dolo over to the house where the funeral was which was across the street. The funeral involved many people sitting and chatting. They had been drinking BilBil which is a homemade alcohol so after a bit all the old people got up and began to dance.Danedjo's sister stirring the DoloPeople chating and dancing at the funeralDanedjo and her mother in lawOn Saturday morning a few volunteers and I left for Maga which is a small village about 2 hours east of Maroua. It is near a large man-made lake. The lake was made by Europeans to help the region develop a rice industry. There are hippos and many birds in the lake. On Saturday night we had a small St.Patrick’s day party hosted by Tom and Graham who are Irish. It involved drinks, an immense amount of food prepared by Tom’s wife Aisha, and even a trivia quiz with questions about Ireland, Cameroon and other things. It was a lot of fun. Almost every volunteer in the far north came to the party and mostpeople slept at Mischa’s house (a volunteer in Maga). She lives in the Sultan’s house of Maga and has a large entertaining room with many couches so most people just slept on the couches. On Sunday we woke up early and took Perogues (wooden boats) on the lake to see the hippos.A cow grazing in the lake A pirogue of people heading to MagaPeople waving from shoreA pirogue with fishermenEars and noses of hippos in the distanceThe weekend was a lot of fun and hopefully there will be more to come.