December in all its glory! Without snow this year... but with a great birthday!

So it’s been a while since my last post because so much has been going on. And as I said in the end last time, I had an essay to write for Hald. I managed to finish it on time for Saturday the 10^th and celebrated it by having a performance on the Christmas show at College Protestant the same evening.

The Christmas Show at College

It was so great! We performed the drama piece for the song Everything by Lifehouse, and it went really great! And I loved being on stage again. I really miss my lessons from last year now, and I’m definitely not giving up on acting. So I wonder what I'm going to do next year when I'm back in Norway...!

 I have otherwise been occupied by work at the orphanage and at Centre Socio Ménager. I have had vocabulary tests and read A Christmas Carol and afterwords sang some Christmas songs with the kids at Rainbow orphanage. The kids there are really joyful and always come running towards the car when we come and when we are leaving, it's fun to work there!

My favourite film!

For those of you who do not know it, my birthday is in December, and as I turned 20 this year it could not go by unnoticed. Or at least I didn't want it to. So last weekend was fabulous! It started great at Friday evening when we had a second movie night, with sweet and salty popcorn, makkala and lots of soda. And for once Kristian managed to make a successful and good tasting chocolate pudding! Yummy!
You see usually it's not so puddingy and more cocoaish and not stiff at all, so some things went more right than wrong this weekend!


That was not the only thing that went alright when it comes to cooking, Sara-Jeanette and I made taco for supper which we were sharing together with Sandra, Helene and Delphine. We had a wonderful evening with good talks about so many interesting things, we watched my favourite film, "The Holiday" on big screen in our little, cold, but cosy living room with good sound and a really good cake that our housekeeper made for me! It was a really brilliant evening! 


On the actual day of my 20th birthday (the 18th of December) we were going to sing with Gospel Singers at a Christmas concert for the orphans in Ngaoundéré. And I had been given the task to sing a duet together with one of the African boys to a Norwegian Christmas song. It was so much fun! And we had arranged it so that all the members in the choir had brought a little gift which was given to the small orphans who were there and listened to us "singing the Christmas time in" as we sang "En stjerne skinner i natt" - "... nå ringes julen inn." Which also is my favourite Christmas song!

Singing "En stjerne skinner i natt" with Gospel Singers

So why on earth would we sing a Norwegian Christmas song in an African choir you may be sitting there and asking your self. Well I will tell you. In this particular choir there is a tradition that consists of the members teaching each other songs in their native languages, and then performing them on the different concerts they have. This is natural as there is around 220 languages here in Cameroon! So last year the Norwegians who were here teached then "Englene" as they call the song as that is the first word in the refrain.

After the concert we were supposed to have a Christmas party with the choir, but everyone were too tired so it was postponed to the following evening instead.
We had little to do that day too so most of the morning was spent either in bed or on a sunbed by the pool together with a good book or some music in the ear. When the clock was close to turning 18 o'clock we got ready to go over to Erik Sandvik, or "Grandpère" as they call him here, where the party was being held.

"Grandpère" giving a speech at the Christmas party with G.S.

Thinking we were a bit late (18:15) we felt a bit bad, but as we turned the corner of his house and looked into his garden there wasn't a soul to be seen. Just a bunch of empty chairs and a bit annoyed choir leader frantically trying to call the members who did not show up on time.
We sat there and waited for half an hour. But still no one was there but us Norwegians and the leader. So therefore SJ and I went back to our house to warm up the pizza we were bringing to the shared meal later. When we returned it was almost eight o'clock and most of the seats were taken now, but there was still coming new arrivals for at least an hour after us. 
The members in the choir are really a good example of the "classic" "African-time phenomenon"! And the leaders point it out on every single practise we have, but still no change.
The evening went by with a lot of singing, dancing, eating and some words from the Bible too. After some time outside in the cold, we went inside and we watched the film called "Facing The Giants". A really good and inspirational Christian film. While everyone payed attention to the film some of the leaders went around and collected and handed out gifts to everyone. We had brought one gift each which was given to an other member in the choir, a really nice tradition they have each Christmas. I have no idea who got my gift or who gave me the one I got. But I was really glad when I opened mine and it had a nice ring inside which actually fitted my small fingers. So nice to see how a small gesture like this can make so many smile a bit more.


Thank you all for a really wonderful birthday weekend, and for making it a memorable one too! Now I'm ready for the Christmas spirit and joy to fill me!


Johanne Teresie

Sunny days, cold nights and bonfires with friends

The new Cameroonian dress

Some weeks ago we finally got our Cameroonian dresses back from the tailor. It was fun and we had to try them on right away! My dress fitted pretty much perfectly, it had some minor faults here and there, but it still looks great and I am able to wear it so I am not complaining. :)

I wore it to work at Centre Socio and got a comment from one of the other teachers that I was actually wearing a dress (because of the fabric) that they had as formal uniforms for the grads some years back! That was quite fun to hear, and they showed me some pictures of them too and they were all in different shapes and sizes so I would have fitted right in to the pictures together with them.

I also bought a pair of trousers at Petit Marché and they are awesome :)

The choir dress

Last Sunday we went to a church some km outside of town with the Gospel Singers and I sang together with them. They handed out some African clothes that we had to wear so that we could have some similar uniforms for the performance. They celebrated Thanksgiving there too that day so the service lasted for several more hours than usual so after five hours we were finally finished. It was great fun though!
After the sermon the whole choir was invited to eat at a nearby house.
Us Norwegians got a plate with some food and a fork to eat it with, while the others ate together from big serving plates, some with their hands and some with spoons and forks.
Nice to talk and hang out with them a bit more than just singing.

Kristian and Erling in their choir outfit

Wednesday last week we went grilling down by the pool together with all the other Norwegians here and the Ethiopian missionaries. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and enjoyed each others company. After eating we moved over to sit around the fire in the hearth in the corner of the brick wall around the pool area.
The Bischler boys played Tick,Tack,Toe in the dark, I sat and watched them play and Aron came and sat in my lap. They are really sweet and funny boys. Later on we sang songs and talked for a while.

Sleepyheads..

On Friday we had Taco for supper. It was so good! I had brought some taco spices from Norway, and I am really glad I did, because we had a great time making it! And of course eating it too! The boys were really impatient so no pics from this but we had a great evening. We ate and watched two films afterwords, or at least Runar and me watched the films while the other two slept in their chairs...

The hilltop we went to

Saturday we went on a hike up to a nearby hilltop, or for some it might be a mountain.. We were invited by two friends to join them on this hike for their birthday. So we walked for about an hour to get to the top and were there for several hours. We spent the day with singing, playing cards, taking pictures of the amazing view and us, so we had a really good time up there! The view was fantastic! And I felt like I have finally seen a bit more of Africa. As we usually don't see much more than the town and the station here. So I will definitely try to go on more hikes like that when I'm here.

The beautiful view from the top

This last week I have been a bit sick, so I wasn't at work on Monday, and hadn't got the chance to start properly on my essay for Hald yet, but the flu is not that bad anymore so I am going to start interviewing people for the paper soon so that I can get it finished for the 10th of December.


Johanne Teresie

Thanksgiving in the Church and Gospel Singers

On the 29th of October the choir Gospel Singers had a concert in one of the churches in town. They are so good! Erling, Kristian, Sara-Jeanette and I were assigned to be cameramen or just to be there as audience. (There is a tradition that just some of the youths joining the choir sing at the different concerts they have.)

Gospel Singers at the concert at the Bethlehem Church

Next Sunday we are going to sing together with them in another church, and I am really excited!
A friend from the choir came to teach Sara-Jeanette and me to sing the songs correctly, and to dance the dances they have for the different songs. I am looking forward to sing with them. I'm not sure how well the dancing will turn out to be, but it's going to be fun, even though I will look totally ridiculous beside the Cameroonians!

Synchronised dancing and singing

And here.. I am doomed do be terrible at this..

Last Sunday was a special day at the Millennium Church here in Ngaoundéré. We had a Thanksgiving sermon (Høsttakkefest). This is a big and important event in the churches here in Cameroon. And more than half of the annual income in the church is collected during this event! 

Different groups enter the church while dancing and presenting the amount of money they have collected for several weeks.
Many Cameroonians save half of their salary for months and give this to the church! That is an enormous amount of money for someone who already has so little to get by on. Think about how it would be to have six or ten children who you have to provide for; with food, medicines and school and even then give away as much as half of what you earn for months!
The fact that we have so much and give so little in Norway (and other places in the western part of the world) is astonishing. We really have something to learn from the generous and joyful people here in Cameroon!

The children giving their thanks

Fammes Pour Christ, the women organisation in the church here, is the group which gives the highest amount of money to the church at these events. Other groups are for example the College Protestant and other schools that are connected to EELC (the Evangelical-Lutheran Church here in Cameroon). 
The gifts were given to the pastor, on nice plates with flower decorations on them in all kinds of colours. The children from the schools also came in bringing flowers that they handed to the pastor. This was a really fun experience and everybody was so joyful, singing and clapping!

The missionaries are in a group for themselves at the Thanksgiving event, and the other Norwegians at the station were included in this group. And because we were in a group, we were as well obliged to enter the church while dancing (!). This was much to the amusement for the Cameroonians I would expect... as none of us are as good as they are at dancing to the rhythm. But we tried at least! 

Gospel Singers entering the church

Gospel Singers were also a group that joined in with giving thanks to God for all the good he has done. And we got a chance to sing with them too! It was fun and we danced in like all the other groups. 
Runar filmed and took some nice pictures with my camera :) Thank you Runar :)




"When we can thank God for the food we have gotten, we need to think of those who do not have it as good as we do. When we receive Gods gifts we also receive the responsibility for other people's lives."

Johanne Teresie

Our first day at Centre Socio Ménager

Friday was our first day at Centre Socio Ménager. It was fun, but very difficult as we did not know how to say everything we wanted to say in French. 

A classroom in College Protestant

The first year students did not know how to speak English and we had difficulties with speaking French so it took some time before we made ourselves understood. We tried to see if they could present themselves in English and in French. Some did it perfectly others were struggling a bit more. I felt like I was in the same situation as them, just vice versa.

But after some time when all the twenty students had presented themselves we said that we wanted to play some games. We moved all the chairs and tables away and stood in a circle (at least for a little while...). We tried to play a name game where we have to make a movement together with our name and repeat it for every person who was before us in the circle. This was almost impossible as they did not understand what we wanted to do and they did not know each others names! They had been in the same class for one and a half month and they knew maybe two or three names tops. So we moved on to some other name game after starting from scratch several times.

After the games we sang “Head and shoulders, knees and toes” with them. That was quite fun! Sara-Jeanette told them to try to “Oublier” (which means to forget) what we had done that day, when she meant to say that they had to try to “Rappeler” (remember), we had a good laugh about that when we finaly were finished! I probably had more faults when I tried to speak French...anyway it was fun!

But for our first time in the class teaching English in French, I would say it went all right! It will be fun to return and get to know the second and third year students too on Wednesday!


Johanne Teresie

Grasshoppers, filmnights, sunbathing and work

By the pool

Since the last time I wrote I have been busy with a lot of things. On Wednesday last week Sara-Jeanette and I went sunbathing by the pool for a long time after school. The pool is by the way still empty ... But the paint has come and I think someone has started to paint it, so hopefully it won’t be long before we can hang out there again. 

On Thursday last week we had bible studies together with some of the other Norwegians here. And on Friday the boys had borrowed a projector and invited some friends and all the Norwegian youth here. We watched “Les Miserables” and ate a lot of something called “Makkala” in the local language Fulani. It is fried dough of some kind and tastes really delicious. Especially when it’s fresh! 

The brown balls are Makkala, very tasty!

That Saturday we went to visit Helene and Erling and got Taco for supper. It was great; though it’s not the same as in Norway it was still really good! Sunday went by with some homework and choir practice.

The French course was a big part of my everyday life here until last week, since it was the last of the "two week intensive course" with four hours a day. This week we have started working in some of the places we are going to work at for the next six months. And it has been really interesting! On Tuesdays we will usually have self study days, but this week and maybe some weeks further on we will continue on with French courses until we have completed 80 hours of it. 

On Monday we had the opportunity to sit down and draw the dresses we want to get sewn for us. It was fun to draw again and to design our own dresses! We went with Sandra to the tailor and she helped us with explaining the way we wanted our dresses to be sewn and what we wanted them to look like.

Designing the dress

 

On Wednesday we went to the Centre Socio Ménager. It is a small school with 51 students. We are trying to organise how we are going to arrange the classes between me and Sara-Jeanette and how to make it fit so that all the girls have one class with Informatics (computer study) and two classes with English in one week. It was quite a puzzle! As there are only 5 computers and 20 students in one group and 31 in the other, so we sat and arranged the timetable so that it would all fit together.
On Thursday we went to work at the church office for one of the pastors there. We helped him type some speeches into a computer. The hours went by quite fast and as we sat there we wondered if the speech we had just copied was the same as the one we heard when we were in church two weeks earlier when we did not understand much.

The grasshopper that hid in our sink

As it is close to the end of the rain season there are many bugs around here that get in to the house. Especially grasshoppers!!
The boys have hundreds of them in their apartment through out the day! But we girls are lucky because we are careful to close all windows and doors when it gets dark. So there are only about twenty inside here... But now it has been dry for two days and the grasshoppers gather in thick groups to get in through the door! And when we go out we have to use a broom to get them away. The creatures are a bit disgusting, but they are also fascinating in their own way. I found one in our sink in the kitchen and as it walked around on the counter I managed to take some nice pictures of it.

Amazing how close I could get to it before it moved!

We also have a lizard living in the tree right outside the house. I saw it some time ago and stood really close to it when I took some of the pictures, amazing how it didn’t run away from me! 








Can't wait to start to work some more! It is going to be great adventure!

Johanne Teresie

The first week in Africa

This is going to be a long post about my first week here in Africa. So if you don't want to read it all, there's a light in the end of the tunnel: I will write a short summery on the end for you.

The first few days here in Ngaoundéré went by quite quietly. On the first Saturday we looked around at the station together with the "one-year-volunteers" and we also went to some shops in town where they have some European groceries. That comes in handy when we feel a bit homesick :) In the evening Sara-Jeanette and me went over to Runar and Kristian, who live in the same house as us, just in an other apartment. We watched a film and ate some chips that the boys made themselves.

As it was election time here in Cameroon everything was a bit out of the ordinary that first weekend we were here, at least that is what we were told.. We couldn't really see any changes now, could we? Since we came two days before the election... The Sunday was therefore spent inside the Missionary Station, playing volleyball together with the boys next door and with some of their African friends.

Our teacher and the classroom in  L'ecole Norvegienne

Monday one week ago was the first day we had french class. Our teacher is a former Hald student who lived in Norway three years ago. (It took a while before I figured that he knows my sister who attended Hald at the same time...) After school we went to visit Bernard, a friend of the boys here, and we were served Couscous. This was the first time I tasted it and we ate it like the Cameroonians do; with our hands. In the evening we got a visit from some girls who we played cards with. The communication was a bit poor as we struggled with french and the understanding of the English was not so good at their part either. But it was really nice to have someone over and to feel like we were welcome here.

Me eating Couscous

Tuesday we started school at one o'clock, right after diner. It was a bit hard, because we were working hard to understand all the grammar rules and I was really tired after I ate so much food.. Not used to having four hours of school after diner..But it went alright. In the evening we went to the College Protestant where the Gospel Singers are practicing. It lasted for three hours.
Not so bad you think? Well imagine trying to dance and sing in a language you don't understand for the whole time without any breaks..But it was a lot of fun!! We had to introduce ourselves on the end but it wasn't so bad, Sara-Jeanette did most of the talking..


Wedesnday went by quite fast, we were in school and tried to speak some french, it helps a lot! We had a visit from a girl after sunbathing by the empty pool. And when she was here we managed to speak with her quite alot in french!
After she went home Sara-Jeanette and me watched Merlin and had a good supper, our cook always makes something good for us!


On Thursday we got a visit from a deaf boy and we learnt how to say our names and some words in signlanguage.  It was fun! And we actually remembered some of it afterwords! We're maybe going to work in the spesialised school for deaf pupils so this might be useful to remember too...

The second weekend here in Cameroon was great! Friday was spent on visits to a friend of the boys where we got to taste some good Cameroonian food again and joining in on leading the Sports Club for the kids at the station.
This Saturday we went in to town together with two other norwegians to buy some material for new Cameroonian dresses that we want to get sewn for us!

The rest of that day went by while we were trying to read some corriculum and write some updates on the blogs and being interupted every other hour by someone who was at the door selling stuff.








"When you hear a knock on the door for the umteenth time the same day, it is difficult to be polite to the person who is there to sell something to you"... From the frontdoor: "Knock, knock!"

Inside the Millenium Church

In the early morning on Sunday Sara-Jeanette, Runar, Kristian and me attended the Sundayservice at the Millenium Church. It was a bit boring as we did not understand much. And it lasted for three hours!!! When one and a half hour had passed by the Bishop still hadn't preached! But they had a lot of songs and many of them were in english so at least we understood that.
We went to eat diner at a resturant in town with the boys. And in the afternoon Sara-Jeanette and I went to visit a girl called Lora. We looked at some pictures of her and her familiy (that's normal here, to show your visitors photos of your family and friends) and sat and talked in her room for a long time.We were also served some fishtales which were kooked whole. It tasted really good! But I'm not sure my stomach thought so.. 



For this monday we had some homework. We had to write a text in french which we went through in class. We were then supposed to say it by heart and try to keep up a conversation on french about what we had written.
I have never been this good in speaking french and it feels great!! After school and diner we went to the College Protestant and joined a volleyball team practice. It was fun, and it felt good to come out and do something with other girls and to get some new friends!

College Protestant

The summary:

I have this past week attended an intensive frech course; our teacher is a former student at Hald, and is really nice and good at teaching.
We have gotten a lot of visitors here throughout the week. Some who stayed to play cards and others to teach us a little bit of signlanguage. We might be working in the Specialised School for Deaf Pupils.
We have eaten our first Cameroonian meal, Couscous, which we ate with our fingers. It was good, especially the sauce!
We have also been to the first choir practice with the Gospel Singers. It was difficult as the songs were in french, pere and english. And as if that wasn't enough, we had to dance too! But it was fun! Even though we were standing all the time and it lasted for three hours.
Sara-Jeanette and I have bought our first material for some Cameroonian dresses. And we have been to church on Sunday that lasted for three hours! And another choir practice.
Monday afternoon we attended a volleyball team practice, it was fun and we got to know some more girls and got more friends.



I'm looking forward to the next week. I have not been able to post often because my computer has been almost broken, and when it has worked, the internett has not.
But now this is finaly out there and I can blog a bit more often, as the rainseason is almost over and the internett is more stable than before.

Johanne Teresie

The journey to apartment nr. 15

On Wednesday the 5^th of October I left home at 3:30 am together with my parents to drive to Kjevik airport outside of Kristiansand. Saying goodbye to them for the last time in six months, was not as hard as it was the last time I travelled by myself to stay somewhere else for this long. So when I had finally checked inn my two suitcases and got to the gate, that’s when I realised that I am actually going to Africa!!

The flight to Amsterdam went all right; I managed to find my way to the gate quite easily and boarded the next plane pretty satisfied.  In Paris I met Sara-Jeanette and we travelled together on the last flight. The flight from Paris to Yaoundé lasted for five hours. I managed to watch two films while Sara-Jeanette was sleeping.

Sara-Jeanette and me at the airport in Paris

At the airport in Yaoundé we were met by our contact person Amos and drove to a hotel there. It was so hot when we got here but after a while we got a little used to it. The day after Amos showed us around in the capital of Cameroon, and we bought new phones and sim-cards. We also visited the Norwegian Consulate before we went to catch the train to Ngaoundéré. 

The train journey was very interesting; we stopped after one minute and found out that there was a problem with the train... We started again with a jolt and continued on our way with a lot of noise, jerks and bumping. The random stops continued throughout the trip and it took us 14 hours before we were at the station in Ngaoundéré on the 8^th of October. 

Women and children selling food through the trainwindows

It is astonishing how the African people can carry very heavy things on their heads! I have thought about it before when I have seen it on pictures and films, but WOW! When we came to the train station here, the carrier we used, took TWO suitcases on his head. And they were both about 24 kilos! 


We were met by the missionaries and driven to the Mission Station here. We were served breakfast at the Bischler family’s house, and were showed to our apartment.
Here we met the two NMS “one-year-volunteers” Runar and Kristian, they live in the apartment next to us.

Apartment nr. 15

The first day here in Ngaoundéré has been great! We have met allot of people and seen a lot of different things! We joined in on leading the Sports club for the youngsters here at the station. And we have eaten a good dinner and had a chance to pack out most of our things after we had chosen which bedroom we wanted. I am looking forward to seeing more of the town here and living together with Sara-Jeanette :)


I have a feeling this is going to be a great year!
Johanne Teresie

Preparing for takeoff

It's officially just a few days left until all the Norwegian students are off to their destination countries!

The last six weeks we have had lessons in Cross cultural communication and other subjects that they teach on the fall course at Hald Internasjonale Senter in Mandal.
These weeks have been so great, I have gotten to know some really awesome and amazing people from so many different parts of the world! The group of students at Hald this year have become such great friends and were sad to leave eachother last week, even though we are all going on a new adventure, and will be back to see everyone again in six months.

The last week at Hald I have spent reading the last of the curriculum books borrowed from the school library, playing games with other students, arranging last minute meetings with teachers, printing out important stuff for the trip and sleeping in the living room /peisestue together with other students.
Now I am preparing to say goodbye to my dear family and friends in Norway before I take off from Kjevik airport at 06:20 Wednesday morning. The first flight is to Amsterdam, where I am transferring to a flight to Paris. There I'll meet Sara-Jeanette who I am going to spend the next six months with in Cameroon!
I am really exited about going, but a bit nervous that the language barrier will be quite big in the beginning. But I hope that this will improve after some time and that the internship will be unforgettable!
I will try to post regularily on this blog, but I haven't been that good at it before so this is a new try :) So please be patient :)
More news and pictures about my trip will come!


Johanne Teresie