Noosa and Christmas in a foreign country!

20.-22.12.13

My friend Daniel and I took a road trip to Noosa, about an hour and a half drive up the coast. We stayed at a beautiful resort, in an awesome apartment. Best birthday and Christmas gift! We went for a hike in the national park, ate at restaurants and sunbathed at some of the most beautiful beaches I've seen. He showed me around at the places he and his family use to come to while they go on vacations there. We made some awesome breakys too.. On Saturday night we went out to the Backpackers Bar not so far from where we were staying and got to speak to some cool backpackers there. It was an awesome night! The next day we drove back to Warner and enjoyed the hot weather by the pool.

One very good self cooked breaky!

At the Noosa National Park

Going out to Noosa Backpackers Bar

23.12.13

We took a road trip up to Kondolilla Falls. Kondolilla means falling water in Aboriginal. Kinda cool, except there was no falling water when we got down to the actual place where it was supposed to be.. It was too hot and dry for there to be enough water for it. Not complaining about 35-40 degrees!! But the woods there were so beautiful and exotic!

One huge tree!!

Lookout point at Kondolilla Falls 

Magical forest

We stopped by a small town called Montville on our way back. Looked in some cool souvenir shops and in an open gallery. And we also stopped by a lookout point by the road where we could see so much of the beautiful area around the Sunshine Coast.

Lookout point near Montville

 And happy birthday to my youngest niece, Solveig, who turned 1 on the 23rd! Love her!

24.-26.12.13

The 24th didn't feel like Christmas Eve at all! It started out with me shopping at a huge mall, buying some Christmas gifts for people back home and some stuff for my self. Then back in Warner I had a short talk to my dad in Norway, they had just started the day, my nephew was eating his third breakfast while the others were waking up and getting ready to celebrate the day with the family. While that was going on early in the morning in Norway, I was about to have my very first Aussie BBQ with the Turner family. Was an awesome dinner, but it didn't feel like it was Christmas. So we went for a drive to look at some Christmas lights that people had put up on their houses. We found a church full of lights, with a huge light angel on the lawn in front of it!

Wouldn't exactly find this in front of a church in Norway..

On the 25th however, I was woken up to a lovely family breakfast with egg and bacon and opening gifts with Daniel, his parents Phil and Vicki and his sister Bianca and her daughters Isabella and Charlotte. I had brought with me some gifts for them, a book about Sørlandet, the southern part of Norway where I have spent most of my life living in many different towns, an other book with the Norwegian folk tales and two beers from Nøgne Ø. I also got some nice presents from them, loving the PJ's! 

Before noon the rest of the extended family with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were arriving with food and gifts for the secret Santa gift arrangement they had. when it was time for eating everyone sat around a long table out on the patio. That's when i felt like it really was Christmas. That's about the same time it took me to feel like it was Christmas when I was in Cameroon too, at the dinner table.

We ate a buffet with mostly cold food, like salads, cold turkey and chicken and hot creamed potatoes. 

The Christmas Day dinner with Daniel's family

I never did celebrate Christmas with other traditions than what I'm used to from Norway, because when I was an exchange student in England I went back home to Norway for the two week holiday. And in Cameroon, we celebrated with the other Norwegian missionary families there. I was really lucky to get the chance to celebrate it with a family like the Turners! Really thankful for being so warmly greeted and included into the celebrations!

The day was also of course spent by the pool as it was still really hot outside! 

Boxing Day was much like Christmas Day, except there were fewer people there and it was a bit more laid back. Phil had told me that they use to have this tradition of playing cricket on Boxing Day, but we mostly spent it in and by the pool, it was too hot to play so nobody thought about it. However when everyone had left Phil remembered that he had told me I would get to try it out he got up and found the old cricket bat and brought Daniel and me out on the lawn to play. It was fun! Especially when I managed to hit the pall with the bat on my first try! Ha, ha.. never thought I'd manage that. Haven't played anything like it since high school! Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Australia as I understand it. I can't say I understand much of the rules though.. It did make sense when they explained it, but I can't remember anything now.

In the pool on Boxing Day

Daniel showing how it's done

The dog, Max, was great at fetching the ball!

Not so stylish myself..

I hit the red ball! Woo getting the hang of this!

Fun passtime activity 

A Christmas trip worth remembering! Thank you so much to everyone that made it so, I am truly grateful for all the hospitality!

Johanne Teresie

The last weeks in Cameroon as a Hald Student

The last few weeks in Cameroon went by so fast, that I did not prioritise sitting on the computer and writing on the blog, but now I have got some time again!

In the chappel after morning prayer

After the last blog post we did sleep at the orphanage and there we got some couscous and some sauce I had never tasted before but it was ok. After this we played cards with the kids and joined in on the activities they had. It was a nice evening. We slept together with the girls in their dormitory and got one bed to sleep in. The morning after we joined the kids on the morning prayer in their small chapel. There they sing and pray every morning before breakfast and school. We were invited up to the Korean missionaries for breakfast and sat there together with Samson, one of the other workers at the orphanage. 

Rebecca and Blanche playing Ligretto! "It's fun!"

Yves and Mossa enjoying the easter holiday

The weekend after, 23.-25. March, we went on a trip to Garoua with the Gospel Singer. That was an amazing weekend! It started out with a meeting at College Protestant for preparations before we were going away with the bus, and also a last fast prayer for the trip. We desided in the last minute to drive a car up there instead of taking a local bus. 

Simplice, me, Kristian, Bassané and Sara-Jeanette

So together with two others from the choir we squeezed into the Aasens car and drove the 4 hour long drive up there. That is something I have gotten used to when we have been in Africa; we fill up everything, church benches, cars, motor taxies, and car taxies and so on. But when we arrived and got settled in inside the buildings connected to the Sion church in Garoua we finally got some food before the choir had a concert in the church.
As we did not know all the songs we were told (at the last minute) that we would join the audience instead of singing with them. The performance was very nice and there were allot of people watching. But as the Saturday was the big day for them they hoped that the audience would be bigger the day after, when the big concert was going to be. 

Unpacking the bus outside the Sion Church in Garoua

The Saturday started out with a good breakfast, some classes and before dinner we went to the concert place. After they were finished practicing we took a motor taxi together with one guy from the choir each to Medoubass’ aunt and ate couscous there.
Sadly there were only a few people who came to the concert that evening due to too little PR. But therefore we got to join in on the last few songs! And it was very fun! 

Gospel Singers concert on Saturday 24th of March 2012

After the concert we went back to the church, and as I was really hungry after not eating for several hours I joined Kristian, Abbou and Bassané in walking down to a fish bar close by. But unfortunately we came there right after closing time, so we had to get into town to get some fish. So therefore for the third time that day I broke the rules (!) and took a motor taxi. We ate fish from a stand on the side of the mane road, and sat down at a bar where we bought big sodas for each of us.
The fish was really great! It was definitely one of the best fish meals I have ever had, it may be because I was so hungry, but I do not want to admit that... We joined some of the other choir members at another bar where we sat and talked for a while before we went back by motor taxi to the church. So during that one weekend I managed to break the rules four times...oops?
The day after we sang with the choir on two sermons in the Sion church, and then we got couscous with gombo sauce, which is one of the greatest couscous meals I have ever tasted!
We travelled back to Ngaoundéré, and had a short stop in Ngong, where the rest stopped to sing for the inhabitants in the village, but as we cannot drive during the night we had to continue. 

Abbou and Martial

On Monday 26^th of March we were invited to celebrate the graduation of Martial, a band member in the choir. We ate and sang and listened to some speeches that his friends and family had planned for him. As all other events in Cameroon it lasted for a long time, and after 3 hours the real party began. They had put all their chairs and sofas outside, and moved a big loudspeaker into their living room where the guests started dancing. And as we were there, many of the boys came to ask us to dance, it was fun, but we went home quite early I think, because we heard they had kept going until 5 in the morning!

The two last weeks we spent with the kids at the orphanage, our friends at the mission station, walking around the area we lived in and enjoying our last time in Cameroon as Hald students.
And we actually managed to experience the first real rain before we went back! It was so good to feel it and see it. And with the rain, the mangoes were finally ripe. So I got to climb in a mango tree and pick my own fresh mango! Amos, our contact person, arranged a diner with Foumgbami and the next years Hald students from Cameroon and some old Hald student, at the norwegian missionaries house together with some of our friends, both norwegian and cameroonian. We also learnt how to make makkala right before we went back to Norway.

Good bye diner, f.l. Helene, Kristian, me, Simplice

Together with the next years Hald students

Learning how to cook makkala

Last biblegroup meeting the evening before we travelled back

I really miss it now, the people, the country, the food, our parrot Aco, the fruits, the jobs. Basically everything, and that means that I have to go back sometime!

Johanne Teresie

Gadjiwan 20. - 22. January 2012

On the 20th of January we were invited to Gadjiwan to visit Solbjørg. So early in the morning that day the boys, us two girls, the driver and two African women who are from Gadjiwan went on what turned out to be a six hours drive.
As Gadjiwan is a small village way out in the bush west in Cameroon, the road leading to it is quite bad and bumpy.
So squeezed into a car, the eight of us had a really nice time and were even fortunate enough to see some wild monkeys running over the road!
The last 25 km. (which is about 15.5 miles if anybody wondered..) took 2 (!) hours, that says a bit about the condition of the road..

Beautiful African sunset in Gadjiwan

When we arrived in the little village we were shown to a house where we were staying for the weekend. Solbjørg and her visitors are fortunate enough to be able to get electricity from solar panels. So for a certain amount of time each day she has light in her house. The others in the village do not have the technology to have electricity, or even water.
The water is in wells and the light is provided from torches or candles.

After eating a great dinner and a really good cake the youth, Solbjørg and Erik Sandvik who had joined us went on a visit to a neighbouring village to deliver a mattress to one of the pastors there. We sat on the back of a pickup truck and had a blast driving to Mayo Balèo on top of the mattress, however the way back was a bit more painful and bumpy!

Kristian, Runar, me, Andreas and Sara-Jeanette on the back of the pickuptruck

On Saturday morning we went into the village with Solbjørg and visited some of the families that live there. We did not get to speak allot with them as there are very few people there that speak French, so most of the things we managed to say in Fulani/Fulfulde was: good day = sanou,  how are you/ fine = djamna, djam, and thank you = ossoko.
It was very nice seeing how they lived together there. The small houses that were made of dirtbricks and straw roofs looked quite cosy, but it was dark inside most of them. But why stay inside in the dark during the day? People were mostly outside chatting to their neighbours while sitting on their homemade stools and porches leading up to the houses.

Woman making peanut butter from scratch

One of the families we visited had a man who was digging a well right outside their house. He did not know for sure if there was any water to find, so hopefully the hard work was not for nothing.

In the evening we were invited to a neighbouring village. We visited the Muslim leader of the village and an other family. We were served couscous and makkala and sat on the floor while eating the latter.

Erik Sandvik and the village leader

There was another reason for us to be there that evening an this was to show a Christian film for the inhabitants of this village. The film was a Nigerian Catholic made film but as Solbjørg said it is still Christian so it would make do. The film was shown on a TV that was placed on top of the pickup truck with great speakers and an aggregator that made it all possible as there was no electricity. A man sat next to the truck with  a microphone and translated the French into the mother language of the villagers. This meant that the film was paused several times to make sure the most important parts were translated properly. And if there was something funny show it was rewind and played again and again and again. And each time was as funny as the first!!

The TV that was used for the christian film we saw with the village

It was an amazing experience to sit there and watch this little screen together with maybe about 100 other people seated on the ground around us. As they knew that we were not used to sit on the ground for that long we were given plastic chairs to sit on.

On Sunday morning we went to the church in Gadjiwan and experienced a different kind of sermon than what we are used to in Ngaoundéré. With only Fulfulde and Péré as the spoken language, we did not understand so much more than  the bible verses that were read as we had bibles in French and Norwegian with us.
After the sermon Solbjørg served Couscous and some leftovers from the delicious cakes she had served us that weekend.

We were really lucky to be invited to visit her, and we had a great time there! While we weren't visiting Solbjørgs friends or eating her delicious cakes we were playing cards or hunting down the enormous rats that lived in the attic over our house we stayed in.
This was quite an entertaining adventure in it self! The boys took turns in trying to sneak a peak at the great beasts by climbing up on weakly mounted chairs. Kristian threw a makkala up as bate so that the beast would attack something else than him when he lifted himself up there. Andreas managed to take some better pictures up there than what I was able to.. But Runar was not as keen on this risky game we had going as the rest of us were, but he had to take a look as well.

BATE! = Makkala

Kristian taking a careful look up in the attic

No giant rats were seen though... so the knifes the boys got from Solbjørg were not put in use yet... But we could hear them over our heads when we went to bed, probably having a feast over the makkalas that we had thrown up there!

After dinner and church on Sunday we drove home again. This trip was mostly spent on trying to get home to the last minutes of the football game the boys had been talking about all weekend. Which was "unfortunately" not possible as we had a stop in Tignère where we visited a sibling of one of the madams we had with us in the car.



All in all, it was a great trip! And we were given the opportunity to see the life in the small villages of Africa. Without electricity, water, TVs, computers, Internet and even mobile reception they live a completely different life than what we do in Norway!

Johanne Teresie

Christmas in Cameroon

21^st December: We went to Mount Ngaoundéré, it took us as much as maybe fifteen minutes to walk up the small hill and the view was really nice! We took some cool pictures and had a nice time up there with some friends. 

View over Ngaoundéré

Mount Ngaoundéré

 

Slingshots - always handy

Chillin' on the top with the boys

 

Just before we were going down, Sara-Jeanette managed to fall from a big rock and scare a snake which was lurking around our feet without us noticing it! In anticipation to be able to shoot at a snake with the cool slingshots that the boys had brought with them, we hadn’t noticed it before this. But unfortunately the snake had vanished before anybody could get a nice aim at it. But satisfied with the sight and not so satisfied by the hurting hand Sara-Jeanette, me and the others made our way back down safely to the car.

 

22^nd December: The day started with spending some time at the pool and in the afternoon we went to the Norwegian School to join a Christmas porridge dinner together with all the workers at the Station. There we got traditional Norwegian rice porridge with cinnamon sugar and butter. It was really good! The Bischler boys performed a little song for us and Erik had a speech before he said that all of the workers would get ¼ of a goat each for Christmas! So right about then someone brought ten goats with ribbons and names of the owners around their neck, over to the school and tied them in the trees. Erik instructed that the goats were to be slaughtered before the 24^th so that it would be ready for the feast on the 25^th for all the households. All the workers were really exited to see them and they couldn’t stop rejoicing and thanking God for the gift.

23^rd December: We were invited to lunch at the Norwegian School where we were gathered together with the other Norwegians who had come to spend Christmas here some days before. We got allot of good Norwegian food and cakes, and we enjoyed the company with the others very much. The Music club had a concert for us outside and collected money for the work in the Sunday Schools in the church. A very nice performance!

The red bowl was overflowing with money!

After the lunch we went together with the boys to the market for some last minute Christmas shopping. Which included Kristian buying two chickens which were very much alive (!) to one of our friends here for Christmas. This then led to some screaming and laughing in the car on the way back home.
Sara-Jeanette and I had decided to make some marzipan for Christmas and as it was the evening before Christmas Eve we had to make it then if we were going to make it before the big day. Runar also joined in for a bit as mental support and with Christmas songs on the loudspeakers we had a really nice evening! In other words the evening lived up to the traditions with my family in Norway. 

Moise with the two chicks

Me and our mental support = Runar

The Marzipan, yum,yum!

24^th December: The big day started with watching “Tre nøtter til Askepott” together with Runar and Kristian with lots of sweets and sodas. Later we helped out with arranging chairs out at the back of the Norwegian School for the sermon which was held by one of the Norwegians that were here at the station for Christmas. With really nice weather, Norwegian songs and a nice sermon made it all remind of how the first Christmas might have been.
After the sermon we were invited to the Bischler house together with the one-year-volunteers, the Aasen family, Jan Martin and Oda Hurum. We had a really nice Christmas dinner with “pinnekjøtt” which made us all feel the Christmas spirit even a bit more than what we had earlier.
The evening passed with eager kids who wanted to open presents, nice conversations and a really enjoyable company of people.
I also had a short conversation with the family back in Vanse too before they all went to sleep.

The four of us, f.l. Runar, Sara-Jeanette, me and Kristian

 












A bit strange not being home for Christmas this year, but I can honestly say with a hand on my heart that I wouldn’t have it any other way this year. There will be many other Christmases at home, but never another Christmas here in Ngaoundéré as a Hald student so I enjoyed it while I could!

 Merry Christmas!
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