A thief - and a party
Last Thursday my friends Thom and Ellen had another thief at their house, the second time in the last 6 months. This time it was actually a young man who was living with their neighbours, and whom they had hired couple of weeks ago to work on their yard. He tried to take Thom’s bicycle – Gladys who works in their house saw him and yelled, and Ben who works at the next expat’s place just down the road heard her and saw the guy run, and tackled him in the bush. Ben is pretty small and walks with a limp from a crippled leg – but he has the courage of a lion. He said the guy was BIG and fought like crazy and tried to bite Ben on the arms but Ben held on – in the end the thief just slipped out of his jacket and left it with Ben and ran. Gladys had meantime phoned Thom who was in Bamenda – (Ellen was at the school working) – and Thom called security out here, and they alerted all their people, and in minutes the hospital compound was surrounded by people and by vehicles – the thief didn’t have a chance of escape. The jungle network is via the cellphone now, just like at home! John who makes cane furniture (and was probably working on my 2 chairs at the time!) had a gun (why??? – mercy!) and he caught the guy in the field near the furniture workshop, and when threatened with a gun, the thief surrendered. Security then took him to the reception office of the hospital – by then Ellen had reached there, to talk to the boy as well as give her evidence – but then the people (not security but others in the office) started to kick and beat the boy – she said it was terrible and she got out as soon as she could so she would not have to watch. The assistant administrator was already trying to get a vehicle to get the boy off the compound and to the gendarmes in Bello up the road – so he would not be killed on our compound. In fact he did get delivered safely – but death is the common fate for thieves in this part of the world – if they are caught, the people of the community will kill them. The justice system here is hopeless – anyone can be bought off – and if a thief goes free, he remains a threat to the community where people have very little security to their houses, no insurance, and only a few possessions which they have obtained with great difficulty. So it is a cruel system but not completely beyond understanding. I missed this whole thing – was in OR and never even knew it was happening until I got home in the afternoon and my neighbour filled me in. Various people have told me that this is the worst time of year – around Christmas – for thefts, violence, and accidents. Sad. There are several stories of attempted thefts over the years on Mbingo compound though, and they are all the same – there is always this massive and immediate turn-out of the entire community, bearing a startling collection of arms – and the thieves are always caught. There is considerable security in living in such a community!
Today the workmen who built this house - 34 in all - came for “chop” after they finished their workday at 3:30. In two weeks, I am going to have a formal dedication of the house, but Thom and Ellen had told me that when they had their house dedicated, so many people came that the workmen arrived only after all the food was gone, and they had to be content with going down to the canteen and being fed there. So I did not want the same thing to happen. The party really was pretty easy for me. Ennis the foreman on this job, did the organizing for me – bought 3 chickens, delivered them to the canteen with whom he had arranged the cooking of not only the chickens but also fufu corn and njamma njamma – and he bought the soft drinks – and the canteen supplied the plastic plates. Since one eats here with one’s fingers, no cutlery is necessary. The men arrived, I gave a very small welcome / thank you speech in pidgen, having composed it with much help from my student Grace, Mr Ennis gave a small thank you to everyone, one of the men prayed for the food, everyone filed either to the kitchen sink or to the tap in the back yard to wash hands, and they ate. Ennis announced that things would be done in order, so two of the younger men served out the plates so everyone would get their share, giving plates to the older men first, then the younger. The caps of the drinks were removed with teeth!! In the end, the dishes were all piled up, and the place was left in order, and men just got up and left as they finished. The plates were a bit of a job to wash as palm oil is used in cooking everything and it is very sticky thick stuff – but otherwise, it was about as good a way to throw a party as I can imagine! These men are very nice, and although quite a few of them were working only during the time I was back home last summer, I knew many of them – and also see a number of them every Sunday in church but did not realize what jobs they did. So all in all, it was a most enjoyable gathering, and I think they appreciated being recognized for their work. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.
This afternoon we had quite a bit of thunder and it looked like it would rain – a “Christmas rain”, so-called because it is a gift when it comes in December. But it is now evening and there has been no rain, alas. It is getting hotter each day and is very dry. The garden is thriving with frequent watering though – fresh lettuce and swiss chard is a treat every day, and soon there will be beans. We begin the “Christmas music” in chapel next week – otherwise I would scarcely know that Christmas is coming!!
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