Christmas season at Mbingo

The blog has suffered in the last 2 ½ weeks from a combination of my burn-out, and too many things going on!  Christmas here unfortunately suffers from many of the bad things of the west – too much commercialism and pressure on people to spend money they don’t have – thefts, drunkenness, violence that always peaks at this season – and an upsurge in the already high rate of road accidents.  The US Embassy sends out an annual warning to their citizens in Cameroon warning them to be especially vigilant and careful, avoiding demonstrating their wealth, being out after dark, and taking taxis.  But it is also a time of genuinely festive celebrations, and we have had a number of these in the past couple of weeks.

 

                  Before I get to those though, we did have rain – 4 days of it!!  This is very unusual – and inappropriate – for this time in dry season.  David from OR is having mud bricks made for a new house;  he ran up the hill to his site the day the rain first came down hard, and was able to cover the bricks already made with plastic – but the water ran under the plastic, and he said the bricks “just dissolved” – 1000 of them.  But, he said, he heard about another fellow who had lost 5000 – so he felt less sorry for himself. 

 

                  OR staff had their morning to sing in chapel in the Christmas music weeks.  We practiced really quite hard on our 3 carols, and I think did a credible job – got off to a bad start on “We Three Kings” and had to start over, but then did great!  It is no easy feat to start on the right notes when there is no accompaniment.  The singing is not my responsibility, and I am just happy to be invited to sing with them.  The music has been really nice each morning; quite a few groups have done African choruses rather than the traditional carols, and that has been great.  As well, the hospital choir put on a whole concert of Christmas music last Friday, even including “Jingle Bells”!

 

                  Last Saturday, the wife of one of the expat doctors put on a Christmas tea for the other expat women.  Almost like home – and lots of goodies.  How to do Christmas day can be a bit of a puzzle on a compound like this, since all the expats are away from their families.  My neighbours in the duplex right now are a retired couple (from 40 years work as a missionary surgeon, mainly in Ethiopia), here for 5 months to help with the surgery – so they and I and a couple and another single woman will have dinner together.  All but me are very long-term (35 years +) in Africa, so it should be an interesting time visiting.

 

                  On December 16, this “anaesthesia” house (that is, this end of the duplex) was formally dedicated to the

 glory of God.  You really only have two choices here – invite a very select group, or invite the whole community.  The latter just was not reasonable given the size of the house, and my budget – so about 20 people came, mainly the anaesthetists, and some other good friends.  We sang as is easy to do here, where everyone has the ability, had a short program led by the head chaplain, and ate.  It was special to me, because this house began last January as a dream, when I realized there was no place for me to live if I returned for a second year, and became a truly beautiful reality, with thanks to various friends at home who helped with the costs, and to Thom and the technical staff for pulling off the construction against all odds.  I ordered food from the kitchen which makes a party like this so easy – and at the end, my five students cleaned everything up while I was saying goodbye to the other guests, divided up the remaining food for those who could use it, and took the dishes back to the kitchen for me.  About as good as it gets!

 

                  And yesterday was the party of all parties!  It was a combined Christmas celebration / retirement for 9 hospital employees, including our hospital administrator, the fathers of two of our anaesthetists, and the expat physio Pat (here since 1973!).  I went down to the kitchen at 7am to see how they could cook (over open fires) for 1000 people.  People had been working since 5am, most of them as volunteers.  My photos are all blurry because of the amount of smoke in the kitchen!  One can only be impressed at what folks here pull off.

 

                  The program itself was to start at 10am (prompt!) so got underway close to 11.  There were MANY people here, from all over anglophone Cameroon, so we kept getting pushed down the benches to get more people in.  I always seem to end up between two large men  - Ellen was sitting in front of me and periodically would turn around and laugh as she watched me getting more and more squished between them.  The program lasted until after 2:30!!  Some things would take me a long, long time to adjust to I think – and the length of time something like this can take is one of them!  Eventually though, all the speeches by every sort of dignitary had been made, the retirees presented, their replies delivered – and we adjourned to the refreshments, which were served in various venues all over the compound to accommodate everyone. 

 

                  Then it was time for the celebrations on the family compounds of the retirees.  First I headed down the highway, probably close to 2 miles, to the Sande compound.  Sande Evan is our youngest nurse anaesthetist, and his Dad is retiring from many years of leprosy work.  The compound was full of people sitting around eating and visiting, while an amplifier played music, and children played everywhere.  The honoured person always seems to be inside the house, so I was ushered in to where Pa (the term of honour for an older man) was sitting and eating, and was sat down right beside him.  I drank my Fanta, managed to beg off eating because I could not face another huge fufu loaf, and then was able to go back outside and greet other people I knew.  This was the first time I’d met Evan’s mother and other family members, as well as his fiancée, so it was a happy visit.  They are a grand family.

 

                  Fortunately the Ngam compound is in the same neighbourhood, so that was the next stop.  Mr Ngam has been administrator at Mbingo for 10 years, a good and humble man of great integrity, with a wife who is a nurse and just a delightful person.  There was another great party going on there – huge amounts of food (the women had been up til 3am cooking), and the venacular church choir members were singing their hearts out, with assorted drums and shakers audible from half a mile away.  Once again I was ushered inside to greet Pa, and have my coke – and when I went out, the dancing had begun.  The singers were now dancing in a circle while the drummers were in the middle, and all the kids (some carrying infant siblings on their backs) were dancing in their own smaller circle in the middle.  More and more people joined in, and finally one of the older expat women joined and pulled me in too.  It was just so much fun – not much to it except moving your feet and going in a circle, but the atmosphere is what is delightful, just the sheer joy of being alive to recognize the goodness of God.  These people really know how to celebrate, and we westerners can learn so much from them!  The sun was sinking though, and finally I had to pull myself away so I could get home before dark.  It’s a stiff climb back up the highway to the hospital – I walked with a couple of fellows from the hospital which made me really trot along up the hill, but finally told them to go on ahead.  By then I was within sight of Mbingo market so I knew I was safe – and I arrived home 40 minutes after leaving the Ngams’, as dark settled in (6:30pm) – exhausted from the day, but exhilarated. 

 

                  That is probably the happiest day I’ve had at Mbingo (where life is often happy).  I’ve lived here a year in total now, and am getting to know more and more people, and getting more integrated into the community.  From working with international students at home, I know how pleasing it is to have them take an interest in our ways and activities – and I really enjoy seeing the pleasure on the faces of friends here when I go to their home or have them to mine, or walk with them instead of finding a vehicle, or join in the singing and dancing.  I will never be anything but western but it is really fun to live in a culture where the gap is not so great but what real friendships can be built across it.  (Photos are on a separate blog)

 

                  And so – Happy Christmas from Mbingo!