Day 25: Thursday 6th November 2008
Thursday sees us in Bali (no, not that Bali – although I know one VSO volunteer who is there – I reckon that’s more of a holiday than a VSO placement personally!)
The Bali CEAC Director is Victor, who meets us on a motorbike, which, along with a very small office, seems to be the only resource he has. He takes us to a community hall, where we hold another workshop – this time fewer people know what the CEAC is, so we have to again change our theme questions; but it seems to go fairly well, and we are able to conduct some interviews whilst it is going on as well. Today many Cameroonians are celebrating the 26th anniversary of the accession of the President Paul Biya; so our courtesy visit to the Mayor is a short one.
Day 26: Friday 7th November 2008
We leave at 6 to drive to Jakiri, the road to which is not tarred all the way. It is a beautiful, if tiring journey, through striking peaks and valleys. We are lucky that we are here at the end of the rainy season, when the trees are still green and everything is fertile; the roads are dry enough to travel on, without being too dusty. The rich red earth of Cameroon is in wonderful contrast to the greens all around; and the countryside is full of crops, fruit and palm trees and some cattle grazing.
Cameroon has learned to its cost, as have other African countries, that eucalyptus planting has destroyed some of its water catchments, and is attempting to redress this with projects to plant other trees and reclaim some of the areas.
When we arrive at Jakiri, we go to greet the Mayor and find he has gone on ahead and is in fact waiting to greet us at the CEAC of Upper Dzekwa or Sop. We are treated like royalty when we arrive, there is a group of young people with a welcome song, and a formal programme of events.
This CEAC focuses on unemployed young people, and is running vocational training courses, in carpentry, tailoring, hairdressing, shoemaking and repairing, literacy and numeracy, amongst other things. Resources are limited and have been begged and borrowed from various sources. There are two aging computers, a few sewing machines, some carpentry tools and one ancient hairdryer. They would consider having a printer a great luxury.
It reminds me of when I taught pre-vocational courses for young people of this age in Manchester, and I can empathise with the passion which drives the Director and his teachers here, and also the Mayor, who is here to take part in the workshop, and communicates his own vision of empowering individuals and communities.
We are invited back to Mayor Laurence Ashang’s house to meet his mother Olive, who is a well known community development and women's advocate and journalist here, and to have lunch there. She is warm and welcoming and keen to hear about what we are all doing. It is a privilege to meet her.
The following link gives some information about her and her husband’s work.
http://www.shemkafoundation.org/history.shtml
Day 27: Saturday 8th November 2008
Today I go with Rose to a wedding. It is a simple service, followed by a blessing and a LOT (!)of singing and dancing, and is a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
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