Week 2: The Clarke family arrives

Week two

Saturday Lindsay took off to meet her parents so I was left on my own in Dschang. I had a really great meeting with Noupa. The man is a French and English teacher so even when we are just talking French he knows how to talk someone like me whose French needs a bit of work.

Sunday Lindsay arrived in Dschang with her family. They've hired this awesome chauffeur Bertrand during the stay and he was ferrying people over to this family compound in the village of Fongo Tongo, used by SIT as a welcome site during Lindsay's time as an SIT student. I went in the first truckload across some ridiculously bumpy roads and as an early arrival got to help the women prepare for the night's feast. As a man helping to prepare a meal I caught some flack, both from the men and women, the latter group were wary of my plantain slicing abilities and wouldn't let me use the sharp knife. At length I left the preparations to the pros and took off with Delmass to climb the local "mountain" and check out the view – beautiful.

A view from Fongo Tongo

Dinner was going to be a big deal, chicken DG (for Director Generale) which roughly translates to VIP chicken. I went into town with a couple of the guys to pick up drinks for dinner at the local general store where we encountered the chief of the neighboring village behind the counter and the chief of the local village drinking in the corner. Once we arrived and picked up what we needed Papa Nana bought us a round, and then I bought us a round, and next thing you know we were heading back to the site in decidedly higher spirits than when we left.

We arrived back at the compound to find that Lindsay had just killed her first chicken! And that preparations for dinner were well underway despite my absence. We feasted on chicken with green beans and carrots and fried plantain chips, and were joined by the chief of the neighboring village/general store manager. A fantastic meal and several speeches later the majority of us were in bed before 11pm.

The next day we took off to see the local sites. First we saw a sacred cave with our guide Jean Side by Side (cool name!). As the site is sacred and used for traditional rituals we needed a guide. It was pretty neat, lots of bats flying around. We got back to the site and hiked up the top of the same mountain. The whole region is volcanic highlands so you hike up the top for a great view and find that there is this awesome plateau region where people have planted crops. We hiked along for a bit above the local countryside.

Then we headed off to see the water fall Mamy wata. When enthusiasm for this site appeared to be waning we were motivated by Lindsay's advice that everyone in Dschang is going to ask white visitors if they've seen the falls at Mamy wata. We drove out there with some of us standing in the bed of the pickup truck which got a lot of grins and waves from the locals, and arrived in the rain to find that it was too slippery to do much more than look down at the falls from the top. It was still pretty cool; these falls are also a sacred site for traditional religious practices and a ceremony was going on during our visit with singing and dancing and sacrifices of salt and palm oil.

After another huge dinner joined by the chief we spent our last night at Fongo Tongo and headed back to Dschang for a hot second before shooting off to the village of Doombu. As Doombu is where Lindsay taught and built her library. We were in for a pretty special welcome. I got designated group photographer which was a clutch move in eliminating some of my awkwardness. The entire village was there to meet us more or less, with a silly hat for Papa Clarke to wear and a nifty bag for Mama Clarke. We toured the elementary school that Lindsay pimped out, had a drink; toured the grounds and had lunch and a drink at the home/mansion of a village elite, then toured the high school, where we were serenaded with speeches and the high school pep squad. It turns out the high school principal held onto all the students' grades until our visit so the kids would turn out, hilarious.

Lots of speeches during the school welcome ceremony

After the school ceremonies were over we went to a funeral type ceremony for Lindsay’s old chief who had passed since her last period in Cameroon. Cameroonian funerals are executed in three parts over the course of a year or more. The first part consists of the initial burial which happens right away for a very intimate crowd. This initial internment often occurs in the New Orleans style for wealthier individuals with a band and street procession. Then several months later there is the doui (doy) which we experienced in Doombu.

This is the lament, where the village turns out for a brief extent of wailing and mass mourning. I’ve seen this in films and on TV but was not prepared for the actual experience. As honored guests they sat us up in front, and while the wailing business had previously struck me as somewhat insincere or put upon, being actually immersed in it I found myself quite moved. The outpouring of emotion by so many people is quite powerful, both Lindsay and Delmass spontaneously broke out in tears. Though Delmass didn’t know the chief, for a child especially I wasn’t surprised that he should be so moved. To actually cry is a great compliment to the chief's surviving sons, and at the official conclusion of the mourning portion they passed by urging those in tears not to cry anymore as the time for sadness had passed. This lament marked the end of the mourning period, and they were setting up tents when we left for something like 6 days of non-stop celebration.

The death ritual/funeral process concludes with the actual funeral, which can follow months to years after the actual death and is more of a memorial service having a celebratory and commemorative atmosphere.

After the funeral we dropped our bags at the home of a village VIP, Monsieur Kensa. Mnsr. Kensa is a very successful business man and one of the wealthiest men in the village. He is actively involved in development work and has his own non-profit; and he is currently trying to expand internet access in the village among other initiatives. It is through his NGO that I hope to extend my visa through December. After dropping our bags we dined at the house of one of Kensa’s neighbors, a teacher who had worked with Lindsay in Doombu. Several of Lindsay’s lady teacher friends joined us, making for a festive atmosphere. These ladies are truly a riot, and they can’t get enough of Lindsay. At some point during the meal Lindsay committed her brother and me to the harvesting of one of the ladies cabbage fields so that should be interesting, though I must admit the details of the arrangement escaped me, perhaps due to the mealtime consumption of yet another beer.

After a restful night at the Kensa’s (with Matt, Lindsay and I all cozied up in the same bed) we breakfasted with the lady teachers before heading back to Dschang where I was able to run a few errands in my efforts to find a more permanent residence/workspace. Martiel and I went together to look at a spacious but rather dilapidated house in the same neighborhood as the Nanas. Throughout the discussion Martiel was constantly tugging at my sleeve and being shushed by the landlord. When he finally had a moment to speak to me, he informed me of the rather dramatic history of the house under inspection. It seems that 6 months ago the previous resident killed her husband and children inside, yikes.

After that surprise I kicked around town for a bit before meeting with Mnsr. N’joco, Alex’s old host father and his chemistry professor friend. Professor Kamgaing was a very nice guy and was genuinely interested in my work. He studies environmental chemistry, and is very much concerned with water quality parameters including dissolved oxygen and BOD (as well as numerous heavy metals) so I got a great chance to mix it up with some shop talk. Together with Mnsr. N’joco we discussed the possibility of my renting an apartment in the university dormitories and Prof. Kamgaing promised to look into it while I’m with the Clarkes up north this next week.

Cameroonians are generally pretty superstitious, and when I returned to the Nana’s later that evening, the first thing out of Mama Nana’s mouth was “Nathan! You cannot live in that house!” followed by a second recounting of the story and further exigencies. Now I’m thinking I can probably get this house for next to nothing, but I guess if I ever want to have Cameroonian visitors I’ll be better off looking elsewhere.

The next day, Thursday, I hobnobbed around town with Papa Nana for a bit in the morning, leaving him pleased as punch but also profiting myself from the occasion in meeting another school official who would be willing to put me up in his house outside town, and in having my first visit to the Artisinat, or artisans' workshop. The workshop has an incredible array of wood sculptures and traditional crafts, plus I got to see them working, which is in of itself a pretty neat process. An assembly line approach is used with an initial carver followed by several sets of sanders and finishers. The final products are quite diverse and exceptionally beautiful. We also headed back to Kelang with the full Clarke posse to feast at the chief’s and talk about the community center.

The Artisinat


Kelang