3 Day Weekend

We had an unexpected three day weekend! You may ask, how did your school get an unscheduled three day weekend? Well, to be honest, I’m trying to figure that out myself. At the same time, I wasn’t complaining. Apparently, we had Friday off because the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, wanted to complete a census. We were informed Thursday afternoon, and by Friday morning I had slept in really late. On Friday afternoon, I found myself in a local grocery store listening to the radio. The announcer was discussing the census and it’s reception with the people. They talked about the training of the people responsible for giving the census (they went door to door giving a survey), the 60 questions that made up the questionnaire, and the fact that many people were not sure what would happen on Friday and that they didn’t want to discuss personal items for the census. Overall, I don’t think it was well received

Saturday night I went to a fundraising gala. This gala was hosted by a group organized to help bring pipe water to a village located in the north part of Cameroon. It was quite interesting and I should apologize that I don’t have pictures because I forgot my camera at home. The gala consisted of mingling and traditional dance from the village. I was quite embarrassed when the hosts proceeded to call out every single name from the guest list to walk to the front of the room and give a donation. Although strange, that wasn’t what really shocked me. After a person gave a donation, the announcers would then call out the amount that person gave!! I definitely wasn’t expecting that nor was I expecting to sit that long.

Sunday was quite relaxing, as it should be. I went over to Claudette’s house, the school librarian. She made some great fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, and apple pie!! It was very delicious. Not better than yours Mom!

Almost forgot! Saturday I went to a student’s house to celebrate the German holiday, St. Martin. The kids made lanterns and we held them as we walked through the neighborhood.

Since, I don’t have pics from the weekend, I still decided that I needed to add something. So, we have a pic of Izumi and I at International day and a view from a friend’s apartment.

Have a good one.