tant de choses! (so many things)

well there's a lot to catch up on in this blog, i have gotten behind because of time and logistics. i am now on the road again with the group, staying in the capital yaounde for 8 days. after that we'll go to the coastal city of kribi for three days and then head north to ngaoundere and maroua where we'll learn about muslim culture and visit a nature reserve ( thats right, on safari -- i never realized i would do that here!).

since last entry, i have really experienced too many new and interesting things to explain them all. i will do some quick bulletpoint updates:

--> stayed at a chefferie, the home of the traditional bamileke cultural leader. there are several around dschang, situated in each neighborhood and surrounding village. i stayed the weekend in the small chefferie of fonakeukeu with one other student, and we basically followed the chef around to see what his life is like. "our" chef wasnt more than 40yrs old, was very intellectual and very well-read. we went to a funeral, had dinner with him, talked about a lot of different subjects including american eating disorders and the war in iraq and polygamy and cameroonian agriculture, and went to a soccer game. pretty sweet.

--> baked sugar cookies for my family. sugar cookies are pretty much the easiest thing ever to bake, correct? WAH WAH, think again! the oven in our house doesnt work, so we only use the oven on the balcony, which is essentially a small woodburning metal trash can with a grill. i took the big cast iron pot and put the cookie sheet inside it, covered the top and checked every five minutes. they actually turned out really well...plus people dont bake cookies here so it was a treat. i decided to try one egg next time instead of two, and to remember to use my headlamp when uncovering the pot after it gets dark on the balcony -- i have a distinct little burn from the cast iron on my forearm. woodburning stoves get hot!

--> went to the *only* night club in dschang with all the students. really funny, really fun. along with cameroonian music, they also played such favorites as "umbrella," "beautiful girls," and akon's new one. which by the way are played everywhere and every second in restaurants, bars, the street, the cybercafe, peoples houses...it gets a little ridiculous, one of the three is always stuck in my head.

thats the interesting stuff. im also doing homework and getting ready for my research project, but i think about that too much as it is. at this point, my plan for the big research is to study marriage as an institution in the bamileke culture, probably focusing on polygamy in the chefferies. i have a lot of questions about this part of the bamileke culture that continues as the instance of polygamy descends in other cameroonian communities. is this an important part of tradition to the chefs, to the wives? can women who are part of a polygamous relationship have autonomy, equality, power, independence? what do these terms mean to these women? that's a start at least.

time to get back to the mission we're staying at -- dance class tonight! i love experiential learning. i will leave you as the cameroonians do, by saying "j'arrive", which literally means "im coming" but in cmr french means "seeya later" (it can be very confusing).

j'arrive!