Cultural Dress Day

It is Cultural Dress Day today at CATUC and I snuck in to work using my California Culture wear.  Beside me is Mr. Paul Vincent Etogo Jr., wearing a very stylish suit from Ghana!  He is my co-worker and Cameroonian friend that is ensuring my enculturation goes smoothly!  

Although the school policy is no shorts, I was allowed to hang out in my California attire for a brief period and then went home to downscale the beach flavor! Next time, I think I should ask Mr. Paul if his tailor can make some pants for me out of the flower print on my shorts.

CATUC Students and Matriculation Mass Celebration

Hello friends,

Classes have now started at the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda (CATUC) and I am truly enjoying meeting so many of the students!  Despite the difference in culture and multiple decades since I completed my undergraduate degree, many of the challenges are basically the same.  Seeing the bright and hopeful faces of these students brings a huge smile to my face and I feel myself wanting to serve them in whatever way God is calling me to.  Just the other day we had our Matriculation Mass and since our office had been involved in preparing several of the students for the readings and petitions, I felt so proud of them as they accomplished their parts.  I kind of felt like a beaming mother hen with her chicks, heehee.

I must also share how inspired I am to see so many students consistently come to daily Mass during their lunch hour.  I am not so sure that when I was a college student I would have sacrificed my lunch hour to go to Mass.  I have a feeling I would have been led by my hungry stomach!

Peace and prayers to all, and a request to keep the CATUC students in your prayers as this academic year begins!

Resume Builder

I hope all is well back in California; certainly life in Cameroon is going well and I am learning many things about African culture.

I want to share about a skill that I am almost convinced Cameroonians are given at birth.  This skill does not discriminate as I have seen young, old, men, women, and kids all doing it with much ease.  Apparently having the ability to carry anything such as your water buckets, artifacts to sell, wood for cooking, etc. etc. on your head is a very simple task for the inhabitants of my host country.  I know I have seen pictures of this in the past but somehow I had thought it was a lost practice.  Evidently not!

(Ashley Hansen has been in Cameroon over a year)

 


Since I am open to trying new things and because I am wondering if it could be a “resume builder” (LOL) I have made some initial attempts which have not gone too well.  I will continue to try to improve on this skill but for now I am convinced I have the wrong shaped head, heehee.
 

From sub-Saharan Africa with more to learn,

Marco