"things are looking up for old liz lemon"

Two pieces of great news!

First, I found a house! I'll move in December, when another volunteer(s?) will move into my current house, and take on all the transit house responsibilities. I'll miss this wireless internet and hot showers... it's like i'm leaving the first world all over again. Though, at least the world I'm moving to has a yard for honey, a modern bath and a kitchen sink. (At first I typed modern kitchen, but realized that would give Americans an entirely wrong impression). It's the right size too, and while further from town than I had hoped, it's in a safe little concession, and I'm excited to be moving there.

Secondly, the funding for the Adamaoua Girls' Scholarship finally arrived. The scholarship was started (and mostly funded this year) by two American women, Anne C. and Anne R. You can read more or donate for next year here: http://www.a2empowerment.org/ It was a pretty complicated process getting the money here, and I'm glad it's finally going to the intended use--providing school fees, uniforms, and books to 25 rural Adamaoua girls to attend high school.

saro--pagne's brother

In my post about pagne*, I failed to mention saro. Saro** is the other type of fabric popular here. Unlike pagne, it is always a solid color. There is a design woven into the fabric, but this is very subtle since it's all the same color thread. Saro has a shinny, waxy look until it's been washed.

The traditional man's outfit in the north of Cameroon is the boubou--it's basically a loose, knee length shirt over drawstring pants. The whole ensemble is made of the same fabric, and finished off with embroidery on the front of the shirt, around the collar and cuffs.

Cameroonians prefer colorful saros--either bright colors, or pale pastels, but rarely neutrals. Blue is the most common boubou color, but I've seen every color except black.

Women can wear saro too--as long as there's plenty of embroidery to keep it expressive. Women usually have long sleeve, loose fitting tops and matching ankle length wrap skirts.

Check the slide-show for some things I've made on my pedal sewing machine out of saro. The pink and white dresses were from patterns my mom sent me. Both yellow projects I designed myself.


*I've added a picture to that old post, if you're interested in a sampling of pagne designs. More pictures of finished pagne garments to come.

**Saro is my imagined spelling (say sorrow, as in sadness) since I haven't been able to find reference to this name on the internet. Websites seem to call this fabric brocade or basin fabric, but when I asked the market vendors where I could buy boubou fabric, they told me i was looking for saro.

ca fait longtemps

I don't have any excuse for how long I've neglected this blog. Not that I haven't been thinking of you all, my readers. I did write an entry about two months ago that I never got around to posting. My apologies.

Catching Up:

My (tiny) teacher training course that lasted all summer is on hold for now. We used openoffice for the entire course, which worked well for learning the basics of Writer (Word) and Calc (Excel). Beyond that, my students want to learn basic desktop publishing (making business cards, invitations...) and we've found openoffice just doesn't cut it. So, we are waiting until we get Publisher, and can complete the class. The photos for this post are all from Mbideng.

The group I started with back in April at the CPFF (center for women and families) has finished the course! They are already settling in at their internship positions in the local government offices, and we will have a graduation ceremony in the first week of November.

As both these classes wrap up, all my students hard work shines through. Both groups have progressed so far, and I'm extremely glad I made the job switch and get to work with my f a n t a s t i c new-ish counterpart.


The Near Future:

So I have a bit of down time until my classes start up again. I've been doing a lot of sewing lately, and think I'll be taking advantage of this huge excess of spare time to compete some projects and start others.

Otherwise, I'm searching for a new house at post to move into in December. I need a place with a yard, since Honey will be coming too. I would l o v e to go back to my original house (even though they've since built a two story building in the front yard) but I doubt that will happen. So, I've been asking around for studios. Though I think I'm going to rethink that strategy--I've seen some pretty dismal rooms. House hunting is very different here--there are no listings (online or in print) and you have to specify electricity, running water, and modern toilet. People keep telling me they have a place to show me and then the toilet is a hole in the ground. One guy said his place had running water, but really there was one spicket serving the concession (group of buildings).

For a while I wasn't sure I would come home before my close of service (early June of next year), but my family has made an extraordinarily generous offer to buy me a plane ticket home. I will be in Portland for a spell around Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, so many of the people I love will still be far away (unless they decide it'd be a good time to visit Portland***).



So, especially with extra time on my hands, I will renew my promise to update at least once a week.

***No one in their right mind thinks late November is a good time to visit Portland.