sisters

RUF fall conference 2010. God has grace-iously shown me again what a gift it is to be surrounded by such beautiful sisters who do just this-embrace you with love, carry your burdens, spoil you with laughter, and remind you that the view on top is always worth the trek.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." -Colossians 3:12-17

Flashback

"This idea of emigrating from Cameroon, as well as from other African
countries, and settling in Europe is nurtured by all youths in Francophone
Africa. Europe is described in geography textbooks and films as the centre of
the world, an El Dorado with a booming economy, as opposed to Africa where
civil wars, famine and generalised underdevelopment are common features.
Unpaved, muddy or dusty African roads are contrasted with paved European
motorways; wooden bridges are contrasted with flyovers, and agricultural production
is contrasted with industrial production. To flee from grinding poverty,
African youths take serious risks to reach Europe, their dreamland. Cameroonian
girls trade their bodies to raise enough money for visa charges. Some spend
their time and their resources consulting internet matrimonial sites in search of
potential husbands whom they do not know. The requirements are sometimes
de-humanising: potential husbands usually ask for enlarged pictures of all of
their would-be wives’ body parts. This requirement has created two new types
of jobs in urban centres in Cameroon: photographers specialised in snapping
specific body parts, and computer operators specialised in scanning these
photographs. These jobs flourished in the country up to the year 2000. In a
personal communication, a cybercafé (shops where internet services are offered
and charged for on an hourly basis) operator told me that he earned his fortune
thanks to women and young girls visiting matrimonial internet sites and
getting their photographs scanned. Some correspondents required as many as
20 photographs of one person’s specific body parts. Needless to say, these photographs
are never given back."
-Jean-Paul Kouega. “The Language Situation in Cameroon.”
______________________________________________

Those rare, brightly lit cybercafés that occasionally dotted the streets of Yaoundé immediately came to mind when I read this article. The thought that such atrocious acts may have been committed as I, an oblivious traveler dazzled by the spectacles of a new environment, so ignorantly passed by makes me shutter. I want to go back. I want to go back not as the naive foreigner again but as someone who has been close enough to hear the heart beat of this country...as someone who walks past the fancy displays in the front of the store and heads to the dusty back shelves to find that which has been left neglected and forgotten.

fall i n g

Dear little leaf,
you look worn and tired.
You're barely hanging there,
sulking under your own weight
clinging to that slender branch.

You've been tickled by the gentle breeze
and battered by the stormy winds.

People tread past you
without a care in the world.
Others try to reach you
to boast something of themselves.

Some pause for a moment
and find you worth remembering.
They reach into their pocket
and take a snapshot of your still beauty.

Seasons change.
They come
and go.
Some look up.
Some pass under.
But you're still there, aren't you?

You may be tired.
Tired of the rain pounding down on you,
of the frost leaving you numb and
jaded by what the world offers you.

But wait, wait a little longer.
You're going to blush again.
You're going to shed new colors soon.
And right when you feel like letting go,
the world will see your beauty again.

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."-Isaiah 43:18-19