Picnic with the choir!

Saturday two weeks ago was spent on a mountain near by (my second time on this mountain). After we'd attended choir practise Tuesday, Thursday and Friday that week, I was looking forward to our first social gathering with the choir. Because when we have practises, we use just to sing and dance for 2 1/2 hours without any pauses...Before the trip we were going to wash the church, which the choir often does. Therefore we met up by the church at 7:30. There were some people there already, and they had started washing, but told us to sit down... After some hours there, washing a little and waiting for more people to come, we finally started to walk around 11 o'clock.

Arriving on top of the mountain, I learned that it was time to play games. Some started to play card-games, and I played a game I've never played on a mountain top before: Monopoly (in French!). With the bills blowing away sometimes, it was a bit difficult, but we managed to find a way to make it work. After having played a while, and I'd just started to built some houses, we're tired of playing, and stopped. Then it was time for other games. The Cameroonians made a circle and started to play singing and dancing-games. We also learned them a game, called "Hi-ha-ho" (almost like "The Sheriff"). That was was fun! "Bro, bro brille..." was also part of the games ;)

Playing ludo

After a while people started to become hungry and thirsty. Then the leaders announced that those who hadn't brought food for the picnic had to go to a place a little away and stay there, while those who had brought food ate... Then most people left. I was also very hungry, and I had brought  some biscuits. But I was unsure if I should eat it now. It wouldn't feel right to eat while the others sat behind some rocks not far away, having nothing to eat...I also thought that people would ask for food and water if they saw I had it.

But then I saw that some of the other Cameroonians also had brought food, actually big bowls with spaghetti. They sat in groups and shared the food. To me it seemed like they were hiding a little behind some rocks, so that they could have the food for themselves and not had to share with too many people. And I understand that! So then I also ate some biscuits and drank the rest of my water. I think I learnt a lot by the feeling I got when I could eat biscuits (for 3000 CFA/36 NOK, that's more than one days salary here!), bought in a shop with imported articles, while others didn't have anything to bring. It didn't feel fair, and I felt ashamed.

Ready to perform their song

One group performing their song

After some of us had ate, we were divided into groups, and the leaders organised a Bible competition. The leaders had brought their Bibles, and the group who first found a certain Bible verse got 1 point. That was the first part of the competition. The next part was a quiz, and the last one was about making a song with the themes "Young and Christians" and performing it. We got 10 minutes, the persons in the jury gave points to the groups, and the best group won. When we summarised the points from all the parts of the competition, it was actually my group who won, so that was fun :)

At 15 o'clock the picnic still wasn't finished. I'd drunk my last rest of the 1/2 L. of water a long time ago, and we were all were thirsty. And us Norwegians couldn't manage it more. Therefore we said "good bye" to the others and went down the mountain and straight home. Arriving in our house sunburned and tired, we went straight to the fridge, and I drunk almost 1 L. at once! What a trip! I still can't understand why every gathering here has to last for such a long time... But I can say that the Cameroonians are persistent!!