Today is International Women's Day. It was created to promote equality for women
and men. Here in Cameroon a special
material is created each year to commemorate the occasion. In the picture are one woman wearing one types
of this special cloth made into a dress of her own design. My dress is African, but not from that
material.
(This is a group of participants from our
Biblical Storytelling Seminar. Deborah
Troester is in the back row – with a dress made from International Women’s Day
material, but you can’t see it here.)
Some places here people organize meetings
or seminars to look at problems women face to try to improve the
situations.
What is happening in your town???
We are currently in Mutengené for a seminar
organized by the Network of Biblical Storytellers (NBS). About 25 people attended this three-day
institute including three of us from CAR: Rev. Deborah Troester who teaches at
the Lutheran Theological School in Baboua, Rev. Jackie Griffin who works with
the women’s group in Bouar, and me; three from Cameroon: Dr. Joely Rakotoarivelo
from Madagascar who works at the hospital in Garaou Boulai, Dr. Elisabeth
Johnson who is studying French in N’gaoundéré to be able to teach at the
Lutheran Theological Seminary in Meiganga, and Gashuhun Nemonsa from Ethiopia
who studied French in N’gaoundéré and who will be going to Mali to work in
August.
So, we read or hear scriptures read in
church each Sunday, but have you ever thought about hearing the word in
Biblical times? Most people couldn’t
read or write – those abilities were for the scribes. Even when Hebrew texts were “read” in the
synagogue, the reader had to be well prepared because written texts included no
vowels or spaces between words. The texts
were a guide to help readers remember the stories, but the stories were
told. Do you remember that the Bible as
we know it was not written down in Jesus’ life time? People passed the stories along by word of
mouth. Some people were good at it and
became storytellers.
NBS is revising the telling of biblical stories
in many places and ways. For example, a
pastor might tell the story of the gospel lesson instead of reading it. One leader here (from Chicago) has been doing
that for nine years. Others use them for
Sunday school, meeting, groups of friends, etc.
It involves studying the texts and learning them by heart; then
practicing and finally performing them for an audience (or 3).
We have learned some techniques, talked about
why it is important to do, discussed ways to incorporate storytelling in church
activities, and learned some stories ourselves.
We now have a certificate to show that we have completed the
seminar. It is too bad that capturing
storytelling with a still camera is so difficult. It has been fun and
instructive to be a part of this group. And, we got a certificate for three days' participation.
Weaver birds have made MANY nests in a few
trees near the cafeteria. Some are a
beautiful yellow color (males) and others are black (females). Males weave these nests to attract a female,
but if she doesn’t like it, he tears it apart and starts again! I made her picture bigger than his because it
is International Women’s Day after all…
(And, you can see the nests in the picture with the male.) |
| Falls near Kribi |
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| Retreat session |
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| Lizards of Kribi - colorful! |
On the way here ELCA missionaries had a
three-day retreat (including travel) at Kribi.
This is a town on the Atlantic Coast so we were on the beach! It is much more humid both there and in
Mutengené. We were able to get to each
other better, discuss some policy questions, reflect on our lives and work, and
swim in the ocean! Enjoyable.
Tomorrow the six of us at the Storytelling
Conference are going to Limbé, another coastal town 17 km. from Mutengené. They have dark sand from past volcanic
eruptions. Should be fun.
Sunday we head back to Yaoundé. Some people
will head north Monday and some Tuesday or Wednesday. All of us who work in CAR are headed back there. Hurray!
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