IWD Dust Table Crows

Today is International Women's Day.  Celebrate the achievements of women and work to make gender equality a reality.  IWD is a much bigger holiday in Cameroon than the USA.  Each year a special commemorative cloth is made in two different colors; this year’s theme is “All united against terrorism.”  Here’s a picture of me in a dress made of that cloth. 

There was a parade today, but I chose not to go.  Actually, I headed that direction, but ended up chatting with shop keeper friends and never made it.  I’ve never been very fond of parades anyway.  On Sunday (March 6) the mayor and local women’s organization hosted an event at town hall.  Women prepared and sold typical dishes from around Cameroon.  I have a very interesting one with chicken, plantains, carrots, green beans and other things.  Quite good.

There was also a program of 25 local groups of women singing and dancing.  As I have mentioned before, the tradition is to put money on the singers’/dancers’ heads to show appreciation.  In a program like this, the donor often dances up and maybe dances with the presenters for a bit.  The mayor and sous-prefet both danced with several groups.  Here’s the sous-prefet (the one in the suit on the left) and his assistant dancing with a group of traditional Gbaya dancers.  The other picture is the mayor siting in the audience as the program got underway.  Yes, I did dance up once to the pleasure of the singer (one woman) and much of the audience.  (No picture of that since I was dancing, but the official photographer for the event snapped us.  I might see it sometime in the future...)

It has not rained again since the hard rain I mentioned last week.  This is not surprising, but I am a little surprised how much that one downpour helped cut the ever-present dry season dust.  It is still around, but much less is kicked up on the dirt road – for the moment. 

My table is fixed.  I talked to a carpenter friend in town who said that waiting for it to go back down could make the situation worse so he came to the house to look at it.  It turns out that the one supporting brace has cured out allowing the wooden slats that held the table top in place to loosen,   He did some repositioning of slats and pounded a few nails.  The table is back to its normal form. J

now unable to hold that side of the table in place.

Can you guess what this picture is?  Worm?  No, it is the rubber part of the car’s windshield wiper.  Crows must think it is a worm.  This is not the first time I have found the rubber piece on the ground, plucked out of the wiper.  It hasn’t happened for quite some time since the car is now parked under the veranda/car port.  But, there it was the other day when I was leaving the house.  Cheeky birds! 

End violence against women.  Support equal pay for equal work.  Encourage girls (and women) to become better educated.  Let’s make the world a better place for everyone.  “Listen to the women for a change.”  (That’s a WILPF slogan that I appreciate.)