Comice

So I have been kind of busy/lazy/not had the internet for a while, but here is the update from the Comice that I was supposed to post like a month ago.

Ebolowa, the regional capital of the South has been preparing for the Comice for a few years now, so the whole city looked pretty nice. Coming into town there where banners all over the place, all the building where new or freshly painted, and some one had obviously came through and picked up most of the trash that tends to be everywhere in cities. They had built a new hotel for all the elites who would be showing up, and a new park dedicated to Paul Biya in the center of town (which was of course locked, and not open to the public). Coming into the village just outside of Ebolowa where they had set everything up for the show I was struck by how nice it all looked. It reminded me more of a music festival than anything else. All of the stands where in brand new tents, the entrance was huge and well made, and there was a gigantic stage with a huge sound system and lights. Also Castel had a beer tent set up, which was awesome.

The main entrance, with the obligatory giant picture of Paul Biya

On the first day we where not able to actually get inside to set up our booth, so we set up outside the main entrance. We probably got to talk to a lot more people seeing as most of them had the same problem as us. The security was ridiculous because the president was there giving a speech to open the fair. It really only makes sense in Cameroon to have a Argo-Pastoral dedicated to the hard working farmers of Cameroon, and then not let any of them in.

At lest we didn't miss the parade! (I hate parades)

The table right after we set up.

A group of random Americans is known to draw a crowd pretty quickly.

On the second day we finally got in and set up the booth which I thought ended up looking pretty nice. There where a bunch of volunteers there, and we where all supposed to be talking about different things depending on where at the table we where standing. There was a section on AIDS education and family planning, some stuff on soy cultivation, and then an area for medicinal plants. All of the volunteers where also supposed to talk about what it is exactly that the Peace Corps does. Unfortunately for me my French wasn’t quite good enough to be doing any of that with proficiency, and I had been a Volunteer for about a month at that point, so I didn't really know myself what it is Peace Corps does in the country. In spite of that, I had to do a lot of talking, because the booth stayed busy pretty much all day for the whole six days, how much I was understood I don't really know, but at least I tried.  All in all I would have to say it was a good experience, but it was a little bit frustrating.

The inside of the booth.

The Front

There was some faux cultural stuff set up that was pretty cool, but I would have to say this painting was about the most awesome thing there. I also bought some masks, and probably over paid, but I liked them a lot so I don't mind.

Clay dome Houses from the North.

I think this is from the North too.

This is supposedly what the inside of a house in the South looks like, but I can tell you its not exactly accurate.

That would be Paul and Chantel Biya picking pineapples with The Obama's

Mask 1

Mask 2

The highlight of the whole thing was meeting Paul, and Chantel Biya, and shaking their hands. I can now say that I have met a dictator. The ambassador and his wife also came by, but I had already met him before so it wasn't quite as exiting.

The ambassador and his wife checking out the booth.

Paul and Chantel, Paul is much shorter in person that I thought he would be.

A couple other random pictures:

There was a small, rather sickly looking lion that didn't seem to happy about being on display.

This is called a cane rat, and people have begun to breed them for meat here.

African elephant snails.  I hope to start a snail raising project with someone from my village, so I talked to the guy who raised these quite a bit.

I have a bunch of pictures from trekking around the rain forest, and some from my post mate Amanda's Women’s Day soy project that I helped out on that I will try and get posted soon.