Cousins clowning around on a family holiday
Matriarch of the Chief T clan, about 95 years old
Henna designs on hands and feet are very popular
The end of Ramadan feast day happened a day later than we planned, weirdly being celebrated in CAR on Tuesday and Wednesday in Cameroon. We went and had a lovely time with 5 different households, wishing we could have squeezed more visits in, but our various hosts’ warm welcomes and admonitions to always eat more to made it difficult to add anyone else to the day. The horrible news was that on Tuesday, 4 non-Muslixm farmers were murdered while out in their fields, working. Rumors flew about who did it and some of the non-Muslixm people chose to blame the whole Fulani/Muslixm population. My dear friend H told me that there were non-Muslixm people, machetes in hand, refusing access to the well water pumps, and others were refusing access to the meat market, even throwing meat on the ground…this on the eve of their biggest holiday of the year. H said that she and all her family and friends just hunkered down in their homes, afraid to go out and about. The government sent two big truckloads of soldiers from Yaoundé to be present in town. It didn’t seem like there were any extra soldiers milling about that day, but we were at people’s homes and not in town. Our friends gathered in a huge mass out on a playing field, as is their norm, about 8:30 am on the Ramadan feast day, to worship and give thanks before they ended their fast. They said there were plenty of soldiers around them out there. It seems that all is okay now, but it was certainly sad to hear our Fulani friends say that “CAR has arrived in Cameroon”. Please pray for peace and for God’s love to reign.
