The beginning guttural already suggests that the name conceals a considerable amount of authority, but if you know it, then Guldum appears naked in his incontestable might.
Guldum is so important that when you meet a friend on the road again before you ask "How are you?" he is asked "How's Guldum?". And often the answer is not positive.
Guldum is so strong that never sleeps. Every night before sleep here each night hoping that at least this Guldum needs a little rest, but it seems his power is infinite.
Men have invented all sorts of machinery to fight it but he is still often win.
Guldum in the country where I come from there. But here for three months a year is the absolute sovereign and his subjects bend when it comes as no other king on earth.
Dear friends,
Guldum arrived. I was very frightened by the South and did well: here the heat is something inconceivable, difficult even to imagine. E'assurdo because the temperature never drops and when it blows a breath of wind is hot air. If you want to experience the emotion, try to get close to an oven Pointer and a hairdryer in your face. But only if you are very supportive.
Obviously it's a dry heat and then drink like a gallon of water a day but go to the bathroom twice, we have the thermometer in the living room is always above 35 degrees and when we dared to put it on the sill of the window (but still in the shade ) increased to a maximum of forty-five degrees, without giving us the satisfaction of knowing how far it could go.
But the real comedy is the night. Here to fight the drought and take everyone invents his strategies. I, in addition to the fan that runs from the evening than the morning over my head, I have a bottle with stopper (Patent of Luke) that use three or four times in one night to wet the bed and me that Scott is essential, an escort of two liters of ice water to quench their thirst.
Every now and then you wake up and run in the shower two minutes before getting back to sleep, a volunteer who was here last year put the pillow each night secure in the freezer for a prolonged cool. But the best remedy is to sleep outside (as do all the rest, since it is not that many people have fans and fans mica, and almost no one - not even to us - an air conditioning system) because during the dry season there are not many mosquitoes. Me and Luke two nights we took the car and went to sleep without the , an agricultural center in full brousse , 15 km from Garoua, where he pulls in more than a wisp of air. I do not say that magic sleep under a tree in the middle of the savannah, with the stars over our eyes and a herd of animals to keep us company. The first time I slept without interruption until dawn while the second guard came to wake us up at night to tell us that he needed the sling he had forgotten in our machine (here the guards defend us with machetes, bow or just slingshot ...).
The work is progressing well. Ended the month of observation are entered in full swing in the two projects and I must say that this dichotomy in the partition of my time allows me to see the two worlds, so different.
program Enfants de la Rue (EDR) is really well organized, think that since its inception in 1997, reinstated in families of origin more than 450 children of which 82% were stabilized and eighty children are back on the road. Our children's Petite Maison (at the end of April will be re-opened JABBAAMA SAAR) ended the second quarter with very high averages, and for this we have celebrated with lots of songs, greetings and dinner for the Easter holidays. I have prepared juice folerè (a red flower very bitter) but I forgot sugar and the same children came to tell me that was good.
One of the most exciting of the project are the voyages of "research" and "assessment". Behind every boy there is a history to be reconstructed, a laborious investigation to track the path to try to entrust it to a family member. As you would have detailed information from a child of ten is not the easiest thing in the world. We rely on vague memories and you go on a treasure hunt that only after several attempts by some results. When the return was made trips become "assessment" in the sense that every now and then you go to see if the return is good, it is still at home, studying, working, etc. ..
Monday I returned from one of these trips: we started in 11 of a pickup, 7 "petit bandits" and 4 processors and up to Tokombéré we arrived, the Far North. Faticanti travel, especially driving on roads in these villages unthinkable to get forgotten by the world, but when you are before the eyes of a child twelve years old who bursts into tears after learning that his mother thought he was dead you'd think that this trip also made knees.
the Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture, social importance as the capital center (think that some musicians famosi in Cameroun hanno impugnato la loro prima chitarra proprio in una MJC, un giornalista che ora lavora a Canal 2 è stato iniziato al mondo nella comunicazione in uno di questi centri) dato che di proposte sociali a livello statale, soprattutto qui al Nord, non ce ne sono, la mia presenza – tanto quanto l'utenza- è molto diversa. Se coi ragazzi di strada le richieste rispecchiano una necessità di soddisfazione dei bisogni primari, di attenzione e considerazione (ridono da matti se mi cimento in improbabili conversazioni o declamazioni in fulfuldè), le richieste ma soprattutto le risorse di una MJC chiedono un altro approccio e altri obbiettivi. Per ora ho collaborato con uno stagista nigeriano dalle rare capacità artistiche to try to awaken the studio of hip hop music lost in the maze and the decale coupe. I played with him at the Women's Day, the feast for his departure and I even made a song that perhaps ignorant on his album comes out in June in Nigeria. Not that it was really my dream when I was a child, but cooperation was still interesting.
With the theater group have staged a tropical Snow White (Snow White guy who's mother died of malaria) and now I'm working on the registration of a religious choir.
I try to do everything and leaving a legacy by training local leaders (never a lecture but a very empirical direct exchange) is one of the things I learned from these early months, twenty days to come down as three years, however, did not make sense if the interaction does not leave gained an ability that can be exploited even after our departure. I think also eyeing the new European routes in international cooperation is perceived a change of course in this direct way to the empowerment and funding of projects paternariato with local NGOs, as well as the necessary cooperation between local and foreign organizations (NGOs, missions ...) that too often trample feet in the same area, which is quite ironic in a field like that. However, we find very interesting projects but also many overlapping structures, or to purposes unknown. What is sure is that money and turn it often is not clear where they end up. And another sure thing is that here have not understood that time is a resource that is worth as much as money.
E'incredibile, I think that all mail could be ten pages long there are too many things I'd like to share with you, even the crazy things that you see around (kind: here the shirt of a football team that is Cagliari or Manchester, satus is a symbol, but when I arrived in a remote village and found the wife of the headman in his sixties and with no teeth mesh Ljiumberg I laughed for a quarter of an hour), but if there's one thing I can not do is to thank you for the wonderful gift you have given me to get down. Thanks in Smyrna, creator and producer of the video (I do not know what words to use to make you understand what you are helping me), thanks to all who have contributed or that I have "only" put a greeting in front of the camera, it was a special moment for me, I felt at home.
the country without air and without a long warm hug to each of you.
the next episode
jj
