The Village

Soon, a Land Rover arrives to take me to Embakom's village. There is no road for much of the way, so the van that got me this far won't do for travel. 5 men pile in with me for the trip - to this day I don't know why, or who they all were, but we were all in good spirits despite my nervous fears of the meeting to come, and we had a rather hilarious drive. Apparently we were driving through grazing lands, and I was reminded more than once of the scene in Polar Express where caribou block the tracks and only the cries of the engineer move them along.

When we arrived at the small cluster of 5 or 6 huts, I was quickly swarmed by what seemed to be everyone who was in the village that day. I had brought along a soccer ball and immediately a noisy, fast-paced game broke out between all of the children and the 5 men (was this why they came along?). I gave Embakom's grandmother a photo album with copies of every photo we had of him, and some of our family and of Calgary. This item caused huge excitement among everyone there.

I was invited into the hut, and you can see in the pictures the black soot from cooking that covers the walls. The cattle sleep in the hut at night too, to protect them from lions and wild dogs I was told. I could barely catch my breath, the air was so hard on my throat and lungs. This was a hard reminder for me about how fortunate we are, and about the kind of narratives that prevail in the west wherein life in a hut is somehow easier, simple and good, an existence to be envied even. Nothing about the lives of these people seemed easy or simple, and the translator echoed this when he talked about the complete lack of health care and education available to these people, let-alone the lack of clean running water. He was very graphic in his description of daily life; I could feel his frustration, wanting to make sure that I got it, that I didn't romanticize a sort of discovery channel version of a happy rural Africa.

I'll never forget the conversation I had with Embakom's grandmother that day. One day I'll tell him all about her, and share with him what she said to me.