The Diary Game 22/8/2024 Navigating New paths: My trip to Bafoussam

Yesterday was a day full of exploration. I had left Bamenda for Bafoussam the previous night, and yesterday I got up early, did some cleaning, and took a bath. I was there to enroll in a program, and since it was my first time navigating the town, i had a lot of asking and talking to do—and not in English, of course! Hahaha. Fortunately, I am not that illiterate in French.

After getting ready, I used Google Maps to find my location and the direction I needed to head. I sent my location to the program facilitator, who started giving me directions. I left the house and had to find out more details about the quarter where I was staying. The moment I opened my mouth to speak French, though, I felt so heavy! One thing I’ve noticed about language is that the less you use it, the more difficult it becomes to express yourself freely.. You can still communicate, but not with the same ease as in a language you speak often.

I got a bike and dropped off at the first location, then moved on to the next. Eventually, I arrived at the Stade Municipale de Bamendzi, and just opposite was the school. I was welcomed and registered. Later, I was given a tour of the building.

Then I was told the school has a clinic and is offering free tests for several things. I decided to take the opportunity to do a checkup. I went to the lab, and later the results came back fine

Then I was given a tour in the stadium.

After that, I went to see my teacher, the proprietor of the school. He had not been feeling well, so I went to check on him. When I arrived, we were both so happy to see each other after two years of no contact. When it was time to go, he asked his daughter to see me off. I flagged down a bike and tried to explain where I was going, but the driver told me the area was too big and I needed to be more precise. Hahaha. So, I called the person who was hosting me, and they directed me to drop off at "tocket fin de goudron." I told the bike man, and that's how I got home.

Once I was back, I had something to eat and got ready to leave again. My host and a friend drove me to where I could catch a bus back to Bamenda.

During the bus ride, I noticed something that made me think about parenting. There was a woman with her three-year-old son. The child was constantly interrupting his mother while she was talking to someone else, and when she asked him to stop, he shouted at her. When she tried to discipline him, he hit her back, quite hard. Everyone on the bus was shocked and started asking why she allowed him to behave that way. The mother explained that this was just how the child behaved.

An elderly woman then told her that she is the mother and needs to teach him the right behavior. She warned that if the child isn’t corrected now, he might grow up to continue this behavior and could even end up hitting his mother someday or worse, his future wife. These small behaviors can become big problems that are difficult to reverse.

I reflected on that, and I realized that as mothers (and parents in general), we are raising someone’s future spouse. So, we have to be intentional about how we bring up our children to ensure we are contributing good sons, daughters, husbands, and wives to the world

When I finally got home, I was exhausted, given the state of the roads. After I got home I went straight to bed.