… and THEN (maybe 15 minutes after I wrote this http://intercontinentallife.blogspot.com/2011/02/trapped_08.html), I experienced the following:
Gabrielle (the cute baby girl of on of Joseph’s sisters) had been scared of Andreas from the very first moment she saw him. She screamed as loud as she pos
sibly could every time he came near her (I am not sure if she had ever seen a white man before).
sibly could every time he came near her (I am not sure if she had ever seen a white man before).But when Andreas gave her a few Gummibears we had brought with us for the kids, she was at first skeptical, looked at her mom and did not rely know what to do. After a few moments she took one and ate it and from that moment on, Andreas and Gabrielle were practically inseparable for the next two weeks.
Food, healthy or not, unites people. It can break barriers, its language is universal. When I think back over the last 2 weeks, I notice that we had the most wonderful conversations during breakfast, lunch or dinner. I just wish my mind would not have wandered back to this dark, dark place all the time.
I will never forget this moment; the moment when Gabrielle started to trust and like Andreas – just because of a handful of Gummibears…
As time went on my mind started to relax a bit. The thoughts were still omnipresent, but the voices weren’t as loud as they were and are in Europe.
The reason for this is quite certainly the fact that I was not surrounded by this evil, harmful and sick media world that is almost unavoidable in the western world. Women care about the way they look like in Cameroon too, but the pressure is not even slightly as extreme as it is here.
The other reason is that my mind had just too many other impressions to process to dictate and direct my thoughts into the “anorexia” direction.
P.S. I was told a few times that women whose husbands do not have a “big belly” are viewed as bad wives.
I love the pics of Andreas & Gabrielle! I'm so glad that your mind did relax a bit in Cameroon!
Sounds like the trip was something you really needed!
I think I needed this trip more than I realized. I cannot wait to find the time to write more.