more photos from up north

Here are more photos from our time up north last week, in the Extreme North Province of Cameroon, near the city of Maroua. The trip was to visit granaries in villages participating in RELUFA's food sovereignty program.

A granary, and a Presbyterian volunteer. Those sacks are 100 or possibly 120 kilos. The granaries we saw stored millet, sorghum, rice and corn.

He's displaying an open bag. This is either millet or sorghum, which is also known as millet.

There are lots of kids in the villages we visited, and they were always interested in our delegation.

One of the men who welcomed us.

A village in northern Cameroon: conical roofs, mud-brick architecture, hot sandy ground, stony hills behind, and trees for shade.

A traditional one-family granary, accessed through a roof hole. The ladder is the log at right, with steps carved in it.

People dressed up for our visits, especially the women.

Visiting with women in one of the villages.

We were fed at one stop, by this lady, just outside the granary behind us. That's me in the yellow shirt.

Ann and Christi visiting with women in one of the villages.

Lionel (left) from PC-USA, and our driver.

Me with Elias. Elias heads up an NGO that is very active in the food sovereignty program. He's the one who reports on this program at RELUFA assemblies, and he lives in the region, in a village himself.

Meeting under a tree, in one village. Ann's on that high rock in the middle.

There were often goats around. Or maybe sheep. Not really sure how to tell them apart, since I'm a city boy. Chevres and moutons, respectively, in French.

More village architecture. We heard people don't sleep indoors except during the rainy season, since their houses get so hot in the sun.

Village well.

More kids. This meeting ran long. Can you tell?

We saw donkeys here and there as well.

This is fresh-harvested millet.

A thatched-roof house belonging to a Christian family, which I was told is discernible by the cross at the peak.

This guy seemed a bit lost.

This one actually spent awhile looking for his friend from the previous photo.

One of the village women who administers a granary.

Roof thatch.

More kids. This was a shorter meeting.

Talking things over at our hotel in Maroua after our visits, on the morning of the day we flew out. From left, Elias, Lionel and Christi.

Basil, who works for an NGO in Garoua, the next city south, who came along to observe. I found out he's another computer guy.

Mangoes, lots and lots of mangoes, for sale at the side of the road in Maroua. It's mango season here at the moment. There are a few different varieties.

That's our whirlwind tour of the north. We had a great time seeing it all for the first time, and never would have gotten to see the villages like that if we had just wandered up here on our own instead of coming along on a work trip. This was much better than simply being a tourist. We made ourselves useful by taking pictures and tracking expenses.

And, actually, by blogging. RELUFA has a new intern we met just today, and apparently she found RELUFA partly through our blog. So maybe this will all be useful in ways we can't predict.