yaounde village trip

life goes well in yaounde. i'm back and busy with field work after the weekend off, and looking towards paper writing in the close future.
The village trip was fun. to and from takes about 5 hours each way in car. I only went with the parents and then papas sister from yaounde too. mamas mama also came back with us. We left at 5 am sat. way early, even though we were supposed to leave at 4... stopped for goat both too at this rest stop market thing which everyone frequents while travelling up to the west provice. before getting to bana, we stopped in baham for a burial of a yaounde prof who pops knew. most people there had travelled from yaounde, but its always about the village and family and cultural ties here in cam, so it goes down out in the rural parts. the govt does the same - both increasing ethnic differentiation and regionalism, but also preserving family connections and culture - a good example of the development vs culture struggle which is the focus of the SIT program.
The village, Bana, was very nice, but my parents said the nice building and homes were just actually personal places for the richest of the city former village folks. We stayed at pops deceased parents former home, kept for the kids to use from time to time. there were funeraimlles going on, which are big celebrations of dead people, a few years after their passing. dancing, feasting, drinking, drumming, dressing up, all going on. its basically a huge concentration of bamileke culture. myself, i didnt get into too much but was more observing, along witht hte family, which was alright. but pictures were taken.
running out of internet time means more to say about details, but cant. to sum up, village life is ahrd and my parents have strong ties there and give money to community etc. but really the village is the core of cameroon, but lacks the resources.
got back sunday, life is good. ask more later...