Testimonial

Della Bii-Mai: I’m from the English part of Cameroon, precisely Bamenda. It’s the capital city of the North West Region. I studied at the University of Buea, Women's Studies and Law. It’s a double degree programme and I graduated with a Bachelor of Science since 2013. After that I worked as a receptionist at a language centre. Then I volunteered with a small organization, called Rescue Women, and then I started volunteering for another organisation: Community Initiative for Sustainable Development (COMINSUD) and through them I got connected to the weltwärts programme and I'm here now!

Della Bii-Mai: So many people at home are thinking I'm getting a lot of money now. They are telling me “You are a big woman already! You are a rich girl!” I'm trying to explain it but everyone is like: “Forget about this story, you cannot deny it!” It also was on my Facebook wall, so my friends and my family have seen it. My family alongside a few of my friends who understand what this is all about think it’s a great way to begin my volunteer year.

Della Bii-Mai: To be honest I didn't, maybe just a little. I heard this from some friends who were here and also from the preparatory seminars we had in my country before traveling. It's not like I had a lot of knowledge about the German people or the German culture or I ever thought of traveling to Germany one day. It was not really in my future. I didn't think about that, maybe I was thinking about traveling but Germany was not the focus. And so I knew very little from their culture and about them. Maybe from the Cameroonian history, since they (the Germans) were the first colonial masters of Cameroon.

Della Bii-Mai: Yeah, I was really scared about where I was going to stay because I was living with my family for most part of my life. And I was thinking about the fact that you have to stay with some other person or people, most probably Germans who are definitely not your relatives or people you know before. These are completely different people. You don't know how it's going to be like. Is it going to be good or is it going to be bad. So that was my greatest worry – not even the language yet.

Della Bii-Mai: When I started I was basically doing some research and trying to understand the projects and manner of work. I have to read and translate everything since my German is still so terrible (laughs). Right now I'm working on this project “fair smartphones” and we are organising workshops with young people to talk about smartphones, the origin, the production, sources of raw material and the problems related to the smartphones’ disposals and other topics. I’m assisting the project’s staff and they're trying to see how we could include some aspects in English for me so I can be more involved. And also there is a project idea too, I’m working on which had been started from the former volunteer.

Della Bii-Mai: It's about bringing Cameroonian journalists and some German journalists together to discuss on the Sustainable Development Goal number 16 which stands for peace, justice and strong institutions. So it's a workshop which we hold in Cameroon and in Germany as well. It's an idea of the former volunteer who was here. He was from Cameroon too and he started working on it. So I’m going through what he did and possibly adding more ideas. It’s just a project idea for now.

Della Bii-Mai: Yes, almost. Maybe like 60 percent, but I'm more and more comfortable now than I was maybe in August. So it's getting better.

Della Bii-Mai: Just the language right now. I already did an intensive course for six weeks before I started working here. And I have to continue maybe up to the A2 level. I mean it's not like anyone is expecting me to be perfect but I just feel it's important for me to be able to communicate in German because I'm always asking: “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” (Do you speak English) This is really annoying. I don't feel comfortable doing that all the time. If you are in a new environment, it’s always good to fit in, even if it's not forever.

Della Bii-Mai: I haven't started yet because it was hard for me finding a course but recently there are courses open at the University. So I was there and there's the possibility that I could start soon.

Della Bii-Mai: Just to be able to fit into another cultural environment, whether it is language, weather, work or daily activities, and maybe make some new friends.

Della Bii-Mai: Maybe because I had talked to someone about here before, I was not so rigid. I'm glad that I didn't come here with so many stereotypes about the country or about the people or the culture. I was just open. I haven't had any cultural shocks yet, but I was a little bit amazed with the quantity of bread Germans eat (laughs). But that's okay. I’m getting used to that already!

Della Bii-Mai: For example, with work it's a little bit different with hierarchy the way colleagues interrelate is really different from Cameroon. If you get into a typical Cameroonian organisation you can see who is the boss – maybe from the way, he carries himself. But here at the Partnership with Africa Foundation it's really different because you hardly know who is in control. We have one working space and you just have your desk. And we have lunch together and everything is almost on the same level. So I find that interesting too.

And also the Cameroonians from my part of the region are very open. In the morning on my way to work in Cameroon I greet almost everybody. I get into the taxi and we have a conversation and that's just how we live. It's more of a community life. But here? Nein… it's like: “I have my space. And this is my space”. The tram is sometimes so quiet; nobody talks and you sit here and you don't even need to say “Hi”. That is how you do it. But if you do this in Cameroon, you might not fit in so comfortably. Also Germans are quite helpful. I was struggling with the map and somebody just walks up to me and asks: “Are you ok?” And even those who cannot speak English so well still try to explain something just to help you out.

Della Bii-Mai: I find it funny that you are maybe the only black person in the midst of so many white people and they are not really anxious to know about you or where you come from. But in Cameroon if there is someone who is white, he's everybody's friend. Because we really want to know where they are coming from and we have a lot of myths about Europe and the whites and we want to talk to them to know more. I had a colleague from Belgium, he was in my organization for six months for an internship and he made so many friends just because of how inquisitive people in my community can get sometimes. There was one time he told us he would not even pay his taxi because when he gets out to the road the taxi drivers who recognises him would tell him “Get in, get in!” And he doesn’t pay! It’s for free! And he tells us when he gets out of the taxi at the junction; he’s going to have a lot of free beer because everybody is saying: “Hey Man, come! Let’s have a beer. Come let’s talk.”

Della Bii-Mai: Of course I miss my family and my friends. I miss the food, some typical homemade food. It's really more difficult because we have some crises going on in my part of the region right now, the Anglophones are having a crisis. It's been ongoing. I mean I left when it started already. It's been more than a year. And it's getting more serious.

Della Bii-Mai: It didn’t start as a political issue but it's now political. So it started just as a small strike by lawyers and teachers. Anglophone lawyers and teachers were complaining about the system and some marginalization and they were calling on the government to work on it. And then it got more serious because the government wasn't reacting in time. So schools have not been going on for more than one year now. No one is going to school. Now there is this movement that stepped in, a separatist movement.

Della Bii-Mai: Right now it is really difficult. From the first of October I guess there have been Internet cuts again. So if I want to communicate with my family, I have to call them or they have to call me. So it's really crazy.

Della Bii-Mai: I haven't lost any family member yet. My mom is a teacher, so she has been unemployed for more than one year now.

Della Bii-Mai: I will return to COMINSUD of course and I also have plans to study but maybe not now. Maybe after some time. I will find a way.

Della Bii-Mai: Yes, of course. I will always recommend it. Because I was talking with the other volunteer from Cameroon and we were sharing our experiences so far. And I told him this is really something great. The way I get to see things here and the way things are being done, how fast I have been able to change my perspective or be able to have a closer look at my perspectives about life. This is really faster for me than I expected and it's great because I think if I didn't travel it would never be the same.

Della Bii-Mai: Maybe the duration, the 13 months - aside from being worried that you will be homesick maybe you start getting settled just after six months and then you have to start thinking about going home. So maybe little bit longer would be good. Also at the end of the programme there could be some support for the volunteers. Many of them go back with experiences and ideas but again they go back to their lives as it was before the volunteer year. It could be a group or it could be a programme or just something to create that space where you can always remember that you were here and you can use this experience here to create or start something.