And we dance

It is 9am. I am in a traditional Cameroonian home participating in a traditional Cameroonian dance with 12 local women and Joshua and Phil and Tobias. The hut is dark save for the strong shaft of light that streams through the front door. We are dancing around the main wooden pillar that supports the thatched roof. The women chant a song of appreciation to us. One bangs an African drum to offer a rhythm and another blows into a wooden pipe to provide accompaniment. A third sprinkles water at our feet. I try to sing along with the words of the song but really I am just "aaaah'ing" to the tune. My dancing is a combination of a foot shuffle, an arm shake and a large dose of self consciousness.

These women form the Women's Empowerment Group, another RUDEC initiative set up by Joshua. Earlier in the morning we had handed out guinea pigs and chickens for them to breed, sell and eat. The dance was a dance of appreciation and gratitude.

This was my first time inside a real Cameroonian home. It was a far cry from the 'luxury' of our house. Cameroonian huts are built around a central fire which is used to cook and heat water. The walls are made of mud bricks which provide solidity and warmth. Many times I have seen women and children working hard during the day to fashion the mud into the right size bricks for the sun to dry. The roofs tend to be either thatched with straw or made from corrugated iron sheets.

This hut was no different. As I sat looking at the beds spread around the walls of the hut, I contrasted their wooden slats with my luxury pocket sprung memory foam mattress back in the UK. The floor of the hut was taken up by guinea pigs running loose, chickens squaking beneath netted buckets and a variety of cooking pots and utensils. The hut felt warm and cosy and despite it being primitive to me, it is what Cameroonians call home.