May 1, 2009 was Cameroon’s national Labor Day. For the Himalayan Institute Cameroon it was a day of celebration and pride.
Each year, Labor Day in Kumbo is marked by a grand parade at the stadium to honor all vocations, businesses, and organizations in the area. The HIC staff assembled on the stadium field to prepare for the march. The new tractors from the School of Energy Farming were brought to accompany the staff during the parade. Everyone was very excited to see the new machinery and the Energy Farming staff spent much of the morning explaining the tractors and the new service program to the groups of people that gathered around.
After speeches from the mayor and Senior Divisional Officer, the parade got underway. Organizations and businesses took turns marching past the grandstand, holding up signs and banners. A band played music and an announcer named the organizations and their accomplishments as they passed. But not long after the parade began, clouds rolled in and it began to rain. All of the organizations in the parade disbanded and ran to the bandstand to take cover, but the HIC staff kept marching. With big grins on their faces, the proud members of the HIC marched past the grandstand to the cheers of the crowd.
HIC volunteer John Daskovsky tells a group of onlookers about the new tractors. The tractors will be available to the community through a service rental program, which will enable farmers to cultivate more land with greater ease.
