tchow juju

Today, Miahcano, 4 and 8 months, and Dewa, 3 and 8 months, stood in front of me, butt naked, post-bath, as Mounira braided my hair in my landlord’s compound. Koulu, Dewa’s mom, the first wife who seems like the second wife, sat across from me, breatfeeding Nura, 1 yr. The boys were dancing, swinging everything around. Turned sideways. Miachano grabbed Dewa’s hips and thrusted. Later, Dewa swung it out right in front of my face (I couldn’t move my head because of the hair-braiding) and Koulu said, “tchow juju.” She made a slicing motion with her hand. “Chop the weiner off!” she was saying.
Later that night, Denis, my terminale student, came over. I let go of Nomi’s collar to see if he’d stay calm and he ran like a wild man. Denis said I should have castrated him when he was very small. (Cameroonian dogs seem to stay fairly small, so Nomi looks full-grown to many Cameroonians. If he does, we’ll know Cam dogs’ smallness is a nutritional). I said I wanted to neuter him but he had an infection and his testicles retracted, so it was impossible. At night it’s cold; I couldn’t stop shivering. Denis said an uncastrated dog loose at night will go long and wide searching for women. I said, yes, that’s what I’m worried about – he’s already started making love. But he doesn’t know the difference..”
“Between woman and man?” Denis finished. “So it means he’s still a child.” I thought about this. I thought about Miahcano and Dewa. Kids must do that often. Of course. Children imitate. The kids are imitating the goat, sheep, dog, cow, and chicken sex they see everywhere, and they don’t discriminate.