Women

Quick post before I head back to my house: I just had a conversation with my host sister (who I think is in her 20s) about marriage in Cameroon. She was talking about how the reason that men want to marry younger women is that they are more likely to submit to the husband's authority; as women grow older, they become more independent and less likely to listen to their husband's orders. She said that God meant for women to be subordinate, and when they aren't, there are a lot of problems in the relationship. I said that women in the US don't want to be subordinate to men, and she said that's why there are so many single women there (which she said is very bad). It was very interesting. What's fascinating about this particular family is that it's a modern, well-off, urban family, but they still hold these traditional ideas. Also, the mother is some sort of government minister, which is how they have so much money, but as my sister explained to me, "You can be the minister at the office, but at home, you're a wife."