Conversations with my landlady always take an interesting turn. That may be an understatement. The other day she came over to "chat with me", which usually ends in her demanding money for rent, water, or power for several months in advance because she needs it to 1) send someone to school 2) buy a rabbit cage 3) fix her husbands motto etc… The most recent conversation took place after she had been out in her village with my landlord and Billy and his wife, to solve the village problems with sorcerers. After a brief explanation of the ways one sorcerer was ruining everyone's lives, we went into depth on the topic of "what is sorcery?" According to my landlady there is a very big difference between white people and black people sorcery, although both types are only performed by godless heathens. Black people use their supernatural powers to hurt other people: kill unborn babies, give people malaria and AIDS, etc… White godless heathens use theirs to do things like build those crazy vehicles that can fly across oceans we call airplanes, and create that insane technology which allows us to speak into a receiver and be heard across the world we call the telephone.
My homestay brother is still in love with me. He was on a streak of calling every night, and occasionally every morning around 3 AM for over a month. I was in the habit of silencing every call or answering and pretending I couldn't hear him. (You may think this sounds mean, but TRUST ME it becomes necessary) Suddenly he stopped. I breathed a sigh of relief. The next day he tricked me into picking up my phone by calling from my homestay sister's number. He berated me for never answer his phone calls. I used my newfound Cameroonian ability to lie through my teeth, and told him some very detailed circular story about how I lost my phone, didn't know his number, etc… He then asked me to marry him. I didn't understand the word he used, so as usual (when I don't understand) I respond "oui". He got really excited, his voice raised a couple of pitches and he asked "REALLY?! You want become engaged with me?!". I think I may have responded "oh crap". I then shot him down in not such a nice, or eloquent, fashion, and quite possibly broke his heart. Sorry Paulin.
My bike training was going well for a while. My bike fell into disrepair about a year ago, when my postmate's door fell on it (common problem, I know). I decided to keep using it, and just wearing myself out not being able to switch gears in going up hills. Eventually this made me angry enough and I took out my tool kit in attempt to repair it myself. The gear system on a bike scared me. I read about it in detail and then attacked it with my wrench. I was so incredibly proud of myself when I hung my bike from the back of a chair and it switched from highest to lowest gear smoothly and quickly. Then, without warning as I downshifted something got stuck, I couldn't figure it out, and now…my bike doesn't switch gears at all. Great. :>( I then started using my postmate's bike…which has a set of problems less advanced than mine. I enjoyed biking initially, I thought that if I were going faster people would have a harder time seeing me coming, have less time to think of evil things to say to me, and also be unable to touch me…seeing as how I would speed by at 12 mph instead of walking at 4. I didn't think about however how much of a spectacle a bike becomes…and the fact that going that much faster forces me to pass just that many more people. Interesting things have happened. My favorite story happened as I was making my way up the enormous hill at the entrance to Ebolowa. Two teenage boys started yelling things about how tired I looked and how hard of a time the white girl must be having. I commented back I'd like to see them try it…and one came over to me and started running behind my bike with his hands on my seat and pushed me all the way up the hill! I thanked him and went on my way. My not so favorite story happened as I passed through one village which has afterwards become my most hated part of the trip. Everyone in this village seemed to be on the road this one Saturday, and the majority of people yelled mean spirited things at me, or laughed at me, or just called me the usual white people names. I was getting really angry, as that frequency of "harassment" tends to make me. I passed a group of 3 guys on the way to the fields, and one thought it would be hilarious if he swung his machete along the ground right in front of my front tire like he was going to take me out, then tell me to go bike in my own country, then laugh evilly with his buddies. Oooooo I got steamed. I didn't stop though, but continued on thinking of all the comebacks and things I should have said back. Some people!
The neighbor kids will always be my best friends. My favorite 2 neighbor girls are back in village for school, and along with them come the little boquets of flowers every couple of days, or the completely unripe tiny fruits they pick off the trees, or any other number of interesting objects they find in the road. One day Laticia came running out to great me with an armless, legless Barbie doll, with the blond hair missing in patches all over the scalp yelling « Kate, Kate, this looks JUST like you ! »...well...thanks Laticia, I'm just another appendageless torso with a pretty face ! Within the first 2 months at my house I had told Laticia and Michelle that if they happened to find a four leaf clover, they would in fact have good luck for the rest of their lives. They searched and searched, and came up to me more than once with a 3 leaf clover, with one of the leaves ripped in half. Sadly, I was unfooled, as I'd tried the same thing more than once as an 8 year old too. I'd thought they'd pretty much given up or forgotten until much to my surprise, a few weeks ago Laticia showed up at my door about as over joyed as can be and presented me with a real, live, 4 leaf clover ! Crazy how close that brought me to tears how she'd remembered that this whole time ! Another similar incident happened with this 6 year old kid named Arnold who was always stopping by « Kate, give me a car. Kate, give me a bike » who I would respond to with the « no, YOU give ME a car ». I'd mentioned this story to my parents who had brought him a little toy car when they came to visit, but then Arnold was away in his mother's village for the summertime and I hadn't gotten a chance to give it to him. He came back one day and was SO excited to see me, I was kinda amazed he liked me that much even without the car... He came up to the door telling me he had something for me and I needed to come get it right away. I told him to bring it back to me, and sure enough...he shows up with a tiny blue plastic car ! It was another one of those moments where I was amazed how this kid had remembered and thought of me... not only did he bring me the blue plastic car, but he also returned with a headless Buggs Bunny figurine...quite the gifter eh !? I'm a lucky woman. And the last neighbor kid story for now...one a little more sad, is about Dorien, the 4 year old brother of Laticia and Michelle, whose family always teases him that he will marry me. Dorien and I get along fabulously, and I'm sure I've mentioned him before. He's always hanging around my porch and in general just being the cutest kid I've ever seen. Lately he's been coming over more and more during the day to draw and color. One day I was pressed for time (this doesn't happen ever, I feel really awkward even saying it) and he kept knocking and knocking and I used my « firm adult tone » to tell him to chill out a second and come back later, and he quietly says « but Kate, I want to come over because I'm all alone at my house »... and sure enough, the entire family had left him there alone...which pretty much broke my heart. He's come over a few times before in a really rotten mood, and I've tried to cheer him up with the usual, no fail coloring book or bouncy ball, and he won't have it... when I'll ask him why not, and what he wants, he'll just say he's hungry and wants to eat some food...break my heart again. This most recent time I asked why he wasn't in school this year, like last, and he said that he didn't have any clothes to go in ! I feel so bad about this boy...but it's one of those situations where I really want to help but absolutely cannot put myself in the role of benefactor for the entire village (which it would quickly become)...just really sad to have to see him suffer because of it ! I'll just keep supplying him with my leftovers and coloring on the front porch. I think I might try to start teaching him to read and write as well ! Not too young is it ?!
The neighbors of others can be slightly less sweet…take for example my postmate's recent experience : So, I myself have entertained the idea once or twice of getting myself a dog, something to keep me company and give me a reason to leave my house and go for a brief walk everyday. It's funny though how one's perception of pets changes when you are in a country where people actually feed and clothe themselves before Fido and will kick Snowball for the slightest indescretion…I decided I wouldn't be a loyal enough pet owner here in Cameroon and my dog would end up flea covered and fight scarred like everyother. My postmate, having a softer heart than my own apparently, decided to adopt the cat of the volunteer who was leaving right as she came in. Luna was a sweet enough cat, as cats go in my opinion…she left me alone :>) Luna had her own door into my postmate's house : a hole thru the window screen, so she could come and go as she pleased : fraternize with the hardcore African cats and all. A month ago my postmate ended up being away for about a week. It had never before been a problem for Luna, who would feed herself with an unlucky lizard, frog or mouse when the mood struck. Sadly, Rachel came back one day to find no sign of Luna…a few days passed and worry grew to suspicion. Rachel began to ask around. Eventually as she asked her neighbor, « Have you seen Luna ? » she received the information, « oh yeah, that fat white cat ?! The family down the road ate it. » Lesson learned : don't get too attached to your pets.
Spider stories I haven't yet shared !!! The spiders that decided to commit these acts were of course all the bigger creepier oncs...or maybe it just seemed that way. And sidenote...I'm not even afraid of spiders...but their invasions into my personal space in the following incidents were unacceptable. 1) I got back from a run one morning and sat myself down on my floormat to do some stretches. Along came a spider, unbeknownst to me, until of course I felt a tickling travel up my inner thigh and disappear into my shorts. Fantastic. I jumped like I can't even explain and ripped off my shorts and flung them at the wall...problem solved ! 2) I decided to go and read in bed for a bit one day. My pillow had been in the living room (on the floormat), so I brought it with me. Apparently nothing should ever be on the floormat. I put my arm up to rest my head on my hand and I catch the sight of something out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, big silverdollar sized spider perched on the back of my hand ! Once again, some sort of flinging action took place, and he was outta there ! He was like 6 inches from my eye. I can say with 100 percent certainty, he was not pretty 3) I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was clearly a little out of it and not in spider avoidance mode (it's really a state of being). I lifted up the toilet seat cover, sat down, and felt the familiar (due to the shorts incident) tickling sensation as a spider made it's way down my back, then my leg, until I could finally reach it, initiate flinging sequence and rid my body of it. Now you see why I feel so violated ?! Creepers, figuratively and literally.
On the animal/insect subject, my favorite, I had a pet frog for about a week. I named him Munich. He lived in my bathroom. He was very small and rather attractive as far as frogs come. He kept moving around and would be the most exciting part of my morning, figuring out where he had gone to. One morning I found him on the shower handle, one morning on the back of the toilet, once just chilling on the side of my shampoo bottle, once on the door frame, and then once a crash woke me up in the middle of the night...I got up to investigate, and sure enough...there he was, sitting next to my plastic vase of flowers he'd apparently decided to leap at and spill all over the floor. The next day Kim came over and tried to capture him in her hands...he was never seen again. I still blame her for his disappearance.
Continuing on with frogs... I've started dating a guy in Ebolowa (weird way to introduce this news...sorry...more interesting though right ?!)...and I find it very entertaining the things and the way people say those things to their « significant otther » For example, in Cameroon it is always ok to tell someone they've gotten fat, or that the food they made tasted like crap...we all know how this goes over in the states, and I've had to explain more than once that I was raised in a place (where maybe even to our detriment) we learned « if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything it all »...thanks Bambi. So the other day this significant other of mine touched my cheek and told me « your face is very smooth, it feels exactly like a frog ». hmmm....thank you ?!?
I've seen some monkeys !!!! I saw one while I took a water break while biking, running down the trunk of a tree. Then the other day I went out to a new farm with Serges and was immersed in a monkey party...there were at least 10 little onces jumping and swinging around the trees right infront of me. That was pretty cool. Also, on my recent trip to the North of Cameroon I got the chance to hear and see, right along the road, several baboons ! So...FINALLY after living next to the rain forest all this time I saw some monkeys in the trees and not just in a cooking pot.
I'll talk about my work a little bit... Biggest thing that needs to be mentioned before any of this...something that's been really hard for me to get my head around in recent weeks, is that Kim (you all should recognize this name by now...pretty much my other half for the past year...workwise, mental healthwise, funwise, everythingwise) has decided to leave her post and move up to the Northwest. Selfishly, I'm very very sad that she's not going to be down here anymore. I have a LOT to figure out and change, since to be honest, almost every project I had going on was with her ! Unselfishly, I am glad that she's going to go somewhere where people actually do work and aren't evil to white girls ! :>) She will almost definitely be happier up there due to all of that ! Thus, once again, selfishly, I am jealous and want to go myself ! :>) So...since that news we've been in the process of trying to reorganize our bike tour, a lot has to change due to her village no longer being on our route, etc... I've been doing some running around to various ministries and schools delivering protocol letters about the event and asking them for support, etc, etc. Kim and I had started visiting the 2 schools we were going to give environmental education classes to for the upcoming months, and so now I'm going to be doing the actual lessons alone...which actually terrifies me. I am afraid of youth in large numbers...especially since each class is around 80 kids ! We had to nix the school in Kim's town, so now I'll just be doing 2 primary schools in Ebolowa. I'm very excited for one school, the director and the teacher I'll be working with have been the most active of anyone I've worked with here so far (besides Serges and Hans) and it's made me remember what it feels like to be excited about a project because it might actually succeed ! I'm continuing my soy work. Kim and I made a pretty darn good soy brochure, I'll use it now to hand out at formations and the informational table at the market I want to do in the spring. We attended a cultural fest put on by my friend Seth in the Northwest (thanks to everyone that donated) and had a soy table there also. I'll talk more about the cultural fest in the next blog entry. I also just attended, and kinda helped, with a soy day the other Agrofoestry volunteer in the South put on this past weekend. She did a lot of work with getting women there to cook a lot of different foods and present on nutrition, planting, etc... Aside from that, we had our Provincal Meeting in the beginning of October and as usual, it was nice to see the few volunteers in my province and share ideas and work stories. Sadly, since that time, Kim as well as Christine, a volunteer in the town of Lolodorf, have decided to leave the province. We' re down to 5 of us, by far the fewest of all 10 provinces in Cameroon...it's sad :>( The south is a tricky and interesting place. Lastly, at the end of September I celebrated my one year anniversary with Cameroon with a group of volunteers at the beach...always wonderful !
SO....those are my short personal anecdotes that are much too personal and not really short! :>) I will be writting within a week to finish up summarizing the past few months with stories of the travels that I've done lately... didn't want to wear you out by making it an all-in-one thing...suspense !
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LETS ALL WISH KATE A HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 IN CAMEROON!!!!! YEAHHHH!!!
MOM & DAD LEGNER
MOM & DAD LEGNER
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Seth's Cultural Event - Donate Please
From Kate,
Here is a link if you're interested in sending money to one of Kate's fellow PC Worker Seth's Cultural Event...Per Kate "its a bunch of us going up there and our band will be performing, as well as all of us presenting and having little booths with info for people to come visit and learn...Kim and I will be doing soy... so if you want to sum that up and post this on my blog it'd be great!i'll also be asking for money from people for the bike tour and for my water project in the future...so tell people not to go all out...like 5-10 bucks is cool if people want to donate
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=694-118
They can also search for it on the peace corps partnership website by country or project number: 694-118. The total amount we're asking for is under $900, so if everyone participating gets a few people in the states to give 10 or 20 bucks, it should be no problem. The money has to be in by the end of October, though, so kindly do your soliciting in a timely fashion."
Here is a link if you're interested in sending money to one of Kate's fellow PC Worker Seth's Cultural Event...Per Kate "its a bunch of us going up there and our band will be performing, as well as all of us presenting and having little booths with info for people to come visit and learn...Kim and I will be doing soy... so if you want to sum that up and post this on my blog it'd be great!i'll also be asking for money from people for the bike tour and for my water project in the future...so tell people not to go all out...like 5-10 bucks is cool if people want to donate
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=694-118
They can also search for it on the peace corps partnership website by country or project number: 694-118. The total amount we're asking for is under $900, so if everyone participating gets a few people in the states to give 10 or 20 bucks, it should be no problem. The money has to be in by the end of October, though, so kindly do your soliciting in a timely fashion."
Monday, September 1, 2008
Yes It's me!
I am fully aware that I haven't written to all of you for about 2 months…but I also realize that I am no longer ever in the mood to write for some reason…thus we have a conundrum! I hope everyone enjoyed my parents' blog entry and I think they definitely a great job of summing up what was one visit chock full of new experiences and strange/funny events for them. I was glad to have them here and I think I can say on everyone else's behalf, those who met them here, they were happy to have had the opportunity to meet them also. Upon my return to village after dropping my parents off at the airport I was asked "ou est ton papa" (where's your dad?) several thousand times by everyone and anyone I didn't even realize knew my parents had visited. I continue to remind them that my mother also visited and to us Americans we ask about both parents at once…and since I spent more time in my mother's body in the first place don't they think she's important as well (yes I actually tried to say that in French) Then I got shamed by several other people for not bringing my parents to visit them in specific, because they had prepared a meal/fruit/a gift/etc… to give to them. I think most endearing was Billy (as usual) who each and every time he came to my door during the past 3 weeks has asked me "has my brother called, how is he doing?" So, Dad AND Mom…you made an impression on everyone and I'm sure for the remainder of my stay here you will be a topic of conversation, in a good way, and help to humanize the odd white girl in town. As far as my immediate material benefit from the visit…it's been great living the high life, eating things that include peanut butter (in all forms and recipes I can think of), blueberry pancakes WITH maple syrup, starburst jellybeans, chocolate that doesn't taste like plastic, chemical powder lemonade mix…so so SO fabulous. When my mass stockpile of processed American food runs out it will a sad sad day. Kim and I often talk about how odd it is that we have these intense cravings for the most horrible of American food that we either never ate in the States, or know that we shouldn't… I wasn't even really raised eating much of the stuff, as far as Americans go I guess…but oh sugar, chemicals, and transfats…why do I crave thee.
I have been feeling a lot more normal lately, in the sense I'm finally feeling that I have friends I can act normal around, ie not constantly worry about all the issues race/money/perceptions of me influence all my interactions. A few weeks before my parents got here I gave my phone number out to a random guy after 5 minutes of conversation for the FIRST time. My reasons include 1) after finding out I was American he spoke in flawless American English, slang and all (I have heard probably one other Cameroonian capable of this) 2) after I said I was from Wisconsin he said "you must love cheese" and asked if I went to the UW 3) him and his friends are starting up a fair trade cocoa business in Ebolowa. I was astonished by 1 and 2, and 3 was just plain interesting…thus…phone number! :>) I ended up hanging out with him and meeting his other friends later that day…we went to some guys house to play some traditional game where you throw snail shells like tops at other snail shells (I wasn't very good). Turns out his IS an American…went to school at the University of Miami for 6 years, married to a woman there…etc…but wow it was fun to speak English with him. He's currently back in the states, but in the time since then I've hung out with his friends quite a few times, and although they don't speak English in the same way, I feel like I actually have friends, kinda my age, similar viewpoints (even on religion with 2 of them…NON EXISTENT here), etc etc etc... it's just GOOD, and rare to come by. Only one had been driving me crazy with incessant phone calls until I said STOP IT NOW, and he did. He's also the one that has a small sports car, a small fluffy dog, a diamond nose ring, and owns at least 2 hotels and night clubs. I keep telling everyone he is truly the "male Paris Hilton of Cameroon", if you can picture that…it's not far from the truth…interesting guy. I have been hanging out as much as usual with Hans and Serges, and they continue to always be there when I need them as well as always up for going to the bar for countless beers (I still can't keep up, not that I ever wanted to try). I spend so much time at the bar between these two groups of people and all their acquaintances, my entire college experience was the equivalent of a brief training session. Serges has pretty much become my new counterpart (Obam just hasn't been around and has been causing more headache than help when he does show up). Serges is excellent at organizing people, actually listening to other people's concerns and adjusting himself to them, and he works his butt off. Serges=sanity. :>) I've also spent some time with a female friend in HIV/AIDS group I attend meetings for…although there was a misunderstanding between us when she told me she was coming to my house to spend the entire weekend with me (including nights)…and I told her I thought she was joking…and she got angry…thus I funded beer and fish that night…buying people off… My neighbors are as interesting as ever. One guy, who's always full of promises (he promised my mom and dad a dance party or something of the like that never happened), came one day asking me if I would like to eat caterpillars he would collect for me, and what hair type and color of caterpillars I preferred (how does one answer such a question)…I told him: yes, I would try them, and to me the hair type and color are not a determining factor in my caterpillar culinary selections. Or, to not lie to you, reader, about my French abilities, I said "yes, I will taste, but not eat a plate, and it doesn't matter what their hairstyle is". He then proceeded to inform me that the last time he ate caterpillars he threw up all over the place…he definitely does not have a career as a caterpillar salesman, needless to say. He clearly forgot to bring me the caterpillars, but upon telling Hans and Serges that he had mentioned it, they forced me to buy some to taste in town…which I did…and I have to say they were the most difficult thing yet for me to eat here…the hair, the bulging eyes, the bajillion legs. Bleh.
WORK! Kim and I have been busy with soy formations…we are starting our rotation of formation (presentation), planting, cooking with a few new villages near me and near her and then a few small groups in both places…so it's been relatively busy with that, since we are once again at the beginning of the planting season here. I've also outplanted a few of my Moringa trees in one of the nurseries we had started, and everyone in the village was following us around begging for a tree for their yard/family. I had a meeting in Yaounde last week for the Environmental Education committee, and now I am apparently co president…pretty much because no once else offered…so me with another girl are in charge of organizing the committee and setting our goals, or whatnot. Our biggest thing will be the bike tour I mentioned in passing a while ago. I think it'll actually happen! We are in the beginning stages of organizing it and we're thinking the route will start in Ngoulemakong (Kim's town), go to Ebolowa, then to Lolodorf (another volunteer's town), then to Kribi (the beach!). Along the way (this isn't concrete AT ALL) we will teach a few brief courses on environmental topics to school kids and to teachers, with the goal in mind that they will continue something (like an environmental club or whatever) after we leave. Since we're estimating about 20 volunteers on the tour, it's going to be a major undertaking, planning wise. Kim and I just tried to complete our lodging/meals logistics and budget…this would be complicated in the states, here it's like 5x more complicated. BUT if we figure this out and pull it off we will all be very proud of ourselves. On the environmental education note, Kim and I are also planning and starting to organize classes we are going to try to teach, once a month, at a grade school in her town and a grade school in mine…which I'm excited about…I feel like I'm finally ready to step into a role as teacher (or even adult) in this culture. Lastly, of note (I don't think I mentioned this yet), my friend up in the NW province has organized a "cultural festival" for November at which the band will be playing. I have to practice up on the tambourine! A bunch of the volunteers from my training group will be there, and we're also all going to give presentations on various topics…clearly mine will be soy!
And for my last story…my house and it's continual water adventures. Someone decided to drive 2 enormous bulldozers down the strip of grass/hill behind my house to flatten it…and create a strip of muddy muddy garbage covered land with lots of stinkiness and flies. I'm not sure why this required TWO bulldozers since the area is about 100 feet long, and I'm not even sure where this machinery CAME from! But clearly it remained in this state, and then when the first big rain of the season came, the hill was moved even closer to my door…the water came down insanely fast, the soil was compacted and completely cleared of all vegetation…a virtual mudslide ensued INTO my kitchen…I do not joke when I say that the mud was ankle deep in my kitchen, and there I am trying to get the mud out of there so it can't spread to the rest of the house, while running outside to push the water RAPIDLY flooding onto my little porch and into the kitchen, while also trying to dig a trench with my hoe next to my porch, while also crying with rage at the stupid bulldozers. It was ridiculous…understatement of the year. The next morning my landlady sees the state of things and although I think she was trying to comfort me, telling me to "have patience" is not the correct word choice to console at a time like that. She fixed things up that day after I recounted the story. But the bulldozers are still there, broke down, and 3 dudes have been behind my house for 2 straight days revving the engine and sitting outside (and looking into) my bedroom windows. I guess they are putting houses in this narrow little strip of land…incase my house wasn't already the loudest/most public place on earth…I'm sure more stories will come from this!
ONE YEAR ON SEPTEMBER 22!!! Ayyyy
I have been feeling a lot more normal lately, in the sense I'm finally feeling that I have friends I can act normal around, ie not constantly worry about all the issues race/money/perceptions of me influence all my interactions. A few weeks before my parents got here I gave my phone number out to a random guy after 5 minutes of conversation for the FIRST time. My reasons include 1) after finding out I was American he spoke in flawless American English, slang and all (I have heard probably one other Cameroonian capable of this) 2) after I said I was from Wisconsin he said "you must love cheese" and asked if I went to the UW 3) him and his friends are starting up a fair trade cocoa business in Ebolowa. I was astonished by 1 and 2, and 3 was just plain interesting…thus…phone number! :>) I ended up hanging out with him and meeting his other friends later that day…we went to some guys house to play some traditional game where you throw snail shells like tops at other snail shells (I wasn't very good). Turns out his IS an American…went to school at the University of Miami for 6 years, married to a woman there…etc…but wow it was fun to speak English with him. He's currently back in the states, but in the time since then I've hung out with his friends quite a few times, and although they don't speak English in the same way, I feel like I actually have friends, kinda my age, similar viewpoints (even on religion with 2 of them…NON EXISTENT here), etc etc etc... it's just GOOD, and rare to come by. Only one had been driving me crazy with incessant phone calls until I said STOP IT NOW, and he did. He's also the one that has a small sports car, a small fluffy dog, a diamond nose ring, and owns at least 2 hotels and night clubs. I keep telling everyone he is truly the "male Paris Hilton of Cameroon", if you can picture that…it's not far from the truth…interesting guy. I have been hanging out as much as usual with Hans and Serges, and they continue to always be there when I need them as well as always up for going to the bar for countless beers (I still can't keep up, not that I ever wanted to try). I spend so much time at the bar between these two groups of people and all their acquaintances, my entire college experience was the equivalent of a brief training session. Serges has pretty much become my new counterpart (Obam just hasn't been around and has been causing more headache than help when he does show up). Serges is excellent at organizing people, actually listening to other people's concerns and adjusting himself to them, and he works his butt off. Serges=sanity. :>) I've also spent some time with a female friend in HIV/AIDS group I attend meetings for…although there was a misunderstanding between us when she told me she was coming to my house to spend the entire weekend with me (including nights)…and I told her I thought she was joking…and she got angry…thus I funded beer and fish that night…buying people off… My neighbors are as interesting as ever. One guy, who's always full of promises (he promised my mom and dad a dance party or something of the like that never happened), came one day asking me if I would like to eat caterpillars he would collect for me, and what hair type and color of caterpillars I preferred (how does one answer such a question)…I told him: yes, I would try them, and to me the hair type and color are not a determining factor in my caterpillar culinary selections. Or, to not lie to you, reader, about my French abilities, I said "yes, I will taste, but not eat a plate, and it doesn't matter what their hairstyle is". He then proceeded to inform me that the last time he ate caterpillars he threw up all over the place…he definitely does not have a career as a caterpillar salesman, needless to say. He clearly forgot to bring me the caterpillars, but upon telling Hans and Serges that he had mentioned it, they forced me to buy some to taste in town…which I did…and I have to say they were the most difficult thing yet for me to eat here…the hair, the bulging eyes, the bajillion legs. Bleh.
WORK! Kim and I have been busy with soy formations…we are starting our rotation of formation (presentation), planting, cooking with a few new villages near me and near her and then a few small groups in both places…so it's been relatively busy with that, since we are once again at the beginning of the planting season here. I've also outplanted a few of my Moringa trees in one of the nurseries we had started, and everyone in the village was following us around begging for a tree for their yard/family. I had a meeting in Yaounde last week for the Environmental Education committee, and now I am apparently co president…pretty much because no once else offered…so me with another girl are in charge of organizing the committee and setting our goals, or whatnot. Our biggest thing will be the bike tour I mentioned in passing a while ago. I think it'll actually happen! We are in the beginning stages of organizing it and we're thinking the route will start in Ngoulemakong (Kim's town), go to Ebolowa, then to Lolodorf (another volunteer's town), then to Kribi (the beach!). Along the way (this isn't concrete AT ALL) we will teach a few brief courses on environmental topics to school kids and to teachers, with the goal in mind that they will continue something (like an environmental club or whatever) after we leave. Since we're estimating about 20 volunteers on the tour, it's going to be a major undertaking, planning wise. Kim and I just tried to complete our lodging/meals logistics and budget…this would be complicated in the states, here it's like 5x more complicated. BUT if we figure this out and pull it off we will all be very proud of ourselves. On the environmental education note, Kim and I are also planning and starting to organize classes we are going to try to teach, once a month, at a grade school in her town and a grade school in mine…which I'm excited about…I feel like I'm finally ready to step into a role as teacher (or even adult) in this culture. Lastly, of note (I don't think I mentioned this yet), my friend up in the NW province has organized a "cultural festival" for November at which the band will be playing. I have to practice up on the tambourine! A bunch of the volunteers from my training group will be there, and we're also all going to give presentations on various topics…clearly mine will be soy!
And for my last story…my house and it's continual water adventures. Someone decided to drive 2 enormous bulldozers down the strip of grass/hill behind my house to flatten it…and create a strip of muddy muddy garbage covered land with lots of stinkiness and flies. I'm not sure why this required TWO bulldozers since the area is about 100 feet long, and I'm not even sure where this machinery CAME from! But clearly it remained in this state, and then when the first big rain of the season came, the hill was moved even closer to my door…the water came down insanely fast, the soil was compacted and completely cleared of all vegetation…a virtual mudslide ensued INTO my kitchen…I do not joke when I say that the mud was ankle deep in my kitchen, and there I am trying to get the mud out of there so it can't spread to the rest of the house, while running outside to push the water RAPIDLY flooding onto my little porch and into the kitchen, while also trying to dig a trench with my hoe next to my porch, while also crying with rage at the stupid bulldozers. It was ridiculous…understatement of the year. The next morning my landlady sees the state of things and although I think she was trying to comfort me, telling me to "have patience" is not the correct word choice to console at a time like that. She fixed things up that day after I recounted the story. But the bulldozers are still there, broke down, and 3 dudes have been behind my house for 2 straight days revving the engine and sitting outside (and looking into) my bedroom windows. I guess they are putting houses in this narrow little strip of land…incase my house wasn't already the loudest/most public place on earth…I'm sure more stories will come from this!
ONE YEAR ON SEPTEMBER 22!!! Ayyyy
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Cameroun ~ A Country of Contrast as told by Mom & Dad!
Cameroun ~ A Country of Contrasts as told by Mom & Dad!
Our title sounds like one taken from a geography book but contrasts is certainly what Cameroun (French spelling) is. From its spectacular scenic beauty to its horrendous slums, from opulent office buildings in its capital to its mud built farm buildings, from its honest and friendly people to the occasional shouted ethnic slur “La Blanche ….” ( means the white …. ), from simple Cameroonian food to American Pizza and milkshakes to name but a few of the contrasts this country holds.
But before we continue we want to say how proud we are of our daughter Kate. She came to this chaotic country, to a new posting, with a loosely defined project and is succeeding. She learned French as well as some of the local language BuLu, impressed those she works with and met, and became a part of an extended family. When we walked with her through the market, the vegetable lady to the police officer stopped and hugged her. Part of her project is to introduce Soy to the Southern Province. Soy not only provides much needed protein for people but also puts nitrates back into the slash & burned soil. Kate is also one tough bargainer (one of the best) when purchasing anything. In this country it is something that always has got to be done, almost the extreme. We are truly proud of our strong and independent daughter!!
But back to Cameroun.
Our first impression was the attractiveness of the people in the South Province. Nearly all people are fit, lots of muscles and few pot bellies, probably from all the walking and exercising in the farming they do. And what great tans they all have!! We were also surprised by the abundance of food in Cameroun. Cameroun has two growing seasons and nearly everyone has a small farm. The markets are full of tomatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, bananas, and plantains to name a few. This is definitely one African Country that feeds itself. A very impressive quality of the people was their honesty. One can leave a package in most places and when you return for it, it will be there. If you need change you can give a larger bill to one of the locals in the market, they’ll disappear and reappear a bit later with the correct change. These people can also balance anything on their heads, I saw one individual in the capital of Yaoundé who had 3, 5 gallon buckets balanced on his head, one on top of the other. Even small children can do this without spilling anything from the large plate they are balancing. Speaking of children, they are everywhere. Cameroon is a very young country full of kids. Even the smallest are self-reliant and often cared for by another child not that much older than themselves. The ones in Kate’s village really enjoyed the candy we brought to give them.
Another impression was the beauty of the rainforest that is the South Province, a forest so dense that one cannot walk through it. Wildflowers and birds were abundant, but because of the denseness of the forest few animals can be seen. Many of the house plants we grow are found in this forest. African Grey Parrots flew overhead while black & white crows cawed at you The temperatures were stifling for us a times, but rain did not interfere with any of ours plans as it was the dry season. We found it funny that this is considered their winter & we saw people with coats on and babies bundled in northern winter clothing even with temperatures nearing 90 degrees. I was usually the only man with shorts on as long pants were far too hot for me, but not for them.
But one thing that concerned me (dad) was the transportation. Moto Taxis (motor cycles) are everywhere. You pay a small fee, get on the back and hold on. Sometimes up to 4 people can be seen riding on them. I haven’t been on a motorcycle since I was a teenager and the speed concerned me as well as the weaving in and out of traffic that occurs. Yellow Toyota Taxis are also everywhere, no drivers training exists in Cameroon and it shows. Again 4 to 5 people can be squeezed in the back seat of these small vehicles with nearly as many in front. Few of them are in good condition, with many having no shock absorbers left and little suspension. Buses are the main transportation between cities. Again 4 people are squeezed in seats designed for 3 and traveling between the cities can take hours. One gets use to sweaty and sometimes smelly individuals. But the children will always sit quietly, which in America would never happen under these conditions. Most bus companies also will not leave until all the seats are sold (time is not a concern here) so you wait until that happens (although we did experience a bus leaving on us when we were in the toilet). Luckily Kate screamed at the bus driver until he stopped. The roads in the south are really nice but in other parts of the country they can be extremely pot holed. Holes big enough to swallow a taxi! Travel in these buses is also extended because of the practice of building speed bumps near every little village or town along the way. Of course this slowing brings out all the people trying to sell food and just about everything else to the passengers they can. I even saw an individual with toilet seats around his neck for sale! Of course toilets are few and far between in this country. Usually just a hole in the concrete, which you are expected to use without falling over. No roadside rest stops in his country. Hotels also vary greatly, but the price is always reasonable, except of course the Hilton in the Capital.
One irritant in this country is the near constant police stops to check IDs. I’m not sure what they are looking for. When we handed them our passports few officers checked the visas page we had, but seemed more interested in the other places we had visited as they paged through our passports skipping over the visa section. On another negative side we did have an officer propose marriage to Kate even with us in the car. This seems to happen to Kate a lot. I can understand why she feels this behavior offensive. We were glad she gave this officer a smart retort. I asked her supervisors “do all Cameroonian men propose to a woman the first time they meet her”? He replied she would be a status symbol, well our daughter won’t be a status symbol for any lowly police officer.
Television in this country is unique, especially the occasional English language station as most are French stations. In the north there was even subtitles in English on an English speaking station. The only reason I could conclude was because the local people spoke Pidgin English and maybe needed help understanding common English.
We were hosted for meals by Kate’s supervisor’s family, her host family and a local village. The food was Cameroonian food, which although good can be a bit bland. We balanced this with meals at Italian, Chinese and American restaurants. While we ate at the Chinese Restaurant we heard the constant sound of someone pounding metal. The waiter told us it was a bird whose name was spelled B A T. These bats were the large fruit eating variety known here as “Flying Foxes”. Their flight is quite impressive in the air.
One of the people we met was Kate’s friend Billy. He lives in Kate’s compound with his wife and family. He farms as well grows nursery plants. He presented us with the most magnificent arrangement of tropical flowers we’ve ever seen. Billy also assured us that Kate is safe where she lives and even brought the local police officers to introduce them. We’re glad of his concern for Kate as well as his quiet friendship with her. We also met many of Kate’s fellow Peace Corp Volunteers, who were all interesting and dedicated.
We traveled to the north and the west provinces and spend three relaxing days at the Atlantic Ocean Beach in Limbe. These beaches are made of black sand from nearby volcanoes. Being nearly on the equator the water is warm, unpolluted, does not smell fishy like other ocean water and seems less salty. I don’t usually like swimming in the ocean but this place was an exception. Earlier we traveled to the southern border of Cameroon, touched the border of Equatorial Guinea and had a drink in Gabon.
On the way back to the USA we were upgraded to Business Class from Economy Class on the first flight, from Yaoundé to Zurich on the Swiss Airline. Having never flown in this class we were surprised by the drinks and food offered as well as the concern for our comfort and the large reclining seats, of course all good things must end and on our last flight we were assigned to the middle of the airplane between two individuals. Somehow our window seats were changed to these seats. But the man who sat next to me proved interesting. He happened to be a young priest from Switzerland studying in Chicago for a year. You know me and my attitude about priests but I was cordial. During our conversation he mentioned that he had been in LA two years ago and a mutual friend had him meet Ashton Kutcher. Evidently Ashton took him around to his 4 clubs, a few parties and he stayed in his apartment. To return the favor he invited Ashton to his monastery near Zurich. Ashton spent two days in the monastery where few of the monks had ever heard of him. The priest told me Ashton had trouble with the silence & lack of recognition. While Ashton was at the monastery, Demi Moore (his wife) had a bit of plastic surgery in Austria, one of many according to the monk.
It was hard to say “Good-Bye” again to Kate for another year and we thank her for being able to cope with two parents who at times were infant like in their ability to communicate with the locals. We feel much better about her in Cameroon after meeting her friends and co-workers and experiencing Cameroon for ourselves. We are now considered part of her Cameroonian family. We fully support her in her role as a Peace Corp Volunteer and know it isn’t always easy. We also want to remind her that even small changes can have a lasting impact in many ways for years to come, some unknown at this time. Ahh Kates we are proud of you!!
Mom & Dad Legner
Our title sounds like one taken from a geography book but contrasts is certainly what Cameroun (French spelling) is. From its spectacular scenic beauty to its horrendous slums, from opulent office buildings in its capital to its mud built farm buildings, from its honest and friendly people to the occasional shouted ethnic slur “La Blanche ….” ( means the white …. ), from simple Cameroonian food to American Pizza and milkshakes to name but a few of the contrasts this country holds.
But before we continue we want to say how proud we are of our daughter Kate. She came to this chaotic country, to a new posting, with a loosely defined project and is succeeding. She learned French as well as some of the local language BuLu, impressed those she works with and met, and became a part of an extended family. When we walked with her through the market, the vegetable lady to the police officer stopped and hugged her. Part of her project is to introduce Soy to the Southern Province. Soy not only provides much needed protein for people but also puts nitrates back into the slash & burned soil. Kate is also one tough bargainer (one of the best) when purchasing anything. In this country it is something that always has got to be done, almost the extreme. We are truly proud of our strong and independent daughter!!
But back to Cameroun.
Our first impression was the attractiveness of the people in the South Province. Nearly all people are fit, lots of muscles and few pot bellies, probably from all the walking and exercising in the farming they do. And what great tans they all have!! We were also surprised by the abundance of food in Cameroun. Cameroun has two growing seasons and nearly everyone has a small farm. The markets are full of tomatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, bananas, and plantains to name a few. This is definitely one African Country that feeds itself. A very impressive quality of the people was their honesty. One can leave a package in most places and when you return for it, it will be there. If you need change you can give a larger bill to one of the locals in the market, they’ll disappear and reappear a bit later with the correct change. These people can also balance anything on their heads, I saw one individual in the capital of Yaoundé who had 3, 5 gallon buckets balanced on his head, one on top of the other. Even small children can do this without spilling anything from the large plate they are balancing. Speaking of children, they are everywhere. Cameroon is a very young country full of kids. Even the smallest are self-reliant and often cared for by another child not that much older than themselves. The ones in Kate’s village really enjoyed the candy we brought to give them.
Another impression was the beauty of the rainforest that is the South Province, a forest so dense that one cannot walk through it. Wildflowers and birds were abundant, but because of the denseness of the forest few animals can be seen. Many of the house plants we grow are found in this forest. African Grey Parrots flew overhead while black & white crows cawed at you The temperatures were stifling for us a times, but rain did not interfere with any of ours plans as it was the dry season. We found it funny that this is considered their winter & we saw people with coats on and babies bundled in northern winter clothing even with temperatures nearing 90 degrees. I was usually the only man with shorts on as long pants were far too hot for me, but not for them.
But one thing that concerned me (dad) was the transportation. Moto Taxis (motor cycles) are everywhere. You pay a small fee, get on the back and hold on. Sometimes up to 4 people can be seen riding on them. I haven’t been on a motorcycle since I was a teenager and the speed concerned me as well as the weaving in and out of traffic that occurs. Yellow Toyota Taxis are also everywhere, no drivers training exists in Cameroon and it shows. Again 4 to 5 people can be squeezed in the back seat of these small vehicles with nearly as many in front. Few of them are in good condition, with many having no shock absorbers left and little suspension. Buses are the main transportation between cities. Again 4 people are squeezed in seats designed for 3 and traveling between the cities can take hours. One gets use to sweaty and sometimes smelly individuals. But the children will always sit quietly, which in America would never happen under these conditions. Most bus companies also will not leave until all the seats are sold (time is not a concern here) so you wait until that happens (although we did experience a bus leaving on us when we were in the toilet). Luckily Kate screamed at the bus driver until he stopped. The roads in the south are really nice but in other parts of the country they can be extremely pot holed. Holes big enough to swallow a taxi! Travel in these buses is also extended because of the practice of building speed bumps near every little village or town along the way. Of course this slowing brings out all the people trying to sell food and just about everything else to the passengers they can. I even saw an individual with toilet seats around his neck for sale! Of course toilets are few and far between in this country. Usually just a hole in the concrete, which you are expected to use without falling over. No roadside rest stops in his country. Hotels also vary greatly, but the price is always reasonable, except of course the Hilton in the Capital.
One irritant in this country is the near constant police stops to check IDs. I’m not sure what they are looking for. When we handed them our passports few officers checked the visas page we had, but seemed more interested in the other places we had visited as they paged through our passports skipping over the visa section. On another negative side we did have an officer propose marriage to Kate even with us in the car. This seems to happen to Kate a lot. I can understand why she feels this behavior offensive. We were glad she gave this officer a smart retort. I asked her supervisors “do all Cameroonian men propose to a woman the first time they meet her”? He replied she would be a status symbol, well our daughter won’t be a status symbol for any lowly police officer.
Television in this country is unique, especially the occasional English language station as most are French stations. In the north there was even subtitles in English on an English speaking station. The only reason I could conclude was because the local people spoke Pidgin English and maybe needed help understanding common English.
We were hosted for meals by Kate’s supervisor’s family, her host family and a local village. The food was Cameroonian food, which although good can be a bit bland. We balanced this with meals at Italian, Chinese and American restaurants. While we ate at the Chinese Restaurant we heard the constant sound of someone pounding metal. The waiter told us it was a bird whose name was spelled B A T. These bats were the large fruit eating variety known here as “Flying Foxes”. Their flight is quite impressive in the air.
One of the people we met was Kate’s friend Billy. He lives in Kate’s compound with his wife and family. He farms as well grows nursery plants. He presented us with the most magnificent arrangement of tropical flowers we’ve ever seen. Billy also assured us that Kate is safe where she lives and even brought the local police officers to introduce them. We’re glad of his concern for Kate as well as his quiet friendship with her. We also met many of Kate’s fellow Peace Corp Volunteers, who were all interesting and dedicated.
We traveled to the north and the west provinces and spend three relaxing days at the Atlantic Ocean Beach in Limbe. These beaches are made of black sand from nearby volcanoes. Being nearly on the equator the water is warm, unpolluted, does not smell fishy like other ocean water and seems less salty. I don’t usually like swimming in the ocean but this place was an exception. Earlier we traveled to the southern border of Cameroon, touched the border of Equatorial Guinea and had a drink in Gabon.
On the way back to the USA we were upgraded to Business Class from Economy Class on the first flight, from Yaoundé to Zurich on the Swiss Airline. Having never flown in this class we were surprised by the drinks and food offered as well as the concern for our comfort and the large reclining seats, of course all good things must end and on our last flight we were assigned to the middle of the airplane between two individuals. Somehow our window seats were changed to these seats. But the man who sat next to me proved interesting. He happened to be a young priest from Switzerland studying in Chicago for a year. You know me and my attitude about priests but I was cordial. During our conversation he mentioned that he had been in LA two years ago and a mutual friend had him meet Ashton Kutcher. Evidently Ashton took him around to his 4 clubs, a few parties and he stayed in his apartment. To return the favor he invited Ashton to his monastery near Zurich. Ashton spent two days in the monastery where few of the monks had ever heard of him. The priest told me Ashton had trouble with the silence & lack of recognition. While Ashton was at the monastery, Demi Moore (his wife) had a bit of plastic surgery in Austria, one of many according to the monk.
It was hard to say “Good-Bye” again to Kate for another year and we thank her for being able to cope with two parents who at times were infant like in their ability to communicate with the locals. We feel much better about her in Cameroon after meeting her friends and co-workers and experiencing Cameroon for ourselves. We are now considered part of her Cameroonian family. We fully support her in her role as a Peace Corp Volunteer and know it isn’t always easy. We also want to remind her that even small changes can have a lasting impact in many ways for years to come, some unknown at this time. Ahh Kates we are proud of you!!
Mom & Dad Legner
Monday, July 14, 2008
It's been too long...
Wow, it's been a long long LONG time since I've last written and for that I apologize! I have use of Kim's computer currently so that makes it a lot easier to type this up…but I'll try to be more on the ball…AFTER my parents trip here! It's really very soon, they'll be leaving the states in only a week and I will be meeting them at the airport in yaounde next Tuesday. Wow. I've made some plans for while they're here that I'm pretty excited about. My friend, Leo, who I work with at Mefoup actually has a car and has offered to drive us all down to the border of Cameroon and either gabon or equatorial guinea, where there is apparently a huge market and maybe we'll get to just step over the line and say we were there! While down in Mefoup they'll get to see us harvest my soy field there too. We'll also be spending a day or two with my homestay family, none of which I've seen since I left bangangte in the very beginning of December. My homestay mother is very very excited and told me we will all be staying at the house…we'll see how that all turns out. Then we'll be going to Bamenda (my favorite place in this country), possibly Foumban ("art capital of cameroon"), and Limbe (the beach). Around Ebolowa everyone is getting excited for their trip here as well, Billy is planning "a surprise" for my parents, we have lots of stuff being planned by Hans and Serges, and a couple of the other volunteers will hang out with us while we're near their posts. Needless to say I'm quite ready for them to be here!
Aside from that I'll start this blog post by sharing my two recent incidents of intense homesickness… Get the sad stuff out of the way :>) The first was this past Saturday when I went down to Mefoup. It ended up being a late day and Leo drove me back around 7:30 at night…so by this time it was already dark, the temperature was down to an astounding 68 degrees already (this is the coolest time of year), I was sitting BY MYSELF in the front seat of a nice car with a sunroof open, wearing a seatbelt too! Windows open…cool breeze…driving past people burning their fields next to the road reminded me of the smell of campfires…I almost felt for a second like I was in the states on a summer/fall night. I always love the smell of that time of year and just that feeling you get with the wind in your hair and the cool air all over the place! (I'm not too good with the description here, you know what I mean!)…It was all very sad in the end when we pulled up at the control gates to town and someone yelled "la blanche" in my face. Then the next incident was that Sunday. I was at home and Billy was talking about these "Wisconsin badger" jerseys we're still going to have made (by the way my team is apparently unstoppable…they've won every game they've played!). So he was talking about an example for what to model the jerseys after, and he showed up at my door with this dirty ripped up really old school letterman jacket, that sure enough, is red and white, big picture of bucky on the back, university of Wisconsin, badgers…everything. I almost burst out crying on the spot, which would have been hilarious and far too awkward all in one moment…so instead I tried to smile as big as possible and adequately express my amazement that this jacket somehow ended up in my village…in Cameroon, by way of Wisconsin. Just like myself I guess. Pretty crazy.
Let's see…I hate getting to this point where so much has happened between now and the time I've last written that this post will either get really long and detailed or just not say all I want it too, and neither option is suitable…I'll begin where I left off last time. It was a few weeks ago now that I was up in the West province for the environmental education camp. My friend Jessica was in charge or planning it and she did an excellent job of getting everything set up and inviting kids. We ended up having a relatively good attendance of between 7 and 18 kids everyday. We discussed the full range of environmental topics, which was clearly a test of our French ability, but ended up going pretty well. A few of the kids were those kids the teacher would probably write on their report card "a pleasure to have in class" if this were America…they showed up every day, participated, pretty much could finish our sentences for us…it was great to have them there and by the end of the camp we were having a lot of fun with them. Our last day we made jumpropes out of recycled plastic bags and then spent an hour, us 4 white girls, with about 8 highschool boys doing double dutch…which made for some good pictures! While up in the West I stayed with either one of my two friends Nura and Jessica. Compared to my house, which is only a 45 minute walk from Ebolowa on a nice paved road (I really got lucky with this), they are both between 2-4 hour walk from town on really crappy (read: MUDDY) roads from Baffousam. When I was up there is was the very start of the rainy season in the west…actually I'm pretty positive the rain came with me, since every day it just poured, what seemed like constantly…the roads were horrible! To get to Jessica's house mottos won't even brave the road when it's like this so we spent most of our time walking to and from the school where we had the camp, town, and her house. It's in interesting game of concentration, balance, and calf muscle endurance when walking in mud of this type…especially in flipflops. I completely destroyed my one pair that had been on their last leg. I bore holes all the way through the soles in several places due to the opposite forces of mud suction and my leg strength :>) We also got to spend a day in Foumban, an artisan city really close to Baffousam. A really fun group of us ended up going and we did a lot of shopping, my favorite purchase of which were these small bronze statues of pygmy witchdoctor looking man and woman…they make me laugh everytime I look at them…aka: good buy! We also went to the sultan's palace in Foumban. The sultan is just like the chiefs in other towns, but the Bamoun culture here places a lot of emphasis on him and he's overall just a really important guy (like my summaries of such things?!) There is a museum in the palace, which is incredibly well put together and the most actual museum like place I've been to in Cameroon, complete with a musical performance at the end! Nura's good friends with the chief of her village, who is apparently good friends with the sultan, so we had an "appointment" to meet him. This ended up falling through because at the moment we were there it was a big celebration for the graduation of a new Koran class. We didn't realize this until we were in the middle of it and the streets leading out of the palace were closed off by a mass of kids singing and chanting. So we were cornered, and ended up sitting in some apparently (but unknown to us) restricted area in front of the palace. We subsequently got scolded, asked to move, and then approached by the sultan's wife…who…ended up being from the US virgin islands (I think that's what it was) and speaking PERFECT American English! She was great and arranged for us to sit behind the sultan in his private quarters while we watched the graduation ceremony! What an experience, kinda unprecedented! Good day trip :>)
My trip home from Baffousam was also very interesting, and surprisingly full of good events…I decided to take a private car from Baffousam to Yaounde…in hopes it would take about 4 hours instead of the 7 or 8 buses sometimes take. To do so one stands by the side of the road out of town and gets these "chargers" (random guys) to flag down passenger cars going your way. I was getting really annoyed with these guys because they wouldn't let me flag down cars, and they were doing a really bad job at it…so I decided to work for myself, and sure enough, after about 10 minutes (versus an hour and a half with the guys) I chased down a car (literally) and got a spot in the backseat. Although I was between 2 big guys, one of which kept demanding I get a drink with him in Yaounde and putting his arm around me, the trip went quicker then in the bus and I got dropped off right in front of the peace corps office in Yaounde when we got there! Once in Yaounde I waited for a taxi to the depot area for the buses to the South. A man on the curb next to me was going to the same depot and ended up helping me find the taxi. The whole street of the depot area was closed off, for some reason I don't understand, requiring everyone to get out of the taxis and walk with huge loads of stuff to their agency of choice. For me this can be a very taxing experience, since harassment in the depot can get really really intense. It was exactly as I assumed, in the ¼ mile I had to walk I had all kinds of things yelled at me, all parts of me being grabbed, guys surrounding me…etc…so I decided to try something I hadn't yet used, and caught up to the man that had helped me and been in the taxi with me. I put my arm in his and asked if he would be my husband for 10 minutes. He was great, he just said sure, and then flung people dirty looks, and walked all the way to the depot with me…then just left me WITHOUT asking for my phone number! Fantastic! So once at my agency waiting area things went equally amazing. I made friends with the bathroom attendant, got to pee for free! Then all the workers kept calling me either "sister" or "madame" instead of the usual "baby", "white", or "my dear". THEN most exciting, I bought myself a roasted ear of corn some boy was selling, and turn around 5 minutes later to see him standing there offering me another. Some guy sent me an ear of corn, yes, in the same manner one would send someone a drink in a bar…but then he left me alone too! It was all very nice. When we finally all got on the bus and moving it turned out all the streets in and out of Yaounde were closed off too. My bus was abnormally organized and someone suggested that everyone put in an extra 100CFA for gas and we take some backroads to try to get out of the city. An hour and several rough roads later, we ended up JUST on the otherside of the blockade, and to our joy and the gawking of several groups of police and over 5 miles of backed up traffic, we ended up being the only bus on the road for several hours that was moving! So all these things that could have gone wrong, actually went right. I was very happy. The only bad thing was that someone decided to put their dog in the trunk of the bus, which was right behind my seat, and everytime we hit a bump or took a quick turn the poor thing wailed its heart out right in my ear…
That's the trip then!
On the homefront! A select few of my neighbors have been driving me crazy! A new man is living right next door. He started out blasting Celine Dion all day long, which was harmless enough, but now he has moved on to blasting Cameroonian pop music with VERY loud bass from 6:30 am to 11 pm…and is making my head explode…the cinder block walls don't do much in the way of holding in sound I guess. Then in the last few days people have started taking over the one private area I had…the back of my house. Call my feelings "American", but I like to be able to sit in my house with the curtains open and not expect someone to be directly at the window in every room. I have one lady doing her laundry outside my kitchen window, in the back of my house, the kids peeping in the 2 front windows, and then most recently 2 women will come take turns showering inches from my bedroom window at 10 pm! I looked out the first time I heard the water in the bucket to see what was going on, and sure enough! Naked woman on my porch…why?! On a positive note, I've gotten shelves built into a corner in my kitchen and a corner in my living room, and now I think I'm FINALLY done getting stuff to furnish my house and can spend my money on travel! The shelves look great though, and Kim, Hans, Serges and I celebrated them by bar hopping during the day, for 8 hours…full time job, drinking in this country. Sadly, my 2 favorite neighbor girls are gone for a period of time. I think one might be gone permanently to go to school, but her sister, my water getting buddy Michelle, will hopefully be back. I miss these 2 girls a lot, and I'm sad they left while I was up in the West and didn't get to say goodbye. They were sometimes the only people I would really have a conversation with for a full day! :>( Lastly in the village, there is a female police officer who always likes to talk to me about my running…she does a hilarious imitation of how I run, sidenote…but then one day I passed by her at the road barrier with Hans and she told me 1)that I have pretty feet and 2) that I should marry her husband too so that I can stay in Cameroon with them and we can run together…so, first FEMALE proposal?! It was odd.
Work related things have been slow as usual since we're now just starting the soy harvest. I met with a woman's HIV/AIDS support group the previous health volunteer had started in Ebolowa to discuss starting a soy project with them, and possibly starting an animal raising project too…the woman I'm in contact with from the group, Deboise, is this fantastic, kind and very intelligent person who I'm really excited to work with if anything gets off the ground. I brought my landlady back some information from Baffousam about animal raising as well, and she's already started building cages for rabbits. We started harvesting one of my soy fields at the village Lo'o…I really like harvesting, you just rip the entire plant out of the ground and put it in a basket…it's kinda like pulling weeds…but with nutritional benefits! ;>) We're going to try to organize a cooking with soy class there for when my parents are here. We've also been keeping tabs on the Moringa nurseries we started, and moved one of them that wasn't getting enough sun…Water project is going slow, rocks were collected a long time ago, and an area near the river was cleared for sand, but no work has been done since then. I think I need to step it up and start pushing things along. My other 2 soy fields will be ready to harvest within the next month, and then we'll have cooking classes for them too…and then after that it's time to start clearing land and planting again! At Mefoup there has been some bad luck…least seriously, we had planted a plot of beans and corn right next to the plot of soy. The beans were completely decimated by something, there is not one single plant left standing…so that was depressing…but at least it didn't affect my dear soy! But more seriously, there was a woman at Mefoup, Pauline, who was suppose to be my go to person, the woman in charge of mobilizing the other woman and organizing our work days…she was killed in a car crash a few weeks back…so the village was very affected by that…incredibly disheartening. Sad note to put at the end here. Obam, however, has fully recovered and returned to village last Monday, he can walk again and is almost as good as new! There's the work report in a nutshell, and I hope not too scattered.
SO! That should be about all! Hopefully summed up accurately and at a readable length for you! :>) Bon voyage to my mom and dad!
Aside from that I'll start this blog post by sharing my two recent incidents of intense homesickness… Get the sad stuff out of the way :>) The first was this past Saturday when I went down to Mefoup. It ended up being a late day and Leo drove me back around 7:30 at night…so by this time it was already dark, the temperature was down to an astounding 68 degrees already (this is the coolest time of year), I was sitting BY MYSELF in the front seat of a nice car with a sunroof open, wearing a seatbelt too! Windows open…cool breeze…driving past people burning their fields next to the road reminded me of the smell of campfires…I almost felt for a second like I was in the states on a summer/fall night. I always love the smell of that time of year and just that feeling you get with the wind in your hair and the cool air all over the place! (I'm not too good with the description here, you know what I mean!)…It was all very sad in the end when we pulled up at the control gates to town and someone yelled "la blanche" in my face. Then the next incident was that Sunday. I was at home and Billy was talking about these "Wisconsin badger" jerseys we're still going to have made (by the way my team is apparently unstoppable…they've won every game they've played!). So he was talking about an example for what to model the jerseys after, and he showed up at my door with this dirty ripped up really old school letterman jacket, that sure enough, is red and white, big picture of bucky on the back, university of Wisconsin, badgers…everything. I almost burst out crying on the spot, which would have been hilarious and far too awkward all in one moment…so instead I tried to smile as big as possible and adequately express my amazement that this jacket somehow ended up in my village…in Cameroon, by way of Wisconsin. Just like myself I guess. Pretty crazy.
Let's see…I hate getting to this point where so much has happened between now and the time I've last written that this post will either get really long and detailed or just not say all I want it too, and neither option is suitable…I'll begin where I left off last time. It was a few weeks ago now that I was up in the West province for the environmental education camp. My friend Jessica was in charge or planning it and she did an excellent job of getting everything set up and inviting kids. We ended up having a relatively good attendance of between 7 and 18 kids everyday. We discussed the full range of environmental topics, which was clearly a test of our French ability, but ended up going pretty well. A few of the kids were those kids the teacher would probably write on their report card "a pleasure to have in class" if this were America…they showed up every day, participated, pretty much could finish our sentences for us…it was great to have them there and by the end of the camp we were having a lot of fun with them. Our last day we made jumpropes out of recycled plastic bags and then spent an hour, us 4 white girls, with about 8 highschool boys doing double dutch…which made for some good pictures! While up in the West I stayed with either one of my two friends Nura and Jessica. Compared to my house, which is only a 45 minute walk from Ebolowa on a nice paved road (I really got lucky with this), they are both between 2-4 hour walk from town on really crappy (read: MUDDY) roads from Baffousam. When I was up there is was the very start of the rainy season in the west…actually I'm pretty positive the rain came with me, since every day it just poured, what seemed like constantly…the roads were horrible! To get to Jessica's house mottos won't even brave the road when it's like this so we spent most of our time walking to and from the school where we had the camp, town, and her house. It's in interesting game of concentration, balance, and calf muscle endurance when walking in mud of this type…especially in flipflops. I completely destroyed my one pair that had been on their last leg. I bore holes all the way through the soles in several places due to the opposite forces of mud suction and my leg strength :>) We also got to spend a day in Foumban, an artisan city really close to Baffousam. A really fun group of us ended up going and we did a lot of shopping, my favorite purchase of which were these small bronze statues of pygmy witchdoctor looking man and woman…they make me laugh everytime I look at them…aka: good buy! We also went to the sultan's palace in Foumban. The sultan is just like the chiefs in other towns, but the Bamoun culture here places a lot of emphasis on him and he's overall just a really important guy (like my summaries of such things?!) There is a museum in the palace, which is incredibly well put together and the most actual museum like place I've been to in Cameroon, complete with a musical performance at the end! Nura's good friends with the chief of her village, who is apparently good friends with the sultan, so we had an "appointment" to meet him. This ended up falling through because at the moment we were there it was a big celebration for the graduation of a new Koran class. We didn't realize this until we were in the middle of it and the streets leading out of the palace were closed off by a mass of kids singing and chanting. So we were cornered, and ended up sitting in some apparently (but unknown to us) restricted area in front of the palace. We subsequently got scolded, asked to move, and then approached by the sultan's wife…who…ended up being from the US virgin islands (I think that's what it was) and speaking PERFECT American English! She was great and arranged for us to sit behind the sultan in his private quarters while we watched the graduation ceremony! What an experience, kinda unprecedented! Good day trip :>)
My trip home from Baffousam was also very interesting, and surprisingly full of good events…I decided to take a private car from Baffousam to Yaounde…in hopes it would take about 4 hours instead of the 7 or 8 buses sometimes take. To do so one stands by the side of the road out of town and gets these "chargers" (random guys) to flag down passenger cars going your way. I was getting really annoyed with these guys because they wouldn't let me flag down cars, and they were doing a really bad job at it…so I decided to work for myself, and sure enough, after about 10 minutes (versus an hour and a half with the guys) I chased down a car (literally) and got a spot in the backseat. Although I was between 2 big guys, one of which kept demanding I get a drink with him in Yaounde and putting his arm around me, the trip went quicker then in the bus and I got dropped off right in front of the peace corps office in Yaounde when we got there! Once in Yaounde I waited for a taxi to the depot area for the buses to the South. A man on the curb next to me was going to the same depot and ended up helping me find the taxi. The whole street of the depot area was closed off, for some reason I don't understand, requiring everyone to get out of the taxis and walk with huge loads of stuff to their agency of choice. For me this can be a very taxing experience, since harassment in the depot can get really really intense. It was exactly as I assumed, in the ¼ mile I had to walk I had all kinds of things yelled at me, all parts of me being grabbed, guys surrounding me…etc…so I decided to try something I hadn't yet used, and caught up to the man that had helped me and been in the taxi with me. I put my arm in his and asked if he would be my husband for 10 minutes. He was great, he just said sure, and then flung people dirty looks, and walked all the way to the depot with me…then just left me WITHOUT asking for my phone number! Fantastic! So once at my agency waiting area things went equally amazing. I made friends with the bathroom attendant, got to pee for free! Then all the workers kept calling me either "sister" or "madame" instead of the usual "baby", "white", or "my dear". THEN most exciting, I bought myself a roasted ear of corn some boy was selling, and turn around 5 minutes later to see him standing there offering me another. Some guy sent me an ear of corn, yes, in the same manner one would send someone a drink in a bar…but then he left me alone too! It was all very nice. When we finally all got on the bus and moving it turned out all the streets in and out of Yaounde were closed off too. My bus was abnormally organized and someone suggested that everyone put in an extra 100CFA for gas and we take some backroads to try to get out of the city. An hour and several rough roads later, we ended up JUST on the otherside of the blockade, and to our joy and the gawking of several groups of police and over 5 miles of backed up traffic, we ended up being the only bus on the road for several hours that was moving! So all these things that could have gone wrong, actually went right. I was very happy. The only bad thing was that someone decided to put their dog in the trunk of the bus, which was right behind my seat, and everytime we hit a bump or took a quick turn the poor thing wailed its heart out right in my ear…
That's the trip then!
On the homefront! A select few of my neighbors have been driving me crazy! A new man is living right next door. He started out blasting Celine Dion all day long, which was harmless enough, but now he has moved on to blasting Cameroonian pop music with VERY loud bass from 6:30 am to 11 pm…and is making my head explode…the cinder block walls don't do much in the way of holding in sound I guess. Then in the last few days people have started taking over the one private area I had…the back of my house. Call my feelings "American", but I like to be able to sit in my house with the curtains open and not expect someone to be directly at the window in every room. I have one lady doing her laundry outside my kitchen window, in the back of my house, the kids peeping in the 2 front windows, and then most recently 2 women will come take turns showering inches from my bedroom window at 10 pm! I looked out the first time I heard the water in the bucket to see what was going on, and sure enough! Naked woman on my porch…why?! On a positive note, I've gotten shelves built into a corner in my kitchen and a corner in my living room, and now I think I'm FINALLY done getting stuff to furnish my house and can spend my money on travel! The shelves look great though, and Kim, Hans, Serges and I celebrated them by bar hopping during the day, for 8 hours…full time job, drinking in this country. Sadly, my 2 favorite neighbor girls are gone for a period of time. I think one might be gone permanently to go to school, but her sister, my water getting buddy Michelle, will hopefully be back. I miss these 2 girls a lot, and I'm sad they left while I was up in the West and didn't get to say goodbye. They were sometimes the only people I would really have a conversation with for a full day! :>( Lastly in the village, there is a female police officer who always likes to talk to me about my running…she does a hilarious imitation of how I run, sidenote…but then one day I passed by her at the road barrier with Hans and she told me 1)that I have pretty feet and 2) that I should marry her husband too so that I can stay in Cameroon with them and we can run together…so, first FEMALE proposal?! It was odd.
Work related things have been slow as usual since we're now just starting the soy harvest. I met with a woman's HIV/AIDS support group the previous health volunteer had started in Ebolowa to discuss starting a soy project with them, and possibly starting an animal raising project too…the woman I'm in contact with from the group, Deboise, is this fantastic, kind and very intelligent person who I'm really excited to work with if anything gets off the ground. I brought my landlady back some information from Baffousam about animal raising as well, and she's already started building cages for rabbits. We started harvesting one of my soy fields at the village Lo'o…I really like harvesting, you just rip the entire plant out of the ground and put it in a basket…it's kinda like pulling weeds…but with nutritional benefits! ;>) We're going to try to organize a cooking with soy class there for when my parents are here. We've also been keeping tabs on the Moringa nurseries we started, and moved one of them that wasn't getting enough sun…Water project is going slow, rocks were collected a long time ago, and an area near the river was cleared for sand, but no work has been done since then. I think I need to step it up and start pushing things along. My other 2 soy fields will be ready to harvest within the next month, and then we'll have cooking classes for them too…and then after that it's time to start clearing land and planting again! At Mefoup there has been some bad luck…least seriously, we had planted a plot of beans and corn right next to the plot of soy. The beans were completely decimated by something, there is not one single plant left standing…so that was depressing…but at least it didn't affect my dear soy! But more seriously, there was a woman at Mefoup, Pauline, who was suppose to be my go to person, the woman in charge of mobilizing the other woman and organizing our work days…she was killed in a car crash a few weeks back…so the village was very affected by that…incredibly disheartening. Sad note to put at the end here. Obam, however, has fully recovered and returned to village last Monday, he can walk again and is almost as good as new! There's the work report in a nutshell, and I hope not too scattered.
SO! That should be about all! Hopefully summed up accurately and at a readable length for you! :>) Bon voyage to my mom and dad!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Salut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Salut! At some point I'm going to write an entire blog post in my really poor French just to drive everyone a little crazy…but I guess I'll be nice today…
I have much new and exciting house news! First and foremost of which is that I often have water…in increasing increments of time too! It started out being 2 or 3 times a week between the hours of 7 and 8 am, but recently has been pretty regularly on in the mornings. Granted only the pipes to the faucet in the kitchen have adequate water pressure, but it's SO incredibly nice to have enough water to flush the toilet daily if I need to, wash my clothes more often, etc…actually it's taken a lot of pressure off me, not having to analyze how much water I have/use every minute…I'm very very happy! In addition to this, the plumber came over and installed my bathroom sink, it's pretty much just a shelf because the drainpipe goes out onto the bathroom floor, but nonetheless I have a place to put my toothbrush and soap! The electric company also finally came out and fixed up whatever the problem was with my village's power lines…so we have electricity again after 3 weeks without! I went through a lot of candles and a lot of freaking out coming home after dark with the mouse/rat on the loose. Lastly inside the house I have ordered myself some fine wooden shelves for the kitchen and living room (a place for my million books, I've finished over 30 novels already in Cameroon…seriously…I have too much time), they've been a long time coming but hopefully will be installed soon! (these are the highlights of my home life :>) Neighborhood is the same old same old…I had my first theft: my porch lighbulb! (what?!) My landlady and I had an in depth conversation about my work here, etc… (I really like this woman…she's stopped pushing the religion stuff, and has been very helpful just listening to me and understanding) and she's really interested in starting some sort of animal raising project. I think we'll do cane rats (just big rats), rabbits, and chickens, and I'll apparently help clear the area, build cages and teach people how to care for them (aka: I have a lot of research to do). I've slowly been getting to know more and more of the village and getting increasingly comfortable being out and about, even though there are always the random men drinking palm wine and yelling things at me on the corner. My one neighbor man who is usually in the drunk crowd felt it his duty the other day to tell me "Kate, you have added the pounds" (literal translation for laughs) and walk towards me puffing out his cheeks, holding his arms out to the side, like an elephant or something. Always nice to hear, and fun to explain how that is the absolute LAST thing you should ever say to an American woman! Lastly "in the neighborhood" I had an interesting moment when I heard someone walking right behind my head out the window while lying in bed one morning. It's usually one of the kids just asking for me to yell at them to get out of my "espace privée" but they weren't being sneaky enough…so come to find out (by turning around) that some random man has chosen this spot to stand on my back veranda and pee into my "yard". Men here are ALWAYS doing their business along the side of the road, right infront of you, in the open…but seriously dude…my bedroom window?!
Random news: I cut off all my hair! Ok, not all…but a lot for me! It's just to my shoulders…thus A LOT cooler and less dirty constantly in this hot dirt/bug covered land! MUCH easier. I decided to do it one day after a bucket bath at Kim's house, when it made me so mad I decided to punish it with scissors. Between Kim and I and a dull scissors it actually came out looking pretty nice, I even put layers in myself! Also random: my postmate left about 2 weeks ago for the states…it's quite an exciting thing for all of us here…just to hear how her perceptions of things have changed, how life there feels after living here, etc…not to mention the fact she'll bring back things like peanut butter and maple syrup! She'll be there for a total of 4 weeks, so in reality she'll be back in not to long now. I'm a bit jealous…
Work has been touch and go recently. I think it's because it's between planting and harvesting, so it's felt kinda slow again (but then again, when doesn't it?!) I spend one day with Obam traveling ½ way down the road that goes from Ebolowa to Kribi, really really muddy (up to my shins at times) and scary on a motto, to see how one makes palm oil and to see the palm plantation he helped to start up there. The next day we were supposed to head out to the village Lo'o to check up on the soy fields…and Obam "forgot". I've been getting increasingly frustrated with him lately after a variety of happenings because he seems to lack follow through with projects and he has difficulty explaining things to people in a logical way, etc…and it's interfering in a big way with getting anything started…so this was kinda the final straw and I decided just to not try to get projects started with him anymore. And then…he got sick…I'm not sure what it going on now, since I'm out of town, but he has been pretty sick for over 2 weeks. By this I mean, he's been bedridden and now I think is hospitalized! I visited him a couple of times while he was still at his house but after that no one really knew which hospital he had gone to etc…I feel really horrible about everything, and since I don't know a whole lot of medical French words it's frustrating because I'm not really sure what's going on…but I'm clearly hoping that he pulls through it as soon as possible and that whatever treatment he's receiving is doing what it should. It's one of those times when the reality of illness and related problems in this country become so evident. My supervisor Hans has also has quite a streak of bad luck…stolen motto, phone, laptop (laptop this past week), and his wife had a motto accident about a week after having their new baby and dislocated her shoulder! Sometimes…
Otherwise, work…I had to attend the south province agriculture department meeting. This was kinda hilarious, but kinda absurd at the same time. I was in this "board room" with the 20 most important agriculture people in the province, all men, for 5 hours. Then after this I had to go to a party with the 20 men and drink and dance with them (I had to do the usual awkward first dance with Obam), and be asked how they could get "UNE volontaire" (a FEMALE volunteer) in their village…etc…I did however win over the delegate of agriculture for the entire province by jokingly counting the number of beers he drank (6 bottles of guiness in 2 hours)…so if that's anything?! ;>)
One relatively big work thing is that we've started the water project out at the village Lo'o. We had another meeting where we evaluated how to better the current water source while building the new one, and to make sure that everyone in the village was on the same page with how work was going to go. The week after that we started work…6 men in an assembly line of sorts, standing on the hill of a river bank passing enormous rocks up to collect in a pile. I'm pretty positive I'm going to use this project as one of my "Peace Corps Partnership" projects…this means I'm going to be asking all you for money to help support building this water source…wait for it!
Also, relatively big news…Kim and I just had another training for soy at a village, Oveng, near her town (17 kilometers on bad roads/motto again) and it went the best of all the ones we've done so far…we felt the least nervous/the most effective. We're looking forward to starting a community farm and several individual farms with this village in the big rainy season (starting end of August). Plus we got 3 pineapples, 2 huge regimes (stalks?) of plantains, and bushmeat as gifts… :>)
Lastly in the work category, I received some Moringa seeds (it's a tree) during my in service training in April. This tree is really popular in the North of Cameroon and Nigera, Senegal, etc… but is completely unknown here. It's called the miracle tree because it's leaves and seeds are INCREDIBLY nutritious, and commonly used in for many traditional medicines…so I thought it'd be a great time to try to grow it here. So with Hans and another CEAC (this is the organization that I work with, there are 5 separate offices in the South province) office are starting at least 3 nurseries and using (or attempting to use) different conditions (varying amounts of water, shade, whatnot)…science?! (I didn't think it existed here, but we're trying) I helped plant one nursery the other day, filling plastic sacks with dirt with 5 small children and a 70 year old man…so we at least have 51 potential trees! I'm crossing my fingers that these grow.
SOOOOOO that's about it for me! I apologize as usual for the amount of time between my posts…but motivation and no computer always let me down! I'm on my way to Baffousam tomorrow for a week long environmental education camp I'm helping another volunteer with…AND I'll get to swim in the pool there! Plus plus plus.
This upcoming weekend is my 9 month anniversary here…I'm 1/3 done! WHOA
I have much new and exciting house news! First and foremost of which is that I often have water…in increasing increments of time too! It started out being 2 or 3 times a week between the hours of 7 and 8 am, but recently has been pretty regularly on in the mornings. Granted only the pipes to the faucet in the kitchen have adequate water pressure, but it's SO incredibly nice to have enough water to flush the toilet daily if I need to, wash my clothes more often, etc…actually it's taken a lot of pressure off me, not having to analyze how much water I have/use every minute…I'm very very happy! In addition to this, the plumber came over and installed my bathroom sink, it's pretty much just a shelf because the drainpipe goes out onto the bathroom floor, but nonetheless I have a place to put my toothbrush and soap! The electric company also finally came out and fixed up whatever the problem was with my village's power lines…so we have electricity again after 3 weeks without! I went through a lot of candles and a lot of freaking out coming home after dark with the mouse/rat on the loose. Lastly inside the house I have ordered myself some fine wooden shelves for the kitchen and living room (a place for my million books, I've finished over 30 novels already in Cameroon…seriously…I have too much time), they've been a long time coming but hopefully will be installed soon! (these are the highlights of my home life :>) Neighborhood is the same old same old…I had my first theft: my porch lighbulb! (what?!) My landlady and I had an in depth conversation about my work here, etc… (I really like this woman…she's stopped pushing the religion stuff, and has been very helpful just listening to me and understanding) and she's really interested in starting some sort of animal raising project. I think we'll do cane rats (just big rats), rabbits, and chickens, and I'll apparently help clear the area, build cages and teach people how to care for them (aka: I have a lot of research to do). I've slowly been getting to know more and more of the village and getting increasingly comfortable being out and about, even though there are always the random men drinking palm wine and yelling things at me on the corner. My one neighbor man who is usually in the drunk crowd felt it his duty the other day to tell me "Kate, you have added the pounds" (literal translation for laughs) and walk towards me puffing out his cheeks, holding his arms out to the side, like an elephant or something. Always nice to hear, and fun to explain how that is the absolute LAST thing you should ever say to an American woman! Lastly "in the neighborhood" I had an interesting moment when I heard someone walking right behind my head out the window while lying in bed one morning. It's usually one of the kids just asking for me to yell at them to get out of my "espace privée" but they weren't being sneaky enough…so come to find out (by turning around) that some random man has chosen this spot to stand on my back veranda and pee into my "yard". Men here are ALWAYS doing their business along the side of the road, right infront of you, in the open…but seriously dude…my bedroom window?!
Random news: I cut off all my hair! Ok, not all…but a lot for me! It's just to my shoulders…thus A LOT cooler and less dirty constantly in this hot dirt/bug covered land! MUCH easier. I decided to do it one day after a bucket bath at Kim's house, when it made me so mad I decided to punish it with scissors. Between Kim and I and a dull scissors it actually came out looking pretty nice, I even put layers in myself! Also random: my postmate left about 2 weeks ago for the states…it's quite an exciting thing for all of us here…just to hear how her perceptions of things have changed, how life there feels after living here, etc…not to mention the fact she'll bring back things like peanut butter and maple syrup! She'll be there for a total of 4 weeks, so in reality she'll be back in not to long now. I'm a bit jealous…
Work has been touch and go recently. I think it's because it's between planting and harvesting, so it's felt kinda slow again (but then again, when doesn't it?!) I spend one day with Obam traveling ½ way down the road that goes from Ebolowa to Kribi, really really muddy (up to my shins at times) and scary on a motto, to see how one makes palm oil and to see the palm plantation he helped to start up there. The next day we were supposed to head out to the village Lo'o to check up on the soy fields…and Obam "forgot". I've been getting increasingly frustrated with him lately after a variety of happenings because he seems to lack follow through with projects and he has difficulty explaining things to people in a logical way, etc…and it's interfering in a big way with getting anything started…so this was kinda the final straw and I decided just to not try to get projects started with him anymore. And then…he got sick…I'm not sure what it going on now, since I'm out of town, but he has been pretty sick for over 2 weeks. By this I mean, he's been bedridden and now I think is hospitalized! I visited him a couple of times while he was still at his house but after that no one really knew which hospital he had gone to etc…I feel really horrible about everything, and since I don't know a whole lot of medical French words it's frustrating because I'm not really sure what's going on…but I'm clearly hoping that he pulls through it as soon as possible and that whatever treatment he's receiving is doing what it should. It's one of those times when the reality of illness and related problems in this country become so evident. My supervisor Hans has also has quite a streak of bad luck…stolen motto, phone, laptop (laptop this past week), and his wife had a motto accident about a week after having their new baby and dislocated her shoulder! Sometimes…
Otherwise, work…I had to attend the south province agriculture department meeting. This was kinda hilarious, but kinda absurd at the same time. I was in this "board room" with the 20 most important agriculture people in the province, all men, for 5 hours. Then after this I had to go to a party with the 20 men and drink and dance with them (I had to do the usual awkward first dance with Obam), and be asked how they could get "UNE volontaire" (a FEMALE volunteer) in their village…etc…I did however win over the delegate of agriculture for the entire province by jokingly counting the number of beers he drank (6 bottles of guiness in 2 hours)…so if that's anything?! ;>)
One relatively big work thing is that we've started the water project out at the village Lo'o. We had another meeting where we evaluated how to better the current water source while building the new one, and to make sure that everyone in the village was on the same page with how work was going to go. The week after that we started work…6 men in an assembly line of sorts, standing on the hill of a river bank passing enormous rocks up to collect in a pile. I'm pretty positive I'm going to use this project as one of my "Peace Corps Partnership" projects…this means I'm going to be asking all you for money to help support building this water source…wait for it!
Also, relatively big news…Kim and I just had another training for soy at a village, Oveng, near her town (17 kilometers on bad roads/motto again) and it went the best of all the ones we've done so far…we felt the least nervous/the most effective. We're looking forward to starting a community farm and several individual farms with this village in the big rainy season (starting end of August). Plus we got 3 pineapples, 2 huge regimes (stalks?) of plantains, and bushmeat as gifts… :>)
Lastly in the work category, I received some Moringa seeds (it's a tree) during my in service training in April. This tree is really popular in the North of Cameroon and Nigera, Senegal, etc… but is completely unknown here. It's called the miracle tree because it's leaves and seeds are INCREDIBLY nutritious, and commonly used in for many traditional medicines…so I thought it'd be a great time to try to grow it here. So with Hans and another CEAC (this is the organization that I work with, there are 5 separate offices in the South province) office are starting at least 3 nurseries and using (or attempting to use) different conditions (varying amounts of water, shade, whatnot)…science?! (I didn't think it existed here, but we're trying) I helped plant one nursery the other day, filling plastic sacks with dirt with 5 small children and a 70 year old man…so we at least have 51 potential trees! I'm crossing my fingers that these grow.
SOOOOOO that's about it for me! I apologize as usual for the amount of time between my posts…but motivation and no computer always let me down! I'm on my way to Baffousam tomorrow for a week long environmental education camp I'm helping another volunteer with…AND I'll get to swim in the pool there! Plus plus plus.
This upcoming weekend is my 9 month anniversary here…I'm 1/3 done! WHOA
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Hello hello! Special treat for everyone after this blog entry…wait for it!
Hello hello! Special treat for everyone after this blog entry…wait for it!
Certainly been in and out a lot lately…feels like I'm never really home for more than a day at a time! I spent some time up in Kim's (I'm just going to use her name because I am with her too often to not!) town for the independence/unity celebration…I don't really know what it is about…I think Cameroon combined all their political holidays into this one week or something, at least that's what it seemed like!
Kim held a writing contest as part of the celebration. I helped. Haha…this included us getting omelet sandwiches, telling other people to get everything ready, and then showing up to hand kids paper and sit around and read for 4 hours while the kids wrote about their futures and the future of their country. It ended up going pretty well…but after the first 2 hours the 8 year olds started showing up, and since we didn't specify age from the get go, we ended up with about half of the papers full of drawings and phrases like "I want the president to be president forever". Also, only in Cameroon during an "official" contest like this are you disrupted by events such as the goats making too much noise outside and a crazy drunk women coming to the door at 8 am and yelling things at everyone inside. A few days after the contest we gave out prizes to the winners at the "soccer game for unity"…since everything was very unclear, we assumed that Kim would just stand up, say a few words, and hand out the bags of tee-shirts. However, this whole contest idea was rapidly taken over by the "officials" in the community, they gave a big speech, made the kids stand in line for applause, had random people including myself (without even informing me they just call my name into the microphone!), the mayor, the delegate of agriculture…etc…hand out the prizes and get photos taken with the winners…in front of the entire town…awkward times pretty much sums it up!
Another "event for unity" included a march. For this we showed up to the center of town at 6 am…they pack about ½ the population into one vehicle, we get on mottos, and drive 10 kilometers to the northern border of the south province. Once we get there all the women are told they need to have an obligatory medical exam. Of course, this means there is one man from the hospital with a blood pressure cuff and a stool. No one forms a line, but just a big pack and a few women get their blood pressure taken after some pushing and shoving. They never got around to us (or half the other women for that matter) so I guess it's a good thing I'm not afflicted with hypertension?! After this we do some stretching, which looked to me more like line dancing…I just took pictures…I guess it's also a good thing I'm not a sufferer of stiff joints. :>) Then we are distributed our free gift! Tee-shirts! We were so excited about the tee-shirts (I always am)…but we soon discover that they do not say anything exciting like "march for unity" but are instead plain grey XXL. Very sad. However we did get cloth, hand written numbers to pin on our backs! The march itself was just fine, but I have NEVER seen a cameroonian walk as fast as all these people did, either unity is a highly motivating purpose or there was a big cash prize for the winner! Our goal was to not be last so we wouldn't be deemed the weakest and further the stereotype of weak white people. However, somehow kim and I got stuck between the 2 big groups ahead and behind us…and thus were easy to pick out of the crowd. This clearly inspired 10 mottos to encircle us as we entered town at the end of the march and follow us into the gauntlet of waiting spectators screaming things at us and cheering. Once again, all I can say is…awkward!
We also attended the "unity parade"…which starts 2 hours late, and consists of all the school children from town and the surrounding areas wearing their uniforms and marching 200 meters across an open field in front of a stage where all the important people (and us) sit. I occupied myself by taking pictures of other unsuspecting spectators. Lastly, we had to go to the sous-prefet's party (a guy with a rank somewhere above mayor). Parties here are THE MOST awkward of all awkward situations. We enter the sous-prefet's living room as we are announced by a man on a microphone next to the door. We then take seats in chairs which line all the walls of the room. Music blasts, no one talks, everyone stares at each other and waits for the food. The food is served 2 ½ hours after the party has "started". We eat. They clear everything away. Then the awkward first dance takes place. They choose people at random (I swear sometimes they know who absolutely does not want to be called and then choose you) to dance the first dance in pairs they select. Of course Kim and I get called and have to dance with 60 year old men. The dance lasts for 30 seconds. Everyone laughs at us. We sit down and contemplate how soon we can successfully escape unnoticed. We stay 10 more minutes before deciding, the answer is NOW!
Aside from all the eventfulness due to unity…I've done a bit of work around my village. I had a meeting about a water project at the village Lo'o. Silly me assumed that when they asked me to come for the meeting, that I would be solely an observer! I got there, sat down, and everyone was just staring at me until someone told me to start. So…I guess I can say I winged it…because I have NO IDEA how one does water projects! But now I guess we are building a water pump. Haha… Other than that, Kim and I went to the village Mefoup to do a soy presentation and had record attendance of 43 people! Everyone seemed pretty into it and a lot of people requested recipes books a fellow volunteer made. Clearly however, after the meeting the first individual to come "ask a question" is a 50 year old man, who comes up to us and whispers in horrible English "I want a woman to marry"…seriously, if only I could be a man in this culture for 5 minutes!
Lastly, last thursday was my 8 month anniversary with Cameroon! Not like I'm counting or figuring this stuff out or anything, but in one more month I'll already be a third done with my service. Woah.
SPECIAL EDITION!!!
Pests and Food Products
I wanted to describe the ways in which the pests in my home affect EVERY SINGLE food product I own in order to gain your pity and make you oooh and aaaah at the tiny ecosystems I find in everything from my flour to my zesty blend spice container. We will start with everyone's favorite…ants. There are 3 main types of ants I have identified in my home. We have the large biting black/red ant, the small blank ant, and the tiny orange ant. Tiny orange ants are by far my largest frustration, and have been deemed to be worse in my house than any other volunteers in the South (this is the part where I garner your pity). Now, my prior knowledge of ants led me to believe they only liked sweet things: candy, pure sugar, syrup, etc…this is OH so wrong. Ants consume all food indiscriminately in my home! An onion slice falls on the ground, within 5 minutes…covered in small orange ants. Butter, keep it in it's covered plastic container in a Ziploc bag…2 days later when I use it again…boom full of ants (and often black fuzzy mold). Bread, eat ½ a baguette, but the rest in a Ziploc bag…next afternoon when I want to make a sandwich…wham ants…inside every crevice, those holes which normally make bread so airy and delightful are simply a labyrinth of fun for the ants. And on and on, even spices! They ate my rosemary. I wanted to cry. The little ants are handy in one respect though, they eat other dead bugs. I kill a cockroach, and throw it outside my door, within an hour the thing it entirely gone! The large biting black/red ants were the invaders of my sink during their migration past my house. Oddly enough they usually are only out and about now at night and have a very defined path along the edge of my back porch. Recently something has lured them into the kitchen at night (in far smaller amounts, thank god) and they have been doing evil things like eating my bananas THROUGH the peel. WHY?!?!
Next on the list we have mice. I only saw one in my house that one time (when it did a sweet back flip in my kitchen)…however they are known to be at large due to their lack of discretion in eating my food and pooping in a specific corner about once a week behind my bed in the middle of the night (sneaky little jerks). Mice enjoy chewing through plastic and eating labels off of containers. Ziploc bags left too long with something in them…corners chewed off by mice. Small spreadable cheese in wrapper, in box left too long…chewed through by mice. Cinnamon bottle with apparently delicious label (I bought it…I guess I found myself drawn to the container as well, but didn't think to taste the label)…chewed up by mice. Even the skin on onions get gnawed off by these guys! I repeat…jerks!
Moving on…we have other insects that like to lay eggs. I enjoy pasta so I bought a small bag. I ate some and put the rest in a Tupperware container to store for 2 weeks while I was gone. Who'd have thought this could be a bad idea?! When I opened it next, there were huge bugs who had burrowed inside of the pasta tubes and were living half imbedded in the pasta! So…you know what this means…bugs that size can't get into a Tupperware container in any other way than by eggs…thus every time I eat pasta I'm getting a good dose of bug protein in egg form! Other egg layers include the maggot like things in all flour. My flour is always in a Tupperware too…but that doesn't stop these guys from going about their business havin' babies by the second in my food. Before using flour here you have to put it all through a fine sieve to get out all the bugs, their larvae, end eggs. However, I'm pretty sure the sieve isn't small enough…oh well…it'll maybe stop me from eating raw cookie dough?! One cool thing about the flour larvae is that they make paths down the edges of the container in the flour…kinda like those ant house/maze things kids in the States have…and I like to observe them…and then eat their babies. Maggots also find themselves into almost any fruit that gets a little too ripe on my counter, and I've, on more than one occasion , forgotten to take a good look at my guava before biting in and have gotten a mouthful of fruit + little worms! Yum.
…are you grossed out yet?!...
Lastly we've got the mold. And since fungus is neither plant nor animal, I allow it to be called a pest! With no refrigeration you can imagine that food is quick to rot…but wow, I sometimes find myself pretty astounded at just how fast mold can take over a tomato that was good just the night before, or grow on my dishsponge if I don't bleach it every few day, or inside a container of spices I guess I must have stupidly stuck a contaminated utensil into?! On a sidenote, un-food related…mold has even grown on my pants folded up on my shelf! Humidity…I tell ya!
Alright! That's it! Enjoy your lunch ;>)
Certainly been in and out a lot lately…feels like I'm never really home for more than a day at a time! I spent some time up in Kim's (I'm just going to use her name because I am with her too often to not!) town for the independence/unity celebration…I don't really know what it is about…I think Cameroon combined all their political holidays into this one week or something, at least that's what it seemed like!
Kim held a writing contest as part of the celebration. I helped. Haha…this included us getting omelet sandwiches, telling other people to get everything ready, and then showing up to hand kids paper and sit around and read for 4 hours while the kids wrote about their futures and the future of their country. It ended up going pretty well…but after the first 2 hours the 8 year olds started showing up, and since we didn't specify age from the get go, we ended up with about half of the papers full of drawings and phrases like "I want the president to be president forever". Also, only in Cameroon during an "official" contest like this are you disrupted by events such as the goats making too much noise outside and a crazy drunk women coming to the door at 8 am and yelling things at everyone inside. A few days after the contest we gave out prizes to the winners at the "soccer game for unity"…since everything was very unclear, we assumed that Kim would just stand up, say a few words, and hand out the bags of tee-shirts. However, this whole contest idea was rapidly taken over by the "officials" in the community, they gave a big speech, made the kids stand in line for applause, had random people including myself (without even informing me they just call my name into the microphone!), the mayor, the delegate of agriculture…etc…hand out the prizes and get photos taken with the winners…in front of the entire town…awkward times pretty much sums it up!
Another "event for unity" included a march. For this we showed up to the center of town at 6 am…they pack about ½ the population into one vehicle, we get on mottos, and drive 10 kilometers to the northern border of the south province. Once we get there all the women are told they need to have an obligatory medical exam. Of course, this means there is one man from the hospital with a blood pressure cuff and a stool. No one forms a line, but just a big pack and a few women get their blood pressure taken after some pushing and shoving. They never got around to us (or half the other women for that matter) so I guess it's a good thing I'm not afflicted with hypertension?! After this we do some stretching, which looked to me more like line dancing…I just took pictures…I guess it's also a good thing I'm not a sufferer of stiff joints. :>) Then we are distributed our free gift! Tee-shirts! We were so excited about the tee-shirts (I always am)…but we soon discover that they do not say anything exciting like "march for unity" but are instead plain grey XXL. Very sad. However we did get cloth, hand written numbers to pin on our backs! The march itself was just fine, but I have NEVER seen a cameroonian walk as fast as all these people did, either unity is a highly motivating purpose or there was a big cash prize for the winner! Our goal was to not be last so we wouldn't be deemed the weakest and further the stereotype of weak white people. However, somehow kim and I got stuck between the 2 big groups ahead and behind us…and thus were easy to pick out of the crowd. This clearly inspired 10 mottos to encircle us as we entered town at the end of the march and follow us into the gauntlet of waiting spectators screaming things at us and cheering. Once again, all I can say is…awkward!
We also attended the "unity parade"…which starts 2 hours late, and consists of all the school children from town and the surrounding areas wearing their uniforms and marching 200 meters across an open field in front of a stage where all the important people (and us) sit. I occupied myself by taking pictures of other unsuspecting spectators. Lastly, we had to go to the sous-prefet's party (a guy with a rank somewhere above mayor). Parties here are THE MOST awkward of all awkward situations. We enter the sous-prefet's living room as we are announced by a man on a microphone next to the door. We then take seats in chairs which line all the walls of the room. Music blasts, no one talks, everyone stares at each other and waits for the food. The food is served 2 ½ hours after the party has "started". We eat. They clear everything away. Then the awkward first dance takes place. They choose people at random (I swear sometimes they know who absolutely does not want to be called and then choose you) to dance the first dance in pairs they select. Of course Kim and I get called and have to dance with 60 year old men. The dance lasts for 30 seconds. Everyone laughs at us. We sit down and contemplate how soon we can successfully escape unnoticed. We stay 10 more minutes before deciding, the answer is NOW!
Aside from all the eventfulness due to unity…I've done a bit of work around my village. I had a meeting about a water project at the village Lo'o. Silly me assumed that when they asked me to come for the meeting, that I would be solely an observer! I got there, sat down, and everyone was just staring at me until someone told me to start. So…I guess I can say I winged it…because I have NO IDEA how one does water projects! But now I guess we are building a water pump. Haha… Other than that, Kim and I went to the village Mefoup to do a soy presentation and had record attendance of 43 people! Everyone seemed pretty into it and a lot of people requested recipes books a fellow volunteer made. Clearly however, after the meeting the first individual to come "ask a question" is a 50 year old man, who comes up to us and whispers in horrible English "I want a woman to marry"…seriously, if only I could be a man in this culture for 5 minutes!
Lastly, last thursday was my 8 month anniversary with Cameroon! Not like I'm counting or figuring this stuff out or anything, but in one more month I'll already be a third done with my service. Woah.
SPECIAL EDITION!!!
Pests and Food Products
I wanted to describe the ways in which the pests in my home affect EVERY SINGLE food product I own in order to gain your pity and make you oooh and aaaah at the tiny ecosystems I find in everything from my flour to my zesty blend spice container. We will start with everyone's favorite…ants. There are 3 main types of ants I have identified in my home. We have the large biting black/red ant, the small blank ant, and the tiny orange ant. Tiny orange ants are by far my largest frustration, and have been deemed to be worse in my house than any other volunteers in the South (this is the part where I garner your pity). Now, my prior knowledge of ants led me to believe they only liked sweet things: candy, pure sugar, syrup, etc…this is OH so wrong. Ants consume all food indiscriminately in my home! An onion slice falls on the ground, within 5 minutes…covered in small orange ants. Butter, keep it in it's covered plastic container in a Ziploc bag…2 days later when I use it again…boom full of ants (and often black fuzzy mold). Bread, eat ½ a baguette, but the rest in a Ziploc bag…next afternoon when I want to make a sandwich…wham ants…inside every crevice, those holes which normally make bread so airy and delightful are simply a labyrinth of fun for the ants. And on and on, even spices! They ate my rosemary. I wanted to cry. The little ants are handy in one respect though, they eat other dead bugs. I kill a cockroach, and throw it outside my door, within an hour the thing it entirely gone! The large biting black/red ants were the invaders of my sink during their migration past my house. Oddly enough they usually are only out and about now at night and have a very defined path along the edge of my back porch. Recently something has lured them into the kitchen at night (in far smaller amounts, thank god) and they have been doing evil things like eating my bananas THROUGH the peel. WHY?!?!
Next on the list we have mice. I only saw one in my house that one time (when it did a sweet back flip in my kitchen)…however they are known to be at large due to their lack of discretion in eating my food and pooping in a specific corner about once a week behind my bed in the middle of the night (sneaky little jerks). Mice enjoy chewing through plastic and eating labels off of containers. Ziploc bags left too long with something in them…corners chewed off by mice. Small spreadable cheese in wrapper, in box left too long…chewed through by mice. Cinnamon bottle with apparently delicious label (I bought it…I guess I found myself drawn to the container as well, but didn't think to taste the label)…chewed up by mice. Even the skin on onions get gnawed off by these guys! I repeat…jerks!
Moving on…we have other insects that like to lay eggs. I enjoy pasta so I bought a small bag. I ate some and put the rest in a Tupperware container to store for 2 weeks while I was gone. Who'd have thought this could be a bad idea?! When I opened it next, there were huge bugs who had burrowed inside of the pasta tubes and were living half imbedded in the pasta! So…you know what this means…bugs that size can't get into a Tupperware container in any other way than by eggs…thus every time I eat pasta I'm getting a good dose of bug protein in egg form! Other egg layers include the maggot like things in all flour. My flour is always in a Tupperware too…but that doesn't stop these guys from going about their business havin' babies by the second in my food. Before using flour here you have to put it all through a fine sieve to get out all the bugs, their larvae, end eggs. However, I'm pretty sure the sieve isn't small enough…oh well…it'll maybe stop me from eating raw cookie dough?! One cool thing about the flour larvae is that they make paths down the edges of the container in the flour…kinda like those ant house/maze things kids in the States have…and I like to observe them…and then eat their babies. Maggots also find themselves into almost any fruit that gets a little too ripe on my counter, and I've, on more than one occasion , forgotten to take a good look at my guava before biting in and have gotten a mouthful of fruit + little worms! Yum.
…are you grossed out yet?!...
Lastly we've got the mold. And since fungus is neither plant nor animal, I allow it to be called a pest! With no refrigeration you can imagine that food is quick to rot…but wow, I sometimes find myself pretty astounded at just how fast mold can take over a tomato that was good just the night before, or grow on my dishsponge if I don't bleach it every few day, or inside a container of spices I guess I must have stupidly stuck a contaminated utensil into?! On a sidenote, un-food related…mold has even grown on my pants folded up on my shelf! Humidity…I tell ya!
Alright! That's it! Enjoy your lunch ;>)
Monday, May 12, 2008
A Guest blogger too!
First one is mine...second is my lovely guest blogger Kim
Hello! Sad news to start: my postmate's computer died, so after this one (I'm using another volunteer's laptop) my posts may be far less eloquent…since they are oh so eloquent now! :>) Since I last wrote I've been staying busy, in relative terms. I've planted some more soy with the women's group in my village and given them a presentation about it, and then also planted with a man that lives close to me. The second day I was out planting soy with the women's group we had to clear the land of tons and tons of really tall brush and random other fallen branches, etc… This was fine, and kinda fun, just whacking at things with a little hoe and ripping roots out of the ground and throwing them on a pile. After that we started to plant, which includes taking said small hoe and tilling up the soil. Somewhere within these two actions millions and millions (I would like to say I'm exaggerating…but seriously A LOT) of tiny little flies were disrupted from their in-ground homes and were not pleased. We got ATTACKED! Since the only parts of my body exposed were my hands and face…there was some serious biting going on in these areas. All the other women got really bitten up in the same spots, but…leave it to white skin to be the skin that puffs up and gets all red, and also, leave it to me and my insect loving skin to be bitten in places like my EYELID?! I took a picture of myself as proof…I looked like I got into some intense fight and didn't come out on top. I took myself some Benadryl and passed out for 2 hours before presenting myself to the general public (aka walking outside my house) for commentary on my weak skin. Other than that I attempted to hold a meeting at Mefoup to give our soy presentation, south of here. It was pretty disappointing since we spent a good deal of time in transit (painful transit) and arrived to be informed that everyone had thought the meeting was in the morning. For our efforts (and pains) the 85 year old man whose house we use as our meeting place regaled us with a song about his generation, his wife gave us a live chicken to kill and eat at our leisure, and we got to meander around the village being yelled at by various people for being white! I always find the trip to and from Mefoup one of the most interesting. In order to leave from Ebolowa you have to go to the southernmost point of town to find a car. Finding a car includes standing there, having half the city scream things at you, mottos pretend to run into you, never understanding what's going on, and then finally just getting into a car with 7 other people and off you go! Most recently some guy kept trying to grab my arm and my bag to throw into the car…in order to fend him off I spun around and yelled "If you touch me one more time, I am going to hit you VERY HARD!" and then smiled sweetly…in response he took up some posture straight out of a karate movie and burst out laughing at me…but then went away! So hey…it worked out! The depot for cars (if you can call it that, it's kinda just a big muddy parking lot) always has a surplus of bush meat available. The past few times I've seen a couple of pretty big dead monkeys and an enormous snake for sale. I asked about the monkeys and sadly at 8,500 CFA (like 20 dollars) I couldn't afford it. I need to take a picture of this, I would have found it incredibly sad and disturbing prior to my life here…as I'm sure most of you back home would, and it's interesting how this has just become something normal… Other work things…I went to a party at FONJAK (the organization I really want to work with) and almost had the opportunity to go with them to Campo Ma'an…the national park in the south. Sadly I couldn't because of safety reasons (and since they got into a car accident on this same trip I guess it was a good thing?!) But hopefully at the end of this week I'll be able to work with them since I'll be going up there again. Lastly work wise, we had our provincial meeting in Ebolowa last weekend. Most of the volunteers from the South came here, there ended up being 7 of us total (2 were missing) and we just talked about what we've been doing so far, possible collaborations we want to do together, and then went out in white people force to the nightclub and danced in an impenetrable white people pack. It was a lovely time! :>)
Around the neighborhood it's been pretty good. In the weeks since last returning from Yaounde, I had to laugh at how many people told me things like "where have you been, I thought you went back to America" or "why didn't you come say goodbye to me if you were leaving for so long" or "I heard you were in Bamenda, how was the weather?'…and it wasn't just my neighbors or people who this could possibly be seen as a normal thing to ask. People like the lady who sells me tomatoes at the market, the man who works at the post office, the man who works in the bank, the guy down the street I talked to once in my life…News spreads quick around here! But I guess it is good people would notice if I just disappeared! I've been spending lots of time with the neighbor kids as usual. We spend one afternoon cutting up old plastic bags and making a jump rope out of them, which I tried to explain as "recycling"…but I'm not sure if the term made much sense. Also, they now use the jump rope for other things, like tying it around their heads and then tying themselves together and then running in circles around my house?! Hey…at least it's being used?! :>) My landlady kept coming over and yelling at me that the water was running and I'd keep telling her it wasn't (the fact that it's was not coming out of the tap led me to this revelation which she would not accept even when I showed her!) so we went and found the plumber and sure enough, now there it a hole in the pipe way down the road that needs to be fixed. I harassed the plumber into coming over and finally attaching my sink to the wall (it's been sitting on the floor for months) and he told me he would only come do it for me because I don't have any money, but not for my landlady, because "she is rich". I didn't understand the logic, so I agreed as usual, and then…he didn't show up! So the water situation remains as it apparently always will be! BUT the furniture situation has drastically improved! I am now the proud owner of 4 chairs, a coffee table and a small couch made out of raffia (it's kinda like wicker furniture)!!! I've been enjoying sitting off the floor as of late! Something exciting, one of my friends has started to sell food during lunch time right across the street…I can get ½ of a small fish and a bunch of rice for 100 CFA…which is like 20 cents!!! VERY exciting! Other exciting news: apparently my chief is a sorcerer and kills people. This is what the children have been telling me. And since when Peace Corps staff visited me we had to go talk to the chief, the chief now greets me when I see him on the street and everyone exchanges glances and casts shameful stares at me! Lastly in the house I came upon a lizard in my kitchen above the door treating it like a bathroom…excreting from his lofty perch onto my counters and floor. So what did I do except…video tape it…oh it's a great film!
And…last bit of random news…I met the American missionary couple whom live in town, they invited my postmate and I over to have dinner and watch some movies. I could not believe the things they own (I will make a small list for you): tile floors, oven, refrigerator AND freezer, hot water heater, microwave (first one I've seen in Cameroon), TV, DVD player, real mattress, CAR…it was insane, paradise on earth. We ate cheese and lettuce, drank diet soda, had cake…AMAZING…but it felt very foreign! It kinda scares me to think if all that already felt so out of the norm how coming back to the states will feel where those things are commonplace…but it also made me feel like I was more "integrated" into the lifestyle here, since I've been feeling like it's all too cushy most of the time for me anyways…
Alright…this has been a very very random assortment of news, but thus is life! Thanks for reading!
GUEST BLOGGER!!!
Out of Context
This place is weird. Or maybe it's not. Maybe I'm the weirdo. Who knows? Regardless, the following are some scenes from my life here. In the context of America they are ridiculous. Here, it's called Tuesday.
* * *
Dining Out. The other morning I went to an omelet shack with Kate, another volunteer who lives just outside of Ebolowa, our provincial capital. She's from Wisconsin, by the way. This becomes obvious immediately after talking to her, even when she's not wearing her giant cheese-head hat. Anyway, omelet shacks. Kate and I went to Jackson's (full name: Chez Jackson's International Club—ha! Jealous?) because he makes the best spaghetti omelets in town. We each placed our order—une oeuf spaghetti, si vous plait—but Jackson's new omelet intern told us he was out of spaghetti. Now in America, this would have been crushing news. Or actually, in America this probably wouldn't have happened, because in America they worry about pesky little things like 'customer service' and generally order enough supplies to see themselves through the day. But whatever. I am not bitter, because I may not be in America, but Cameroon is not without its culinary advantages. Certainly in America you are not allowed to say 'Mais la femme là-bas a le spaghetti. Il faut lui demander'. And certainly in America the omelet intern would not then go over to the lady next door and, USING HIS HANDS, take some of her spaghetti for us. Mmm, spaghetti omelets. You people don't even know the value. (Grandmaster Flash, that was for you. Hi!)
* * *
Working Relationships. After a pleasant brunch, Kate and I headed out to Mefoup, one of the villages outside of Ebolowa. (I like to think of them as suburbs because it's hilarious but probably only to me because I live here but trust me—comic GOLD) We were supposed to give a presentation to a group of farmers on the magical properties of soy. Kate talks about the advantages for the soil and I talk about the nutritional benefits. For example, did you know that one kilo of soy has the same amount of protein as three kilo's of beef? C'est incroyable, n'est pas? And let me tell you, harvesting soy is a lot less messy than butchering a cow. Although I'm sorry, I personally can't get behind soymilk. Drinking beans freaks me out. I try not to judge others though. Where I come from that will get you kicked right out of the coffee house. Oh dear, it's seems I have digressed. I'll be honest—I can be a bit of a digresser as a rule. I apologize. Soy! Farmers! So we went, at 14:00, because that's when Kate had set up the meeting for. Only when we got there, there was just one old woman on the porch. Because for some reason all the farmers thought we were going to be there in the morning, not in the afternoon. So they had all left hours ago. A disappointment, but truthfully—not an entirely unexpected one here in the Dirty South. Meetings rarely go as planned. But that is not the point of this rambling, practically incoherent story. The point of the story is this—we left that house with a live chicken in a bag! The woman had planned on preparing the chicken for the meeting, but since we so rudely showed up four hours late, she just kept it and gave it to us. Fan-fricking-tastic. I never received live poultry after meetings at my old job. One time I got this cute little notebook and pen set, but that was a total fluke.
* * *
Getting Rides. (Side note to all parents, and other people who are generally inclined towards worry—none of what follows is considered weird here, or dangerous. It is not hitchhiking, which I would never do because I've seen those movies and I know what happens to girls to hitchhike, the hussies. It is simply a system of transportation that involves flagging down random vehicles in order to convey oneself from one location to another. OK?) We took a cab out to Mefoup (and by cab I mean one of the seemingly endless supply of Toyotas held together with wire and hope) so we needed to flag down another cab to get us back. Only there didn't seem to be a lot of cabs going by, so we started walking in the direction of Ebolowa. Only it was the middle of the afternoon so it was REALLY FREAKING HOT. No worries. We'll just walk up to a complete stranger’s house and ask to sit on their (mercifully shaded) porch for a bit. AND THIS WILL BE CONSIDERED PERFECTLY NORMAL. It will also be considered perfectly normal for two old women to come out of the house and stare at us. And I mean STARE. Hello! We are just a couple of zany American girls trying to stay out of the sun! Thank you for letting us sit on your porch, and no, we don't mind at all if you stare at us in a what might be considered a maniacal manner without blinking for five minutes straight! Would you like to look at the live chicken we've got in this bag? At first, whenever we would hear a car approaching Hans (Kate's co-worker—he often comes with us to translate our presentations into Bulu) would run out to the road and try to flag it down. Four cars passed him without stopping. So I tried. Four more cars passed! Of all the nerve! I mean honestly, sometimes when I'm just walking down the road cars will pull up alongside me randomly and try to convince me to get in. (Because in addition to being white, I also apparently appear both easy and stupid.) But now, in our moment of need, I can't get a car to save my life. Clearly, this was a job for a blond. Sure enough, Kate was able to get a car to stop—although I was gratified that two passed her before one finally pulled over. The chicken in the bag went into the trunk (and by 'trunk' I mean the space under the hatchback door that didn't latch) and we climbed into the car. Which at this point already held four other people. We drove about 50 feet, and then pulled over to pick up an old man and his 3 large bags of plantains. So now there were eight people, three bags of plantains, and one bag of (live) chicken in the car. Perhaps I've misled you into thinking we were in a station wagon with my mention of the hatchback. No, we were in something that resembled a Geo. Four people in the back, four people in the front. In Cameroon, not even the driver gets his own seat. And all the cars at stick-shifts. Ha-zing! I probably don't need to mention that perceptions of personal space are a little different here. Mostly because the concept of personal space doesn't exist. Bon voyage!
* * *
Lying. I lie to people constantly, and for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s because a strange man is hitting on me and I think it prudent to mention that I already have two husbands, and that my father requires at least 15 goats for my dowry. Sometimes its because I don't know how to say whatever it is that I actually want to say, so I just say something else. Something completely different and also maybe completely untrue but also more easily expressed in French. For instance, I might say that in America men do all the laundry and cooking. Technically, perhaps, this is not true. But it's easier than explaining that in the States gender roles are quite blurred due to the dramatic social changes that took place in the 70s and 80s and as a result domestic chores are distributed based on a complex and continuous process of discussion and experimentation throughout the lifetime of any relationship. Also it blows their minds when I say it, and that is kind of fun. And finally, sometimes I end up lying completely by accident, because of my habit of just saying 'oui' whenever I don't understand what is being said to me. I'm pretty sure I've told a number of people that they could come to my house for dinner, and not once did I actually mean it. It's possible I've also accepted a number of marriage proposals, but even with the abundance of rock-hard abs in this country, I don't actually plan on walking down the aisle with anyone. At least not at this point in time.
* * *
Hello! Sad news to start: my postmate's computer died, so after this one (I'm using another volunteer's laptop) my posts may be far less eloquent…since they are oh so eloquent now! :>) Since I last wrote I've been staying busy, in relative terms. I've planted some more soy with the women's group in my village and given them a presentation about it, and then also planted with a man that lives close to me. The second day I was out planting soy with the women's group we had to clear the land of tons and tons of really tall brush and random other fallen branches, etc… This was fine, and kinda fun, just whacking at things with a little hoe and ripping roots out of the ground and throwing them on a pile. After that we started to plant, which includes taking said small hoe and tilling up the soil. Somewhere within these two actions millions and millions (I would like to say I'm exaggerating…but seriously A LOT) of tiny little flies were disrupted from their in-ground homes and were not pleased. We got ATTACKED! Since the only parts of my body exposed were my hands and face…there was some serious biting going on in these areas. All the other women got really bitten up in the same spots, but…leave it to white skin to be the skin that puffs up and gets all red, and also, leave it to me and my insect loving skin to be bitten in places like my EYELID?! I took a picture of myself as proof…I looked like I got into some intense fight and didn't come out on top. I took myself some Benadryl and passed out for 2 hours before presenting myself to the general public (aka walking outside my house) for commentary on my weak skin. Other than that I attempted to hold a meeting at Mefoup to give our soy presentation, south of here. It was pretty disappointing since we spent a good deal of time in transit (painful transit) and arrived to be informed that everyone had thought the meeting was in the morning. For our efforts (and pains) the 85 year old man whose house we use as our meeting place regaled us with a song about his generation, his wife gave us a live chicken to kill and eat at our leisure, and we got to meander around the village being yelled at by various people for being white! I always find the trip to and from Mefoup one of the most interesting. In order to leave from Ebolowa you have to go to the southernmost point of town to find a car. Finding a car includes standing there, having half the city scream things at you, mottos pretend to run into you, never understanding what's going on, and then finally just getting into a car with 7 other people and off you go! Most recently some guy kept trying to grab my arm and my bag to throw into the car…in order to fend him off I spun around and yelled "If you touch me one more time, I am going to hit you VERY HARD!" and then smiled sweetly…in response he took up some posture straight out of a karate movie and burst out laughing at me…but then went away! So hey…it worked out! The depot for cars (if you can call it that, it's kinda just a big muddy parking lot) always has a surplus of bush meat available. The past few times I've seen a couple of pretty big dead monkeys and an enormous snake for sale. I asked about the monkeys and sadly at 8,500 CFA (like 20 dollars) I couldn't afford it. I need to take a picture of this, I would have found it incredibly sad and disturbing prior to my life here…as I'm sure most of you back home would, and it's interesting how this has just become something normal… Other work things…I went to a party at FONJAK (the organization I really want to work with) and almost had the opportunity to go with them to Campo Ma'an…the national park in the south. Sadly I couldn't because of safety reasons (and since they got into a car accident on this same trip I guess it was a good thing?!) But hopefully at the end of this week I'll be able to work with them since I'll be going up there again. Lastly work wise, we had our provincial meeting in Ebolowa last weekend. Most of the volunteers from the South came here, there ended up being 7 of us total (2 were missing) and we just talked about what we've been doing so far, possible collaborations we want to do together, and then went out in white people force to the nightclub and danced in an impenetrable white people pack. It was a lovely time! :>)
Around the neighborhood it's been pretty good. In the weeks since last returning from Yaounde, I had to laugh at how many people told me things like "where have you been, I thought you went back to America" or "why didn't you come say goodbye to me if you were leaving for so long" or "I heard you were in Bamenda, how was the weather?'…and it wasn't just my neighbors or people who this could possibly be seen as a normal thing to ask. People like the lady who sells me tomatoes at the market, the man who works at the post office, the man who works in the bank, the guy down the street I talked to once in my life…News spreads quick around here! But I guess it is good people would notice if I just disappeared! I've been spending lots of time with the neighbor kids as usual. We spend one afternoon cutting up old plastic bags and making a jump rope out of them, which I tried to explain as "recycling"…but I'm not sure if the term made much sense. Also, they now use the jump rope for other things, like tying it around their heads and then tying themselves together and then running in circles around my house?! Hey…at least it's being used?! :>) My landlady kept coming over and yelling at me that the water was running and I'd keep telling her it wasn't (the fact that it's was not coming out of the tap led me to this revelation which she would not accept even when I showed her!) so we went and found the plumber and sure enough, now there it a hole in the pipe way down the road that needs to be fixed. I harassed the plumber into coming over and finally attaching my sink to the wall (it's been sitting on the floor for months) and he told me he would only come do it for me because I don't have any money, but not for my landlady, because "she is rich". I didn't understand the logic, so I agreed as usual, and then…he didn't show up! So the water situation remains as it apparently always will be! BUT the furniture situation has drastically improved! I am now the proud owner of 4 chairs, a coffee table and a small couch made out of raffia (it's kinda like wicker furniture)!!! I've been enjoying sitting off the floor as of late! Something exciting, one of my friends has started to sell food during lunch time right across the street…I can get ½ of a small fish and a bunch of rice for 100 CFA…which is like 20 cents!!! VERY exciting! Other exciting news: apparently my chief is a sorcerer and kills people. This is what the children have been telling me. And since when Peace Corps staff visited me we had to go talk to the chief, the chief now greets me when I see him on the street and everyone exchanges glances and casts shameful stares at me! Lastly in the house I came upon a lizard in my kitchen above the door treating it like a bathroom…excreting from his lofty perch onto my counters and floor. So what did I do except…video tape it…oh it's a great film!
And…last bit of random news…I met the American missionary couple whom live in town, they invited my postmate and I over to have dinner and watch some movies. I could not believe the things they own (I will make a small list for you): tile floors, oven, refrigerator AND freezer, hot water heater, microwave (first one I've seen in Cameroon), TV, DVD player, real mattress, CAR…it was insane, paradise on earth. We ate cheese and lettuce, drank diet soda, had cake…AMAZING…but it felt very foreign! It kinda scares me to think if all that already felt so out of the norm how coming back to the states will feel where those things are commonplace…but it also made me feel like I was more "integrated" into the lifestyle here, since I've been feeling like it's all too cushy most of the time for me anyways…
Alright…this has been a very very random assortment of news, but thus is life! Thanks for reading!
GUEST BLOGGER!!!
Out of Context
This place is weird. Or maybe it's not. Maybe I'm the weirdo. Who knows? Regardless, the following are some scenes from my life here. In the context of America they are ridiculous. Here, it's called Tuesday.
* * *
Dining Out. The other morning I went to an omelet shack with Kate, another volunteer who lives just outside of Ebolowa, our provincial capital. She's from Wisconsin, by the way. This becomes obvious immediately after talking to her, even when she's not wearing her giant cheese-head hat. Anyway, omelet shacks. Kate and I went to Jackson's (full name: Chez Jackson's International Club—ha! Jealous?) because he makes the best spaghetti omelets in town. We each placed our order—une oeuf spaghetti, si vous plait—but Jackson's new omelet intern told us he was out of spaghetti. Now in America, this would have been crushing news. Or actually, in America this probably wouldn't have happened, because in America they worry about pesky little things like 'customer service' and generally order enough supplies to see themselves through the day. But whatever. I am not bitter, because I may not be in America, but Cameroon is not without its culinary advantages. Certainly in America you are not allowed to say 'Mais la femme là-bas a le spaghetti. Il faut lui demander'. And certainly in America the omelet intern would not then go over to the lady next door and, USING HIS HANDS, take some of her spaghetti for us. Mmm, spaghetti omelets. You people don't even know the value. (Grandmaster Flash, that was for you. Hi!)
* * *
Working Relationships. After a pleasant brunch, Kate and I headed out to Mefoup, one of the villages outside of Ebolowa. (I like to think of them as suburbs because it's hilarious but probably only to me because I live here but trust me—comic GOLD) We were supposed to give a presentation to a group of farmers on the magical properties of soy. Kate talks about the advantages for the soil and I talk about the nutritional benefits. For example, did you know that one kilo of soy has the same amount of protein as three kilo's of beef? C'est incroyable, n'est pas? And let me tell you, harvesting soy is a lot less messy than butchering a cow. Although I'm sorry, I personally can't get behind soymilk. Drinking beans freaks me out. I try not to judge others though. Where I come from that will get you kicked right out of the coffee house. Oh dear, it's seems I have digressed. I'll be honest—I can be a bit of a digresser as a rule. I apologize. Soy! Farmers! So we went, at 14:00, because that's when Kate had set up the meeting for. Only when we got there, there was just one old woman on the porch. Because for some reason all the farmers thought we were going to be there in the morning, not in the afternoon. So they had all left hours ago. A disappointment, but truthfully—not an entirely unexpected one here in the Dirty South. Meetings rarely go as planned. But that is not the point of this rambling, practically incoherent story. The point of the story is this—we left that house with a live chicken in a bag! The woman had planned on preparing the chicken for the meeting, but since we so rudely showed up four hours late, she just kept it and gave it to us. Fan-fricking-tastic. I never received live poultry after meetings at my old job. One time I got this cute little notebook and pen set, but that was a total fluke.
* * *
Getting Rides. (Side note to all parents, and other people who are generally inclined towards worry—none of what follows is considered weird here, or dangerous. It is not hitchhiking, which I would never do because I've seen those movies and I know what happens to girls to hitchhike, the hussies. It is simply a system of transportation that involves flagging down random vehicles in order to convey oneself from one location to another. OK?) We took a cab out to Mefoup (and by cab I mean one of the seemingly endless supply of Toyotas held together with wire and hope) so we needed to flag down another cab to get us back. Only there didn't seem to be a lot of cabs going by, so we started walking in the direction of Ebolowa. Only it was the middle of the afternoon so it was REALLY FREAKING HOT. No worries. We'll just walk up to a complete stranger’s house and ask to sit on their (mercifully shaded) porch for a bit. AND THIS WILL BE CONSIDERED PERFECTLY NORMAL. It will also be considered perfectly normal for two old women to come out of the house and stare at us. And I mean STARE. Hello! We are just a couple of zany American girls trying to stay out of the sun! Thank you for letting us sit on your porch, and no, we don't mind at all if you stare at us in a what might be considered a maniacal manner without blinking for five minutes straight! Would you like to look at the live chicken we've got in this bag? At first, whenever we would hear a car approaching Hans (Kate's co-worker—he often comes with us to translate our presentations into Bulu) would run out to the road and try to flag it down. Four cars passed him without stopping. So I tried. Four more cars passed! Of all the nerve! I mean honestly, sometimes when I'm just walking down the road cars will pull up alongside me randomly and try to convince me to get in. (Because in addition to being white, I also apparently appear both easy and stupid.) But now, in our moment of need, I can't get a car to save my life. Clearly, this was a job for a blond. Sure enough, Kate was able to get a car to stop—although I was gratified that two passed her before one finally pulled over. The chicken in the bag went into the trunk (and by 'trunk' I mean the space under the hatchback door that didn't latch) and we climbed into the car. Which at this point already held four other people. We drove about 50 feet, and then pulled over to pick up an old man and his 3 large bags of plantains. So now there were eight people, three bags of plantains, and one bag of (live) chicken in the car. Perhaps I've misled you into thinking we were in a station wagon with my mention of the hatchback. No, we were in something that resembled a Geo. Four people in the back, four people in the front. In Cameroon, not even the driver gets his own seat. And all the cars at stick-shifts. Ha-zing! I probably don't need to mention that perceptions of personal space are a little different here. Mostly because the concept of personal space doesn't exist. Bon voyage!
* * *
Lying. I lie to people constantly, and for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s because a strange man is hitting on me and I think it prudent to mention that I already have two husbands, and that my father requires at least 15 goats for my dowry. Sometimes its because I don't know how to say whatever it is that I actually want to say, so I just say something else. Something completely different and also maybe completely untrue but also more easily expressed in French. For instance, I might say that in America men do all the laundry and cooking. Technically, perhaps, this is not true. But it's easier than explaining that in the States gender roles are quite blurred due to the dramatic social changes that took place in the 70s and 80s and as a result domestic chores are distributed based on a complex and continuous process of discussion and experimentation throughout the lifetime of any relationship. Also it blows their minds when I say it, and that is kind of fun. And finally, sometimes I end up lying completely by accident, because of my habit of just saying 'oui' whenever I don't understand what is being said to me. I'm pretty sure I've told a number of people that they could come to my house for dinner, and not once did I actually mean it. It's possible I've also accepted a number of marriage proposals, but even with the abundance of rock-hard abs in this country, I don't actually plan on walking down the aisle with anyone. At least not at this point in time.
* * *
Monday, April 28, 2008
What's New, What's New
What's new, what's new…I have had an incredibly busy past 2 weeks…so a lot I guess! I'll start with all my recent fun transportation in Cameroon stories! In one week I had about as many travel problems as I can hope to ever rack up in such a short period of time…2 breakdowns of buses between Ebolowa and Yaoundé in the same week. The first one occurred right as it was getting dark, we broke down in an area without cell phone reception, and everyone on the bus was in "I hate white people mode". We ended up having to wait 4 hours, during which I tried to win over the bus population by using key bulu phrases such as "Ma kobo bulu tchithcoi" (I speak a little bulu) when they were saying things about me they thought I couldn't understand. After which the volunteer I was traveling with and myself got white people privileges and got to hop on a bus before everyone else, which I'm sure reverted the bus to I hate white people mode once more! The second break down occurred 4 days later, this time only 30 km from Yaoundé, and it took 3 hours for the replacement bus to be sent! I made a friend during this time that later really helped me out getting a taxi and a decent price at night in the city…which is pretty iffy at best! In addition to the break downs I foolishly forgot my ID card while going to work an hour away one day. The first stop by gendarmes (police…they stop cars constantly at roadblocks they set up to "check ID cards"…it's a very pointless process that increases travel time drastically and is really only used to pad their own pockets) went fine and I got waved through with a look of disapproval. On the way back from work I was with my supervisor and another man I work with…we got stopped…I tried my "I'm stupid and left my card at home excuse" and the gendarme started shaking his head disapprovingly. This for some reason infuriated the man I work with and he stood up, started yelling, gendarme was screaming at him, no one was listening to me, I was almost crying…big buff men in uniforms with large automatic weapons freak me out…eventually he called over HIS supervisor who took one look at me and told everyone "yeah I know her, she's the white girl who lives at Ngalane"…thus lessons learned: 1)living at a police barrier has it's perks, 2)DON'T forget your ID card at any time 3)don't yell at scary men with guns.
Two weeks ago I had my week long IST (in service training) in Bamenda, in the Northwest Province. It was a pretty intense week, time consuming mainly…11 hours a day of being locked away in a hotel for meetings…most of which were things we'd gone over already or things that once again weren't exactly applicable to us volunteers in the still forested part of the country (this has irked me continuously during trainings and frustrated me to no end when actually trying to figure out how to get work started…) We did get to do two mornings of "field work", namely, visits to two different agro forestry centers that really had their stuff together and were incredibly beautiful places. Aside from the meeting/frustration aspect for me, it was really really wonderful to see all the volunteers from the agro training group who I hadn't seen since going to post in December. Not a single one of us has left the program since we all met in Philly, and I'm pretty sure this is some kind of record…all 22 of us still in for the long haul! It's a really good dynamic within the group and there are several people who continuously give me sanity and perspective…thus leaving was once again the hard part! However, after IST I went to a village near Baffousam in the West province for a quick stay at my good friend's place with a few other people…I had intended on going back to Bangangte to try to visit my home stay family, but ended up being scheduled for meetings in Yaoundé the next day so had to leave the West. The next 4 days I had meetings in Yaoundé, to be a "contact volunteer"…so when the country falls apart my post mate and I are responsible for getting a hold of everyone in the South province and then they all get to come hide out at our houses. I also had meetings for the Environmental Education Committee, which I just joined. The latter made me feel the most productive, and it was a lot of sharing of ideas and whatnot. Another girl in the South and I are going to write up something for the Environ. Edu. Manual on medicinal plants and bush meat. We are also, this is the grand idea, going to organize a 100 km bike tour (clearly ending at the beach in Kribi) in the South where we leisurely ride along and stop at villages to discuss environmental issues…big goal…but they do this in the North to discuss AIDS…so we are going to adapt it! :>) Another great idea we talked about while all together is the band…we have a gig!!! (I'm never saying that again, I feel like a weirdo…I got to use something like "performance" or maybe "musical presentation experience"?! ha-ha, ok, no better), but anyways, I think it'll be in November in the Northwest, and we're going to raise money for some farmers organization my friend works with up there…I'm excited for that!
Back home…coming home was weird…kind of hard in a few ways, but I did miss my house, my immediate neighbors, Obam, Hans…etc… My little neighbor has taken to picking bouquets of flowers for me (and for any other volunteers that come to visit)…so she picked me a huge one right when I got back. I also was greeted with the news that my soccer team won the finals match! Which is a big deal…and I couldn't be there for it, so got scolded. I had gone to the semi finals match before I left…let me tell you, still awkward. Whenever the guys scored a goal they would all run over to me, kneel on the ground and kiss my feet! I took to hiding my head behind my friend’s back like a 5 year old and giggling like a middle schooler. Then my neighbor, Billy, told me he is going to be sure we have the jerseys made for summer vacation (when the soccer tournaments start over and apparently get really intense)…they will say "Wisconsin Badgers" on the back (which still no one can pronounce, or for that matter even remember) and then worst of all he's putting "KATE" on the front in big letters…nope…no self promotion there at all! I also had a great conversation with my landlord's son, who is my new best friend…since while discussing culture and racism he told me that he would never marry a white girl, and would not marry me no matter what…WOOHOO!!! Never have I heard such a thing out of a guy's mouth in this country, so thus, we are best friends ;>)
Lastly, work wise not a whole lot has happened around Ebolowa since I've been in and out so much the past few weeks. I did finish planting soy and beans and corn at the farm far south of Ebolowa; saw a water source in need of improvement there, which my supervisor wants me to make a secondary project. Upon return from Yaoundé we had an apiculture (bee keeping) training session in a village right near my house. It was REALLY interesting and I learned a lot…it got dark before we could finish though, so we're planning on having another where we finish building the rouge (bee hive/box whatever thing) in early May. So…that's about all! But one last thing of major importance...my parents are coming to visit!!! They'll be here starting the end of July for 3 weeks and we're looking into trying to go somewhere else to do something very touristy...like a safari or whatnot. So that's definitely something to look forward to! The power just went out, so I must quickly get off my post mate’s computer before I use up all the reserve battery!
Two weeks ago I had my week long IST (in service training) in Bamenda, in the Northwest Province. It was a pretty intense week, time consuming mainly…11 hours a day of being locked away in a hotel for meetings…most of which were things we'd gone over already or things that once again weren't exactly applicable to us volunteers in the still forested part of the country (this has irked me continuously during trainings and frustrated me to no end when actually trying to figure out how to get work started…) We did get to do two mornings of "field work", namely, visits to two different agro forestry centers that really had their stuff together and were incredibly beautiful places. Aside from the meeting/frustration aspect for me, it was really really wonderful to see all the volunteers from the agro training group who I hadn't seen since going to post in December. Not a single one of us has left the program since we all met in Philly, and I'm pretty sure this is some kind of record…all 22 of us still in for the long haul! It's a really good dynamic within the group and there are several people who continuously give me sanity and perspective…thus leaving was once again the hard part! However, after IST I went to a village near Baffousam in the West province for a quick stay at my good friend's place with a few other people…I had intended on going back to Bangangte to try to visit my home stay family, but ended up being scheduled for meetings in Yaoundé the next day so had to leave the West. The next 4 days I had meetings in Yaoundé, to be a "contact volunteer"…so when the country falls apart my post mate and I are responsible for getting a hold of everyone in the South province and then they all get to come hide out at our houses. I also had meetings for the Environmental Education Committee, which I just joined. The latter made me feel the most productive, and it was a lot of sharing of ideas and whatnot. Another girl in the South and I are going to write up something for the Environ. Edu. Manual on medicinal plants and bush meat. We are also, this is the grand idea, going to organize a 100 km bike tour (clearly ending at the beach in Kribi) in the South where we leisurely ride along and stop at villages to discuss environmental issues…big goal…but they do this in the North to discuss AIDS…so we are going to adapt it! :>) Another great idea we talked about while all together is the band…we have a gig!!! (I'm never saying that again, I feel like a weirdo…I got to use something like "performance" or maybe "musical presentation experience"?! ha-ha, ok, no better), but anyways, I think it'll be in November in the Northwest, and we're going to raise money for some farmers organization my friend works with up there…I'm excited for that!
Back home…coming home was weird…kind of hard in a few ways, but I did miss my house, my immediate neighbors, Obam, Hans…etc… My little neighbor has taken to picking bouquets of flowers for me (and for any other volunteers that come to visit)…so she picked me a huge one right when I got back. I also was greeted with the news that my soccer team won the finals match! Which is a big deal…and I couldn't be there for it, so got scolded. I had gone to the semi finals match before I left…let me tell you, still awkward. Whenever the guys scored a goal they would all run over to me, kneel on the ground and kiss my feet! I took to hiding my head behind my friend’s back like a 5 year old and giggling like a middle schooler. Then my neighbor, Billy, told me he is going to be sure we have the jerseys made for summer vacation (when the soccer tournaments start over and apparently get really intense)…they will say "Wisconsin Badgers" on the back (which still no one can pronounce, or for that matter even remember) and then worst of all he's putting "KATE" on the front in big letters…nope…no self promotion there at all! I also had a great conversation with my landlord's son, who is my new best friend…since while discussing culture and racism he told me that he would never marry a white girl, and would not marry me no matter what…WOOHOO!!! Never have I heard such a thing out of a guy's mouth in this country, so thus, we are best friends ;>)
Lastly, work wise not a whole lot has happened around Ebolowa since I've been in and out so much the past few weeks. I did finish planting soy and beans and corn at the farm far south of Ebolowa; saw a water source in need of improvement there, which my supervisor wants me to make a secondary project. Upon return from Yaoundé we had an apiculture (bee keeping) training session in a village right near my house. It was REALLY interesting and I learned a lot…it got dark before we could finish though, so we're planning on having another where we finish building the rouge (bee hive/box whatever thing) in early May. So…that's about all! But one last thing of major importance...my parents are coming to visit!!! They'll be here starting the end of July for 3 weeks and we're looking into trying to go somewhere else to do something very touristy...like a safari or whatnot. So that's definitely something to look forward to! The power just went out, so I must quickly get off my post mate’s computer before I use up all the reserve battery!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
I'm working my fingers to the bone!
Hi! Sorry it's been an incredibly long time since I last wrote...and much has happened since then! Work wise things picked up the past week, I have spend 2 wednesdays planting soy with a small group of women, and getting massive blisters which I display to all my neighbors with pride and then tell them I must work harder than them because I have more injury...sometimes they belive me :^) planting here is backbreaking work, that is for sure, and I'm worn out after a little over an hour each time...but for my labors i receive compliments such as "wow, you are solid" which I enjoy. I spent another Wednesday with the health volunteer near me giving a soy formation (presentation) and although I was scared to death it was really nice to have her help me. Hans also came and translated everything into boulou, so I think we did a relatively good job. People were taking notes and we made them summarize what we had presented...it seemed like a lot learned...I suggested a cooking class after we harvest the soy in addition to the formation as well. 2 Thursdays ago I had a meeting with an NGO in Ngoulemakong, 45 min north, FONJAK. I was REALLY impressed, very organized, environmental conservation and scientific minded...all things I dont see too much of! They even had a copy of 'An Inconvenient Truth' in French...so that told me a lot. Also very nice people, so I'm hoping to try to start working with them. That Saturday I had a "meeting" (aka drink 1.5 liters of pop and a glass of red wine while sitting at a bar for 4 hours with 6 million people) with Hans and the Leo, the man who I visited in his village a month or so ago, and I will be planting soy and beans with some women in his village this Saturday, and we'll be looking to start a fish pond there possibly. Lastly, I went to a metting with the women of my village, Ngalane, and am trying to get them to start a soy field with me also...one lady has become my friend at the market and is always firing Boulou at me rapidly and relentlessly.
At home I didn't have power for a solid week, which was really only annoying because I couldnt charge my cell phone, and thus did not have an alarm clock! I entertained myself one night by watching a fly keep buzzing buzzing buzzing around my candle flame until it lit itself on fire and fell to a noisy death in flames on my floor. I went to the 'Wisconsin Badgers' first soccer game 2 weeks ago, and let me tell you...it was awkward! Billy introduced me as the president of the team (made worse by the fact they were all a bunch of teenage boys), everyone applauded, then a bunch of dudes ran off the field midgame to shake my hand immediately upon scoring a goal. I always use the kids to make myself feel less awkward. For example, when they brought me a chair; pretty much a throne, to the sidelines and made me sit in it while everyone else stood around, I made 3 kids share it with me and we built stick houses on the ground. Although, not a good idea to not pay attention to the game because I had to ask if MY team won at the end...whoops...i've never been a sports watching fanatic. After the game my landlord and Billy came to my door offering an enourmous glass full of whisky, which I denied by telling them I would die if I drank it!
I had a site visit with the Peace Corps nurse...and I have to say, I never had and don't think I ever will have a job where they ask you things such as "have you been drunk in country" and "how do you flush your toilet" and expect answers! My postmate and I went out to dinner with the nurse and the PC driver and then, EXCITING, the shelf man was out along side the street and PC drove me home with shelf number 2!!! moving up in the world...now my clothes are off the floor; and not molding! Since the start of the official rainy season I've been enjoying the market...TONS of fruit, including mangos, pineapple, bannanas, watermelon, papaya; guava...and prices are ridiculous (compared to this type of fruit in wisconsin) example, I just bought 12 mangos for 500 cfa, so a little over a dollar...I love it! We've also had lettuce, avacados, zucchini and eggplant regularily...an avacado is 50-100 cfa...so what like under 20 cents...wonderful!!!
So, thats all that's been going on lately! I need to regain my enthusiasm for writing on here; and you people should ASK ME QUESTIONS to motivate me!
Hope all's well!
At home I didn't have power for a solid week, which was really only annoying because I couldnt charge my cell phone, and thus did not have an alarm clock! I entertained myself one night by watching a fly keep buzzing buzzing buzzing around my candle flame until it lit itself on fire and fell to a noisy death in flames on my floor. I went to the 'Wisconsin Badgers' first soccer game 2 weeks ago, and let me tell you...it was awkward! Billy introduced me as the president of the team (made worse by the fact they were all a bunch of teenage boys), everyone applauded, then a bunch of dudes ran off the field midgame to shake my hand immediately upon scoring a goal. I always use the kids to make myself feel less awkward. For example, when they brought me a chair; pretty much a throne, to the sidelines and made me sit in it while everyone else stood around, I made 3 kids share it with me and we built stick houses on the ground. Although, not a good idea to not pay attention to the game because I had to ask if MY team won at the end...whoops...i've never been a sports watching fanatic. After the game my landlord and Billy came to my door offering an enourmous glass full of whisky, which I denied by telling them I would die if I drank it!
I had a site visit with the Peace Corps nurse...and I have to say, I never had and don't think I ever will have a job where they ask you things such as "have you been drunk in country" and "how do you flush your toilet" and expect answers! My postmate and I went out to dinner with the nurse and the PC driver and then, EXCITING, the shelf man was out along side the street and PC drove me home with shelf number 2!!! moving up in the world...now my clothes are off the floor; and not molding! Since the start of the official rainy season I've been enjoying the market...TONS of fruit, including mangos, pineapple, bannanas, watermelon, papaya; guava...and prices are ridiculous (compared to this type of fruit in wisconsin) example, I just bought 12 mangos for 500 cfa, so a little over a dollar...I love it! We've also had lettuce, avacados, zucchini and eggplant regularily...an avacado is 50-100 cfa...so what like under 20 cents...wonderful!!!
So, thats all that's been going on lately! I need to regain my enthusiasm for writing on here; and you people should ASK ME QUESTIONS to motivate me!
Hope all's well!
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