Happy Leap Year!!!Where to begin? I'll start with the most recent event because it sticks in my mind most readily! For the past 3 nights between 11:45 and 12:15 I have been woken up to strange noises right outside my bedroom window. Animals, I initially thought might be goats, but they were not making the usual goat noises (oh I am oh so familiar with every part of their being) more like some random huffing noises and sniffing around in my compost pile. Then whatever it was (I think there are 2)takes off at a full speed sprint around the back and side of my house on my little cement "patio" and it sure didn't have hooves, and goats DO NOT run that fast. So initially, the first night I was absolutely terrified. The next night I was slightly scared and then last night I got all excited trying to figure out what it was but still haven't had the nerve to just go to my window, lift back the curtain and get a sight of it with my flashlight locked doors and a mosquito net(surprising even how much the second one) give me quite the sense of security against whatever it is maybe tonight I'll be at the "courageous" point and take a look! Other random animal news: the parrots have been out and about by the office I work near, it's really cool to hear them and then see them flying in the forest. There was also a group of enormous black birds with really long yellow beaks that I took some time to watch. My bird knowledge here is seriously lacking but I'm excited for the rainy season when the birds will beout (and hopefully the little monkeys) in full force for some entertainment. Lastly, there are a pair or lizards (largest ones I've seen in my house yet) that have begun to live in my bathroom. they go in and out of a big hole that was left in the plaster by someone who didn't attach the showerhead to the wall very well. I'll often walk in in the middle of the night to see just a lizard head poking out of the wall at me. This comes with its downfalls (hard to imagine downfalls with lizards living in the bathroom eh?) including lizard poop on my bathroom walls and floor.
Work wise I've have THREE (heck yes) semi productive days!!! Tuesday Obam and I planted a row of yams just right behind the office (I'm thinking it's suppose to be an example garden of sorts). It wasn't alot but it was extremely exciting since I finally got some blisters, a backache, and dirt under my fingernails…WOOHOO!!!! The feeling of doing actual physical work was pretty wonderful. I kicked Obam's butt with the shoveling part of this and everyone still thinks I'm weak;>) After planting, Obam and I went to the little "bar" that's right next to my house and had some interesting conversation about medicinal plant people around town. Some guy who can transfer a baby from one woman to another with no surgery needed, and some other woman who can put some plant over your eyes to make you see all the spirits (he said"fairies" but I'm thinking more along the line of spirits was meant)around you. I told him that, being an American, and a pretty scientific minded one at that, I would need to see this before I believed him. He told me they wouldn't trust a white girl seeing this stuff so I guess I'm out of luck. The baby thing would be pretty amazing however, and I'm disappointed. He also told me we'd go tothis tourist (here that doesn't really mean the same thing it does elsewhere) place like catacombs where you walk through the graves andend up leaving having been marked on the skin (I think he said with ashes) by the dead people. This is also something I'm waiting to see - interesting! On Thursday we had planned a meeting out in avillage near me. Obam shows up late, his motto broke the day before. Now that causes a few problems, since it's his (and many other's invillage) only way of transport and he doesn't have the money to fix it until mid March. So we ended up walking to the village, getting there an hour and a half later, and having everyone "forgotten" about the meeting again!!! So third strike. But, as we were passing back through, walking home, we spotted the leader of the group we were suppose to meet with. He spun some yarn (is that even a phrase my English is beginning to escape me not and I think I'm making things up a lot) about how he had a headache and forgot about the meeting and was sleeping and yadda yadda. Obam gets very frustrated with the situation and sometimes I feel he makes it worse but who am I to say?! It's been his life for far longer than mine and I know already it's driving me a bit crazy! So, then on Saturday,in a random way I went out to a village towards, and close to, the border of Equitorial Guinea, with this guy that I'd met in Bangangte and who'd been keeping in contact with me since then. He's a really wealthy man, head of some organization in the West province (I always am weary ofthe money/power thing) but I was happy to see that every weekend hegoes back to his village and uses the money to fund projects his GIC(organization) does. He took me on a tour of all the different projects he currently has going: orchard, palm plantation, variety offields with different crops, cocoa plantation, he's even attempted rice (which I've never seen here. He once again fell into the routine of praising me and being amazed that I'd walked about 2 milesthrough the forest (WOW) which actually starts to get on my nerves abit, everyone thinking I'm weak constantly with no grounds for the assumption, besides the white skin but I got over it:>). He wants me to help him build a fish pond (which I have NO IDEA how to do) so I suggested we raise Cane Rats instead (it's a little rodent thing,kinda like a guinea pig that people raise to eat) because its one of the (only) things I have a small book on how to do correctly. He seemed ok with that though! He seemed very eager to work with me, which is a nice change and since he has the money to do projects, and the land it seems like it'll be a good starting point for me. Needless to say, this was exciting! It was his birthday as well so we hung out with his family, I met his 88 year old father who walked around in a bathroom all day giving me little plastic packets of whiskey, and we went to a bar where I ended up with his 2 year old niece sleeping on my lap for an hour. I also met the guy who is the head of the south division of the (pretty much only) television channel in Cameroon,which was also random! No water yet at home but I think I would miss going with my ever increasing entourage of neighbor kids to the source for water. I taught my favorite little neighbor boy how to give "high fives", so every time I come home he yells HIGH FIVE and runs at my with his palm in the air. I like kids more in this country than in the states (I know that may be a bad generalization to make so I'm sorry!). Maybe it's because they are my only friends…haha…yeah but they are definitely more well behaved and listen extremely well. Well,that's all for now, feeling a bit more hopeful on the workfront,it increases a bit each week, and when I have an actual project started and going I will be SOOOOO happy!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Some Photos
Kate and Friend
Neighbor Children in a Guava Tree,Girl in front is Kate's water getting buddy.
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Adventures Continue . . . . .
Hard to believe that at the end of this week I’ll have completed my 5th month in country!!! Time is actually going relatively fast when I look at it that way! This past week was full of little odd events so it felt busier than most…oh don’t worry, you’ll hear about them!
Work: Last week Tuesday Obam and I went out to en brousse, again with the goal of meeting with a set group of people and yet again being forgotten about. Thus our “work” consisted of once more driving around the villages stopping every 50 feet or so to talk to someone! We visited 2 different medicinal plant ladies and continued to prod them about starting a potential garden, but they were full of excuses as the woman last week had been. It’s slightly frustrating…these women live within less than a mile of each other and refuse to work together (to make their plant collection easier in my opinion) or share their knowledge with anyone to pass it on (I asked Obam and he said they’ll die with their secrets…slightly romantic but what a pain to everyone who could benefit from what these ladies know!) We did convince one of the women to work with us to make tapioca and that was about it! We visited a banana/piment plantation which we had seen before as well. I always do a lot of standing around thinking (kind of :>)intelligently in English but speaking like a 6 year old in French…I always feel as if everyone must wonder what I am doing there. However, I had a shining moment when Obam asked all the guys at this plantation why potatoes couldn’t grow in the South and I raised my hand…ooo..ooo…pick me pick me… and knew the answer!!! So maybe I gained some credibility?! Haha… Lastly, we stopped by to talk to the chief of Obam’s village…who was a really cool guy, we talked about elections in America (Obam felt special because his namesake was doing so well) and Obam told the chief how I was going to cut off all my hair and give it to all the village men that bother me as a consolation prize…
Other random, slightly productive “work wise” events took place this past week also. I made a trip up to my neighbor’s farm…which is absolutely ridiculous. Up the face of practically a cliff to get there (won’t mention DOWN…) through the forest, and the field itself, on a pretty steep slope, was just in the process of being cut down…it looked like a tornado had just come through and thrown gigantic trees everywhere (cut by machete only mind you)…giving me reason to see why the “burn” phase of “slash and burn” is always necessary. I can’t believe the amount of work that goes into a farm like that, and it will probably only be used a year or two at most. I ended up carrying down a big jug of palm wine down…no matter what’s going on in this part of the country, you can always count on the palm wine!
I also was invited by a neighbor to attend an agriculture meeting of some sort (I’ve made it a rule to usually just say yes when invited to anything) but tried to go and couldn’t find anyone…seems to be the going trend! Then a man came by (I’m never quite sure how people always figure out so easily where to find me at all times) and had a big argument with me, telling me I should find him funding from organizations in the states, and me telling him I will work with him only because I’m not here for solely that.
Other random visitors have included 3 policemen in one day…beat that…
House: There was a lot of excitement early in the week, my land lady was around and really gung ho about getting me running water, so I was getting psyched up about it. 3 plumbers later, 3 days, lots of mud and water all over, and she tells me the water will start that night…so I wait…and wait. I get tired and just decide to go to bed…5 minutes later I hear the telltale trickle, and excitedly rise to find a leak in my shower and a massive and growing lake in my kitchen. The pipe in the kitchen wall was leaking nonstop (rapidly)…so I had to call me landlady in the middle of the night, make her walk way down the street to turn off the main, as I stood guard in my kitchen with my trusty squeegee flinging water out the door for an hour. Needless to say, no running water :>( I was so looking forward to actually having enough water to flush my toilet fully and completely for the 2nd time (I did so the first last weekend when it rained enough to fill my buckets RIGHT outside my door!!!) I also had a gigantic spider (as big as my hand and a very quick runner) on the loose for most of last week until last night when it decided to enter my bedroom and make it’s way toward my bed did I make my neighbor girl come in and smash it (I just can’t kill something that large! Like killing a mouse with my hand…) The goat that entered my kitchen has been lurking around (sadly I recognize him), he likes to walk around my house on my porch, leaving droppings as he goes, and relax in the sunny spot next to my front door. He decided to pay me a visit once again as well, but this time walked into the living room from the front door like he owned the place, and looked at me questioningly until I jumped up and chased him out.
I’ve also renewed my popularity with the neighbor kids by sharing my nail polish. I’ve given at least 12 pedicures and an equal number of manicures to children ranging from 1 to 21, including 2 little boys. For which I received some thanks and the compliment “The house of Kate is pretty and her teeth are clean”…thank you small child!
Other: I ran into my supervisor and his nephew in town at the end of last week (it’s always amazing how this happens) and was convinced by them again that they have a lot of work to do with me and we will start making a schedule soon…heard that before too…but it’s always nice to be “reassured”. Lastly, Cameroon played in the Africa Cup finals against Egypt and (don’t tell any Cameroonians) I voted for Egypt with my phone company’s text messaging game…and I won over 3000 CFA (which is A LOT of phone credit …last time when I voted for Cameroon I won 9). Phone companies in the states should take a hint from those here…they wish me a merry Christmas via text message, have half price text messaging in February, and have betting on soccer games…I don’t see how things can get better than that!
Work: Last week Tuesday Obam and I went out to en brousse, again with the goal of meeting with a set group of people and yet again being forgotten about. Thus our “work” consisted of once more driving around the villages stopping every 50 feet or so to talk to someone! We visited 2 different medicinal plant ladies and continued to prod them about starting a potential garden, but they were full of excuses as the woman last week had been. It’s slightly frustrating…these women live within less than a mile of each other and refuse to work together (to make their plant collection easier in my opinion) or share their knowledge with anyone to pass it on (I asked Obam and he said they’ll die with their secrets…slightly romantic but what a pain to everyone who could benefit from what these ladies know!) We did convince one of the women to work with us to make tapioca and that was about it! We visited a banana/piment plantation which we had seen before as well. I always do a lot of standing around thinking (kind of :>)intelligently in English but speaking like a 6 year old in French…I always feel as if everyone must wonder what I am doing there. However, I had a shining moment when Obam asked all the guys at this plantation why potatoes couldn’t grow in the South and I raised my hand…ooo..ooo…pick me pick me… and knew the answer!!! So maybe I gained some credibility?! Haha… Lastly, we stopped by to talk to the chief of Obam’s village…who was a really cool guy, we talked about elections in America (Obam felt special because his namesake was doing so well) and Obam told the chief how I was going to cut off all my hair and give it to all the village men that bother me as a consolation prize…
Other random, slightly productive “work wise” events took place this past week also. I made a trip up to my neighbor’s farm…which is absolutely ridiculous. Up the face of practically a cliff to get there (won’t mention DOWN…) through the forest, and the field itself, on a pretty steep slope, was just in the process of being cut down…it looked like a tornado had just come through and thrown gigantic trees everywhere (cut by machete only mind you)…giving me reason to see why the “burn” phase of “slash and burn” is always necessary. I can’t believe the amount of work that goes into a farm like that, and it will probably only be used a year or two at most. I ended up carrying down a big jug of palm wine down…no matter what’s going on in this part of the country, you can always count on the palm wine!
I also was invited by a neighbor to attend an agriculture meeting of some sort (I’ve made it a rule to usually just say yes when invited to anything) but tried to go and couldn’t find anyone…seems to be the going trend! Then a man came by (I’m never quite sure how people always figure out so easily where to find me at all times) and had a big argument with me, telling me I should find him funding from organizations in the states, and me telling him I will work with him only because I’m not here for solely that.
Other random visitors have included 3 policemen in one day…beat that…
House: There was a lot of excitement early in the week, my land lady was around and really gung ho about getting me running water, so I was getting psyched up about it. 3 plumbers later, 3 days, lots of mud and water all over, and she tells me the water will start that night…so I wait…and wait. I get tired and just decide to go to bed…5 minutes later I hear the telltale trickle, and excitedly rise to find a leak in my shower and a massive and growing lake in my kitchen. The pipe in the kitchen wall was leaking nonstop (rapidly)…so I had to call me landlady in the middle of the night, make her walk way down the street to turn off the main, as I stood guard in my kitchen with my trusty squeegee flinging water out the door for an hour. Needless to say, no running water :>( I was so looking forward to actually having enough water to flush my toilet fully and completely for the 2nd time (I did so the first last weekend when it rained enough to fill my buckets RIGHT outside my door!!!) I also had a gigantic spider (as big as my hand and a very quick runner) on the loose for most of last week until last night when it decided to enter my bedroom and make it’s way toward my bed did I make my neighbor girl come in and smash it (I just can’t kill something that large! Like killing a mouse with my hand…) The goat that entered my kitchen has been lurking around (sadly I recognize him), he likes to walk around my house on my porch, leaving droppings as he goes, and relax in the sunny spot next to my front door. He decided to pay me a visit once again as well, but this time walked into the living room from the front door like he owned the place, and looked at me questioningly until I jumped up and chased him out.
I’ve also renewed my popularity with the neighbor kids by sharing my nail polish. I’ve given at least 12 pedicures and an equal number of manicures to children ranging from 1 to 21, including 2 little boys. For which I received some thanks and the compliment “The house of Kate is pretty and her teeth are clean”…thank you small child!
Other: I ran into my supervisor and his nephew in town at the end of last week (it’s always amazing how this happens) and was convinced by them again that they have a lot of work to do with me and we will start making a schedule soon…heard that before too…but it’s always nice to be “reassured”. Lastly, Cameroon played in the Africa Cup finals against Egypt and (don’t tell any Cameroonians) I voted for Egypt with my phone company’s text messaging game…and I won over 3000 CFA (which is A LOT of phone credit …last time when I voted for Cameroon I won 9). Phone companies in the states should take a hint from those here…they wish me a merry Christmas via text message, have half price text messaging in February, and have betting on soccer games…I don’t see how things can get better than that!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Hiiii!
Hiiii!
This week has gone incredibly fast, hope the same for everyone back in WI dealing with the snow and cold, and hope it's letting up a bit!
In the last week I've gone out to the field TWICE! Last Friday Obam and I went pretty far out into the bush and ended up at this amazing house: big, huge porch with white arches, really nice "yard". We got a tour of the yard and the area surrounding which included a little stream that circled the house and was filled with these beautiful ducks floating around and under a makeshift bridge. I felt like I was in a fairy tale, or as fairytalesque as Cameroon can get. We had a meeting at the house with a few people who were trying to form a GIC (pretty much just a group of people working with the same goals) to grow manioc. The conversation was a little bit hard for me to follow, what with switching almost every word to Boulou, French, Boulou, French and then changing topic just as often. Safe to say I ended up catching about 5 minutes of the entire meeting. Then as I'm completely just tuned out for lack of comprehension the guy sitting across from me looks directly at me and says (in perfect French clearly) "What is the most important thing about raising pigs"? Now pretty safe to say I could not answer that question correctly if my life were on the line among English speakers,but he acted a little perturbed that I did not know the answer and will probably think of me as the white girl who doesn't really know anything! However, everything ended just fine with me leaving after drinking 2 glasses of palm wine, some homemade orange juice, and receiving as gifts 2big sticks of sugarcane, 2 pineapples, and 13 bananas!
I also went out to the field on Wednesday. We were to meet with a tomato growing GIC, but the guy simply forgot, thus we had nothing to do! We ended up just driving around the villages, and saw a lot of people I had met before, so I didn't get harassed quite as much (or not that I understood at least :>). We visited a primary school out in the bush and determined that Obam and I are going to help them have an example garden in the back school yard, and I told Obam I wanted to give a lesson on environmental issues, which he seemed excited to help with. I also asked about medicinal plant gardens, and although none really exist we went to visit an elderly woman (I'd met once before) who knows pretty much everything about every medicinal plant and herb and is responsible for helping women from around Cameroon give birth and care for problems during pregnancy and in infancy. She spends hours every day out in the bush collecting plants, and I think it would be really interesting to just follow her around for a day and listen to all she knows! Lastly, we visited a basket weaver (after my constant prodding) and I told him how much I wanted to learn and he told me I could come by on Sunday, collect materials with him, and drink palm wine All in all, this was the most productive I've felt yet since I felt like I knew some people and had IDEAS!
Things at home are going just fine. I haven't gotten any more furniture yet, since I have not felt like trying to move it to my house! But I'm used to how it is now, so it might be a while. My postmate has been having problems with her water running continuously and not turning off, so I have been going there to do my laundry and take showers (aka: being lazy and not carrying water on my head, and getting to use an actual shower instead of bucket and cup. She has too much water and I have none! My neighbor kids still are bringing me plenty of fruit: guava and papaya.My neighbor man has added 3 new plants to my front porch display, made me a new flower arrangement for inside (really enormous pink rose looking flowers), and found me a massive birds nest (it's an intricate candy cane shaped thing…I have no idea what kind of bird it is from, but he came in and hung it on my wall for me. I have plenty of house decorations! I think however that my neighbor girl (22 year old) is angry with me, this is evident by the fact that her minimum of 2 visits a day to my house have stopped and she no longer demands to know where I am going at all times or requests to come with me, which, hey, it's kind of peaceful! But I think it all started with this police man who sits at the barrier right by my house who started asking her to ask me if I wanted him to be my boyfriend. I told her no several times, she asked for my phone number which she subsequently gave to him without my permission (and I've come to find out once a Cameroonian man gets my phone number I do not stop getting calls). I told her how much it bothered me and I also told her she needed to stop asking me for things all the time which since my birthday she has kept up! I always feel a little horrible not giving things, since obviously I can afford things even as a volunteer more easily than a family of 12 living off of one person's salary. It's hard to rationalize when the Peace Corps tells us to say we are volunteers and need to change things via actions that will be sustainable after we are gone and not through material handouts. So I felt like a huge jerk telling her to stop asking me for things, but I decided to make it known I can't just start giving out stuff to her and everyone else and hope she'll eventually realize why?! Maybe that's asking way too much…
In other marriage proposals --- I have heard possibly the best reason for me to marry: "You should get married because if your mother had not married you would not have been born", now if that just doesn't want to make me marry immediately I don't know what will! I also have received a pick up line: "you look like Barbie" thus still contemplating shaving my head (ok, not really).
Lastly, I went with my postmate to watch the semifinals of the Africa Cup (Cameroon vs. Ghana) with a French missionary couple in Ebolowa. Cameroon won!!!! So now they are on to the finals --which has everyone around here extremely excited --soccer is definitely their pride and joy.
So, all's well, hope you feel the same!
This week has gone incredibly fast, hope the same for everyone back in WI dealing with the snow and cold, and hope it's letting up a bit!
In the last week I've gone out to the field TWICE! Last Friday Obam and I went pretty far out into the bush and ended up at this amazing house: big, huge porch with white arches, really nice "yard". We got a tour of the yard and the area surrounding which included a little stream that circled the house and was filled with these beautiful ducks floating around and under a makeshift bridge. I felt like I was in a fairy tale, or as fairytalesque as Cameroon can get. We had a meeting at the house with a few people who were trying to form a GIC (pretty much just a group of people working with the same goals) to grow manioc. The conversation was a little bit hard for me to follow, what with switching almost every word to Boulou, French, Boulou, French and then changing topic just as often. Safe to say I ended up catching about 5 minutes of the entire meeting. Then as I'm completely just tuned out for lack of comprehension the guy sitting across from me looks directly at me and says (in perfect French clearly) "What is the most important thing about raising pigs"? Now pretty safe to say I could not answer that question correctly if my life were on the line among English speakers,but he acted a little perturbed that I did not know the answer and will probably think of me as the white girl who doesn't really know anything! However, everything ended just fine with me leaving after drinking 2 glasses of palm wine, some homemade orange juice, and receiving as gifts 2big sticks of sugarcane, 2 pineapples, and 13 bananas!
I also went out to the field on Wednesday. We were to meet with a tomato growing GIC, but the guy simply forgot, thus we had nothing to do! We ended up just driving around the villages, and saw a lot of people I had met before, so I didn't get harassed quite as much (or not that I understood at least :>). We visited a primary school out in the bush and determined that Obam and I are going to help them have an example garden in the back school yard, and I told Obam I wanted to give a lesson on environmental issues, which he seemed excited to help with. I also asked about medicinal plant gardens, and although none really exist we went to visit an elderly woman (I'd met once before) who knows pretty much everything about every medicinal plant and herb and is responsible for helping women from around Cameroon give birth and care for problems during pregnancy and in infancy. She spends hours every day out in the bush collecting plants, and I think it would be really interesting to just follow her around for a day and listen to all she knows! Lastly, we visited a basket weaver (after my constant prodding) and I told him how much I wanted to learn and he told me I could come by on Sunday, collect materials with him, and drink palm wine All in all, this was the most productive I've felt yet since I felt like I knew some people and had IDEAS!
Things at home are going just fine. I haven't gotten any more furniture yet, since I have not felt like trying to move it to my house! But I'm used to how it is now, so it might be a while. My postmate has been having problems with her water running continuously and not turning off, so I have been going there to do my laundry and take showers (aka: being lazy and not carrying water on my head, and getting to use an actual shower instead of bucket and cup. She has too much water and I have none! My neighbor kids still are bringing me plenty of fruit: guava and papaya.My neighbor man has added 3 new plants to my front porch display, made me a new flower arrangement for inside (really enormous pink rose looking flowers), and found me a massive birds nest (it's an intricate candy cane shaped thing…I have no idea what kind of bird it is from, but he came in and hung it on my wall for me. I have plenty of house decorations! I think however that my neighbor girl (22 year old) is angry with me, this is evident by the fact that her minimum of 2 visits a day to my house have stopped and she no longer demands to know where I am going at all times or requests to come with me, which, hey, it's kind of peaceful! But I think it all started with this police man who sits at the barrier right by my house who started asking her to ask me if I wanted him to be my boyfriend. I told her no several times, she asked for my phone number which she subsequently gave to him without my permission (and I've come to find out once a Cameroonian man gets my phone number I do not stop getting calls). I told her how much it bothered me and I also told her she needed to stop asking me for things all the time which since my birthday she has kept up! I always feel a little horrible not giving things, since obviously I can afford things even as a volunteer more easily than a family of 12 living off of one person's salary. It's hard to rationalize when the Peace Corps tells us to say we are volunteers and need to change things via actions that will be sustainable after we are gone and not through material handouts. So I felt like a huge jerk telling her to stop asking me for things, but I decided to make it known I can't just start giving out stuff to her and everyone else and hope she'll eventually realize why?! Maybe that's asking way too much…
In other marriage proposals --- I have heard possibly the best reason for me to marry: "You should get married because if your mother had not married you would not have been born", now if that just doesn't want to make me marry immediately I don't know what will! I also have received a pick up line: "you look like Barbie" thus still contemplating shaving my head (ok, not really).
Lastly, I went with my postmate to watch the semifinals of the Africa Cup (Cameroon vs. Ghana) with a French missionary couple in Ebolowa. Cameroon won!!!! So now they are on to the finals --which has everyone around here extremely excited --soccer is definitely their pride and joy.
So, all's well, hope you feel the same!
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