How many times have I told each and every one of you I would update my blog?! Well...7 months (or more...who's counting) later, and the day has finally come!!! Although my stories may be old, or already heard by you my dear lovely reader, here they are, enjoy!
I wanted to start by saying to everyone I saw while home during the month of June, THANK YOU! Prior to boarding the plane back to the states, I can say I was full only of excitement...the stomach twisting almost fearful kind of excitement. Upon the incredible greeting at the airport (with an obnoxiously large sign:>) and the first sight of several of the most important people in my life, I realized everything was pretty much the same as it always has been. And to me, that is a very good thing. I feel like my stay at home took away a lot of my worries, like "what if I don't feel like I really belong in the US?", or "what if my experience here will make me angry at the way of life and people in the US?" etc etc... all the complicated round about thoughts most of you probably prefer not to read anyways. Seeing the majority of friends and family in my whirlwind US/WI Tour made me only more excited to return home, to the people I can relate to, to a place where I feel motivated to work and be out in the public, and to somewhere where most of my good memories were made. In all honesty, I miss everyone already, and can't wait for about 4 months from now, when I can see everyone, or at least be forcing you all into regular contact with me again!:>) Thank you so much for all the generosity and lovelines and I will see you soon!
And now to start a few stories, bear in mind since I havn't written since early December, these are incredibly old...
I'll begin with the ever-popular animal and insect incidents!
First: I had my first, and I think only, scorpion meeting. At least I think it was a scorpion. It was about three inches long and looked kind of like the insect form of a lobster crawling around on my floor, so I made the assumption. I saw him lurking by my shoe shelves...and didn't know what to do about him. I know nothing about scorpions, except that they sting, but do they also jump, or flip, or execute other equally complex and terrifying moves? To solve this conundrum, I let him be (why a male reference?) and just watched my feet, flipped over my shoes before putting them on, and tucked my mosquito net tightly under my mattress at nightime. In two days time, he had disappeared, and I'm still alive to tell about it, so I guess it worked out for the best!
I also had my first and seriously I hope only up close and personal snake incident (you may of heard this story but it seems to be everyone's favorite). It was laundry day, so the night before I had set my clothes in a pile right in the middle of the floor (I do this so I have to do them...washing jeans and queen sized sheets in a 20 Liter bucket is not the highlight of my life.)
All the next morning, I took things periodically out of the pile, selectively avoiding jeans and sheets, and did my wash. The pile remained in place as I continued to avoid jeans and sheets and opted instead to wash the windows. During which time I walked back and forth past the pile approximately 42.5 times. Upon completion of the 42.5th walk by, I stopped about 3 feet away from the pile and turned to contemplate my plan of jean/sheet attack. Imagine my surprise to see a long black snake staring back at me! He (male again?) was clearly as surpirsed as I was, and he turned and, I can only describe it as ran, into my pile of laundry. At this point I yelled.
Placide, who was out of view of all this in the living room, stifled a laugh and asked me if it was a mouse (my anger and skittishness when mice run at me is not well understood:>) I replied by yelling :NO IT WAS A SNAKE" I didn't hear anything until he was already out of the house screaming for all my neighbors to find sticks. Within a few seconds, I had several neighbors in my living room, with their respective large sticks. My landlady, a daring woman, whipped out her stick and gave my laundry pile several good smacks, at which time the snake bolted out with its head raised up off the ground. He was no match for my landlady though, who with several more direct hits dispatched him for good, and then dragged his body across the living room floor and out the door, leaving a nice trail of blood. Following this, Placide couldn't stop looking around at every noise, and he told me he was never coming to my house again...now I guess he understands how I feel about mice! Typist Dad's Note: From Kate's description of MR SNAKE I think it was a Black Tree Cobra!
And finally... the last night I slept in my bed before heading up to Yaounde to take off for my trip home, I was nearly asleep, with my mosquito net (aka anti-invader protective bedding) all tucked in tightly. Suddenly, I felt a tickle like something was crawling on me, really quick, all the way from my should to knee. Thankfully I sleep with a flashlight under my pillow, just in case such things occur. Sure enough... a big cockroach was by my feet, running all over inbetween my sheets. Guess he(?) just wanted to say goodbye.
And then onto the ridiculous and outrageous things people find it obligatory and often hiralious to say:
Exclamations from passing motto drivers are usually the most out there. One night while walking with Placide behind my house, a random man drove past and just screamed "get her pregnant!!!" it was awkard.
Then another day I was coming back from a morning run and came accross a bunch of my neighbors sitting out by the road, starting the day with a nice glass of alcohol. My landlord looked at me, sweaty and full of mud and said "You should have been a boy"... what does one say in reponse? Thank You?
Another series of incidents happened when I was in Yaounde, walking from one bus depot to another. This specific area of town is known as one of the most intense and when you are white and have a large bag, the situtation is not made any better. In addition to the usual grabbing, pushing, pulling and name calling, one guy stopped dead in his tracks, sized me up and then loudly to his friend, "her body is perfect for having babys". Once again what do you say? Shortly following this, a young guy walking towards me, reached out, said "wow!" and slapped my chest.
Now this clearly requires some action. So I turned around as fast as I could, raised my hand as if to slap him and took a few steps as if to run at him. Clearly, he was not up to defending his actions and he took off running the other way, as everone around him laughed.
And then onto a more depressing and not so laugh-off-able situtation. I hate to have to tell this bad story, without sarcasm, but they're part of life, right? I was at my favorite omelet place one morning. As always the place was packed full, and with only one omelet man, Jackson, working,
service was slow. Also as per usual, one guy came up and sat down next to me and started harassing Jackson to work faster, that he had been waiting forever, taking eggs for himself from behind the counter and putting them in front of Jackson, etc, etc... I started getting extremely irritated by this guy, I was hungry too! Usually, people do this little harassment routine and then sit tight because, I don't know, maybe they see there are at least 5 other people waiting, who got there before them. I decided to politely tell this guy exactly that. I said "excuse me sir, but there are people who have been waiting longer than you"... apparently 1) that was the worst possible thing to say to this man, 2) he was having the worst day of his life and I stepped into it, or 3) he is the most terrible person to ever have walked the earth. I'm gonna go with option 3. He exploded at me like I have never expereinced. Which is saying alot since I have had every type of reaction to my existence, including several explosions of anger and hate...but this one took the cake. He went on and on "who do you think you are white lady", "Why are you even in my country", "You are doing nothing good here, go back to where you came from", "Why would you ever talk to me like that"...etc etc. in the loudest screaming voice, using racial slurs excessively, not allowing me one word in edgewise..so I could say what I wanted to "I am a volunteer, working for your country for 2 years for free, and yes, as a matter of fact I would REALLY like to go home, thanks for the fantastic idea, buy me a plane ticket and I'll be outa here tomorrow!" Also this whole time, he kept turning to several of the men at the omelet booth and asking them for confirmation on his ideas. Several of these men are people I see here many times a week, and Jackson himself I would consider a friend. Not a single person stood up for me. No one told this guy what I was really doing here and to leave me alone. No one said a word. Instead they just laughed and laughed and laughed, kind of nervously, until the guy calmed down and I had a massive tears in my eyes. I have no words to describe this situation now.. it was one of the times I would prefer to forget. I cannot say how angy or hurt I was accurately as someone who came here intending to do good things, and who honestly WOULD rather be back home and not around the anger and hate so often misdirected at me. It also bothers me that when I type this or explain it, it always sounds so nominal. I guess I'll just say I hope that I never ever happens again to me,or anyone. So, there's the bad story of the day... with minimal sarcasm.
Now for some stories around the village, to re-lighten the mood:>: Around Christmas time (wow I feel guilty even writing that, it's so far in the past) the Ebolowa market filled up with lots of imported cheapo plastic toys, "made in china" is the common mark. I noticed a lot of plastic dolls in the style of Barbie, that is to say white and blonde. One day shortly after Christmas Day, when several of the more well off families had given out gifts, I saw a woman I know and her little girl in town, with Barbie-esque doll in tow. The woman called me over and let me know that her little girl upon receiving the doll said first thing "I'm going to name it Kate!" no wonder everyone around her calls me "Poupette" (doll).. thanks to those "made in China", white skinned blonde dolls, being sold in Africa.
The kids around my house have also been as cute as ever. One little boy named Weston walked over onto my back porch one morning.... when I did my usual routine of attempting to look mad and yelling at him to stop looking in my windows, he showed me he was carrying a gigantic knife. I know kids around here, for the most part, can be trusted with sharp objects (machetes, files etc) but for some reason a 3 year old carrying a knife the length of his arm freaked me out a little! Needless to say I grabbed it from him and then carried him and the knife back to his house. His little sister, Lucress, also really loves hanging out on my back porch... she's the only one far too young to know better, so I usually let her(plus she's also too short to peep in my bedroom window anyway). One day I was in the kitchen and I heard her making noise outside the window. The she just started yelling happily "Gate-ah, Gate-ah, Gate-ah" ( which is how most kids pronouce my, obviously difficult first name). It was the first time I have ever heard her say another word besides "Mama"... it pretty much made my day. My name was someone's second word! Now, when she sees me sitting out back, she'll come around the corner with a big smile on her face, arms open, and plop right down on my lap. Last kids story...my 9 year old neighbor Laticia would come over on and off to watch TV or just hang out some nights.
One night we got into our "9 year old and 24 year old hanging out routine", which consists of me asking every question I can think of and then running out of things to ask and putting in a movie.
Anyway, I ended up asking her when her birthday was. She answered with a confused "I don't know", I should ask my mom" . Imagine that ..what 9 year old in the states wouldn't know their birthday and make use of it accordingly to amass as much cake and gifts as possible! Then she told me she had to go to the bathroom. I said OK, assuming she would go to my bathroom... but no, she turned to to outside to the latrine. I assured her it would be OK to use mine and showed her the door. A few seconds later she shyly called me in, and pointing to the shower drain in the floor, asked me if that's where she should go. I told her that she should use the toilet, and then quickly realizing that my house has one of 3 toilets in the village, asking if she knew how. Happy to report, she figured it out. Guess it's all what you're used to!
Stay tuned for the next blog edition, including more really old stories about work and travel!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Keepin" it Green in the South by Abby Rose Hyduke
Below is a writeup of Kate's 2009 Environmental Bike Tour of the South by Abby Rose Hyduke
What do a tropical rainforest, Lady Ponce and broken derailers have in common? The 2009 Environmental Bike Tour of the South Region of course! Now is the time to congratulate the 12 successful participants of 191 Km, from Ebolowa to Kribi Environmental Bike Tour.
The EE members conceived the project as a way to raise awareness in the South Region of the awesomeness of their surroundings. Eight Agroforestry and three Health Volunteers and one staff member, Donald Wirsey, participated in the actual execution of the trip, though many more were involved in the planning.
To prepare, Kate Legner & Mengan Conway, proud citizens of the route, worked tirelessly to setup morning programs in primary schools of the five target villages.
The additional volunteers, hailing from the Northwest, West, Littoral and Center Provinces, met in Yaounde Sunday, May 10th, before heading down to Ebolowa together in a van overflowing with trees, market bags of school supplies and bicycles. Along the ride from Yaounde to Ebolowa, we remarked upon the absense of farms and the richness of the thickly forested landscape, and with it the enveloping breath of sweltering humidity. We enjoyed our first meal together at a local restaurant in Ebolow, the delicious traditional dish Sanga, while being serenaded by the erractic beats of the South's own Lady Ponce.
The next day was not spent cycling, but in the classroom for our first day of environmental fun. After preliminary introductions, by the ever professional, Megan Convay, Nura Suleiman proceeded to explain the theme of the tour, "What is a Rainforest."
We were surpised to find that most of the students, aside from some geniuses in Kribi, didn't realize that they were indeed located within a living breathing rainforest.
Caitlin Scholl & Ben Wixson broke out the world map and made sure the students understood where rainforests are found and led a song to help the class remember the continents - even Antarctica and Australia. David Hanson, Danny Quinn & I explained the different levels of a food chain and enhanced comprehension through a predator prey tag game. David Hanson was repeatly tagged and devoured by 10 year old girl predators when he participated. Megan Conway was tagged by the director of the primary school in Bipendi. Jessica Coloy, Emily Haines & Nura Suleium led a sobering game highlighting the competition for natural resources amongst animals with increased human encroachment on dwindling habitat. Seth Shapiro, Megan & Kate held integral roles in keeping time, efficiently guiding groups between work stations and keeping our bikes safe during recess time.
The second portion of the program focused on the effects humans have on rainforests. Danny Quinn arranged a trash sorting contest and explained to students the value of compost; Cailtlin tirelessly demonstrated the importance of keeping our water sources clean; Emily emphasised the concept of recycling and showed the classes one more way we can reused plasltic bags by braiding them into multipurpose ropes.
The program culminated with a reflective activity, in which the students foliated a paper tree with ideas of how they could continue to protect the environment in their daily lives, followed by the presentation of a bag of school supplies, generously donated at the urging of Jessica Colopy's mom and several trees to be planted for shade and beautification at a later date.
In the afternon we introduced ourselves and our misson to the clubs UNESCO and Amies de Nature at the bilingual secondary school and helped them create an action plan for the following school year, as well as create goals for their own futures. The first day of teaching went off as smoothly as we could of hope for, we took it as an omen for good things to come.
The second day was devoted entirely to biking the longest stretch of the trip, 72km from Ebolowa to Lolodorf. We had hired a vehicle to transport supplies and Donald, David & Caitlin had done quick checks on all our bikes the preceding evening. We were invincible as we rolled towards Lolodorf, turning off the paved road onto a decent dirt road. Unfortunately our bikes were not, as the condition of the road degraded and mud created form the previous evenings shower clogged our gears and derailers, mocked the efforts of our aspiring brakes, and coated our wheels to the point of eliminating traction. By 9am, the first of us were arriving at the 30km mark, followed intermittently by disgrunted cyclists and broken bikes. A good three hours was spent removing mud from delicate mechanisms and preliminary reparations by our saviour, Donald Wirsey. Everyone agreed that the second half of the ride was much more agreeable, but we rode into Loldorf much later than anticiapted and exhausted. Donald sedulously worked on the bikes the entire next day and joined by Caitlin and David after a smooth morning program.
The 17km bike ride to Ngouvayang on the fourth day was a breese at a consistent decline through patches of thick forest and past sleepy villages. Ngouvayang was my personal favourite stop of the trip. We stayed at a guest house located at the Catholic Mission Hospital, powered by solar panels and overlooking the breathtaking Ngouvayang Mountains. There was a boarding school on the hospital camps for the children of the forest dwelling "pygmy" tribes who graciously performed traditional dances and songs for the volunteers after the mourning program.
The 33km ride to Bipendi was equally effortless and we setup for the night at another private boarding house, before heading to the school and being surprised at the record turnout for a Saturday program. In the afternoon we split into 2 groups. One group took care of creating a priority needs list at the Lycee and the other group decided to incorporate the boarding school into our program. While the volunteers demonstrated proper technicques for planting a tree next to the preschool, the kids demonstrated that proper way to throw a spear at a rolling ball.
Shown up by the children, the volunteers broke out a Frisbee and educated the population on proper disc throwing. Bipendi might just be the hottest little corner of the South Province, so we headed out as early as possible to complete our final leg of the tour.
Giddy, with the taste of victory, the purported 68km Kribi left us undaunted, despite what I would personally consider more hills than it should take to get to sea level and we all arrived, more or less in one piece before noon.
The final day's program was greatly assisted by the collaborating Ministry of Forestry & unfortunately abbreviated by the schools preparation for the 20th of May. We were unamimously impressed with the level of enthusiasm and engagement from the students at both the elementary and secondary schools and agreed that Kribi is not a bad place to culminate a triumphant, yet physically demanding week of work. Though I personally vowed to never ride a bike again several times during the trip, I have since had a potentially misguided change of heart.
In total, we can estimate that 300 students from Ebolow to Kribi were able to participate in our interactive program and directly benefit from the increased knowledge of their unique ecosystem. Over 200 secondary students participated in afternoon programs and were exposed to community needs and priority ranking techniques, drawn from PACA resources. Teachers and directors of participating schools were present with resources in the form of school supplies and manuals of potential EE activites, and trees, not to mention the numerous conversations with people who were curious as to the meaning behind our traveling spectacle along the way.
Many thanks to all who helped bring about the realization of the epic event:
PC Admin, especially Sylvie Ngoube for her enacious support with PCPP details.
Agroforestry APCD, T. Tkik Manga.
Megan Conway & Kate Legner get the extra props for being stellar cordanatrices and for their indefatigable optimism.
David Hanson & Caitlin Scholl for not only teaching, but also volunteering as bike techs along the way, Caitlin for putting together the resources manual.
Gabe Albin for the spectacular t-shirt design.
Jessica Colopy's mom for donations of school supplies from the states.
All the people who pledged their support through PCPP, especially the Legners.
Our driver and guardian angel, Emmanual, the participants themselves, volunteers and school children included.
Most importantly, Donald Wirsey who not only fixed our bikes tirelessly, but also reminded us all of the countless rewards that follow sucessful conclusion of a good challenge.
What do a tropical rainforest, Lady Ponce and broken derailers have in common? The 2009 Environmental Bike Tour of the South Region of course! Now is the time to congratulate the 12 successful participants of 191 Km, from Ebolowa to Kribi Environmental Bike Tour.
The EE members conceived the project as a way to raise awareness in the South Region of the awesomeness of their surroundings. Eight Agroforestry and three Health Volunteers and one staff member, Donald Wirsey, participated in the actual execution of the trip, though many more were involved in the planning.
To prepare, Kate Legner & Mengan Conway, proud citizens of the route, worked tirelessly to setup morning programs in primary schools of the five target villages.
The additional volunteers, hailing from the Northwest, West, Littoral and Center Provinces, met in Yaounde Sunday, May 10th, before heading down to Ebolowa together in a van overflowing with trees, market bags of school supplies and bicycles. Along the ride from Yaounde to Ebolowa, we remarked upon the absense of farms and the richness of the thickly forested landscape, and with it the enveloping breath of sweltering humidity. We enjoyed our first meal together at a local restaurant in Ebolow, the delicious traditional dish Sanga, while being serenaded by the erractic beats of the South's own Lady Ponce.
The next day was not spent cycling, but in the classroom for our first day of environmental fun. After preliminary introductions, by the ever professional, Megan Convay, Nura Suleiman proceeded to explain the theme of the tour, "What is a Rainforest."
We were surpised to find that most of the students, aside from some geniuses in Kribi, didn't realize that they were indeed located within a living breathing rainforest.
Caitlin Scholl & Ben Wixson broke out the world map and made sure the students understood where rainforests are found and led a song to help the class remember the continents - even Antarctica and Australia. David Hanson, Danny Quinn & I explained the different levels of a food chain and enhanced comprehension through a predator prey tag game. David Hanson was repeatly tagged and devoured by 10 year old girl predators when he participated. Megan Conway was tagged by the director of the primary school in Bipendi. Jessica Coloy, Emily Haines & Nura Suleium led a sobering game highlighting the competition for natural resources amongst animals with increased human encroachment on dwindling habitat. Seth Shapiro, Megan & Kate held integral roles in keeping time, efficiently guiding groups between work stations and keeping our bikes safe during recess time.
The second portion of the program focused on the effects humans have on rainforests. Danny Quinn arranged a trash sorting contest and explained to students the value of compost; Cailtlin tirelessly demonstrated the importance of keeping our water sources clean; Emily emphasised the concept of recycling and showed the classes one more way we can reused plasltic bags by braiding them into multipurpose ropes.
The program culminated with a reflective activity, in which the students foliated a paper tree with ideas of how they could continue to protect the environment in their daily lives, followed by the presentation of a bag of school supplies, generously donated at the urging of Jessica Colopy's mom and several trees to be planted for shade and beautification at a later date.
In the afternon we introduced ourselves and our misson to the clubs UNESCO and Amies de Nature at the bilingual secondary school and helped them create an action plan for the following school year, as well as create goals for their own futures. The first day of teaching went off as smoothly as we could of hope for, we took it as an omen for good things to come.
The second day was devoted entirely to biking the longest stretch of the trip, 72km from Ebolowa to Lolodorf. We had hired a vehicle to transport supplies and Donald, David & Caitlin had done quick checks on all our bikes the preceding evening. We were invincible as we rolled towards Lolodorf, turning off the paved road onto a decent dirt road. Unfortunately our bikes were not, as the condition of the road degraded and mud created form the previous evenings shower clogged our gears and derailers, mocked the efforts of our aspiring brakes, and coated our wheels to the point of eliminating traction. By 9am, the first of us were arriving at the 30km mark, followed intermittently by disgrunted cyclists and broken bikes. A good three hours was spent removing mud from delicate mechanisms and preliminary reparations by our saviour, Donald Wirsey. Everyone agreed that the second half of the ride was much more agreeable, but we rode into Loldorf much later than anticiapted and exhausted. Donald sedulously worked on the bikes the entire next day and joined by Caitlin and David after a smooth morning program.
The 17km bike ride to Ngouvayang on the fourth day was a breese at a consistent decline through patches of thick forest and past sleepy villages. Ngouvayang was my personal favourite stop of the trip. We stayed at a guest house located at the Catholic Mission Hospital, powered by solar panels and overlooking the breathtaking Ngouvayang Mountains. There was a boarding school on the hospital camps for the children of the forest dwelling "pygmy" tribes who graciously performed traditional dances and songs for the volunteers after the mourning program.
The 33km ride to Bipendi was equally effortless and we setup for the night at another private boarding house, before heading to the school and being surprised at the record turnout for a Saturday program. In the afternoon we split into 2 groups. One group took care of creating a priority needs list at the Lycee and the other group decided to incorporate the boarding school into our program. While the volunteers demonstrated proper technicques for planting a tree next to the preschool, the kids demonstrated that proper way to throw a spear at a rolling ball.
Shown up by the children, the volunteers broke out a Frisbee and educated the population on proper disc throwing. Bipendi might just be the hottest little corner of the South Province, so we headed out as early as possible to complete our final leg of the tour.
Giddy, with the taste of victory, the purported 68km Kribi left us undaunted, despite what I would personally consider more hills than it should take to get to sea level and we all arrived, more or less in one piece before noon.
The final day's program was greatly assisted by the collaborating Ministry of Forestry & unfortunately abbreviated by the schools preparation for the 20th of May. We were unamimously impressed with the level of enthusiasm and engagement from the students at both the elementary and secondary schools and agreed that Kribi is not a bad place to culminate a triumphant, yet physically demanding week of work. Though I personally vowed to never ride a bike again several times during the trip, I have since had a potentially misguided change of heart.
In total, we can estimate that 300 students from Ebolow to Kribi were able to participate in our interactive program and directly benefit from the increased knowledge of their unique ecosystem. Over 200 secondary students participated in afternoon programs and were exposed to community needs and priority ranking techniques, drawn from PACA resources. Teachers and directors of participating schools were present with resources in the form of school supplies and manuals of potential EE activites, and trees, not to mention the numerous conversations with people who were curious as to the meaning behind our traveling spectacle along the way.
Many thanks to all who helped bring about the realization of the epic event:
PC Admin, especially Sylvie Ngoube for her enacious support with PCPP details.
Agroforestry APCD, T. Tkik Manga.
Megan Conway & Kate Legner get the extra props for being stellar cordanatrices and for their indefatigable optimism.
David Hanson & Caitlin Scholl for not only teaching, but also volunteering as bike techs along the way, Caitlin for putting together the resources manual.
Gabe Albin for the spectacular t-shirt design.
Jessica Colopy's mom for donations of school supplies from the states.
All the people who pledged their support through PCPP, especially the Legners.
Our driver and guardian angel, Emmanual, the participants themselves, volunteers and school children included.
Most importantly, Donald Wirsey who not only fixed our bikes tirelessly, but also reminded us all of the countless rewards that follow sucessful conclusion of a good challenge.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Adventures of Flat Noah
Dear Noah, Thank you for thinking of me to visit with your flat body. You had quite the adventure here in Cameroon! I am only sorry that my response will be getting to you much later than your teacher had requested. Though, I hope by the time you get this e-mail you will still be able to share the story and pictures with your classmates. “Flat Noah” arrived in the country of Cameroon in the first week of May. Cameroon is a country on the West Coast of Africa. If you look at a map of Africa, you can easily find Cameroon by looking at the part of the coast which curves inwards, and looks like it is in the armpit of the continent. Flat Noah arrived in the capital city of the country which is called Yaounde, you say this like “yah-oooon-day”. This is the city where the most important members of the government, and even the president live, just like in the US capitol of Washington DC. Our president here is called Paul Biya. From Yaounde, Flat Noah traveled by bus to my home in Ebolowa. If you look on a map you will be able to see the capital, Yaounde, as well as my, city which is located further to the south. Upon arriving in Ebolowa, Flat Noah arrived just in time to participate in a great adventure with me and several other friends of mine. My city, Ebolowa, is in the South Region of Cameroon. In this country we have 10 regions, which are kind of like how the US has 50 states. My region, the South, is a very special region. It is one of the 2 regions in Cameroon that is mostly covered by tropical rainforest. The rainforest we have here is known as the Congo River Basin rainforest. It is the second largest rainforest in the entire world, and I am lucky enough to live there! The people in my city and surrounding area are called the Beti people. This is just a way of naming this group of people who share similar languages and traditions. The main languages Flat Noah heard on his visit were a language called Boulou (say “boo-loo”), and French. If you want to practice saying “hello” in these languages you can say “bonjour” in French and “mbolo” (say it like “em-bow-low”). Flat Noah got a chance to see a lot of the different people in my village as well as several different animals. He saw farm animals who get to roam around free here, like goats, pigs, chickens, and dogs and cats. He also saw many big insects like grasshoppers, spiders, cockroaches, and other wild animals like lizards, grey parrots, and even a monkey who lives in the neighborhood! After Flat Noah had a quick visit in my village he waited with me for the arrival of a few friends, who are also volunteers in the Peace Corps like me. One of my projects that I have been working on while volunteering in Cameroon is Environmental Education. This means that I go into schools and work with kids like you and your first grade class and teach them about different things in the environment. Some friends and I had the idea that we should use our bikes to travel to different villages and different schools around my town of Ebolowa. Since we are in the rainforest, we wanted to teach kids about the rainforest, how people sometimes hurt the rainforest, and what people can do to help protect it. Most people here love the forest, but it’s a struggle for them to be able to farm and provide for their families while also protecting the natural resources and animals. We decided to ride our bikes because this way we could travel further, but not have to use cars and create more pollution or use gas. Thus, Flat Noah got a special seat on the handlebars of my bike for the entire bike trip! We started in Ebolowa at my house and then visited 4 other towns, which you can also try to find on your map (although some of them might be too small to be written). During the next week we visited Lolodorf, Ngovayang, Bipindi, and finished in Kribi. Flat Noah got to ride over about 100 miles of the most difficult roads in the country, some that cars can’t even use. Roads that pass through very thick parts of the rainforest, pass waterfalls, go through tiny villages, and finally come out at Kribi which is a city on the Atlantic Ocean. Here he got the chance to see beautiful beaches, more waterfalls, and see the sunset over the Ocean. It was a good way to end Flat Noah’s trip to Cameroon! I will attach two pictures of Flat Noah on his trip. First is of Flat Noah with me, and our shared bike. This picture was taken on the road between the two towns of Ngovayang and Bipindi, in a very beautiful part of the forest. It may be hard to see, but there is a large waterfall in the distance behind all the trees. It was one of my favorite spots we passed on our trip. The second picture is of Flat Noah and several village children in Bipindi. Many people noticed Flat Noah on my bike and called him my “little brother”. These kids were interested to see your picture and hear the story of Flat Noah. Thanks for coming on our bike trip! Good luck finishing the school year and have a great summer! -KateP.S. Flat Noah had a difficult ride and got a little muddy and worn out by the difficult trip, so I am unsure if you would like him returned to you. Let me know and I can send him back if you would like!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
MY TRAVEL STORIES!!!!!!!!!
My travel stories!
The month of November was chock full of traveling…looking back at my calendar I realized I slept in my own bed about 4 times. It was nice though to get out of here for a bit, and I had a lot of good…and as always…interesting experiences.
NORTH
In the beginning of the month I took a trip up to the northern regions of Cameroon. To get up there it's a bit different than the travel I'm used to…we took a train, which left ON TIME (unheard of). It was great because the trip ranges from 12-15 hours (exceptions for breakdowns/derailment which aren't all that uncommon) and it takes place at night, so doesn't take up any daytime hours. We didn't want to splurge the extra 20 dollars for the sleeper cars so we ended up in first class…which compared to the buses and cars we're used to was extremely comfortable: own seat, cushy seat, bathroom, etc, and also avoids sharing your seat with a goat or chicken or unknown baby as occurs in 2nd and 3rd class. Thing is, I always underestimate Cameroonians. A big group of gendarmes (police) were sitting in the back of our car and felt it their right to scream about dowries and women's role in a marriage until 1 am while the rest of the car was trying to sleep. And when I say "scream" I'm hardly exaggerating. The train took us up to Ngaoundere, which is in the Adamoua Province. From there we immediately got on one of the more familiar modes of transport and made our way up to Lake Lagdo in the North Province. We stayed at this AMAZING hotel…I think by American people standards it would even be considered amazing. Beautiful lake and scenery with a room overlooking it all, great flowers and little huts all over the property…if that's any kind of explanation. I started it here and then continued the rest of the trip asking everyone for a "Peace Corps Discount"…and ended up getting some pretty fantastic prices! Sadly, swimming here was out of the question since the lake is reputed to have given 3 volunteers Shistosomiasis, and about a mile down shore we noticed a giant garbage dump situated ½ into the lake along with 2 enormous dead and bloated pigs floating around. It was one of those times where the difference between the haves and the have-nots was glaringly clear. When we awoke in the morning you could hear baboons snarling (like dogs) on the hillside right beside the hotel. I "scanned the area" (thanks Dad) and located the baboons on a rock relatively close by…pretty cool.
After Lake Lagdo we continued up north, passing thru the North Province and it's capital city Garoua…really hot and pretty dingy. We stayed long enough there to drink these amazing fruit smoothies at a restaurant next to the bus depot. I'm not sure why the South has yet to discover smoothies…there are fruit trees everywhere…the North really has this down. Made my life. We ended up in Maroua, which is the capital of the Extreme North Province. Maroua was beautiful! Of all the cities in Cameroon it is a definite that Maroua is the most clean, most beautified, and also the people were relatively chill. For our first day in Maroua we hired a Land Rover and a driver to take us to Lake Magga, which is a lake forming part of the border between Cameroon and Chad. We were traveling in style, each in our own seat in this comfy vehicle…and the reactions of people in the villages we passed were apposite: several kids running after the car and asking us for money and school supplies. It's obvious the impact that "whites" have had in this area versus down by me as far as the increased frequency of "aid" or handouts and how people up there have learned to expect it. Aside from that people were also much more welcoming and not as into the derogatory remarks. Also…who knows the cause and effect of all of this…I appreciated the differences in culture up there for the time being, but (how sad is this) I have adapted so well to the culture in the South I started to miss being able to yell at people, tell it like it is, and insult them to get my point across. I got myself into a fair share of awkward situations up in the North when I would start screaming to make my argument. No wonder they call us in the South "savages"! :>) Anyway…Lake Magga…we hired a pirogue (like a wooden canoe) to take us out on the lake in search of Hippos. We spent about 2 hours out motoring around in the extremely hot Sahelian sun before being told by our guide that we could "enter into the reeds on foot with water up to our chests to find the hippos but it was almost sure that we would get seriously hurt or bitten" and subsequently deciding maybe it wasn't worth it. Now, I never understand the international waters stuff…where one country ends, where another starts, but whatever I'm saying I was in Chad! On the way back we stopped at Pousse, also on the border, and visited the market there, trying out lots of different new foods along the way. The return trip was not so luxurious as the trip out. The rear tire decided to start falling off. I don't know much about cars, but the nuts and bolts holding the tire on were stripped or something of the like and every 10 minutes or so the tire would start making a horrible noise and we'd have to stop and retighten everything. At one point our guide decided to change the tire completely, and we decided to not stick around for the rest of it. After 5 hours to cover about the distance we'd done in 30 minutes we decided to find alternative transport. No customer service with these "tour companies" and guides. The guide stayed with the car. Danny and I got a ride in a Sonel (power company) truck hauling a million light posts on the roof, with 8 people in the pickup truck cab and me sitting next to a really creepy man that strongly resembled those flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. Jessica and Rachel got a ride in the back of a truck bed. Becca got a ride on a motto… We all made it home MUCH later than anticipated. And then of course ended up paying full price for the "tour" in addition to the other 3 girls having to pay the truck and motto that picked them up. The next day we spent in Maroua visiting the art market there and buying lots of leather goods and some silver, 2 of the crafts the area is known for. It happened to be the day after US Election Day, and I cannot even express how excited everyone was about Mr. Obama's win. The ENTIRE day and pretty much the whole rest of the week people put aside all exclamations such as "WHITE!" and instead would just yell "BARAK OBAMA" after us down the street. Big improvement in my opinion :>) The following day we headed out to Rhumsiki, which is reputed to be one of the more touristy places in Cameroon…we did see a fair share of white skin. >From Maroua one takes a car to Mokolo, a small town en route to Rhumsiki. The cars to Mokolo weren't of the highest quality, but clearly since we were having luck this trip; we got a car with some sort of overheating problem. At one point we stopped and had no clue what was going on (people never really inform you, like "sorry folks, we are having some technical difficulties" is something I have never heard in this country full of "technical difficulties" :>) ) until the driver lifted up the front seat to access the engine, poured a bunch of water on it, and thus created a scalding hot water geyser that sprayed a bunch of the passengers. He never even said "sorry"…jerk! From Mokolo we debated with a big pack of motto drivers about prices (this was really frustrating in the North too…they KNOW whites have money and REALLY try to rip you off) to get to Rhumsiki, and finally took off on a long motto ride out to this village that borders with Nigeria. Rhumsiki ended up being fantastic. We stayed at another really nice hotel, WITH A POOL!, and an incredible view and a hot shower, and all these amazing things. Rhumsiki also boasts a restaurant called the "Vegetarian Carnivore" which features nothing less than vegetarian food. I could not believe this. We ate there both days we were in town. 5 courses: fresh bread with corn/rice/wheat flour and dipping sauce, salad, squash soup, vegetable pizza, fries, and fruit…all homemade of course, and so far from everything! It was great. For our full day in Rhumsiki we hired a guide to take us on a hiking trip. We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into! Started early and hiked around and down into the valley, the area is very hilly with lots of rocky outcrops, extremely picturesque. At the bottom of the valley we visited several homes of villagers who did some small crafts and bought souvenirs. After that point we climbed back up a pretty steep ridge, in the heat of midday…fatiguing! Then we decided we wanted to continue to cross the border of Nigeria, which our guide told us would take roundtrip about 7 km. This was a lie…several hours later, after crossing into Nigeria and walking through a whole bunch of random villages and farm fields, we had covered 33 km (!!!) and finally made it back to the road leading us back to Rhumsiki. The blisters lasted for about a month after. (That is NOT a lie!) Holy cow…thank god for the pool. Following this the guide came back to the hotel to find us and drag us out to watch the sunset from a ridge up the road…this man had ridiculous energy! We returned the next day to Maroua and spent one final day walking the tree lined shady streets, and visiting the art market. We even ended up at a restaurant that boasted hamburgers like McDonalds. Oh…globalization…
From Maroua we returned to Ngaoundere, passing through a "national park" and seeing several baboons right next to the car along the road. We spent 2 nights in Ngaoundere, visiting a few volunteers from our training group who are working up there, before continuing back to Yaoundé…and then home. Overall I really enjoyed my trip, even if purely for the fact it was nice to stick out like a sore thumb a little less and be able to do things like swim in a pool and buy things without worrying about everyone in town knowing about it! I told my neighbors I was going up there to "work". I'm such a liar.
Cultural Festival
A few days after returning from the North I left to take part in the Moghamo/American Cultural Festival, which was a result of the hard work of my friend Seth, a volunteer in the Northwest Province. Seth had been working on planning and organizing this event for several months and we all expected it to be pretty cool, but it was incredible! By the end of the day there must have been over 1000 participants! It took place at a soccer field around which they built booths for Cameroonian and American (us Peace Corpsies) to present pretty much anything we wanted. Most of the volunteers had booths related to their area of expertise; Kim and I did a soy booth. The Cameroonians also had similar informational booths, as well as booths displaying art, music, culture, and selling food. In the middle of the field there were performances most of the day consisting of things either culture deemed important to present. Mainly: dancing. It seemed like every single person was in traditional dress and or came out to dance in a variety of different traditional dance groups. My eyes started to blur by hour number 3 of traditional dance presentations, but then again, the Cameroonians weren't all that impressed either by our renditions of a Michael Jackson performance, a Peace Corps rap, or the American football demonstration. What they did like however was the hip-hop dance that I and 7 other volunteers performed…oh what an interesting experience that was. Having learned the dance about 2 hours before, I could never imagine myself going up in front of several hundred people to awkwardly dance in America…maybe this country has really done great things for my confidence…or given me the inability to realize when I'm making a huge fool of myself! We were to go on "stage" to start our dance after one of the many traditional dances. It was later in the afternoon when things started to get a little crazy (example: some guy with a torch was dancing and went nuts running around trying to light another guy on fire…), so when they told us to just hold off a second because they were about to sacrifice a goat as part of the dance, we thought nothing of it. Suddenly one of us realized what this "sacrifice" really entailed, and THANKFULLY I looked away in time to miss if. The large dancing group had split into 2, one group grabbed the goat's legs, the other grabbed the rope that was tied around its neck, and then began a rather gruesome game of tug-and-war. Due to the fact I missed the actual tearing off of the head, and only saw the man running at me with the bleeding headless body, I can talk about the incident without gagging! As soon as the goat was cleared we were given the go ahead, and making our way with difficulty to an area free of freshly spilled blood, Ludacris started singing, and we started dancing…Just another day in Cameroon. Other fascinating tidbits we taught Cameroonians were the Macarena and how to do the wave around the stadium…clearly the only important aspects of our culture :>) The night prior to the festival we had the chance to perform in our band for Seth's village. We charged 200 cfa (40 cents) admission and donated our 20 dollar earnings to a local farmer's group. The performance was pretty hilarious. We ended up screaming to be heard and then just playing the same songs over and over (same as they do with their radios) as everyone got crazy and danced and danced. I relinquished my plastic tambourines to pickup dancing for a backup dancer who couldn't make it. It was a lot of fun and exhausting! We were also given the opportunity to meet Seth's fon (pronounced faune), who is like the chief of his village. He hosted a big dinner for all the band members and we got to see his collection of leopard skins and take pictures with him (without touching him…even if you shake his hand it's considered VERY disrespectful) …exciting eh?
Journee de Soja
Following the cultural event I traveled back down South, and then even deeper south, to the town of Mvangan, where 2 volunteers are located. I visited last year, way back during training, when I came to Ebolowa on site visit. This was the place I'd gone that has up to this most recent visit remained one of my most dreaded car rides, and thus I hadn't been back since. This time around I couldn't even remember what I'd been complaining about…granted they had redone the roads (filled in the washout areas to the best of their ability) and I got a ride there and back with the doctor of Mvangan, and then the police officer, in their nice comfy cars…and it only took 2 hours! Compared with the 6 or 7 last time, it was fantastic. This is the post of the other agroforestry volunteer in the South, and she planned a "Soy Day" event that I attended. The event itself got pretty frustrating for her…a lot of promises that weren't fulfilled and people that didn't show…it was interesting to make the comparison between how 2 events (the Cultural Festival and Soy Day) take place due to the 2 very difference cultures they take place in. Oh South Province… She ended up putting up some posters and giving a bit of information out while selling some soy recipe books. The coolest part was the food tables she'd set up. Originally 10 women had agreed to come bring in their soy foods, but we ended up with 2 (which we were thankful for)…and everyone bought and sampled a variety of foods the women had made to include soy. Aside from the Soy Day event, I spent time with her and her dog (Kenya, who came from my neighbor Billy a year ago). Relaxing in a small town environment like that was really nice for a change and I'm going to go back very soon!
Kribi
Lastly, finally, and briefly…I got to travel to Kribi, the beach town in the South, for the In-Service training of the business and education volunteers who arrived this past summer. I got my travel, food, room at one of the nicest hotels there…all paid for so that I could come give a half hour presentation about the Environmental Education Committee. I swam, ate a lot, sat out by a bonfire…relaxed for 2 days…very nice! My presentation went really well; due to my current guardianship of Kim's computer I even made a PowerPoint! Technology, I tell ya. I am surprisingly more at ease talking in front of groups of people after having to do it in French all the time…and the business program director even complimented it! Very proud of myself… :>)
SO…those are my travels!!! Now you see why I separated this into a different blog post! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...while most of you are suffering in the cold I'm sweating myself to death sitting in my house...we need to find a common ground!!!
The month of November was chock full of traveling…looking back at my calendar I realized I slept in my own bed about 4 times. It was nice though to get out of here for a bit, and I had a lot of good…and as always…interesting experiences.
NORTH
In the beginning of the month I took a trip up to the northern regions of Cameroon. To get up there it's a bit different than the travel I'm used to…we took a train, which left ON TIME (unheard of). It was great because the trip ranges from 12-15 hours (exceptions for breakdowns/derailment which aren't all that uncommon) and it takes place at night, so doesn't take up any daytime hours. We didn't want to splurge the extra 20 dollars for the sleeper cars so we ended up in first class…which compared to the buses and cars we're used to was extremely comfortable: own seat, cushy seat, bathroom, etc, and also avoids sharing your seat with a goat or chicken or unknown baby as occurs in 2nd and 3rd class. Thing is, I always underestimate Cameroonians. A big group of gendarmes (police) were sitting in the back of our car and felt it their right to scream about dowries and women's role in a marriage until 1 am while the rest of the car was trying to sleep. And when I say "scream" I'm hardly exaggerating. The train took us up to Ngaoundere, which is in the Adamoua Province. From there we immediately got on one of the more familiar modes of transport and made our way up to Lake Lagdo in the North Province. We stayed at this AMAZING hotel…I think by American people standards it would even be considered amazing. Beautiful lake and scenery with a room overlooking it all, great flowers and little huts all over the property…if that's any kind of explanation. I started it here and then continued the rest of the trip asking everyone for a "Peace Corps Discount"…and ended up getting some pretty fantastic prices! Sadly, swimming here was out of the question since the lake is reputed to have given 3 volunteers Shistosomiasis, and about a mile down shore we noticed a giant garbage dump situated ½ into the lake along with 2 enormous dead and bloated pigs floating around. It was one of those times where the difference between the haves and the have-nots was glaringly clear. When we awoke in the morning you could hear baboons snarling (like dogs) on the hillside right beside the hotel. I "scanned the area" (thanks Dad) and located the baboons on a rock relatively close by…pretty cool.
After Lake Lagdo we continued up north, passing thru the North Province and it's capital city Garoua…really hot and pretty dingy. We stayed long enough there to drink these amazing fruit smoothies at a restaurant next to the bus depot. I'm not sure why the South has yet to discover smoothies…there are fruit trees everywhere…the North really has this down. Made my life. We ended up in Maroua, which is the capital of the Extreme North Province. Maroua was beautiful! Of all the cities in Cameroon it is a definite that Maroua is the most clean, most beautified, and also the people were relatively chill. For our first day in Maroua we hired a Land Rover and a driver to take us to Lake Magga, which is a lake forming part of the border between Cameroon and Chad. We were traveling in style, each in our own seat in this comfy vehicle…and the reactions of people in the villages we passed were apposite: several kids running after the car and asking us for money and school supplies. It's obvious the impact that "whites" have had in this area versus down by me as far as the increased frequency of "aid" or handouts and how people up there have learned to expect it. Aside from that people were also much more welcoming and not as into the derogatory remarks. Also…who knows the cause and effect of all of this…I appreciated the differences in culture up there for the time being, but (how sad is this) I have adapted so well to the culture in the South I started to miss being able to yell at people, tell it like it is, and insult them to get my point across. I got myself into a fair share of awkward situations up in the North when I would start screaming to make my argument. No wonder they call us in the South "savages"! :>) Anyway…Lake Magga…we hired a pirogue (like a wooden canoe) to take us out on the lake in search of Hippos. We spent about 2 hours out motoring around in the extremely hot Sahelian sun before being told by our guide that we could "enter into the reeds on foot with water up to our chests to find the hippos but it was almost sure that we would get seriously hurt or bitten" and subsequently deciding maybe it wasn't worth it. Now, I never understand the international waters stuff…where one country ends, where another starts, but whatever I'm saying I was in Chad! On the way back we stopped at Pousse, also on the border, and visited the market there, trying out lots of different new foods along the way. The return trip was not so luxurious as the trip out. The rear tire decided to start falling off. I don't know much about cars, but the nuts and bolts holding the tire on were stripped or something of the like and every 10 minutes or so the tire would start making a horrible noise and we'd have to stop and retighten everything. At one point our guide decided to change the tire completely, and we decided to not stick around for the rest of it. After 5 hours to cover about the distance we'd done in 30 minutes we decided to find alternative transport. No customer service with these "tour companies" and guides. The guide stayed with the car. Danny and I got a ride in a Sonel (power company) truck hauling a million light posts on the roof, with 8 people in the pickup truck cab and me sitting next to a really creepy man that strongly resembled those flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. Jessica and Rachel got a ride in the back of a truck bed. Becca got a ride on a motto… We all made it home MUCH later than anticipated. And then of course ended up paying full price for the "tour" in addition to the other 3 girls having to pay the truck and motto that picked them up. The next day we spent in Maroua visiting the art market there and buying lots of leather goods and some silver, 2 of the crafts the area is known for. It happened to be the day after US Election Day, and I cannot even express how excited everyone was about Mr. Obama's win. The ENTIRE day and pretty much the whole rest of the week people put aside all exclamations such as "WHITE!" and instead would just yell "BARAK OBAMA" after us down the street. Big improvement in my opinion :>) The following day we headed out to Rhumsiki, which is reputed to be one of the more touristy places in Cameroon…we did see a fair share of white skin. >From Maroua one takes a car to Mokolo, a small town en route to Rhumsiki. The cars to Mokolo weren't of the highest quality, but clearly since we were having luck this trip; we got a car with some sort of overheating problem. At one point we stopped and had no clue what was going on (people never really inform you, like "sorry folks, we are having some technical difficulties" is something I have never heard in this country full of "technical difficulties" :>) ) until the driver lifted up the front seat to access the engine, poured a bunch of water on it, and thus created a scalding hot water geyser that sprayed a bunch of the passengers. He never even said "sorry"…jerk! From Mokolo we debated with a big pack of motto drivers about prices (this was really frustrating in the North too…they KNOW whites have money and REALLY try to rip you off) to get to Rhumsiki, and finally took off on a long motto ride out to this village that borders with Nigeria. Rhumsiki ended up being fantastic. We stayed at another really nice hotel, WITH A POOL!, and an incredible view and a hot shower, and all these amazing things. Rhumsiki also boasts a restaurant called the "Vegetarian Carnivore" which features nothing less than vegetarian food. I could not believe this. We ate there both days we were in town. 5 courses: fresh bread with corn/rice/wheat flour and dipping sauce, salad, squash soup, vegetable pizza, fries, and fruit…all homemade of course, and so far from everything! It was great. For our full day in Rhumsiki we hired a guide to take us on a hiking trip. We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into! Started early and hiked around and down into the valley, the area is very hilly with lots of rocky outcrops, extremely picturesque. At the bottom of the valley we visited several homes of villagers who did some small crafts and bought souvenirs. After that point we climbed back up a pretty steep ridge, in the heat of midday…fatiguing! Then we decided we wanted to continue to cross the border of Nigeria, which our guide told us would take roundtrip about 7 km. This was a lie…several hours later, after crossing into Nigeria and walking through a whole bunch of random villages and farm fields, we had covered 33 km (!!!) and finally made it back to the road leading us back to Rhumsiki. The blisters lasted for about a month after. (That is NOT a lie!) Holy cow…thank god for the pool. Following this the guide came back to the hotel to find us and drag us out to watch the sunset from a ridge up the road…this man had ridiculous energy! We returned the next day to Maroua and spent one final day walking the tree lined shady streets, and visiting the art market. We even ended up at a restaurant that boasted hamburgers like McDonalds. Oh…globalization…
From Maroua we returned to Ngaoundere, passing through a "national park" and seeing several baboons right next to the car along the road. We spent 2 nights in Ngaoundere, visiting a few volunteers from our training group who are working up there, before continuing back to Yaoundé…and then home. Overall I really enjoyed my trip, even if purely for the fact it was nice to stick out like a sore thumb a little less and be able to do things like swim in a pool and buy things without worrying about everyone in town knowing about it! I told my neighbors I was going up there to "work". I'm such a liar.
Cultural Festival
A few days after returning from the North I left to take part in the Moghamo/American Cultural Festival, which was a result of the hard work of my friend Seth, a volunteer in the Northwest Province. Seth had been working on planning and organizing this event for several months and we all expected it to be pretty cool, but it was incredible! By the end of the day there must have been over 1000 participants! It took place at a soccer field around which they built booths for Cameroonian and American (us Peace Corpsies) to present pretty much anything we wanted. Most of the volunteers had booths related to their area of expertise; Kim and I did a soy booth. The Cameroonians also had similar informational booths, as well as booths displaying art, music, culture, and selling food. In the middle of the field there were performances most of the day consisting of things either culture deemed important to present. Mainly: dancing. It seemed like every single person was in traditional dress and or came out to dance in a variety of different traditional dance groups. My eyes started to blur by hour number 3 of traditional dance presentations, but then again, the Cameroonians weren't all that impressed either by our renditions of a Michael Jackson performance, a Peace Corps rap, or the American football demonstration. What they did like however was the hip-hop dance that I and 7 other volunteers performed…oh what an interesting experience that was. Having learned the dance about 2 hours before, I could never imagine myself going up in front of several hundred people to awkwardly dance in America…maybe this country has really done great things for my confidence…or given me the inability to realize when I'm making a huge fool of myself! We were to go on "stage" to start our dance after one of the many traditional dances. It was later in the afternoon when things started to get a little crazy (example: some guy with a torch was dancing and went nuts running around trying to light another guy on fire…), so when they told us to just hold off a second because they were about to sacrifice a goat as part of the dance, we thought nothing of it. Suddenly one of us realized what this "sacrifice" really entailed, and THANKFULLY I looked away in time to miss if. The large dancing group had split into 2, one group grabbed the goat's legs, the other grabbed the rope that was tied around its neck, and then began a rather gruesome game of tug-and-war. Due to the fact I missed the actual tearing off of the head, and only saw the man running at me with the bleeding headless body, I can talk about the incident without gagging! As soon as the goat was cleared we were given the go ahead, and making our way with difficulty to an area free of freshly spilled blood, Ludacris started singing, and we started dancing…Just another day in Cameroon. Other fascinating tidbits we taught Cameroonians were the Macarena and how to do the wave around the stadium…clearly the only important aspects of our culture :>) The night prior to the festival we had the chance to perform in our band for Seth's village. We charged 200 cfa (40 cents) admission and donated our 20 dollar earnings to a local farmer's group. The performance was pretty hilarious. We ended up screaming to be heard and then just playing the same songs over and over (same as they do with their radios) as everyone got crazy and danced and danced. I relinquished my plastic tambourines to pickup dancing for a backup dancer who couldn't make it. It was a lot of fun and exhausting! We were also given the opportunity to meet Seth's fon (pronounced faune), who is like the chief of his village. He hosted a big dinner for all the band members and we got to see his collection of leopard skins and take pictures with him (without touching him…even if you shake his hand it's considered VERY disrespectful) …exciting eh?
Journee de Soja
Following the cultural event I traveled back down South, and then even deeper south, to the town of Mvangan, where 2 volunteers are located. I visited last year, way back during training, when I came to Ebolowa on site visit. This was the place I'd gone that has up to this most recent visit remained one of my most dreaded car rides, and thus I hadn't been back since. This time around I couldn't even remember what I'd been complaining about…granted they had redone the roads (filled in the washout areas to the best of their ability) and I got a ride there and back with the doctor of Mvangan, and then the police officer, in their nice comfy cars…and it only took 2 hours! Compared with the 6 or 7 last time, it was fantastic. This is the post of the other agroforestry volunteer in the South, and she planned a "Soy Day" event that I attended. The event itself got pretty frustrating for her…a lot of promises that weren't fulfilled and people that didn't show…it was interesting to make the comparison between how 2 events (the Cultural Festival and Soy Day) take place due to the 2 very difference cultures they take place in. Oh South Province… She ended up putting up some posters and giving a bit of information out while selling some soy recipe books. The coolest part was the food tables she'd set up. Originally 10 women had agreed to come bring in their soy foods, but we ended up with 2 (which we were thankful for)…and everyone bought and sampled a variety of foods the women had made to include soy. Aside from the Soy Day event, I spent time with her and her dog (Kenya, who came from my neighbor Billy a year ago). Relaxing in a small town environment like that was really nice for a change and I'm going to go back very soon!
Kribi
Lastly, finally, and briefly…I got to travel to Kribi, the beach town in the South, for the In-Service training of the business and education volunteers who arrived this past summer. I got my travel, food, room at one of the nicest hotels there…all paid for so that I could come give a half hour presentation about the Environmental Education Committee. I swam, ate a lot, sat out by a bonfire…relaxed for 2 days…very nice! My presentation went really well; due to my current guardianship of Kim's computer I even made a PowerPoint! Technology, I tell ya. I am surprisingly more at ease talking in front of groups of people after having to do it in French all the time…and the business program director even complimented it! Very proud of myself… :>)
SO…those are my travels!!! Now you see why I separated this into a different blog post! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...while most of you are suffering in the cold I'm sweating myself to death sitting in my house...we need to find a common ground!!!
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