WOW Finally an Update!

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!

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.

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!

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!!!

Short Personal Anecdotes

Conversations with my landlady always take an interesting turn. That may be an understatement. The other day she came over to "chat with me", which usually ends in her demanding money for rent, water, or power for several months in advance because she needs it to 1) send someone to school 2) buy a rabbit cage 3) fix her husbands motto etc… The most recent conversation took place after she had been out in her village with my landlord and Billy and his wife, to solve the village problems with sorcerers. After a brief explanation of the ways one sorcerer was ruining everyone's lives, we went into depth on the topic of "what is sorcery?" According to my landlady there is a very big difference between white people and black people sorcery, although both types are only performed by godless heathens. Black people use their supernatural powers to hurt other people: kill unborn babies, give people malaria and AIDS, etc… White godless heathens use theirs to do things like build those crazy vehicles that can fly across oceans we call airplanes, and create that insane technology which allows us to speak into a receiver and be heard across the world we call the telephone.

My homestay brother is still in love with me. He was on a streak of calling every night, and occasionally every morning around 3 AM for over a month. I was in the habit of silencing every call or answering and pretending I couldn't hear him. (You may think this sounds mean, but TRUST ME it becomes necessary) Suddenly he stopped. I breathed a sigh of relief. The next day he tricked me into picking up my phone by calling from my homestay sister's number. He berated me for never answer his phone calls. I used my newfound Cameroonian ability to lie through my teeth, and told him some very detailed circular story about how I lost my phone, didn't know his number, etc… He then asked me to marry him. I didn't understand the word he used, so as usual (when I don't understand) I respond "oui". He got really excited, his voice raised a couple of pitches and he asked "REALLY?! You want become engaged with me?!". I think I may have responded "oh crap". I then shot him down in not such a nice, or eloquent, fashion, and quite possibly broke his heart. Sorry Paulin.

My bike training was going well for a while. My bike fell into disrepair about a year ago, when my postmate's door fell on it (common problem, I know). I decided to keep using it, and just wearing myself out not being able to switch gears in going up hills. Eventually this made me angry enough and I took out my tool kit in attempt to repair it myself. The gear system on a bike scared me. I read about it in detail and then attacked it with my wrench. I was so incredibly proud of myself when I hung my bike from the back of a chair and it switched from highest to lowest gear smoothly and quickly. Then, without warning as I downshifted something got stuck, I couldn't figure it out, and now…my bike doesn't switch gears at all. Great. :>( I then started using my postmate's bike…which has a set of problems less advanced than mine. I enjoyed biking initially, I thought that if I were going faster people would have a harder time seeing me coming, have less time to think of evil things to say to me, and also be unable to touch me…seeing as how I would speed by at 12 mph instead of walking at 4. I didn't think about however how much of a spectacle a bike becomes…and the fact that going that much faster forces me to pass just that many more people. Interesting things have happened. My favorite story happened as I was making my way up the enormous hill at the entrance to Ebolowa. Two teenage boys started yelling things about how tired I looked and how hard of a time the white girl must be having. I commented back I'd like to see them try it…and one came over to me and started running behind my bike with his hands on my seat and pushed me all the way up the hill! I thanked him and went on my way. My not so favorite story happened as I passed through one village which has afterwards become my most hated part of the trip. Everyone in this village seemed to be on the road this one Saturday, and the majority of people yelled mean spirited things at me, or laughed at me, or just called me the usual white people names. I was getting really angry, as that frequency of "harassment" tends to make me. I passed a group of 3 guys on the way to the fields, and one thought it would be hilarious if he swung his machete along the ground right in front of my front tire like he was going to take me out, then tell me to go bike in my own country, then laugh evilly with his buddies. Oooooo I got steamed. I didn't stop though, but continued on thinking of all the comebacks and things I should have said back. Some people!

The neighbor kids will always be my best friends. My favorite 2 neighbor girls are back in village for school, and along with them come the little boquets of flowers every couple of days, or the completely unripe tiny fruits they pick off the trees, or any other number of interesting objects they find in the road. One day Laticia came running out to great me with an armless, legless Barbie doll, with the blond hair missing in patches all over the scalp yelling « Kate, Kate, this looks JUST like you ! »...well...thanks Laticia, I'm just another appendageless torso with a pretty face ! Within the first 2 months at my house I had told Laticia and Michelle that if they happened to find a four leaf clover, they would in fact have good luck for the rest of their lives. They searched and searched, and came up to me more than once with a 3 leaf clover, with one of the leaves ripped in half. Sadly, I was unfooled, as I'd tried the same thing more than once as an 8 year old too. I'd thought they'd pretty much given up or forgotten until much to my surprise, a few weeks ago Laticia showed up at my door about as over joyed as can be and presented me with a real, live, 4 leaf clover ! Crazy how close that brought me to tears how she'd remembered that this whole time ! Another similar incident happened with this 6 year old kid named Arnold who was always stopping by « Kate, give me a car. Kate, give me a bike » who I would respond to with the « no, YOU give ME a car ». I'd mentioned this story to my parents who had brought him a little toy car when they came to visit, but then Arnold was away in his mother's village for the summertime and I hadn't gotten a chance to give it to him. He came back one day and was SO excited to see me, I was kinda amazed he liked me that much even without the car... He came up to the door telling me he had something for me and I needed to come get it right away. I told him to bring it back to me, and sure enough...he shows up with a tiny blue plastic car ! It was another one of those moments where I was amazed how this kid had remembered and thought of me... not only did he bring me the blue plastic car, but he also returned with a headless Buggs Bunny figurine...quite the gifter eh !? I'm a lucky woman. And the last neighbor kid story for now...one a little more sad, is about Dorien, the 4 year old brother of Laticia and Michelle, whose family always teases him that he will marry me. Dorien and I get along fabulously, and I'm sure I've mentioned him before. He's always hanging around my porch and in general just being the cutest kid I've ever seen. Lately he's been coming over more and more during the day to draw and color. One day I was pressed for time (this doesn't happen ever, I feel really awkward even saying it) and he kept knocking and knocking and I used my « firm adult tone » to tell him to chill out a second and come back later, and he quietly says « but Kate, I want to come over because I'm all alone at my house »... and sure enough, the entire family had left him there alone...which pretty much broke my heart. He's come over a few times before in a really rotten mood, and I've tried to cheer him up with the usual, no fail coloring book or bouncy ball, and he won't have it... when I'll ask him why not, and what he wants, he'll just say he's hungry and wants to eat some food...break my heart again. This most recent time I asked why he wasn't in school this year, like last, and he said that he didn't have any clothes to go in ! I feel so bad about this boy...but it's one of those situations where I really want to help but absolutely cannot put myself in the role of benefactor for the entire village (which it would quickly become)...just really sad to have to see him suffer because of it ! I'll just keep supplying him with my leftovers and coloring on the front porch. I think I might try to start teaching him to read and write as well ! Not too young is it ?!

The neighbors of others can be slightly less sweet…take for example my postmate's recent experience : So, I myself have entertained the idea once or twice of getting myself a dog, something to keep me company and give me a reason to leave my house and go for a brief walk everyday. It's funny though how one's perception of pets changes when you are in a country where people actually feed and clothe themselves before Fido and will kick Snowball for the slightest indescretion…I decided I wouldn't be a loyal enough pet owner here in Cameroon and my dog would end up flea covered and fight scarred like everyother. My postmate, having a softer heart than my own apparently, decided to adopt the cat of the volunteer who was leaving right as she came in. Luna was a sweet enough cat, as cats go in my opinion…she left me alone :>) Luna had her own door into my postmate's house : a hole thru the window screen, so she could come and go as she pleased : fraternize with the hardcore African cats and all. A month ago my postmate ended up being away for about a week. It had never before been a problem for Luna, who would feed herself with an unlucky lizard, frog or mouse when the mood struck. Sadly, Rachel came back one day to find no sign of Luna…a few days passed and worry grew to suspicion. Rachel began to ask around. Eventually as she asked her neighbor, « Have you seen Luna ? » she received the information, « oh yeah, that fat white cat ?! The family down the road ate it. » Lesson learned : don't get too attached to your pets.

Spider stories I haven't yet shared !!! The spiders that decided to commit these acts were of course all the bigger creepier oncs...or maybe it just seemed that way. And sidenote...I'm not even afraid of spiders...but their invasions into my personal space in the following incidents were unacceptable. 1) I got back from a run one morning and sat myself down on my floormat to do some stretches. Along came a spider, unbeknownst to me, until of course I felt a tickling travel up my inner thigh and disappear into my shorts. Fantastic. I jumped like I can't even explain and ripped off my shorts and flung them at the wall...problem solved ! 2) I decided to go and read in bed for a bit one day. My pillow had been in the living room (on the floormat), so I brought it with me. Apparently nothing should ever be on the floormat. I put my arm up to rest my head on my hand and I catch the sight of something out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, big silverdollar sized spider perched on the back of my hand ! Once again, some sort of flinging action took place, and he was outta there ! He was like 6 inches from my eye. I can say with 100 percent certainty, he was not pretty 3) I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was clearly a little out of it and not in spider avoidance mode (it's really a state of being). I lifted up the toilet seat cover, sat down, and felt the familiar (due to the shorts incident) tickling sensation as a spider made it's way down my back, then my leg, until I could finally reach it, initiate flinging sequence and rid my body of it. Now you see why I feel so violated ?! Creepers, figuratively and literally.

On the animal/insect subject, my favorite, I had a pet frog for about a week. I named him Munich. He lived in my bathroom. He was very small and rather attractive as far as frogs come. He kept moving around and would be the most exciting part of my morning, figuring out where he had gone to. One morning I found him on the shower handle, one morning on the back of the toilet, once just chilling on the side of my shampoo bottle, once on the door frame, and then once a crash woke me up in the middle of the night...I got up to investigate, and sure enough...there he was, sitting next to my plastic vase of flowers he'd apparently decided to leap at and spill all over the floor. The next day Kim came over and tried to capture him in her hands...he was never seen again. I still blame her for his disappearance.

Continuing on with frogs... I've started dating a guy in Ebolowa (weird way to introduce this news...sorry...more interesting though right ?!)...and I find it very entertaining the things and the way people say those things to their « significant otther » For example, in Cameroon it is always ok to tell someone they've gotten fat, or that the food they made tasted like crap...we all know how this goes over in the states, and I've had to explain more than once that I was raised in a place (where maybe even to our detriment) we learned « if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything it all »...thanks Bambi. So the other day this significant other of mine touched my cheek and told me « your face is very smooth, it feels exactly like a frog ». hmmm....thank you ?!?

I've seen some monkeys !!!! I saw one while I took a water break while biking, running down the trunk of a tree. Then the other day I went out to a new farm with Serges and was immersed in a monkey party...there were at least 10 little onces jumping and swinging around the trees right infront of me. That was pretty cool. Also, on my recent trip to the North of Cameroon I got the chance to hear and see, right along the road, several baboons ! So...FINALLY after living next to the rain forest all this time I saw some monkeys in the trees and not just in a cooking pot.

I'll talk about my work a little bit... Biggest thing that needs to be mentioned before any of this...something that's been really hard for me to get my head around in recent weeks, is that Kim (you all should recognize this name by now...pretty much my other half for the past year...workwise, mental healthwise, funwise, everythingwise) has decided to leave her post and move up to the Northwest. Selfishly, I'm very very sad that she's not going to be down here anymore. I have a LOT to figure out and change, since to be honest, almost every project I had going on was with her ! Unselfishly, I am glad that she's going to go somewhere where people actually do work and aren't evil to white girls ! :>) She will almost definitely be happier up there due to all of that ! Thus, once again, selfishly, I am jealous and want to go myself ! :>) So...since that news we've been in the process of trying to reorganize our bike tour, a lot has to change due to her village no longer being on our route, etc... I've been doing some running around to various ministries and schools delivering protocol letters about the event and asking them for support, etc, etc. Kim and I had started visiting the 2 schools we were going to give environmental education classes to for the upcoming months, and so now I'm going to be doing the actual lessons alone...which actually terrifies me. I am afraid of youth in large numbers...especially since each class is around 80 kids ! We had to nix the school in Kim's town, so now I'll just be doing 2 primary schools in Ebolowa. I'm very excited for one school, the director and the teacher I'll be working with have been the most active of anyone I've worked with here so far (besides Serges and Hans) and it's made me remember what it feels like to be excited about a project because it might actually succeed ! I'm continuing my soy work. Kim and I made a pretty darn good soy brochure, I'll use it now to hand out at formations and the informational table at the market I want to do in the spring. We attended a cultural fest put on by my friend Seth in the Northwest (thanks to everyone that donated) and had a soy table there also. I'll talk more about the cultural fest in the next blog entry. I also just attended, and kinda helped, with a soy day the other Agrofoestry volunteer in the South put on this past weekend. She did a lot of work with getting women there to cook a lot of different foods and present on nutrition, planting, etc... Aside from that, we had our Provincal Meeting in the beginning of October and as usual, it was nice to see the few volunteers in my province and share ideas and work stories. Sadly, since that time, Kim as well as Christine, a volunteer in the town of Lolodorf, have decided to leave the province. We' re down to 5 of us, by far the fewest of all 10 provinces in Cameroon...it's sad :>( The south is a tricky and interesting place. Lastly, at the end of September I celebrated my one year anniversary with Cameroon with a group of volunteers at the beach...always wonderful !

SO....those are my short personal anecdotes that are much too personal and not really short! :>) I will be writting within a week to finish up summarizing the past few months with stories of the travels that I've done lately... didn't want to wear you out by making it an all-in-one thing...suspense !

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LETS ALL WISH KATE A HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 IN CAMEROON!!!!! YEAHHHH!!!

MOM & DAD LEGNER

Seth's Cultural Event - Donate Please

From Kate,

Here is a link if you're interested in sending money to one of Kate's fellow PC Worker Seth's Cultural Event...Per Kate "its a bunch of us going up there and our band will be performing, as well as all of us presenting and having little booths with info for people to come visit and learn...Kim and I will be doing soy... so if you want to sum that up and post this on my blog it'd be great!i'll also be asking for money from people for the bike tour and for my water project in the future...so tell people not to go all out...like 5-10 bucks is cool if people want to donate

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=694-118
They can also search for it on the peace corps partnership website by country or project number: 694-118. The total amount we're asking for is under $900, so if everyone participating gets a few people in the states to give 10 or 20 bucks, it should be no problem. The money has to be in by the end of October, though, so kindly do your soliciting in a timely fashion."

Yes It's me!

I am fully aware that I haven't written to all of you for about 2 months…but I also realize that I am no longer ever in the mood to write for some reason…thus we have a conundrum! I hope everyone enjoyed my parents' blog entry and I think they definitely a great job of summing up what was one visit chock full of new experiences and strange/funny events for them. I was glad to have them here and I think I can say on everyone else's behalf, those who met them here, they were happy to have had the opportunity to meet them also. Upon my return to village after dropping my parents off at the airport I was asked "ou est ton papa" (where's your dad?) several thousand times by everyone and anyone I didn't even realize knew my parents had visited. I continue to remind them that my mother also visited and to us Americans we ask about both parents at once…and since I spent more time in my mother's body in the first place don't they think she's important as well (yes I actually tried to say that in French) Then I got shamed by several other people for not bringing my parents to visit them in specific, because they had prepared a meal/fruit/a gift/etc… to give to them. I think most endearing was Billy (as usual) who each and every time he came to my door during the past 3 weeks has asked me "has my brother called, how is he doing?" So, Dad AND Mom…you made an impression on everyone and I'm sure for the remainder of my stay here you will be a topic of conversation, in a good way, and help to humanize the odd white girl in town. As far as my immediate material benefit from the visit…it's been great living the high life, eating things that include peanut butter (in all forms and recipes I can think of), blueberry pancakes WITH maple syrup, starburst jellybeans, chocolate that doesn't taste like plastic, chemical powder lemonade mix…so so SO fabulous. When my mass stockpile of processed American food runs out it will a sad sad day. Kim and I often talk about how odd it is that we have these intense cravings for the most horrible of American food that we either never ate in the States, or know that we shouldn't… I wasn't even really raised eating much of the stuff, as far as Americans go I guess…but oh sugar, chemicals, and transfats…why do I crave thee.

I have been feeling a lot more normal lately, in the sense I'm finally feeling that I have friends I can act normal around, ie not constantly worry about all the issues race/money/perceptions of me influence all my interactions. A few weeks before my parents got here I gave my phone number out to a random guy after 5 minutes of conversation for the FIRST time. My reasons include 1) after finding out I was American he spoke in flawless American English, slang and all (I have heard probably one other Cameroonian capable of this) 2) after I said I was from Wisconsin he said "you must love cheese" and asked if I went to the UW 3) him and his friends are starting up a fair trade cocoa business in Ebolowa. I was astonished by 1 and 2, and 3 was just plain interesting…thus…phone number! :>) I ended up hanging out with him and meeting his other friends later that day…we went to some guys house to play some traditional game where you throw snail shells like tops at other snail shells (I wasn't very good). Turns out his IS an American…went to school at the University of Miami for 6 years, married to a woman there…etc…but wow it was fun to speak English with him. He's currently back in the states, but in the time since then I've hung out with his friends quite a few times, and although they don't speak English in the same way, I feel like I actually have friends, kinda my age, similar viewpoints (even on religion with 2 of them…NON EXISTENT here), etc etc etc... it's just GOOD, and rare to come by. Only one had been driving me crazy with incessant phone calls until I said STOP IT NOW, and he did. He's also the one that has a small sports car, a small fluffy dog, a diamond nose ring, and owns at least 2 hotels and night clubs. I keep telling everyone he is truly the "male Paris Hilton of Cameroon", if you can picture that…it's not far from the truth…interesting guy. I have been hanging out as much as usual with Hans and Serges, and they continue to always be there when I need them as well as always up for going to the bar for countless beers (I still can't keep up, not that I ever wanted to try). I spend so much time at the bar between these two groups of people and all their acquaintances, my entire college experience was the equivalent of a brief training session. Serges has pretty much become my new counterpart (Obam just hasn't been around and has been causing more headache than help when he does show up). Serges is excellent at organizing people, actually listening to other people's concerns and adjusting himself to them, and he works his butt off. Serges=sanity. :>) I've also spent some time with a female friend in HIV/AIDS group I attend meetings for…although there was a misunderstanding between us when she told me she was coming to my house to spend the entire weekend with me (including nights)…and I told her I thought she was joking…and she got angry…thus I funded beer and fish that night…buying people off… My neighbors are as interesting as ever. One guy, who's always full of promises (he promised my mom and dad a dance party or something of the like that never happened), came one day asking me if I would like to eat caterpillars he would collect for me, and what hair type and color of caterpillars I preferred (how does one answer such a question)…I told him: yes, I would try them, and to me the hair type and color are not a determining factor in my caterpillar culinary selections. Or, to not lie to you, reader, about my French abilities, I said "yes, I will taste, but not eat a plate, and it doesn't matter what their hairstyle is". He then proceeded to inform me that the last time he ate caterpillars he threw up all over the place…he definitely does not have a career as a caterpillar salesman, needless to say. He clearly forgot to bring me the caterpillars, but upon telling Hans and Serges that he had mentioned it, they forced me to buy some to taste in town…which I did…and I have to say they were the most difficult thing yet for me to eat here…the hair, the bulging eyes, the bajillion legs. Bleh.

WORK! Kim and I have been busy with soy formations…we are starting our rotation of formation (presentation), planting, cooking with a few new villages near me and near her and then a few small groups in both places…so it's been relatively busy with that, since we are once again at the beginning of the planting season here. I've also outplanted a few of my Moringa trees in one of the nurseries we had started, and everyone in the village was following us around begging for a tree for their yard/family. I had a meeting in Yaounde last week for the Environmental Education committee, and now I am apparently co president…pretty much because no once else offered…so me with another girl are in charge of organizing the committee and setting our goals, or whatnot. Our biggest thing will be the bike tour I mentioned in passing a while ago. I think it'll actually happen! We are in the beginning stages of organizing it and we're thinking the route will start in Ngoulemakong (Kim's town), go to Ebolowa, then to Lolodorf (another volunteer's town), then to Kribi (the beach!). Along the way (this isn't concrete AT ALL) we will teach a few brief courses on environmental topics to school kids and to teachers, with the goal in mind that they will continue something (like an environmental club or whatever) after we leave. Since we're estimating about 20 volunteers on the tour, it's going to be a major undertaking, planning wise. Kim and I just tried to complete our lodging/meals logistics and budget…this would be complicated in the states, here it's like 5x more complicated. BUT if we figure this out and pull it off we will all be very proud of ourselves. On the environmental education note, Kim and I are also planning and starting to organize classes we are going to try to teach, once a month, at a grade school in her town and a grade school in mine…which I'm excited about…I feel like I'm finally ready to step into a role as teacher (or even adult) in this culture. Lastly, of note (I don't think I mentioned this yet), my friend up in the NW province has organized a "cultural festival" for November at which the band will be playing. I have to practice up on the tambourine! A bunch of the volunteers from my training group will be there, and we're also all going to give presentations on various topics…clearly mine will be soy!
And for my last story…my house and it's continual water adventures. Someone decided to drive 2 enormous bulldozers down the strip of grass/hill behind my house to flatten it…and create a strip of muddy muddy garbage covered land with lots of stinkiness and flies. I'm not sure why this required TWO bulldozers since the area is about 100 feet long, and I'm not even sure where this machinery CAME from! But clearly it remained in this state, and then when the first big rain of the season came, the hill was moved even closer to my door…the water came down insanely fast, the soil was compacted and completely cleared of all vegetation…a virtual mudslide ensued INTO my kitchen…I do not joke when I say that the mud was ankle deep in my kitchen, and there I am trying to get the mud out of there so it can't spread to the rest of the house, while running outside to push the water RAPIDLY flooding onto my little porch and into the kitchen, while also trying to dig a trench with my hoe next to my porch, while also crying with rage at the stupid bulldozers. It was ridiculous…understatement of the year. The next morning my landlady sees the state of things and although I think she was trying to comfort me, telling me to "have patience" is not the correct word choice to console at a time like that. She fixed things up that day after I recounted the story. But the bulldozers are still there, broke down, and 3 dudes have been behind my house for 2 straight days revving the engine and sitting outside (and looking into) my bedroom windows. I guess they are putting houses in this narrow little strip of land…incase my house wasn't already the loudest/most public place on earth…I'm sure more stories will come from this!

ONE YEAR ON SEPTEMBER 22!!! Ayyyy

Cameroun ~ A Country of Contrast as told by Mom & Dad!

Cameroun ~ A Country of Contrasts as told by Mom & Dad!

Our title sounds like one taken from a geography book but contrasts is certainly what Cameroun (French spelling) is. From its spectacular scenic beauty to its horrendous slums, from opulent office buildings in its capital to its mud built farm buildings, from its honest and friendly people to the occasional shouted ethnic slur “La Blanche ….” ( means the white …. ), from simple Cameroonian food to American Pizza and milkshakes to name but a few of the contrasts this country holds.

But before we continue we want to say how proud we are of our daughter Kate. She came to this chaotic country, to a new posting, with a loosely defined project and is succeeding. She learned French as well as some of the local language BuLu, impressed those she works with and met, and became a part of an extended family. When we walked with her through the market, the vegetable lady to the police officer stopped and hugged her. Part of her project is to introduce Soy to the Southern Province. Soy not only provides much needed protein for people but also puts nitrates back into the slash & burned soil. Kate is also one tough bargainer (one of the best) when purchasing anything. In this country it is something that always has got to be done, almost the extreme. We are truly proud of our strong and independent daughter!!

But back to Cameroun.

Our first impression was the attractiveness of the people in the South Province. Nearly all people are fit, lots of muscles and few pot bellies, probably from all the walking and exercising in the farming they do. And what great tans they all have!! We were also surprised by the abundance of food in Cameroun. Cameroun has two growing seasons and nearly everyone has a small farm. The markets are full of tomatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, bananas, and plantains to name a few. This is definitely one African Country that feeds itself. A very impressive quality of the people was their honesty. One can leave a package in most places and when you return for it, it will be there. If you need change you can give a larger bill to one of the locals in the market, they’ll disappear and reappear a bit later with the correct change. These people can also balance anything on their heads, I saw one individual in the capital of Yaoundé who had 3, 5 gallon buckets balanced on his head, one on top of the other. Even small children can do this without spilling anything from the large plate they are balancing. Speaking of children, they are everywhere. Cameroon is a very young country full of kids. Even the smallest are self-reliant and often cared for by another child not that much older than themselves. The ones in Kate’s village really enjoyed the candy we brought to give them.

Another impression was the beauty of the rainforest that is the South Province, a forest so dense that one cannot walk through it. Wildflowers and birds were abundant, but because of the denseness of the forest few animals can be seen. Many of the house plants we grow are found in this forest. African Grey Parrots flew overhead while black & white crows cawed at you The temperatures were stifling for us a times, but rain did not interfere with any of ours plans as it was the dry season. We found it funny that this is considered their winter & we saw people with coats on and babies bundled in northern winter clothing even with temperatures nearing 90 degrees. I was usually the only man with shorts on as long pants were far too hot for me, but not for them.

But one thing that concerned me (dad) was the transportation. Moto Taxis (motor cycles) are everywhere. You pay a small fee, get on the back and hold on. Sometimes up to 4 people can be seen riding on them. I haven’t been on a motorcycle since I was a teenager and the speed concerned me as well as the weaving in and out of traffic that occurs. Yellow Toyota Taxis are also everywhere, no drivers training exists in Cameroon and it shows. Again 4 to 5 people can be squeezed in the back seat of these small vehicles with nearly as many in front. Few of them are in good condition, with many having no shock absorbers left and little suspension. Buses are the main transportation between cities. Again 4 people are squeezed in seats designed for 3 and traveling between the cities can take hours. One gets use to sweaty and sometimes smelly individuals. But the children will always sit quietly, which in America would never happen under these conditions. Most bus companies also will not leave until all the seats are sold (time is not a concern here) so you wait until that happens (although we did experience a bus leaving on us when we were in the toilet). Luckily Kate screamed at the bus driver until he stopped. The roads in the south are really nice but in other parts of the country they can be extremely pot holed. Holes big enough to swallow a taxi! Travel in these buses is also extended because of the practice of building speed bumps near every little village or town along the way. Of course this slowing brings out all the people trying to sell food and just about everything else to the passengers they can. I even saw an individual with toilet seats around his neck for sale! Of course toilets are few and far between in this country. Usually just a hole in the concrete, which you are expected to use without falling over. No roadside rest stops in his country. Hotels also vary greatly, but the price is always reasonable, except of course the Hilton in the Capital.

One irritant in this country is the near constant police stops to check IDs. I’m not sure what they are looking for. When we handed them our passports few officers checked the visas page we had, but seemed more interested in the other places we had visited as they paged through our passports skipping over the visa section. On another negative side we did have an officer propose marriage to Kate even with us in the car. This seems to happen to Kate a lot. I can understand why she feels this behavior offensive. We were glad she gave this officer a smart retort. I asked her supervisors “do all Cameroonian men propose to a woman the first time they meet her”? He replied she would be a status symbol, well our daughter won’t be a status symbol for any lowly police officer.

Television in this country is unique, especially the occasional English language station as most are French stations. In the north there was even subtitles in English on an English speaking station. The only reason I could conclude was because the local people spoke Pidgin English and maybe needed help understanding common English.

We were hosted for meals by Kate’s supervisor’s family, her host family and a local village. The food was Cameroonian food, which although good can be a bit bland. We balanced this with meals at Italian, Chinese and American restaurants. While we ate at the Chinese Restaurant we heard the constant sound of someone pounding metal. The waiter told us it was a bird whose name was spelled B A T. These bats were the large fruit eating variety known here as “Flying Foxes”. Their flight is quite impressive in the air.

One of the people we met was Kate’s friend Billy. He lives in Kate’s compound with his wife and family. He farms as well grows nursery plants. He presented us with the most magnificent arrangement of tropical flowers we’ve ever seen. Billy also assured us that Kate is safe where she lives and even brought the local police officers to introduce them. We’re glad of his concern for Kate as well as his quiet friendship with her. We also met many of Kate’s fellow Peace Corp Volunteers, who were all interesting and dedicated.

We traveled to the north and the west provinces and spend three relaxing days at the Atlantic Ocean Beach in Limbe. These beaches are made of black sand from nearby volcanoes. Being nearly on the equator the water is warm, unpolluted, does not smell fishy like other ocean water and seems less salty. I don’t usually like swimming in the ocean but this place was an exception. Earlier we traveled to the southern border of Cameroon, touched the border of Equatorial Guinea and had a drink in Gabon.

On the way back to the USA we were upgraded to Business Class from Economy Class on the first flight, from Yaoundé to Zurich on the Swiss Airline. Having never flown in this class we were surprised by the drinks and food offered as well as the concern for our comfort and the large reclining seats, of course all good things must end and on our last flight we were assigned to the middle of the airplane between two individuals. Somehow our window seats were changed to these seats. But the man who sat next to me proved interesting. He happened to be a young priest from Switzerland studying in Chicago for a year. You know me and my attitude about priests but I was cordial. During our conversation he mentioned that he had been in LA two years ago and a mutual friend had him meet Ashton Kutcher. Evidently Ashton took him around to his 4 clubs, a few parties and he stayed in his apartment. To return the favor he invited Ashton to his monastery near Zurich. Ashton spent two days in the monastery where few of the monks had ever heard of him. The priest told me Ashton had trouble with the silence & lack of recognition. While Ashton was at the monastery, Demi Moore (his wife) had a bit of plastic surgery in Austria, one of many according to the monk.

It was hard to say “Good-Bye” again to Kate for another year and we thank her for being able to cope with two parents who at times were infant like in their ability to communicate with the locals. We feel much better about her in Cameroon after meeting her friends and co-workers and experiencing Cameroon for ourselves. We are now considered part of her Cameroonian family. We fully support her in her role as a Peace Corp Volunteer and know it isn’t always easy. We also want to remind her that even small changes can have a lasting impact in many ways for years to come, some unknown at this time. Ahh Kates we are proud of you!!

Mom & Dad Legner

It's been too long...

Wow, it's been a long long LONG time since I've last written and for that I apologize! I have use of Kim's computer currently so that makes it a lot easier to type this up…but I'll try to be more on the ball…AFTER my parents trip here! It's really very soon, they'll be leaving the states in only a week and I will be meeting them at the airport in yaounde next Tuesday. Wow. I've made some plans for while they're here that I'm pretty excited about. My friend, Leo, who I work with at Mefoup actually has a car and has offered to drive us all down to the border of Cameroon and either gabon or equatorial guinea, where there is apparently a huge market and maybe we'll get to just step over the line and say we were there! While down in Mefoup they'll get to see us harvest my soy field there too. We'll also be spending a day or two with my homestay family, none of which I've seen since I left bangangte in the very beginning of December. My homestay mother is very very excited and told me we will all be staying at the house…we'll see how that all turns out. Then we'll be going to Bamenda (my favorite place in this country), possibly Foumban ("art capital of cameroon"), and Limbe (the beach). Around Ebolowa everyone is getting excited for their trip here as well, Billy is planning "a surprise" for my parents, we have lots of stuff being planned by Hans and Serges, and a couple of the other volunteers will hang out with us while we're near their posts. Needless to say I'm quite ready for them to be here!

Aside from that I'll start this blog post by sharing my two recent incidents of intense homesickness… Get the sad stuff out of the way :>) The first was this past Saturday when I went down to Mefoup. It ended up being a late day and Leo drove me back around 7:30 at night…so by this time it was already dark, the temperature was down to an astounding 68 degrees already (this is the coolest time of year), I was sitting BY MYSELF in the front seat of a nice car with a sunroof open, wearing a seatbelt too! Windows open…cool breeze…driving past people burning their fields next to the road reminded me of the smell of campfires…I almost felt for a second like I was in the states on a summer/fall night. I always love the smell of that time of year and just that feeling you get with the wind in your hair and the cool air all over the place! (I'm not too good with the description here, you know what I mean!)…It was all very sad in the end when we pulled up at the control gates to town and someone yelled "la blanche" in my face. Then the next incident was that Sunday. I was at home and Billy was talking about these "Wisconsin badger" jerseys we're still going to have made (by the way my team is apparently unstoppable…they've won every game they've played!). So he was talking about an example for what to model the jerseys after, and he showed up at my door with this dirty ripped up really old school letterman jacket, that sure enough, is red and white, big picture of bucky on the back, university of Wisconsin, badgers…everything. I almost burst out crying on the spot, which would have been hilarious and far too awkward all in one moment…so instead I tried to smile as big as possible and adequately express my amazement that this jacket somehow ended up in my village…in Cameroon, by way of Wisconsin. Just like myself I guess. Pretty crazy.

Let's see…I hate getting to this point where so much has happened between now and the time I've last written that this post will either get really long and detailed or just not say all I want it too, and neither option is suitable…I'll begin where I left off last time. It was a few weeks ago now that I was up in the West province for the environmental education camp. My friend Jessica was in charge or planning it and she did an excellent job of getting everything set up and inviting kids. We ended up having a relatively good attendance of between 7 and 18 kids everyday. We discussed the full range of environmental topics, which was clearly a test of our French ability, but ended up going pretty well. A few of the kids were those kids the teacher would probably write on their report card "a pleasure to have in class" if this were America…they showed up every day, participated, pretty much could finish our sentences for us…it was great to have them there and by the end of the camp we were having a lot of fun with them. Our last day we made jumpropes out of recycled plastic bags and then spent an hour, us 4 white girls, with about 8 highschool boys doing double dutch…which made for some good pictures! While up in the West I stayed with either one of my two friends Nura and Jessica. Compared to my house, which is only a 45 minute walk from Ebolowa on a nice paved road (I really got lucky with this), they are both between 2-4 hour walk from town on really crappy (read: MUDDY) roads from Baffousam. When I was up there is was the very start of the rainy season in the west…actually I'm pretty positive the rain came with me, since every day it just poured, what seemed like constantly…the roads were horrible! To get to Jessica's house mottos won't even brave the road when it's like this so we spent most of our time walking to and from the school where we had the camp, town, and her house. It's in interesting game of concentration, balance, and calf muscle endurance when walking in mud of this type…especially in flipflops. I completely destroyed my one pair that had been on their last leg. I bore holes all the way through the soles in several places due to the opposite forces of mud suction and my leg strength :>) We also got to spend a day in Foumban, an artisan city really close to Baffousam. A really fun group of us ended up going and we did a lot of shopping, my favorite purchase of which were these small bronze statues of pygmy witchdoctor looking man and woman…they make me laugh everytime I look at them…aka: good buy! We also went to the sultan's palace in Foumban. The sultan is just like the chiefs in other towns, but the Bamoun culture here places a lot of emphasis on him and he's overall just a really important guy (like my summaries of such things?!) There is a museum in the palace, which is incredibly well put together and the most actual museum like place I've been to in Cameroon, complete with a musical performance at the end! Nura's good friends with the chief of her village, who is apparently good friends with the sultan, so we had an "appointment" to meet him. This ended up falling through because at the moment we were there it was a big celebration for the graduation of a new Koran class. We didn't realize this until we were in the middle of it and the streets leading out of the palace were closed off by a mass of kids singing and chanting. So we were cornered, and ended up sitting in some apparently (but unknown to us) restricted area in front of the palace. We subsequently got scolded, asked to move, and then approached by the sultan's wife…who…ended up being from the US virgin islands (I think that's what it was) and speaking PERFECT American English! She was great and arranged for us to sit behind the sultan in his private quarters while we watched the graduation ceremony! What an experience, kinda unprecedented! Good day trip :>)

My trip home from Baffousam was also very interesting, and surprisingly full of good events…I decided to take a private car from Baffousam to Yaounde…in hopes it would take about 4 hours instead of the 7 or 8 buses sometimes take. To do so one stands by the side of the road out of town and gets these "chargers" (random guys) to flag down passenger cars going your way. I was getting really annoyed with these guys because they wouldn't let me flag down cars, and they were doing a really bad job at it…so I decided to work for myself, and sure enough, after about 10 minutes (versus an hour and a half with the guys) I chased down a car (literally) and got a spot in the backseat. Although I was between 2 big guys, one of which kept demanding I get a drink with him in Yaounde and putting his arm around me, the trip went quicker then in the bus and I got dropped off right in front of the peace corps office in Yaounde when we got there! Once in Yaounde I waited for a taxi to the depot area for the buses to the South. A man on the curb next to me was going to the same depot and ended up helping me find the taxi. The whole street of the depot area was closed off, for some reason I don't understand, requiring everyone to get out of the taxis and walk with huge loads of stuff to their agency of choice. For me this can be a very taxing experience, since harassment in the depot can get really really intense. It was exactly as I assumed, in the ¼ mile I had to walk I had all kinds of things yelled at me, all parts of me being grabbed, guys surrounding me…etc…so I decided to try something I hadn't yet used, and caught up to the man that had helped me and been in the taxi with me. I put my arm in his and asked if he would be my husband for 10 minutes. He was great, he just said sure, and then flung people dirty looks, and walked all the way to the depot with me…then just left me WITHOUT asking for my phone number! Fantastic! So once at my agency waiting area things went equally amazing. I made friends with the bathroom attendant, got to pee for free! Then all the workers kept calling me either "sister" or "madame" instead of the usual "baby", "white", or "my dear". THEN most exciting, I bought myself a roasted ear of corn some boy was selling, and turn around 5 minutes later to see him standing there offering me another. Some guy sent me an ear of corn, yes, in the same manner one would send someone a drink in a bar…but then he left me alone too! It was all very nice. When we finally all got on the bus and moving it turned out all the streets in and out of Yaounde were closed off too. My bus was abnormally organized and someone suggested that everyone put in an extra 100CFA for gas and we take some backroads to try to get out of the city. An hour and several rough roads later, we ended up JUST on the otherside of the blockade, and to our joy and the gawking of several groups of police and over 5 miles of backed up traffic, we ended up being the only bus on the road for several hours that was moving! So all these things that could have gone wrong, actually went right. I was very happy. The only bad thing was that someone decided to put their dog in the trunk of the bus, which was right behind my seat, and everytime we hit a bump or took a quick turn the poor thing wailed its heart out right in my ear…
That's the trip then!

On the homefront! A select few of my neighbors have been driving me crazy! A new man is living right next door. He started out blasting Celine Dion all day long, which was harmless enough, but now he has moved on to blasting Cameroonian pop music with VERY loud bass from 6:30 am to 11 pm…and is making my head explode…the cinder block walls don't do much in the way of holding in sound I guess. Then in the last few days people have started taking over the one private area I had…the back of my house. Call my feelings "American", but I like to be able to sit in my house with the curtains open and not expect someone to be directly at the window in every room. I have one lady doing her laundry outside my kitchen window, in the back of my house, the kids peeping in the 2 front windows, and then most recently 2 women will come take turns showering inches from my bedroom window at 10 pm! I looked out the first time I heard the water in the bucket to see what was going on, and sure enough! Naked woman on my porch…why?! On a positive note, I've gotten shelves built into a corner in my kitchen and a corner in my living room, and now I think I'm FINALLY done getting stuff to furnish my house and can spend my money on travel! The shelves look great though, and Kim, Hans, Serges and I celebrated them by bar hopping during the day, for 8 hours…full time job, drinking in this country. Sadly, my 2 favorite neighbor girls are gone for a period of time. I think one might be gone permanently to go to school, but her sister, my water getting buddy Michelle, will hopefully be back. I miss these 2 girls a lot, and I'm sad they left while I was up in the West and didn't get to say goodbye. They were sometimes the only people I would really have a conversation with for a full day! :>( Lastly in the village, there is a female police officer who always likes to talk to me about my running…she does a hilarious imitation of how I run, sidenote…but then one day I passed by her at the road barrier with Hans and she told me 1)that I have pretty feet and 2) that I should marry her husband too so that I can stay in Cameroon with them and we can run together…so, first FEMALE proposal?! It was odd.

Work related things have been slow as usual since we're now just starting the soy harvest. I met with a woman's HIV/AIDS support group the previous health volunteer had started in Ebolowa to discuss starting a soy project with them, and possibly starting an animal raising project too…the woman I'm in contact with from the group, Deboise, is this fantastic, kind and very intelligent person who I'm really excited to work with if anything gets off the ground. I brought my landlady back some information from Baffousam about animal raising as well, and she's already started building cages for rabbits. We started harvesting one of my soy fields at the village Lo'o…I really like harvesting, you just rip the entire plant out of the ground and put it in a basket…it's kinda like pulling weeds…but with nutritional benefits! ;>) We're going to try to organize a cooking with soy class there for when my parents are here. We've also been keeping tabs on the Moringa nurseries we started, and moved one of them that wasn't getting enough sun…Water project is going slow, rocks were collected a long time ago, and an area near the river was cleared for sand, but no work has been done since then. I think I need to step it up and start pushing things along. My other 2 soy fields will be ready to harvest within the next month, and then we'll have cooking classes for them too…and then after that it's time to start clearing land and planting again! At Mefoup there has been some bad luck…least seriously, we had planted a plot of beans and corn right next to the plot of soy. The beans were completely decimated by something, there is not one single plant left standing…so that was depressing…but at least it didn't affect my dear soy! But more seriously, there was a woman at Mefoup, Pauline, who was suppose to be my go to person, the woman in charge of mobilizing the other woman and organizing our work days…she was killed in a car crash a few weeks back…so the village was very affected by that…incredibly disheartening. Sad note to put at the end here. Obam, however, has fully recovered and returned to village last Monday, he can walk again and is almost as good as new! There's the work report in a nutshell, and I hope not too scattered.
SO! That should be about all! Hopefully summed up accurately and at a readable length for you! :>) Bon voyage to my mom and dad!