Well, it's been a little while since I last posted anything and I think it's probably because of several reasons, one of which is that I've been busy travelling (back up to post after the training workshop) and then back down a few days ago to Bafia, a city about two hours from Yaounde where the new training group is. I'm here doing a few sessions on infectuous diseases and food security. anyway, I figure I'll write a little bit about my journey down, as it was definitely a different experience than anything else I've had in this country.
I had a reservation to take the train on saturday with another volunteer, Kim O. We got to the train station in Ngaoundere at a decent hour on that morning to pick up our tickets but unfortunately they were all out of the two-person sleeper car rooms so we had to get spots in a four-person one, and split it with a cameroonian couple. We kind of lounged around for most of the day, I grabbed lunch at a decent restaurant down the street, watched some Office episodes, and then at about 2:30, Kim and I went across the street from the peace corps house and hung out at this restaurant/bar to watch the cameroon-congo soccer match which is a qualifying match for the 2012 african cup of nations. I'm going to take a step back and first say that the match was in Garoua that day. Garoua, the city 35 minutes from my post. I was pretty pissed when I found out that the game was going to be in Garoua because I HAD to take the train on the 9th in order to be in Bafia on time to help with training. anyway, Kim and I had a beer or two and watched the game. While we were sitting there, I started chatting with this chain-smoking Lebanese guy who lives in Ngaoundere now and he was a pretty interesting guy. We talked a little about religion and language and then about the conflicts that have been going on there for a while. Around half-time he got up and left and paid for our beers which was pretty awesome. Kim and I ordered some food, I got a meat sandwich that I ate there and then a hamburger that I was planning on eating on the train. I called a volunteer at the game and expressed my extreme disappointment at his lack of getting a wave started. Less than five minutes later, the TV cameras were focussed on the wave circling the whole stadium. Kudos to you, Mike.
After the game (a disappointing 1-1, own-goal tie) Kim and I got our stuff together and made our way down to the train station and got there at about 5. The train is normally supposed to leave at 6 but when we pulled up, we didn't see it there. We heard an announcement which I thought said something along the lines of "the train will leave an hour and a half late" but kim thought said something about 1:30 in the morning. Anyway, I ordered a beer and said "well, if the train's leaving soon then I'll have to finish this quickly and we'll hop on." I asked our bartender if he had any news on the train and he shrugged and said "nothing. It hasn't come yet." Normally, the train gets in at around 10am, so I thought he meant it hadn't come back from being serviced yet, but he clarified and said "no, it hasn't arrived from Yaounde yet." Merde. About that time I got a call from Brian, the volunteer in Ngaoundere who said he'd just got a call from another volunteer, Anais, who was on the train and stuck about 3 or 4 hours south of Ngaoundere because the engine was broken and they were waiting for another one to come and pick them up. After this, I called Anais and I said, "so you think it'll be about 3 or 4 hours 'till it gets here?" to which she replied, "try 8 or 9 hours." Merde.
So I went into the train station and talked to a woman who gave me her phone number, said to go home and call her in two hours and she'd let me know the news. So Kim and I gathered up all our stuff, headed back to the peace corps house, ate the food we'd bought for the train, and then I went to grab a beer with Brian and one of the guards for a business next door. We sat around for a while and around 8 I called the woman again and she said "it's still not here, call back in two hours." I didn't mind too much, though, because I was having a decent time shooting the shit with Brian and his friend. Around 10, I tried to call her again and she didn't answer. Being overly optimistic, Kim and I thought maybe the train had arrived and she was too busy to answer her phone. So we went back to the station and, my god, it looked like a refugee camp. Hundreds of people crammed into a small waiting room, sleeping on the floor, fluorescent lights glaring down. We found the woman who said, "train's still not here, call back in two hours." So (for the third time that day) we went back to the peace corps house. We watched an episode of the office, though I started falling asleep during it. We started another episode when Jessie, one of the volunteers at the house came out and said "you guys came back?! I thought I just heard the train whistle." Then, we called the woman again and couldn't really make out if the train was leaving in an hour and a half or if it would arrive in an hour and a half. I called this guy Brian knew and he said "the train will arrive in 13 minutes." So, it being about midnight, Kim and I gathered our stuff again and made our way over to the train station.
The train had just pulled up when we arrived and so we put our stuff down out front of the station and sat there for about an hour, during which time the train pulled away to be serviced and cleaned. There were so many people inside that we couldn't really see the doors so around 1 we moved inside, pretty close to the front. Needless to say, I was getting a little grouchy. The German girl standing behind me who's backpack kept hitting me in the head wasn't helping. Kim and I sat on our moto helmets, backpacks between our legs and essentially took turns dozing off until the train finally came back from being serviced around three. Everybody stood up and the porters started coming through pushing people aside and carrying bags around. One guy in front of me pushed a porter who was trying to get through and yelled at him "there's no room here! Go back and around!" then the porter tried to go past me and I did essentially the same thing, which really pissed him off. He started yelling at me about how we're not at "Chez les blancs" and how he doesn't like "les blancs" in his country and how if he dropped that bag, I would have to pay for it. I then used some of the nifty French my French friend in Ngong taught me to tell the guy to piss off and find someone else to bother. When he persisted I increased my profanity and was actually quite proud at how in my tired state I was able to express myself how I would in the states when some jackass is judging you based on arbitrary reasons. When the guy kept muttering things about me as he was walking away I loudly said something about how if he wasn't drunk he could probably walk straight and stop bumping into everyone. Those who weren't too tired laughed at the idiot walking away.
The doors opened a few minutes later and Kim and I made it to our cabin, claimed the top bunks, and then discovered out window didn't open. Shiiiiit. I was too tired really to care, so I just went to sleep and then I think we left sometime after four. Around 8, I woke up because an annoying guard came in and demanded the two Cameroonians in the room pay him money for some onions they had in a box. Then, after 10 minutes of arguing and they paying him, he finally started to leave. As he was closing the door, though, he started bothering them again about something and I sat up in bed, looked at the guard and said "We are trying to sleep. Get out of here and stop bothering us." He started apologizing and explaining to which I said, "I don't care. You can't see I want to sleep? You talking is not helping." Well, I didn't really get back to sleep after that as it was too hot in the room so I went out to the front of the car where a couple guards were hanging out and had the doors of the train open. In the US this would be against quite a few safety regulations but here, well, one of the doors didn't even latch closed. So I sat there, on the floor, next to the bathroom, between two open doors and two guards and let the cool wind blow over me. I talked with one of the guards for a while and then found out he was Congolese. A little later I found out he was actually a UNHCR (UN human crisis relief) Refugee who'd been in Cameroon for a few years. Really nice guy and for the next three hours I spent sitting with them and talking. Kim and I split a plate of chicken and fries and then she came out to sit with us too. Around 3ish, (keep in mind the train normally arrives at 9 or 10am) it started raining, and the cool mist wafting in the doorway felt so soothing and relaxing after all the heat and grime. I stood a little behind the doorway at one point and let my head get wet. Then I went back to our room and tried to sleep, which I accomplished for about an hour and a half before the heat because too much again. When I woke up, I looked down at the lower bunks at the food the Cameroonians had purchased and seeing that it was baton de manioc (a very stinky cassava concoction) I decided it was time to go hang out with my guard buddies at the front again. Well, Kim and I ended hanging out there until we got to Yaounde, about another 1.5-2 hours. Finally, a little after seven we got in to the train station. By far the worst train ride of my life, and one of my worst experiences here, so far, but there are a few silver linings. And they are...
I wasn't alone so I had someone to commiserate with.
I didn't have to quickly finish my beer at the Ngaoundere train station.
At least there was a cool place at the front of my car, albeit next to the bathroom.
I wasn't stuck on it for 36 hours like the volunteers who had been on their way up.
Well, maybe bronze linings is a more accurate description. Hopefully the train has recovered and isn't so shitty on the way back up on thursday.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Work update
I'm in Yaounde (again), and I've been here for over a week now. Man, I am ready to get back to post. There's really not much to do in Yaounde except spend money on expensive western food and/or drink beer. But there's only so much money you can drop before you start to feel your soul drip out through your wallet and evaporate into the pockets of the wealthy Yaounde-ites who cater to the tastes of westerners who miss the culinary traditions of their homelands.
Well, it's been awhile since I updated anything about my work life so I'll go ahead and give a brief update. Before I left Ngong I was doing demonstrations about 4 times a week on various health topics from Malaria to nutrition for mothers and babies to the importance of vaccinations. The first day I did my nutrition presentation to pregnant mothers I mentioned the importance of eating meat and getting lots of iron because pregnant women are at a high risk of anemia in our part of the country. Well, when I went in the next day all the nurses told me that about half of the women bought anemia-prevention medicine which definitely shows that at least I had an impact and got through to the women--if not necessarily in regards to how they can naturally prevent anemia through diet.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm in Yaounde right now and I'm here because I've been selected to help out with training for the new group of agro and health volunteers arriving in a couple weeks. I'll be coming down and presenting the technical sessions on Diarrheal Diseases, Water & Sanitation, Malaria, and Food Security. The last one I'll be doing with my friend Patrick, an Agro who lives in the Northwest. I'm really excited, though, because I will also be in Bafia (the new training city) when the groups find out their posts. Not only will I be able to see who'll be the new kids around me but I'll be able to give information on a lot of the northern posts and calm some of the unavoidable fears of the trainees going to the grand north.
On the back burner right now is my trash collection project. I've been green-lighted for funding, the only snag right now is that I don't have all of the prices down for the plaques I'd like to have made for our sensitization campaign. Hopefully I'll be able to find those out before I head back up north on Wednesday night.
One other project I'm working on right now is getting a pump fixed with Chris, a SED (small enterprise development) volunteer about 22 k from me. The pump is in a small town called Rabingha, 4 k south of me. Chris is going to do some savings and general money-managing classes with the members of the water committee there, and I'll be doing some water sanitation sessions with whoever wants them.
I also did a short jam-making project a while back. It started out pretty well, but I definitely started the project too late into the mango season, so I wasn't able to teach as many people as I wanted to and I doubt the women I taught had much time to practice before the mangoes were all gone. Oh well, next year I'll have to start when the mangoes arrive.
There was an outbreak of cholera in my health district back in July but, as it stands, we've only had seven cases (none in Ngong proper) and no deaths. The last case was also over a month ago, so we're pretty sure that this specific outbreak in our district is done. Knock on wood. Who knows when another case will slither on down from the Extreme North and infect more people, though. I went out to the town where the first case was and, let me tell you, I have no idea how there weren't 100 cases. The latrines were uncovered, dirty dishes were laying around everywhere, and the well where people got their water was horrible. It was about 200 meters from the big river in the North (the Benoue) and the water table was only about a foot below the surface. The water was so cloudy and dirty that I couldn't see more than five or six inches below the surface. It looked like the water in my buckets after I get done washing my clothes. Anyway, the authorities treated the well (LOADS of chlorine in it, closing it off for a couple days), and made everyone who lived nearby start boiling their water and using chlorine when washing their dishes.
Well, guess that's about it for now. I'll probably be pretty busy in the next couple months, what with traveling back down here for training and working on the pump and trash projects.
Until next time....
Well, it's been awhile since I updated anything about my work life so I'll go ahead and give a brief update. Before I left Ngong I was doing demonstrations about 4 times a week on various health topics from Malaria to nutrition for mothers and babies to the importance of vaccinations. The first day I did my nutrition presentation to pregnant mothers I mentioned the importance of eating meat and getting lots of iron because pregnant women are at a high risk of anemia in our part of the country. Well, when I went in the next day all the nurses told me that about half of the women bought anemia-prevention medicine which definitely shows that at least I had an impact and got through to the women--if not necessarily in regards to how they can naturally prevent anemia through diet.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm in Yaounde right now and I'm here because I've been selected to help out with training for the new group of agro and health volunteers arriving in a couple weeks. I'll be coming down and presenting the technical sessions on Diarrheal Diseases, Water & Sanitation, Malaria, and Food Security. The last one I'll be doing with my friend Patrick, an Agro who lives in the Northwest. I'm really excited, though, because I will also be in Bafia (the new training city) when the groups find out their posts. Not only will I be able to see who'll be the new kids around me but I'll be able to give information on a lot of the northern posts and calm some of the unavoidable fears of the trainees going to the grand north.
On the back burner right now is my trash collection project. I've been green-lighted for funding, the only snag right now is that I don't have all of the prices down for the plaques I'd like to have made for our sensitization campaign. Hopefully I'll be able to find those out before I head back up north on Wednesday night.
One other project I'm working on right now is getting a pump fixed with Chris, a SED (small enterprise development) volunteer about 22 k from me. The pump is in a small town called Rabingha, 4 k south of me. Chris is going to do some savings and general money-managing classes with the members of the water committee there, and I'll be doing some water sanitation sessions with whoever wants them.
I also did a short jam-making project a while back. It started out pretty well, but I definitely started the project too late into the mango season, so I wasn't able to teach as many people as I wanted to and I doubt the women I taught had much time to practice before the mangoes were all gone. Oh well, next year I'll have to start when the mangoes arrive.
There was an outbreak of cholera in my health district back in July but, as it stands, we've only had seven cases (none in Ngong proper) and no deaths. The last case was also over a month ago, so we're pretty sure that this specific outbreak in our district is done. Knock on wood. Who knows when another case will slither on down from the Extreme North and infect more people, though. I went out to the town where the first case was and, let me tell you, I have no idea how there weren't 100 cases. The latrines were uncovered, dirty dishes were laying around everywhere, and the well where people got their water was horrible. It was about 200 meters from the big river in the North (the Benoue) and the water table was only about a foot below the surface. The water was so cloudy and dirty that I couldn't see more than five or six inches below the surface. It looked like the water in my buckets after I get done washing my clothes. Anyway, the authorities treated the well (LOADS of chlorine in it, closing it off for a couple days), and made everyone who lived nearby start boiling their water and using chlorine when washing their dishes.
Well, guess that's about it for now. I'll probably be pretty busy in the next couple months, what with traveling back down here for training and working on the pump and trash projects.
Until next time....
Friday, September 3, 2010
The revolving door of peace corps
Peace Corps is a unique and interesting organization for innumerable reasons, though the one I'd like to look at now is how it affects the relationships between people.
I thought of this pretty early on after I arrived in country but Peace Corps really is like a revolving door of people. When we first got here, most of the volunteers we met and got to know left before we even finished training because their two years of service were up. After that, a few people I got to be good friends with left again back in June-July, with a new group in to replace them. Throw in the people who have to randomly go home due to family illnesses or other reasons and you can see how there's constantly people filtering in and out of my life around here. Now, a good number of my friends and volunteers around me are going to be leaving in November and December and I think that's going to be pretty tough on me. Sure, I've still got some friends around me, as well as the rest of my training mates who I'll see when I come down to Yaounde, but I feel like I slipped in pretty well to the health/agro stage before mine and it's going to be a sad day for me when they're all leaving and off to bigger and better things. I know that might sound like an egotistical thing for me to say but I guess I'm just saying that I'm going to miss everyone when they leave.
Peace Corps also does an interesting number on personal relationships. During training, friendships and relationships are on a hyper-accelerated pace as we spend 8+ hours a day together. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as you get to know people pretty well in those short 11 weeks. Since training, though, I haven't really seen much of the others from my training group as I am pretty far away from them all, so many of these friendships have kind of fallen to the side. Somebody warned me that it would be hard to stay involved with their lives being, at the least, a 2 day journey from 90% of them. With a few exceptions, it's turned out to be pretty true. So I became good friends with the people around me in the North region, a good number of who are leaving in the next 3 months.
Another volunteer nearby me who has been here for close to 3.5 years now has said it's hard seeing people you trained with go, and while I didn't train with the people leaving soon, I definitely became good friends with them. I might take a couple days of vacation and go hang out with him in the Extreme North in December before the new volunteers arrive, to get away from all the empty posts.
Maybe this blog has been a bit of a downer. I hope not, but it's been something on my mind a lot lately.
I thought of this pretty early on after I arrived in country but Peace Corps really is like a revolving door of people. When we first got here, most of the volunteers we met and got to know left before we even finished training because their two years of service were up. After that, a few people I got to be good friends with left again back in June-July, with a new group in to replace them. Throw in the people who have to randomly go home due to family illnesses or other reasons and you can see how there's constantly people filtering in and out of my life around here. Now, a good number of my friends and volunteers around me are going to be leaving in November and December and I think that's going to be pretty tough on me. Sure, I've still got some friends around me, as well as the rest of my training mates who I'll see when I come down to Yaounde, but I feel like I slipped in pretty well to the health/agro stage before mine and it's going to be a sad day for me when they're all leaving and off to bigger and better things. I know that might sound like an egotistical thing for me to say but I guess I'm just saying that I'm going to miss everyone when they leave.
Peace Corps also does an interesting number on personal relationships. During training, friendships and relationships are on a hyper-accelerated pace as we spend 8+ hours a day together. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as you get to know people pretty well in those short 11 weeks. Since training, though, I haven't really seen much of the others from my training group as I am pretty far away from them all, so many of these friendships have kind of fallen to the side. Somebody warned me that it would be hard to stay involved with their lives being, at the least, a 2 day journey from 90% of them. With a few exceptions, it's turned out to be pretty true. So I became good friends with the people around me in the North region, a good number of who are leaving in the next 3 months.
Another volunteer nearby me who has been here for close to 3.5 years now has said it's hard seeing people you trained with go, and while I didn't train with the people leaving soon, I definitely became good friends with them. I might take a couple days of vacation and go hang out with him in the Extreme North in December before the new volunteers arrive, to get away from all the empty posts.
Maybe this blog has been a bit of a downer. I hope not, but it's been something on my mind a lot lately.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
First world, second time?
Alright, well, it's been a while since I've posted something and I've definitely not been standing still so I figure I'll write about a little travelling I've just done.
I just got back from a nine-day vacation in Denmark where I visited with my family that lives there as well as my parents and three of their friends who were taking a little vacation of their own in Scandinavia. Even though I love my post, my friends, and many things about this country, it was really nice to take a break from Cameroon and my Peace Corps duties. The first thing I did after my red eye flight to Brussels where I was changing planes was run to the Starbuck's in the main terminal (after passport control, that is). I got a tall latte, and boy was it amazing. I haven't had anything other than Nescafe or the occassional cup that I brew myself in 9 months so I was thrilled to be able to gulp down a shot of espresso mixed with delicious, frothy milk. I usually avoid Starbuck's in the states but, hey, beggars can't be choosers. They even let me pay with some US dollars I'd brought with me! I figured I didn't want to push my luck and see if they'd take some of the Central African Francs (cfa) I also had in my wallet.
After that, I was hungry so I started wandering around, wondering what to get. I saw a Pizza Hut express which wasn't open, a little food court with some traditional Belgian dishes, as well as a few cafes and bars that were quite full at 9 in the morning. I wandered around from place to place, wondering what to get to satisfy my desire for Western food. Do I wait around for that deep dish with pepperonis at the Pizza Hut? Should I just get a burger or some pasta at the food court? Is it too early for a Stella or Hoegarden? Then I started looking at the prices. Seven euros for a personal pan pizza, 5.50 for a small beer, 12 for a burger with fries and a coke. I started going through this in my head, changing these euros back to CFA, and realizing that a meal here would likely cost about as much (if not more) than what I normally spend in a week on food. I felt incredibly conflicted about what to do. Could I justify to myself spending this much money on a meal when I haggle over pennies in the market? As my hunger increased and my flight to Copenhagen approached, I frantically wandered the airport trying to figure out what to do. I ended up just getting a bag of chips and some gummies from a vending machine. I also searched for a Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew but came up empty handed.
My other little cultural touble--I don't want to say shock as that's a little extreme--came the following morning when I woke up at my cousin Tess's house and it came time to brush my teeth. Normally I just brush my teeth without water as it's a bit of a hassle to bring a water bottle outside with me at home, and I definitely don't use the tap water when I'm in bigger cities. I stood in front of the sink for probably a minute telling myself I would be fine to use the sink water. I drank some of that water the day before, but for some reason there was almost a mental barrier for me with using this tap water that I knew was safe. I ended up using it but it took some mustering up of courage to do so. Throughout the rest of my trip I still had a bit of trepidation every time I filled up my glass or water bottle at a sink.
I'm not terribly sure the rest of my trip would be that interesting to anyone so I'll just throw in a few more highlights. Yes, I had some McDonald's. Twice. It wasn't Taco Bell, but it did the trick. I had so much amazing Danish food, mostly centered around their cheese and what I consider one of the least appreciated cheese-cultures in the world. I believe I put on about 9 pounds in the 9 days I was there which is pretty good considering I'd lost quite a bit of weight since arriving in Cameroon. There's also a microbrew on the island my uncle and aunt live on that makes some really delicious beers, including one of the best American Pale Ales I can remember drinking. I didn't have too many, but I cherished each one. My last night in Copenhagen, I went to the big town center with my cousin Ben to watch the Denmark-Japan match. Well, after Japan got off to a quick 2-0 lead, we decided to go meet up with Tess at an Irish pub where we watched the game and then danced to this Irish guy playing a guitar and singing mid-90's classics such as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Wonderwall." I convinced Tess to ask him how he felt about playing "Sunday Bloody Sunday" though he tactfully responded with "As an Irishman, I'm over it."
At the beginning of the trip when I was in the Yaounde airport, I initially feared not wanting to get back on the plane at the end of the trip. As the trip went on, though, I started to get more and more comfortable with the idea of coming home to Cameroon. Throughout my whole time there, I was not-too-secretly hoping the second volcano in Iceland would go off, thus "stranding" me there for a while longer. When I got on the plane at 6:15 am, though, I was glad to be starting my journey back. In the last couple months, Ngong has really become home for me and I really enjoy my time there, even with some of the problems I've been having. My step-mom said something to me at one point that was like "I can tell you're not 100% here." I hadn't really thought of it but once she said it, I had to agree. It was great to see my family and relax but quite often I was wondering how my friends were doing in town, what other volunteers were up to, if anyone had eaten my cat and, if not, how little Chavez was doing. And now that I'm here I am not sure that my mind's 100% back. It's a weird feeling to not know where your mind really is, caught between two worlds.
I just got back from a nine-day vacation in Denmark where I visited with my family that lives there as well as my parents and three of their friends who were taking a little vacation of their own in Scandinavia. Even though I love my post, my friends, and many things about this country, it was really nice to take a break from Cameroon and my Peace Corps duties. The first thing I did after my red eye flight to Brussels where I was changing planes was run to the Starbuck's in the main terminal (after passport control, that is). I got a tall latte, and boy was it amazing. I haven't had anything other than Nescafe or the occassional cup that I brew myself in 9 months so I was thrilled to be able to gulp down a shot of espresso mixed with delicious, frothy milk. I usually avoid Starbuck's in the states but, hey, beggars can't be choosers. They even let me pay with some US dollars I'd brought with me! I figured I didn't want to push my luck and see if they'd take some of the Central African Francs (cfa) I also had in my wallet.
After that, I was hungry so I started wandering around, wondering what to get. I saw a Pizza Hut express which wasn't open, a little food court with some traditional Belgian dishes, as well as a few cafes and bars that were quite full at 9 in the morning. I wandered around from place to place, wondering what to get to satisfy my desire for Western food. Do I wait around for that deep dish with pepperonis at the Pizza Hut? Should I just get a burger or some pasta at the food court? Is it too early for a Stella or Hoegarden? Then I started looking at the prices. Seven euros for a personal pan pizza, 5.50 for a small beer, 12 for a burger with fries and a coke. I started going through this in my head, changing these euros back to CFA, and realizing that a meal here would likely cost about as much (if not more) than what I normally spend in a week on food. I felt incredibly conflicted about what to do. Could I justify to myself spending this much money on a meal when I haggle over pennies in the market? As my hunger increased and my flight to Copenhagen approached, I frantically wandered the airport trying to figure out what to do. I ended up just getting a bag of chips and some gummies from a vending machine. I also searched for a Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew but came up empty handed.
My other little cultural touble--I don't want to say shock as that's a little extreme--came the following morning when I woke up at my cousin Tess's house and it came time to brush my teeth. Normally I just brush my teeth without water as it's a bit of a hassle to bring a water bottle outside with me at home, and I definitely don't use the tap water when I'm in bigger cities. I stood in front of the sink for probably a minute telling myself I would be fine to use the sink water. I drank some of that water the day before, but for some reason there was almost a mental barrier for me with using this tap water that I knew was safe. I ended up using it but it took some mustering up of courage to do so. Throughout the rest of my trip I still had a bit of trepidation every time I filled up my glass or water bottle at a sink.
I'm not terribly sure the rest of my trip would be that interesting to anyone so I'll just throw in a few more highlights. Yes, I had some McDonald's. Twice. It wasn't Taco Bell, but it did the trick. I had so much amazing Danish food, mostly centered around their cheese and what I consider one of the least appreciated cheese-cultures in the world. I believe I put on about 9 pounds in the 9 days I was there which is pretty good considering I'd lost quite a bit of weight since arriving in Cameroon. There's also a microbrew on the island my uncle and aunt live on that makes some really delicious beers, including one of the best American Pale Ales I can remember drinking. I didn't have too many, but I cherished each one. My last night in Copenhagen, I went to the big town center with my cousin Ben to watch the Denmark-Japan match. Well, after Japan got off to a quick 2-0 lead, we decided to go meet up with Tess at an Irish pub where we watched the game and then danced to this Irish guy playing a guitar and singing mid-90's classics such as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Wonderwall." I convinced Tess to ask him how he felt about playing "Sunday Bloody Sunday" though he tactfully responded with "As an Irishman, I'm over it."
At the beginning of the trip when I was in the Yaounde airport, I initially feared not wanting to get back on the plane at the end of the trip. As the trip went on, though, I started to get more and more comfortable with the idea of coming home to Cameroon. Throughout my whole time there, I was not-too-secretly hoping the second volcano in Iceland would go off, thus "stranding" me there for a while longer. When I got on the plane at 6:15 am, though, I was glad to be starting my journey back. In the last couple months, Ngong has really become home for me and I really enjoy my time there, even with some of the problems I've been having. My step-mom said something to me at one point that was like "I can tell you're not 100% here." I hadn't really thought of it but once she said it, I had to agree. It was great to see my family and relax but quite often I was wondering how my friends were doing in town, what other volunteers were up to, if anyone had eaten my cat and, if not, how little Chavez was doing. And now that I'm here I am not sure that my mind's 100% back. It's a weird feeling to not know where your mind really is, caught between two worlds.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Le vingt mai (May 20th): une petite histoire
The 20th of May is Unification Day in Cameroon, the day that the Anglophone and Francophone regions were reunited under one government, the year after independence. It is a huge national holiday and I’d equate it to the 4th of July in the U.S. Here is my story.
I woke up on this bright, sunny, hot Thursday morning to yet another day without electricity. The power had been out since Sunday, (it ended staying out for more than another week) and many people were pretty pissed because they expected this to effect the festivities. Well, you be the judge as I continue the story. Anyway, I got up and put on one of my boubous and then started wandering through town, grabbing some beans and beignets along the way, until I arrived at the stadium where the parade was supposed to start at 9. Naturally, I’d forgotten my camera at my house so I snagged a moto back and forth, getting back to the stadium around 10ish, before anything had even started. Our lamido cruised up in his nice Land Rover, surrounded by his guard of men in colorful outfits, equipped with swords, and giant umbrellas, all seated on Arabian horses. If it wasn’t for the Land Rover I would have said it seemed like something out of Aladdin. I walked around a little bit until I heard a familiar voice call out “Nassara! Nasarra! Alhadji!” I turned around and saw Baudouin, the French NGO worker in town, with a friend of his from France who was (and still is) visiting named Marie. We wandered around for a while and made our way over to where the school children were lined up and talked to some of the teachers Baudouin used to work with. The parade finally started sometime after 11 and was, for the most part, exactly the same as every other parade I’ve seen here. The schools march in order, each group carrying a Cameroonian flag, occasionally singing and praising Paul Biya, occasionally clapping or doing a little choreographed stutter-step. We saw Linda, the Anglophone owner of the bar which is the general hangout for us and our friends, and she said she had cold beers at her place. I didn’t catch some of what they said then because they were rattling off in some pretty rapid French but I did here her say something like “Oh, I know my clients. They’ll drink the beer even when it’s hot.”
After a few hours under the hot sun, the three of us were quite thirsty so naturally we decided to leave the parade and go to Chez Linda, where Linda’s husband Ekambi was keeping an eye over everything. We had a couple beers and we knew that this was going to be the place to be as Ekambi had gone to Garoua that morning and bought a bunch of ice. Anyway, we hung out for a while, and watched as the parade ended and everyone streamed back into town and then realized this place had cold drinks. The mayor even showed up, fully decked out in his boubou made of Paul Biya panye(fabric), and had a Fanta. Somewhere around mid afternoon I went home to change out of my boubou and then got back only to see that several of our friends we’d been hanging out with were back at the stadium for the over-50 soccer match that was going to happen. My friends Kais and Limbo pulled up on their motos and said “Harley! Baudouin! Go get your soccer shoes, we need more players, now!” Now, Baudouin is 25 and I am 24 so between the two of us we almost have 50 years. Naturally, I caught another moto home, grabbed my shoes and got back to the stadium. Somebody tossed me a yellow jersey. I figured it’d just be a bunch of old guys kicking a ball around with a few casual onlookers. There may have been 10 guys there who were over 50, and that’s probably a generous estimate. Also, the lamido, the marabou (my neighbor who is like a cross between a witch doctor, a fortune teller, and a wizard), and most of the grands in town were sitting in the stands along with countless people looking on. We had a pretty fun game, I played a little over half of it and we ended in a 2-2 tie.
Baudouin and I wandered back to Chez Linda, joking around about how while we might not have 50 years between us, we sure played like we were 50. When we got back there, the music was going full blast (generators!) and people were up and dancing at their tables, in their seats, and basically any place open. That’s one thing I love about this country, you can start dancing whenever and wherever you please, so long as there is a little music. And the best part is that nobody is self-conscious at all, you just groove how you want to and nobody really pays attention or judges unless they are also dancing. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen somebody dancing by themselves at a table while everyone else was still seated and talking. Anyway, the ice from the morning had all melted and the beers were only mildly cooler than the air (maybe only about 90 as the sun had gone down a little while before), though that was still a plus. Linda was definitely right when she said she knew her clientele. Marie had been at the bar during the whole match and when Baudouin and I got back he had to finish her beer and then take her home so she could go to sleep. I hung out for a little bit more with some of my friends and then walked home, grabbing what might have been the best spaghetti omelet of my life, the guy put some avocado-salad-mix on top which was simply awesome.
Best fête day yet.
I woke up on this bright, sunny, hot Thursday morning to yet another day without electricity. The power had been out since Sunday, (it ended staying out for more than another week) and many people were pretty pissed because they expected this to effect the festivities. Well, you be the judge as I continue the story. Anyway, I got up and put on one of my boubous and then started wandering through town, grabbing some beans and beignets along the way, until I arrived at the stadium where the parade was supposed to start at 9. Naturally, I’d forgotten my camera at my house so I snagged a moto back and forth, getting back to the stadium around 10ish, before anything had even started. Our lamido cruised up in his nice Land Rover, surrounded by his guard of men in colorful outfits, equipped with swords, and giant umbrellas, all seated on Arabian horses. If it wasn’t for the Land Rover I would have said it seemed like something out of Aladdin. I walked around a little bit until I heard a familiar voice call out “Nassara! Nasarra! Alhadji!” I turned around and saw Baudouin, the French NGO worker in town, with a friend of his from France who was (and still is) visiting named Marie. We wandered around for a while and made our way over to where the school children were lined up and talked to some of the teachers Baudouin used to work with. The parade finally started sometime after 11 and was, for the most part, exactly the same as every other parade I’ve seen here. The schools march in order, each group carrying a Cameroonian flag, occasionally singing and praising Paul Biya, occasionally clapping or doing a little choreographed stutter-step. We saw Linda, the Anglophone owner of the bar which is the general hangout for us and our friends, and she said she had cold beers at her place. I didn’t catch some of what they said then because they were rattling off in some pretty rapid French but I did here her say something like “Oh, I know my clients. They’ll drink the beer even when it’s hot.”
After a few hours under the hot sun, the three of us were quite thirsty so naturally we decided to leave the parade and go to Chez Linda, where Linda’s husband Ekambi was keeping an eye over everything. We had a couple beers and we knew that this was going to be the place to be as Ekambi had gone to Garoua that morning and bought a bunch of ice. Anyway, we hung out for a while, and watched as the parade ended and everyone streamed back into town and then realized this place had cold drinks. The mayor even showed up, fully decked out in his boubou made of Paul Biya panye(fabric), and had a Fanta. Somewhere around mid afternoon I went home to change out of my boubou and then got back only to see that several of our friends we’d been hanging out with were back at the stadium for the over-50 soccer match that was going to happen. My friends Kais and Limbo pulled up on their motos and said “Harley! Baudouin! Go get your soccer shoes, we need more players, now!” Now, Baudouin is 25 and I am 24 so between the two of us we almost have 50 years. Naturally, I caught another moto home, grabbed my shoes and got back to the stadium. Somebody tossed me a yellow jersey. I figured it’d just be a bunch of old guys kicking a ball around with a few casual onlookers. There may have been 10 guys there who were over 50, and that’s probably a generous estimate. Also, the lamido, the marabou (my neighbor who is like a cross between a witch doctor, a fortune teller, and a wizard), and most of the grands in town were sitting in the stands along with countless people looking on. We had a pretty fun game, I played a little over half of it and we ended in a 2-2 tie.
Baudouin and I wandered back to Chez Linda, joking around about how while we might not have 50 years between us, we sure played like we were 50. When we got back there, the music was going full blast (generators!) and people were up and dancing at their tables, in their seats, and basically any place open. That’s one thing I love about this country, you can start dancing whenever and wherever you please, so long as there is a little music. And the best part is that nobody is self-conscious at all, you just groove how you want to and nobody really pays attention or judges unless they are also dancing. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen somebody dancing by themselves at a table while everyone else was still seated and talking. Anyway, the ice from the morning had all melted and the beers were only mildly cooler than the air (maybe only about 90 as the sun had gone down a little while before), though that was still a plus. Linda was definitely right when she said she knew her clientele. Marie had been at the bar during the whole match and when Baudouin and I got back he had to finish her beer and then take her home so she could go to sleep. I hung out for a little bit more with some of my friends and then walked home, grabbing what might have been the best spaghetti omelet of my life, the guy put some avocado-salad-mix on top which was simply awesome.
Best fête day yet.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Who’s talking trash?
2 May 2010
I’m coming up on my first full week back at home after being gone for a while. It sure is nice to be back in Ngong, sleep in my own bed, and play with my kitty Chavez again. I was in the southern part of the country for a good chunk of April, and apparently that was when the heat was the worst so I’m not too sad to have returned right when the rains started. Also, my French friend in town told me my French is much better now than when I left. Schwing! Anyway, I spent one week at IST (In-service training) in Foumban, a cultural-touristy city in the West (read: good food, not as hot) and then a week in Yaounde for a committee meeting—I joined the Environmental Education and Food Security Committee. I had a great time in both places, it was really fun to see all my friends from training again. I figured the Environmental Education committee be a good committee to join, particularly considering the poor treatment of the environment in my town. Plastic bags and sachets are everywhere, people relieve themselves whenever and wherever they feel like it, and whenever you finish with something, say a candy wrapper, you just drop it in the dirt. As some of you who have been to Africa know, this isn’t incredibly uncommon. Establishing some form of trash disposal isn’t generally high on the to-do list for most governments, though the population generally hates looking at all the trash around. The really sad part is that, like most problems, people blame all the trash around on poverty. There isn’t any money to clean things up, and there isn’t any money to change their ways. Which brings me to the first major project I’m undertaking…
Starting a trash collection system! The main thing people told me when I first got here was that our town is too dirty, we need to do something about it. (Often the person telling me this was flinging a bottle cap into the street or letting a plastic bag flutter off into the wind.) I tried to get something going with the chief of hygiene in town, a Monsieur Toloba, (actually a salaried position at the city hall) but due to a combination of an acute lack of French skills on my part, a mutual uncertainty of what the other’s job actually was, and a lack of funds, nothing really got started. Now, though, equipped with my apparently improved French, at least a feeling for how to get something done, some knowledge of where I might be able to find some funding, and a new sense of ambition to get some projects going, I approached M. Toloba earlier this week. Not only did he immediately jump on board, he’d already had something like this planned for a while, including a disposal system practically already in place. The only road block has been the mayor who hasn’t supplied any funds. We came up with a preliminary budget and hopefully this week we’ll get a map of Ngong and jump around to the different quartiers and see where we can install some trash cans.
The big problem in development work is how to make something sustainable. If you just come in and build something, eventually it’s going to break and then if there aren’t the proper resources—be it knowledge, money, etc.—it’ll just sit there broken and unused. What makes me excited about this project is that the city already has a means to dispose of the trash (depending on the month, Toloba has anywhere from 3-6 “agents” who work for him), a person who can be in charge of the project once my part is done, and the means to continue the project at a relatively low cost after we get the initial capital to get it running. I’m hoping to be able to get some funds through a Peace Corps program called SPA, and I believe the clams are provided by USAID. On a side note, if I’m not mistaken this is the only funding that comes to Cameroon from USAID—they pulled out of here a number of years ago. If that falls through, though, I might try something called a Peace Corps Partnership which is a program where I’ll make a description of my program and then Peace Corps will put that description online and people from around the world can donate to it from there. If that’s the case, I’ll make sure to post a link to it on this blog.
I think the toughest part about this project is going to be getting people to actually use the trash cans. Toloba and I are going to have to go around and sensitize many, many people in town as to the importance of the trash collection system and why they should use it. Also, we’ll have to pick the places in town where the trash cans can make the biggest difference. I’m going to make a bunch of flyers in French and Fulfulde and post them around town in the bars, restaurants, boutiques, and basically anywhere public.
Here’s hoping everything works out!
I’m coming up on my first full week back at home after being gone for a while. It sure is nice to be back in Ngong, sleep in my own bed, and play with my kitty Chavez again. I was in the southern part of the country for a good chunk of April, and apparently that was when the heat was the worst so I’m not too sad to have returned right when the rains started. Also, my French friend in town told me my French is much better now than when I left. Schwing! Anyway, I spent one week at IST (In-service training) in Foumban, a cultural-touristy city in the West (read: good food, not as hot) and then a week in Yaounde for a committee meeting—I joined the Environmental Education and Food Security Committee. I had a great time in both places, it was really fun to see all my friends from training again. I figured the Environmental Education committee be a good committee to join, particularly considering the poor treatment of the environment in my town. Plastic bags and sachets are everywhere, people relieve themselves whenever and wherever they feel like it, and whenever you finish with something, say a candy wrapper, you just drop it in the dirt. As some of you who have been to Africa know, this isn’t incredibly uncommon. Establishing some form of trash disposal isn’t generally high on the to-do list for most governments, though the population generally hates looking at all the trash around. The really sad part is that, like most problems, people blame all the trash around on poverty. There isn’t any money to clean things up, and there isn’t any money to change their ways. Which brings me to the first major project I’m undertaking…
Starting a trash collection system! The main thing people told me when I first got here was that our town is too dirty, we need to do something about it. (Often the person telling me this was flinging a bottle cap into the street or letting a plastic bag flutter off into the wind.) I tried to get something going with the chief of hygiene in town, a Monsieur Toloba, (actually a salaried position at the city hall) but due to a combination of an acute lack of French skills on my part, a mutual uncertainty of what the other’s job actually was, and a lack of funds, nothing really got started. Now, though, equipped with my apparently improved French, at least a feeling for how to get something done, some knowledge of where I might be able to find some funding, and a new sense of ambition to get some projects going, I approached M. Toloba earlier this week. Not only did he immediately jump on board, he’d already had something like this planned for a while, including a disposal system practically already in place. The only road block has been the mayor who hasn’t supplied any funds. We came up with a preliminary budget and hopefully this week we’ll get a map of Ngong and jump around to the different quartiers and see where we can install some trash cans.
The big problem in development work is how to make something sustainable. If you just come in and build something, eventually it’s going to break and then if there aren’t the proper resources—be it knowledge, money, etc.—it’ll just sit there broken and unused. What makes me excited about this project is that the city already has a means to dispose of the trash (depending on the month, Toloba has anywhere from 3-6 “agents” who work for him), a person who can be in charge of the project once my part is done, and the means to continue the project at a relatively low cost after we get the initial capital to get it running. I’m hoping to be able to get some funds through a Peace Corps program called SPA, and I believe the clams are provided by USAID. On a side note, if I’m not mistaken this is the only funding that comes to Cameroon from USAID—they pulled out of here a number of years ago. If that falls through, though, I might try something called a Peace Corps Partnership which is a program where I’ll make a description of my program and then Peace Corps will put that description online and people from around the world can donate to it from there. If that’s the case, I’ll make sure to post a link to it on this blog.
I think the toughest part about this project is going to be getting people to actually use the trash cans. Toloba and I are going to have to go around and sensitize many, many people in town as to the importance of the trash collection system and why they should use it. Also, we’ll have to pick the places in town where the trash cans can make the biggest difference. I’m going to make a bunch of flyers in French and Fulfulde and post them around town in the bars, restaurants, boutiques, and basically anywhere public.
Here’s hoping everything works out!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Yaounde, then and now.
I'm in Yaoundé right now, sitting in the Peace Corps office. IST (In-Service Training) went well up in Foumban in the West Region but I'm stuck back here in the capital until probably Friday because I joined the Environmental Education Committee. I think the main goal of the committee is to meet twice a year and learn about how we can promote environmental education and tackle some environmental concerns in our communities. Anyway, I said I’m stuck in Yaoundé. Like that’s a bad thing.
We flew into Yaoundé back in September and while I’ve traveled through it to get to and from post, I haven’t spent much time of substance here. Mostly just hanging out at the Peace Corps office/transit house or taking advantage of some delicious burgers across the street. When we arrived back in September, I was pretty intimidated by this place. Loads of traffic, pollution, people, poverty. This big third-world city with all the aggression wasn’t exactly where I wanted to spend my time. While I wasn’t determined to stay away, I was pretty set on not spending too much time here.
It’s amazing what a few months can do. Especially a few months in a place, such as the north, which is so drastically different from the south. Many people live in mud huts with thatched roofs and live on far less than a dollar a day up in my neck of the woods. Coming back to Yaoundé, I’m actually stunned. The level of development here boggles my mind. There are multi-story buildings, Mercedes, Chinese restaurants, and even a Hilton. In fact, last night I went to happy hour in the bar on the top floor of the Hilton. I felt like I was in America: I was sipping a Mai Tai, eating olives, and watching a soccer game on a flat screen. It’s amazing how spending four months eating little more than couscous (fufu) and sauce and speaking villageois French mixed with a little Fulfulde can sensitize me to be so stunned when I came back to this capital city, a place I initially thought to be little more than a big, dirty metropolis. I’m planning on meeting my parents in Denmark this summer and that will definitely be interesting seeing how I react when I get off the plane in Copenhagen. If I’m feeling this much culture shock in the same country, I can only imagine what it’ll be like in Europe.
We flew into Yaoundé back in September and while I’ve traveled through it to get to and from post, I haven’t spent much time of substance here. Mostly just hanging out at the Peace Corps office/transit house or taking advantage of some delicious burgers across the street. When we arrived back in September, I was pretty intimidated by this place. Loads of traffic, pollution, people, poverty. This big third-world city with all the aggression wasn’t exactly where I wanted to spend my time. While I wasn’t determined to stay away, I was pretty set on not spending too much time here.
It’s amazing what a few months can do. Especially a few months in a place, such as the north, which is so drastically different from the south. Many people live in mud huts with thatched roofs and live on far less than a dollar a day up in my neck of the woods. Coming back to Yaoundé, I’m actually stunned. The level of development here boggles my mind. There are multi-story buildings, Mercedes, Chinese restaurants, and even a Hilton. In fact, last night I went to happy hour in the bar on the top floor of the Hilton. I felt like I was in America: I was sipping a Mai Tai, eating olives, and watching a soccer game on a flat screen. It’s amazing how spending four months eating little more than couscous (fufu) and sauce and speaking villageois French mixed with a little Fulfulde can sensitize me to be so stunned when I came back to this capital city, a place I initially thought to be little more than a big, dirty metropolis. I’m planning on meeting my parents in Denmark this summer and that will definitely be interesting seeing how I react when I get off the plane in Copenhagen. If I’m feeling this much culture shock in the same country, I can only imagine what it’ll be like in Europe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
