My favorite thing about Ngaoundere right now is my catching up with the internet. I got nervous before I got on here, I’m not kidding. Catching up on emails, the Daily Show, world news, the movies and music I’m missing out on, Facebook, sports (Alabama can go straight to hell) and everything else made me giddy. Now that I’m relatively caught up with the world, let me catch you up with Cameramaroon.
Hmm, where do I begin…
Holidays, definitely holiday story time.
Christmas Eve was the bomb. I was very worried because Christmas Eve is my favorite holiday. It is the one day where my family is united and we spend the evening laughing, eating and opening presents. Ever since Isis left Niger to go to high school in Mexico, Christmas has been the holiday that has always united us. I’m not going to lie, at first it was hard. But it’s not like I don’t have a family here, the Adamawa cluster united at Emma’s house for a bomb ass festivity. The plan was that everyone would contribute to our feast. I ended up preparing one of the only things I know how, my special lemon chicken. And it was a hit! We all ate, drank loads of wine, whiskey, beer, I have to admit, this was the first time I drank and got drunk on Christmas Eve. It was fun though. We all passed out and opened presents on Christmas morning. I got a bottle of Gangster (a cologne that smells like an evening of bad decisions), an Obama belt (here they are obsessed with Obama and put him on everything you can think of, Everything) and I got a toy pirate ship. Thank you Rose, definitely unforgettable presents. After presents we snacked all day on papaya, pop corn and Katie’s absolutely amazing deviled eggs. We played a game of Risk, and then one match of Chess (*cough* I won both, I think my cluster does not like playing board games with me anymore). Went out to a bar, came back and ate tacos. Claire, Caleb, me and three other Cameroonian friends headed out to a concert late (my fault because I had to finish the game of chess against Emily). By the time we got there the band was already packing to leave. I felt bad, and was a little drunk. But because I was a little inebriated I came up with a great idea! I’ll admit I didn’t mean it at first when I said it but it quickly turned into a reality, I shouted, “that’s all right, we’ll just have a private show at Emma’s.” Claire, Caleb and I looked at each other and guess what happened. We talked to the band, settled on a price, bought some more beers and we all (including the band) headed back to Emma’s. It was an awesome show, we were all surprised with how good they were, of course we ended up buying Zala Zulu’s music. It was a great ending to a great Christmas.
Let me summarize New Years a little differently. I should start off by telling you, I decided to spend New Years in Meidougou.
- I woke up with the power out
- Made my first vegetable soup, turned out really good
- Played soccer with the compound kids
- Showered and headed out to Mustafa’s house (He is my community host)
- Watched Paul Biya’s speech to the nation (January 1st is also Cameroon’s independence day) with him and his mom. It was then when I thought the whole evening would consist of me chilling with his mom in front of the tv.
- She ended up leaving and we parted to a restaurant, which was really some woman’s house with a bench inside. The food was good!
- We hit a bar afterwards, I had a coke (wtf, I know) and a Castel Beer.
- We hit another bar, where things got interesting. We entered a room that was packed with young people dancing. There was B.O. everywhere but it really didn’t matter b/c everyone was having a bomb ass time.
- We walked through the dance floor and sat inside a hidden room in the back where we had 2 more beers. One Cameroonian beer = 2 American Beers. They are way bigger and contain more alcohol. I had enough where I decided to dance at the end of the year, and the beginning of the New Year.
- I danced with my cleaning lady
- There was no count down, just dancing.
Happy New Years everyone.
It looks like I’ve written way too much about my having fun here and not enough about my professional life. Let me tell you what I’ve been doing.
To be quite honest, I’m happy with the quantity and the quality of work that I have been doing. I’ve separated my time and projects in three different areas:
Health Center work:
I started with just showing up and watching the nurse work. I questioned her on what the health center’s schedule is like and what other work they do besides pre-natal care, nutrition education and vaccinations. I discovered that those are their dominant areas and even though they lack a lot of structure and discipline (they come in late all the time, give each other free vaccines, leave late, leave needles not properly disposed) they are honestly way better off than any of the other centers I’ve seen. They stick to their weekly schedule, treat walk-ins well and have good bed side manner. I decided to write a report on the things they should improve on or stop doing and the consequences of doing some of things they do. I have not yet started writing it but I’m still taking notes of their daily actions.
Apart from gathering notes for this report, I decided to have a one on one meeting with the director of the center regarding the major challenges the center is facing. I easily found some of the ones before he brought them up. The first, they lack beds and mattresses for the building where the sick are treated. One of the beds is used for the guard and has a hay mattress on it. He mentioned that he did not want the lab in the center of the health center. It constantly smells of urine/stool samples and is un-sanitary for the patients. There is a building outside that contains 6 unused latrines and he wants to move the lab there. I think it’s a great idea, the idea that I did not like was when he requested a giant big screen TV in the waiting room to “teach” the patients on AIDS/HIV. The last thing this health center needs is a giant TV, especially considering the fact that the power goes out all the time and it would be a waste. They do however need a generator for their fridge where their vaccines are stored. I’m brainstorming right now on how we can get these projects started.
Projects with organized groups
Here a GIC is a government approved group. I am currently working with two GICs. The first GIC is one that I’m working with Claire on. Claire started helping this GIC about a year ago and now they are doing pretty well. She has been teaching them how to save money at about 200francs a week. The first cycle is done and 20 of these women have decided to invest their savings in a fridge. Claire is teaching them how to make yoghurt and we’ve decided to store the fridge (when we buy it) in my community host’s (Mustapha’s) pharmacy. They’ll sell the yoghurt in Meidougou and advertise it as a health drink. I will be flying solo with this GIC on Tuesday because Claire is leaving to Yaoundé this weekend. I’m pretty excited about having a place to buy yoghurt in Meidougou, this region is known for its yoghurt.
Another GIC I’m working with is one that I found myself. Well, actually they found me. The name of this GIC is called De Tamo and in Baya this means a happy place. They are an agricultural GIC and I actually think the president of this GIC is pretty smart. He has about 30 hectares of land and with it has a successful garden. He plants a lot of piment (spicy peppers) and sells them in crates in the Extreme North where he gets a great profit. He has also planted all sorts of trees that are rare in this region. He knows that this will yield great profits b/c prices for rare fruits here are high. From what I’ve seen so far, he is one of the few farmers that are doing this. My work with this GIC has gotten way more exciting starting today. My dad reminded me the other day that it is important to get local research done at a university’s library. Today I ended up going to the University of Ngaoundere. I initially went to go check for reports on the soil of the Adamawa region. It turns out the library closed 15 minutes before me and Francois arrived (Francois is a Cameroonian friend of mine that I met during training, he was actually a French teacher). Francois took me to one of the professor’s office where we ended up getting several phone numbers and names of other professors to talk with. We finally met with a professor who informed me that no such research exists but would love to work with me to have them written! She is going to talk with her department and students for interested individuals. We have a meeting this Monday regarding this potential collaboration. She wants to use GIC De Tamo’s land for research and send two students to Meidougou. Now I’m in the process of finding money for their bus tickets and arranging anything else the students might need. We’ll see where this goes!
I have had some side projects that have seriously helped me get to know my village. I have participated in two mosquito net campaigns where we traveled to several houses in Meidougou and installed nets for pregnant women and children under five. I am helping my land lord start a fruit grove with his land. I have also had meetings with other GICs, I’m being very selective about who I work with. This was deeply engraved into my head during training. I’ve also decided to by a GPS Mapping system to help the farmers calculate the size of their land; I’m also going to make my own map of Meidougou and give it to the chief and any other interested villagers.
Teaching at the Secondary school
I now teach English to the Troiseme class (the equivelant of 9-10 grade) at the secondary school of Meidougou. I only teach that one class, four days a week, each day only working one hour. The kids are great (so far) and I’ve been having fun. I am grading the homework later. Anyways this school is also inevitably going through its challenges. It has no money and the director is working on getting a bathroom for the faculty. They have a building that is not done being constructed. I have been thinking about raising the money to finish these two classrooms but an even greater idea popped into my head! There is a perfect spot in this school for an amphitheatre. There is a platform where they could have it constructed. I am currently discussing the idea with the director, a few interested students and eventually with the chief of Meidougou (if there is enough interest). Emma, Claire and I could teach the play and eventually we can do animations that teach the community on AIDS, Malaria, sanitation etc on this amphitheatre! We’ll see where this idea leads.
That’s pretty much the extent of my work and play. My house is coming along, my living room is for the most part done. The day I received my coffee table was an amazing day. I’m posting pictures on my next post. Hopefully from the internet of my home!
Peace Corps out,
Carlitos
