The past few weeks have been filled with feelings of Christmas and the
end of another year. Even though I am far from home and family, recent events
here have given me the holiday joy needed to see me through onto 2016.
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| Carl carving the turkey for Thanksgiving! Yes they have turkeys in Cameroon! |
Thanksgiving was a blast but a lot of work. The new agriculture and
health volunteers arrived so we gave them a fun packed welcome with visiting
Lake Tison for a swim (where some people got stung by bees –oops) and giving
the tour of Ngaoundéré. My stagemate, Samantha who works in West Cameroon came
to visit. It was fun being the tour guide for a few days. We even visited the
Lamido’s Palace in Ngaoundéré. It’s more like a big building, mosque, and a few
large traditional huts where the Lamido meets with people to solve problems.
One story is that if a man disagrees with the Lamido, he arrives at his hut,
the Lamido takes the man’s sword and if the sword will not cut through the
man’s neck, then he is right and can leave. If not, well you know what happens.
It was interesting to hear about the history of Cameroon and the Adamawa
region. There are three main Lamidos in Cameroon. One in the West, one in the
North, and then in Ngaoundéré. The one in the North who lives in a village
called Rey Bouba is the most powerful, even the most important in Africa. A
group of people made up of representatives of each tribe choose each Lamido. The Boom people founded Ngaoundéré
but now the Fulbe people are the main tribe in the city.
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| Pillars in the Lamido's main hut |
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| Lamido's Palace- hut on the right |
From the moment I arrived in November 2014, the Soy Project has been my
focus even when I had no idea what I was doing. After a few bumps in the
beginning, we figured out who were the motivated leaders in the group and found
participants that were willing to put the time into learning about soy. We
started with 13 farmers who attended sessions on how to grow soy, transform it,
and sell it as a product. The real test was when we gave them the 10 kg of soy
seeds to plant in their fields. 11 participants successfully grew soy on their
¼ hectare fields! My work partner and I visited them to help with problems, and
then it was up to them to harvest the soy so they could each give back the 10kg of
seeds for next year’s group. We had a final meeting/party to give out
certificates to the 11 participants and congratulate them on a job well done!
Not everybody showed up, but hey, it's Cameroon, it's still a success! Everyone was happy with the results of the project and looking forward to finding
more participants for 2016! My work partners told me that even after I leave
next November, they want to keep the project going and maybe teach about
growing another crop. My year here in Cameroon finally feels productive.
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| 2015 Soy Project |
The soy cooperative is still always filled with tensions between
members, but some of them did successfully grow soy this year so we have to be
grateful for some hard work. Now onto 2016, new participants in the Soy
Project, more work with the cooperative, and maybe some new adventures.
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| 2015 Soy Cooperative |
For “fun work”, a volleyball club was started at the Primary School
in Beka-Hosséré. Another volunteer that recently finished his Peace Corps
service gave me his volleyball and net. The Directrice at the school was ecstatic
to start a volleyball club and unlike most teachers here, she worked quickly to
sign up students for the club and they put posts in the ground in front of the
school to hang the net. We would meet every Wednesday after school and I would
bring the net & volleyball. You can ask my friends at home, I’ve worked
with teenagers before, but primary school students...let’s just say Cameroon
has now gotten me to work with 12 year olds and hold babies when I refused to
hold a baby most of life in the U.S. Also my French is intermediate and mostly
related to agriculture. I had a lot to learn when it came to explaining
volleyball to students who only knew how to play soccer. Yet their enthusiasm
to play resulted in some fun times. It took at least 3 or 4 Wednesdays until
they were able to get a short volley going. My hometown’s volleyball coach gave
my mom a bunch of volleyballs so my mom sent one already and is working on
sending the others. Thank you so much! The more volleyballs, the more the
students can practice bumping in small groups. It is Christmas break now so no
volleyball club for a while but I am hopeful that next semester the students
will be ready to step up their game. At least they are no longer kicking the
ball.
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| Volleyball Club |
Talk about feeling like Christmas with all these wonderful packages
from home! I feel truly loved. My Muslim neighbors have been participating in
the Christmas spirit even if they don’t realize it. My friends and family have
sent new coloring books (one with Rudolph in it, that was fun to explain), card
games (they love Go Fish!), and they are still relishing in making bead
necklaces with the beads and yarn sent from home. My Grandmother put together a
little sewing kit for my neighbors. The oldest of the children had asked to
borrow my kit, but I was reluctant to part with it since my clothes tend to rip
a lot on motorcycles and such here. She was so surprised and happy to receive
the kit of sewing needles, thread, a little pincushion chicken, and a thimble
which I had to explain how to use. I have already seen her and her sister
sitting outside their house, mending a dress or one of the boy’s shirts while
the others play Go Fish at their feet. We tried puzzles too, but I have found
that most of the children here have the knowledge of US children a few years
younger than them. Sometimes it is because they start school too late or the
teachers just do not teach creativity or critical thinking. Thanks to all the
gifts from home, my house can be a place where creativity and imagination can
happen. My Grandmother also sent me a hanging quilt of a snowman and Santa. Now
it feels like the holidays with my Santa hat on, evergreen candles burning,
Christmas music playing, and eating honey-roasted peanuts as my neighbors and I do
puzzles.
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| Neighbors using the sewing kit outside their house |
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| Neighbors using the sewing kit (my Grandma's quilt hanging on the wall) |
Another moment of feeling like Santa Clause was when my work partner and
I visited the farmer who has the 30 children. I wrote about him in a previous
blog post (check it out if you want to read more about his family and the Biogas setup). His daughter was in the first soy project and now is a member of the
cooperative. He is a brilliant farmer and has a Biogas setup, but he also has
two or more wives and too many children to provide for. Last time I was there
at least 3 children had malaria and he did not have enough money to send them
all to school. After I posted my blog post about them, a friend from home
offered to mail a package of supplies for them since I am technically not supposed
to raise money as a Peace Corps volunteer. A package filled with 3 mosquito
nets, coloring books and crayons arrived a few months later. After a dusty hour
ride out to the farmer’s house, we delivered the presents to the family in
their small room as the flies and wasps buzzed around us. The brilliant smiles
and shining eyes that gleamed all around me made me feel like this was my
Christmas morning back at home. I was glad to hear that some of the children
had been going to school and some were actually at school when we were giving
the presents. Although it was sad to hear that he has lost a few children.
Those mosquito nets should help combat the malaria and give the children a
better chance at living a long life. Thank you so much to my friend for sending
this package and bringing joy to this family! I may have delivered the gifts,
but they know that you were the one who sent them!
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| Farmer and his family enjoying the gifts |
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| Biogas set up outside his house- the manure and water mix go where the boy is sitting |
Thanksgiving was a very big party with new volunteers and a real
turkey. We had fun, but I was thankful when my postmate had the idea to go to
the nearby ranch where we didn’t have to cook and could relax by the lake. His
mom and a few other volunteers are joining us so it will be a quiet Christmas
for me with board games and Christmas movies (and a hot shower, the best part I
think). After that it will be New Year’s and then I am off to Yaoundé for my
Mid-Service conference and hopefully to see the new Star Wars movie.
It has been a good year and I am looking forward to another successful
one with a good ending to it back at home in November. One sad note, I did lose one of my
chickens the other day. She was sick with I think egg yolk peritonitis and
about to go so I gave her to my neighbors for dinner. Even though I am a farm
girl, it is a different reality when my neighbors are asking “can we eat her
yet?” when the chicken is keeling over. We lost the other chicken this morning
to the same sickness so I am chicken-less now. We lose chickens sometimes in
the U.S. but for some reason it feels worse here. Animals are not seen as pets. I went for a walk the other day and saw a calf tied out in the field next to me. I hadn't seen any people for a mile so I took out my camera and took a picture of the calf with the beautiful landscape behind her. I started talking to her like I would if I was in the U.S. Then when I started to walk away, I heard two men come out of the bushes behind me. They were staring at me and asked what I was doing. They probably thought I was trying to scope out how to steal the calf and thinking, gosh, why do Americans talk to animals like they are best friends? yea I know, Cameroon, I'm weird. You should meet my friend and her chickens in New York.
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| View from the top of my morning run (Mt. Ngaoundéré in the distance) |
I have moments when I really love this place: visiting farmers’ fields
of healthy soy, giving certificates at the end of a project, hearing students
cheer after a successful volley, seeing the smiles of children when they see
crayons, the countless times of watching my neighbors color or play games in my
house, my morning run with a neighbor’s dog while we can still see our breath
in the crisp morning air with fog lying across the hills, and then sitting with
Annie on our porch watching the falling sunset wondering what the next day will
bring.
PS. If you are looking for a good place to donate this year, check out the "Fundraiser for 15 Children in Cameroon" page on my blog
