LuminAid Gives Light to Beka-Hosséré

Light has come to Beka-Hosséré! Thanks to LuminAid, over 30 solar lights were given to families in my village who do not have electricity! The idea started when my mom bought me a solar light to bring to Cameroon and another friend sent me a similar one when I arrived at my village. I gave one of the solar lights to my neighbors since they were always asking to use my flashlights or candles. That small gift made their evenings so much brighter. Not only did the light help them cook and do homework, but also they could see each other’s faces better as they sat in a circle on the matted floor eating their meal of cous cous. It became clear to me that more solar lights were needed in Beka-Hosséré.

Beka-Hosséré is located near Ngaoundéré, the capital of the Adamawa region of Cameroon. Since it is so close to a city, electricity is available to those in the village who can afford it. Unfortunately most people cannot afford to have electricity and also send all their children to school. Just like in America, we choose what we spend our money on. Most of the families are Muslim with 1-3 wives and many children. I want families to choose to pay for education before lights in the house. Whether a child goes to school or not can have a direct impact on the happiness of their life and also on the improvement of their community. If a girl does not go to school, they will probably never learn French, most likely be married by 16 years old, and like most Muslim wives, they will hardly ever leave their compound around their house. They will spend their life cooking, cleaning, and having children. But if a child goes to school, they will learn French, maybe English, and maybe, just maybe they will dream and make goals. Cameroon needs citizens who receive an education and then go back to help make their communities a safer and healthier place.

Using the solar light to cook in her dark mud hut

 

My neighbor, Zakiatoo helped me give out the solar lights and explain how to use them in Fulfulde, the local language

Solar lights not only give light, they give ideas. Just like when we look up to the stars and wish for our dreams to come true: those solar lights are stars in the homes of my neighbors. As a father helps his young daughter with her homework in the pale shine of their solar light, she is not only learning, she is making goals and realizing that she can still value her culture along with broaden her horizons.

Haoua's father helping her with her homework

Nothing says thank you more than a usually serious Cameroonian woman jumping up and down saying “Useko!”: thank you in the local language of Fulfulde. Thank you LuminAid for making it possible for my village to see through the darkness; you gave some new stars to wish upon in Beka-Hosséré.

One Year Later

A year later and I am glad that I am still here in Cameroon. Seems like more time has passed and that training was a few years ago. It is amazing how much a person can learn by living in a place for 12 months. Although I felt like two years was a long time when I first got here, the feeling has not changed with only one left. The work never gets easier and I will always stick out like a sore thumb no matter how much I learn about the culture and try to blend in. On a more positive note, my French and Fulfulde are a bit better and I know my way around this place. I have a few Cameroonian friends who see me as a normal person and not the “white man”, “nasara” or “la blanche” that can take them to America. But those are few and far between. I am finding out that even though westerners have been coming to work in Cameroon for a long time, the view of westerners from colonization is still rooted in the culture. I fight that picture of me as a westerner every day from dealing with the pressures of living in a culture where women are inferior to getting treated as a “grand” because I am a westerner and having to visit the leaders or “grands” in the community just so that they can say they met me and shook my hand. Every time I step into one of those offices and see the picture of a young Paul Biya, President of Cameroon, I think how scary it must be to know that it is an unspoken law to have that picture there and the real ,very old Paul Biya would have something to say if anyone spoke against the “elected dictator” of Cameroon.  I guess what I am saying is that a year has brought me so much knowledge of Cameroon and its culture, but it has also taught me that some things do not change and that I do not have the freedom here that I am used to in the U.S. Life is certainly easier than when I first got here but every day I am reminded that I am a foreigner and people do not understand that I am just a simple farm girl that wants to help…for free.

My neighbors children making bead jewelry with the beads my friend, Alexia, gave to me. (with Annie hanging out as usual)

 

That helping for free has been working , by the way. Work is going great even with a few bumps here and there. After coming back from Tanzania, my work partner and I jumped right into visiting fields. Each participant in the soy project was supposed to plant their seeds at the end of June. Mostly everyone did and their soy is growing great! Some of the fields we visited were what we call “out in the bush” which means off the beaten path and very difficult to get to. There was one time where we had to tramp through a pond that had formed with water up to our thighs. It’s rainy season so every day brings downpours. My work partner is a very good motorcycle driver but there were a few times where I screeched and almost fell off. I got some good ab workouts from those trips because I was frozen and hardly breathing as my work partner glided along a muddy path with both legs stuck out to support us if we tumbled. The stress of getting out to the fields was all worth it when we arrived. The participants were so happy with how their soy was growing and didn’t mind at all as my work partner filled out the evaluation forms. They even sent us back with some food from their fields. I felt more at home in the stretch of green than I did anywhere else in Cameroon. Chickens were everywhere along with herds of cows walking nonchalantly as we drove next to them on the motorcycle. I learned more about the other kinds of food grown here like peanuts, gumbo, and the all too common sweet potato. Some of the participants had problems with birds eating the soy plants although I found myself enjoying the bright colored birds flying around our heads. I think they are called Red-throated bee-eaters. One participant planted his soy and left some of the weeds after he had sprayed them with herbicide so that the soy was protected. When you walked in his field, you would think nothing good was growing there, but then you see a little soy plant sticking out among the browned leaves. Funny how life can be like that too.

Crossing the pond to get to a participant's field

Just recently we visited the field of a Soy Cooperative member. She had been having trouble with bugs eating her soy but didn’t know what kind. It took over an hour to get out to her family’s farm which was so far out that the motorcycle had to just follow a narrow path with prickers on both sides. A couple times I had to get off so my work partner could push his bike through the mud. Unfortunately the cooperative member wasn’t there (which is a common occurrence with the cooperative-they are not very reliable) but her father and mother welcomed us into their house. Her father has two wives and 23 children so there were a couple houses and a few mud huts with straw roofs. His fields were vast with corn, okra, potato, soy, and all kinds of other vegetables. He told us he had planted the corn where the soy had been last year and showed us how much bigger that corn is compared to his corn that he planted in other plots. The soy brings so much nutrition to the soil. It was nice to see that finally a farmer had tried it and proved it worked. This farmer also showed us his Biogas set up where he adds water and cow manure to a deep fermentation pit where it produces gas that goes through a pipe into his house. He turns on the nozzle, lights a match, and whalla, there is a flame to heat food on his little camp stove. I didn't have my camera to take pictures but I plan on visiting him again to give his children crayons to color. He adds 4 buckets of manure every day to the pit so that he can use the gas for up to 8 hours a day on the stove. It had been funded and built by Smart Development Works (international organization) and Wageningen UR, which is based in the Netherlands. He asked me about finding a group that would bring solar power to his farm since he lives too far away for even a chance at getting electricity. I was so impressed by his work ethic and strive to make his life better. But then I saw his son had malaria and they asked us to read the instructions on the box of medicine since he couldn’t read French. I asked them why they didn’t sleep under mosquito nets to prevent malaria and he said he didn’t have enough money. Also he doesn’t have enough money to send all his children to school. With one success there is always something missing here. I see such potential for living a better life even in a mud hut out in the bush, but then I see the wife lower her head whenever she gives her husband or my work partner something and I am reminded of the masculine led culture. My work partner told them about how his wife going to college in Ngaoundéré and they just laugh while asking how many children he has. He proudly says two boys and no more until he can afford to send them all to school. My work partner always tells me that even if I didn’t pay for his fuel or give him extra money for his time, he would still help me teach about soy and help the farmers. So it seems that for every volunteer group in the U.S. that helps their community, there is one Cameroonian who does the same.

Two soy project participants and their fields of soy

Along with the soy growing well, my garden is giving me green beans every day, a cucumber here and there with tomatoes and corn on the way. My friend, Ahmadou went to visit his family in the bush during summer vacation and brought back a chicken each for Carl, Jasmine, and myself. Ahmadou gave the rooster to Carl but Carl was nice enough to give him to me so I ended up with two chickens. A few weeks later I found the rooster on a nest of eggs. I was wondering why such a big rooster would have hardly no comb. Right now the chickens are playing games with me and hiding their eggs. It’s a war I am used to playing in the U.S. Sometimes chickens are just way too smart. Once I find the next nest, I will take only one egg at a time and hope they don’t notice.

The children helping me weed my garden

Annie is doing great and saved my life, well kind of, the other night when there was a scorpion in the house. I ended up squishing it but I’m pretty sure she is a ninja kitty on the inside because she wasn’t scared of it at all. The rainy season has brought vegetables but also huge storms. Annie and I woke up the other night to drops of rain falling on our heads while we slept in bed. Now I really know what Annie is afraid up. We sleep on the couch in the living room when it storms like that. The tin roof makes it so loud I can barely hear my dreams. My living room is the only room with a wooden ceiling that blocks the noise of the rain crashing into metal. But the couch sure is not a softy.

Annie and the two chickens

 

The volunteer that lives in Ngaoundéré and is finishing her 5^th year in Cameroon, Rachel, just finished her food transformation project. It was a week-long of classes teaching Cameroonians how to make fruit juice, yogurt, soy milk and tofu. She has been a great friend and helped me a lot since I first got here so I was glad to help her with this project. I remember one day I walked in and everyone was shaking bottles of milk to make butter. The image brought me back to my 4-H club and our visit to Shelburne Farm where we sat in a circle and learned how to make butter. One person would shake the container of milk and we all would sing “Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake all you can, shake like a milkshake, and passed it to a friend”. We would sing and pass it around the circle until it was butter. I tried explaining this memory to the people in the class and even sang the song, not quite sure if they truly understood why I was telling them. It is moments like that that bring me back home and remind me of why I want to spread knowledge and create memories like I have from my childhood.

Shaking bottles to make butter

Our county fair occurred at the end of August. It was one of the first Washington County Fairs that I missed since I was a child. I am so thankful that my Dad took time out of his day to skype with me while he walked around the fair and showed me all the wonderful people that were there. I have internet sometimes at my house now (expensive and unreliable internet like the electricity here but better than nothing) which allowed me to show my neighbors some images of the fair as my Mom walked around with skype on her phone. They saw all the cows lined up in the barns and watched a bit of the goat show. One of my neighbors said in French, "Wow, America has big cows!" It is amazing how much better I feel when I can connect home with Cameroon. As Guiya sat on my lap holding the Washington County Fair stuffed cow that I gave her and watched the real Fair on the computer, I thought that I saw a twinkle of understanding in her eyes. The U.S. is not just the reality T.V. show that they see on televisions sometimes in Cameroon. It has muddy dirt roads, farm animals, dirty kids playing in front of a house, and poor farmers who can hardly keep up with expenses. But Americans do have choices and freedom. Cameroonians have yet to see they could have that too.

The best part of having internet at my house is when my neighbors sang Happy Birthday in French to my Dad on his birthday. It is that connection that brings a rainbow into my life on a rainy day. I know you all have your busy lives and I am so thankful to have friends back at home that truly miss me. Not all Peace Corps volunteers here have that. But I have another year left and I still need your support. I still need to share this beautiful but different place with you. Because when I get back to the U.S., I want to be ready to jump back into helping you all do what you do best: making our home in the upstate New York so wonderful. And I don’t think I could miss many more Washington County Fairs.

P.S. I was watching Star Wars in French with the children the other day and one of them said I looked like Princess Leia- gosh they know how to make me happy sometimes! And here is the video I made of my trip to Tanzania and hiking Mt Kilimanjaro! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0gapyPvKVzcNWdrbzBtSTZ3dW8/view?usp=drive_web

We Made It!!!

 

First words to say: We did it! We made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro! And let me tell you, the view was definitely worth the pain! Our adventure started out flying out of Douala airport and making a pit stop in Rwanda (24 hour layover). Kigali, Rwanda is a beautiful city with rolling hills dotted with light brown houses. We made a new friend from Canada who was our “couch surfing” host. He was kind enough to take us out on the town that night. It is amazing how much Rwanda has recovered from the Genocide. It is difficult to think that something so terrible was going on when I was in elementary school. Yet I must remind myself that atrocities like this are happening all around the world every day. We visited the Genocide museum which surprised me with its similarity to U.S. museums since we are still in Africa and I have found so far that no matter how much something reminds of home, there is inevitably something that reminds me that I am still in Africa. The museum brought fresh tears to our eyes but it was a good reminder of what really happened in Rwanda despite its beautiful face today. The country has many rules and even though the small shacks tucked in behind the tall buildings show a similarity to Cameroon, Rwanda is different in that there is a cultural rule to not sell street food or eat food on the streets. Meaning that no matter how hungry I am, I cannot eat my pastry while I’m walking. And the guy we bought omelets with naan from off one of the side streets is completely illegal. Oh and one great food item on our trip: naan. It’s everywhere and it’s delicious.

Rwanda

On to our next destination: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Unfortunately, I don’t have much positive things to say about the city except that we found an awesome barbecued chicken place near our hostel that I can almost compare to the Argyle Firehouse chicken back at home (don’t worry Dad, the firehouse still cooks the best chicken in the world). Other than that though the city reminds me of parts of NYC that I don’t like to visit. Dirty and many people begging for money. Except these people are wearing the same outfits as my neighbors in Cameroon and they sit against the cement building walls with their feet stuck straight out into the sidewalk as if they were in their own mud huts back in my village. Luckily we didn’t stay in Dar long and proceeded to take the bus to Moshi, Tanzania. We passed fields of what looked like pineapple plants and the mountains can taller as we changed from city to countryside.

Bajaj in Dar es Salaam

Moshi is my favorite city we visited. It is smaller than Dar but bigger than my city, Ngaoundéré in Cameroon. It is a tourist town since it right next to Kilimanjaro, but it is still quaint and peaceful with coffee shops and good places to eat. We stayed with another couch surfing host, a Tanzanian family that gave us bread and spicy tea for breakfast. Our guide company (Gladys Adventures) for Kilimanjaro was amazing. I’m hoping to go back someday and do a safari with them. They helped us check our gear, we rented some warm sleeping bags and off we went to climb the tallest mountain in Africa. Right from the beginning our guide, assistant guide, cook, and porters were so helpful. We drove past areas covered in pine trees and were told that carrots were grown on the hills surrounding Kilimanjaro. And sure enough as we reach the starting point, we passed people next to bags and bags of carrots. When we reached the entrance gate we started hiking in the jungle on a path that wound us through trees covered in shiny green moss and past fields of ferns. Two kinds of monkeys joined us: Colobus and Blue monkeys. The Colobus were more laid back and I think liked the attention. During our first night of camp we met an older American couple and while chatting with them in their tent, we saw a Colobus monkey take a leak on someone else’s tent. Guess we were lucky we weren’t set up under a tree. So while our hikes were a lot of work, our camping was pretty close to luxurious. We had 13 porters that carried everything including the tents and food. We just had to carry our daypacks (which really just held our water for the day) and they set up everything before we got to each site. We had two small tents to sleep in and a tall green tent for meals. We received tea and snacks when we arrived at camp and then dinner was usually soup and something amazing. I ate better on this hike than I ever did in Cameroon or to be honest, at home. (sorry Mom, although Dad’s steak would have been nice). In the morning, they gave us hot water in a bowl to wash up and I could have eaten the cook’s oatmeal breakfast for the rest of my life. Yet the farther we hiked, the more I realized we kind of needed this “glamping”. By day two we were out of the rainforest and into moorland with large shrubby trees where the moss still covered the limbs like silver icicles. Then the lava landscape (Kilimanjaro has been dormant for years) which reminded us of the scenery from “Lord of the Rings” or even “Star Wars”. Our guide knows “Lord of the Rings” really well and we all chose characters along with deciding where we were in Lord of Rings each day. He also could do the voice of Gollum (Smeagol) very well which did not help my heartbeat when he snuck up on me from behind a boulder. He did take great care of us though and stayed positive throughout the whole trip. He even gave us nicknames in Swahili; mine was butterfly. The trek was long but filled with laughter and singing of Celine Dion songs.

Day 1: The Jungle

By day 5 we were already 4250 meters high after we climbed over the Great Barranco Wall. It was more like rock climbing than hiking which was a nice change from the step by step walking in a line for days. We were already noticing that it was becoming more difficult to breathe as we got higher. Thankfully none of us showed any signs of altitude sickness which for me, I am glad I was taking Diamox to prevent it. We didn’t even realize that it was the 4^th of July until Gretchen went to write in her journal. We then proceeded to sing the National Anthem very loudly in front of all the other hikers during lunch. A woman from Ireland asked why we were singing and after I told her, she said the most sincere “Happy Independence Day!” All of the people we met on the hike were friendly and awesome: A couple Americans, a bunch of Canadian guys, Germans, Irish, Dutch, Chileans, Russians, and British. I couldn’t believe how many people climb this mountain and I wonder why they do it. I began to really question myself why I wanted to climb to this mountain in the first place, especially when we got to base camp. It was cold and windy. I felt like I was on the moon and the mountain stood over us like a giant waiting to be attacked. I just kept reminding myself that this was my dream, my dream for a long time. We had started reading out loud “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” every night before bed and now I was thinking that the story of the character’s thoughts before death were similar to mine on this mountain. The first few days were normal hiking, like near my home in the U.S., but when the air decreased and the temperatures got colder, I had so much time to think. To think about my life choices and why I am always living for others and what actually makes me happy in life.

Our tents at first campsite

We had decided to hike the final ascent in the afternoon to see the sunset. Usually hikers wake up at midnight and hike to the tallest peak to see the sunrise but it is extremely cold and well, everyone does that, we wanted to do something different. We were at base camp at about 4640 meters high and it was so windy that they had to take down our meal tent. After lunch, we started our climb to Uhuru Peak, the tallest point on the mountain (5895 meters). I have never been so tired, coughing up dirt/dust, my legs aching, and trying to keep from falling over as the wind swept dirt into my eyes. It was a slow, steady uphill hike that took us the afternoon to reach Stella Point and from there only 150 meters to the peak although it felt much longer. Tears came to my eyes when we reached Stella and then finally Uhuru. The sun was setting on the horizon as we clambered toward the wooden signs and looked down at the glaciers beneath the ledge. It was so beautiful and breathtaking. Never had I felt so much power that I didn’t deserve as we peered across the clouds. This is a view that you usually only see from an airplane. It was spectacular.

Me and the Mountain

After photos we had to descend quickly. We couldn’t stay there long since the sun was almost gone and it would be too cold. This is the part that I do not remember well. Gretchen and Aliz started going down, almost skiing on the loose rock and dirt. I started to go down and then, well, I don’t really remember except that my head started bursting with a migraine and my mind felt like I had taken too much Nyquil. Thank goodness our guide and porter were there to help me and well somehow I got to base camp. Some migraine medication, water, and soup later, I woke up in the morning mostly fine. All of us were still trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we had done it! We had climbed the tallest free-standing mountain in the world! It only took us one day to get down the mountain with a little rain to wash away our sweat and aching limbs. (It takes so long to go up the mountain not only because of going uphill but the path goes the long way around the mountain so we can acclimatize and not get altitude sickness). It only took us 6 days to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and we walked away mostly healthy. Success!

Me, Gretchen, & Aliz at the top!!!

We got to Moshi and rested for a couple days. I also met up with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer from Tanzania whose hometown is Salem, NY! I gave him some stuff that his mom had given me in the U.S. and it was kind of nice to meet someone who could verify to my friends that there really are more cows in my hometown than people. Even though I had a cough I couldn’t get rid of since we got off the mountain, we had a lot of fun hanging out with the Peace Corps volunteers from Tanzania. We then took the bus back to Dar es Salaam and met up with two Australian guys that turned out to be our best friends on the trip. They were going to Zanzibar too so we all caught the ferry the next day and headed to the island off the coast of Tanzania. We visited Stone Town, the main city of Zanzibar where the buildings are so close together that you can walk through little alleyways that make you feel like you are always in a maze. It is still Africa with a little touristic edge. Underneath all the beach tourism, Zanzibar still has the village life that resembles my place in Cameroon. Most of the people in Stone Town are Muslims and celebrating Ramadan so we tried not to eat in front of anyone during the day. We visited an old slave market and saw the basement holdings under a church where they used to keep slaves. Hard to believe that this beautiful island could be the main slave market at one time. After Stone Town, we took a bus to Paje, about an hour away. We stayed in this cute little paradise for a few days. I had never seen one of these beach tourist places before with makuti bandas and bungalows made of palm leafs with sandy floors. (All I could think of was the scenes from movies where people go on vacation to exotic islands). The beach was full of people from all over the world and the blue ocean was full of boats and people kite surfing. Thanks to my parents (who found my scuba diving certification at 5 o’clock in the morning) I was able to go scuba diving in that beautiful ocean. Other than getting a little seasick on the boat, once I was in the water, it was amazing. We saw seahorses, starfish, stingrays, lion fish, frog fish, banded snake eel, clownfish, crab and much more. It was so brilliant to be floating among life under the water especially since it was so clear compared to any other place I have ever dived. It was a good way to end the trip.

Walking through Stone Town

 

Unicorn Fish

 

Hanging with a clownfish

 
 

On the beach with friends in Paje, Zanzibar

We slowly made our way back to Stone Town, Dar es Salaam, and made another stop in Rwanda where we met up with Gretchen’s friend, a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda. By the time we got to Douala, a nice air conditioned room and hot shower was all I wanted. Even though this was a vacation, I was always reminded that we were still in Africa and some things were very similar to Cameroon. Besides, I had decided to do two things that I’m always afraid of: climbing very high mountains and diving in the ocean. Might as well conquer fears while visiting new countries and seeing different cultures! With a pit stop in Yaoundé to get some medicine for my cough (still could not bust that mountain cough), I am now back in my village.

I was really nervous about coming back after such an amazing trip and I will not be leaving Cameroon again until next year. I don’t have any more trips to look forward and need to buckle down to work. Yet I felt better after my neighbors greeted me with smiles and hugs. Annie the cat was so happy to see me that she practically slept on my face last night. There are a few good things growing in my garden of weeds including cucumbers. I am meeting with my work partner to plan the visits to soy project participants’ fields. With Ramadan over, people are eating again during the day and life goes back to normal with work and being a Peace Corps volunteer. But is life really ever normal in Cameroon? And gosh, what is normal after being on top of the world and then going to the bottom of it?

Work, Weddings and Juggling Mangos!

It is happening. Tomorrow we leave for our adventure to hike Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania! It has been a good past couple weeks preparing and training for the hike. Today was an interesting day for the soy project and soy cooperative. As usual the majority of the members showed up late to the meeting today or didn’t show at all and we had to call everyone to remind them that there is a meeting right now. We were surprised they were late because the soy projects members were receiving their 10 Kg each of soy seeds so they can start planting in their fields while I am gone. My work partner who was going to give a short demonstration on planting soy got called out to work in the bush so another man from the organization helping us had to step in. The demonstration went well even though he wouldn’t let me pick up the hoe (white women can’t dirty their hands although I work in my own garden at my house). I kept back my anger because he was helping us. After the demonstration, we gave them their seeds. Some of the members in the soy project group are members of another cooperative and since their president couldn’t attend, they did not attend. We had to convince one of them to meet us to receive the seeds for the rest of the group. Stressful! At least now all the members of the soy project have their seeds and then my counterpart and I will visit their fields when I get back. The soy cooperative is another problem. They had decided to look for their own seeds instead of utilizing our help in ordering seeds with the soy project group. Unfortunately, the cooperative president did not do her part in ordering the seeds and when the members showed up today to receive their seeds, she started making excuses as to why she couldn’t order them and looking to us to help. It is becoming apparent that it is going to be very difficult to teach the cooperative to work on their own and that we will offer help but we cannot force them to work together (and if they do not accept our help, they cannot come back to us later when their plan does not work). No one said that this work would be easy. Especially in a culture where rich men are the leaders and there is a “fend for yourself” mentality. There are a few great, motivated workers in these groups so maybe my focus will be working with them next year.

Planting demonstration for the soy project participants

 

On a more positive note, I love taking walks out past the fields behind my village and see the greenness of the land with Mount Ngaoundéré in the background. Corn, tomatoes, okra, and other vegetables cover what used to be red dirt and now mango trees dot the horizon. Sometimes I catch my breath when I hear “Bonjour Renée” from the top of the tree next to me. I always forget that the kids are climbing the trees to get mangos. I have noticed that there are not as many animals (sheep, goats & cows) running amuck near my house. I hope that is a sign that people are not letting their animals go into people’s gardens and fields. Some farmers build fences with large tree branches stuck in the ground and barbed wire wrapped around the limbs to fend off the grazing animals.

Beka-Hossere during the rainy season with Mt Ngaoundere in the background

Fencing around fields to keep animals out

Tomato and okra plants

 

We went to buy the soy seeds from one of my work partners and he showed us where he lived and I saw his pet monkey was hanging out in his front yard. I fed the monkey and his dog bread (they are best friends). I forgot how much I love animals and really monkeys are just so cool. Afterwards all of us chilled at a bar and I commented on this girl’s awesome toe socks and flip flop combo. I had done that in junior high at one point and thought it was nice to see that my fashion wasn’t that odd in Cameroon. My work partner decided that I must have toe socks so the next day he showed up at my house with three very colorful pairs of toe socks. I don’t know what they must think of me since I had juggled some mangos for them at the bar as well but buying me socks was a nice gesture.

Feeding my work partner's dog and pet monkey

Juggling mangos

 

I am so happy to finally see the green land of the Adamawa, but with the rains comes the dangers of traveling. Last week, I got in a little mototaxi accident/tumble on my way back to my village. Firstly, I am fine. We were not going that fast and he hit some muddy rocks which made the motorcycle slide. He tried to stop but we both went over and I did a “tuck and roll” so the motorcycle wouldn’t fall on me. Unfortunately, my laptop was in my backpack and the fall was hard enough to damage it. The LCD screen is cracked and there is a blotch of black in the bottom with a streak of black across the screen. The computer works fine and I can see most of the screen so I am not going to fix it anytime soon. I figure I am lucky to have not broken it until now. Most volunteers go through a couple computers in their two years. But I am being more careful about traveling with it. I was more scared about telling my Dad about the computer, but like usual my Dad is a pro at being cool with a problem especially since I beat myself up enough about it. It took me a few days to get back on a mototaxi but it is the only way to travel out of my village so I really have no choice.

The water pump where my neighbors and I get our water (she is pumping the water with her foot)

Grilling corn, a good snack for 100 CFA (the Cameroon fast food)

 

Another adventure, Gretchen and I went to a Christian/Catholic wedding in Ngaoundéré. The bride is one of our tailors and invited us. We have known her for a while and she has made many different types of clothes for us including my bridesmaid dress for one of the weddings in the U.S. Being my first Christian wedding, I was not sure what to expect. There are mostly Muslim weddings in my village where everyone is invited and the bride isn’t even present during the celebration. This wedding was held at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Ngaoundéré. Typical with Catholic weddings, the ceremony was long but typical to Cameroon, it was even longer. We sat in those church pews for two and half hours. The bride was beautiful with a long white strapless dress and veil across her face. The ceremony was typical Catholic except with even more singing (the songs were sung in Cameroonian style with a drum as the beat) from the choir and long sermons projected from the speakers that tended to have a loud buzz every few minutes. I have noticed that the sound systems here are not great and give you earaches. I’m glad we went to the ceremony but I was a little sorry we came when the guy on the microphone switched to English and thanked the Americans for attending the wedding. We can’t go anywhere without sticking out and being bothered or in this case, being treated like Queens at someone else’s wedding. One cool thing about Christian weddings is that women wear clothing that is a bit more revealing and modern. We even saw some shorts made out of the wedding pagne (fabric) and a very cool looking romper. Some of the older women looked amazing in large hats that reminded me of the Saratoga Horse Races. After the ceremony, we waited a couple hours before going to the reception which was supposed to start at 6pm. Thinking that we understood Cameroon by now, we showed up at 7:30pm. We waited another hour outside the reception area with the rest of the crowd and finally were seated in a very nice set up that looked similar to weddings I have attended in the U.S. Another positive attribute to Christian weddings, there is alcohol although we had to stare at it for another hour until the wedding party came. They only allowed people in who had invitations which didn’t stop the local kids from sticking their heads through the bars of the windows and calling “Nassara” (white man). They even threw a rock at a Cameroonian kid sitting next to us so at least we were not the only ones being bothered. We sat another hour until finally the bride and groom entered. It wasn’t until 10pm that the food was served. By that time we had to leave so we missed the rest of the reception but I had a feeling that the dancing later would not make up for sitting hungry for over 2 hours. Those pop tarts my Dad sent me was my dinner that night. I will never complain about a U.S. wedding ever again.

The kids helping me plants seeds in my garden

The wedding ceremony

 

Annie the cat is doing well and being so close to the city, I have found a veterinarian that keeps her healthy and kitten free. She has a boyfriend that visits her a lot and she brings dead animals in the house all the time (I finally got to see some of the Cameroon birds up close although they are dead). I have given up on raising chickens. I gave my last two chicks to my neighbors (the other two were stolen). I explained to them that I really just love chickens for their eggs and watching them peck around the yard. Their faces were priceless when I kissed the chicks goodbye.  My garden is all planted and hopefully there will be a variety of vegetables and flowers sprouting when I get back. Ramadan has started so many of the people in my village are fasting between sunrise and sunset. My neighbor’s kids, Dada and Guiya only have to fast for the morning since they are so young. This fasting also means my favorite bean mama and other food resources are closed so I am actually grateful that I will be gone the next few weeks. We will get back around the time that they will be celebrating the end of Ramadan with lots of fetes (parties) with food. I am so excited for this trip to Tanzania! We are supposed to start climbing on July 2^nd and arrive back down the mountain on July 8^th. Thoughts of the hike are making me nervous but it is the climb in life that is more important than making it to the top. But it would be nice to see that summit sunrise.

Visiting Home & the Perspective

It has been a whirlwind journey from visiting home in New York to coming back to Cameroon. I was so nervous to be visiting home so early in my Peace Corps service but it proved to be a good decision. I was able to see two of my best friends get married and even caught the bouquet at the second wedding! I remember crying every so often on the plane ride home and wishing that I could just apparate (Harry Potter term) and be in JFK airport. When I finally saw my father as I got through security, all my emotions exploded in my face and I can’t remember ever feeling more relieved. My poor Dad had to listen to my non-stop story telling all the home until he got me some Starbucks coffee and I shut up a bit. I was able to wake my Mom up at 11:30pm and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. It was good to be home.

Great to see my family!

 

Party with Friends :)

 

For the first few days I felt as though I was in a dream and at some point I would wake up in my bed in Cameroon. I would walk around in the fields by the barn and just enjoy the spring breeze and the ability to just be me without all the stares I was used to. I could hug and play with the dogs without people asking me why and I could sing out in the barn where no one could hear except for the goats and chickens. I didn’t have much time to relax like this for too long. My Mom and I went shopping for gear to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and I used my Dad’s car to drive around and visit friends. The weddings were amazing and beautiful. I got a cold on my second day home and my stomach didn’t ever settle from the new food but that didn’t stop me from enjoying every second home. I got to meet the students in a French class who had written me letters. They were all so wonderful and asked brilliant questions. I don’t think they realized how helpful it was for me to talk about Cameroon. It helped me digest all the thoughts in my head now that I was at home. And to top it off, my parents invited people over for a party and I was able to see many of my friends all at once.

When my last night at home came, I felt kind of hollow. Steak cooked on the grill, strawberries for dessert, and watching the Amazing Race with my parents made my visit complete. I was ready to go back. My airlines however had other ideas. My flight to Istanbul, Turkey was so late that most of the passengers, including me, missed our connecting flight. Turkish Airlines then sent me to Nairobi, Kenya to catch my next flight to Douala, Cameroon. Once we arrived in Douala, I realized only one of my bags had arrived but of course it being Cameroon, they said that I had to wait until I got to Yaoundé to make a missing baggage request. Our flight to Douala had arrived so late that the flight staff were afraid that they would not make it back to Nairobi before the airport closed so they said they could not take us to Yaoundé. We had to stay in a hotel and catch the flight the next day. Well most of us didn’t want to do that. Plus Douala is a little dangerous for an American so I was not ready to spend the night. We asked the airlines to book a bus to Yaoundé so we left at 6pm on the bus and arrived in Yaoundé at midnight. A couple passengers were really nice and found me a reasonably priced taxi ride to the Peace Corps office. I spent 5 days in Yaoundé waiting for the airlines to find my bag. I ended up going to the Yaoundé airport to see a friend off to the U.S. and looked in the lost baggage area just in case my bag was there. And it was! The tag on it had the incorrect number so who knows when the airlines would have found it. (They can’t just look at the name on the bag and contact me of course!) But being typical Cameroon, the official saw that my ticket number didn’t match the number on the bag and I had no paperwork but it must be my bag so he just gave it to me. Bribery and laziness are a big part of Cameroon business.

Annie & the chicks

I found out that my three chickens had been stolen while I was gone, but there were 4 chicks left. I must say I had a point where I wondered if Cameroon really wanted me there. But I threw my courage into my heart and made my way back to Beka-Hosséré. My neighbors were ecstatic to see me and I was collided with hugs. They were very sorry about my chickens and had adopted the chicks into their care. Everything was so different now that it had been raining more. It was green everywhere! My garden was overgrown with weeds but it was nice to be surrounded by green and have it be a bit cooler weather. I gave my neighbors their presents which included Washington County Fair t-shirts, t-shirts from my Mom’s work (Sutherlands) and a Washington County Fair stuffed animal. I gave my other Cameroonian friends little bottles of my Dad’s homemade maple syrup (it was interesting trying to explain maple syrup) and more t-shirts. Everyone is so happy with their gifts. Amadou was practically jumping with joy when he received his soccer ball. My trip finally seemed to conclude in my mind. Now back to work and prepare for Kilimanjaro.

Dada with her Fair cow

 

My neighbors in their new shirts!

 

Amadou with his new shirt & soccer ball

We had a meeting with the Soy Cooperative when I got back. Well we tried to. Most of the women showed up for this meeting, but the leaders of the group had forgotten that there was a meeting in the office that day with some of the “grands”. The Délégué (boss of my work partners) pretty much kicked us all out of the office because he didn’t want it to be swarming with people when the big guys came. It was embarrassing for us and for the cooperative members. I had never met the Délégué before but I could tell by how he rang a bell for people to come into his office (he can’t walk two feet to talk to someone) and how he talked to us like he was God, that he is another reason I do not like to work with the “grands” here. They are the people with the power and they see the rest of the population as the “petites” or their servants. The cooperative members were angry, we were angry but we rescheduled the meeting and hoped that people would come back. They did thank goodness and we had a successful meeting on Friday. Successful meaning mostly everyone showed up, most of the problems were discussed and plans were made for buying the soy seeds for planting. There were three women (mostly the executive board) that still do not want the one man to be in the group so that was a conversation with raised voices and pointed figures. The problem with most groups in Cameroon is that when money is involved, everyone wants their fair share. And yes, men are threatening to women in this country in that they have more power most of the time. But this man in the group is willing to work with the women and has proven to be more reliable than most of them. There are many other problems this group needs to deal with but they always focus on the one thing they understand: one male member. At least most of them left happy and we made plans to meet in a couple weeks to distribute the soy seeds. The participants in the new Soy Project will be there as well so that we can give out all the seeds at one time.

Finally good news, my grant for the Soy Project got approved! I am not sure when the funds will arrive but at least the project will keep going!

I went for a run the other morning and found the fields behind my house full of people working in the cool weather. I felt a little bad about running when they were working so hard but I was glad to see the growing tomatoes and corn lining the road. The rainy season is very late but people already have growth in their fields. The soy project participants are being told to not plant until July 1^st so that we can make sure it is raining every day. The soy needs water and cannot dry out otherwise it won’t progress enough to be cultivated in September.

Tomatoes & corn growing in the fields by my house

I am so happy I was able to visit home. It gave me the chance to think about my experience in Cameroon. I find now that I feel more comfortable living in the U.S. Before Peace Corps, I felt like I didn’t deserve to live in such a comfortable life. I didn’t understand the parts of the world where cultures were so different. There is only so much you can learn from books and T.V. But now I at least have an understanding of why cultures are different, why we have what we have in the U.S., why most of the time we deserve that comfort, why we must cherish it, and most of all I found out how thankful I am that I know people in the U.S. that work hard to try to make their community a better place. Sure not every American is like that and not everyone wants to visit places overseas, but there are some that care enough to make America a great place. Cameroon has changed so much over the years and it is getting better, but it needs more motivated people to be educated and then go back and help their communities. I am so thankful I am an American and I am so thankful for all of you.

A Plethora of Experiences

It has been a good month or so in Cameroon with fetes, going away parties, visitors from the U.S., great participation in the Soy Project, and new adventures! I spent Easter morning attending two Lutheran Church services, one at the Norwegian Hospital and the other at a beautiful church next door. It was interesting to see the differences between each service even though they were the same religion. The service at the hospital pictured some benches set up in the shade so that I couldn’t really see the people talking. There was some French and also surprisingly, Fulfulde spoken. The other church is much bigger, bigger than most of the churches back in my hometown in the U.S., with stained glass windows and balcony seats. Both services had many baptisms and confirmations. Guess they figured since they have all these people together, might as well make the service longer. We arrived a little late to each service and left early, meaning that the services were probably each 4 hours long. The churches are mostly connected to what we call the “Norwegian Quartier”, a compound with a large wall all around all the houses and church office. I have met a few of the people that live there and have made some good friends. Many people are missionaries and work/live in different parts of Cameroon. Some are only there to learn French before moving to another country as missionaries. Others are not connected to the church at all like my German friend who is a doctor here. One of my favorite parts about traveling is meeting new people from different places. Gretchen and I had dinner the other night with a couple from Norway, another couple (husband from Cameroon & wife from Switzerland), my German friend, and the couples’ wonderful children. I found out that another friend used his dog as bait to kill a very large baboon that had been leading all the other baboons to kill off herds of animals and certainly making a negative dent in the circle of life. I was furious that he would put his sweet dog in harm, but thank goodness the dog is fine and the baboon has been turned into dog food. Oh the adventures in Cameroon.

Easter egg coloring!

To add to my Easter experience, I asked my neighbor’s children to color some hard boiled eggs and I explained that it was tradition to hide the eggs and they would have to find them. I love how Cameroonians do not question tradition. They might have thought it was weird, but hey, I participated in their traditions so it goes both ways. Plus I think they had fun. It took only 15 minutes to find the eggs and then we watched “Little Mermaid” in French. I explained that there is not just one Easter tradition for Americans. It depends on your religious beliefs just like in Cameroon. Many of the Christians in my village attended church on Easter and the churches I visited were packed with people from all over Ngaoundéré. Each country has its diversity.

After the beekeeping conference, Issa and I built our beehive, added honey wax to attract the bees, and placed it on his property a distance from the village. We need to go back and cut a few tree limbs so it sits better but then we just wait for the bees!

One of my fellow volunteers “COSed” (Close of Service) after living here for over 2 ½ years. She lived in a small village in the Adamawa for her first two years and then extended her service to Ngaoundéré. She became one of my best friends and mentors when I arrived here in Cameroon. We had a going away party for her and I couldn’t help but cry happy tears when I saw how many Peace Corps volunteers and Cameroonians came to support her. She made so many friends here and helped so many people. I only hope I can leave this place someday with such a grand show of love. It shows that Peace Corps volunteers may only be here for a short amount of time and may feel like we hardly make an impact, but in the end we help by just being here and make amazing friends.

Dada and her sister had plastic bags wrapped around their feet and hands one day. I found out that they were dying their fingertips red and bottoms of their feet black. It is a tradition for the Fulbe.

My neighbors gave me cous cous and legume the other night. So nice of them because they hardly ever have enough food for their family. I had to add a lot of salt and pepper to it and then drank my cheap box wine to try to satisfy my taste buds but I finished my plate (still tasted like tasteless mush and grass). I don't know how they eat this every day, but it is the cheapest food they know how to make.

 

The task of washing clothes in Cameroon (two buckets and hope for no rain for a few hours)

 

 

A friend of Gretchen’s was visiting from the U.S. so we did a lot of visiting “the sites”. We had an adventure to see the Shutte de Tello, beautiful waterfalls a couple hours’ drive from Ngaoundéré. It was an extremely bumpy and dusty road where we past the plateau of Adamawa and rolling hills that cradled a couple villages with only a few huts in them. It was interesting to hear about the history of one mountain where a couple tribes had fought for the land. There are many tribes throughout Cameroon including Fulbe, Mboom, Di, Mbaya, and Hausa in the Adamawa. Some villages have multiple tribes. Cameroon is actually a very diverse country with many religions (Muslim, Christian, Presbyterian, Lutheran), both English and French speaking regions (both religion and languages mostly from being colonized and then being visited by Missionaries) but then they have their many native languages and many different tribes that bring traditions that have blended with what colonization brought to Cameroon. It is no wonder that Cameroon has the problems that it does. So many ways of thinking and other countries’ traditions pushed onto Cameroon. Without the freedom to always choose what you do with your life, especially women, society just blends the laws of colonization and old traditions. I am finding that I need to learn more about the history (the history as it is told here) so that I can wrap my mind around how this place works and how I can work with it.

Shutte de Tello waterfalls

 

As for the changes in Beka-Hosséré, five new baby chicks have been born! Now there are two hens, a rooster and five chicks hanging out in my front yard. When days get stressful, all I have to do is watch the chickens and I am reminded of home.

The hen and her chicks in front of the chicken hut

I will end with some exciting news about my work here. After having some difficulty getting enough participants for the Soy Project, we met with the leader of a very large (and active!) cooperative on the other side of Ngaoundéré. They sent 8 members to participant in the project. That makes 13 participants for the soy project! They were caught up on the introductory session on soy and we just had the business/entrepreneurial session. Recently we submitted the grant proposal to fund the project.

I’m not sure if I have really explained how the soy project works but I had to write up a summary recently, so here it is:

“The Ngaoundéré Soy Project was started January 2014 by PCV, Daniel Giddings. After doing a needs assessment, it was found that the area around Ngaoundéré had poor soil fertility because of the large amount of corn produced (corn depletes nitrogen in soil). Also poor diet diversification is a problem in the Ngaoundéré area. It was concluded that increasing soy production (soy is nitrogen producing) and transformation (making soy milk, tofu) would help with these problems. During the first year of the project there were 12 women farmers that learned how to produce and transform soy. The project was then passed on to PCVs, Renée St. Jacques and Rachel Jennet in November 2014. The project involves the government organizations, IRAD (a Cameroonian agricultural research agency), MINMEESA (Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises), and the Ministry of Agriculture. They help by leading the training sessions and giving in-kind contributions, including the meeting space and the demonstration plot. In January, farmers apply to be in the project, once selected they pay a participation fee which helps cover the cost of the training. The farmers meet each month to learn about soy production and soy transformation. There is a demonstration plot used to teach how to grow soy and make compost. The farmers are given soy seeds to plant at their farms and agents from the Ministry of Agriculture visit the farms to observe the plots and help with problems. By November, the farmers will have learned about soy production and transformation by attending sessions, practicing at the demonstration plot, and cultivating their own soy at their farms. After they finish the program, they give soy seeds from their farm to the seed bank for next year’s group. One of the great outcomes from this project is that the 12 women from the first year enjoyed growing soy so much and made such wonderful friendships by working together, that they started a women’s soy cooperative and are receiving guidance from MINMEESA on how to plan their activities and learn more about soy production.”

Making soy milk, tofu, and bouille

We just had the Soy Transformation session today where the participants learned how to make soy milk, tofu, and bouille (tastes like porridge). Rachel and I had the help of a couple Cameroonian women to teach the session. We found that everybody here has a slightly different way of making tofu and bouille. Also it is important that Cameroonians like the soy products. If it were up to me, I would put not a lot of sugar in the soy milk and not fry the tofu, but I am not the one that will be buying soy products from these participants. Soy is still not a usual food in people’s diets here so we need to make it as sweet and maybe a bit spicy as possible. I was surprised to see the male participants get involved and “get their hands dirty”, but less surprised that there were still some of the men that refused to help make anything and instead sat back and watched. And of course the women served the tofu to the men first. Yet even with the culture showing itself throughout the day, the session was very successful. It took us all day to make the three soy products but I think the participants walked away happy with new knowledge and that is all that matters.

The Soy Project participants after the soy transformation session

 I leave this weekend for a visit to my hometown in the U.S. to be in two weddings and visit family/friends. I am so excited to be going home but also very nervous about seeing home so early in my service. As much as I like Cameroon and the friends I have made here, home is always on my mind. But I still have a lot of work to do. We start preparing the soy demonstration plot and visiting participants’ fields when I get back. And then my friends and I are off to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Is this really my life?