Work and the Casual Random Adventures

Breaking news in the Adamawa! The rain has finally arrived!!! There was nothing better than standing outside as the cool drops of water fell on my face washing away the dust and dry season. The rain doesn’t come every day but when it does, it’s a beautiful thunderstorm. Only a few more months and the rain will water the land every day.



Entertainment while washing laundry and writing letters

Even though I feel like I just wrote a blog post, I wanted to share a few stories of my adventures this week. It started out with getting invited to dance in a music video at Lake Tison. A few volunteers have become friends with a famous Cameroonian singer and she wanted her American friends to participate in her music video. Gretchen and I were planning on hiking to Lake Tison anyway to train for Mount Kilimanjaro so why not be in a music video? Of course Cameroonian time played its role and the music video crew were a few hours late but we still had fun hanging out with a bunch of musicians. (Hint: they are just like any musicians in the states: party, drink, and can pick up a guitar and just make up a song). When the cameraman arrived, they dressed us up in costumes (my guy friend had to wear a wrap cloth around his waist and they drew white marking all over him). Thank goodness, my costume was just a green pagne pants and top. We then found out that some Italian friends were going to be at the Ranch (lodge by a lake owned by a Frenchman where people used to hunt) in Dibi (half hour away) so we left afterwards to go spend the night hanging out with some Italians and have a fabulous dinner of Italian food with some fried frog legs on the side. It is weekends like this one that baffle me. They are unexpected and spontaneous but always fun and show me that I may have days where I work and get stressed with not understanding how I can help make things better here, but then Cameroon surprises me with amazing people and crazy experiences.

Relaxing at the Ranch in Dibi

I also was able to attend a “baby shower”. I was told to stop by at Assiatou’s home to see a new baby and I walked into blaring music and a crowded room full of women and babies. The newborn baby was about a week old and sound asleep even though I could hardly hear myself talk. Women were coming in with gifts including pagne, washing tubs, a suitcase, and buckets. They made me sit on the couch and I don’t there was a moment when there wasn’t someone’s baby in my arms. For hours, people just came in, sat and chatted for a while and then left. I tried to make simple conversation in Fulfulde, but it is difficult to understand especially with the loud music. When I finally left, I passed women sitting on mats outside the door and all lined up beside the walls of houses. What a scene to see and an event to experience.

Baby Shower in Beka-Hossere

Those were the events of the week and then there was the work. We had a beekeeping conference in Ngaoundéré for three days. Each volunteer brought a Cameroonian counterpart. I invited my friend and Carl’s landlord, Issa. Issa actually makes beautiful silver jewelry in our village and is quite famous for it throughout Peace Corps Cameroon. We sat in sessions to learn about hive making, cultivating honey, and transforming it into wax candles and soap. We also visited an actual beekeeper in Ngaoundéré which was fun until the bees got a little mad and I found it safer at a distance. I now remember why I never was interested in having bees in the U.S. I start shaking from head to toe when I am around them. Issa on the other hand was so happy to learn and helped the beekeeper. So I figure, I can just help teach villagers about beekeeping and Issa can actually show them. We are going to build our hive on his property this week and hopefully if we build it, bees will come!

Beekeeping Seminar

 
 

Visit to a Beekeeper

Also this week we had our Soy Project Formation for the new participants. This session is when they learn about growing soy and transforming it. The session is taught by a colleague from the local Ministry of Agriculture.  We had it all planned and ready to go when Rachel and I stopped by the place where it was supposed to be held and found out that a Delegate was planning on using the room the next day just like us (even though we booked it before him). Talk about rude along with corrupted government officials. Anyway, we had to call all the participants that night and tell them about the new location. Unfortunately only 4 of the participants showed up at the session although we also had a meeting in the room next to it with the old participants from last year who just formed a cooperative. The meeting with cooperative went really well and we hashed out some problems. My supervisor for Peace Corps was visiting me that day and attended the meeting. I thought he would be disappointed that there were such a small number of new participants, but he was ecstatic to see the new cooperative and told me this kind of project is much bigger than normal for a new volunteer and I shouldn’t stress about it. And of course Cameroon had to surprise me again when the women in the cooperative decided they wanted to visit the President of the Co-Op because she had been sick for a long time. My supervisor and the rest of my counterparts agreed so we ended the day in a small home in a village near by, meeting with the President. Although we are having budgeting problems with having to support two groups (Soy Project and the Cooperative), I feel that this stressful day was worth it just see everyone discussing the problems together. We are working on applying for another grant for the project and hopefully figuring out a way to make it sustainable.

Soy Project Seminar

To top off the week, I met with a farmer in Ngaoundéré and visited his nearby vegetable farm. He has been working with Peace Corps volunteers for years and gosh, his farm shows it! I have never seen so many different kinds of vegetables here before. He has even bought strawberry seeds from France and now has fields full of strawberries! Of course I forgot my camera but he sent me home with a bag full of fruits and vegetables! Including eggplant, parsley, basil, lettuce, celery, beets, leeks, and strawberries! Most farmers here only grow bananas, mangos, potatoes, cassava, and onions. Most days that is what I live on. But tonight it is going to be an awesome dinner! I hope to help the farmer by teaching about soy and business practices. He is interested in transforming soy into soy milk and tofu. Also he really needs to learn about running a business since he sells his product in the Ngaoundéré and Garowa markets. It is so refreshing to meet someone who is motivated to learn and is already successful at what he is doing. His son is helping him sell in the market while attending the nearby University where he studies political science. I asked him what he would like to do after he finishes college and he said he wants to teach. He said many of his friends who get the opportunity to learn like the Americans, go to America or Europe. But he wants to stay in Cameroon and help his community. He actually quoted John F. Kennedy in broken English “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. And he wasn’t just saying this to impress me, he meant it.

Gifts from a local farmer! Strawberries!!

Recently I watched “Blood Diamond” and afterwards walked outside my house a little shaky. It the first movie I had watched in Cameroon where the scenes including the homes and markets look just like where I live. It bothers me more that some of the scenes in that movie are what I expect are happening up north where Boko-Haram is killing innocent people in villages just like mine. I am safe in Ngaoundéré, but let’s not forget about the atrocities happening up north.

On a happier side note, I remember two moments where I laughed a little bit to myself. When we were in a beekeeping session and the lecturer asked if someone had a toothpick (he needed to release honey from the honeycomb). If someone asked that in the U.S., I doubt anyone would have a toothpick, but here, where they are used after every meal, someone had a bunch in her purse. Another difference is with tissues. Tissues are not used here for the nose, but to wipe the sweat off your brow or the schwarma guy wraps it around the meat sandwiches to use as napkins. If you have a stuffy or runny nose here, just snot rocket it into the bushes. I have never tried and to be honest, I don’t think I ever will.