Joy & Success at the End of 2015

 

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.

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.

Pillars in the Lamido's main hut

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Neighbors using the sewing kit outside their house

 

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!

Farmer and his family enjoying the gifts

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.

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