Wednesday, March 19,
2014
Well it’s time for another catch-up blog. I’ve been busy, get off my back! I really am going to try to write more
frequently. Honestly, I’m not even sure
where I left off last time and I’m too lazy to check, so some stuff my get
skipped, but whatevs.
My post-mate’s friends visited Guider, and while they were
there we had formations at the Cetic de Lamorde on hand washing, the oral-fecal
cycle, and just some fun soccer games.
Things went pretty well, considering we had a couple hundred students
and zero help from anyone working at the school. They did get a little hairy at the end when
we tried to give out some prizes and got rushed. ‘Luckily,’ that was when a staff member finally
decided to get involved by getting a long stick (or a switch, as I’ve been told
they’re called in the south) and beating all of the students back. At this point, the latrine is almost done and
we are waiting for the funds to come to finish up the water project. Once both are done, we are planning on having
more formations and probably making tippy-taps (bottles with soap and water in
them, it makes it easier for people to wash their hands using soap).
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| I said get back! |
After that, I started my travels south. I went to Bamenda in the Northwest to do a
couple of trainings at the newest stage’s IST (inter-service training, which
they get 3 months after going to post).
Things went well, and since I had to be in Ngaoundéré a week later for
meetings, I traveled around the Northwest a bit.
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| Road to Widikum |
I went to Mbengwi first.
I’ve been there a couple of times already, but it is only 20 minutes
outside of Bamenda and a few of my favorite people in country are there, so how
could I resist? One of the nights we
went to a Jangi (and I’m definitely spelling that wrong) party. The idea with these is that everyone who is a
member puts in so much money per month, it depends on the jangi, and then each
person takes turns ‘winning’ the monthly money, and each meeting is a
party. It is basically a way to have a
savings account. Unfortunately, in
Cameroonian culture actually saving money is difficult. If you have money, you are supposed to give
it to your family in need. Saving money
is a faux-pas.
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| Road to Olorunti |
This jangi group was all the big-men in the area (which
included a few women, but that’s the term used). They each put in 100,000 CFA a month! I just realized that you can’t capitalize
numbers for emphasis. Someone needs to
figure out how to do that, and create a sarcasm font. To put that in perspective, that is about 2/3
of my monthly paycheck, (half if you include rent), or about $200 in
America. Needless to say, the party I
went to was at a gigantic house and was a lot of fun. The conversations going on were pretty
incredible too, ranging from how long after a woman gives birth you can play
with her breasts, if it is ok for grown men to drink breast milk, comparing the
PCVs breasts there, and the ever-popular homosexuality. Things were pretty awkward at times, but the
drinks kept flowing, so we were ok. I
talked to a guy who looks like Rick Ross the whole time.
After Mbengwi I met up with a buddy and we traveled to Wum
to hang out with a couple of other friends.
The Ring Road, the primary road in the area that I assumed was going to
be good, was terrible. I’m glad it
wasn’t rainy season. Wum was topographically
beautiful, but not my favorite town. We
were there for women’s day and kept trying to dance with everyone on dance
floors at the different bars, but every time we tried, the dance floor cleared. This is the exact opposite of every other time
I have danced in country. Usually, if a
white guy starts dancing, everyone starts cheering and rushing over. Apparently a couple of the guys were told
that we were ‘ruining women’s day.’ A
very weird experience.
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| Before we ruined women's day. |
After that we went to Widikum to visit another friend, and a
small town outside of it called Olorunti.
Both were absolutely gorgeous.
Situated in the mountains of the Northwest, the moto rides to get to
each were a couple of the prettiest drives I have been on. I tried to take pictures but they don’t do
them justice. Olorunti was particularly
incredible. The only way to get there is
a braided vine bridge after a long and perilous moto ride followed by a hike. Yet somehow, the town had electricity and
water, and the people seemed to really have their acts together. I would love to be able to live there for a
few months, but I know that could never happen because of the
accessibility.
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| Braided bridge to Olorunti |
Finally we went back down to Yaoundé and I caught the train
up for St. Addy’s Day in Ngaoundéré and meetings for National Girls’
Forum. Since then, I have been working
pretty much non-stop on NGF and the Cameroon.peacecorps.gov website since. I head south again soon for more meetings and
our COS conference. Unfortunately I
haven’t been able to go to post since (I could have gone for a few days, but it
wasn’t worth the travel up there to attend a few meetings).
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| Swimming under the bridge |
As for August, my boss has still not had the meeting with
UNHCR so I’m waiting on that. It
promises to be a hectic last five months between my national work, work at
post, trying to finish my MI paper, and trying to figure out what I’m doing
after this. Either way, I’ll try to
update more regularly.
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| Olorunti |
