The Road Less Traveled

An Indian wedding

2011-12-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

I had the amazing opportunity to attend one of my classmate's sister's wedding in Hyderabad. The Indian wedding experience is intricate, symbolic and beautiful. It is full of rituals dedicated towards respecting family and relationships.

The wedding was over four days, it started with a henna ceremony where guests and family came to the bride's family house and gave their well wishes. The women had their hands decorated with detailed designs and symbols. Some of the boys also got henna, but they opted for more masculine designs such as the Raiders and Manchester United emblems.

The next day the bride got her henna done which took a couple hours. She had her arms and feet decorated with images of Ganesh, brides, grooms and peacocks. In the evening they had the Sangreet which is an opportunity for the two families to eat, dance and sing together. The families give little speeches and one of the brides's relatives who is a comedian in the US, Sid Singh, performed. After the ceremony, the bride"s family had another ceremony at their house where they rubbed tumeric on the bride for luck.

The third day was the wedding which was under a flower covered gazebo. The ceremony lasted about one hour and involved the bride and groom saying vows, praying, being joined and being wished well. There is eating and a lot of family chatting. Everyone is dressed up in their most colorful and beautiful sarees and rice is thrown at the bride and groom for luck. After the ceremony the couple goes to the brides's house for a farewell ceremony. The family cries and the bride leaves the family home and throws rice over her shoulder as she leaves. The last day is the reception put on by the bride's family. I was not able to attend this event but this is where about 800 people come to greet and wish well the bride and groom. There is a lot of eating and conversing at this event.

Fundraising for Cameroon Orphanage

2011-10-19T13:32:00.001-06:00

As you may recall I spent almost two years volunteering in Cameroon and recently finished my placement and am now in Boston studying. While I was in Cameroon I developed a partnership with the Good Shepherd Home Orphanage near Bamenda, Cameroon (the city where I was volunteering). Over my time there I organized some fundraising events to support the children at the orphanage with healthy food. I am planning to continue helping the children of the Good Shepherd Home by send funds for healthy food over Christmas and into the New Year.

As the AIDS pandemic continues to strike Cameroon, the number of orphans is increasing exponentially. Due to a lack of resources, orphanages are not able to cater to the basic needs of these orphans who are severely malnourished and usually do not receive elementary education.

The Good Shepherd Home is an Abangoh based orphanage founded and directly managed by Sister Jane Mankaa. This orphanage has 86 children aged from a little under 2 months to 18. A number of the children they support lost their parents to AIDS or were abandoned because of a disability. The orphanage also has another Annex Orphanage in Batibo, North West Region where there are 42 orphans many of whom are disabled or suffer from epilepsy which is highly stigmatized in Cameroon.

Over Christmas 2010 and June of 2011, two projects were carried out, thanks to the generous donations from many of you, to provide the children of the Good Shepherd Orphanage (Abangoh and Batibo) with nutritional and material support. Indirectly the projects also had the aim of helping to maintain the health of the orphans given that proper nutrition had been shown to reduce illness in the orphans. Indeed these projects were a success and not only did the children’s health and energy levels had visibly improved due to their enhanced diet but also their success at school has increased.

A summary of the Christmas project can be found here: http://ailingshih.blogspot.com/2010/12/cameroonian-christmas-miracle.html

A summary of the Summer project can be found here: http://ailingshih.blogspot.com/2011/06/giving-children-of-good-shepherd-home.html

The Orphanage’s need for support for its children continues to grow. Since the summer the children have started school and the need to continue to give these children a balanced diet is ever present. With the food that was provided with the previous fundraising campaign the children's health has improved. Sister Jane who runs the orphanage told me that:

" [She has] discovered that the children have not been sick for some time now. This is because they eat well now.They have grown healthy . I cannot remembered the last time I went to the hospital with a sick child. I attribute this to the fact that they feed well now. School books became so expensive and we were so lucky that [the donors] had bought so many books and other school materials for the children."

The orphanage now has four new babies including a set a twins. These babies' mothers died at birth and they had no other family who wanted them. In addition to these babies, there are also 14 new children that joined the orphanage since June. Sister Jane says:

"The number of kids is growing more than we can handle. But still our home is better than where there are coming from. It is so difficult to say no to a child. If we do, it means we are sending such a child to his or her death."

I am planning to send money to the Abangoh orphanage for Christmas to enable them to buy food for the children to sustain them over the next few months so that the children can continue to be healthy and achieve scholarly success.

If anyone would like to contribute to this endeavor please let me know. You can email me at ailingshih (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank you,

Catherine Ailing Shih

Boston Begins

2011-09-04T19:58:00.000-06:00

I am now in Boston, settled in to my new apartment (Thanks Mom – she came and scouted it out for me while I was in Cameroon) and into the swing of classes. So far Boston is everything I hoped it would be and more.

My apartment

The City

I live in Fenway, right by the oldest stadium in the US where Babe Ruth played and where the Yankees are hated. More often than not there are crowds of people making their way to see the Red Sox play…and by crowds I mean tens of thousands of people. I have never see crowds like this before. Bostonians love sports, the Red Sox, the Bruins, the Patriots, and all other college sports. I was at a college football game this weekend and there were about 20000 people cheering on the Boston College and Northwestern teams.

This thing I love about Boston is being able to walk everywhere. I’ve walked to China town, across the river to Cambridge, to visit the Medical Campus, to explore the shops on Newbury street and just in general around the city to find tennis courts. It seems as though there are quaint neighbourhoods to explore at every turn. I have found a number of tennis partners here thanks to online tennis communities. I will also soon start tennis lessons at the BU track and tennis centre – which is within walking distance.

At Fenway Stadium

At the Boston College football game

Boston University

I had an intensive 10 days of orientation involving orientation with the international students (yes, Canada is its own separate country), and with the rest of the MBA class of 2013. Our classes have started already and readings, assignments and exams are already piling up. It will be a very intensive two years but I am already learning more than I ever thought I would be.

Part of our MBA program is an integrated project pulling together learnings from all our classes – accounting, finance, organizational behavior, finance. My group is great and we are named The Mighty Ducks D3. We’re all about supporting each other and sharing leadership much like a flying V formation.

At the BU campus

The lobby of the School of Management

Teambuilding with my Integrated Project Team

The Mighty Ducks D3

Looking forward to….

There is a lot to look forward to and I hope I’ll have the time and energy to do everything I want to do.

- There is a trip to India that I am hoping to go on in order to see the health sector there.

- The MBA program has competitions throughout the year called the Cohort cup and my cohort (cohort D) is the reigning champion and I hope we hang onto the cup.

- I get to do a health-related internship in the summer

- Lots of opportunities to meet and network with interesting people

- The American Outlet malls aren’t far away

… and so much more

Wish me luck!

611 Days

2011-07-03T22:00:00.000-06:00

It has been 611 days since I left Canada for Cameroon and although I didn’t stay two years like I had initially thought I would, I have definitely had a lifetime of experiences. A lot of things can happen over the course of 611 days here are a few of the highlights:

Top Lesson Learned:

Development from the grassroots is often talked about, but I got the chance to experience it and to see it in action. My experience with IDF showed me that development work has real and measurable impacts when it is the local organization or population who tells the development worker what they need and the worker simply acts as a facilitator to empower that organization or population to meeting their own needs. This sounds simple but it is extremely difficult for two reasons: first, it is difficult as the development worker to admit that you don’t necessarily know best even though you’ve been brought in because of your expertise, second, it is difficult to convince the local population that the “white way” isn’t necessarily the “right way”.

Working with IDF was an honor and a privilege

Top Difficulty Faced:

Corruption is part of everyday life here, from giving a motivation at the post office to be able to pick up a parcel, to paying government officials to attend meetings and events that they should be attending anyways. Every day it seemed I heard a new story about corruption, the tennis guys complained about the corruption of the Cameroon National Tennis team which required players to buy their way onto the team, IDF told me stories about Requests for Proposals from the government where the applicants were expected to bribe the officials to get the bid, and VSO volunteers even expressed concerns over the financial management practices in their partner organisations. I now struggled with the fact that I no longer find myself surprised by these stories because I had come to accept corruption as a part of life here. It is an ethical dilemma to be in a situation where you can help someone in need but in order to do so you need to grease an officials hand to get the necessary approvals – do you take a stand against corruption which results in the marginalised suffering longer? Or do you turn a blind eye in order to help someone in need?

Top achievement:

IDF has a website and is fully capable thanks to its IT technician, Herve, of keeping it up to date. Already small successes have been seen thanks to more visibility locally, nationally and abroad. I feel very proud that not only did I help IDF implement a website which they had struggled to do for so long, but that the end product of the website doesn’t cost IDF anything, has been understood and mastered by IDF staff, and has received positive feedback from people from all over the world. Having a website has also encouraged IDF to improve their documentation and capitalisation of experiences which has really ensured that IDF’s history, experience and successes is well captured and can be communicated easily to future staff and the interested public. The IT technician has worked extremely hard at mastering the site and should even be able to help other organisations with setting up websites. It is a true example of IDF mastering something through capacity building with a volunteer and then eventually being able to capacity build with other organisations itself.

IDF Webmaster!

Top three unforgettable people:

1. The Spiras – There are two people here but I am counting them as one. After overhearing Caroline and Greg in the Paris airport say they were heading to Cameroon to be VSO volunteers, I latched myself to their side and didn’t let go. We all experienced the challenges of the Far North together such as unsuccessful placements, running out of gas and extreme heat. Despite the challenges however we did manage to make some great memories such as bonding over the Big Bang Theory and Burn Notice, making it up Mount Cameroon, discovering the tasty wonderfulness of plantain and corn soup, and of course celebrating Christmas together with a plantain Christmas tree in 2009 and 125 orphans in 2010.

The Three VSO Muskateers!

2. Oussematou Dameni Therese – As the IDF coordinator, I worked closely with Oussematou over my time at the Integrated Development Foundation. She is quite an inspiration, having studied in Canada she has a very North American work ethic, unlike many other people I’ve met in Cameroon. She is generally on time, a hard worker, forward looking and realistic. She is 110% dedicated to improving the lives of the marginalised and to empowering people all over Cameroon to take ownership of their lives and to bring development to their country. Her commitment to IDF’s work and mission and the resulting success stories I witnessed and heard about her work reinforced my desire to pursue development work.

The IDF Coordinator - Oussematou Dameni Therese

3. Paulinus Nyongo Ncham – A tennis coach at the Ayaba Tennis Club who is perhaps one of the most caring and generous people I have ever met. Not only did he help me perfect my tennis skills but he was also always willing to help me organize the orphanage donations in addition to helping me out with anything else such as picking up things at the market for me so I didn’t have to pay the “white price”, and helping me to set up an outdoor light for security. I helped him develop a website to market himself and his tennis abilities and it looks like he may be travelling to the UK to work for a tennis academy there. You can visit his website www.paulinustenniscoach.wordpress.com

Me and Paulinus Tennis Coach Extraordinaire!

611 days... other ways I could have classified this time could be 2995 games of FreeCell played (with a 98% win percentage), 2015 kg of food delivered to the Good Shepherd Orphanage, 1195 items classified in the IDF information management system, over 400 hours of tennis played, hundreds of marriage proposals received (and declined), 92 books read, 27 television series watched, a dozen courses of antibiotics taken, 7 permanent calluses caused from my tennis racquets, 5 bottles of sunscreen applied, 4 websites created, 3 mountains conquered, 2 second place titles won in the Ayaba Tennis Club competitions or...

One amazing experience that not only helped me figure out who I am and what I want to do but also that showed me what I am capable of and permitted me to make a difference.

Send-off Ceremony from the Integrated Development Foundation

2011-06-28T02:54:00.000-06:00

On June 27^th, the IDF family – staff, board members, volunteers – and invited dignitaries, gathered in the IDF conference hall to wish me farewell. The ceremony was well attended with over 20 people including a government delegate, a traditional chief from my quarter, another volunteer from VSO and the community development committee president from my quarter.

Amah welcomes the guests and energizes the room

I greet the Ntambag traditional Chief

The head table including the IDF Board President, myself and the governement representative

The ceremony in true Cameroonian fashion opened with a prayer and words of welcome from the IDF board president. After a presentation was made by the IDF coordinator about my time at and contributions to IDF. I felt very proud to look back on everything I have accomplished and it was surprising to see how much was in fact done.

The IDF coordinator presents my journey at IDF

After the coordinator spoke, there was a speech by the IDF board president who presented me with the honour of being the first member of honour for life on the IDF Board of Directors. It was really a lovely surprise and it means a lot that IDF has really taken me into their family.

Receiving honorary membership on the IDF Board of Directors for life

Many of my coworkers spoke as did the invited officials. It was evident from everyone’s speeches and words of thanks and appreciation that I have made a difference at IDF and that I have contribute to improving the lives of the people in Cameroon through my contributions to IDF. Everyone expressed their desire to not have my good work go to waste and that they are looking forward to continuing on working hard and improving IDF.

Falimatou, IDF's Librarian, gives a speech

Flore, the IDF Secretary, says a few words of thanks

Herve, IDF's IT technician, gives me a gift and thanks me

I made a presentation about my time at IDF as well and presented the staff and volunteers with some small gifts.

I give Germaine, a community volunteer, a gift

I give the IDF coordinator, Matou, a thermarest seat cushion

It was a lovely send off and I am so lucky to have been placed with a great organization like IDF. I wish them best wishes and good luck with everything in the future. I will for sure be in touch often to find out how some of their projects are progressing.

My traditional outfit from IDF

An IDF Family Photo

Giving the Children of the Good Shepherd Home Orphanage a Healthy Summer

2011-06-18T07:41:00.000-06:00

Today I delivered almost a tonne of food and school supplies to the children of the Good Shepherd Home Orphanage in Abangoh. I started visiting this orphanage and delivering food (thanks to donors back home as well as in Cameroon) last September and have continued throughout my placement here in Bamenda.

The food - almost one tonne

The children and staff are excited to see all the food

The Good Shepherd Home is an Abangoh based orphanage founded and directly managed by Sister Jane Mankaa. This orphanage has 86 children aged from a little under 2 months to 18. A number of the children they support recently lost their parents to AIDS or were abandoned because of a disability. The orphanage also has another Annex Orphanage in Batibo, North West Region where there are 42 orphans many of whom are disabled or suffer from epilepsy which is highly stigmatized in Cameroon.

The children sing and dance for our visit

The goal of the “Healthy Summer” Project was to provide nutritional and material support to the Good Shepherd Home orphans in June 2011 in order to ensure that the children have a balanced diet over the summer and for part of the Fall when they return to school.

The sister expresses her thanks

Sister Jane took the volunteers on a tour of the orphanage. We saw their income generating activities (a bakery and a poultry farm) in addition to the dormitories, the chapel and the mess hall. It was nice to see the dormitories as we got a sense of the personalities of the children. In the girl’s dormitory we saw the bunk of a young girl who would like to become a doctor. She had hanging on the wall a picture of the digestive system. The sister told us that this girl was doing very well in school and would be going to university. The sister was so proud to tell us of the success of the children, she says she will be working hard to make sure all the children have the opportunity to go to university and to be a success. Many of the children say they want to become doctors so they can help the sick and keep their brothers and sisters healthy.

The sister informed the group that their income generating activities have been going well and have yielded profits. This is extremely good news as it means that all the children will be going to school in September and that the 4 older children who recently passed their O and A level exams will be able to go to university.

After the tour the children were ready with their presentation. They sang a few songs and then Sister Jane gave a few words of thanks to myself, the donors, and the volunteers who helped deliver the food with me. After she was done with her words of thanks one of the orphans who had recently passed his O and A levels with the highest marks of his school, gave a speech on behalf himself and his brothers and sisters of the Abangoh Good Shepherd Orphanage.

A moving speech on behalf of all the children

The speech was as follows:

“ A speech presented by the Good Shepherd children on the occasion of wishing farewell to Auntie Catherine.

Our dear Auntie, we the children of Good Shepherd home are before you today to thank you so much for your kind gesture towards us. You have taken upon yourself to take us as part of our family. We thank God for the ultimate relationship we have in common. You are in a million, so inviting irrespective of the nationality.

We were well clothed on Christmas because of you, we ate and had a lot just because you love and care so much about us. Auntie, we lack words to express the gratitude in us. We don’t have gold nor silver to give you but we do have God who is the perfecter of our faith and the hjoy of our generation to carry you through in every aspect of life. We all in one voice, one love and above all one prayer, say thank you for the momentous decision you took upon yourself with the help of God to look after the poor.

May the hand of the Almighty God be in everything you do. Though we shall be parted in the physical, we believe in God’s spirit we are on in the lord. You have nourished us with so much that words cannot express. The lord himself will bless you, your family and friends. The good lord has bound us together, and together we shall always be in touch. We are pretty sure that the lord who brought you safe will as well take you and your friends back safe and sound.

May the blessing of the lord be with you in your career. Once more, we love you so much and we wish you a safe trip back home and continue to be an ambassador for the Good Shepherd Home.

Long live Cameroon

Long live Bamenda

Long live the Good Shepherd Home

Long live Auntie Catherine.”

I thank the Good Shepherd Home for their hospitality and wish them all luck

It was a great day and I was happy that with the generosity of my friend and family back home and in Cameroon I was able to make a difference in these children’s’ lives.

The Good Shepherd Home Family and myself

A Traditional Woven Bag from the children as a token of their thanks

Myself and Sister Jane

Easter Orphanage Visit and Opportunity to Donate

2011-05-04T04:39:00.000-06:00

Over Easter, I delivered food to the Good Shepherd Orphanage in Abangoh (Bamenda, Cameroon) on behalf of The Cameroonian AIDS/HIV Nutritional Health Care Foundation (CANHCF). CANHCF a Canadian non-profit association, aimed at reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Cameroonian population by providing the essential nutrition and nutritional education to individuals infected with the disease. I had previously delivered CANHCF donated food in September 2010, and after having visited the orphanage and having met the children I organized the Christmas event for the orphanage thanks to the donations from friends and family abroad. You can read the recap about the Christmas event at http://ailingshih.blogspot.com/2010/12/cameroonian-christmas-miracle.html

The staff and children with some Easter visitors from Yaounde and Bamenda

My placement in Cameroon will be soon ending and I will be coming back to Canada on July 4^th 2011. I will be starting an MBA/MPH program at Boston university in August 2011.

Before I leave Cameroon I would like to do one last fundraising event for the Good Shepherd Abangoh orphanage.

It is my hope that before I leave I can deliver food to sustain the orphanage over the summer so that the children can go back to school in September healthy and happy and ready to learn. I visited the orphanage the other day for Easter and it was so evident how much of a difference the Christmas food made towards improving the health of the children. Children who before were thin and lethargic, had chubby rosy cheeks and were running around and laughing. The donations from my friends and family really did make a difference in their lives. The Sister who runs the orphanage couldn’t stop expressing how grateful she was to everyone for making such an impact on the children’s lives.

The kids express their happiness over the food

The Orphanage’s need for support for its children continues to grow. Since Christmas the orphanage has received two new orphans. The first is a baby who arrived just before Easter and is only 2 weeks old. This baby was abandoned by its mother at the health clinic right after he was delivered. The second is a young girl who was abandoned by her family because she became ill which resulted in her losing the use of her legs. The burden of having a disabled daughter was too much for her family and so they left her at the orphanage.

The staff and children including the two new arrivals

In order to ensure the children have a healthy summer, I would like to purchase, rice, oil, milk, sugar, garri (porridge), soybeans, groundnuts, and dried fish. These items are rich in nutrients and will provide the children with a healthy base diet over the summer.

Everyone was very excited when the food was unpacked from the taxi

If you would like to donate to my “Healthy Summer” initiative please contact me.

Welcome to Bamenda David Shih!

2011-04-12T04:07:00.000-06:00

Last week I was a very lucky person as my dad came to visit me in Bamenda. I planned a very busy itinerary to ensure that everyone I am close to here in Bamenda got a chance to meet my dad.

David Shih in Traditional Clothing from the North West Region

We started our time together with a bus ride from Yaoundé to Bamenda which lasted about 7 hours. Luckily the bus left on time and it wasn’t too hot. We managed to sleep and read for the most of the trip.

Monday – IDF

On Monday I took my dad to IDF to meet my colleagues. They had prepared a very nice welcome ceremony with a presentation about IDF and a chance for my dad to ask questions. It was very informative and IDF was very happy when my dad presented them with a digital camera and a book about village health care. In return IDF presented my dad with a traditional outfit and an IDF T-shirt. We then went on a tour of Bamenda with the IDF Coordinator to see the local economic development projects that IDF has been working on.

David meeting the IDF Coordinator Madame Oussematou

Out for dinner with the IDF Staff

Tuesday – Bafut

On Tuesday we went to Bafut to visit the Fon’s Palace. The Fon is a traditional ruler and the Fon of Bafut is a first class fon because he rules over a large number of people. He also has something like 58 wives, some of whom were inherited from his father, the previous Fon. They had a very interesting museum at the Palace which showed important artifacts used in traditional ceremonies and by previous Fons.

At the Bafut Palace

Wednesday – Ndawara Tea Plantation

On Wednesday, we visited the Ndawara Tea Plantation which was a very interesting experience. We were able to see the process from picking the leaves to the processing of the leaves to their packaging. We also saw a lot of the animals that are kept on the plantation as well, including horses, cattle, ostriches and many birds. There were also pythons which were huge and had been trapped by local men on the plantation.

At the Ndawara Tea Plantation

Thursday – Ayaba Tennis Club, Abangoh Orphanage

On Thursday, my dad came to watch me play tennis with my instructor Paul. After Tennis I took my dad to the Good Shepherd orphanage in Abangoh to visit the children and the Sister who participated in the Christmas project. My dad had brought school supplies for the children and they were very happy. The Orphanage recently build a large bread oven and has started baking bread as an income generating activity.

Children at the orphanage greeting David

Sister Jane and myself

The Good Shepherd Orphanage Entrance

Paul (tennis coach) and myself

On Friday we headed back to Yaoundé where my dad was to catch his flight on Saturday. We spent the day with Greg and Caroline and ate lots of good food. My dad was happy he had the chance to try Chinese food in Cameroon. Overall it was a great visit and I am really happy that my dad had the chance to meet my friends and colleagues. He was able to see some of the impacts I have been able to have over my time here.

Mount Lefo – Cameroon’s Third Highest Mountain

2011-03-21T09:47:00.000-06:00

Mount Lefo

This weekend I participated in a hike organized by the Santa council in order to raise awareness about Mount Lefo. This mountain is the third highest mountain in Cameroon and it is very picturesque. It is near the village of Awing and the inhabitants at its base are from the Mbororo community. I enjoyed a lovely day with people from the village of Santa and its surroundings, and other volunteers. I was the first non-Cameroonian up to the summit.

Nia and myself at the beginning of the Trek

The early part of the climb

Lots of great vistas

Eventually it got quite rocky and steep

Local Mbororo women waiting at the base of Lefo

Me at the summit

It’s OUR Day – Women’s Day March 8, 2011

2011-03-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

IDF Welcomes Women on Women's Day

Preparation

The theme for this year was “Equal Access to education, training, science and technology: Pathway to Decent Work for Women”. IDF is an organization which fully supports this ambition. IDF has been carrying out action research activities in the area of woman’s empowerment for many years. Some of its activities have included helping young adolescent mothers gain market and life skills to become contributing members of society and able to become financially self-sustaining, through a vocational training course. Women living with HIV and AIDS have also been supported through IDF’s work. Not only does IDF offer community health programs such as the home-based care program but IDF also offers a program in collaboration with the International Labor Organization to empower women living with HIV and AIDS. This program promotes entrepreneurship and mitigates poverty amongst women living with HIV/AIDS in Bamenda, Kumbo, Wum and Bali of the North West Region.

IDF Team on Women's Day

The Theme for 2011

This year IDF celebrated Women’s Day by participating in the Bamenda Parade as well as by carrying out awareness activities around its office. Informational material was given out to passersby and condom demonstrations were carried out.

The Parade

Overall it was a great day and I really enjoyed sharing the spirit with my colleagues and friends.

Condom Demonstrations

Handing out reference materials

The Great Tanzanian Adventure of 2011

2011-02-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

Masai in the Serengeti

I spent most of the month of February on vacation in Tanzania. This was an opportunity not only to see another part of Africa but to also catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. One of my best friends, Anna, and her fiancé, Jeremy, along with Cat, with whom I worked in Ottawa, all met me in Arusha for our great adventure.

Tropical Trails Office in Arusha

First of all I have to give a shout out to our tour company, Tropical Trails, who really made sure our trip was perfect. They not only provided expert guides, porters, and cooks for our trek and safari, but they were also easy to communicate with and on the ball – even knowing about changes to our flights before we did. I would highly recommend them for an Kilimanjaro trek or safari in Tanzania.

I arrived in Arusha on the 4th of February and spent the day walking around the town and relaxing at the hotel. We stayed at the L’Oasis Lodge which was lovely and I would recommend it to anyone. Anna and Jeremy were supposed to arrive that evening but due to some flight glitches (Flight Center is not recommended) they arrived a day late. However once they arrived we were able to see a bit of Arusha and prepare for our upcoming ascent of Kilimanjaro. Cat arrived on the 6th and we attended a briefing with the Tropical Trails people and met our Guide Israel. On the 7th we departed bright and early for Africa’s highest peak – Kilimanjaro.

Kilimanjaro in the background

At 19,710 feet high (or 5895m) Kilimanjaro is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. We were doing the 6 day Rongai route so we started out by driving to the gate to get our permits. From there we drove about 2 hours to get to the start of the Rongai trail. The Rongai route starts out quite easily through some fields and forests where we spotted Colobus monkeys. We reached the first campsite after a couple hours of trekking (7km) and enjoyed our first night of camping at an altitude of 2650m.

The group including guide Israel, assistant guide Samuel, Anna, Jeremy, Cat and myself

Hiking up on Day 1

Day 2 and 3 involved relatively short days of trekking but lovely views of Kilimanjaro as we got closer to its peak. On day 2 the trek continued, through open moorlands, to our camping spot at Second Cave (3200m). Luckily this route is not overrun and re rarely saw others. There were only two groups including ours at the second cave camp. On day three we continued through the fine moorlands, to the Third Cave (3800m). This was the last water point on our route so the porters had to carry water to last us for the next 2 days until we were descending. We were the only people at the third cave campsite.

Reading about Mormons on the climb

Getting ready for Day 2

The group in front of Kilimanjaro

On day 4 wetrekked through the lunar desert of the Saddle, the lava-covered expanse between the two peaks Mawenzi and Kibo Reaching Kibo huts by the end of the day at 4700m. We stayed overnight (if you could call it that) at the Kibo Huts. (4703m). Day 5 began at midnight when we began the trek up to summit. In the pitch black dark we all turned on our headlights and joined the slowly ascending serpent of climbers. This was a very cold and arduous trek. The wind made the chill in the air extremely cold and at times I couldn’t feel my toes or hands. We couldn’t stop for longer than a few minutes in order to keep warm and to keep on pace. Slowly we ascended and we passed the Hanzi Meya Cave (half way to the summit). Eventually after what felt like hours...oh it was – 7 hours... we reached Gillman’s Point (5695m) and saw the sunrise. We then carried on to Stella Point and finally reached the summit at Uhuru peak 5896m.

Kibo Huts

Gilman's Point

On the Roof of Africa

The descent was difficult because parts of the terrain were loose gravel and steep rocks. In addition our bodies were already exhausted so it took everything to stay awake and to concentrate on not falling. When we returned to Kibo Huts we were able to rest a bit and then we had to start walking again to Horombo huts where we would stay our last night (3720m).

Kilimanjaro cactus trees on the descent

The trek was challenging but was an amazing experience. To see the clear blue horizon and to have reached the roof of Africa is definitely one of the highlights I will remember forever.

SUCCESS!

Our next part of the adventure was a 6 day safari. Throughout the 6 days we visited the Tarangire National Park, the Lake Manyara National Park, The Serengeti National Park and the Ngorogoro Crater.

Baobab at Tarangire National Park

The Safari Trucks we were in with roofs that permitted safe wildlife viewing

The Tarangire National Park was an excellent park showcasing the Baobab tree. We were able to see monkeys, elephants, giraffes and deer-like animals (dik diks, impalas etc). The Lake Manyara Park had hippos and zebras which was great to see. In the Serengeti, thanks to our guide Frank, we saw lions, cheetas, leopards, water buffalo, wildebeests, elephants, giraffes, zebras and birds and gazelles galore. In the Ngorogoro crater we saw the black rhinos (9 of them) to round out our viewing of the big 5.

Hippos of Lake Manyara

Twin Zebras at Lake Manyara

A mother and baby monkey

A mother and baby elephant

Queens of the serengeti

Proof that we were there

A drinking giraffe

Cheetah in the Ngorogoro Crater

Sunrise at the crater

After our safari, Cat and I said goodbye to Anna and Jeremy and we headed out for Zanzibar. We stayed 2 night of the beach at the Kenda Rocks and as luck would have it we were able to be there for the full moon party (an all night party with music on the beach). The beach was gorgeous and clean and the water was clear. It was a great place to relax. After the beach we stayed in Stonetown at the Zenji hotel which was a great place to stay (central, affordable and very clean with helpful staff). We visited the market and enjoyed getting lost in the cobblestone streets while looking at art. We enjoyed Zanzibari pizza and samosas in the Forodhani gardens.

At the Kendwa Rocks hotel

The Kendwa Beach

The Forodhani gardens in Stonetown

I flew out of Dar Es Salaam and was able to meet my sister’s fiancé’s family there for the evening. They took me on a driving tour around Dar and took me for some lovely curry. It was wonderful to get to meet such nice people.

Dar Es Salaam with Faizal's Relatives

I loved Tanzania and I will finish this post with part of the Tanzanian National Song which my favourite porter on Kilimanjaro, Puzizi Puzinga, taught me:

Mungu ibariki Tanzania

Dumisha uhuru na Umoja

Wake kwa Waume na Watoto

Mungu Ibariki Tanzania na watu wake.

God Bless Tanzania.

Grant eternal Freedom and Unity

To its sons and daughters.

God Bless Tanzania and its People.

Update 2011

2011-01-31T01:55:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I have been really busy. Boxing Day (December 26) was busy with a funeral anniversary for one of my friend's grandmother. There was dancing, eating and drinking in rememberance of the passing of Ojemba's grandma.

Ojemba dancing at the celebration

Ojemba's mother at the celebration

January has passed by in a flash. I celebrated New years at the Ayaba Hotel. This is the hotel where I play tennis so there were many members there who were also celebrating. This party involved a feast with one of the biggest fish I have ever seen and lots of other tasty foods and cakes. There was a lot of live music and dancing. At midnight the Governor of the region joined the party and we enjoyed fireworks.

Ailing at the New Years Party

Ailing with a Cameroonian artist

This month has been busy at IDF as well with workshops on capitalization and documentation. These workshops are key to ensuring IDF has the skills and abilities to document its projects well in terms of the processes and steps it took to undertake them.

Capitalization workshop at IDF

I have also been busy updating the IDF website which has much more information now: http://www.idfbamenda.wordpress.com/

In February I will take a 3 week vacation to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and to do a safai...blog posts and pictures will come at the end of the month.

A Cameroonian Christmas Miracle

2010-12-27T04:23:00.000-07:00

Christmas is a time for sharing, caring and bringing cheer to those around us. This year thanks to the kindness and generosity of my friends and family from Canada and the United States 123 orphans in Cameroon had a Christmas they will never forget.

Father Christmas Handing Out Gifts

The Good Shepherd Home is an Abangoh based orphanage founded and directly managed by Sister Jane Mankaa. This orphanage has 85 children aged from a little under 3 months to 18. A number of the children they support recently lost their parents to AIDS. The orphanage also has another Annex Orphanage in Batibo, North West Region where there are 38 orphans many of whom are disabled or suffer from epilepsy which is highly stigmatized in Cameroon. This Christmas the children from Abangoh and Batibo were brought together to celebrate the holiday season along with about 23 volunteer from around the world.

Children with their New Christmas Clothes

Father Christmas, who was played by Sayo Victor a local tennis player, also joined the celebrations. He helped distribute some gifts of new Christmas clothing (thanks to the donors) to all the orphans on the 24th so that they all had a new outfit to wear to church for the Christmas eve mass, as well as to wear on the 25th for the party.

Volunteers gather on Christmas day before departing to the orphanage

On the 25th, all the volunteers gathered at my house and then we all proceeded to the orphanage bearing gifts and food. The donations provided food for the orphans which should last about 5 months – 300kg of rice, 100kg of sugar, 50 kg of milk, 75kg of soybeans, 75 kg of garri, 75 kg of groundnuts and 100L of oil.

The children are happy with the food

Parents and students at the American School in Yaounde had donated new and used toys, books and clothes for the orphans. The orphans were thrilled with presents on Christmas as most of them had never received a gift before. The enjoyed choosing their gifts and playing with the new toys.

The children playing with their toys

After the gift opening, everyone sat down to a filling lunch with all the children’ favourites – such as water fufu, chicken, jeroff rice, and of course juice, snacks and candy. After lunch the children performed skits, songs and dances.

The Children eating their Christmas Meal

A little boy enjoys his chicken and rice

Everyone had a wonderful Christmas and it was a great experience to share the Christmas spirit with the children of the Good Shepherd Orphanage. Thanks to all the donors and volunteers for making such a special occasion possible.

The older girls in their new dresses

Thanks to all the volunteers for making the day a success!

December 1st is World AIDS Day!

2010-12-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

Today I spent the day raising awareness of HIV and AIDS in Bamenda. This is one of IDF’s biggest awareness campaigns in the year and this year it was a great success. The events of the week started on Monday with some of our community volunteers visiting clients living with HIV and AIDS who are part of our home based care program. The community volunteers cleaned the clients’ house and provided counselling and education on various issues. Home cleaning supplies were left with the client to ensure that they would be able to maintain the cleanliness.

Amy (VSO Volunteer) and I in our T-shirts

Today, our activities started out with a large HIV and AIDS awareness fair at the governor’s esplanade. IDF had information placards and displays up. In addition, our booth had pamphlets and brochures about IDF, HIV and AIDS and other sexual health issues. One of the IDF staff persons carried out a condom demonstration and we handed out over 600 condoms.

IDF booth at the awareness fair

Condom demonstrations

In the afternoon we gave out food baskets to our clients in the home based care program. They all came to the IDF office for some speeches, educational talks and the delivery of the baskets. They were all very happy and thankful for the food items we provided them with: rice, sugar, and spices. We gave out over 100 baskets and then we enjoyed sandwiches and soda with the recipients and some guests.

Speeches at the Food Basket Delivery

It was a good day all round but somewhat of a disappointment that there is still so much ignorance about the disease and that there is still a lot of stigma. Hopefully IDF is doing its part to improve the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS and to educate others on prevention

Picnic

2010-11-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Today I planned to go horseback riding with Victor and his friend Eric. We departed after lunch from Bamenda and journeyed north east toward Ndop. When we arrived in Sagba where we were to rent the horses we saw many people milling around. We quickly learned that there were no horses to rent today because the muslim people of the area were celebrating with a horse race. We decided not to let this small setback stop our plans so we continued on to find a nice location for some photos.

Tabaski celebration with the horses

When we found a picturesque location, we stopped the car and got out to look around. As a surprise Victor and Eric had planned a picnic with a charcoal BBQ and chicken. It was a lot of fun and it really made me feel like I was camping in Canada. We were a source of entertainment for all the passersby many of whom asked if they could join us. Sadly we didn’t bring enough chicken to include others.

Victor and Eric assembling the bbq

The view from our picnic location

It was a lovely day and it was complete with a tennis game when we got back to Bamenda.

Eric preparing the chicken

Look out World - here come the women of SIDA COOP!!!

2010-11-11T03:04:00.000-07:00

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive in North West Cameroon. I just got back from a three day tour of SIDA COOP projects. SIDA COOP is a women’s empowerment initiative with the International Labor Organization and IDF. This program aims at promoting entrepreneurship and mitigates poverty amongst women living with HIV/AIDS in Kumbo, Wum, Bali and Bamenda (towns of the North West Region). In the program, women can apply for small loans to start up small businesses. IDF and ILO provide training the women on business skills and positive living and also provide counsellors to follow-up with the women.

My Manager in front of the Wum office

The women are quite inspirational; many of them were initially recluse and dependent on other people financially. Now the majority of them have successful small business (raising and selling poultry and pigs, gardens, seamstresses, buying and selling food items and house wares). It is anticipated that within the next few months some women will actually graduate from the program and will have thriving businesses and be completely autonomous.

My Colleague in front of the Kumbo Office

One women’s business spirit was particularly evident through the success of her business. She took a loan one year ago and acquired 4 pigs. She also started a garden where she grows and sells vegetables using the pig manure to enrich the soil. Her pig farm has grown substantially over the year due to one of the pigs giving birth as well as new acquisitions. Currently she has 12 pigs and will sell a number of them during the holiday season which will guarantee her a high price.

Pigs from a pig farm owned by one of the women in Wum

In addition to financial stability, this program has also helped these women fight the stigma and discrimination they used to face in their villages. Many women mentioned how now they are respected as business women in their communities and how they have noticed that they are not as stigmatized. As well, many women have built up their confidence through the program and now speak publicly about HIV and AIDS and are advocates for their support groups.

Interestingly enough, in some areas this program has been so popular that people who are not HIV positive said they were HIV positive in order to benefit from the support ILO and IDF were providing. This led to the requirement that applicants for the project provide their CD4 counts in order to confirm they are eligible for the program. Another interesting result from this program has been the reaction from men who are now advocating loudly to IDF and ILO that they should not be excluded from this sort of program and that it is not only women who need support.

This project was a pilot project and only time and the financial situation of ILO will tell if it will continue in the future. Regardless of its future however, it is quite evident that many women of the North West region have seen an improvement in their quality of life thanks to this project.

Menchum Waterfalls - we stopped on our way to Wum

Rape is a CRIME!

2010-10-27T04:56:00.000-06:00

I am lucky in many ways and this past weekend I learned all about how lucky I am to have never been raped and to live in a country where rape support services exist for victims and where clear processes exist to pursue rapists through the criminal justice system. I gained a whole new level of respect for the girls and women of Cameroon who were brave enough to speak out on Saturday bringing awareness to Bamenda about rape. The presentation was put on by GTZ, Renata and IDF.

Not only is rape not really openly discussed in Cameroon, but often rape victims are blamed for the rape and have even been abandoned by their families because they have been raped. The presentation on Saturday had the goal of bringing awareness to rape and incest to the people of Bamenda because the number of rapes in Cameroon has been growing exponentially since 1970.

In Cameroon 1 out of 20 girls and women have been raped! That is an astounding number and means that there are over 430,000 rape victims right now in Cameroon. Of those raped, 18% or 78,000 were raped by a family member. The average age of a rape victim in Cameroon is 15 years old. Of the 430,000 rape victims, 27% of them have been raped 2 times or more, and 9.4% of them were victims of collective rape.

"Aunty" volunteers from Renata Organization

Rape can be pursued criminally in Cameroon however the evidence presented showed that this was rarely the case. In fact, of the 430,000 rape victims only:

- 32% sought medical attention

- 23% obtained a medical certificate

- 16% launched a complaint

- 7% went to court

- 5% resulted in imprisonment for the perpetrator

Girls and women who are victims of rape are vulnerable to being infected with sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and to getting pregnant. In addition, they face social stigma and in certain cases family abandonment.

During the presentation, rape victims testified about their experiences which was very difficult for them to do and required bravery beyond my comprehension. The young girls stood up in front of over 400 people and spoke about what happened, how they felt, how they and how were treated after. Many of them broke down during their testimonies which was understandable considering the trauma they went through. Many of the girls spoke about how their parents didn’t believe them after they told them about being rapes, or about how it was their family member (most commonly uncle) who raped them.

Public testimonies from rape victims

The lack of understand of rape generally was apparent in the presentation when the floor was opened to questions. People asked questions such as: Aren’t girls who dress sexily asking to be raped? Don’t girls really mean yes when they say no? And don’t husbands have the right to have sex with their wives even if the wives don’t want to?

It is clear that rape is an important issue for Cameroon and even for me personally. Since I am working with an organisation active in the health sector, it is important to understand all issues related to a woman’s reproductive and sexual health. In addition, I live in the region with the second highest incidence of rape, and my neighbourhood more specifically reported between 100 and 150 rapes last year.

It is essential girls and women learn about their rights, about how to protect themselves and about the services offered in the case of a violation. Hopefully my work with IDF will ensure this happens.

Slam! Door shuts on tennis club regulars as rising canadian-chinese star wipes the court!

2010-09-27T07:53:00.000-06:00

Serving up the competition

When you think of the great women tennis players names like Serena and Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova come to mind.....however a new name is slowing making its way to the big leagues. Today Catherine Ailing Shih played in her first tennis tournament at the Ayaba Tennis club in Bamenda. The tournament was organised as part of World Tourism Day and drew spectators from all over the North West province. The tournament started on Saturday where the initial games, quarter and semi finals were played. The final was on Sunday.

Myself and Adeline - Women's Final

There were only three women competing (the lack of women in sports here is atrocious), myself and two ladies who have been playing tennis for well over 20 years. They are older but they had the advantage of experience, consistency and being comfortable in game situations. Very little was expected of me, many of the members had never seen me play. I started the match by playing Adeline. I played well, but I was nervous and I lost the set 6-4. So Adeline moved into the final automatically. I then had to play Jackie. She placed first last year in this tournament and we had been very loudly proclaiming that she would quickly beat me to the other members. We started the game and I beat her 6-2. She is devastated and quite unhappy. This meant I made it into the final but that I would be playing Adeline again. Luckily Victor gave me some extra training Saturday later on in the afternoon so that I would be prepared. We worked on my smash and my volley which are weak parts of my game.

My coach Eric

On Sunday morning I awoke bright and early ready for the match. I headed over to the court and after a quick warm up the crowds had gathered and everyone was ready for the game to begin. I started out a bit wobbly, but as I played longer my serve because faster and more consistent and I was playing well. The first set got to 6-6 and we went into a tie breaker. Sadly I lost the tie breaker (first to 7 points). After a short break the second set began and I was determined. I played hard and well and won the set 6-2. I thought we would play a third set and I was optimistic because I had the advantage of energy and endurance, Adeline was getting tired. However because of fear of rain the umpire decided to do a tie breaker. I started out in the lead but after a couple bad returns I was down 5-3. I fought back to 6-6 and then had two poor returns and lost the tie breaker. I came in second place but everyone was quite impressed and I did better than I thought I would. My coach was happy with my performance and so was I!

The top three from each category

Following the men’s final which took place after mine, there were speeches. The Director of the Ayaba hotel spoke, the president of the tennis club spoke as did the sponsors and the minister of tourism who was there watching. After the speeches they presented prizes. For coming in second I won a hat, a shirt and some money. It was a nice treat. Then there was a photo op and then a meal of Pepe soup (cow intestine in broth). Overall an excellent weekend.

Accepting 2nd place

Although I lost I managed to hold onto my title of the number one half Asian Canadian female tennis player in Cameroon.

Powerful Backhand

Meat is Murder...Tasty, Tasty Murder

2010-09-18T06:33:00.000-06:00

I have always bought my chicken at Safeway or Sobey’s in a nice Styrofoam package without bones and cleaned. In Cameroon, such luxuries are not available. If you want to cook a chicken you go to market and buy it...and no it isn’t cleaned, cut and packaged, it is alive and looking at you with beady little eyes. Yesterday Victor planned to prepare Poulet DG for me which is a Cameroonian chicken dish with plantains and other veggies. In order to make it however, it also required a chicken and subsequently killing said chicken.

Before we killed it

The chicken was purchased in the afternoon and stayed on my balcony until it was time to “prepare” it. While on the balcony it was evident that he was unhappy with his fate as he pooped numerous times to show his displeasure and hatred towards me.

The unhappy chicken with bowel issues

When it came time for the killing, Victor showed me how to hold the chicken and gave me a knife. Up until then I thought I would be able to go through with it, but sadly confronted with the reality of having to decapitate him, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I have a fear that if I kill a small animal I may enjoy it and turn into some sort of Dexter-like serial killer. As a daughter of a psychiatrist I am keenly aware of the fact that killing small animals could trigger some sort of killing compulsion. Therefore I chickened out at the last minute and made Victor carried out the murder.

Victor the murderer

When the chicken was dead we put him in boiling water for a couple minutes as it helps facilitate the removal of the feathers. Once the feather were removed, he was cut up into pieces, washed and thrown into a big pot with a lot of spices and boiled.

The chicken totally naked

The chef

While the chicken was boiling we prepared the fried plantains and the vegetables. After the chicken was boiled the pieces were removed from the pot and were fried in the left over oil from the plantain cooking. Then everything was mixed together. Et Voila Poulet DG!

Tasty dinner

Abangoh Orphanage Visit

2010-09-06T02:55:00.000-06:00

The Cameroonian AIDS/HIV Nutritional Health Care Foundation (CANHCF) is a non-profit association, aimed at reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Cameroonian population by providing the essential nutrition and nutritional education to individuals infected with the disease. I became involved with this organization as a random act of knowing a friend of a friend of a friend. Before I left for Cameroon a friend of a friend had put me in touch with Zepporah, a Cameroonian living and working in Ottawa. She gave me some information about Cameroon before I left. When I moved to Bamenda we got back in touch because Zepporah is part of CANHCF and they were trying to get a project organized with an orphanage in the north west province. Luckily one of my colleagues was able to pass on some contact information for the Good Sheppard Home (GSH) Orphanage in Abangoh. Zepporah with the help of the other CANHCF members raised money to provide a year’s supply of rice, milk and oil to the orphanage. Because the members of CANHCF are in Canada, Zepporah asked me to help with the purchasing and delivery of the food items. So this weekend I delivered three 50kg bags of rice, two 20 litre cans of oil and one 25kg bag of milk to the GSH orphanage to supply them for the next 6 months.

The kids checking out the food we brought when we unloaded the car.

Sister Jane and some orphans standing by the food.

One of my friends from tennis, Victor, who has a car offered to help me pick up and transport the food items. When we arrived at the orphanage a bunch of children came to greet us and went to fetch Sister Jane, the manager of the orphanage. Everyone was extremely happy to see us and thankful for the food we brought. All the children wanted to shake my hand and say thank you and many of the smaller children just hugged my legs. It was a very heartwarming experience. Sister Jane gave us a tour of the orphanage and showed us the main building where there are dormitories for the girls and boys, a kitchen, a mess hall and some other accommodation rooms for visiting volunteers. We met a lot of the children, there are 75 currently at this orphanage, although there is a second orphanage in Batibo (an hour away) where there are another 30 children. The orphanage has beds for 80 children but can accommodate more since the babies sleep with older children and they have old dormitories that they could also use. Two years ago American churches provided them with funds to build a new building which was lovely and is quite nice for the children.

The Orphanage's main building.

I will be going back in six months with another food delivery. I ask any of you would want to donate to a worthwhile cause to consider CANHCF. Although it was a very nice experience to bring some joy to some children’s lives today, it is heartbreaking that children are abandoned there (it is common here for parents to abandon disabled or epileptic children) or are orphaned because their parents die of HIV/AIDS. Some of the children were sick and Sister Jane does her best with her limited income from the poultry farm, but I am sure any donations would certainly make a difference to their lives. We met one little baby who was very sick, who had been left at the orphanage in the middle of one night by her family because it is likely they couldn’t afford to care for her and she is slightly disabled. Here is the CANHCF website: http://www.canhcf.org/

Sister Jane with twin orphans who were brought there when they were 3 days old.

I would ask anyone who was going to send me anything at Christmas to instead donate to CANHCF as the children at Abangoh really deserve your thoughts and kindness more than me.

One of the workers laughing with a baby.

Positive Mothers

2010-08-29T06:24:00.000-06:00

I was lucky to be part of a learning exchange workshop held by NAFI (AIDS fighters) in Ndop a week ago. This was organised by NAFI and VSO as an opportunity to share their experience in implementing the community based organisational development process. Essentially this is similar to the organisational development process of which I am part with my organisation, IDF, however instead of capacity building with a local NGO it is at a community based organisation level such as support groups for people living with HIV and AIDS.

During the workshop we were introduced to some of NAFI’s other projects, one of which is the “Positive Mothers” project. This is a project funded by VSO which supports mothers who are HIV positive. The raison d’etre for this project was that NAFI was seeing that many children were dying before the age of 2, and that a significant number of these child mortalities were children who had mothers who were HIV positive. One of the reasons for this was that the positive mothers were unable (either financially or lacked the knowledge) to provide proper nutrition to their babies. Therefore NAFI stepped in with the positive mothers’ project and provides them with funds to start income generating activities in order to be able to earn an income and support healthy nutrition for their children. In addition, the group acts as a support network and education is also provided on topics such as sanitation, breast-feeding and nutrition.

Although all the mothers participating in the project are positive, only 2 babies are positive. Therefore NAFI is trying to ensure that the mothers have the proper skills to safely breastfeed their children to prevent mother to child transmission.

Me and the two other IDF representatives

This project is still in its pilot phase but I anticipate that it will continue on as there were over 150 mothers identified for the project and who were interested in joining, sadly only about 50 could participate. I hope that funders recognize projects like this one which are conceived from the grass roots level where community members identify problems they face and work together with organisations to find solutions to improve their lives.

One of the support groups we visited

Bon Appetit! Local Cuisine in Cameroon.

2010-08-25T06:24:00.000-06:00

Lately I have been lucky to have benefited from the generosity of my local friends who have been cooking up a storm so I can try their local dishes. On the weekend I had a dinner with my tennis friends and one of their sisters had cooked njamma njamma and beef stew with fried plantains. Njamma njamma is like sautéed spinach with tomatoes, onions and spices. Sometimes it can be quite bitter but Paul’s sister cooked it wonderfully. We had a great dinner at my place which involved a lot of jokes in Pidgin which I am slowly understanding.

On Sunday another tennis friend who missed the dinner made me Ndole and rice. Ndole is more bitter than njamma njamma and has fish and beef in it. It is also made with a green spinach like vegetable. It is the south’s version of the Folere which I made in the far north.

On monday I spent the evening with my new adoptive Cameroonian family. It was a great evening as I not only got to eat some great food but I also learned how to cook some. On the menu for dinner was njamma njamma and grilled fish which had a light curry spice on it. We also had foo foo corn which is like staple here. It is corn flour that has been cooked with boiling water until it forms a ball of playbough like consistency. It has a lovely tortilla chip flavour though.

After eating, I was taught how to make Koki! Koki is a labour intensive dish made from crushed corn kernels. Essentially fresh corn is taken off the cob and crushed so it forms a paste of corn chowder-like consistency. Then we added salt, Maggi cubes (MSG), onions, leeks, chives, hot peppers and a green leafy vegetable like spinach. It was stirred up and palm oil was added. Then the mixture was scooped onto banana and plantain leaves and wrapped up and placed in a large pot which had water in it to steam the Koki bundles. We ran out of leaves near the end of the process and used tinfoil for some of the bundles but they have a piece of banana leaf inside for flavour.

The bundles were steamed overnight and this morning I woke up to Koki for breakfast. It was quite tasty and everyone agreed that it had turned out exceptionally well.

Cry Die

2010-08-21T00:58:00.000-06:00

I had the opportunity to attend a Cry-die with some new friends I met through my godmother who lives in Baltimore. It is such a small world when someone across the ocean can put you in contact with a lovely family right here in Bamenda about 10 minutes by car from my house. I am very happy to have a “family” here in Bamenda now. I can go and visit Susan and Cecelia often and they have even extended an invitation for me to have weekends away at their mansion (house...but very large). I hope they will be able to teach me how to make Djamma Djamma a very nice vegetable side dish that I quite enjoy...but I digress, back to the subject of the blog – Cry dies!

What is a cry-die?

A cry-die is a Western African death celebration to commemorate the life of the person who has passed away. It is not to be confused with a funeral or wake which are separate events which happen before the cry die. The cry die usually happens a day or two after the funeral.

Traditions at cry-dies

The family of the people who have deceased contribute to the celebration by providing food and drink. In addition they will hire dancers and gunmen. The number of dancing groups and gunmen really represent the wealth of the family. This cry die for example had 3 dancing groups and 3 groups of gunmen which is considered quite a lot. However the person who passed away was from a very important family and so an elaborate, funeral, burial and cry die were expected.

The gunmen were interesting. The gunmen were supposed to be shooting at a flag that was put on top of a tree (they don't have bullets, just gun powder, but it can burn if shot too close to someone). However it appeared that after a few beers that many people forgot the instructions of where to shoot and people were aiming at other trees and the house. I couldn't find out the cultural significance of the gunmen, they just seemed to add to the celebration, kind of like a 21 gun salute, but more disorganized. People would just randomly go and shoot their guns.

It was a very loud celebration to attend. The guns are ear piercing and everyone is talking, drinking and the dancers and singing so it was a bit overwhelming.

Although death is always sad, it is nice that the Cameroonian culture has found a way to use it to bring communities and families together. It is also nice that everyone has an opportunity to pay their respects and celebrate the person’s life.

Here is a short video from the crydie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6QNA9ClJGY

It takes BALLS!

2010-08-08T05:11:00.000-06:00

Tennis in Bamenda

What do tennis and HIV have in common? Almost nothing except for the fact that I found out recently that the guys at my tennis club knew surprisingly little about HIV and AIDS and more specifically safe sex practices. It came up one day when we were discussing children, since one of the coaches has a little girl who is 2 years old. Gina is currently being raised by her dad, a tennis coach. Her mom abandoned her daughter and her husband once the little girl was born. I have learned that the daughter was an “accident”, her parents didn’t plan on having her but her dad certainly is smitten with his perfect little princess now that she is here. I am not surprised, she is the best behaved little ever I have ever met. She is content to sit for hours on end watching people play tennis and only asks for attention when she is hungry. The other coaches at the tennis club admire and pity the father, they admire his ability to care and raise a daughter, but pity him for having to be in that situation at such a young age (he is 22). They are adamant that they will not have unplanned children.

Gina and her Dad

They are SO adamant in fact that they proudly tell me that they use not one but two condoms to protect themselves against getting their girls pregnant and to protect themselves from HIV. Using two condoms, or “double bagging” as it is called in most HIV and AIDS articles, only mythically increases the protection. In fact, in reality using two condoms can increase the risk of the condom breaking due to the friction between the layers of latex. I pass this knowledge along to them during our conversation and they are truly dumbfounded. They had no idea that what they were doing to provide extra protection actually was putting them at more risk. They make mental notes not to double bag in the future.

The tennis guys

Unplanned children seem not to be in the future of my tennis coach friends’ future, but what about HIV and AIDS. I ask them what their views are about HIV. Even though these guys are young and progressive I can tell there is still a lot of discomfort and stigma discussing this topic. They tell me that they have never and will never sleep with anyone with HIV. I ask them how they would know? They answer with one word “testing”. Great! They know that testing can be carried out, now the big questions: have their partners been tested, have they been tested? The answer is avoided. The bottom line is that many of them haven’t been tested. They know the testing is available but many of them assume they are not positive but don’t want to know if they are. They fear that knowing will have irreparable impacts on their psychological wellbeing and their social standing. They are unaware of the support that is available if they are positive which is a shame because a lot of local NGOs, IDF included, provide great social and psychological support to people who find out they are HIV positive.

I hope my discussion with my tennis friends has helped increase their knowledge and awareness about HIV and AIDS and that they will share this information amongst their other friends so that slowly but surely the population becomes more educated and aware not only about safe sex practices but also about the support available for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Small Accomplishments

2010-08-03T12:32:00.000-06:00

The last few days have been full of small accomplishments. They haven’t been major events, but to me they are significant and make an immense difference to me and to the people interact with here in Cameroon.

Bun in the oven: Many of my friends have had babies recently… I am not going to have a baby but now thanks to my large pot I can bake buns in an oven. I found a pot that was the perfect size to accommodate my muffin tin and can now enjoy fresh muffins and other baked delights. The pot has about an inch of sand on the bottom to help diffuse the heat evenly.

Tailor-Made: I found a tailor who could take a hideous dress and turn it into a cute and trendy dress. He used a surge machine so the seams won’t fall apart quickly. He also took more than just general measurements so that it fit like a glove. His name is Titus and I will definitely be going back to him in the future.

You’ve been served: My tennis serve has drastically improved thanks to all the guidance from Eric and Paul (my coaches). I now play games against men who get incredibly embarrassed when I beat them. It is uncommon for a woman to excel more than men at any sport here.

Let there be light: I successfully installed an outside light which involved buying a lightbulb, finding out that the light still wasn’t working. Figuring out I needed a starter, getting than and installing it. Finding out that the light does work, but that currently the switch to turn it off…does not exist. Am meeting with an electrician this week to rectify the situation but at least for now there is light all the time in my dark outside hallway which is lovely if I come home and it is dark out.

“Libraries are not made; they grow” Augustine Birrell: I grew a library over the last two weeks…well not exactly but as of today, IDF had a database of over 760 books, magazines, brochures, reports etc… which is electronically in MS Access. I even created an easy to use search function so that the staff at IDF can type in a keyword or title or some other criteria and pull up all the relevant resources. My boss was so happy with it she almost cried when I showed her. She said “you have created what I only dreamed of in my head”. Now I just need to catalogue all their electronic documents….hmmm baby steps.

A pat on the back to me...actually I think I will celebrate by indulging in some of the treats (hot chocolate and caramel) my parents and friends sent me...which reminds me of another accomplishment – successfully receiving mail through the postal system and befriending the post office lady!

“Big Mankon across from the Cathedral”

2010-07-26T05:34:00.000-06:00

This is what I tell a moto or taxi to get to my house or apartment rather. I moved officially on Sunday although it has been quite a process to actually get there. If you think moving in Canada is stressful, try doing it in Cameroon. Here are some of the difficulties that I came across while moving as a VSO volunteer from Maroua to Bamenda and then from the Baptist mission to my new house.

The hallway in my new apartment (pictures of friends and family on wall)

1. Finding a house: In Canada this may be time-consuming but there are resources such as classified, craigslist, MLS and realtors to help you find your dream apartment or house. In Cameroon, these do not exist. My colleagues and tennis friends literally had to walk up and down dirt roads ask people if they knew of any apartments that were available for rent.

Kitchen (the very small fridge will be challenging)

2. Transferring bank accounts: In Canada you would go into your branch and let them know you were moving and ask you for your new address. If they needed to change your account numbers they would inform you and issue you new documents and cards if necessary. In Cameroon, you would go to the bank and inform them you were moving. They would tell you that you didn’t need to do anything that everything just stays the same. When you get to the new city you would notice they are now charging you additional fees, after inquiring about them you would be told that it was because you didn’t transfer your account to the new city. You would then ask to transfer your account, and they would ask you to draw a map to your house and to write a letter to the director of the bank asking to do this. They would tell you that is all you need to do and they will contact you when it is done. One day three weeks later you will try to use your bank card and it doesn’t work, you will speak with the accounts manager and find out your account no longer exists, after some digging they will find your new account number however you need to apply for a new card which will take minimum 3 weeks. Turns out the first person you spoke to at the bank was new and really had no idea how to do a transfer.

Kitchen (Bigblue bucket is full of water in case of shortage)

3. Setting up utilities: In Canada you contact the water and electricity company and submit your information, usually online...and on the date you select, presto! you have water and electricity. In Cameroon, you need to buy a private water meter and a private electricity meter so your neighbours do not try to scam you to pay their bills. To do this you need to go in person to the water and electricity companies (2 separate places), with your landlord and with forms that hopefully the previous tenant filled out. You then need to go to the police station to get a form stamped and signed indicating that your are not a criminal. Of course after you have done all this, the water and electricity company will inform you that they won’t be able to hook up your connections for quite some time...ie. a month or more. All along the way you need to give small “cadeaux” (bribes) to get your paperwork through. In the end your landlord will hook you up to her water and electricity supply temporarily and you just hope that she doesn’t try to get you to pay her portion too.

4. Getting internet: I had “high speed” in Maroua and when I tried to move my account and system from Maroua to Bamenda I found out that they had made a clerical error in setting up my account and had registered me for a different quality of internet service than I had asked for and purchased. Of course it would be more expensive and so I was told I could either pay the $1000 to cover what they usually charge for the faster service or I can’t move it... Remember, this is their mistake and there was no way for me to tell if I was getting faster service because it is much slower than I am used to anyways. The manager in Maroua knew it was MTN’s mistake but told me that it is easier for me to pay then for him to work to get them to fix their mistake. Anyways, long story short, I didn’t pay so I didn’t get to move my system. In Bamenda I have an internet stick which is pretty slow but it gets the job done. I got it from another volunteer who was leaving. I had to take over her contract which involved going to the MTN office and drawing a map to my house and giving them a copy of my id card. Hopefully the contract will move into my name without a problem...but that is a little optimistic.

5. Getting my bags shipped: My household items were sent from Maroua to Yaounde. They didn’t send them to Bamenda because at the time I didn’t know where I was staying. Last week VSO was supposed to drive my bags to the mission and help me drop them off at my new house so I could start unpacking. VSO brought my bags....or at least some of them...some were forgotten in Yaounde and so I had to get them to ship them by bus. When they were supposed to arrive on the bus, I went to pick them up and was told to go to the “Store” to get them. I was told my bags hadn’t arrived. This happened 5 times over the next 2 days despite a lot of questions to the bus people on my part, asking if there was somewhere else they may have been put as VSO kept telling me that they had been sent and had arrived. Anyways after two days of thinking my bags were lost or stolen, VSO has someone from the bus company in Yaounde call me. They tell me to go to get my bags at the store, I go there, they still aren’t there, then I am told to go to Mail Services, I ask the store where this is and they point to across the parking lot. Low and behold my bags are there. I ask the store why they didn’t tell me that I should check mail services, and they reply “please, that is not our job”. My bags had been waiting for me at mail services since the first day I went to find them.

My living room

6. Signing the lease: When I saw the apartment I knew that I loved it and it was in VSO's price range in terms of rent. Of course, the people who owned it had some questions for me the most important being what religion am I. This is always a big issue here. Christian yes, catholic no. But after about 30 minutes about how I could become catholic followed by splashing holy water on my face to bless me, they gave me the ok because "at least I was christian and not muslim and I was white so shouldn't cause trouble"... they seriously said that to me. Thank god for Sunday school and memorizing the lords prayer because they asked me to lead it after we signed the lease.

Another living room view

Anyways, after a long time and many moves I am finally in my new house. My new place is close to where I play tennis and to where I work. I can walk to tennis in about 5 minutes and work in about 20 minutes. I pass the market on my way home which is ideal for picking up food for dinner. My apartment is in a large house and I am in a two bedroom apartment on the top level. There are only two of us on the top floor which is nice and we have a metal gate at the top of the stairs for added security. Enjoy these pictures.

My bedroom - the mosquito net was difficult to put up

Second Bedroom which will mainly be used to dry my laundry unless I have visitors

Bathroom (very cold shower)

NWCA Kola Coffee Tour

2010-07-15T08:28:00.000-06:00

I had the opportunity to visit the North West Cooperative Association today with Michelle, Hein, Dave and Ginette (all VSO volunteers). This is a cooperative society in Bamenda, in the Northwest province of Cameroon, representing over 35,000 individual small holding coffee farmers.

Michelle checking out the coffee in the lab

The NWCA is administered using a three-tier system;

1. The base and primary level consists of the Cooperative Primary Marketing Society (CPMS). There are about 43 of these societies at this level and it is at this stage that the coffee beans are purchased from the individual farmers.

2. The Secondary Cooperative Unions (SCU), of which there are about 7. At this intermediate stage, the coffee which is collected at the primary level is processed and made ready for delivery to the umbrella body which is the NWCA. It is the NWCA that then collects the processed beans, finds a market for them, and gets the products to the ports.

3. The NWCA is the overall coordinator and centerpiece of the entire structure. Amongst other things, it raises funds to purchase the beans (principally through bank loans), and organizes educational and training sessions for the individual farmers on how they can best improve their products. Its objectives are to enhance the production, processing, and marketing of agricultural products of the affiliated Cooperative Unions.

The roasting machine

The NWCA’s farmers grow 2 types of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica makes up about 80% of the total output with Robusta forming about 20%. Although NWCA coffee is organic and fair trade, the cooperative finds the process to get the certification time-intensive and costly and therefore to date has been unable to receive fair trade certification for their product.

The warehouse

The NWCA Kola Coffee plant is impressive with large warehouses and equipment, however the warehouses are virtually empty and the equipment is deteriorating due to lack of use. In the 1970s and 1980s the NWCA exported about 11,000 tonnes of coffee annually. Last year they exported 500 tonnes, a significant reduction. What led to this dramatic reduction? The NWCA blames the liberalization programs in the 90s. Between the 1978 and 1991 the NWCA operated as a field agent of the National Produce Marketing Board, a centrally administered purchasing and marketing organization that enjoyed legal monopoly powers in the NW province. Over the period 1991-1994, the government of Cameroon instituted several major institutional and policy innovations in a process of market liberalization. In 1991 the Marketing Board officially disbanded The NWCA was privatized and obtained rights to market coffee internationally but also became responsible for its financial sustainability, and primary societies became the residual claimant to any profits from coffee sales.

The nursery with seedlings

In 1991, USAID established a fund for NWCA using project funds from the Cameroon government and USAID to fill the void left when the Marketing Board and its financing of NWCA collapsed. In 1992, fund levels were sufficient so that NWCA was able to purchase the majority of the harvest prior to the onset of the rainy season. However, cash flow problems were severe during the peak harvest period, raising questions about farmers’ incentives to maintain coffee quality. Since then the NWCA has had difficulties in securing financing. To aggravate the situation, in 1994 the government introduced autonomous pricing arrangements within the NWCA hierarchy. Farmers still received a minimum price, and the primary societies remained the claimants to any residual profits realized once the coffee is sold on the world markets. The NWCA and the union cooperatives negotiated fees for their services. Primary societies unhappy with union charges could choose not to sell their coffee that year, or sell it to other union cooperatives.

What can be done to help the NWCA? Although many development organizations have come in to help with organizational development and marketing, the NWCA really needs help finding financing and investors. Michelle and Hein did their part today by eating lunch and buying some coffee but if you have any other ideas of how to help NWCA email me.

Coffee (not yet ripe)

A Journey and a July 4th

2010-07-06T02:35:00.000-06:00

My week in Yaounde was enjoyable. I spent some great time with Greg and Caroline along with Karen and Jonathan. I played some tennis, ate some pizza, tried a new Korean restaurant and enjoyed some Bibimbap. I also did get some work done. I spent most days with Greg and Caroline at the VSO office helping Caroline do some preparatory work for in-country orientation as well as doing some work on my project proposal. I am currently working on a project proposal on HIV and AIDS sensitisation on buses. As you may or may not know, the majority of travel between main cities in this area of Cameroon is done by large bus. These buses can usually hold 50-70 people. Now, these journeys are usually quite long and arduous, especially due to the fact that it is not uncommon for salesmen to use these buses to sell their wares. One of the most popular items to sell on buses is ginseng candies which the salesmen tend to convince people to buy because they feed them with false information...such as ginseng cures and protects people from HIV and AIDS. My idea for a project would involve having people give presentations on HIV and AIDS on buses. Providing people with the accurate information about the disease and about how to protect themselves. In addition, condoms will be handed out. So far most locals and NGO people have thought this is a great idea...now just need to find some funding...so if anyone is interested, let me know.

Speaking of bus trips, I had an interesting trip back to Bamenda on Saturday. I was supposed to travel with the VSO staff in their vehicle. However at the last minute they had to stay in Yaounde to finish a pressing work matter so I took the bus. I got to the bus at about 745am and got my ticket. Managed to get a window seat in a 3 seat row...would have been ok except that the two women in my row could have each used 2 seats which made it very squished. We left at about 930am which is only half an hour late – not too bad by Cameroonian standards...actually on par with being on time. The journey was going well until about halfway when we suddenly came to a stop and the driver got out and didn’t come back on the bus...everyone was waiting rather patiently but after 30 min people began to ask the driver what was wrong.. initially he said it would be a quick fix but turns out we had two flats and something wrong with the front suspension. In short, this wasn’t going to be fixed anytime soon...with the black thunderstorm clouds rolling towards us I decided to grab my bags and find other transport. Last thing I wanted was to be caught travelling in the dark which is very dangerous.

I flagged down a car and got taken to the next village. From there I got on a small bus to the next town (Bafoussam). At the town we got dropped off at one end of the town and we needed to get to the other end where the Bamenda buses departed so I had to take a moto taxi...super dangerous as I didn’t have my helmet with me but I was stuck between a rock and hard place, take the taxi and get home in the light, or possibly be stranded in the dark and the thunderstorm in a town I didn’t know. Anyways, as soon as I got on the moto taxi the clouds opened up and rained began to teem down. I was soaked. But I got to the bus for bamenda. It was another small bus and it was already pretty full so I had to sit facing backwards on half a plank of wood behind the driver chair.... But I made it to Bamenda in one piece thankfully. I did however miss the Canada day party that some Canadians were throwing in Bamenda. But I got invited to an American July fourth party at Mary’s house (an American law student doing an internship).

The party was a lot of fun. Mary’s room mate, Lars, is a German DED student, and he made some really good bread that was like bannock. We cooked it on sticks over the fire (BBQ).

Lars and his german bread

Mary with the help of some other VSO volunteers (amy and courtney) had made all types of salads, some veggie burgers and guacamole. She had also had a stars and stripes dress made for the occasion. I wore my Canadian dress to ensure to it was clear that I was from Canada not the US :)

Mary and all the food

The party was complete with S’Mores!!! Philli really enjoyed them as they don’t have them in the UK!

Philli says "More s'mores!"

Everyone enjoying the BBQ

Canada Day in Cameroon

2010-07-02T01:00:00.000-06:00

I have been in Yaounde for the week doing a bit of work here and hanging out with Greg and Caroline. I have been staying at Karen and Jonathan’s house. Karen works at the Canadian High Commission. Yesterday for Canada Day we were invited (as all Canadians were) to the Canadian Residence for Canada day. In addition to all Canadians in Cameroon, most of the foreign diplomats were also invited.

Karen and Jonathan

The Residence had been decorated with Canada flags, and tents (in case of rain). There were bars set up along with hors d’oeuvres platters. We arrived a bit early because Karen needed to be there a bit before all the dignitaries arrived. We met the High Commissioner (Jean-Carol Pelletier) again, last time in March when we had attended the BBQ we had also met him. Dario, the country director for VSO, also attended which was nice.

Karen, Jonathan, Greg, Caroline and Me

Overall the party was a success by my standards...open bar, live music, and lots of mini food items. However the dismal music selection put a damper on the evening. Although Canadian music was on the live choir’s repertoire, only French Canadian and Christian songs had been selected. The lack of Avril, Alanis, the Barenaked Ladies, Bryan and Stompin Tom Connors was felt by many, especially me. Next year I believe the party could be significantly improved if there was karaoke after 8pm once people have had a couple drinks. Who wouldn’t enjoy watching the Chinese and Spanish ambassadors performing a duet to “If I had a million dollars”?

Caroline and Greg by Propaganda (ps.Vote for Canada)

For the special day I had had a dress made. Miraculously in Bamenda my friend Heather had spotted some fabric that had maple leaves on it. So I had a very Canadian dress!

Me in my special Canada Day Dress

VSO Volunteers: Me, Greg, Caroline, Rebecca, Maxime and Steffan

Back to Bamenda

2010-06-08T05:54:00.000-06:00

Well as I had informed you all last post, I was transfered from Maroua to Bamenda. So I arrived back in Maroua on Monday May 31 and was told on Tuesday to be ready to move on Saturday. I spent the rest of the week packing all my belongings and and organizing a moving company to ship my furniture. On Friday (the day before my departure) we had an all day power and water cut which did not make for fun times because it was in the high 30s and I had a lot of stuff to finish up in the heat.

I took the bus with Marjolein and Joost (Dutch couple who were heading back to the Netherlands to see family for a vacation). The bus was pretty uneventful and we arrived to N'Gaoundere where we were to catch the train. VSO had not been able to reserve me a couchette, there were only first class seats available. So I used the hours we had to wait at the train station to my advantage in convincing the train ticket people to give me a couchette and I was successful. I didn't even have to bribe anyone!

Anyways, my couchette was quite full. It was a four person couchette and in addition to myself there were three other adults and 5 children. Luckily I fell asleep relatively quickly for 12 hours thanks to the help of gravol. Our train was delayed because of power problems so we arrived to yaounde about 3 hours late. I met up with a friend of Greg and Caroline's who lives in Yaounde and I was able to enjoy some of the restaurants of Yaounde in addition to playing some tennis. It was great.

I headed to Bamenda Monday morning and arrived that evening. The Bamenda bus was alright and the chairs were suprisingly comfortable. I slept most of the ride.

Now I am in Bamenda and I will be here most likely until the end of my placement. I will be working for the same organization I worked for when I was here in April - IDF Integrated Development Foundation. My new mailing address will be circulated via email shortly.

A Canadian Vacation

2010-05-30T03:10:00.000-06:00

I spent the last two weeks in Edmonton for a little Canadian vacation. It was a wonderful visit, I enjoyed the luxuries of home – hot water, consistent electricity, high-speed internet, and safe healthcare. The reason I traveled home was a wedding. One of my best friends, Callie Smith, who I have known since grade 1, got married...and I got to officiate the wedding. It was truly an honor to be asked to do such a thing for her and Roy and it all went quite well.

Callie's Wedding

While I was home my mom also surprised me with two out of town guests, Barb and Stacey. It was great to see both of them. And of course Stacey and I managed to get up to our old shenanigans. Meiling and Faizal also come out to Edmonton from Toronto to see me and to visit the mountains. It was great to see them as well. Another out of town visitor was my god mother gloria who came out to spend a couple days at the beginning of my time back home.

Me and Gloria

Barb, Stacey, Meiling and my mom

Meiling, Faizal, Stacey and me

Now after two wonderful weeks I am heading back to Maroua. I will have about a week or two in Maroua before I move to Bamenda permanently. Although I am dreading the move, it will be nice to live in Bamenda and to continue my work with IDF.

It was snowing as my plane left Edmonton...and it is high 30s in Maroua.

Bamenda and Beyond

2010-04-22T09:10:00.000-06:00

So I have been in Bamenda for almost three weeks now and I have to say I have been enjoying myself greatly. The organization I am working with – The Integrated Development Foundation (IDF) – is quite an organized organization and I have found that I am able to contribute greatly. Although I was tasked with helping them develop an information management system, when I arrived they were in the process of having their partnership review with VSO and my secondment focus changed to helping them write project proposals. So over the last few weeks I have been giving training sessions on how to write letters on inquiry, and project proposals. I also developed a manual that goes through the whole process (email me if you want a copy). We have sent out a letter of inquiry and we are awaiting a response from the Global Fund for Children. We are almost done writing the full project proposal which focuses on providing financial and psychosocial support to orphans and vulnerable children to permit them to go to school.

Enid (VSO volunteer from Uganda)

Matou (IDF director)

View of Bamenda from the office

In addition to being quite busy with work I have managed to find time to meet other volunteers, play tennis and study for my upcoming GMAT exam. I found a great tennis instructor here who is on the Cameroon National team and I think I have improved a lot.

Tennis instructor Eric and ball boy

My placement with ACDES in Maroua ended abruptly at the end of March with my departure for the secondment in Bamenda. There were some issues that VSO did not feel warranted a continuing partnership and so I will not be returning to ACDES. At the end of April I will be going back to Maroua to spend two weeks while my dad comes to visit. We have plans to tour the extreme north region a bit and visit some of the game parks. Then I will be back in Canada for two weeks to see friends and family. At the beginning of June I will return to Maroua, pack my belongings and move to Bamenda to start a long term placement with IDF. While being here we have identified a number of areas where I can assist them. This is Cameroon and things are likely to change quickly without warning, but this is the plan for now.

Secondment - Bamenda for April

2010-04-04T11:24:00.000-06:00

I will be in Bamenda working for another NGO temporarily during the month of April. Bamenda is in the Northwest province and requires me travelling to Yaounde and then onto Bamenda. Since I was travelling alone this time I decided to fly on Air Leasing to Yaounde from Maroua instead of taking the 8 hour bus trip and then 18 hour train ride. The two hour plane trip was surprisingly relaxing and quick. I am in Yaounde right now and will leave tomorrow morning for Bamenda which will involve an 8 hour bus trip.

Bamenda should be an interesting city to visit and I feel really lucky I get to spend a month there on work business. A bit of interesting information about Bamenda is that is the seat of the largest opposition political party in Cameroon, and so has a large military presence. Bamenda is also in one of the two English-speaking provinces in Cameroon, so I will be able to speak English for a month.

While in Bamenda, I will be working for an organization called the Integrated Development Foundation or IDF for short (they don’t have a website). They are quite an active organization and have projects in the health, local economic development and human rights domains. I will find out more about their projects once I am there, however I gather from what I have read and been told by VSO staff is that IDF is incredibly devoted to bettering their organization. They have been undertaking organizational development on their own without the placement of a permanent VSO volunteer which is amazing by the standards set in the Far North. While I am working for IDF my specific task will be to help them develop an information management system – fancy was to say filing system. I gather they have lots of files and have no idea how to organize them. It may not be the more compelling and interesting work but I am thrilled to have the chance to actually concretely help this organization.

More details to come about Bamenda and my secondment when I start on the 7th of April.

DUST!

2010-03-22T05:52:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday Maroua was hit by a massive dust storm which is still going on although the amount of dust in the air has diminished greatly. This storm is a result of a dust storm in the southern Sahara Desert being swept across the majority of the entire continent. The countries the worst hit are Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon as can be seen by the following satellite photo from NASA (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=43200).

The positive thing about the recent dust storm is that the dust in the air has blocked out the sun which means our high temperatures have decreased significantly. The temperatures have been quite moderate lately which has been welcomed, the dust however has not been welcomed.

This dust storm makes it quite difficult to be outdoors. Moto-taxi drivers have been either covering their heads (all but their eyes) with scarves or been using surgical masks. Even when I went out walking on Thursday I wore a mask. It has been quite scary to be on a moto in the dust storm because the visibility is terrible.

The dust has also made everything dirty. Even if you wash off your table at 8am, by 9am there is a layer of dust again on the table. I actually had footprints in my house showing me where I had been walking because so much dust had collected on the floor. On Saturday I cleaned for about 4 hours trying to get rid of some of the dust.

A picture from outside my house. Usually you can see down the street and you can see the mountain in the background.

Hopefully this storm is passing, I am not sure which is worse all this dust or temperatures of 47 degrees.

A weekend of Funerals and Hippos

2010-03-15T02:21:00.000-06:00

This weekend was fairly busy for me. On Friday evening I was invited to the funeral of Danedjo’s husband’s grandmother. I went to Danedjo’s house were they were finishing the preparations of Dolo which is a drink that is very popular here. It has Maize flour in it, as well as peanut butter, sugar and ginger. It definitely has a distinctive taste and I can’t say I liked it all that much. We brought the Dolo over to the house where the funeral was which was across the street. The funeral involved many people sitting and chatting. They had been drinking BilBil which is a homemade alcohol so after a bit all the old people got up and began to dance.

Danedjo's sister stirring the Dolo

People chating and dancing at the funeral

Danedjo and her mother in law

On Saturday morning a few volunteers and I left for Maga which is a small village about 2 hours east of Maroua. It is near a large man-made lake. The lake was made by Europeans to help the region develop a rice industry. There are hippos and many birds in the lake. On Saturday night we had a small St.Patrick’s day party hosted by Tom and Graham who are Irish. It involved drinks, an immense amount of food prepared by Tom’s wife Aisha, and even a trivia quiz with questions about Ireland, Cameroon and other things. It was a lot of fun. Almost every volunteer in the far north came to the party and most people slept at Mischa’s house (a volunteer in Maga). She lives in the Sultan’s house of Maga and has a large entertaining room with many couches so most people just slept on the couches. On Sunday we woke up early and took Perogues (wooden boats) on the lake to see the hippos.

A cow grazing in the lake

A pirogue of people heading to Maga

People waving from shore

A pirogue with fishermen

Ears and noses of hippos in the distance

The weekend was a lot of fun and hopefully there will be more to come.

YAY for Women

2010-03-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

March 8 was Women’s Day and in Cameroon this is quite an event. There is a special fabric that the President’s wife chooses out and all the women who can afford it (it costs about 13 dollars) get an outfit made out of it. The fabric design is created through a competition where people submit drawings of vignettes and Mrs. Biya (The president’s wife) chooses the winners and designs the overall fabric. This year it was a fairly ugly choice and even had a spelling mistake. The colour possibilities for the fabric were a peptol-bismuth pink, a light green and a yellow. The yellow was by far the most popular.

People are not allowed to wear the fabric in public before March 8 or before Mrs. Biya wears it on the 8th because you can actually be arrested. Also men are not supposed to wear the fabric on the 8th but may do so after the day.

A picture of Mrs. Biya

I was in Yaounde for this year’s Women’s Day and I went to see a bit of the parade. Everyone was pretty excited to see that we (the three white girls) had gotten outfits made out of the fabric. And people were very interested in Greg because it appeared as though he had three white wives. People kept asking him if they could have one of us.

One of the funny things at the parade was that no one had told the women ahead of time that they were not allowed to carry purses in the parade. We were luckily standing right before the parade reached the main drag and so we witnesses many people having to leave their purses with friends or husbands. There were also incidents where police were prying purses from the clutches of these women and men who were drowning in all the purses they had been given to hold.

After the parade we went to have lunch at our new favourite restaurant in Yaounde which is a Vietnamese restaurant and then we went to catch the train and head back up north. The train ride and bus ride back to Maroua was pretty uneventful although it was quite hot.

Me on the train

Mount Cameroon at Porter Pace

2010-03-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

I was one of the selected volunteers who got to travel to Yaounde to attend the national HIV/AIDS meeting for VSO. Greg and Caroline also attended and the three of us decided we deserved a bit of a vacation. So as an add-on to our already planned trip south we decided to visit Buea to climb Mount Cameroon. The morning after the meetings we left Yaounde by bus on a journey that would take us to Buea through Douala. The journey lasted about 9 hours, but at least 2 of those hours we were entertained by a travelling medicine man who was selling concoctions on the bus. He was selling such as ginseng powder which was guaranteed to stop HIV/AIDS and any other disease, it was quite amusing until we realized people were actually buying his stuff and believing what he was saying.

Porters and guide getting ready

When we finally got to Buea we met up with the staff at the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Office where we organized the itinerary and menu for the hike which would start the next morning. We arranged to rent tents, sleeping bags and mats from the office and the porters were going to do our cooking for us. After all the arrangements were done we headed to our hotel – Hotel Paramount – looking forward to a shower and an early night. Note to all future travellers to Buea: DON’T STAY AT HOTEL PARAMOUNT. They didn’t have water, but didn’t bother telling us this, so we never go our showers. Also the standing fan in my room caught fire during the night (probably because it was 100 years old) and they wouldn’t get me another one from another room because “they were full” but they weren’t because when we checked in they told us we were the only ones staying there. Anyways, needless to say the morning wouldn’t come fast enough.

Journey up to Hut 2

Hut 2

We started our trek at about 8:30am. We had 3 porters – George (who was also the cook), Aloisio, and Fritz. We also had Samuel as our guide. They are all from villages around Buea and do portering/guiding to supplement their incomes as farmers and hunters. We hiked for about 2 hours up to Hut 1 through the rainforest on a quite nice path. I kept up pace with Fritz and the other porters. Greg and Caroline were a bit slower because poor Greg had gotten a bit of a stomach bug the night before. After lunch at Hut 1 we continued our journey upwards to the intermediary hut and then reached Hut 2 where we would stay the night. The leg between the intermediary hut and Hut 2 was the most brutal leg of the whole trek for me, almost vertical, with loose lava gravel. The next day we hiked onwards to Hut 3 and finally to the summit.

Journey to summit

Summit

Fritz crossing lava fields

Me on Lava fields

Instead of going down the way we went up we chose a more difficult route through Mann Spring. This took us an additional 20 km from the simpler route. We ended up walking through large lava fields and we also got to see Craters from the eruption of 1999. We camped the night at Mann Spring and then the next day we hiked down to the village next to Buea called Bokwango. It was amazing. I would definitely recommend the trek for those who are in good shape. It was definitely demanding but I was super proud of myself for staying at porter pace for the trek.

Me on the side of a crater from 1999 eruption

Landscape on day three

Fritz and I (me carrying porter load)

Villagers in Bokwango

End of Hike celebratory drinks

Books I have read in Cameroon....so far

2010-02-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

Many people are always asking me what I have been reading lately. So here are all the books I have read so far. Feel free to email me about them if you want to discuss them.

The Last Concubine – Lesley Downer (*****) A great page turner about the life of a Japanese concubine in the 1860s through the Edo period of Japan and the civil war.

The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (**) A story of twins Rahel and Estha who learn their lives can change in a single day. It is the story of love and life found and lost. Very poetically written but you need to be in the right mood/mind frame to read this.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter – Amy Tan (*****) The stories of a young girl and her mother and their jouney to find out the truth about their family and who they are. The mother is brought up in a rural village in China and there is a lot of mystery surrounding her childhood.

Julie and Julia - Julie Powell (*) A culinary delight to read but the story is not as great as I was led to believe. I think the hype of the movie got my hopes up a lot for a Great read but it was only a Good read. I found the letters interspersed in the book from Julia Child not to fit well with the story.

DeKok and the Dead Harlequin – A.C. Baantjer (**) An easy read mystery which takes place in the Netherlands.

Toss of a Lemon - Padma Viswanathan(***) A detailed book about the journey of a young girl Sivakami through to an old woman in Southern India. Quite lengthy and lots of description, not a page-turner but a good read with an interesting story.

The Sea – John Banville (N/A) I did not finish this book. It could not hold my interest or even pique it.

Man and Boy – Tony Parsons (***) A feel good heart rendering story about a man who has it all, beautiful wife, beautiful child, good job, and throws it all away in a foolish act. He has to learn to be a single father overnight.

Man and Wife – Tony Parsons (**) The sequel to Man and Boy. Another feel good story about a man dealing with his blended family. Not as engaging as the first book but an equally easy read.

The Bronze Horseman – Paullina Simons (****) A very riveting novel taking place during the second world war in Russia. It chronicles the life of a young girl called Tatiana who must deal with growing up, love and dealing with the war.

The Last Days of Dogtown – Anita Diamant (*) No where as good as The Red Tent, but an adequate read. The story is set in the early 1800s in rural Massachusetts and chronicles the lives of people who have been left out of history: the poor, widows and spinsters, orphans, New England Africans - both enslaved and free.

The Red Scarf – Kate Furnivall (****) A very engaging story about a fugitive’s journey to save her friend. She unwinds mysteries that not only connect her to her life but help her on her mission. Well written, short chapters make it easy to read in small doses if you can’t dedicate a lot of time at once.

The Last Empress – Anchee Min (****) A captivating historical novel offering an insight into the life of Empress Orchid and the difficult times she faced as the leader who ruled China for more than 4 decades. It reflects historical events and the political decisions made by the Empress and goes father to offer insight into her feelings and thoughts. Well written.

Paper Shadows – Wayson Choy (****) A childhood memoir of the Canadian author Wayson Choy depicts stories from his childhood growing up in Chinatown in Vancouver. Very well written and engaging.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian – Marina Lewycka (**) A relatively enjoyable read about a gold digger who marries an old man and how his family deals with it. Some parts are quite slow specifically the history of tractors.

The Gatecrasher – Madeleine Wickham (**) An easy chick-lit read about a girl who is a gold-digger and then actually begins to develop feelings for her latest sugar-daddy. It is a cute story written by the same author as the Shopaholic series albeit under a different pen name.

Death du Jour – Kathy Reichs (**) A thrilling tale involving Temperance Brennan a forensic anthropologist who is trying to figure out what happened to a family who died in a house fire while at the same time investigating the body of a nun that a church would like to become a saint.

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd (***) A tale set in South Carolina about a girl and her “nanny” run away from her abusive father to a small town where she believes her mother was once. They are taken in by three sisters who run a honey farm.

Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (***) A very action packed story about the Nigeria-Biafra war in the late 1960s and the story of two affluent sisters trying to live their lives despite the violence and difficulties that arise during the war.

Youth Day - Let's Parade!!!!

2010-02-11T07:11:00.000-07:00

Children clapping in the Parade

Today is Youth Day – a national holiday in Cameroon where children and youth are celebrated across the country. In order to mark this momentous holiday there was a big parade today in Maroua. All the schools (primary, secondary etc) participated, it seemed as though it was only the Koranic schools that did not participate.

Islamic school in Parade

The children marched by organized by school and they were all singing songs and some had dancers. We must have seen about 20,000 children in the parade. Enjoy this short video and the photos from the parade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-b56VAELZA

Children Dancing in the Parade

Photographer at the Parade with upsidedown Jesus pants

Bringing some HIV awareness to the Parade

Organizing a Workshop Cameroon Style

2010-02-09T03:05:00.000-07:00

On Monday Pierre told me CARE had asked him to organize the logistics for a workshop they are going to hold in the Far North updating their partners about the Global Fund to fight AIDS. He was told this workshop would take place between the 25th of January and the 10th of February. Funny how he was told of this on the 1st of February!! However, he thought given the late notice the workshop would take place sometime after the 10th of February. So we spent Monday looking over the contract CARE sent and signing it.

We heard very little from CARE until Thursday morning when they sent the money for the organization of the workshop along with the message that it was to take place Tuesday February 8th. Great! That gives us two working days and a weekend to get things organized. So we ran around like crazy buying paper and ink to make the invitations for the participants, markers and conference paper for the actual conference, other materials we needed, and booking a room and a video projector. By the end of the day on Thursday we had some invitations ready to go and got some delivered.

On Friday morning we finished the deliveries and we started on preparing some of the conference documents and planning the reports that we will need to write after the event. At about 10am, someone kindly pointed out that the 8th was Monday not Tuesday! Uh oh!!! Frantic phone calls ensued to make sure people were aware of the date and would show up on Monday.

On Sunday evening I met up with Pierre and another colleague (Adji) and we went to set up the conference room. We had rented a room at the catholic mission which is at the far west end of the city. We set up tables and chairs for the 44 attendees. It is quite a nice location with lots of light and a good breeze. After setting up the room we decided that on Monday morning I would meet Pierre at the office at 730am to pick up the conference materials (paper, notebooks, pens and sign in sheets). Adji was to come straight to the conference room to set up sign in tables and coffee break tables outside the room. Pierre would meet me at the office and then go pick up the video projector and we would get the secretary (Danedjo) to go to the bank and change the large bills into smaller bills so the reimbursements will be easier at the end of the meeting.

On Monday morning I showed up at the office at 730...Pierre did not...I waited and waited. He finally showed up at 8am sheepishly saying he had gotten held up getting ready. I ran into the office, grabbed the materials and then hopped on a moto taxi to take me to the meeting. When I pulled up Adji rushed up to me and asked why I was so late (the agenda said the meeting was to start at 8am!!). I let him know Pierre had been late. So Adji and I set up the sign in table and began signing in some of the early arrivals...oh wait they were the on time arrivals. People slowly trickle in for the meeting...at 9am Pierre arrives with the projector. I ask him where the presenters are and he says that they called him last night saying they were getting into Maroua quite late and wouldn’t start the meeting until about 930am!!! Hmmm, he couldn’t have let us know that before?!?!?!

At 930am the meeting starts and it goes quite well. We learnt all about the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Malaria and TB. It was very useful especially since all the attendees were representatives of local organizations which do HIV/AIDS work and knowing the process to get funding through this fund is useful to everyone. The CCM coordinates all of the proposals that come out of Cameroon and acts and the funnel which connects them to the Global Fund in Geneva. The presenters were two representatives from Yaounde who sit on the CCM as representatives from the Ministry of Women and Family and the Islamic Association of Cameroon. The meeting was targeting civil society organizations to inform them about the CCM and the process for submitting proposals. It was pretty obvious from the meeting that there needs to be a regional coordinating group for the far north province here since many organisations expressed the desire for better communication amongst far north HIV/AIDS organizations and an opportunity to share information and ideas. I hope to perhaps encourage Pierre to take a lead to try to organize such a thing.

The lunch was nice. It was Pierre’s wife who did the cooking. That is a common occurrence here, whoever needs to organize a meeting or workshop will always have their wife or wives cater since that way they can earn some money for their family. We had the regular Cameroonian conference food which was rice, a green type of vegetable (zoom – similar to follere), tomato sauce and hot sauce. Pierre’s wife had also made fresh juices (lemon, ginger as well as hibiscus).

On Tuesday morning I met with Pierre and Sandrine (treasurer) to go over the finances for the conference. Surprisingly enough we were below budget which is great. ACDES was able to earn some money for the coordination of the meeting. Now I have to make sure most of that goes into ACDES’s account and not into people’s pockets.

I am so happy the meeting went well and that everyone enjoyed it.

Visiting Bogo

2010-02-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning I left bright and early (7am) with Greg and Caroline who were heading to Bogo – a small village about 30km away. Greg was going there for a work meeting and Caroline and I wanted to tag along since he was getting a ride in the VSO vehicle and since we would be able to visit one of our friends – another volunteer placed in Bogo.

Cows crossing the field in front of us

After about a 45 minute journey on a very bumpy road we arrived. At first glance the main road in Bogo kind of looked like the side roads in Maroua and if randomly placed somewhere in either place I don’t think I could tell the difference. Caroline and I wandered around a bit and then we sat down for a while and I listened to my audiobook and Caroline did some planning for her blogs.

At 11am we met up with Rebecca the volunteer in Bogo and we saw her house. It is a very picturesque pink house. She lives in a concession with a few other families. She has gotten quite good at Fulfulde since she is able to speak it with her neighbours and her colleagues. She took us for a little tour to see her tailor and to the nearby bakery.

Men from the Bakery impressing us with their strength

Then we ate a nice bean chilli at her house for lunch and before we knew it it was time to go and Greg and Aziz (VSO driver) were picking us up. The drive back to Maroua was quite fast.

I enjoyed my time visiting Bogo but I am not sure how I would fare if I was placed in a relatively remote and small village like that. I can understand why many of the volunteers from villages come in to Maroua on the weekends.

Cooking Cameroon Style

2010-02-01T03:10:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I had the unique opportunity to learn how to cook two typical dishes from this area called Follere and couscous. Follere is named after the vegetable which is it’s key ingredient. It is a leafy green which smells like fresh cut grass. Couscous is not the northern African couscous but it is made with flour (corn, or millet, or wheat) and has the consistency of playdough.

We started our activities on Saturday acually by going to buy the millet we would use for the couscous. We bought it from a sweet old lady and then we had it skinned and then before grinding it we had to wash it and dry it.

Woman and millet De-skinning millet

Caroline had organized the day but sadly she was feeling under the weather so she spent most of the morning/afternoon laying on the couch. Our friend, who we met through my secretary Danedjo, had offered to come over to teach us. Her name is Mairamou, and she is also a member of APAD (l’Association pour la Promotion de l'Autonomie et des Droits de la Fille/Femme).

The activity started at 9am for me when I went to the market to get fresh meat. Mairamou wanted us to make it with dried fish but being somewhat picky eaters Caroline and I decided our first time should be with something more familiar. I bought filet  I then headed over to Caroline’s and we sautéed it a bit. When Mairamou arrived a bit after 10am bringing a ‘marmite’ (a large pot), a couscous stirring stick, and some millet flour (we had bought the millet on Saturday and Mairamou took it home to wash and get ground into flour). Mairamou and I headed back out to the market to pick up the follere and some peanut paste.

Follere Leaves Removing Follere Leaves

By 11am we were back and starting the preparations. We started by sitting the flour out in the fun to ensure it was dry. We then started de-leafing the stems of follere and put all the leaves on a large platter which we then cut into thin slices. We put a pot on the gas range and Mairamou told me to put in some oil. I put in a bit of oil, maybe 4 table spoons, she looked and said that was not enough and she added about a cup. We then threw in some onions and tomatoes and the meat and garlic. While that cooked we finished getting the leaves ready and washed then. We then threw the leaves into the pot as well. We let it simmer for a long time sporadically adding in bouillon cubes, and the peanut paste. The bouillon cubes are called Maggi cubes and people here put them in everything, essentially they are MSG and salt. You can see ads everywhere around the town advertising Maggi cubes because as they inform you “every women can be a star if she cooks with Maggi”.

Sauce at the beginning Sauce once follere added

Throughout this process Caroline was feeling pretty sick and was passed out on the couch for the vast majority of the time.

We made the couscous by boiling water and then adding the flour and mixing it with the big stick. It was pretty sticky and doughy. And Mairamou had to sit on the flour with the bowl between her feet to be able to stir it with the stick.

The follere turned out alright. The meat was quite tender and the consistency was nice (kind of like a spinach sauce. But the bottom of the pot has burnt a bit so there was a scent of burnt flavour and a lot of oil. The couscous is quite heavy and sits in your stomach like a brick. It tastes quite bland. At this point Caroline was slightly more alert as I had given her some gravol however she didn’t manage to eat much of anything other than a couple mouthfuls of the couscous.

Overall it was a fun experience but I am still not a huge fan of Cameroonian food. I like less oil and perhaps less playdough consistency for my side dishes.

Finished Product Eaten

Leave me alone! I am already married....or am I?

2010-01-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

Being proposed to should a romantic moment forever etched in ones memories as a beautiful occasion of love being professed and reciprocated...not in Cameroon. I receive marriage proposals daily whether they are yelled at me from across the street, asked of me from the man selling me carrots, or requested by my moto-taxi driver at the end of my ride. Definitely not romantic, definitely not memorable and definitely not at all related to love.

As a single white girl I am a target for marriage proposals because everyone wants to move to Europe or North America and they see me as their ticket. Little do they know that even if they were to be successful in marrying me, it would still be unlikely they could move back to Canada with me. Canada’s immigration laws make it difficult and expensive for unskilled or under skilled husbands or wives from developing countries to immigrate to Canada. The Canadian sponsor is responsible for supporting their spouse (or relative) financially when he or she arrives. You must be able to show that you have income sufficient to financially support the spouse for three years from the date they become a permanent resident.

In an attempt to reduce the amount of unwanted attention I receive I have began telling people I am already married. When a guy walks up to me on the street and asks for my phone number (they do actually do this) I can politely say that my husband does not like me to give out my phone number and surprise surprise suddenly I am less interesting and the guy walks away. At the bakery when the men who work there try to teach me Fulfulde and they ask me where my family is I can aptly say “Gorko ha sare” which means my husband is at home. I use this sentence frequently in situations at the market, at the banana stand and on the street. It definitely helps to lessen the marriage proposals although some guys don’t care if I already have a husband and are more than willing to still marry me. My landlord for a while kept ‘harassing’ me, he kept stopping by my house to chat, asking me to go over to his house for dinner and inviting me to accompany him to N'Djamena when he travels there to buy stuff, but after I casually mentioned one evening that I didn’t hear him banging on my gate the evening before because I was chatting to my husband who is in Canada, he has stopped bothering me.

Caroline and Greg encouraged me to create a back-story about my husband to answer questions I may be asked such as “where is your husband?”, “why didn’t he come with you?”, “how could you come here for two years without him?”

So let me start by introducing my fictional husband. Meet Super Spy Michael Westen – based on the character from the television series Burn Notice! He is an international spy working for the special forces. He travels a lot and is currently doing some undercover work somewhere classified. Given he was going to be away for a while, I decided to come here to volunteer. His work prevents him from coming to visit. What I like best about Michael is that he has MacGyver-ish type skills and can make a shotgun out of a twig. He and I really bonded over our mutual fondness for yogurt (particularly blueberry).

Anyways, I hope he is still alive. I haven't heard from him in a couple days. He is probably just preoccupied with other things like breaking out of a prison in Turkmenistan.

Mount Maroua

2010-01-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

Mount Maroua

Today myself and a group of other CUSO-VSO volunteers went for a hike up Mount Maroua. The group included Doris and Marcel (a couple from Quebec), Marie-Josée (a lady from Quebec), Caroline and myself. Another volunteer’s friend, Helen, who was visiting also joined u.. We all met near the base of the Mountain at 9am for our morning hike.

Caroline and I on the Summit

It is called Mount Maroua but I don’t know if it is actually high enough to be a mountain. I am doubtful. If my internet was working as I wrote this I would google it to see if it was actually a mountain or not. Regardless we call it a mountain and it sounds much more impressive when I say I climbed a mountain today than if I were to say I climbed a large hill.

Doris and Marcel

We started out going through a little neighbourhood where 4 little boys decided to take on the task of being our guides. I don’t think they had anything else to do and it meant that we would probably give them a few hundred francs at the end. So they led the way for us through the houses at the base of the mountain to the path that leads up to the summit. They decided it would be faster not to take the path for the first part which was a bit difficult because we were hiking on quite rocky terrain which had long overgrown grass on top which made it quite slippery.

Caroline overlooking our neighbourhood

I was a bit hesitant and worried at first during the climb because it is not uncommon for a group of “nazzara”, which is what they call white people here, to attract robbers. A few volunteers have been robbed at knife point while climbing Mount Maroua. Usually they are looking for money but they have been known to take cameras, cell phones and backpacks as well. I had brought my camera because I wanted to take pictures so I was really hoping we wouldn’t be robbed.

Our little guides

The climb up was quite enjoyable once we hit the path and got into a good climbing rhythm. It took us about 55 minutes to get to the summit. During our hike up we could see all the neighbourhoods of Maroua and about midway up I could even see the roof of my house. The view from the peak was incredible because we could see the other mountains to the north of Maroua, the whole city of Maroua and two other smaller mountains to the south of the city which I hope to also climb at some point.

We stayed at the summit for a while chatting, drinking water and eating a few snacks (raisins, almonds and corn flakes). Then we headed down and walk to the other side of town to Doris and Marcel’s house for lunch. She had made a wonderful vegetable soup last night so she warmed it up and we enjoyed it.

It was an enjoyable day indeed.

A Birthday in Cameroon

2010-01-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday, I am 28 years old. I didn’t have big plans for today given that usually birthdays are celebrated in Cameroon by going out for drinks/food with your friends and colleagues and then the birthday person pays for everyone. Given I am living on a volunteer allowance I decided to avoid taking everyone I know out for a meal. So I really only told Greg and Caroline that it was my birthday. This is how I spent my day – WARNING don’t have high expectations for parties and celebrations, even though this chronicles my birthday it is quite reflective of a normal day for me.

Me at my desk at home trying to get the internet to work. Notice the lovely birthday card from my parents.

I woke up around 6:15am hoping to log on to the internet to be able to chat with my family before they went to sleep in Canada. However to my dismay I found that all the internet networks were down, so sadly I could not chat to my family. The network was down all day until 1pm which made work and checking email difficult for half the day. So to fill my morning I did some yoga, ate some oatmeal with cinnamon and got my garbage and laundry ready for my cleaning lady.

Rolande, my cleaning lady - she is great!

At 8am my cleaning lady arrived and started on my laundry. It is nice to have her come and do the laundry since it must be done by hand. It usually takes her an hour to do my weekly laundry. If I were to do it it would take a lot longer though because I am not as skilled as her. She uses washing powder and a bar of Cameroonian laundry soap to scrub the clothes. Then it all hangs on the lines I put up in my second bedroom which is now my laundry drying room. Today after she was done the laundry she also washed my floors and took out my garbage which was nice.

I got a call in the morning from the VSO office that a package had arrived for me. So given the internet was down I went to the VSO office in hopes that their satellite internet would be working, it wasn’t, but I was able to pick up the parcel. It was a lovely box of surprises from my friends in Ottawa. I couldn’t believe it arrived on my birthday what perfect timing (I think they were aiming for Christmas though... ).

Hard at work.

I worked at my office in the afternoon. I had a few training sessions with my colleagues. I talked to Ayouba about writing feasibility reports and I worked with Sandrine on financial management techniques. I prepared a bit for the strategic planning meeting we are having on Saturday. Saturday meetings are not uncommon here especially for ACDES since many of my colleagues have other paying jobs during the week and find it difficult to make it to weekday meetings.

Abdoublaye and I on the tennis court

I had a tennis lesson in the afternoon with my instructor Abdoulaye. He is ranked 4th in Cameroon (although he didn’t compete this year or last year because of lack of funds and need to bribe to place). I try to play tennis 3 times a week, usually a lesson twice and week and then a game with a friend once a week. I love the game and I have been improving. Despite my improvements I have a long way to go, sadly, Abdoulaye’s little 8 year old brother can beat me every time we play against each other. It goes to show where training starting from a young age can bring you.. I was once told by a tennis pro in Bermuda that had my parents enrolled me in more intensive tennis training as a child I could have become a tennis pro.

Birthday dinner with Caroline

After tennis, I headed back to my side of town and went to Caroline’s house for dinner. We made the tastiest Plantain and Corn soup (a recipe we got thanks to Chantal) for my birthday dinner. It was absolutely wonderfully delicious. For dessert we had fresh pineapple. Caroline also had a lovely card painted by a local artist for me as well as a homemade pin cushion.

Plantain and corn soup

Overall the day was not excessively different from most days here, but the package arrival and the pin cushions were nice little surprises.

From Slaughter House to Silver Spoon

2010-01-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I fulfilled a goal of mine, something that in Canada would be quite simple, but here requires courage and determination. I bought meat. I didn't just simply buy meat, I wanted to see where it came from and see the journey it takes from being a cow to being in my tummy.

Greg and I started out at 6am. I left my house (having to squeeze through a crowd of women sitting in front of my gate listening to the Koran being read on the loud speaker nearby) and we walked about 20 minutes to the edge of the city where the slaughter house was.

When we arrived we saw cows being led up to a large cement building which only had one wall and some posts holding the roof up. Once the cows were in the building, they were tipped over and their legs were tied together. A man would grab their horns and push their heads back so their necks were exposed. A second man brandishing a large knife would slit their throats quite deep, almost right through so the knife was hitting their neck bones. Blood would spurt out and the cows would thrash around for a while and then go limp after about 10-15 minutes. The building has no walls on three sides so that the blood and other things can run out of the building into a little moat which surrounds the building and be washed away.

Once the cows are dead their legs are untied and they are skinned. Men also remove their hooves and their internal organs (kidneys, livers, stomachs, intestines). Their internal organs are brought around the back of the building, I think to awaiting carts to be carted to the market since a lot of people like those parts of the cow.

The carcass is hung up from the leg, the remaining skin is removed and the butchers come in to examine which parts of the cow they want. Once the butchers have made their selections the parts of the carcass they select is cut off and they cart it to their stall in the market. Only butchers buy meat at the slaughter house, people like me have to buy it at the market.

I went to the market at 9am to choose my meat. It is sketchy to go later than 9am because as the day progresses more and more flies come to the market and they love to play on the meat. At 3pm you can sometimes not even see the meat for all the flies that are on it. It has also sat out in the hot sun for hours which if I remember my meat lessons is a no-no. I found a stall that had a nice looking piece of beef that did not yet have a lot of flies milling about it. I asked for half a kilo of filet. He located it on the part of the cow he had and cut it out for me. It cost about $2.50. Pretty good deal for filet. I ended up making a beef and coconut milk curry for dinner and it turned out splendidly.

Waza National Park

2009-12-29T01:09:00.000-07:00

I spent December 26 and 27 at Waza national park which is north of Maroua on the way to the Chad border. I went with Greg, Caroline, Marjolein and Joost. We had rented a car and a driver called Bashir (he does driving for VSO). We were supposed to have an SUV to go but at the last moment we could only get a Toyota Tercel stationwagon. It was quite cramped in the backseat on the way there and back but it only took about 3 hours each way so it was manageable. We went through many little villages on the way to Waza and saw many ig trucks bringing goods in from Nigeria. We also saw many men on bicycles with large canteens who go to buy the cheaper gas in Nigeria and resell it in Cameroon.

We arrived in Waza in the early afternoon, dropped our stuff off at our Bukaroos and then went to the park. We had to have a guide with us so we had the driver and guide in the front, three in the bck seat and two in the trunk. We each took turns in the trunk which was pretty uncomfortable. We saw giraffes, ostriches, antelopes, gazelles, jackels, and many many birds. It was pretty amazing.

The bukaroos we stayed in were quite nice. They are round stone buildings with tin and thatched roofs. I shared a room with Greg and Caroline. It was a good thing we had brought our Mosquito nets because they didn’t have any and there were a lot of mosquitos. Somehow I still managed to get bitten but only on my legs. There was a restaurant there which had a patio overlooking the park. The food was alright but pretty expensive for what you got but it is a touristy place so not surprising.

Cameroonian Christmas

2009-12-25T03:17:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas Friends and Family!

Christmas in Cameroon is like most every other ay - hot and dusty. WIth the majority of Maroua's population being Muslim Christmas is not a big deal here, people do wish each other a "Bonne Fete" (most people refer to Christmas not by the French name of Noel but as Fete which just mean party).

Let me start with Christmas eve. Last night Greg and Caroline and I cooked a chinese dinner at my house with chili ginger stir-fry and green onion cakes. It was very tasty despite the somewhat burnt rice. After dinner we went to the baptist mission for their Christmas concert.

The Christmas concert in true Cameroonian fashion started about an hour late, but it was quite enjoyable. Children sang Christmas and church songs in mostly Fulfulde. The only song I recognized at one point was silent night. There was a lot of singing and reciting of verses. There was also a choir of older women as well which was nice. They also put on a sketch which was in Fulfulde so we didn’t understand it but everyone was in stitches so we assume it must have been well done and funny.

We got home at about 11:45pm and I was able to talk to my family on the phone for a little while. I fell asleep easily and wasn’t even woken up by the 4am prayers. On Christmas morning I went to Greg and Caroline’s house and we decorated a plantain tree that my boss had given me. It was not intended as a tree but we figured it could be a dual purpose plantain tree – both for eating and Christmas-ing. Caroline made cinnamon buns which were amazing (the first baking attempt we have made since we arrived).

This evening we are going for dinner at another volunteer’s house – Marie-Josee. We will cook a meal together and then have an early night as we leave early for Waza national park tomorrow morning to see giraffes and other animals.

Crime and Punishment

2009-12-18T03:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I witnessed quite a scene outside my office window. I saw a man on a moto chasing a little boy who was running away. He caught up to him and grab the boy and started yelling at him and hitting him. A bunch of other boys (I later found out to be the neighbourhood boys) joined in and began beating up the boy while shouting at him. They began to grab at his pants trying to empty his pockets. The man had told them that this boy had stolen some of his money and while the boy kept proclaiming his innocence the fact that he was running and the fact that eventually they found money in his pockets did not bode well for him. After about 10 minutes of shouting, hitting of the man’s and group of boys’ part and a lot of crying on the suspected thief’s part quite a crowd had gathered. Eventually the little suspected thief was grabbed by the arms by a much bigger man and restrained. The man who had accused him of stealing put him on his moto with the purpose of bringing him to his parents’ house to sort out the situation since the little boy kept saying that the money in his pocket was his. They drove off, the man quite angry, the boy crying and bleeding and the crowd talking and gossiping.

This event had generated quite a crowd on a somewhat busy street, which of course led to another disaster. A moto taxi who had been driving along the street a tad faster than necessary did not realize there was a crowd in the street and was unable to stop in time and hit some gravel losing control of his bike. The bike flung out from under him right into a crowd of little girls. The driver got up without any significant injuries, but the little girls were crying quite a lot and had lots of scrapes and bruises. The most injured of the girls was carried into a nearby house. I was assured by my secretary that she wasn’t seriously hurt and that is was more surface wounds.

It was quite a day. I had seen a couple moto accidents before but none right in front of my eyes. It is difficult to watch the accidents happen and the beating of children without giving into the desire to go and help. But it can be incredibly dangerous for me to go and help because I am a foreigner and it will be assumed that I can solve any issue (which I cannot, especially medicals problems) and if I can’t help them I will actually be blamed. We are all advised in our safety training to not get involved in accidents such as these. It is so difficult to remain uninvolved because back home it would be seen as negligent if we don’t help someone in need.

On Monday when I was at dinner at another volunteer’s house we also witnessed a mother whipping her child with a leather strap. Evidently he had done something bad and was being taught a lesson. We saw he whip him a few times and then he ran away from her. Eventually she caught him because from the other side of the wall we heard a huge amount of screaming and crying.

There are definitely a lot of things I have to get used to seeing here. Even if I get used to seeing them, I don’t think I will be less disturbed that they happen, at least I hope I am not.

I have a house :)

2009-12-13T00:53:00.000-07:00

The month of december has been going by quickly here and with lots of activity. On December 8th it was international volunteer day and I participated in the VSO event that was organized at the local Club Kaliao. All the national VSO volunteers (who primarily work in the area of Education) and the international VSO volunteers along with our NGO partners attended a day-long event which involved speeches, awards, a comedian, lunch and some soccer.

Here is a picture of myself manning the registration table with another volunteer called Ruth. She is from the UK and she works in a village called Matoua.

I have also attended my bosses church one Sunday which was quite interesting. It is a very different experience from church in Canada. In Canada when people pray they usually do some in a relatively quiet and in their head sort of way. At the church here everyone prays out loud so when the Minister says “say a prayer to thank god for this and that” you have 50 people shouting their prayers to the heaven, flinging their hands up to the sky, and falling on their knees. It is quite noisy and was a bit intimidating for me. It was in French which meant I could follow the service. There was a lot of singing and dancing and the songs go on for a really long time. One of the songs we sang lasted for about 15 minutes. It was a nice experience though but I won’t be going every week. Maybe once every few months.

This is a picture of my Boss Pierre (who is a minister) and his wife.

I have finally moved into my house. It was a bit of an unorganized move given that the toilet was leaky, the gas stove almost exploded and the fridge doesn’t close. I have managed to fix the stove (i bought a new one). The old one had flames coming out of places where flames should not have been coming out. The toilet works as long as I turn off the water supply once the tank fills. The fridge is going to be fixed or replaced in the next couple weeks. It is a large house for me, two bedrooms, a large living room, a kitchen and a pantry and a bathroom. I also have a little yard. I got some kitchen and bathroom cupboards made since I had no storage space and I didn’t want to keep all my food and dishes on the floor. I should be getting internet for at home next week. It will be nice to be able to have internet at home because from 8pm onwards it is too dark to be outside and for a single girl like me it can be quite unsafe. This way I can remain inside and be entertained and chat to friends and family back home. Here are some pictures:

A couple people have asked me about safety here...well I usually feel safe. I find that men don’t harass me as much on the street when I tell them I am married, I feel better at night if I am out to carry my whistle and headlamp just in case. I recently tried to find some new padlocks for my gate but have learned that in Maroua every door can be unlocked if you have three keys. Locks of a certain brand all use the same key and there are about 3 brands of locks here. I was at the market checking some padlocks and I tried my key from my house and I could open almost all the locks. It was a bit disconcerting. But locks are just a deterrent and a hassle people can break in if they really want to. I am happy that my parents are wonderful and are sending me a bicycle U lock for my gate. That should be a lot more difficult for people to get into. I also lock my laptop up when it is not with me in my armoir which has a lock, in my bedroom which has a lock.

World AIDS Day

2009-12-01T03:53:00.000-07:00

Today is World AIDS Day. A day which would probably pass unnoticed and unpublicized in Canada but here in Cameroon everyone knows about it. Organisations have put together events to spread awareness of the disease and the media has released a lot of press about HIV/AIDS. In some cities there will be moto-taxi parades (moto-taxi drivers are a high-rsk group much like truck drivers) and in the large cities of Yaounde and Douala condoms will be handed out, testing will be available and government officials will make speeches.

Some interesting facts about HIV/AIDS in Cameroon from an article by Liu Fang (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/29/content_12560789.htm) :

- Three quarters of women affected by HIV/AIDS in Cameroon are between 19 and 24, three times more than the affected men of the same bracket.

- Out of 35,780 young people tested voluntarily in August 2009 during the operation "Holidays without AIDS" organized since 2003 by African Synergies, 22,500 were boys and 13,280 were girls.

- Poverty is a signficant factor in addition to cultural factors like early marriage, female genital mutilation, and scarification of the body by stained objects.
- The sensitization that has cost billions of dollars against AIDS has had limitations since it has not helped in addressing some of the cultural aspects of some ethnic groups on the African continent.

- Camroon has a prevalence rate of 5.1 percent, which includes 6.8 percent of women and 4.1 percent of men, 553,000 people are living with HIV in Cameroon, where the first case was reported in 1985. The rate is 9.9 percent in the country's young population.

- The Cameroonian government on May 1, 2007 decided to provide the free antiretroviral treatment for the people living with HIV. There are now 136 health training centers across the country to take care of the patients.

Fete des Moutons (Eid al-Adha)

2009-11-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Today (Friay November 27) is Fete des Moutons also known as Eid al-Adha or Aid el kabir. It is a fstival of sacrifice celebrated by muslims worldwide in respect of the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to god.

During this festival all the muslims in Maroua wear their best attire and go to the grand mosque at the edge of the city. They will also sacrifice a "mouton" which is like a ram although poorer families by goats to sacrifice. The amount of money that one spends on the "mouton" is a sign of stature and prestige, some people pay as much as 500000CFA (over $1000). The meat is cooked and shared in the community. Distributing meat among people is considered an essential part of the festival which illustrates the regular charitable practices of the Muslim community.

This morning Greg and Caroline and I went to the mouton market where people were buying their sacrificial rams and goats. Afterwards we walked with the crowds to the mosque and watched the prayer which lasted about 20 minutes. You can see how crowded it was by the pictures I have posted here. The photos definitely do not do justice to the colorful vibrancy of the crowds and the happiness and excitement that was felt by all.

Thanks to wikipedia, here is a brief recap of the story: Four thousand years ago, the valley of Mecca was a dry and uninhabited place. According to Islamic history, the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) was instructed to bring Hajar and their child Ismael to Arabia from the land of Palestine- Canaan - by God's command.

As Ibrahim made ready to return to the land of Canaan, Hajar asked him, "Who ordered you to leave us here"? When Ibrahim replied: "Allah"(God), Hajar said, "then Allah will not forget us; you can go". Although Ibrahim had left a large quantity of food and water with Hajar and Ismael, the supplies quickly ran out and within a few days the two were suffering from hunger and dehydration.

According to the story, a desparate Hajar ran up and down between two hills called Safa and Marwa seven times, trying to find water. Finally she collapsed beside her baby Ismael and prayed to Allah for deliverance. Ismael struck his foot on the ground, and this caused a spring of water to gush forth from the earth. Other accounts have the angel Jibral (Gabriel) striking the earth and starting a spring to flow. With this secure water supply, they were not only able to provide for their own needs, but were also able to trade water with passing nomads for food and supplies. When the Prophet Ibrahim returned from Canaan to check on his family, he was amazed to see them running a profitable well.

The Prophet Ibrahim was told by God to build a shrine dedicated to him adjacent to Hajar's well (the Zamzam Well). Ibrahim and Ismael constructed a small stone structure–-the Kaaba--which was to be the gathering place for all who wished to strengthen their faith in Allah. As the years passed, Ismael was blessed with Prophethood and he gave the nomads of the desert his message of surrender to Allah. After many centuries, Mecca became a thriving city and a major center for trade, thanks to its reliable water source, the well of Zamzam.

In his life, one of the main trials of Prophet Ibrahim was to face the command of Allah to kill his only son. Upon hearing this command, he prepared to submit to Allah's's will. When he was all prepared to do it, Allah revealed to him that his "sacrifice" had already been fulfilled. He had shown that his love for his Lord superseded all others, that he would lay down his own life or the lives of those dear to him in order to submit to God.It is this superior act of sacrifice which Muslims commemorate in Eid al-Adha.

A Moto-Taxi Ride

2009-11-23T00:42:00.000-07:00

Moto-taxis are the main method of transport in and around Maroua. On every street you see men with yellow vests on who are moto-taxi drivers. You always want to make sure you get a moto-taxi driver with a yellow vest and that the number on the vest matches the number on the moto. This means they are part of the official fleet here and it is better for safety reasons as you can report the number if anything goes wrong. When I take the moto taxi from the city to the far away catholic mission (where I am staying temporarily) Greg and Caroline note the moto's number for me. I call them when I get back safely, if something bad was to happen and I didn't call they would be able to report the moto number and hopefully find me.

For 100 CFAs you an go almost anywhere in Maroua. Some of the father places cost a little but more, the catholic mission is 150 or 200 depending on the time of day. Once I was taking a moto who got a flat tire half way to the destination and he still wanted me to pay the 100 francs, I said no and only gave him 50, since he only got me 50% of the way there.

To catch a moto-taxi you stand by the side of the road and make a sound which sounds like "Pssssttt", and you do a one handed clap with your palm facing down to summon them over to you. It is really hard to get one at night sometimes because there are no street lights, so first of all seeing who is wearing a vest is tricky and then seeing if they already have a passenger is difficult.

Almost none of the locals who use motos or who drive them wear helmets, it is one of the signs that you can tell someone is a VSO or Peace Corps Volunteer. Greg, Caroline and I all have white full faced helmets so we have named ourselves the Stormtroopers Moto Gang.

This weekend I mastered getting on and off a moto taxi while wearing a skirt or dress. It is a valuable skill because they are much cooler to wear but when you areon a moto you aren't supposed to show too much of your legs. Some of the women here sit 'side-saddle' on the back of the motos. I haven't been brave enough to try that, it is not easy to balance that way.

I have uploaded a short clip of a ride I took down one of the main roads in Maroua called Kakatare street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0IsC94JDvo

What exactly is she doing in Cameroon?

2009-11-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

A couple people have been asking how my work is going, what I am doing and who I am working for. All good questions and hopefully the blog below will provide some answers.

ACDES is the organization that I have been partnered with through CUSO-VSO. What is ACDES? It stands for Association Chrétienne pour le Développement Economique et Social. In English that would be the Christian Association for Economic and Social Development. It currently does not have a website so if you google it you won’t find anything about it. I am currently helping them make a website so I will let everyone know once it is up and running.

ACDES is a non-profit organization which is based in the Far North Province of Cameroon. Through the efforts of its dedicated staff and volunteers, ACDES strives to improve the quality of life of those who are disadvantaged such as persons infected or affected by HIV/AIDS as well as refugees. ACDES provides micro-credit financing to the disadvantaged of the Far North in Cameroon, thereby alleviating them from poverty and empowering them to be entrepreneurial and self-reliant. ACDES has also run programs to sensitive people to issues around HIV/AIDS and stigma reduction programs.

ACDES is currently in a bit of a predicament. They have not had funding for over a year and so they have not been able to continue with some of their programs. The visionary who started ACDES (a priest in Yaounde) gave some money last year to ACDES to start up a refugee program but without consistent funding it will not be sustainable.

So what am I doing here for ACDES? ACDES and VSO began working together towards improving ACDES’s Organizational Development (OD) in 2008 with the placement of a VSO Volunteer in the capacity of an OD Advisor (my predecessor, Jacinthe). ACDES has maintained the relationship with VSO in order to continue with the OD process as developed by VSO and hence I have been placed with ACDES.

VSO through my contribution as a volunteer is interested in supporting ACDES in organisational capacity building to ensure long term development impact. Through a systematic and structured process, ACDES staff and volunteers will define their organisations priorities for themselves and be empowered with the tools such as good governance, management techniques and various other skills to build their ability to increase the scope, impact and efficiency of their development initiatives.

It is difficult to improve the management of an organisation when there is lack of reflection, awareness or interest. The OD process inspires this awakening especially since our approach is highly participatory. Because staff and members self-assess their organisation (perhaps for the first time), they have an increased level of understanding and commitment towards their organisation. They identify their priorities for capacity building and clearly identify the needed areas of support.

My role comes into play in guiding them the process of identifying priorities and helping them gain the necessary knowledge, skills and awareness in the areas which they identify as needed support and strengthening. For example, for ACDES, they have had a lot of new staff and volunteer members, so part of my role in the short term will be helping them understand what OD is and how it can help their organization, and then eventually working with them to develop and implement an OD plan. Such a plan would include such things as redefining and focusing their mission and vision statements, developing strategies to improve the governance and management of the organization, ensuring that a monitoring and evaluation system is in place for their programs, developing a process to obtain funding for their projects, as well as educating their staff and volunteers on issue topics such as microcredit theory, engagement strategies with community volunteers, and good business practices.

I hope this helps everyone have a better idea of what I do here. Feel free to contact me by email. If you want to “chat” about anything about this or if you have ideas for other organizations which may be useful to approach for funding for ACDES’s programs.

Fulfulde and Future Accommodation

2009-11-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

Before I begin, I would like to ask people who send me emails not to forward large attachments or large pictures for now since at the cafes it can sometimes take a while to download (unless of course they are really pertinent). Once I have internet at my house I will have more time to get larger files.

Fulfulde is the language spoken in this area of Cameroon and it can be found in other Central African countries as well. I received a small bit of training in it during this week’s orientation. I thought I would share some of what I have learned.

Hello: Djam na? This essentially means Good? And the response is Djam!

How are you: Djam Bandu na? I am fine: Djam Koodume

Quite often in the morning people say: A walli djam na? Which means did you sleep well. The response if you did is Mi walli djam.

Thank you: Useko Please: Useni

There appears to be an opportunity to continue learning Fulfulde every Wednesday in the early evening at the VSO office. I hope to participate in those classes since people seem quite happy when you try to use Fulfulde with them or at least know what they are saying to you.

On Wednesday evening I was able to visit my future house. It is quite nice and much bigger than I had imagined. I have put up a few pictures. Essentially I have a large metal gate which opens into a little sand courtyard which has a nice big tree. My house has a big size living room and dining room (although currently it is quite sparse, a short term volunteer has been there so didn’t invest in any furniture). There is a hallway and on the right are two bedrooms although one is completely empty and doesn’t have an electrical socket which makes it relatively useless. I hope to turn it into a second bedroom so I can have visitors (ie. Visiting VSO volunteers from the villages on weekends or friends from Canada etc). On the left of the hallway I have a kitchen which is two rooms, a small one with a fridge and a larger one with a counter which has a sink, a stove top and a water filter. I would like to get some cupboards for this room once I move in because right now there is no place to put any food or pots etc. Also on the left of the hallway further down is a bathroom. The bathroom definitely needs some TLC and raid as it has a bit of an ant problem right now and could definitely use some sprucing up and maybe even a small shelf.

Once I move I am going to try to find a carpenter, a plumber and an electrician to come in to fix some of the broken things. Ideally I will be able to get some reimbursed by the landlord or VSO, but I have been told not to hold my breath. I would rather have a working toilet than worry about and pay for it myself than worry about not having one and fighting with people for money.

Maroua Markets

2009-11-10T01:52:00.000-07:00

I have began exploring the markets here and have found a lot of vegetables that I have not done a lot of cooking with. If any of you have recipes which are simple and don’t require an oven then I would love to hear them 

Things I can find in the market:

Dairy: Eggs, Powdered Milk (it is actually ok), yogurt which I have not tried yet because random guys sell it out of coolers and scoop it into baggies, not a lot of cheese (the imported stuff is really $$$),

Vegetables : Plantains, Beans, Cabbage, Carrots, Zucchini, Onions, Peppers, Tomatoes

Others : Rice, some spices (spicy chilis, pepper, salt)

I can find some other things too but the things I have listed are in abundance and cheap.

This week I am training with the VSO office here. Today we learned about the culture in this area of Cameroon. It is interesting that it is so multi-religious, they have missionaries, muslims and traditional African religions. I also learned that I should never invite a man into my house if I am alone and close the door and my neighbours will think I am promiscuous. I should always have the front door open or talk outside.

Soon I will learn more about the work I will be doing. I found out that the partner organization I am working with has not had funding for a while so I will probably have to really help them develop some grant proposals and requests. It should be interesting.

I have attached a few pictures of Maroua Market areas. The first one is of the road from the mission on the way to the market. I took these pictures around 730am so there is not much traffic or pedestrians yet and the air is not really smoky yet. If I wait until the afternoon to take pictures you won’t see anything because of the dust and smoke.

The second picture is of the tariff circle at one end of the market. I am standing at the end of the market so this picture is showing you one of the roads of Maroua. They are all lined by tress which is nice for shade but keeps the smoky air from dissipating.

The third picture is of the road at the side of the market where you can find small supermarket shops which sell things like cereals, toiletries, and canned goods. On the right hand side is the edge of the covered market.

The fourth picture is of the covered market. During the day starting at about 9am this will be really busy with people selling and buying all sorts of things – paper, household items, foods etc. There is an uncovered market further along and across the road which sells fresh foods – vegetables, meats and fruits.

The fifth picture is at another end of the market. It is called Artisanat and this is where you can buy handicrafts at the market.

The last picture is some shops. LAKing is a shop which sells fabric and so one day I will go there to buy fabric to have some dresses made.

One more packing tip...

2009-11-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

I learned that you should never put "used clothing" as a descriptor on the mailing label. The Cameroonian government has a policy that it goes through all used clothing packages because they are usually for resale and so pretty much the package will never arrive.

2009-11-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying that finding internet here is not as easy as I had thought. I know I promised you all individual emails and skyping but it just isn’t realistic right now for me to be able to do that. I won’t have my own place for at least a month...hopefully by Christmas, and the internet cafes are far and few between with very SLOW speeds. I am hoping to set up my gmail to outlook so I can prewrite emails and then just log on at the internet cafes and send them and download yours and then I can read them in my room and feel a little bit less lonely. Right now, nou will have to make do with the mass blogging but know that I am thinking and missing all of you all the time. And even if I can’t send you an individual email it means the world for me to receive an email or even just a text message from any of you with just information about what you are doing today or how you are feeling.

The journey to Maroua started at 4pm on Thursday and ended at 9pm on Friday. It was quite a trip to say the least. Left the hotel in an SUV and a taxi because we had so much luggage. You can see the picture of what traffic is like on a good day in Yaounde. There were six of us (5 volunteers and 1 VSO staff person). We arrived at the train station and right away we were hounded by porters who wanted to carry out belongings into the station. Our VSO staff knew some of the porters and after a lot of inter-porter fighting we had one porter. He carried all our bags into the station which involved pushing through crowds and crowds of people trying to get into the station but they only let people with reserved places into the station. We waited around being jostled by all the people also waiting. Sadly, even though we had tickets for 1st class couchettes we couldn’t get into the 1st class waiting area because the guards kept wanting bribes to get in so we were in the 2nd class area, although I am not sure if the 1st class area had any advantages it also looked busy and crowded and you had to go to the second floor which meant carrying everything.

We waited for about 2 hours there with no real idea of when the train was coming. Eventually at about 7pm the train arrived (an hour later than it was supposed to be) and the crowd went crazy. The guards had closed the main gates into the station and literally people were being crushed up against them with all the people who were pushing trying to get into the station. I would not be surprised if someone told me people were seriously hurt after that incident. Guards were beating and fighting people away from the gates. We were inside the station and as soon as the train arrived and whistled people began en masse rushing to the train and so many people were pushing from outside the station the gates opened and a flood of people came into the station. We were all watching our bags and waiting for our porter, we didn’t have to rush because we had reserved spaces. Everyone who was rushing was rushing to get a seat or more importantly somewhere to put all the bags and suitcases and boxes they were carrying. Our porter came to get us and led us to the train car.

When we arrived to our train care the police were there and began yelling at our porter. Essentially you get a porter not only to carry your things but also to be a spokesperson on your behalf. The police officer was looking for a bribe or “cadeau” as they call it here. Our porter was telling him we had tickets and could get on the train and the police was saying no we didn’t have tickets. Soon after a while of yelling and pushing a train person came to us and asked to see our tickets which we showed and then he gave the police a nod to let us through. We had one couchette with 4 of us and all our bags and two of us were in another couchette. After the train started to move a lady came by with a menu asking if we wanted food. A couple people ordered some food and got chicken and fruit and bread. I am told it was actually pretty good. I stayed awake for a while, the train stopped a lot for different villages. At each stop you could see ladies and children calling up to the passengers asking if they wanted to by oranges, honey, water, other fruits or veggies. I fell asleep quickly thanks to melatonin, benalyn and gravol  I slept soundly from about 9pm until 8pm, and I was told in the morning that during the night there was a big rain storm and the train stopped for a while so it could pass.

In the morning we had some omelettes from the servers on the train and by 11:30am we were at Ngaoundere. Once again we got porters to help us bring our bags to the bus. We had bought bus tickets on the train by giving our names to a bus representative. When we go to the bus in Ngaoundere there was a process to getting the ticket, a man stood on a box and yelled out the names of people who had got tickets. We got ours and got on a big coach bus which had two rows of seats, one row of two and one row of three. IT was very crowded and had no bathrooms. The bus made about 5 stops a long the way, two of which were for prayers. I only dismounted the bus once to go to the bathroom in Garoua. The bathroom was better than I thought it would be. It was a cement structure with no roof and a metal door and then you walked in and it was a hole in the ground. Better than going on the side of the road which some of the stops at smaller villages required. At the bus stops people would get off the bus and buy water and fish or meat from the vendors on the side of the road. Many people would also sell things through the windows to those who stayed on the bus.

After 9 hours on the bus we arrived in Maroua. We were greeted by a VSO staff person who brought us to the Baptist mission. It is basic but nice. I have a room to myself with three beds and a bathroom. I have attached a few pictures. You can see two of the three beds, I am sleeping under a mosquito net on the unseen bed. I have a small table and an armoire which I have put my bags into. I haven’t unpacked my big backpack since I don’t have any place to put anything else and I don’t want to leave anything lying around. It had a fan and AC (luxury), I still don’t know if I am allowed to use the AC it seems to make the room cost more but I am using it until I have the chance to ask VSO if I will have to pay or if they will. Supposedly it also has wireless internet but that has yet to become evident. My bathroom has a shower, you can see the curtain on the left of the photo, a toilet and a sink which is to the right of the photo. It is pretty basic.

I will be here for one month because my apartment has someone else (another volunteer) living in it until the end of the month. I hope that is indication that the apartment is decent and hopefully I will inherit some household items. It is going to be a very different lifestyle for me for two years. Maroua is almost like a big campground, the roads are all sand, and everything is very low to the ground. Houses seem to be simple cement structures. Even when we went to the restaurant (it was a collection of tables and some huts) people come up to the table and beg. It can be quite awkward because you can’t start giving out money or else everyone will come and ask for money.

The interesting here in Cameroon which I didn’t really think through or expect is that even in Yaounde people only pay for things with cash. No one takes debit or visa or any other method of payment even in stores which are more structural. So if someone wants to buy a car or motorbike, they have to go to the bank and if they don’t have an account use their visa card to withdraw money but they may be limited by the amount they can take out per day and per week by the card provider as well as the machine. It is an interesting system to say the least.

I also want to say that no one should book any tickets to come and see me yet. The over 24 hours journey here has definitely instilled a fear in me so deep that I never want to have to go through the chaos of leaving and doing this trip again. As I meet other volunteers I will find out other travel options to get here or for me to leave to meet you somewhere else. Supposedly there is a 5 hour bus to Chad which is a possibility...I just need to know the safety and security details first. Let me just say that the journey I took – train from yaounde, then bus – is definitely a “never want to do myself again, or have any of my friends have to go through that sort of stress” event. I really think people got seriously hurt at the train station being pushed against the bars.

Here is a tidbit of information about Yaounde a past volunteer we met in Yaounde passed on to us. One day he was walking along the street and a little boy was hit by a car. He was obviously seriously hurt. One of the volunteers friends rushed to the scene to help. The helper was then pretty much mobbed by a crowd and beaten up and blamed for the incident. The volunteer told us essentially that if we try to get involved in any sort of accident like that it will always be our fault. If we provide medical care or first aid and the person doesn’t make it it is our fault. If we provide help and the person makes it and goes to hospital it is our fault he wasn’t cured completely and we should pay the hospital bills. His advice to us was in that situation to just get away from it. He said it is the hardest thing to do (walking away from someone injured) but if we didn’t do that we could end up in a lot of trouble. I know already that Maroua is not like Yaounde, there are not a lot of cars, only motorbikes and the pace of life is less busy. But as a volunteer and being white I always have to be careful not to get into trouble or place myself in uncertain situations. It is definitely harder to help here than one would think. It is useless for volunteers to come here and put into place something unsustainable but that is what we will be asked to do on a daily basis. I am eager to start work so I can have a better sense of what kind of a difference I can make.

This is what my week looks like so far: This week we have in country training which should hopefully help me get a bit more settled. We will have a tour of Maroua on moto-taxis tomorrow afternoon. Monday we have an introduction to the Maroua VSO office, a lesson in Fulfulfe, the a session on culture in the far north. Tuesday we have a session about the work we do in the area of hiv aids. We also have a session on Gender in the afternoon. Wednesday we get a first aid course and a security briefing. Then we get a talk on health in the far north. On Thursday we have another Fulfulde lesson and sessions on nutrition, money, and shopping. Friday we visit the hospital and we meet with our partner organization (for me it is ACDES). Then we have the weekend free and we start work on Monday.

I hope everything is well with each of you. I wish I could write to you all individually but although time is in excess here, the internet connectivity is not.

PS. It was 38 degrees today and it isn’t even the hot season yet. You don’t know hot until you have experienced this African desert. You also can’t imagine the dust.

Small adventures

2009-11-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

I am slowly getting used to the way of life here and not being hit by the crazy taxis which are everywhere. The way toaxis work here is quite interesting. You stand by the side of the road and shout at taxis where you want to go and how much you are willing to pay and if they accept they honk and you get in...while they are taking you to your place they may pick up other people who are going to places on the way as well. Needless to say it can seem quite confusing and hectic and can actually be quite time consuming to get somewhere. You can pay more and have the taxi not pick up anyone else.

Tomorrow we are all taking the train to the North to the city we will be working in. It is called Maroua. Essentially we will take an 18 hour train ride and then a 8 hour bus ride and the bus only makes one pit stop and has no toilet on it. Needless to say I am interested to see what the journey is like but not necessarily looking forward to it.

I did get a cell phone. My number is +237 7014 38 52. I think from Canada you need to dial 011 237 7014 3852 to get through to me. I probably won't be able to reply to each text you send because it is suprisingly expensive for me to text internationally but I will try to reply as often as I can.
I have been getting your text messages and thank you :) I like hearing from home since I am a bit homesick. It is really culturally different here and people aren't necessarily what I would call "nice", a lot of them have agendas and you have to be careful not to be used.

I am shortly going to the market with some friends to try to buy battery backups or UPS for our computers which should help make sure my computer doesn't blow up from power surges. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I have been told that the internet up north is fairly slow. I hope to be able to put up some pictures of Maroua shortly though. I don't think we are staying in our houses for a week or so because during our regional in country training in Maroua we all stay at the Baptist mission. I hope to get internet at my house when I get there but it seems as though Maroua may not have mobile internet until the end of the year so I may have to rely on internet cafes until then.

Some things that are difficult to find here are: decent candy (twizzlers etc), empty dvds to burn onto, burnt dvds with movies and tv from home in english, north american soup mixes and spices, asian spices and mixes, and green and herbal teas.

Tips for sending mail and packages

2009-11-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

I found out that I won`t actually have a proper address so all mail should be sent to the VSO office in Maroua. Also if you would like to send a package it should be done as follows:
1. Put items in a sturdy box
2. Wrap box in plastic bag
3. Use clear tape to wrap around box and bag
4. Cover with brown paper
5. Write on address = I gave this in my previous post
6. Cover the entire box zith clear packging tape

This makes it hard for people to get into the box and not worth their while. Also on the postage label of the contents don`t lie but don`t indicqte thqt the items are excessively valuable.

I am enjoying my training. I still dont have a cell phone and the internet is quite slow so I am unable to send emails to you all individually.

Bienvenue au Cameroun

2009-11-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

After three flights, long layovers and H1N1, I arrived in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon on Saturday evening. In Paris I met two other volunteers who were coming from Vancouver, Greg and Carolyn. They will also be working in Maroua.

From Paris we flew to Yaounde and I have to say I am surprised the plane could even take off with the amount of luggage it was carrying. I think everyone was carrying on at least one or two small suitcases, some of which were so heavy they needed to be lifted into the overhead compartments by two people. When we arrived after the 6 hour flight it was relatively simple to clear customs, we just showed our yellow fever certificate, and then our passport and we were ushered through. Waiting for our luggage was somewhat of a gongshow. Everyone on our flight not only had carried on as much as they could and more, but they had also checked everything but the kitchen sink. We saw boxes of TVs, enormous suitcases, and huge duffle bags. The bags are carried by hand to the baggage carousel so we had to wait an hour for our luggage to come. Eventually it did arrive though and it was all there and nothing was broken or missing.

We were met at the airport by Menge, a VSO staff person in Yaounde. He had brought us a car to bring us to the hotel. We piled all our luggage in the back and then the three of us got into the back seat, with Menge in the front with the driver. We spent the next 1.5 hours driving to the hotel in a torrential downpour. We were in bottlenecked traffic until our driver said he would take another road...this other road turned out to be an unpaved bush road and I can’t believe going down it we didn’t lose the undercarriage of the car because it kept scraping against the ruts of the road.

We made it to the hotel and grabbed a bite to eat. Greg and Carol had fish and I had grilled plantains. Then we went to sleep. It was really hot and muggy. I slept until about 3am and then woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I used the hours of the morning to figure out which lightbulbs worked in my room and which ones didn’t and moved some around so I had a light in my bathroom and one in my room that worked.

Greg and Carol didn’t sleep well either. We were annoyed our rooms had air conditioners that had had the knobs removed so we couldn’t turn them on or off... I even got out my leatherman pliers to see if I could force mine on but that didn’t work. It was only later on today that we found out that a small button on our wall turns the unit on and off. These hotel rooms have no instructions whatsoever... it took me quite a while to figure out how to get hot water this morning too, who would have known you would have to turn a dial on the water heater, then turn the hot water tap to the off position and then pull a plug in the sink...

Today we had a tour of Yaounde. It is a very large city with supposedly 3 million people living here although guidebooks only say 1.5 million. We saw all the government ministry buildings and many many people although we were warned that given it is Sunday it is quiet here and no one is around...if this is no one I am scared to see what a weekday crowd is like.

Tomorrow we start our in country training and I will hopefully be getting a SIM card for my phone and learning about all the wonderful cultural quirks and quarks here.

I also found out there is a VSO office in Maroua (the town I will be living in). So if you would like to send me mail or parcels you can send them to me at the following address:

Catherine Shih (CUSO-VSO volunteer)

VSO Cameroun

CNPS Building

BP 1004, Maroua

Cameroun

The journey begins on Friday

2009-10-28T12:33:00.000-06:00

On Monday I finally got my travel details. I am going to leave Edmonton on Friday morning.

I first head to Seattle, then to Paris and then onto Yaounde. I will do a one week in country training session in Yaounde. This session will give me a broad overview of Cameroon and VSO's programmes in Cameroon. After Yaounde, I will spend a week in Maroua for my regional training. There I will learn more about my partner organization, as well as have sessions on health, nutrition, security and language. I will get a crash course in Fulfulde which is the local dialect.