Mail ME

So I have an address and instead of putting it out on my blog for everyone, email me and let me know if you want it kauleen@gmail.com. I would appreciate anything, letters, newspaper clippings, things I can give away to Cameroonians (which is like anything with Obama on it) or things I can eat or hang in my house. I miss all your faces so photos are always good too! Happy New Years to everyone, I will be celebrating here nine hours before all you California folks.

Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! And a Happy New Year! So these last few days have been kinda up and down for me. I am in my village, but have yet to settle into my house. My landlord is being real slow about getting things done and even with my counterpart’s pressure and me bugging him every chance I get, he still is moving at a slow pace to get my walls painted and mosquito netting on my windows. Right now all my stuff is spread out in three places. I have been staying with the Catholic nuns in village and they have been amazing. They give me chocolate, which can seem like such a trivial thing, but when you’re out in the bush even a saltine cracker can seem like something special. I can’t wait to get into my house cause I have been getting furniture made and what an experience that has been. I have drawn some stuff out, but unless you explain to a T there is no guarantee on what things will look like in the end. And then there is the transport; trying to find someone to go out in the bush to deliver furniture is expensive and time consuming.
All last week I got to accompany my counterpart, who works in the lab at the health center in village, out into the surrounding smaller villages for a week long vaccination campaign. People say that I live in the Bush, but I don’t think people have seen some of my surrounding villages. For one, you can only reach some of them by moto or walking and at one point I had to get off the moto and walk up a hill cause it was too steep for two people to ride up. Most of these villages only have one well at best or they search for water in the dry river beds by digging holes. A lot of the children I noticed are mal-nourished and suffering from water related illnesses like stomach worms. I see a lot of potential projects in these small villages and can’t wait to start work. I am looking forward to collaborating with my post mate who is in agro forestry on some soy and moringa projects (check out this wonder plant that grows all over Cameroon!).
So Christmas here is interesting cause for the past three days there has been this overcast of fog or smoke I can’t really tell, but it blocks out the sun and actually makes it slightly chilly. In the morning I have had to wear a sweater and the moto rides are quiet brisk. It really felt like Christmas for me when I was on a moto and I had this real strong smell of food cooking and I thought that food is what makes my holiday, second to family of course. I’m not homesick at all and the volunteers that are here now are awesome to hang out with. We are making the best Christmas possible in a Cameroonian situation.
I hope all is well with you and yours and hopefully next time the internet won’t be so slow and I can upload some more pictures!

Finally done with Stage

Yes I am still alive! This last few weeks have been crazy for me as I have been finishing Stage (sounds like Sta-ag) and then swearing-in, going to post and now back in the big city for a day.

So the last week of Stage was really hectic as I didn’t pass my language exam and ended up doing 20 hours of language to catch up and take another test a day before I swore in. It happened, I passed and swore-in with my fellow, now I can say it, volunteers and I am officially on my own, kinda. So I left the day after I swore-in for my post with four other volunteers in a bush taxi with all of our stuff piled high on top. We were to make a big loop of the north province dropping everybody off with their stuff and I was to be second to last on that trip. The first few hours weren’t bad, dirt road, bumpy and scenic as much as the North can be scenic. We dropped off one and two and then the dirt just seemed to settle on everything, even my mood. The taxi broke down for a few minutes, trying to make it up a sand embankment after crossing a river and then decided to break down a few more times after that. I made it to my house in the afternoon, ran and got a key from my landlord’s son, kicked some random squatter out of my house, locked everything up got back in the taxi because my house has yet to be finished. I have been staying a few days with the Catholic nuns who hosted me during site visit and now I am in the big city to buy a bed so that at least I have something to sleep on. Village thus far isn’t bad. Everybody is glad to see that I came back and thought I abandoned the village, but translations can be deceiving.

I have my first official meeting with the health center staff next week to talk about my role in village. Right now I see two major challenges when it comes to that; 1) Everyone thinks I am a doctor or nurse of some sort (or possible a nun since I am around the mission a lot and got called sister yesterday), 2) People think I am there to bring money and answers to all their problems, when I am really just a facilitator/community development worker there to help them see the resources they already have or to help them locate resources outside the community. I have a lot of work ahead of me in terms of trying to furnish and empty cement block in the bush as well as opening up a new post and introducing the idea of Peace Corps to the village. Keep me in your thoughts, the next three months will be a challenge, but one that I am looking forward to facing.

My village! This is the mayo (fulfulde for river) that runs next top my village. It is fairly rocky here and you can see giant rounded boulders on all the hillsides, which are a mix of green and yellow vegetation right now.

The fans got excited, but it wasn't like a game in Brasil. There were no chants except for the "Ole" and only a few people had their body painted or were wearing the team colors. There was however if you can see in this photo a man walking around with and areasol can that he was using as a flame thrower. That was pretty intense and my thoughts were shared by the gendarme (like local police) who made him leave.

At the soccer game. We watched the best team in Cameroon, which happens to be Garoua the big city in my province, play the best team in Zimbabwe. Twas exciting, but severly hot. We attracted a lot of attention from fans, but so did the game as Garoua won.

This is on a bike ride I took with two other volunteers....excuse me trainees cause we are not actual volunteers yet. Yes I know the helmet doesn't fit on my head well, but I still have to wear it! I am not the only one suffering through helmet issues, another volunteer is still waiting for PC to send him a helmet that will fit his head.

photos

There are only two pictures right now cause the internet always freezes, but I will try to get more on later.

this is a sunset from the soccer field where we have weekly games on thursdays and sometimes we play ultimate frisbee, but we have yet to convince a cameroonian to join us.


This is the countryside on the road from Garoua to Pitoa. Its fairly green right now cause its the end of raining season, but this will gradually become more desert like each day. They are really only two seasons here the dry season and the wet season.

Obama in Mandama

So this week I visited my future village. It can't be found on any map that I have seen, but it is close to the city of Guider in the North province halfway between the border of Nigiera. Its a small town of about 2000 people, but it has a high school, elementary school, health center and catholic mission. There is no running water or electricity yet, but there are wells and pumps around the village. There are electric poles erected, but the wires aren't connected yet, but there is talk that it should coming in the future (that could mean in a few months or in several years). When I stayed there this week I stayed at the catholic mission where there are three nuns, two polish nuns and one young cameroonian nun. The mission is like a little oasis in the village because it has electricity (generator) and running water with cement buildings. I actually took a shower last week for the first time in a month and it was a little strange. The nuns are great they run a pre-school, something like a boarding school for girls who attend the high school and a pharmacy for those who can't afford to buy medications. Two nights that I was there I heard some strange growls at night. There are three dogs that roam around the mission at night, but I could tell that they were not dog growls. I asked the nuns in the morning and they said it was a hyena. Not only are there hyenas, but apparently by the river there are crocodiles. The nuns then preceded to kid me that if I didn't lock my door at night the crocodile would open it up and eat me. I am told that there are also baboons around that like to come down from the hills and eat the farmers peanuts.

My job for the next two years is to work with the health center in town, which is run by a head nurse and has a total of 8 staff members. I think I will be working alot with the schools and with the surrounding smaller villages as well. This week I got to watch an animation (demostration) put on by a two year agro volunteer about soy. It was like nothing I have ever encountered in the demonstrations in the states. It was a group of 20 women sitting outside under a tree teaching each other how to use soy to make milk, beignets (which are like doughnut holes) and carmelized soy nuts. It was great cause the volunteer didn't really do much in terms of teaching, she organized the event, but the women taught each other and it gave them sometime to get out of their houses and congregate with other women. I also got to see my future house, which is rather big for one person, but has nothing in it. I think my first two weeks at post will be used on trips to Guider trying to get stuff to fill all the space. My house is wired for electricity so if I get a generator or wait for electricty I at least have the option in the future. Even though I am what you would call in The Bush I am only a hour and 15 minute moto taxi ride from Guider where there is internet and a big market. I am excited to start my work and am a little tired of school right now. Just got to get through one more month, learn some more french and then start to learn Fulfulde cause most of the people in my village speak that local dialect as well as Daba. I was told by my future landlords three wives that I had to learn Daba cause that is what they speak.

OBAMA!!!!!!!

Interesting side note about Obama and his influence in Cameroon. Even though my village doesn't have electricty and is in the bush they all knew before I did that he had won. Obama is popular everywhere in Cameroon. In the big cities there are clubs devoted to him and in cities people have put up pictures of him in there stores and boutiques. As soon as I mention that I am american the next thing out of a cameroonians mouth is his name. The general impression that I get from people is that he is not only the future president of the US, but that he is the future president of the world and all those looking for hope that change will come to their country and lives. I too have hope that when I return in two years things will have changed, if even for a little bit, for the better.

The internet is working!

10/25/08

So I have officially ended my first month with PC and my fifth week of training. It has been a struggle with the language, but also with the classes. My motivation is dropping almost everyday and sometimes I feel the only thing that is keeping me going is my homestay family. I come home from 8 hours at school where I spoke french for usually 4 of those hours and I am a little sick of it. Maybe this is because I am still getting used to a structured environment where for two years I was used to running my own life. I hear what I am going through is normal in what we call stage (sounds like staag in french). My homestay family is great cause they are patient with me but also make me laugh everyday. The other day my oldest sister who is visting from a town in the extreme north asked why I didn't braid my hair like an African women. I tried to explain that I had a tender head, but that definitly got lost in translation. She asked again the two days later and then my other sister told me that one of these days she was going to trap me, sit me down and braid my hair. I finally relented last week and she gave me corn rows. I noticed a change in how the women that I pass on the street greeted me. More people smiled, more guys hissed and people told me I was tres jolie (very pretty). Next time my sister says that she is going to make me wear traditional dress, but I told her not to push it.

I have gotten into a routine here. During the week I have class and when we can after school we go to a bar and have a beer. There are a few bars that we have claimed as our own here. One where we are hidden in the back room so people don't stare and call us Nasaras. And here I am a Nasara (which I believe I explained before as a white person or foriegner) or I have also been getting something like Mista, which I have interpreted as mixed. The other bar is a restuarnt too and has these cool little tiki huts. Two weeks ago some singers from the Chad refugee camp that is down the road from our village held a fundraiser there, which some of the trainees attended. This is also where we have chosen to hold our Halloween party, which I am super excited for cause we are getting it catered and going to put together some cds to play. Saturdays we have class until noon, but then after that we have free time, which I usually spend in Garoua trying to use internet. I say try because the power may or may not be on and I might spend my entire time moto-taxing the city trying to find a place that is open and isn't slow. Sundays are either church, market day, clothes washing or another attempt at the internet in Garoua. The church services are pretty much the same here as they are in the states. Although I can't unerstand a majority of what they are saying I can pinpoint where we are in the service cause it is the same as my church back home. The first sunday I went to church I had four children in tow who all naturally wanted to sit next to me. It was hard paying attention cause they were bored out of their minds and wanted to play with my watch and my purse and any lose strings that were hanging off my dress. But I did take communion, which I hear impressed some other families cause not everyone at the church is baptised. The market day here is amazing. I still yet to travel the entire market, which is literally held a 5 minute walk from my house. You can get anything there, foods, clothing, household items, but so far I have only bought two pairs of scoccer shorts and some pagne (traditional African fabric, which sunny can sometimes be made in China). I still have not negotiated well with the vendors. My sister got me a good price for my pagne, but I got tooken for my soccer shorts. Before I left to buy them I asked my sister how much they were. She told me 2000 franc so when I got there thats exactly what the merchant said so I thought he was giving me the correct price. Turns out they are really around 500 franc each. I think I should have asked my sister how much would she pay for shorts. You just have to assume with some items like clothing that you are going to get qouted the Nasara price and you have to do some good natured arguing to get the right price. I have heard some other trainees say its tough, but it can be fun. I remember bargaining with taxi drivers in brasil and I didn't like it at first cause my portuguese was bad, but after a while it becomes fun. Clothes washing has become a weekly tradition as well. At first I was sweating so much that I had to wash my clothes after two wears, but I feel my body is adjusting and the weather is getting a little cooler. My bucket is my everything here. WheneverI need to take a bath, wash my hair (which is done seperately sitting on a chair next to my bucket and pouring water over my head because I don't really want to stand naked for an hour next to my latrine hole) or wash my clothes I use my bucket. You can only wash about ten or less pairs of clothes at a time and when you got whites and colors on the same day you could be sitting out there for two hours. So bucket washing is like this, let the clothes soak for an hour in detergent and then take your big block of soap and lather up one piece of clothing at a time. then you have to commence rubbing every inch of said clothing together to really get it clean. Then I have to ring out my clothes and place them in clean water and I do that about five times dumping out soapy water each time until all the soap is out of my clothes. Its a workout, if nothing else. Then I hang them on the line to dry, which can happen in a matter of hours, but I have to leave them hanging up in the sun for a few days because there is a fly here that likes to lay eggs in the wet clothing. If you don't give your clothes time to dry and kill the eggs they can burrow into your skin and incuabte there until its time to come out. I am extra extra careful to let my clothes dry for four days before I wear any of them however so please no one freak out.

Next week I get to find out where I will be post for the next two years and I am excited. Well until next time blog family. Please leave comments or messages so I can have something to read when I get to the internet.

So its been a while blog family. I haven't had access to the internet until just now and I had to take a taxi and a moto taxi to get to a town with internet. Its been about two weeks in my homestay family and things are going realitvely well. I live in a compound style housing situation where you walk in through a huge metal door into a courtyard and off the courtyard are several houses. I live with about six adults and three children, but I have my own room. There is a couple with two small children who are my homestay parents. They are a fairly young couple, the dad is a plumber and the mother a housewife, which is the norm. I also have two sisters, the older one is the one is basically takes care of me. She was a teacher, but now works as a seamstress. She even made me a dress when I brought her some cloth, which they call Pagne. Its an american style dress cause I will have many opportunities to get cameroonian style dresses made in the future. I have a younger sister who is great she is engaged I think or is dating someone, but I am not sure what that entails here. Basically my days are full with school even on saturdays. We are just now getting into the nitty gritty of our learning. Last week we learn water and food contamination and ways to prevent it and how to teach cameroonians with different non-verbal communication techniques. Interesting things to note thus far are that they call all white people or foreigners Nasara, even me cause I am white and they can tell I'm not from around here. THe landscape is beautiful outside the town when you are traveling from little city to city. The moto taxis are a bit scarry, but they gave us helmets which makes us stand out even more. The people are very patient with me and my french skills which are seriously lacking and I will be learning Fulfulde which is the local language here. Got to run my internet is going to run out. PEACE

The Eagle has landed

I'm here. So we flew into Douala on Saturday which is suppose to be the econmic capital of Cameroon. We spent q night there before we headed to Yaounde where we are currently staying until tomorrow before we head up north for our homestays and 3 month training. So far we have been in classes all day learning about safety and security; cleaning water to drink and for food prep and a little about our programs; which for me is a community health volunteer. We have many more all day sessions coming up for the next 3 months. I am here with 29 other Peace Corps volunteers; which are split between agroforestry and health. Everyone comes from very diverse backgrounds and from all over the US and even two internationals from Canada and Germany. So far our trainers have been very helpful and friendly especiqlly our drivers who take us from our hotel to the Peace Corps office. Let me tell you; you thought that traffic is bad at home; but here there are no trqffic lights and its some what of a free for all; get in where you fit in kind of roadway. Despite that though they make it work; I have yet to see an accident and they are generally cautious drivers. The landscape is beautiful. On the way from Douala to Yaounde we passed through many green areas with beautiful tall trees and sprawling ivy. Right now we are in the rqining season and I can see why its so lush. This is not to be the case up north where it is dry and but I hear even more beautiful then where I am now. more to come later when I can use an American key board and type faster. PEACE

Hello friends and family!  Some of you have tried to comment on my posts, but could not.  I recently had that feature disabled because my blog is public and anyone on the internet has access to it.  I opened it up to anyone, but will be monitoring all comments before they appear on my blog to weed out any bad eggs.  On another note tomorrow is the day!  I am starting to get nervous, but I know thats part of the process.  My next blog will be from Cameroon (yes very exciting).  I love you all for being so supportive, keep me in your prayers and thoughts.

Last day in Sac

So just want to thank all of you for your words of wisdom and encouragement. I will take them with me and hold them in my heart all through my days in Cameroon. Hopefully I will be sending my next message from the continent of Africa. Love and Peace to all of you and keep me in your prayers.

On the Homefront

It will be officially 3 weeks tomorrow until I leave for the Peace Corps. I leave on September 16th at 8:15am to head to Philly for my staging. Staging is where I turn in all my last bits of paperwork and get my shots with all my fellow Cameroon volunteers before we head off to the country. So I found out yesterday that our 3 month training will be in Garoua in the northern province and that is where most of the volunteers will be posted. They say I won't know where my final post is until late October/early November.

So I have been overloaded in the last couple of days with a crap load of PC (Peace Corps) reading material. Its a little daunting, especially when you read how it will be natural to feel homesick, physically sick, useless, overwhelmed, underwhelmed and all around confused. Just a few weeks ago I felt like I had so much free time I could go out and kick rocks for entertainment, but now I am painfully aware of all the things that I now need to do before I go. Although there is a lot to do I am confident that I can get it all done before I leave and hey, if I don't it will all work its self out in the end.