Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
The last few weeks have been fun and stressful. Fun because my friend that I worked with from camp 3 years ago in California came to Tourningal for 2.5 weeks. It was quite the experience to have a “post-mate” and to have another American live life in Tourningal. Angelina, or Aissatou in Tourningal, was an amazing guest. We complimented each other incredibly—she would prepare tasty meals and help me out doing presentations and cleaning the house.
The weeks were Stressful because I had to organize a seminar for HIV/AIDS for 15 health liaisons from surrounding villages. In addition, I organized activities for International AIDS day, December 1st. Being a community health education volunteer, I see International AIDS day as a pretty important platform to lance education. Planning events and seminars is frankly fatiguing. Running around and having to organize the venue, food and drink, presenters, transport, money issues, etc not including the overall context of what will be presenting, led to many nights of not-getting-as-much-sleep-as-I-normally-get-in-village. (ok…not getting a lot of sleep here is about 7 hours/night).
I felt like the seminar was a very pivotal event for organizing my last year in Tourningal. It entailed inviting all of the health liaisons from surrounding communities that serve as educators between Tournignal’s health center and their villages. UNICEF cut funding for the health-liason program that they used to finance, thus for the past year there have been no formations or tangible ways to “motivate” the health volunteers…always a point of contention. If the volunteers do not even get money for transport how can they do presentations in rural villages that are sometimes 20 km.away or even go to Tournignal to do follow-up? The program started by UNICEF was superb from a community health perspective—forming dynamic, over individuals in every community as relays. But like so many other initiatives lanced by NGOs, this one has also seen its’ doom. Thus, one of my counterparts’ and myself thought it necessary to organize this get-together to, simply put, motivate and re-energize the workers. We did such fun things as; action plans, ways to work together as health volunteers, problems and solutions that they face; as well as, HIV/AIDS reiteration, condom demonstrations, etc. Needless to say, it really does feel worthwhile to work with these village health care educators. I love it.
For World AIDS day I unfortunately will not be in village. However, I took a very optimistic approach and put the work onto some of my counterparts in village, hoping that they will indeed follow through with my orders. All of the students in my middle school have an essay contest that they can choose to partake in revolving around how their country, community and themselves personally can improve the state of HIV/AIDS in Cameroon. I hope they do the contest.
On non-work related terms, currently, I’m in Yaounde where I just finished my mid-service health exams. It was quite the memorable experience having to do routine fecal exams. Thankfully I do have latent TB, unlike one of my PC friends here who has to start a 9 month medical process.
Today is Thanksgiving, even here in Cameroon. It was interesting explaining to the Cameroonians the history behind Thanksgiving with their history of European exploration/colonization. We are invited to an ex-pat and ex-PCV’s house for grub and good times/watching football (do not miss). I want to quickly say my thanks to so many friends and family from back home that have kept in touch. I truly feel blessed to have had this eye-opening, learning experience and only hope that my second year is as worthwhile and happy as the first. I also feel blessed for all my friends and family back home in the USA and here in Cameroon.
Happy, happy Thanksgiving. Love, ali

HIV/AIDS seminar in Tourningal

Our health stage group, over one year later, posing during mid-service.

"Chucky" in my backyard in the midst of helping me with my soy harvest.

My community praying before the Ramaddan celebration. The Women are in the back.

My baby and I. I'm sporting my bright, lime-green Ramaddan ensemble.

Election Galore

Happy Belated Election!!!!It has been a while since I’ve had a substantial blog post, mainly due to the lack of internet in Ngaoundere (my closest town). When internet is around, it is so slow that oftentimes I feel my life wasting away while starring at the blank computer screen in the cyber cafes. Needless to say, this can be a frustrating experience—sometimes technology can just be a headache.
Now I’m in Yaounde for a HIV/Gender Youth Development meeting. Two nights ago was a very exciting time here, for about 30 fellow peace corps volunteers and myself stayed up all night with our eyes glued to CNN international for the projections. It was an odd sensation to be up at 6:30 am with the sun shining while watching Obama’s Victory speech in the pitch dark of Chicago. Cameroonians have showed nothing but utterly zeal and passion for this election. Although I have not experienced many presidential elections in my lifetime, nor any others outside of the US, I can vouch to say that this year’s election will be hard to beat in terms of its African appeal. Even in my tiny village, most all news-following citizens were very in tuned to the election and stayed up as well to watch the outcome—as evidence by the dozens of text victory messages and updates I received throughout the evening. In sum, the US election and the Cameroonian interest in it, reiterated how small the world is and how events can touch even small villages thousands of miles away from the US.
Outside of the election, life in village has been great. I have been kept rather busy between my teaching, helping with vaccinations at the health center, and organizing/meeting with women’s groups. In addition to community work, is the everyday monotonous activities of cleaning the house, cooking (sometimes) and dealing with the neighborhood kids. I find myself rarely having time to read or rest. Privacy and alone time are not very valued in my village. After I eat my dinner at my “families” house they usually try to convince me to stay up and talk with them rather than me go home and relax. If I’m relaxing chez moi during the day, I am relaxing to the sounds of people knocking on my door to try to visit me. Resting thus entails having to bar my front door, if not, it is impossible.
Lately I have felt like a women’s day consultant. It is quite exciting to work with people that act like you are extremely valued. Usually when I go visit women’s groups the amount of applause and fanfare I get is sublime. The groups make me feel like I am a celebrity—a good confidence booster. Sometimes I question if the work I’m doing is helpful and sustainable, but I guess whatever the outcomes are at least the groups know there is some foreign influence that cares about them and wants to try to help them. Some of the work I do includes: reorganizing the structure of already existing groups, starting action plans, doing budgets, time-lines, health presentations, helping the groups form bank accounts, forming non-existent groups in new communities and neighborhoods, and helping them become legalized.
Life outside of work is going well. My village is as friendly as ever, I’m running every morning with the sunrise, the weather is now sunny and dry and I finally bought a short-wave radio so I can keep in-touch with international news. Hope this blog finds everyone happy and in bonne forme. Much peace and happiness, Ali

Sannu!!!!

The majority of the time here in Tourningal I feel more like a man than a woman; due to the cultural constraints and roles that women perform here. That is, they more often than not; do not eat with men, cover themselves in front of men or when they leave the house (that is IF they leave the house) and usually marry by age 17 and have 5 kids by age 25. Then there’s me. I run in my short shorts and tank tops. (Granted I run at 5: 30 am so as to not flaunt in front of the men). I teach English and a girl’s home-economics and health class.(quite a funny coincidence since I am probably one of the least domestic people I know). I come and I go as I please, in a liberal fashion entering concession after concession to visit my friends who do not have as much liberty as I. I eat and discuss political and religious issues with the “Grands” of the village, including the chiefs, imam etc. I am invited to eat with the “Grands” of the village while my friends and mothers of the village are the ones forced to cook for the Grands. They are not allowed to enter where we are eating; left only to hear the noises of the men and to see the remnants of their half eaten meals that they, the women, strived to make.

Then other times I feel like a camp counselor or walking human museum. That is I always feel on display. The amount of kids and questions I attract everyday could not be counted. Wherever I go or whatever I’m wearing, holding, cooking, reading etc. etc. are always the targets of questions galore. For instance, a few days ago I used a few band-aids on my feet to cover some scratchy mosquito bites. No joke, during the day at least 100+ people asked me about my condition. Whenever I prepare anything to eat, whenever anyone walks into my house they want to know exactly what I’m making and always expect to be fed. If I go to Ngaoundere for the day, people want to know why I’m going and how long going for. Perhaps I just live in a really inquisitive village. I think it’s more the culture here and the life of a small, intimate village.

Then there are the moments I feel like a NGO representative or consultant; chatting with women’s groups about their action plans, organizing community meetings to help mobilize groups for parties and information sessions, or meeting at banks and ministries in attempt to legalize groups. Some of the best, most triumphal feelings I have had fit under this category. For instance, when I see a group I have worked with has worked together to plant a few hectares of corn. When I witness the bean harvest of another group I helped actually grow. Or when I help a group that is 1.5 hours away from my village in the brush, legalize there group, make an action plan, and try to get funding to help their group next season with their corn, potatoes, cassava, or beans. These are the moments when I feel very worthwhile and pray that hopefully the work I am doing now, that is community mobilization, will somehow be sustainable in the long-run.

Besides explaining my roles in the society, on a completely different note, currently it seems like everyone is sick here in Tourningal. Not to exaggerate I would say about 50% of the population says they have some sort of malaria, the flu, cold, cough etc. A nurse I work with claims one reason for this spike in health ailments is due to the dearth of people coming to the health center during Ramadan and their bodies having to adapt to the changing eating/drinking habits. In addition to that, mosquitoes have invaded the town. Thank goodness PC provides us with mosquito nets. I cannot imagine sleeping without one. I fall asleep to the sounds of buzzing mosquitoes.

Some of my best friends in village fall under those that have been stricken by maladies. Three out of the Four women I consider to be my closest mom’s in village are bed-ridden. One has HIV. Another is in a Ngaoundere hospital, five months pregnant. The other just lost her five month old fetus.

Well, it’s late here, almost 10:00 pm and the constant drone of crickets is providing quite a nice sound tranquilizer. I should go to sleep. Much, much peace and happiness to everyone. Allah Hokku en Jam,

Ali or Amina

Girls Conference in Ngaoundere

Community Clean-up Days....

A typical site near my post

Cute Girl with stuffed animal

Rain, Ramadan, Work and Wisconsin

It has only been roughly 2 weeks since being back from my trip home. It feels like I never left. When I was home it felt like I was never here. This is probably because there are barely any similarities between the two “worlds” that I live in—my world here in Cameroun and my world in WI. When I got back there was one observation and one question that nearly everyone said; “You became whiter!” and “What did you bring me from the US?” I guess the first comment is self-explanatory but the second question really became quite disgruntling after a while. Still two weeks later people are waiting for their gifts. The people that DID receive gifts were very appreciative. For instance, the Obama shirts and bumper stickers were a hit… Could I be hired to be the Obama spokesperson in Cameroun??? Little stuffed animals, toys and photos I developed of cows and corn back home were also greatly received. In addition, I brought back Scrabble (not my fav. Game but can pass the time) and Connect 4. Connect 4 is probably the coolest thing in Tourningal since the electrical poles were put up a few months ago (we’re still waiting for the electricity).
SO….life has sloooooooooooooooowed down in village. It has been nice. With the start of Ramadan a few days ago, things are even less active in village— if that is possible. During the 30 days of Ramadan all the women get up at 3 am to cook what they would at noon. Then the family eats loads at 430, prays and goes back to sleep for a few hours. They pass nearly 13.5 hours sans eating or drinking. At 630 pm it is breaking of the fast when people make up for a day without food. It is quite nice because they eat a lot better than they normally do. Lately I have been eating loads of greasy beef. I have probably eaten more red meat these last few days than I have eaten all year. Lots of greasy potatoes and greasy donuts accompany the greasy beef. My face is not appreciating all the grease. I have fasted a few days mainly to experience what they all are going through. Normally as a person who eats, runs, and guzzles water, it has not been very easy. Surprisingly a lot of people tell me not to fast. Since I do not pray five times a day for me fasting is obviously not a religious endeavor. Oh well…it does make me appreciate the availability and abundance of food and water.
The rains are beginning to cease. With the rain halting the roads are actually passable. For a few days no cars were passing through my village because the roads were so dangerous. It’s never a good feeling to know there is no way of getting home. As evidence of the poor roads, I have scars up and down my legs from falling on motorcycles and on my bike. Because of the roads, work has been rough, never knowing if the weather will hold up to have meetings and be able to go out of the house. Some accomplishments of my village have made me very happy these last weeks. These include; after 4 months them finally whipping up the money for a bookshelf or two to start a library and the start of “community clean-up days” twice a month. My Supervisor helped motivate the community to start these days, or really 2 hours in the morning, when everyone is supposed to be working together on a specified area in village and stores all have to close. So far the turn out has been wonderful and even the griots come out with their drums to add ambiance. We hope that Tourningal will become the cleanest village in the area….but first let’s hope that people turn out for the next days in the near-future.
Well, I hope that everyone is healthy and happy. Thanks so much to everyone that welcomed me and saw me in Madison. I feel so blessed to have had such a great trip home and to be surrounded by great friends and family. Sey yeeso himbe Pat, Amina
Random comment—I received a package about a week ago that my parents sent last November. 10 months late, not too bad, eh?

Some of my Friends in Village

View from my Village

Homeward Bound...for Vacation

As I’m getting ready to embark on my third, out of four, day travel back to the US for vacation, I am both; starting to reminisce about my 11 months here and also getting extremely excited to go home for a break. Although, the excitement about going home is currently trumping the reminiscing-leaving-village-feeling…for a break is needed.
It is a good time to take a congé. Firstly, it is the rainy season; therefore, meetings are routinely cancelled (since people do not like to go out in the rain) and scheduling activities is greatly hampered. In addition, is it quite hazardous to travel with the rains. For some reason Tourningal’s soil is not muddy; instead the ground is just slippery. It reminds me of WI winters and ice. There have been a few deaths in the area because of people falling into rivers due to the slippery conditions. My counterpart nearly broke his leg from falling on his moto with the slipperiness. Secondly, since it is summer vacation, most of the kids and teachers that I worked with during the school year are absent, leaving a bulk of the more animated-educated—french speaking community, not around.
Going home however, has already presented some problems in my community. I swear that every person I encountered asked me to bring them back something from the states. Perhaps if I had my own plane and an unlimited supply of money I could fulfill there exorbitant requests. Numerous laptops, radios, cell phones, jewelery, shoes, etc. etc. will simply be impossible to bring back. Most also were somewhat confused about whether or not I was going home permanently (it was probably my fufulde), so they will probably be surprised, enshallah, to see me again in a few weeks.
Although work has not been overwhelming these past weeks, my daily siestas have been greatly evolving and I have gotten some quality thinking time. One thing that I have been realizing in my village is the lack of any sort of community structure. My village makes me realize the importance of local government, for when there is none, like my case, nothing gets accomplished. There can be very little development for a village if there is no governing, centralized body to make decisions and bring together the community to work together. SO, due to this, I have been trying to mobilize the community to think about their future and what they need to develop. Sometimes I feel like my title should be a development consultant.
For instance, a few days ago I spent 2 days walking house to house informing the community about community-development meetings that would be taking place. Since the women and men cannot work together, two separate meetings had to be held, I was acting like the interlocutor between the two. The Men’s and women’s meetings were the first community meetings that had been held in months. At the meetings we discussed: hygiene and sanitation problems, water issues, how the community needs to have a budget to finance unforeseen problems, and what the community needs are. It was quite an elated feeling to mobilize the community members together. I hope that the meetings will serve as catalysts for future community action.
WELL, ca c’est ma vie. I hope this finds everyone in fine spirits. Cheer for the Cameroonian teams at the Olympics. Allah Hokku en Jam, Amina Pullo

At my "mom's" house; her making beignets. This is one of the reasons I have chubbed up these past few months. They are delicious.

My Family at Village; Ibrahima, 18, Maimounatou, 17, Fadimatou, 4, Nene, Aissatou, 7, Naffisatou, 19.

July in Adamaoua

Asalaa Maalkum from Yaounde! Just had a riveting seminar on Maternal and Child Health. It had its ups and downs--the ups were notably my counterpart beaming with joy and incessant smiles. He loved it, thus it was worth it for me. Besides coming down to Yaounde for a fun-filled 3 days of sleepless nights, power-points, and street congestion, life has been good up in the Adamoua.
Over a week ago I finished my camp. It was a schmorgasbord of life planning activities, sexual health education, art introductions, sport training, female and male relationship talks, etc. etc. I can safely say that for five days I had a raging headache, but all in all, it was worth it and I think they all enjoyed it (especially with their cool shirts they got...trust me, just about every community member asked my why I failed to buy them shirts even though they had absolutely nothing to do with the camp, pretty typical). So After the camp and my zero day recovery from it, life got back to normal and my non-existent work schedule started up again. Non-existent meaning, I plan everything I do. Non-existent not meaning I do not have anything to do.
I have discovered these last few weeks that I rarely get a minute to sit down and rest. From about 6:30 am till about 20:00, I eiether have guests at my house, am "babysitting" kids coming over, in neighboring villages doing health animations, or at the hospital. Walking around the village is a tiring task in itself. Being the only white person in village and making myself rather available to talk and work with anyone in the community has meant that nearly every person that passes me, going anywhere, stops and wants to talk. Thus, a walk that should only take about 10 minutes, could end up taking an hour. ..I'm working on clandestine routes through the village, or perhaps should just start wearing camolflouge. Any way, perhaps my social standing in village though is one reason why I am so happy there, why I feel so comfortable.
So although there may be no restaurants, bars, dance clubs, or community centers, my african "social life" (a 180 from my American one) is full swing in Tourningal, no electricity and all. In addition to the societal pull, other work acitivites have included; soy planting (yay! it worked...) HIV/AIDS seminars, trying, trying, trying to start a small library, Pump and Sanitation work, etc. etc. Also trying to do Maternal and Child Health animations and community work. Judging from how only one women in all of our 12,000 aire de sante completed her Pre-Natal Consultations, gave birth at the hospital, and completed her vaccinations, this is definitely something we need to work on.
On an American note, Congrats to Claire and Chris for their Engagement! Claire I look forward to wearing an African Boubou at your wedding.
Hope all is well, happy July! Perhaps I will see some of you in August when I come home to visit. Much Peace and Happiness, Amina

The kids and I after a session entitled "the importance of staying in school."

Tried to teach the kids how to play Ultimate Frisbee, definitely was a hit, especially with the girls. Since no girls ever do sports here, it was awesome to see the girls get excited about sports.

The guys of the camp

One of our favorites at the camp. A Central African Republic refugee of less than 2 years who had never frequented before, he surpassed all the other kids in age by about 7 years but brought many smiles to our faces.

A rare moment of silence at the camp. The kids were mesmorized by markers and getting time to draw. They are in the midst of drawing for our health message contest.

American Ambassador to Cameroon with the hospital staff and my country director.

One of my counterparts...he mobilized the women in my community for the arrival of the ambassador.They are outside my house in the midst of clapping for her arrival.

Kids waiting for the arrival of the Ambassador

My sister and I at a waterfall about 10 minutes away from my house

Life Progresses

Asalaa Maalekum,

Life has been progressing here in Tourningal…slowly but surely. Have to be honest, there have been some challenging times these last weeks, times when I long for animation, a social life, friends, family, and some time to cuddle up with my cat. I think the best way to illustrate how villageoise and slow paced my life has become is by my daily schedule. I usually get up at about 5 to the sounds of roosters and cows. Not to pray with the rest of my community, but simply because without electricity my body cannot stay awake past 9—it’s like a nightly fight. After exercising till about 6 (because if I do not run in the morning all of the community sees me and the kids run after me in the afternoon) I need to clean my house, get water and be out of the house by 7, if not, people think I am either sick or not present. Doing chores and cleaning takes up a large chunk of my time. I think I have made up for the past 4 years in college in these past 6 months.

The weather—I realize this is a boring topic…yet, the weather really dictates everything I do here. Without cars, solid infrastructure, and roads, now that the rainy season has begun my slow paced life has become even slower, due to the weather. I have had countless meetings cancelled and generally there is a greater malaise in the community. The rule of law here is: if it rains, do not leave the house. Since is rains almost every day, things do not happen.

The Ambassadors Visit— Quite the gallant affair to happen in Touringal. The community and I were much honored to have the American Ambassador and my Peace Corps Director visit a few weeks ago. She picked Tourningal to visit out of all the province. I felt like an official event planner 2 weeks prior to the visit. Since women and men do not work together, every meeting had to be planned twice. All in all, her visit was wonderful—short and sweet. Various members of the community started changing the plans 5 minutes prior to her arrival (notably by hiring singers and drummers to come and add excitement as she was touring). The highlight of the visit was her coming to my house and meeting with various women group leaders.

Polio Campaigns—Since there have been rare cases of Polio noted in Cameroon within the past few years, the government launched a Polio Vaccination Campagin, which I got to help out with last week. It was a wonderful, yet arduous way to see villages outside of Tourningal. My counterpart and I took a moto into Mountainous villages, seemingly untainted by modernity, for none had any government resources, schools, electricity, stores, etc. etc. Thankfully was not thrown off the moto. For 3 days of back-breaking work, vaccinating hundreds of children, my counterpart was paid about 12 dollars…

Soy—Recently I’ve felt more like an agro volunteer…since I’ve never planted anything in my life, it has been a learning process. With the advent of the rainy season Tourningal has been consumed by agriculture, it’s like a contest…everyone is vying to plant ASAP, searching for seeds, preparing their fields, hiring help etc. I thus am trying to combine my little health education background with my non-existent agricultural one, by planting soy beans. Soy is chock full of protein and since malnutrition is a large problem here and simply the lack of variety of food, thought it might work. We’ll see….if anyone has any soy bean recipes that do not evolve electricity, please let me know.

A human face of HIV—one of the hardest moments that I encountered these last few weeks happened at 5:30 in the morning a few days ago. As I was mounting my normal hill I run up every day, met a woman crying and holding her baby; the same baby that I had noticed a few days prior and asked my counterpart why it appeared so fragile and sickly. The baby that the women was holding was minutes away from dieing, its’ bones protruding from every angle of its body. I learned later that she had walked with the dieing baby kilometers away from Tourningal believing that the sickness, in reality AIDS, was a curse put on the baby by her father. After walking with the women to the nearest village and hailing her a moto, I learned later, minutes after, the baby died. This story, is just one example of the necessity to sensibilize and educate my area about HIV/AIDS. It is one example of how HIV/AIDS affects nearly everyone in the community; whether the community members know they have it, their relatives have it, their children died of it, or how important it is to educate their children about it. Now I’m working to help convince the health center to help convince the woman to get on ARVs.

Well on this sobering note, I should go. I hope that everyone is healthy, happy and is looking forward to the sunny summer months. Felicitations or Barka Kristin and Matt, I wish I could be there...I will think of you guys this Saturday and have some tea in your honor.

kids in village at the naming ceremony.

Example of the kids that come to my house each afternoon. They are playing with their cars.

Some cute kids. They are numbers 11,12 and 13 of the family. Since there are no cribs the mom put the kid in a box while she did the dishes.

A typical afternoon at my house with some of my students

Oldest woman in village with a 8 year old baby during the naming ceremony.

Life in Tourningal

I’m about to embark on my fourth journey to Yaoundé via train, in less than 2 months…that maybe a peace corps record. Yet, all of my trips to Yaoundé have been warranted; IST in Kribi, parents visit, parents return to Yaoundé (and another trip to the beach) and this time around, HIV/Gender Youth and Development meeting. I figured since nearly all my work will revolve around HIV/GYD activities it would be very worthwhile to join the committee—hopefully it will be just that.
Life in Tourningal after having been away for nearly a month and a half, for the most part is great. My parents visit went rather smoothly; Kudos to them for being able to bear the conditions with little to no complaints. They also did not become ill, which is quite a feat in Africa. They were met with much hurrah. In a village of 1,000 people, when any newcomer, yet alone a white person comes to visit, it makes headlines. Upon disembarking from the car, we were immediately invited to a wedding 15 minutes later and had a streamline of visitors chez moi for the next 2 days. The very traditional wedding, and very typical, was quite the culture shock for the rentals. The 18 year old girl, having never met the 55 + El Hadj of my village, moved into Tourningal….she is his fourth wife.
So then the parents left and life for me has been normal since; i.e. teaching at college, women’s group visits, planning projects, etc. etc. About a day into the village, I became bored, but now thanks to the new ipod have at least 3 hours of music every few weeks or so to look forward to! Somewhere along the line I figured organizing a summer camp would be a great idea since I was fortunate enough to grow up in summer camps and work at them. The week long summer camp at Tourningal, called Njamu Jam or “Good Health” in fufulde, is not based on a traditional American theme, rather reproductive health and life skills, i.e. leadership, planning, sex ed etc. In addition, the cost of this camp is probably a tiny fraction of any American camp, we are basically only paying for lunch for the kids. SO, enshallah all will go well and at least 25 kids will for one week break the monotony of their agricultural-raising cattle based summers and do something different for a change.
In addition, to the camp, have been trying to bring in resources to the village, i.e. magazines, journals, books etc. I have started brining in an adolescent- 17ish magazine that is strewn with health messages to village which has gone rather well. Since the kids have not grown up with books of any kind, their reading level is pretty low; thus many kids even in seventh grade level cannot read 4th grade level material. Perhaps in the months to come a library of some type will be formed, enshallah.
Well, socially life in village is about the same. With no restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. etc. honestly it is not too jam packed. Highlights socially are probably going over to my fufulde mother’s house each night and after eating a heeping plate of food (literally she refuses to let me go hungry, and consequently I fall into a food coma each night) I sit around a lantern listening about people’s days/problems etc, all in fufulde. Occasionally we might drink coffee or tea. Perhaps we might watch a film. Normally the films are all religious based. If they are at Muslims houses they usually will talk about Islam. If the film is at a Christian’s house they have to do with the New Testament or Christain-Islamic debates; probably not the type of films that I would be watching in America. Some of my best friends in village are 8-15 year olds. I seem to be a hit with this age group, attracting on average 20 or so kids an afternoon to my house. They come to “read” English magazines. They come to play cards. They come to simply sit and watch me do whatever I may be doing; brushing my teeth, sweeping, drinking coffee. They will literally wait for me to come home, run down the street and then follow me into my house. It is fine, except when the kids start to touch/play/ask and destroy things….then I shoo them out. It’s quite a routine. I’m sure the mothers of Tourningal appreciate my presence for I have turned into a quasi day care center in the afternoons. Perhaps I should start a community center?
Well, that’s about it…..life is progressing, rain is a falling and I’m dreading this long upcoming voyage. On va faire comment? Hope all is well! Come visit. If Betsy and Jim can, you can too. Les gens de Tourningal vous saluent. Ummatoore pat haa Tourningal hoofnoo mon. Everyone in Tourningal says hello! Peace

Ham Ham--a northern delicacy. Not quite. But it is a lot better than what I normally eat. Consists of grinded up peanut balls without the peanut oil and a vegetable-oily sauce.Bottom photo is of our car stuck for a few hours en route to village. A 200 km village that took 7 hours.

Pirogue near the Kribi waterfalls that enter into the ocean. Part of the group at Fufulde IST. My Fufulde teacher is on top of the car.

Some friends from Stage at the Beach

Gruber, Ben and I

The Beach

The Beach
My life up here is certainly not like life at the beach. There is no water of any sort, no fish, restaurants, bars, cafes, ocean breeze, or relaxation. There is also no nudity of any sort. The dress attire is in fact, a 180 from life at the beach. However, I just got back from the beach (and a whirlwind tour of Cameroon) and I soundly can say even at the beach I missed my small, remote village. My whirlwind tour of Cameroon is followed next week by an American parental visit….needless to say, I will be quite a tired person. It has been nearly 3 weeks since I have spent more than 24 hours at my post. I feel incredibly guilty for having other obligations that keep me away!
For our 3 month training we went down south to Kribi. Stepping of the train in itself was culture chock. After having lived up north where long boubous dominate, women in anything shorter than a skirt above their knees is a sin, seeing people praying on the side of the streets is commonplace, and the scenery is dry; going down south was a 180 and made me really appreciate the north. Yet for a small vacation, Kribi was absolutely fantastic for a variety of reasons: sharing post stories with friends, complaining in English, grrrrrrrrreat food---fish, porc, chicken, fruit, swimming, greenness, being able to dance, and the list continues….
Jumping ahead 2 weeks, I.just got back from nearly a week in Garoua, the capital of the north province. Garoua is a larger city, with more night-life than Ngaoundere, my closest city. It is famous for its hippopotami that grace its mud-filled river and…well, how hot it is--not too much else. But as a hub for the Northern provinces, it has a metropolitan feel and more asphalt laden streets than in my province. The reason for this northern voyage was to work on my fufulde skills, the language that I need to know at my post. Since they didn’t teach us any fufulde during training and left us with having to teach ourselves (which has been a fun/ sometimes stressful experience) they decided to bring the northerners together for an expedited course. The courses themselves were not too exciting, sitting for 6 hours a day never is too extraordinary; however, it was great to reiterate important fufulde points and to visit new part of the country.
Well….that brings me to this next week, that I’m sure will be an adventure in itself; having my parents come visit. Hopefully we will all make it through the next 7 days. Hopefully the party that my village is planning for their arrival will bring much joy and not too much food sickness. Best wishes to all. Mi don tamma himbe pat don be damma. Allah hokku en jam. Sey yesso, Amina

My eleves in sixieme in front of their classroom.

Mi takki naale, or I stuck henna-like substances on my body. Its associated with being Muslim and was a very laborious process involving much sitting.

Women's day Fete part 2, in a town close to mine. We are all sporting the official women's day pagne. All of the women who participated in this fete unfortunately were "femme libres;" or not-married, often correlated with prostitution. At least they had the first offical fete ever.

women in my house during the women's day fete.

Sannu

Asalaa Maalekum Himbe Pat. I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy and not too bogged down by snow or politics. I get the political update every once in a while here, from some nurses at the hospital. They are quite fond of Obama here, since he is half African and are rooting for him. Besides random political updates from the states, and hearing about the news in Tchad, (rebel troops took over the capital city for a days, located about 12 hrs away from me/threats of a massive coup d’etat, now peace/rebels have been stopped/no problems) I do not get too many updates from states. People cannot even fathom snow. I try to tell them is minus 15 degrees Celsius but since it never gets below 10 degrees Celsius here, it’s an odd concept.

Any way, life has been chugging along here in the dusty, sunny, hot, dry, allergy enducing province of Adamoua. Since it is the crux of dry season and there are sahelian winds blowing dust everywhere, my allergies have been horrible. Without sunglasses and protective covering, skin just shrivels up /it’s difficult to see. Highlights these past weeks have been; 1. Developing my curriculum for the health education class 2. trying to start/help various women’s groups in the area 3. visiting vaccination campaigns and doing health animations 4. Getting my second cat as a present

I absolutely love teaching at the college, about the equivalent of 7^th grade in the states. Various topics have been covered such as malaria and hygiene, but now steering towards sexual reproductive health. Since most of the kids will probably not continue school, have never received health education before, and in their culture many topics are taboo, it makes the classes oftentimes stressful and challenging, especially with my french vocabulary, but feels rewarding.

In 2 weeks is the National Holiday of Women’s Day. At my post, they have never ever done anything for Women’s day, due to cultural constraints and perhaps ignorance about the holiday itself. Most elsewhere in Cameroon it is a HUGE day including, parades, partying, dancing, etc. Well…I wanted to try, try, try to do something in my post for the women. Currently in the midst of organizing a large party for them next week. Since funds are greatly limited and each women can only contribute about 50 cents to the party, it’s not exactly going to be an exquisite affaire, but we’ll make do. There also is no locale to have party, no community centers/large rooms exist. So I invited 50 women over to my house. So far the plan for the party is eating and listening to Fufulde music, hopefully will get a good ambiance going to chat about health issues.

In addition to the womens group in my village, also trying to develop groups in villages nearby. A town 25 km away has a very large weekly market. Consequently, prostitution is a huge issue. There are dozens of “free women” they call them and unfortunately ISTs/HIV is a very large problem, estimated at about 30%. Thanks to a very dynamic, french speaking women in that town, we are working together to try to educate women/mobilize them.

One of the cutest moments in my weeks here is every Thursday which is vaccination day. Scores of women bring in their babies to be vaccinated. It’s adorable. Fortunately the vaccination campaigns here are very efficient and run well. However, only about 50% of women give birth in health centers and very little come in for Pre-Natal consultations. Culturally it’s just not seen as necessary to give birth at hospital. Women usually leave there house a month before giving birth to go live with their family. Needless to say, promoting Pre-Natal consultations and birthing at hospital is one of the topics targeted.

About my cat….I had a cat last week. I called it “Fatty” short for “Faturo” or cat in Fufulde. In fufulde the term for “I like” is the same for “I want.” A precious grandmother thought I said “I want a cat” not just “I like cats.” So she brought me over a cat. It was cute but frankly made me really, really appreciate all the work put into cat rearing. Living alone, not liking to prepare for myself here, and having no cat supplies that we have in the states, I sadly thought that I could not provide a nurturing environment for Fatty and had to give it away. C’est la vie.

J’avais trop parlé. Once again hope this finds people healthy and happy. Happy end to February. Sey Yesoo kaddi, Ali ou Amina a Tourningal

Moi with some kids.....this shot was taken as I was waiting for the car that never came for 6 hours. Having nothing to do and feeling quite ill I tried to entertain some kids

cattle crossing street in village; my counterpart and his son, girls in my class

First image: Men in village praying at a Do a or a traditional ceremoney when someone comes back from Mecca.
Second and example of what one receives for a marriage; the male family has to buy a lot of plates

The Good and the Bad

The Bad--6 weeks have passed since coming to Tourningal and all but one of them have been pleasant. This past week was definitely the exception. Getting sick anywhere is not fun. Getting sick when; no one in the town speaks English, when one lives alone, there is no electricity, you have to use a pit latrine that is covered in flies (and your leg muscles are not used to squatting so much), all you want to do is sleep and there are incessant knocks on the door, you vomit in front of a bunch of kids that, unlike in America (even when you are laying helpless on the dirt )they do not get someone to help, the only thing to eat is fufu (corn flour with water), no network in your house, and the only way you can call people is during the night when its cold….etc, etc, makes being sick a little bit more interesting.

I came down with my first bout of dysentery at approximately 3 am 6 days ago and I hope, hope I will not have it again. It was just a stressful week full of a lot of ORS, oral dehydration salt mixes and little movement. I did probably loss about half of the weight I gained since coming to Cameroon. However, having a malady made me realize the luxury of exercise…in order to exercise well one needs to have enough Energy to move, good food to eat, be hydrated etc. I have not exercised for a while. I have now learned my lesson and will eat less, not eat anything that is given to me and definitely not drink as much fresh milk even if it has been boiled. Since I couldn’t necessarily translate all my not-so-good feelings this week into fufulde, it was quite comical the responses I got from villagers when I told them my symptoms. Most everyone thought it was Malaria. About 80% of the health patients have malaria, so even a simple headache people will label as malaria.

The Good-- I am generally quite happy in my village and up until the sickness was doing great. I still feel very blessed that I have found a family here that has pretty much taken me up as their own. The mom came to my house countless times when I was sick providing me with a plethora of food; most of which I did not eat, (who really feels like eating oily soaked squash and large chunks of fatty meat when one is about to explode) and coffee (they didn’t really understand that laxatives aren’t the greatest…) There is always something going on in their compound, since she is the first of three wives, thus a heap of children wandering about and food to eat. Getting close to a Polygamous family has provided me insight on the nature of male-female relations here. Needless to say sometimes, dreamingly, I wish I could just push a button and start voicing my western- egalitarian opinions fluently in Fufulde knowing that their would be no repercussions from the males and they would, magically understand how to treat their wives, etc, etc…but that is not the case.

Work……Unfortunately, one of the repercussions of polygamy in this Male dominated, traditional society is HIV/AIDS. I have only been here for a month and a half, but have already met many people that have had to deal with the consequences of this epidemic. Especially in polygamous marriages, the wives are often victims to the males that leave the compound whenever they please. Last week learned of a case where one of the co-wives died of AIDS and the other Co-wives do not know they have it. The husband has not told anyone, anything….My province has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in Cameroun at about 17%. Two towns over the rate for sero-positive pregnant women is about 35%. In sum, this is an issue that I want to further explore.

Besides this, on a slightly more upbeat note, I have started working in the middle school in my town. I teach English and Health classes. Currently there is only one class of 55 kids, 10 of which are female. School here is more like a free-for-all, for the age range in my class is about 12-22. Their ability levels are quite eye-opening. There are students in the class that can barely write or read, at the 7^th grade American level. Having no French books, magazines or documents of any kind contributes to this problem. In addition, kids here are encouraged to study and learn the Qu’ran, not their French schooling. They often will spend their free time memorizing and reciting the Qu’ran written in Arabic and learning it in Fufulde. Furthering the education problem in my town is the fact that currently 2 of the 4 Primary School Teachers haven’t come back from Vacation yet. I don’t necessarily blame them, for they were affected to teach thousands of kilometers away from their families in the brousse, and are not receiving salaries; however, now about 120 kids have no teachers. The remaining two classes have about 90 kids to them each….not exactly conducive to learning.

I hope this finds everyone health and happy! Happy End of January. Allah hokku damma. Useko jur.

Until next time, hopefully my stomach will remain tranquil. Sey yesso kaddi.