One Month Left

Yay for Electricity…With One Month Left!
What do ya know, I get electricity with one month left of post! Perhaps it’s the electricity that is kicking me out. It’s saying, “Ali, it’s time to get back to a developed place,” or it’s simply helping me acclimate to life with light. Do not be fooled, “getting electricity,” constitutes 4 hours of light 18h to 22h. Half of my house still is not set-up nor is over half of the village, notably the health center (!?!) I can safetly say that due to the lack of light, although it did not facilitate computer use nor easy night cooking, it did facilitate meeting people in village, forcing myself to leave the house at night and, hence, integration. Thank you!
SO….30 days and counting. I’m becoming emotionally unstable. I have already started my goodbyes and it is saddening. I’m trying to scrounge up bad memories of Tourningal; i.e. being sick, getting into accidents, the poor roads, the monotonous food, teaching endless hours of English, dust, etc. for perhaps it will be easier to leave. I try to say to myself, whether it’s today or next year, sometime I will leave—I can’t stay in Tournignal forever. I’m trying to coordinate my time to a T, that is, I’m implementing rules: Make myself deal with the kids coming over, stomach the hundreds of daily salutations, the demands from everyone, try not to take naps, little-to-no Pleasure reading, etc. in order to maximize my last month at post. But regardless of what I try to do to soak in this last month and to minimize the pain of leaving, the inevitable is approaching.
Here are some recent thoughts from Tournignal:
1. Early Marriages—I recently looked at a photo of a Youth Camp I did in June 2008. Off the 11 girls that participated in the camp, only 4 are still in school. This feels like a defeat for me. It feels frustrating to know that all the information and encouraging I tried to partake in, was unsuccessful I have seen dozens of girls get married, pregnant, and have children in my two years. I feel like an old maid. Last week I attended a 16 year old girls wedding. She, like so many of her peers, felt pressured to get married. Once they are married and have children, the girls are like prisoners in their own compounds, rarely getting to leave and rarely having freedoms. Although I have tried to stomach their cultural customs, even after two years, this tradition is stiffing and from a western perspective, antiquated.
2. World AIDS Day—Preparations are under way for World AIDS Day 2009. Brandi, a close volunteer and I, are organizing an essay contest for the local high schools with a HIV prevention theme, and a celebration for the actual day; composed of a parade, a soccer match, running competitions, and a personal account of someone who actually has HIV. We targeted a certain village to do this celebration in, due to its’ high populations of “femme libres,” or prostitutes.
3. Refugee Situation—Recently I have had the opportunity to visit and learn about the Refugee Situation in the Eastern Adamawa Region. Supposedly, according to Medical officials and NGO workers in the area over 12,000 Central African Refugees have been forced into exile in Cameroon within the last few years. Most of the refugees come from the Mboboro ethnic group; a group that is composed naturally of cow herders who fled the instability in the CAR. With this exodus comes the onslaught of inevitable health and sanitation concerns; HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, etc. I have never seen so many cases of malnutrition, pure devastation and poverty. It was quite the sobering, humbling experience. It opened my eyes to many aspects of Humanitarian Work; such as, the isolating conditions. It’s crazy to think how just a few hours from where I live there is a massive Humanitarian Problem that gets little to no press coverage and NGO aide! Who knows what awaits me in the years to come; however, working with refugees and Disaster Relief is something that perhaps will pique my interests.
Sey Yeeso, Allah Hokku en Jam,
Ali