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?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
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
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
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
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
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
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