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.