The Life of Brad

Hey loved ones!,

I am so sorry it has been so long since I have posted but I have been SUPER busy doing graduate school applications any time I have had access to the internet. I am pretty much done with applications now which is a big burden lifted and now I am just excited to sit back and wait to see where I might be spending the next two years of my life. I am applying for Masters in Public Health programs focusing on international epidemiology.

Wish me luck getting accepted and getting cash $$$. .

So I don’t have much time as I am about to head up north to catch up with another volunteer and do some work together. ALSO, my wonderfully beautiful parents are going to be HERE in Cameroon in less than a week, so I need to go up north to meet up with them as well.

I have so much to tell you all, but it will have to wait another week or so until I can write a good long entry.

One thing is that I have two projects that are going to be up for funding. One is currently up on the peace corps website and can be found here:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=694-152

This funding system is great because there is absolutley no overhead, all the money given goes directly into a bank account here and is all used to fund the project. After this project is funded I should have another one up soon to fund building a two-room schoolhouse in a nearby village that is awesome.

Life has been amazing lately, I hope it has been equally great for those at home!

Love you all,

Brad

P.S. Dudes and dudettes, last night when I went out to get dinner I was sitting there with another volunteer and another random white guy walks by and stops to say hi asking where we are from. We said from the US, he was clearly French. But it was sweet, ended up spending all night with him and his other three friends talking in french about life here (they were tourists). It was great to exchange culture, to know that I can hold my own in “real” french, and to just be somewhat of an expert on the extreme-north of Cameroon… sweet.

Dear readers,

Since last time I blogged… TWO of my very close and amazingly beautiful, smart, and talented friends have started their Peace Corps journeys as well! Kate is now in Thies, Senegal finishing up training to start as an agroforestry volunteer, and Sara just got accepted into Peace Corps Niger for their animal husbandry program. Let’s give it up for them *clap*! I am just so excited for them and they are going to have an amazing experience and accomplish great things, I know it. Also fun is the possibility of me visiting these two wonderful people. On my way out of country I could go through Nigeria to Niger by car, then fly to Dakar, Senegal, then fly home. Sounds like a good and low-budget after PC trip!

So I just finished up a SUPER long trip down to Yaoundé to take part in the new informational technology committee. In total I have traveled for over 70 hours in the last week getting down to Yaoundé and back up. On the way down we arrived in Ngaoundere and attempted to reserve tickets on the overnight train that arrives right in downtown Yaounde and normally takes around 12 hours or so. We arrived at the train station to discover that the train had de-railed the night before, injuring 300 people and killing 5. Right after we found out that train tickets were not being sold for an indefinite period of time we also got a frantic call from Peace Corps making sure we were not on the train. LUCKILY no Peace Corps volunteers or admin or anyone was on the train that night, an amazing thing since people are always traveling down to Yaounde. So, now that the train was out the only other option was a hypothetical that we had heard existed… a car from Ngaoundere to Yaounde. Now, the reason the train exists is because there really are no roads connecting Ngaoundere to Yaounde directly… or even indirectly. The terrain is very hilly/mountainous and through rainforests. The four of us volunteers who were going down for the meeting contemplated whether we should try the car or not and finally decided to give it a shot. We went to the station and asked how long it would take. The driver said we would leave at 5:30am and get into Yaounde the same day, during the late evening.

To spare you all a very long story, we left at 5:30 am and didn’t get into Yaounde until around 8am the next day. Yeah, 27 hours in a car on bumpy, muddy roads packed in like cattle so you really cannot move and get chafed shoulders from rubbing against the person next to you. Haha… it was quite the experience. Yeah, an experience, but not one I will repeat.

Well, the IT committee went really well and we are working on setting up a website for Peace Corps in Cameroon (Cameroon.peacecorps.gov). It should be up and running in a couple weeks so check it out!

On the way back from Yaounde the train was running but I went to the station with another volunteer and we waited from 7 pm until 2:30 am for the train to leave. It left at 2:30 am and arrived in Ngaoundere around 8:30 or 9 pm the next day. Hrm. Well, here I am safely back in the extreme north and I am heading back to my post tomorrow.

It is Ramadan right now which means that for thirty days Muslims get up at around 4am to eat breakfast, drink water, and then starting with the 5am prayer do not eat or drink anything until the call to prayer at 6:30 in the evening. This time is in memory of Mohammed who once did not drink anything or eat anything for three days straight, along with doing Ramadan as it is practiced now. These thirty days are a period of spiritual clarity and are meant to re-focus Muslims on the teaching of the Koran.

I supported my village which is around 95% Muslim by fasting with them for two days straight. It was just amazing to get up at 4, walk over to my neighbor’s house with some avocado and bread to share and drink tea and share food until the call to prayer. We then sat and chatted about development as the sun rose, it was a very… spiritual… moment. However, let me tell you, it is NOT easy to go an entire day here and not drink water. Not eating food is not such a big deal but since it is still over 100 degrees many days and the sun is so sharp, the two days that I did not drink water I spent most the day not moving for fear that I would start sweating. It was a great experience though, around 30 minutes before they are allowed to break the fast many people are selling food along the streets (not a normal time to sell food) so that people can break the fast with the goodies they like. Most people break the fast with some fried dough and bouille (a milk-ish substance made of millet, sugar, sometimes with rice in it). Then at around 10pm or so they eat the real big meal of the day and then go to bed to start all over again.

Another difference is that during Ramadan everyone is obligated to go to the mosque at 7pm and pray 17 prayers, which takes around 30 minutes to do. I don’t yet know the symbolism of why 17 prayers, but neither do the individuals I have asked so… just more prayers to mark that this is a holy time..?

Hehe, one fun thing is that every morning around 4ish there are young people who run around in the streets yelling, banging pans, singing, to wake everyone up so they don’t sleep in and miss their opportunity to eat and drink water for the morning. Alarm clocks are not very widespread… J.

The family who I eat dinner with, their father Kari is who I ate breakfast with and break the fast with each evening, he does not drink water during Ramadan. He only drinks a ton of bouille in the evening. He states that if you drink water after not eating anything it isn’t good for your organism and can cause stomach issues. I just simply cannot understand how he can survive without drinking water besides bouille… but Africans continue to surprise me with their lack of need for water…

My soy field is growing well and I had to weed it all with a hoe by hand before I left for my committee meeting and whew, that is HARD. I must say though that people in my village are amazing. I was out weeding one morning and a young boy happened to be walking by and just started helping me out. He was much more skilled at it than I was too and over the course of 2 hours probably did twice as much weeding as I did. But, that was just so nice! I mean, surely he has a field to be working in, and is probably tired and sore from working every day but he stopped and helped me, it was just great. I gave him what I had… some peanuts. Hehe. Also, one of my other friends in village offered to help me and helped for around 4 hours for three morning straight until we finished weeding, and he did it all just out of the warmth of his heart. He has a field that needed weeding too but he helped me for three days, working his butt off, helping me, and didn’t ask for anything. I waited a week and then paid him 2,000 CFA (4 dollars) and he went overboard trying to thank me… I was like… Uh no. YOU are the one who is generous and amazing, you helped me not expecting anything. Thanks for being such a great friend. I may have come here to try to lend a helping hand to the population, but I can’t help but feel like they help me more than I help them…

That is all for now… talk to you soon!

Brad

- Boobie is fly in fulfulde, the “market” and common language of the extreme north. Hehe. Ha do boobie juur! (Over their there are too many flys!). Hehehe..

So another volunteer had this idea of a mail bag for his blog where people email him questions and then he answers some or all of them in his blog entry each time he has the opportunity. I think this is a great idea, so if you have a question, simple or extremely in-depth and complex, email it to me with the title “Mail Bag” and I will try to answer them in my next blog post.

I had a request for a normal day from Steve, I protested saying there are no normal days, and he responded “who cares normal”. So, I will give a random day then.

5 am: chickens start jumping through the corrugated tin door of their coop.

6:00: alarm goes off on watch, I roll over.

6:30: get up, rinse off my face and hair, brush teeth, open door of coop, visit the hole in the ground, play with dog, grab two lemons out of my stash, head out of my compound.

6:45: Buy kosay (fried white beans) for 30 cents from the momma who yells and fist pumps “Nassarra Warri” (foreigner has come) every morning, shake hands with 20 people and babies sitting around the old dada (momma) who sells these. Walk over to the front of the house of my friend Youssoufa who has polio and sit down with him.

7:00: Eat kosay with him, he provides the tea, put lemon in it, chat.

8:00: Leave youssoufa’s place and head over to my other neighbors house. Head in with a Salaam Alekum (peace be with you I think?) greeting, the wife responds with Alekum Salaam, “A warri na”? (you have come). Hehe, I never know how to respond, but I say, useko, me warri (thank you, I have come). We exchange other greetings and I partake in some more tea with some red beans and friend beignets.

8:45: Head back to my house, drink some water, play with the dog, put on work clothes, head down to my soy field.

9:15: Meet Salou down there and cultivate the field with his donkey.

11:45: Head back, try to get on the donkey with him and the hoe, not working. Haha. Stop by youssoufa on the way back and say hi.

12: Back at house, read.

13:00: Little tiny Bapeh, the cute little pipsqueak kid of my neighbor who I at the second breakfast with comes over and invites me over for lunch. He comes in and jumps into my hands due to the dog that all Cameroonians are extremely afraid of. We walk over and I give him two figs. Walk over to his house with a pack of 15 other kids saying they want figs. A constant battle…

13:15-14: Eat rice couscous and a leafy green sauce with peanuts. It is decent. There is sand in it which crunches.

14:15: Back at the house, nothing to do, decide to go bike around town, stop by the hospital that closes at noon, see if the post office dude is at his house to see if I have any letters which come every Friday, but finding him at his house is hard.

15:30: Back at home, decide to bike to cell phone signal even though I have no one to call.

17:30: Back from biking to cell signal, stop by the soccer field and watch the game that is going on.

18:10: Head back home and bucket shower.

18:40: Head over to Kari’s house for dinner. Play with his kids climbing on me and instantly making me dirtier than before my shower.

19:15: Kari starts his generator, watch some of the English Cameroonian news talking about Paul Biya lowering the prices of essential goods and how the American ambassador is in some small village dedicating a new school.

19:35: Once the news is over, without a need to watch brazilian soaps, head over to Youssoufas, he runs a movie club at night. Drink some tea, chat with him and talk loudly to other  youths, dance to the Cameroonian dance videos, watch Anaconda 3, with David Hasselhoff!

2030: Head back to my house, pooped from such a filled day. Read by headlamp…

2130: Sleeeeeep…

Repeat.

The two breakfasts, lunch, dinner are always the same, many days nothing is planned so it involves a lot of avoiding boredom, reading, biking, or finding something productive to do with my time J.

Time continues to fly, August is here, and with it come the real rains for the rainy season. The rains came really late this year, pretty much didn’t rain at all until the last week of July. Normally at the end of June it starts raining regularly, every 4 days at most. In August, nearly every day. With the rainy season, work for me has been significantly slower. It is hard to travel whenever it rains for a day or two since the roads turn into pure mud ruts and rivers, and almost everyone is always in their fields working on them every day so having meetings with villages or other individuals is difficult. I’ve been having some success though, I just found out that there is a technician who works for the organization who works on wells and dams who lives in Hina, we are practically neighbors. Doh. I wish I would’ve known this before. BUT, it was sweet so we went and visited Ketcheble and will start working on the well there in October. Also, since I have a bunch of other villages that I am interested in working on well projects too we should be able to create a good partnership over the next two years.

So, with the slowed work load I decided to plant a huge field of soy to occupy my time (if everyone else is cultivating all day, I should too, right?). Also, it will help me do soy promotion over the next years as I can sell cups of it to individuals at a cheap price, give it away, and use it to make soy-based food demonstrations… and eat it myself! So that has been interesting and fun cultivating with a donkey, planting by hand (HARD!, and now when I get back to village I will start the long arduous task of hoeing the field by hand with a short hoe to remove weeds… J. I also planted a huge garden at my house, which coincided with the death and sleeping soundly in my stomach of many chickens. I gave all the small one’s to Youssoufa since he loves raising chickens as he is always at his house and they keep him company. I call him Baba gourtougal (the dad of chickens)… started after my neighbors all started calling me Baba zeus (dad of my dog). Anywho, I planted cantelope, squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, broccoli, lettuce, arugula, other mixed greens. Who knows what will grow well and what won’t considering the climate is completely different, and HOT. The back of the packages all have maps of the US showing growing/planting times, I was thinking the weather here is similar to what… florida during the rainy season? I also planted two other papaya trees, a guava tree, a mango tree, and a TON of this plant called Moringa Olifera (Gillyganga in Fulfulde). Since I enjoy the amazing huge papayas planted by some of the volunteers before me, I thought I should make my own investment. I really love planting things too, a life goal of mine is planting a forest. Wanna help?

So I have been doing a good amount of promotion of this plant called Moringa too, it is like the best leafy green that exists. It grows like a tree so you don’t need to water it during the dry season once it grows, and it is SO nutritious. It has like 7 times the vitamin C than oranges, 2 times the protein of yogurt, 4 times the calcium of milk, 5 times the potassium of bananas, a ton of iron, almost all vitamin B’s, D’s, magnesium and a bunch of other random vitamins. It is like a multivitamin in a leafy green that is native here and grows here. SO, I planted like 60 in pollypots and they grew big while I was on vacation so I went to the market on a couple Fridays and talked the plant up and sold them for 5 cents, just so that people would take them who actually wanted them and would take care of them. I also had a ton of seeds so I planted a ton around my house, and gave a TON away to people in village who were interested. I also have been just telling this information to all the villages I visit now and they are all just so surprised that this tree that they have sparingly around is SO good for them. It is ridiculous how good it is for everyone and next year I want to plant a TON more of these trees and try to sell them all for 5 cents again. Also, I would love to plant a huge field just of Moringa trees. Next year I have talked with some friends in village about planting a field that once it would grow into trees could just be the village Moringa field. Whenever anyone wanted to eat it they could go and just cut some and eat it. Sustainablity!?

I joined a brand new Peace Corps committee called the information technology committee and we are focused on increasing the use of technology to streamline peace corps. Trying to get a lot of resources up on google docs, start a website for peace corps Cameroon specifically, and have a private part for volunteers, support other volunteers and peace corps bureaus with tech help, etc. etc. Should be fun, our second meeting, and the first that I will have attended is August 31^st in Yaounde. While I am down there I am going to work some more on applications for grad school and personal statements and such. It sucks since I will be getting back in November of 2010 which is just too late to start in the fall semester. So, I am thinking of applying and then seeing if I can defer a semester. I don’t want to lose a year, starting fall 2011, but it is possible that it will arrive this way, depending on how flexible the schools are in letting me defer a semester.

Some random things I have found out since the rainy season started:

-          Coartem (chloroquine/artemether mix anti-malarial) tastes and smells like play-dough. Who knew childhood play things had anti-malarial activity! Maybe this is why malaria doesn’t exist in the US anymore? Eureka moment.

-          Huge toads come out at night and without lights you step on them a lot. They squish. Sometimes ribbit, crunch.

-          You know the goings are tuff when you wash with soap well and your pits still smell.

-          A ton of caffeine is not good to drink after not drinking any for a LONG time and when it is raining and you are in your house alone with nothing to do.

My favorite lines from Walden:

“When the soldier is hit by a cannon-ball, rags are as becoming as purple” – Whaa?

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion”. Nuff said. Me too.

Why is it that humans invoke human nature only when it is convenient? We act like we need to be “stewards” of the planet, like we are “above” evolution, other beings, animals, plants. Yet violence, selfishness, in-group/out-group dynamics, shortsightedness, oh it is just human nature, an inevitability.

I wish I had power at post so I could write these posts slowly and not rushed in a cyber café. I forget things when I don’t write these often… I wish I could just add pieces and pieces as funny and interesting and thoughtful things happened. If not it is just an itinerary of what I do rather than thoughtful, pensive, or deep. Forgive me, I try. I need to write more down in my journal as it happens, but I am such an information age kid that I like typing more than writing by hand…

I have been completely and shockingly healthy for the last month and it has just been such a joy every day. I had what I think was Malaria, but took my anti-malarial quick and it was no problem.

So I have a couple projects coming up that will involve funding I think. I want to build a small primary/secondary school in the same small village with this well project – Ketcheble. I also have ideas to do training in my village for traditional birth attendants, to ensure that they perform the births with the best techniques, and also to see if maybe they could do rudimentary prenatal consultations in the smaller villages since people really don’t come to the hospital for their CPNs. Secondly, I kind of want to select leaders in each smaller village surrounding Hina, ideally one male and one female who are driven, and then basically devise a training that would teach them everything we, PCVs are taught during training. Basically, how to do presentations to their own communities on all the health issues, water treatment, maternal health, all sort of prevention activities, malnutrition…etc. I mean, the point of peace corps is to work ourselves out of a job, which is pretty cool J.

Finally, myself along with 5 or so other men volunteers and one female volunteer are organizing a huge project called Men as Partners which I am not exactly sure what it will entail, but something along the lines of men who are part of PVVS (People living with HIV/AIDS) groups, as well as men who are not HIV+ and give them a week or two training on everything ranging from all HIV/AIDS facts, to gender roles and help break down the barriers of male chauvinism so present here in Cameroon. To enable and help these men be role models, peer educators, and ultimately more respectful and enabling of women’s roles as leaders and beloved mothers, respected, not taunted and brought down. We are in the middle of making all the resources and translating them into French and such, but if it works out it is sure to be interesting. Also, each of us men are going to come to the training with a Cameroonian men from our respective posts, thus basically giving him this training as well and experience facilitating this training. The idea being we can all take these resources back to our respective villages with this other Cameroonian counterpart and repeat this training in our smaller villages as well. Cool? We’ll hope s.

OH! Updated book list and recommendations. In order of what I think is awesome.

- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle ~ Kingsolver

- Development as Freedom

- Romantic Passion

- The Demon Lover – Robin Morgan

- Stiff – the curious lives of human cadavers

- Mutant Message down Under

- Touching the void

- Death of a Salesman

- Foreign babes in Beijing

- Flowers for algernon

Well, out of things that are coming to my mind at the moment, I will try to write more stuff down in my journal in the following time, but thanks for those who continue the letters and mail and email. ALSO, some close friends are also embarking on their own peace corps experiences this month and in the coming months and it is just going to amazing to have 3 or 4 close friends be in (French) speaking Africa at the same time serving in the Corps of the Peace. I am SO excited for all of you and soak it all up. I look forward to getting back to the US and sharing our experiences.

With love, as always,

Bradley

This will be a short update but I am now back home after traveling for around three weeks. London was amazing, got to spend a lot of time with Brianna, another volunteer that I was close with during training but we hadn’t gotten to talk much since then which was just really a treat. Her flight was basically the same as mine to London so we traveled down to Yaounde together and got to see a couple other volunteers along the way and then we also traveled back up to the extreme north together!

In London I got to see the queen and she waved at ME! Seriously, me alone. It was magnificently amazing and I cried. I ate the most amazing Thai and Indian food I probably have ever had. Well, second to Thailand, but amazing! Got to see three plays, Billy Eliott, the jersey boys, and arcadia. Saw a lot of old dead people including Newton. Met a Cameroonian on the street since I was wearing my Cameroonian soccer jersey. Got to skype with a good amount of beautiful people, and I mean beautiful since we also got to video chat too, for those who I didn’t get the chance to catch up with, lets do a letter correspondence soon!

I just talked with an NGO here called GOIB who might be able to finally help me fix Ketcheble’s water issue through a closed well which is exciting! ALSO, myself along with maybe 4 other guys and one girl are planning a two week training session in Maroua for around 20-25 men who are mostly HIV positive. This would teach them life skills, go over gender issues, teach them positive behaviors, HIV/AIDS facts, prepare them to be leaders on the HIV/AIDS issues in their respective villages, and help them be good role models and help challenge some of the enduring traditional chauvinistic values. It will probably take place around december/january this coming year and I am really starting to get excited about it!

Heading back to post in a couple hours so I will stop there but soon I will write a non-rushed thoughtful post!

Thinking of you…

OH. P.S. Tentatively thinking of applying for M.P.H programs in International health this fall and deferring one semester to start around January 2011?

You know it has been a long time since you posted when you need to read what your last post contained…. doh…
HI!
So life here in Cameroon has been going well. I have finally had a couple months without parasites (fingers crossed that that trend continues) so that has added a lot of happiness to my life. I have been biking a TON and going out and visiting a lot of tiny little villages that I had yet to visit. Basically working just at Hina center does not provide a ton of opportunities; 1. because the population is really very used to Peace Corps being in Hina (6 or 7 years now) and also 2. the population really is not all that dynamic. Really… it is kinda weird that when I arrived in Hina there was not a single communtiy group legalized in all of Hina center. (Side note, that the population is not that dynamic is not a reason for me not to work. On the contrary, I take it as a challenge and where the challenges are the most is where the most growth and progress can be made, right??? I will continue to try to being OPTIMISM… if ONE of these groups can take off the rest of the village will SEE the importance and it will be awesome!). There are like 4 or 5 in these tiny tiny villages like 1/10th the size and NONE in Hina? Hrm. Also, compared to smaller villages far from Hina Marbak (where I live), Hina is really well off. People are (relatively) rich there and have a little disposable income, we have a good situation regarding clean water, and there are easy ways to send for goods from the big cities like Maroua, Mokolo, or Guider. Also, Hina has a highschool which is actually pretty rare around here, even larger towns nearby cities don’t have highschools through the end of highschool (what they call the BAC). Students come and spend the school year from far away places to go to highschool in Hina. Finally, Hina has a health center, yes it might be pretty crappy but at least there is medicine and trained nurses.

Anywho, so I think now that my homologue Kari got a motorcycle, we will be going out and visiting a lot of the smaller more secluded villages to educate and help them solve their most pressing issues regarding health, education, or general development issues. For example, we went and visited this tiny village about an hour and a half away on the top of a mountain (Windy = cool and not hot) with a population of around 1000. They SERIOUSLY have a problem with water. They have one well that is around 2 meters deep that they constructed themselves, yet the opening is huge, maybe 2 meters across too because the ground is so sandy that if they tried to dig deep and small it would just collapse. Anyways, so it is SUPER open so anything could fall in, yes even your Hummer H2, or H3 for that matter. Now get this. So this one well started being low on water in December. Rains end in Octoberish, start for real in June. So… basically the well does not help much in the dry season (when it is important…). Women look for water in the middle of the night or walk miles and miles to get 20 liters. That isn’t even the bad part. This one well is not just for Ketcheble, there are THREE other villages that come with donkeys, motorcycles, feet, to get water from this one well. Yeah. People don’t take baths, no water. So… I want to solve this problem. I will solve this problem.
Basically the population of Ketcheble is AWESOME and super dynamic. There was this project called PARFAR where the villages would collect 200,000 CFA for a pump and the government would finish the rest of the 8 million CFA price tag (ouch!). They heard of this project and found me in the market one friday and just gave me the 200,000 CFA right then and there. Like, dude, we NEED water! Ok, maybe you don’t see the amazingness and dynamicism (word?) of this move, but you need to realize that most of these individuals have no money. They cultivate and raise a couple animals and that is it. The men of Ketcheble try their best to sell murchanise in the local markets (Hina center for example) to make some cash… but I could say that the majority live on much less than one dollar a day (500CFA). Really, even at Hina center I tried to get a quartier of the village to collect this money to get a pump since their quater was the only one without a pump and they refused to collect. Really, collecting money is NOT an easy feat with the extreme levels of poverty and corruption here. Almost everyone has a story of collecting money and someone eating it. Anywho, so this project PARFAR is finished, they were set up to only do 75 pumps and they have reached their 75 limit. So we are on probation to see if another village does not give the money or if for some reason another village does not work out they will come and dig in Ketcheble. So… cross your fingers??

Secondly, since the population is so driven and engaged and ready to do their part I would love to help them build a school. Their current school consists of a wood hangar to block the sun with old stalks of millet and they kids sit on the floor and they have a tiny blackboard that is broken and basically illegible. If it rains they don’t have class. The population has collected 150,000 CFA before before and are just kinda waiting to see how they can collect or what they can do to build this school. Anyone want to help? Once I get my camera I will shoot up this so you can see the school that they are using now. It broke my heart too, yesterday was the annual National day of Cameroon (20 may) and their is the march to commemorate the union, anyways the school of Ketcheble was there and it is just striking to see the differences in poverty based on the location of the school. The students from Hina and nearby Zivoul are relatively well nourished and have nice colorful uniforms. Ketcheble on the other hand you could tell the difference in how terribly malnourished all the kids are and here they are marching infront of all the “grands” and “elites” in like 120 degree weather and sun. They also did another “dance” afterwards and they all did it BAREFOOT. Barefoot on sand that has been baking in the sun ALL day. *sigh*. So, if anyone is interested in funding a project to build a school… let me know. Could build a great cement structure for maybe two classrooms that would last for 50 years or so for around $3,500-.

Secondly I visited Tchamay. Another village really far and in the mountains and their water problem is even MORE pronounced than ketcheble. They have not a single well and everyone drinks water straight from the mayo. Yeah, a lot of opportunity for discussing water sanitation and how you can “treat” water by a myriad of approaches (I am heading there again the 31st right before heading to LONDON–woot—shout out thanks Dad+Kelli) in the future. However, this visit was not as encouraging as the visit to Ketcheble. I had a reunion with all of the important chefs and lawans of the town and they all came to the conclusion that yes their most pressing issues was water. We continued the discussion and I explained that there are many projects that will dig wells if the village can collect 40% or 30% or some portion of the total cost of the well, since nearly all projects demand community participation, and for good reason…

In the end they all agreed that they cannot collect anything. Not even 5F. I was like… hrm. Well, damn? They just said they would love for me to work there and do any sort of education or any work that I can do but don’t count on the participation of the community. Well then, what do you do in this situation??? Kids are affedted every day from intestinal parasites, becoming malnourished due to worms, dying from diarrhea (they even told me that they lost a lot of kids last year due to diarrhea). Ok.. yes.. education about water sanitation, how to treat water, how to prepare oral-rehydration salts en brousse can help, but seriously… the best and long-term solution is to GET potable water. In this situation do you just do nothing? Do you dig one well for free and then go “seee this is goood… help for the others”? I don’t understand how they CAN understand that this is their most pressing issue yet say they can do nothing to ameliorate their own situation. For every example of a village without any wells or with a SERIOUS water problem, there are other villages that have helped themselves and have dug wells or found projects and collected a part of the money and solved their own problems. I am here to help them help themselves, I don’t really feel comfortable with the top-down white man digging well for free sort of approach that has been so… to be honest.. damaging in the past. Grrr. Education it is…

The youth group (GAM-SIDA) is rockin’! We have started having educational conversations in each quartier of Hina center and it has been going well. We chat about HIV/AIDS, answer questions, dispell rumors, talk about the importance of HIV testing (another rant, HIV tests are NOT available. In my humble opinion here in the village, HIV testing is absolutely on the FRONT lines for fighting HIV infection. How can you fight a disease you cannot see? Condoms are well and good but HIV testing before marriage, with partners that are faithful, for pregnant women, for children, for everyoneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Doh. I went all around Maroua to try to find them, even if I had to buy them expensive [HIV testing is supposed to be free, just like ARVs... Not] and I couldn’t find tests anywhere) and show how to use a condom…etc. It has been going well and with time we want to set up a little informational peer education kiosk at the market on fridays to answer questions, distribute information, and sell condoms (since they are still hard to find in my opinion… the people who run the little boutiques are slow at picking up wanting to sell them… why?? ). I think with time I might apply for some funding for this group, it also breaks my heart with happiness to see this group of youth who are EXTREMELY poor all just working little odd jobs for 50 cents a day, going to highschool (paying their own way), cultivating, and they are all giving money each week to this group to fund activities. They also want to do a communal field of soy which is sweet too! But… once they are well established it would be great to find some funding for this group. Seriously, they all are giving like 500 CFA (money to eat for 2-3 days?) to buy condoms to show how to use them…etc. I have tried to help where I can but I also don’t want to hold the group up by my passion. Furthermore, another issue that I have. I don’t buy anything and we get paid well yet I end up always not having money because I help out with little things like this. I have a hard time saving up money while others are working HARD but still suffering. Yes, there is a difference between people here who are just lazy and won’t even cultivate (which is the primary source of income… one sack of peanuts can fetch a hefty 60-70k CFA [70USD]) and those who work every single day but still have a hard time finding money to have a little disposable income. Also, after highschool school is pretty much prohibitively expensive. Basically impossible unless you are rich or have help. I don’t know if I can help not helping a couple of the guys/girls who are driven, intelligent, and hard working to university. We’ll see… anywho the group just finished setting up and running a ball (think all night dance party) with paid entry for the party of the 20th of may and that should get a good amount of cash $$ to fund group acitivies! With time… there is funding from the US government… but with that comes a ton of paperwork and red tape (read-abstinence only education must be a priority? Screw that… lie? (Barack Obama come change these rules?).

Everything else is going pretty good in Hina. My chickens are reproducing wildly, my dog is teething, and I planted American corn and sunflowers at my house! Sweet corn and the cool rains of the rainy season = booya! I also am planning on cultivating a field of soy, Kari gave me a field that was already labored with a donkey (how nice?!). I definitely want to try cultivating with a donkey though… Hehe, one crazy story that really colored my Friday last week was this guy at the market who was selling Chinese pills and all sorts of random cures. He would “test” you if you wanted with a plastic remote control with some electrodes attached to it that would shock you repeatedly for 20 or so seconds while he frantically pressed buttons randomly and random Chinese characters flashed on a screen with an outline of a body. He would then tell you what you needed to buy and how to take it. Yeah, needless to say I was pretty pissed. These people are SO poor and don’t know better, this dude comes from Nigeria or the south of Cameroon and is obviously moderately educated yet when I challenged him and got tested he said I did not have rheumatism… lol. Figures. I asked him about his medicines and when he gives what and what is contained in these mysterious capsules with no French or English on them at all, just Chinese characters. He had no idea. Basically I tried my best to explain to the population that he was a crook and to go to the hospital if they wanted medicine but it is not easy. 2 minutes after that people were back there buying medicine for dollars and dollars. That really pissed me off, more than it probably should have but I am THERE in village to improve the health of the population, really I need to start some sort of educational activities in the market because it is a place where there are a TON of people and it would be easy to draw a crowd with just some music or a megaphone…

But, long story short, don’t worry mom, I don’t have rheumatism!
Hehe one thing that never gets old is the children. Basically they are amazing and beautiful and their smiles alone are enough to brighten the hardest day. The funny thing is how scared some of the little ones get when they see you. Really in village I forget that I am white, ok that might sound weird but everyone is black here, everyone. So really when I am just hanging out with people I am accustomed to they don’t yell “Nassara” or anything that would remind me that I am somehow different from them. Yet, whenever there are people I don’t know like market day or in the big cities you always are aware how much you stand out. It is just funny how much we “Nassaras” stand out. Really there are not that many white people in the extreme north of cameroon. Hehe but back to the kids, the little ones scream and run it is funny. In Hina at least if they don’t run it is funny, the kids here are the most polite kids you would meet. ALWAYS, bonjour monsieur brad, bonjour monsieur, hehe… never just Brad.

I also started giving presentations at the Baptist chuch which has been AWESOME. At the end of the service I just give my little presentation/conversation (I always prefer a question/answer format where those are engaged, it makes you feel like you are really answering their questions and possible miscomprehensions or things that they have right). The first one I gave was just on general maternal health and it was a great conversation with the women being VERY engaged… a fact that sadly is rare here in an area 90%+ Muslim… the women are taught to not talk to men, be reserved, stay at home…etc. Depending on the husband they might have to ask permission to leave and if you want to talk to their wife you might have to ask permission too… takes some getting used to.

So since there had been a pretty big outbreak of yellow fever in the country the ministry did an emergency full vaccination campaign of universal free yellow fever vaccinations for EVERYONE from 1 year to…. That was pretty cool and helping with that was fun. I only wish I had a camera that worked there could have been some pretty sweet pictures. Sadly I wasn’t all that organized otherwise I could’ve profited from the big crowds to give presentations about health issues, but, it is always more complicated than that because I absolutely need someone to be there with me to translate… well, it was my mistake to miss that opportunity . Apparently in the big cities they were walking the streets with the vaccination asking people if they were vaccinated and if you said no, even if you refused they would try to vaccinate you by force. Interesting…

This last evening I was invited to the sub-divisional delegates house for a buffet dinner all free with beers and cocktails provided. These invitations always make me really uncomfortable. I went to the mayors and the sub-divisional delegates office a couple times this last month to talk about my work and to see if they could help in any way. In theory these people are in power to help the population and to utilize the money of the population in ways that will help… right? Well, they all did the classic political run-around and in the end = no help…ever. Hehe. I mean, maybe, but doubtful. Even if I find some great project to provide water for example to Ketcheble or Thchamay, I don’t think you could count on any money from them, rien. And then, the last 4 months there have been three national holidays (11 Feb, 8 March, 20 May) and each time there are these HUGE extravagant invitations with as many drinks as you can drink and way more food than we could ever eat. These three invitations alone must have cost more than 2 million CFA. I just really have a hard time going to these and watching all the functionnaires so easily drink until they are out of control and eat like crazy while I know within walking distance there are many children that sleep with empty stomachs. There is a lot of work to be done in the world. In the minds of individuals…

Anywho, we ate and I danced with all of the grand people in the village until around 2am… it was a good time.

Bon, de toute façon, I really am just as guilty of this since I am heading to London in around two weeks which simply for the plane ride would equal maybe 3 or 4 wells in these villages listed. How do you resolve that issue…? Makes the plane ride and the trip seem less inviting. You all need to come visit Africa. It will change your outlook on a lot of things, namely, life.

Returning to the kids, another thing that I will never get used to is the domestic violence. Well, actually, you do kinda get desensitized to it after awhile. It is just how things are done here. However, when the parents hit an infant or say “Mi Fouete” (I will hit you) to discourage a 1 year old from picking up something… really??? Cmon… past the line. Oh, also, one of my friends I asked why they had cut under the right eye of Bashirou (his son) and he replied because he cried so much as a kid so when the tears would fall it would hurt, maybe he would stop crying. Yeah, facial scarification is pretty widely practiced and some of it is really interesting and beautiful. But… usually done when the kids are too young to decide for themselves…?

Lets see, what else? Besides all of the issues regarding traveling it is going to be great to have a little break and be pampered. I just need to try not to think about the cost. OMG I had real coffee the other day visiting another volunteer, REAL coffee from starbucks, it gave me goosebumpies when I smelled it. Yeah. Good stuff.

I started a relationship with a local craftsman who makes knives and swords and drums and basically anything you want if it is with a local material he can make it. The blacksmiths in Hina are known all the way down to the south because of their amazing knives. They make sweet stuff. Bouba is making a traditional drum (Tam-Tam) for me right now which I am really excited to see… I also want to get the traditional flutes that the sing for the holidays and I would love to learn how to play the Tam-Tam and the flutes traditionally. Sadly whenever I say this people look at me like I am crazy and say it is the “grios” who play those to try to collect a little pocket money from people… like it is below the “grands”. Really there is not a ton of “traditional” things left, a lot of it died with the last generation, they did not teach it to their children. One thing that I learned is that there is a nearby village called Manja placed in the mountain by Hina with no roads connecting it… you go by foot and this town is where the people from Hina originated. The soil is really fertile and their are natural wells with water in them year round. A couple generations before the people from Manja decided to deplace to the plains below the mountain where Hina is currently located, probably as the population expanded. I am excited to take the hike there and check out the area… supposed to be really beautiful.
Sweet, you are probably sick of my ramblings at this point and I am kinda out of steam as of now. I took a break in the middle and went and bought some music video CDs that are sweet and really show the Cameroonian style of dance. Also I bought a machete to cut all the thorns that are ubiquitous and always seem to want to overcome the fields… .

I hope life in America is going well. I think of all of you all the time and every time I receive a letter or an email or some sort of correspondence it brightens my day and reminds me of how much love is shared back home. I may criticize America, but you are your own worst critic, right? The things that are closest to you are the things you critique the most… I miss home a lot, but I also love the feeling of growing and discovering new things every day. Life is an amazing adventure and I love being able to share it with such beautiful people as you all. Thank you for listening!

Love,
Bradley

P.S. Officially longest post yet. Sweet! See you in London June 9th!

Hey y’all.

Well, this entry might not be as long as the others but I will still give a short update on recent happenings! How is life in the U.S. of A.? I got some newsweeks in my recent packages and really it paints a bleak picture back there regarding the economy. I feel for you all. Yet, being here in Africa, I can’t help but think that..  ok.. start over. Really, the more I read about the economic problems and policies basically around the world, I cannot but help but think that our whole system is organized wrong. As the quote on my dad’s door in his office says ” Anyone who thinks exponential growth can go on forever is either a madman or an economist”. Basically, as I was reading about the issues in America and Obama’s plan, it comes down to trying to stimulate consumer spending and confidence to not save everything and go out and SPEND. I mean, this is the argument always… republicans think that giving tax cuts to the wealthy will stimulate the economy/spending/confidence, Obama thinks middle class. BUT, still within the same paradigm. I disagree with the whole system. If people are spending less, being more guarded about their purchases, thus using less resources, spending “responsibly”, this should be rewarded, this should be a positive thing. I really have no idea how this is possible, and it isn’t in our current economic paradigm… but with the changing times, I want to see a global economic system that rewards limited and guarded spending rather than rewarding willy-nilly-$3,000 spent for christmas presents for one family-spending. First rant.

People in Africa, ok… really… I don’t have to say it… but they all want the American lifestyle. More africans wear shirts saying USA on them than I see in the US. They know more names of rappers in the US than I do. We all know we are exporting a lifestyle, but it is another thing to be here and see it occurring. Major changes need to come within the US…now. Cut your spending on frivolous items. Own one, or no car. Have a small house. People here live in houses 10 by 10. Our houses are ridiculous, and we think it is necessary. The haves and have nots are a social construction. The rich rich rich people here would be have-nots if they came to the US with their “stuff”. Ridiculous.

Ok.. enough ranting. Work here is… going. I am at the period where I am reevaluating and finally feeling completely settled in and comfortable in village, which also means the honeymoon period is over and I am starting to really thin, what can I do here in 1.5 years. The hardest thing is just knowing that I have no real connections to resources, my information is highly limited, I do not speak the native language and thus need to take a Cameroonian most places if I want to speak with a village or village elders (most of whom don’t know french), I see so much money being corrupted, wasted, eaten and resting dans le ventre of those functionaires.

When I do participatory analysis for community action and ask communities what their needs are, what are their most pressing projects/lack of information..etc. Most often it is water. If you wanted to make a big difference here, dig forages (pumps that pump water and are a closed system so cannot be easily contaminated like open wells). Then it is usually education. However, even if people finish the arduous task of graduating from highschool (yes it is really difficult, many set backs, quite expensive for all of it), and somehow figure out how to go to university, there really is just not enough jobs. People who are highly educated end up just working their fields…etc. I am here for health education. Cool. I started out identifying nutrition and basic maternal health/water sanitation as a way that I can make a big different simply with information. Yet, once I finish educating regarding that and set up peer educators in the villages to continue to spead the message about the importance of Soja, gilliganga (local plant that is crazy high in vitamins… called Moranga (sp?) in english), inform them not to give water before 6 months of age, to give the first milk..etc.etc.. I don’t really know that much more information I can give that will directly have a big impact.

AIDS, yes, but no condoms are available (another thing I am working on), Anti-retro-viral drugs are basically impossible to find, which makes any discussion on doing an AIDS test hard because people will be like…well.. no drugs available I really don’t want to know. Some people will test, but it is really hard to get people to agree. Oh, well, and there are no AIDS tests at the big pharmacy distributor in Maroua either right now. Grr.

So, trying to figure out my niche that I can focus on. Kari (pharmacist at hospital, basically my family in village, eat dinner with him every day), and I have started some initiatives to set up small pharmacies in a nearby town of Mayo-Mbana which is pretty far from the health center and I just found out that we just don’t even go there for monthly vaccinations during the 5 months or so around the rainy season… so basically they are on their own with no way to get to a health center for 5 months. You get Malaria? Screwed. Yeah, really important to start that up… I hope we can get it running before this years rainy season.

International womens day (March 8th) was interesting here, but basically consisted of everything from youth day, only women. They marched like soldiers infront of all of the functionnaires, or elite. Even on womens day, the day for the women, all the responsables in the village (mayor, sous-prefet, delegates..etc.) all were sat in chairs and all the women who are respected in the village sat behind us, with a difficult view of the show. Just kind of rammed home how far we still have to go here as there are not a single functionnaire in Hina who is a women. The sous-prefet gave some huge fluffy speech that sounded amazing about how we need to be equal, women need to go to school, we need to do this.. this… but with no REAL policy things that he will do. The president of the women’s day events gave a speech asking for initiatives to get more women to school in Hina, maybe a center for the promotion for women where women could gather and teach each other skills…etc…etc. Clearly none of that will be realized… as always, talk is cheap.

So… not much is really new. Still going out speaking about maternal health, now going to change topics to maybe push women’s rights in the homes, talk about contraception/family planning and how it is an option, and basically in each village that we go out for vaccinations I am just asking the groups of women what they would like to talk about next month… some say AIDS… some say some other skill such as planting fruit trees…etc. But, I still have a lot of days where I don’t have anything to do and just talk with people in village, read, play with the dog and chickens, make questionable food…

Ideally like I said above I would love to find another person who is dynamic and interested… or a couple people… in each of these small villages and give them a sort of peer-education training in all the information I know (which is really not much… but I will try) and then so they can pass the information on to all the members of the community over time. More sustainable, more effective for them to hear it from one of their own community members.

The hardest thing is just seeing that there are SO many problems that would be moderately easily fixed, just that the government doesn’t give a flying care about the people. All the way to the top there is no oversight. Someone is given 30 million to use for the hospital or the school or the whole city in general (mayor) and all of it just disappears and they say there is no money. No one challenges their superior. No one. That is something that is very different here too, the absolute respect for authority. If someone is selected (not by the people, but by the government) to be the sous-prefet, the people really don’t talk bad about him, even if he does an awful job, they just kind of accept it. The fear of talking and challenging authority runs deep. Even at the hospital, the doctor gets a lot of $$ that is supposed to be shown in a budget and reviewed by one of the other regional delegates, but he just never shows this to the delegates and they kinda just go… what can we do? Frustrating to see.

It is just the classic peace corps experience. Plunged into a village with very limited health knowledge and a peace corps training that was highly lacking in real information, wanting to do so much but having a lack of resources. Another hard thing is that Hina is used to peace corps. There have been volunteers there for around the last 7 years, so I am nothing new. This can be good because there are friends and contacts in village and everyone is nice and bubbly towards me, but also means that they are used to us. I am nothing new. To get people excited and interested in some sort of information or project is hard because they know peace corps has no ability to really bring in money, or build a school, or even a well. Also, a lot of the basic information they all already know. The highschool students did an exposition on AIDS that was wonderful. I mean, I don’t want to overemphasise the amount of information ALL people know in all little towns, but I bet you a lot of the people here know much more about AIDS than most americans. It is just a matter of changing ideas and practices. Polygamy, using condoms even if they are available, being faithful. People know the risks, they know what they need to do to avoid them… but do they do it. That is another thing. People know they should use mosquito nets to avoid malaria, they all know that standing water is bad. Giving information… they know it all. But… do they act on it? Harder…

I don’t want to give the feeling that I am like… not optimistic about my ability to work here and have an impact. However, it is not simple by any means. I just hope I can find some avenue where I feel that my efforts are being matched by community participation and that it will have a lasting impact. Also, really, even if I don’t have a huge impact… I am trying… and I don’t think my impact will be negative. I am learning SO much every day. It is really surprising and I hardly notice how much I am learning about life, the culture, French!, food…etc..etc. As long as I am healthy, I will be happy here. Yet, the other day I found out that I had had parasites probably for around 3 months or so… which is why I was feeling so crappy all the time. Lol… feeling “crappy”… get it? Yeah. So I hope that that will all clear up and I can start doing sports again because I really had stopped and now feel extremely out of shape (up to 171 pounds!). Crazy.

In a week all the volunteers in the extreme north will be here in Maroua for our second training session. In-service training… which basically means just a re-doing of pre-service training that we all loved oh so much. I mean, it will be good to exchange ideas and best practices and will definitely re-vamp our creativity. Yet, the sessions are SO organized that most of my learning will come outside the 8 hours of class we have a day just having an opportunity to talk with everyone again about what they have been doing at post.

I hope everyone is safe and warm and that jobs are secure. I love you all and don’t feel shy to drop me a line if you have some comments or ideas regarding my posts.

My chickens gave me chicks the other day and they are SO cute. It is fun raising animals and I think more people should do it in the US as well. I cannot really get over when I think how cheap chicken breasts are in the US. How do they do it? Magic? Raising a chicken from birth to a fat death for only a couple bucks?

I am off, sorry for how my posts are always cryptic and spur-of-the-moment thought, yet that is the reality of cyber cafes and 1 to 2 day trips into town.

Oh also, we might plan a short little bike trip between some villages with a couple volunteers to promote girls education. No real logistics on it yet, but it would be a small thing and financed mostly with our own money, but hopefully a bunch of Nassaras riding into your town on bikes could generate a bit of buzz for a couple programs and events in the villages. I’ll keep you updated as planning continues!

I love you all,

Bradley

P.S. Seriously, the amazing and love-filled packages keep coming. I cannot thank everyone enough. Thank you thank you!

Haha… well thanks for the pressure to write another entry, sorry that it has been so long but you need to begin to be patient with me because I really have not had the ability to use the internet in a long while!

Again, where to start. Thanks to EVERYONE who has sent packages. Really, some of them have made me tear up just looking at all of the goodies and thoughts and love and happiness that went into the packages. Really, poor college/out of college friends sending packages for 30+ dollars, no including the things inside, really, that is just… I love my friends. It is totally not necessary though but maybe that is why it is amazing to send and receive. Just know that everything I get is so appreciated and all of the food is eaten in literally a day or two. Yes. All.

SO. I got little chickens from Nigeria, right? That will grow up huge and fat and I want to breed them with the local females (all the chickens you buy that will get huge are male). BUT, Zeus, my dog, has other ideas. He took a huge bite out of one of my other adult female chickens so I brought it over to my neighbors house to eat, but it was already late so he was like “ok lets just put it in a cold place and hope it doesn’t die and we can eat it tomorrow”. “sweet”. I say. The next morning it is still alive and he is like, you know, I don’t think it is going to die. And he was right, to this day it is now walking around and eating and healthy. Crazy, an open huge gaping wound spilling blood and he is fine? Chickens are really tough. Respect chicken. Respect. Maybe I should name him Rocky. Or Obama, yes we can survive. Or for that matter, gloria gaynor. But I digress…

Things here are good. The title of the post is related to my recent activities of helping my neighbor, whom I eat breakfast and lunch with every day build his new house. And… the hot season is starting. It was 107 in the shade the other day and 132 in the sun. Yeah. Death. Between 2 and 5ish I can’t really do anything but sit around and sweat while drinking water as fast as possible. All the houses here, ok not all, but most of the houses and walls and chicken coops and everything are build just with the soil here. It is like clay everywhere and you just mix it with water and it turns into basically a cement like mixture. So I have been helping my neighbor build his house and just can’t help but be reminded of bike and build this last summer. It is like bike and build 2… in Africa. Hehe.

So I started going out regularly with the vaccinations at the hospital to give little presentations to the women and children about nutrition/maternal-child health/water/random other questions they may have. Basically I just educate about the importance of protein, a balanced diet of fruit and vegetables, and where, with their limited money, they could find sources of protein on a daily basis. Basically, I push peanuts, beans, soybeans, dried fish, and raising chickens to provide eggs and chicken meat every once and awhile. Soy is by far the best option since it is a nitrogen fixer and basically can be planted in any soil, and is really a great crop rotator or good to mix with other crops in the fields. It is relatively cheap for the amount of protein you can get and people here also make this stuff called Owara, basically just oily tofu which is actually really good if you cut it up and toss it in sauces (I like it better than the random goat/sheep pieces of meat found in most sauces).

Other things I stress is not giving any water to kids before age 6months. Almost all women give water to their children from birth and when you see the quality of the water given you would be sick. Ok… maybe just from drinking it but it is DIRTY. Mostly these small villages just have open wells which are just steaming festoons of contamination for CACA (Poop). Also, I have been trying to push villages to collect the 200,000 CFA needed to give to PARFAR, the organization that digs pumps which are much more sanitary than open wells. Basically these forrages cost 8 million CFA but all the village needs to provide is 200,000 CFA and PARFAR will dig a forrage.

I also talk about the importance of giving the first milk (colostrum) when women give birth. Most women think the milk is spoiled or rotten since it is sometimes yellowish. But, it is yellow because it is chock full of nutrients, antibodies, and all other goodies to protect the baby for awhile from malaria, polio, tetanus…etc. Basically the babies first immunization.

Anywho, so that has been fun and I hope to return to the villages and see what they have retained, educate again if needed, and ask what other information they might be interested in knowing so I could prepare and give it the next time I head out.

In other news, I found out that my guardian, the guy I pay to get water and stay at my house when I am not there, has a horribly malnourished child. Like. Horribly. I saw the child for the first time at the hospital 2 weeks ago and couldn’t look at the child. You could count every rib, every bump in his spine. He is 3 years old and has legs and arms the size slightly larger than a pen. When you pick him up you think you could break an arm with just the slightest wrong movement. Yeah. So. I immediately talked with him and I had known his kid was malnourished for awhile but never knew it was like that. The story goes, his wife died of AIDS when the kid was 5 months old. He was a fat happy kid as is any kid with a full belly of breast milk (MMM). He continued to develop well and my guardian gave the child to the parents of his wife to raise because he is horribly poor and unable to care well for the child (men don’t care for children really here, or cook…). That is where the situation was ended for the time being. However, the kid started to waste away as the family he gave the kid to is also dirt poor and fed the kid rice, flour beignets, and maybe some peanuts. Basically the kid was just not eating enough calories, or protein and so developed what we call marasmus. My guardian also is at fault because he never really stopped by the house to check up on the kid even though he knew he was sick for awhile. Anywho, after talking with my homologue we got my guardian to take the kid back to his house and start raising him himself with his brand new (1 month) wife. She has been amazing at accepting raising this child that is not really her doing and a TON of work since he is really sick and doesn’t sleep through the night..etc.

Basically that is a very abbreviated description. Anyways, so I have advanced him a lot of $$ and have been counseling him on what foods to give the child that contain a lot of protein. Basically we recommend a diet of Bouille, which is like a milky substance with peanuts and flour and rice and water, but instead of using rice you use soybeans to provide easy to digest and eat protein for children as they begin to wean from their mother. Soy is awesome. All the essential amino acids. However, we think it is a good idea to sen dthe kid off to a child development hospital to get stronger for awhile, yet, this is expensive and will end up resting on me to pay for it, which is fine. I already know that my idea to save money while here will not actually happen because if I know I can do something with $, even if it is not “sustainable”, if someone or some child is in dire need of something I am going to buy it regardless of the sustainability, who is at fault..etc. I could not bear to see a child die due to me saying I want to save some 20,40,50 bucks. Such is life here. I also paid for a friend of mine whose parents are old old old and can’t provide for him to continue going to the government school. MAN, they really want to make it hard for kids to go to school here. Agh. Kids pay a lot of money to go to a highschool that hardly works, hardly educates, and hardly has class/teachers. AND, then if they miss the deadline because they have no $, when they DO find the money , people in the system require bribes and extra FINES… MORE money to just be eaten by some officials for beer from these poor kids who are just craving an education. Sick.

Recently there was youth day (11th of February) that was an interesting experience too. Basically every event for youth day is planned by the old and entrenched corrupt elite. Hrm….

It consisted of a very formal event where all the schools marched like soldiers infront of the elite, the provincial delegates..etc..etc. Then the youth had a party in the evening which started 3 hours late because all of the youth had to wait for the elites to show up. Hrm, this party is for the youth? All the elites sit up front in nice comfy chairs while the youth push and shove to get a glimpse of the happenings. Also, it is almost womens day where most of the events will be planned by men. Hrm…

Also, in talking about respect for women we got on the subject of sex and i was talking about low risk activities one could engage in with someone whose HIV status you did not know. Such as manual sex, oral sex (with protection or without, still lower risk than unprotected sex), and other creative ways such as insertive objects..etc. They all looked at me like I was crazy. Hehe. Sex here, well, not much differently than in the US is a very taboo and clear cut item. The missionary position is the only position, they even JOKED about the idea that the women could be on top… which obviously indicated that the women was dominant in the relationship. All is related to the power dynamic. The man is in control. Maybe on womens day the women could be on top?? BUT! Good news is that the condom initiative that |I started is going pretty well, informal reports and observations by me show that they are selling well and during the youth day when the youth had their little dance and party thing a TON of condoms were sold, which is awesome. Especially for a village that a couple weeks ago had none.

Friendships here are had because no matter how close you may think you are with another person, there are always barriers. I found out that my homologue, who is like my dad in village, is looking to marry another wife. I was always really just proud and thought that he respected women, I mean, not like he doesn’t just because he wants another wife but I just thought he was more westernized and was happy and content with his one wife. Clearly I don’t mean to oversimplify the culture of polygamy and the muslim norms…etc. But, still, for me, it was a sad finding out because I directly correlate polygamy with the subjugation and lack of respect/ submission of women to men.

During the youth day I played in a volleyball match, the highschool kids against the “grands”. Basically this is the first time in my life I played with the “old” team. I am old. Doh… I was like.. I am YOUNG… younger than some of the people on the lycee team, cmon can’t I play with the youth team?? I guess this is the beginning of the end… haha… joking. It was a great game a just a fun time!

Cameroonians are SO communal. The community aspect of the culture is amazing. A guys house burned down during the youth week and the whole village got together and built him another house the very next couple days. Awesome. The commune, basically the mayor and the traditional chiefs refused to fix the roads that are in horrible condition following the rainy season so all the youth from one quartier got together, myself included, and we just worked with our hands and axes to fix the road one sunday. It was awesome and it is just an amazing feeling how communal they all are. I mean, they need to be communal to survive, I think that is why we have lost that in the US.. we can afford to live on our own, but we need to return to this ideal. Yes, you may fiscally be able to live cooped up in your gated community house, but can you spiritually, and is your life meaningful without ties to others surrounding you? I think not. People are more valuable than $$. Well, economists don’t think so.. but I do. Dear readers, know that I think you are worth more than the 2 million or whatever the total for an american life is nowadays. Children are normally considered 1/3 the price of adults when considering government/other programs statistically on how much $$ to spend on safety items…

I climbed a mountain to get cell phone signal the other day. Haha. Things you don’t need to do in America. But it worked. Booya.

While giving vaccinations in a SMALL town called Palva and we asked the name of the newborn child who was 21 days old and the women responded ” Barack Obama”. That was the highlight of my week/month. It was just a surreal experience, she eliminating the family name and any other customs to replace the name with Barack Obama. I really want to write a letter to Obama and tell him to remember Africa. There are huge groups of children being named after him in Africa. He better remember Africa. The amount of people who already have Barack obama shirts in village is remarkable.

One of the funnier aspects of the story is as she walked away after Barack received his polio and BCG vaccinations, I saw she was wearing an Osama bin laden shirt saying “Attack on” on the back. I mean, I am sure she just has no idea what the meaning of the shirt was, but that was just the icing on the cake for the story… haha. Barack Obama, child of mother who supports Osama?

A couple people (kate) have asked what a normal day is like for me, and how much freedom I have in choosing my projects. Basically it can depend on your assignment. Some other volunteers work directly with a womens center, or an NGO working against AIDS…etc…etc. So those volunteers have less freedom to develop and pursue a myriad of other projects because their time is already taken up a lot by there work with the NGO or center. I, however, really have all the freedom in the world to work on any project or idea that interests me. So, in training once you get in country if you really want freedom you could say you want to just be paired with a health center and work on certain projects… or you could say you want to be paired with a well organized NGO if you really want to work with someone who has money and the ability to do a lot of large projects. It all depends on the wants of the person. A normal day is pretty impossible but it includes a lot of talking with locals in the village, spending a little time at the hospital, going out to villages around, reading, having meetings, eating, napping…etc.

OK… really sorry this entry has been rushed because I have a million things I need to get done like running to legalize a bunch of community groups and going to NGOs to talk about projects, make a ton of photocopies, buy a chain to attach the dog at the house so he stops eating chickens…etc.

Happy belated valentines day everyone. I can’t believe it is almost march. I have been in Peace Corps almost 6 months now. Wow! Like everything in life it has been going fast and slow at the same time! I really miss everyone. Is it bad that I am already looking forward to coming home? I just am excited to see everyone, talk about my experiences, and go back to school, use my experiences to color reading scientific/theory based documents about everything I have already experienced on the ground, and then come back maybe or work internationally where I can make a difference.

So, maybe you can all help me out a bit. As you know I have been trying to figure out what I should do with my life. You all know me best. What do you think? When I get back December 2010 should I go back to grad school the next year? Should I wait another year? Since, if grad school is the answer then I need to apply while still here next year. If grad school is the answer, and eventually it will be, what subject? I have been trying to figure out what is the lowest common denominator that causes poverty. Where could I intervene to make the biggest difference? Is it education, health, environmental things (water, nutrition, planting crops/trees)? Global public health then? Or should I become a doctor? The problem with a doctorate is that it is a huge commitment and I would have to go back to school for 1/2 a year or maybe more to make up all the requirements in physics, chemistry, biology that I did not take in college. Also, school for that is a long time. I mean, it would be sweet to have a MD/Ph.D and have the opportunity to treat patients… maybe do an MD in general practice and then have a Ph.D too to also have the research/statistical background to analyze more broader based problems. In that way you could treat individual as well as global problems. But, again, big commitment… and I don’t know how well I could cut open human skin/deal with a lot of blood/etc? I mean, I think girls education and womens empowerment here in Africa is huge. I mean, ameliorating the whole educational system… but the hardest thing for me to not just snap and get angry about is how incredibly hard the life is for women, and how blind the men are to the situation and how bad it is. I want to organize or help to organize an extreme north bike tour (yes BIKING) to benefit girls education and educate about the importance of…yes.. educating girls.

Like.. three cups of tea. Build schools. Each year you educate WELL 1000 kids, wow. Big difference.

Anywho, please, let me know what you think… !

Thanks for all your continued support. Life is amazing.

OH! Another thing. I have been reading a lot of good books and keeping a list of them. Here are some of the good ones that I can remember off the top of my head since the others are written on my laptop which I didn’t bring here and the battery does not work which means that I can’t look at it in village. Anywho… the books are in order of how good I think they are… if you have some time, read them. If you have an suggestions.. let me know. I know there are a ton more that I have read but that is all I can remember off the top of my head.

ALSO, if you are at all interested in sending me material related to maternal health, nutrition in Africa, treating severely malnourished children, education…etc. Feel free. Also, if you have any ideas or things you read of small projects (1000-3000 USD) that I could maybe look into that would make a big difference and ideally be sustainable, don’t be shy.

BOOKS:

Eleven Minutes ~ Paulo Coelho

Tao Te Ching ~ Lao Tsu

Being Peace ~ thich nhat hanh

Ishmael

Tuesdays With Morrie

Dancing Skeletons (a lot of information similar to Cameroon if you want to get an idea of life here)

A Million Little Pieces

The Dharma Bums ~ Jack Keroac

The Alchemist

The Kite Runner

Fast food nation

The driftless area ~ Tom drury

Fast Food Nation

Peace like a river

Brief wondrous life of oscar wao

With so much love and thoughts…

Bradley

So in 3 days I will have been in Peace Corps for 4 months. Sheesh. Has gone so fast, yet slow, like everything in life. I have really been active in village since my last post and sorry that this post will be hurried because I am actually going to talk with an NGO ACMS (Cameroonian Association for Social Marketing) at 10am. I’ll get to this NGO in a bit… So, big news is that I finally changed off from taking Mefloquine for my anti-malarial and onto Doxycycline because basically it was making my brainz feel like I was a zombie around every other day. Basically it had been a big struggle since a month into service and I am just SO happy to feel NORMAL again. So, yay! However, nothing is without its trade-offs since Doxy is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, so… kills bacteria… even helpful ones. Also, taking a broad-spectrum antibiotic for 2 years = not the best idea when you have some sort of infection that you want an antibiotic to work… also you have to take it every day and it has a tendency to make your skin more sensitive to the sun which is not great news for me… mr-paley-mc-paler-skin. So many people have been amazing at sending letters and it just makes me SO happy. I hope people have been getting or start getting my letters soon! Also, people who have told me you are sending packages, that is just so nice of you and definitely not expected, so just… thanks… really.

I hope everyone had a merry christmas and a happy new year! I spent new years in village which was actually kind of a let down because no one really did anything… but it is not surprising since my village is almost all Muslim so they just finished their big fetes with Ramadan and the fete du mouton, so really they are kinda broke from killing a mouton for the fete du mouton and just kinda layed low for the new year holiday.

OK… what have I been up to?

Well, if I have not said it already there are NO condoms in Hina. None. So, I am really pushing that as one of my first project since it is relatively straightforward and easy. So ACMS is the Cameroonian association that works to promote selling condoms, female condoms, mosquito nets…etc. So I am going to talk with them and see if they can come to Hina and do some social marketing, if not, I will try to get them to sell the condoms to me and I can try to get the boutiques to start selling them. They really are quite a good deal, you get 25 francs benefit for every 100 franc condom pack you sell. So… 1/4 the cost is good for a benefit right? Anywho… so I will let you know how my condom promotions go. If nothing else my good friend Yussufa in village whom I eat breakfast with every day (fried bean curd = MMM… not so much… oil for breakfast?) is really excited to sell them.

I am working with the club sante (health club at highschool), have a meeting tomorrow morning actually to give them technical information on HIV/AIDS and show them the female/male condom to make sure they know how to do a condom demonstration and then they are going to go around and educate the whole highschool about aids/prevention/condom use/female condom…etc. Should be cool.

I have started working with a womens group that is lead by the wife of my homologue who I eat dinner with every day, and we have started talking  about nutrition for infants, I showed them how they can easily prepare oral-re-hydration-salts at their home when their kids have diarrhea which is like… all the time. I mean, if I have it a lot, yeah… I may not have a lot of resistance but… they are kids. Anywho, I made it with them and then had Kari’s (my homologue the pharmacist at the hospital) kids try it and they fought over it because they liked it that much. Which, if you have ever tasted the ORS solutions the hospitals give out is amazing since they taste AWFUL. Anywho, basically you use the salts, but also add a lot of sugar and lemon/lime, and bicarbonate if you have it and it is just as good but tastes good so the kids will actually drink it… kind of important?

The womens group planted trees together in the past but are interested in raising some animals to start to get some income as a group to use to do group activities and to have some independence from their husbands since wives here are basically what I would consider indentured servants to their husbands. So, I have been talking with Heifer and might try to get them to work with the women. Heifer is really awesome, if your group is selected they come out for a day or two and run an intensive educational course on whatever the group will be doing or whatever skills they lack and do it all in the local language in the village. really cool.

I have been following up on some forrage (water pump) projects and we got 2 forrages dug in villages nearby Hina, another in Hakoula is coming soon, and I was out visiting a surrounding village Ouro-Kourde, and they said they really need a forrage or two so I went and talked with P.A.R.F.A.R. and are going to try to get Ouro on the list too. Cool stuff to see because you can immediately see the difference it makes when, A) the women don’t have to walk 30 minutes to get 1 bucket of water, B) the people stop using the “easy” way out of river water.

One thing I noticed which kinda pissed me off was the amount of money given to the gendarmes (the bush-police) and how little is given to the hospital. Another example of how the government wants to be able to control the population but cares naught about the healthcare and education of the youth. P.S. the lycee (high school) is just in shambles. The kids are more out of class then in class because basically the government assigns where the professors work, so they could just get assigned to a village they don’t want to go to and then they just never show up or just show up whenever they want to. Also, since there really are not many professors in the first place many of the teachers are just graduates from the lycee who are really not qualified to teach… but are better than nothing. I had a conversation with a teacher who said it is ridiculous, however, he gets paid 25,000 CFA a month. By comparison, I get 160k a month from Peace corps. A mattress costs more than 25,000 CFA. That is 50 bucks a month. Not much. But a job here… which is really hard to find. Another problem, why get an education and waste 8 years or more of your time and money in highschool/college if you are going to come out poor and with no job to start anyways? Many a people who drive moto-taxis or work in boutiques have masters degrees… what a waste. The longer you are in Cameroon, the more you realize how much the government really does nothing for the people. Biya just recently set up a “Ministry to oversee elections”… yeah… everyone in the ministry is elected by Biya himself, based on “qualifications”. Hrm… too bad a lot of them are in Biya’s party too…

I started talking with my hospital about buying medicine from the private baptist hospital like an hour away since CAPPS, the cameroon government distribution system of medicine basically is broken and there are long periods where we have no good anti-malarial medication in hina. I was like, yo, lets buy it from the private hospital and put it on our market truck and sell it here when we run out, yeah, it will be more expensive but people will pay 1000 rather than 500 if they are gravely sick and need coartem or arteminisin based anti-malarial drugs. Yet, Kari, my homologue said that if the government came around for supervision and saw we were doing that they would make a note and somehow punish the hospital.. because… surprise… they want a monopoly on this ability to provide drugs… so it goes through the government. But, we might try to do it outside of the hospital… hell.. we could set up a little stand outside the hospital and give someone a job.

Oh, another thing about the forrages, people like to try to steal money. So, people came to the villages saying they were from PARFAR and that they needed 25,000 CFA to legalize the group of the village into a Community Group before they would get the forrage. This was totally not true and one village gave this thief the money and he left and, of course, was never seen again. Also, people have been coming around to the villages saying that I sent them to gather money. Doh.

I was talking with Kari the other day and he said that if I wanted the Lamidou (traditional chief) would give me land in Hina for free. But, only me, if anyone else wants to start a field of peanuts or whatever they lease the land from him for like 5000 CFA a year per hectare. Maybe I will do it and then employ some people to work the fields, then once I get a profit from it, use the $$ to empower the groups by providing the down payment on a sheep or cow or plant fruit trees in the city or something… we shall see.

Another thing I am working on with my Homologue is to start little pharmacies in the surrounding villages that don’t have health centers. There are villages more than 17k away that have no medicines and have to come all the way to Hina by moto, bike, or…walk? Which.. if you are gravely poor and sick or your kid is sick and you don’t have money or ability to get a moto, what do you do? Bering is especially far and has a big population, so we are going to try to train a local to run this small pharmacy either for free or for a tiny bit of profit. Bering will be our pilot place and if it works well we will try to do it in others…

Haha… in Maroua this week people have been passing this rumor that there are sorcerists here that if you touch them, shake their hand, they make your penis disappear. People are really afraid of this and it is getting pretty bad… to the point that this huge mob of people yesterday accused this kid of stealing someones penis and he was stripped naked and handcuffed and dragged off to the police station to be questioned. I mean, cmon, even some friends who I consider very smart people believe this is true. I challenge them heartily but they just say.. I dunno… it’s magic. One of my favorite quotes of the week was “I just don’t really get it because it is NOT possible”… coming from one of my friends who is scared of losing his penis.

Some updates around my house… been reading a TON of books so if you want to send a package or anything of books/magazines/newspapers… I want to be able to stay up on american news and BARACK and how awesome he does but I can’t even get BBC on the short wave in hina.. so… it is hard. But I am also in need of books that are more intellectual. I have been reading a lot of fiction but want some intellectual books too… so… think about it.

I bought another chicken so have a male and female right now and am buying 6 little chickens specifically bred to get HUGE, fast, from Nigeria and they should be there when I get back to post! Also, when I get back to post I am picking up my dog from his owner. He is HUGE… the biggest of the litter and will start boot camp to train him well ASAP. .

I also might get some sheep and goats to raise too… because… that is what people do and it is good to learn and I can give them as gifts! Or, if you buy a sheep when the price is low and sell it during the fete du mouton when the price is like 2-3x you can make a good amount of money.

Aight, I need to roll out to ACMS to talk condoms. Nice talking to you… white screen. I hope everyone is in wonderful health and just enjoying the wonders that living in America provides. I get irrationally excited about a warm bottle of Coke, or a huge loaf of “Bread Cake” from Nigeria… “Now with tasty glucose”… haha. They always put waaay too much sugar and salt in those things.. but man… I buy it and devour it plain. I miss bread.

For another day I need to describe food to you all, but it is definitely not something to write home about. Wait… well… I guess I can put it off then. haha.

Happy day.

Bradleeey

Wow. So… I don’t even know where to start.

Merry Christmas everyone! As I did with site visit… lets start from the beginning. I have one hour of cyber-cafe time and really nothing to do today… lets see how much I can write.

I got to post on Friday, December 5th and RIGHT after I got dropped off I went to the market in Hina since I was starving and had no food in my house. I bought some onions, tomatoes, bread from Nigeria, some rice, some pimont (hot peppers), headed home and made some random amalgamation of the following and ate it in no time at all. I ate dinner that night at my homologue’s house (his name is Keri) as I would every night to follow.

Saturday I spent most of the day cleaning my house with my gardian, Djoulde, since it was not what I would call clean after Ryan the previous volunteer didn’t really stress cleanliness, especially in the kitchen. Saturday afternoon I spent out in front of my house throwing the disc or playing street soccer with basically all the adolescents, kids, and even some adults who live near me. They all love the disc and I have been talking with Adamou (my neighbor who has also already become my closest friend here and a really good friend even after just 2 weeks now) about teaching the game Ultimate Frisbee, however, we need to get a solid group of guys who know how to throw well before we transition… but it will come with time . I ate dinner chez Keri again and BTW…he has some REALLY cute little pipsqueek kids, and his youngest was really afraid of Ryan and even after 2 years she would cry if he tried to interact too much with her, yet, I friggin love her and play with her all the time already, I don’t know if he didn’t try to play with her or what… but she is SO cute.

Monday was the Fete du mouton I believe and basically this means that everyone in the village slaughters a mouton and eats a ridiculous amount of meat for sunday and the next like 3 days. I observed the slaughter and butchering of a couple sheep… which was interesting.

I started “work” on Tuesday and observed Keri’s work at the pharmacy along with doing a ton of protocol where I went around with Keri and talked with the gendarmerie, the mayor, the sous-prefet, and the Lamidou (traditional village chief). I drank around 5 liters of coke that day because every place I went they wanted to give me some sort of drink and I was not going to refuse their offer and definitely was not going to drink 5 beers at 10am… man… that was a lot of pop. Haha. When Keri and I went to introduce me to the Lamidou there was a special event that night and we got invited to the inner-inner circle of his compound and ate dinner with him and all of the most important people in village. Me, of course, being the stranger got given a huge chair to sit in right next to the Lamidou rather than sitting and eating on mats like all of the other, more deserving people in village, but that is just how things are done here.

Basically Keri is just an absolutely amazing person and I just can’t get over how sympathetic and thoughtful he is. I eat dinner with him every night and play with his kids and watch the awful CRTV, which is the only cameroonian “news” channel that is broadcast… and rarely plays news..

My first two weeks have just been really full of integrating into the village. I played football with the other youth pretty much every night that I was there… ate two breakfasts every day, one with Yussufa, where I supply the milk and makkola (bean-beignets) and he supplys the tea, one right after that at Adamou’s house with him and his older brother (Ich Man), and his friend (Sowheto Boy). Adamou and I climbed the mountain nearby at 5am and watched the sunrise, we also went on a bikeride almost to a nearby village… it was intense since his bike was single speed and we are going up and down huge hills. We switched bikes for a little bit and I almost fell over. He is much tougher than me…

Right now there is a huge vaccination campaign going on funded by the WHO, Unicef, the cameroonian government, and some other organizations where they are giving vaccinations to infants, vitamin A, preventative malarial drugs to pregnant women, tetanus shots to pregnant women, and mebandazole (anti-worm) drugs to all kids 1-5. The last week before coming here to Maroua and Mokolo for banking and buying stuff for my house I was busy with that campaign and riding along out into the bush on motos to give vaccinations.

Imagine this: Me, and the head nurse, flying down a dusty path… not even really a path… basically just rocks… on his ancient moto… me with a huge cooler of vaccinations in my right hand, my left trying to hold on to the one metal bar to my side to stabilize, behind me a huge box filled with needles and other essentials for giving the vaccinations, the moto only had one footrest on the right side, the left side I had to place my foot delicately on a tiny screw RIGHT next to the moving chain… so basically I just held my leg up = tiring. BUT, it was cool. We went out to Mayo-Nbana which is a small town around 17k from the nearest health center and MAN it was rough. I think I could do a lot of work there because they really have no contact with a health center. I think I am going to do a lot of work with malnutrition since it might be the easiest thing to educate and change with no money… just knowledge. The food is there, the ingredients to make high protein meals for youngsters and fruit and some green leafy vegetables are available, it is simply a lack of knowledge of the importance of a balanced diet, the importance of protein every day for a growing child…etc.

Anywho, so we arrived in the village where there was a HUGE crowd of people encircling three chairs. We sat there and gave vaccinations/medications for around 4 hours with me doing the recording stuff and giving out mbendazole/vit A to people and trying to help the nurse from making errors or forgetting to give things to people.

Lets see… what else?

I am getting a dog. After asking around for the first week and a half Adamou said he thought a guy who leaved nearby had a large black dog and we could maybe ask to see if it had given pups anytime soon or would. By our chance the momma had given birth 3 days before! So, I am going to go back in a couple of weeks and see if I can’t get a female too to eventually give pups that I could give away to other PCVs or neighbors…

Anywho, basically things are great. I have made a ton of friends and feel totally at home in Hina already, and it has only been 2 weeks. I have had some amazing conversations with Adamou (my neighbor who is around my age and just finishing up with the Lycee here) while playing card games with him, his brother, and his brothers friend. I really though have been having a hard time with conversations regarding money. For example, Yaya, another really cool friend from village does not have the 5,000 CFA to pay for the next semester of highschool. He does not know where to get it and I think I might just pay for him… I mean… that is like 5 USD. Also, university here, for enrollment, costs 50,000 CFA. That is 100 dollars. For 100 USD you could pay for a kids university fees. Now, to be fair, that does not include housing, food, transport, but at most that would be another 100 USD a year… which means that for 200 USD you could really fund a kid to go to university here for a year.

Think of this, setting up a foundation using USD and sending 20-30 kids from Hina each year to college on the interest from the investment. You could give the money in the form of scholarships to applicants from the top of the highschool class in Hina. There is already something of the sort that the government does… sending the top couple kids in each class to university… but I don’t think it is a very large number.

Anywho… I am just trying to find my niche and really don’t know what I will do for work here yet, but I have time and really am just excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. Like, for example, learn how to play soccer well… I wonder how long that will take??? .

There is so much… I don’t even know what else to write. I have been eating a ton of papaya/giving a lot away since I have two HUGE papaya trees. Climbing them to get the fruit is an exciting endeavor. My male chicken that was given to me as a gift from the Lamidou of Zivoul died a couple days after I got to post… I think a cat killed him… which is one reason why I need a dog to protect my poulets! Also, I am going to start to put them in the coop at night and close it with a cinder block… especially once… or if (i hope) the eggs that my hen are sitting on hatch into cute little chicks!

Watched a SUPER OLD chuck norris film on the fete du mouton. It was awesome. In the french version (i don’t know about the english version) he is called John McQuaid… and a guy who was watching the movie at Keri’s house looked over at me and was like… dude… I the first time I heard that John McCain was running for president, I thought it was this guy. Haha. CHick norris for president!

OK… I am going to go get some street food and then maybe check out the culture festival that is going on here in Maroua this weekend. I’ll be back online maybe christmas… or earlier… depending if I go back to hina tomorrow or just stay here in Maroua for the whole week.

Thanks so much for those who have sent letters, I responded to them all (I think) and just can’t wait for the next batch. I found out that letters sent to my B.P.24 in Hina only take around 3 weeks to get there! That is awesome since the Peace Corps mail takes like 2+ months… so the turn around time should improve dramatically now.

I also am just trying to think more and more what I want to do with my life… with possibly grad school when I return… etc. After observing more and more I think becoming a doctor and working here in Africa is high on my list. In Hina, a center of health that is actually “big” for outside of the big cities, there is a doctor there once or twice a week for maybe 3 hours. The other day as I was observing vaccinations and just hanging around the hospital, a man rolled up on his bycicle and approached the doctor (who was around Hina for the vaccination campain) and asked him if he could talk to him about his knee, which was bothering him immensely and making it almost impossible for him to walk (keep in mind this man just biked to the center from who knows how far away). The doctor replied, no, I am busy here with the vaccination campaign, come back in 4 days (on friday) when I have my regular consultation hours. Now, this may have been an acceptable response, yet, the doctor was doing nothing. He was just sitting around literally doing nothing. We had just finished a conversation regarding the problems of the cameroonian health system and all the vaccinations were done for the day at our center. The man continued and asked again if he could just talk with the doctor for 5 minutes and once again the doctor rudely said “Oh really, you want me to abandon 15,000 infants to look at one knee… please you selfish old man”. Like, seriously… after the man left.. on his bike… the doctor sat back down and spent the next hour doing nothing… just chatting and relaxing.

Hrm.

Well… we shall see…

This week I really have started missing home and friends, family, framiliar faces. This is my first christmas in a foreign country not with family and it definitely is different. Just know, eveyone, that I think of you all so often and just hope that we don’t lose contact over the next two years. I am ready to make an effort to stay in contact so I hope you are too!

I love you all,

B

OK! So here is a description of the pictures even though I thought I had written descriptions that randomly didn’t show up once I posted them…

1. I brought jello along in my luggage and made it for my host family. That is my mom on the left, beatrice my sister on the right, and vivi at the top. They loved it… .

2. This is some of our group outside the training house. Basically we spend all day from 7:30 am – 4:30 pm here inside this house or out back in sessions, doing language, tech…etc. The trainers live here too and stay in the rooms inside.

3. The inside of my host families house. They are very wealthy for a Pitoa family.

4. The outside of my house. To the left is the inside of the house that you just saw, to the right is the kitchen and my room attached together.

5. My mom and beatrice hanging out on the weekend.

6. The inside of my room here in Pitoa.

7. Me, Matt, and Thea walking around Garoua looking for internet. It is always a wild goose chase… and hot and sweaty. Not the good kind of hot and sweaty…

8. A random road in Pitoa a month or so ago. It is definitely not as wet anymore as it has not rained in like a month and a half.. .

9. Most of the health training group and some volunteers at a bar in Pitoa after class.

10. First moto ride. I = scared.

11. Brian and I sporting our brand new moto helmets. Badass.

12. My house in HINA! This is where I will be living for the next 2 years. Can’t you just see me sitting with my legs up, petting my chickens and goats and reading a book?

13. On our way to Zivoul and Mayo-Kabba, small towns near Hina. I met with the traditional chief of the tribe and he gave me a gift of a cock. Booya. Hopefully he didn’t mean it literally…

14. On our way to Gamda-goum by way of Hamidou’s market truck. I will be riding a lot in this trusty old truck to Maroua and the surrounding villages to hitch rides for cheap. The area is beautiful though!

So… less than one week left of training! I found out that I passed my oral language test this monday so that means I can officially become a volunteer and don’t have to worry about the language requirement anymore.. YAYY! Also, that means I started learning a little bit of Fulfulde also which is the local African language spoken in Hina and many surrounding areas in Cameroon and West Africa as a whole.

Today we had our IEP presentations where each person researched a topic about Cameroonian culture and presented for at least 15 minutes in french. It went well and I did mine on “Nigerian Imports” to Cameroon because they are HUGE. Almost everything that is in the market aside from food here is imported illegally from Nigeria. All the gas too comes straight from Nigeria and is sold on the side of the road by random entrepeneurs.

This thursday is swearing in where we swear to uphold the American constitution and then thursday night we are all (Agros and health) going to downtown Garoua and staying in the nice hotel here and having a going away party which will just be a good time as they have a pool and music and everything. THen, early friday morning we will all be jumping in bush taxis and heading to our respective posts to begin our 2 years of service… AHH!

After we go to post we have 3 more meetings. IST (In-service training) is after 3 months at post so will be around the beginning of March and it is going to be down in the south hopefully on the beach at Kribi or Limbe for us health group. Mid-service training is after 1 year at post and will be in Yaounde. COS (Close of service) is after two years and is when we all head down to Yaounde and leave the country after a conference and a ton of medical stuff.

I had a request to give a standard day in the life for what I eat here:

6:30: A baguette with Tartina which is basically crappy Nutella and either Nescafe or Tea with citron

7:30: Head over to my trusty bean lady on the way to school and get 2 more baguettes filled with kidney or some sort of? beans and eat both of them before school even starts

9:30: Get hungry and during our 15 minute break head over to the primary school and buy one of many things… peanuts, corn-muffin-oil-filled balls, coconut balls (THE BEST), peanut-crunchy-stick things, biscuits…?

12: Head for lunch. We used to all go to our “lunch lady” who charged us all 700 CFA a piece and made rice with fried potatoes every day with a bunch of sauces, beans, peanut sauce, legume sauce, meat sauce, but really she was an awful cook and it all just tasted like MSG, Salt, and Oil mixed together. We recently stopped going to her after we finally got the balls to start eating street food that looks SUPER sketchy. So, now we all head to “omelette row” and get omelettes on, yes, you guessed it, another soft white baguette. So I get a 3 egg omelette with as much tomato and onion as she man will give me and try to explain to him that I don’t want it floating in oil. I also sometimes augment this with soya (street meat of questionable animal origin, either goat, sheep, or beef), this all depends how hungry I am which is always extremely.

The other day at lunch we went to my normal trusty omelette guy who makes me what I want and how I want it for 475 CFA (around a dollar) and I came and sat down and phil goes “dude, there is a guy under the table, be careful”. And I know Phil.. a joker.. just like me.. so I pull back the tablecloth and nope… there really is a guy under the table passed out. Along with eggs that I had been resting my feet on. Haha. Kauleen came over and sat down too and I was like Oh… dude… there is a guy under the table. He then proceeded to like push her leg out from under the table. It was his area, we were clearly the intruders. Oh, and also, the first day I went to my trusty omelette man I stepped in the sewer basically… what Phil and I called (Schisto water)… schistosomiasis is basically the worst thing ever and you should look it up… it and Filaria. Look up eye filaria and imagine all the horrible things we had to learn were possible to happen to us being here for two years. Pooping worms really does not seem so bad now.

3: Ok, on the note, back to eating! Yay Fecal–>Oral route in action! Eat the same sort of food as I ate during the 9:30 break.

7: Eat dinner at home which is always rice, yams, or potatos with tomato or peanut sauce. Basically usually just imagine a little color with salt and a white starch. MMMMMMMMMM. Really, sometimes it is good… but lately my host family has gotten the notion that I love dried fish in these dishes and it just smells like something died. I mean, something really did die… but a long time ago. I like fresh fish. I really have nothing to complain about though my host family feeds me enough food… they are wonderful and I love them!

Aight, I should head home to Pitoa… just wanted to update you all a bit! Love and miss you all! P.S. I got letters from Tanner, Kate, Abby, and the “Brad Wagenaar Fan-Club” yesterday. It all almost made me cry reading it and it is just amazing to recieve letters here. Thank you so much guys, I am blessed to have such caring friends.