Plans, Parasites, Pooling (resources?)

Plans, Parasites, Pooling (resources?)

March 16, 2009, 8:56 am
Filed under: Cameroon

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!

3 Comments

3 Comments so far
Leave a comment

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI