The Life of Brad

To all those who donated to my two projects, I really wish I could send an email to all of you personally updating you on the progress of the school/training but the information I got on who donated is simply name and address, but not email addresses. But, if you know anyone who donated who is looking for an update let them know I have posted one!

I want to thank specifically one person who is from New York and donated with the comment “I have enjoyed reading your blog, PCV in Cameroon in the past”. Thanks so much and I apologize for not updating my blog since you donated… hehe.

Also, thanks SO much to my Dad and Kelli and to Mom and Steve. Without the support of you four the school project would not be possible. Thank you so much for all your help in the fundraising and getting the word out. Steve, thanks for getting me in the paper!

In conclusion,

I love MANGOES! Seriously 3 mangoes for around 20 cents is AMAZING and I don’t know what I am going to do without them in America….

So I think anyone who had been abroad for a long period of time will sympathize with my lack of posts recently. In the beginning of service everything was new, shocking, surprising and interesting. Now, however, Cameroon, and more specifically, Hina, is my home. I am so used to life here that I really nothing shocks or is abnormal to me anymore. It is like asking anyone in America what is new and they all go “nothing”… because life goes on and they don’t find anything they are doing particularly warranting descriptions. I mean, in order to write an entry I need something to say that is worthwhile and new and exciting, right? I should probably write a blog when I get back to the US because I am going to for sure have reverse culture shock J.

Where had I left off? Nate came and visited and it was amazing, actually even more fun than I had expected. There were some tough moments, the highlight being coming down off mount Cameroon and being absolutely exhausted and trying to figure out logistics with the hotel and water and food and Nate was feeling bad (A.K.A. he joined the club after being in country for only a couple days. I still have managed somehow to avoid joining the club, if you are a PCV you know what the club is. Since I have not asked Nate whether I can share his experiences I will leave that up to him). But besides that one hour where I was stressed out, once I had a cold beer in my hand and was sitting by the beach in Limbe Nate and I began to construct our new home at Madison Park. We paid 8,000 CFA for a room with a bed, dirty bathroom, and A/C directly on the black sand beach of Limbe. The beach had a little bit of litter and stuff on it but still I think it might be the most beautiful beach I have ever been on. When you are in the water you see small mount Cameroon coming almost directly out of the waters, and the peak is almost always masked in circulating clouds. A mile or two from our hotel on the backside of the mountain is the second wettest place on earth, second only to some place in Asia I think… really it was amazing. We spent a couple days relaxing in Limbe. This hotel was not even really a hotel, not yet. I mean, the managers are working on fixing the place up but it basically looks like a place to have a wedding reception / family reunion and was started by an Ex-PCV who sent all this old American stuff there so the lawn was littered with childrens toys, basketball hoops, trampolines, even a workout room all filled with American stuff… it was kind of a twilight zone. But they let us use the kitchen for free, and our 8,000 CFA price (17 bucks) a night for a literally on the beach room with AC was amazing. Each evening we made sure when we were in Limbe to buy some food for breakfast, either haggling pineapples for 50 cents or a dollar, or oranges, 10 bananas for 50 cents, or croissants, or even chocolate infused croissants that we would drink with instant coffee on the beach. Might not sound that great but it was definitely cheap as can be and wonderful. I started reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas shrugged and actually really enjoyed the book. I mean, she could’ve gotten her point across in 800 less pages, and I don’t necessarily agree with her TOTALLY free market militant ideas, but really enjoyed the focus on the human spirit and creativity.

Annee, another volunteer from the north tagged along with Nate and I for the majority of the trip. She is amazing and really made the trip just that much more special. Kumbo, Bamenda, back to Limbe, to Yaounde, back up north!

It is so hot. Last year during the hot season I slept in my house every night, but now I can’t even understand how I did it. I really think this hot season is hotter than last year and now in the evening when it is bedtime it is 103 degrees in my house. The other day in the sun my thermometer got up to 130. It has been fun sleeping outside this year though. I am starting to really realize that I don’t have that much time left here and am paying attention and just trying to soak up every experience.

For those who don’t know, I got accepted to every Master’s program I applied to and just a week ago chose to accept the offer at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. I will be in the 42 credit 2 year program in Global Epidemiology. It is a dual-department program offered by a synergy of Epidemiology and Global Health. I am really really excited and the more and more I read about Emory the happier I am about my decision. Yeah, you may be saying you turned down Harvard and Johns Hopkins, but I think Emory is really up and coming and their star will only begin to shine more in the coming years. They are the most ethnically and religiously diverse among the top 20 research universities and their program I believe really focuses on research but ALSO a lot on good teaching. The top top top programs I think might be better if you really want to do a Doctoral study on a very advanced and specific topic so you want to be where there is a ton of money and the best researchers in the field. However, for my MPH, I want to be able to come out with low debt, since it definitely will not be my terminal degree, and I think research opportunities are important (and definitely do not lack at Emory, they create the most research funding of any university in Georgia, and have contacts with amazing international public health organizations, with the CDC, CARE international, the Carter Center, Emory hospitals, etc. etc.) but I also think teaching quality and professors that actually LIKE teaching and WANT to teach rather than just being forced to teach their one class a year but really just want to focus on their research kind of thing. One example of the cultural /  religious diversity of Emory is the fact that the Dalai Lama is coming to visit this October. Emory is the world leader in studies on Tibetan Buddhism and has close ties with many institutions in Tibet and India and the Dalai Lama is a distinguished professor at Emory and has made numerous visits to talk and engage students, faculty, and the public on Buddhist and life teachings / human rights. Also, the programs at Hopkins/Harvard were both Master’s of Science programs rather than MPH programs. I want an MPH degree because it is more well rounded and more internationally recognized. I am not 100% sure what I want to do with my life and the MPH gives more flexibility, the MS degree is good if you know you want to for sure do research and sets you up for a Ph.D in a specific specific field of study. Anywho, I am extremely excited and Emory has selected me to receive a research assistantship position from day 1 so hopefully I will have the opportunity to maybe work at the CDC this fall!

Life up north has been extremely busy lately. Between all my grad school research and decisions I have also been working on a couple huge projects; health training, school project, HIV testing and presentation tour.

My health training ran for five days 2 weeks ago Monday to Friday and was just amazing. A couple months ago I sent a communication through the traditional chief of Hina to all the traditional chiefs in the smaller villages to have them select a man and a woman to participate and be educated as village health educator. I specifically told them that these people will not receive any money for their work so the village should select someone who is motivated to work, educate, and improve the health of their village for free. Only one village didn’t respond with the names, so that made a total of 23 villages * 2 = 46 people. In organizing the training I wrote and compiled a comprehensive health manual that was 103 pages in French and covered all topics on health that I found of primary importance. Hygiene, water and water treatment, maternal/child health/birth preparedness, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other tropical diseases, first aid, and probably other things that I am forgetting right now. I am really proud of the manual and each of the 46 people who attended got a copy to take back and use as a resource. I have had numerous other people in my village and even in other smaller villages that I have never been to ask me for a copy, but sadly copies are relatively expensive so I have had to refuse… but I might make 10 or more copies and give them out and just pay for them myself because I think it is important.

But more about the training, I had help from Annee, Brianna, and Katie for every day but the last day (Friday) and I am eternally grateful for their help. All but two people who had sent their names in showed up which is basically unheard of here and everyone was EARLY or exactly on time (8am) every single day. There were even people who drove home and slept every evening and came back who had a two hour drive by motorcycle and those two were not late not even one day. Amazing. Motivated people make me happy and more motivated myself! Everyone was very involved and asked questions and there was no problem with the whole Muslim male and female thing, even talking about reproductive anatomy and sex people were asking taboo questions without flinching and I think that just speaks to how well the villages selected the people to come to the training. There were some superstars that I am excited to work with in the future and am just REALLY excited about the prospects of what the next volunteer in Hina can do who will replace me. They now have two contacts, one male and one female, in almost all of the small villages outside of Hina, most of which were really excited and just asking asking asking when I can come visit their village and work with them. I still hope to get around to at least 10 of the villages before my time is up, the superstar villages, and really just… it is amazing and was amazing to be able to train them. They learned so much and I think it will have a profound effect.

One week after the training (so a week ago) I met with the 3 educators from Hina to talk about what we can do as a first step together to improve the Health in Hina. They told me that they had already taken the initiative to form a formal group (GIC they call it here, Group D’initiative Commun; community group) consisting of around 10 of the superstar educators in the 4 or 5 surrounding (close enough to bike to) villages around Hina. I was just really surprised because when I first got to post there were two community groups that I started to work with that really just fell apart after maybe 5 meetings and they really just were thinking that if they started a group that means automatic external financing. Poop. Yet, this group knows that they will not get financing and just are passionate about improving the health of their villages and were really pushed and moved by the training. Really this training was the best idea I have had and the most successful thing I have done in my two years of service and I would REALLY recommend it to anyone out there who is considering something similar to it. It was great also doing it at the end of my service when I have all the acquired knowledge about local practices and what the real problems are on the ground and what to focus on and such. But really if this can balloon out it could have a BIG effect.

For example, when I had my meeting with the people from Hina we agreed on tackling the lack of latrines for our first project. Thus, in the next week or so we are going to have a meeting with the Sous-Prefet and hopefully he will agree with us and we can make a law that every house has to have a functioning latrine in the next one or two months. Because really latrines cost nothing. People just need to dig a deep hole and then cover it, which there are traditional methods to do with sticks and wet mud (like their houses) rather than cement so it doesn’t cost anything. If we could then branch out form Hina working with all the other educators and the traditional chiefs in the smaller villages to put on a campaign that every house in the entire Hina region needs to have a latrine do you realize how big of an effect that would have on improving the quality of life of people here? There are more than fourteen big illnesses caused by the fecal-oral route including polio, cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, amoebas, giardia, hepatitis, typhoid…etc! Not to mention the other worms and hookworm and all those other baddies too. Think of the benefit if every single poop episode fell into a deep, covered latrine rather then around the river which people are obligated to drink from when there is absolutely no water because there are no wells or pumps. I can’t overestimate the effect that that one change would make and it really wouldn’t be THAT hard to educate people and enact that change in the next year. I am really optimistic. All the other things too though like soy and Moringa for nutrition, OH and the other huge one if women knew how to breastfeed well and not give ANY water before 6 months of age. These couple small things could have a massive difference on the health of locals at NO cost. That is what I like. No cost. Yeah, mosquito nets are great but there have not been any large-scale distributions of them for the last 3+ years and most people don’t use them. I like interventions that individuals can do here for free. Like, for example, putting old fabric that one folds over many many many times and use it as a crude filter when they are pouring their water into their large canarys (water receptacles at each house). Yeah, it is not 100% effective, but it is effective and that intervention has been a huge approach used at the eradication of guinea worm.

But, so I am excited and the training was amazing. I just want to say something specifically to those who donated. Thank you. I hope that someone who donated in memory is reading this and can accept my warm thanks. I was not expecting my project to get funded so quickly, yet to my astonishment it got fully funded so incredibly quickly and I didn’t know how or why until Kim Ahanda in Peace Corps notified me that my project was being funded in memory of a Peace Corps associate and that the family and friends and loved ones had selected my project as most closely resembling his wishes to work and educate regarding HIV/AIDS. I want everyone to know who donated in memory that your love and warm thoughts have had a great effect already and I sincerely hope that it will continue to blossom with the next 3 health volunteers that follow me if they continue to work with the trained individuals in all of these rural villages.

NOW that my training is finished I have moved on to my school project. The project is well underway and we have completed 1500 cement bricks, the foundation, and the cement floor, and are now starting on building the walls. The entire construction process should take no more than one month and the mason I chose is really just amazing and I have complete confidence in his abilities and that he will stand by his word. He also wants the project to go quickly because he wants to cultivate his fields of millet and peanuts which will demand his almost full attention in around a month as well, so our priorities are aligned and I envision a wonderful ending to this project. The village is really really excited about the school and at any one point during the construction there are around 100 or so adults and children hanging out around the construction site ready to help move rocks or sand or do whatever they can to help. It is really just fascinating and wonderful to see how motivated Ketcheble is to fight for their children’s futures. They are spending a good amount of money because they are in charge of transporting all the materials, water, sand, gravel and such which takes a lot of gas. I would say by the end of the construction they will have spent around 1,000+ dollars to realize this school themselves which is just an amazing sum and feat for a village where people don’t have money to buy meat more than maybe once a month. I am hoping that money will be left over from the building project so we can do some other cool projects and maybe help the village buy the materials for the school benches, maybe some books, and to construct a latrine next to the school.

Alright I am tired of writing but I hope this update gives all y’all a little info on my life as of now. Tomorrow I am heading back to post to give free HIV/AIDS tests in Hina and then will do a tour of around 10 villages working with the educated community actors to present and educate about HIV/AIDS and then give free tests, it should be a good thing, we’ll see how great it is though depending on how many people decide to get tested and how many positives we find…

I love you all and hope you are well!,

Brad