Traveling in Cameroon

I arrive at the crowded bus station in Bafoussam from Batié via an overstuffed  jerryrigged little toyota bush taxi. There is a long line to get my ticket to Yaounde. Like any bus station in Cameroon, there is pushing and shoving and people casually moving in front of me as if there is no line. There are people pestering me to get on another bus which is, of course, about to leave (not) and many people hawking food and cheap jewelry. I struggle to keep my spot in line and wish people would quit asking me to buy something.

 I see two busses waiting in the broken down bays. One is small (called a scooter) which is a truly miserable way to travel, the other is a large one...only a semi-miserable way.  I hope mine is the larger one.  It resembles a Greyhound on the outside, but on the inside the seats are small and broken down. It’s amazing how many people they can squeeze into those busses. I get lucky and am able to board the big one. There are 3 seats on one side and 2 on the other with a very narrow isle in the middle. People are pushing and shoving. It is hot.  There are some people entering to try to save a seat and others having already saved their seat trying to exit. I snag an isle seat on the 3 side. It is tiny. There are bags in the seats next to me. I just sit down and wait rather than to try to struggle against the people in the aisle.

 An obese woman carrying two kids boards and I pray that she is not one of my seat mates, She passes by. I pray for two skinny young males, but the chances are slim. A large man boards and takes the seat next to the window...not a good sign. He overlaps into the middle seat. If a mama is in the middle seat (mamas are always overweight to one degree or another), there will be very little of my little seat for me. A “healthy” mama with a baby enters and squeezes into the middle seat. Her baby is bundled up like the kid in “A Christmas Story” as if there is a blizzard on the horizon, wool hat and all.(All babies are bundled up here in this miserable heat, I know not why.) Even worse, Cameroonians do not like to open the windows. God forbid a little cooling breeze should enter the bus.  They feel it is unhealthy.   I look forward to 5 hours of misery. I am pressed painfully against the arm rest. 

After about an hour and a half wait, the bus starts to move, pulls out of the lot but then pulls over to the side of the road where we continue to wait and swelter. A man enters with a suitcase which he plops down right next to my row, which means Ican no longer get some relief from the lack of space by putting my feet int the aisle.  The bus starts up a again. I am thrilled.  Then I realize that the man that has entered is standing up in the aisle and is hawking a product(s). “Wait till ya hear what I got for you!!” We are a captive audience.

He talks for a good hour. He is selling a product that you can add to water and shake it up real good and then drink it for three days and your worms, diarrhea, malaria, and diabetes will be cured! Why, that’s amazing I think while wishing for a long polo mallet. The Cameroonians, however, are riveted and begin to ask questions about how many packets they will need for a family of 15. They begin to shell out what little money they have for this fabulous product!  Imagine how much money in medical costs will be saved. The mama next to me is breast feeding her baby, her elbow is digging into my side. There are little wool clad feet in my lap. The hawker has pulled out another item.

The road is bumpy. The bus stops every 10 or 15 minutes for  “péages” (toll gates), Gendarmes looking for bribes, people wanting to get off and on the bus along the route, pee stops, speed bumps and snacks. 

When I finally arrive in Yaoundé, I am exhausted but happy to get off the bus. Just one more taxi ride and I will have arrived at my destination.

Now here is the good part, I am in town for COS Conference (Close of Service Conference) which takes place about 3 months before we actually close service and leave for home…..HOME!!!!  And!!! COS Conference means we are put up in a “nice” hotel with hot showers!!!, sit down toilets!!!! and little air conditioners. They know we need some pampering at this point. This is the part of town where the embassies are located. My bed is comfortable and firm. Oh the joy! We are all very bonded and happy to be together again, especially under such lovely circumstances. COS Conference lasts for 4 glorious days. I now know I will be leaving country and closing out service on July 18. Somehow the bus ride back to village does not seem so bad anymore.

Actually, I will not be flying directly home. I will be flying into Buenos Aires to spend a week or so with my long-time friend Ann who is waiting to spoil the hell out of her bedraggled friend...and then home to my beloved California. I am sooooo ready. This is not to say I will not miss the kind friends I have made here. I have learned so much and have had many incredible experiences for which I will be eternally grateful. But now……(well, 3 months)….hooooommme. I feel like E.T.

For the next 3 months, I will be closing out projects, selling accumulated stuff, preparing my house for the next volunteer, attending going away parties, and filling out Peace Corps paper work. There will be some sad moments, I know, as I say goodbye. I only hope I have done some good and touched some lives.

I will probably blog once more before leaving…..if only to let you know how the product I bought on the bus worked out….

                                                Students give their teacher a present

Whoa! Time has slipped by! Have I really not blogged since before Christmas??? Well, I had a great one with friends that have become like family in Batouri (Eastern Region). 

It’s getting increasingly difficult to crank out this blog.  Nothing new and exciting seems to be transpiring. I am bogged down in the day to day of village life. 

The chicken saga continues. (I know more about chickens than any person should!) As in any new business, problems continue to arise. But, we are confronting them head-on and continue to learn from our mistakes and adjust to changing conditions. More importantly the business is surviving and we expect to break even on our third round if all goes as planned, which, of course, it will not. We will be making our own feed, which will help a lot on cutting down expenses, and the market for chickens should improve over the next couple of months. The mamas, when they are healthy, are amazing and hard working. The problem is that people get sick a lot here (either the mamas or someone in their family) so we are always somehow short handed. A formation in nutrition seems to be in order.

I have another series of business classes to present beginning in mid-February so I have been working on that and promoting it like crazy. I have hung big banners across some of the main roads here to get people’s attention. I am hoping for a big turnout, but am not expecting it. People always seem to need more information than I seem to be able to give. No matter how many fliers I distribute and people I talk to, there always seem to be questions that, to me, are clearly explained on the fliers and that I have clearly explained personally.  One person told me that there needs to be a telephone number on the fliers, banners and posters, so that they can call me and ask questions. Duly noted. At least people are talking about it, but there is a lot of “talk and no action” that goes on around here. Such is life in the village. If I were in a city, it would be easy to find students. There is something I am just not getting. In any case, we’ll see what happens.

I will be flying off to Rome and Sicily in March (right in the middle of my business classes...oops, see you in a couple weeks students…) to meet up with some old friends (Simone and McDweef) for some r and r and boy am I looking forward to that. I am just plain hungry and so sick of the food here. I think I am flying into the right place to take care of that problem. 

My post-mate and I will be working on a mushroom “farm” here soon to help out a sweet mama who really knows her stuff but just lost her husband.  We’re going to try to help get her back on her feet and re-established. That should be interesting. Mushrooms are strange beasts and are a lot of work.  You start with spores….just that word gives me the creeps….and then create somehow from that something that is called “base” and then put that in jars with crushed corn cobs where it colonizes and then you grow them in a darkened, damp room….getting creepier….and then there is a whole process that I do not entirely understand (but will) after that, but if you don’t hear from me again, follow the spores. 

Here are a few pictures, but they are not the ones I wish I could post as my camera broke recently. They will have to do. Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch (Christmas cards, letters, packages, messages...THANKS!!!) I will try to do better on that score myself. 

Dry season is from hell.

                                           My new post-mate Alison from Iowa.

                                           Heartbreaker!

chick, chick, chick

The chicken saga continues…. We received our one day old baby chicks (100 of them) on the 6th of last month. We have experienced many trials and tribulations. First, we bought our chickens through a middle man (a vet, which we thought was a good thing) (we were later told to never buy thru a middle man….thanks) who provided us with weak little chicks “de dernière qualité” (poor quality) which means they were the ones that had already been sorted out as the weak ones not really fit for sale (to those in the know). The vet was able to sell them to us (he knew we were new and saw us coming) for the same price as the good ones, thereby making a bigger profit. So we started off with pitiful little sickly chicks and in the end, we lost 20 of them (dead) which is a very large number.  Then we struggled along with the rest through many ups and downs, but succeeded in fattening them up pretty well. He also sold us a bunch of unnecessary products (which we will eventually use) that really put us in the hole. We are in the process of selling them already (they are 37 days old now) and luckily they are selling like fat little hot cakes and (due to the time of year) for a good price. So we are climbing out of that hole, but will still take a loss for our first round. But!  We have learned our lessons and are much wiser for our second go round. We have already ordered 200 new chicks directly from the top breeder around which will be arriving on the 20th of this month. We have also found some good local advisors that have offered their help to us, so things are looking up.  Enough about the chickens already!

I spent Thanksgiving with friends (fellow volunteers) in Bamenda which is a city in the english speaking section of Cameroon. It was a warm and wonderful experience. We are so bonded that it was like spending time with family. We all cooked together and made various vegetable casseroles, stuffing, mashed potatoes and chicken (oh noooo).  I’m having a hard time eating chicken these days… Chirstmas is fast approaching, tho you would never know it….no trees, decorations, christmas music, shopping frenzy….

The weather has been very strange. It’s the dry season, yet it has been cold and rainy (really bizarre!) and the beans that are planted everywhere all over the west during the dry season are beginning to rot in the fields...The mamas are harvesting and saving what they can. I don’t know how big a crisis this is yet.

My new postmate is 21 and from Iowa. She is sweet, bright, capable and happy to be here. What more could I ask? We will work well together. So there are now 2 white faces around Batié (one a little worse for ware) and everyone is delighted. The Batians are really very welcoming. I realize that I am well integrated now and have many friends here. They have really accepted me despite my many faux pas. It is a joy to walk around the village and be greeted so warmly. They never grow tired of hearing the one or two phrases I know in their patois (local dialect) and laugh heartily (at me) when I speak them. Mama Paméla (also known as “Grand-mere” (yag!)) is very entertaining indeed.

The fence in my back yard is wearing thin and several holes and gaps have developed, so now I am greeted by various creatures from time to time when I go to the latrine….a dog, a few chickens, a dead rat ( I wonder what it died from), half a mouse….who knows what’s going on back there! 

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the Batie market. (It takes place every 8 days just to keep us on our toes.) This is not usually an exciting event except for the fact that my mamas will be there selling what is left of our chickens. It’s fun to watch them in action.

End of story. Stay tuned for “chickens of Batié”….round two…..exciting stuff!!!

Mama Paméla 

Chickens, Vitamin A and a Snake

The dry season has finally arrived.  It’s been windy and the dust is beginning to make it’s appearance. We have been working like crazy on our hen house …. new roof, wind breaks, all troughs (water and feed) bought, dragged home and put in place, a wood burning oven made from a large barrel to keep the little one day old chickies warm till they get their feathers. We disinfect everything on Sunday and then on the 6th we go to Bafoussam to pick up our baby chicks and bring them home via bush taxi (all in one piece hopefully).

They will take constant care. Every day, besides food and water and constant heat, they get vaccines, or vitamins, or dewormer, or anti stress or antibiotics….one or more of these every day for 21 days. They get their vaccines by dunking their little heads in water mixed with the vaccines so it gets either into their little beaks or enters thru their poor little chickie eyes. There are many threats that can end it all, so we have to be on constant watch, making sure to lead the weaker ones to water and food. Let the adventure begin….God help us...and them.

Life outside of the Chicken world continues also. A fellow PCV (Health) came in from her post in Bapi to help me with an all day HIV/Aids presentation for the edification of the community of Batie.  It was well attended despite the fact that the Mayor decided at the last minute that he needed the presentation room for political reasons and we had to cancel one day before the greatly publicized event.  I made a big scene in the middle of town which I am sure embarrassed him greatly….which was the idea. It was a selfish and unreasonable thing for him to do, so now everyone knows it. I’m not real popular with him right now….eh, c'est la vie. Anyway, my friend Kate (the health volunteer) was nice enough to return the following week to do the presentation and she kicked ass. We created a nice group of “Peer Educators” who can now go forth and educate their fellow students, friends and family. As you probably know, AIDS is a huge problem here and carries a heavy stigma. Men wield most of the power and are not inclined to use protection.  Luckily, there were several men and male high school students in the audience, so hopefully we impacted them.  

Last week was SASNIM which is an acronym (in french) which basically means the week of health and nutrituion for new mothers and their children. I went door to door in my neighborhood with a Mama volunteer and we gave polio drops (by mouth) and vitamin A (for rickets which is a real problem here) and vermifuge (dewormer) to all the kids up to age 5 and vitamines to the new mothers. It was quite an experience and I had the opportunity to meet some really incredible women and children.

On a sadder note, the latest stage (the class right before mine to arrive in country) is finishing service in about a week and is leaving the country which means I am losing some really great friends to whom I have become quite bonded….boo hoooooo. This makes my stage the oldest in country and the next to complete service…..but that won’t be for another 8 months. Of course, a new stage has arrived to fill their slots and that will be fun...but….

As if my life here isn’t exciting enough (sarcasm), there was a four day period very recently where many birds were pecking at my windows trying to get in and then it stopped just as suddenly as it began….don’t ask, no idea...but the day after it stopped a black snake was waiting for me at my front door and scared whatever poop was left in me right out. Luckily two mamas were visiting me at the time and after we all finished screaming they beat it to death (I resumed screaming) with a chicken feeding trough that just happened to be right there. (PHEW...what luck!)

A la prochaine alors….Pamela

                                           Polio drops….that's me under the hat.

                                               " Can you believe how cute this kid is?!"

                                         I finally found some "mamas" that were older than me.

                                         The one on the far right is 104.