hello and welcome to 2010! woo hoo january!
back in maroua after the great southern getaway... dare i confess to being happy to be back? Turns out i missed these extreme parts! Who knew! Guess a certain fondness has developed between us despite my occasional resistance and/or assertions to the contrary.
Covered a fair bit of ground this last coupla weeks, felt great to be back on the road again. Nice to get to see some of the country – and what a truly diverse one it is too. Linguistically for one – yes i will not lie – it was an unbridled JOY to reach english speakin' parts once more! Albeit fleetingly – Christmas itself was spent in francophone kribi. Coupla wild days out at sea with some local fishermen there. Surreal now I think back to it. Sadly no prawns but a few lil fishies did for supper ok! Tried to profit from the occasion by lamenting to our two fishermen the lack of such hands-on physical skills in today's modern western man. 'ah but you whites have skills all of your own. You know how to... dramatic pause... switch on a computer!'
yeah well i'd know which i'd rather!
Christmas day itself was somewhat wretched – when your family and friends are as gorgeous as mine the separation is an ongoing source of difficulty i must say.
Anyways, as i took the 20 hour train/9 hour bus back up to the north, the phrase 'i'd go to the ends of the earth for you' took on quite a literal meaning. Think I've found that in extreme north Cameroon. So please imagine MY delight to announce my first visitor making the trip in just under three weeks! Could only be you da mama – cannot wait to see you.
When we finally pulled into Maroua central bus station, couldn't help but think back to the lost little stray who first appeared there back in September. Still lost, still wandering, but hailing down the mototaxi, jumping on the back without being adamant he was gonna ambush me in a ditch somewhere (!) and even conversing with him in (albeit terrible) french, well it kind of felt like home.
happy new year
CS
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Sunday, 13 December 2009
December
Coucou! One last missive from the dusty dry north before hitting the lush south on Tuesday. Cannot wait to get away! Not seeing it as a 'Christmas' break per se, but some time-out and the availability of fresh fruit and wine sure will be welcomed most heartily.
Work's picked up a little this last coupla weeks, put together a fundraising questionnaire for my colleagues to try and identify their needs (am expecting 'more money' to feature highly on that list.). Not something I'm in a position to give! Give a man a fish etc and so on. Not sure how workshops on fundraising techniques and proposal writing will go down when all they want is a neat cheque for millions of pounds. VSO's approach of moving away from the dependency of western handouts is v well intentioned, but I think it will take more than a year to dispel the image of the rich white westerner with a fat cheque in their pocket! Managing their expectations is quite the task in itself at times.
Seems to be a tension between the obvious short term needs, and the desire to move away from western interventions and dependency. It's clear the education sector needs more money, and the education of thousands of school children depend on it, but pumping money in from the West is not deemed at all 'sustainable' (vso's favourite word.) The approach is therefore meant to be for the volunteer to facilitate/empower the locals to help themselves.
And i'm supposed to do that how?!
Answers on a postcard huh!
Let us worry about that in the new year. For now, presenting you with a neat summary of my role after 4 months of questioning, confusion and and general self-doubt, well it’s gonna have to suffice!
Joyeux noel everyone.
clara
Work's picked up a little this last coupla weeks, put together a fundraising questionnaire for my colleagues to try and identify their needs (am expecting 'more money' to feature highly on that list.). Not something I'm in a position to give! Give a man a fish etc and so on. Not sure how workshops on fundraising techniques and proposal writing will go down when all they want is a neat cheque for millions of pounds. VSO's approach of moving away from the dependency of western handouts is v well intentioned, but I think it will take more than a year to dispel the image of the rich white westerner with a fat cheque in their pocket! Managing their expectations is quite the task in itself at times.
Seems to be a tension between the obvious short term needs, and the desire to move away from western interventions and dependency. It's clear the education sector needs more money, and the education of thousands of school children depend on it, but pumping money in from the West is not deemed at all 'sustainable' (vso's favourite word.) The approach is therefore meant to be for the volunteer to facilitate/empower the locals to help themselves.
And i'm supposed to do that how?!
Answers on a postcard huh!
Let us worry about that in the new year. For now, presenting you with a neat summary of my role after 4 months of questioning, confusion and and general self-doubt, well it’s gonna have to suffice!
Joyeux noel everyone.
clara
Thursday, 19 November 2009
it's in my blood
Hello.
Been a while once more, and am feeling especially incapable of presenting my life in a neat concise paragraph friendly format. I'm sorry.
The week's been a memorable one for me – first bout of malaria for one. Yes the one thing I was so desperate to avoid! (in the words of dear mischa: 'I was so sure fear would protect you'... me too love – either that or the repellent/mosquito net/doxycycline all of which I faithfully embraced in my daily routine.) never missed a dose! Well am so glad i've been intoxicating my body everyday with drugs that don't work..?! Hopeless!
I was lucky in that I had the cerebral 'kills you within 24 hours' kind - not the lucky part, bear with me- despite being more threatening in the short term it's preferable in the long term as the other kind takes up permanent residence in your liver and can reappear time and again. I personally was not ready for that level of commitment.
Sooo a week and several suitably knockout drugs later I am back on my feet and feel alright again. A distinct bonus has been the bags of attention and sympathy from home... ain't nothin like malaria to instill fear and dread into a westerner's bones! The locals don't bat an eyelid of course, death is so commonplace here (not that it makes it any less painful.) From the family planning approach of having 10 kids cos you know 5 will be lucky to make it to high school age, to the motorbike taxi drivers paid 7p a trip to risk their lives so much on the roads out here without so much as a helmet... human life is cheap in cameroon. Which is maybe why they are quite great at celebrating it every day.
This weekend I am going to Yagoua which is rather excitingly right on the border... with CHAD! Looking forward to crossing that frontier. And then crossing back twice as fast.
Gah!
Been a while once more, and am feeling especially incapable of presenting my life in a neat concise paragraph friendly format. I'm sorry.
The week's been a memorable one for me – first bout of malaria for one. Yes the one thing I was so desperate to avoid! (in the words of dear mischa: 'I was so sure fear would protect you'... me too love – either that or the repellent/mosquito net/doxycycline all of which I faithfully embraced in my daily routine.) never missed a dose! Well am so glad i've been intoxicating my body everyday with drugs that don't work..?! Hopeless!
I was lucky in that I had the cerebral 'kills you within 24 hours' kind - not the lucky part, bear with me- despite being more threatening in the short term it's preferable in the long term as the other kind takes up permanent residence in your liver and can reappear time and again. I personally was not ready for that level of commitment.
Sooo a week and several suitably knockout drugs later I am back on my feet and feel alright again. A distinct bonus has been the bags of attention and sympathy from home... ain't nothin like malaria to instill fear and dread into a westerner's bones! The locals don't bat an eyelid of course, death is so commonplace here (not that it makes it any less painful.) From the family planning approach of having 10 kids cos you know 5 will be lucky to make it to high school age, to the motorbike taxi drivers paid 7p a trip to risk their lives so much on the roads out here without so much as a helmet... human life is cheap in cameroon. Which is maybe why they are quite great at celebrating it every day.
This weekend I am going to Yagoua which is rather excitingly right on the border... with CHAD! Looking forward to crossing that frontier. And then crossing back twice as fast.
Gah!
Monday, 19 October 2009
NEWSFLASH - photo update!
sooo, due to popular demand (!) am displaying herewith some photos of my experiences thus far. admirable absence of vanity i am sure you will agree. attempting to pull off native african prints, and then posting the pics online? yourself?! who does that!
anyway they say pics tell a thousand words an' all that. have (tried to, don't know if it's worked) include a couple of our house and my weekend trip to bogo, went to visit a couple of schools there. (and, equally as crucially, go drink red wine out of a carton... hello scrabble night!) like all good cameroonian women, we spent friday prepping a traditional dish called foulere. made of bitter green leaves, and not a lot else. still somehow managed to take us most of the day... picking the leaves, washing the leaves and then - most heartbreaking of all - boiling them down so that all your preparatory efforts shrink beyond recognition! something of a labour intensive dish. not much by way of fruit and veg here (i know - avoiding scurvy was the only thing i WASN'T worried about before embarking for africa!). somehow managed to wind up in the one region of cameroon which isn't able to grow much on account of the harsh dry climate. which makes it very poor. which is probably the very reason i did get sent here.
didn't think that through!
anyway, was glad to get to see some of the schools, needless to say seeing it myself was pretty different to reading/hearing about it. the smells, the dark, the cramped human life, difficult to convey these in words. i felt totally overwhelmed to be honest. seeing the life of a teacher out here, it's pretty hard to even conceive of. No books, no desks, no salary for the last six months, negligible training, just a dark room with a hundred odd pupils and a blackboard (not normally any chalk though.) without going into detail (and out of a desire not to get sued/booted out the country) the education system here can only be described as complicated. funds for education seem to get misdirected/lost along the way a lot. the english/french bilingualism doesn't help much either, administrative nightmare. from what i can gather, the english and french school systems are expected to co-exist perfectly harmoniously. ambitious to say the least!
sooo, due to popular demand (!) am displaying herewith some photos of my experiences thus far. admirable absence of vanity i am sure you will agree. attempting to pull off native african prints, and then posting the pics online? yourself?! who does that!
anyway they say pics tell a thousand words an' all that. have (tried to, don't know if it's worked) include a couple of our house and my weekend trip to bogo, went to visit a couple of schools there. (and, equally as crucially, go drink red wine out of a carton... hello scrabble night!) like all good cameroonian women, we spent friday prepping a traditional dish called foulere. made of bitter green leaves, and not a lot else. still somehow managed to take us most of the day... picking the leaves, washing the leaves and then - most heartbreaking of all - boiling them down so that all your preparatory efforts shrink beyond recognition! something of a labour intensive dish. not much by way of fruit and veg here (i know - avoiding scurvy was the only thing i WASN'T worried about before embarking for africa!). somehow managed to wind up in the one region of cameroon which isn't able to grow much on account of the harsh dry climate. which makes it very poor. which is probably the very reason i did get sent here.
didn't think that through!
anyway, was glad to get to see some of the schools, needless to say seeing it myself was pretty different to reading/hearing about it. the smells, the dark, the cramped human life, difficult to convey these in words. i felt totally overwhelmed to be honest. seeing the life of a teacher out here, it's pretty hard to even conceive of. No books, no desks, no salary for the last six months, negligible training, just a dark room with a hundred odd pupils and a blackboard (not normally any chalk though.) without going into detail (and out of a desire not to get sued/booted out the country) the education system here can only be described as complicated. funds for education seem to get misdirected/lost along the way a lot. the english/french bilingualism doesn't help much either, administrative nightmare. from what i can gather, the english and french school systems are expected to co-exist perfectly harmoniously. ambitious to say the least!
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
marching days
Djam na!
Sorry to slip of the radar a while back there. But i don't even know who i'm apologising to...?
Blogs blow my mind!
Moved into a house at last which has been a useful step in helping me feel settled. It's entirely unfurnished; navigating dusty market stalls frantically negociating prices for colanders buckets bedsheets and the like, well it's twice as much fun as you might imagine let me tell you.
Climbed 'mount maroua' yesterday, pretty modest at 600 metres but in the perpetual 40 degree heat it felt epic enough to me. When we got to the top the local lads who accompanied us proclaimed 'ah, t'es fort comme les camerounais!' which i took to be high praise indeed. (for the record - i am far from it and the feted african art of balancing my life's possessions on my head continues to elude me.) felt so nice getting away from the chaos of the city (which n.b. just 3 weeks ago seemed sleepy and relaxed in itself! guess that's the inevitable reaction when comparing any city on earth with london!)
today is teacher's day which i got super excited about, principally because it provided the perfect pretext to don my first local dress. (note to self: your ONE promise of not returning home in possession of gawdy african prints - already broken. whoops!) In true african style, the event was marked with a special uniform and lots of street parades and marches (not to be confused with a walk... a matter of the utmost import!)
had a good giggle in the tailors getting our dresses made, the fitting and end result were met with trademark cameroonian whooping and delight. The local approach to clothes seems highly enlightened to me. Where we go to primark and end up a) wearing ill-fitting clothes, and b) all looking the same, the african approach of buying a fabric, taking it to a tailor, explaining exactly what you want them to do with it, it just seems so much more creative and sensible. Least of all at £2.50 a pop! I mean imagine when I actually learn the french for 'ruffled sleeves, slim fit, cocktail dress' etc and so on! Sky's the limit ay!
lots more to say but the heat is sapping me as per - i wilt!
clara
Sorry to slip of the radar a while back there. But i don't even know who i'm apologising to...?
Blogs blow my mind!
Moved into a house at last which has been a useful step in helping me feel settled. It's entirely unfurnished; navigating dusty market stalls frantically negociating prices for colanders buckets bedsheets and the like, well it's twice as much fun as you might imagine let me tell you.
Climbed 'mount maroua' yesterday, pretty modest at 600 metres but in the perpetual 40 degree heat it felt epic enough to me. When we got to the top the local lads who accompanied us proclaimed 'ah, t'es fort comme les camerounais!' which i took to be high praise indeed. (for the record - i am far from it and the feted african art of balancing my life's possessions on my head continues to elude me.) felt so nice getting away from the chaos of the city (which n.b. just 3 weeks ago seemed sleepy and relaxed in itself! guess that's the inevitable reaction when comparing any city on earth with london!)
today is teacher's day which i got super excited about, principally because it provided the perfect pretext to don my first local dress. (note to self: your ONE promise of not returning home in possession of gawdy african prints - already broken. whoops!) In true african style, the event was marked with a special uniform and lots of street parades and marches (not to be confused with a walk... a matter of the utmost import!)
had a good giggle in the tailors getting our dresses made, the fitting and end result were met with trademark cameroonian whooping and delight. The local approach to clothes seems highly enlightened to me. Where we go to primark and end up a) wearing ill-fitting clothes, and b) all looking the same, the african approach of buying a fabric, taking it to a tailor, explaining exactly what you want them to do with it, it just seems so much more creative and sensible. Least of all at £2.50 a pop! I mean imagine when I actually learn the french for 'ruffled sleeves, slim fit, cocktail dress' etc and so on! Sky's the limit ay!
lots more to say but the heat is sapping me as per - i wilt!
clara
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Fulfulde for beginners
Djabbama! gotta share with you my knowledge after some local language classes.
-djam na! (hey, what's up)
-djam (i am fine.)
-djam bandu? (how is your body)
-djam (it is fine.)
-djam sare? (how is your wife/house)
-djam (she/it is fine.)
yes – the word for wife and house is ACTUALLY the same! pretty much tells you all you'll ever need to know about a woman's place in cameroon. well, that and the fact that the word 'woman' comes from the verb meaning to follow/obey.
!!!
Such a wayward wife I'd make.
So today is Thursday, and i have only just got to meet my boss! Last week of ramadan so not much work happening at all, streets are busy with peeps stocking up for feasts on Sunday (or Monday, depending on the moon.)
Boss seems nice, though very busy and important. Am hoping she will assign me to the care of someone junior who i can shoot my inane questions at all day long. In line with the above, first question to me: 'are you married'? On hearing the negative, second question: ' do you have children'? At which point i busily started mentally calculating whether it's more offensive to have children out of wedlock or not to have children at all. Pretty sure both single me out as a social outcast anyway!
In other news, it continues to be scorchingly hot everyday and night. Though obviously that's not news what with this being the 'cool' season and all. 'ca fait frais aujourd'hui, non?' is a favourite conversation opener. Fresh? Dude, it's 36 degrees! i'll show YOU fresh! (is what i dream of saying if i thought the french would in anyway translate satisfactorily.)
a la prochaine donc!
clara
-djam na! (hey, what's up)
-djam (i am fine.)
-djam bandu? (how is your body)
-djam (it is fine.)
-djam sare? (how is your wife/house)
-djam (she/it is fine.)
yes – the word for wife and house is ACTUALLY the same! pretty much tells you all you'll ever need to know about a woman's place in cameroon. well, that and the fact that the word 'woman' comes from the verb meaning to follow/obey.
!!!
Such a wayward wife I'd make.
So today is Thursday, and i have only just got to meet my boss! Last week of ramadan so not much work happening at all, streets are busy with peeps stocking up for feasts on Sunday (or Monday, depending on the moon.)
Boss seems nice, though very busy and important. Am hoping she will assign me to the care of someone junior who i can shoot my inane questions at all day long. In line with the above, first question to me: 'are you married'? On hearing the negative, second question: ' do you have children'? At which point i busily started mentally calculating whether it's more offensive to have children out of wedlock or not to have children at all. Pretty sure both single me out as a social outcast anyway!
In other news, it continues to be scorchingly hot everyday and night. Though obviously that's not news what with this being the 'cool' season and all. 'ca fait frais aujourd'hui, non?' is a favourite conversation opener. Fresh? Dude, it's 36 degrees! i'll show YOU fresh! (is what i dream of saying if i thought the french would in anyway translate satisfactorily.)
a la prochaine donc!
clara
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
on est ensemble
Hi from maroua! Arrived here yesterday after spending first week on phase one training in yaounde (the capital.) Was pretty thrilled to get out of there; lots of wild roads, congestion and potholes (one of which a fellow volunteer tumbled down and is now most likely having to go back home to Belgium with a broken leg. Yikes.) We got to stay in the same hotel as the cameroon national football juniors though – exciting until they took to accosting us on the stairs (yes philbear, sexual harrassment is the word! Wish i knew the french for that too).
Training was intense but pretty much as expected – oh except for the somewhat alarming statistic that 12 volunteers have got married out here since 2006! (and that's not including the pregnancies. don't ask). Nooo worries ma, every intention of honouring that promise and not coming home with a cameroonian in tow! (be it a baby or a man.)
Journey up to maroua was pretty interesting. Had been told it was a 12 hour train ride followed by an 8 hour bus ride. Double that with an overnight stop in n'gaoundere more like! A 20 mph speed limit had been imposed after all the derailments/accidents last week - i was just chuffed to get here at all. 'least of all cos we had to drive impromptu off-road through a river at one point! The one time i actually neeeeeed a 4 wheel drive... i find myself in a clapped out cameroonian bus of course.
Got here fine though, if a little startled, sleep deprived and scorched by the midday sun. 36 degrees? in the SHADE?! how they have the nerve to call this the 'cool' season i don't know. truly desperado to track down that swimming pool (hopefully finding the time somewhere to enrol more girls into primary school too... whoops! eye on the prize etc etc!) news on that next time i hope. phase 2 training this week before starting work on Monday. GULP!
Training was intense but pretty much as expected – oh except for the somewhat alarming statistic that 12 volunteers have got married out here since 2006! (and that's not including the pregnancies. don't ask). Nooo worries ma, every intention of honouring that promise and not coming home with a cameroonian in tow! (be it a baby or a man.)
Journey up to maroua was pretty interesting. Had been told it was a 12 hour train ride followed by an 8 hour bus ride. Double that with an overnight stop in n'gaoundere more like! A 20 mph speed limit had been imposed after all the derailments/accidents last week - i was just chuffed to get here at all. 'least of all cos we had to drive impromptu off-road through a river at one point! The one time i actually neeeeeed a 4 wheel drive... i find myself in a clapped out cameroonian bus of course.
Got here fine though, if a little startled, sleep deprived and scorched by the midday sun. 36 degrees? in the SHADE?! how they have the nerve to call this the 'cool' season i don't know. truly desperado to track down that swimming pool (hopefully finding the time somewhere to enrol more girls into primary school too... whoops! eye on the prize etc etc!) news on that next time i hope. phase 2 training this week before starting work on Monday. GULP!
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