Spiders, scorpions, and teaching

Hey everyone! As many of you know, I am a health volunteer here in Djohong and I’ve been in this village for around 2 months. One issue with being a health volunteer is that it’s not like if you’re an education volunteer and you’ve finished your training you are then a teacher. The village knows you are a teacher and recognizes you as such. Agro volunteer, similar thing, that once you finish your training you are then recognized as a person who works in the fields. As a health volunteer, I have been recognized as a doctor by many of the people in my village. This is not good for many reasons, a major one being that I am not a doctor. Far from it. So, though I have been trying to observe things, for a while I was mostly telling people that I am not a doctor, just a volunteer working with health. I personally can see how this would be difficult to understand at first. Despite this, i have been enjoying my time at the hospital and IMC immensely, though when a friend came to me asking for a favor I was happy to have something new to try.

My friend, Ibrahim who works as a tailor, came over to my house and asked me if I could assist him with his classes. I was pretty confused at first since he knows that I can’t sew and classes….for tailors? However, he quickly clarified and said he was now also working as an English teacher at the high school and said that my assistance would really be appreciated since he can’t speak English very well. I figured why not, I would just be helping, so I said yes and met him at his house the next morning so we could walk over together. We arrived just as a young teenage girl was banging a stick on a metal car rim that was hanging from a tree. The kids responded to this by running from all directions to get to class. Ibrahim and I also picked up our pace and arrived at our classroom. Ibrahim then asked me to wait as he went to go pick up his lesson book from the principal. I waited in front of the classroom as the kids all got a kick out of the new person in front of them. Once Ibrahim arrived the snickering and whispering stopped and he hurried over to me. Whispering to me, he explained that the lesson book is blank so he doesn’t know what he is suppose to do. He then proceeds to hand me the chalk and say ok well you have 2 hours with them, go ahead. I started laughing at this as I stared at the 40+ kids in the class and then back to the chalk in my hand. I thought about reminding him that I wasn’t a teacher, but then remembered that he wasn’t a teacher either. Then decided what the hell, this could be fun. So I spent the rest of the class attempting to teach English. Since then I have returned twice, one time with Ibrahim and another time with a different professor, and now plan to help Ibrahim with many of his classes. Now people think that I am a doctor, despite me telling everyone repeatedly that I’m not, and a teacher. Voila.

On a completely different note, I have slowly gotten use to the spiders and cockroaches who make appearances in my house, particularly at night. However, one new development stumped me. My flashlight died a while back and the batteries here don’t work very well with my flashlight from the States. So when I come home at night after dinner elsewhere, Caleb or Youssoufa usually walk me home. once I get home, I have to maneuver around things in the dark to find my candles or lantern. One night I found my candle and my matches, fumbled a bit but finally managed to light it, and right in front of me was an incredibly large spider. This was by far the biggest spider I have ever seen, and not only that, but it was hairy and fat. I jumped back with a small yelp when I first saw it and tried to decide what to do. After some quick thinking I went to my room, locked my door, changed very quickly into pjs and hopped into my bed under the protection of my mosquito net. This was kind of like when I found the scorpion in my bucket…. being too scared to kill it, I moved the bucket outside of my house and locked the door, like this would stop a tiny scorpion from crawling back in. However, my mind was put at ease. This spider was too big to come through my mosquito net and from my experience, the uglier, scarier things are usually gone in the morning. When I woke up I was relieved to see that I was right. Fortunately I have yet to encounter it again, though I’d like to think if I did I’d be a little more badass and just kill it. We’ll see.

I hope everyone is doing well! keep sending me updates, I love reading them. I am slowly getting the packages people sent, so thank you very much. I miss you!

The season to be jolly

Oh hey! I’m back. How’s everyone doing? USA treating everyone well? I hope so.

Here is the blog about my holidays, please send me updates on your own holiday stories! I’d love to hear them. For the holidays, the volunteers in my cluster planned to meet in Meiganga at my friend Emma’s house. Meiganga is a city that is a 4-8 hour prison bus ride depending on how many times the bus either breaks down, gets stuck in ditches, or just stops in general. And to clarify, its not an actual prison bus, but a metal van, with metal seats and a cage that separates the driver from the passengers, with large windows and a bar going across them. The bus piles as many people into it, or on it, as possible. People are hanging onto the back, sitting on each other, or on the roof with the luggage. Whatever you can get.

As my first solo traveling experience, I was intrigued to see how my prison bus ride would go today and how long it would actually take to get to my destination. While I was waiting for the bus (its rare that anything ever starts or leaves remotely on time), I was offered by a ride to Meiganga by a moto driver. So, instead of a cramped, long prison bus ride, I rode on the back of a motorcycle through the African bush during sunrise for 2 hours. It was beyond beautiful and the moto driver and I had some nice, friendly conversations. It was a 2 hour moto ride afterall.

After that great start to my holidays it only got better. Filled with great food, people, and drinks, Christmas was a success. We spent the day before Christmas preparing the numerous types of chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and delicious desserts. To try and put our minds in the Christmas spirit despite the very warm temperatures and desert-like area we we were in, there was a handmade Christmas tree on the wall, Christmas lights, Christmas music, and Its a Wonderful Life playing from a computer. A definite success. After a night of food and dance parties, we woke up and had delicious crepes, our secret Santa gift exchange, and a day of relaxation. A few of us went to the bar at around 4, and then came back to help with the delicious homemade Mexican feast. A handful of my friends decided to go to a concert, a famous Cameroonian musician was in town. Shortly after they left, we receive a call from them saying that they missed the concert but what did we think of the band coming back to the house for a private concert? And just like that, we had another dance party, but this time with a live, Cameroonian band. The music was great and the musicians were very friendly, nice people. After over an hour of music they hung out at Emma’s, finishing up our first Christmas in Africa with us. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Next holiday- New Years Eve! A few of us (2 of the volunteers in Meiganga and a Cameroonian friend) piled into Youssoufa’s pick-up truck to head back to Djohong for New Years. The first night we made pizzas and relaxed. Actually, food and relaxation are 2 great words to describe the holidays haha. The day of New Year’s Eve we walked around visiting people in Djohong, and each person we went to invited us all to the party at the Sous-prefet’s. So, even though we had planned on camping en bruisse for the night, we changed plans and went to the party. It was a very interesting experience. Everyone would hand in their invitations and then take a seat. After a few speeches by officials, we were then called up to eat buffet-like style.While everyone was getting their food, there were a few people, one of them being a friend of mine, serving people drinks. Once everyone had gotten their food, the table was cleared and the sous-prefet went to the front of the room and read some names. These men and women were then assigned to dance with each other for a song. Thankfully, I wasn’t one of these unlucky individuals. Talk about awkward. After this odd dance, the party loosened up a little to allow others to dance instead of just watching these people uncomfortably dancing. It ended up being a great experience and a good time. The next day we all relaxed some more and then went on a gorgeous hike en bruisse to the valley. After taking in the view, we made the trek back, collecting wood along the way. After a delicious dinner, Emma, Youssoufa, Claire, Caleb and I sat around a fire outside and introduced Youssoufa to S’mores under the large, starry African sky.

Holiday season= success. The entire time, particularly New Years Eve, I kept having moments about how crazy this was. I am in Cameroon looking at these shooting stars, or dancing to Cameroonian tunes as the band plays and my new friends watch, join, or sing along. I never in a million years would have predicted that my next holiday would one- be in Cameroon, and 2- be seeing and experiencing everything that I have thus far. Definitely puts a smile on my face every time I remember that.

I truly hope that everyone’s holidays were great and filled with dancing and smiles. I miss everyone and think of you all constantly!

Keeping my eyes and ears open

Hey everyone! Once again, I’m sorry that its been over a month since I last posted. The holiday season has come and gone and I truly hope that it was a good one for everybody. I am now at my post, Djohong, and settling in pretty well. It’s a beautiful, tranquil village, and for the most part, the people here have been extremely generous, friendly, and welcoming. Particularly the family who lives in my compound and the people that work at the District Hospital. My house is a 2 minute walk away from the center of the village, where there are a few stores and where the big market is on Thursdays. My house is a small with a front room, a latrine, and my bedroom, with a kitchen in my front yard (its a little mudhut with a straw roof haha, i like it. Though its a little dark in there). All of this is surrounded by a fence of something straw-like, and then Bah-iya and his 2 wives and kids are right on the other side, less than a foot away. I now have pictures from coloring books taped all over my wall, adding some color and life to my front room which I appreciate. When I am home I am almost never alone, at least one child, but usually if there’s one word spreads quickly, is in my house drawing or just hanging out.

I’ve been asked pretty often, “What is your typical day like?” I will attempt to answer that question here. One thing that you should know that it is hard for my to pinpoint what a typical day is like. I tend to have no idea what my day will consist of when I wake up. When I first arrived I was traveling to nearby villages with the head doctor for the vaccination campaign and malnutrition screenings. So for at least a week I was caught up in a whirlwind of activity, seeing things that shocked and amazed me every hour of the day. I would also watch rounds at the hospital and observe prenatal consultations. If I’m not traveling or at the hospital, I like to walk around the village and say hi to every person who walks by, and if I don’t feel like saying hi to everyone I shouldn’t walk around haha. I might meet with the traditional leader of the village just to say hi or stay at home and hang out with the family, either by attempting to help them make traditional meals, getting my hair braided, trying to learn the local dialect, Fulfulde, or just sitting there and talking in French. I usually have tea with Bah-iya everyday, which is a time that I have begun to look forward to. A nice cup of tea, or 2 or 3 cups (he really likes tea), and a nice disjointed conversation in French for around 2 hours. The main aspect of my days is truly just keeping my eyes, ears, and heart open to basically anything because thats what keeps everything interesting.

An example of this- Just a few days ago, after saying the greetings in Fulfulde to each person in the family (takes a solid 5 minutes of just hello, and how was your days), I walk up onto Bah-iya’s porch, take off my shoes and enter ready for my cup of tea. There was another man there huddled in the corner, which wasn’t too surprising since people walk in and out of Bah-iya’s place all the time. This tiny, old man ended up being the traditional leader of a village around an hour drive away. However, since very few people have cars here, he biked the 2 hours just to say hi to his friend Bah-iya and give his respects to the head doctor. He only speaks Fulfulde, so Bah-iya translated for me to French which is still also a gamble if I understand or not. Unfortunately, this man didn’t get too much time to meet with the doctor, so I wasn’t too surprised when the doctor informed me that he was going with Bah-iya to this man’s village. I was invited to join, but initially said no. Afterall, these three men would be spending the entire time speaking in Fulfulde and I was getting a little tired of sitting in a room not understanding a word that was spoken. Then I remembered something another volunteer told me, never say no to any opportunities, just say yes and what the hell, it might actually be fun. So I went. This village was extremely en bruisse. When I say extremely I mean that when we drove an hour on the roads that I always labeled as en bruisse, we then left the road for a bike path. We drove on this path with the pick up truck for around 15 minutes and an entourage of men on motorcycles who were instructed to meet us, and then parked the car and walked another 10-15 minutes along a windy path up and down hills. Eventually we arrived at a valley, surrounded by gorgeous mountains and hills, fields of bright green crops, with specks of little mud huts in all directions. It was stunning. We then sat with the chief in a mudhut, I listened to Fulfulde, and at some point in their conversation it was decided that we’d go on a walk to visit the nearby river. We walked through crushed fields where elephants had just stampeded through the week before, crossed little streams that had makeshift logs as bridges, and finally arrived at a beautiful river where three women were gathering their day’s supply of water. Needless to say, I felt that I was once again truly seeing Africa. I was so happy that I went, I fell in love with this little village and its people, and asked Bah-iya if I can travel with him to visit whenever he goes. He happily said yes, and so I hope to one day work with them, and if not just spend time there.

Anyway, sorry this is a long blog, so if you are still reading I’m impressed. hopefully I’ll post another blog sooner than later about my holiday season here. Miss everyone and I hope everyone is doing well. Congratulations to Erin and Jen!! I love and miss you guys and am so happy for you.