The Health Agroforestry Combination

Agro and Health volunteers go through stage/training together, while Ed and SED (small enterprise development) volunteers have their training combined in June/April (I believe) here in PC Cameroon. This combination is particularly relevent for us, as there are many joint projects and overlapping of sectors between Agro and Health workers, three of which I will highlight.

Moringa
Moringa oliefera is a multipurpse tree that grows here. It does not grow very fast necessarily, or very big, however the leaves are edible and people here make a sauce out of the leaves to eat with couscous, which is delicious. The leaves themselves are very nutritious, containing high levels of protein, calcium, and potassium. In addition, the powder of ground up moringa seeds can be used to purify water.Thus it is a tree that is promoted for nutrition and agroforestry. Because it is a slight and delicate tree, people can be encouraged to plant one in their concession, where it won't take up much space, and will be readily available for cooking needs. It also coppices fairly well, meaning it can be cut off to a smaller height and regrow from there, growing more outward instead of too tall, making leaves easier to harvest. Other projects have worked to promote it at health centers. In health centers and hospitals here, including the big hospital in Garoua, when someone is sick and staying in the hospital, they have a bed, and care, however no food is provided. Family members come and stay outside, setting up cap, to cook for their sick one, and stay with them. Thus promoting moringa at health centers means you have a ready audience of people to learn about the benefits (complemented by classes or animations), you can use open space to demonstrate the trees, and families who are there can use the trees for their cooking during the hospital stay.
One interesting thing is that culturally, most Muslim families do have a moringa tree in their concession, but not a lot of Christian families, just due to traditional cooking. So introduction to Haako Kona (Moringa sauce) might be successful in non-Muslim cartiers.

Fruit Trees
Similarly, is the promotion of fruit trees, both at health centers and in family concessions, for the same reasons of nutrition, as eating more fruit can greatly improved the vitamin deficiency in a lot of children here. (In addition, growing fruit tends to be a pretty lucrative endeavor, as once the tree is grown, the inputs are few and the amount of fruit produced exceeds what is eaten, and excess can be sold) People keep their water here in great big ceramic urns. An ingenious container for water in hot places--as water evaporates from the "canerie" the temperature and water inside is chilled. Indeed, it is the refrigerator for volunteers without electricity, because you can stick food in plastic bags and throw them in the water and they will stay much colder! As it is though, a lot of water does leak out. So a simple thing is to encourage people to plant a tree right next to their canerie...a fruit tree or moringa perhaps. (Papayas grow and start producing in 2 years, and their root systems are not extensive, so they can grow right in a small concession) That way, you don't even have to water your tree as it grows. The lost water from the canerie does it. I'm planning on planting a papaya next to my canerie as soon as I get to post, and also some moringa in the concession as well.

Soy
Nutrition again, mixed with agriculture. As agroforesters, our aim is two fold: to get people to plant trees (for all sorts of needs--reforestation, amelioration of the soil, fruit, economic benefit, anti-erosion, etc) and also to improve the environment/soil and agriculture. Soy is a legume meaning that it fixes nitrogen back into the soil. Where other crops, like corn, millet, and above all, cotton, take a lot of nutrients out of the soil and tire it out, soy, peanuts, beans, all work to improve the soil. Thus we like to promote it as another alternative crop. Simultaneously, adding a little soy to diets here can go a long way to improve nutrition, especially for children. Sarah and Ryan, two previous Health and Agro workers in Bibemi, had a nice successful program, promoting soy on the equal parts of farmers and mothers. Ryan worked to promote it to farmers, talking about the benefit to their land, etc, and Sarah worked to promote it to mothers, encouraging them to put a little in "Bouille" (a flour drink served frequently) or other sauces to give a little more protein. Thus they created the market for it by working together. I would love to be involved in such a project...simple but effective.

Water
Finally, there are all issues with water. Water, a necessity for growing trees, here where it rains for 3 months out of the year. Water, which is such an integral part of health, where so many diseases are spread due to lack of good water quality. Working on well projects and education is something almost all health and agro volunteers are involved with at some point.

I think it is a wonderful thing to collaborate across sectors, and hope there will be a Health Volunteer near me at my post.

phone number

I meant to post earlier that I do indeed have a cell phone number. As I dont want to post it online, if you want to know it (as sending text messages across the ocean seems to work pretty well, as well as calls using a cheap calling card or skype) please send me an email, and ill email it to you. Of course I would loooove to hear from people!!

New posts

Yesterday we received our new posts, and today we met our counterparts.
Counterparts are local Cameroonians, for us in most cases farmers, who live or work in our villages and will be partnering with us in our work. It was certainly an exciting time for all the stageaires, to find out where we will be living for the next two years of our lives! My village is called Mafa-Kilda and is right on the main road between Garoua and Ngoundere, but only 30 km from Garoua. This is so close to Nassarao, where we have been training, which I am happy about, because I look forward to visiting my homestay family, and now will have real means to do so as I wont be far at all. Over half of our group will be posted in the Extreme North, some very close to the border with Nigeria, in the mountains, some near Waza National Park, which should be cool to visit!
I will be opening a post, which means that I will be the first Peace Corps volunteer the community has had and in fact I believe there are six or seven of us opening posts. Peace Corps agroforestry system is set up somewhat to go in an eight year rotation (if needed). A volunteer opens in a communty, and if things go well and the communty wants to continue the work, that volunteer will be replaced after two years. This can continue up to eight years, when, ideally the work is done. Because of course the goal is to work ourselves out of a job. That is to say that the purpose is not to always have volunteers in a community, but to train community members to do the work, to become leaders so the community has no need for volunteers. There are also posts who convert from agroforestry to health, or vice versa, so we have some trainees who will be the first agroforestry volunteer in the community, but not hte first Peace Corps volunteer.
We will be visiting our posts Sunday for the week, to see our houses, meet people and see the communty, set up post office boxes and bank accounts, etc. (While I will get a new mailing address, I can keep the old, and Ill see which one tends to get mail quicker-but dont worry about if you send something to the old one--it will get to me)

seasons

The leaves are beginning to c hange here, and turn yellow. I think our last rain was around the 10th of October or something, and it is strange to think that we will be going for 8 months without rain! And also interesting to think about how at home the leaves are changing and turning colors and dropping, for the cold; and here it is for the lack of water. I like making that comarison between our winter and the dry season here, and it is nice because the weather seems to be getting a bit colder, and certainly changing. A short rundown of seasons here, thanks to Sarah Mays, a wonderful volunteer who taught some of our seasons and just finished up her agroforestry service here:

November
Dry and starting to cool off
December through February
Dry and cool, starting to move towards hot in March
March through May
HOT and dry, temperatures perhaps up to 140 degrees (c'est fou), thank goodness no humidity attached to that
June and July
Hot and a bit wet and rainy, cooling down a bit in July
August
rainy and cool (most likely the most wonderful month here, except for driving conditions)
September ( when we arrived)
rainy and cool, end of month starting to get hot
October
rains end and hot (small hot season)

Of course "cool" here means 60s i think.
It is bizare for us to be in October though, and still be so hot ( a few nights ago i had trouble sleeping because of the heat) still be sweating and drinking so much water, and be thinking about what its like in the states. We were all salivating over thoughts of pumpkin pie and most definitely apple cider, apple pies, apple everything. Its hard to imagine winter as well, and what a shock it will be in two years time (or before if we visit home) going from our weather here to December weather in the states, especially for our friends from Montana and New York, Minnesota and Michigan!

Rain

I love rain. And thankfully it is still the end of the rainy season here in the North. I am writing down every time it rains here, always wondering which will be the last. I loved rain before comnig here, to a very high degree, enjoying dancing in the rain, walking in the rain, running ni the rain, surfing in the rain, all great pleasures in life. But let me tell you, how MUCH I love rain here. The first time it rained here was our third night in Nassarao I think, the 27th. We were sitting around the compound in the evening and I looked up and the horizon was dark. I said "Its going to rain!?" Everyone jumped up and started gathering things and in a short time the rain came pouring down. I went to my room and to my latrine and reveled in the rain, taking a much enjoyed bath. With the rain came such a drop in temperature, a relief to the hot, hot, humid weather we had been having. The air cooled off, the water was cold, and wind cdame with it too. For the first time I laid in bed that night without sweating until I fell asleep. And to the sound of the water hitting the tin roof. Very cozy. And rain also means water for drinking and bathing which is wonderful. I knew when I was back in the States that I was going to be thinking in a drastically different way about water, that I would value it so much more. And I certainly do! Some times theres just not a lot of it around! And this is the rainy season! When it starts to rain I run outside and put my bucket right side up and put my filter out to catch the rain to use it. Seriously, when it rains, it is my favorite time here. (gonna be a long 8 months!)
With the rain comes beautiful clouds as well, a beautiful sky of changing colors, just like the sky at the beach, or over mountains. Gorgeous. At some point I will start adding photos, so that everyone can see. Until then, imagine, or look at my fellow trainee blogs!

Nassarao et Pitoa

I wanted to write a few short notes about our two training towns for the parents back home!
Nassarao, where the agroforestry trainees are living and training is a small Muslim village. It is very close too Garoua, probably about 7 km. Many peolple call it a suburb of Garoua. In my head, it is very similar to (pre shopping center) Forest Lakes Subdivision to Charlottesville....same distance and in the same way, there is not much in Nassarao other than houses. For instance, there is a tiny tiny market, but there's nowhere really to buy bottled water. There are a couple of bars which are occasionally open, for the non-Muslims in the town. It is a beautiful little village, with a light yellow mosque at the center of town. The town hub/center is the mosque, chefferie, and school, and they form the inner circle, and six roads lead off from there, like spokes on a wheel. So it is more circular rather than grid-like.

Pitoa is much much larger, and it should probably be a health trainee writing about it, since don't live there, and don't spend as much time there. It is 10 km from Nassarao in the other direction from Garoua, and the drive there is beautiful, with mountains on the one side and fields all around. The town seems to be more grid-like, with roads on perpendicular lines. There is a very large market there on Sundays, which I only went to once or twice. Pitoa is not predominantly muslim. So there are pigs running around, quite a few more bars, (which I know our friends in Pitoa enjoy!) and a little more commerce, little boutiques to buy things, like frozen, yes I said frozen, bottled water.

Both our training centers are houses, with kitchens, some rooms our language trainers and tech trainers live in, and bathrooms. Most of our tech classes are at our respective training center, but we do have combined sessions, such as health sessions, safety and security, some combined tech sessions, which are mostly in Pitoa, but sometimes in Nassarao. We have a general meeting in Pitoa every Thursday, followed by a soccer or frisbee game all together, trainers too. It's definitely good to have as a destresser! As it is, I wish that we had had more opportunity to spend time together, more sessions together, but such is life. I really enjoyed riding my bike between Pitoa and Nassarao for a while when I went there for langauge sessions. Beautiful ride.

Flushing toilets is overrated!

My house/compound is really nice, so beautiful, quite comfortable, and all that I need. My family compound is without running water (which is the norm) and without electricity (of which there are only two of us volunteers staying in such households). And I am perfectly content to be without both.

Latrines have been fun, or not so fun, for all of us, as self flushing toilets are definitely not an option. And in fact we have recently begun a poll of whether people love, hate or are indifferent towards their latrines. I'll have to get back to you with the results. My Latrine is actually a sanctuary of sorts. It is clean, it is open sky, and I am lucky enough to have my own one, attached to my bedroom. I love it, and love getting up early in the morning, or coming in late in the evening and taking a bucket bath with views of the sunrise, a pretty papaya tree, or stars overhead. I'm sure that my thoughts about going to the bathroom in a small hole in the ground might change when I have my first case of GI disturbance, but for now, I am quite enjoying it and feel it is somewhat freeing and comfortable. I'm also trying to make friends with the Madames Cabinets, who also love my latrine. So I am finding that I am perfectly happy without running water. Electricity is something that I really would like to have at post, to have the option of listening to music, and writing on a computer, but running water I could certainly live without.

Bucket Baths are also pretty wonderful. There is not much better than coming home sweaty and hot and going into the latrine with a bucket of water and pouring cupfuls of it over yourself. Bathing has become much more of a long event, which I enjoy, once again to a beautiful sky of sunrise clouds or stars. If, however I take the bucket bath in the evening, or any time in the day, the water is warm or hot. So for "cool" water, it has to be morning.

I also appreciate not having electricity in my homestay for the fact that we do not have Television. There are quite a few families with televisions here, and many volunteers go home to houses where the families watch TV together, or the TV is on and kids watch, etc. There are also some pretty big stereo systems. But there is none of that at my house. There is people and conversation. And whether that is or isn't the traditional "Africa", I appreciate it very much and value the time when I can lie on the mat with the family and talk about all sorts of things, and let time pass slowly.

Evenings are truly my favorite time of the days. I enjoy them much better than the training classes. I come home, take a bath or change, come out to the courtyard and sit on a mat with my family. Sometimes there is rice to sort (picking out pebbles, insects) which used to be a daily task. Now is corn harvesting time, so a few nights ago, after dinner, we all took the corn kernals off cobs for an hour or so. We sit and talk, (or I read and study some evenings), and eat dinner, talk some more until its time for bed. I get home from school around 5:00 pm every day, and it gets dark around 6:00. So from 6:30-8:00 or so, it is by lamp light. There is only so long you can stay up by lamplight, so by 8:00, I am getting tired and usually head to get ready for bed. Of course that means that most days I get up between 5:30 or 6:00. Right about when its getting light outside. I love going to bed early and getting up early, and have always wanted to get on a more "sun directed" schedule. Having no electricity is an excellent way of doing that. So I am loving the schedule. It is also going to be interesting being a place with practically the same sunrise and sunset times all year long, as it is only three degrees from the equator.

My family

My family is wonderful. I already think that they are possibly the best family of all the homestay families. At first I wasnt so sure. Namely becuase the one thing I was hoping for, and asked for, was a family with a lot of children. I love kids and feel that they make a transition a lot easier, because of laughter, and games, even when communication is difficult. When I arrived at my house, however, there was only one 11 year old boy, Abdu, and two babies, of 2 years and 2 months. Yes I was a little disappointed. And it was funny because many of the other trainees said, you might be really really glad about that a little later, when you just want some peace and quiet and dont have six faces staring at you and watching and laughing at your every move. And it turns out to be true, (although I still think I would like more kids, but hey, kids are everywhere, its true.) But yes I love my family. There is the "Papa", Ibrahim, who is a farmer and goes to his various fields around Nassarao on his bicycle. He knows a little little bit of French, mainly limitted to "Hello! Did you eat? Did you eat well? Really? Are you lying to me? Ok. Thank you!" He is very concerned about me eating well. And very sweet. And always says "Merci" at the end of our very short conversations. His older daughter is 29, Aissatou. She has a daughter Coultoumi, aged 2 years. Ibrahims wife is Aissatou and she is 34. Her daughter is Coultoumi, aged 2 months. Yes, confusing. About every fifth woman here seems to be named Aissatou. And then Aissatou (Sr.) has a son Abdu, 11, from a different father, and he speaks very very limitted French. I think actually he just nods his head and says "Yes" a lot of times when Im speaking french although he doesnt understand. At the beginning this made me think he spoke French. Actually it took me a very long time to figure out that noone really speaks french and also to figure out who everyone in the family was and how they were related. All three of the adults in the compound were previously married and divorced, something I found interesting. Aissatou Jr is now looking for a husband and is living at home, although actually this past week she has been visiting her mother in Garoua. The women dont speak any French at all, only Fulfulde. I was kind of expecting not to be in a French speaking family, and it has been really good. The only difficulty I have is that I cant really communicate with the women as I would like to. This was very hard in the beginning because the only ones I could have conversations with were men. I can say Good morning, and May I help, Im going to school now, etc in Fulfulde, but no real conversations. But that will come, as Im slowly learning. But the word to describe everyone in the family is just Sweet. They are all sweet. And very nice and laid back and easy going. I do wish you all could know them. In addition, there are about 6 students who live in our compound and are going to high school here: they are all 20 something males, who come by most evenings to sit on the mat with us, to speak french, or even english, as many of them are very interested in learning and imroving english, and learning about America. There is also another woman, probably about my age, who lives in the compound with her four little boys and husband, who I just met for the first time two nights ago. Her name is Magout, and she too is a friend, and helps in that she speaks french with me and can help communicate between myself and the Aissatous.

The compound is really beautiful. Its all walled in in a sort of Trapezoid shape with red dirt mud walls. Some of the buildings are mud huts with thatched roofs. My room and the Aissatous room is a mud brick covered in cement building with tin roof. There are fruit trees, guava, papaya, citris, around the compound, and a big garden in the outside part. It reminds me of mideival castle set up, with walls and rooms making up a community. Pictures will come later.

Expectations et Receipt

The last day we had in Yaoundé, we learned that while our stage would be posted to the Grand North (the three most northern provinces: Adamaoua, Nord, et Extrème-Nord), agroforestry would be only posted in the North and Extreme North- noone in the Adamaoua. This, after making me want to cry at first, had to make me laugh. It was so perfect. First, of the 9 possible countries I could be sent to for agroforestry in Francophone Africa, Cameroon was my 8th choice. Granted, this was mainly because of not having much knowledge about it, not knowing anyone who had served there, or been there, or was from there. Then I researched it and thought, Ok, thats a pretty cool place. And then I said, Ok, well it has a coastline, at least let me be on the coast. And I learn that there are no agroforestry workers on the coast. So then I pray, Ok, so maybe not on the coast, how about the mountainous region in the west. And I hear through the grapevine that 90 percent of our stage will be going to the Grand North. I prayed "Dear God, please let me be in the south, please dont let me be in the North." Then we get to Cameroon and find that yes, indeed all posts will be in the Grand North, except for two possible health posts in the South. And I said "Ok. Ok. Ill deal with the hot north, and being far from the coast. But God, please please let me be posted in the Adamaoua. Please." And then we find out today that no, in fact you will not be in the Adamaoua. At first this seemed almost crushing, but the fact is, the only thing I can do is laugh. Because in all honesty, I want God to direct things. All last year, God was teaching me this difficult dance of having hopes and dreams and letting go of them. A quote, which I had over my bunkbed at the beach, and then on the wall everywhere else became my mantra: "May all your expectations be frustrated. May all your plans be thwarted.May all your desires be withered into nothingness. That you may experience the powerlessness and the poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit." So here we are again, but thankfully, having grown a little at least, learned a little at least, so that the disappointment back in Yaoundé lasted only a few minutes before humor set in. How much better is it to go through life open, to take what comes, joyfully and peacefully, and to flow with that without specific expectations. I do believe this is a skill which is generally very helpful in Peace Corps!! Dont go in with specific expectations! And what this all hinges on for me is that, in fact, I can make my own plans of what I think is my own best interest, but who knows ones best interests better?

And what I find out is, that in fact, upon getting to Cameroon and getting to know it, I do much prefer the North. The two downsides are the heat and being so far from the ocean. But other than that, I am shown again how my best interest is being watched over, and how much more it turns out that I appreciate and am suited perhaps to the North. The culture of the North generally is much softer, less aggressive, less loud. It is also much more predominantly Muslim and the Arab influence is wonderful (I may actually get to use a tiny bit of Arabic, or perhaps get someone to continue tutoring me!) It is beautiful up here!!! And for now, because it is still the end of the rainy season, it is Green, trees, plants, rice fields everywhere! If I gain skills doing agroforestry in arid lands, those skills may be easily transferable to the Middle East, opening up another continent for work. And if we can learn to help things grow in the desert thats about as extreme as it gets...then how much easier anywhere else, where there is water and less heat? So once again I see that I am exactly where I should be, and where after all, I want to be. And I am grateful for that.

Now do I have the courage-or foolishness-to ask, "Please God, dont send me to the Extreme North"?