Christmas celebration

Here's some dancing outside the church of Mafa Kilda, on Christmas day afternoon, early evening. kicked up a lot of dust!!!

Putting out the beehive

Recently the beekeeping group put out their beehive in a nearby eucalyptus field. They baited it with bilbil millet dregs, lemongrass, and rabbit manure...mmm. They will be checking on it in the next few weeks, to see if bees have found it and inhabited it! Here are some photos.

Rokona Paul working on the stand
The group (Pascal, Warda Jean, Metsina Michel, Dakoza Anonias, Rokona Paul) with some kids and Kelly

Long Absense from Blogger

I realize it has been a long time since I have written on here! What with site visit of my replacement, followed by my parents visit, followed by my replacement's arrival and my moving out, followed by the holidays, and wrapping up last minute things in village, I have not written at all! My apologies. But, along the way I bookmarked different times when I wanted to write, so now I am filling them in. Please look back a few posts for new ones! I believe there are 4 or 5.

Baby bunnies

So the other day, Kelly told me that one of the rabbits had babies! Three. They are so cute! I think they were actually born around the same time as the five that died (when my parents were here). I believe because the mother was stressed with the heat, she aborted five, but then in the next few days had the others, but had dug a burrow so they were hidden. It's only in the past week that the three of them emerged, softball sized and completely furry. They are adorable, and I'm so happy I got to see them before I left. They have a nice shelter over their area for the heat now, and I am optimistic that they will reproduce and be a good project for many people in village. Already many people have expressed not only interest but incredible enthousiasm for raising rabbits, seeing them and saying "I want that!" I think it is a good alternative for households, when weighed against chickens, as the rabbits can be kept in an enclosed area. Home chickens wander around, passing diseases amongst other village chickens, and also being prone to theft. Recently, a bird sickness swept through Sanguere Ngal and killed everyone's chickens and ducks. I know someone who lost 20, and just before Christmas! I'm hoping that rabbits will be added to the small livestock collection of many villagers in Mafa Kilda and Sanguere Ngal.

*Photo courtesy of Kelly! :)

Mount Tingaling hike

I went for a beautiful hike in the chain of mountains that run east and north of Garoua, from around Pitoa to Gaschiga. The day was gorgeous, very clear, fairly cool, no harmattan. We aimed to hike up at one point, walk along the flat tops, and come down to go to Gaschiga. We made it up, walked along the top, could see Gaschiga, started to head down when it started getting dark, and somehow ended up getting turned around, heading down on the same path up. Unfortunately it wasn't until we were a good bit down we recognized it. So all the way back the way we came. After clammering through fields and gulleys for hours in the dark between the foot of the mountain and the nearest little village, we finally found the village. We went to the nearest house to ask for water, and as I was sitting in the dark, a woman came out and said "Elizabeth?" It turned out to be one of Jessie's homestay moms. How she recognized me in the dark I don't know, except perhaps that there's not an excess of white people around, especially not ones who would be wandering around en brousse in the dark. It was her nieces wedding, so she took me to see her, and we ate some good rice and sauce, before limping to the road to head back to Garoua. That serendipedous encounter made up slightly for the sadness of not getting to Gaschiga, but we'll attempt it again another day.