A Tree in the Desert

Wam Kara's first album release project launched today!

2011-03-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

Just an update, the project to release Wam Kara's first cd has just launched on Kickstarter. Please check it out at www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003034960/wam-karas-first-album-release. And please donate, even a few dollars, if you are able! The project will be up there for 40 days. Teh listed goal is $1000, which will allow them to produce CDs, but we are really going for $1800, to be able to produce the CDs at a better quality. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

See post from March 5th for more info!

Last day in Cameroon

2011-03-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

Today I'm heading to the airport in Douala in about 5 hours! I had a nice, but somewhat alone last night in Cameroon, getting here at 4 pm and not knowing what to do with myself!. I ate one last plate of Ndole and plantains at the restaurant next door, and then called different friends from Garoua and Mafa Kilda say goodbye, took a wonderful shower, and watched tv--trace and a hausa soap opera. Ha.

Heading out of Yaounde

2011-03-06T01:01:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm taking the bus for Douala in about an hour. I'll spend the night in Douala and then fly out of Cameroon tomorrow afternoon! I am heading to Ethiopia for a week, to see one of my high school and college friends who is a foreign service officer at the embassy in Addis Ababa. She has been there for about 2 years now and I'm excited to see her world there as well as a bit of the capital and other areas! Then I will head on home, arriving the 16th. Just in time for Spring!

Help Release Wam Kara's first album

2011-03-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Before I leave here, and get back, and might start to lose some of my readership, I wanted to tell you all about an initiative I'm undertaking to support some of my friends here, talented musicians in a group called Wam Kara, in Garoua.

Of the two years I spent in Garoua, their group was one of the best I heard. They have been together for four years now, but have not been able to release/produce their album (which is already recorded). In fact, in 2008, they were chosen through a panel of judges, to represent the North Province for the music catagory of the Festival of Arts and Culture held in Maroua. At the Festival, the representatives of each of the 10 regions in Cameroon competed, and Wam Kara won best music group. From this, the ministry of culture was supposed to give them a cash prize as well as a trophy/award. On top of that, they should have helped them pay for releasing their album and set up a tour. But, none of those three things ever happened (for any of the groups in fact). So they are there, blocked from being able to be known in the rest of Cameroon and advance as a group.

As a fellow artist as well as a friend of members in the group, I hate to see them discouraged like this, and talking about the pointlessness of continuing, without any hope for the future. They feel that if they can just release their album, it will help get their name out there, help them get other gigs set up, and raise a bit of money through tours and the sale of the albums. So, I want to help them out. I will be mounting a fundraising project for the release of their album on the website Kickstarter.com. It is a website that helps raise money for artistic endeavors, combining patronage with commerce. People set up projects which can be donated to by anyone online. Usually, in exchange for a donation, there are gifts. First of all check out the website, because its a great site with some great projects! Second, check back here in the near future, or contact me directly, and I will send you the link for our project. It will only be posted for about 30 days. In that time, we will have to raise all of the $1,000 we are hoping for in pledges, or nothing will be given. So feel free to help out, even with a $1 donation! Its a great way to help support some great Cameroonian musicians as well as the Cameroonian music scene!

Update March 24th: the project was launched today on Kickstarter. Please go online to www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003034960/wam-karas-first-album-release in order to pledge donations! It will be up there for 40 days, and it's an all or nothing deal, so if we don't reach our goal we don't get any of the funds pledged. We have listed $1,000 as our goal, but we are really hoping for $1,800 in order to produce the CDs at a better quality. Our donations can go above and beyond our listed goal, so if we're over $1,000, don't hesitate to pledge. Even a $1 a person helps move us forward! We are counting on your support!

Augusto Kara playing Calabash percussion

The Moloru, a traditional 3 string lute

Gonging out Ceremony

2011-03-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, Grover and I had our "gonging out" ceremony. This is somewhat of a Peace Corps Cameroon tradition, where people who are COSing, right before leaving, have a little ceremony with the Country Director, Program Director and any other staff or volunteers who are around. The gonging calls everyone together and highlights certain moments. During this time the Program Director shares with everyone a little about the volunteers work, and anyone shares any memories or comments about the volunteer, a bit of a hot seat situation. We also have a chance to speak as volunteers. Then certificates are handed out and the Peace Corps Cameroon pin (which we are all encouraged to wear to any job interviews). While usually there are 4 or 5 volunteers, it was only Grover and me COSing this week, which was nice. We came in together, both as agroforestry volunteers, and both of us extended 3 months. We went through the process of our medical clearance and other administration paperwork and interviews together. He flew out last night.

David Tiamadjo and "the gong"

Country Director Lahoma Romocki

Getting language level certificates

Country Director Lahoma Romocki, Agroforestry Program Director Tiki Theophile Manga, and Program and Training Officer Kim Ahanda

Agroforestry Ho'yay

(stop talking to donkeys)

What I am looking forward to, coming home

2011-02-25T04:17:00.000-08:00

As I posted recently on what I will miss in Cameroon, I wanted to also post some of the things I am most looking forward to in the states in the next few months and year.

Of course first and foremost, I am so excited about spending time with my family, and after that, my friends. I will be home in Charlottesville for the whole summer until the fall, and I am looking so forward to living with my sister, and hanging out with my parents and just being with them. I do hope to be able to take a few road trips and visit some friends who are a little farther away from Charlottesville, perhaps to NY. And I am looking so forward to just being able to call up friends to chat for a few minutes.

Over the past year I have read some books and become very interested in permaculture. Permaculture is the combination of ideas of sustainable agriculture/livestock raising and design principles, so that one can design systems which are energy efficient and ecologically balanced. These systems may be on a home scale (i.e. architecture) or a farm scale, or even neighborhood or community/city. The fact that it combines art aspects with ecology and agriculture means it marries two of the major interests in my life. And so I am very excited about this idea. There are 2 week certification courses in Permaculture, given throughout the country. I am looking for one in the VA/NC area, and am looking forward to getting certification in permaculture, perhaps opening opportunities in permaculture consulting down the road. (check out the book Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison if you're interested!)

I have applied to four graduate schools in the area of Natural Resources and Forestry for starting in the fall. I am waiting to hear back from their admissions departments, and am looking forward to starting work on a Masters. I hope that I might be able to take my experiences in Cameroon and translate them into research work, and perhaps return to Cameroon in the area of research a few years down the road.

I have really missed art while I have been in Cameroon, and that is one of the reasons I spent so much time at the Alliance Franco-Camerounaise. Still, I am so excited to be in Charlottesville, for First Fridays, for concerts, just for the art that is available. There is a new arts initiative, which some members of our church, Trinity Presbyterian are involved with, along with other artists in the community. It is called New City Arts Initiative and is made up of artists (and perhaps art lovers) in the community who are active in many mediums and genres, and who get together for converstaions, discussions, projects, art shows. I am very excited to get involved with this initiative! I had the chance to do some painting here in Cameroon and am going home with 13 oil paintings, as well as a few watercolors. I do hope to be able to show them at some point, maybe as a homecoming or Cameroonian themed party, especially in the hopes of educating Americans about Cameroon and Cameroonian culture and people.
Finally, I am hoping to help some musician friends in Cameroon release their first album. I may try to do some fundraising parties, or try to sell some Cameroonian themed paintings in order to help them raise the money for the release. Look for more news down the road on this initiative! Im happy to have the possibility of staying connected with my friends and the culture in Cameroon as well share my experience in Cameroon through a project like this. Please ask me for more information if you are interested!

Leaving Garoua

2011-02-25T03:57:00.000-08:00

Well, today I'm heading out of Garoua, for the last time, for now. I'm taking all my stuff to Mafa Kilda, where I will spend the night and say goodbye to all my friends there. Then in the morning I'll catch the bus to Ngoundere on the side of the road. I'll spend the night in Ngoundere as well, to take the train to Yaounde Sunday night. It's hard to believe! It's also hard to believe that I'm feeling very calm. This is an answer to prayers! I've been making the rounds saying goodbyes to people, and most everyone I've gotten to see. IAnd, thankfully, my things are packed up pretty nicely, with a few overflow items. I just went to the Alliance and said goodbye to some resident artists, picking up a few more last minute gifts and chatting with friends. It seemed like I could be back next week. As I cross the bridge over the Benoue, one more time, heading south out of Garoua, I'll say goodbye to the hippos, whose backs are well visible out of the dry season water level. The last time I crossed it, I counted 12 or 13!

I actually haven't written much lately at all, on the blog or in my personal journal even. Probably because my emotions have been so rollercoaster, so much has been going on in my head, that I haven't even attempted to try to write about it. Maybe I'll regret it later, but I think it has allowed me to be a little less frazeled and get on with the packing and trip. A few things I have noted, mentally: looking forward to the future, and what comes next has helped me not dwell on the past and present and things I will be leaving behind. Having a feeling that I will be back to visit in the not to far future has helped it be easier to leave this time...although this could be an illusion, as I may find the road back here to be much longer or more difficult than I am imagining right now. And finally, the extra three months here, allowing me to finish up a few projects, and moving from the village to Garoua, helped in leaps and bounds. I don't feel rushed leaving, I don't feel like there are loose ends I'm leaving behind. Everything seems completed, and I feel as ready as I could feel I think. What's important is that even if there were things I would like to hold onto, the lifestyle in village, my friends here, my work here, I know that I wouldn't want to continue on in this manner (as a Peace Corps volunteer). I can't stay a volunteer forever, nor would I want to, though it has opened up wonderful doors of opportunity, skills, and relationships. I have finished being a Peace Corps volunteer. It feels completed, full, and a great experince, and also something I don't want to prolong. Thus, knowing that, that I am finished with this life in the context of a Peace Corps volunteer, I am happy to move forward to what comes next, what will open up the doors for the future, perhaps landing me back here down the road, in the same lifestyle and work and endeavors, but a different context, of studies or NGO work, or something else entireley different. Thinking about this has also helped it be easier to move forward, be ready to go home, looking to the future, and not wanting to hold onto the present. Perhaps other volunteers, or workers abroad have felt similarly. So it is I am having one more night in my village, hopefully not the last visit in my life!

Going away party

2011-02-20T04:29:00.001-08:00

Wednesday I had going away party at the Alliance Franco-Camerounaise. I invited all my closest or most important friends from Mafa Kilda, Israel, Garoua, Ngong, and Langui. I think there were about 45 people who ended up coming, with only a couple of absenses! While, of course, the woman who I asked to cook, arrived over an hour late with the food, and I felt like it was kind of a bomb, I think everyone else really enjoyed it, and it did mean a lot to me to get to see everyone and give everyone a good meal, to thank them for their friendship and work over the past few years. The menu: rice and tasbah, plantains and some cabbage carrot salad (supposed to be legumes sautes), and follere juice. I had my paintings up as well, which was nice to get to show them for a week there. We took tons of photos after the meal, all identical me with each person, a bit repetative, but hey. Here's a few.

My homestay brother Abdu and homestay mom Aisatou

My homestay dad Ibrahima

Therese from WWF and her friend (and their gift of peanuts)

Hapsatou, Daly's wife

Peace Corps staff: Bubakary, Aboubakary, Amadou Toukour, and Issa Maman

I love this photo! Nguizaye Rebecca with Ndel Na Rachel

The whole family from Mafa Kilda, with Kelly and Me

things i will miss....

2011-02-15T05:17:00.001-08:00

fresh avacados...for 30 cents---fresh food generally, not as much packaged things--the market ambiance---having a free lifestyle---being able to take care of animals, and have them accompany me everywhere---areas without urban sprawl---the neighborhood---singing and listening to tales with the children---having a job where i feel like i really make a difference---having a job and promoting work that i truly believe in and am passionate about---hamham---mangos and guavas---my outside latrine---shelling peanut times---braiding hair times---times with mbororos---speaking fulfulde---sewing, reading---time to watch ants---my field---a home without electricity---hearing the kids next door singing church songs in the evenings---sleeping outside 9 months out of the year---my house and gardens and kitchen---the endless potential for projects and learning---getting water at the pump---the pretty cows---having such a low energy lifestyle---knowing so many people in town

Maurice Kirya comes to Garoua

2011-02-11T05:14:00.000-08:00

Maurice Kirya, winner of the 2010 RFI prix decouvert, came to Garoua on his West Africa tour. From Uganda, he was one of 10 finalist across Africa in this music competition. As the winner, RFI (radio france international) set up a West African tour, where he is hitting up about 14 countries in 28 days. Tiring! I felt lucky that Garoua ended up being one of the cities, along with Yaounde and Douala. His concert was amazing, the best live music I've heard in 2.5 years, and I have a terrible quality video, taken from my phone, of a smidgen of one of his songs, and I'm debating whether or not upload it, because it's pretty bad. Sadly, this being Garoua and the center of non-appreciation of art, the concert was one of the least attended I have been to there, and for the most accomplished artist I have seen there! It made me very sad for him, and I hoped he wasn't too discouraged. But definitely check him out. He is an incredibly talented musician. He's actually coming to the states again (he just did a tour in Dallas, DC, Philly and NY) but I'm not sure where yet. Check him out at www.reverbnation.com/mauricekirya.

ok. i'll try the video, but if its awful quality, don't watch it! just buy his cd.

"Only the mountains do not run into each other again..."

2011-02-09T08:17:00.000-08:00

I can't say how many times I have heard this phrase in the past month. And I had never heard it before! But now everyone is saying it. "Seulement les montagnes ne se croisent pas." Meaning that in life, people may see each other again, because we are not fixed in the ground like the mountains. Saying goodbye hasn't been as hard as I had imagined. I think this is due to the fact that I have done it in stages, moving out of my house, and then out of the village, and then finally leaving Garoua. Having mourned leaving at each stage, I find at the end, I've already separated a bit, I've already shed my tears, it was just more drawn out, so it seems there is less at the very end.
But then in other ways, it is hard. The other thing I've been hearing is "Min woowi bee ma." "We've gotten used to you, and now you're leaving already! Nous sommes habitue avec toi." This is something in our environment that we are accustomed to, and like, and now it is changing. Sometimes I've had to laugh as even some people in the neighborhood in Garoua, where I moved for 2 months, have said that, though they've hardly seen me. I guess they've gotten used to seeing me sitting on the corner waiting for a moto taxi. And they'll miss that sight. But for people in village, it is hard and it does make sense. Especially the neighbors, who have also gotten used to me being there. There is an aspect of Peace Corps that I am not too fond of, and started realizing it in the first year. I often thought about how hard it would be for me to say goodbye to a community I had grown to love, to friends I had made and shared my life with. But I think I didn't realize the extent to which it is reciprocated. I might have thought that I would leave, and be very sad, but that the rest of the people here, would continue on, not being too affected. But in the first year, one of my good friends a tailor who knew lots of volunteers, and who passed away in November, said something about that. The words are simple and not so profound, but maybe it was the way he said it that struck a cord and has always stuck with me. He said "Eventually you will go; you're here for a while, and we become friends, but then you'll go back home again. We're used to it by now; we're used to our friends leaving and new ones coming and we are still here." And that made me very sad, that they are used to volunteers or students coming and going, but noone stays. Americans often are used to traveling and used to moving. And while its true that many Cameroonians also are very transient, moving somewhere for a year and then coming back, or going to visit relatives for 4 months, other Cameroonians are not, and stay in the same place for all their lives, with very little travel, even to the next villlages. Very little change in their routine. I'm reminded of how when I had been in Mafa Kilda for 6 months, and suddenly noticed a change in people's behavior towards me (becoming more open and more friendly) many people started saying, "Oh, you're staying here forever now." They had been used to students who came for 1 or 3 months, and when I passed that point, thought I was here to stay. And so I understand the idea that "We have gotten used to you being here. We don't want you to leave." It is hard to have the routine change, and maybe harder than for Americans who are more used to these changes. Ramani, recently has said that he has worked with lots of foreigners, and now he doesn't want to any more. Because it hurts too much to grow close and then have them leave. It's too difficult. That he said this, and two times no less, is striking, because it is slightly uncommon sharing that level of honesty on interior feelings for Foulbe Ladde.
And what do I feel when I hear this? On some levels I feel guilty. But stronger than that, I feel like I want to be different. I don't want to be just another volunteer who comes and goes and is never heard from again, or else who calls occasionally or visits once, but that's it. I want to keep in contact, call on the phone, write letters to those who have a PO Box, come back for a visit. Thats the least I can do, and its more than most people end up doing. But still, when people are saying these things, I want to stay. Or come back in a more permanant or long term facon. I want to be different. I want to be there for them. I want to hold in esteem the relationships that we forged and give honor to them, by continuation. I'm not ok with just packing up and being another volunteer who has come and gone, especially with the people have opened their hearts to them.
I do have certain dreams that I have fostered over the past year. Dreams of building a house in the mountains between Mafa Kilda and Israel; dreams of starting an agroforestry/permaculture demonstration farm, and art center. Ideas of all the things I could do and work on if I came back in a more permanant fashion, at least part time. (the house and farm are already designed down to the last detail...that's how long I've been thinking about it!) Dreams of seeing all my neighbor kids grow up, being at their weddings, growing old with some of my friends there. But such an endeavor is so difficult, is necessarily long term, and necessarily divides me from my life in the States as well. I've thought about the possibilities of splitting time between the countries, six months here, six months there, but in farm work, that's not optimum, nor even perhaps allowable. And I'm not ready to choose one over the other. So that's where I am: wanting to still spend time in Cameroon, not wanting to abandon the relationships I have, yet not being able to move there permanantly, for the desire of being in my own country with my US friends and family as well. As volunteers, or missionaries, or anyone who does longterm service in another country, we become somewhat schizophrenic. Are we Cameroonian or American? While still American, and still holding most American perspectives, there are parts of me that have become Cameroonian I think. It's ways of doing things, ways of living, and even changes in ways of thinking. The funny thing is I'm still American looking on the outside, but the inside is a bit mixed, both in a way. I can contain both within me. But when it comes to where we can live, it's not so easy. We can't live in two places at once. Who knows. Maybe God will open up a way or a path to come back. And if that is the case, I will feel a peace about it and feel ready to go. But it still hurts leaving my friends here behind, those who have opened up their hearts to me, who have gotten used to me, and now see me packing up like others as well.
Part of the other reason it has been not as hard for me to say goodbye, is the feeling that I will be back. I will certainly be back to visit, I hope in the next 2-3 years, but perhaps for longer. Of course, this is a feeling, and it may be that it doesn't materialize. And if not, then maybe my mourning will come, farther down the road. In many ways I feel like the departure has not hit me and that perhaps when I get to the States, it will hit me and I will be more sad there. We shall see.

Celebration at Langui Refugee Camp

2011-01-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we held the ceremony for the distribution of certificates for the refugees at Langui who participated in the Trees for the Future class. Our ceremony was combined with another certificate ceremony for a group of 15 young refugees who completed an 18 month training in technical work in Pitoa. The ceremony was planned by the Red Cross, UNHCR, and myself. Everyone showed up in their nicest clothes and so proud and happy and excited, and it was beautiful to see. There were only a few people not present, and many were accompanied by their families. Each refugee who took the exam received an attestation of participation. Those who scored high enough on the exam received a certificate from Trees for the Future. We took so many photos! My mouth was sore afterwards from smiling. At the end of the ceremony, the surprised me with a presentation of two beautiful gifts: a carved and burned calabash with the emblam of their group for tree planting, and a carved wooden statue (I believe of me), a woman holding a baby tree. I was very moved.

Christmas celebration

2010-12-29T03:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-29T03:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-20T06:07:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-12T05:48:00.001-08:00

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.

agroforestry library completion

2010-10-29T09:18:00.001-07:00

Some of you may remember the project to renovate a room to house different resources for agriculture and agroforestry? With funding from the Commune of Garoua 3, the project is now complete. There are posters, books, and pamphlets housed here, as well other group project materials (i.e. a beehive, while waiting to be placed outside). We have been using the area outside to hold courses on beekeeeping, and it will be a good spot for any future classes. The room can also serve as a sort of "office" for the peace corps volunteer to hold "office hours" if anyone wants to meet and talk about farming or questions.

this seasons colors

2010-10-29T05:53:00.001-07:00

The crops are all reaching the end of their lifespans, corn stalks turning brown, golden heads on rice, yellow soy and peanut leaves, millet stalks golden with red tops. Yet the rains have not quite stopped yet, (although we might have gotten the last drizzle last week), so the grass, and general vegetation is still green here. This makes for a beautiful contrast and palette of bright greens and dark greens and golden yellows, and sorghum red. What a lovely time of year. Soon though, with the end of all the rains, the grass and trees and other plants will catch up with the crops, all turning yellow and brown, except for a few trees and watered things. I prefer it right now, and have been appreciating the variety of color.

All my peanuts have been harvested, and this year, the rain was pretty poor, so everyone's peanut harvests are bad. Soy is also ready to harvest, so I might be doing some of that in the next week.

birthday hike

2010-10-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely birthday today. A few volunteers spent the night at my post the night before, and the morning we met up with two Cameroonian friends, Cheik Abdul and Alpha Barry, to hike a mountain. It is a mountain I have seen for the past two years and wanted to hike, and finally this year said, I will climb it on my birthday. It was Cheik's first time climbing a mountain! We set out at around 8 am I think, and probably got to the top around 10 or 10:30. The view from the top was beautiful, views of Garoua, the mountains of Adoumri/Bibemi, Lagdo, the Benoue from Lagdo to Garoua. You could see all the tiny villages, including mine, along the road from Sanguere Paul to Mafa Kilda. The colors were stunning, even though it was slightly hazy. A flock of European beeeaters circled the top as soon as we got up there. I brought my watercolors and Alpha brought his garaya and at the top we ate bananas, painted, played/listened to music and looked and looked. At the top there is a little crest, which was completely covered in grass, which had turned golden. So that when you walked over that ridge, all you saw was golden waist high grass, a few scraggly trees, and blue sky everywhere. Very surreal. I wanted to build a little hut up there to spend the night in. Finally, as the sun broke the cloud cover and started to heat things up, we headed back down. Slipping and sliding down the steep slopes. We also got a sighting of two monkeys from a distance, in the fields.

The afternoon, we sat in my courtyard, and Alpha played and lured in children with his songs, so that my mat was overflowing with people. After, we visited my local market, sampled some bilbil, and then headed into Garoua for dinner at a restuarant and dancing. It was a perfect day.

Thursday September 30th

2010-09-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

September is ending! We are moving into October! That is so hard to believe. I just got back from teaching my last agroforestry class at the refugee camp. We finished up the lessons and did a review of some of the material, and I was really impressed by some of the things they retained from early on. I was really impressed in general actually. In the middle of October, the students, all 70 or so of them, will take the Trees for the Future exam, and then probably in December we will celebrate with a party and handing out of certificates. Part of me is very happy that this class is finishing up. I have been teaching it since March, roughly weekly, and it is a long way out there. It will be nice not to have that responsibility now, and the need to prepare and go out there every week. At the same time, that class has been one of the highlights of my work here, and I will miss seeing and interacting with the students so often. I'll have to just go visit the camp from time to time and hang out.

I am moving into a transition time. Our replacements are already in country, doing there training outside Yaounde. I think they are in week three and will be assigned posts at the end of week four. They will come up for site visit at the end of October. So I am trying to wrap things up and focus on the transition. Now that the refugee camp class teaching is over, I will just be teaching my beekeeping class weekly, working on protecting the trees in my demonstration field, and writing up reports and my postbook for my replacement. I think I need to start tackling the getting rid of stuff aspect of moving out as well, to make the actual moving out when it comes time, a lot easier. It is tempting to keep working a lot, but I think what will be better is focusing on closing up, and taking the time to do it well, as well as enjoying my last moments here.

I had originally asked for a three month extension overlapping with my replacement for those three months, continuing a few projects and teaching classes as they moved in, learned language, adjusted to the area and culture, and could jump into work. I think the overlap could be very valuable in terms of ease of transition and sustainablility of projects. I was granted 1.5 months of extension in my village, after which I will spend the last 1.5 months in Garoua doing more office/research/site visit type work for the program, and then COSing (close of service) the first week of March. I am excited about all of these things...about having a little bit more time in village, about getting to meet and know and work with my replacement, about having a bit of time in Garoua at the end.

And the most exciting thing on the horizon is a visit from my parents in the month of November! I am so excited about it, and showing them everything. I am excited about them seeing my village before I leave it, as well as getting to visit some of the fun spots in the country.

a few more photos on the world map day

2010-09-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

World Map Finished

2010-09-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the world map I have been working on at the Primary School for the past 10 months or so. Again, this project is the World Map Project created by a former Peace Corps Volunteer. A book has instructions on how to complete it, as well as a grid and then possible lessons or activities you can do with it afterwards. It is a fantastic project. While most maps are color coded according to countries, I decided to do mine geographically, as I always loved looking at the geographical features, of deserts, mountains, jungle areas. Perhaps it would be easier for students to grasp if each country were a different color, or perhaps it will be good as it is, showing the geographical/ecological similarities between different parts of the world. Maybe my replacement volunteer will want to do another one and do it according to countries. Below are some photos. School will pick up again in the next few weeks, as students slowly trickle back in according to how much field work there is. Parents right now are trying to find money for application as well as tuition fees. There is a new technical school that just opened in the neighboring village and some people are excited to send their children there, although the cost just to apply is a bit high.

This photo is for scale, so you can see how big it is.

Here's the group of kids who happened to be congregating around the school while I finished. My favorite is the fat baby.

Flowers at my house

2010-08-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

Suddenly, all the "disappeared" rain we didn't get in July and August came in the last week. Lots and lots of rain, so that I came home to walls and houses collapsed! My latrine actually is also starting to collapse, as the ground on the side of it is washing away and gave way under my foot last night. Not something I'm thrilled about and hope we'll be able to fix it. But there is a lot of growth in vegetation (including weeds in the fields). Everything seems to be blooming at my house, as it has been the past few months, so I wanted to take some photos of the individual flowers.

FLOWERS FOR FLOWERS

FLOWERS FOR FOOD

Melon

Squash

Tomato

Okra

A little news

2010-08-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Yaounde yesterday afternoon, and am preparing for a month full of activities before heading down there again to help with training the incoming volunteers, those who will replace us. So I will be checking out and counting tree plantations, teaching some courses, working on my demonstration field. At the refugee camp, we are nearing the end of our agroforestry class, which has spanned 6 months so far. Maybe a month to go, and then they will take their exams. I have really loved teaching this class, it has been a highlight of my work here. I've been going through looking at absences in order to determine when people will take their tests, and I'm surprised how many people have had no absences, or only 1 or 2. It is many more than I was expected, and is a great thing, really makes me feel good, although it makes assigning test dates more difficult than I had expected! I am also working on editing the Technical Manual which will be used by the incoming trainees. Our whole steering committee as well as many other volunteers have been working on it, submitting articles, editting, etc. It is a big task because this year will be the first year where the two programs (Sahel, Humid Highlands) will be combined. Training will be in one place, and volunteers will be sent all over the country. Up until now, each year flip flopped, sending agro volunteers to the North and Extreme North, and then to the other regions. So it has been a challenge putting information together from all over the country, as you know by now that Cameroon is an incredibly varied country in terms of climate, ecology, and thus agriculture. In addition, this year we will be having a group nearly double the size of ours. With the new Peace Corps push in America, Cameroon is a "target country" (because of its long, stable program) and is doubling its numbers of volunteers. Daunting to say the least, and I'm glad I'm not in administration right now! However, I look forward to going down and spending time with the new volunteers, helping out where possible, even if it means time away from post. I am still waiting to hear the result of my three month extension request, and will likely find out in the next week. If I get it, I will be coming home in February, and if not, then earlier than I had planned! Probably in December.

Mefou National Reserve

2010-08-27T09:42:00.002-07:00

there's primates up there in the tall trees!

walking the paths between enclosures

gorillas

our group before the tour

In Yaounde

2010-08-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

I am in Yaounde, just arrived on the train this morning, for Agroforestry Steering Committee meeting and then the Close of Service Conference. I can't believe it is already that time of our service! I am looking forward to seeing everyone in my group, for the first time, maybe since March 2009?

Thankfully, it rained the day before I left post. It had drizzled on and off for the past month, but we actually hadn't gotten a real farming rain for over a month and a half, July 8th being the last one. So that was very bad, especially for the middle of rainy season, and people were watching corn and peanuts and millet start to dry up in the fields. But it did finally rain, and average rain, and so hopefully saving most of the crops. I hope it rains a lot in my village while I'm down here, for crops and for trees planted.

Birding

2010-08-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm reading the book "To see every bird on earth," and really loving it. It's a biography of the author's father, who is one of the big "listers," a birder who lists all the species he has seen in what becomes more than a competitive hobby, and who particularly has reached over 7000 species (there are about 400 in the US). I love reading this and thinking of all the memories of birdwatching with my dad, who loves birdwatching. I remember Christmas bird counts, and the hawk watch at the top of Afton mountain, other bird club meetings, and so many times driving in the car with dad pointing out birds from the window; my first bird field guides (to go along with reptile and insect and fish field guides). Basically if you take all the good aspects of this book, and the man's life, and remove all the bad parts (i.e. the obsessiveness of the listing, emotional distance between father and son) that is the memories I have with my dad and birds. One thing that I want to be sure we do, if he can come visit while I'm here in Cameroon, is go on a bird watching walk/hike through the mountain valleys together.

At the beginning of my service, my parents sent me one field guide to Birds of Central and Western Africa (*), and my coworkers from the Outer Banks Wildlife Education Center sent me Birds of Western Africa (Nik Borrow and Ron Demey--great illustrations) so I have been well equipped in identifying some of the species I see around my village and trips. Occasionally I write down the species I have seen, when I'm able to identify them. Sometimes, when I dream about building a house somewhere here in the country, having an agroforestry demonstration farm, I think about offering on the side birdwatching tours, training a few Cameroonians as guides, and boosting tourist/birding opportunities. It would be a good program--if Cameroon were more tourist friendly.

For the fellow birdwatchers (a term less intense than "birders", right? I can't say I'm a birder.) here is my Cameroonian list. It's of course very small, as there are so many birds I have seen but have been unable to identify, not having my field guide nearby, or forgetting about it afterwards. Still, some of these birds are pretty amazing, and definitely different from what I have at home in VA and NC.

Senegal Coucal--Centropus senegalensis

Abyssinian Roller--Coracias abyssinicas (my favorite)

Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu--Uraeginthus bengalus

Stone Partridge--Ptilopachus petrosus
Abyssinian Ground Hornbill--Bucorvus abyssinicus
?African pied hornbill? (another hornbill species)
Pied Crow--Corvus albus
?Spur winged Goose--Plectropterus gambensis
Red billed Hornbill--Tockus erythrorhynchus
Long-taled Glossy Starling--Lamprotornis caudatus
Red-collared widowbird--Euplectes ardens
PinTailed whydah--Vidua macroura
?(some type of malimbe)--Malimbus
Cliff chat--myrmecocichla cinnamomeiventris
Senegal Parrot--Poicephalus sengalus
African Paradise Flycatcher--Terpsiphone viridis
Common bullbull-Pycnonotus barbatus
Laughing Dove--Streptopelia capicola
Black headed Weaver--Ploceus melanocephalus
some type of bee-eater, although what i saw seemed dark teal, with nothing corresponding in my field guide

Many other birds I see regularly but haven't identified down to genus, such as warblers, brilliant kingfishers, herons and many raptors. It's the striking birds that I see when walking in the country and then can remember later when I look through the field guide.

As the book is inspiring, I'm traveling more with my field guide and binoculars, and hope to take some walks in the mountains with it, so hopefully the list will grow.No intention of listing birds obsessively, however, while I'm in Cameroon, I shouldn't miss this opportunity to see some I may never see again!

I just picked up another book "The Big Year" also about competitive birdwatching in the Ngoundere Peace Corps house, so I think I'll read that one after, and continue the birding inspiration!

small resolutions--hope for the future: community forest update

2010-08-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

Two months after the trees of the community forest were cut down in my village, after multiple meetings between the two groups, two parties from the two villages, an agreement was made and an accord was finally signed by everyone involved. I can say that everyone who signed the paper was very happy. And that is something. After the event, the pepinieriste of my village had issued a complaint against the two owners of the field who he believed cut down the trees. Everyone in the two parties was visited and interviewed by police and agents from the ministry of water and forests. And through it, I encouraged both sides to have a meeting together, instead of jumping immediately to the higher authorities, to try to find a mutual solution together. Slowly and surely it happened. After a few meetings, the old proprietor of the field agreed to give back the land for the community forest, in the agreement that the pepinieriste drop his legal claim about the cutting down of the trees. All of this was done with the local leaders. And both sides were happy to say that with this accord, the issue of the field, years old, be finished once and for all.

It could be that things will dissolve again; it could be that when I leave things will change; it could be that leaders or members of groups will do backhanded things again. Though these things would sadden me, I think I am weathered enough to not be surprised. However, for the moment, I am holding hope, that this resolution will not only be a local solution for a land problem, allowing the village of Mafa Kilda to have their community forest and the old field owner to keep farming the field next to it, but also to serve as an example of the possibilities of conflict resolution on a local level. That they might look to this as an example that they can come to a mutual solution together without always having to go to higher authorities, without always avoiding each other. That they need to communicate more between each other, swallow pride, along with a tradition of dislike and disrespect. Perhaps it can play that role. Perhaps. As for now, the community forest group will replant some trees when it rains again, they will go withdraw their legal claim, and the farmer will have the adjacent field that the Sousprefet gave him. If it lasts like this, I am very grateful for such a solution.

Health Center Moringa Paintings

2010-08-06T12:06:00.001-07:00

Here are some wall paintings I did as part of Moringa education for the women at my local health center. Months back I gave presentations on the benefits of it, along with one of the local doctors Samual, during the prenatal counseling and infant vaccination days. Now, I painted the various parts of the presenation on the walls so that the women can see the pictures and connect it to the presentation. The actual painting took about 6-7 sessions. I would go on the prenatal counseling day and so the women would be gathered while I worked on it. That gave another audience and I could explain what exactly I was working on, and do the lesson again. My favorite part was that often I would explain it to one or two women and continue on, and then I could hear them teaching the other women as they came up. Also, the doctor who I worked with originally, would come around and give the lesson while the women were gathered. Visual aids are so powerful, and an incredible tool here, incredibly loved by everyone!

Apologies for lack of contact!

2010-08-06T05:07:00.000-07:00

I look at my blog posts and realize I had only one for the month of July! I also havent sent out an update letter since April. That is not good! At my defense, the internet has been very out of whack in Garoua the past few months, and often when I come into town it is not working. It seems to have been fixed today (at least I hope so, as the repairmen were working on it) so hopefully more information will be coming your way.
I have been really enjoying the past month. This season here, full on "rainy" season (although we haven't had a real heavy rain for about a month) is so beautiful. Everything is green, the fields are gorgeous with the different crops. The sky is often so blue with white puffy clouds, or else grey and overcast, which I love just as much. While there are some very strong sunny days, the temperatures generally are lower (70s, 80s) and I relish the cool mornings and evenings. This must be the most beautiful time of year here. I'm trying to take a lot of photos, and uploading them on my photobucket site, so you can see all the sights of this time of year!

Bunnies

2010-07-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

I just bought a pair of rabbits! I got them at the Catholic Mission in Garoua, where they raise and sell rabbits. After running loose in my concession for about a week (and eating so many of my plants!) they are now housed in the old goat shed. Im hoping that they will have some babies, so that I can give the babies away in pairs (as long as their not all males or females) to people in village, teaching them rabbit raising basics. It seems to me that if they do well, rabbit could be a good household meat alternative to chickens, especially as chickens run loose here and easily acquire sicknesses (yearly a disease sweeps through the village and kills that majority) or are stolen. If rabbits can be housed in a small but clean area, and produce, there is less risk of theft, and spreading of disease. And I am just enjoying how cute they are!

Israel Fete

2010-06-27T07:47:00.001-07:00

The Mbororo Fete in the village of Israel to celebrate their tree nursery happened on June 29th, planned a few weeks after my return to Cameroon, so that if anything went wrong when I was gone I would have enough time to get back and maybe get things organized! As it was, nothing went wrong. No animals got into the pepiniere and ate all the plants (thanks for your prayers). The nursery men didn't abandon the work. And the village was ready for the celebration. There were a few disappointments in the area of attendance, but that's only to be expected in these things. We had invited 8 different organizations or government officials and only 3 of them came, one of whome missed the first part of the ceremony. However, Amadou Toukour, the Peace Corps Garoua staff person was one of those three, along with the agro-extension agent of an environmental project in the area and the representative for the Mayor. So I feel good they at least were there. Jessie, a nearby fellow agroforestry volunteer came as well and I was grateful for that. The ceremony started in the nursery where the chief, the invitees, and other members of the community all had a chance to talk: about the importance of trees and planting trees, aboutt he tree nursery they had created, and about their village needs. Then, unplanned, I asked the two nurserymen to perhaps show each species of tree the produced. And that ended up being the best part (in my opinion). Without pausing, Ramani and Salah seriously and perhaps proudly went tree to tree, picking up an example, telling its name and explaining its uses and importance. This was such a great tool for teaching their fellow villagers who are not familiar with many of the trees, and at the same time gave them ownership and allowed them to show their "expertise." They took it so seriously; and I was so proud. I felt like a mother. After that, the whole group went back to the village to the mosque where we planted four trees around the mosque. Milk was brought out and shared together. Now, since the ceremony, they are planting their trees in and around their village. I am again proud...that they are taking the initiative of planting their trees without me there.

walking around looking at the trees before the ceremony

Men and Jessie starting to gather and sit on the mats in the nursery

Amadou Toukour, one of our biggest supports and help, and me

Salah and Ramani explaining a Cassia siamea (?) tree

Jawro Issa Adamou preparing a hole for a Neem tree, at the Mosque, with Ramani, and Dama Ndjida from Sodecoton's Project ESA looking on and explaining good technique

Ramani planting a Neem tree

Jawro Issa watering for planting a Cassia tree

drinking milk at the mosque

A very few wedding photos from my cousin Taylor's wedding

2010-06-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Heres a few photos from the wedding. It turns out I only took maybe 8? Crazy. I'm just relying on my sisters and moms photos....I still have a messed up camera that chooses not to work when it wakes up tired in the morning sometimes.

The boys....what more to be said?

Granddad and Me

Uncle George, Aunt Ginny, Jessie, Taylor, Tony, Granny, and Granddad

Jessie and Tony being very serious, waiting for photos to finish up. Jessie looks like she's about to crack up any moment.

Frustration that emerges as different faces--Community Forest Destruction

2010-06-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Maybe some of you remember the Community forest project that I wrote about early on in my service. Maybe you could go back and read the posting again. So the frustration this time came in the form of the events with our Community Forest in Mafa Kilda, and it came to announce itself Sunday evening at my house, when the bureau of the community forest came over to my house. They sat down on my mat outside and began to tell me how, a few days before I got back, the Sousprefet came to the village and gave away the field where we had been planting trees since last year, to another farmer. Now this story has a background, for sure, complicated, but not too much. The field we chose last year was on school property, property that was chosen in 2005 by all the area officials, property that was infertile land farmed by nobody. The whole school property is very large, and only a part of it has the primary school built on it, but the villagers wanted to delimit the territory around it in expectation of growth and new schools being built and using the land later on, namely a technical shool and nursery school. Around 2007/2008 with the aggressions against Mbororo en brousse, a population of Mbororo came to settle in Mafa Kilda and their cows started sleeping on the school property land at nights. As they left their manure there, the field started to regain its fertility and last year and the year before, the old owner of the field (a Laka man from Sanguere Ngal, the neighboring village who owned the field before it was taken as school property) started farming it again, especially the area that had been set apart for a community forest. Last year, therefore we had some major problems with land tenure, as the community forest group planted 216 trees, given by WWF, and the farmer complained they had disturbed his corn. All of this debate finally ended at the office of the sousprefet, a regional authority. There, last year, in the sousprefets office, in front of the farmer and Sanguere Ngal chief, the school director, the president of the Community forest, and the Mafa Kilda chief, the sousprefet said : A field is for one person only; a school and trees are for a community. This land in dispute should be for the community forest. From this day forward, in addition, I don't want anyone else farming in it. It should be left solely for the trees. You should protect these trees and put out a guardian. If anyone starts to farm it next year, Laka or Mafa, come immediately to my office and tell me." We were so happy that now the community forest had protection, could continue and had it's place in the village. Over the dry season, we rearranged the committee members, planned for this year, and while I was gone, the villagers dug holes and planted 100 new trees to start to replace the 120 that died during the dry season (yes low success rate, but 86 trees from last year remained, and the group was much better organized this year in planting earlier). Because it was such a low success rate 86 out of 216, WWF would not donate trees this year for the project, and rightly so. However, the group decided it was important enough, that they would pay for these trees this year themselves, in order to keep going and see the dream of their forest realized. So they dug, they planted, all while I was gone, all on their own, really making me proud and demonstrating ownership of the project. About a week before I came back, they noticed that the Laka man plowed the field, in plowing it killing a good amount of the new seedlings. So the chief went to the sousprefet's office as directed and told him about it. The sousprefet called in the Sanguere Ngal chief and farmer party, as well as Mafa Kilda chief. But instead of all of them sitting down and talking about it, as is necessary resolving any dispute, to come to a general solution, he said simply that he would come to the field on Thursday in two days. Thursday came, he showed up at Sanguere Ngal, picked up the men there, bypassed the Mafa Kilda chief and townspeople and drove straight to the field. As villagers saw the sousprefet's car go by they figured they'd better go see what this was about, and got there in time for the sousprefet to ask the farmer "where are the limits to your field?" The farmer showed him. And he said to the farmer "Ok, all of that then is for you," giving away over half the school property. People obviously became upset, and started asking "Well what of our forest that you said we should protect? What of you saying it should no longer be farmed? Why do you go back on your word?" At this the sousprefet went to his car, telling the chief, "Well you'll just have to come to my office to work that out another day." The problem is that this, instead of resolving disputes, causes a continuation and often escalation of disputes, as people feel their voice was not heard nor were they involved in the final solution.
The day after the sousprefet gave the land away, Friday, someone came and cut down and pulled up about 120 of the total 186 trees in the field. (They finished up the job Tuesday destroying all but perhaps 10 trees.) The Laka people say it was Mafa. The Mafa say it was Laka people. An "eyewitness" says different things to each side.
So the men told me about this Sunday night, and I went to the field to see, called the sousprefet, to talk about this problem, and find out why things happened the way they did. I asked if he'd be in his office on Monday and he said yes, and we went to speak with him. We must have talked about 1 hour, maybe more, or maybe it just felt like more because I was so frustrated. And it was an incredibly frustrating conversation, the type where you state clearly your problems with something, or ideas, but the other party will just not listen at all. I had two main questions. 1) what exactly was it that made you change your decision from last year, and all the things you said, to just giving the field away 2) why did you not go about this by sitting down with both groups and working it out, as is generally done, hearing both sides, saying ok, this could work like this, we'll give part of this field to this person, but leave the community forest in place. His answer to number 1: "Well, things change." That was really it. And I kept thinking, well change them again then. See that you did wrong and right it. But he said "Well I can't go back on the decision I've made." I said, "Well you did this year on last year's decision." And he said, "Well I can't do that every time." Another reason he gave for giving away the field: For peace. Really, for peace. I told him that I also work for peace here, and work with people of many different ethnicities, groups that don't get along with each other. And the way that he went about making this decision is the type of action that works contrary to peace. You work for peace between groups by sitting down and talking about things and coming up with a solution together (something that may not be possible in Gaza Strip and West Bank, but is certainly possible here in our situation). But just arbitrarily making a decision like that, without talking it through only breeds animosity and feelings of injustice. I got the impression that his idea of "creating peace" is by giving one side a concession and then going back and giving the other side a concession so that noone gets too mad, and everyone is always a little mollified. He said its him afterall who makes the final say so why would he have to consult both sides. Some of the things he said during our meeting floored me. "Well I find it strange, frankly to want to plant trees in a village. Outside the village, in the country yes, but in the village, that's just not normal." As I responded to that listing the benefits of having a small woodlot in the village and not miles away, such as not having animals destroy all the trees, as in water access, and easier access to the trees to take care of them, as in tired volunteer villagers who have been in the field all day and then go to give their time to dig holes and plant and water and take care of trees not having to walk another hour to their woodlot, his response to me was "Well that's just a question of desire. If the people really have the desire for this, they can just find land out far away and do it there. If that's too much of a problem it's evident they don't have enough will to do it." That made me so sad, because if ever you find a group who has shown will and desire, which is very difficult to find, here they are. Here they are having given time and energy and money and sweat last season and this to make this happen. Here they are in the face of land disputes last year, perservering because they want this woodlot. Yes, you need will and desire. But you also need to work within the confines of reality. You don't say "Oh well, if they really had the desire and will for a woodlot, they could just do it on the moon." This type of interchange went on, and towards the end I stopped speaking at all, and just listened, realizing that there's no way to talk, or influence, or reason with. Anyway, I think most of what he said was just words, not necessarily his actual convictions or reasons. But I will say this, I was incredibly proud of the other 6 villagers, becuase each of them spoke up and had something thoughtful and firm to say. No matter how much the sousprefet tried to intimidate, by shouting, by writing in other papers while they were talking, by turning on the radio in the middle of the meeting, they were even and spoke their word, which is really something in this culture of god-like authorities who treat general people like dirt. It also goes to show how strongly these men feel injusticed and how much they want to fight for their woodlot.
So here I am, not knowing what to do philosophically. Because honestly, after the meeting with him, I went away from it truly thinking, "If that is the case, I cannot in my right mind, encourage people to plant trees. I really can't. There is no point to plant trees, because even when it's on your land, even when problems are resolved, even when the authorities are behind it, tomorrow, they will just go give it away. And the fact is, not all authorities are like this. Peace Corps has a strong policy, and for very good reasons, not to get involved with politics, and I will stand by that. But at the same time, its hard to stand by and watch things like this happen. I think the best course of action is to encourage and act as a witness, and stand by those who are trod upon. And I will continue to seek peace and resolution, even between ethnicities that have a culture of disliking each other. One of the important things is to encourage that disputes be settled locally first, with all parties present and able to share their points of view. There needs to be better communication between groups. I am lucky that I have other successful work going on though, because if this were my major project...it'd be very difficult (and still is) to watch 1 1/2 years worth of work be thrown out the window.

Back in the north

2010-06-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well I've now been back at post over a week, and things are right back as normal, as before I left, except with so much more green, and beautiful rain every few days. It has been wonderful seeing people in village, but the past week has been pretty busy trying to catch up with things, and deal with some issues I found out about coming back, which I'll detail in the next post.
This time of year is really lovely, and I wish all of you could be here to see it. Its full on farming season, and half of my demonstration field was plowed yesterday with cows so that I can plant soy, if I can find someone else to do it with me!, this next week. I will also be replacing the trees in the demo field that died at the end of the dry season, and I'm excited about that.

We're getting ready now for a celebration on Tuesday for the tree nursery that my Foulbe Ladde started this year, and I'm a little nervous about it. I'm less nervous about it getting back now, and visiting it and seeing that it is fine (so far), but for the past month I've had nightmares that a goat or cow would get in and ruin all the trees right before all the officials come. And its still not too late for that to happen! I would love your prayers about this event for certain things in particular:
1) that the officials we invited would come; we invited maybe 10 different people, mayors, government people, ngos such as WWF and APESS (livestock), and most people were interested but that doesnt mean that they will actually show up. I'm praying that they will show up because that will give such an honor to the village, and the men who have worked so hard for this
2) that the village will prepare well enough for the celebration! It's up to them to buy sodas for the officials, and they say the women will prepare milk and dakare *(a sort of cooked grain meal, that is crumbly, that you put into yoghurt. It's really good and the two together become more a full meal), and rice. That they will have enough mats out and chairs for people to sit down. I worry about all the officials coming will show up and feel like there's not enough for them, that they're not well enough taken care of.
3) that the other foulbe ladde chiefs and family members from neighboring villages would come as well and see the nursery, because I really believe it's by spreading the work themselves, that we can have a big affect on tree planting in this region
4) that everyone will enjoy themselves, have fun, that the officials will really appreciate what the nursery men and village have done, and that this year, this event will be a stepping stone forward to a bigger pepiniere next year, alternative income, support from officials in other areas (wells for the village, education), and the integration of tree planting as an activity for this culture
5) that I also will enjoy myself, not be too worried about things, and not be too worried about if I have to speak in front of people in Fulfulde

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers in this direction and I will certainly post photos and descriptions of the event afterwards!

Food

2010-06-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

So one of the most frequent questions I got from Volunteers in Cameroon as well as people at home was : What food are you going to eat? What will be your first meal? So I figured I'd record everything I ate during my two weeks at home. I recorded through the first week, and the second week will be up to my feeble memory!

Ok Here it is. A list of my meals for my time home!

Friday Night

Got home in the evening, people were tired, so yes, first meal was Pizza, eating out in Charlottesville.

Saturday
french toast for breakfast

brocolli and chedder and swiss cheese quiche made by my sister for dinner--delicious!

Sunday

lunch at Peace Hill after church, so that means big potluck; i had some great baked beans, pasta, salad, banana creme pie, chocolate covered strawberries

On the way down to the beach

dinner at Nags Head Pier--seafood (yes fried) shrimp, trout, hushpuppies

Monday

Breakfast--Dunkin Donuts...and leftover seafood

Lunch--Cosmos veggie pizza in Corolla

Dinner--Veggie sub with eggplant, tomato, pesto, feta and provolone cheese, toasted, at Tomato Patch in Corolla

Tuesday
Breakfast--leftover sub
Lunch--Pauls Deli in Williamsburg, driving back home to C'ville, 3 cheese melt with pickles (I miss pickles!) and Root Beer
Also earlier, a peanut butter milkshake from Sonic
Dniner-- Early 80th birthday dinner for my granddad in C'ville; lobster, corn bisque and garden salad with raspberry vinaigrette--so-so. German chocolate cake at home

Wednesday
Breakfast--Cereal
Lunch--Thai food with Claire: Pad Pak Jae--Tofu, veggies, mushrooms, sprouts, peanut sauce. mmmm
Dinner--grill out with grandfather and Uncle from New York, fresh corn, leftover Thai food, rest of the family had chicken?

Thursday
breakfast--
lunch--my grandfather and uncle came down from New York, my uncle made us poached eggs (my favorite) and toast for my grandfather, himself and me, while we were home alone
dinner--it was Golden Corral for dinner, yes indeedy (my grandfather's favorite).

Friday
breakfast--
lunch-- Inn at Court Square with Mary Seay, chilled curried sweet potato soup and salad with chevre cheese, absolutely delicious
dinner--rehersal dinner for wedding; my aunt ginny's homemade lasagne, salad, strawberry cheesecake

Saturday
breakfast--pancakes at the greenes
lunch--some sandwhich at church, getting ready for the wedding
dinner--wedding reception food

Sunday
breakfast--
lunch/dinner--variety cookout food at family friend's high school graduation party (mac and cheese, veggies, fruit, pie, cookies)
at night--hot fudge chocolate sauce over ice cream

Monday
breakfast--
lunch--packed sandwhiches for picnic at Ivy Creek Natural Area
dinner--mexican food
post-dinner--party at my sisters house, more food, chocolate eclaire cake, watermelon, strawberries and whipped cream

Tuesday
breakfast--
lunch--date with my mom and Libby Hedstrom at the Batesville Country Store; falafal sandwich with hummus and good ice cream with toppings afterwards.
dinner--quiche again (this time mom's one, spinach? I can't remember)

Wednesday
breakfast--
lunch--date with Mom to harrisonburg, Tea House, delicious salad, cheese scone and Lavender, Mint White Tea
More ice cream at Batesville Country Store on the way back home
dinner--

I also ate tons of Cherries, Strawberries, and cheese, which I miss more than anything! The only thing we didn't get to was the buffet at the Indian restaurant, but there just weren't enough meals!!! Still, with all that eating, I don't think I gained my goal of 10 pounds! Sad. If only I'd have two more weeks of non-stop eating.

a look at my visit home

2010-06-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well I'm getting ready to go to bed the day before I leave to go back to Cameroon, so I thought I'd share some of my highlights of my visit home for two weeks. It certainly was a packed and scheduled time!

Sunday morning: stop in at Peace Hill, my church through college, for the service and potluck lunch afterwards. So great to see everyone, as well as get the garden tour from Jessie!

Sunday-Tuesday: Continue on down to the Outer Banks, visit to Corolla for the day, seeing old coworkers, (lifeguards and Wildlife Center) as well as old friends was wonderful! And we were blessed with such wonderful weather!

Tuesday night: early 80th birthday party for my grandfather, with our extended family (i.e. aunt, uncle, cousins)

Wednesday:

Wednesday-Friday: my grandfather and Uncle drove down from New York to visit. And of course excellent highlight of Golden Corral (or the Golden Trough. My Grandpa's choice!)

Thursday visit to Downtown mall with my Uncle

night: pick-up soccer with Claire's friends!

Friday afternoon: Lunch with Mary Seay, at the Inn at Court Square, hang out with claire, help her pick up some of her kids from school in the big bus to take them to their afterschool program; drive to Richmond for rehersal dinner for my cousins wedding. Really special coming home with them, spending the night at my aunt and uncle's house with my three cousins, talking with Jessie before falling asleep.

Saturday: morning, getting up, family time, getting ready for the wedding alltogether. Time for pictures, meeting people at the church, thoughts about weddings and marriage. Great time after the wedding, with the young folks, talking for a little bit longer

Sunday: morning: drive back to Charlottesville, and to Trinity Pres. for church with Claire.

Afternoon: high school graduation party for family friend, in Staunton.

Evening: three of my best friends from college come to visit, spend the night, talk/cry through the night. (of course!) It was soooo nice to get to see them, and be together. So incredibly spiritually refreshing and I feel so blessed for their visits.

Monday: Morning: walk in Ivy Creek Natural area with friends and visit to Splintered light bookstore at UVa Center for Christian Study. Drive to Orange where I met up with my dad at his work, to drive back with him, through beautiful Orange and Albemarle Counties at the end of the day.

Evening--party thrown by my sister at her house, so I could meet all of her awesome friends, and see a few of my friends from high school. Again, Jeff, Matt, Katelyn and Claire and I, laughing until the wee hours of the night, really did my soul good. I don't remember when I laughed like that in the past few years!

Tuesday: visit with some of the neighbors; lunch date with my mother and her friend at the Batesville country store! More visiting with neighbors after.

Watching Bad Hair with Katelyn at night!

Wednesday: date with mom going to Harrisonburg, for lunch at the tea house and visit to the quilt museum, then last minute shopping for gifts. Thankfully, all home for the evening.

very restful? no. tiring? yes. I probably would have opted for a little less activity, however I feel blessed to have been able to see so many people, see such beautiful scenery and have such great weather. And eat good food! A very good visit. Everything about it was wonderful.

2010-05-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

Leaving for the airport to fly home in 1 hour!!! Excited and nervous!

Another face of grief--The death of Gazawa Andree

2010-05-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

The old chief of our village, and the father of my best friend in village, and my old counterpart, died on Saturday evening. He was hit by a car, crossing the road, coming home from the field.
It was about 6:30, not dark, and I was doing work on my porch, getting ready for my trip home for two weeks. I heard women, near the center of town and it sounded like they were singing. I assumed it was a van full of church women, going to a conference or celebration, as often they sing songs as they pass in their car. But the location of the noise didn't move, and continued. I looked up to the road and saw people running a few at a time towards the carrefour. Surely an accident, and by the sounds of the women who I now realized were crying, it must be a very bad one, children? many people? I locked up the house quickly, threw on a pagne over my shorts, and walked hurriedly up the path through my neighborhood, joined by other villagers along the way. As we neared the carrefour, the keening increased, and a woman coming from down the road, from the sight of the accident announced "It's Andree, Gazawa." By the time I reached the main road, the highway that splits the village, 200 people were out and on either side of the road. There was a very nice new white compact car parked on the road, the driver having left the site for the moment, possibly hiding somewhere. From the point where he had hit Andree, he had been thrown over 50 yards. People didn't know what to do, and rightly so. Such a bad accident, no ambulances, no 911. They tried to hail some of the passing vans and cars, to take him to the hospital in Garoua, but no one would stop, as they were all full. And even if he had been transported, such an accident for such an older man, it seems to me there is little that cold be done. After about 20 minutes he was pronounced dead. By this point it was dark, and I searched all over for my best friend Rebecca, one of his daughters, but all the women were crying shadows, and every time I recognized some clothing of hers it was on a different body type. I finally found her back home, and spent the night with her an other women, in their courtyard, sitting in silence through the darkness, as she cried silently.

I was really angry. It was one of the big Angry moments of my time here. Because the cars race through the village at obscene speeds. To me, it is one of the pinnacles of selfishness, how these drivers (both private and those driving "taxis") will go through these settled areas at 50, 60, 70 miles an hour, just to get there a little faster, with no regard to the villagers who live there. They are willing to kill animals and People just to go at a high speed. There are numberless amounts of goats, sheep, dogs, donkeys killed in the village each year by cars passing, which is a major blow to household economics, and there is always the fear of children as well, crossing the road each morning and afternoon, going to school. As such, in January the village listed as one of their top three priorities for village development the installation of a couple of speed bumps. But here, now a 74 year old man, crossing the road, obviously slowly, not darting out in front of the car as children might, is hit by a car who would not slow nor veer and thrown 50 meters? That is insane. And to me absolutely unpardonable. I was so angry at this driver, at his selfishness and carelessness, I wanted to sit on his car and wait for him to come back out of hiding, and get in his car and say "we are driving to the Mayors and Sousprefets right now." Not that that would have been possible. But it was my sentiments. As it was, he stayed hidden for a while, and I returned home to be with my friend.

Andree had not been chief for about 3 or 4 years, perhaps, and he was around 74, certainly aging. He often came and visited me from time to time, to talk about his dreams (renovating a building to improve the village, and preparing to plant soy this season) and also to make sure that every thing was ok with me, in his village. in many ways, though old and no longer chief in name, he still played the role for many people, settling disputes, active in village meetings and affairs, always showing up to check on different neighborhoods and activities. . His natural death would have most likely arrived in the next few years, and for him to have fallen sick and died, while sad, would not have been surprising. But the manner of his death, how sudden, how brutal,how "unnatural", is what made this so tragic. And so shocking to the system.

I called the Mayor of the area, hoping to inform him of the death, and also bring up the conversation of speed bumps along the village, as its something that I have gone to talk to him about in the past, but which seems like a difficult thing to obtain, because the decision is at the level of the national department of transportation, and as he told me when I asked about it in January, "Cameroon does not want to slow down circulation between Ngoundere and Garoua." He did not answer the phone the times I tried to call before leaving town, so maybe when I return I can meet with him again, concerning this much needed installation in town.

Schools here....

2010-05-07T10:52:00.001-07:00

I said earlier that I would write a bit about schools here, or at least village schools like the one in my village. My village, being a small village, only has an elementary school and that has only been in existence about 3 years. It has 6 classrooms, two of which are in a cement building, and the other four are made of wood posts and grass woven mats covering the walls and the ceiling. There are 3 state-paid teachers, including the director of the school, and these three do not live in our village, but live in Ngong. The other three teachers are "Benevoles" a term also used in health centers for those that "volunteer." Their salary is technically supposed to come from the village parents group, but more often then not they pay late or not at all, as they have trouble raising funds.

Not all school age children attend school. Though it is a public school, there is a school fee, and there are other fees for exam years, to pay for taking the exam that will allow you to advance to the next grade level. There are no school uniforms in my village, although in bigger cities, and high schools there are. Because of these costs many families are not able to send all or some of their children to school. Boys are preferred and so in some cases when given the choice, they will be the ones sent to school if money is running out and a family has to make a choice. But, I believe those times are changing a bit, and more families are more equal about that. The times that I have taught the oldest class at the elementary school the numbers of boys and girls has been equal. I would say (though based off of ideas rather than hard evidence) that only 15% or less of village children continue on to middle school after elementary school. Perhaps this is because of money. Perhaps this is because it is a 99% farming community, and there is little need of higher education. Or perhaps it is because the quality of education they receive is so poor that they are not able to pass the tests in order to move on. All three play a role.

The "middle school" is located in the neighboring village Sanguere Ngal. After that, is high school, and high schools are only located in bigger cities. There is one in Ngong, and in Sanguere Paul, and perhaps in Djalingo as well. If children go on to high school, depending on the distance, they may walk or ride a bike for a long time to get there. Many others end up residing in the high school town, with families, or renting out rooms with lots of other high school students.

As farming season gets under way, and the rain falls, less and less children go to school as they are helping their families with the preparing and planting fields. The same thing in the fall. School officially starts at one date, but really it starts after that, as the majority of kids will still be helping with harvests and will trickle back to school a good bit later.

Children are generally very well behaved and very happy and excited to be at school, unlike our state-side sentiments. They have the utmost respect for their teachers, due to strong discipline. However, it is generally very difficult to get them to participate in lessons, as that is not the Cameroonian model of education. Being based on memorisation there is little emphasis on creative thinking, and very little individualism. In general even through high school, students are trained not to think for themselves or be creative, but just to generate the correct answeres, whether they understand them or not. This could follow a general societal trend through much of the continent of the larger society being more important than the individual, and people who rather be part of a group rather than stand out. If I am teaching a lesson and ask a question, there is not a flurry of hands raised in excitement for the chance to answer. If I call on students they are terrified of saying something incorrect, no matter how many times I say "There are no wrong answers." or "what do you think?" "What ideas do you have?" For those used to teaching in an American setting this can be very frustrating. However I still think it is valuable and prefer to plow on in this method rather than revert to writing on the board and chanting facts.

What are some of the major challenges of the school system, and in particular my elementary school? First there is the lack of buildings...and teachers. The grass mats shade a bit from the sun, but not of course the rain. They have to be replace year after year as they decompose. Lack of materials is another thing. There are no books for the children, only notebooks the purchase and copy lessons down in. There is a lack of visual aids, no posters, no stimulating colors and pictures on the walls. 90% of teaching is oral, and rote memorisation, the teacher reads lessons or writes sentences on the board and the children copy them down in their notebooks. This is why I had wanted to make those posters for my geography/ecology class, taking continent by continent and have pictures of people, landscape and animals for each region. I was able to do two classes (Africa and North/Central America) before school ended for the year, and they were a big hit! But one of the biggest challenges, and my personal frustration is the lack of school days. It seems like there is really only school held maybe 60-75% of school days. First of all there are many many holidays. Then whenever there are teacher meetings, with the director or other teachers in another town, there is no school. (there are no teacher meetings after school, its always during school hours). And on top of that there are so many times where the teachers just don't show up. And the children come to school! For example, I had a class I was going to teach a few weeks ago, and in the morning it rained. It rained hard for about 2 hours but then it turned into a drizzle. As it turned to drizzle, the students and I made our way to the school. And waited. And waited. The teachers never came. Because it was raining, slightly. No school. And the last time I went to school as well, to teach, a beautiful day, the teachers never came. So I taught, then shuffled the kids back outside for them to wait for their teachers, and locked the door. And so many times this happens, the kids go to school and wait and wait, and then return home, their teachers never coming. It kills me, because I think of how much better off they'd be, how much more advanced, how much more equipped to pass their tests if they actually got to attend class the number of days they're supposed to! The kids are being gypped.

Imagine, with all of these challenges, the frustrations that many Peace Corps education volunteers feel during their service. There are exceptiong, but I believe that education volunteers as a whole have a lower satisfaction rate of their service, and feel less content, useful and happy during their time, than other programs in Cameroon. And I think they might have the highest ET (early termination=leaving early) rate, although I don't know the numbers.

My week in Highlights and Pictures

2010-05-07T10:03:00.001-07:00

Here's my schedule and some photos from the past week!

Saturday--Fete de Travail, and one of the days I have done the most "work"

6 am Morning meeting at my house with the committee members of the "community woodlot" planted at the school last year: planning which species to replace, how many, choosing a date to start digging holes, all logistics.

two pastors stop by, have tea, and ask if i can speak later in the day to a group of women having a conference on development, on the importance of women in development, environmentally

My best friend in village, Rebecca goes to the hospital and has her 7th baby, I run after her, but after the 12 minute walk, by the time I get there, she's already delivered, a baby girl. Sad, really sad I missed it! Amazed she didn't have it on the road.

After staying with her an hour, and outlining my talk, run back to the church and speak to the 60 women there, a delightful hour.

Rush back home to get ready to go to Garoua, to visit a site for one of the Embassy self help funded projects (a schoolroom for an Mbororo school) with two representatives of the Embassy and the host NGO CELDIE who submitted the project. This little trip was really fun, especially to see "my terrain" through the eyes of two Embassy workers who live in Yaounde, one of whom had never been north.

Return back to village at dusk.

Sunday--

Hanging out at the house, cleaning house

working in my pepiniere, filling pots, preparing and planting seeds

Mbororo girls come over to "accept their papaya trees" that I told them to come by and get

Monday
Market day in Ngong
ordered tanned hides, to sew into a costume
met up with my Mbororo pepinieriestes and chief, to choose a day for the big nursery celebration

Tuesday
morning 6 am (aka 7:30 am) meeting to choose committee for apiculture group that is hoping to get started in Mafa Kilda

can't remember what i did in the afternoon...which probably means hanging out at the house, preparing classes, working on my pepiniere

Wednesday
sunrise walk between the mountains to visit Israel, look at their pepiniere: it's doing remarkably well! enjoyed the scenery of the morning, and this stage of landscape life, on the brink between dry season and wet season, tottering into greenness

dry river bed with "Dr Seuss" trees around it; they look like that because the cow herders climb them and cut them for forage for their cows at the bottom.

A young Mbororo boy, cutting a Shea Butter tree for his cows.

Visit with the family of one of the nursery men in Israel, who had a baby when my sister visited in February (baby Adamou with older sisters Raihanna and Hawa)

Thursday
Rain, beautiful rain, for 4 hours, until 10:30!

(here come the rain clouds approx 6:15)

(the newly formed lake in my concession, approx. 8:30 am)

Went to the school to try to teach the first geography/ecology course to the elementary school kids, but the teachers didn't come because of the rain (more on that later!)

Went to the health center, and started painting for a mural that shows women in various stages of planting harvesting and using moringa, to show the benefit of the plant. Don't have photos of that yet, but will soon!

1 hour personal landscape painting session at Bokle on the way to Garoua

Friday

morning out to Langui refugee camp: taught Trees for the Future Agroforestry class on Live Fencing today (last week was windbreaks and next week is alley cropping). Checked up on the refugee tree nursery which looks great. They will start outplanting the 4000 moringa plants (4 at each household) this week.

(a few nursery workers and Jean Paul Yaoule (head nursery man) in front of their rows of moringa plants at Langui refugee camp)

Refugee camp today...

2010-05-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

men waiting for the class to start, a Trees for the Future basic agroforestry class I teach once a week

the whole class, usually about 50-60 people, meeting in the church in the camp

Jean Paul Youale, a local Cameroonian who helps me teach the course and is working on the nursery

Youale, Onne Kissandou and Damon Ouangkreo, three nursery workers, in front of the Moringa beds

Onne on the other side of the pepiniere. The approaching water (this from one morning's rain) worries me...

I was really impressed with this little boys clay creations of cars and a moto!

PS Happy Birthday to my cousin Jessie!

from "What are people for?", Damage, by Wendell Berry

2010-04-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

It used to be that I could think of art as a refuge from such troubles. From the imperfections of life, one could take refge in the perfections of art. One could read a good poem--or better, write one.

Art was what was truly permanent, therefore what truly mattered. The rest was "but a spume that plays/Upon a ghostly paradigm of things."

I am no longer able to think that way. That is because I now live in my subject. My subject is my place in the world, and I live in my place.

There is a sense in which I no longer "go to work." If I live in my place, which is my subject, then I am "at" my work evfen when I am not working. It is "my" work because I cannot escape it.

If I live in my sbject, then writing about it cannot "free" me of it or "get it out of my system." When I am finished writing, I can only return to what I have been writing about.

While I have been writing abot it, time will have changed it. Over longer stretches of time, I will change it. Ultimately, it will be changed by what I write, inasmuch as I, who change my subject, am changed by what I warite about.

If I have damaged my subject, then I have damaged my art. What aspired to be whole has met damage face to face, and has come away wounded. And so it loses interest both in the anesthetic and in the purely esthetic.

It accepts the clarification of pain, and concerns itself with healing. It cultivates the scar that is the course of time and nature, over damage: the landmark and mindmark that is the notation of a limit.

To lose the scar of knowledge is to renew the wound.

An art that heals and protects its subject is a geography of scars.

Agroforestry Resouce Center/Library

2010-04-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

One problem I have noticed doing the work I do in village, is that often there are many groups that pass through, NGOs, or developmental branches of government or corporations, each telling the same message about the importance of trees, etc. Often these organizations have many helpful documents, technical sheets, posters, literature, but they are in their various offices in other towns or cities. I also have many resources, posters I use for presentations, books and booklets I've picked up. So I proposed the construction of a tiny room central to the village, maybe 4 meters by 4 meters. The villagers were interested in this idea, and already had a spot--a building they had built with their Sodecoton GIC, but which has never been finished, nor is used for much other than some church group singing practices once a week, or a place to house big groups of people passing the night. It is three rooms, two small rooms and one big classroom, so we are taking the small outside room, renovating it by finishing it with ciment, doors, windows, and bookshelves, to exist as a small type library or place to put all these agro related documents. We've already been using the classroom for some classes, as it has a chalkboard, and is a better choice than the usual using the church, a habit which prevents the Muslims in the village from attending events. We wrote a proposal with budget and presented it to the Commune, and they agreed to fund it. The money was received last month, and "construction" should be finished shortly.
One might say, "well, the village is not very literate, and even those that do read don't read much--there's not a very academic culture." However it will also include photos, posters, and other resouces, as well as serving as a from time to time office for the Peace Corps Volunteer. It is nice to have a spot to go to once a week, where people in the community can come if they want to find you or have questions, and for that spot not to be your house. So to me, having these resources in one place, and being there to explain them, and other questions, seems like it might be as good as the meeting place under a tree in the market. We'll see how it works out. Maybe it won't work, but I think it is worth a shot.

the door on the left is the to-be-refurbished room; the one on the right is the classroom

Looking forward to Trip Home

2010-04-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward now to coming home in less than a month! It's so surreal. I'm coming home for two weeks to celebrate my cousin's wedding in June. I am looking forward to eating a lot of good food, seeing friends, being with family, maybe a short trip to the beach. I fully expect and hope to gain 10 pounds during this time. I should be flying in around the last weekend of May, until the 10th of June.

Article for the PCCameroon Agroforestry newsletter

2010-04-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

I wrote this article back in December or November, and it just came out in the recent edition. Thought I'd post it here.

Certainly, one of my favorite parts of this whole Peace Corps experience is working with Foulbe Ladde or Mbororo* villages near my post. I love Fulfulde. I love learning it, speaking it, listening to it. I love the musicality of it and the facility of it. And especially among the Foulbe Ladde
populations whose isolation has perhaps kept it more pure, or else led to a deeper language, grammar and vocabulary, difficult even for many Northerners to understand, and against
which I don’t stand a chance! I have to say that that fresh milk is pretty good too, and showing up for a meeting or a fete and getting served warm milk as a guest, having the opportunity to buy it in my village whenever I want is something I have always been grateful for and never
grown tired of. I’m sad that the dry season is already here and soon the milk will dry up, till the cows come back and the rains start again! Then there is something romantic about walking two
hours on a tiny sandy path between towering hills, only fields and mountains in sight, to reach the little Mborroro villages on the other side. Kind of the “typical day in the life of a PCV” image we might have dreamed about before arriving in country. And true I admit I am a sucker for that romanticism. That romanticism extends to the fact that in my region, they are the population the most isolated, the most withdrawn, and the most untouched by the so‐called
modern world, who have successfully held onto so many old traditions, and whose lives are the most different from my own upbringing and life in the West. And wow aren’t they beautiful! The color, the stares, the hair, the stature, the pride, the grace, the smiles.
But perhaps the top reason is linked to Agroforestry. Here is a population of people who have traditionally been nomadic, yet are starting to put down roots. The villages I work with have been settled in that place for about 15 years now. Others have been settled for 30 years. The village stays while the cows and shepherds move seasonally on the trail of fodder. In the past they have had little desire or incentive to plant trees, yet now as they transition into a more sedentary way of life, their desire for trees could be described as a thirst. They want to plant trees, yet many of them don’t know how. It is their pure enthusiasm and complete lack of knowledge that thrills me, and makes me feel like I have something to give. My villagers are incredible farmers. They understand growing things. They for the most part know how to plant trees. They have had group upon group upon group come in and tell them the importance of trees. Many of them do plant them. Others don’t. Yet if they did, they would know how and why to do it. Some of them know how to graft. And often a volunteer wonders “who am I to be instructing them on trees and farming techniques?” If I worked here for years, or studied some of these techniques in more depth through college, yes, but where I am, I am no expert. Yet the Foulbe Ladde that I was working with did not know the necessary size for fruit tree holes, nor the fact that you need to water mangos through the dry season. There is much that I actually am able to share with them. It doesn’t hurt as well that they are people with money. They were one of the few groups I worked with though WWF who had all the money up front when it came time to pay for the trees they had ordered. This season one village planted 600 trees in their village and a few of their fields, all fruit and spiny trees; fruit trees for obvious reasons and spiny trees as a haie vive around their village as a form of protection against aggressors, something they are very conscious of having had many of their children kidnapped last year. Now, we are talking about training two or three of them as pepinieristes, so that they may produce their own trees in the village, to supply all their needs as well as those who live in villages around them. It has one of my “big” dreams at post, and something that seems to be actually occurring, evolving slowly. This is good in itself. But here’s my question. Could this shift in cultural practice, from a nomadic lifestyle to a more place‐based, treeplanting culture have even deeper affects? My area, like many areas in Cameroon, has ethnic difficulties. The Mafa don’t like the Laka who don’t like the Foulbe Ladde who don’t like…..etc. And there is certainly frustration for all the farming community towards the pastoralists, especially this time of year. Tree‐planting will likely not help end agro‐pastoral conflict, as much as I dream it would. Even if the Foulbe Ladde do start a pepiniere and do start producing and planting many trees, there will always be those shepherds who let their cows into an unharvested field, to profit from the easy food and pounds for their cattle. Selfishness and stealing will always exist. But there is also a lot of complaining a b o u t “Mbororo bergers” who slash saplings left and right as they walk with their cows and who destroy people’s plantations of trees with their cattle. What if creating a “tree‐culture” among Foulbe Ladde, giving them more understanding of growing trees, of the importance of them and the length of time that can go into it, might go years down the road towards teaching more respect for trees in general and those they find en brousse? Could years from now we see a tree planting project linking farmers and pastoralists, planting trees along the “chemin de betail” for fodder for animals? Will the young Foulbe shepherd who works in his family’s pepiniere planting trees in his village stop cutting those he finds along the path of his pasturing? One could say that this is the eternal idealist in me speaking and that’s fine, I won’t argue. I agree it’s a f a rfetched concept. However it could be the vision of something, my dream of something that we can hope may arrive someday, that putting more trees in the ground just may lead to more peace.

*as I have gathered, the term “Mbororo” is somewhat derogatory. One Foulbe told me it literally is a word meaning “people without God” or Pagan. Non‐Foulbe Ladde populations often use it derisively as an ethnic slur, and while some Foulbe Ladde themselves use the term, often they don’t appreciate when others do, though their pride might prevent them from making that obvious, and they might make exceptions for the “foreigner working amongst them”. But, to be safe, it would give more respect to use the term “Foulbe Ladde” (“Foulbe of the Brousse”) than Mbororo.

travel through the Adamaoua

2010-04-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

My mother asked for more videos after I posted that one from the Harmattan, so I took some more during my car ride through the Adamaoua to get to Banyo on the way to helping out with IST. These are short, but might be enjoyable as little visions of the passing villlages and countryside from Ngoundere to Tibati.

Mafa Kilda is movin on up!

2010-04-08T13:07:00.001-07:00

Newsflash, newsflash, Mafa Kilda now has...(drumroll please)..cold drinks. Last week I eyed the "freezer" in one of the boutiques. "what is that?!!! What's in it? Are there drinks?!" Yes. 5 small cokes. Yes indeedy sir step right up for a cold drink that may be about the temperature of if you took it out of a refrigerator at home and sat it on the counter for about 10-20 minutes. Now I have gotten very used to drinking hot water. This time of year, that is what it is. Yest hot, not boiling, but like you cooked it on the stove or microwaved it for a bit. And the beauty is, I like it. The thing is when you're hot and parched water, any water, is wonderful, and I gulp it down appreciatively. But...now there is the possibilty of, every now and then, a cold drink--Coke. That's a dififcult thing to pass up. So tonight, I bought one. Clutching it like a baby in its little black plastic sac on the way home in the dark, I felt its coolness against my stomach and worried that its seconds there against my skin wouldn't take away too much of its chill. And the anticipation the way home was immense. I had already cooked at lunchtime. All I would have to do was warm up the lentils, sit on my porch, open the cold drink and enjoy the sweet and cool end to a long days work. So you can imagine my disapointment when I got to my kitchen and after looking around a bit realized I don't have a bottle opener! Nor do my neighbors as everyone just uses their teeth. Now I know if they do it anyway, I could have just asked them to open mine, but if I'm not willing to risk breaking my own teeth I can't justify asking them to. After tryign that option for a milisecond, I passed on it, not willing to trade a cracked tooth for a Coke, and went through my kitchen utensils, the wooden posts of the hangar off my porch, and other tricks all to no avail, counting the seconds going by and with that the coolness leaving. So I gave up deciding I'd take it back in the morning, get my money back, and buy a bottle opener in Garoua! Instead, I ate a fresh mango, which afterall is just as sweet, and while lacking the coolness factor, is certainly more healthy and 1/12th the price!
I say though, cold drinks! Mafa Kilda is moving on up in the world. Electricity in September, a pump (now broken for the second time) and Callbox (where I we can buy phone credit) in October, and now cold drins in March! It's as people say here, practically the city!

Trip south

2010-04-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night. I don't know what time it was cause my phone wasn't with me, but probably between 12 and 3 am. And I woke up because I was too hot to keep sleeping. My mouth was cottony. I drank some water, stumbled to the bathroom, went to the bathroom, poured water from a tea kettle all over me, and then stumbled back to bed. Only when sleeping in wet clothes, or with a wet sheet over you, is it bearable lately. I thought last year that March was hotter than April, but maybe I don't remember correctly, or maybe it changed this year. People are saying that it might start raining the end of this month even, with this heat. Anyway, all that is to say, that it certainly is bearable, but I am quite looking forward to my two week trip down south, coming up on Sunday. I will be traveling through the Adamawa, get to see another part of the country, stopping at my stagemate Anna's post in Banyo, west Adamawa just in time for her birthday. I'll continue on to Foumban in the West province for the training of the agros who have now been at post for 3 months. I'll be speaking about the Agroforestry Steering Committee, of which I am a part, and also sharing a "Best Practices" idea. I'm also looking forward to the field trip planned, excited to see agroforestry in another region, all while enjoying a part of the country whose rainy season has already started and who hopefully while have a nicer climate right now. They say the road from Ngoundere to Banyo (and then to Foumban) is hell, but I have to say after 13 trips on the train, I'm ready for a change, and willing to risk it (probably for the last time) with the car. It will be very good to see the other side of the Adamawa even if its terribly uncomfortable! After Foumban, maybe two days at the beach before heading to Yaounde for the Agroforestry Steering Committee meeting, before heading back home. It will be a very good break, which I feel I need, as the heat, plus being in village for a while seems to be wearing me down a little bit, or, rather my temper short! I'm finding in the past three weeks I have become very irritable, angry, frustrated with people, which is never a good thing, and a likely sign that maybe I need a little time away to recharch so that I can be nicer! And of course praying for more love to give to those around me instead of crabbiness! I'm looking forward to a little break!

Follow up on WWF plantings

2010-04-01T06:34:00.001-07:00

I am doing rounds now for the trees we planted with WWF. They have a form to fill out to monitor the trees, which is a good thing. You mark how many trees people received, how many were put in the ground, how many protected, what species, how many died, and reasons why. Monitoring is very importnat, to know esp who are those who are really devoted to taking care of their trees. Good success rates means more trees for the future. Bad success rates means perhaps they won't be recipiants of the trees in the future. Usually the biggest problem is that people haven't protected their trees from goats or watered them. I just returned from the Muslim Quartier and it is really disheartening. This year grasshoppers have been really bad. They swarm on the mango trees in large numbers and have eaten through all the leaves, and then start on the stems so all you have left is one branch sticking up. This is a big problem this year all over the region., apparently not usually like this, and it brings to mind stories of plagues in Egypt in the Bible. And walking house to house yesterday it was so frustrating becuase here are a bunch of families who probably never planted a tree before, who were doing something new and different, partly because of me, and hoping for the future. And most of them even protected them well from goats and watered them daily. Adn most were tall, to my shoulder height with lots of new branches and growth when I came by last month. But now all are just stems. And its so frustrating because its like, with the dryness, the heat, the bad soil, the termites that eat through roots, the goats that chomp every available tree down to the ground, the cattle that trample small trees, its really really hard to get things to grow here. And now you have to add on to that grasshoppers this year? What's the point when everything is against you? And the hopes of people dashed like that. Is it even possible at this point to say Öh well, lets try again this year from scratch." I don't think so.

The water in the well went down further, overnight even. Had to get down low for the bucket to reach, whereas last night it hit the water with me standing up. I hope it doesn't descend any more or I'll have to add yet another addition to my already 12 m long rope.

Harmattan Reprieve

2010-03-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday March 18th, the sky grew all white again, hazey so that you couldn't see the mountains clearly, as Harmattan dust rolled in. Strange, as usually this is in January, February, but one could say that weather here is all scrambled up this year, with the hot season arriving a month early and then we actually had a rainstorm Tuesday the 16th! The first time ever (at least in peoples memories) having rain in March in Garoua! Anyway the Harmattan came again Thursday, a storm somewhere in the Sahara kicking up dust, and this dust blowing with the wind and settling all over West/Central Africa. Even in the South of Cameroon, I think, they had fuzy skies. It's really something, covering everything slowly, over the course of a week with a coating of white dust, which makes my house look like it's been unlived in for a year. I'm waiting to clean it until it actually finishes, although it looks like its starting to lift. On the worst days I couldn't see the mountains right behind my house, or for that matter trees 500 meters away. Attached is a video of what it looks like, as well as my effort to demonstrate the amount of dust settling on all the plants, turning them all white! Everything grey, grey, grey. The beautiful thing is that we are granted a reprieve of the heat! The suns heat doesn't make its way through the dust either, so the temperatures for one week were much cooler, which was lovely, including 72 degree mornings!

the green leaves are those I wiped off the dust from. The others are those covered with dust!

View from behind my house in my latrine area

Hot Season

2010-03-15T06:43:00.000-07:00

the futility of candles in hot season

So all my chocolate was officially melted in my house. Every single bar, sent in love from many care packages, while contained in its wrapper, was liquid, and as I shifted them back and forth like a seesaw, the chocolate inside ran from one side to the other. So now I had a predicament. How to I get the chocolate to Garoua, where it could rest safely in the freezer, on a crowded taxi car where people and goats and chickens are all jostled in together elbow to elbow to hoof? Finally, I decided to take the risk, taking a car to Jessie's in Sanguere Paul, carrying the bag of chocolate bars carefully balanced so as not to disturb the equilibrium. We arrived there safely. And then from her place on to Garoua by moto, much less precarious, each time getting on and off, carrying the precious cargo in both hands! Delightfully I arrived at the office with no mishaps, all the bars still liquidly intact in their wrappers, and happily deposited in the freezer with a sweet note saying "Elizabeth's chocolate, do not eat!"

Good things about hot season

--Clothes drying in 30 minutes, washed dishes in 10

--Only having to pee every now and then

--Because you can't really do anything from 10-4pm it forces you to rest your body, lying around in your house most of the day. (hmm this one not working out too well lately...)

--Enjoying hot water to drink

--Not having to heat up water for baths

--The sweat on you then cooling you off when a breeze comes through. You almost feel cold!

this is the sweat that beaded up on my arm after I ate a warm meal at lunchtime. Also streaming down my face, a photo a took, and decided would be more prudent to leave off the blog for pride's sake!

Currently Reading....

2010-03-01T01:41:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm reading Mountains beyond Mountains, the story of Paul Farmer, doctor in Haiti and founder of PIH, Partners in Health. I've been wanting to read it for years, since it is one of my sister's favorite book, and she brought it to me when she came to visit. I remember that on of the YWAM leaders when I was in England and S. Africa said they tried to read a biography of a Christian missionary or spiritual leader every year (or maybe every six months), because it's inspirational and helps encourage you in the work your doing, get back to your roots and the larger picture as well. It's very good advice. I feel similarly reading books like these (last month I read Three Cups of Tea). While I think I would enjoy them and be inspired by them if I were reading them back home, it's all the more strong and meaningful (perhaps more alive) reading them here, doing what we're doing. It does help inspire and also encourage you to continue on in this work, work of development or "helping others", schools, health, environment. It's helpful to hear their stories, to learn about their struggles and mostly their triumphs and successes after years of work in places many people don't go, or wouldn't stick it out in. And it really is a good thing for me to be reading these books, egging me on to be a better person, to serve people here better, to aspire for more selflessness, more generosity, more drive, vision, and passion, especially comparing oneself (and one's mentality) to Paul Farmer or Greg Mortenson.

Proposal accepted

2010-02-27T02:53:00.000-08:00

Just got an email letting me know the tree nursery grant was accepted. This is great, and we will be starting up the big work on it this month (in the heat! :)) Trees for the Future is really a great resource, and anyone doing agroforestry extension work should look them up.

Tuesday February 2nd--clearing the Mbororo pepiniere

2010-02-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

In the morning, I went to Israel, the village behind the mountain to meet up with the Mbororo's there. We went to look at their pepiniere site and clean it up. Its a short 10-15 minute walk from the village, and I went with the chief, and two of the future nuserymen, armed with rakes and machetes. Trhough the next hour, we were joined by other men, a few younger guys, one older grandfather! and then three guys on motos who showed up to watch but didn't actually work. The chief took off his big gandora (which he donned again for the photo) and was right in there, chopping and sweating with the rest. When we got there, as I didn't have my machete, I kind of stood around and watched as the men chopped down thorny branches to put along the perimeter of the site to keep animals from entering. They raked up underbrush, cleared small shrubs, and left bigger trees for shade. We went over a detailed timeline of the work needed to be done in the pepiniere month by month, in which I drew pictures instead of writing words. I can't really explain how exciting it was to me, this morning, working on this site with the men. What I can compare it to is the same emotion, and excitement, of an empty house, or an empty garden, an open and empty or brushy space no different from all the brush around it, with the anticipation of turning it into something beautiful, something productive (not that wild spaces aren't productive for sure), but a type of Eden. I love having spaces and imagining what they can be turned into, either farms or houses or gardens, or rooms. And in the course of a few hours, this brushy thorny space was transformed into a beautiful little clearing. Next will be holes dug for a well (standing water is right nearby all year long) and compost pits. Then pots will be brought, soil mixed, seeds planted and it will be a nursery.

The water is seen right behind Jawro Issa (chief) and that will be the location of the well

Ramani (background) and Ahmadou Jawdi (foreground) two of the future nurseryment. The plant with the fruit is a wild Zizyphus micronata, non-edible but great for using in live fencing as branches grow very dense. The location is great and seeds can be gathered from it for producing others to fill in the dead fence (thorns) to make a live fence around the nursery.

I love this grandfather who joined right in in the raking!

Clearing the site

The whole group: Unknown man, Saleh (nurseryman), Ahmadou Jawdi, Grandfather, Jawro Issa, Ramani, Unknown man, Two younger guys

Funding proposal for Tree Nursery

2010-01-31T08:27:00.001-08:00

Here's an example of a project proposal for funding for the Mbororo Tree Nursery project I am working on, which may give you more of an idea of some of my work.

SMALL GRANT PROJECT PROPOSAL

Title of the Project: Establishment of a Tree Nursery in the Foulbe Ladde village of Jawro Issa Adamou

Area of Land: an eigth of an hectare

Location
Cameroon, North Province
20 km south of Garoua
Israel village, Jawro Issa Adamou
Climate: southern Sahel
Rainy season: June-mid October
Heavy rains: August/early September
Dry season: October-June
Hot season: (temps above 120 during the day) February-May/June
rainfall: 800mm/year
elevation: 1000 m

Implementers: Elizabeth A. Moore, Peace Corps Volunteer, Agroforestry
Abdul Rahman, Saleh, Jawro Issa Adamou, residents

Qualification and Profession: Peace Corps Volunteer

Executive Summary:
How many Trees will be Produced? At least 1000 trees (fruit trees, thorny trees, shade trees, and fodder trees) will be produced.

What species?
During a village meeting, the inhabitants listed the trees they were interested in, which were as follows:
Fruit:
Anacardium occidental
Mangifera indica
Psidium guajave
various citrus (oranges, lime)#
Thorny:
Acacia nilotica
Acacia polyacantha
Shade:
Azadirachta (neem)
Cassia siamea*
Albezia lebbeck*
Fodder:
Ficus#
Other:
Eucalpytus#
Moringa oliefera*

*These following trees were not listed, due to lack of knowledge, however I added them, and in discussion they were very happy to include these.

#These trees, while requested by the village, I either discouraged (eucalyptus) or declined for this year because of difficulty producing lack of seeds (although if we find seeds we may try an experiment)

Where will these trees be planted?
The vast majority will be planted in the village, around homes, surrounding the village and in nearby fields. However others will be sold to other villagers, and friends/family and taken back to different villages.

How many people will be affected? The immediate village is home to 300 inhabitants, men, women, and children. However there are many surrounding villagers who will come to buy trees, and benefit from the project, so that the total number of those affected positively by this project greatly exceeds 300.

What agroforestry techniques will you be using?
Live Fencing
Composting
Open root nursery

Future teaching techniques:
Grafting
Cuttings

Project Starting: March 2010

Grant Sought for: 54,500 fcfa/ $115.72

Background:
I am an agroforestry Peace Corps volunteer working in the North region of Cameroon in a small village about 20 km south of Garoua. Among the villages I work with is a village of Foulbe Ladde/Mbororo, semi-nomadic pastoralists who have settled in the area in the past 20 years. While they are pastoralists, rather than agriculturalists, and have little past experience with tree planting, they have been very interested in planting trees during my work with them this past year. Last year, they ordered and planted around 500 trees, all fruit trees for their houses and fields or thorny trees to plant around the village as a live fence. However, their village is a bit isolated, a long drive on a very bad unpaved road around a mountain. I suggested briefly the possibility of them creating their own nursery for this year, and they latched onto that idea. Since then, they have chosen a site for the nursery, chosen three men who will learn the trade and work on it, and we are doing some nursery trainings right now, in the hopes of starting tree production on a small scale this season. What is notable to me is their true desire, almost thirst, for trees. We will probably be looking to produce first thorny trees for haie vives, fodder trees for their cows and sheep, and some of the more simple fruit trees.

Importance
The work with the Foulbe Ladde, to me, is one of the more exciting areas of my work because it is introducing tree planting (and raising) to a group of people with no previous experience. What is particularly thrilling is the possibility of creating a tree planting culture among a people group who historically have not planted trees, nor grown many crops, because of the constant moving from place to place. Many of the surrounding villages of agriculturalists have been visited by researchers, NGOs, and agriculture groups and most know the importance of trees and some general agroforestry principles. However the Foulbe Ladde are the most removed population, keeping to themselves, communicating solely in Fulfulde, with little school enrollment. They have worked with some NGOs, however not as extensively as other villages.
In addition, the isolation both location-wise and socially means that most of them have never been to village nurseries. In surrounding communities of agriculturalists, those that want trees would easily go to a local nursery to buy them, and know the location of the nursery. However most Foulbe Ladde would not necessarily have a connection with nurseries. The nearest nurseries are 50 minutes away by car, a transport option which is not available to 99% of the villagers, who travel predominantly by motorbike or foot. Though they have little background planting trees, they cut trees (mostly big branches, but sometimes whole trees) through the dry season in order to feed their cows as they pasture. Women of course also cook solely with wood, and look for that wood en brousse, cutting branches. The opportunity to work with them on establishing tree lots for fodder trees for their livestock, and also to participate in general tree planting as replacing those trees cut for fodder is important.
Currently, there is much interest among the Foulbe Ladde in the surrounding area, and the news is spreading from the mouths of the Foulbe I work with of the establishment of their nursery. Already others are coming to that village to ask about trees, about buying them, and also about establishing their own nurseries. As it is a very isolated and reserved population, the Foulbe Ladde are the best people to pass on knowledge and information, to encourage others amongst the region’s Foulbe to plant trees as well. I see the reach of one nursery extending a large distance through the passing of knowledge and encouragement.

Sustainability
In terms of sustainability, providing the first season goes well, I have high hopes that this project will be sustainable. I will COS in December of 2010, and will likely be replaced, as I have been opening this post. However the training going on now is with the view that the Foulbe nurserymen will be trained and have knowledge and be able to continue the work without any volunteer’s presence. I am making sure to connect the Foulbe nurserymen with the nurserymen in my village, doing the training through them, at their nurseries. Thus, when they have any questions, they will go to them, and this will be an avenue of permanent support. In addition, I believe the desire for trees, as previously mentioned, is strong enough to provide a good market, and it will be growing as the news of their nursery spreads. The replication factor is highly possible, in that if their nursery is successful the first year, I am sure their families in other villages will also want to start their own, and they will serve as trainers. The killer of sustainability will be if the first year sees many difficulties or problems in the nursery and the work is abandoned in the first year. But I believe if they get through the first year they will certainly continue the work into the future, as they see the benefits.

Future extension
There is much possibility in terms of extending the project and teaching in the future. The following years after establishment, future volunteers, or other nursery men or NGO workers should introduce more complex propagation methods, such as grafting and the use of cuttings. As we will be starting small this year, there is always room for the expansion of the nursery, both in terrain size and in quantity and variety of species produced. This first year, most of their production will be for their own village and friends in surrounding villages. However if they find success and continued interest in the nursery work, it would be advisable for them to join one of the nursery GICs (common interest group), a network of nurseries who often link up with ONGs for tree planting endeavors, providing a greater network of information, resources, and a larger market. Finally, on top of the nursery technical expertise, basic business and financial principles should be explored, to allow them to extend from year to year, preparing for the future year’s production with the current year’s sales.

Techniques to be used
-We will be experimenting with an open root nursery bed as well as conventional plastic polypots, both those bought and those from recycled water bags.
-A live fence will be planted around the nursery area, incorporating both thorny trees as well as cuttings of other fast growing trees, to experiment with multiple methods and look at effectiveness of different species.
-A compost pit will be dug and compost will be produced, to be used at outplanting time
-The production of many diverse species for various uses
-In the future, we will expand into learning other vegetative propagation techniques such as grafting and cuttings.

Outputs/Expected Results:
1000 trees will be planted in the village of Jawro Issa Adamou and surrounding villages, combating desertification and deforestation
Village nurserymen will be trained in keeping a nursery and tree planting techniques
These nurserymen will share their knowledge with other villagers and friends and relatives from other villages so that knowledge and interest in tree planting will spread beyond their village
Women and children will be included in the nursery activities
The nursery will add another economic resource for the village
In theory, becoming interested in raising and planting trees will allow this people group to take more care of the trees around them, perhaps cutting less and being more careful about bush fires.

Tools Needed/Budget
We are requesting 54.500 fcfa (~$115) to allow the purchase of basic supplies for starting the nursery.

Budget Breakdown

Item Cost Unit Total (fcfa) US $
Polypots medium size 7 500 3.500 7.43
Polypots fruit trees 10 300 3.000 6.37
Watering can 4000 2 8.000 16.99
Buckets 2000 2 4.000 8.49
Shovel 3000 2 6.000 12.74
Wheelbarrow 30000 1 30.000 63.70
Total 54.500 115.72

TIMELINE
December
First talks with local NGO CELDIE and village
January
Site chosen; 3 pepinieristes chosen; field trip to nursery in Mafa Kilda
February
Site clean-up, thorny barrier created; discuss which species and numbers to be produced; well and compost pit dug
March
Seed Collection and Storage animation; seed preparation demonstration; seeds planted; beginning maintenance (watering, weeding, moving pots)
April
Planting; follow up visit to Mafa Kilda nursery; nursery maintenance
May
Maintenance
June
Maintenance; first outplanting
July
Main outplanting
August
Continued outplanting
September
Cleanup; financial breakdown, budget for next year; planning for next years needs and production

Here's some pretty photos of the sky, my garden in the past week

2010-01-31T08:09:00.001-08:00

Some gourds I cut stars into and put candles in, to serve as lanterns. They're really pretty at night! One Cameroonian said, "Isn't this what you guys do for Halloween?"

Bougainvillas I bought at the Alliance Franco-Camerounais adding splashes of color

Pretty sky when I woke up in the morning, back when the weather was still nice and cool!

This is Cassia siamea tree planted at the elementary school. Normally its leaves are a rich green but i guess this is the hot season's version of "fall leaves." Isn't it stunning?

visit to homestay family

2010-01-25T05:41:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I went to my homestay familie's house to spend the night. My homestay mother was busy and had been busy since six am, working on peanuts. She had taken peanuts to the mill and ground them into peanut butter. Then she takes the peanut butter and puts it over the fire, stirring, stirring, stirring until it changes consistency and separates a bit. Then the solid part is kneaded repeatedly to squeeze all the oil out of it. The oil is kept and sold (delicious!). The remains are then rolled into long sticks (bakaru) pictured at bottom, though dark, or into wafers and fried. Or they are rolled into small balls and then made into a soup called haam haam, which uses follere as well.

kneeding the peanut solid

bakaru ready to be deep fried fried

Apparently my homestay father has come into some money because I turned the corner into his courtyard where normally there is a mat under a citrus tree, and there were 12 sheep and two goats, just sitting right there! What a surprise. I just started laughing. Apparently he started buying sheep at the market, he'll feed them for a few months and then sell them again at markets when they're price is up. Investing, brousse style. (He also somehow aquired a motorcycle!) Anyway he was really proud of his sheep so here's a picture of him posing with them...really with riches, like a king sitting on top of a heap of gold, or American's posing beside an expensive car or house.

sheep here make me laugh anyway, often being quite short haired (these two have hair) and with long swinging tails

pretty little yellow birds sitting in front of a Thevetia bush

Tuesday January 19--visiters to the house

2010-01-25T04:49:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday I had a full day of visitors and work. Here's a little glimpse.

Ramani and Saleh visit the pepiniere

One of my big projects right now is working with the Foulbe Ladde village behind the mountain in establishing a pepiniere. This past year they ordered many trees to be planted in their village but their location is pretty isolated and difficult to arrive at with a car loaded with trees. They still want trees and so we are exploring the idea of them starting their own tree nursery to provide the trees they want to plant among their village and friends. While waiting to hear from funding proposals sent out (for basic materials such as two watering cans, pots for the seedlings, two shovels, a wheelbarrow, two buckets, some fencing) they have chosen a spot, chosen three to-be nursery men, and Tuesday they came for an instructive "field trip" to Mafa Kilda to visit the pepiniere's here. I had hoped that they'd visit all three, but we ended up only having time for one. Perhaps another day they will come see the others. After waking up extra early to sweep the courtyard, to get water from the well, to cook rice, lentils and chai because they told me that they would arrive at 7:00am, I waited 3 and half hours for them to show up, growing slightly and slightly more angry. However, when they did arrive, I found out they walked (they had said they'd take a moto which apparently fell through) so my frustration vanished, as it's a two hour walk. And at least they came! After sitting for a while talking, we went to visit the pepiniere of Bounabe Aamadu, my favorite pepinieriste because of his organizational ability, his honesty and his simplicity. In addition to that, he is very willing to give his knowledge to others. Instead of viewing the establishment of another pepiniere as competition, he is happy to teach the Foulbe tools of the trade, to answer their questions. I love his giving nature. Of course it is necessary that the pepinieristes train these guys, as I am not an expert and they know all about the trade. But it's important beyond the fact of knowledge. If it's the pepinieristes in Mafa Kilda who train them and establish a relationship then it will be them to whom they go when they have questions, they will be the link, they will be the resource, after volunteers leave and no longer work with them. Using resources in the community is the best form of sustainability and capacity building. The visit went well. I had a list of questions I wanted Bounabe to cover, and during and after Ramani, Saleh, and Daly had their own questions. All three seemed very enthousiastic and also seemed to understand what was explained. For the moment we are waiting for news of funding to get them started, which will come to about $250 for all supplies. Hopefully we will be able to get started in the end of February before the real heat comes on, perhaps necessitating me to front money for the first supplies of polypots and watering cans. We'll see.

After the visit, we returned to my house, and I thought they'd be returning home. But no, they stayed. In fact another 3 hours! They lounged on the mat, got up to pray at different times and just hung out. We spent a lot of time looking at photos, those that I had brought from home, and those that friends had sent. They are particularly interested of course of photos of sheep and cows, and I had some of some cows and pastures in Virginia as well as some sheep in Syria (thanks emily!) and we spent a lot of time talking about them: that we don't herd our cows but that they pasture in closed in fields, that sheep in other countries had long hair (here, they mostly have very short hair, and look a lot different!) We looked at photos of my house and they asked, since my parents only had two daughters and no sons who would inherit the house. After explaining a little about that, they asked, well there is some land around your house, will you build a room (hut) for yourself on your father's property? We talked about how if I get married, and I already have a house, and my fiance has one too, we will decide together whether to live in one house, or the other, or look for another together. They were astonished at that, as women here leave their father's homes to live in their husbands homes, who often build a little room near or in the family compound. We looked at maps of the world but that is a little beyond them. So we talk more about more concrete ideas and real photos rather than such grand spacial concepts!

Saleh and Ramani eating the food and drinking the tea I made. "White people don't really like sugar" they said when they tasted my tea (in which I thought I put a lot of sugar!) as I ran to get the sugar bowl. True. Tea here is like syrup and I always underestimate how much I should put in!

Hamadou and Usmanu come to visit.
As soon as they left, I was excited to rest, however a few minutes later another Foulbe Ladde guy, Hamadou, from my village came to visit. He came to talk about one of their biggest needs in the Muslim Neighborhood: a road that extends out to where they pasture their cows. I think he said something about how in rainy season it gets really bad and washes out. He also said he was interested in planting soy and doing small animal husbandry, maybe goats, chickens, sheep. I am excited about the prospect of him joining the soy gic (group of common interest) that was formed this year. The village tends to be very divided between the Christian or Animist Mafa who comprise 90% of it and the Muslims who are a few Mafa and the rest Foulbe Ladde who have settled in that neighborhood to escape aggression in the bush. Thus when their are village meetings quite often the Muslims don't come, aren't called, and don't participate as much in the village life. They are ok with that, as they have their small community. They tell me when they go to village meetings with the Mafa, there's too much talking, too much wasted time, too many arguments. I understand that frustration with meetings! There is also the underlying frustration, the understanding of two different clashing cultures, especially around harvest season when Foulbe cattle enter fields before harvest and eat all the harvest of a farmer. There are always cases before the traditional chiefs about farmers demanding compensation from Foulbe Ladde who let their cattle graze on their fields before harvest. However occasionally some of them do come and participate in meetings, and this participation is necessary that their perspective and voice not be left out in decisions, plans for the school, etc. So him planting soy and joining this group is exciting to me, forming more links between these two groups, perhaps more cooperation. While we were talking, his neighbor Usmanu came. When I had a blow up globe and was showing people at the carrefour back maybe in April, he had brought me a calabash and asked me to draw the world map on it. (later reading the book Poisonwood Bible I saw the same activity!) I drew it and then let it sit for a long time! Months, and I'm sure that he thought I just wasn't going to finish it. I finally painted it all, finished it, and told him he could come get it. So he came to get it, and then we talked about the world, brought out all the photos again, same talks about cows, sheep, horses, houses, etc. It was fun, although tiring! Finally they also left, after maybe an hour or two.

Usmanu holding his globe, with Hamadou looking on.

Pastor and wife come over for dinner
At this point, I had no time for the rest I had planned, as I had invited the Pastor and his wife over for dinner on Sunday, and were expecting them to arrive around 5:00 or 6:00. I went straight into the kitchen and started cooking again, more rice, more cutting onions and ginger, more lentils, filtered water, washed dishes, etc. I kept praying that they'd be African and be late as I didn't think that I could finish in time! Finally 6:30 rolled around, I finished everything and they hadn't showed up. Sent a child to ask them if they were still coming, thinking maybe they'd forgotten or were busy which would be fine. (children are great here, you send them to do errands for you everywhere--go to the boutique and buy me some soap, give this money to this person, go see if so and so is at their house) They sent him back with the message they were coming and did arrive shortly after, stealing away from the church community meeting which lasted longer than expected. By this time, sadly it was dark, and a little chilly so we couldn't sit on the mat outside, and I hadn't cleaned up inside! Still we moved the mat inside despite the clutteredness and the pile of dead ants I killed the day before when they invaded my house, and put out three candles and a lantern and ate and talked. His wife brought their new baby on her back, who slept on her lap the whole meal. They are a wonderful couple who arrived in Mafa Kilda to take over the pastorship of the church last summer, newer arrivals than me. Nale Lazare, the husband had asked if we could talk sometime, so he could know my church background, we could talk about struggles, share Christian brotherhood etc, doing his job in pastoring. It was really nice to talk about the church, some of their struggles (including adjusting to the heat of Garoua!, coming to a village less developed, with less amenities, their dog also killed by a car the same week as Leila, church elders getting older and tired, and needing to bring younger servants into the church) After an hour perhaps, they left, going back to their own guests who had come for a few days for the church meeting. I meant to take a photo of them, but I forgot before they left. So the whole day was spent with visitors, people over to my house. Not every day is like that certainly! Far from it. But I do like how randomly people drop by, with questions, needs, or just conversation. A little visit.

Hospitality. It's really something special, to learn, to be able to open your house up, to cook food for people and have it to offer. To clean up the house to make it look nice and inviting, a peaceful environment. I only hope when I get back to the states people will actually drop by to visit, as I think that's something we have lost...

Another Call for magazine photos

2010-01-18T04:28:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to put this out there again, about magazine clippings for the geography class (see post October 14th). Thank you so much Emily for the photos that you sent. They are AMAZING! I was so overwhelmed! and they will be wonderful to include. But if anyone else would be able to send me some picture of any of the following if you run across them in a magazine, old Nat Geographics etc, that would be so helpful, and I could start my geography class!

1. people, faces, clothing from all over, all different countries, to show diversity and beauty
2. animals (lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, panda bear, wolves, polar bear, lemurs, other monkeys, toucans, highland cows, camels, koala bears, snakes, etc)
3. landscape and plants
4. buildings, new and old

These are for all continents. So far I actually haven't gotten many from Africa and was hoping to start on that first. I'd love to show photos of typical fauna and flora, but also photos of the diversity of Africans, and African cities and villages, to combat some stereotypes. We'll probably also be talking about desertification and deforestation.

Wow 5 packages in two days!

2010-01-18T01:56:00.000-08:00

I got 5 packages in Garoua in two days! Thank you!!!

From
Emily Gercke
Aunt Ginny sent Dec 7
the Hubers
Dad sent for Christmas
Dad sent Nov 23

Thank you so much! I've only opened two so far, couldn't carry the rest home from Garoua but will bring them home slowly and savor them!

Anacardium--Cashew Tree

2010-01-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

Took this photo at Anitha's house in Douroum. These are Cashew fruit, Anacardium occidentale, which are so pretty, so brightly colored. They're usually bright yellow, red or orange. Don't eat the seeds because they're poisonous (unless you cook them just right, when they're delicious cashew nuts), but the fruit is very good too. It's Anacardium season right now. The first time I ate them was last year around this time, and the ones from Anitha's tree were my first ones of the season this year.

This past weeks schedule

2010-01-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Here's a little synopsis of my schedule of work this week as most people have trouble imagining what life is like on a day to day basis for a volunteer. This is typical, and yet there is no "typical." Some weeks there's more "work", others less. But maybe this gives an idea of the lack of structure, how much time is mainly meeting with groups and talking about things and planning meetings. This week went pretty smoothly. Some weeks, there is a lot more running around, a lot of stand up meetings, or meetings canceled because of death in the family or other work, or forgetfulness! And then in growing season of course all the work is in the field.

Monday: came home from Mandama, rearranged furniture in house; worked on some school lesson planning for Geography class
Tuesday: Had community meeting to give a report about my first year here: what activities we had worked on together, where we are at on different projects, what possibilities there are for the future and what some of the village needs/desires are. 3 hours long, 70 people. Scheduled meeting with Muslim Quartier to talk about their needs/desires for this next year and in the future. Did laundry.
Wednesday: Took moto to small village behind the mountain; met with Foulbe to look at the site they chose to start their tree nursery and talk with the three men who will work on it. Scheduled for them to come to Mafa Kilda next week to tour the three tree nurseries there. Walked back home, 2 hours. Rested in the afternoon, got water; Night: visit pepinieristes at their homes to make sure they are available for next weeks tour. Watched last 40 minutes of Cameroon-Gabon soccer match at pepinieristes house, outside with 30 other villagers.
Thursday: Morning--Went to the School to talk with school director about protecting trees. Went to Health Center to help with prenatal consultation day; Went to next village over market, met with some Foulbe and bought some produce and household things. Came home and worked on garden, cleaned up, rested.
Friday: went to Garoua and to the UNHCR office. Had planned to go to the refugee camp but because today was ration distribution day, rescheduled for next week to meet with women's group; talked about plannification and timeline for Moringa project. worked in office typing up a Trees for the Future exam and correspondence home; grocery shopping, post office, bank, fulfulde lesson
Saturday: Meeting in Garoua with ONG CELDIE to work on filling out information for an application for funding with the US Embassy for the construction of schools in a Foulbe Ladde Village near Nakong. Go to buy wood, go to tailors, Go back to Mafa Kilda. Meeting 4 pm for the Muslim Quartier
Sunday: church, visiting at home, reading, washing, local market

photos from the moto going from Mandama to Guider

2010-01-15T10:09:00.001-08:00

Painting in Mandama

2010-01-08T01:58:00.003-08:00

Friday morning Jessie and I left Garoua for Guider and eventually Mandama to help Kauleen one of our stagemates, a health volunteer, with a project she is working on. Because there is a lack of resources in schools, no books, no maps, no pictures, she decided to do a series of educational murals on the walls of the elementary school. Eventually the idea transformed a bit into doing the paintings on portable boards, mainly because the school never got around to painting the walls, which was necessary before the murals. However, the portability of the boards means that many classes can use them, they can be hung or transported to other classrooms. Linking up with her sister in the States, who did a penny drive, they raised money for the materials, wood and paint. She then did a series of drawings, some health related (the transmission of Malaria, Wash your hands with Soap, The Major Food Groups) but others non-health related, such as an "elephant" or "slavery". She worked with the teachers on incorporating some of their ideas or requests (such as picture admonishing children not to throw their trash on the floor and to keep the school grounds neat and tidy). The drawings were done on graph paper and grids were drawn on the boards so that each square of graph paper corresponded to a larger square on the board. Besides the fact of Kauleen being a very talented artist, sketching all 25 of the ideas, I was completely impressed with the entire project, the vision of it, how it responded to a felt need in the community, organization of it, the connecting it to a school in the states. Jessie and I were met by three other girls there, and we all worked on the boards over the weekend, drawing and then painting, taking breaks for cooking and eating delicious meals, a visit to the cheif's house, and dinners at the neighbor Hawa's house. It was a really fun time, spending time with the other girls, working hard on a project with a tangible purpose and endgoal in mind! While we didn't finish the paintings by the third day we brought them farther along and hopefully Kauleen will be able to keep working on them in time to get them done for Fete de Jeunesse, 11 February, which is her goal.

It was really nice to get away for a bit, to see a new post and area, which was beautiful, a pretty little village, and to not think for a bit about my puppy. Also really nice to be with the other girls.
And it was cold there at night and in the mornings!!! Mmmm!

measuring the grid lines

pretty blank canvasses

drawing for the malaria transmission board

sketch for Africa board

Kauleen working on drawing the skeleton

(have to include the photos of our delicious quiche cooked in the dutch oven!)

The Artist Crew: back row--Karin, Jessie, Kauleen; front row--Me, Jasmine, Anitha

painting

The "wash your hands" board in process, maybe my favorite one

We created a beautiful mess of bright colors

RIP Papaya

2010-01-08T01:58:00.001-08:00

I came home from Garoua around dusk, and heard that my puppy was just hit by a car. Maybe as little as 30 minutes before I got there. I assume that the kids went in and left the door open, because I kept her inside the walls with the gate closed, as protection. Very frustrating. Very sad. Why twice? I hate cars. I don't think I'll be getting any more puppies.

moringa presentation at Langui

2010-01-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

This morning, I went to the refugee camp to talk to the women about the benefits of moringa: nutritionally, for purification of water, medicinally, and how easily it grows. The goal is that by the rainy season enough moringa will be produced by a few of the refugees to plant 4 at each of the houses/plots in the camp. We planned this meeting for this day in December, and I called a few times during the week to verify and make sure the president of the women's bureau was letting all the women know.

I got to the camp running about 3 hours late with the UNHCR crew and was afraid that all the women who had been waiting for the meeting would have already given up and left. However, when I got there, I found that no women had even been called yet, that there were no chairs or benches or tarps set up, or anything. Quite typical, yet frustrating as I wanted to get there, talk and then get back to Garoua to do work in the office. So I got there, and they found three benches and I sat there with five women, thinking "there better be more women coming!" Meanwhile the president went around with a megaphone in the various quartiers. She had told me "Well I informed the women, but a lot said they were busy with this or that." And I thought, oh please don't have brought me out here for five women!!!

Often meetings don't start at a specified time, but after everyone has seen that you are seated there, they start wandering over. This is true in my village too. And means that meetings will often start an hour or more after you are seated there. It'd be great to have a book, but I feel rude reading when there are a few other people there waiting with you, so I just sit and talk.

Finally, after about an hour of women trickling in, there were probably about 90 women. This time, way too many for it to be incredibly effective. Women were standing in the back, behind me, to the sides, unable to hear or see the visuals. I had hoped and specifically asked for only the women of a certain "block" to be called, so that week by week I would talk to the women of each block, same information, but a smaller number of women. But they came from every block, as one hears about something going on and the rest come. However you take what you get and work with it, and one hopes that those who couldn't see or hear well will get a good explanation from their friends who were sitting in closer range. And always better more than less! It's always encouraging to have a few people in the "audience" who maintain eye contact, who nod and say "Yes!" to let you know they are understanding, following and that the information may be relevent to them, and I had one such woman who was my "angel". Actually I'm sure there were many others, but there was one prominant one sitting up front, about 50 maybe, beautiful, Arabic speaker who had such a great air about her, gentle but confident and capable. Throughout the whole presentation to almost everything I said she said "Uhhuh" "mmmh" 'Ah." And it was so nice. The other nice thing was that most of the women already knew the plant, yet didn't know all the benefits, and most all of them want it. The next step is working out details of producing that many trees and distributing them, and making sure they are planted well! There are about 950 households either tents or brick rooms in the camp, so that's a good amount of trees! The good thing about this tree is that it grows very easily, so should be a great tree for teaching some of the refugees in creating and maintaining their own tree nursery. Secondly, because it grows so quickly, people can reap the benefits, harvest the leaves in the first season, so even those who hope to repatriate, to go back to Chad after a few years may still benefit from it, (whereas planting slower growing trees, mangos or thorny species may seem more irrelevent to a refugee camp, although they did plant those communally this year too). Finally, if the tree production works well, and the women start drying the leaves and making a powder from it, there is the possibility of selling the powder to local health centers who then resell it in their pharmacies to breastfeeding mothers or for malnourished children, about 5 cents a packet. I look forward to seeing how this project works out, and hopefully having a good story from it.

Christmas

2009-12-30T06:59:00.000-08:00

I went to Jessie's house in Sanguere Paul for Christmas this year, meeting three other volunteers there, Harley, Chris and Steve. It was low key but very nice, relaxing to be at someone elses house. We listened to music, some Christmas music (we actually didn't have very much!), watched movies, did crafts (lots and lots of clove oranges for all the volunteers in the north province) and cooked and ate good food. I had my puppy Papaya and her sister who I was babysitting and it was fun to have them there, although stressful as they chased neighbor chickens, looked for goat poop to eat and left their own in the house. Christmas day we went to church, a small church of maybe 30 people, where the service was incredibly short, maybe an hour, and completely in Fulfulde. In the evening on Christmas day we went for a walk at dusk to one of the hills, with wine glasses in hand, while the puppies raced around the fields, and during which various family members called us from the States. As the sun set we could see fires burning in the valleys, some Foulbe camps. Usually here, holidays don't cause too much homesickness because it doesn't "feel" like Christmas even. But in some ways it did feel a little tiny bit like it at Jessies house, whether because the of the cold sweatshirt necessary mornings or lazing around with no agenda at someone else's house. All was nice.

sleepy time christmas afternoon or evening

clove oranges

Christmas morning, some of Jessie's friends who came to visit

how remote am I??

2009-12-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

One of my friends, Nate, from the States recently asked me how remote I was in my Peace Corps post. He was living in the "bush" in the states and comparing to the vision we have, perhaps of the typical Peace Corps life. isolated in a tiny village "en brousse". And the answer is probably not as remote as most would imagine, yet still a different life. I have an interesting post in that I have both worlds. Being on the major highway, I am only a 30 minute drive to the capital city of my province, where there is internet, hospitals, a lot of modernity and technology, although not necessarily fast! You can get basically anything you need here. Although definitions of "need" tend to change after living here for a while, which is a good thing. Yet my village is still small, poor, with very few amenities. While I couldn't call it "en brousse", a term we use to say out in the bush, really out there, as one might imagine a "typical" peace corps post, I could and do sometimes refer to it as "en brousse" socially or economically, in terms of the fact that it is certainly not the city. All inhabitants are farmers, French is not commonly spoken, electricity only came recently (in August?) and is only in a few houses in the village, there are only open wells used for water (the newly installed pump, also in August, just broke this week), income levels, living situations, and lifestyles are as much "en brousse" as any other post "way out there." So I think I have the best of both situations (although not a fan of living so near the main road). I am able, when I need, to get to the office, to use internet (if its not out for the day), to go to the doctor, etc, a lot more easily than some of my postmates who are more farther removed. However, I have the village Peace Corps experience that might be what one expects or envisions when I am in village. Sometimes finding a car to Garoua takes a while. You sit on the side of the road and hold out your arm until a car with space in it stops. Sometimes private cars pick you up (I've ridden with Catholic sisters from Ngong, and with Sodecoton workers in which I've had great work conversations!) But usually its in "taxis" which are regular beaten up cars that run the route Garoua Ngong all day long. Five passenger cars fit 7 or 8 people, 8 passenger vans fit 16. Sometimes I get out to the road and wait only 5 minutes. Other times I've waited an hour and a half (at which point I start to reconsider traveling at all!)
In terms of isolation, even posts much more removed have volunteers nearby. Peace Corps tends to place people in "clusters" so in villages that are pretty close to each other. And at the same time, if you stay in your village, even very near major cities, you can feel isolation (if you want) of never speaking your own language, of living in a foreign culture, etc. Each Peace Corps post is different, especially taking in consideration other countries. One of my stagemates has a friend doing Peace Corps in South Africa, where she has an "office" where she works every day with an ocean view and internet. I'm happy to be on this side of the spectrum...the more villag-y side. So I think that answers that question a bit, and hopefully helps those at home to maybe have a better picture of how remote I am.

Soy Group

2009-12-11T08:50:00.001-08:00

Many of the farmers in my village plant soy. They were trained by IRAD, the Institute pour la Recherch Agriculture et Development, to plant it in efforts to fight the loss of soil fertility, perhaps to get farmers off the cotton cycle as well. The women were "trained" on how to make soy milk and tofu, although I'm not sure how well because they don't actually make it now. Maybe they didn't like it too well, or maybe it's too much work, or maybe they were only briefly trained and have forgotten. But they do add soy flour to regular flour to make "bouille" the traditional flour and water hot drink thats often drunk for breakfast. As it is, the farmers were trained to grow soy, were given improved seeds by IRAD and started to grow soy. But they didn't know what to do with it, because there wasn't a big market for it. Through other volunteers, I heard of a GIC (common interest group) in Mokolo in the Extreme North who works with farmers in various villages, trains them on growing soy, sells them the seeds, and then buys the harvest which they then transport to Douala and sell to CamLait, a Cameroonian company that makes soy drinks which are very delicious. I called the Mokolo people who came and met with my farmers. During this meeting 1) I was so proud of my villagers, because it was so evident they were good farmers, they already knew how to farm soy, already knew the distances for seeding, when to weed, when to harvest etc. and 2) I felt "this is the successful work of the volunteer." Matching a need in the village--lack of market--with a resource we know of. And now from now on, the villagers are connected to this GIC and can continue to sell to them, even after I am gone. After the meeting each farmer decided how much they wanted to farm for soy, in a group of perhaps 16-20 farmers. Some farmed a hectare, others a demi-quarter hectare. They ordered the seed from the GIC, I wired their money to Mokolo, seed was sent to Garoua, I went and picked it up with a farmer and they divided it up and planted.

January 15: They just recently finished the harvest in December and I am feeling very blessed, and praising God because the sale of the harvest went on without a glitch. Sometimes when working with new groups you never know what may happen, whether someone might run away with the money, whether the group might never come to buy the harvest after all, whether they might back down on the promised price. But all went well, they sent the advance of money ahead of time (before New Years so that the farmers could celebrate with the money), they picked up the soy last week to ship down south and paid the rest of the payment, and all my farmers were happy. Just one example of possible agroforestry work in Cameroon.

Yaounde again

2009-12-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

I am in the country capital again, this time for Mid Service, which is made up mainly of medical exams complete with running to the lab across town with a paper bag concealing a cup of certain substances, as well as meeting with various administration members to talk about concerns, progress, etc one year into service. This trip I did not really want to come down here. I didn't want to leave post, and I didn't want to spend time in Yaounde. We finished up our duties on Wednesday and now I'm hoping to escape to Kribi for the weekend (if i can find other volunteers to go with me!) and come back on Monday for a Best Practices presentation, before heading back up north Monday night. I haven't yet decided where I will be spending Christmas, Ngoundere, Maroua and my village being the options. I hope you all are well and enjoying the cold weather. Ngoundere was COLD!

My foulbe ladde friends come to visit me at the house

2009-11-28T08:49:00.001-08:00

What a beautiful surprise...when 9 girls and 2 boys come knocking on your gate and traipsing on in with singsong voices, talking to the dog, asking for your papayas, walking in your house, asking for more photos more photos more photos, crowding around to look at the screen, pushing, shoving, laughing, giggling, scolding, etc. Always brings me such joy!

The Schoolchildren helping me to protect my trees

2009-11-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

On a Friday when the students have manual labor in the morning (yes this is a weekly "class", and usually they sweep up the school grounds, protect trees, etc) the older students, school director and a couple teachers came with me to my field to help me protect my trees. With 50 students working the job was done in record time, and it was fun to all be together, on an "outing". They especially loved the camera with pictures! Altogether about 50 trees of my 120 were protected, a necessary chore as the goats are being let loose soon. They are staked through the farming season but once the rains stop and most people have harvested they are let loose to roam again. And they will eat everything, everything in their path.

Cassia siamea trees in the foreground

searching for more stalks in the neighboring cornfield, already harvested

These boys are protecting a Leucaena tree. The one on the right is my neighbor.

The whole group photo! I wish you could see closer up to their faces, but it was a large group! The school director is on the right in the tan suit.

Birthday

2009-10-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

view of morning painting site

Thank you to everyone for all the birthday wishes. In the morning I went to Garoua and chose a spot after the bridge with a good view of the Benoue river and hills behind it for a painting session. It was the first time I got to use my oil paints I got in Yaounde and on a canvas a friend here made for me, and that 1 and 1/2 hours of painting was so wonderful. I would have forced myself to stay longer and keep at it, but it was getting too hot. So next time. In the afternoon attempted to climb a big mountain we always passed between Nassarao and Pitoa. I think we would have made it to the top (we were soooo close!) but a thunderstorm came up on all sides and had to sit crouched in an alcove for an hour for it to stop, and then get down the mountain again before it got dark. Next time...After the hike, just too tuckered out to go out on the town dancing. think I went to bed at 7:30? Miss everyone at home though, and would have loved to have my birthday there!

after the rain storm. we were high up there!!! that mountain range across the way is where my village is, behind some of those mountains. Garoua is to the right out of the photo.

New Puppy "Papaya Treefrog"

2009-10-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I got a new puppy, named Papaya. Here's the only two photos I have of her so far. Evidence of Second Child Syndrome. I got her as a sore-covered, fleabitten, worm and tick infested scrawny thing, but she's doing pretty well now and is pretty barky, a little too barky for me, but Cameroonians appreciate that as a quality of a good guard dog. She's sweet though.

Peanuts

2009-10-25T11:23:00.001-07:00

The past week I have been working hard in my field, harvesting peanuts. I had a good harvest originally, however after they were pulled up i had trouble finding help, other workers, and they sat in the field for a week calling insects far and wide. On top of that this past week it has rained every day. More rain in October than in any other month during the rainy season and last year the last rain was the 10th or 15th. This meant that I was in a race to get my peanuts to the house before the insects ate them and the rain rotted them. Have you ever seen the movie Girl of the Limberlost? There's a scene that kept playing in my head when there is a rainstorm and the mother is out in the rain shoveling her corn into a car (?) trying to save the harvest. that's about how I felt, fighting against the insects and time. They were crawling with beetles. The difference is that my livelihood is not dependent on it. Even if every single peanut was ruined, eaten, I could survived. However, it is still depressing and stressful watching the hard work of three-four months get consumed quickly before your eyes. Working against time. Finally all the peanuts are at the house, put out to dry in the sun (and put back up in sacks at night in case of rain). I must say that I am a tired person now, after all of the digging, plucking, sitting in the sun and carrying back to the house. Next week I will start sorting out the peanuts and see how many are empty shells (because the insects bored into them and sucked out the oils) and how many are good. Then I will know how much harvest I actually have. And also will start the soy harvesting next week. I will be glad when all is at the house and I can rest!!!

Voila behold my peanuts, drying in the sun. Lots of them yes.

Hey Claire,

2009-10-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

when i was talking to you on the phone and said i was climbing a mountain (last week, not yesterday) this is where I was. The little buildings down there are my village. You can see my house and my field of peanuts and soy, but the photo is too small. Love you!

I miss...

2009-10-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

Fall smells
Apples, Apple Cider, Apple Butter, Apple Pie
Warm sweaters
Winter/Fall Boots and smart wool jackets
Back to School feelings, excitement, rebirth
Evening soccer games at Klockner
Day soccer games at Darden Tow (sp?)
All the food for lunches at Dayspring Farm
Hiking in the Mountains

Haako Waigori

2009-10-14T05:46:00.001-07:00

One of the traditional dishes I prepare a lot is Haako (leave/sauce) Waigori (melon). I thought maybe some of you back home might be interested in giving it a go, since it's ingrediant actually grows in the states, and for a taste of Cameroonian cuisine!

Haako Waigori

Ingrediants:
1 big onion
Garlic
5 cups Melon leaves torn
3 T Peanut Butter (non sweetened)
Water
Salt
If you're Cameroonian, 1 Maggi cube

Chop or tear the melon leaves into small pieces and put into a pot of water. Boil the melon leaves until they are very tender and strain them from the water. Slice through them again with a knife. Set aside.

Peel and chop onion and garlic and cook in oil until translucent. Add melon leaves and some water, and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Add salt to taste (and maggi cube if you like your msg) and some more water. Add peanut butter into the mixture last. Add or reduce water to attain a sauce consistency to your liking. Serve over rice or couscous.

This time of year there are squash vines growing all over fences, gardens and rooftops. It's been wonderful to just go out and cut some leaves and cook up a dish!

Geography/Ecology class

2009-10-14T04:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm putting together a class for the elementary school kids, mostly the older ones, 4-5th graders which is going to be geography/ecology. Most of the people in my village have never seen a map of the world. Most believe there is one country, where all white people come from not distinguishing between America and Europe, or realizing that there are blacks or asians or any other ethnicity that live there as well. And this Europe/America/Land of the Whites might be as far or as a close as Yaounde, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia. For those who rarely leave the little village of Mafa Kilda, any place "out there" is far. So I'm going to go continent by continent, one continent at a time and talk about the weather there, the people, animals, etc. and where it's located. I am in the middle of drawing a huge map of the world on the classroom wall which we will paint in as we go continent to continent. In addition to the geography, I'm hoping to highlight on ecological lesson in each continent, for instance, comparing cows in Scotland with those here, why might the ones in Scotland have lots of hair, and the ones here have a hump? And so on. Or camoflauge with Polar bears in the Arctic. However, at the moment I am searching for nice photos (i.e. national geographics, magazines) that might show things like: cold places, deserts, snow, panda bears, polar bears, grizzly bears, birds from all over, Highland cows, Tigers, Galapogas turtles, people/clothing from all different countries, homes, landscapes. So I'm requesting your help! If any of you have any old national geographics or other old magazines that might be able to furnish some nice photos, would you be willing to cut them out and send them my way? Even if I get them in 3 months time it will help as I plan on doing the course next semester as well, and next year. And with the lack of resources here (textbooks, photos, everything) I'm sure they would be much appreciated by my following volunteer as well!

Rainy season is the Dying season

2009-09-27T04:13:00.001-07:00

This is what I've come to understand. In the time I went to Yaounde for a few weeks I came back and about 4 people had died each week. Some were random, like a snakebite. Many are children. Rainy season brings the mosquitoes which bring the malaria. But I think also the fact that people work so hard during the farming season, they wear themselves out. Their bodies are tired and susceptible to sickness, which sometimes goes a little farther than treatable. Sometimes they die. My landlord and neighbor has been sick for over a month now and hasn't been able to farm, his family carrying most of the burden, yet not all of it, and they are forced to let some fields go. Apparently he gets sick like this every year and I wonder what it is. It pains me to see all their money go right out the window into doctor visits and medications which seem to have no effect. As crops come in they must be sold to cover the treatment. There is no getting ahead.

Trees planted 2009 season

2009-09-27T02:57:00.001-07:00

Here's a rundown of the trees planted with me, around my region this tree planting season

Ecole Biblique
Mango 45
Lime 4
Cashew 2
Neem 5

Muslim Quartier
Mango 20
Lime 1
Neem2
Dalehi 2
Terminalia 2

Health Center
Mango 5
Neem 4
Cassia 5
Danielia 2
Guava 1

Random houses
guava 5

Medicinal field
total trees 140

Medicinal field live fence
acacia 100

Alley Cropping field
Cassia siamea 60
Leucaena leucocephela 60

Alley Cropping live fence
Acacia nilotica 100
Acacia senegal 25
Acacia polyacantha 25
Zizyphus micronata 25

Community Woodlot
Azadirachta indica 26
Albezia lebbeck 52
Dalbergia sissoo 26
Cassia siamea 169

Israel
Mango 22
Anacardium 80
Guava 87
Acacia Nilotica 300

Mangos in people’s fields
134

Verger Djakaya Jeremie
mangos 172

Lainde Karewa
Anacardium 36

Mafa Kilda chemin de l’ecole
Cassia Siamea/Neem 225

Total Trees 1969

1 year Au Cameroun

2009-09-24T09:27:00.003-07:00

Fete de Ramadan 2009

2009-09-24T09:27:00.001-07:00

Me at homestay with homestay mother Aissatou and "Sister" Aissatou and older Coultchoumi. They actually smiled for a photo!!!

Fete De Ramadan was a fun three days, starting on Sunday. I went to my homestay family's house Friday night to spend a few days with them. Upon arriving I found out that my little sister, the baby Coultchoumi had died about a month ago. She had always been sick and malnourished and finally didn't make it. However, all the rest of the family was there, including my homestay brother and it was a really nice visit, so relaxing, so nice to be back there, and see old friends.

Homestay father and brother Abdu (with other random boy) show me their Manioc (Cassava) and Follere field

The morning of the Fete, all the men went to a giant field in Nassarao out by the high school for the prayer. I didn't go to watch, but I sat outside our doorway and watched the parade of men walk back from the prayer to the town, all in beautiful fete clothes, old men with walking sticks, fathers with little sons in gandoras (big robe), cars, motos, people on foot. Honestly I had no idea that there were so many people in Nassarao! I had wanted to go to the Grand Mosque in Garoua to watch the prayer there, but when it came down to it, I felt bad leaving my family again after such a short visit, so I stayed put thinking maybe for Fete de Mouton, I'll go. I left shortly after that, and when I got to Garoua, the people were still leaving the Grand Mosque, hoards upon hoards of people, talk about rushhour traffic! all the beautiful colors. Seeing all the people, the seas of people, I was thinking, wow I wish everyone coming to visit me in Cameroon would come visit around a fete, to be able to see all this. This is what I want to show people.
I got all dressed up, all prettied up, with my hair braided, henna on my hands and feet, my new clothes and went to a concert in the afternoon/evening with Jessie, Emily and Cameroonian friends. It was a group called Waam, sponsored by the Alliance who are amazing. They are a traditional Northern music/jazz fusion and I love their sound.

Waam frontman Alpha Barry

The next day I spent visiting a few neighbors, like Stephanie (an old education volunteer who lived in Garoua) neighbors, which was really nice. This is the typical pasttime around Fete. Everyone goes to relatives and friends houses to visit, eat, sit together.
The evening of the second day were the horse races as well, which of course I couldn't miss. There were only three races so it went by quickly but there was a little performance by XMaleya, a hit group from the south of Cameroon during it and all the fanfare with the Lamido of Garoua, so the whole event was a little longer.
The third day of the Fete I went back home and Jessie met me there and we walked behind the mountains to the village of Israel. Their Fete was completely different, almost the same as any other day in the Foulbe villages, with the men sitting on mats eating by the mosque. However this time they were all in their finest attire. We sat and talked a bit and then went walking even further, another 30 minutes or so out into the country, the real "stix." Where the kids were having a dance out there with the cows. No adults were allowed, no parents, although there were a few "chaperones," unmarried men around the age of 23 or so. Even little kids aged 6 went. They danced and danced and danced, and played their games until around 1 or 2 am. Jessie and I only made it to 10 pm before heading back to turn in! But it was something to see, something to experience. Magical.

Foulbe kids who are in love with the camera