First month at post in Croon

March 7, 2011

Things I'm grateful for today:

   -a phone call from mama

   -little biscuits that Rose makes (called croquettes)

   -the clouds turning pink and purple at dusk

   -mefloquine and good health

   -Abdu, a three-year old little person who is so cute

   -when peanut butter is put in vegetable sauce :) yum

   -the four random episodes of the O.C. that Sarah put on my 
    ipod before I left

Things I'm not grateful for today:

   -cockroaches the size of mice in my house

   -mice in my house

   -trying to communicate with people who speak a mix of french, fulfulde, 
    dee, boom and hausa

   -parents that don't bring their children that have malaria into the health 
     center until their temperature is 104

15 Mars 2011

Hellooooo everyone!! I hope that everyone is doing wonderfully. I have been at post now for three weeks and I don't even know where to start. So much has happened and so much is going on. I am so grateful to be here, my village is great, the people are kind and welcoming and health work here is much-needed but manageable. 

The Village

My town is an hour outside of Ngaoundere, the largest city in the Adamawa region of Cameroun. In Ngaoundere, we have a "case" that belongs to all the volunteers in this region. Volunteers stay at the case when they are traveling through the country or for regional meetings or other business (planning projects, banking, etc.). My village is the ideal situation for me. It is located right on the main road so traveling is easy, but it is rural in the fact that there is no running water or electricity. There is both a primary and high school here. My estimate is that 4,000 people live here, although I may have a better idea about the population after the community assessment is complete. The town is surrounded my fields upon fields in every direction. Nearly every person in town is a farmer. Planting season is quickly approaching and I am pumped to tag along with some peeps and see how the harvest goes down over here in the C-roon. 

The Homestead

My house is brand new and was built by a wealthy dude in town. It has two separate parts, one bedroom/latrine and one larger room for the kitchen and side bedroom/latrine. Right when I arrived, the treasurer of the health center and wicked nice guy helped me change all the locks to ones that I had purchased and discussed with my possibilities for the windows. I'm going to have special windows made that have glass on one side and screen on the other; to keep the buggies out and the sunlight in. I bought the very basics when moving out here, so everytime I head into Ngaoundere, I plan on buying a piece of furniture or something for the house so eventually it will feel like my home. I have almost erradicated all the creatures in the house. The spiders were first to go. The cockroaches were next, but every other day or so another little bugger shows up. I'm not quite sure how to get rid of the mice that are having a field day up in the ceiling. If I poison them, they'll die up there and stink up the whole place. Or die and fall down...on me when I'm sleeping...joy. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Do mice hate garlic just like vampires? Because I have a lot of that, maybe that would make them leave. 

The Health Center

Monday through Friday I work at the health center, which was built in 2006 by the government. My amazing supervisor, Essaya, moved here with his family this past October. Right now, "working" means I'm shadowing the staff at the center and learning about the most prevalent maladies that people have. When my French and Fulfulde are better, I'll be educating people who come to the health center and women with family planning. I also intend to teach health education at the primary and high schools. Last week, I began the community assessment, which has involved me going around to each home. Essaya's daughter, Josephine goes with me to translate fulfulde into french. The goal is to ask every woman in village a series of health-related questions about their family and their children. I decided to start the communtiy assessment with the women for a few reasons. First, they are most commonly at home so they are easy to locate and interview. Second, they are responsible for the children so they know the most common maladies of the family and what their family is lacking in terms of healthcare. I am pumped to start health projects and already have some ideas based on assessment answers thus far, but I'm not getting too ahead of myself. I know my language needs to improve before I attempt large meetings and education.

The Grub

Most important, of courseeeeeee, is the food. Just joking. I love the food here. It is called "couscous" and is eaten three meals a day, seven days a week. But it is not the couscous we know. It is corn, dried and ground up and then boiled and "turned" into a ball-like much. It is hard to describe wow. No but it is yummy. Or it can be made from millet or manioc. And a sauce is made to dip the couscous in. Pitachio and fish. Peanut butter and vegetable. Beef and tomato. The possibilities are endless :). I love it. Why don't we have it in the US? Oh...right...because there's no nutritional value to it...I don't think, I'm going to investigate. Maybe I'll do a calorimetry experiment. I know there's a lot of calories in it because it fills you up, but a good source of fiber, protein, vitamins? That's what the sauce is for I guess. And Rose (Essaya's wonderful wife) makes these little biscuit things called croquetttes that I'm addicted to. Last night she gave me a whole container of them because she knows how much I like them. Um, worst idea ever. I could eat the whole thing in one sitting....but I won't. I'm spacing it out so they last. 

The People

Everyone here is pretty exceptional. I was worried when I first arrived in Cameroon that I had been spoiled by how nice the people were in Niger. I was been pleasantly surprised though to find everyone in my village to be welcoming and happy that I am here. People get pumped when I greet them in my broken Fulfulde and at the two village meetings that have occurred since I have been here, people have applauded when I have been introduced. In my three weeks here, I have grown close to Essaya's family and another family who lives right next to my house. Little Abdu is part of the family that lives close to me. He reminds me of a little boy in my host family in Niger named Razaac. The first time I saw three-year old Abdu, he grabbed a stick from my fence and threw it into the open window of my house. Right then I knew that we would be besties. He is the cutest kid and has started copying everything I say, which is great because I'm teaching him francais, petit a petit. I look forward to spending more time with other families in village when everything slows down. Spending all week in the hospital and doing the community assessment the rest of the time limits the number of free hours I have to roam around the village and hang out with families. I have two years though, insha allah, to spend more time getting to know the people that live here.

18 Mars 2010

Random anecdote from today: So Essaya and I were leaving a community meeting (which went very well, he introduced me and I explained in French what I was doing here for the next two years, he translated into Fulfulde) and a man approached him and said his daughter was having complications giving birth. But the man couldn't bring his daughter into the health center cause they lived way out "en brousse". So Essaya and I moto-ed to the hospital, grabbed medical supplies, and drove out. Off of the main road, we hit a dirt road that leads to another village called Mbang Mboom. Their home wasn't far on that dirt road, but the road was in bad shape and I could see why it wasn't feasible to bring a woman in labor on a motorcycle through there. The people are Fulbe, and they migrate with their cattle. Their home was made entirely of straw grass stalks (why can't I speak English anymore? Maybe there's no word in our language for the material you use to build a house in the desert of Africa). The door to get in was so little I had to stoop down. There were two beds inside made out of reeds/stalks (again, no equivalent word in our language) and a pot was boiling on a fire. Inside the pot were grasses and herbs of some sort; which I assume was a traditional medicine drink. Thankfully, the woman had managed to give birth before we arrived. Essaya gave her an injection though that he had brought, and cleaned the baby boy's embilical cord with iodine. He also gave the woman antibiotics for herself and the babe, and informed her of the next vaccination day (this Tuesday) at the health center. Outside of the house, three other women were sitting. Despite their unique attire and tattoos on their faces, I noticed something else interesting about these women; they had chocolate-colored eyes. It struck me. I realized that I have seen only black-colored eyes since I arrived in village. I told Essaya to look, I have the same eyes as them. He told the women I said that, and they started laughing and shaking my hand, so I guess they liked that. I asked to take a picture of the home and the woman's family sitting outside of the house. Essaya explained to them that I had never seen a house like that before. After I took the picture and thanked the family, I looked at their home. One straw house with a mama and tiny babe inside, a family sitting around a fire outside, and a herd of cattle out grazing somewhere. That was this family's existence. Isn't that just the most beautiful thing? The family thanked us again and again for making the trip out (mi soko mi soko) and then we departed. I plan on riding my bicycle out in the future. Hopefully the cattle won't move too far before I get the chance to visit.