12 avril 2011
So today is Tuesday, but this past Saturday, Essaya and I went to G'obri, a small village about an hour up the road. A fair number of people from this village travel to our health center, and a few weeks back, a woman named Hadidja (that's my name here too, saaaweet) invited us to come out some Saturday. Hadidja and all her friends in G'obri and beyond are Mbororo (def not spelling that right, but that's how it's pronounced). On a post blog I posted, I said how Essaya and I traveled to help a Fulfulde woman give birth out in a field somewhere. Ya, no. I was wrong. She was Mbororo. Their local language is Yako, but they all speak Fulfulde. Apparently it's a different variation of Fulfulde? Who knew? I can't tell the difference yet between Fulfulde and Dii, much the less dialects of Fulfulde.
Ok, so we moto-on out to the village. The market is decent-sized actually despite G'obri being such a small town. It is a large market because the Mbororo are cattle people and bring in their cows/goats/sheep to sell weekly. Mbororo are typically nomadic, so they follow their cattle wherever they go, but pockets of them here in the Adamawa region of Cameroon have settled down and maintained permanent residence. Ok, so we show up at the market and we quickly spot our Mbororo friends. Their attire and appearance is very different from the Dii peeps here.
Attire for men: plastic sneaker shoes (difficult to describe, they look like Nike/Adidas sneakers, except that they are plastic), pants and long shirt of same fabric, HAT, huge sword, plastic water bottle on piece of string.
Attire for women: plastic flats (similar idea to sneakers, but more lady-like), panya skirt of one fabric, panya/soft fabric shirt of another design, flower/bird print scarf tied around head, lots and lots of beaded necklaces.
Oh...and they all have tattoos on their faces. In various amazing designs. So we find our peeps and we're looking for Hadidja. But apparently she's over at the cattle auction. Ok, so we walk over to the cattle auction, which was just closing but we could get the general idea. Tons of animals. Sheep. Cows and more cows. Goats. A full-grown cow goes for 300,000 FCFA ($600) and a baby goat goes for about 20,000 ($40). Essaya and I ate some yummy meat (stand set up right next to auction, obvi) and found Hadidja. She was so pumped to see us, and told me that the Saturday before, she came all the way to my village to bring me a chicken. But I wasn't there...because I was at IST...boo. She said she felt ashamed because she didn't bring the chicken with her to the market because she didn't know we were coming. And she was embarassed that she didn't prepare any food or things to give us. We told her it was fine, and that we will come back and visit another time at her house (yaaaaaaa).
Then we walked back to the market and while Essaya fixed his moto, I chilled with the Mbororo ladies. I don't speak Fulfulde. It was interesting. They kept asking me about my freckles and touching them. I said "they're from the soleil/sun", ya. no. Soleil is not fulfulde. Oh well. Then Essaya and I headed back. I'm so pumped to visit them again. Essaya told them that I want to learn about their traditional medicines...and pretty much be them. It's fine.
Some random thoughts I had today:
-if a vaccine for malaria is ever developed and can be mass-produced, hospitals here will go out of business
-wasn't alone for a single minute of today. Children at my house this morning and all night. A bit annoying. What percentage of the day are Americans alone?
-crazy dream last night about war/apocalypse/cous-cous. mefloquine does crazy things.
-I'll think I'll go on an all-day hike with puppy this Saturday
The Story of Ashia: my puppy and bestest friend
Sooooo I've been eyeing these three pups for sometime now, and, with the help of my nurse friend, Asta, we asked the owner if I could have one. He said I could take it at any time. So when I got back from IST, I stopped over and was given a little girl puppy.
Day 1- carried her from old house to new home, got strange looks from every person I passed, arrived at house, puppy ran away, got help and chased her down, someone helped me tie a rope around her neck and attach her to my house, she wouldn't eat the food I gave her and cried all night long. Puppy: worst decision 2011.
Day 2- puppy is frightened to death of me, tied herself in knots overnight with the rope leash. I went to the health center in the morning, and when I returned, there were four other knots in the rope where she had chewed threw, run away, someone had chased her, and re-tied her to my house. I gave her some milk.
Day 3- Untied leash and took her for a walk. She hesitantly walked behind me. She likes it when I pet her, it probably feels good with all the flea bites.
Day 4- Gave her milk, meat...and a bath. Bath was surprisingly ok. Went on another walk. Used tweezers to pull a tick off her eyebrow. Lit tick on fire with match. Success.
Today- went for a morning walk at 5:30am and an afternoon one at 4:30pm. In the morning we ran a little bit. Gave her a bath and fed her fish for breakfast, couscous for lunch and meat for dinner. We are besties. Puppy: best decision 2011.
The only thing that deranges (disturbs) me about the puppy is when people tell me what to do with her. Like that I shouldn't give her a bath because she'll get sick. But then when I'm giving her a bath and they are watching me, they tell me how to bathe her. No. You don't know. You don't wash your dog, how would you know how it's done? Or when they tell me what I should and shouldn't give her for food. And when she's hungry. Dude, people, you don't even feed your dog. Don't tell me she's not going to like rice. Your dog doesn't even know what rice is because it only eats trash. Everything else about little Ashia is wonderful. Except she has fleas and ear mites. We're working on it.
So people are petrified of her. I've watched children when she's around and the only thing I can compare their reactions to is what I do when I see a...cockroach or scorpion. If Ashia playfully runs towards them, they scream, and run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. I guess she makes a good guard dog in the sense that children have been conditioned to run away from dogs. It's just sad though when children start crying just because a nice little puppy comes near them. Or maybe they cry because they're scared of me. Ya....we make a pretty good team.
So today is Tuesday, but this past Saturday, Essaya and I went to G'obri, a small village about an hour up the road. A fair number of people from this village travel to our health center, and a few weeks back, a woman named Hadidja (that's my name here too, saaaweet) invited us to come out some Saturday. Hadidja and all her friends in G'obri and beyond are Mbororo (def not spelling that right, but that's how it's pronounced). On a post blog I posted, I said how Essaya and I traveled to help a Fulfulde woman give birth out in a field somewhere. Ya, no. I was wrong. She was Mbororo. Their local language is Yako, but they all speak Fulfulde. Apparently it's a different variation of Fulfulde? Who knew? I can't tell the difference yet between Fulfulde and Dii, much the less dialects of Fulfulde.
Ok, so we moto-on out to the village. The market is decent-sized actually despite G'obri being such a small town. It is a large market because the Mbororo are cattle people and bring in their cows/goats/sheep to sell weekly. Mbororo are typically nomadic, so they follow their cattle wherever they go, but pockets of them here in the Adamawa region of Cameroon have settled down and maintained permanent residence. Ok, so we show up at the market and we quickly spot our Mbororo friends. Their attire and appearance is very different from the Dii peeps here.
Attire for men: plastic sneaker shoes (difficult to describe, they look like Nike/Adidas sneakers, except that they are plastic), pants and long shirt of same fabric, HAT, huge sword, plastic water bottle on piece of string.
Attire for women: plastic flats (similar idea to sneakers, but more lady-like), panya skirt of one fabric, panya/soft fabric shirt of another design, flower/bird print scarf tied around head, lots and lots of beaded necklaces.
Oh...and they all have tattoos on their faces. In various amazing designs. So we find our peeps and we're looking for Hadidja. But apparently she's over at the cattle auction. Ok, so we walk over to the cattle auction, which was just closing but we could get the general idea. Tons of animals. Sheep. Cows and more cows. Goats. A full-grown cow goes for 300,000 FCFA ($600) and a baby goat goes for about 20,000 ($40). Essaya and I ate some yummy meat (stand set up right next to auction, obvi) and found Hadidja. She was so pumped to see us, and told me that the Saturday before, she came all the way to my village to bring me a chicken. But I wasn't there...because I was at IST...boo. She said she felt ashamed because she didn't bring the chicken with her to the market because she didn't know we were coming. And she was embarassed that she didn't prepare any food or things to give us. We told her it was fine, and that we will come back and visit another time at her house (yaaaaaaa).
Then we walked back to the market and while Essaya fixed his moto, I chilled with the Mbororo ladies. I don't speak Fulfulde. It was interesting. They kept asking me about my freckles and touching them. I said "they're from the soleil/sun", ya. no. Soleil is not fulfulde. Oh well. Then Essaya and I headed back. I'm so pumped to visit them again. Essaya told them that I want to learn about their traditional medicines...and pretty much be them. It's fine.
Some random thoughts I had today:
-if a vaccine for malaria is ever developed and can be mass-produced, hospitals here will go out of business
-wasn't alone for a single minute of today. Children at my house this morning and all night. A bit annoying. What percentage of the day are Americans alone?
-crazy dream last night about war/apocalypse/cous-cous. mefloquine does crazy things.
-I'll think I'll go on an all-day hike with puppy this Saturday
The Story of Ashia: my puppy and bestest friend
Sooooo I've been eyeing these three pups for sometime now, and, with the help of my nurse friend, Asta, we asked the owner if I could have one. He said I could take it at any time. So when I got back from IST, I stopped over and was given a little girl puppy.
Day 1- carried her from old house to new home, got strange looks from every person I passed, arrived at house, puppy ran away, got help and chased her down, someone helped me tie a rope around her neck and attach her to my house, she wouldn't eat the food I gave her and cried all night long. Puppy: worst decision 2011.
Day 2- puppy is frightened to death of me, tied herself in knots overnight with the rope leash. I went to the health center in the morning, and when I returned, there were four other knots in the rope where she had chewed threw, run away, someone had chased her, and re-tied her to my house. I gave her some milk.
Day 3- Untied leash and took her for a walk. She hesitantly walked behind me. She likes it when I pet her, it probably feels good with all the flea bites.
Day 4- Gave her milk, meat...and a bath. Bath was surprisingly ok. Went on another walk. Used tweezers to pull a tick off her eyebrow. Lit tick on fire with match. Success.
Today- went for a morning walk at 5:30am and an afternoon one at 4:30pm. In the morning we ran a little bit. Gave her a bath and fed her fish for breakfast, couscous for lunch and meat for dinner. We are besties. Puppy: best decision 2011.
The only thing that deranges (disturbs) me about the puppy is when people tell me what to do with her. Like that I shouldn't give her a bath because she'll get sick. But then when I'm giving her a bath and they are watching me, they tell me how to bathe her. No. You don't know. You don't wash your dog, how would you know how it's done? Or when they tell me what I should and shouldn't give her for food. And when she's hungry. Dude, people, you don't even feed your dog. Don't tell me she's not going to like rice. Your dog doesn't even know what rice is because it only eats trash. Everything else about little Ashia is wonderful. Except she has fleas and ear mites. We're working on it.
So people are petrified of her. I've watched children when she's around and the only thing I can compare their reactions to is what I do when I see a...cockroach or scorpion. If Ashia playfully runs towards them, they scream, and run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. I guess she makes a good guard dog in the sense that children have been conditioned to run away from dogs. It's just sad though when children start crying just because a nice little puppy comes near them. Or maybe they cry because they're scared of me. Ya....we make a pretty good team.
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