09 fevrier 2012
Last week when I was in town, I skyped with a 1st grade class at my mother's school. It was great to talk to elementary school students in the US, show them photos of Cameroon via skype and hear their questions about life here. In response to some of their questions:
How do I get water?
During the rainy season, or when water is available in the wells, I "pull" water. This means I borrow my friend's bucket+string, toss the bucket way down into the well, and when it fills up with water, I pull it out with the string. Depending on how much water is left in the well (on some mornings when a lot of people have pulled water, not much water is left), it takes about 10 minutes to fill a bucket.
When there isn't water in the wells, I walk to the center of my village to the "forrage" where people foot-pump water up from the ground. This water is much cleannnner because it comes from very far in the ground. I have drank this water straight before. I would never think to do that with well water, which is usually brown and full of insects or grass.
(photo coming soon)
What do I eat?
Ok here is what I ate for today:
Breakfast - bread that gets driven in from the city of Ngaoundere plus peanut butter that a woman in my neighborhood makes from peanuts from her field
Lunch - two hard-boiled eggs and beans that someone was selling on the street plus rice that i bought from the local boutique. Note: these local boutiques, just like all the places in my village, don't have electricity, which means that any food they sell needs to be non-perishable. Examples of non-perishable foods: rice, flour, mayonnaise packets, cans of tomato sauce, soda in plastic bottles, crackers, etc.Dinner - i went to my friend's house for dinner and we ate millet cous-cous and a leaf and peanut butter sauce called koomby. It was so delicious :)
I try to eat as balanced-and-healthy a diet as possible, but it's a bit difficult during the dry season when fresh fruits and vegetables do not grow. If I'm lucky, I can buy fresh tomatoes once a week in the market, but the majority of the time tomatoes for me come in cans.
What pets do people have here?
This is an interesting question. When I think of a pet, I think of a dog/cat/bird/some sort of animal that brings you joy but doesn't necessarily have a job in the household, right? In that sense, I would say people have just dogs and cats as pets. A lot of other animals live in the houses though, like cows or sheep or chickens, but they all serve a purpose of feeding people through either eggs or meat.
What animals are there here?
In my village on a daily basis, I see / hear: lizards, cows, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, goats, sheep
In this country, however, there are a lot more types of animals. A few times during the drive to my village from Ngaoundere, I have seen monkeys running across the road. Way up in the north of Cameroon, there are elephants, antelope, water buffalo, monkeys, lions and more. I haven't been up there yet, though, so I can't tell you all for sure what I've seen, but this is what I've heard from others who have traveled up there.
Last week when I was in town, I skyped with a 1st grade class at my mother's school. It was great to talk to elementary school students in the US, show them photos of Cameroon via skype and hear their questions about life here. In response to some of their questions:
How do I get water?
During the rainy season, or when water is available in the wells, I "pull" water. This means I borrow my friend's bucket+string, toss the bucket way down into the well, and when it fills up with water, I pull it out with the string. Depending on how much water is left in the well (on some mornings when a lot of people have pulled water, not much water is left), it takes about 10 minutes to fill a bucket.
When there isn't water in the wells, I walk to the center of my village to the "forrage" where people foot-pump water up from the ground. This water is much cleannnner because it comes from very far in the ground. I have drank this water straight before. I would never think to do that with well water, which is usually brown and full of insects or grass.
(photo coming soon)
What do I eat?
Ok here is what I ate for today:
Breakfast - bread that gets driven in from the city of Ngaoundere plus peanut butter that a woman in my neighborhood makes from peanuts from her field
Lunch - two hard-boiled eggs and beans that someone was selling on the street plus rice that i bought from the local boutique. Note: these local boutiques, just like all the places in my village, don't have electricity, which means that any food they sell needs to be non-perishable. Examples of non-perishable foods: rice, flour, mayonnaise packets, cans of tomato sauce, soda in plastic bottles, crackers, etc.Dinner - i went to my friend's house for dinner and we ate millet cous-cous and a leaf and peanut butter sauce called koomby. It was so delicious :)
I try to eat as balanced-and-healthy a diet as possible, but it's a bit difficult during the dry season when fresh fruits and vegetables do not grow. If I'm lucky, I can buy fresh tomatoes once a week in the market, but the majority of the time tomatoes for me come in cans.
What pets do people have here?
This is an interesting question. When I think of a pet, I think of a dog/cat/bird/some sort of animal that brings you joy but doesn't necessarily have a job in the household, right? In that sense, I would say people have just dogs and cats as pets. A lot of other animals live in the houses though, like cows or sheep or chickens, but they all serve a purpose of feeding people through either eggs or meat.
What animals are there here?
In my village on a daily basis, I see / hear: lizards, cows, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, goats, sheep
In this country, however, there are a lot more types of animals. A few times during the drive to my village from Ngaoundere, I have seen monkeys running across the road. Way up in the north of Cameroon, there are elephants, antelope, water buffalo, monkeys, lions and more. I haven't been up there yet, though, so I can't tell you all for sure what I've seen, but this is what I've heard from others who have traveled up there.
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