Day 9: Tuesday 21st October 2008
Farmer’s Breakfast
Catherine has arranged for us to meet the previous Prime Minister of Cameroon, who lives near Santa. We are invited to his farm for breakfast, so it is another early start, and involves a drive over rough roads to a hilltop location with stunning views. We are lucky that we are in Cameroon at the end of the wet season and before the hot dry season starts in the North West region, where we are based, and the countryside is lush and green.
Since crossing the border from the Western Province to the North-West we are no longer in a French-speaking area, and here the main language is English, although each village has its own local language, and the common language is a pidgin.
Pa Achu shows us over his farm, and describes his methods of production, and then we are privileged to share a brunch feast, involving some of his own produce.
Day 10: Wednesday 22nd October 2008
Rural Women’s Day Celebration 2008, Baligham, Santa District, North West Province
I am invited by Catherine to accompany her to the Rural Women’s Day celebration in Baligham. I am told the roads are bad so we are invited to accompany the Mayor of Santa (our boss) with his driver. It is a rough ride, and a tight squeeze, but well worth it as the day was well organised (started a little late !) and gave me a great insight into the work that is being done here with local community groups, especially the women’s groups. There were performances by groups demonstrating their awareness of the theme of Climate Change, and the importance of the role of rural women in tackling it. 11 marriages were also performed by Mayor Atanga at the end of the day; the theme of men and women working in partnership was also reiterated throughout the day, as here most of the farmers are women, and they can end up doing all the work on the small farms as well as the childcare and cooking and housework.
Too much to describe in detail – hopefully I will be able to put up some pictures.
A long day – out from 7:30 am and home 7:30 pm, exhausted but very happy with what I have seen, learned and experienced today. The internet was on briefly in the Baptist Centre, where I am staying, tonight, so hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get this onto the Blog!
By the way – thanks Mark for texting me to let me know that the BRG Group won the Echo Young Community Champions Award yesterday!! Great news – well done to all concerned!
Thursday 23 October 2008
First Week....First Impressions
Day 1: Monday 13th October2008
Full Moon over Yaounde
Africa! Finally we land in Yaounde and disembark into the sweet warm Cameroon dusk, the light remaining only a few minutes, to be replaced by a huge full moon.
The journey had gone without a hitch, despite my almost not being allowed on the Air France plane because I did not have an identity card proving I was a member of an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation – or charity). The flight was comfortable and the food was good, and progress through yellow fever certificate checks, and passport control smooth and fast.
Our team leader for the duration of the project, Ibrahim Peghouma, VSO Cameroon’s Participation and Governance Director, was there to meet us with a warm handshake and a big smile, in the baggage collection hall, and our luggage (which had all arrived, unlike that of Nili, whom we met later, whose bags had a week’s holiday in Nairobi...) was swiftly on a trolley. (Note to anyone arriving in Yaounde – make sure you keep your baggage checked in tags safely, as security guards at the airport will match them to your bags as you leave.)
Celestina Nsom (VSO Cameroon Programme Support Officer) was also there to meet us, and she steered our baggage trolley briskly towards VSO’s big silver 4X4, and we were soon heading towards Yaounde, with Ibrahim acting as “tour guide” , pointing out the yellow cabs and the 33 signs advertising beer. (The marketing company places these at 33 kilometres distances outside all towns to let you know how close your next beer is!!)
Day 2: Tuesday 14th October 2008
“In Europe the call Africa the Dark Continent.....we want to make it a little brighter ... and we want you to tell them....” Menge Nicodemus, VSO Cameroon Administrator
Staying in the Hotel Diplomate, where all the VSO volunteers stay, the priority after the first night, was a big spray can of Baygon as the mosquitoes had sent out a newsflash saying there was new tender white flesh in town!
Morning activities in Cameroon start as soon as it is light, and from my balcony at 6 30 am I was able to watch a group of runners out training, singing as they ran; and then the children at the Anglophone school also singing as they lined up outside in the playground waiting to go in.
Nili a long term volunteer from IVO (Indian Volunteer Organisation) a VSO partner, joined us, and we went to the VSO Office to meet the staff, and start an intensive one day’s ICT (In-country Training). For me, fresh from VSO’s Intensive Short Term Volunteer training in Birmingham the previous weekend, it was good to be able to place the theory immediately into a country and local-based framework.
Lunch was an African buffet with Menge and Susanne Mecaly (Finance Officer) accompanying us, followed by another session in the afternoon on procedures etc. In the evening we had our first taste of roadside grilled fish and plantain – yum!
Day 3: Wednesday 15th October 2008
Off to Bamenda, the capital of the North West Province in the big silver 4x4 with Ibrahim at the wheel. We stop at a village mosque, so while Ibrahim goes to pray, Nili and I ask permission from the women to use the village “facilities”. They speak no French or English but are welcoming. The children climb trees to pick guavas for us, and the male elders come out to greet us and see us off. The trees are full of colonies of weaver birds, dozens of basket-like nests in each tree.
We break the journey, with grilled fish and chilli sauce and a soft drink at a food stall. This is the usual stopping place for the buses between Yaounde and Bamenda, and many people stop for a break here. There are stalls and sellers of every kind. A young boy even sells us packets of paper tissues to clean our hands after the food. We sit at a stall selling drinks, and choose food from the various small stalls around us. The fish is cooked over a wood fire, and comes served on a dish with chili sauce on the side. We are offered a bowl of water to clean our hands before eating.
Many different things are available, but often the stallholder is just preparing one thing, like the fish seller, who just had three pieces of fish ready - 2 tails and 1head, but others are selling fried plantain, potatoes, a vegetable which Ibrahim called plums, but which tasted more like a cooked avocado, and much more.
A little further on Ibrahim shows us a stunning waterfall near Bafoussam, and we arrive at the very comfortable Baptist Centre Guest House just after 6, after a journey of about 7 hours. In the evening we met up with Eric the Canadian volunteer, our long term colleague in the Santa project, his Cameroonian girlfriend Brenda, and Paul another Canadian VSO long termer for food in “Uncle Sam’s”, just down the hill. Even in the 4x4, the journey had taken its toll, although the road is good most of the way, there were several kms of badly damaged roads, so I was very tired and glad of the rest in a comfortable bed that night.
Day 4: Thursday 16th October 2008
Breakfast prepared by Rose, who runs the guesthouse, is fresh French bread, eggs and real Cameroonian coffee – the first we had had since we came, it seems all the coffee served elsewhere is Nescafe. We are well set up for the very full day Ibrahim has planned for us, starting promptly at 9 with a meeting with Catherine Sakah (she arrives at 8:45) ; we had already been planning with Ibrahim since he had arrived at 8:30 (so much for what we had been told about lateness and different concepts of time !)
Catherine is the Director of the Community Education and Action Committee, and my placement assignment is to look at capacity building with her. We hold the meeting outside in the garden until it becomes so cold!! that we have to go in, and I lend Catherine a warm wrap (more expectations shattered!!). Having agreed an action plan, a calendar and a budget for the 6 week project, we then take a trip to Santa to have a look around, have a look at proposed accommodation for Tom in the CEAC office, and see if maybe we can "bump into" the Mayor or other councillors around town.
In the event, Catherine also manages to get us in to see the District Officer, the local Presidential representative – (unheard of to get to meet someone of this rank at a moment’s notice), but the DO was very interested in VSO and the project, and kindly offered his full support.
By the time we had finished Ibrahim needs to rush to his next meeting and we sample lunch at the Handicraft Centre – Eric recommends the "Farmer's Salad" which is indeed superb and so large I have to give away the chips that come with it!
Three days in and we have already broken several of the advised conditions to keep good health – not eating fresh fruit, not eating salad, not eating street food etc; it is really hard to not do anything that might be enjoyable!
By the time we get back to Bamenda, Shamsul (another VSO volunteer) has arrived (a day early!)a team review meeting planned for Saturday morning and is able to offer moral support to NIli, whose bags are still in Nairobi, and who has been unable to depart for her placement in Ndu.
Day 5: Friday 17th October 2008
“Sorry the food was late – we had an accident in the kitchen... “
(the gas bottle blew up so they replaced it in order to cook our lunch!)
We have acquired, with Yusuf’s (VSO Logistics) help, MTN (Cameroonian) SIM cards for our phones, and are exchanging numbers with our new colleagues – I regret leaving my phone on overnight to charge, as Catherine rings me at 6:30 on Friday morning. She arrives at 7:45 full of new ideas that she had come up with overnight; after we had gone through these, I barely had time to finish preparing the project plan and budget proposal .
Friday afternoon is less pressured as I accompany Ibrahim to a project evaluation visit in Tubah so I can pass on greetings to the Lord Mayor and his wife from Marg who was the previous WAG placed there.
The meeting is a positive one, and I meet Kharsum the Philippino volunteer who is doing the long term follow up to Marg’s work. We are then fortunate enough to be invited to the Lord Mayor’s house and to sample his wife’s cooking (thanks Madame Mona!) and then back to Bamenda to meet up with the other VSO volunteers in a restaurant called “Dreamland”!
The good news is that Nili’s bags have now made their way to Yaounde and been bussed up to Bamenda – all five of them!
Day 6: Saturday 18th October
We are picked up just after 9 and meet the VSO P&G (participation and Governance) Team including Hector, also a Philipino volunteer. After another long and intensive meeting we have lunch at the International, while Ibrahim does short “one- to-one” meetings with each of us, making sure we have a chance to voice any issues and that we feel supported.
Later in the day Shamsul is picked up by John who runs the Mental Health Care Centre in Babessi. Mostly treating HIV/Aids patients who have severe mental health problems, they have developed a package of care using a combination of modern medication and traditional methods. Some patients have stabilised enough, and recovered enough self-esteem to begin to reintegrate into a society which stigmatises them, and to do so, they are learning skills and trades. One of these is raising chickens for sale – and lo and behold in John’s car there are 50 day-old chicks to be taken back to Babessi for that very purpose.
Today there is no communication with the outside world as the telecom system is not working, nor the TV or Internet. But we have electricity....
Day 7: Sunday 19th October 2008
Today we have no electricity.....
Nili is finally able to travel to her placement in Ndu (2 year placement following on from Polly’s (WAG's earlier short term cohort) work earlier in the year). Tom and I wave her and Ibrahim off, realising that our first week is almost over, and also that we have a day off to catch up on emails etc before getting back into work tomorrow at 8 a.m.
But – with no shops open on Sunday and no electricity – only one Internet cafe is open which has its own generator, and it is packed – it looks like we will be getting into the Cameroonian habit of a very early night and getting up as soon as it is light. (Yawn!)
Day 8: Monday 20th October 2008
Up early again to go to the CEAC to meet some of the women coming to help plan the CEAC Celebration event on the 30th. Today we are also able to see the Mayor of Santa, and I went with Catherine to meet her Provincial District Manager David Backbuin Nfazah and introduce the project to him. Again he is supportive and helpful. After lunch with him, Catherine and I go shopping for Santa Council uniforms, as it has been suggested by Mayor Atanga, that we wear them for the CEAC Celebration Day planned for 30th October next week. Our plan is to ask some of the delegates to remain in Santa to attend a workshop with us on the following day. Getting a uniform involves buying a particular fabric in the market and then choosing a design with a seamstress. I am not sure that African dress will suit me, but Catherine assures me it is appropriate and respectful on certain occasions.
Full Moon over Yaounde
Africa! Finally we land in Yaounde and disembark into the sweet warm Cameroon dusk, the light remaining only a few minutes, to be replaced by a huge full moon.
The journey had gone without a hitch, despite my almost not being allowed on the Air France plane because I did not have an identity card proving I was a member of an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation – or charity). The flight was comfortable and the food was good, and progress through yellow fever certificate checks, and passport control smooth and fast.
Our team leader for the duration of the project, Ibrahim Peghouma, VSO Cameroon’s Participation and Governance Director, was there to meet us with a warm handshake and a big smile, in the baggage collection hall, and our luggage (which had all arrived, unlike that of Nili, whom we met later, whose bags had a week’s holiday in Nairobi...) was swiftly on a trolley. (Note to anyone arriving in Yaounde – make sure you keep your baggage checked in tags safely, as security guards at the airport will match them to your bags as you leave.)
Celestina Nsom (VSO Cameroon Programme Support Officer) was also there to meet us, and she steered our baggage trolley briskly towards VSO’s big silver 4X4, and we were soon heading towards Yaounde, with Ibrahim acting as “tour guide” , pointing out the yellow cabs and the 33 signs advertising beer. (The marketing company places these at 33 kilometres distances outside all towns to let you know how close your next beer is!!)
Day 2: Tuesday 14th October 2008
“In Europe the call Africa the Dark Continent.....we want to make it a little brighter ... and we want you to tell them....” Menge Nicodemus, VSO Cameroon Administrator
Staying in the Hotel Diplomate, where all the VSO volunteers stay, the priority after the first night, was a big spray can of Baygon as the mosquitoes had sent out a newsflash saying there was new tender white flesh in town!
Morning activities in Cameroon start as soon as it is light, and from my balcony at 6 30 am I was able to watch a group of runners out training, singing as they ran; and then the children at the Anglophone school also singing as they lined up outside in the playground waiting to go in.
Nili a long term volunteer from IVO (Indian Volunteer Organisation) a VSO partner, joined us, and we went to the VSO Office to meet the staff, and start an intensive one day’s ICT (In-country Training). For me, fresh from VSO’s Intensive Short Term Volunteer training in Birmingham the previous weekend, it was good to be able to place the theory immediately into a country and local-based framework.
Lunch was an African buffet with Menge and Susanne Mecaly (Finance Officer) accompanying us, followed by another session in the afternoon on procedures etc. In the evening we had our first taste of roadside grilled fish and plantain – yum!
Day 3: Wednesday 15th October 2008
Off to Bamenda, the capital of the North West Province in the big silver 4x4 with Ibrahim at the wheel. We stop at a village mosque, so while Ibrahim goes to pray, Nili and I ask permission from the women to use the village “facilities”. They speak no French or English but are welcoming. The children climb trees to pick guavas for us, and the male elders come out to greet us and see us off. The trees are full of colonies of weaver birds, dozens of basket-like nests in each tree.
We break the journey, with grilled fish and chilli sauce and a soft drink at a food stall. This is the usual stopping place for the buses between Yaounde and Bamenda, and many people stop for a break here. There are stalls and sellers of every kind. A young boy even sells us packets of paper tissues to clean our hands after the food. We sit at a stall selling drinks, and choose food from the various small stalls around us. The fish is cooked over a wood fire, and comes served on a dish with chili sauce on the side. We are offered a bowl of water to clean our hands before eating.
Many different things are available, but often the stallholder is just preparing one thing, like the fish seller, who just had three pieces of fish ready - 2 tails and 1head, but others are selling fried plantain, potatoes, a vegetable which Ibrahim called plums, but which tasted more like a cooked avocado, and much more.
A little further on Ibrahim shows us a stunning waterfall near Bafoussam, and we arrive at the very comfortable Baptist Centre Guest House just after 6, after a journey of about 7 hours. In the evening we met up with Eric the Canadian volunteer, our long term colleague in the Santa project, his Cameroonian girlfriend Brenda, and Paul another Canadian VSO long termer for food in “Uncle Sam’s”, just down the hill. Even in the 4x4, the journey had taken its toll, although the road is good most of the way, there were several kms of badly damaged roads, so I was very tired and glad of the rest in a comfortable bed that night.
Day 4: Thursday 16th October 2008
Breakfast prepared by Rose, who runs the guesthouse, is fresh French bread, eggs and real Cameroonian coffee – the first we had had since we came, it seems all the coffee served elsewhere is Nescafe. We are well set up for the very full day Ibrahim has planned for us, starting promptly at 9 with a meeting with Catherine Sakah (she arrives at 8:45) ; we had already been planning with Ibrahim since he had arrived at 8:30 (so much for what we had been told about lateness and different concepts of time !)
Catherine is the Director of the Community Education and Action Committee, and my placement assignment is to look at capacity building with her. We hold the meeting outside in the garden until it becomes so cold!! that we have to go in, and I lend Catherine a warm wrap (more expectations shattered!!). Having agreed an action plan, a calendar and a budget for the 6 week project, we then take a trip to Santa to have a look around, have a look at proposed accommodation for Tom in the CEAC office, and see if maybe we can "bump into" the Mayor or other councillors around town.
In the event, Catherine also manages to get us in to see the District Officer, the local Presidential representative – (unheard of to get to meet someone of this rank at a moment’s notice), but the DO was very interested in VSO and the project, and kindly offered his full support.
By the time we had finished Ibrahim needs to rush to his next meeting and we sample lunch at the Handicraft Centre – Eric recommends the "Farmer's Salad" which is indeed superb and so large I have to give away the chips that come with it!
Three days in and we have already broken several of the advised conditions to keep good health – not eating fresh fruit, not eating salad, not eating street food etc; it is really hard to not do anything that might be enjoyable!
By the time we get back to Bamenda, Shamsul (another VSO volunteer) has arrived (a day early!)a team review meeting planned for Saturday morning and is able to offer moral support to NIli, whose bags are still in Nairobi, and who has been unable to depart for her placement in Ndu.
Day 5: Friday 17th October 2008
“Sorry the food was late – we had an accident in the kitchen... “
(the gas bottle blew up so they replaced it in order to cook our lunch!)
We have acquired, with Yusuf’s (VSO Logistics) help, MTN (Cameroonian) SIM cards for our phones, and are exchanging numbers with our new colleagues – I regret leaving my phone on overnight to charge, as Catherine rings me at 6:30 on Friday morning. She arrives at 7:45 full of new ideas that she had come up with overnight; after we had gone through these, I barely had time to finish preparing the project plan and budget proposal .
Friday afternoon is less pressured as I accompany Ibrahim to a project evaluation visit in Tubah so I can pass on greetings to the Lord Mayor and his wife from Marg who was the previous WAG placed there.
The meeting is a positive one, and I meet Kharsum the Philippino volunteer who is doing the long term follow up to Marg’s work. We are then fortunate enough to be invited to the Lord Mayor’s house and to sample his wife’s cooking (thanks Madame Mona!) and then back to Bamenda to meet up with the other VSO volunteers in a restaurant called “Dreamland”!
The good news is that Nili’s bags have now made their way to Yaounde and been bussed up to Bamenda – all five of them!
Day 6: Saturday 18th October
We are picked up just after 9 and meet the VSO P&G (participation and Governance) Team including Hector, also a Philipino volunteer. After another long and intensive meeting we have lunch at the International, while Ibrahim does short “one- to-one” meetings with each of us, making sure we have a chance to voice any issues and that we feel supported.
Later in the day Shamsul is picked up by John who runs the Mental Health Care Centre in Babessi. Mostly treating HIV/Aids patients who have severe mental health problems, they have developed a package of care using a combination of modern medication and traditional methods. Some patients have stabilised enough, and recovered enough self-esteem to begin to reintegrate into a society which stigmatises them, and to do so, they are learning skills and trades. One of these is raising chickens for sale – and lo and behold in John’s car there are 50 day-old chicks to be taken back to Babessi for that very purpose.
Today there is no communication with the outside world as the telecom system is not working, nor the TV or Internet. But we have electricity....
Day 7: Sunday 19th October 2008
Today we have no electricity.....
Nili is finally able to travel to her placement in Ndu (2 year placement following on from Polly’s (WAG's earlier short term cohort) work earlier in the year). Tom and I wave her and Ibrahim off, realising that our first week is almost over, and also that we have a day off to catch up on emails etc before getting back into work tomorrow at 8 a.m.
But – with no shops open on Sunday and no electricity – only one Internet cafe is open which has its own generator, and it is packed – it looks like we will be getting into the Cameroonian habit of a very early night and getting up as soon as it is light. (Yawn!)
Day 8: Monday 20th October 2008
Up early again to go to the CEAC to meet some of the women coming to help plan the CEAC Celebration event on the 30th. Today we are also able to see the Mayor of Santa, and I went with Catherine to meet her Provincial District Manager David Backbuin Nfazah and introduce the project to him. Again he is supportive and helpful. After lunch with him, Catherine and I go shopping for Santa Council uniforms, as it has been suggested by Mayor Atanga, that we wear them for the CEAC Celebration Day planned for 30th October next week. Our plan is to ask some of the delegates to remain in Santa to attend a workshop with us on the following day. Getting a uniform involves buying a particular fabric in the market and then choosing a design with a seamstress. I am not sure that African dress will suit me, but Catherine assures me it is appropriate and respectful on certain occasions.
Saturday 4 October 2008
Preparing for Adventure.....
A week to go before I head off on a Welsh Assembly funded VSO short-term placement in the North West province of Cameroon in Africa. 6 weeks working on capacity building and organisational development with a small town council in Santa, and working with the Community Education and Action Centre adviser in Bamenda the regional capital. Veering from complete excitement to complete nerves, contemplating the trip - although there is lots of information available, not least from the last cohort of WAG volunteers (thanks Polly and Marg!) and from Eric the Canadian VSO volunteer already there, not forgetting Chris at VSO London and Ibrahim, the VSO country Director, who has already been extremely supportive.
Just now sorting out last minute buys, on Polly and Marg's advice (wind-up torches..) setting up this blog (a first for me - but advised the best way to communicate and more efficient than round robin e-mails), and sorting out who will look after the Cat (firework season not her favourite time of year!)
So I hope I will have some good stories to tell, and that you will enjoy reading them. Hopefully I will manage to upload some photos too, but in the meantime have a look at Polly's pictures and stories on her blog (link below).
Just now sorting out last minute buys, on Polly and Marg's advice (wind-up torches..) setting up this blog (a first for me - but advised the best way to communicate and more efficient than round robin e-mails), and sorting out who will look after the Cat (firework season not her favourite time of year!)
So I hope I will have some good stories to tell, and that you will enjoy reading them. Hopefully I will manage to upload some photos too, but in the meantime have a look at Polly's pictures and stories on her blog (link below).
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