March 1, 2011
It has been a few weeks and they have been busy. The seasons are changing slowly with a little more rain falling, lots of burning of green foliage as people get ready to plant in mid-March. The northwest region is under haze most of the time now and our mountains are invisible.
A note about planting here-there is no mechanized equipment or animals used here for farming. The majority of farms are small holdings and 80% of the work is done by the women. They are armed with a shovel that is sharpened and has a curved handle. It scoops and chops. They often babies strapped on their backs or children are left with older siblings while moms work.
Our team with me tagging along, offered a mobile HIV screening clinic and lecture. This was the first time for me to see my colleagues in action. We arrived with a lab tech, our nurse, grandma, two counsellors ( that do pre and post test counseling) and a variety of helpers. We lectured to an audience of mostly women on family planning, male and female condom use, all sorts of questions about sex and how condoms might affect sex, etc. It was very rousing, interactive and engaging. Even though there are all sorts of taboos here, talking about sex doesn’t seem to be one of them!
I also spent a day at a workshop with 5 organizations that were being evaluated by VSO. I got to help facilitate a small group of women who were clients of the organizations on how they felt about their experiences. It was very touching actually to hear first hand how volunteers like me and agencies like CUSO-VSO do help people who need it most.
70 volunteers got together in the capitol Yaounde for 4 days of monitoring and evaluation review. Rousing discussions, debates, arguments and a good dose of French English confusion rounded out the week. I ate well including pizza ( I craved cheese), Indian ( one Indian restaurant), pizza again and Chinese. I then hit a large supermarket and bought cheese, chorizo, granola, soy sauce, rice wraps- treats to bring back and hoard. It was grand except for the almost pick pocket disaster- I fortunately was wearing my caba ( my large big mama dress), which has so many folds he couldn’t get his hand in my pocket. I elbowed him and got into my taxi. A wicked man as they would say here.
I took the opportunity to take a few days and went for the weekend to Kribi, a beautiful seaside resort a 4 hour bus ride away. 4 volunteers from Quebec are there working in a model forestry program. So, I stayed in a hotel and swam, ate prawns and enjoyed a wonderful day. ( I will omit details of worms on walls that fall on people in the middle of the night. The geckos at least catch mosquitos!) We visited a pygmy village, had a pirogue ride down a river and relaxed. Not to belabour transportation problems but the 4 hours was in a bus with 10 rows, seats for 3.5 people and 5 people were squashed together. I discovered that men are better seat mates because they actually move a little to give you space ( women don’t) and they don’t have big hips ( women do). Imagine the three seats in an airplane filled with 3 reasonably sized people. Then add a large women with large bags of groceries that wedges herself in to the seat. My legs were numb by the end of the journey. PS Anyone getting out before the end had to climb out through the windows of the bus.
Anyway, enough of the planes, trains and automobile stories. In all seriousness, tourism will never take hold here as long as the roads and transportation structures are so poor.
I’m back with a big welcome from my ’family’ and gang at work. I was missed and missed them too. I was happy to be out of the city.
This week we are preparing for International Womens Day next Tuesday. It is a huge event here and one that I’m sure will remind me of years in the past. There are about 800 women’s groups marching down our main street ( the same street the kids marched mid-February). We will all have a uniform, the same dresses, that one of our staff is sewing as I write this. We will dance, eat, play soccer, etc. These people can teach me how to have fun! When is the last time we did any serious marching? And as for drumming and dancing….
I am going to be offering a 2 day workshop with another volunteer and a few of Ntankah’s staff in the next few weeks. I am excited and nervous about that. It will be on HIV/Aids and counseling skills for community volunteers and home based care givers. Another volunteer, our IT guy, is going to offer a day on Excel and one on Word, plus set up a website. So between these things and some reports to send in to VSO on the organization, March should be a little busier.
Well the bats are busy mating and our goats are having babies. Spring is coming!! For all of my dear friends and family as well it will be soon!. Take care all and happy International Women’s day!
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