A few firsts

This weekend we have managed to do a few things for the first time. On Friday night we went out to a local bar for a beer. This was the first alcohol we have had since we arrived. After a busy day on the radio we decided that we deserved a beer. So we plucked up the courage and walked up the road looking for a bar that did not look too scary. We decided on the Gaston Friendship Club, as it had a friendly name!! We went in and ordered two '33's. I was being a bit dim with the price. Thinking it said 4.50. I was thinking in pounds. When I should have been thinking in CFA. We were trying to give the bar man 9000 CFA which is £9 thinking these beers were expensive. He was saying that was too much. The price was actually 450 CFA which is 45p!!!! So we had 2 beers at 45p each and they were big bottles 625mls each. Afterwards we bought some pork (we think) on a stick to munch on the way home.

We continued our braveness and on Saturday got a taxi (more about the scaryness of taxis another time) by ourselves for the first time to the next suburb of Buea called Moyoka. This area is a little busier than Bonduma and we had a nosy round the few shops that were on offer. Found a great book shop with100's of books. Most look pretty rubbish but I am sure some will come in very useful once we have read all the books we brought. We went to the phone shop. Very posh new compound with a great yellow wall around it and security guards. Quite daunting and a bit much for a mobile phone shop. Anyway I got a mobile phone on a local network so I can make calls here. After we finished in Moyoka we got a taxi up to the market.

The market is on a Tuesday and Saturday. Its a collection of wooden structures with tin roofs. We went with Sheila last week in the pouring rain so we decided to go again as it was not raining. It was sooo busy people everywhere and shouts of 'hey white man' as we walked passed stalls.The ground was really muddy so we did not stay long. Managed to get the essentials. A blanket, a brolly and some painkillers for my toothache. It was crazy a stall with various sheets of drugs scattered on it. Most of which would be prescription only in the UK. No instructions on how the drugs should be taken. My ward pharmacist would have had a field day!!! I got 10 Diclofenac for 25p and ny tooth soon stopped hurting. (fear not there is nothing wrong with me)

After all this excitement Sunday was spent generally lazing around and setting up the computer to watch DVD's. Oh and drinking a rather lovely bottle of red wine Marceline was given. After we managed to open it with out a corkscrew that is.

We have finally seen it!!

We were aware that we lived on the foothills of Mount Cameroon. This makes the weather a bit more bearable (especially in the dry season). We had not seen it though. We were not really sure how big or close it was. The family told us you could see it from the living room window but it is always too cloudy/misty. Then yesterday the sun was shining and the rain stopped. I am told this is due to an African tradition. A prominent figure in the town had died. A doctor who founded one of the hospitals. The rain stopped so he could be laid to rest peacefully.

Anyway we just enjoyed the nice weather it is really pleasant here when the sun shines. Everything is nice and green and beautiful (and less muddy). The sky was a almost clear and we got a good view of Mount Cameroon, well some of it. Have not seen the top yet. Doubt we will until the dry season. This photo is taken from the back of our compound and would be the view from where we eat. Its massive. The roof is our neighbour's house. We are looking forward to climbing it, in the dry season (we will be doing everything in the dry season!!) I will aslo post some better photos when we get better views.

Radio Show

Today I finally got to do my slot on the Radio. It had been cancelled twice due to reprogramming and people not turning up. We went with Elvis who is a student at the University of Buea studying journalism. Each morning during the holidays the students from his class run the live radio show as a form of work experience. Elvis' slot was a social forum titled 'HIV and AIDS a cry for all'. We both went along as special guests. We spoke about the issues surrounding HIV and AIDS how and why many people in Africa do not believe in HIV and how to protect yourself. The slot was about 20 mins. I was feeling pretty nervous but soon settled in. Although hearing my own voice in the head set was a little weird.

After the slot we went in to the conference room when once the students broadcast is over it is discussed. The chief of programs was also present. This became a time for the students to ask us questions about HIV, its myths and HIV in the UK. Everybody appeared quite pleased with our performance so I was pretty chuffed. Mondays program was finalised with the chief of programs getting annoyed with people not giving any ideas.

Following the meeting we got called in to the chief's office, this concerned me slightly!! We had a chat about why we are here, what we are doing etc. Then out comes a tape recorder and we record another program for tomorrow. The discovery program where discoveries are made. This was a half hour recording, with technical hitches of course so we were in there for almost an hour. Talking about ourselves, our experiences of Cameroon and what we are doing.

We have been invited back to talk again. It is a great way to put the message through to people keep telling them about HIV over the radio. Giving advice and dispelling any myths.

Baby Clinic

Today I went with Marceline and Naomi to the baby clinic for Naomi to have her first immunisations. She was having her BCG and polio. I was intrigued to go as it is also my first visit to a health care setting.

To say it was organised chaos would be an understatment. Well that's the way it appeared to me. We arrived and registered and sat on benches along with what must have been over 50 women and their babies. Babies of all ages having various jabs or just coming for a weight. There was of course lots of noise and lots of breast feeding everywhere I looked the well dressed African women were delving in to their tops trying to keep their babies quite. All the women were very well dressed in lovely traditional African outfits or more modern outfits. High heels, matching handbags and head dresses. I felt very out of place in my cord trousers, jumper and trainers.

We were given a number, 37. Although this did not seem to mean much I never heard any numbers being called. Once all the women where registered and sat on the benches the rather tradtionally built nurse started singing and all the mothers join in. It goes a something like this. 'I will bring my baby to clinic every month, this is how to keep my baby well.' Then a talk was given on what jabs are given at what age etc.

Then in some random order mothers took their babies up for their jabs and the room of course is filled with screams. We had to wait as there was only one vial of BCG and its expensive. One vial does 20 immunisations so we had to wait until 20 babies under one month had arrived. I of course was loving this sooooo many cute babies to coo at (I do not think Joe will let me go again). After about 1 hour or so they decided there were enough babies to proceed. Little Naomi was so brave and barely cried. Once she was done we could go. Not without our little (unmarked, tut tut) packet of aspirin tablets. They give these to each mother after the immunisation to stop the baby getting a fever. Not too sure what that's all about, not to sure how a baby takes tablets either but I am sure Marceline will manage.

Helps International

I thought I had better write a little about what we are actually up to. As we are here to do some good and not cuddle babies, although that bit is fun.

We are working for Helps International (HINT) pictured above. At the moment it is an small non-government organisation aimed at improving the social well being of the underprivileged. It is doing this by giving free computer teaching. The students only have to pay for their on-line time which is about 30p an hour. Here is a class in progress.

Joe is helping on the computer side of things. The teaching is pretty much up and running but there are other things to sort out. Improving the web site and setting it up for on-line donations. We are also investigating many other computer things that are a little over my head.

Another mission of HINT is health improvement. This is where I come in. I will be involved in sesitizes programs in the local villages teaching people about HIV/AIDS and how they are at risk and how to protect themselves. My work has not really got going much yet as there is a lot of ground work to do. Over the next few weeks I will be visiting other projects in the area to see what they are doing and visiting clinics and hospitals. Twice I have been asked to apper as a guest on a radio show and both times it has fellen though. Due to sudden changes in time tables and bad planning, well thats just life in Africa!!

Yipiee the beard has gone!!

As many of you know Joe has been growing a beard since January. It was not my favorite thing and after about a month I decided to stop nagging. I secretly hoped that the heat in Africa may be quite annoying and he would shave it off. I think we would have stood a better chance of that by staying in the UK as it is the middle of the rainy season and rains every day.

However I was sat pealing pumpkin seeds, a tedious and quite difficult job (but I like to try and be useful) with the girls outside in the dark. Then Joe appeared all clean shaven. Well almost he has a goatee, but I like that. The girls said his face is now shining!!

More Photos

There are more photos of our time in Cameroon on our flickr account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/talbotsinbuea/

This one has nice photos that Joe can cleverly make even better in photoshop

You can also visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hevtalbot/

Where I just stick nearly all my photos with no adjustments made.

Footie Footie Footie

Joe loves to play football and Cameroonians love to play football so for the last two Sundays Joe has gone of with our neighbour to play. Yesterday I went with him. The pitch (if you can call it a pitch) was muddy at points and the other areas covers in long grass. It slopped and had wondering goats around the edges. That the trouble with playing football on the bottom of a mountain. The surroundings were beautiful which gave me something to look at the sun was even shining for a little while!! If you play spot the white person you may see Joe in one of the photos. We are a novelty here so far we have only seen two other white people.

It was quite an orginised game had a ref and everything The score was 2:1 to Joes team but the match was abandoned to a supposed penalty which was not given. The problem being there is no markings so who know weather the alleged hand ball was in the area or not. The opposing team got in a strop and the game ended!!

Oh well maybe it will be a full game next week. I get the feeling Joe will be playing footi every Sunday afternoon.

Meet George

This is George.

George is a Gecko (we think). He is our friend.

George lives in our bathroom and eats all the nasty bugs. Not that we have seen many nasty bugs yet but I am sure that is because we have George. Our nasty bug toll goes as far as lots of fly type things, lots of ants, some really, really big ones and a couple of cockroaches.

Unfortunatley George only comes out at night so he is not too easy to photograph!

A baby is born

We knew that our hosts were expecting a baby in July. We did not expect it to be born on our first day there. On Sunday evening Marceline gave birth to Naomi. It was a home delivery thankfully I did not have to be involved as her sister was here to help who is a nursing assistant (who do most the work in these parts).

Joe and I were playing with Jeff (Genesis nephew who is 7) we were unaware that the birth was going on. We knew that Marceline had gone to rest. I thought I heard some screams above the sounds of the crickets but was not certain. Then a little later we discovered it was a girl. Later the Doctor came round to check everything was in order, which is was. Genesis kept popping our to buy various drugs. Its amazing he could at 9pm on a Sunday night!!

I had a cuddle a few hours later. Naomi is a very good baby. It does not really feel like we are living with a brand new baby!!

We have arrived

Well we have arrived in Cameroon. We arrived after a pretty uneventful flight and passport control was much easier than we anticipated. The ride to Buea (about 2 hours) was pretty hairy. Lots of pot holes lots a rain and a general free for all on the lanes. Weaving in and out of traffic.

Our house is great we are sharing it with our hosts and their family. We had a lovely meal when we arrived. We have our own bedroom with a proper bed an en-suite. We have a shower and bath but only cold water, which sure wakes you up in the morning. Having cold water is pretty good though as when they moved in last week there was not electricity or running water, by the time we arrive we had both. Although it is a little temperamental at times!!! Lots of work still needs to be done one the house but we are settling in pretty well.

As you are all enjoying a heatwave we are getting pretty wet. It is the middle of the rainy season. Monday night was terrible heavy very loud rain all night. It is not usually that heavy they reassure us. In fact it was so heavy there was a landslide near by killing 4 people.