I have been meaning for some time to write about the church I attend. Every Sunday morning Joe goes of to football and I go to church. Religion is a big part of people's lives in Cameroon. Everybody goes to church. You are strange if you do not (see Joe's blog on these matters ). People talk very openly about church and God and openly ask you weather you believe or not.
We live with Genesis who is the founder of Helps International. He is also the pastor and founder of Buea Community Church. Genesis used to go to Buea Baptist Church and he did his pastoral training. Not quite sure what this involves as everybody appears to be a pastor. He then got fed up with many of the ways the church was run so decided to leave and set up his own church.
The services are held in our house. The congregation is small. Services start at 10am. Although usually at this time it is only me and the kids that live in the house present. Even the other people that live in out house are not ready on time. By about 10:30/11 most people have turned up. Usually there are about 15 people present. The service goes a little like this. From 10 until about 11:30 is singing worship and praise. Some English style worship and lots of African style. One person will lead singing simple lines which we then repeat. For example 'Jesus is my friend, my friend everyday'. There is lots of clapping and drumming. Its quite amazing how much noise 15 people can make! A few of the songs are in pidgin so it takes me a while to figure out what they are saying. If I do not get it I just hum along. Interspersed throughout the singing in times of prayer. These are a little scary. Everybody praying out loud at once. I love the way they pray for such simple things. Thank you for keeping me safe throughout the last week etc. So many prayers of thanks and hardly any requests. We could learn from this. We have a time of testimony where people can share something that has happened to them or a verse or a song.
The sermon then follows, usually lasts an hour or more.Often lots of jumping around the bible referencing lots of odd verses. I find this a little off putting but the underlying message is pretty good. Genesis often preaches but if he is away then William does. William is another pastor, he is also a business studies student at the University and is younger than me so not sure what training he has to make him a pastor. The service usually lasts 2-3 hours and there is no tea or coffee afterwards.
Last Sunday I went with Sheila to her church to get a different perspective. She goes to the Full Gospel Mission. It was as scary as it sounds. The church was packed, people standing out the back and a very full Sunday school. All visitors had to stand up, I was the only white person so a little obvious. Great service although starts at 9 and lasts over 3 hours. The sermon was over 1 1/2 hours - I completely lost track. The service is bilingual so everything was translated in to French. Worship was great, fantastic choir with great voices and no pidgin, although there was some french. The end of the service all got a little scary. Lots of wailing and stuff as they called the holy spirit in.all a bit much for me.
We have bible study on a Tuesday and prayer meetings on Fridays. Due to the small congregation these are pretty similar to Sundays really.
We had planned to be away for most of last week in Douala at the conference. Genesis and Marceline had gone off to Douala so we thought we would not get much work done so would go exploring for a few days. We went to Kribi. Its in the south province of Cameroon. A coastal town and popular beach resort. During the dry season at the weekends its full of expats, so we went mid-week to avoid this! This is a very comprehensive account of our trip. There was a lot to say. Lots of photos on flickr and Picasa.We travelled down on Wednesday, first the bus to Douala where we then get another bus to Kribi. We got to Douala with little trouble quite a few stops at check points along the way where the driver has to go and show his paper work. Then one stop where we all had to show our paper work. One guys ID card was out of date so we ended up leaving him behind with the police. I do not want to get in to a debate but from what I have seen in Cameroon there are many reasons we do not want ID cards in the UK. Anyway we found the bus station for Kribi after checking with the locals and a bit of walking. Next to the bus station was a Chinese restaurant. So we decided we would get some lunch then worry about getting tickets etc. We had a lovely meal, some lovely dumplings and a much bigger serving than they would give you in the UK. After enjoying that and feeling like the day was going well we wondered in to the bus station to discover that they actually have a timetable and do not just leave when buses are full. The next bus is at 4:30, the time is currently 2pm and the previous bus left at 1:30 - doh! So went went for a walk to occupy ourselves and went for a nice cold beer. Trundled back to the bus station and waited in departures. 4:30 came and went and there was no sign of a bus so I went to investigate. The bus leaves from arrivals - of course why did we not think of this. So we got on 2 people to 2 seats - a luxury. It was about a 3 hour journey to Kribi, nice roads making it a very good journey.It was dark when we arrived and we set out looking for a hotel. We walked along the sea front thinking there would be loads. We passed on but kept going to see what else there was. Saw a nice looking building on a by the sea so wondered up. Thought it looked a little like a fort but could be the hotels style. Gates were locked but there was a buzzer for reception so pressed that. No answer but there was a guy sitting near by so we got his attention. Turns out we had arrived at the presidency - oops. The man we chatted to was the caretaker, Mr Zang. We seamed like a nice bloke and took us to the nearest hotel - the one we had passed eariler! We checked in. It was nice we were told the price was 18 000 CFA a night but they could do us a deal how about 15 000 a night - OK we agreed.Got up the next day at it was raining grrrr. We did not let this dampen our 'we are at the seaside and will have fun' spirits. We walked though the town to a beach in the south. We were the only ones on the beach most the time - few people wondered through. We splashed about in the sea and drew a map of the world on the beach - cannot really remember why we did this now but it was fun. Jumped around on the rocks until we noticed how the locals use them as a toilet so sat on the smaller rocks near us, read and chilled out. All this was mostly in the rain with it stopping occasionally and the sky being grey. Then trundled back to the town got some lunch and hung out for a bit on the beach near our hotel. Then went back to the hotel and noticed how pink we were. Oh yes we manged to get burnt in the rain. It was grey and rainy did not think about putting sunscreen on - oops
Lovely meal in the evening in a great restaurant called 'Le Marmite De Mole'. Great name and great food - very nice and a short walk from our hotel.During the day Mr Zang had been to the hotel to offer his services as a guide. We were a little dubious but met up with him for a chat. He was telling us about all the bad people who try to rip us of etc. and said he would come with us to Lombe falls. So we got a cab and off we went. Our cab driver was a very nice man from the North West province so spoke English. The South Province is a French speaking area. The taxi driver stays at the falls with us as it is pretty remote and there will be no way to get home if not, well an 8km walk along the beach in the burning sun.
The falls were amazing we went on a boat trip to get a better view in a dug out canoe. The taxi driver came with us as it was no extra cost but got pretty scared as does not swim! There were a bunch of men on the beach ready to pounce on tourists offering boat rides and food. So after the ride we enjoyed some delicious prawns. They showed us the live prawns then went off too cook them. They were so good fresh prawns by the sea. Am I allowed to have such fun while I am supposed to be volunteering?!
We headed back to Kribi where we had to give Mr Zang a little something for his trouble. Note to self: Next time in Kribi give Felix the taxi driver a call - good man, do not worry too much about Mr. Zang. We then headed to our local beach and went for a swim. Watched the sunset and took far too many photos. While chatting to a nice French expat who appears to dislike Cameroon men. Meal in the same restaurant. Why change when you are on to a good thing.
And when we stopped in Douala on our journey back to Buea we got Pizza. It was soooooo good. They did not have 4 cheeses so I settled for a cheese, ham, mushroom and egg calzone - it was so good.
This book took me a while to read. This is for a few reasons, firstly its really fat (well fat by may standards - about 625 pages), secondly we have not been ready much recently been absorbed by series 5 of six feet under that we bought with us - only 4 episodes left I want to know what happens but do not want it to end!!. Thirdly I found parts of it hard going.
When we were in Italy with Joe's parents earlier this year his mum was reading this book. I was intrigued to read it as she kept giggling to herself as she read.
My history has never been very good so forgive me if I get this all wrong. The book is based (mostly) in a small village in Turkey. Its a happy simple village with Muslims and Christians living happily together. It follows a few families of the village and tells quaint little stories.
The narration of the book keeps changing which at first I found a little off putting but soon got used to. Each chapter heading tells you who is talking so it is easy to follow. As well as following the life of this little Turkish village it also follows the life of Mustafa Kemal. These are the parts I found hard going. I found it so unrelated to begin with. I enjoyed reading about the goings on of this little town and was not to interested in politics. However once the war starts things begin to change. The boys of the village go off to war for many years. Leaving the women and old men to fend for themselves causing poverty and hunger. There is a lot of detail on the war following the boys from the village as well as a good outline of what is happening to that area of the world. This is were Mustafa Kemal and this small village become linked. All the Christians are sent off to Greece and the Greek Muslims sent to this village. It shows the impact this has and follows a few surviving members of the village in to old age.
If you have read and enjoyed Captain Corelli's Mandolin I think you will enjoy this. I would even say it is better. You really link with the families and get a good understanding of what was happening at the time. It has many funny snippets I can see what Glenys was laughing at. It is very well written and witty with some great observations about different charters.
Yesterday was a public holiday in Cameroon. It was the end of Ramadan. Cameroon is a Christian and Muslim country so Public holidays are given to festivals of both religions. Only really the government offices and schools close. HINT was open but our friends Didymus and Sylvester offered to take us on a trip to Limbe so we accepted. Sylvester is the only person I know in Cameroon to have a car. Didymus and Sylvester are brothers and live opposite us in a huge compound. Their Dad has 5 wives, and 22 children. Didymus and Sylvester have different mothers. They all live together, one big happy family.
So off we set. First stop Metegene to visit Sylvester's wife. It is just down the road from Buea. She works there so lives there with her family during the week and comes to the family compound in Buea at the weekends. We have driven though Metegene a few times, it is on the road out of Buea. This is the first time we have stopped there and a doubt we will again. It is a rough place, they make guns and counterfeit money there. You get robbed walking around the market - so we will not be visiting it.
After a nice refreshing drink of top pamplemousse we carried on our way. First stop Limbe zoo. Well its not really a zoo anymore more of a Monkey sanctuary. They have Chimps, Gorillas, Drills, Mandrills and many more. They also have a couple of crocodiles and a snake (don't worry mum it is a big pit so you can easily avoid it).
We then went west of Limbe up the coast. We passed the sight of the 1999 lava flows from Mount Cameroon. We were supposed to pay to climb up the lava and take photos. So we took this sneaky picture from the other side. The lava flowed right over the road so a new road has been built around the edge. No one was killed as a result of the eruption, the local area was evacuated.
We headed to the Seme beach hotel. It was very nice, fully of white people. I have not seen so many in months, it was actually hard not to stare! It was a lovely area. The tide was high so did not really see the beach. Black sand due to the volcano and black rocks at the edge. We went for a paddle, then a walk along the prom to where a spring water river from the mountain flows in to the sea. It was beautiful crystal clear water. We will return with Sylvester and Didymus and teach them to swim. We had to pay 1000CFA each to enter the hotel then swapped our ticket for a beer at the bar with another 200CFA to top up the price.
We then travelled back in to Limbe to the fishing beach. Sylvester wanted to buy some smoked fish. He explained to us he is a vegetarian and only eats smoked fish, not fresh or roasted only smoked. We went to the smoking area of the town. It is an immigrant community from Nigeria and has that feel. The fishing boats had not long come in and people were passing with huge baskets of fish on their heads. So he got the fish and we headed home.
Got stuck in a traffic jam on the way home. They are currently digging up the road that goes in and out of Buea (there is only one). The road is in a terrible state and they are fixing it, very slowly. So currently there is a really big hole in the road and a diversion around it. The diversion is one lane wide but takes traffic from both directions. There is no order or control it is a free for all. One the way out it was easy as there were few cars about but now it is rush hour. I think there had been a crash which made the traffic 10 times worse. So there was about 3 lanes of traffic trying to get down to one. Some Guinness lorry driver obviously thought he was bigger than us and instead of waiting for our car to pass would try and go through us. So I am sat in the back with a front of a lorry slowing coming towards me. He then stops once he hits our rear wing. Not much damage is done. The small back window is smashed so I moved to the middle of the seat to avoid bits of glass falling on me. We complain to the lorry driver who does not care. So we carry on our journey home having taken his plate number. Then we stop in the Guinness depot in Buea to complain. They say we have to report it to the police. So Didymus and Sylvester drop us of and trundle up to the police station.
The driver should be stopped by the police at a road block today. Then Guinness' insurance will pay to fix the car. A bad ending to a lovely day.
So I spent Sunday afternoon taking my hair out. I had planned to leave it in for the conference so as I was not going I thought why wait. It was growing out quite rapidly. My roots were over 1cm making it look a bit naff. It took about 4 hours with a long lunch break in the middle. Shelia, Marceline and Sharlotte all helped. We started by undoing each braid separately, then the hair could be reused. I soon got fed up with this so then we chopped the ends off and it was much quicker.
When we had finished a had a great crimped hair style! It took ages to wash and still does not feel clean. I even had a bucket a hot water rather than washing it with the cold shower. I brushed out loads of dead hair. I was expecting their to be loads. Natural hair loss and all that. But I am sure a person does not loose that much hair in 6 weeks. It just kept coming out and still is! I am convinced my hair feels thinner than usual (I have pretty think hair). Bit it looks OK so I am happy and has grown a bit too. Now all I need to find it a hairdresser who knows how to cut white mans hair.
I am a little annoyed - well actually I am more than a little annoyed! The last few weeks Genesis has been organising a conference of church leaders to be held in Douala. I was asked to be in the worship team, which I was pretty excited about. I had a week of rehearsals with the rest of the team. Learning songs in french and various dialects. The dialects were easier than French!! The conference is due to start on Tuesday, we have been sorting out a hotel for us to stay in (which was harder than it sounds, double bookings etc). We had it all sorted Joe would stay in the hotel while I was at the conference then in the afternoons we would do something in Douala then find a nice restaurant to eat in.
So this week the organisation leaders arrived from Mauritius and started changing everything. So many things Genesis has organised are now completely changed. Including the worship group. They think that you only need 3 singers instead of the 6 that we had in the group, so I got dropped. Three days before I am due to go!! I was looking forward to it. I enjoy singing and the Africans are great at it. So many people at the conference would make it a great atmosphere. I could still go but I am not a church leader so would not really benefit me and it would be a waste of our money.
So I am pretty annoyed. Genesis is also pretty annoyed. He feels he has worked so hard in preparation for the conference then the team arrive and change everything.
So I will not be getting my 4 cheese pizza I have been lusting after. Will have to stick to buying laughing cow triangles from the local shop.
After football practise last night Joe went to the bar for a social drink and had some more snake to eat. This time a proper whole portion and he quite enjoyed it. When he came home I has tucking in to my supper of pancakes filled with fish (which is a little wrong but tastes OK). We got in to a conversation with Sheila about what Cameroonians eat. Turns out if it moves they eat it. For example mole, porcupine, guinea pig, cat, dog, large land snails, tortoise and turtle (poor defenceless little things) basically any animal we named people will eat it somewhere in this country. I think we got them with cockroach. There is also bush meat which is supposed to be illegal but still eaten in some parts, elephant, monkey, tiger antelope. We have not had any of the weird and wonderful meats mentioned above and I plan not to. They are not common, mostly eaten in tribes or by people who are desperate.
Sheila only eats chicken and fish and beef, which is what we are mostly eating. She did eat pork until she saw some of the village pigs eating a bunch of thieves that had been shot them dumped in a pile somewhere.
They also eat every part of the animal. We have had pigs trotters, cow skin stuff and parts of a chicken that I really do not recognise. Any bones a left dry, it puts us to shame. We avoid the fat and the gristly bits - they just eat it all.
There are not many things I am really scared of. There are things I really don't like, spiders for example but I can be pretty brave and deal with them while Joe cowers in the corner. But then he deals with the mice and cockroaches while stand on the bed like a big girl. The one thing I am pretty scared of is storms. My fear is pretty irrational but has a background. I do not like thunder storms - I never had. This all stems from my brother - sorry Rich. He told me as a child that I was more likely to be struck with lighting because I have a pacemaker. Richard being my older brother and the more intelligent I believed him (No arguments here, I accept that my brother is more intelligent than me - I however am the more beautiful!). So I as you can imagine developed a fear of thunder storms. I am not to keen on gales either. This comes from the storms that hit England in 1987. A tree came though the roof of our house and I came with in a few inches of my life.
So that is the background to my fears. For the past couple of nights we have had some pretty impressive tropical storms. I am no a meteorologist or anything but I think that because the dry season is approaching and it is getting hotter there are some areas of high pressure and this causes the storms (well something like that). So last night not long after Joe got home from football the storm started. First just a bit of rain, to which we say 'I thought the dry season was starting'. Then the power goes out, flicks on and off for a while. Meanwhile Joe is having great fun in the shower in the dark! Then the wind starts and the rain gets heavier lashing on the tin roof and windows. At which point Joe is getting wetter from the rain coming though the open window than the shower as the water pressure is a bit naff in the evenings. The blind from the window is also flapping around in his way. Fortunately he sees the funny side of all this! So the rain is lashing, the wind is blowing, there is no electricity and we can see really bright lightning that lights up the whole sky. We can not hear any thunder so I know the centre of the storm is far from here but I still do not like it. We see a lot of lighting, maybe because we are often above the clouds being 1000m above sea level here in Buea. During the day it is not too bad, but at night it is so bright its scary.
So I cowered in the corner - away from the windows in case the palm tree fell down. I just kept thinking to myself that palm trees are pretty bendy so it should not fall. Holding the torch so Joe and get dressed. We then spend the rest of the evening by candle light and the storm passes pretty quickly. Thankfully before we went to bed 'cos I would never sleep! Lets just hope the storms do not last long, maybe my fears will be cured by the time we leave here.
Auntie Becky came to see me last night to let me know that the lady we visited on Monday died later that day. Its so sad and so quick, yet that is often the way where. They are unaware they have HIV during the time it can be treated. They were about to transfer her home but she did not make it.
I spend a lot of time reading the BBC news website to find out what is going on at home and in the world. Today I found this story about creating a national blog. It has been organised by the National Trust, the idea is that everybody in the UK blogs what they have been doing today (17th October). It will be the biggest blog in history and could be used as a reference for years to come. You have until 31st October to write your entry. I urge each of you who read my blog to post an entry, especially as am unable to not currently being in the UK. So go to the history matters site and get blogging. Just think in years to come people maybe reading your entry with great interest! Its history in the making - be a part of it (thats sounds really cheesy - mmmmm cheese).
Yesterday morning I went with Auntie Becky to visit a lady who was diagnosed with HIV on Friday. She had been ill for some time, the family thought she had malaria and were treating her at home. You can buy just about any drug you like over the counter in the pharmacy which means people self diagnose then get what ever drugs they think they need. Saving the cost of visiting the doctor.
On Friday her aunt visited her and thought she should visit the doctor, so they went down to the clinic. She was diagnosed with TB and tested for HIV which was positive. So yesterday we went to her house to find she was still in the clinic so we went down there. When I saw her she was in a terrible state. Very thin, literally just skin and bones. Her Aunt told me she used to be very fat and had been losing weight for a few months. She had a saline drip which is her only source of intake as she is too weak to eat or drink. She has TB, malaria, thrush, skin lesions and diarrhoea. I know this lady did not have HIV she had AIDS and did not have long to live. The family wanted me to speak to her doctor. My assumptions were correct, she is dying and does not have long left. It is too late to threat the HIV they are trying to treat the opportunistic infections and keeping her comfortable. They can not treat her aggressively as they could as the family cannot afford the drugs. The clinic are doing their best. Many treatments would really be a waste of the families money, they know she will not live long. The plan will be to get her home to die. Her husband also has HIV and signs of various infections taking hold. He is not as advanced as her any may be able to receive some treatment. They have a 3 year old daughter, their younger child died at about one year old, I expect of AIDS but they just buried her not finding out how she died.
I find this situation so sad. The signs have been there for a long time. The woman would have had HIV while she was pregnant and passed it on to he child. She did not visit a clinic throughout her pregnancy where they would offer free HIV testing. Drugs could have been given to prevent the child becoming infected. The problem is many people do not want to know their HIV status. They feel nothing can be done to help them if they are positive so why bother finding out they are going to die. Even this woman's sister was using the same spoon to eat that she was using to try and feed her. Having oral thrush means she has wounds in her mouth and could pass HIV on though these. When the sister was told then she said "why should I live if she cannot". The sister has 5 children of her own, "think of your children, who will look after them." We told her. She agreed to stop.
How do we change people's attitudes and behaviours?
As I said the other day I really miss cheese. On Saturday Joe and I must have spent the first 5 hours of the day talking about cheese. We have a 5 course cheese meal all planned for when we get home. Also we are thinking of getting all our friends to come over for a bring and cheese dish party... Will this even happen? I expect not but it would be so cool. So many possibilities. You do not even need to be a good cook, I would be happy with cheese and pineapple on sticks.
There is cheese available here, the local bakery sells laughing cow and babybell but its pretty expensive and we have no fridge so will not keep. As we walked back from the football on Sunday evening we passed the bakery so we popped in to buy a mini babybell each. It was so tasty and has fulfilled my craving for now.
I was getting worried we would become calcium deficient having no milk or cheese. However green beans contain calcium and we eat plenty of them. Next week we are going to Douala for a few days so we will have pizza. I cannot wait, I think I will have 4 cheeses!!
On Sunday we went to watch the football. It was the regional final, the winner of which enters the national 1st division. As Buea is the capital of the south west province the final is held in our local stadium. This is the very same stadium that Joe plays football in on a Sunday morning.
It was my first trip down to the stadium so I was keen to see it. The pitch is a big rectangle of sand/grit. There are two stands with plastic garden chairs. We had tickets for the stands and should have had seats but they were all full by the time we arrived. On the other two sides of he pitch it is standing room only. Apart from the people sitting up on the poles of the walls (you can spot on the photo).
The game was Tiko vs Limbe. Tiko were 1-0 up on aggregate. During the second half Limbe got a penalty and scored. At full time the end result was 1-1 so we went to extra time. No further goals. The match finished with penalties. Final result Tiko win 5-4 on penalties. To be honest the game was not that exciting to watch. We had a pretty poor view as were sat on the bottom of the stands so had the fence, camera man and occasional police men obstructing our view. I just enjoyed the atmosphere, half time entertainment of a disabled man dancing around on his walking stick and people watching.
We made a sharp exit after the game finished, we had gone with our neighbour Didymus who Joe plays with. He said we should go as the Tiko fans are hooligans and their could be trouble. They were in process of running on to the pitch as we left. There were trophies to be awarded, not sure if they had the chance to do it. I thought security was pretty tight. Lots of police, army and even some marines. Didymus reckoned it was not enough for the number of fans there though.
So three months have passes now. First I have have to say wow three whole months. In one way the time has flown by in another it feels like we have been here forever. This is now our life. We are used it to, acclimatised to the local way of life. I sit here writing this waiting for someone who is 2 hours late to meet me. She will arrive when she is ready, mean while I will just carry on with what I am doing! I am used to the cold showers, the funny food and the rubbish local TV (we now have a TV in the house, 3 Cameroon channels each in English and French, lots of shockingly bad Nigerian programs and films). I am stopping missing western food although really want cheese, I need cheese!
Well what have we been up to feels like nothing (I saw that every month!), we have been feeling pretty frustrated at times this month. Now I understand why volunteer agencies want you to go for 2 years, as it takes that long to get anything done in Africa. We were being selfish not wanting to leave our homes, jobs, friends and families for that long. We only wanted to go for a year which is why we had trouble finding a job. Genesis has been really busy organising a conference which will happen in a week or so. It is a conference of pastors and not related to the work of HINT. It has meant he is out of the office a lot, in Douala at meetings. We have not been able to talk with him about our projects.
HINT held its back pack event in September, which was a great way for the organisation to help the local community. Events like this remind us why we are here and what we are trying to achieve.
Its not all bad though, I have made some good progress in the last few weeks and have a good plan for the rest of the year. I have spent the last week working with Auntie Becky doing house to house interviews. Asking people about their views of HIV and health in their local area. There is an overwhelming need for a heath centre. So I hope to be able to set one up - big tasks. Well I can try and see what I manage. The plan is for it to be a small health post where people can come for simple drugs and emergency treatment. I will train staff to work there so it can continue when we leave.
Joe has written a course teaching web development which will run as part of the advanced computer courses we hope to run. It is all part of giving people skills to get jobs. The Internet is still growing here. Many businesses do not have sites and would be a great opportunity for people to learn this skill. He will start teaching the last week in October for 3 weeks.
We have out frustrations, I think it is to be expected in Africa. Things take time, people have other agendas that don't match ours. We are learning this now, adjusting to is and managing to look at all the positive things we are doing here. It feels so slow but I hope by the time we leave we would have made a difference to the people of Buea, Cameroon.
One thing that makes us very happy is that the dry season is coming. The rain is stopping, not completely yet but it is definitely reducing. The sun is shining, its pretty hot during the day now. So as the nights are drawing in and its getting colder in the UK. Here it is getting HOT HOT HOT. And we deserve it missing the whole heat wave and living in the rain for months (next month hear how it is so hot we hate it!!).
This afternoon we went to visit Maggie in the General Hospital. She is Marceline's sister and has her 6th baby yesterday. He name is not yet decided. The father said he will be named John but it is not fully decided. He is so cute and looks so small in comparison to Naomi.
The hospital looked quite nice it was my first visit up there. It is lots of buildings with covered walkways. The grounds are very clean but this should be expected as you pay a 100CFA hygiene fee at the gate to enter. Unless you look like you are dying then they let you through. I saw the medical ward, surgical ward and maternity wards. Also passed the emergency department and the morgue. Not that we saw inside anything other than the Maggie's room. Rather than a long open ward there are lots of separate rooms with 2-3 beds. The beds were very hard and I think you bring your own bedding. There is no way for the nurses to monitor you once you are in your room. There are patient call bells by every bed though.
I plan is to visit the hospital with Genesis some time to talk to the doctors there about HIV treatments.
On Saturday we went for a day trip. Genesis, Marceline and Naomi came too. We went to Limbe which is our nearest coastal town, 17 miles away. It was very windy but lovely to be by the sea. Limbe is a working fishing town. The sand is black as it is volcanic. The beach was pretty dirty, lots of debris lying around. That is to be expected though when its a working beach. The guide book says there are some nice beaches further along the coast which were used in the film chocolat. After a wonder along the beach watching the fishermen bring in their days catch we got some lunch. We went to an area with various stalls grilling fresh fish and prawns. It was gorgeous we have got quite used to picking a fish apart with our fingers.
We then went to the botanical gardens which were beautiful. Unfortunately we had to pay for a camera so there are no photos inside. I took a few sneaky pictures outside. There were loads of different plants, some great old trees and a fantastic amphitheatre.
Today is our 4 year wedding anniversary. Usually we would buy each other presents related to the year of our anniversary. So four years would be flowers, silk or linen. It would be a little pointless spending the money we have raised though sponsorship on presents so we decided not to buy any this year. I was very impressed that both out mums sent us cards that arrived on time - thank you.
Joe and I like to eat out so we usually celebrate our anniversary by going out for a nice meal in Oxford. Buea does not have a vast selection of restaurants. So I thought to make our anniversary special and not just another day I would cook. I find trying to cook something familiar to us a little difficult here. The food available is pretty different most of the spices, seasonings are unlabeled and unrecognisable! I chose to make frankfurter medley. It is a dish that Joe's mum makes and gave me the recipe some time back. It is simple and does not involve many ingredients. I had seen frankfurters in the local bakery so thought it would be a great dish to make some time. It turned out pretty well. Usually it is made with tinned tomatoes but the local tomatoes are so juicy I could use them. Joe was pretty chuffed, it was nice to have something that is so Talbot as he put it!! Well happy anniversary Joe, sorry its not much. We will have to start planning where we could go out to eat next year - the possibilities are endless!
The first Wednesday of every month is keep Buea clean day. As you can see they need it. One of the things I have really noticed in Cameroon is waste disposal or the lack of.
However no one takes these initiatives seriously. On Keep Buea clean day each business is supposed to close in the morning while they clean their compound. Of course no one wants to lose any business so instead of closing they just look closed too keep the council happy. The door is closed but it is business as usual.
At the house there is no such thing as refuse collection. When I asked where to empty the bin one day Shelia said 'just there' and pointed in to the garden. Marceline put a stop to this as it was outside the kitchen window and flys were gathering. So I was shown the proper place to put rubbish. This is just round past the next house in a big hole.
There are no bins of the street. People throw waste in the gutter or by the side of the path. One day I was wondering up to the market and saw this sign. Next to it was a huge pile of rubbish!!
A few months back Joe wrote on his blog about this family chronology. We thought it was a pretty cool idea and would start one ourselves. We ummed and ahhed about various dates. Half way between out birthdays/ our wedding anniversary. We decided on 1st October. This is because it is the 1st of a month which makes it a nice date to remember. It is also the date we originally got together.
So we started this yesterday. Which was our 7th year anniversary and so far we have noticed no 7 year itch...or will that come in 2009 when we have been married 7 years? We decided to do head shots of each of us and a full length family shot. Hopefully over the next few years we will be able to watch out family grow!! The plan is to have a web site with the photos on. We have not done this yet as it is a little boring at the moment!! I am also going to by a big photo album so we can have a hard copy.
Its quite exciting having a life long family project. I want to fast forward 30 years to see what out family looks like.
We explained our project to Genesis and Marceline so they decided to start one too.
I would show you the photos we took but we need to choose which ones to use of the many we took - the joy of digital photography. I am sure Joe will also want to crop them and get them looking just right. Maybe I will show you one day, or at least link to the site once it is built.
On Friday night I had my first marriage proposal, well second if you count Joe but I am talking about in Africa! I was on my way to the local shop to buy some Coke. We were planing a video evening. We found some prawn crackers in the bakery down the road. So decided to make them and watch Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It was the first time I had made prawn crackers, it was so much fun. Watching them expand in the oil and float to the top and they tasted sooooo good. I have always loved prawn crackers and have them every time I have a Chinese. It was really nice to eat something so familiar and so tasty. We made them with torch light as we thought the kitchen light was broken. However after we had finished we found out the light had been fixed that day!!
Well I digress. We are quite used to being stopped by people who want to talk to us, find out where we are from and what we are doing here. This man stopped me and said hello so I returned the greeting. Then he asked if I would marry him so I live in Cameroon forever. I told him I already had a husband. He asked if we was white or black. So I told him. He then said I should marry him also so I can stay in Cameroon whenever I want. I declined the offer and went on my merry way. Maybe next time he shouts after me.
