Wedding bells

From Cameroon - We...

Yesterday Joe and I were invited to the wedding of Helms and Antonia. Helms is a member of SUFA, Joe's football club. We went with Didimus and Sylvester (who are also members of SUFA), the wedding was due to start at 1, I think this is to make sure everybody is there when it actually starts at 2:30. I even had time to go home and change my dress as it got wet in the back of Sylvester's car. The wedding was held in the University chapel, which sounds quaint and small but was actually pretty big. It was a Catholic service and a very large event. There must have been 100's present. There were about 6 bridesmaids, millions of lady's in waiting and two choirs. The service lasted about 2 1/2 hours, could not follow it too well due to problems with the sound system. A church wedding is not legal in Cameroon they would have previously been to the courts to get married and had a traditional wedding with the family.

After the service as with any wedding the photos were taken then we went off to the reception. This was held outside at the Mount Cameroon FC centre. There were 100's of people there. Once the bride and groom arrived and took their seats (well out of our view) the evening began. There is a chairman who gives some opening remarks then almost everybody makes a speech, this was pretty hard to follow without being able to see what was going on. Then it was time for the food, the SUFA guys decided there were way too many people and not enough food or beer so we left.

African weddings are usually pretty big, it is common for people to just turn up who are not invited as they know the couple, or heard there was a wedding on and hope for free food. There must have been over 400 people at the reception it was far to crowded I felt and was happy to leave. I think this wedding my have been bigger than usual as Helm's father is a chief so the whole village would have been invited, he has also travelled around so made many friends. However it is not unusual to have a few 100!.

Christmas on the beach

We were not convinced Christmas would be much fun this year, but it turned out to be a rather nice day. We saw Marceline and Naomi in the morning and gave them our presents, Naomi was of course more interested in the wrapping paper! Marceline had a Santa hat which looked so cute on Naomi. After heading to the office to make calls to our family we started planning our trip to the beach. We had mentioned our plans to Didimus and Sylvester the night before so they said they would come with us. This worried us that it may mean we do not leave until late in to the afternoon. After a bit of persuading we decided to leave there and then. We visited Sylvester's family on the way. His father-in-law who is a carpenter gave us each a wooden keyring which was lovely. We then continued on to the hotel and beach. It was packed, but we expected it to be. Had to wait a while for our room so had some lunch. Unfortunately they only had buffet lunch which cost a little more than we would have liked to spend. The tide was out so there was some beach, with people playing football, we sat on the wall and chatted with Didimus and Sylvester 'till it was time for them to leave. Then we went for a swim in the sea, it was actually pretty warm. Buffet dinner in the evening also. No turkey - gutted but some nice chicken, pork and fish. The best bit was the chocolate log for desert.

Boxing day was great, we spent the whole day on the beach it was really sunny (Christmas day was a little cloudy). We topped up our tans went swimming in the cool spring water from the mountain and in the sea (which felt like having a bath in comparison to the spring water!). We had a very relaxing couple of days, hope you all enjoyed your Christmases.

The post says it all

MERRY CHRISTMAS

WITH LOVE FROM JOE AND HEV IN CAMEROON

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT DAY

THANKS FOR READING MY BLOG AND KEEPING UP WITH OUR EXPERIENCES

Do they know it's Christmas time at all

In a desperate measure to make myself feel Christmassy I have been playing Band Aid 20, Do they know it's Christmas time. You see in this part of Africa they do know it is Christmas however it appears Christmas has lost even more meaning than it has in the UK. Genesis and Marceline have decided to not celebrate Christmas due to the pagan origins and think it is not how God intended it to be, we should celebrate the birth of Christ everyday. So yesterday this was the morning sermon at church leaving me feeling very depressed about Christmas. We then went off the Figaro for a couple of Christmas beers and I decided to go to any evening service elsewhere to get some of that Christmas feeling. I went to the Full Gospel Mission for what they said would be a short service, it lasted 3 hours I dread to think what a long service is. the service is mostly in French and English, apart from the drama which was in pidgin so I had a little difficulty following it. The pastor also said he was not going to preach then preached for over an hour. I was exhausted by the end but feeling very joyful about Christmas.

Bach eve

Last night I went to me first stag night, or bach eve as they call them here. A guy from Joe's football club is getting married next week so had his final night of freedom last night. Hen nights, or spinster eve's are not that common. Women are invited to a bach eve however it should only be single women so I was a special case.

The party was being held in the mountain club, a private members club built by the British. We did not know where this was so met at Figaro's (our regular). Joe arranged to met Willy at 7pm, we arrived about 7:30 and were told he had gone, we hung out for a while with some other guys from the football club that were planning on heading up to the bach night later. Willy came back about 10:00 and at 10:30 we went up to the bach night, the party was in full swing but there was no bachelor present.

We danced a little, well tried to dance. Not quite got the African hip wiggle yet. At about 2:30 the bachelor arrived. He was paraded through the crowd, had champagne poured all over him and was then subject to interrogation from random girls asking questions. By this time we decided it was time to be heading home, the party will go on 'till dawn. So it was a great night and I look forward to the wedding next week.

Book review: A Prayer for Owen Meany

This book was fantastic, I really wonder to myself what on earth have I been reading for the last 27 years. There is so much great literature I have missed out on. I am not one for making new year resolutions but maybe I will make a return to England resolution to read more good books and watch less rubbish TV when I go home.

Anyway back to Owen Meany, set mostly in the 50's and 60's in a small town. Telling the tale of Johnny Wheelwright (the narrator) and his best friend Owen Meany. Owen Meany has shall we say 'special powers' and the book gives you that 'everything happens for a reason' feeling. I will not tell you what this pair got up to. The book is funny, sad and very bizarre at times. However it is very enjoyable and fun to read. Owen Meany is a funny little boy who firmly believes he is on earth for a reason. The book makes some great observations about family life and although it may not keep you guessing it is a very enjoyable read.

I have the power

Genesis and I are currently collecting all the documents we need to open the health unit. Most of these documents Genesis has to organise, I am in charge of the certification to prove I have some sort of medical qualification. Well I brought copies of my nursing certificates with me so it would be no problem. Of course I have to get them stamped and certified to prove they are originals. Hmmm this may be tricky as the originals are in Suffolk. Well I thought I would go and see the friendly DO (divisional officer) too see if I could get him to sign them.

As I sat in the office waiting for my turn he turned a few people down who did not have their original documents with them. My turn came I presented the documents explaining what they were. He ummmed and arrred about it, telling me "I should have the originals, where I the originals". "In England" I explained, "well how did you get copies" he asked, "I did them before I came". However he decided as it was me and he knows me he would sign them!! So that's one more thing ticked off in the crazy amount of paperwork we need to open a health unit.

Christmas is coming.......really?

I can not believe it is Christmas day on Monday. I do not feel in the slightest bit Christmassy. As I have grown up, each year has felt less like Christmas. However this year it could be August for all I know. Usually I get excited by the twinkling lights, especially when the room is all dark apart from the lights on the Christmas tree. Or there is the odd song that gives me a warm gooey feeling inside, for example, 'I'm driving home for Christmas'. The Christmas carols always give me a nice Christmassy feeling too.

This year I have none of that, no Christmas songs playing anywhere, no little sparkly lights, no decorations and only the odd carol. Christmas is only one day here in Cameroon, it is not a whole month or more like at home. There has been no long run-up since November not even anything this week. It has been great to miss out on all the hype, the over-the-top houses that use a years supply of electricity in a few weeks and the irritating songs in every shop, none of that I miss. What I will miss is all the great stuff that comes with Christmas day. They turkey and all the trimmings, the sharing of presents, fitting in seeing all the family in a couple of days (stressful but enjoyable to see so many people in such little time).

Christmas day itself is a bank holiday (boxing day is not). It is not a big family day, people do not travel to be with their families like we do. Women and children will get a new dress (which is often their only present), if they do not get a new dress they throw a big strop and this can lead to divorce (I am told). People go to church in the morning, however as I understand it Genesis and Marceline have decided to not celebrate Christmas due to its pagan origins and that the meaning of Christmas is not lost. I think this is over-reacting a little as you can always refocus yourself on the Christian origins. In the afternoon the day would be like any other Sunday, many people would see it as a chance to catch up on sleep (not that different to England, big meal, few glasses of wine and a nap!). Children would visit the local houses and be given various treats. The result of this is that households prepare far too much food then have nothing left to eat the rest of the week.

In the evening is when the parties begin and the adults enjoy Christmas. Young people go out to the pubs and clubs, drink far too much and stay out all night.

All in all it sounds pretty different to an English Christmas, we are planning on getting away and spending Christmas on the beach. Maybe I can tell you more about Cameroon Christmas after the event.

Celebrating first teeth - Cameroon style

Over the last couple of weeks Naomi's first couple of teeth have come through. To celebrate this fact Marceline decided to cook a nice meal. So off she went to the market to buy some fresh ingredients. I wondered through the kitchen a little later to do some washing. There was a live chicken on the floor. Not even in a basket this time. At first I thought it had wondered in from outside (as they often do this). However it was sitting very still and I soon realised that's because it's legs were tied together. This chicken is the fresh ingredients for out special lunch.

*Vegetarians and chicken lovers may not want to read the following paragraph*
A hour or so later it was time to kill the chicken, so we watched Marceline to see how it is done. Dig a little hole in the soil for the blood to go, get a sharp knife unfortunately (for the chicken) none of our knives are really that sharp. Next she grabbed it by the feet and wings managed to hold them between her legs as she then grabbed the head and slit the throat. Took a few cuts due to the not-so-sharp knife but she got there in the end. The head came completely off and the chicken was still flapping its wings around. Of course I have heard the saying 'running around like a headless chicken' but I did not realise they actually can run around. Poor little chicken. So the headless chicken then got immersed in hot water, so that the blood comes out and the wings are easier to remove.

A few hours later we all sat and enjoyed our fresh chicken. Sheila was very happy as she got the feet to eat.

Oh I forgot....

I forgot to say in my last entry, Joe has finished working on the new HINT website. So it is now live at www.hintonline.org. So go and visit, take a look around and check out the donate button!!! At the moment you can only donate via paypal which is a pain but we are working to improve this.

Oh and by the way we still do not have water, may be off for a month - so much for a couple of days! It feels like we are camping, going outside to get water each morning. Everyday becoming more grateful for those solar showers!

Almost half way....

......Now that is a scary thought. Today we have been here five months. We will not be here for a whole year as we arrived in the middle of July and have to be back at work at the start of July. So at about new year we will be half way through. A lot of the last month has been taken up with me parents visiting, which was a welcome break for us. Joe finished teaching his first web design course a few days before they arrived, so he was ready to relax. The last few days of the course had caused particular stress due to lack of power and being closed down by taxation. resulting in the students only having a couple of days to complete the final project instead of the planned one week. Nevertheless the students did well and managed to get some stuff done. Power has been a real problem in the last few weeks. We are now protected from short power cuts as we have ups back-up. However recently the electricity board has been putting the power out for the whole day. Joe is due to start a new course on Monday.

We are taking over the buildings for the health unit (as it will now be called due to Cameroon bureaucracy) at the end of the month. Currently Genesis and I are going over all the paperwork we must collect and of course get stamped by the DO. Hopefully it should be a smooth easy process but I am sure somewhere along the line someone will make trouble. I will be training my first group of HIV trainers in January once we have the building. It has been a great frustration to me it has taken five months to get this far. I hope that by my six month update I will have completed it. I often feel we are getting nothing done and what is the point. However it is a slow gradual process and I am sure I will look back after my (almost) year and see the good things.

We are set to set up the school book pool. We will use storage space at the buildings for the health unit. We have been to visit the schools we will be targeting and have teachers elected to help us with the project. The only thing we need now is money to buy all the books. We have applied for funding from the British High Commission so fingers crossed. We are very excited about this project as it will really help the local children, education is so important. Once the initial books are bought it can continue for years.

We get very frustrated with people attitudes. People expect everyone to do everything at an instant yet they do not get stuff done themselves. Resulting in nothing getting done by anyone apart from moaning at each other for not doing it - sounds like the NHS I remember! There are still many cultural differences that we find difficult to adjust too. People can be very rude to each other and I think they do not view it in the same way we do. We are coming from a different perceptive and would not tolerate that behaviour in the UK. Here most people just put up with being shouted at without fighting their corner - does not matter who's right its all down to who is older or in a position of power. If you do fight back it may lose you your job.

So five months gone, we are still learning, still working and still enjoying life in Cameroon. We have good days and bad days but doesn't everyone. I cannot believe it is Christmas, I am sitting in a skirt and sandals and see no decorations, no lights and there is not irritating music in the background. It is great to avoid all the hype but I do miss it.

How to survive without water

Yesterday a man from the Cameroon water company called SNEC (which sounded very like 'snake' when when the guy was announcing his presence from outside the house) came to take our water meter away. The reason for this is that the previous tenant finally got round to telling the water board he had moved (it only took five months). So we have to register with SNEC that we currently live in the property and until then we cannot have any water. This will only take a day or two Genesis told us, if you believe that you will believe anything. So we figured that we will be using the public tap for a few days. Its not far from our house. Luckily we had filled up our solar showers that morning so we can at least try to prevent ourselves from becoming too smelly.

be the same one they took away yesterday. We just have to we get It is usual for the children to fetch the water from the public tap, so off Gabriel went with a collection of bottles to get some water for us all. Meanwhile Genesis sorts out the paperwork required to get a meter. It will not just be any ond meter, it will in fact be the same meter that was there before. All we had to do was prove that we live in the house. To do this we fill in some form, which the landlord also signs to say we are his tenants. Our landlord lives 8 hours away in the North West, so it may take some time. Instead we asked Didimus to sign it as he acts as caretaker. We then have to get this form signed by the Divisional Officer (DO) to prove it is true and correct. Everything in Cameroon needs to be signed by the DO. I am sure he could be doing more imortant things with his time other than signing everybody's forms. I have been to see the DO a few times now and he knows who I am. I got both sets of parents letters of invitation and copies of my parents passports signed. He was very upset to learn my parents-in-law were visiting as he was hoping I was single! Anyway we went up to visit him today. We did not actually have all the paper work required, as we needed the tenancy agreement to prove we are the tenants and the name of our landlord. But as the form was signed by Didimus and not out landlord this would cause trouble. So Genesis decided as the DO knows who I am and 'I have the power' of a white woman we would give it a go. And indeed he signed the form even though he did not have all the paperwork required. Just because I was there - Genesis thinks so.

Genesis then took the form to SNEC but as there was no power for most of the day they could not process it (even Cameroon has become too dependant on computers). So maybe tomorrow......

Fear not however, we do have water at home and its free. So we are in no rush. There is a valve (or whatever it is called) on the supply pipe before where the meter would go. So with the correct tool (which we have) we can turn the supply on and use all the water we want.

Where is home?

After catching up on all the events of the last couple of weeks I feel I have nothing to blog about this week. We are back to our daily routine. Joe had planned to teach this week but due to lack of advertising (not our fault) had no students. So it is postponed to next week. Genesis has been sick with quite severe Malaria, spent a couple of days in hospital and we are now encouraging him to rest. So that has meant he has not been about to help us with stuff. So its been pretty quite since the parents left.

I do own a house, its just on the outskits of Oxford and has three Polish girls living in it. So I can not really call that my home. We have the house that we live in here. However I feel no ownership to that house. We just live there. We are not I got thinking one day about where I now call home. I own a home, its on the outskirtsin charge of the household - that's Genesis and Marceline. We have our own room which this weekend we finally got looking pretty smart. We had a lot of clearing away to do from all the treats we got from Mum and Dad. So we bought some nice wicker shelves and finally got stuff a little more sorted. We still have one suitcase full of stuff as we do not have storage for it. However we keep the food stuffs in that case to stop the mice sneaking in to our room and having a nibble.

We often talk about 'when we go home......'. It is hard not too. It's not that we really miss home as we don't (well speaking for myself here - I don't). Its just nice to talk about all the things we want to do and the people we will see when we get back.

I still often refer to Suffolk home even though I moved to Oxford nine years ago. I think Suffolk stopped being home once I was married and owned a house. However I would still say I was going home for the weekend.

I try to refer to our house here at 'home' but it does not seem right. A year is a long time. When I was a student I always referred to my rented house on a year long let as my 'home'. However this year long house does not feel quite like 'home'. We always say we will return to 'the house'. However that is also the term house here rather than home that everybody else uses. It must be an African thing.

So I count myself to be very lucky, I have three homes. Suffolk, Oxford and Cameroon.I know I will always be welcome at any of them (well the Polish girls may not appreciate it right now!). Am I lucky or just a lost wondering soul?

Beware of killer fridge magnets

Last week a friend of ours sent me this article on the BBC. I have always had it drummed in to me to keep clear of magnets as they can interfere with my pacemaker. However I never really realised that these new shiny silver magnets often found in bags and jewelry are stronger than the old dull gray magnets. They are of course cheaper to make so are becoming more popular. I do not feel I am in much danger as I am pretty sensible and do not go around trying to stick fridge magnets to my chest. the danger really comes if there is prolonged contact with the magnet.

The man from Del Monte - He is bad

One of the projects we want to get running at HINT is a school book pool. Primary education is 'free' to all. I say 'free' as last week two children came to out house last week to see Marceline as they had been sent home from school because they were unable to pay some charge the school so got sent home until they could pay it. The charge is for general maintenance of the school or equipment which the government does not pay for. Anyway I digress. Each school child needs 5-10 text books (depending which year they are in). As you can imagine most parents cannot afford to buy these books so Joe had the idea of setting up a library type system. We have been visiting a few of the local headteachers to tell them about our project and get the book lists.

So the other week, with Mum and Dad in tow we went to a school down the road. The head was telling us of a few other problems the school faces. The school is situated opposite a Del Monte banana plantation. The day before our visit Del Monte had been spraying the banana trees with insecticide. They evacuated all their staff from the site and moved the workers out of their compounds while they did it. However they neglected to inform the school of what they were doing. Resulting in the children being covered in insecticide as they were playing outside. The head told us how many of the staff and pupils were off sick that day with coughs as a result of the spraying.

I want to go to the ball

Being is a far away country is great. We are missing all the Christmas hype, busy shopping centres and cold weather. However along with this we miss all the Christmas parties and festivities. I know, I know you cannnot have it both ways. Tonight is the surgical Christmas ball. My two best mates from work are organising the ball so I have been hearing all about it. The ball is being held in one of the Oxford colleges and will be a fantastic occasion I am sure. It is the first time we have had a ball since I worked there and I am gutted to be missing it.

All I need is a fairy godmother to turn a paw paw in to a plane, and my African print material in to a beautiful gown. Then I could fly over for the ball and return tomorrow. It is at times like this I really miss my friends and home. Oh well maybe next year.

I predict a riot, part 2

The students at the University of Buea are not happy. Recently there was an exam for entrance to the medical school. A list of 127 names were published of the candidates that passed. A few days later a different list was published from the ministers of education in Yaounde with 153 names on it. My understanding is that the added 26 names were of francophone's, who did not take the entrance exam and are related to various ministers in Yaounde. So as you can understand this upset the students of the University. They do not was to be associated with the corruption that goes on in this country. They want the university to be run probably and each student should deserve their place on merit, not who they are related to.

As a result of the newly published list the students went on strike. Now when i say strike I mean a rampage. We were away in Kribi and thankfully missed it all. The main rioting was on Wednesday night last week and we returned on Thursday. The area of Buea near the university was like a ghost town. All the shops were shut, there were burnt out cars on the roads, smashed sign boards and a tank in the entrance to the University.

Joe was supposed to play football that afternoon but all meetings of groups were banned in case you were students plotting. There was a large police presence and a very eerie feeling about the town. Before we came to Cameroon we read the advice of the foreign office and the only danger it mentioned about Buea was the rioting students as a year or so ago there was a similar episode (not sure what that one was about).

At least two students were shot and killed (by police) during the rioting, some people are saying maybe it was 3, 4 or 5. I have dug out a few news stories from a Cameroon news paper. The initial report, photos of the riot (I have spared you the photos of the dead, which are on this news site) and a follow up story. There are rumors they may start up again as the SU president is being held by police with no charges. We are away from the main area of trouble and will keep a low profile for a couple of days. No need to worry about us its the poor medical students trying to sit exams you need to worry about.

Solar Shower

Mum and Dad brought a whole host of stuff with them for us. For which we are eternally grateful and sorry they were short on space for clothing. We had many treats including chocolate, crisps and feta cheese - mmmmmmm. They also brought out a whole bunch of Christmas presents for us from various friends and family. Most of these we have hidden away and will save till the day, so we can try to feel like it is actually Christmas. However we had orders from my brother and his wife to open a couple of theirs to get good use of them. The first present was a small travel pillow which makes sleeping so much more comfy than the foam stuffed lumpy pillow we had previously. The second present was an ingenious bit of thinking on Rich or Clare's part - a solar shower.

Its a bit black bag with a nozzle on the end. You leave it out in the sun to heat then at the end of the day enjoy a hot shower. Well my first attempt was not successful. I left it out all day but worried it would get too hot so placed it where I knew it would go in to the shade. Turns out Buea was not very sunny that day so it gained little heat. i thought I would not waste the water and shower with it any way. Turns out 20L of water is quite heavy and I struggled to hang it up and neglected to use the string supplied. This resulted in dropping the shower a couple of times and it falling past other nails in the wall tearing holes in it - oops. So after some super glue and sleek (really sticky nursing tape) I fixed it.

Yesterday I had my second attempt. According to the instructions after 3 hours at 21 degrees the water gets pretty hot. So I put the bag out to warm at lunch time. However we must remember what we learn from frozen oven chips that it always takes twice as long to cook as the packet says.

The water was warm but not HOT. Next time I will leave it out all day. But the puncture repair worked and I did not fill it as much so my feeble arms could hang the bag. Its a great invention just takes a little practice to gets its full potential but I did enjoy my warm shower last night. So Thank you Rich and Clare we are very grateful.

Karma, Karma, Karma Chameleon

As it was our first day back at work of a couple of weeks off. We thought we had better take it easy. So had a 2 hour break this morning. Well actually we had some electrical fault in the office and had to turn the power off while it was fixed. Not too sure what was going on but something was getting really hot and melting. As there was no power we went off to sort a few things out.

At home Marceline was outside clearing the wall ready to paint it. As she was chopping down the plants she saw a Chameleon so called us over. It was amazing to see, just the same colour as the leaves even with white spots as the leaves were splatted with white paint. It was so tempting to try to move it on the ground to see it change colour but we decided that was a little cruel. So we just watched it move though the undergrowth curling it tail and took loads of photos.

All good things...

On Saturday night we said our goodbyes to Mum and Dad. It was sad to see them go we have had a great time together and I think they really enjoyed it too. We have visited many places, seen many sights and generally had a great time. We had a few worrying moments, many a near miss in cars, we got the closest to having to pay a bribe we have ever been when we got stopped at a routine road block by the police who were insisting we showed our vaccination certificates for yellow fever. After a lot of arguing and out car driver taking our side the police man gave in and let us carry on. We saw some great examples of Cameroon organisation (or lack of it) along with most things happening at African time, buses leaving 2 1/2 hours late etc.

We are very grateful to Mum and Dad for coming to visit us, for all the goodies they brought with them and fro all the struggles they over came. So thank you very much, we really appreciate it and hope you both enjoyed your trip. Cameroon may not be the first place you would think of coming on holiday and it would be pretty difficult if you did not know anyone there. However it is a beautiful country with so much to offer, even if they do all drive like nut cases.

Mum summed up life in Cameroon well, they are poor but appear very happy. People do not have much but make do with what they have.

I hope that blogging will now return to its usual service after the short interlude you have experienced. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.