Is it coz I is white?

I have formed a new group under HINT called HINT - HED we are the Helps International HIV educators. Our first event is planned for May 1st, which is Labour day. Various organisations, and businesses march and advertise their services etc. We plan to go and do HIV sensitisation, hence the red ribbons. So I went to the labour office to register, I was under the impression it would be free so wondered up to the office with only a taxi fare on me. I arrived and the man had to phone the boss in Limbe, he spoke French but I heard him say I was European. He came off the phone and told me it was 15 000 francs, As I did not have the money I left. the rest of the group was outraged at this price so we decided to send a Cameroonian down to Limbe to pay. Quenter went and she was asked to pay 10 000 francs but she pleaded since we are a charity could we pay 5 000 francs, so the woman in the labour office phoned her boss. I am told the conversation went a little like this.

Labour office - where are you from?
Quenter - Buea
Labour office - Did you go to the Buea office yesterday?
Quenter - No
Labour office - Are you sure?
Quenter - yes quite sure
Boss on the phone - Is she white?
Labour office - No black.
Guy on phone - Are they in the same group as the white?
Quenter - No (telling anti corruption lies)
Labour office - OK you can pay 5 000, do you have a t-shirt for me?
Quenter - No they are in production
Labour office - OK bring me one on Tuesday, and if we find out you are in the same group as that white we will make trouble.

So there we have it proof they wanted 10 000 extra for the colour of my skin. It is so annoying getting charged whiteman prices all the time but this is just blatant. As long as Quenter was not in a group with this white man it is OK for her to pay 5 000!

Red Ribbon Day

Following one of my HIV educators' seminars we have decided to form a group of community educators. This group will visit schools, attend public holidays etc and educate people about HIV. I was very excited when they suggested this and am helping them run the group but not running it for them as I will not be here forever. We decided to get hold of some red ribbons to give out at these events so I went about trying to get some.

I went to visit the PTG (Provincial Technical Group)this is the local government office in charge of HIV control. I have been to visit them before to let them know about the HIV training we were doing. After about 4 visits I was actually able to see the controller and she was not interested. So I went up it took two visits to find her in office and I asked about getting red ribbons or other resources for our work. She told me 'those days are gone, we no longer give out resources you have to get your own'. This left me wondering what they do actually do as they were not interested to hear about our project or help. In fact the only thing I have seen them do in almost one year is create stickers to go in taxis to encourage testing.

I decided I would go about making my own red ribbons. So off I went to the market bought some red ribbon and some pins and off we go. I have enough ribbon to make about 200 which is a good start but I think I will never want to see a red ribbon again when I have finished.

Book Review: River Town

This is a book Bill lent us, a book about a Peace Corp Volunteer spending his two years service in China. He worked in a small town on the Yangtze river teaching English and Literature in a teacher training college.

Many of his stories I can relate too from our time here. Being treated differently because you are white, never quite being able to fit it no matter how hard you try. Although I think he had it much worse than we do, there are a few whites in Buea, Hessler and his fellow volunteer were the only waiguoren (as they were called) in Fuling and the first Americans to visit in 50 years.

There was a lot to learn about living in China, he would often say something in class that would cause all the students to go silent and bow their heads. Everything was very political, there was no escaping it.

It is a fascinating book about China, a country I would love to visit but maybe not live in.

Ask a question

As we havea few weeks left I thought I would give you the opportunity to ask me a question. Is there anything about life in Cameroon you want to know that I have not covered? Anything about our work or HINT? Anything you like. Leave a comment on this entry and I will do my best to answer them over the next week or so.

PS you do not need an account to leave a comment, post as anonymous or other and you can leave the URL section empty.

Evangelism gone wrong

The area of Cameroon we live in is very Christian and people are very open about it. They will ask you to your face 'are you a believer?' Then go about converting you if you say no. Taxis drive about with slogans like 'Jesus Saves' and 'Trust in the Lord' etc. painted on the bumper. However the one type of evangelism I really cannot tolerate is the middle of the night mic'ed up singing and services. I tell you this would drive people away, far away from the church - not bring them in.

Whilst in the North we were woken up about 4am every night by the Muslims call to prayer. This however only lasted 15 minutes or so and we soon went back to sleep afterwards. The local churches and their singing at times goes on all night here. They either start about 11pm and finish about 2am or start an early service sometime before 6am. It drives me mad the distant constant singing or droning of a preacher. They preach for hours - I do not know how they come up with so much stuff to say, I do look forward to the 30 minute sermons by Graham (Kidlington) and Mark (Woodbridge) when we go home! They will be short, to the point (and will have a point, which sometimes here I fail to see) and most importantly not be in the middle of the night audible in my bedroom whilst I am trying to sleep.

Thankfully Genesis does not hold all night services, rallies or crusades at the church I attend here so I feel free to moan about them. Grrrrr to that noisy church down the road, it would help if that sang in tune at least.

Visit to the orphanage

Last Friday we went to visit the orphanage where Hannah is volunteering for a few months. It is a couple miles outside Buea in the middle of the bush. The orphanage is called HOTPEC which means Hebzibah Handicapped, Orphanage Training Production and Estascy Centre.

There are 69 children at the orphanage ranging from about one year to 18. They have a primary school on site and the older children go to the local secondary school. The children sleep two to a bed in bunk beds, so four to each bunk bed. They have 3 changes of clothes, two for day to day wear and a Sunday best. A couple of the children are handicapped but most are orphans of one parent or both. There are some very sad stories about how the children came to be in the orphanage and regularly people bring more children but there is no more space. The few who are handicapped still have both parents but are often abandoned as they can not help on the family farm, they cannot bring anything in to the household only take. This results in parents deciding it costs too much to have them at home and someone else can look after them. Many of the orphans who have lost one parent cannot be placed with another family as their parent will want them back once they have been through school and can come on work on the farm. In other words they do not want to have to feed them while they cannot work but are happy to take them back once they are of use.

The children were very happy to see us and soon were hanging off our arms. One small girl Esther was really sweet, Joe had to help her up the hill on our walk around the farm. She then sat with me while Joe played football with some of the boys. We bought a football to give them but the valve fell in to the ball while we pumped it up. This was very annoying as we really wanted to leave them something. I plan to post out some clothes to them once we get home, so if you have any unused children clothes send them my way and I will send them on.

The orphanage is run by a family of brothers and sisters. One brother lives in London and works in Sainsbury's as a shelf stacker. He sends nearly all his wages to the orphanage and that pays for food, clothes, teachers (they get about 20 pounds a month) and everything else. It amazes me this man can live in London on his wage let alone feed 69 children and the workers in Cameroon. I dread to think what circumstances he is living in. However I am sure it is better than most here.

We had a great time visiting them, the children all appear quite healthy and happy but life is hard and the staff struggle.

Traditional wedding

Most international volunteers who are here for any length of time have a Cameroonian friend, this friend who expects nothing from us and gives plenty. Helps us not get ripped off and generally shows us the ropes. In our case it is of course Didimus, for Bill it is Hans. On Saturday Hans' brother was getting married in Canada to a fellow Cameroonian who lives in the States. So as they held their wedding in Canada we had a traditional wedding here in Cameroon. Hans was standing in as the groom and a sister of the bride was also standing in so it was a marriage by proxy.

Hans is Bakwarian which is the local tribe to Buea, we all went in traditional Bakwari dress. This was pretty easy for me I wore a three piece set I had made not long after arriving, Joe (and Bill) however did not have any traditional dress. So off we went to the market and bought Joe some material to make a loin, he had a plain white shirt and needed a hat. With no one to help us we actually ended up getting a hat from a North West tribe, nobody minded and were really chuffed we had made the effort.

The wedding was due to start at 1:30 so we met at Bills house to make sure the loins were tied correctly then on to Hans' brothers house. He has a nice pad just around the corner from Bills place, you almost forget you are in Cameroon when sat in his parlour. A few friends/ family were there including Tata Kingue a popular Cameroon singer. We left the house about 3:00 thinking they would all be waiting for the arrival of the groom at the town hall in Tiko but when we got there, there was something else to wait for. I have not idea what but the wedding started about 6:00pm a nice 4 1/2 hours late (my 45 minutes is nothing in comparison).

Following the ceremony was a little tricky, basically the two Pa's sat in the middle of the room and had it out, we could not hear what they were saying but basically it is weather or not they approve of the marriage. Then four girls are brought one at a time to the father of the groom so he can choose which one his son shall marry. Each one is rejected and the family friend who is bringing them begs for money for transport each time. After the four girls the choir bring in the fifth girl, this is the one to be accepted so the then joins her groom on the state and they dance together. That was about it afterwards we have item 11, fine chop. There was a huge variety of food and after the chairperson announcing there would be no discrimination in the order of feeding we went first after the top table. We then tried to join in the dancing, basically you shrug your shoulders to the music but if you get it slightly wrong you find out you are doing a different tribes dance.

Here is the picture I have been waiting for

So we have been here nine months now and it has taken me that long to get a decent photo of Mount Cameroon. Most the time it is shrouded in cloud, or I am not in a good position for photographing it. We had been told March/April was a pretty good time to view the mountain. Just as the rainy season is starting because after the rain the sky's clear and the mountain is seen in all its glory. What you can see as the top here is not the summit, it is where hut 2 is and still some way from the summit as there is a plateau before it climbs again to the summit.

It is all downhill from here

So we have been here nine months now, we have just under two months left to go. We are really starting to feel the accelerator as we race down hill to the finish. In many ways we are looking forward to going home but we often wish we could stay here for a bit longer.

The last month has been pretty busy, it started with a trip to the North of the country which was really interesting and well worth the nightmare journey. I then had some painting left to finish off at the health centre and we opened on the 2nd April following a dedication service a week before. Things have been pretty slow since opening, but that is not surprising as it takes a while to get established. I have had three patients so far and a few other visiting and getting HIV information. We have now posted posters all round the town and the sign board will be up next week so that should get things moving. I have had another well attended HIV educators' seminar and in the follow-up session for the previous group it was decided to form a team of community educators so we met last week to begin plans.

Joe has been busy with his 4th group of web design students and starts his new Photoshop course this week. He has also been catching out scammers using and abusing the Internet in our Internet cafe. People feel they have no work and no chance of getting work, a friend will tell them about these scam opportunities and they feel they are left with little option. Little do they know Handy Cafe (our time server) has a big brother mode so we can view their every move and strike while the iron is hot. You have too feel sorry for these guys, they are pretty ashamed at what they are doing but need to get money from somewhere.

Once Upon A Time in Mexico

For a while we have been saving a DVD that Joe's parents brought out for us when they visited. We planned to buy some tomatoes, onion and chillies from the market and make salsa to go with our tortilla chips so we could have a Mexican evening while watching Once upon a time in Mexico. A few days before we planned to do this, Bill mentioned to us how he had some taco spice and found a great recipe for making tortillas. So we decided to celebrate Easter we would create a Mexican feast. I was in charge of the guacamole, which is not hard to make when the avocado here tastes sooo good. Joe made a lovely hot salsa, Bill made tortillas and the beef filling was a joint effort, made delicious but the lovely beef we had bought from the market. It took us a while to convince the man at the market we did not want any bone with out beef thank you very much. Marceline said everytime she buys beef for us at the market she has to explain she does not want bone as she has white men living with her!

So we cooked up a great feast added some lime into our '33' export beer to give it that sol feeling. Cheese is a problem round here, we managed to get some grated ementall, which added a strange but tasty flavour. However all in all we had some delicious fajitas, sour cream would have been nice, but we cannot have everything.

Once out feast was cooked we plugged the data projector in to Bill's laptop and watched Once upon a time in Mexico, cinema style - although the plug in computer speakers did not quite do the audio justice. The film it has to be said was not as good as the food, not much of a story line and the fake blood looked rubbish!!

Retro

I have finally got round to buying a new phone after mine was stolen on Women's day. the orginal plan was to get my UK one decoded but turns out it was not as easy as I had hoped. so I bit the bullet and bought myself a very retro Nokia 3310. Do you remember, it is almost like a fisher price 'my first phone'. Everybody must have had one at some point, I did a nice grey one just like my new one.

So any of you that have my number it is now back in use and I will recieve all your messages. I may even reply as I still have some of my 5000 francs credit MTN kindly gave me.

Can I get a witness

Joe got a call from Bill the other evening, went something like this:

Bill: Hey Joe, got a strange request.
Joe: Sounds interesting.
Bill: Basically there is this Dutch girl and Cameroon guy, they live in Germany and want to get married in Cameroon, they need a European witness to make it legal, you free Thursday?
Joe: Well sure I guess so.

So today we went up to the Buea Rural Council for the big event, Bill met us there also. We arrived about 9am as asked and the event kicked off after 11, meaning Joe would be late for his class so a quick call was made to the office to inform them.

All marriages in Cameroon have to be done at the Rural Council to make them legal. The Mayor does the business and he had been at some meeting hence we started late, but we expect these things.

There were 6 couples to be married, and ours went first. So up goes Joe to do his bit and sign the register. Each marriage was short and sweet, which was good as there were six to get through. The Mayor was very funny and kept telling people off for not speaking loud enough, if the woman answer louder than the man he would say things like 'we all know how will be in charge in that household'. He made each person give loud booming answers. He also encouraged people to look around the room to be sure this was the one they wanted to marry. Each person also had to state weather it was a monogamous or polygamous marriage. I really wanted one to say polygamous but none did. Even the marriage certificates has a box to fill in stating weather the marriage is monogamous or polygamous.

The final couple were refused to be married, they were young and there were no parents or older relatives present. So the Mayor has the right to refuse to wed them and he did.

Open for business

Today the long awaited, long time in planning health centre has opened (well actually it was Monday but due to lack of time and power it has taken me until now to post this). We have been planning this for eight and a half months - the whole time I have been here. Back in July last year Genesis and I started talking about the possibility of some sort of health centre or HIV centre. The next step was to get the opinions of the local people and chiefs, over 30% of people asked said the main thing this area is lacking is a health centre up to 50% said it is one of things this area is lacking. We then spent time talking to the delegate for health and other government people to see what is possible. We began compiling the paper work and searched for a building. By December we had found a building it took a few months for the previous tenants to move out then much work was needed to make the building suitable. And today it is open, we have been using the hall for HIV seminars already but now we are open for business.

A great deal of thanks must go to Didimus who has helped with the painting and helped us find a good builder after the last one ran away with a bag of cement having hardly done any of the work. A huge thank you must also go to Kidlington Baptist Church, Oxfordshire who donated money to help with the renovations and purchasing of equipment. The donation came as a great surprise to us and all of us at HINT are very grateful as we were having to cut corners on the work.

There are still some things to be done but I can currently work round them. The plumber has vanished after being given 16 000 francs to buy equipment so I currently have no running water. This means I cannot do any dressings at the moment and have to dash home to use the loo! We also need a sign board on the road to advertise our whereabouts.

Last Sunday we had a dedication service for the centre with an attendance of about 70 people, all the local people we invited including the chief so that was a great advert.

So now I am sat waiting for the first patient, I think things will be slow to begin with so I will not be discouraged. Time is needed to spread the word that we are here and offering a free service. (I got my first patient on the second day of opening, a cute little boy just over a year old, high fever. I sent him to the hospital with ?Malaria.)

So here is the after view of the reception/waiting area

And this is my office/treatment room


For a reminder of what it did look like

Burning Fish 2007

Over the weekend we went to a small beach party in Limbe. It was with a few of our fellow volunteers from Buea and around, to help the American contingent celebrate their spring break. We had a great time, there was burning (both skin and fire (not our skin though)), there was swimming, there was beer and palm wine, there was fish and there was sun - what more do you need? T-shirts - we even had them.

We stayed over two nights camping in tents, lit a fire each night and the workers of the park rosted fish for us. As volunteers in Africa we had to be very resourceful as there were not enough cups, so as you can see from the photo me an Hannah (from England, met her last week) are enjoying our palm wine out of two half's of a water bottle. Palm wine comes from the palm tree, here in Buea we drink the bottom wine, this means the tree is felled and the wine runs from the bottom of the tree, in other areas they drink the up wine, meaning the wine is tapped from the top of the tree meaning you do not need to chop it down unlike the wasteful South Westerners. Palm wine has quite a low alcoholic content so is great for sipping by the sea on a sunny afternoon, it is also pretty cheap we bought 5 litres for 500 francs (50p). If you are so inclined (which I was not) you can top up your palm wine with some fofo to give it an extra kick. Fofo is the local fire water - high in alcohol low in taste. Bill can tell you more about palm wine, or mutango as it is in pidgin.


Sleeping the in the tents was pretty hot and humid but a nice bath in the warm Atlantic soon freshened us up before we went in search of breakfast. However the second night there was a tropical storm, the rain was heavy the lighting was bright and the tents turned out to not be water proof. End result of being very wet, the orange colour of my sleeping bag staining a whole bunch of my cloths and not much sleep. I chose not to be in the crazy group outside watching the storm and shook like a hamster in my sleeping bag.

In the morning most went straight home as too wet and tired to contemplate another day on the beach but Joe and I decided to stay, the weather had improved slightly and the sea was so inviting so we spend the day relaxing on the beach.

Elephant graveyard

The only Elephant we got sight of in Waza park was the skeleton of one. I thought this was really quite cool and we got some great pictures. Each bit I could identify was of course huge, I kept saying to Joe - look there is a vertebrae - its huge, look at the jaw - it's huge, the skull is huge. Then we took a close look at the skull with the guide, no tusks. This elephant was killed by hunters. But this a protected national park I thought, yes it is but the local people and some who come from Chad kill the guards so they can have free roam of the park. killing the elephants for tusks, the antelope and monkeys for bush meat. It is very sad, the park are doing what they can to stop it but with the risk of losing men they have to choose what is more important to protect. The local people are clever, they do not use guns as that would bring attention to themselves, they use poison. They go about putting poison in the grass where they observe animals feeding, then during the night come and collect up the dead animals taking what they want.

More than just begging

As I said before the North appears to have a lot more poverty than the South of Cameroon. At many point along our journey there and back there were many children running along side the train or bus. These children were poor, very poor, their clothes were thread bare with holes everywhere. These children were as you would expect begging, on the roadside or by the train. They would see the train coming in to the station or along the track near their home and run as fast as they could to keep up with the train as long as possible. However these children were not begging for money, they were begging for our old plastic bottles. 'Bouteille bouteille bouteille bouteille' you hear them shout from the window. These children want the means to make their own money. They will collect bottles, fill them with water from the public tap and sell the water - it costs them nothing and they get 100 francs for each bottle they sell. I think it is great these children are trying to help themselves in what small way they can.

It's grim up North

The North of Cameroon is very, very different to the South West. They refer to Cameroon as Africa all in one country and now we have seen it all, we have been in or through each of the 10 provinces, which is more than most Cameroonians have. The North is like the 'Africa' that you may think of, it is dry, desolate, empty expanse of flat land. The people are very different, the speak french, are Muslim meaning the dress is quite different people here also warned us they behave very differently but as we do not understand french we did not notice this.

It is really hot in the North, it was touching 40C, you could not escape the heat. It was hot in the shade, while you were on a bus or in a car if you opened the window you had hot air blowing in your face. On the bus up the window in front of me was open most the journey, it felt like sitting under a hairdryer, I was amazed that closing the window was a relief. Didimus found the conditions really harsh he kept saying things like 'you could not pay me 500 000 francs a month to live here' or 'if I was in the army and got stationed up here I would hand in my gun in and quit'.

The people have to work hard up in the North, here in the South West there is not much hunger food grows easily. The road sides are littered with coco yam plants as if they are weeds. Even if you do not own a farm you can pick food from un-farmed places. It the North they struggle to grow anything the land is so dry and hard. Everything growing was dead there were just a few trees with some green leaves. The rainy season is much shorter than here. Many goods are more expensive also as they have to transport them on the train or import from Nigeria or Chad. There is poverty all over Cameroon but in many ways I felt it was worse here. As we passed villages no-one was doing anything - it is just too hot to move they all shelter under what shade they can find. Life is very tough in the North.

Before we went everyone told us how terrible it was up north, made me chuckle as all the southerners of England say 'its grim up north'. Does every country have this north south divide?