Where is my own?

There are a few sayings that people here in Cameroon say that
I must remember not to use in England. For example when asking for something in a shop or ordering a drink etc. it is usual to say 'give me so and so'. I think if I go out for a meal in England and say 'give me four cheese pizza' the waiter may be a little put out!

Another thing they say is 'where is my own', this is used if you are with someone buying something or giving something to someone else then this other person wants one. Most the time they do not really expect you to give them one but you sit there trying to find an excuse as to why you do not have one for them.

Now that we are leaving next week everyone wants a bit of us. Almost everyday I get 'what will you leave me?' or 'give me your phone when you leave'. I have about 4 people after one phone. I think I will give it to the one person I know needs a phone but has not asked - our dear friend Didimus. Then my UK phone I will sell to the prison guard and I will be off to the vodaphone shop as soon as I get home to get a new one for myself. People also ask for my clothes or bag or shoes. The best I had was 'give me your camera when you leave, I really need one, I am sure they are cheap you can get a new one as soon as you get back'. I explained I only bought my phone last year and it was mighty expensive and yes I need it so no you cannot have it. It is times like these when I am so happy to be coming home. I will happily donate money to people, let the shop keeper keep the change but I do not like constantly being asked for particular things.

Today I am mostly.....

...... Going to collect Helen from the airport!!

Yes Helen my replacement comes today. I am off to the airport to collect her in 5 mins!

It has felt like ages for her coming so I am very excited. I work with Helen in Oxford and when she said she was looking for volunteer work I suggested HINT. I will spend the next week or so handing everything over to her then I know the project will be in good hands.

Beware of the Witchdoctor

Many people believe and use traditional medicine in Cameroon. Many are sceptical but give it a go if all else fails or they cannot afford conventional medicine. This is what caused the orphanage to take Achiever to see the Witchdoctor. The diagnosis given was that Achiever has four eyes. This means his spirit has reincarnated whilst it is still alive in another person or animal. This is why he is not growing and so week. They think he is an old man some place else where in the world and when the old guy dies Achiever will become strong. Or the other theory is that he is a snake (but Auntie Grace things this is just because of the trousers he had on that day). During my HIV seminar we have long discussions about traditional medicine. There is a Catholic priest who says he can cure HIV. Many people pay thousands of francs on his treatment. I have been told each one is not negative and cured. I am sceptical it has to be said. However one student of mine did make the observation that here in Cameroon they can not scientifically prove the medicine cures HIV so it will never be recognised by the western world. Meaning it will never be used worldwide. So maybe this priest is healing Cameroonians of HIV one by one but I am sure if he really did have a cure scientists would be at least interested in knowing what he does. It is true many drugs are made from plants, so it is possible a witchdoctor can use plants as a remedy for many ills. Whilst in Kroup National Park we saw Quinine growing if the villagers have Malaria they just chew some bark and get better. However it is the crazy diagnosis they make. Achiever cannot just wait for the old guy to die hoping he will then get better. The boy needs to be fed well to get better. What amazes me are the number of Christians who believe in witchdoctors and black magic. I met a lady at church who was reluctant to tell me her babies due date in case I put a curse on her that day, I would not even know how to go about putting a curse on someone!

Mum's are great!

I have decided since we go home next week I will stop washing. I really hate doing the hand washing so thought I could start saving it up for a washing machine to do for me. Well I will do the small stuff and Joe's sweaty football kit. So I started thinking about going home with all this washing and the joy of putting it all the in washing machine to take care of it for me. Then I started thinking how my Mum would never let me do that and how she will willingly offer to do all our washing for me. I love my Mum, she is great!

PS, not told my Mum this yet, but I am sure she will not mind!

The last two weeks

Well here we are with two weeks left. I have mixed feelings. I am really looking forward to going home and having all those home comforts, living in our own place and seeing all my friends and family. However I am really sad to leave. When we left the UK it was exciting, we did not know where we were coming and what to expect. We knew we would see our friends and family again so goodbyes were not too hard. Now there is little anticipation and excitement, we know what to expect in England. Saying goodbye is hard, we know we may never see most these people again. These people that have been our friends and family for a year, Naomi who we have watched grow and develop since birth. Once we say goodbye that will be it. We would like to come back but do not know if it will be possible. I am sure they would love to visit England but that is not easy.

So our final two weeks will be a mixture of emotions, excitement about eating cheese again and the sadness of goodbyes. Helen should be arriving on Tuesday so I will be busy handing over to her for a week or so. Joe will soon finish teaching then he has some loose ends of the website. He then needs to train Elvis so he can continue with the teaching after we are gone.

We will miss so much about Cameroon, the experience has had its ups and downs but has been well worth it. We are very grateful to all those who have supported us financially, with emails and comments. We look forward to seeing you all very soon.

National Day

20th May was national day here in Cameroon. This means it is a public holiday. We have just had a 5 day weekend (although we kept working as usual). Thursday was Ascension, Friday was declared a day of national mourning for the victims of the plane crash (although because Thursday was a public holiday no-one would have gone to work on Friday as there is no point for one day!) Then Sunday was national day so Monday was a public holiday in-lieu. So all government workers have had a nice long weekend. So National day is like many other public holidays in that there is marching to celebrate. This time the police/ army/ gendarmes/ prison officers march first, followed by schools then associations and political parties. so my group HINT-HED went to march with the associations. We got there early so we could go round talking to people first giving out flyers about HIV and red ribbons. It went well, we were only 10 but made the most of it. One member marched with the prison guards then did a quick change and joined us.

After the event I made a bee line for the beach to join Joe and the football boys for a party on the beach. We had a whole pig on the BBQ and the president got the snout to eat. The pork was delicious and with a beer it was almost perfect. The ants meant it was not perfect. The grass was full of these evil ants who had a vicious bite. You had to pull their nasty little teeth out of you foot to get them off, it hurt.

I then had great fun trying to teach the boys how to float on your back in the sea. Not many of them can swim (there are no public swimming pools, so you can only swim if you came to the beach) so it was not easy. I kept hearing calls of 'madam Joel, teach me how to float like that'. I tried and in most cases did not succeed but it was fun.

Book Review: Joy Luck Club

A collection of short stories each told by a member of the Joy Luck Club. The Joy Luck Club is a group of four women who have moved from China to America and formed this group. The book begins after one of the members has died suddenly and her daughter has to take her place in the Joy Luck Club. The meetings involve each member telling a story, the book is made up of these separate stories. Two stories from each of the mothers about life as a child in China. Then each of the daughters tell two stories of their life in America in relation to their mother.

Some of the stories are pretty crazy but all are lovely. The mothers have very traditional views that their daughters do not share. The book shows a lot about Chinese culture and belief. The book has also been made in to a film so I would like to watch that now.

Achiever?

I went to the HOTPEC orphanage again yesterday. Hannah had asked me to go and speak to Mama and Auntie Grace (two of the staff who care for the the children) about first aid, disease prevention etc. However when I got there I ended up talking to all 60 of the children. so I quickly rearranged what I was going to say to aim it at the children. It went well and we had a good time.

While I was there I spent some time in the nursery. There are four babies at HOTPEC although one of them belongs to Auntie Grace. The room where they sleep is small and there are only two cots so they share.

Pictured is two of the babies. On the Left is 8 month of Harry, who is Auntie Grace's Son, on the right is 18 month old Achiver. He is skin and bones with a pot belly. He has terrible malnutrition. He can not walk or even stand. Also he cannot talk, he is very behind in his development. They have taken him to the hospital and can only afford the treatment because Hannah offered to pay. He has various intestinal infections which mean he is not absorbing his food well. The woman who cares for him cares also for the other three babies so it is hard for her to give him the intensive feeding regime he requires. The orphanage do their best to care for little Achiver but this may not always be enough.

Tenth Month

This will be the last monthly review I write as we will not quite make it to the 11 month mark. I know we said we were coming for a year but as we had exactly one year break from our jobs it means we can not quite do a whole year here. So we come home on the 7th June making our time here a grand total of 10 months and three weeks.

So the last month has been pretty busy. I am now based at the health centre every day so am finding it harder to keep up to date with the blog and emails - sorry. Things have been slow to start, I have had a grand total of 12 people come to visit me. With various problems, I have correctly diagnosed a couple of people with malaria and sent them to the hospital for treatment. I have helped people suffering with small niggling problems advising the correct drug to take. And I have had a few long chats about disease prevention. As yet I have not had much in the way of people with HIV. I am due to visit a lady tomorrow and have had many people tell me they are going to send someone to see me but no one has come. It will just take time and I am sure over the next few months it will get very busy. In a couple of weeks Helen Savage will be here. Helen is one of my friends from the ward I work on in Oxford and I am very excited that she will be here to continue to project and watch it grow. So soon I will be handing everything over to her.

HIV education work is going well. My last seminar had 28 people attending. Many keen to join HINT-HED our group of educators. Plus Hannah got a few from the orphanage to come along as currently they have no HIV education in the orphanage school. HINT-HED is also forming well, we had our first even on 1st May and the next is planned for 20th May. They are an eager group of volunteers who give up their free time to come and teach others about HIV. They are all very passionate about stopping HIV and very willing.

Joe has been busy teaching is photoshop course and is currently on his final batch of web design students - his best yet he tells me, which makes teaching much more enjoyable. He is busy doing the final touches to the HINT website also and teaching Genesis how to use it.

So our time here is coming to a close, we are very grateful to all who have supported us and look forward to seeing you all over the coming weeks. The next 3 weeks will involve tying up any loose ends, handing over to Helen and getting the last few events done.

How can I help?

I had a visit from a patient last week. She is in her 30's and overweight. Last week she was sick and sent to Douala to see a Cardiologist (we get one once a week in Buea). She had to pay so much money just for the hospital stay and consultation that when the doctor told her she should take what I assume to be GTN. The drug however will cost her 15 000 CFA (which is £15 but is little more than she gets in a month) so she cannot afford to buy them. She is a widow with 6 children, one of her daughters has HIV and is at a special school where she receives treatment. This takes most her money so there i little left for herself.

She comes to see me because she still has the pain in her chest. She wants to know if there is anything else she can do. I suggest eating healthy and exercise. Also buying aspirin could help and should be cheaper, however she has gastric trouble so they will not work. Really I am at a loss of how to help her. She needs to buy the drugs but has not means to afford it. People always moan about the NHS and you just cannot compare it to the third world country but come on. If you had angina in the UK you would not have all this added stress of travelling to see the doctor who tells you to buy a drug you cannot afford as you have spent all your money seeing him in the first place. What can she do, I fear for her. I fear she will have a heart attack, then who will look after her children?

That was close

We often get woken by noises early in the morning. Sometimes chickens or crows, sometimes it is the local church singing out of tune through a loud speaker. Sometimes it is the neighbours playing really loud music. Interestingly it is never Naomi, she is such a good baby. However yesterday we were awoken following a really loud bang. We are used to hearing cars backfire or their tyres blow out but this was way louder. We looked out the window and could see people staring down to the bottom of the road and a few running down there. Must have been an accident we thought. I thought about going to help but decided not to as there is not much I can do and I was in my pj's. So we went about having our breakfast and a normal lazy Saturday morning. Genesis returned from seeing what the noise was about and it turns out it was our dear friend Sylvester whose car had been driven in to by a taxi going far to fast.

Nor fortunately (I never thought I would say this) Sylvester was not wearing his seat belt. This means that he got thrown in to the passenger seat which meant as the car caused the drivers door to fold in he was miraculously not hurt. He lost consciousness a few minutes but regained it on the way to the hospital. He not no broken bones and not even a scratch on his body. It was absolutely amazing he had not injures, the car however did not fare so well. He has insurance but they will find every possible way not to pay out.

Being in a car is pretty dangerous here and I have felt my safest with Sylvester. I blame the road layout as he was in the middle of the road waiting to pull out, the taxi came down the hill at high speed and did not pull over out of the way.

More top tens

I got thinking about top ten lists after the last one I had to make so decided to make a few to round up how I feel about leaving Cameroon. Some have more than 10 and some less so actually they are not top 10's!

Things I will miss about Cameroon

The friends we have made
The fresh fruit especially, avocado, pineapple, mango and pawpaw
The beach at Batoke
10p taxi rides
50p beer
Having the freedom of working when we want
Spectacular scenery, not that England is not spectacular it is just so diverse here.
The dry season
Roasted fish
Palm wine

Not miss

Being called Madam, Whiteman, Auntie, Mama or Hilda
Cold showers
Mice and cockroaches scurrying around the bedroom
Police checks on the road causing bribery and corruption
Bureaucracy and the obsession with stamping everything
Lateness
Vague plans, never quite knowing what we are supposed to be doing, when and where
Hand washing clothes
Painfully slow Internet access
Everyone thinking I am rich because of the colour of my skin and asking me to dash then something
The wet season
Cramming more people than seats in to buses/ cars

Looking forward to at home

Cheese
Cheese
Cheese
Cheese
Cheese
Driving where I want when I want
A nice cup of tea with FRESH milk
Chris and Louise's wedding
Seeing my family and friends
Roast dinner and many other types of food including cheese

But I am not interesting

I have been tagged by a close (in friendship, far in miles) family friend of my parents to play a game of freeze tag, thank you Ann. So I have to list 10 interesting facts about myself. When I saw the task I could not think of one interesting fact about myself (apart from the fact I currently live in Cameroon but you all know that) let alone 10 so I sat and thought really hard until my brain hurt and this is what I came up with.

1) I had a pacemaker implanted at the age of 3 and am now on my 7th, they should last about 10 years each so I am looking pretty fine for a 70 year old.

2) I fulfilled my two life aims of being a nurse and working in Africa.

3) I wore trainers on my wedding day, very nice white Nike's with a purple tick to go with the colour theme.

4) I loved being in hospital as a child.

5) Everybody thinks their Dad knows everything and grow up to be disappointed - my Dad does know everything and if you ask him something he does not know he will be sure to find out and tell you. He has not disappointed me once.

6) I have been to 5 of the 6 continents and do not really fancy the Antarctic.

7) At every stage of my life I have had a very good friend who's birthday is the same day as me or the day after.

8) I can turn my belly button inside out.

9) I know the alphabet backwards (which came in very useful for pass the parcel forfeits).

10) I really cannot think of a tenth, maybe someone could suggest one for me!

I will beat you

There are many aspects of Cameroonian culture and life we have had to learn to accept or get along with. These include lateness, disregard for personal property, being ripped off for being white, being told what they think you want to hear rather than the truth and using children as slaves.

However there is one part of Cameroonian life we find very hard to cope with, we can not even think of conforming to it. This is the beating of children. Often you hear a mother, father, grandparent, aunt or uncle shouting 'I will beat you' to the child. This is not an empty threat, they mean it and if the child continues doing what ever it was doing (which mostly is doing what kids do) they will indeed get beaten. This may be a slap around the thigh or bum or can involve whipping of the hands or legs. Then afterwards the child will get told to stop crying because they are making too much noise.

We have found this very hard to cope with, watching a child being beaten is not nice. There is nothing we can do, we have tried to tell people it is not correct but they do not agree. Answers include 'I was beaten as a child', 'a child will not learn unless he/she is beaten' and 'it is part of life in Africa, you Europeans do not understand'. Because it is accepted by everyone the beating will continue. Many times it is for something very minor but the adult is having a bad day or even something that may not be the child's fault but they are too scared to answer back so take the beating.

Many children live with Aunts and Uncles in order for them to go to school, or because their parents cannot afford to feed them. It is these children or come off worse in the beatings and in many other parts of family life. The parents will favour their own children before their extended family that they possibly begrudgingly care for. We often hear on the radio how these children run away because they just cannot cope living in that house any longer. And the way many are treated, I do not blame them.

I do not have children so maybe I should not judge. I will not beat my children when I do have some though I am sure. I expect there will be times when I want to beat them but I will resist and find another form of punishment.

Bank Holiday weekend

Labour day is 1st May in Cameroon, this year it fell on a Tuesday. That means that Monday and Tuesday are both public holidays, as there is no point it going to work for just one day. So we thought we would make the most of the day and do one touristic visit. so we went to the crater lake in Kumba. Kumba is not far from Buea but because of the terrible pot-holed road it takes about 2 hours. When we got to the bus station the bus had one last seat meaning we were the first two on the next bus. We then had to wait over 2 hours for the bus to fill. During this time we kept thinking 'if we had just got up 1/2 hour earlier', 'if we had not got to the bakery to get lunch, we would have been on the last bus'. This of course does not make the bus fill any quicker but passes the time. We took the front seats of the bus as we were first which means that we get a whole seat each instead of cramming extra in and we get a great view of the scenery.

Once we got to the lake we got a taxi to the lake, the gate was shut and the gate keeper did not have a key so we had to walk the rest of the way. We were told it was not far but did not believe them as Cameroonians always tell you what they think you want to hear and never tell the truth. But it was not far and within about 10 minutes we arrived at the stunning Mbo Barombi lake. It is a crater lake, one of Cameroon largest. Measuring 2.5km across and gets up to 100m deep. We went for a stroll around, then a swim and then a local fisherman gave us a ride in his dug out canoe. We had a great time, not long enough really but we made the most of it.

Book Review: The lovely Bones

This is a book I have been wanting to read for ages, Joe brought it along time ago for 1p of Amazon Marketplace. He was not too impressed which put me off a little. I brought it to Cameroon with me but Sheila borrowed it for ages so I have only just got the chance to read it. The book is narrated by 14 year old Susie. the second line grips you, I was 14 when I was murdered. She is speaking from heaven. After the explanation of the gruesome murder and talking about how her family are coping I began to wonder who the book would keep up the tempo. In the middle I did get a little board as Susie spends her time watching her family move on from her death. Her father becomes obsessed with finding the murderer as the police can not. Her sister grows up and is doing things Susie never had the opportunity to do. The book gets a little weird(er) near the end where Susie comes to life in another girls body for a while. So I would say this book is alright to fill in time but not a 'must read'.

Labour day

The 1st May each year is Labour day in Cameroon, on this day many business and organisations come together to march. Mainly it is a way of advertising, hence the registration fee I spoke about in a previous post. We went along as an organisation with the aim to sensitise people about HIV. We had t-shirts made and a banner, we had 200 flyers and ribbons to give out with the hope to collect a few donations. The event was being held in Limbe so we all got a bus down together. Soon after we arrived it started to rain so everybody hid and took cover. The rain soon cleared and we waited for the marching to begin. During this time we went round chatting with people giving out the flyers and made a few francs giving out ribbons. Most people were very receptive to us and asked what we were about etc. Many though said they do not need to know about AIDS as it will not affect them. These people are the ones who need to listen most but there is not much you can do.

The marching was of course disorganised chaos with no order and people trying to push in front of each other. Bit companies took various cars, trucks, buses which caused trouble in the lining up. But we found a slot to march in and did our bit. I was very pleased with the group, we had 20 turn up and most of them on time. The late-comers had to find there own way down to Limbe as we would not wait for them, but they followed. So our next task is 20th May, National Day. That should run a bit smoother now we have completed our first event. I really did not believe they would do anything before we left. So many groups form and talk about who will lead the group, the constitution etc. and never actually do anything. but this group said we will worry about things like that later and actually get something done first. That is what I like action not just talk.

My Answers

OK here are my answers to the questions posted. You are welcome to leave more.

Do Cameroonians ever go abroad, or to other parts of Africa, on holiday?

Cameroonians do not really go on holiday, I expect the rich ones do but I have not met many of them. Most people travel around the country to visit family or to find work. Both of these often result in a person disappearing for months at a time it is not often they will go for a couple of weeks. If you work getting annual leave is not easy, it appears you do not have an allowance like we would but you must ask permission for any time you require off. In writing if it is for an extended period. You are usually not entitled to any leave (even one day) in the first 3 months and could find yourself without a job when you return. However most people do not have jobs, most people just appear to hang out doing the odd job, selling at the market etc. So if these types of people take leave then they lose earnings.

Everyone is desperate to get to the West, we often have people approaching us asking us to help them get a British visa. So I tell them honestly, I have no idea how to go about getting a British visa, all I know is it is not easy and it costs a lot to live in the UK. Everybody knows we earn a lot of money in the West but they forget it costs a lot to live also. Many people say if they get there they would never come back. Or some people may have other family members who live abroad they will have the opportunity to visit. I have not heard of anyone going on holiday just to explore, relax, for activities etc. like we would do. It is always for money or to visit family.

What part of African life will you miss the most when you get home?

There is so much I will miss and so much I will be glad to get rid of. I will miss the relaxing pace of life, no deadlines, arrive at work what ever time I like, go home when I like. No one gets annoyed when stuff is not done. This was hard to adjust to and is still hard when people let me down but it does make life much more relaxed once you get into the correct frame of mind.

I will also miss Saturdays on the beach followed by cheap beer and fish in town.

Oh I will miss the mango season also, we have mangoes coming out of our ears at the moment that have come from a tree in our compound and they are delicious.

I will stop there as there are so many great things about African life.

...and any good surf out there?

The waves are pretty good down in Batoke, here is a picture courtesy of Bill taken in November of some pretty good surf. We have not taken surf boards out but seen others doing it. We have had some fun with body boards but mostly just ride the waves with our bodies. Which is great fun and we can get some fantastic waves taking you right in to shore.

Did the rain come, if not then you can have some of ours!

The rain is teasing us at the moment. It is the sort of weather that you never know what will happen. You wake up to a glorious day, do the washing then it rains. Or the rain is really heavy overnight then brilliant sunshine all day. Last week the rain was so bad I got soaked to the skin within minutes of being outside and our road was like a river I had to wade home in. By the end of May/ beginning of June the rain will really start, but we will be leaving then for sunny England. And no we will leave your rain with you thanks.

What advice would you give someone who is considering an overseas volunteer position similar to yours?

DON'T DO IT!! No not really it has been a fantastic experience and I would recommend it to anyone.

firstly I would say if you cannot get a placement with a big organisation such as VSO, Peace Corp do not be discouraged. There are so many NGOs that need help. Going this route may cost you more as there will be no one to foot your bills but it is better than not going at all. Another problem with doing it alone is there is no support network that you may have with big organisations.

Before you go try to get a clear idea of what the NGO want from you so you can prepare yourself.

Try not to feel discouraged, we have been thorough stages when we think we are doing nothing to help, or no one is listening to our suggestions. These times will pass but they are difficult. Try to think of each thing you have achieved no matter how small. You may have times like this weather or not you are with a big organisation. It is a common feeling I have met amongst many volunteers here.

Try to hunt out the other 'whitemen', any other volunteers in your area. It will stop you from going insane, especially if you are alone and not working for a big organisation.

Remember you are living in a different culture and do not be quick to judge their own ways. You may think the way they deal with many things is not correct or not sensible but respect they way they do things.

And mostly, have fun and enjoy your time. You may never get another chance. Oh and make sure you have someone to send you packages of home comforts, they brighten up the worst days!