Fete of the Young

I have now been at my post for over two months.  I feel good and bad about my situation in post.  My French keeps improving, though I’m still not where I need to be.  I am building relationships in the community and feeling more comfortable working and speaking with the community by myself.  I’m starting to see where my work could be and some long term projects I can work on.  But I’m still bored a lot and often feel useless.  The days when I do go into the office I might discuss projects, and plan with the other staff for 45 minutes to an hour but after that I really don’t do anything at the office.  But I will make that change soon. 

Last week was one of the large Cameroonian holidays: The day of the young.  Which is February 11 and is followed a month later by the day of the women.  The day of the young is a week long celebration which includes sporting events between schools, parades, a lot of food, and dances similar to our prom.  As a health worker I learned early on that the day of the young is the most common time for young girls to become pregnant.  Perhaps not unlike our prom?  As part of the week for the young my office, “youth development foundation,” planned different health related presentations events.  Mind you this is things I will be working on but I did nothing for this week.  For the different presentation to youth on sexual health and the importance of being safe I was always seated at the head table.  And as the other people next to me speak I sit there, try to look confident and write something down occasionally.  Sometimes they bring me water, even though i didn’t ask for it, and don’t really need it because i don’t speak.  Every-time during questions some of the kids will start yelling for the white man to speak, but I only thank them for coming and than say “the other people said everything necessary.”  Needless to say this is pretty frustrating.  I have started speaking during the peer educators meeting, because it is a smaller group and the kids know me a little bit better.  I will just have to force myself out there soon, make some mistakes, and i’ll be alright.

Other things for the week.  The head office of my NGO provided a nurse and all the equipment for a free AIDS test.  The days before the test we did a lot of outreach.  Which means sitting on the porch of the office and yelling at young people to come over and than telling them to come back for the test in a few days.  Next exactly McDonalds marketing.  Also before the test every told me that people don’t like going to the hospital to take the test because they don’t respect confidentiality.  Maybe its because I haven’t seen tests at the hospital yet but it didn’t seem like there was a huge emphasis on confidentiality.  There was really no pre-counseling, a person just go to the one nurse and get their blood taken.  Than ten minutes later they go into a big room to sit at a desk opposite the other nurse and shes gives them an envelope with their results.  This is all while about ten other young people are milling about.  As far as I could see there was not much in terms of post counseling.  Also the nurse had a book where she wrote down everyone’s number and next to it their name, wasn’t that the point of using the number, to protect the name?  And than next to that their test result.  139 people took the test and there were three positives.  For the 136 this system probably wasn’t a problem, but the 3 people who resulted positive?  But this was definitely a positive day as many people came in, learned their status, thought about their behaviors for the party and received two condoms.  It is something to work on for the next test. 

The big thing for this holiday was the parade.  Pretty different from the American parades I’ve experienced, but than again I haven’t seen many American parades.  There was a grand stand where all the important people were seated, which looks out on the center of town.  Of course that is where they sat me, right behind the three nuns from Quebec who run the Catholic high school.  The dirt road between the grand stand and the center was even sprayed water down to cut down on the dust, and than lines were painted in to better facilitate tight marching patterns.  First the important people march up and take their special seats.  Than they play a tape of the speech by the dictator…uh I mean President…for life Paul Biya.  You could just see everyone lose interest as the ten minute speech about the future of the country wore on.  Than the parade started.  Each school wore the same thing and they literally marched past in formation, some chanting things.  This wasn’t a leisurely stroll while waving to the crowd, they marched they like were training for the army.  It was very cute for the first little ones, but than the parade went on for about two hours and become very old. 

This happened to coincide with the visit of an important American woman.  My NGO the “youth development foundation” is funded by planned parenthood of western Washington.  And a women from the organization visits about every year or so to make sure the money is being spent well.  Well this was a huge thing at the office.  The peer educators came and cleaned the office, which is only three pretty empty rooms, a nice greeting was chalked onto the board, and a song was prepared.  This is going on at the same time as the two staff members of my office have not been paid for a few months by the main office.  So she comes, we sing a song, bring out some food.  Than she sits down with the peer educators and asks them about the successes of the program, and what they want to do for the future.  Well they pretty much only asked for things, notebooks, a computer, bikes, money for parties.  It was frustrating especially after she was asking for the successes of the program and it immediately went to money, but at the same time it was affirming things that i experience daily.  The pair educators, and many people I encounter here in Cameroon think that because you are the foreigner you just arrive with lots of money to give out to people.  Maybe that will die a way as I’ve been here longer. 

Mustache update:  It is still there and large.  I can curl it up at the ends.  It has been a good 3 months without shaving.  I’m actually getting a little sick of it but i’m going to keep it until after my conference in March.

Yaounde

I am currently in Yaounde, the capital city. Which means lots of other Peace Corps volunteers, everything is more expensive and a lot of random white people. It is fun but then becomes old after awhile and I look forward to returning to the calm of post. I come into Yaounde about once a month for banking, using a computer, and a break from village. For this visit I tried to time it so I could be here at the time of the super bowl. The Peace Corps director was able to work it out so that we could go watch the game at the Marine’s house in the embassy. There is a six hour time difference so the game does not start till 12:30 in the morning and probably ending at about 4:30 am. So at about 10:30 the Peace Corps director shows up wearing a Jim Brown uniform and tells us all to pile in the Peace Corps mini bus. He then drives about twenty of us across the city to the US embassy. The embassy building is new and feels like a slice of America. Paved parking lots with marked lines, manicured lawns being watered, a speed limit sign in MPH. The house where we watched the game was what resembled an American apartment complex and housed the seven marines who work keeping the embassy secure. There were probably about 40 people there total between the marines, embassy personnel and random other Americans. There were two electricians that had been working on the US embassy in Chad but had been evacuated. The marines had prepared hot dogs and baked beans, but were charging money for them so I didn’t eat. They were also charging for drinks but they were pretty expensive. Of course it was a great game. We did not get any of the commercials because it was on the Armed forces network. Instead we got different public service announcements aimed at the military personnel. So we saw the dangers of drunk driving, credit card debt, shaken baby syndrome, and any other problem you can think of. We were all pretty much cheering for the Giants, so it was fun as the game remained close and the Giants pulled it out in the end. We did not get home till 5:30 am, but it was definitely worth it.

The biggest event right now is the Africa Cup soccer tournament. It is held every two years, and is a 16 team tournament. On Monday night was the quarter final against Tunisia. This is something all of Cameroon pays attention to. Small villages with no electricity pay to rent a generator and huddle in one room. In Yaounde everywhere you went you could see soccer jerseys and people blowing whistles and horns. We went to a bar to watch the game and it was a lot of fun as the crowd lived and died on what happened. Cameroon scored two early goals, and Tunisia fought back tying the game towards the end. It went to overtime with Cameroon scoring an early goal to win the game. They will now face Ghana which is a great team and the host country. We will see.

The other thing about Yaounde and having so many people around is that it is so hard to get things done. I cannot properly write a blog with people constantly walking by looking over my shoulder. Will write again soon.

80 in January

1/13/08-Actual day I wrote this

I think this is about the longest I’ve gone without using the internet.  Usually I would be very concerned about the Football playoffs, and reading the latest news on American politics, but as I’ve come to the realization that I will have no access to the internet, my need has slipped away. 

I am doing good.  Bored.  Sometimes bored out of my mind.  I have my ups and downs, but stay positive.  I am always looking for small successes to congratulate myself on.   Even if it is just forcing myself to go to the market, or hang out at the youth foundation.  I thought that with time things would get less weird.  That it would be less weird for me to ride my bike, or walk from one end of town to the other.  But it really doesn’t.  It is still weird you just get used to being stared at and saying hello to everyone.  My French is gradually improving.  I think I understand about 80 percent of what is being said.  But often that leaves a huge gap, and me thinking I know what is going on, when I really don’t.  I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at pretending like I understand whats going on.  I usually listen for a word I recognize, and than ask a simple question with that one word.  Or I say “of course” “really?” and laugh at times I feel would be appropriate.  This works until someone says something they really want me to get and they ask questions, revealing that I don’t actually know whats going on.

My knowledge of Bassa phrases has improved also, and I know when to throw in the right phrases for the correct situations.  I have also learned which ones are the crowd pleasers and which ones people don’t understand when I say them.  “Koko a lam” which means “have a good night” always gets a large reaction.  I also like this one because I can say it as I walk away and people cannot try and speak back to me in Bassa.  So I just hear their cries of surprise and laughter as I walk away. 

One thing that has been difficult is the feeling that everyone just wants money from me.  EVERYONE.  It is from the small price inflations in the market, to the people that I spend a lot of time with who constantly talk about the poverty here and how they cannot afford this or that.  I’m pretty sick of hearing people talk about how difficult it is to find a job here and how easy they think everything is in the United States.  It is also annoying walking through the market or getting food, and later learning that when they were speaking Bassa they were trying to charge the white person more, because I obviously have so much more money than everyone.  I will begin to really listen for the word “Enkana” which means white person.  The thing is it is true.  I do have more money than everyone, no matter how much Peace Corps talks of living at the level of the community, or integration.  I don’t have to feed a family, I don’t have to save any money, I live in a small village, I have money to spend, which is something a lot of people here don’t have. 

I taught my first English class.  I was given the “terminals” which are like the seniors.  Originally I thought this would be bad because they would not care and act up, but it has turned out well.  There were only twenty students for the first class, and the class is an hour, nothing I cannot handle.  It was one of the highs of my time here as the kids were genuinely excited to have me and I was genuinely to have a class.  Hopefully the class will stay this good from here on out.

I have cable.  It took about three weeks of pestering the cable guy but it finally got done.  I get about seven channels, which change every once in a while.  Two are Cameroonian the rest are French.  I have the French equivalent of CNN, French MTV, a French sports channel, and a French channel that is a combination of the history and discovery channel.  The French mtv is pretty sad because they show the same American shows dubbed into French, like dismissed, date my mom, and sweet 16.  This is the great American culture we export to the rest of the world.  Of course I watch them.  I have gained a better appreciation of the corniness and the sexual innuendo when it is translated into another language.  Also I get to enjoy classic American shows dubbed into French.  Everyday old episodes of 90210 are on, I’ve seen Night Rider and Baywatch.  Also 24 and Prison Break are very popular here.  There is a channel on sometimes that shows nothing but 24.  It is a guy with a DVD who plays constant episodes of 24.  I think Cameroon is started to understand the gravity of the war on terror through 24.  The other day I was watching a Cameroonian show with a friend.  It was a competition between different middle schools.  The first part was a trivia game.  Alright normal stuff, all the kids are really excited.  Than they had one girl from each school come up and do a model strut on the stage.  Than she would do a speech, in French and English, on the evils of music and film piracy.  These were very harshly worded speeches too.  The one girl said “all people involved in piracy should be hanged… piracy is a problem larger than AIDS.”  I wish I was making this up.  This was a 13 year old girl who said this.  The funny thing is that I know no place in Cameroon to buy an actual store made CD or DVD.  But in the markets of any village you can find bootlegged movies and albums.  Sorry little girl, I don’t think this problem of piracy will be solved anytime soon.  So the third part was a Karaoke contest.  With all the schools doing the same song.  Of course coming from middle school students each song was basically the same.