Tropical Disease Bingo

Hahaha, check it. We had a good laugh over this one at the CASE. Thryn Albin never ceases to amaze me with her creativity. Thankfully I can only vouch for two!

Procrastinator

Coming to the Peace Corps bureau in Yaoundé is really the perfect time to get work done. Volunteers have access to free 24-hour internet, a printer, a library full of great resources, quiet work stations, and PC staff at our disposal. Therefore, every time in the weeks leading up to my time spent here I put work off thinking “that’ll be much easier done in Yaoundé. Will take care of it then.” However, the harsh reality: Nothing ever gets done in Yaoundé! While Yaoundé offers everything listed above it also offers time spent with friends you haven’t seen in months, restaurants galore with pizza, chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, etc., Hilton happy hour, a freezer that’s always stocked with beer (and lately cheap champagne), constant playing of movies in the living room, air conditioned, quiet rooms that allow you to sleep until 10am, and hot running water which means 30 (not 3) minute showers. The two most recent distractions: wireless internet that does kick you off every 5 minutes but because it allows us to still sit in the common room with friends we’ll waste hours “online” getting nothing really done and Shooting Star Restaurant run by Thryn Albin and Siohban Perkins. For the second time in a month the chefs whipped up a weeks worth of meals: calzones, pad thai, breakfast burritos, cabbage pie, chili with cornbread, Indian, etc. With the help of many female assistants and your occasional male garlic peeler/tortilla roller, Shooting Star prepares a feast for roughly 20 PCV’s each night. The meals to say the very least are fantastic, the quantity plentiful, and as a side note so you know the hours that go into it: even in Yao food does not come pre-packaged & no we can’t just buy all the ingredients at the supermarket!
So as you may have already guessed my long list of work to get done was completely abandoned! On the plus side: Mid-service work (doctor visits, labs, paperwork, presentations, etc) - check, much needed fun time with fellow PCV’s - check, far too much money spent – check, 5 additional lbs - check, and (well something productive I guess) anti-virus for my computer – check. The timing on this post was meant to be reflection of “a year in the life” but obviously that will have to be in the weeks to come. All day Thursday and Friday myself and the PC health assistant will be teaching the newbies about Gender & Youth Development as well as HIV/AIDS in Cameroon. I anticipate my time spent with the new stagieres will be a good indicator of how far I’ve come this past year and how clean I was when I arrived! Will leave you will a quick re-cap on the Organizational diagnostic that Emilie and I did with BATOCCUL as well as a few picks. Talk soon all & Happy 4th of July!!!
Le diagnostique organisationnel Hmmm…what’s the first thing I’d like to say about the project? Well, it’s finished! After four months of work, 30 + interviews, lots and lots of time spent traveling away from post, and lots of last minute running around prep work for our seminar while at the same time sitting in on the Beep Your Horn seminar - it’ done (well sort of). Emilie and I were somewhat guinea pigs for the DO, a tool which will now be included in the SED manual. The process itself includes is a series of eight steps: presentation of the project to the president your bank 2. Presentation and approval by the board of directors 3. Assembly of the organizational diagnostic team 4. A series of meetings with the newly developed team to figure out a timeline, program interviews, finalize the questionnaire, etc. 4. The actual interview process of all staff, the board of directors, surveillance committee, and other monitoring committees 5. The assembly and organization of all gathered information from the interviews 6. Compiled information is presented and discussed amongst all interviewed parties and the resulting agreed upon objectives priorities are prioritized 7. Meeting between the PCV and board of directors to decide when each project will be carried out 8. Follow up and evaluation of the outcomes obtained (Side note: Wow that was really weird to explain/write in English!) The project itself can very easily be carried out and in my opinion it’s a great tool for PCV’s, in particular a new arrival, to gain some insight into the functioning of their host institution. It serves as a way for them to find projects they could and might want to work on, knowing that the request came from those implicated in the institution. Whereas most volunteers are placed in a small 3-4 employee single branch institution the “guinea pigs” work for a four-branch 25+ person institution. Thus, the project was a bit different for us. (Emilie’s smiling/laughing now if she’s reading this). Overall though: no complaints. The seminar went well, I now understand a lot more about my host institution (almost too much when you consider bank politics), I got to know everyone on a more personal level, saw how differently the four branches operate, and I have projects to look forward to in the future. They’ll be more updates I’m sure related to steps 7 and 8 but for now….j’ai faim! Have a friend from the East chez moi for the next couple of days. Heading it into town now to give her the Foumbot tour and possibly introduce her to njapcha (sp?), one of food perks of living in Bamoun country.

Oui nous pouvons!

Translation into English, “Yes, we can!” That was the motto for our moto (motorcycle) project. Thanks to the many generous contributors who donated we were able to raise all the funds on time and carry out the seminar May 7th and 8th.
In the day leading up to the seminar twelve PCV’s asked twenty-five Cameroonians to “Soyez a l’heure!” and miraculously, soyez a l'heure they did! African time is much different than American but on day one over half of the moto drivers were there at least a half-hour early and on both days we were able to start on time.
The morning sessions on Day 1 consisted of a brief explanation of Peace Corps, a run through of our expectations with the participants then having to list theirs, facts and myths about HIV/AIDS, and a presentation on what is HIV/AIDS, how it’s contracted, etc by the hired health official. All went really well- the health official I picked did an excellent job & after our director explained several times that the drivers would not be receiving brand new motos after the project, they still remained very attentive and participative. :) For the afternoon: a session on stigma followed by a sad, yet uplifting testimonial, and finally the chance for all participants to take an AIDS test themselves. Everyone driver took one (including yours truly), which makes me think they really got it: that once they become peer educators and start lecturing others on knowing their status, it's important they take the brave step as well. The only hang up from the day came from the cater--the only one who didn’t seem to respect time. When she decided coffee break would take place at 12pm not 10am and lunch at 3pm and not 12pm (which was not sufficient when it arrived) we had to get a little creative with our program. Thus, after a quick re-shuffling all was OK. If there's I know for sure: you won't make it here if you're not flexible!
Test results came in on the morning of Day Two. Not a single participant left so we can hope that signified good news for all. What is a peer educator/how to be a great one followed by practical’s they can carry out during their demonstrations took up the rest of the day. Condom races were a hit and the demonstration on how to use a female condom was very interesting for them. I'm pretty sure for most, it was the first time they had ever seen one and they were surprised to know they could find them at most pharmacies. A closing ceremony with certificates (very important in Cameroon), several photo ops, and appetizers for all closed the evening. One village chief, a few mayors, and several important delegates showed up to give their support. Beep Your Horn also received a lot of radio press throughout the week, which I believe really helped participants take their job seriously.
Over the next few months the moto drivers with some help from PCV's will be carrying out the très important part: demonstrations in their respective village where each motos driver will take over as the trainer. I have no doubt that mine will be fantastic. At the moto seminar he approached me about marching for the 20 Mai, a national holiday here celebrating unification, and he wasn’t kidding. In the weeks following Dallas had a Beep Your Horn plaque along with 15 more t-shirts (which soon turned into 45) made. On 20 Mai three PCV’s along with 50+ Cameroonians associated with Dallas's moto association marched waving condoms and various other props to "lutte contre le SIDA". We certainly got a lot of attention! 
I’m certainly not done working with my moto men and I look forward to updating everyone on upcoming HIV/AIDS related work. THANKS again to all who made it possible!!!

La vie en plein air

Wrote three posts the other day which will be put up in weekly installments. Next one a report/pics on the recent finished projects. Stay tuned...

It occurred to me the other day that after writing a post all about the sort of special attention that’s been bestowed upon me I forgot to explain how the attention was so easily received. You see it’s not that I’m throwing myself at others, stopping into business after business, waltzing into people’s homes, or behaving in a manner that warrants being noticed. No actually, just the opposite. All it takes to be noticed is to walk outside my front door. “Why?” because in Africa life happens on the outside.
Everyday I awake to the sound of neighbor women chatting, the roar of a moto’s engine bringing a patient to the hospital, and/or volcanic gravel (that I call soil) squishing under the weight of children’s feet as they run to fetch water. My immediate neighbors, Razack, Mabel, and Soule, are going back and forth from the house to the latrine for their morning washing. Neighborhood women are frying beignets (donuts) on their front lawns to sell; their children will then walk all over town selling them off of a platter carried on their head.
I’m on my living room couch reading by 6:30am where once again all the same sounds and smells can be heard and seen just this time through a different window. Around 7am Blanche opens her door, slides the large rock (aka our door stopper) under her door and says “Kaaaate?” Je dis “oui”. Elle dit “bien dormi” et je dis “oui, et toi”. En Afrique you always greet everyone, especially in the morning. Kids on their way to school and adults heading to the market pass in front of my house. With no school buses or cars to take them they’ll walk and converse along the way. When I step outside my door I’ll find Blanche on the porch washing clothes or dishes from the night before, patients from the clinic waiting in the open air waiting-room, and all the other women from nearby houses doing the same as Blanche. At the center of town I’ll find tiny magasin after magasin, all with stall doors wide open, half their products displayed outside, and the person managing sitting outside on a stool. If he’s male he’ll likely have one or two of his friends sitting around with him, if it’s a woman she’ll have the children too young to attend school. I’ve “checked out” a few times where a.) I was offered a beer or b.) it was a struggle for the cashier to reach the coin box because she was breastfeeding. The bars have a steady stream of customers starting around 10am all of whom sit on around an open porch. All day every day the market mommies will be selling their vegetables from roadside stands. All over town moto drivers are parked in groups idly chatting and cracking jokes with one another as they wait for their next customer. At the Total station employees stand around the pump waiting to serve you. There’s a refrigerator outside selling cold beverages but don’t bother going inside—all you’ll find is the manager’s desk with maybe a few odds and ends. The list goes on and on but what strikes me most related to this topic: that once back in America with all the windows, doors, and walls, how different life will sound.

Pics

Two new albums at right for those interested. Also, if you've made a donation to Beep Your Horn don't be shy--send me an email to let me know! You deserve special recognition.

Beep Your Horn for HIV Prevention

On April 23rd-24th 11 PCV's along with two moto-taxi drivers of their choosing will be holding a two-day HIV/AIDS seminar in the West region of Cameroon. The focus of the two-day seminar is two fold: HIV/AIDS education and the training of trainers (our moto-taxi men) to do what we just did all by themselves. You can learn more about the project by clicking on the link below but first here's the deal: IT WON'T HAPPEN WITHOUT YOUR HELP! We're short (to say the very least) on fundraising time and we've still have roughly $3000usd to earn.

In light of the Pope's comment on his recent visit to Cameroon http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031903364.html we need your help now more than ever. As a Catholic Christian I understand and do not mean to discredit the viewpoint of the Pope or others, however the problem with his statement can easily be recognized from an educational standpoint. When you live in a village where people still believe you can contract AIDS from mosquito bites or by drinking from the same glass as an infected person, one must think that when they hear the Pope said "Condoms don't prevent AIDS" they won't question whether the Pope said anything after that and the statement will be taken at face value. So by making even the smallest donation please help 11 PCV's help 22 moto-taxi drivers become leaders and peer educators in their villages. Help us spread the word on how AIDS is really contracted and even better--how to Prevent It!

Donate Here (tax deductible) & THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=694-134.

B.Spears

Sometimes that’s what being “la blanche” en Afrique makes ya feel like. This sort of celebrity treatment can be traced back all the way to our days in Bangangte, but recently it’s really hit a new high. A few recent examples…
February 8th marks Le jour de bilinguisme, when Cameroon celebrates having two official languages. I was hit up to teach a song at the school in my neighborhood so that on bi-lingual day the francophone students could perform for the Anglophone students, and vice versa. So for the three weeks leading up to bi-lingual day (and try not to laugh too hard) I switched from different classrooms for an hour each week singing and demonstrating the motions to “If Your Happy and You Know It” along with “The Hokey Pokey”. While you can hardly count it as a project it did give me a reminder of the absolute chaos that is public schools in Cameroon and my popularity amongst the youth. I would enter the classroom to gasps, loud cheering, clapping, staring, and shy giggling. Outside I was surrounded by a mob of children all jumping up to touch my hair or fighting to carry my purse. After-school I had Tons of kids stopping by my house, which was quickly put to a stop. While I don’t believe their teachers ever even took them to perform their song, it is pretty cute to pass francophones on the street and hear “If you’re happy and you….”
At the Assembly General last month, Emile and I were called up to the front of the room by the president of our bank. Already embarrassed as they had to call our name several times just to get us up there (lil’ too much talking in the back row), we find ourselves standing center stage in front of 200 people and praying we don’t have to give a speech. Next thing you know everyone’s clapping, shouting their “Merci” “Merci pour le travail”, and whipping out their cameras to get pictures. Then on the walk back to our seats, several men trying to be discreet about using their camera phones – As if we don’t know what those are!?!
At my second marriage au Cameroon a fellow PCV and I are whisked into the house and immediately seated at the head table. While we’d had never even met the bride or groom before that night, it certainly didn’t matter. We were served well before the 100 or so guests that were there hours before us, people were taking our photos, the MC thanked us a few times over the mic for “coming from America”, and even before everyone else was sure to have their piece of dessert the groom packed up three dessert plates for us for the road. On a side note: the wedding was very different from the last one. The guests wore matching pagne which is customary for weddings/funerals, this was the groom’s third marriage (his first two wives served all the guests), from 9pm-10pm the women danced traditional dances and then nobody really moved from a sitting circle until dinner was served at midnight. While the power was in and out all night, thankfully it managed to stay on during the meal. The groom was a private chef by profession and thus did everything by himself. Several different types of salad, pasta that honestly tasted like beef stroganoff, meat, many traditional Cameroonians dishes, and when it came time for dessert….10 different cakes! I’d wait three hours for that meal any day.
March 8th is International Women’s Day, a global day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women. While IWD was first observed in the US on February 28th, 1909, in my lifetime I don’t recall ever celebrating it aux Etats-Unis like they do here; we place much more emphasis on Mother’s Day. For IWD in Cameroon, women have caba’s or dresses made from special Women’s Day pagne and the day carries out much like Youth Day: parades, dancing, singing, skits, and lots of eating and drinking. Once again I played photographer for most of the day and went to the teacher after-party. My B. Spears moment that day came during the parade when I could tell the delegates under the pavilion were staring and pointing. Immediately after the parade finished their representative came up and asked me for a name and phone number so I could attend the “le soiree” at the hotel in town. Regrettably, what could have been a great networking evening turned out to be anything but. After three late nights and a then the full day of IWD day festivities by Sunday night, I was exhausted. I let the Petchups pick me up anyways, hoping it would be just like one of those nights in college when your roommates forced you get dressed and once you were out the atmosphere just woke you up and you were glad you did. However this time, not so much. I show up, the head mistress starts screaming my name, grabs my arm, starts yelling at some random couple “here she is, here she is”, I’m seated at the head table where I’m graciously greeted, and instantly the room starts spinning. Two minutes later as I watched the waitress get ready to uncover the food I thought I might puke. I never did so I guess it was just my body’s way of saying absolutely not! I spent the next hour passed out in our school van until our driver took me home. Maybe next year…
If there’s one thing that must be said about all this new “celebrity status”; while it’s certainly fun at times and would make any PCV feel welcomed in village, I will be glad when it’s all over. To move about town without everyone asking where you’re going, what you’ll be doing, and what you will bring back for them, will be nice. To not be deranged, know that you’re being stared at, or be asked some of the most ridiculous questions, will be nice also. The everyday reality is exhausting and I miss just being a number. On the flip side, for as much as I wish the “insta-attention” away I know once I get back I won’t be able to get it back. So for now I take it for what it’s worth: curiosity, generosity, overt friendliness, etc. and have learned to simply enjoy the ride because in roughly a year it’ll all be over.