Thursday, December 1, 2011

Thanksgiving and some stuff before that


What’s up everyone?  Sorry it’s been a while since my last blog update.  A lot has happened since the last time I wrote on this.  I will briefly go into some of the cooler stuff.  After being here for about six months I have been having less and less “Whoa, I’m in Africa” moments that was until I met Franky.  Franky is a tribal Prince in Bangangté and lives about a 15-minute walk from me by trail.  The Chefferie (where the chief lives) is situated in-between my house and Franky’s, there is another trail that veers off to the Chefferie.  It is very important to not take this trail because you will enter the sacred forest and technically speaking the chief can have you killed.  It’s pretty doubtful that would actually happen but it’s definitely better to respect the traditions.  It is impossible to pass by the sacred forest en route to the Prince’s house (which is basically a tree-house by the way) without having a “holy crap I’m in Africa” moment so in the spirit of Thanksgiving I will say that is definitely something I am thankful for. 
Franky is very well connected in this region of Cameroon and has taken myself and some other volunteers on some pretty awesome Saturday day trips.  My first outing was to go visit the White Queen of Bangangté, a French woman who was raised in Cameroon, moved back to France and then back to Cameroon where she married the local Chief.  She has played a large role in promoting awareness to issues facing Africans globally.  She has written several books and was extremely interesting to talk to.  Feel free to google “La Reine Blanche de Bangangté” for more information on her.  My second outing was to visit the Sulatan of Foumban, unfortunately for us he was busy that day so we bummed around the artisan markets there and what not.  My most recent weekend excursion with Franky was to a crater lake in Foumbot (different city than Foumban), it was one of the more breathtaking places I have seen, I felt like I was in a Planet Earth episode.  We hiked all the way around the rim of the crater.  I will try my hardest to post a picture below but I haven’t been able to successfully do that yet due to insanely slow Internet speeds.  To top it all off Franky volunteered to host a Thanksgiving party for the volunteers in this area.  There were about nine or ten of us that prepared food and went to his house.  He had a giant bon-fire set up and offered us all sorts of fruits from his gardens.  On a side note Preston Vaughn, another volunteer, and I killed chickens and gutted them ourselves, it was damn rewarding to eat those birds afterwards…

My in-service training, IST if you will, is coming up in less than two weeks.  I will be taking my Cameroonian counterpart to meet up with all the other volunteers in my original training group for a weeklong workshop.  I have to prepare a written report and a 15-minute presentation on the city of Bangangté to show my peers and Peace Corps staff.  I have had a lot of support from various members of the community to help me complete this assignment and I am excited to get to show off my new town to everyone.  We recently found out that our IST will be held in Limbe, a beach town in the South-West region.  This couldn’t have been a better location because a lot of us are planning on hiking Mt. Cameroon afterwards, which is only a short drive from Limbe.  I’m sure I’ll have plenty more stories to share when I get back from the beach and the mountain. 
Happy Holidays to everyone and stay in touch.
- Matt
 

Thursday, October 6, 2011

A little bit of life sprinkled with some politics and frisbee


I’ve now been at post for about a month and a half and have gotten a pretty good feel for my community.  Bangangte, which seemed so new and overwhelming just a few weeks ago, now feels like home.  I have been relatively occupied trying to furnish my place and get comfortable for the next two years.  I finally bought a bed, couch and a table and chairs.  My most recent purchase was a rug, which I must say, really ties the room together.   I’ll post pictures below.
 My life has slowed down quite a bit since moving here, I rarely have overly scheduled jam-packed days like I did when I was in training.  The biggest challenge so far has been staying busy.  I typically go into my host institution about three times a week, there hasn’t been a whole lot for me to do yet besides observe and occasionally help with some computer stuff.  I have also been trying to get exposed to some other people in the area I can work with.  A near-by Peace Corps agro volunteer has introduced me to a couple local groups.  One is a large group of tree farmers that have farms all over this region of the West; I attended their monthly meeting and exchanged contact information with them.  They seemed very enthusiastic and I hope I can continue to stay connected with this group.  The other organization he introduced me to is an agricultural NGO here in Bangangte that actually helps advise the tree group.  The head of this NGO happens to sit on the board of the MC2 I work at and has reached out to me to help me find more ways to get involved.  He told me that he has a number of agricultural related projects I could potentially begin to work on.  The largest industry by far in Cameroon is agriculture so it seems that many SED volunteers like myself tend to concentrate on agricultural efforts.  It will be interesting to see what my role will become over the next two years. 
For anyone that doesn’t know (which is probably most of you), the Cameroonian presidential elections are coming up on October 9, this Sunday.  Paul Biya, the current president since 1982 is running against something like 25 other candidates.  There has been a small amount of tension leading up to the elections because there are some people that think it’s weird for a President to be in power for 30 years.  Apparently there was a standoff in Douala, the financial capitol of Cameroon, between some police and some gunmen dressed in military garb. The gunmen blockaded a bridge going into the city and a shootout took place for several hours.  All Peace Corps Volunteers are in a state of stand fast until the election results are made public which means we can’t travel or leave our posts.  It is still pretty doubtful at this point that anything terribly drastic will happen, I would be surprised if there is a big backlash after the election. 
On a brighter note, there was a North-West vs. West Frisbee match last weekend here in the West.  Apparently this match has been anticipated for close to a year now but took awhile to actually put together.  The North-West was favored for quite some time until the new influx of volunteers came raining down over the West, we ended up making quick work of the North-West squad.  Afterwards it was nice to hangout with a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in a while and get to know some of the volunteers I hadn’t met yet. 
So I couldn't actually upload pictures to blogger but for some reason I was able to upload them to facebook so if you want to see my house now that I have stuff look there.  
As always I hope everyone is doing well and feel free to drop me an email any time.

-Matt



Saturday, August 27, 2011

the big move


            Last week I parted ways with my training group in Bafia, I piled into a bus with all the other volunteers heading West.  The journey wasn’t far for us, only a few hours, some volunteers had two days of travel ahead of them on various buses and a train to get up to the North and the Extreme North.  We had heard that after training the Peace Corps leaves the new volunteers to fend for themselves.  A sort of jump in the water and learn how to swim approach.  I didn’t expect to take this literally.  Bangangte, my new town, was the first stop along the road that goes West, the driver stopped at the intersection where you would normally turn to go to my town and told me and the other volunteer going to Bangangte to get out.  Keep in mind this is a Peace Corps hired driver - the only passengers were volunteers, we asked him if he could kindly drive the 5 km. to get us to our houses or even just drop us off at the taxi station in the center of town, a very small favor to ask given the overall length of his trip that day.  He aggressively told us no.  We were left on the side of the highway in the rain with 2 bikes, 2 metal trunks, and all of our bags.  Three motorcycle drivers graciously stopped, they attached all of our things to their motos and took us to our respective houses.  7000 CFA, over an hour worth of work and the need to dry all of our things could have been easily avoided if the driver had just driven the extra couple miles to our houses.  There is a tendency for things to not go as planned here in Cameroon and everyone is flexible enough to deal with it.  A saying that I hear almost daily pretty much sums that up as well as the attitudes of the Cameroonian people, “C’est La Vie”. 
            The city of Bangangte is about the same size as Bafia, but it has a larger feel to it.  Maybe that’s just because I’m new here… However, there does seem to be a little more activity in this city, more people walking around, livelier market, even a pretty energetic nightlife.  This city is undoubtedly cleaner and more well-run than Bafia.  Every Thursday morning there is a citywide cleaning that takes place, many offices wait until 10 am. to open their doors, I even hear that you can drink the tap water here.  The views are spectacular, there are many mountains in the surrounding villages and Bangangte itself is filled with steep rolling green hills.  I think the elevation here is a little less than 5,000 feet.
            I am in the process of furnishing my apartment and trying to make it my own.  I have a way bigger place than I need, 3 bedrooms, 2 running water bathrooms, a giant living/dining room and even a large balcony.  In my living room I have a fire place, I have built a fire almost everyday I have been here so far.  My apartment is the second floor of a house, I share the same compound with a family.  No one lives on the bottom floor but there is another house next to mine.  The family happens to be the family of the President of the Microfinance institution I work at, he is also the Mayor of a surrounding village and owns several boutiques in Bangangte.  At first I wasn’t very excited to be living on the same property as my boss more or less but the more I think about it the more I realize it’s a good thing.  I have already started to build a relatively casual relationship with him and I have no problem calling him for anything that I might need.  The only real downside to my living situation is the dog that lives on the compound.  This is strictly a guard dog and has been specifically trained to dominate people if they come inside the gate.  When the dog is out of its cage I can’t enter my compound or go to my house.  They keep saying that after a couple months the dog will start to warm up to me but I’m not really sure that will happen.  When I walk by his cage he starts freaking out and even bites the metal bars, I have never been so terrified of any animal in my life.  The second night I was here, a few near-by volunteers came over to build a fire, when they were ready to leave the dog had already been let out of the cage, I called my neighbor to put him up but he didn’t answer.  Four of us had to sleep on the cold tile floor that night because I had no furniture at this point (still really don’t) and we couldn’t leave my house to go outside. 
            As far as work goes I am working at a Microfinance institution (MFI).  It is called MC2, its name comes from this formula that I have taken from their pamphlet “Victory over poverty can be achieved provided that the Means (M) and Competencies (C) of the Community (C) are pooled together.  (M) x (C) x (C) = MC2”  As of 2009 there were 78 MC2s in Cameroon, their main objective is to provide capital to people that would not normally have access to it.  They are mostly found in the rural areas of the country.  My role as a small enterprise development (SED) volunteer is not only to work with this organization but also to work with other individuals and groups in the community.  My MFI will be a great resource for meeting people in the community who are trying to launch new projects, it could be something as basic as taking out a loan to buy seeds for their farms.  I am treated very well at my organization; they have given me my own office with a computer that in theory has Internet.  I haven’t successfully gone online yet at the office but I’m sure it will happen soon.  We are told to not propose any changes or start any projects for the first 3 months of service but to simply familiarize ourselves with our businesses, that is tough advice because so many people ask what I will do to help them or how I will improve the organization.  It will definitely take me some time though to fully understand the needs of the organization and to learn all the technical jargon in French.
            Overall I am very excited about my post and am looking forward to getting to know this area of the country well and the people that live here.  There also happens to be a pretty large cluster of volunteers in this region so I will be able to catch up with some of the friends I made in training every once in a while.  I hope everyone is doing well back home and I am keeping my fingers crossed that a new CJ deal gets ironed out soon.  Someone please text me when that happens, I’m looking at you Dad.  
Peace,



-Matt
P.S. The internet is too slow at this cafe to upload pictures to either here or facebook, I am in the process of searching for an internet key so I can have internet at my house, I'll upload pics then.  

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Little update


Salut mes amis!  Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted on this blog.  A lot has happened since my last post.  I passed my language level, I have eaten some weird bushmeat (monkey and porcupine are prolly the most notable), I have given several technical and cultural presentations in French, among plenty other cool things.  I had my final technical test today and am hoping I did well on it, we have had 2 tests already and only 4 people combined have passed either one.  Apparently they have changed the tests since last year and have made them much more difficult, I am chalking it up to questionable grading.  I swear in on the 17th, next Wednesday, and then leave for Bangangte on the 18th.  I am getting anxious to finally start my service and become an official volunteer.  We always get corrected by the current volunteers that we are mere trainees so it will be nice to not have to hear that anymore.      
            Recently at my homestay family’s house we have added some new members.  My father’s brother, Daniel, has been living with us now for a couple weeks, he is a mid-50s blind man who works harder than anyone I have met here.  The man somehow is able to work on the farms and plow the land.  After coming home one night I helped him prep some pineapple tops to be planted the next day.  Apparently you can just plant the tops of pineapples and after 15-18 months a new pineapple will be ready to eat.  Bafia, the town I’m in now, is widely regarded throughout Cameroon as having the best pineapples, needless to say my Dad here is trying to break into the pineapple game a little bit.  There is an issue of other farmers outside Bafia saying that they have Bafia pineapples so they can get better prices when trying to sell them at markets throughout the country.  The other addition to the household is one of my dad’s daughters, I had no idea this child existed until about a week and a half ago.  Her name is Pascal and she is probably about 8 years old.  A lot of other trainees have children living in their houses and I thought I was lucky at first that I didn’t but I do have to admit it is kind of fun to have a little kid running around.  She is always outside playing around with her cousins and what not that come over.  She even offers to wash my clothes and clean my room, not a bad deal. 
            In other news some other trainees and myself have been playing basketball with the Bafia club team since the beginning of our training.  The Bafia team has an official game this Saturday against Bafoussam, the capitol city of the West, and the city I will be doing my banking in the next two years.  Both teams would like us to produce an American squad and play them this Saturday.  Our pick-up games with Bafia are usually pretty intense, there is a ref that literally calls everything so I can’t imagine how this real game will go (I got called for 3 in the key twice last time we played).  Unfortunately for the sport of Basketball here in Cameroon it has been influenced by soccer a little too much, people flop and complain about any little contact that may happen, it usually turns into a 3rd grade playground argument half way through.  Our token tall guy broke a rib last weekend when we played so we are down our center, it might be a little harder to match up with the big guys now.  Cameroonians are great athletes but selfish players, they always go one-on-one and end up throwing up some awkward 15-foot hook shot in traffic, I think our chances are still okay for winning these games on Saturday, I’ll let you know next post. 
            Besides basketball the last thing I have to do before swearing in is present my assigned company, a Hotel, a report about our work together and any suggestions I may have.  The only real change I made while there was making a menu for them.  They had a restaurant without a menu and most people that stayed there had no idea there was even a restaurant.  I made a bunch of copies of the menu and had them put a laminated copy in each room.  Since then they have bought a grill and have been preparing dinner not just breakfast.  I hope they can start making a little more money off the restaurant and maybe even hire a new employee to take care of it. 
            Lastly, I would like to point out that I have been away from the States now for longer than I ever have before.  I have had no AC or running water, been taking my showers out of buckets of well water, have had very unreliable electricity and I can honestly say that the thing I miss most about being away from the US (besides friends and family) is… Mexican food.  There is just no replacement for a cheese-covered chimichanga and endless bowls of salsa.  But anyway, I do sometimes forget where I am and how different my life is now, its nice to take a few minutes and just think that through all the glaring differences between these two places there are still so many similarities.  Human nature is the same wherever you go, it doesn’t matter if you are a farmer in Bafia or a businessman in New York, we all are still wired exactly the same way. 

If anyone read this and wants to toss me an email about what they’re up to that would be sweet, I love hearing from people back home. Hope all are well.

-Matt

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Not Exactly Roughin'it


So I know I haven't been keeping up with this blog as much as I should, but the whole internet thing is hard to come by especially during the first three months.  The Peace Corps restricts our internet access because it "hinders immersion".  Whatever.  Anyway, I found out my site last week and I just got back from site visit.  I will be moving to Bangante, a city in the West region of Cameroon at the end of August.  Bangante is a mid-sized city as far as cities in Cameroon go and it is much cleaner than the city I live in now.  The University of the Mountains is in Bangante, which is one of the most prestigious schools in the country.
During my time in Bangante I have been paired with a bank.  I will most likely be working on and off with this bank throughout the entirety of my service but I will also need to branch out and work on other projects as well.  Bangante will be a great place to find other opportunities such as form basic business classes, set up small savings groups or even collaborate with other volunteers on projects they are working on.  There’s an education volunteer that was placed in the same city as me and is only about a 5-minute walk away.  I definitely got lucky; there are some people that are six hours from the closest volunteer. 
While on site visit I got to get a tour of the house I will be living in for the next two years.  There is a huge disparity in the living conditions of Peace Corps Volunteers, especially here in Cameroon.  Some live in basic mud huts with no running water or electricity while others live lavishly in nice homes with all the amenities we are used to in the States.  I fall into the later category.  It is all luck of the draw, where you are posted, the houses available in that post etc.  I guess there were no mud huts or middle-class houses available in Bangante so the Peace Corps set me up in a giant mansion, check my facebook to see some pics if you wish.  
Overall things are still going great, it’s a bit weird coming back from site visit because we all got a little taste of where we will be living and what we will be doing.  I think everyone is much more excited now but we also are realizing that in a few weeks we are all parting ways.   The last month and a half of our training I’m sure will be a great time.  I’ll try to keep posting on this here blog and keep everyone updated.  
Until next time,
Matt

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Finally Here

Apparently enough change accumulated in fountains across the country for me to get better and finally make my way to Cameroon.   I have been in Bafia training with the other volunteers for nearly a week now.  I am living with a host family and so far they have been super cool, today I purchased some fabric from my mom who sells it and a tailor is coming over to the house tomorrow to make some traditional African clothes for me and a couple of the other volunteers.  My Dad takes me to his brothers bar quite often and a lot of my French is learned from hanging out with him.

The Peace Corps is a little strict while we are in training, they impose a 7pm curfew on us which has been a weird thing adjusting to.  The worst part is that we dont get out of class until around pm anyway.  Classes are from 8am to 5 pm... pretty nuts.  We mostly are in French classes at this point but we do have some tech training, medical and cultural stuff too.  For tech training we have been learning about Village Savings and Loan Associations and how to set these up and facilitate them - google it if interested, I am running out of time at the internet cafe.  About the internet cafe by the way, the keyboards are set up for French so the keys are all out of order.  Its terrible.

Today we recieved the names of the organizations we will be working with while training here, we will work with them for about two months.  My organization is a hotel and bar, I should meet the people who run it next week.  Overall I feel like I am adjusting well and the excitement of being in a new environment is far from wearing off.  The heat is the only thing that is hard to deal with.  I am used to living in hot climates but I am also used to AC, its a weird feeling to stay uncomfortably hot all day.

Anyway, I will try to write more and upload pictures when I have more time.  I miss everyone and hope all are well.

Bon Soir,

Matt