Site Visit- 11/7/2010

I returned Saturday evening from Njitchami (near Belo located in the North West Region), where I’ll be posted for the next two years beginning December 2. 

The North West is one of the two Anglophone regions in Cameroon (most of the country is French-speaking) and is lush and green.  While visiting, it was cool enough to wear a sweater in the mornings and in the evenings!  Here, In Bafia, it’s been very hot and humid so I welcomed the cool weather with a grin on my face.

Though the region is Anglophone, I was unable to understand many conversations because most speak Kom, the local dialect, or Pidgin.  I’ve taken a few Pidgin classes, but I don’t think I’ll be proficient until being immersed.  In addition to Kom and Pidgin, I’ll still be speaking French when I get to my post because this is what my community host, Joel speaks.  As my community host Joel is responsible for aiding in my integration into the community.

I was unsettled after seeing my future house because it is incomplete (there is a large pile of dirt sitting in my living room floor) and it’s supposed to be ready for me in one month.  With this exception, everything at my post is incredible!  The people are welcoming, there’s an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables (this is not the case in many other regions where other volunteers are posted), and to top it off I have a wonderful view of one of the biggest waterfalls in my area (it’s the biggest I’ve seen in Cameroon). 

My community host works for the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.  He is from the West Region which is Francophone so his English is limited.  Since he works for the government he moves around quite a bit to various postings.  He’s been living in the Belo area for one year now and will stay for at least three more.  He and his co-workers are excited to have me in the area and I’m looking forward to working on a project in conjunction.

During my site visit Joel borrowed a moto (motorcycle) from the government and showed me different areas that I may work.  The first day he drove me to my unfinished house; this was adventurous because it was raining and the dirt road had many potholes and miniature cravases.  The next day we took another ride to the Ndawara Tea Estate (it’s the largest single-handedly owned tea estate in the world).  Getting to the estate was more of an adventure than traveling to my house; it took an hour and a half to go the 25K (about 16 miles).  The time includes the many stops we made so I could get off and hike up the dangerous sections (Joel struggled walking the moto up these sections).  My word of the day was “doucement,” meaning “slowly” because I was afraid of flying off of the bike (fish-tailing on a moto is not how I like to get a rush...).

Once at the Estate, I talked to officials of the company and was given a private tour of the processing and packaging plant (it appears that they have been able to successfully brand their tea).  After visiting the site for about an hour we got back on the moto and drove another half an hour past the estate to the Mbi Crater which is home to a game reserve (Joel works in conjunction with the reserve).  I did not see any animals at the reserve, but did see signs.  I’m excited to return because there are caves in the crater that would be fun to explore.

In addition to seeing some cool places and meeting great people, I ate some great food.  I had some of the usual grilled fish from the street mamas and also was able to cook some American food with other PCVs (peace corps volunteers).  Cheese is very uncommon in the country, but we were able to cook pizza using cheese we bought from some nuns (one has to be pretty resourceful to find items).

Overall, I had a great site visit and am looking forward to arriving at my post so I can get settled and begin integrating into my community.  I’m sure I’ll encounter a few “potholes,” but I’ve been given the tools I need to work through them and grow.

Training

I arrived safely in Cameroon on the 19th of September, 2010  and am undergoing my Pre-Service Training (PST).  I’m currently living in Bafia with a wonderful home stay family.  I have a lot of host sisters and a brother so, after spending a busy day at the training site with 24 other Agro PSTs, I return home and am kept busy talking, playing, retrieving water, and cooking with my siblings.  This is my final week with this family.  Next week I will move to a village called Lable (it’s within biking distance of where I am now) and live with another family.  There are three wives at this family (each has their own mud hut, but I will live in the main house) so there are many children.

I have 11 weeks of training and during this time I will be living with two host families. The family I’m living with now is welcoming and happy to be my host.  I have 4 host sisters and 1 host brother.  The kids are ages 2-16 so the home is always bustling with activity.  The house is modern and I have my own room.  I get water with my siblings at least twice a day from the well across the street and I’ve been enjoying my daily bucket baths. 

At training, I spend time learning French and technical skills; however I just tested out of French last week and have been placed in one of the two English speaking regions in Cameroon so on Monday I began learning Pidgin.  After only two days of classes I know this will be a challenge (especially considering my Pidgin text book is written in French...).  The good thing about the North West region that I’ll be working in is that it isn’t as hot as many of the other areas in Cameroon.  It’s been hot in Bafia so I’m looking forward to the cooler weather in the coming months.

There are 49 people in my training class, but only 25 are in Agroforestry; the others are in Health. There are some training classes that are combined with the Health group, but most of them, and all technical courses, are taught with only the Agro group. 

There are 10 regions in Cameroon and this past weekend I took a field trip with the Agro group to the West.  It was a nice break from our intense 10-hour days, 6 days a week program.  We saw  tree nurseries, successful farms, and apiculture sites.  Along with this, we also learned 3 methods of cloning trees--pretty cool stuff!

Once I’m at my post I’ll have more time to update this blog, but for now, this is the best I can manage.  I did learn that I’ll be living in a house with both running water and electricity (many of the volunteers do not have these luxuries).  I am opening a new post (no other PC volunteer has been in the village) so there are a lot of opportunities for sustainable growth.

Thank you everyone for all of the support and I look forward to being in touch!