"Pull Your 84 jerseys out, I'm back home"

30 July 2011

Hi everyone,

I wish I was good at keeping a journal because then I would be able to remember everything, but I’ll give it the old college try.

Training is going well, then French has improved a ton, I also think it is hilarious that I am an illiterate because that is such a big focus for a lot of development agencies.  I can read simple books, but my older brother just finished his Doctorate in Yaoundé about the social contract of the Quran and I am pretty sure I couldn’t understand that in English so I just translated the title.

We have gone on 2 field trips for business development.  Our first one was in Bangu, West region.  That region was beautiful and I hear the North-West region trumps that so I still have a lot of traveling to look forward too.  We visited an MC2 which is a type of MFI here in Cameroon.  The main lesson I came back with is that the network of higher ups at MC2’s, in the government, and chiefs seem to utilize each other and only help out each other.  A few employees said they had trouble getting their products to the extreme poor.  Learning about it is good, but I know I will learn a lot more when I am in the field.  After we visited a Chief in the village.  We had a big feast in his compound where he had a ton of farms and pigs.  I thought the most interesting part was the style of their houses, basically a thin pyramid at the top.  The reason for this is they believe they descended from one of the tribes of Israel.  It would be interesting to hear the story that has been passed down, but since I was visitor I didn’t want embarrass myself in front of the chief and butcher a question in French.

As for the 2^nd field trip, we went to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.  Another MC2, and basically the same story.  Great to hear what can be done and what is being done in Microfinance, but makes you want to talk to the actual clients more.  After we got to an NGO called “The Last Great Ape Organization”.  This was actually really awkward at first then really cool.

Side Story for the awkward part: I came home for dinner one night and since my mom is gone I eat with my uncle and my dad.  My dad starts talking and then points to the bowl and goes I am not going to eat it because it is meat(He is Muslim.). Then he goes you don’t have to if you don’t want because it is monkey.  Not going to lie, I did have a piece and with all the cards out on the table, it was pretty darn tasty.  Probably not going to make it a regular thing, but C’est la vie.

Back to the NGO, the cool part is that he was a journalist and decided to come to Cameroon for a vacation.  He decided to shoot some footage for wildlife trafficking and saw that the laws were never enforced.  He said, “to be honest I have no real soft spot for wildlife, but we use it as a platform to fight corruption here”.  He found out there is a law if caught with a Category A animal(Endangered species) that you will go to jail for 3 years.  Before 2003 the law was not enforced once.  Since July 2003 he has given the government evidence to prosecute over 400 cases.  It seemed the mission of the NGO was to use wildlife protection as a platform to fight corruption and see that it can be done in other areas of the government.

The next part of the field trip everyone can appreciate!  We went to a chain store called Casino(French grocery store) and they had everything.  I bought a mini-pizza and donut for lunch and then some meat for a sandwich when I got back.  Basically anything you wanted.  We thought the best thing was the 6 slices of Bacon for $26.  They have plenty of pork in the Extreme North, I am going to find a way to get that cheaper.

Other stories definitely not in order:

My friends and I helped out our friend, Simone, catch a chicken.  It took us about a half hour.  At different points it was on the roof, in the corn field and the tree.  In the end another Cameroonian kid came running in and grabbed him.  Next time I think we will get it.  Not to be out done though the next day 5 of us went to the market and bought a live chicken.  We thought it would be some massive ordeal and we got there, asked where to we buy live chickens, and when we found the right guy he handed one over, simple as that.  The best part was my friend carrying it from its feet on the moto ride back.  I have seen more on the back of a moto, the most interesting has been goats(plural), another moto, and whenever I see 5 people on one I think its hilarious.

As for the first chicken, we got to see Simone chop its head off.  The next day he offered us a ton of it and it was delicious.

Another amazing day was going to see the traditional medicine doctor.  I am doing a presentation on traditional medicine for the other trainees(everyone has to pick a subject).  He spoke mostly in the local language which my Dad translated in French, so Joanna(another trainee who can speak French fluently) could translate the parts I missed into English.  It was pretty funny to see the talking go down the line then me finally understand and nod and say thank you.  I found out that onions are very important in traditional medicine.  Also I asked him what was the most magical animal and he went with Kangaroo.  Nothing against Kangaroos, but come on.  As for birds he said Owls which I get.  I also found out the most expensive procedure is Invincibility to Sorcerers so I might be investing in that soon, don’t want to take too many chances. 

I think those are the main points I want to get across on the Cameroonian side.

As for Fantasy Football(The real reason for this blog).

We are holding a live draft where I will be wearing my authentic Randy Moss jersey I bought here for $11.  We are holding competitions such as rock throw, bike race, and wall sit, maybe even a beer chug to see who gets first pick. 

I also wrote down Iowa’s schedule today, looking good for another undefeated season, hope it pans out!

Have fun in the heat guys(hotter in MN than Cameroon, haha classic) and keep me updated on anything and everything.

Nous sont ensemble,

Jack

7/10/11

Hi everyone, hope all is well!

I have been doing quite a bit these past couple weeks so I will try not to ramble on too much.  My homestay family is still amazing, and I definitely living POSH-corps in bafia.  I still don’t have running water, but every day I am thankful for my food the night before because I ate something delicious while another volunteer ate porcupine (never tried so I guess I can’t judge yet).  I have found my routine in Bafia was well.  Its wake up at 6am, take a bucket shower, eat an omelet and then off to school for some studying before we start at 8.  After school, usually around 430 we all get anything we need done, for instance I will head to forage(clean water well) to get some water then we will head to a place 10 minutes down the road where you can grab a beer, coke(in the bottle) and some filler food.

My routine was interrupted by kind of a big event.  We were going to find out where we would be posted for the next two years.  Everyone was speculating the whole week because some staff members and PC volunteer trainers already knew.  All we knew were the 18 available spots, and only one was for sure filled.(We knew Kyomi(Kyomi if you see this sorry about the spelling) was going to a post in the northwest because that’s where her husband was posted in Education).  So with 17 spots left the Thursday before we left for site visit we picked each other’s names out of a hat.  I think I was the 6 or 7^th name to get picked and when I heard Extreme North(sometimes called the Far North) I was pumped.  I knew I wanted to some agro-business type things and I was talking to a trainer and she said I would have a lot of opportunities for that in the north.  My town is called Kaele is about an hour and a half away from the regional capital of Maroua. 

Now for our site visit trip(I will talk about Kaele in this):

Sunday Day 1: We take a bus from Bafia to Yaoundé.  Only a 2 hour bus ride so not bad unless you are some of friends in the back who are sitting on each other because they just kept packing people in.  I didn’t have it so bad up front except because we squished together my leg kept falling asleep.  When traveling it is all relative, and if you don’t have it the worst, then don’t bother complaining.  We got into Yaounde and dropped our stuff off at the Case(they are like PCV hostels that we can stay in when we are traveling).  They have them in most regions, but I will probably referring to the Case a lot.  After dropping our stuff off and meeting some more PCVs we went across the street and got the most delicious meal ever.  We had a cheeseburger and fries.  When we were served it was like when my friends and I would go out to eat in college, nobody talked for a while because you hadn’t had such a good meal in a while.

Sorry if I talk about food a lot, but I would say half of my thinking goes into food.  Disclaimer(I eat well, we just always talk about food, even when not eating it, it brings people together).

Still Day 1 we leave the Case with all of our stuff for the train station.  The people in the Adamawa, North and Far North are the ballers that get to take a night train up to Ngaundere.  If running exactly on time it will get there in 12 hours, I have heard of stories of up to 24, but ours were 16 on the way there and 14 on way back.  The train has 3 classes, Cabins, first class, and second class.  Cabins are 2 bunk beds in a small room and one small window.  They cost the most and are usually reserved pretty quickly.  It is great because the train only runs at night so to be able to lie down and get some rest is amazing.  First class I saw a little of which is basically like airplane seats.  It looked like you had some room, and other volunteers who have taken said they will put a sleeping bag in the aisle and get some shut-eye.  I did not see 2^nd class, but I can’t imagine it being anything fun for anybody. 

Day 2: The train arrived at 11am so we were well rested for our 2^nd leg of traveling.  At this point everyone was still with us.  By everyone I mean Earl, Adam, Melissa, Danielle, Krystal, Emily, and Kelly.  It was great to travel with them because I have gotten to know them quite well in training and definitely on the train.  We grab our luggage and go to the bus station right outside the train station.  After buying our tickets we have about an hour till we leave.  Lots of talk about how cool site will be, the cold water we just bought, and food.  Stating the obvious is something we do a lot here.

Summary of bus ride: 8 hours, I’m one inch too tall for any comfortable position in my seat, 3 people puked within a 4 person radius of us(Earl and I at this point, we are the extreme north guys), ate some great street meat, couldn’t open the windows because Cameroonians enjoy sweat, actually it is very logical they don’t want dust on their clothes and you will get dust on your clothes if you have the window open, started rain the last hour, and we arrived almost on time in Kaele around 9pm I would say. 

Day 3, 4, 5: These days mostly took place in Kaele which I will call home for the next 2 years.  The city is small, but I was still getting lost after a couple of days so maybe not that small.  We ate a lot of meat, beans, and omelets there.  Also Nic(the person I am replacing) was great and showed me around.  He showed me the Womens Center and Youth Center where he taught business classes.  Also he said some of the most rewarding business classes, also life skill classes was at the prison in Kaele.  Side note: Remember we are lucky enough in the U.S. to have “innocent until proven guilty”.  It doesn’t always work the right way, but the justice system seems to work.  Here the justice system is, don’t make the wrong person mad, or don’t pay your bride well then you didn’t pay the “fee” so go to jail.  Enough about that though.

During my stay I met too many people too count, and I should have written everyones name down, because between French, accents, and it being so hot I can’t remember everyones names.  The institution I will be working with is doing Microfinance.  The name is Credit du Sahel.  I met with my counterpart(Marc, I will be working with him on some projects) and he was very welcoming and said even to practice my French, give him a call and he can talk about some business items to get the vocabulary down.

My house is awesome, in Kaele.  2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, indoor shower, and not 1 but 2 pit latrines! They are both in a building next to my house, one is covered and the other I guess more outdoor, but with the walls around my house it is basically covered. Nic and Steven(another PCV in Kaele) said I am lucky to have a pit latrine and not a toilet because we don’t get running water most of the year, and with a toilet you need water to flush it which makes it very time consuming.

On Day 5 we took a bush taxi to Maroua to do banking.  Bush taxis in Cameroon are hippie vans essentially, nothing to strange about the ride.  Made sure to get a window seat, and you can bet I was opening that window.  Maroua we got our banking done.

Story time: We had to fill out 6 forms for banking, and on one of the forms they asked we write our Mom’s full name on the back. We did. Waiting to be told to write your fathers name(you do not want to mess up on these forms, trust me for those ever opening up a Cameroonian bank account.) We were never told to, so we asked if we needed to right our fathers name.  Steven was translating a lot of this for us, and after our bank manager said something he broke down laughing.  Steven told us “no, you don’t need to write your fathers name down, because your mother gave birth to you so that we know, but we can never be 100% sure who your father is.” (I’ve been confused for you before Dad so no worries).

After banking, we went to the Maroua Case and hung out, played some cards, met a few more PCV’s named Gina and Liz.  Actually my weird connection to Liz because I was emailing her before I got here is her brother was on my good friends, Greg Graves, ski team in college.  You find a lot of these small world things here.

Day 6: Wake up at 330am, walk to bus station, get on 530 bus, listen to kids singing Justin Biebers “Baby” every half hour(I do not have Bieber fever).  Stop at the gas station in Garoua to fill up, grab a coke and some Pringles(just like the U.S.).  Meet some more PCVs at the Ngaundere case, and then grab the night train home.

Day 7: Leave train station, get called Le blanc by every taxi driver, finally find a taxi. Then take the quick 2 hour bus ride home to Bafia, where I had a fantastic meal of macaroni(wasn’t kraft, but it hit the spot) and some pineapple.

Overall the trip went quite smoothly and I got to see a lot of Cameroon. 

Sorry for no pictures right now, they take forever to upload and a lot of times the internet just won't.

That’s all for now, hope everyone is doing well.  Still haven’t been to sick yet(upset stomach doesn’t count here). 

PS sorry mom, I shaved my head(Kaele is too hot, Ce la vie).