After my last blog post I realized that I forgot to tell my most recent achievement (or probably most recent obsession would be more correct). I’ve already mentioned that here in Cameroon, as is common across the continent, people carry many things on their heads—especially water. Since arriving at post I’ve often shared my interest in carrying water this way and have even been encouraged to do so by a friend or two who all told me that it is indeed easier to carry water on one’s head than to do so by hand… turns out, they’re absolutely right! It’s easier and virtually no water is lost en route. So now I’ve taken to carrying water (a bucket of filled to 17 liters) from the deep water well by my house a few times a day. I honestly thought that the first time the bucket was placed on my head I would just collapse under the weight (and I didn’t think to start small), but it wasn’t so bad and now I’m getting pretty good at it, it’s just a question of positioning and balance of the bucket, as well as the rolled up bandana underneath. I’ve been so excited about this recent development that not only have I been telling everyone and anyone, but I also like to take chances to practice, ex: carrying a case of beer on my head down a few blocks while in Ngoundéré.
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| Climbing Mt. Ngoundere |
Speaking of recent achievement, the other day while reaching the end of my morning run, just as I reached my neighborhood, I noticed a decent sized group of people singing and dancing under a few trees just behind the neighborhood. As I was nearing my neighborhood I could hear the chant-like singing growing in volume and once I had arrived, I stood and watched the group along with some neighbors. I later found out that this group of people, who are from the Toupouri tribe (generally living in the eastern part of the Extreme North region, but also decently populating my neighborhood), were celebrating a coming of age tradition, common among many (Northern) Cameroonian tribes. In short, these young boys had just spent a couple days en brousse (I later found out that these days that just means under some trees outside the neighborhood), are now returning as young men, and will each receive a new name, generally an evolved version of their old name.
I just got back from a spending a few days at the base camp of the park, which is about a few kilometers south of the last village (Mayo Djarendi) in the canton (Voko) and takes crossing the vast, but currently near-empty Faro River. One of the coolest parts of each day was walking down the empty river bed in search of a pool of water deep enough to swim in for a while (sans hippos, mind you!). Right now, the deepest water is usually knee-high and in fairly rare, sporadic pools, but once we’re well into the rainy season, the water should be a few hundred meters long and at a tree-topping depth (sorry, estimation isn’t my forte). Anyway, it was really awesome to walk along all kinds of fresh tracks from animals (hippos, various types of antelopes and birds) all doing the same thing as me—looking for water! One of the more unfortunate parts of being in the park base is again, witnessing the number of poachers and gold diggers arrested on a daily basis. It’s regrettable to see so many people risking prison and fines, and that animals (some already threatened) put at risk. One man was brought in for poaching—a warthog, several lizards, a few antelope, and a monkey known as “the magistrate” because of its black and white fur resemblance to courtroom judge with a wig (a few of which I later saw hopping between trees!). On the note of gold digging, on any given day of the week, a majority of the people who live Voko (generally those living farther south, closer to the river) are not to be found because they have all gone down to the river to look for gold (think California gold-rush style). The other day my counterpart, the MINADER rep in Voko, asked a few women who regularly go down to the river to show us their findings; they promptly produced a dime-sized pile of gold “pebbles” which they said is easily worth 10.000 FCFA (about $20) and can take weeks to find.
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