Fulfude word of the day: Poli = pigeons

It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been in Cameroon for over half a year… crazy! The month of March was a fairly busy one. I did a round of meetings with the same GICs I had met with in January, to give them a better understanding of what A/F is, my role as a PCV, and how we can work together. Some of the groups responded with specific interests and high motivation to learn and try new things, for example conservation techniques at home (composting, improved cookstoves) or introducing improved techniques and plants to their farms. A lot of the farm techniques are in the planning and explaining phase right now, and will only be implemented in June/July during planting (when the rainy season has set in). One really cool meeting I had was with a group of women where I taught them how to make tofu and soy milk. It was A LOT of work (grinding soy beans by hand for about 3-4 hours), but it was a huge success.

            March 8 was International Women’s Day, which was celebrated in style here. All the women, including myself, donned the celebratory pagne.

            I just got back from a week in Ngoundéré, the capital of the Adamawa, the region just south of me. My reason for being there was IST (In-Service Training), a week of sessions for all new PCVs and our “counterparts”—someone we have been working with at post who knows about A/F and agricultural work and can work closely with the PCV and the community. On top of the PC sessions, this past week was a great chance to reunite with my stage-mates and hear about life at post for the last 4 months. It was especially interesting to hear from the PCVs in the Grand South and to hear their reactions upon their arrival to the Grand North—it’s a huge transition from the humid tropics, to the dry, Muslim and Fulfulde-dominated Sahel.

            Oh also, wildlife update: This morning while driving into Garoua (while crossing the bridge over the Benoue River), I saw EIGHT hippos all hanging out in the water, a few with their heads above the water. Hippos must be a regular occuurance during dry season… my friends and I spotted one several feet away from us a few days ago while swimming in Lake Lagdo (the reservoir here in the North that powers a large part of the country via a large hydraulic dam).

            As a closer, here’s an update on my integration abilities. Even though I still get dranged (franglish for to bother) a lot and am uncomfortably aware that I stand out like a sore thumb, the other day I had a total win. I was in Ngong, a large town just north of me, and this kid was trying to sell me water, which I was not interested in (for my own enjoyment I decided to tell him that I only drink bil-bil, millet wine, and have no interest in water). After explaining this to him in Fulfulde and rejecting him enough times, he kept trying to get me to buy water, but began addressing me as nassara-balejum (black, white person) which I took as a total compliment and have been using as a bragging point since.

Happenings so far this month

The first big occasion this month was the 11^th of February – Fête de la Jeunesse (Youth Day). The day’s celebrations mainly comprised of a large group of students of all ages from all of the schools in Poli marching in parade a across Poli’s main stadium/field. There were some other events leading up to the day itself, including soccer matches between the high school and a cultural night where students performed skits and dances.

The other big event happened today and that was the arrival of our new souspréfét. As I’ve explained, Cameroon is divided into 9 regions. Each region is divided into a number of departments (depending on size, population) and each department has a Préfét and under him, a Souspréfét, both acting as extensions of the President. Each department is divided into arrondissements (like districts or counties) and then within those, there are city mayors who are voted locally, and traditional village chiefs. So getting a new souspréfét is a pretty big deal since this is an important government position and the souspréfét’s house is right next door to mine! The ceremony drew in lots of officials from town, as well as several lamidos (head chief, in Fulfulde) from surrounding villages.  All the big lamidos were wearing the traditional, flowing biu-bius that men wear in the North, along with elaborate headdresses that seemed similar to what Imams usually wear. Unfortunately my camera is broken, so I couldn’t take any pictures, but hopefully I can eventually get some pictures of the traditional dress here in the Grand North. The rest of the ceremony was mostly formalities; the old Souspréfét went down the line of officials and shook their hands, then the arriving Souspréfét did the same. Afterwards the mayor and the Préfét both said some words, and the two souspréféts did an “official,” symbolic switch where they stood on either side of the Préfét, saluted each other, and then switched places… kind of like the changing of the guards.

            At home I’ve joined some of the neighborhood teenagers in their evening soccer games… it’s been fun and quite a work out… I’m looking forward to some improvement on my part. I’ve also had the neighborhood kids over at my house to do some coloring and drawing and pass the time on the weekends.

            Other than that, things are moving slowly, yet somewhat steadily at post. This Friday I will be going back into Voko to do a presentation on tree nurseries and then hopefully going back again next week to do some introductions to A/F and hopefully find some GICs who are interesting in trying new A/F techniques.

Apparently the most interesting things happen on the road to the village...

Road between villages, cotton field to the right.

The second round of GIC meetings went well, probably better than the first. These meetings are for me to get to know the community groups, their farming activities, group goals, and also for them to get to know me and hopefully start building some sort of working relationship. All of the groups I met grow some type of cash crop (corn, peanuts, millet, rice, cotton) as their main farming activity, but during the second week I met a few groups that have planted vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and would like to try new crops (ex: soy). Meeting groups that have already experimented with different farming activities and diversified what they grow is really great because it shows that they are willing to work and take risks which will be necessary if they are interested in integrating any A/F techniques or species into their farms. Communication with the farmers is still kind of a struggle since most of them do not speak French. I had someone help me with translation during all the meetings, but it can still be frustrating because I’m only getting a summary of what has been said, but no worries... it’ll take some time and Fulfuldé practice, but it will come.

            Yesterday I went to visit the same Project ESA II demo plot in WindéPinchoumba that I biked to a couple weeks ago. It was a really successful visit—I got to see all their test plots where they grow cash crops in a traditional way (monocropping, plowing, fertilizer application, field burning) as compared to their plots where they integrate A/F techniques and species (no plowing, fallow, nitrogen-fixing plants, intercropping, crop rotation). It was great to hear that they have been very successful in their test area and that many farmers in their area have been improving their farms with these integrations… now it’s just a matter of getting the word farther down the road to the villages in Voko!

            On the moto ride home from WindéPinchoumba, we drove past a wildfire that had spread from a field someone was burning. It sucks seeing so much of the land being burned on a regular basis, especially when things like this happen, where it gets picked up by the wind and burns huge areas.

            Oh, I almost forgot… I saw a lioness! I wish I could post a picture, but I was jammed into a little bush taxi with six other people and my bag was in the back. We were driving out to the village and the lioness was just walking down the road (away from us) and then turned off into the bush. My first thought when I saw her: “huh, that’s not a dog.”

           

Life in the village (written Jan 17)

Before I get into what I’ve been up to lately, let me explain a little bit about my post and the area where I have begun working—and I must admit that I’m still learning myself… it’s not so easy without a map in front of me. The Conservation, one of Faro National Park’s main offices, is located about an hour or two west of Poli, in a canton called Voko. A canton is a district, the collective name for a group of villages. Outside of the park, there are several villages I have begun working with—Gormaya, Mayo Djarendi, Paté Manga, Lenguerba and along with some other villages, they are collectively known as Voko. The park itself is divided into several areas, the farthest west being the “park” itself (where the Conservationist’s office is) and the rest, roughly ten, are managed hunting zones which are rented out to hunting guides.

Picture of only the coolest things found, including antelope and hippo skulls.

            I spent this past weekend in Voko, meeting with various GICs so I can learn about their work, farming activities, needs, interests, goals, and anything else they are willing to share so I can learn about their groups. It’s exciting to finally feel like I’m “getting out there” and talking to people and learning about the farming activities in the area. Since there isn’t regular transportation from Voko to Poli (and it’s an uncomfortable 1-2hr ride), it’s easiest for me to stay in Voko for various periods of time. 

While in Voko I tried this fruit, called kosala. It tasted kind of like green tea.

I had a room set up in the Conservation, which I will continue to use as I keep traveling into Voko and it ended up being a pretty great place for me to be. There are always MINFOF eco-guards working and hanging around the office, which provides me with a really great way to learn about the functions of the park and general stuff about the area. I was fortunate enough that my stay coincided with the Conservationist passing through Voko, providing me with a lot of quality time to talk to him on a range of topics. Unfortunately for him, his stay was prolonged by accumulating work, as several arrests were made in the park. The first was a Nigerian man who was caught poaching—a porcupine, coupe de buffoon, and a monkey. The second was a group of men from one of Voko’s villages, caught fishing illegally and mining for gold in one of the hunting zones. I was surprised to hear that these men were mining, but apparently the area is fairly rich in minerals, and although there is some chance in finding something; this chance is not very high and the small amount that may be found doesn’t have very much value, but as one of the men explained—a village chief—the pressure to pay for his children’s’ education has pushed him to take these chances. Hearing this man talked really just motivated me more to learn about the area and the people—their resources and potential. My hope is that I can help them find ways of generating an income that can help improve their lives, while maintaining a balance, and relieving pressure from the park.

Mi somi (Fulfuldé for “I’m tired”) (written Jan 12)

Besides working with my host institution (MINFOF), my job is to seek out other organizations I can work with (this is the reason I visited so many MIN_ offices when I got to post). Project ESA II is the environmental offshoot of SOTECOTON, the French-Cameroonian company that controls anything and everything to do with cotton in this country. Anyway, Project ESA II has an A/F demo plot in this village just over 25km from Poli called WindéPinchoumba. I biked out at 7am, with the hope of reaching the demo plot and finding someone in charge—which I did, in 2 hours. After setting a time to meet next week and taking a short break, at 10am I headed back to Poli, hoping that I had enough in me to make it home in good time, just before the afternoon heat. I didn’t do so bad, 2 hours and 50 minutes—10 of which I spent taking a water break and 30 minutes to walk up the really steep, rocky section. When I reached the hilly section and decided to walk it, I happened to stop right behind a group of women who were walking in my direction; I figured since I was just walking my bike, one of them might as well set it on my saddle while we walk uphill (rather than carry it on her head… I don’t think I’ve mentioned anything about this, but with the exception of babies, who are always tied securely to one’s back with a large cloth, EVERYTHING can be and generally is carried on one’s head… in Lable, it was a regular occurrence to see men walking down the road balancing planks the size of telephone poles on their heads). So I walked uphill with these women, carrying with me a bag of what I later found out to be millet wine, then biked the rest of the way home, promptly rewarded myself with a cold Coke (not as satisfying as ice cream at Morrow) from the bar, and deemed the voyage a success.