Updates... (Wednesday, April 13, 2011)

                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.

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.

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.”