Really glad I went, Really ready to be back

I loved Njinikom and I could have stayed there longer… but if I had some of my own space. Also needing some more internet and contact to some people. I need to vent a LOT.

Travelling is the worst part. UGH. one more 8 hour flight.

Anyways. Monday I finished up work and at 2 they had a little going away thing for us. Sister Xaveria spoke thanking us and the two med students, and someone at the hospital spoke and Mac spoke on my behalf. They danced in and gave us gifts (which we weren’t to open right then and there, unlike the U.S. custom), it ended up being Cameroonian coffee and these bowls that fit together like a little set for ground nuts (my dad and the med students got something different).

Then the women’s group from the hospital did a ceremonial traditional dance and some of the sisters couldn’t help themselves and had to jump in too.

Packed up, Sister Xaveria and Relindus came over for dinner which was fried rice, fried plantains and  agusi bitter leaf. Prisca made it for everyone. Agusi is ground pumpkin seed sauce-y stuff that she then mixed with the bitter leaf (which is supposedly similar to Jamajama). Sister Xaveria thought it was hilarious that I was taking pictures of the food.

 I can’t wait to get home where I can ACTUALLY post all my pictures. I’ll probably just post them on facebook, but I’ll label each one so that you can know what is actually going on in them. I hate looking at other peoples pictures and not actually knowing what and where and when it all is and/or was.

Tuesday morning we got in the car with our luggage and the 2 med students (Valerie and Soren) and then 5 nuns. One was coming to Douala with us, the other 4 were staying in Bamenda.. where we were actually picking up 4 more students that were in Shisong for their 3 months and knew Valerie and Soren. Wow, okay so that’s driver Bo Paul (father of Paul, his only son, his real name is Henry), my dad and I, Sister Gracia going to Douala, Valerie, Soren, and 4 more. 10. Yes. 10. In the van. And the students had all been there for 3 months so each had 2 suitcases and big back packs. So it literally barely fit in the car it was ridiculous. So on from Bamenda we stopped several times to get lunch food, and lunch and whatever else. It was sardines, spam looking bologna stuff, cheese and bread again. We each had a half a loaf of French bread again. I’m tired of French bread. I want some serious whole grain stuff, toasted.

It was a jam packed car and it was a bumpy hot road. We stopped at the fruit stand again and they cut some fresh pineapple, best pineapple of my life. I almost had to dive to catch the chunk that was slippery and slipped from my fingers but I caught it just in time… it would have been worth the dive though. Then the van wouldn’t start…. The men at the fruit stand said they’d push start it. So we all climbed in and my dad took a picture of them pushing (I’ll post it later).  It started up and as we were rolling my dad hopped in and we drove off honking and cheering. It was pretty funny. I was up in front in the middle the whole way, no seat belt, engine under the seat causing me to have a very hot butt. But I got to talk to Bo Paul a lot, he’s really nice and funny and answered a lot of questions.

We stopped at the Baptist mission to drop of the med students bags and then found out the couple coming in that day to go to Njinikom had already arrived at 4:30 (somehow sister didn’t know when their flight was coming.. so that’s great). We jumped in the car, push started it again and hurried to the “park” to drop of the med students and the rest of their bags so they could go to the beach for the week and then headed over to Padre Pio Catholic Hospital so we could shower and rest while Bo Paul and Sister Gracia went to the airport. At least Sister Xaveria knew somebody who could gather the couple waiting and stay with them until Sister Gracia got there. I’m sure Sister Xaveria (she’s the matron of the Njinikom Hospital) was not happy with the whole situation, especially because they were from Mission Doctors and she definitely favors those who come to volunteer over those who come because they are getting school credit and doing an internship, plus the Mission Doctors have more money and are more likely to spend more for the hospital and return some day.

We showered, but within 5 minutes we were sweating again. I even took a cold shower. 7:30 Bo Paul, Sister Gracia and the Coopers got to Padre Pio. We ate dinner and talked about what they should expect basically.
Bo Paul and Sister Gracia took us to the airport. We went through everything, paid the 20 dollar exit fee and got on the plane. I slept some, watched a movie. Now I’m just SOOO freaking ready for some space. I need my own room, my own bed, my own bathroom and some real food. Ugh. We’re in Paris, one more flight straight to Seattle. 

Good Birthday, Good Weekend, Home Soon

Woo, what another last few days and WHAT A BIRTHDAY! Ha ha. Wow. I’ve experienced something extremely new. So after I wrote that last blog I basically was just hanging out reading playing minesweeper, which I’m now at 1% in my lifetime because I’ve won nine games.. So basically I need to reset my statistics so I can really track it.

The Belgians came over and sang to me and gave me a little string of letters that that says Gefeliciteerd which means Congratulations in Belgian. They made a necklace of Belgian snacks and hung it on my neck. It was quite cute. So then they had previously invited me to slaughter their chicken have dinner and go to a club with them because Valerie and Soren are also leaving this week. However, we already had the other plans. But they were about to slaughter their chicken they bought so they told me I could come over for that. So I put my pictures on my flash drive for them and went over. They hadn’t slaughtered it yet, I was hoping I’d missed the killing and was just going to see how Bie cut it into the pieces. They finally did attempt, with a VERY unsharp little knife. They should have like chopped and done it quick. But Bie was holding the body and Ariane was holding the head and the knife. Let’s just say if you want to know more of that story you can ask. It was quite sad, and disgusting. I didn’t watch most of it.

That was my new experience. Lucy, one of the nurses at the hospital came over and she wanted to save the feet and the head for her sister. :/ ew.

I came home and we all waited for Lilian, Quinta, Germar and Mac and his wife Maybell to come. I had a glass of Penasol white wine (it’s in a box and it’s liter and only cost about $1.20). Germar was the first to get here, African time at 6:30. Lilian, Quinta, Mac and Maybell arrived at about 7. Mac wanted to “quaff” which is a word he and his friends use for drinking. He had some beer, the rest had Grenadine (which is basically sparkling less syrupy grenadine from the U.S. just a type of pop here). They all sang to me. We at the spaghetti and garlic bread and then my dad brought out a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and 2 candles. They all sang again and I blew out the candles, wishing for rain.

My favorite part about dessert (well other than the chocolate) was that Lilian, Maybell, Germar and Quinta all had big pieces and big second pieces! Mac only had one. I had like 2 and a half. But nobody asked for a small one or complained about it. They all ate a bunch and really liked the cake. In the U.S. they would have all said, “just a small piece.” Ha ha.

I have quite a few good pictures. So now I’m hoping for good internet.

Sunday morning we went to 6 am mass. I didn’t understand most of it, some of it sounded pidgin English and it was LONG. It was a little interesting with all the different styles and fabrics but that only lasted so long. The children’s mass was better because of all the kids. But the choir at this one was kind of nice too.

Then I went on rounds, but really I just went and took pictures at the hospital. I went to the little crooked legs wards and took pictures of all the kids in their casts. Oh man they are cute. The parents were a bit annoying, but I can’t really give them the pictures because I cant print them here.  I can’t imagine being a 3 year old to 8 year old and having to sit in a full legged casts for 8 weeks. Ugh.

We had pancakes for brunch and it was only 11 after all of this. So I took a nap. At 1:30 we went for a walk, passed the midway and down the hill. We went up to the Midway for one last time and had Soya from Desmond.

Played Rage, ate popcorn, had some wine. Made spaghetti again with all of the left over noodles, watched some Friends, finished my book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and went to bed.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was kind of a weird book, but I really liked it. It would have been a better read with the actual text rather than on my kindle because of the pictures and the organization of the text and the letters in the book. Has anyone read Eating Animals or Everything Is Illuminating, by the same author? I’m debating downloading them when I get home to read.

Now it’s Monday. I entered data all morning.

This afternoon is a little going away thing with the hospital and then tonight Sister Relindus and Xaveria will come for dinner and we're off tomorrow AM back to Douala (the 8 hour drive) then our flight to Paris leaves in the evening, and then to Seattle. Back at 1 pm on Wednesday.

I'd really like some rain for my birthday!

Ah, Thursay night Prisca made Fufu and Jamajama for dinner. The corn flower and water makes the mushy fufu then she wrapped it in banana leaves to portion out the balls/bars. Her jamajama was pretty good as well. She was basically just steaming the huckleberry leaves then added spices and kind of sauted it. She also boiled chicken and then cooked it in oil and made a very oily tomatoe sauce. All together it was good. Jama by itself, not so good, fu fu alone, not so good. Together it’s okay.. even better with the tomato sauce.  The chicken and tomato sauce is called Kahti kahti.

For some reason they double a lot of their food names. It’s kind of odd.

In the afternoon Thursday I bought 12 bananas (small ones) and 2 avocados for a total of 30 cents. The bananas were 100 francs, and each avocado was 25 francs (which is a nickel). Just crazy.

March 23^rd, Friday at Project Hope treatment center was EXTREMELY busy. So I didn’t do much but get files out and stuff cause I don’t know enough to actually help dispense the drugs.

Terry made minestrone soup and put the left over jamajama in it. It was pretty good. Kind of like spinach.

We took a walk down for a brewsky and some tomatoes. I got a Smirnoff ice instead. I wasn’t feeling the beer last night. Then we had a second. On the way back I ran into Soren and Valerie who invited me to dinner with them at Etien’s house (he works at the OPD).

At 6 I went with them over there. It was really interesting because I was able to actually see inside of a typical home/room of a compound. There were 4 beds made of wood frames and bamboo for the flat bed part and a shelf on one wall. There was a loft in the ceiling that they use to dry their corn for fufu. In the middle of the room was a fire. There were also two chickens sitting on their nests in the corners.

 It was so smokey our eyes were itchy and burning. Etien laughed cause we weren’t used to the smoke. Etien’s mother was cooking fufu. She sifted the corn flower to remove bugs and chunks. Then she mixed it with water and put it over the fire to cook. She stirred it a while and then added more flower then let it boil for a while. Then she scooped the chunks out into a wooden bowl that she shook around that formed the fufu dough ball. She put them into a casserole pot and they didn’t mix together, they stayed in separate pieces.

Valerie and I shared a fufu and some jamajama because it’s just too much of the same thing. It was good though, but only if you have enough jamajama to the fufu. They made fun of us for not eating much, but it’s good for only so much.

So I had fufu and jamajama two nights in a row. They typically will eat that every day all the time.

I came home and had nutella with a banana. Ha ha.

Today is my birthday! All my co-workers from Project Hope are coming over for dinner and we are having spaghetti. This morning Lilian and Quinta sang happy birthday to me. It was cute. 

They taught me a lot about words and sayings this morning.. and I told them a lot about how the world is very different here. Mac has been to the U.S. so he has a much better idea of it. 

I’ll write more as the time goes.

Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday

Monday 19^th- I took photos of all of the school children with the Mother General (from Rome) of the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis (the sisters who run this convent). All the Form 1 through Upper Form 6 and each class level. Then I had to get the pictures to Sister Mary Francis and she basically told me I was teaching at the school on Tuesday. So I was a bit confused and her head was off in space. She is a funny lady. Later that evening some papers were sent to me to “prepare for my classes” ha ha. So I had Terry ask the math teacher if that was okay and when and what not. AHH yes, I told you all of that in my last blog. Well anyways.. there is some more information. 

Tuesday 20th - So I went up there on Tuesday at 12:30, nobody was in class and the teachers were not even teaching. Sister Mary-Francis took me to a classroom of the Lower Form 6 students who were between ages 16 and 21 and told me to teach them. They aren’t even preparing for the test that she had given me to use practice problems from and so they looked at me like.. “who the hell are you, and do you really think I give a sh**” It was kind of awkard and I escaped as soon as I could and Mr. Gilbert, the math teacher, took me to the Form 5 students who are preparing for the test. The girls were pretty interested and actually really wanted to learn. So I taught them about slopes and y=mx+c  (they use c not b here for the y-intercept) and we did some other problems and then they told me to come back Wednesday at 9, and Mr. Gilbert told them to all be there in that classroom at 9 am.  

Well Tuesday afternoon we went for a walk and I borrowed Terry’s Chaco sandals because I was wondering if I would like some like it. NOPE! I got a blister on each of the insides of my VERY VERY FLAT feet and a rubbed off kind of blister on my big toe (like it didn’t even blister, it just went raw because it was being rubbed the whole walk) and the other big toe is a little blister and under each ankle on the outside is a little raw spot. So I won’t be getting any Chacos. My feet are stained red. Pretty nasty.  Also my toenails are very dirty and chipped. and still haven’t shaved my legs in the last 3 weeks.

Wednesday 21st - Well when I got to the school on Wednesday at 9, they had all gone home for break. So that’s nice, I came home and didn’t so much.

Wednesday night was Date Night, so at 3 the four of us stopped and asked the med students to come and we went down to the Midway for a beer. Valerie met us down there and we had a couple soya (the meat on a stick thing) and chatted for a while. The waitress server lady told us they had been closed because the other guy who was the server had embezzled 300,000 francs, which is like 600 dollars. She just told us out right, and when we asked why he was still downstairs at the place she said “he is just having fun.” There is nothing like private information here. We stopped back by Valerie’s house and picked up Soren so that they could see how Jim makes popcorn, because he is basically a professional at it. We had some more beer, popcorn and cheese and crackers for dinner. 

Ah, after Valerie and Soren left we had some Baroney's Irish Cream on the rocks. That stuff could be dangerous (for me and my wallet). mmm mmm good. I've never had it not in like hot chocolate, and only once or twice in hot chocolate. 

gosh the days fly by.

Today is Thursday- I went to Project Hope and didn't do much.. kind of just helped out with little things and got creepy talked by some creepo and freaked myself out when I came back to the house so I locked the door from the inside and when I left I peaked out the windows before opening it again. He really did not get that in the U.S. women can be independent and don't have to answer to any man or ask for something. He asked if I was married, and if I had a boyfriend and asked why I wasn't married and was asking about who I  am second to. I said nobody. He said that I have to be below someone. Who do I ask for advice from? I said many people. So apparently I'm second to them because I go by their advice. I said but I still make a decision even if they say I shouldn't. But then I ended the conversation because he was creeping me out and all the other men behind him were laughing probably because I didn't understand half of what he said and they thought it was hilarious he was picking on me. 

Then I came home and relaxed the rest of the day basically. My dad and Jim are currently on a walk up on the mountain Boyo or something. It looks REALLY far away but I guess it isn't that bad it's just the haze that makes it appear that far. My blisters won't allow such travel for me right now. I took pictures of the cows instead. They were eating Sugar Cane. 

Prisca is making Fufu and Jamajama for dinner so that we can have a taste of it before we leave. There is also chicken cooking in the kitchen. Smells delicious, looks... eh. We'll see. I'll take pictures and write about it later. 

Less than a week and I'm already home. 

St. Patrick's Day

In the morning I wore a shamrock headband to work and everyone just thought it was hilarious, and of course I had to explain it was St. Patrick’s Day. My dad and Jim wore Leprechaun hats.

We got all dressed in our green shirts (well I just had a green sticky felt thing I pulled off of the wall Terry decorated with) and we put on some head bands and the hats and festive earrings and the four of us took Irish Soda Bread and Oatmeal Banana cookies down to the convent. When we got there they all wanted to take pictures and then feed us a feast! So they gave us some cookies and a banana and a coke.

I then caught up with the med students and midwifery students from Belgium.  Valerie  and Soren are both 23 and in their 2^nd to last year of med school. Ariane and Bie are 20 and 22 respectively and in their last year of midwifery school. All of them are spending 3 months here as part of their rotations in clinical. European medical school is different because they go directly out of their form of high school and undergraduate is all a part of their medical school rather than having to just take pre-med requirements before going to med school. I don’t know the ease of getting in or anything but just a different system.

I was going with them out to Bamenda and then Valerie, Soren and I were going to Bafut to see the Bafut Village Palace and the Fon (chief, king kind of guy of the tribe). Of course we weren’t spoiled in having one of the hospital drivers taking us so we took a taxi from Njinikom.

Taxi’s are just really old Toyota cars that have been down a cliff and back up probably 3 times. They are beaters. So we have to wait for enough people to fill the car, even though there are 5 of us and a driver ready to go already. After about a 20 minute wait another lady shows up wanting to go to Bamenda. We pile in. The other lady, Bie, Ariane and myself in the back seat (none of those other gals are any smaller than I) and then in front is the driver, Soren and Valerie. Another taxi driver shuts the car door as I lean in as far as I can to not get my head slammed. I’m basically leaning against this door that the paneling is hanging on by tape and the window opener is broken off, hoping that the dang thing doesn’t fly open on the drive to Bamenda. An hour and a half later we arrive in the outskirts of Bamenda.  That’s like squished in a car driving to tri-cities. No seatbelts duh. This drive cost us each 1000 Francs or 2 dollars.

From there we have to get into the main city of Bamenda via another taxi. We find one and climb in Soren Valerie and I in the back Bie and Ariane in the front, then another man climbs in. it’s a busy Saturday in the city so we are trying to weave around people,  potholes, motorbikes and other cars. They dodge a pothole before they dodge the person.. no joke. One man was walking down the middle of the street and we were following him so extremely close I was confused at what was going on.. then the taxi driver (who looks about 16) just decides to run him over. He hits him right behind the knees and the guys legs buckle and he kind of falls off to the side over the hood of the car and starts yelling at taxi driver who yells back to not be walking in the road. Then about 30 seconds later a motorcycle goes by and breaks our side mirror off so it’s dangling down the side of the car. Everyone keeps going. This ride costs us like 200 franc or so (I can’t remember but that’s only 40 cents).

We get out downtown and stop by the Pres Craft/Pres Café because Bie and Ariane hadn’t been there yet. The oranges here are actually not orange they are green (not cause they aren’t ripe.. they are literally just green with a little yellow) and the inside looked and smelled really good (it was orange). Valerie was having one since you can’t find them in Njinikom.

Valerie, Soren and I have to find where to catch the next taxi out to Bafut so we stop a motor cycle (which I didn’t want to take but it’s way cheaper just to go to another part of town). While Soren is talking to him Valerie says I can get on and sit in front so it’s not as scary. So I climb on behind the driver and Soren says.. wait it’s just around the corner we don’t need to ride it. So I get off and on the way burn my calf on the dang exhaust pipe. I TOLD YOU I WOULD COME HOME WITH SOME NASTY SCAR!!!

We start walking and can’t find it and have no clue what we are even looking for. Germer, one of the nurses at the hospital told us to get a taxi at the Fish Market (whatever that means) and that it should only cost 400 francs to Bafut from there. We finally just grab another motor cycle guy and ask him where to get a taxi to Bafut and he takes us over there. So I rode one! It wasn’t too bad and it was short. I mean we grabbed one motor cycle for the three of us.. and the driver. Driver, Me, Valerie and Soren all on one little motorcycle thing.. Valerie is really small and Soren isn’t a big guy, but still.. 4 people on one motorcycle, 3 of them white.. we got a lot of looks. But they carry 2 guys and a coffin on those things.

He then asks around for us for a taxi, which was nice of him to help us. It cost us each like 100 Francs for that ride. He finds us a taxi with only one other man in it. So the three of us in the back with a really nice car, hardly any scratches on the outside and actually put together on the inside. He said 1000 francs for all 3 of us to get to the Bafut Palace. The guy in the front turns around and starts chatting he says he is a Fon from the Bambui or something tribe and told us to come visit him tomorrow. We didn’t obviously but hey we met another Fon supposedly. Another person climbs in half way on the ride. It was only about 20 minutes. He takes us all the way to the Palace.

We meet this guy who is going to show us around the palace. It was 2500 francs (5 dollars) to go inside, and 1500 (3 dollars) per camera. So we decide to just use my camera and split the price. The man showed us around and we could go in the museum where he told us stories and showed us all of the little statues, animal pelts, outfits, tribal warfare stuff.. We couldn’t take pictures in there.. even though that’s really what would have been the most interesting. The palace was mainly just this big museum building, several houses put together in a compound and the chiefs hut house thing.

There were rocks out front that warded off any bad spirits and warned the people of bad people coming into the village. There were two huge rocks he said they used for when someone committed a crime they were tied up to the rocks and wild animals were taken from the forest to eat them. In the museum the sign said they were hacked to death first by Jujus then wild animals were brought in to eat them.
those are the rocks in the background. the closer one is to detect bad vibes coming into the palace

They had Juju outfits in the museum that were just big dress things completely made of feathers, and these huge dog animal thing masks and little ankle bracelets made of shells to make noises as they dance.

There were leopard pelts, elephant tusks, an elephant skull, leg bone and the foot of an elephant hollowed out in there too. Also several python skins. Obviously there were animals here at one point.

The chief’s house was like some hundreds of years old (it was really old looking wood). Its thatched roof and lots of carved wooden poles as the walls. We couldn’t go in. And we didn’t meet the Fon. So the rest of the thing wasn’t all that interesting. He has 75 wives, 50 children. I think like 25 of the wives were his father’s before he died but the son is required to marry them.
This is the kings house. Nothing too interesting. The whole palace wasn't MUCH different from the rest of like the town. Cleaner maybe but basically the same living styles.

We rode another taxi back, wasn’t too crowded and he charged us 900 francs for all 3 of us. We got out and found another bike to take us into the city part again. I got a picture of the meat they sell on the street. Literally like every part, bones and hunks of meat sitting on old wooden tables just out there. Intestines and skin and noses and everything every part out there. EW.

We met Ariane and Bie back in Bamenda and got something to drink and then rode bikes to the other taxi place and some man found us a taxi. He thought I was Valerie’s mom! Probably because I’m much taller, but I don’t look older… but they can’t tell us apart just as much as we can’t tell them apart.

This ride we had the 5 of us, the driver, two other women and a baby from Bamenda to Njinikom. There were 4 people across the front and 4 of us and the baby in the back. Very crammed. We stopped at Mr. Baker and I got a little chocolate croissant that I ate Sunday when I was really annoyed.

It was light when we left Bamenda but half way through it got dark, and there is barely a sunset here, it just goes light to dark . The lady in the front seat just chatted us all up the whole time wanting to know all about us and how we are all going to be her new friends and yada yada. She was kind of crazy. She even sang a song for us and practically elbowed the driver in the face multiple times.. it was scary riding through the hills at night. There are NO lights cause very few people/areas have electricity in the houses and no street lights of course and even the other cars have minimal headlight capacity. We made it i'm alive.

Sunday was pretty laid back. We went to church in the morning and Jim told me I could get right up and take pictures whatever go out in the isles and everything.. but I was too shy for that. I took several though. It was the 8:30 children's mass and the reason Jim and Terry only go Saturday nights is because Sunday morning is always 2 or more hours. It lasted an hour and 45 minutes and they said dang that was short. There were lots of cute kids, I could barely understand the priest but it wasn't too boring because of all the people. People were coming in and out the entire time. And all the school kids sang it was kind of cool. 

We didn't do much, took a nap, went out for a beer. Made tortillas from flour, salt and water and had sort of quesadillas.  I may have to do it at home sometime. There is fresh pear (avocado) here, but it really just looks like the avocado without the brownish green skin, it's just like a more smooth very green skin. Interesting. The pit is much larger too.
here's a cute kid.

Monday I did a little work in the Project Hope treatment center but not much. I took pictures of Mother General (the like head of all Terciary Sisters Of St. Francis, so head of this group of nuns was here) with all of the school kids up at the school then I gave Sister Mary Francis my pictures so that she could print them. Some how she roped me into teaching at the school today, not really sure what I'm teaching how or whatever. We'll see. I told Terry to talk to the math teacher and see if it would cause too much confusion or if it would even be helpful. 

Did I even mention what I did Friday? Thursday was the pigery blessing I believe I wrote about that already. Friday was just kind of hang out and then we played cards. A game called Rage it's pretty fun I might have to get it when I'm home. (birthday mother? it is in like 4 days)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KATHRYN!!! (if you're reading this it's 1 am on your birthday!)

Mine is in 4 days!!! :)

Okay I'll write about that teaching crap later. 

WE NEED RAIN HERE!! It's so disgustingly dusty! Send it this way Portland.

March 14th and March 15th

What an eventful couple of days.
let’s see, yesterday (Wednesday) we went to Bamenda (about the size of maybe the tri-cities). We went to a couple markets and the big city market which was just little store after store after store of just stuff, shoes, clothes, food, kitchen stuff.. I mean basically a massive food and department store, some covered outside and some not. My dad bought Quaker oatmeal, Jim bought some baskets to organize his office.

Then we went to the Pres-Craft, an arts and crap (as Terry calls it) kind of place. Really it was like almost museum-y, gallery-y like not too big of a place with just masks and boutiques (like wall hanging art things), musical instruments, nik-naks, bags, furniture.. all Africa-y things. And below is the Pres-Café where we had lunch. I had a banana-paw paw smoothie (paw paw is papaya here) and a caprese pasta salad. It was delicious. Very American but that’s why they like to eat there. It was very good and very nice. Basically sounds like one of the only places they eat out. For 5 of us to get a delicious, larger salad/meal and a drink (smoothie and/or coke or both) it only cost 20 dollars American. It was Jim, Terry, Godwin (the driver), my dad and I. Quite cheap (for us), but comparatively  to wages that would be very very expensive. We spent quite a bit of money in the Pres-craft.

We also went to the Vatican, a little grocery story like place to get cheese mainly a couple of other errands for the convent and then we returned. The drive is about an hour and a half. We saw so many cows being moved on the road, but the cows are like those big “Brahman” with the horns.

After returning to the house we grabbed some cold beers (which are 23 ounces here) from the fridge and went down to another one of the little houses verandas out back, where the Dutch who come to fix the little crooked legs will stay next week. It’s a nice covered porch and quiet compared to here (Jim and Terry’s hosue) with the like crazy mother you want to call protective services on living next door. It looks out over the cow pasture and the hills. Really quite amazing.

Today (Thursday) Terry informed me not to work too hard because we had to go to the Blessing of the Pigery! Project Hope (the group I work with) raises pigs as an IGA (income generating activity). They just completed lots of construction to the little pig farm so they were blessing it today. At 8:30 Lillian informed me that we better prepare to go down (that is VERY EARLY for Africa time as it was supposed to be happening at 9 (but Africa time that would mean like maybe 9:45 to start). The Sister who is like the supremum or something of all the Sisters of St. Francis is visiting from Rome, so she cut the ribbon. Sister Rose gave a little speech. There are many lifted pens for each pig. I took tons of pictures. One of them is Sister Rose’s favorite and when she opened the little pen he just laid down for her to pet him. It was so cute! Sister Xaveria even climbed up the ladder into the pen ha ha. They are just dang hilarious. I’ll try to post many pictures it was so interesting. That was my “African Wildlife Safari!!” After the blessing they had a little gathering in the hospital library (which is fairly measly) where they had fufu, jamajama, katikati (chicken), and some pork (mmmmm J ). There is no such thing as appetizers here as a gathering, they always have fufu and jamajama and usually chicken. A daily meal though for everyone is fufu and jamajama. Fufu is the ground corn and basically just water that is mashed up into a doughy rubbery kind of mushy ball, and jamajama is the huckleberry leafy stuff they cook and looks like cooked spinach. I tried both, I had to at least once.  The fufu is just mushy kind of bland with a nasty hint of something gross and the jamajama is bitter, would be better with a different spice or something. Of course I even did it with my hands like the locals!!!

This afternoon we had an adventurous walk. We went down around-a-bout back direction and went to the 8-day market (so every 8 days it’s here in Njinikom). It’s really just a local thing with like crap clothes and used looking bras, lots of beans and onions, tomatoes, garlic, cassava root, sugar cane.. that kind of stuff. Nothing too interesting, but it was something to see. We stopped at the Midway and had a beer then headed back. Oh and had ice cream. Which was scary cause if it had milk I was afraid of a stomach ache, but it was kind of sherbet texture but creamy vanilla flavored, even though it was pink and white.

On the way back we ran into three little boys doing the tire rolling with a stick up and down the road. It was quite impressive! We watched them for a bit and took pictures and they followed us all the way back to the hospital rolling their tires and trying to do tricks and showing off for pictures, we even tried it and tried to have them show us but it was a fail. They hold the stick low when they are going on flat and up hills to kind of push it, and on down hills they use the stick on the upper part of the tire. All they need is an old motor bike or bicycle tire and a stick with a Y in it at the end. We also saw lots of other kids and some women coming back from the market with LOTS of stuff on their heads, in their hands, and a baby on the back.

For dinner Prisca made “Salad and Pancakes.” It was cabbage and carrots cut very very small and they stack it and shape it on the serving tray, then onions layed on top and some green beans throughout, and boiled egg on top. She also made some sort of creamy dressing that was pretty good. Pancakes were crepes really, maybe just slightly thicker but essentially the same exact thing.

Today (Friday) the rest of the spam snuck it's way into our soup... it was basically just left over soup. pretty good though.

saw a cockroach in the cupboard with the files, I made Lillian get the rest of the files out for me. 

okay back to work.

Monday-Tuesday March 12th and 13th

Monday I worked until 2 of course when it closes. Ha ha.

Mid-afternoon I went outside to go find some crooked legs to take pictures of and when I did Abduh and his buddies came RUNNING OVER wanting to play ball and take pictures. I ended up just telling them to put their tongues out, then stand with one leg up, make moose antlers, lay down and put a leg in the air.. and do all these weird things I could think of. Every time I took a “snap” they all came RUNNING to me looked at the picture and RAN back to take more. It was pretty cute. There were like 10 of them that showed up in the process. Bintu was in trouble so she couldn’t come up for the pictures.

For dinner Prisca made omelets. Basically eggs with tomatoes carrots and green beans (diced so small you’d never know they were green beans) and made into a flat thing she rolls up. Basically just an omelet. Terry said with the number of westerners who’ve been around they kind of know some fairly typical foods. It was really good and on the side it was potatoes, which were like made like fries but not completely fried like fries. Terry puts jam on them cause that is what her grandmother always had done. It’s pretty good that way as well.

Tuesday I worked til 2 again. We went for a walk to Bochain (which is a neighborhood within Njinikom). Up on the hill we could look back over at the hospital. It was a great perspective. Then we walked through Terry’s school and saw the dormitories and classrooms. The girls dorm room we saw were old school rooms with about 12 bunks in them… I mean 12 spots where a bunk was sitting, some with two but a lot with three beds per bunk. So we’re talking 30 to 40 girls sleeping in one room. The different rooms are separated by “forms” or the grade levels essentially, of the secondary school. The lower forms are typically 10 year olds but it’s very easy to repeat forms or to start when you’re older. So there is a bit of an age range. I mean they didn’t even each have a space for their suitcases. There were clothes hanging from the bed posts, the ceiling the window… drying or just for storage.  If that was college for me I would have dropped out. They do their own laundry and dishes because they each have their own little dish set they bring for meals. The food for all the boarding school students is cooked in this one tiny little room with an open fire. I couldn’t even stand outside of it cause of the smoke.

The kids are just too easy to take pictures of because they love it. Here are some from Monday and Tuesday.

For dinner on Tuesday night Prisca made beans and rice; basically black beans and white rice and this tomato saucy stuff to put over it, with some vegetables. It was delicious.

Here is St. Martin De Porres Catholic Hospital. The convent is down in front on the right above the barn thing. That is a cow pasture that the Sisters take care of and make cheese from their milk and what not. Up to the left is the house we are in. It's straight down from the tree line where the one round looking tree bump is in the sky. the Yellow one. The yellow one slightly more to the left of is it Dr. Eugene and Dr. Dabo (Spelling?) duplex. This is the most impressive of the buildings in the area. 

Here is Sister Xaveria with her newborn great niece. They all sang and danced praising the happiness of a new baby. It was quite amazing to see. I guess when she was born the night before Sister dropped the head of the mother she was holding screaming screaming ran out to see the rest of the family and yelled "Matrina is back!" She had just lost a niece and two other family members and I guess their family was very down and when a baby girl was born she was named Matrina (spelling) and another word that means "no more crying." It was pretty amazing to see them all so happy and rejoicing. Sister X is the Matron of the convent and so basically runs the hospital. She is from Njinikom so a lot of her family is around. She is always so happy and cheerful seeming and always singing and dancing. 

I have homework, and it actually downloaded correctly does that mean I have to do it?? :(