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?? :(

SPAM - March 11th

Today is Sunday I’m not sure what I’ll do today. I’ve been reading The Night Circus. It took a bit to get into... more so because I was only reading 2 or 3 pages at a time and I was lost. But once I was able to read a larger CHUNK I started understanding that I don’t know what’s going on and that’s the point. I’m still kind of lost but I like it so far. I’m 20% into it. I love my kindle. The font size is big cause the next down is too small seeming… but this way I can set it on my lap and just sit there without losing my place.

I’ve also been playing the free game Jigsaw words… right now it’s on a Real or Make Believe? Titled puzzle but I can’t figure out what three of them are: a Symbolic Creature of Purity, a Werewolf and Mexican Gargoyle. I’ll have to look it up when the internet comes back on. It was driving me crazy last night.

Oh yeah! I won a game of Minesweeper on hard FINALLY! After so many games and attempts. It came down to 2 tiles and 1 mine. Either one of them would have satisfied the numbers surrounding them and I literally had to just guess. I got it.
That’s the closest I ever have gotten I usually get down to a chunk the size of like 20 tiles and no clues on which tiles will be mines and then I have to guess and I mess up.

What else have I been doing… nothing really. I’m going to edit some of Shayla’s engagement pictures today and hopefully be able to email some more tomorrow.

Knock on some dang good wood for me (I did), no stomach problems as of yet. I haven’t eaten anything too weird other than the soya. But we’ve had spaghetti, scrambled eggs, lots of soup, some noodle stuff, tuna salad (MOM I ATE IT! And I liked it!)…

The typical food here is Fu-fu and Jama-Jama. Fu-fu is made from ground corn and basically put into a spongy ball. Jama-Jama is made from wild huckleberry or bitter root (like leafy stuff), they just mash it up and like cook it somehow. Looks kind of like cooked spinach. I haven’t tried any of it yet.

At women’s day I made friends with one of the doctors kids with my camera. Little Bintu loves having her picture taken but man is she a little brat. She likes to scroll through my pictures and look at them all but she won’t let her brother Abu have a chance or take a look (? Sounded like Abdul Abu.. but apparently I wasn’t saying it right.. so in my blog his name is Abu).  Bintu is probably about 5 and Abu is probably 7 or 8, my guess. But they live right down below our duplex in another duplex on the hospital grounds. I went out to try to take some pictures of the crooked legs and Bintu and Abu came RUNNING to me. They wanted to see my pictures again and Bintu is just so grimy and dirty bleck. Then Abu brought some other friends over and we stood and looked at my pictures for like 20 minutes.  They each wanted to press the button and then Abu wanted to take some pictures. All the while Bintu is pulling on my freshly clean hasn’t been worn yet shirt.. and then guess what? She wipes her snotty nasty little nose on it and then looks at me like.. “oops” all innocent like. I mean it’s like dirt permanently caked under and around the fingernails and grimy snotty dried and runny nose and everything. Abu doesn’t look near is dirty, probably just the difference in age he knows how to wipe his nose. I really wanted to walk up to the hospital and take some pictures, but I got trapped!

Needless to say I came back and changed shirts, washed my hands and arms and used a Charmin wipe on my camera. Now I’m going to wash my hands again.

Then after reading for an hour out on the porch, little Bintu sees me and comes in the gate. This gate is no gate. It’s a balcony and porch gated off by a waste high railing style gate then a cement patio (with nothing in it) and then a gate gate, like entrance to someone’s property gate, big green with a door that opens within it. The Hake’s have never had them do that before. But she made a friend and just decided to come in. (Jim Terry and my dad are all up at the hospital making Sunday rounds as this happens, I don’t go with them after last weekend’s incident) I tell Bintu she can’t come in but she and several others start coming in anyway. So I go out there and scramble them away from the solar panel light chargers we had out charging up in the sun and start playing a game of ball with them. It was kind of funny kind of annoying. The big kids have NO respect for the little ones. Shoving them down the hill and hitting them and the ball away from them.  They all just yell “Hello, to me” over and over when I throw the ball to them. One little boy’s pants were around is thighs not his waste, another little girls dress wasn’t covering much as she sat on the hill and they were all covered in dirt. Then a couple little ones cry and then pick their noses. I played for about an hour and tried to come inside at one point after the game died down but they followed me; opened the gate right up. So I ran inside with my camera and kindle so they didn’t try to pick it up and play with it, and drop it. Ugh. Then I came back out told them they needed to leave they couldn’t be inside the gate and I had to drag them back out basically. As I finally got them back out Jim, Terry and my dad came up over the hill. Jim told Abdu (I heard another kid saying it and there is definitely a “d” sound in the name) that he cannot come inside the gate. So they put the little bar across it so it can’t be opened easily and we came in for pancakes.

The two little guys on the right played with me. The green ball is the ball we played with at first, and that's the little boy who's pants wouldn't stay up and would cry every time he didn't get the ball. 

The rainy season has arrived too! Yesterday it rained a little and we just had a great big storm. The rain just broke through and it started coming down.. it sounds a lot harder cause of the tin roof so we went outside and I mean it’s legitimate rain but it’s not like tons. Then it gets harder and harder. Huge drops of water, no lightness about it. It’s so loud inside the house with the tin roof and all the tin roofs around. It took quite a bit of rain to really get the ground wet it’s been dry for basically 3 months the dirt just sucked it up.

I can spend hours on the internet at home but not quite sure what to do when I don’t have it here. I keep falling asleep trying to read.

Guess what Terry and Jim hid in the casserole for dinner!? SPAM. Ha. As the ham pieces and it was not bad in one bit. Right after we finished Jim says, “We were trying to think of the best way to disguise our first serving of SPAM to you guys..” Ha ha it was really not that bad. I wouldn’t be able to look at it or read the ingredients but eh for a dinner in Africa…

Sardines, spam.. hrm what’s next.  

The Crooked Legs Have Arrived - March 10th

(writing this Sunday morning but won’t be able to post until later, probably Monday)

At Project Hope on Saturday’s they don’t dispense drugs so it’s more of a catch up and have meetings day. Mac was back in the office finally so he had me tally up all of the HIV screened people from the free screening they had done on Friday in Fundong. There were 656 people on the list and I tallied the number in each age group from < 15, 15-19 and so on up to 50+ and all the positive in each age group. There were only 15 positive in the entire group. I then did it a second time cause I had three more tallies than number of people. Ha ha. The second time I had 1 more tally than total people but whatever Mac said. Then we looked at the list of patients I had updated and he thought we should add more information. So we decided on age of starting treatment, sex and address (which is just the town/village they are from). Now I will be going through ALL of the files on the shelves in the treatment center and entering the information for ALL of those patients. Quite possibly it will take me the entire week.

My dad was called in to work often throughout the rest of the day. But we took a quick 35 minute walk into town and back (kind of a loop in one route back the other). We were sure sweating by the end. It was hot and it was 2 in the afternoon. We saw two interesting things. One was a woman with feet turned completely horizontally inward (if vertical was normal feet, looking down from above they look vertical). Crazy the deformities here. Then as we came up and around a curve a bunch of kids dressed as “Juju’s” came running toward us. They were wearing old cloth wrapped around them, some sort of mesh like lacy fabric wrapped around their faces and vines around their necks. Oh and ankle bracelets made with bottle caps so they jingled while they danced around. They chanted and banged drums made of old plastic bottles and used sharp pointed sticks as spears. Sadly I didn’t take my camera on this walk but my dad had his little one. The pictures didn’t turn out that well. Maybe they’ll be dressed up again today and I’ll take my big camera. It was so cute!

We saw the crooked legs. You’re probably wondering what I mean by that. Well every March and November a Dutch orthopedic surgeon and his team comes to straighten the legs of many children who travel from all over the country (possibly even from Nigeria). The crooked legs are like literally bowed out or in and the surgeons cut them up, straighten them out and cast them up. Njinikom Hospital is, for some reason, where they come to do this every year, and supposedly there are just massive amounts of kids and their guardians. Once casted up (both legs from hip to toe, with a bar between the ankles to they literally can’t move their legs in any direction) they have to stay here in Njinikom for up to 3 months sometimes depending on the patient for the legs to heal until the casts come off. Before the casts come off they are taken to another town for removal and physical therapy. I’m excited that we are here for this because it will be really interesting to see all of the little bowed legs. I’ll be sure to take MANY pictures. Last night at mass we saw about 4 or 5 who have arrived early because a photographer is here to “snap” them. The rest should be arriving next weekend probably along with the surgeon and his team. It costs next to nothing for them, if it costs at all. Jim said he thinks they encourage those with some money to pay a little but it’s not much. The surgeon obviously doesn’t do it for the money or get paid at all and supposedly his wife is a very generous donor while here as well.

We aren’t supposed to give out money and things because it just sets a precedent that all white people will give you things and SHOULD give you things. Sister X told us if we want to do anything to do it through her so that when they receive it they don’t recognize it as either coming from us or at all even.

Anyways so hopefully the internet will be okay enough to load a few pictures when the time comes.

March 9th

Today I started out with little to do. I filed the files away from yesterday and helped out with that kind of thing and then tried to organize and edit the document with all the mothers and babies in the HIV monitoring program. A man came in and was talking to Lillian in another language and she finally turned around and said “Do you know power point?” Ha ha so the man was doing a presentation the next morning but needed to put together the presentation. He had never used it so needed some help and had seen me earlier and when he couldn’t find anyone else to help him around the hospital he came back around to where I was and asked. So he gave me his flash drive that he thought he had saved his notes on but turns out he didn’t know how to do that as well. People here just aren’t used to computers; it’s a very uncommon skill so I was excited to get to help.  So we finally found his document on his computer, I put it on the flash drive and took it to the desktop. I then was able to go through and turn it into a powerpoint for him. He was very impressed (all I did was make it very blank and copy and paste his notes that he wanted as slides, oh and I corrected a lot of spelling and punctuation errors).  Then he asked for me to put a photo in on the last slide. The photo was in a PDF article so I couldn’t copy or save the picture from it. So using my tools and tricks from Moses Lake Industries, I found the “snipping tool” on the Windows 7 and was able to cut the photo and save it as a picture for him. Then when I put it into the power point he and Lillian laughed and just thought it was so great. Lillian even asked me to do it again so she could see how I did it. It was highly impressive I assure you all. It was nice to be able to help out with a skill I’m very good at.

This afternoon I just continued to help Lillian, cutting and counting pills. 

International Women's Day - March 8

(pictures soon I hope! I got some great ones!!!)

So do any of you women have March 8^th off each year? Many of them here do. It’s sure a day to be celebrated. I mean think of what the U.S. women’s rights movement was like 50 years ago, these women are out celebrating themselves. There is even a Cameroon Women’s Day fabric each year. Tuesday afternoon Terry and I went to see if there was extra fabric from the outfit Emmarencia made for her for women’s day and with the fabric Emmarencia was able to make me a dress and Terry picked it up Wednesday at 9:30. She was quick. I had the blue and yellow women’s day fabric. With the Cameroon flag and other symbols and women’s day stuff. So today we went down to the soccer field, where a grand stand was apparently until last month. We got a ride into town with Sister Xaveria. We got to sit with the Division Officer and First Lady of Njinikom, as well as many other important people. All of the women from Njinikom and the surrounding areas came dressed in the Women’s Day fabric or in their women’s group fabric. There were many many different women’s groups and thousands of people showed up. There were speakers, performances of dancing and singing, skits and marches.  It was pretty amazing the amount of enthusiasm of the women. The big theme was stomping out hunger and poverty, getting equality for the women in the councils and government and whatever else.

We sat there from about 10 this morning until about 3 this afternoon and it was still going on when we left.  They cut a cake and as Kristen (the peace corps worker) asks Terry why nobody ever eats the cake Sister Xaveria hands us a piece. Basically you have to donate money to get a piece of cake and she had donated 10000 francs or 20 dollars. She handed me the cake piece and I hadn’t had a single drink since 9 am and so sitting in the sun made me a bit parched. I took a bite.. and couldn’t swallow it cause the cake was so so dry.  And at one point under our canopy they passed out “sack lunches,” I guess you’d call them, in little plastic bags. It contained a piece of fish, a piece of chicken, a sandwich (Terry said it had fish paste smashed in the middle of it), and two puff puffs (basically a little fried dough ball). I ate one dough ball and that’s all. I was not going to get sick off something like that…

Then they passed out cokes so we had coke, but it was warm of course(nothing is cold) and so warm pop just fizzes and foams in your mouth, by the time you swallow it, it just sits in your stomach and doesn’t feel so nice.

Then Sister Xaveria helped us sneak out and we walked home. My feet were disgusting.. and now I have a bad sunburn on my back (I even used sunscreen!).  Okay it wasn’t so bad cause now it’s the next morning as I’m writing this and it’s barely noticeable.

For dinner the housekeeper cook gal Prisca made spaghetti noodles with egg and vegetables. It was pretty dang good.  Jim and Terry introduced us to Johnny’s Salad Elegance seasoning. They put it on their spaghetti noodles when they have spaghetti and just sprinkle it on things like that for extra flavor, and always have so they brought it here. I’m going to have to remember it when we get back home.

More Updated Documents and Peace Corps Workers

Wednesday March 7th

I met Mac up at the HIV treatment center and he showed me how to update another one of their document lists. This one is of the mothers with HIV and new babies tracking a month or more after birth to check if they are HIV positive or not. So I typed up all the names, all the villages they are from and baby names and whether or not they were tested positive or not. This took me about 3 hours and then I just helped Lillian and Quinta with the patients folders. She also had me breaking pills and cutting them into 1/3 and 2/3 pieces. She made fun of me cause I made a couple fly across the room and asked “How do I make it so they don’t fly?” so she repeated it over and over and showed me to cup the pill in my hand while I cut. I mean these were crappy craft like scissors on a little pharmacy counting tray.

I came home around 3 pm which was late! I was at work longer than my dad and Jim and it was “Date Night” as Terry and Jim call it. We walked down to the Midway (2^nd story bar place) and got “Music” or Mutzic beer again. I did drink a whole one myself this time. We met Laura, Sal and Kristen, all American Peace Corps workers. Sal and Kristen are in their first year and they are here in Njinikom and Laura is on her second year, she is down in Belo (20 minute bike ride).  I could never be a Peace Corps worker. I can’t imagine living off such a small budget and being thrown into a part of a country alone like that. They each have their own little houses but houses means an African like house. We also had a Soya (that meat stuff on a stick, it’s really very small).  It's not actually monkey meat.. they've already eaten all the monkey's around so they are long gone.

On the walk to and from town  (probably  1 mile one way) there were kids out everywhere and they all saw my camera and all yelled hello and wanted to shake our hands and have their pictures taken. I got TONS of cute kid photos yesterday! It’s so easy to get them when it’s nice and light outside and they all want to be in the picture they stand nice and still. Hopefully I’ll be able to post them when I go and upload this blog.

Last night was Popcorn night also so Terry and Jim made popcorn (on the stove of course) for dinner. I had a small bowl of soup because I can’t eat much popcorn without a stomach ache.  We watched a couple of episodes of Friends (from Season 3 that Danny had given me before I left).

I guess I should describe things other than experiences since yesterday wasn’t too big.

The house we are in is a duplex with a lower and upper part. The lower part we haven’t gone in at all because we are staying with Jim and Terry upstairs in their house. It’s like a main living and dining room pretty large, with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (toilet and sink) and a shower room (because they don’t use shower curtains here so Jim and Terry re-designed parts of the house when it was being built their first few months here cause water would get all over everything). The kitchen is off to the side in another room. The 2^nd bedroom is where my dad and I are, but basically it’s a small bedroom you walk through to get to the actual bedroom. So I’m in the sort of small bedroom sitting room and my dad is in the back bedroom. It’s kind of annoying that he has to walk through mine into his cause he will walk in even after I JUST SAID 30 SECONDS EARLIER… “Dad I’m changing so wait just a minute.” It’s happened like 3 times already he starts coming in. The doors are huge and don’t close easily so only on the bathroom and shower do we ever shut them. There are curtains over every bedroom door though so we just use those. Helps with airflow at night too. So with the curtain closed all the way and I’m changing.. he just starts coming in. He never listens to me.  Thank god we have our own room ish things though. My bed is a little twin cot thing. It’s saggy but pretty comfortable, and the pillows are “ROCK PILLOWS” for sure. Just like these light weight hard stuffed things. So it’s okay with my little make-shift pillow in a pillow case. I’ve still slept well every night so far. And we wake up to the roosters around 5:15 ish and then the sun at 6:10 and that’s when all the people start coming out. The little house behind my window directly has tons of cute kids that you can hear as soon as the sun comes up I swear. Which is fine. I’ve been waking up about 5 (if we go to church at 6) and about 6 on other days, and bed by 8:30 or 9 every night basically. It’s dark and there is nothing to do by then. The hospital opens around 7:30.

We are on the hospital/convent grounds and it’s all fenced in with guards at the entrance and they walk back to us by the back gate. There are many different buildings for different parts of the hospital. Only two or three are 2 story, the rest are just one story. And everything you walk out to get to different rooms but there are covered walkways for the rains. There are people everywhere all the time though. There is everything from extra space for in-patients, private rooms, big wards for about 15 in patients, the lab, the maternity ward.. cookhouse, another doctors house/duplex, our house/duplex, and the convent with several buildings. Right outside is the private catholic school that Terry works at, run by the nuns as well. There is also an orphanage on the hospital grounds with a few kids. This place is in the mountains, the jungle mountain basically… so we are on the side of a hill, walking out the door of the duplex we are 2 stories up but as we walk along the balcony to the gate we are on the ground level.
This is the cookhouse and Dr. Eugene's half of his duplex and the cow pasture down below. This is the view off the balcony out the front door of our house. Gives you an idea of what dry season looks like in Njinikom, Cameroon. Very jungle-y and farmland-y and hill-y and mountain-y. 

One of the sisters has cows that supposedly when it’s not calving season (also one just died so the best milker is raising 2 calves) they have cheese that is supposedly very good that they make right here. Project Hope raises pigs down there also and sells the pork as a fundraiser.

We exchanged money right here with the hospital because they can then use the hundreds and bank them. So that was really easy.

The sisters have been so accommodating to Jim and Terry, they provided them with a TV and satellite tv a dvd player and set them up with internet in the home and almost anything they need.

Prisca is the housekeeper, she does our laundry and irons it (completely pressed and folded, including the underwear), does the grocery shopping (market shopping really), cleans and cooks dinner on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. This week Tuesday we went to the convent so she didn’t, and today is Women’s Day so she won’t be cooking dinner tonight I don’t think.

Monday was mashed potatoes made into large potato shaped things ha ha ha. And steamed vegetables put with tons of oil. Oh I did tell this somewhere..

Okay gotta get ready for women’s day.

Dinner at the Convent - March 6th

March 6^th

I finished updating the excel file of patients with HIV including all of the RIP and transfers that had been written all over the printed out old document. That took until about 10:30 am. I couldn’t find MacDonald to figure out what else he would like me to do so I helped Lillian and Quinta with finding the patients files on the shelves labeled by year. Inside the patients little booklet of medical history is their patient number written down.. NCH – 156 – 07 would mean I look under the year 2007 on the shelf then look for number 156. And that’s where the HIV medical history and prescription information is kept.

Nothing is private here, from bathing to men urinating on the side of the road to medical information and treatment. Anyone can be in the room and it’s not confidential at all. The HIV patients receive their prescriptions in the same little room (the size of like a Moses Lake Clinic exam room) and the door is open.  Lillian, Ajam and Quinta are all talking with patients at the same time in there, and Lillian is counting and cutting pills in half right there on the same table.

In the hospital there are posters for washing hands that read:

“Wash your hands before eating and after shitting.”

That’s just how it’s said here. Shitting.

Yesterday after I couldn’t find Mac I ate lunch with Terry, Jim and my dad (left over soup basically, chicken broth left over spaghetti noodles and vegetables from the two meals before).  Then I still couldn’t find Mac so I went walking with my camera, “strolling” as they call it here. One lady called up from the cook house below the walk way and said hello and asked how I was. I started walking down a little path towards the area and she called me down to see her. I took her picture, (I’ll try to post when I have internet that is good enough) and she told me she had just had twins and was staying in the cookhouse until she could pay the medical bill to leave. She took me over to see her babies so I took a picture of her babies with her mother, as well as another woman with her baby. There were so many people down there and they all wanted to see the photos after I took them. They really like to have their pictures taken! Especially the kids.  The woman who brought me down to the cook house was talking to me and reached up to get hair out of my face.

It’s such a different world. 

The afternoon was just kind of lazy, no internet either so we kind of just hung out. Terry plays a lot of spider solitaire on her computer.

We also went to the sisters for dinner, over at the convent. We walked in and greeted many of them and then they sang “Welcome To You” together and clapped. It was very cute. They fed us salad made of lettuce, carrots sliced onion and tomatoes; I stuck with the lettuce and carrots (which doesn’t follow the rules, “peel it, boil it…”). Well first Sister Relindus (from Austria but has been here since 1963) served us each some sort of vegetable like soup and then the salad and then there was chicken (on the bone but I ate it), potatoes (which were basically fries not fried up as much),  and some steamed and oiled vegetables (carrots green beens potatoes… basically what everything is). They also served us a roll cake thing at the end. And of course only the 4 of us, Sister Xaveria, and Relindus ate it, the rest ate other food.

Came back and went to bed.

I Became the Patient For a Few Minutes - March 4th

Sunday is the day of rest, so doctors don’t even do rounds on the patients, but Jim does anyways and they are used to him doing it by now.

So Sunday rounds Terry is Jim’s nurse so they invited me to come along as well for the time if I could handle it.

Now of course the people who stay overnight are in wards and all the men in one room, women in another, children in another. It’s just beds lined up along the walls, with about 2 feet in between each. The family is responsible for taking care of the food, bathing, taking them to the restroom or helping with bed pans for the patient. There is a cookhouse and a little canteen where food is available to buy or they can make food, as well as a small market on the grounds of the hospital.

We went through the hospital starting in the pediatrics. There were 3 children and babies, one girl had had heart surgery somewhere else and was here for I am not sure what but she is very very sleepy and can’t move very well on her own, she is 8. There were also two little girls with pneumonia, baby age. Very cute and afraid of Jim (mainly cause he is white).

Then we went to the mens ward with about 10 patients or more. Some very very sick, some less sick. One passed away last night (I’m not sure who). There were many with HIV and other various infections and diseases and a man with lung cancer. Of course they can’t do anything for someone with something like lung cancer here. Also one man was having a lot of pain in his back and was there to stay until he was better. I generally just stood around and talked to Terry while Jim and my dad talked about the patients and how to care and what to do with each patient.

At the very last patient in the mens ward it hit me really fast. Between an antibiotic on an empty stomach, jet lag and travelling anxiety, the heat, smells and the realization that I’m in Africa in a hospital looking at patients who are extremely ill and all of the standing in between patients I “krumped” as Terry called it. Within 15 seconds I went from fine to feeling like shaky to losing my vision and hearing. Somehow my dad and Terry and Jim walked me out of the ward and to the sidewalk outside where I had to lay down on the cement and recover. It was the exact same thing that happened when I got my yellow fever shot, I just almost passed out. I think it was just too much at once on an empty stomach.

So Terry and I came back to the house and about 12 we made lunch, eggs with potatoes and onions a couple pieces of bacon and some fruit.

In the afternoon we walked to the main street of Njinikom, passed homes and people and everything again. It was about a mile walk and we stopped to buy bottled water (for my dad and I, not sure if I want to drink the water here or not, Jim and Terry have always), spaghetti noodles and tomatoes. We also stopped for a beer at their favorite place where its on the second story so we can watch the people. The beer was 23 ounces and it costs 600 francs or $1.20. So can’t hardly afford not to drink! It was a warm german style lighter colored beer. Not bad. We watched the women prepare for Women’s Day Thursday all in their traditional outfits and all the many passerbys.

Basically anything goes here, people wear everything from Obama tee shirts to pokemon to fake name brands in the US, along with traditional clothing, very European style jeans. Men wear women’s clothing, women wear men’s clothing. They don’t really know that a blouse is gender specific. I mean everything you can imagine, fancy sparkles all day long, dirty old clothes.. you never know.

If you want to know more about the patients you can follow Jim and Terry’s blog, hakesincameroon.blogspot.com 

You Will Never Guess What I Ate Today - March 3rd

I may begin a new tradition in my blog.. typing my expectations and the actual events that go down.

My expectations: I figured it would be a dirt road for a good part of the drive. I expected way less people (which is very niave of me) and I also was thinking it would be flat and a little more dry looking. Also I expected to buy food on the drive for lunch (if I trusted it but I had my snackies just in case). I also expected it to be 8 hours.. ish. And fairly minimal traffic. Also animals, I expected to see many animals (like not Zebras and Elephants and Lions, but animals maybe like something more simple). Let’s see what else was what I was expecting…  I wasn’t expecting but 1 stop.. and one bathroom break.

OKAY the actual event of the drive:

We got into the car and put our suitcases in the back two seats so we could put the toilet paper we were picking up. SO WE LOADED the car with toilet paper. I mean the entire trunk stacked until behind the first row of back seat where we were sitting.

First of all it’s day time so Douala was A MESS. Absolutely crazy traffic and people.. people EVERYWHERE.. I’m not meaning people were out. I mean EVERYONE was out. Markets all the way down all of the streets and round a bouts with 30 cars within it and within 15 feet of the actual circle, plus another 20 mopeds and a semi or two going through.  Like 4 lane (okay exaggerated, maybe a 3 lane) round about.. not because it’s a huge round about.. because they decided to put a circular blockade in the middle of a street corner and everyone goes at the same time. In between every car and every miniscule  normal amount of space between cars was a moped or motorcycle thing.. with anywhere from 1 to 4 people on them. Oh and inbetween the motorcycles and cars and trucks there were people walking with baskets and sticks and products and beans and peanuts on their heads, in their hands in trailers and carts. Down the streets was the same deal.. when there was a break between markets.. maybe 10 blocks.. it was about 50 mph on the skinny road… with usually 3 lanes of cars on a 2 lane road. Dodging other cars.. passing at your own pace, even when other cars are coming, no we did not dodge motorcycles and people.. they dodge our van.. and our van dodged semi trucks and larger vans. In Africa, the biggest gets the right of way absolutely the opposite from the U.S. I mean people dodge motorcycles, motorcycles dodge cars, cars dodge vans, vans dodge semis.. and so on. Instead of using blinkers here we use horns, and instead of slowing down to allow someone out of the street we use horns to signal “GET OUT OF MY WAY.” Oh man it was beyond interesting and we had only been going 20 minutes.

We saw rows of lumber, then food, then furniture, and tables, and chairs and fruit and beans and bread and well just about a lot of millions of things along the roads of Douala. We stopped at a bakery and bought bread “to eat along the way” Rose had said. We went in and she picked up two things of President Cheese (like a spreadable little triangle circular thing I’ve seen them in the US) and 3 loaves of French bread. Also.. here was the interesting part.. SARDINES.. erg. So my dad and I glanced at each other like.. eww. It was only 8:00 at this point so we weren’t eating soon. We went on our way and got out of the city.. which meant not quite so crammed buildings but still people and cars everywhere but now not so jammed that we could go about 50 to 70 miles an hour depending on the town (really village of homes and markets) we passed through.. which was every 10 minutes still at this point. We stopped at a fruit stand and Rose and Aman bought papaya and some pineapples for us. The man peeled and sliced a fresh papaya for my dad and I to eat and when I asked what the funny green things were he said Avocado. So he also sliced us a piece of one of those. It was really yellow but very sweet and I started to feel a little off just in feeling unsure about everything we were doing and eating and the bumpy winding car ride. By now we had papaya, toilet paper, suitcases and pineapple in our car.

We continued on our way slowing down only to go over the massive or little or flattened or big or rough types of speed bumps at the entrance and exit of each village. Also stopping to pay “Tolls,” basically just people stopping people to pass for a price. Many many many children approached the cars at each of these to sell items. We bought fresh roasted peanuts at one place, they were really good. At one of them I woke my dad up in a hurry cause some kid was holding a weird rat like scaly looking armadillo shaped but very light brown colored and without the lines of the scales like an armadillo, weird looking animal with a REALLY LONG flat tail. Ew.

Oh then we stopped and I had to use the restroom of course but this was like totally just people roasting scary meat and who knows what.. but as soon as I asked Sister Rose decided she needed to go too. They charged us 100 Francs which is about 20 cents and it was a no toilet seat toilet and no flusher and a bucket of water with a rusty pale I’m pretty sure was to try to flush it… however I was not about to touch that. I didn’t even attempt to wash my hands in the sink. I used massive hand sanitizers after that. Oh and I brought my own tissues into the bathroom… not my little Charmin TP .. my dad handed me like kleenex’s which as you girls probably know just isn’t the same as good toilet paper so I was mad at myself for buying it and not using it yet.

At this place the driver bought fried plantain, but I didn’t feel like eating anything. We stopped only two hours again later and had lunch. We sat at a little picnic table outside some building and Rose asked us to buy a drink at least (well she payed for it). We got a grapefruit like soda that was extremely sweet. Then Rose opened the cans of sardines and the cheese and got a knife for the bread.. guess what! I ate it. I ATE SARDINES! I did pick out the spine cause that really grossed me out. But you cut the French bread in half, open a piece of cheese and smear it in, pile some sardines (piling being putting just a small small amount on for me) and then eating it like a sandwich. It was very interesting. Fishy, salty. But hrm I tried it before my dad did J. It was a very different experience. So we left there and drove on.

We stopped and got “bush” mushrooms, cause they were gathered from the bush not a nursery. And we stopped and bought MORE papaya, cause it was “from natural” so not a farm of papaya trees. So we had everything you could imagine in that van. Ha ha. We drove through the bigger town of Bamenda where my dad and I saw an albino person, and we got gas there and rode through to Njinikom.
Here is Sister Rose picking out the papaya on the side of the road. It comes in sizes small to large!

So in Njinikom we met with the Hake’s and put our stuff in the house and went to evening mass at the chapel on the hospital grounds. We walked around to see the different areas of the hospital and met many of the sisters. Then we came back and had delicious Wheat Berry Soup Terry had made (kind of like minestrone but with wheat berries not pasta and with some other spices). Then it was bed time. I fell asleep like before my head hit the pillow. I slept very well. 

The Airplane Travel - March 1st - March 2nd

OK so if you don’t have time to read all of this I get it.. but you have to scroll down to the “BEST PART OF MY STORY” at the very least J

Oh wow, where to begin.. okay how about how I’m writing these on Microsoft word and WHEN/IF internet is available.  We “have” internet from 9 to 7 Monday to Saturday, weather permitting, electricity permitting.. who knows what else affects it. So I’ll try! Also my computer most likely will not connect to the internet so we’ll have to log into their computers and do email and blogging.. so probably no skype..  who knows??  

Okay. So the real beginning.

Seattle to Detroit plane ride.. nothing too interesting but the flight attendants really liked me when I couldn’t decide on a snack between peanuts pretzels and cookies. The cookies were cinnamon biscoff cookies, and I have had them before so I got those after they already laughed at my decision making skills. So she gave my dad all three choices. Then the next attendant handed me three lime slices and told me to squeeze it on the top of the cookie and let it soak in because it tastes like Key Lime Pie. And it did!

One hour and 19 dollars for a sandwich and a salad to split later…  we get on the next flight.

Detroit to Paris –Charles Degual . 8 hour plane ride. We slept some.. they fed us dinner so our 19 dollar food was pointless, also fed us breakfast.. so you know I ate more than enough.. and it wasn’t bad other than plain yogurt which was nasty. Also I had wine with dinner.

In Paris obviously I posted.. and we brushed our teeth and washed up. It was about a 2 hour layover and we ate the sandwich we bought.

Paris to Douala. Getting on the plane was already a new culture, scrambling and getting in line rather than letting people ahead go. Then we got on a bus to go out to the plane but we sat in the bus for 30 minutes.. hot and sweaty. Then we got on the plane and our bus was the only one to get on. We waited for an hour and nobody else got on the plane! Probably only 50 of us were on the plane. So we were already delayed by an hour before the rest got on.

We talked to the man next to us for quite a while. He is a few years older than me I believe but he was a statistician and does financing for some bank in Paris. He has lived in Paris for 4 years and this is his first time back home in Douala since! He was very up-to-date on all sorts of US politics and news and asked us so many questions. My dad couldn’t stay awake so I had many conversations with him about various things from Africa to US to Paris to news and why statistics. It was kind of ironic cause he has a masters in statistics and does financial math and I told him I was going for a masters in statistics next year. He asked what focus and so I said biology. Then was talking about the usage of statistics for the distribution of the HIV medication and with the new malaria vaccination that is in the 4^th stage of pharmaceutical drug process stuff.

Anyways… the culture of the airplane was very different than any other plane ride. People were up talking and walking around and standing in the area where we could help ourselves to drinks. Two times I ended up with some man making fun of me and my inability to speak any language (French as they all spoke) and my white-ness. One man stopped me in the isle and said I cannot pass, another joked with me when trying to get our Malaron (spelling? Malaria pill) out of my bag. It was a comical ride and so much different culture. When we landed everybody clapped, then it was standing up and unbuckling and getting bags out.. barely after we had slowed enough to even be able to stand. We were told to sit back down and then people finally did sit but as soon as we had stopped it was everyone up and a rush toward the door. I mean no turns were taken what-so-ever to get off that plane!

HERE IS THE BEST PART OF MY STORY!!

Upon arrival in Cameroon (Douala airport) we were told of the crazy-ness of the airport. I mean they spot on defined it.

However!!!!!!!!!!!!! My aunt Marcia and uncle Dave over in Seattle had come to Douala a year ago for their exchange student’s wedding and was able to meet the family and see the city as well as make connections with Alexia (the exchange student)’s mother, Marcelline. SSOOOO Marcia asked Marcelline if she would be a contact for us just in case we need someone else who can take care of getting us help. She said she would meet us at the airport… so we were expecting maybe where we were meeting Sister Rose and the driver and that this would be perfect.

As we walked/hurried down the jet way I was only starting to think I needed to watch my bag.. literally one step off the jet way there was a sign” DR RICHARD HOURIGAN AND REILLY” I pointed excitedly wondering who they were because they were not Sister Rose (not wearing a habit and not the picture we saw). We were taken out of the line of people going to baggage claim. These two women were wearing green dresses (airport looking staff). They spoke not a word to us, took us down some back stairs onto the tar mat (sketchy dark 9:30 at night HOTTER THAN HELL), and pointed to a lone Lexus car to get in. So here we are hearts pounding that this really was okay.. and we are driven over to a VIP room where we met Marcelline! It was very iffy and nerve wracking. She spoke little English but good enough for me! She couldn’t understand as much as she could speak. She got a translator so we were able to talk for a bit. She works for the Mayor of Douala, and thus is a VIP obviously. We chatted and we gave her a gift from Marcia. She was very thankful and we took a picture with her, hopefully I can post it later.

Wow so we told her we needed to meet Sister Rose and get our baggage. So she took us up to the main area of the airport along with body guards and a line of them (like 5) across the main airport (granted this is like tile floor, small and very much not your typical airport) for us to walk through and out the other side. She kept speaking to each person we were stopped by to get to the baggage claim “VIP, (something in French), VIP” and we were able to walk right through with her holding my hand and telling us to stay in front of her and close the whole way. Inside of baggage claim she kept me and my MASSIVE bag in front of her and then she and I went over to another place where baggage was coming out (dumping, there were only 2 carousels and like a dumper.. it came up and dumped bags out basically). 

So we waited.. and waited… and waited.. sweating and trying to fan myself she gave me a fan and a tissue to use. My dad and I signaled across the room how many bags we had received. Two came to me and one to him. On the way out they chalked our bags.. who knows if they were actually supposed to check them or what.. but then many many people approached us trying to take our bags for us. Rose walked up and greeted us and both Rose and Marcelline were saying “no no no no no” and shaking their fingers at the men. We were taken behind a  like line thing and our driver  (Aman?? Spelling) helped us with our bags while Rose and Marcelline exchanged phone numbers. Definitely was comforting having someone who knew the culture and knew French to help us, and then to know that we had Rose who spoke English when we met her. WOW! So we climbed in the car with Rose and Aman and rode to the hospital/convent that we were staying in in Douala for the night.

END OF THE BEST PART (if you were only reading that part however the rest is fascinating too I promise.. well I hope at least)

Phew! So I have SO many things to tell and so few words/few amounts of internet!

Arriving at the hospital we parked, left our bags in the car and took just our back packs (which had the important stuff). We were fed rice with who knows what kind of meat, but it was delicious even though I was not even close to being hungry. Also delicious papaya! My dad and I shared a little room with two beds and a bathroom. I have some pictures I’ll try to post.. if not I’ll try to facebook post.. if not.. well. We’ll see.

So we tried to sleep.. I mean we didn’t get to bed til midnight.. and it was just SOO MUCH culture and tired/not tired feelings and anxious and nervous. We were up most of the night. I looked at the clock at 1:40 and then woke up at 4 am and that’s it if there was sleep.  At some point in the middle of the night I realized we had left my little purse like bag with all of our cookies and snacks from Marcia and our salad we hadn’t eaten on the last plane!! Too much commotion and rush. Oh well at least it didn’t have much in it that was important.. it would have been handy to carry around like a snack and water bottle though. Shoot. My dad even wrote his blog post from 4:15 to 5 cause he was not tired. I didn’t fall asleep and continued to stay awake until 6 when I got up and showered. We actually had a hot shower , so that was nice. We ate breakfast at 6:30 with the bus driver and met a priest who was there. We had pineapple, coffee (with powdered milk/cream not sure what it was and sugar cubes), and bread lots of fresh baked French bread with margarine that we did not actually eat because it expired a few months back.. so we weren’t sure on our first day in Africa. (wow still feels weird.. I’m in Africa)

 So about 7:30 we left the hospital and oh was the ride to Njinikom an interesting one.