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.