Week 6: A second wind and a rosier perspective

Week 6: A second wind and a rosier perspective Sunday, July 20, 2008

Saturday

As is so often the case, a restful night’s sleep can have amazing recuperative effects. I found some good deals on some kitchen and lab supplies and spent a recuperative couple of hours just hanging around at the Nana’s house and soaking in the good will. Valerie’s cousin had been visiting and was now preparing for his departure. To honor the occasion they were taking some rather hilarious photos of themselves. I happened to come into possession of these photos as my computer is serving as a temporary storage medium until Valeria can buy himself a memory stick, and I’ve included some samples:

Valerie...

and his cousin Partou striking a pose

This kind of seeming narcissm/innocent self-infatuation is typically Cameroonian and always amusing. Traveling foreigners are expected to be taking pictures at nearly every opportunity and small children are constantly demanding “filmez-moi”( take my picture) followed immediately after each shot by cries of “montrez-moi” (show me). I find one of the most amusing examples to be the mirrored walls that are present in every single dance club, where it is not at all unusual to see people blatantly dancing with their own reflection, like the dance floor is empty except for a couple of people who just stand in front of the mirrors checking themselves out while they bust their moves.

This interest in personal appearance is of course not at all unique to Cameroon, but still manages to manifest itself in all kinds of novel and amusing ways. For example, everyone washes their shoes and feet religiously, and to leave the house with dirty shoes will definitely catch one a subtle rebuke. Shorts and tank tops are also relegated to the backyard and immediate neighborhood; and when on a particularly hot day I decided to hell with convention and donned the outfit below, my house brothers were shocked incredulous that I would be going into town dressed like that and attempted an intervention.

Here I am, dressed with a rather scandalous priority on comfort

A viewing session of these photos combined with all the photos taken by Matt Clarke did wonders for my spirits and I will be doing my best to go back through past entries and stick in relevant images. Seeing the photo documentation of my stay so far in Cameroon allowed me to take it in from an outside perspective, and I realized that despite my current and past difficulties I have seen and done some incredible things. Cameroonian bureaucracy is not going to defeat me so easily, and I am feeling newly able to make the best of my situation.

Sunday
Nathan Spence, the newest Breaking Ground volunteer, has recently arrived in Cameroon and came to visit us in Dschang today. Together we went again to see the bridge project, and after an initial scare where we were stopped by the gendarmes (I had left my expired visa at the apartment), we got off with a warning and were sent out on what turned into an incredibly scenic back country motorcycle ride and delicious lunch at the chefferie or chief's palace of Fosson Wengtcheng. I picked up a few potentially useful contacts and some leads on local water issues and patterns of typhoid outbreak. This evening I will try and hit up the cyber or internet café and get in touch with David to solicit his help in the second wave of my attack on Yaoundé.

Monday saw me engaging in a nice long conversation with David, the result of which was a decision to call the American embassy in Yaoundé to see if they can’t help motivate the Cameroon office to actually investigate my claim. Monday was also grande marché; so with some assistance from Mama Nana and the eldest daughter Rosine, I undertook my first real shopping trip, and that night cooked my very first meal in the apartment. It seems I got a bit carried away during my shopping venture (it's hard to resist when the local produce all looks amazing and is incredibly cheap0; so it looks as though I will be eating spaghetti with red sauce for the next week or so.

Tuesday was Lindsay’s last day in Dschang before heading back up north to help Sarah move out. We scrambled a bit to put together some final paperwork. With a selection of letters snazzily certified using the new BG stamps, Lindsay took off, though not before infecting my laptop with a rather irritating virus picked up at the local cyber, a lovely farewell present. I also placed a call to the US embassy where I was given promises of a call later in the week from someone with actual authority.

View of the local high point from my apartment

Wednesday.\, Matt and I went on a lovely little hike in the neighborhood to the north of town, checking out a local high point and generally just mucking about. It was great to stretch the legs a bit, and was a pleasant enough hike to convince me into trying to make it a more regular affair. It’s really kind of silly how little time I’ve spent just exploring to the local neighborhoods, though I suppose without a solution to my visa issues I’ll be getting to know the immediate area quite intimately: 5 months in a 5km radius. We headed back into town in time to watch the final stretch of the day's stage in the Tour de France (we’ve become Tour watching regulars at the local bar containing what has to be the city’s largest TV), and frittered away the rest of the day playing cribbage using a board we constructed out of a piece of 2x4, a hammer and nail, and 4 match sticks.

The most awesome cribbage board ever

Early Thursday I set out with Mireme to work a little more actively at soliciting the support and cooperation of some local institutions. Wearing my swankiest outfit, we set out on a tour that included stops at the University, central hospital, and water utility. At the University I spoke with the biology department head again and was able to get him to pledge a letter of support for me and my project, which should go a long way in gaining the support of additional institutions. I was also able to follow up on the incubator, the use of which is unfortunately going to turn into more of a project than I had hoped, while still remaining feasible.

An additional stop on our University visit included a tour of the Geography department. Here I was introduced to a graduate student, Richard, who is studying industrial water usage in the city of Bafoussam. He was able to provide me with some decidedly more useful maps of Dschang and was courteous enough to scan for me portions of what has to be the only topographic map made of the entire region. Good maps are hard to come by, but my commitment to tracking down the best of what’s available has been reaffirmed with this visit to the Geography department. Though of course I can’t help but return to the rather unfortunate realization that knowledge of the surrounding area is only useful in combination with the ability to travel in the surrounding area…

After passing through the University, we stopped in the central hospital, where I was able to speak with the head doctor about examining their records to track the origin of water borne illness in Dschang and her environs. I will be returning Monday with some official letters from BG and hopefully the University so that approval can be granted and work gotten underway.

After a full day, Mireme and I returned to the apartment for some R&R and took up a game of checkers using buttons we had purchased earlier for this express purpose. In Dschang there is an average of 3 checkers games occurring on every block, and I figured it was about time I brushed up on my game. Mireme an I were a good portion into the game before realizing that we were each playing two games with very different rules. In Cameroonian checkers, your pieces can (an must if able) jump your opponent’s moving backwards, and the king is able to move unlimited squares along the diagonal, taking pieces all the while. Needless to say, I was a bit set back by this discovery and soundly lost the next 3 games.

Friday I returned to the University on my own to drop off my project description to aid in the formulation of a letter of support. I also took advantage of the opportunity to sit in on a lecture I had heard about yesterday on the transport of material through the hydrologic cycle. The lecture was being given by a visiting researcher, a Frenchman, who works with the office of France’s national development organization in Yaoundé. It was a bit basic, covering a wide variety of topics at a fairly introductory level. This topical redundancy plus the hour late start time and language barrier saw me sneaking out after only an hour and change. Still, it was a worthwhile experience and I’m glad I took the trouble.

Nathan Spence also happened to be visiting Dschang, so together Matt and I taught him cribbage and I received some much needed assistance in finishing off the last of the spaghetti. I also learned some valuable lessons regarding the proper storage and utilization of foodstuffs here in the land of no refrigerators: While cooked food can be near infinitely reheated with little ill effect, raw meat has a rather limited shelf life of 24hs or less. My recommendation: immediate vinegar marinade, cure that sucker and cure it good!