The Notice Board

My postmate and I made plans to have a meeting with all of the geography and history teachers at the high school for Teacher Training activities. On the day of the meeting, we arrived prepared for the activities only to walk into an empty room. Apparently, all of the teachers were told only the night before that there is a geography/history seminar in the city that same day. Of course, they are given little notice as it always happens here and no one tells us that it is canceled.

We tried to get a hold of them to reschedule, but there was no cell phone reception at the high school. Instead, we were advised to leave them a note on the “notice board”. This is just a blackboard in a classroom that is covered in hand written pieces of paper glued (not taped from some reason or even just written in chalk because it doesn’t really erase) to the blackboard. We searched for glue in the classrooms, but all of the teachers and students bring supplies back home with them at the end of the day since there are no doors to the classrooms.

Finally, we found a tree outside and used its sap to paste the note to the board. Nothing ever works as you had planned in Africa, but it always does seem to work eventually in ways you never imagined.

West Africa

Here are a few photos from my trip backpacking around West Africa. I traveled with 2 other volunteers visiting Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Benin for 3 1/2 weeks.



















Highlights include winding along the mud streets around the world's largest mud building in Mali, trekking through the Sahel in isolated Dogon Country in Mali - an area still rich in traditional culture, hopping around the cascading waterfalls in Burkina with one of my best friends from high school who is a PCV in Burkina, climbing to the ancient cliff fortresses in northern Togo, catching butterflies with nets in the rain forested mountains in southern Togo, walking around the Voodoo markets of Lome, relaxing in the sun on the beautiful beaches of Benin, and sailing around a stilt village entirely built on sticks in the middle of a lake in Benin.











It was a great trip and a lot of fun, but its good to be back in Cameroon, which as it turns out, has a lot more than most other countries in West Africa - we actually have a regular supply of fruits and veggies! It was a great break and now I'm ready to take on Year 2...

Summer Camps

Below are a few photos of the adorable children at another summer camp that I helped out with teaching a whole range of topics including savings, water & sanitation, and goal setting. We started this camp out by both milking a cow and delivering a baby cow...

Jewelry Making Project

I started a jewelry making project with another volunteer at an orphanage in Dschang. The idea is for the orphans to make money to pay for school and medical costs, as well as save some money and learn a trade for when they leave the orphanage and start living on their own. We invited an artisan to teach them how to make necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. On the right, the orphans are using a candle to secure the clasps. We divided the older orphans into teams of quality control, anti-theft, and finance, which they really like! We made a website: https://sites.google.com/site/cibaeeva/

A few weeks ago, we also taught the orphans how to crochet purses out of old plastic bags. None of the volunteers got it, but the orphans got it right away and started whipping out purses complete with zippers and handles in just an hour! It's another potential income generating activity which they are psyched about.

How to bake a cake without an oven

Ovens are scare here, but don't worry, there are still ways to make baked goods. What you do is take an enormous pot, put a bowl at the bottom, then put the pan with the cake batter on top. You put the lid of the big pot on and place the entire thing over a fire. It gets tricky setting the right temperature, so you have to play around with it a lot adding wood and taking some away.

The food here, otherwise, is sometimes great and sometimes not so great. Unlike Madagascar where I had rice every single day, I eat a much more varied diet of starches here: corn, manioc, rice, pasta, and lots of plantains. My homestay family’s favorite meal was couscous de maize.Do not confuse these couscous with those of Northern Africa…what they mean by couscous here is dried, powdered corn or manioc that is added to boiling water and essentially tasteless and void of any vitamins. My first night in country we ate it with Gumbo – a snot-like, guey green sauce, which did not make a good first impression. Luckily, there is really great fruit!

On the right is a picture of a baker's oven. I'm trying to teach him how to make chocolate chip cookies!

The Bread Man

This is the Bread Man. He, along with his buddies arrive bright and early every morning at each boutique with a big stack of bread on the back of their motos delivering fresh loaves. In my village, we get Mbouda bread as it comes from a town called Mbouda and it is the best bread in all of Cameroon. It can only be purchased from the bread men if you’re not actually in Mbouda, so there is only small radius in Cameroon where it can be bought. If you put a little cream cheese on there, it is the closest thing we can get to a Bagel!

Introducing Wala Wahala

This is my new kitten! I got her to chase all the mice away and maybe even some bugs. Her name means “Nothing but Trouble” in two languages spoken throughout Cameroon– Fulfulde (Wala) and Pidgin (Wahala).