Birthday celebration

A wonderful morning at Bamessing with Carmen and Gabe. Bamessing is a village 25km east of Bamenda.  Located on top of a mountain in the middle of a beautiful forest is The Prespot Center, a pottery center. As you can see, a vase in the making, notice the 2 straws at the bottom and at the top of the vase, these were used to make sure that the dimensions of all the vases would be approximately the same. The Center receives order from all over the world. These vases were being made for a major hotel in the US.

All pottery is made by hand by skilled artisans that are trained at least for 7 years before being allowed to produce any craft. Our guide showed us the technique they use. He pointed out that there is no access to electricity which means that all firing done in the oven, behind me, is fueled by wood collected from the forest. This is an amazing technique since desired temperatures have to be reached and kept constant to ensure proper baking/firing of the clay. The process takes usually 10-12 hours and the oven must be constantly monitored by someone. Most artisans are paid a certain sum per finished item, so during busy season they earn well, but if there are no orders then they have no work and no pay -- this, as our guide explained, gives them time to tend the farms, finish projects that are ongoing in their homes or spend more time with the family.

Just a beautiful flower :-), it was fascinating to see how it came out of its pod.

The view from what is called the Ring road -- in the distance one can make out crater lakes. It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect, the temperature pleasant and the view fantastic.

My wonderful friend Carmen who has been extremely kind and has been hosting me since the 19th of August until I can move to my post.

My friend Gabe, who took all these wonderful pictures and bought me a great birthday souvenir mug from Prespot.

Here are more of his pictures:

      

Until the next time ---

Training is over !!!!! 100% Peace Corps Volunteer

Well training is over!!!!!

I am now a 100% Peace Corps Volunteer or as we like to say a PCV --- Woohooooo

I will first describe the end of our Model School/Summer School for the children. The last couple of weeks were extremely hectic:

-          exam preparations for the students,

-          sessions to learn all the different forms that had to be filled by hand, signed, witnessed and stamped by the school,

-          practices for the extracurricular clubs to prepare for a cultural afternoon showing what they had accomplished,

-          meetings where each students in a class was discussed to determine which of them  would receive prizes for highest grades in specific subjects and a prize for the highest grade point average

-          Planning the closing ceremony of Model School

At the same time

-          afternoon technical sessions

-          final special project report on anything that had to do with Cameroonian culture

-          presentation o f special project J, I decided to do mine on “Des Recettes Médicales de Grandmères Camerounaises”  

-          preparations for leaving Bafia

-          meetings and planning for swearing in ceremony

-          final documents to be signed

-          packing

Some of my Peace Corps friends practicing

Yes, there was plenty to do.

Before the madness started though we did have some time to enjoy playing a basketball game (well, I supportedJ). The Peace Corps was invited by the Bafia basketball team to a game. It was an enjoyable Sunday afternoon. Plays were interesting --- a bit more “forward” than I am used to.

Bafia basketball team practicing

Dance Club -- Some members from the Bafia Lycee Bilingue

Our tappers

Getting ready for the performance: Tribal marks , the final touches

Included in the responsibilities of being a secondary teacher in Cameroon is being in charge of one of the extracurricular club activities every Wednesday mornings/afternoons for 2 hours. I chose to conduct the Dance Club. This club was very popular and started with 54 students, by performance time, they were 38 students dancing. It was a fantastic experience!!!! The children were very creative and together we came up with a number that mixed both African Bafia dance steps with American dance steps to the beat of “tappers” (young boys that tap the rhythm usually on drums) ,in our case, on school benches and plastic water containers, “bidons”. The best part was to see the dancers and tappers so well synchronized by just following hand cues -- It was magical!!!! I had a great time. The children were a great asset to the closing ceremony and they received many praises.

Once we closed summer school, we then had to present the research we had done for our special project. I had interviewed one of my host mother’s friends that I had observed giving herbal remedies to the family, when they had stomach cramps, fevers or aches. I realized that she was sought after for her traditional remedies and her knowledge on local medicinal plants. She and I sat together many afternoons and talked about how she was chosen/inherited the knowledge of medicinal plants, how she diagnosed what ailed her patients and how she had learned to prescribe the medicinal dosages. She shared with me and allowed me to record 50 traditional medicinal herbal remedies that never had been written down before; all had been handed from generation to generation through word of mouth. I felt extremely honored. We went on walks and she showed me the plants, some she did not know the names of, those, I collected and pressed next to the remedies. My project made me realize that I was just discovering the tip of an iceberg. I am sure that during my next 2 years here, I will get to hear and learn many more of these traditional ways of treating illnesses. I hope that I will find the time to continue interviewing local traditional health providers and add on to my collection of remedies.

The Northwest Region gang
Andrew, me, Ben, Allison, Crystal, Jake and Carmen
(plus a Jenny, not NW)

Peace Corps Country Director, Lahoma Romocki

After swearing in: from left back, Sirri, Chantale, me, Devine
bottom left, Linette, Manka and Carlos

Finally, after many meetings that helped us to understand the practical dos and don’ts once at post, the day had come for our swearing in ceremony. In Cameroon it is customary to wear “uniforms” to show that you belong to the same family/group/clan. The group buys several bolts of the same material “pagne”. This material is distributed to each member and they sew a selected pattern with that cloth, then, when it is a wedding, clan meeting, funeral, etc. all wear the “uniform” all know that they belong together --- or as they say in Cameroon --- Nous sommes ensemble. For our swearing in, we all wore the same pagne, but we decided to choose our own individual patterns that suited our style best BUT we still looked like we belonged and that we were together J --The officials of Bafia were invited, not all could attend but representatives were sent. Our interim ambassador attended, as well as, our Peace Corps country director, Lahoma Romocki and all of our Peace Corps staff that had helped us to learn and adjust to Cameroon. Our host families were invited, as well as, a corps of journalists and media.  Speeches were made. The most impressive were three speeches that were made by my volunteer colleagues that had improved the most in the languages that they had learned – one in French, one in Pidgin and one in Fufuldé – they did a fantastic job. The speeches were serious yet witty, well expressed, clear and meaningful. What is most impressive is to understand that volunteers came with different levels of French, after the intensive 10 weeks of language training all could express themselves so that they could function well in the Cameroonian society. Once a certain level of French was reached then those moving to the Extreme North were taught Fufuldé and those going to the Northwest and Southwest regions were taught Pidgin, which means that most got their 3^rd language training just for 3-4 weeks. At the end of the swearing ceremony our host families joined us and there was lots of picture taking. It was a joyous time and a proud moment. My family gave me beautiful silk flowers to take with me to my post, I was touched. We then paraded down the main road and unto our temporary main Peace Corps building to have lunch with our families. I was asked to give a short speech, representing each one of us, to thank our families for their hospitalities, for showing and teaching us the ways of Cameroonian life.  The food that was served was great and the atmosphere vibrant. Once finished it was time to go and get all luggage marked and ready for pick up for our travels to post the next day. For our final evening together, most of us, stayed at a hotel where we laughed, recounted our experiences in Bafia, drank and danced to the wee hours of the morning. By 0600, I went to Sirri to give her a big hug and to thank her for all her kindness that she had showed me during my stay with her.  And true to her nature, she had breakfast ready for me to eat and a sandwich to take with me for the trip to Bamenda. Linette ran to her room to silently cry before she came out to give me a quick hug. I will miss them, but I am lucky, because Sirri is from the Bamenda area and she promised that they would visit.

Sirri and Linette
Sirri wearing traditional Northwest region dress
(hand embroidered black material)

Once underway, the trip went well. We did see several major accidents that had happened. All were devastating bus and lorry crashes where not many could have survived. Some were so recent that locals were collecting the goods that had been carried in them such as cereals, beans and whatever could be taken --- even vehicle parts. 

We arrived safe and sound at our destinations. Another adventure started, but this will take another internet session at the internet café to describe ---- Until then.