Why I've Been Silent Since September

The biggest reason for my silence was MONICA MONTALTI, my best friend and 'sister', leaving in September. We had many festivities for her 'going away'. After she left I needed to make new friends. So I was frequently going to "game night" at the 7th Day Adventist Hospital and meeting with friends for Bonga Juice and dinners at various locations around Buea. I was also eager to show new volunteers around to the markets and all of my tailors. I am now...pretty much the veteran of Buea for the "foreign volunteers" sector... its a big responsibility ;)

Lycee Molyko Club Launching Day

Another contribution to my busyness has been the work I am doing for Youth Advocacy Network. You can check out the bi-weekly updates on the specific work we do each week HERE on their blog.

The smaller less obvious reasons for my silence have been things such as: laziness, procrastination and some small travel.

AND... last week I had malaria - - AGAIN!!!

I would like to take this blog post to catch all ya'll up on what has been happening 

in Buea and in my life. 

First and foremost, I finished my final report and capstone thesis for my Omprakash scholarship and Omrapkash EdGE respectively.


As part of Monica's "going away" we decided to dedicate the last 8 days of her time in Buea to madness. We made a bucket-list of random funny things to do and called it "8 days of Being Married to Madness".

I will highlight the best days...

Monday: Day bender with the Police

This was the event the inspired it all. Monday, one week before Monica's departure we found ourselves a bit bored in the house. She had finished her work at the hospital and mine had not yet began with YAN. We decided to just go out for one drink together and just chat. We met up with our friends from the police station who then invited us to continue drinking with them. It's good to make friends with the police here, especially a commissioner... you can always call them when you are stuck at a traffic stop out of town and pass the phone to the policeman who is causing problems.

Tuesday: Make & chop(eat) Ndole and take a moto bike from Limbe to Buea.

Our dear friend Jane has a reputation amongst the 'volunteer' population that has passed through Buea for cooking the BEST ndole! She said she would share her recipe with us and invited us to her house in Limbe. We decided to take a bike back to Buea, about 30min away, instead of a car. Just to be rebellious and feel the wind in our hair!

Wednesday: Plait hair like a Cameroonian

Aquila is a fun and peppy Cameroonian who offered to plait both mine AND Monica's hair for free!! An amazing deal, 'white-man' price for that would have been around 10$ or so. We invited her and her friend to our house for the day. We bought them Bonga Juice (freshly squeezed tropical juice) and soya (meat on a stick with onions and pepe) to keep them motivated. This style is called "rasta". In pidgin: adon put rasta.

Thursday: Mirror dance & take selfies at Chariot

This 'event' on the bucket list has several inside jokes and local customs that are hard to explain to those who have not lived and experienced Cameroon life. Mirror dancing and taking pictures of yourself are both phenomenons here. All clubs and bars are lined with mirrors. Men and women alike will spend hours dancing by themselves in the mirror. Not only do they do this, but you will constantly see people taking "selfies" where they pose, make a 'sexy' face with their lips, hold the camera out in front of them, and have a photo-shoot of themselves by themselves. At first, and I mean no offense whatsoever, it was a bit hard not to laugh at these things just because they are so foreign to where I come from. But not, we've gotten to the point where mirror dancing and taking selfies are quite normal. So we thought we should dedicate a night to the two while going to the cities best club, Chariot Night Club.

*Interesting Local Fact: Many people say that the major reason why there are mirror is to ward off bad spirits. If a person has sold their soul to satin or if they are spirits back from the dead, they (the bad person or spirit themselves) will be able to see their reflection. Therefore, it wards them away because they dont want to me unveiled for what they are.

Friday: West our matching outfits & glasses

Throughout our time spent in Buea together (7months living together, 4 in the same bed), we had both aquired the same pair of fake Ray Ban 'hippster' glassed for dash (free). While visiting Bamenda, Monica and I bought matching tops. We decided to go to our friends going away party matching!!

Saturday: Find Tole waterfall

The waterfall in Tole is not a touristic site, is it actually a place of spirituality and prayer. Photos were not allowed to be used once inside the gate so this picture is just a picture of the Tole Tea fields along the drive there and back. Tole is a small village about 20min from Molyko where I stay in Buea.

Monday (Sept 23rd) was Monica's official send off party!!

The following day I took her to the airport in Douala and we said our goodbyes, but she will be back!! I miss her dearly and life is not the same without her, but as the Cameroonian phrase goes - "a di manage"... I am managing (in English)

Since my last post I have been able to cross not only one but TWO items off my bucket list!!!Can you guess what they are??

1) I opened a bottle with my TEETH!!

 

2) I went to Yaounde to see a Cameroonian football match... 

Cameroon vs. Libya

Final score = 1-0

People call me Tonia here :)

Then I went back to Yaounde to watch the final World Cup Qualifying match.
Cameroon vs. Tunisia
Final Score = 4-1

This game was insane!!!

As my friend Laglan and I approached the entrance to the stadium I could already see this game was going to be different than the last one... much more intense! There were long lines with those who held tickets, like us, and then crowds of others near the fences and walls and then a million police officers and military. It was complete chaos. Those who had tickets were not being allowed in...for God knows what reason. Laglan said it was because they wanted to take bribes so unless they paid they wouldn't let them in. Either way, it was very hectic. I tried to play my "foreigner in a foreign country" card and speak with the officers to see if they could help. Most of them were trying to be helpful and bringing me to more superior officers to try to get us into the game but in the end they just told me to wait in line with those who had tickets. So, we did just that. I didn't want to take my phone out for fear of it being stolen. There were people climbing walls, jumping fences and throwing themselves over onto the other side to see the game. The police had their belts and batons out whipping people as they wished. Suddenly, the crown next to us dispersed rapidly and I saw a flair had been thrown. I tried to run but I wasn't fast enough... an officer had unintentionally hit me in the back of the calf with his baton that he was swinging carelessly and violently. I played the same card as before and started to cry...I was quickly surrounded by apologetic military and police who eventually escorted me and Laglan into the field.

This is the aftermath - but fear not! I am strong and OK!

Although being 'beat by Cameroonian police" wasn't on my bucket list, it will be added and it will be crossed off. Right there under "be a victim of tear gas" from the strikes at UB back in May.

Here is a video of the match including the 3rd goal (a corner kick) and the crowd going crazy afterwards.

I had a gut feeling that they were going to score. So I looked at my friend who was holding my phone (keeping it safe) and said, "They are going to score, let me see my phone so I can record." Sure enough they scored! 

The weekend was a wonderful weekend in Yaounde. A friend of mine Al who lives in Buea and has his family house in Yaounde was actually around for the weekend as well. He brought me to his village on the other side of Mount Febe and showed me a local artist named NDOFOA. He is BRILLIANT!! His entire house was his workshop and the walls where made into one giant collage with pictures and random things such as bottle caps, pipes and of course every color of the rainbow. He is looking for someone to help him make a catalog to sell his art and get him more 'publicity'. Every time I go to Yaounde, I think I will meet with him and take photos to help him work on it. He is a very nice man and gave me the painting at half price because that was all I had and Al brought me :)

This is the painting I bought...
The longer you look at it, the more things you see.

As I said before... one reason why I haven't been blogging is because of my work with YAN. I have been very busy with lesson planning, teaching, correcting papers, looking for an intern etc.

YAN Club at the Government High School in Buea Town.

Madam Antonia

Bar Camp Cameroon 2013 : Buea, Cameroon

BarCamp is held throughout the year in Cameroon and all around the world. This year Buea was fortunate enough to be the first Anglophone region to host the event. Bar Camp is a the largest annual “non-conference” of passionate individuals who are interested and involved sectors of the digital and technology society. Those attending and presenting include: bloggers, photographers, videographers, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts,  journalists, activists, professors, field specialists and students. It’s a meeting of forward-thinking minds coming together to discuss the countless opportunities and obstacles they all face in the era of modern technology.

BarCamp is referred to as a “non-conference” because of its informal format and random/sporatic scheduling. Nevertheless and undoubtedly, quality discussions, stimulating interaction and a trade fair-like atmosphere are some of its characteristics. BarCamp is seen as a combining platform between Cameroon’s tech and civil society, geared at addressing grand issues of the day. 

A friend of mine, Al (yes the same one who showed me the amazing artist in Yaounde) who works at ActiveSpaces (a organization that incubates local businesses) had invited me to give a presentation at this years BarCamp. He told me that it was going to be a very informal ‘non-conference’ and I would have between 15-20min to give a speech and a powerpoint presentation. Although the expected audience number of 200-300 was not met, I was still able to reach out to a good amount of people. I spoke about the founding of YAN, how it has improved and grown since 2009 and what we are doing presently. It was nice to get feedback from the audience which mostly included focusing more of the curriculum on social media while also advising YAN to work in more schools.

 After the speech they asked me to say a few words to the TV news crew.

Paola is from Italy and doing her PhD in Germany. She is currently doing her research here in Buea at the Advanced School and Translation and Interpretation (ASTI) at the University of Buea. She is focusing on Community Translation. I met Paola a few months back when I was still working for Green Cameroon. She asked to interview me privately since I had said, "Yes, I needed a Pidgin translator when I had first arrived and was working in the villages." I found her about 7 others who needed translation help because of their work here so I rounded them all around to my house for the interviews. She was very grateful for my contribution and invited me to her "sensitization day". The interviews were in late August/early September ad the sensitization took place in November. It was full of funny skits and a lot of advice giving for those who work in the field. It focused mostly on Hospitals and NGOs. At the end, we debriefed. I had an opportunity to give my advice to those with international volunteers coming to work with them - - PIDGIN LESSONS!!! And even CULTURAL LESSONS!!! What to respect, how to act, standards, rules, regulations, etc!

Skit from the Sensitization Day

AIESEC is the largest youth-run organization in the WORLD. They operate in 113 countries or territories and have more than 86,000 members! Here at the University of Buea (UB) they have their very own chapter. The president, Kabila, had invited me to give a short speech to the new recruits of the year. Even thought I was not an AIESEC member, he said it would be good to have a foreigner give my experience in a foreign country as an intern and I could motivate them to want to experience another culture. So... I did just that... IN PIDGIN-ENGLISH!! Ok, a don lie...ano fit fo talk all tings so wen a no fit a talk english (Ok, I lied. I cant say everything in Pidgin, so when I can't say something I just speak in English.) So in the end, it was probably 70% Pidgin English. They loved it!! Everyone was laughing, recording me on their cell phones asking me questions in Pidgin... it was great :)

And in case you didnt hear....

 

 I am an official resident of The Republic of Cameroon.

Na ma tailor ei pikin dem.These are my tailors children.

T-minus 24hours until departure...

The last few weeks of my full time French immersion studies at ILSC were fantastic!! I am no where near fluent, but I feel very comfortable starting and holding a conversation – I know my skills will only improve as I work in Cameroon.

  

I have finally finished my TESOL certification as well.

 

For my last night in Montreal, Aimée showed me how to cook an Ivorian dish called Attiéké (similar to couscous) with salad and salmon. I baked an apple strawberry pie. It was a beautiful dinner with a lot of smiles and French.

  

From February 21-23 I had the opportunity to travel to Brattleboro, Vermont to visit a graduate school that I found when I was about 18 years old and researching information on the Peace Corps. Long story short – they do a Peace Corps Masters International Program that incorporates 1 year full time at SIT Graduate Institute with 2 years serving as a PC member overseas combined with a capstone paper and presentation to yield a self designed Masters of Art in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management. 

After visiting the tiny campus nestled in a small town that was a mirror image to Arcata (except colder) I felt right at home. The school only has 5 degree programs that are entirely international focused and a student population of under 200 (25% are international students, 58 languages are spoken on campus and there are 13 returning Peace Corps volunteers with many more going to serve as part of the PC Masters International Program like I plan to do). I am certain that this is the school for me. While on my very short visit, I met not only one but TWO students from Cameroon. One man was born and raised in Buea, the exact town I will be working in for the next 6 months. What a serendipitous series of events.  

Beautiful icicles on the side of the freeway from Burlington to Brattleboro.

Random Occurrence: As I left ILSC at the end of the day (it was my very last Monday at the school) I went to a local cafe Shäika Café a few blocks from my house to get some studying done. As I approached the window, I saw a uncannily familiar looking lady sitting in the front window facing me. We made eye contact and both had that look as if we were both thinking, "How do I know you!?" We smiled slightly and I entered into the cafe, unpacked my bags and stared at the back of her head just waiting for her to turn around so I could get another look at her... She turned her head to find me, obviously thinking the same thing - we met in the middle of the cafe - Turns out Sarah was in my French 3 class at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California and had transferred to Concordia where she was finishing her undergraduate studies. What a beautiful phenomenon. What are the odds of that?

Background Info: While visiting the greatest mother and father in the whole world (yes, I am talking about Jon and Maureen Morzenti: my parents) in December, I realized that my Typhoid Fever vaccination had expired and I was due for another. After calling around frantically the only local clinic (2 hours away) to administer the vaccination gave me a whopping total of $488 because I did not have any type of insurance. I said, “Thank you but no thank you” and decided to take my chances with Typhoid Fever.

Upon arriving in Canada, my wonderful Aunty Patty suggested going to a travel clinic there. So in Montreal I called around and concluded that I could afford a fee of $70 (yes, for the exact same Typhoid Fever vaccination). The doctor at the travel clinic, who happened to be Ethiopian, also wrote me a 6 month prescription for Lariam, a once weekly anti-malaria pill. She compared me going to Cameroon in the wet season for 6 months and not taking anti-malaria pills to me going there without any type of insurance. After she told me it would be about $70/month I had to pick my jaw up off the floor before taking the prescription and thanking her for her time. I have been very hesitant to get malaria drugs because last year I went 8 months with no drugs and somehow survived. So I waited and debated. 

Last Saturday I arrived in Toronto to stay my last week with my delightful and loving Aunty Patty! We have been quite busy together – going to her International Development classes at Humber College, seeing NicholasKristof and Sheryl WuDunn (NY Times journalist and authors of Half the Sky) speak at the Toronto Public Library, celebrating birthdays, and we’ve eaten Japanese, Thai, Indian, Greek and more! I went to check on the malaria pills yesterday (yes only 2 days before my departure) and it turns out that they are a third of the price here in Ontario! Only $120 for the entire prescription when I thought it was going to cost me close to $400!! The universe has been spinning in my favor lately. Needless to say I now will be taking anti-malaria, I’m sure my family will be relieved to hear that.

It was like a tornado had went through my stuff as I tried to pack...

In the last few weeks as I have been counting down the days and hours until I land in the muggy, hot and bustling city of Douala, I have had several changes in my life which have already begun to take a profound affect on my person growth and outlook on the next six months.

The majority of this self-development (and sheer confusion) is credited to the brilliant staff of Omprakash and Omprakash EdGE.

You can read more about exactly who, what, where and whys of the Omprakash on their site. Maybe you can find a partner you would be interested in working with or donating to. I am working with Social Development International.

I am very honored to announce that I have been selected to receive the Omprakash Volunteer Abroad Grant. This will help offset the cost of airfare, vaccinations/medicine, insurance, local room/board, internship/program fees and other travel expenses. I am very blessed to have found Omprakash and to be a part of their beautiful community; my only regret is that I didn’t find them sooner! You can see my profile here. As part of the grant, I will be required to post resources, media and blog updates before, during and after my trip.

During the interview for the grant, I was presented with some very challenging and thought provoking questions about “women empowerment” and “development work” in general. Willy, the program director, made me second guess my intentions, second guess my reasoning for wanted to do this work and even better yet – he opened my eyes to multiple dimensions of the development sector that I had overlooked in the past.

Does education necessarily lead to empowerment? Where does ‘cultural relativism’ fit into the picture? What is the ‘right’ or ‘best’ approach to development issues? What has failed/worked in the past?  HELP! WHAT DO I DO!? I have been constantly reading article after article relating to these topics and more – waking up at 6am, on the metro, during lunch break and even while walking! Afterwards, I am often left with new questions and usually even more confused yet I still yearn for more articles, more answers, more studies, more opinions, more field research, more MORE more! I don’t think this is a craving that can be curbed for I am slowly realizing that there are no definite answers in this field of work. I am always going to be perplexed by the interconnected and self perpetuating problems of ‘international development’ and that is entirely fine.

I was beyond thrilled when the Omprakash Team asked me to be part of their new initiative: Omprakash EdGE (Education through Global Engagement). I could feel my cheeks lifting towards my ears as I read through the introductory documents for the program. Essentially, this brand new program will offers student participants a unique opportunity for professional development, personal growth, and immersive experiential learning through transformative educational experiences that bring students into partnership with social actors and communities whose voices and perspectives have been historically marginalized and pushed to the edge of public awareness. In my case, I will be working in Buea, Cameroon with Social Development International in the sector of community service and development. Participants engage in a rich online curriculum curated by experts in the fields of international development and education. This curriculum prepares participants for immersive field placements which can include research and/or internship responsibilities, and all participants will complete a capstone project revolving around community-engaged learning through which they document local perspectives on the ends and means of ‘development.’

I cannot emphasis how absolutely perfect this program is for me. I was trying to do all of these things on my own, but now, to have not only a tailored curriculum to help me along the way and other students to participate and grow with,  I also have the guidance and mentorship of several experienced authorities who have an array of background skills and knowledge.

This is the study abroad experience that I was trying to create for myself in 2011. Although I am very proud of what I accomplished in East and West Africa, a program such as this would have undoubtedly been more beneficial in the end. More news to come about the program. There are so many short videos and articles so please, leave a comment if you think they are worth blogging about. All very eye opening and really make you *think* and *questions* things.

Good news, my Cameroonian visa has arrived!!

I feel eerily prepared and ready for the next 6 months.

This is nothing but a learning experience. It is a process, there are no exact answers.

I have ideas of what I could and would like to do for SDI but I am keeping a very very open mind and making sure that I have no expectations of what it will be like.

When I arrive, I plan on spending at least the first month talking with staff and volunteers who are working with SDI, talking with those who are part of their projects and are the ones who are supposed to be receiving the benefits of the programs. Only after I feel like I understand what the people of Buea want and need will I start to take any direction with planning, coordinating or facilitating my own doings.

At the moment is a 50+ degree difference between Toronto, Canada and Buea, Cameroon.