I am exactly where I am supposed to be

The plane landed nearly an hour behind schedule (right on time if you are going by African time) but thankfully it was still light outside. As I stood in line for customs I could feel my skin soaking up the humid sticky Cameroon heat. Suddenly, the power went out and as if rehearsed, the entire airport let out a synchronized sigh. “I'm back” I thought to myself as the corners of my lips lifted towards my ears. The line was moving slow, but I was in no rush. I could hear the officials speaking in French as they used their cell phones as a flash light to review passports.

Paul was right around the corner waiting to greet me in the luggage area. What a blissful reunion it was. He pointed out Mr. Suliman Turay (CEO/Director of Social Development International) who was waiting in the balcony region. They had been waiting since 2pm – it was now nearly 7pm. It was necessary for them to leave Buea early because depending on traffic, it can take anywhere form 1 ½ to 3 hours to get to Douala and you might have to wait for the bus or taxi to fill up before it leave (taking from 10min-3hours).

I collected my luggage and we met Suliman outside near our taxi. I was welcomed to Cameroon by being called “cheap” for not tipping the two men who literally only lifted my luggage into the car (without asking, just taking) and were both tipped by Paul 2 seconds before they asked me for money.

I was quickly reminded of the terrifying roads and drivers of Africa. There are no rules, no regulations, no lines on the road – nothing. I call it ‘chaos that works’. As our taxi zipped left and right tooting his horn and braking for no one I recalled the secret to keeping your sanity while on the road – don’t look out the front window, always look to the side so you don’t see what the drive is doing or what is really going on. I have heard the front seat be called the death seat in many regions because there are so many head on collisions with public transportation.

Mt. Cameroon (view from Paul's house)

I took Monday as a free day to get acquainted with the city but realized it would take me at least a couple of weeks – Buea’s population is over 200,000 and is very spread out – there are many districts and villages within the city. I met the two others who are working for SDI right now as well – Sara (from the US focusing on farming and agriculture) and Monica (from Australia focusing on Health and Nutrition). We are all staying with the same host family right next door to University of Buea. Paul lives behind Malingo Junction which is only about a 10min walk from my house.

Tuesday I went to the SDI office and met Suliman to discuss my projects for the next 5 months. We decided I would focus on facilitating capacity building workshops with teen mothers in Mamu village. I did as much research as possible on the previous projects that had been facilitated by previous SDI coordinators/volunteers, but information and contacts were scarce. Paul and I went to the Police Department to get a photocopy of my passport/visa, get it stamped and laminated so that I can use that as my ID. Afterwards we went to the Linguistic Center to take a French placement exam. I am Intermediate B and Paul is Beginner A. Classes start April 8^th.

On Thursday I met with Max (aka Delegate) who is the SDI Social Worker. He worked with the previous project in Tole (another village in Buea) and was the one who assessed Mamu village and identified the 20 teens whom I will be working with. Max is a short, middle aged Cameroonian who is not yet married, he says it is because he can cook better than the women and they don't like that. I was hesitant to partner with him at first, mostly because I my self was being gender biased not sure how good of an idea it was to have a man working with with teen mother empowerment. But I have to say, his attitude and knowledge wooed me and I am thrilled to be working with him on this project.

Later that evening Max and I met up to go to Mamu village to meet the teens. The meeting started at 4pm but we spend the first 30-40min walking around the village ‘rounding up’ the girls and reminding them of the meeting. It was finally about 5:15 when the meeting started and there were 6 teens present. I can see that my two biggest challenges will be 1) getting them to come out of their shell; 2) language barrier between their Pidgin-English (mix of broken English and local dialects but it is codified as its own language) and my English. We decided to meet every Thursday at 4pm. As part of this program, the women (and their babies) will be enrolled in Mutual Health (a local health insurance) for an entire year. Upon completion of the program, SDI will fund the teens to either A) go back to school; B) start a business (trading foods, small shop, etc) or C) learn a trade/apprenticeship (hairdressing, seamstress, etc). The program is absolutely free of charge – all that we require is attendance and participation from the girls. This year, SDI and the project received a grant from The Girl Effect and is has made all of these wonderful things possible.

On Friday, Suli, Max and I went to the Regional Deligacy of Women’s Affairs in Buea Town. I met with a the Chief of Services for Family and Children's Affairs and he wants to help me and contribute. I will go back to meet with him at the end of this week because he is traveling until then and will not be around. Before leaving, we stopped to see the Regional Delegate for Women’s Affairs. She was very interested and impressed by our program and is looking forward to hearing more. She even mentioned that she might want to come by one of the workshops. I have to stop back and see on on Tuesday or Wednesday to show her the program for the first workshop.

I went to Buea Town market on Saturday and got a wicket sun burn. The market was beautiful (as are all African markets) and I spent close to two hours wandering around with Sara and Monica.

Sunday Mama Pocome (Francophone neighbor) took the three of us to church because of our activities in Buea. She thought we could benefit the church. In my case, I went so that I could talk to their congregation about the problems that teen mothers face and how they can be addressed (i.e.: what topics I should use for my capacity building workshops). We went to Full Gospel Mission Church (which is a Pentecostal church) for 2 hours. I think faith is good, I think the morals that many mainstream religions bring are good, I think spirituality is also good – but I think there is a line and sometimes that line is crossed. I said it before and I’ll say it again – the missionaries devastated Africa and the destruction is evident all over the continent. For me, I am much more interested in traditional and animalism practices like the Ndep ceremony I saw inYoff, Senegal. I hope I get to be a part of something like that again.

Later on Sunday I wandered down to Muea (pronounced Moon-ya) town market by myself and made some new friends. Ruth helped me find some great fabric stalls and is going to look for the International Women’s Day fabric so that next Sunday I can buy it from her.

My backyard/compound

Sister Bernadette

Everyone here is genuinely hospitable and caring. I really enjoy their generosity and their frequent greetings and smiles. I have made it a personal goal of mine to visit every region (except for the Far North and the North) while I am here. I am living in the Southwest region and I visited the Littoral region in 2011/12, so I am left with 6 regions: East, South, Center, Northwest, West and Adamawa. 5 out of 6 are Francophone regions. J'ai haït de voyager (I am excited to travel).

Cameroonian food I have tried (so far):

Soya – meat on a stick (variety of meats).

Chin-chin – small crunchy fried sweet fried dough-balls.

Puff-puff – fried dough, sometimes with sugar (like a donut).

Ekwang – pounded coco yams, mine had a sauce that was fish based and had a lot of palm oil, not sure if it is always served like that.

Okro soup with Gerri - A fish based stew like soup made of Okro and vegetables with gerri which is ground dried cassava.

Ndole with Water Fufu – cooked green veggies with ground wet cassava. There is also corn fufu which I haven't had yet.

Dodo – slices of plantains fried in oil.

Bobolo – long pieces of cassava wrapped in leaves, traditionally eaten with grilled fish.

Fufu

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.