Important Announcment! And some fun in Yaounde&Bamenda :)

Picture this...

Sunday morning: The rain tapping on your roof has woken you up, not in a startling way, it's more of a soothing sound that reminds you where you are...Buea, Cameroon during the wet season. After untangling yourself in the sheets you make your way to your closet of a kitchen. All you want is to go to the coffee shop on the corner, order a hot mocha, relax and people watch. But you know, there is no coffee shop within 70km... what do you do?

Solution...

You make do with what you have (nescafe instant coffee, powered milk and nescquick), sit on your balcony, take a look around and enjoy every moment of your one and only precious life.

Internship with Green Cameroon
The days of my (second) internship here in Buea have been winding down. I encourage everyone to check out Green Cameroon's website and sign up for their newsletter! They are doing fantastic work in Buea and need interns all year around.

As part of my internship with GC, I have been researching grants and potential donors, creating partnerships around the globe and have increased and expanded Green Cameroon's volunteer/intern platform and overall visibility. I will continue working with them on the side when I have free time.

On the last days of my internship, we received good news from GlobalGiving (an online NGO/project fundraising website) that we had been selected to compete in their September Open Challenge as a trial period to be a partner on their site. So keep an eye open for Green Cameroon's projects on GlobalGiving and be sure to give a little in September! Being on GlobalGiving is a huge opportunity to get seriously needed funding for some great projects.

My colleagues and boss

I made a quick mid-week trip to Yaounde to try to figure out my visa extension. Turns out it will be easier and pretty much the same price for me to just apply for a residence permit as opposed to two 6-month visas.

Bamenda and First Communion
I was in Buea just for one night and then took the night bus to Bamenda. Monica and I bought our tickets earlier in the day so we could save a good seat, but even the good seat was hard to sleep in. We left the park at about 10pm but didnt get 'on the road' until a bout 10:30pm. There was some sort of problem (as there always is)...we were either waiting for the driver himself or another passenger. The last time I went to Bamenda I was very very cold on the bus, so this time I was sure to prepare and bring a hat and scarf. Those are 2 things I didn't think I would need those things over here but they sure come in handy. We arrived at the bus station in Bamenda just around 5am. I made a friend on the bus, Amelia*, and she found us a bike to take to our hotel. The hotel woman was sleeping when we arrived but she kindly let us check in early and gave us the room at a discounted price. We slept a bit and then walked all over Bamenda. Up and down Commercial Avenue, and through the central market. We took moto-bikes up to Uptown Station (aka Uptown) to see the beautiful view of the whole city.

View of Bamenda from UpStation

We stopped at a couple of craft shops and made out way to Mama's house in Bellow Fonchum (I dont think that is the correct spelling but its just an area in Bamenda). After dropped off the goodies I brought for them (papaya and smoked fish) we headed back to the market where I found some beautiful fabric and the perfect gift for Angel's First Communion. I bought her a beautiful gold (in color) watch with pink. I had them remove some watch links since she is so little.

Saturday was more bumming around the city and just checking things out. It is a huge city but the weather was absolutely beautiful! Sure it rained here and there, but the sun came out!! I hadn't seen the sun since JUNE living in Buea. It was just a wonderful sunny weekend. We bought Monica's bus ticket, spent more time in the market and met up with Amelia. Mama and the girls prepared delicious ndole for Monica and I before she took the night bus back to Buea. I went to sleep early to prepare for the festivities the following day.

Sunday, I woke up early, ran to the bus park to buy my night bus ticket (and get a good seat) then back to the house to bucket bathe and get ready.

I had an amazing breakfast of fresh Cameroonian coffee, groundnut paste and bread.

Me, enjoying the sun, Bamenda and life!!

Mama's brother runs the Linguistic Center in Bamenda and was hosting a Togolese priest who was doing his masters in Yaounde and trying to learn English. He is from Lomé, the capital . I chatted with him for a bit and reminisced about Togo, Benin and Voodoo. That is a region I would most definitely LOVE to go back to someday. 

Then we all headed to church as a family. It was the same church I went to last time but the mass was not in Pidgin this time.

Angel looked like an angel.

Mama making announcements during church.

All of those receiving their first communion

Family

Angel and I

After church we strolled back to the house and carried food from neighbors houses to Mama and Papa's house (where the party was to be held).

The Good News Bible Cake sent from family in Douala!

Angel's Mom and Dad - Mom came from Tanzania for the celebration!

 

There were many similarities I could spot between my first communion and Angle's. The obvious were things you see in the pictures... white dress, church ceremony, bible cake, celebration with friends and family afterwards, gifts, food, etc. But we are in Cameroon, so not everything was the same...  There was of course way more DANCING!!

 

Just as I thought the party was 'coming to an end'... Kevin* ( calls for me "Anto (thats my nickname there) - come outside you will really enjoy this" - so of course I follow....

Walking through the front gate into the yard is a crowd of people, some with drums, some singing and others dancing. Amongst them were two jujus. A woman and man (both were men but one was dressed as the female). They had huge masks on and were dancing around combing each others hair and having others comb their hair. As you will see in the video (I apologize for the poor quality, it was filmed from a cell phone since my camera was dead), they spotted the 'whiteman' and ran to dance with me. The random things that happen here, they really put a huge smile on your face...

*BIG NEWS*

For those of you who don't know, this is my second time in Cameroon and when I bought my ticket to come, I only bought a one way.
I wanted/hoped for something big to happen here. Here as in "West/Central Africa" - a job anywhere!
My money was going to run out in August/September so if I didnt find one by then, I would head back the US.
I was applying everywhere but always found myself under qualified (either lacking a masters, a fluent 2nd language or work experience).
In July I applied to be a "YAN Fellow" with Youth Advocacy Network, an American NGO that operates in Buea. Youth Advocacy Network (YAN) started in 200 and works as a vehicle of youth empowerment by teaching young children the power of social justice, social media and computers at large.

I've recently accepted their offer of employment and will be working as a YAN Fellow from September 15th, 2013 until July 15th, 2014. From the title of the position, its clear that it is not a career by any means. I will receive rent and a small stipend for my work but I'm sure it will give me invaluable experience and get me that much closer to the dream jobs that in actuality, still don't pay a lot, but enough to survive and pay off those student loans.

I am more than ecstatic about this position and the opportunity to live in Buea, Cameroon for an entire more year doing something I love - inspiring the next generation to bring about social change through computers and the internet IN AFRICA. :D It's a dream come true!

I would like to take this time to quote the king of reggae himself Bob Marley by reminding everyone to:

"Live the life you love, love the life you live"

If you succeed at doing this, then you my friend, are leading a
successful life regardless of what others around you say!

I've also decided to add something to my bucket list...

- Learn to drive a moto bike (well) and rent one to take on the Ring Road during the dry season for a week or so. Wear helmet during this adventure.  

The Cultural Festival in Mamfe that I was supposed to go earlier this week was postponed. Which was a good thing - I got sick once I returned from Bamenda because I took the night bus and sat by the window = it was cooooold! and no sleep. There was a death in the village so they postponed the activities to Fri-Sun so I am leaving tonight and just starting for feel better.

*Names changed for privacy

PEACE and LOVE <3  

Homeless and Unemployed in Cameroon

Not all of this is African tunes but most of it is :)

Some major events have happened throughout May and as much as I tried to stick to the good ol' Morzenti work ethic sometimes there is just nothing that can be done to fix a situation that has gone bad. May was one epic roller coaster of emotions and to save all parties unnecessary stress and bad feelings I made the decision to resign from my post with Social Development International. The director and I had contradicting ideas and opinions which began to cause conflict and made not only the workplace uncomfortable but made my job as the Teen Mother Empowerment Project Coordinator impossible. I am sad to be leaving the girls in Muea, Bolifamba and Dibanda - but after meeting with them a final time and explaining the situation, they understood.

Muea teens creating their 'vision board' at the final workshop I facilitated.

I am disappointed in the end result of not finishing what I came here to do. I came here to get solid work experience. I had intentions of improving the sustainability of projects by finding funding so that projects can run more smoothly, setting up a better system of records/project reports so new comers could continue working with ease and working to find qualified and more full time volunteers/interns so that there will be someone working on the project throughout the year. I was hoping to get experience writing annual, quarterly and monthly reports - managing and recruiting local and international volunteers/interns, improving financial accountability and transparency all on top of some project management experience. Lets just say, J'ai appris des autres lecons.

Since I am no longer part of the SDI work force I have to leave the wonderful host family that I have become so close with.

My beautiful sister Bernadette and her baby Jason.

The Teuma Family (less Jose)

My papa who has left to visit his children in US.

In a matter of days I became unemployed and homeless...

Because of my commitment to Omprakash and the grant that they awarded me, I am tied to working with an Omprakash partner until August 5th. Thankfully, there is Green Cameroon in Buea. I met with and spoke to the director of what I can do for them for the next 2 months. They are in the middle of trying to develop and Environmental Education Curriculum so that they can give the packet to local coordinators who are working at primary/secondary schools and brief training so that they are able to teach and continue the class for the entire year without too much outside support. There was also mention of my helping with the coordination/managing of local volunteers and grant research and writing. I will also help with updating/improving their visibility and connectedness to the Omprakash network.

My birthday is coming up (June 27th) and I am trying to plan and epic trip to Adamawa the North and possibly even the Extreme North. I will be traveling alone or with one friend and have connections up there already who will be helping me arrange accommodation and activities. There are several Peace Corps volunteers up there, so as a last resort I can always stay with them.
Below is a map of all 10 regions of Cameroon. I live in the Southwest which is #9. I will be traveling to Adamawa (#1) and the North (#6). I will have to go to Yaounde (#2) to take the train north.

My dear friend and 'sister' Sara has left us this last weekend. We were sad to see her go but celebrated our time together with a dinner and a 'send off' party at our host family's house.

My first and only little sister!

Goodbye SARA dinner party!

Thankfully I was not homeless and unemployed alone... Monica was by my side and we found an a nice little one bedroom apartment not far from the host family. We moved in and have 1 bed and 2 chairs. If you are in the Fako district of the Southwest Region of Cameroon and have some extra furniture, donations are happily accepted. 

Living room/salon

Kitchen

Bathroom

Monica and I took a mini-trip to Limbe to just have a day of relaxing and not dealing with stress or people. It was raining the whole drive there and flooding when we got to town. We stayed in the very same taxi we drove there in and decided to just head back to Buea - we came for the sun that was not there. Here in Cameroon, a taxi that sits 3 in back and 1 person in front (not including the driver) actually sits 4 people in back and 2 passengers in front. As we waited at the taxi park for more passengers the taxi driver said "Do you want to drive" because I had moved into the drivers seat just for more space. I said "Of course"! He handed me the key and I started the car. "Wow, a woman can start the car!" he said as he directed me to "Just drive up there then turn around and park." So I did as he said - in the pouring rain I drove down the roan in Limbe scared out of my mind because you never know what other drivers are going to do here - there are no rules. I was on a hill and burned the absolute crap out of his clutch and then safely returned us to the parking spot but not before a guy tried to pass me on the left as I was doing a Y turn and nearly T-boned us :)

You can see my fear...

I miss Canada. I miss ILSC. I miss learning and improving my French everyday.

Helping the family to prepare fufu for a church event!

FUFU

Because of the recent series of unfortunate events here, I am no longer certain that I will be moving to Yaounde in August and am starting to look at going back to school for my masters then continuing with the Peace Corps. Or doing AmeriCorps then Peace Corps then grad school. Either way, life will go on! I am comfortable with my place 'in the middle' of this fork in the road... not knowing what to do or which direction to go. I know I have all the tools I need and I know I will figure it out when it's meant to be figured out.

Soon to come in the next post:

-Mbongo Chobi recipe and video

-Elephant Dance/Mali videos and ethnographic field report