Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan started about 5 days ago. It really hasn’t been that bad thus far. The fasts are around 13 hours a day and there is not a lot of activity going on during this month, thus, work is slower than usual.  The only issue I’m having is with the enormous amounts of cous cous and gumbo sauce i've been eating for dinner, and then again for breakfast since Nana's family sends it over.  That means, I am spending majority of my waking hours either 1. Fasting or 2. Stuffing my face with cous cous and gumbo … I'm fairly certain I'll leave Cameroon with a severe allergic reaction to it.  Talking about it now is in fact making me queasy.  There is also this inter-village soccer tournament going on right now. I’m on a decent team, but we’ve been giving up too many lousy goals. We usually play at about 4:30pm, 2 hours before breaking fast.  It gets pretty tiring to play while fasting but actually takes my mind off of being hungry. It’s a ton of fun though because lots of the villagers come out to watch and get really rowdy whenever goals are scored. 

Since I’ve been back from my trip to the states, my projects have been finally getting off the ground. My main wok activities for the moment include doing business training with the Ministry of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSME) aimed at entrepreneurs and cooperative leaders, an organizational management workshop with the Ministry of Agriculture aimed at common interest groups and associations, and a project to address malnutrition with a local NGO by incorporating nutritious foods into local diets (mainly soy and moringa). 

All of these projects are in the beginning phases but are coming along. Of course, this would not be the Peace Corps if it was not for the countless setbacks and disappointments along the way. The idea is to keep pushing through and hoping that by the end of my 2 years, I have accomplished something.  My business training project is my main focus for the time being. So far we have gathered and planned the curriculum and structure of the course. We have also begun our “training of teachers”, in which I first teach the course to our MSME staff (there are 4 of them) so we can gain some experience and make adjustments to our program along the way. As a side note, one of the staff members looks straight up like Eddie Murphy and I can hardly take him seriously. The staff is essential though because at least one of them will be teaching the class with me. Since my French is still not totally fluent and Fufulde (local dialect) is almost nonexistent, it will facilitate adequate communication. My main counterpart there is Ibrahim, who is the awesome departmental delegue for MSME in the Ngaoundere area.  He is very motivated and enthusiastic about this project, which is immensely helpful.  We will most likely start the actual class after Ramadan. It will be one 3-hour class a week for 6 weeks. There is also assigned homework after every class. In order to receive a Certificate, one must attend all classes and do all homework.  Once the class is done and we have identified the Certificate owners, we will follow up with their enterprises personally (like mini-consulting). That’s the idea anyway

The organizational management workshop with the Ministry of Agriculture is modeled off of a project another volunteer did in the north, and I think it is very necessary and applicable here in the Adamawa region.  It is aimed to address the widespread problem of dysfunctional common interest groups, associations, and cooperatives.  The idea is to attend these groups’ meetings and take them through modules to instill organizational structure and the ability to execute profit generating projects.  I am supposed to work with Ministry of Agriculture agents that go into the field and already frequent these groups. However, they are super flaky and have not yet found a counterpart there I can count on. This is key, because it usually makes or breaks projects.

The third thing I’m working on right now is getting together a project to fight malnutrion, primarily among youth.  The local foods are very high in starch and carbs but low in just about all other important nutrients, especially protein. Therefore, the children are very skinny and often stunted in growth. I was approached by a member of a local NGO, Synergie de Jeunesse et Développement, to help him come up with a comprehensive approach to solving this problem. We propose to emphasize the importance of improved diets, provide live food transformation demonstrations, and promote income generating activities addressing malnutrition. So far we have written a complete project plan and pitched it to UNICEF. They seemed quite receptive so it looks promising for the moment. We’ll see

That’s all for now. a plus tard

..aaand I’m back

Lots has happened since poor old Simba died. 

A while back I had registered for the notorious Level II CFA (finance certification) exam.  I studied regularly from January until the exam on June 4^th, which I lined up with my vacation back in the states so that I could take it in Indianapolis while I was there for 3 weeks.


I originally thought it wouldn’t be so bad I since I set my own schedule here and could make time for it. Little did I know… studying in Africa is a beast of its own.  The lack of air conditioning, deafening storms, intermittent electricity, and unavailability of starbucks all took its toll as I neared exam date. Without delving into too much detail, it was awful, but I found out last week that I PASSED by the skin of my teeth. Of course had I failed I would not be disclosing all this because that would be plain embarrassing.  As many of my friends have asked, what does that mean?? Well, it means I’ll take the Level III Exam once I get back home... exciting, right? Level II is the hardest of the 3 levels however and I think preparing for the last exam in the U.S should go much smoother.  Next I will be taking the GMAT, hopefully by the end of the year, for grad school admission


My trip to the states was pretty BOSS , as kids are saying these days. The first week was a wash since I spent that cramming for my exam, but the last 2 were a blast. I spent about 2 days in Chicago and got to see lots of old buddies and coworkers.  Chicago in the summer is the best city on the planet. There, I said it. The rest of the time I spent putzing around with friends in Indianapolis as well as spending time with the family. Of course I was continuously bombarded with questions … what’s it like? do you get tired running from lions and throwing spears?  do people there wear clothes?  I fielded them as best I could, remembering I wondered pretty much the same things during my first plane ride to Africa. Seeing so many familiar people and my ‘old’ life back home was a bit surreal. Things at home seemed just about where I left them except for the onslaught of engagements and marriages among my friends. I suppose we’re at ‘that age’.

On the way back I had stopped by in London to see family and family friends, which was hectic but well worth it.  I had spent half the previous night in O’Hare because United Airlines’ computers were down and they had no idea how long it’d take to get back up. Not only that, they couldn’t issue any stipends or make hotel reservations for us because, again, the computers were down. We finally took off after a 6 hour delay (computers came back up). The actual flight was really sub-par compared to the European airlines (Swiss Air and Air France) I took on the way to the States. The plane was older, the stewardesses more grumpy.. and overall less aesthetically pleasing. Not to mention the ‘blankets’ they handed out that could’ve better been utilized as baby bibs.  I don’t like to admit this, but it was one of those times I was embarrassed to be American.

I finally landed back in Africa on June 20^th, 2011, and wondered for the 786^th time… what am I doing here?