Firstly, I sold my goats for a profit. Let me go back. In about March of 2011, I had decided to help out Nana’s family because they do a lot for me, and I didn’t want to give straight cash... so I decided to buy them goats. I bought 2 males and 1 female for 32,000 CFA ($64) on brusse, where they are substantially cheaper. They were surprisingly easy to manage. They basically ran around village munching on various greenery all day, and returned back to Nana’s compound at night. We hit a rough patch when the mother gave birth to 3 baby goats which all ended up dying. We were thus left with what we started with. Nonetheless, goats are known to be significantly more expensive toward the end of the year around Christmas and New Year’s. Sure enough, we ended up selling them for 66,000 CFA ($132) just before Christmas. This makes about a 200% profit over the span of 9 months. Not bad. I let Nana keep 50,000 CFA and kept the 16,000 CFA myselfto pay for school fees for 2 of the girls in his compound who have dropped out due to not paying school fees. Trusting locals with money is very dicey. By the way, they took all the goats away on single motorcycle, which transported a grand total of 2 grown men and 3 goats at the same. TIA (this is Africa)
The main event was the graduating ceremony for our business training program. It took some stressful planning but turned out very well. Of the 51 registered participants, 37 had earned diplomas, which meant they attended all sessions and completed all the meticulous homeworks. I did a lot of running around to get people together and invite guests. The guests were several development organizations in the area which provided project financing or other assistance. Ibrahim was the only staff member who could make it due to another big administrative meeting happening the same day. We had a committee of students take care of preparing refreshments, and worried about the rest ourselves. On the ceremony day, turnout was great, as virtually all students and guests were present. Also present was CRTV, Cameroon’s national news program. They taped just about all of the ceremony and interviewed Ibrahim and I at the end. It aired on the national news on December 29th but I failed to catch it. The students and staff were incredibly gracious and continuously praised me throughout the ceremony. I am so accustomed to things not working out that it was quite unexpected and probably the most humbling moment of my service thus far
With the girl’s group, we’ve been trying to start a small income generating activity. Our first 3 runs of samosas and beignets all lost money. On our last run however, of another type of cake-like beignet, we finally broke even. Our operations are pretty simple. We all get together at Nana’s wife’s place and prepare the product, the girls then carry it around on their heads for the next few days until they’ve sold everything. They are actually pretty good at cooking and selling. Hopefully the next time will be successful, and we'll be well on our way to riches.
In other news, things are good. I hit my halfway mark recently. We are well into dry season. I traveled quite a bit during the holidays, and will make another trip to Yaoundé in a couple of weeks for a Peace Corps conference. After that, I plan on buckling down and focusing on my GMAT exam and projects in village.
