Kili

Just got back from Tanzania. After climbing Kilimanjaro (amazing) we headed to Zanzibar (gorgeous) for a couple days before returning back to Cameroon. I can’t believe how developed east Africa is compared to west Africa. Tanzania made Cameroon look really bad. In any case, I only have about 3 months left and have tons of work to do, but my mother has persistently urged me to provide a write-up of my experience.. so here is a shoddy yet final version!

The moment of truth had finally arrived. As I boarded the plane for Tanzania in Yaounde, Cameroon, I felt grossly unprepared.  Though I consider myself decently athletic, I am not at all what you’d call an ‘outdoorsman’. In fact, I’m much the opposite. I’d never been camping, and certainly had never undertaken any task of this nature. Fortunately Caleb, my climbing buddy, loves rocks grass dirt and Eddie Bauer, so he balanced me out.

Caleb and I had spent countless hours planning the climb up mount Kilimanjaro, and even more time in organizing our fundraising campaign, Climb Kili for Literacy. We had successfully been able to raise all the funds thanks to several selfless donors. We even had a website with all the details of our project and endeavour. It inevitably became a very public affair. Now if I don’t make it to the top, it would be beyond embarrassing.

We flew to Nairobi and then to Kilimanjaro International Airport in Moshi, Tanzania. Minutes before touch down, we caught the first glimpse of our adversary. Mount Kilimanjaro looked massive, towering well above cloud cover. It seemed difficult to fathom that I’d  be attempting to summit there. We touched down in Moshi and found the tour company we’d been corresponding with. Every climber is obligated to hire a guide, and we went with the budget tour package offered by Tro-Peaks.

There are several routes one can choose from when summiting Kilimanjaro. They range from easier hiking routes(Marangu) to very difficult technical climbs (Umbwe). We went with one of the difficult hiking routes, Lemosho, known for its beauty. We tried to negotiate a 6-day package with several tour companies (so we could have more time in Zanzibar after the climb), but were advised against it due to difficulty and had to settle for a 7 day instead. We actually ended up completing the climb in 5 days, though we came to fully understand the tour operator’s advice! We arrived in Moshi on July 7^th and stayed in a hotel there the same night. We planned to depart for the mountain about 9am the next day. 

Day one of the climb, we ate breakfast, assembled our gear, rented a tent, sleeping bags, and a couple other items, and left for the Lemosho trailhead with our crew. Our crew consisted of porters, a guide, and a cook, all of whom we got to know pretty well over the length of our climb. Once we arrived, we strapped on our day packs  (20-30 lbs) and began. The first day was spent entirely in the rain forest where we got to see tons of unique vegetation, Elephant tracks, even more Elephant dung, and lots of monkeys (the black and white colombos monkey and blue monkey). We arrived at camp about 3.5 hours later and settled there for the night. Our cook, Kombo, prepared a delicious meal of potatoes and tilapia.

The 2nd day was rough. We got out of camp at about 7am and started our way up the mountain. We had slept at about 8,000 feet the night before and would be settling at about 12,000 feet on the second night. We trekked through more gorgeous rainforest, then at slightly higher elevation, moorland (which are dense short shrubs), then finally entered semi-arid desert by the end of the day. The diversity of ecology throughout the climb is one of the things that makes Kilimanjaro so incredible.  What made the 2^nd day tough were the extreme inclines and declines throughout the trek. We had to traverse what was left of an ancient volcano that had exploded; first hiking over the rim and then down into the crater, known as the Shira plateau. At about the 6^th hour, I felt a sharp pain in my knee, right about where I had torn my LCL in college. I was pretty worried because it was only the 2^nd day and we still had so long to go.. I thought it would only get worse. The last hour I practically limped to camp. Our camp was above cloud cover and allowed an amazing view. That night was very cold… as was the 3rd and especially 4th night.

The 3^rd day we got up and out of camp again at about 7am. The cold nights made it nearly impossible to sleep but I still felt decent. I took some Ibuprofen and wrapped my knee. I decided to use a walking stick (I had picked it up on the second day in the Moorland area) to ease the pressure.  We hiked up to Lava Tower, a volcanic plug, at 15,000 ft, ate lunch there, and then hiked down to our next camp, Barafu, at about 13,000 feet.  It was again a 6-7 hour hike. Luckily my knee held together and I felt pretty good.  On the way to our 3^rd camp, we crossed a valley full of a plant species endemic to Mount Kilimanjaro.  Very cool.  The camp the 3^rd night offered the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen. We were right under the snowcapped peak of Kili, with a green valley watered by glacier water on our left, barren rock on our right, and a sea of clouds downhill behind us.

I woke up the 4^th day with a headache and feeling a bit sick. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the altitude or the frigid temperatures at night.  Either way, I found this day to be downright miserable. We again started very early in the morning and climbed up the Baranco wall, which was a high ridge on one side of the valley where we camped. It involved some ‘scrambling’ and moderate climbing but nothing too extreme. I had fractured my right arm a couple weeks back and it was still healing, so I avoided using it and awkwardly made my way up. We then hiked up and down a bunch of ridges, approaching the base of the summit. We finally settled at Baranco camp at 15,000 feet, from which we would climb straight to the summit at over 19,400 feet.  We arrived at the camp at about 3pm after about 7 hours of hiking. We tried to dry our clothes and prep for the summit attempt which would be the same night. I felt especially crappy and went into the tent and got into my sleeping bag. I took some meds and went to sleep at around 9pm, hoping to feel better within a couple hours somehow.


We woke up at 11:30 pm the same day and had some tea and biscuits. Miraculously, I felt normal again. We packed on every single layer we had and tried to insulate ourselves as best we could. I am going to pause here and tell you about our ghetto gear situation.

Caleb and I are Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa without access to many first-world amenities; such as cold weather clothing. Our “gear” was basically a random assortment of whatever we could find at the Ngaoundere fripperie. Thus, on the night of the summit, we were both wearing about 4 layers of random long sleeve shirts with ski jackets. On our legs, we were wearing about 3 layers of pants, one of which the tour provider fortunately contributed.  Out of all the white people on the mountain that day, we looked, by far, the most ridiculous and ill-equipped.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Unpause. We left at about 12:20 am. Caleb had the good fortune of falling ill at this point; I’ll save you the unsavory yet comical details for now. The hike essentially felt like a death march. At such high altitude, every step took more effort and breathing was labored. This is probably the only time during the excursion that I felt like I really might not be able to do it. Caleb and I barely spoke at all.. instead focusing on just trying to make it up. The most ridiculous thing about the summit night was that the peak was deceptively far. I remember looking up to the top of the ridge to see how far we had left. We’d arrive at the top of the ridge about an hour later, completely exhausted, only to find an even steeper and taller ridge than the last. This happened several times. Finally, we arrived to Shira point, which is at the lip of the volcanic crater of Kilimanjaro. We then had to walk around the lip of the crater about 45 minutes to Uhuru peak, at 19,400 feet, the highest point in Africa.

By the time we reached Uhuru peak, it was about 4:45 am. Caleb and I were freezing, exhausted, and a bit delirious. So much so that we stayed at the peak for no more than about 90 seconds, took as many pictures as possible, and promptly began the descent.  

The descent from summit was MUCH better. Caleb and I were completely pumped that we’d made it to the top. Our guide took us down the ‘express route’ down from the summit, which was a side of the mountain essentially composed of volcanic gravel.  We basically skied down in our hiking boots, though Caleb was much better at this than I was.. I bit it at least 7 times. On our way down we also caught a spectacular sunrise and amazing view. We reached the base camp at about 7:25am and recuperated while we waited for breakfast.

We rested, dried off, ate breakfast, and at about 9am, decided to continue all the way down the mountain. We were completely drained, but since we still had the entire day ahead of us, we really had no excuse.  The way down was very painful on the feet and knees.  My knee pain had returned and was super irritating. Although the increase in oxygen did wonders for us. We hiked down a different part of the mountain this time, and got to walk through a beautiful cloud forest.  We arrived at the gate at the bottom of the mountain completely starving and fatigued at 3:40 pm, concluding about 13 hours of hiking for the day and our long awaited climb of mount Kilimanjaro

So that’s it. It was an incredible experience. I can’t emphasize how much I appreciate everyone’s donations for the Climb Kili for Literacy campaign, and my friends' and family's efforts, especially my sister Hiba Suleman! We are already hard at work putting everyone’s valuable contributions to good use. We hope to post an update on the status soon!


Payce

I'm back!

I have not posted in my blog for about 5 months. Don't worry, I'm still here. So much has happened.. during the preceding couple months my life has revolved around 2 things; the 'Climb Kili for Literacy' project and the GMAT exam.

So I believe somewhere on this blog I had mentioned that I will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro along with my friend and fellow volunteer Caleb Hawkins, while raising money for our literacy project, Climb Kili for Literacy, in the process. The fundraising was basically headed by my sister Hiba, who also made this boss website...

http://climbkiliforlit.weebly.com/

I'm proud to announce that we have already met our $8,000 fundraising goal! The money will go towards creating libraries and purchasing textbooks in the region. Our trip will take place from July 6th to the 17th. We plan on taking the more challenging 6-day Machame route up the mountain then perhaps taking a quick trip to Zanzibar afterwards. I'm stoked! I have been training of course but will need to pick up the pace as the climb is less than a month away.

Now, about the GMAT. This exam is required to apply to MBA programs and is taken into heavy consideration. It took a good amount of time and energy to prepare for the exam as I needed a very high score to be competitive for top programs. There is a very long story associated with this which culminates into me having to fly to London last-minute to take this exam due to typical 3rd world complications here in Cameroon. Fortunately I did well! I stayed in London an extra week with my cousins and their families; it was fantastic. They fed me till I couldn't breathe which is good since I showed up in London looking like a Sahelian cow at the end of dry season. I then briefly stopped in Paris on the way back. It was my first time there and I was impressed! Gorgeous city... don't tell the French I said that though. I just got back and can't believe how fast my trip just flew by. Furthermore, I can't believe I have only 5 months left here in Cameroon!

I also successfully completed my 2nd business training seminar during the last few months. In this seminar, about 65 microentrepreneurs registered for the course and 40 of them successfully graduated.  I was also interviewed about the seminar on national TV again, and this time I bumbled slightly less than last. I must say it was a lot easier the second time around and definitely less stressful. The demand for the training program has increased drastically and people are constantly contacting me to sign up for the next one. One aid organization has even  required that members take my course in order to qualify for financing! We will probably offer one more seminar, after which I hope the Ministry of Small and Medium Sized Enterprise will be able to run it on their own. I actually have confidence that they will, as they have been incredible throughout the process..

On a completely random note. My memory card with all my pictures of Cameroon got completely wiped clean a couple months ago :(  I will try and make up for it in these last few months. Stay tuned

Glass Half Full

I’ve had a string of surprisingly positive events lately. 

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 29^th 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.  

1 down, 5 to go

Turns out, my neighbor’s chest pain was in fact due to acid reflux, and my prescription of pepto bismol was dead on. I credit my medical savviness to the fact that I’m brown and obviously genetically predisposed to being a doctor. Yet alas, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa. Again, sorry mom.

Our first session of the business training was very stressful, but went very well. About 45 of the 50 people who registered actually showed up the first day, and about 5-6 newcomers showed up and tried to register on the spot. We allowed them to sit through the class but did not allow them to register, out of principle.

I taught Entrepreneurial Spirit and Goals and Action Plans on the first day. I bumbled through the curriculum with my mediocre French in front of 50+ attendants. I actually broke out into a sweat at one point while I was straining to comment on something that I was having trouble translating.  Luckily my counterpart Ibrahim and his staff were with me to facilitate communication. That was crucial to say the least.   We also invited a special guest for our first class to share his personal story. He is an Al-Hadji that owns a popular fruit shop in the main market. Al-Hadji means someone that has been to Mecca for the mandatory Muslim pilgrimage. Around here, it is also a status symbol, implying a certain level of success. His story was inspiring. He quit primary school to sell Papayas because his parents died. He then started a tiny farm which he grew into a plantation over the course of 40 years. It was a sort of rags to (not glamorously) riches story due to determination, discipline, and work ethic, the type that is incredibly rare to find here. Also, he did it all without any help or financing. For anything and everything he bought, he saved up for it. Now in Cameroon, that is a completely foreign concept. In any case, he got a huge ovation, as he should.  

With one class done, we have 5 more to go, which we will be teaching once a week over the next 5 weeks.  Will let you know how it goes

random update

I seem to be getting worse at this blogging thing. Since the last post, there was the festive Eid. As usual we dressed up, ate a lot, and visited people. There was also a ceremony at the Lamido’s palace in town which we attended. The Lamido is basically the chief of Ngaoundere. There was lots of marching and horse racing. We also saw the Lamido who came out with an enormous entourage which included personal fanning assistants and a guy that held up a sun umbrella for him while he was mounted on his horse. Biya forced me to take countless unnecessary photos of the event because he thought people in America would find it just that dazzling. I will put them up, but I guarantee you will not get through them all, and you will be left underwhelmed

I also took a mini vacation to the northern regions. It was a lot hotter and muggier than my part of the country. It is also more desert like, especially the far north. My trip was lots of fun and was the inspiration for my decision to not take my CFA Level III in June, but climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a friend of mine instead.  Mt K is in Tanzania. It takes about a week to do, and is more of a strenuous hike than an actual climb.  We are in the process of planning logistics but I have already started training.  As for the last CFA exam, I will hopefully take it once I’m back in the states.

Work has picked up. I’d been preparing for months for a large scale business training seminar which will begin on Tuesday. The team that will be taking on this endeavor with me comprises of the staff of Small and Medium Sized Enterprise. We started by identifying some serious needs that need to be met in the business community and setting goals to address them.  Next, we presented, studied, and revised the 12 subject curriculum amongst ourselves (during Ramadan) before we decided we were ready to schedule the course. We then put up flyers and broadcasted radio advertisements about a call out meeting where participants could register and learn more about the course. We expected about 60 people to attend and had set up classroom seating accordingly.  Amazingly, only 12 people showed up. We continued the presentation anyways and asked participants to fill out a form and pay the sign-up fee to register, which we set at a measly 1,500 CFA ($3) just to cover the actual workbook they would be using. Fyi, charging some sort of fee is essential as it weeds out unmotivated and/or lazy people who we do not want to work with anyways.  Finally, only 7 people actually registered. We were quite disappointed at the prospects of our seminar and decided to set the registration deadline for 10 days later, in case anyone who could not come to the meeting, still wanted to attend the course.  We preferred around 30 students ideally, but we expected a maximum of 15 would end up registering for the class.  It turns out, however, through pure word-of –mouth, a total of 50 people ended up signing up and paying the registration fee by the deadline.  We even had to turn dozens of people away that said they would pay the fee at the first class, or that showed up a day or two after deadline. Needless to say, we got more than what we bargained for, and definitely have our work cut out for us. We will see how it goes

Also, I have been working as a sort of micro consultant for small enterprises. I am currently working with a packaged drink start-up, a hotel that would like to undergo a renovation project, and a women’s group that would like to start income generating activities.  With my microfinance institution, I have been pushing the bank to complete our application for KIVA, the non-profit internet lender; because I think it would be a huge boon. I even went to headquarters to meet with the CEO just for that reason. The meeting went great, although the CEO is a pretty intimidating dude. He started his banking career as an investment banker for Chase Manhattan bank in London, which he did for around 10 years. Not sure what brought him back to Cameroon. Finally, I am working on a project to fight against malnutrition. We’d been putting together a proposal to team up with UNICEF in order to get some support and credibility behind it. We have already met with several UNICEF officials and will be sending the final version out in the next few days, after which we will start setting up sessions with communities in the Ngoundere area.

On a completely random note, my neighbor has fallen ill with some chest pain. When I asked her husband what it was, he said people are claiming it is sorcery. Apparently they had bought some traditional medication for her which needed to be burned over a fire so that the fumes could be inhaled by the patient. Once she did that she started uttering the name of a well-known sorceress on the other side of the village.  I did my part by giving her some pepto bismol. After all, it does cure just about everything

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?

RIP Simba

About my 2^nd week at post, I had gotten a kitten which I named Simba.  I’m not a huge pet aficionado but the rodent problem at my house was getting out of control, so I brought in a specialist.

Simba was a beast. Not only was he incredibly friendly, but he also enjoyed annihilating household pests. That includes mice, lizards, roaches… he even ate wasps.  He took care of the rodent problem almost immediately. Simba and I got pretty tight and hung out on a regular basis. 

He was an outdoor cat so I’d leave a window open practically at all times and he would come in and out as he pleased. Pretty much any time he wasn’t at my house, he was chillin at the neighbors or busy destroying mice outside.  The neighbors also loved him and the kids next door also grew pretty fond of Simba. Simba grew even bigger, faster, stronger.

Last week, I hadn’t seen Simba for about a day or two. I wasn’t too alarmed as I thought he could be just taking a little vaca.. between my oven of a house and all the hyper kids overrunning the area, he probably needed a break. However, when my neighbors also indicated they had not seen him at all for about 3 days, we grew a little concerned.  I told everyone to keep an eye out to see if we can find Simba.

The next day I came back from town and one of the kids next door told me he found Simba. I asked him if he was sick, the kid said no. He took me behind their house into a little plot of land and pointed to the ground. As I walked up, I saw what I initially thought was just another cow turd, nothing out of the ordinary. But as I got up close, to my horror, I saw Simba’s little decapitated head already in the process of decomposing. He took me a few meters further, and there laid his intestines and a severed paw. The rest of the body was pretty much missing.

To say the least, I was shocked. As we thought of the possibilities, we concluded that the most likely explanation is that someone had eaten Simba, as his head did look as if it had been burned.  Had another animal killed him, there would most likely be a mangled carcass, which was not the case as it looked as if he had been deliberately been taken apart. People in the region have been known to eat just about any animal that comes there way, including dogs, cats, monkeys and mice, because it is more or less free... which I guess is a big draw when you have no money.  I still don’t think any of my neighbors would have eaten him. Many of my Cameroonian friends claim it was an act of sorcery.

I guess we will never know.  RIP Simba

Cyrus Kikgui

So I had a baby named after me last week.

Background

As a part of our Peace Corps program, we are to attend a week long seminar called In Service Training (IST) after 3 months at post. Now that my first 3 months at post (and 6 months in country) had flown by, it was time to prep for IST.  IST also happened to be taking place in my town (Ngaoundere) so I was sort of the quasi-host volunteer for my training group. One of the most important aspects of IST is for every volunteer to invite their primary counterpart. A counterpart is a host country national that will work side-by-side with us and provide support, resources, and sustainability, for our projects.

As I’ve mentioned, I have been working quite a bit with a local Microfinance institution called Credit du Sahel, and my counterpart there, David Kikgui, works predominantly with Agro-pastoral common interest groups and associations. I’m therefore paired with him to help serve this demographic.  Meanwhile, David’s wife was pregnant at the time and due in about a month. However, just about as soon as he arrived at IST with me, his wife started having pains and had to be attended to. Thus, David ended up missing out on about half of IST due to his wife’s hospitalization and his second son being born.

The day his baby was born, he called me and gave me the great news. I said congratulations and whatever other appropriate thing I could think of with my 3^rd grade French vocabulary.  He then asked me for a first name. I was totally at a loss at the moment, so I told him I’d think about it and let him know. So, I did what I usually do in uncomfortable situations... ignore it completely

I saw him about 3 days later when he asked me again about the first name. I had then realized he actually wanted my first name for the baby, which made my job considerably easier. I of course gladly hooked him up. Thus was born Kikgui Dourine Gnassiri Cyrus (first names are listed last here, and his family name is Kikgui, same as his dad's)

The Situation

Is Jersey Shore still cool? I’ve clearly lost touch with all important things

Work Situation 

Now that we’ve hit our 3 month mark at post and just had our IST conference (in service training), we are expected be reasonably integrated and begin working on projects. This brings me to the real reason I’ve come here… development work.

My work situation here is pretty interesting yet chaotic.  As an Agribusiness Advisor, my focus is to improve profitability of agricultural operations with enhanced business practices and move from subsistence farming to commercial farming. Till now I’ve been mostly meeting lots of common interest farming groups and other contacts around the area that will be valuable resources for my work going forward. I’ve thus far learned quite a bit about local agricultural issues and the general challenges faced by the poor in West Africa. 

I am also partnered up with a micro finance institution called Credit du Sahel, and work closely with an associate dealing primarily with Agro-Pastoral common interest groups and associations in the area. I often take trips with him en brusse to meet with clients to follow up on undergoing projects and financing proposals. I am also looking to work on management projects that could improve our branch’s efficiency somewhere down the line. Being paired with an institution helps with work consistency and support, and my counterpart there is pretty legit. As a random side note, I’ve just realized everything I’ve described thus far sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. score.

Apart from primary activities, I have ended up working quite a bit with the local youth. Specifically, I had been teaching English at the local primary school once a week, and now that I’ve finished there, I will be teaching English for the last trimester at the local Jr. high. I will probably not continue with teaching English past this year because I’d like to focus on my primary work, however, it has been a big boost in helping me integrate into the community and raising my visibility around the village. Probably the most random thing I’ve worked on here is my girls group. It was a project my predecessor left me, and is something I’ve continued, with the help of my post mate, who is a girl (it makes much more sense when she is there). Every Thursday at my house we usually do some lecture or activity, followed by an English lesson. The girls range from 7 to 14 years old and are a pretty spontaneous group.  A few of them are standouts in their class and the group has been helpful to them in promoting a certain degree of ambition and motivation.  This has also helped me integrate into the community but I will probably be looking to hand off the torch as I get busier with my primary projects.

Other miscellaneous ambitions include my attempt to make the village’s first computer lab as well as an upcoming business class.  Work here comes along at a snail’s pace, but as they say in Pidgin… small small catch monkey (real English translation: little by little).

Youth Day

February 11 is Youth Day in Cameroon. It is a special holiday to commemorate the Youth and is a pretty big deal around the country.

Leading up to the big holiday (Feb 9^th), I was invited to a remote village about 15 km from Beka Hossere. It is a fairly small poor village where my predecessor had built a school. They invited me to partake in their Youth Day festivities and give a sort of keynote speech. I had prepared what I hoped was a motivational discourse focusing importance of education for the Youth. I also brought along with me a bunch of French books, notebooks, crap tons of candy, and soccer ball.

Upon reaching there I realized I was actually sort of the guest of honor. My post mate had come with me and we were welcomed with a reception. There was a lookout posted at the front of the village with a whistle, and as soon as he saw us riding in on Biya’s (Nana’s little brother) moto, he signaled for everyone to get ready to begin.  The school’s teacher welcomed us and a little girl handed me a bouquet of bright green artificial flowers. The kids were all lined up ready to start the ceremony, and the rest of the villagers were gathered around the school to watch.

As we greeted everyone and settled in, a group of drummers (playing bongo type drums with their hands) entertained everyone while the little kids gathered around and danced.  They also sang in Fufulde, which I don't quite yet understand, but every now and then I’d hear my name in there.  They insisted that I get up and dance, which is of course exactly what I was waiting for. I busted out all the African dance moves I had acquired over the past 6 months which they were delighted to see. The chief of the neighboring village came up and stuck a 1,000 cfa bill ($2) on my forehead, which is a sort of customary thing to do. I felt a little awkward for a second because I can’t possibly take a villagers money.  1,000 francs is a lot in that village. Luckily someone else started dancing so I stuck it on his dome and of course he had no qualms about it. I think I was getting carried away because one of the village elders told me to sit back down. They continued dancing for a while longer and did some choreographed routines the kids were working on. After, the school teacher gave a speech explaining how grateful they were to have us there on this occasion, after which I gave my speech.

The speech went pretty well. I basically did my best to motivate the children to go to school and think about how to attain their highest aspirations. I also explained how my family was from Pakistan, and how there were so many similarities in our cultures, and that they actually remind me of my extended family there. I later included a hadith by prophet Muhammad (since vast majority there were Muslim) encouraging seeking knowledge ‘even unto China’, and concluded with a statement about how the youth are our future, which was meant to be inspiring, though I’m not sure how many people were still paying attention towards the end. Someone was next to me the entire time translating my French into Fufulde. French is the official language in this region, and though they speak French in schools, government institutions, and centers of business, they predominant language is actually the local dialect of Fufulde. Since most of the villagers are illiterate/have not attended school, they only speak Fufulde.

After this I gave my random of assortment of gifts and watched the rest of the ceremony which included some humorous plays, more dances, and some singing.

After the long ceremony, we had lunch in someone’s mud brick hut, which consisted of rice, fish, bread, cous cous, potato, cassava, tea, and of course other stuff I was not familiar with. We left the village that afternoon and headed home.

One thing I noticed leading up to Youth Day was the excitement of the older youth, who were enthusiastic about their potential for attracting females at Youth Day parties.  I remember speaking to a group of them on my porch one morning about their prospects. They were incredibly confident about their capabilities; it was not a question of if but how many. In the culture here the amount of wives one has indicates his wealth, status, and power. I certainly see this mentality engrained at an early age. When I was skeptical, they clued me in on a secret advantage; magic oil. I laughed only to discover they were not at all joking. They were explaining how people do magic way out en brusse and make this strong perfumed potion which females simply could not resist. Apparently upon wearing it, all you had to do was greet a woman, and it was game over, she was ‘trapped’. I thought to myself, if what they said was in fact true, I could import this product to Indianapolis area alone and retire before the age of 30

The young guys told me to come to the Youth Day festivities in Ngaoundere on Feb 11th to see for myself. I gleefully agreed and came into town with my camera. The actual Youth Day event was pretty spectacular. Every school from the area was organized and marched through the town in a parade. It was followed that night with Youth Day parties throughout the area.  Unfortunately, due to enormous crowds of people and jammed cell phones, I was unable to find and witness my group of young guys from Beka Hossere dazzle the women at Youth Day.  

   

MTV Cribs

Lions and Slaves

Yesterday, I went to a nearby village called Selbederong with the volunteer I’m replacing.  It’s a few kilometers away but well worth the bike ride. There we met the chief and his son, Osmanou, with whom my predecessor has already done some work and recommends highly. We saw his farm and pisticulture project, which was not going well due to some large swimming snakes (we witnessed one) that eat all his fish and also some weird tadpole/minnow looking things that were infesting his pond.  I guess I’m supposed to be able to advise him on this sort of thing even though I really don’t know jack.  Not much different from corporate life after all.

My favorite part of the trip came towards the end when we sat around and talked with the old chief, who was telling us how it used to be back in the day. He said it was all much less developed (there’s a large dirt road now connected the village to other parts of Adamawa) and was all basically jungle and brush. We began talking about the disappointing absence of wildlife in Cameroon due to extensive hunting/poaching. The chief’s son commented on how sad it is that Cameroonians essentially killed off all the exotic wildlife. At this point his father, the old chief, chimed in proudly exclaiming how he has killed 3 lions in his life. The last time he killed a lion was only as far back as 1945 (he’s apparently 96), and he did it because the lion was grubbing on his cows.

After the lion story, he also told us about the time his family brought slaves down from Chad.  They apparently walked up to Chad and kidnapped like 20 Chadians and brought them back to Salbederong as slaves. My predecessor asked if they perhaps sought Chadians because they were darker (as was customary in African slave trade) though I didn’t know how feasible this was since the chief and his son were already quite dark. They said because Chadians are ‘grand et solide’ (big and solid). When the country gained independence in 1960, slavery was outlawed and all slaves in Cameroon were freed. He said some of the former slaves still live in their house to this day and are pretty much like family (awkward?).

That’s all I got for now. I will post my mailing address soon so you can send me things as I know you’ve all been eagerly wanting to. 

First week at Beka Hossere…

Here are some details about my post.

Beka Hossere is a small predominantly Muslim village on the outskirts of a large city called Ngaoundere. It is in the Adamawa region, which is the southernmost province in the Grand North. The Grand North is known to be culturally different from the Grand South due to its predominant Fulbe ethnic tribe (prevalent throughout West Africa) and heavy Muslim influence. I typically wake up to the Adzhan (call to prayer) every morning and hear it at my house throughout the day. Many men in the community have multiple wives (but never more than 4) as is the local tradition. Majority of the community does more or less subsistence farming. My primary role is to advise community members on their existing businesses (usually farms), and/or help launch other income generating activities in a sustainable fashion.  

The volunteer before me had opened the post 3 years ago and had the house already set up quite nicely. Opening a post has a different set of frustrations and difficulties altogether and I’m lucky a volunteer has cleared the way so that I can focus on my projects.  I have a small mud brick painted house with a tin roof. There is a decent sized bedroom, family room, and separate dining/kitchen area. The latrine is a tiny room connected to my bedroom with a concrete floor. This is my only qualm as the latrine hole is damn small and rather difficult to use.  I have electricity but no running water. However, there is a forrage (French word for ground water pump) about 100 meters away, so I have to carry water to my house a few times a week. Also, in town is a major Peace Corps boarding house (about 2-3 miles away) with internet and other amenities.  Thus, I should have decent internet access.  Overall, I’m very content with my post and I think I’m a great fit here.

First week at post has been pretty quiet. I have basically been settling in and playing a lot with kids. The hangout spot for the neighboring kids happens to be my porch so the house is always popping. I have attended some girls’ group activities that my predecessor has been organizing for quite some time. Another love letter incident also happened here in bizarrely similar fashion to the first one. Anyways, I have also gotten a chance to meet a couple professional contacts which will be pretty crucial. In particular, I made contact with a community development specialist that works for the Ministry of Agriculture in Ngaoundere which I hope will be useful. I am also in the process of searching for NGO’s that I could collaborate with. One of the biggest frustrations that volunteers site is the absence of local NGO’s, counterparts, and support, when working on projects. My predecessor has also repeatedly emphasized the importance of this. Also, I have lost even more weight my first week at post. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of food options or that I detest my own cooking. Luckily I have been eating dinner at Nana’s almost every day. The menu is rice cous cous (nothing like what we consider cous cous in the states. This is kind of a blandish substance with the consistency that is between mashed potatoes and bread) and gumbo (this is a slimy flavored sauce usually with some type of meat such as beef). Everyone eats out of the same plate and bowl because it’s Muslim tradition. Not the most sanitary situation but it works.

In any case, more later

La fin de stage

I have lots of catching up to do here. I am now done with training and settled into my new home for the next 2 years. I will try and briefly recap what I’ve missed since last time.

For the second half of training, we switched homestay families and I was with another family in the more rural village of Nyamsong (right next to Bafia, our training site). At first Nyamsong was quite another culture shock. I was living with a family of 5, consisting of the host father, mother, a 15 year old daughter, 22 year old daughter, and the 22 year old’s 2 year old baby. There was basically never electricity, the bathroom facilities consisted of just a hole in the ground outdoors, and an insane prevalence of ‘moot moots’. Moot moots are the small biting black flies that can cause river blindness (don’t worry we will receive medication to prevent this) several years down the road. They were common in Bafia (my home for first half of training) but are even more so in Nyamsong.  They are barely noticeable, though certainly more than mosquitos. Also, their bite tends to break skin and afterwards it itches like hell. Anyways, during this period, the first love letter incident went down, which I’m not going to detail here. By the time I was done with training however, it was incredible how comfortable I’d become even in Nyamsong despite its challenges and lack of development. I feel like I’ve already changed and adapted quite a bit, albeit only 3 months into service.

I received my post of Beka Hossere. It is a village on the outskirts of the major city of Ngaoundere in the Adamawa region. I will talk more about post later but will include only a quick story here.  At training in Bafia (which is in the centre region of Cameroon close to the capital of Yaoundé), we all met our community hosts that were invited down from our future posts to attend a workshop. I met my community host, Nana Bakari, who is a charismatic ‘grand’ in my village and has lots of important contacts in the local government and community.  We initially had trouble communicating due to my lack of French proficiency and his northern accent. In any case, he told me I’d love the village and I was stoked for my site visit.

To get to Ngaoundere, which is the regional capital of the Adamawa region, we took a train up from Yaoundé. Everyone going to the Grand North (Adamawa, North, and Extreme North) traveled up together. It was a 14 hour train ride but we got couchettes (rooms with beds) so it actually wasn’t too bad at all. On our way up, we randomly came to a rolling stop in the middle of nowhere and realized the front of the train had disconnected and left without us. Not only that but no one had cell phone reception, so we had to wait for them to realize they were missing the back of the train and come back. During this time, many of our community hosts were hanging out outside, so I met up with Nana and we chatted for a bit. A local who lived close to where our train had stopped was nearby talking to Nana and another community host and invited us to his home. Nana agreed so we went.  His home was basically a cluster of straw huts (each used for different purposes), about a 4 minute walk through the brush from the train tracks.  They guy pulled some peanuts and cassava out of the ground for us which we munched on. My community host bought a big bag of peanuts and also one of his chickens as a ‘souvenir’. After a couple hours we heard the train coming back so we took off toward the tracks. It was sort of funny watching Nana run with the sack of peanuts in one hand and the chicken tucked under his other arm like a football. Luckily, we were out in front of the train so they clearly saw us running in and waited for us to board. We reached Ngaoundere about 3 hours later.

After site visit, we came back to Bafia to finish up training. I took my language test and passed out of the minimal level of French necessary before moving on to post. I have much French to learn but have already come a long way. After passing out of French I also started learning Fufulde, which is a local language spoken by the Fulbe ethnic tribe and is very common in the Grand North. Though French is spoken by government officials and for business purposes, Fufulde is more widely spoken by the locals.  Many people, especially those without formal education (lots of them), speak only Fufulde. I can already see this language barrier posing as a hindrance in the near future but we’ll see how it works out. 

Le Debut

Bonjour!

Unfortunately I’ve not been able to post since arriving to Cameroon. A lot has happened in the past 3 weeks but I’ll try to be concise.

The trip started out somewhat shaky. After orientation in Philly, we were caught in a huge storm in New York causing us to stay overnight in Brussels and fly to Douala instead of Yaoundé. After that we took a bus to Bafia, a medium sized village around which our training is taking place over the next 3 months.

My training group is fairly large (50 total), with 25 of us as Health volunteers, and 25 in the Agro forestry program. Within the Agro Forestry program, there are about 5 Business Advising volunteers apart from myself.  Our group is a very interesting mix of people. As a whole it seems like a pretty intellectual and obviously liberal group that I’m sure will go on to do great things

Our arrival to Bafia was a spectacle in and of itself. As our bus pulled in, all our host families were gathered to receive us at our training center. What entails next is a key awkward moment that my family and certain friends would truly enjoy and relish in. We got off the bus and lined up on one side, while the local community members sat/stood across from us gawking in amusement. Then, a program director would read off the name of the local Cameroonian host family, and the name of the Peace Corps volunteer that would be staying with them during training. Finally, everyone from the community, volunteers, and Peace Corps staff would watch you as you met your host family for the first time.  After several botched hugs, uncoordinated handshakes, and uncomfortable kisses, we took our belongings and left for our home stays.

My first day with the family was quite a culture shock as can be expected. Especially with my French being virtually nonexistent, communication was very difficult. It is also the first time I was really able to reflect upon the seriousness of my decision to move to Africa for the next 2 years.

The nucleus of the family consists of 3 male children, ages 21, 6, and 4, and one 15 year old daughter. I say nucleus because there are about 4 to 5 other extended members that stay at the home as well. The father is a retired government official and the mother is a restaurant owner/caterer. The house is small, made of concrete, and a tin roof. However, they seem well off according to Cameroonian standards.

Although I felt quite nervous and uncomfortable moving in with this random African family, they made it an easy transition for me. The first few days I barely spoke to them due to my severe language barrier. However, on about day 4, I read to them an essay I had translated into French, explaining a little bit about myself. They were surprised to learn I was ethnically Pakistani and not Latin American, and even more surprised to learn that I was Muslim. This brings me to my next interesting observation. The father is Muslim while the mother and children are Catholic. I have from time to time accompanied my father to prayer at his friend’s house, and the local Cameroonian Muslims find me to be quite a random delight.

In any case, the kids are fantastic. The youngest one is especially hilarious and lively. One thing I noticed right off the bat is how independent the children are here. The family puts out food for them to eat and helps with bathing but the kids are very low maintenance and essentially raise themselves. They also rarely cry or throw fits. The entire family works a lot... except for the father, who still does his fair share of driving everyone around and supervising. The family really does not really spend much of any time idle or loafing around. The eldest son does everything from washing the clothes and slaughtering chickens to fixing doors. He’s definitely been very helpful in helping in helping me assimilate and learn French.

There's lots more, but that's all for now

Au revoir!

Preface

Bonjour

In a couple days, I will be leaving for Cameroon, West Africa to serve as a Business Advising volunteer in the Peace Corps. I started this blog (my first!) ahead of my trip in order to record my journey, communicate with friends/family, & prove to my parents that i really am volunteering in Africa and not beach bumming in the Caribbean

To briefly catch up on what has culminated to this crazy/bold/exciting step I...

-graduated with a degree in Finance in 08' from IU and moved to Chicago that July to work in the securitization industry for a large bank

-realized quickly that i needed to evaluate my goals and interests, and decided to pursue the business development program in peace corps (i can elaborate more on this in another post)

-applied online in Sept of 09' and was eventually nominated and invited to serve, departing September of 2010!

I feel fortunate to receive this opportunity as it meets several of my objectives and the timing simply could not be better. Though I'm still not sure how i will cope w/ lack of A/C, inescapable parasites, and the ordeal of going #2 in adverse conditions, I am excited about the next couple years and invite you to follow my difficult but enriching endeavor!