A Happy Cameroon Family With a White Person in It

Arriving

Our group of Peace Corps (P.C.) Volunteers arrived in Cameroon on September 21^st, 2012, coinciding with 50 years of P.C. partnership between the U.South. and Cameroon. After, our swearing-in ceremony equally P.C. volunteers was an impressive effect located in the "Palais de Congrès" in Yaoundé (the capital of the state). Nosotros also have a new Manager, Jacky Sesonga, who was in charge of making the outcome, and P.C. as an institution, relevant and insightful to our fellow Cameroonian colleagues and authorities officials.

Swearing-in Anniversary for Environment, Youth Development and Health Volunteers in Cameroon

Earlier swearing-in, however, nosotros had two months P.C. training in Bafia, in the central region of Cameroon. This city is one of many Francophone cities located in 8 out of the 10 regions in Cameroon. The remaining ii regions (the Northwest and Southwest) are Anglophone, thus making the country bilingual in nature, equally well as officially. The latter of the two regions is where I am located for the next ii years, but more than on that afterwards.

Learning

While in Bafia, we stayed with a host family and proceeded to integrate into the Cameroonian lifestyle. At that place, the water was scarce, thus my commencement thought in the morning quickly became: must get h2o in the well exterior, and my last thought at nighttime became: must get enough h2o from the well to be able to flush the toilet throughout the dark or launder my hands at any given time. I was lucky that I did not take to use a latrine at my home-stay, but also I rapidly came to larn the outdoors are all common grounds for "putting yourself at ease"!  We learned to cook the Cameroonian way with either a kerosene-fueled-mini-stove or a traditional stove composed of iii big stones with wood underneath to make the burn. Past far, the best component of the food here is the "pimente" or "pepper" which is some of the best hot sauce in the world coming from the famous Cameroonian ruby-red, xanthous and orange hot peppers.

After a few weeks in country I realized some of the hardships faced past men, simply by and large by women, on a daily ground: the cooking, although amazing, it takes many hours to set because of things like discontinuous admission to electricity to ability basic machinery for cooking and storing food. Withal, fifty-fifty with electricity, many people did non accept blenders, mixers, or grinders to speed-up the food preparation process. Also, virtually families in Bafia, and many other small cities, did not have refrigeration, so, the long cooking process is therefore repeated everyday, day after day. Women and girls of all ages were also expected to wake-up early before preparing breakfast and going to work or school to practice laundry manually or sweep the house and porch. Mornings in Bafia started effectually 5:30 with some Cameroonian, Cote D'Ivoirian, or Nigerian music in the households and on the streets or with women singing to salvage their workload.

Days in Bafia were full with cross-cultural grooming, intensive French language training, and overall integration techniques. Nosotros were also trained in agroforestry techniques (a conglomeration of techniques which always include the planting of copse in conjunction with planting agricultural crops, raising livestock, or both) applicable to the Cameroonian terrain. More specifically, this twelvemonth 20 of us were trained as environmental extension agents and L.I.F.Due east. (Linking Income, Food, and Environment) volunteers, since the P.C. is aiming to shift its focus to encompass the entirety of work surrounding the environment rather than focusing solely on agroforestry.

Farther Learning

Since arriving in Bangem (my post), I have been doing formal protocol and introducing myself equally a P.C. Ecology Education Agent. I have found diverse venues where I can put the skills Bard C.E.P. has taught me to work. Beginning of all, the Yard.T.T.C. (Government Teachers Training College) is a training establishment for primary school teachers and our main focus as partners is to develop an environmental instruction teaching curriculum for the various age groups the teachers volition exist instructing. The principle at the "Lycée Bilingue" is too quite interested in developing a curriculum and having me use the infusion method with environmental instruction in their already established geography class. One of the P.C.'s purposes with education in the field is to identify the various environmental issues in the customs or country, explain how we as humans are exacerbating the issues, and demonstrate how nosotros (the community) can be part of the solution to some of the environmental problems, rather than go along adding to the existing problems.

Upon my arrival, I was posted with an excellent counterpart and community host who works for an Due north.G.O. in boondocks called Community Action for Development (C.A.D.). He is already heavily involved in development activities within the Kupe-Muanenguba segmentation, where we reside in (Bangem is the sub-division). Alongside C.A.D., I volition be working closely with MINFOF, the Ministry building of Forestry and Wildlife on various preservation projects with copse and other animate being and flora. I have had the opportunity to nourish various meetings at the Bangem Quango, where the Mayor coordinates near of his work. I meeting involved the Delegation for Women's Empowerment, as function of the evaluation process of the recent Women'due south Day celebration held in a town one.5 hours away (half trekking, half on motorcycle) named Ekanjoh-Bajoh. Another meeting I attended involved the successful validation od iii main projects within the Bangem Quango's legislation: the structure of a route to Muanguekan to have faster and less costly access to the sand pits located in the town, used in Bangem for housing construction; the construction of a tourist lodge in the Muanenguba Lakes and a water catchment organization to sustain it; and the building of sheds and stores at a town 25 km away, where the closest P.C. volunteer lives and works on health issues, Muambong.

Muanenguba Lakes (iii 60 minutes hike up from Bangem)

At the meeting the projects were prioritized in the lodge given higher up, but the start was the only to receive definite funding this yr from the Quango and the P.N.D.P. (The National Customs Driven Development Program). The tourist social club and subsequent tourism I.1000.A.south (Income Generating Activities) can hopefully be developed with help from the Delegation of Cultural Affairs. Another project, begun past the P.C. volunteer I am replacing and funded past the international N.G.O.southward: The H2o Collective and the H2o Project, and carried through with the help of C.A.D. and the B.R.D.A. (Bajoh Rural Development Association), will eventually deliver water to v villages (and more in the future) through a water catchment organization they have recently built.

Water Catchment in Ekanjoh-Bajoh

I have been incredibly fortunate to come into a town of roughly 8,000 inhabitants with the neighboring villages, but who are governed by councils that have put a lot of work and interest into developing the area, with sustainability in mind. As Cameroon is going through a process of decentralization in the governmental structure many ministries and delegations have been created (as well with the intention to provide more jobs for the increasing population) and the Councils are in charge, aslope the P.Northward.D.P., of strategizing the development taking identify at the municipal level, with a grass-roots approach to organization and development. I accept been welcomed openly  and gratefully by the entire Bangem community and by the Mayor; Senior Divisional, Sub-Divisional, and Divisional Officers; the "Gendarmerie"; the Police force; the Councilors; Delegates; Chiefs of townships; restaurant and bar owners; and the many "wondaful" (as said in Pidgin) neighbors and friends.

Meeting with i of the Delegations

If anyone has anyone has whatever inquiries about the process of becoming a Master's International student of a P.C. Volunteer, feel free to contact me at jd7852@bard.edu or jdelgadopccam@gmail.com. Until adjacent fourth dimension…when I volition probably be knee-deep into many projects.

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Source: https://www.bard.edu/cep/blog/?p=3812

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