Brad & Leah in Cameroon

Returning definitively to Tourou

2008-02-08T13:06:00.000+01:00

Finally. The security situation is much better than it was. We now have higher concession wall with iron spikes on it and a guard at night. We should be much safer this way.

Our projects are really getting going. Leah starts her mid-wife training next week and has constant meetings for other projects. The AVISE check dam training is going better than expected, ahead of schedule for digging the foundations for the two we will build in the coming weeks.

We'll sort of going to miss Mokolo since we've lived here for almost a month. Watching full seasons of "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Brothers & Sisters" can't happen in Tourou. We've been gone so long that the dust is 2mm or more thick over everything. We've also had a white mold growing puffy colonies on the floor.

In other news, Leah has just about kicked a pesky cold, commonly known as malaria. In fact she had malaria "plus plus." (What the plus plus exactly means, I'm not sure.) It's so common here, that as long as one catches it early, the person's fine.

Returning to (Cameroonian) Civilization

2008-01-17T10:29:00.000+01:00

After our Country Director went to our post to follow up on the burgulary that happen at our house in November, things finally started looking up. Authorities arrested 2 or the suspected 6 men on Monday. That basically means that we're going to go back to Mokolo and stay for awhile until we know slightly more on the whereabouts of the other 4 or some other morcel of information that indicates assured security.

We'll be able to slowly make the transition back to Tourou over the next week it seems. We're allowed to go up to Tourou during the day to conducted work activities and stay in Mokolo at night.

In the mean time Leah and I have been stuck in the warp that is Yaounde. I'm "homesick" I guess you could say... for Tourou and the Extreme North. (Although I have to say I was homesick for the U.S., especially at first after returning here, because we had such a great vacation and our status here in Cameroon was in limbo.) We're not big fans of Yaounde; there's more aggression; and people seem more cutthroat.

Lately, I've felt more justified of my feelings of Cameroon. Many people have mentioned that Cameroon is one of the most difficult countries in which to work chiefly because of high levels of corruption at all levels and overt aggressiveness not commonly experienced in the U.S.

On another note, we've received all of the requested funding for the Tourou Library. With five projects fully funded we're hoping that we can start implementing them.

Vacation and a library

2007-12-21T14:36:00.000+01:00

It's been 15 months in Cameroon, and we know that the next year is going to fly by like nothing. We have our projects all planned out for the most part. One new project we have is to finance a library in Tourou.

The library will serve the whole community. It will include textbooks for the students (hardly anyone can afford them, so the teacher can't assign exercises), booklets on agriculture and health, dictionaries, etc. The hope is that the library will be a community center where literacy courses and presentation can be held. We're trying to round up only $2,690 for books to match the work the community has already done on renovating the building that will house the library. Go to the following link to donate and for more information https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=694-102&region=africa.

Recently we climbed Mt. Cameroon, the highest peak in West Africa at 13,000ft. It was pretty spectacular, but harder than I would have thought.

On the 23rd we'll be back in Oregon until Jan 9. Brad will be in Denver from Dec 30 to the morning of Jan 2. After that it's back to Tourou. We actually haven't been there in awhile because we had a break-in on Nov 22. While waiting for Peace Corps to and the local authorities to arrest people, we had been staying in Mokolo with our wonderful PC Volunteer Brooke and now we're in Yaounde. Hopefully more will be resolved when we return to Cameroon in early January.

A rainy season to remember; the next year to look forward to

2007-08-22T14:02:00.001+01:00

The well at Toufou I

The desert has come alive. That’s thanks to an unusually wet rainy season. The rain has been falling everyday or night for the past two weeks. And these are monsoon rains—violent downpours. It’s even felt like Oregon sometimes, where the sun doesn’t even show itself.

Tourou is definitely a land of extremes. In the dry season there’s a lack of water and dust covers everything. Now humidity is higher so clothes grow a nice layer of mold if one’s not careful; and many farms are inundated or houses are collapsing from constant water.

Right now we’re not able to hold meetings or work with very many people b/c we’ll get rained out. (There are not many large enough buildings, and since people have to walk over mountains often to attend meetings, they’ve stopped coming, and we’ve stopped calling meetings.

Currently, three wells that were sunk have their covers on and cement aprons (see photo of Toufou I well). With the work of the farm taking priority, no community COMPLETELY finished. It’s bothered me to no end, I must admit. Yet, I can’t be too negative about the lack of enthusiasm for an exterior wall. It helps to always view life from a village’s perspective. An exterior wall around the apron and the well itself is to prevent animals from entering and defecating near enough to the well that their faeces can enter the water supply. Perhaps the community didn’t feel it was necessary b/c animals are kept inside at this time of the year so they don’t eat the crops growing in the fields. Another reason it wasn’t a priority is that water borne diseases and the transfer of microbes from animals is not well understood.

In a presentation w/ 85 people in attendance, Leah and two other students from the U. of Virginia presented on how to filter and disinfect water and the faecal/oral cycle. One question raised was: “If we can get diseases from animal faeces, should we still be living with our animals running about our compound?” With very few women ever attending high school (0% of which have ever completed, according to three community leaders), they’ve never had health education. (That comes in high school!)

Already having to talk to two of the three well building communities, they’ll finish everything by Sept. or Oct. In other water/well news, we will be much more organized next year. We’re not only formally delegating well building responsibility among executive committee members, but also establishing an objective criteria by which AVISE will decide who deserves financial support for well or check dam building and a timeline that each village must stick to. This will create competition for the years to come, ensuring that less motivated communities won’t be allocated money.

Thanks to everyone again for donating to the project this year. Despite the multiple hang ups, we have three sanitary wells and more than $3,000 to put into 3 or more (most likely, many more).

One might note that I mentioned check dams, earlier. Two communities have been chosen for having check dams installed in erosion prone areas, upstream of wells. Check dams increase ground infiltration, thus recharging wells downstream. An added benefit is the manner in which it slows down water cascading from high in the mountains. One Tourou community (Moutaz) had there men rank a lack of check dams as the most pressing problem concerning agriculture.

The installation of the check dams will be conducted as a training in the same way that AVISE learned how to building modern wells: learning by doing. The training will span more than a month during the last week in January until March.

To fund this dynamic training, we’re searching for funds in a similar yet different way. Before, donations went directly to AVISE via bank accounts in the US. Now one will be able to donate directly through the PC website. In this way, PC can report more assuredly the impacts of PC to Congress. I expect to have the application up by October, whereby people can donate. We’ll post an announcement on the blog when it’s ready.

In addition to projects associated with water, other projects have been brewing. Leah and the doctor at the Tourou Health Center are planning a mid-wife conference. Women don’t come to the health center due to a lack of money. Unfortunately, many of the mid-wives have not been trained. That will be funded by individuals willing to give through the PC website as well. Another work-in-progress, too, that Leah will be posting on the website is that of a library project. This is by far gaining the most steam in the community for the future. A management committee has been established and is tackling the task of repairing the future home of the library in the Centre d’Affaires Sociale. Leah is basically arranging the budget, but everything else is completely community run.

The icing on the cake for me is setting up a framework; more for the next two agroforestry volunteers, for an agricultural extension group. Nearly all agro interventions should address soil fertility. Thus, I’m trying to find leaders in every village in Tourou to experiment with techniques like composting, mulching, and planting leguminous nitrogen fixing trees.

All in all, very busy. But we did get a in a small vacation w/ 3 visiting PC volunteers posted in the South of Cameroon.

Continued challenges, but success in all

2007-06-10T09:05:00.000+01:00

We don't get many breaks it feels. We need a vacation soon. All the other volunteers are now having their parents visit or going to meet friends and family in Europe. We're getting a bit jealous.

The wells are coming along. We had a chance to finish everything in a few days but then came the hang-ups. The pictures below are largely of a device called a chevalement, used for lowering cement rings into a well. Unfortunately, the operators were not experienced and stripped the gear system while lowering the first ring into the well at Logogya. Literally 3 seconds after the close-up shot of the man getting ready to being lowered into the well was taken. He fell 4 meters before the gears locked in preventing him from falling 9 meters into the well. That's why we have hardhats.

It was a heartbreaking setback. A week after the incident, we'll be starting again at Logogya this Monday. The rain is really here. We have a small window to lower the cassion rings, or it will become too dangerous. Everything can be so dramatic here...

One wonderful success story is the well that was rearranged at Watatoufou (see the picture above). They have just a bit of work left.

On a lighter note: We have a chicken that was gifted by the women's group we work with. I built a chicken house. It lays lots of eggs, so that's good.

On a downer, the kiln for the filters is damaged due to a storm that came in and ripped off the roof for the kiln. This project could take up all of our time if we're not careful. So much needs to be done, and we keep having this amazing setbacks with the project.

The other setback I personally had was my first encounter with malaria. It definitely hits you hard, but I understand how Cameroonians can treat it like the common cold. As long as you can identify it and have the means to take medicine for it, it just is debilitating. I would almost rather have malaria than the flu or food poisoning, which makes you vommit constantly. By the way, I had food poisoning yesterday.

Wells being completed and new project beginings

2007-05-29T14:19:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time since I've written. And we're not yet finished with the wells we will be doing this year. It's a constant learning process...

Leah and I want to thank you all for donating to AVISE this year. The response has been overwhelming. We have far surpassed our goal of enough money for 4 new wells. I believe the exact figure of what was donated is around $6,000 or more!

While we have been extremely successful stateside, it's been frustrating as well to have the communities to continue the work at a good rate. All the communities have planned it out so they would finish just before the rains come--which is NOW, by the way. Thus, even their own projections of when they could finish are off. But more problematic is that we have multiple communities desiring the same materials at once. In sum, much of the orginal plan has changed for this year. We are not neccessarily funding the wells that we originally intended. Instead we're funding the communities that are dynamic and organized to do the labor. Next year, we'll require the communities to have their well dug by February, completely, until they are considered for financing, after which AVISE decides which community needs it most.

We will not be able to use all of the $6,000+ that was sent to AVISE, being completely overwhelmed by the amount, like I've said earlier. Thus, next year, we can really connect with communities within Tourou over the rainy season, get them organized and really make a larger impact next year.

One of the problems we encountered this year is that money wasn't available until late in the season, and due to this, AVISE approved communities to dig too late in the game.

We're slowly transitioning out of wells into working in other realms. Leah and I have begun to work with a womens group on soap making and health presentations, especially regarding malaria and water-borne diseases. We're setting them up to receive credit from a local community bank as well. Every Tuesday, Leah doesn't a presentation for women waiting for a prenatal consultation.

Students from the University of Virgina have returned to produce a working ceramic filter. I really wish I had more time to explain the project, but actually it is so fast of a topic I'm going to hold off on explaining it completely. (If you're really interested now, Google "Potters for Peace".) That is taking a lot of time currently. Also, we'll be planting certain types of annual leguminous tree species in certain demonstration plots. (What the heck did I just say!? Right?) Planting certain trees that fix large amounts of nitrogen in their leaves and/or their roots. This improves soil fertility in a sustainable way. The rest of the rainy season we'll be writing grants for reforestation, a library project (mostly likely at the moment) and a training regarding the installation of check dams to reduce soil erosion and increase water filtration to augment wells.

On the lighter side, we have a wonderful cat that chases lizards and insects. Unfortunately, mice are too intelligent for her and she decides to attack our legs instead.

Pictures are coming. The website is not working currently to upload.

Checking up on digging

2007-04-09T10:41:00.000+01:00

I just went around to check out the progress going on with digging. Much to my surprise, things are going quite well overall.

We had a bit of a scare, when we had rain for a couple of days. But we've returned to the dry heat once again. Thank goodness, because we still have a few meters to dig. We'll check next week to assess the progress again. Enjoy the pictures below:

Finally a small vacation! Here's me (Brad Schallert) at Rhoumsiki, a geological attraction in the Extreme North. This was our first vacation (only one day) since arriving at post in Tourou.

Two workers in the small village of Toufou I use traditional picks to peirce through conglomerate rock. It was unannounced to AVISE that this well was actually being constructed. It was 2 m deep after only a day and a half of digging.

The well in Toufou I again with AVISE President Abdou Aminou overseeing the work.

"IMI INAO" (Bad Water)

2007-03-17T15:38:00.000+01:00

You never heard of anyone going to Hitawa or Hidowa very often if ever. Why that was, we didn’t know. Maybe it was that the two villages are Maffa, not Hidé—the majority ethnic group in Tourou. Maybe there’s not a very good market in the area we thought. Both these observation are partially true. But like so many instances in Cameroon, it’s the road that prevents sound communication and commerce, as we found out first-hand. From Tourou Centre it’s six kilometers to Hitawa. Go back into the same mountains after reaching Hitawa for another kilometer and one is in Hidowa. Descending on motorcycles on a road K (or better, trail) that is challenging to hike down surprised even our Tourouian motorcycle drivers. When we arrived, no one was expecting us so like normal we search for the village chief (or lawan). This day the lawan was incredibly busy and discussing how to punish children who were stealing goats. But finally, two-and-a-half hours late, the meeting started under an enormous African mahogany—not an uncommon venue for these meetings: Men on one side, women on the other.

It’s completely necessary to separate the two, because often, women will not speak their minds when men are around. This is a common technique with any sort of village appraisal regime in developing countries. What’s most important is that the women and men see what the other saw as important in the community and how those needs are prioritized.

Once men and women are separated we ask what their health needs are and vote as to rank them in terms of most relevance for the community. After health we ask them to do the same thing with agriculture. It sounds simple, but when the groups have to vote, it’s more challenging that one would think. Being for a democracy that is more the 230 years old, Americans get voting. For rural Cameroonians, whose country is only 40 years old (1961 was independence), and democracy only 22 years (1985 President Paul Biya officially brought democracy) it’s a bit more challenging. Ordinarily, people are able to vote for three of the seven listed problems. Leah and I have had to adapt, because they’re always the people who don’t understand the three vote limit and vote for everything. It all works out, since not everyone votes for EVERYTHING and we can then eliminate certain problems from the list. Below is an example of the needs ranked by men and women:

Health
Women
1. Chest and stomach pains
2. Gastro-intestinal worms
3. Pregnancy
4. Insects « under the skin »
5. Bad backs
6. Women who don’t have patience (mental health ?)
Men
1. Water
2. Lack of hospital
3. Chest pains
4. Malaria

Agriculture
Women
1. Bad soil
2. Insects eating crops
3. Weeds
4. Seeds that don’t germinate
5. Wild animals (that eat the crops or goats)
Men
1. Lack of chemical fertilizer
2. Lack of insecticide
3. Lack of farm animals
4. Seeds that don’t germinate

What’s common is that men rank big things like chemical fertilizer and a lack of medicine and facilities first, whereas women talk more generally about the things they are dealing with daily—things in the home, things that affect children.

A 2004 needs assessment done in Tourou Centre by a former Peace Corps volunteer showed that water was by far the highest priority, what was interesting for Leah and I am that only one village mentioned water as something that would hinder agriculture. The others didn’t bring up the issue at all, because the millet and beans grown by almost everyone in Tourou is rain fed during the wet season. Having gardens or tree nurseries isn’t even on the radar screen for all but maybe a handful of Tourou’s 46,000 residents. Instead, water is considered a health issue. Often in the minds of Tourouians, water quantity and water quality are not separated but are, together, simply “imi inao” (EE-mEE EE-naw-O) or “bad water.”

Right now in March and April, wells are drying up requiring extra effort by the women to find water elsewhere. When the rains start to come little by little in May, the wells begin to have water. It would seem like something positive. However, drinking the little water in the well can give someone cholera, typhoid and/or other serious waterborne diseases.

This year AVISE is focusing on putting in four new wells. But for next year, Leah and I are hoping to try and shift people away from feeling like they need new wells and encourage them to dig current wells deeper and properly arrange them to reduce contamination by adding a lid, a four-foot apron to prevent mud and animal dung from seeping in and an exterior wall to prevent animals and small children from being close to the well at all.

With wells reparations next year, Leah and I expect to have well reparations come just after we conduct presentations on water sanitation. Because a new wells means nothing if the well isn’t managed, and if the users store water improperly in the home. Nevertheless, for this year it’s absolutely imperative to address severe water shortages that are year-round in the four chosen villages within Tourou.

More pictures

2007-03-14T09:30:00.002+01:00

Leah helping out with the daily chore of fetching water.

Market Day in Tourou. The red helmet-like hat is actually a callabash (gourd) that traditional Tourouian wear.

A poorly placed well near Gossi. Now the residents of Tourou know how to find water and dig for it and properly install the wells.

Women fetching water.

Leah retrieving water with women of Tourou Centre.

Little girl fetching water for her family in Tourou Centre.

Abdou, the Tourou Water Team president, discussing well options for the community of Logogya.

Site for the new Logogya well. The next closest well is over the mountain. The villagers here have to resort to drinking out of holes dug in the stream.

Talking to the Gossi community about their specific health and agricultural needs. Both women and men rated water as one of their greatest concerns.

Leah speaks to women about their concerns in Gossi. With community assessment techniques, it is necessary to separate women and men.

The Tourou Water Team constructed this well in 2006. In the future the team would like to build a wall around the well to keep animals from contaminating the water.

More pictures

2007-03-14T09:30:00.001+01:00

Leah helping out with the daily chore of fetching water.

Market Day in Tourou. The red helmet-like hat is actually a callabash (gourd) that traditional Tourouian wear.

A poorly placed well near Gossi. Now the residents of Tourou know how to find water and dig for it and properly install the wells.

Women fetching water.

The Tourou Water Team constructed this well in 2006. In the future the team would like to build a wall around the well to keep animals from contaminating the water.

More pictures

2007-03-14T09:30:00.000+01:00

Leah helping out with the daily chore of fetching water.

Market Day in Tourou. The red helmet-like hat is actually a callabash (gourd) that traditional Tourouian wear.

A poorly placed well near Gossi. Now the residents of Tourou know how to find water and dig for it and properly install the wells.

Women fetching water.

The Tourou Water Team constructed this well in 2006. In the future the team would like to build a wall around the well to keep animals from contaminating the water.

A trip to Gossi

2007-02-26T17:29:00.000+01:00

The village of Gossi is splayed across a steep mountain range next to the Nigerian border. The soil is loose, dry and lacks nutrients leaving this farming community with low yielding crops and little money. The real problem though for Gossi is not its lack of revenue but it’s diminishing sources of water.

In order for a family to have water, women walk two to three kilometers down a steep hillside to a small well situated in a marshy crevice. It is not only hard and dangerous to get to but a breeding ground for mosquitoes and malaria. During the end of the dry season (March-April), the well dries up almost completely. Women have to form a line from the top of the mountain down to the well. When the women at the bottom of mountain see that the well is recharged they send word up the communication line to others in the village. The well is only a meter deep and slow to recharge. Due to the infrequence of the water supply, women fetch water at all hours of the day and into the night even. The trip to the well is perilous due to the steepness of the mountain and loose gravel, and at night that danger is only increased.

The sanitation of the well is a great health concern to the village. There is no cover for the well and its shallowness encourages bacteria and microorganisms to grow. The water then filled with microorganisms diminishes the villager’s resistance to illness and carrying agent for disease. People of the village have sited worms, diarrhea and severe dehydration as typical problems for the area.

The lack of quality combined with the lack of quantity available to villagers contributes to Gossi’s health problems. Because water is scarce farmers are not able to produce vegetables or fruits for their families during the dry season, creating severe vitamin deficiency and high malnutrition. Children already susceptible to deadly diseases, such as measles, spiral into grave illness because their bodies don’t have the strength to fight off the viruses.

The water problem of Gossi is severe but solvable. Right now Tourou’s water team of wants to improve Gossi’s existing well by digging deeper, refining the exterior and removing the stagnant marsh water that breeds mosquitoes from the area. The team also plans on continuing a new well dug near the village center and another well near a group of farms. This will increase the amount of water villagers will drink and contribute greatly to the quality to the quality of life in Gossi.

Right now, Leah and I are trying to finance Gossi and three other small villages with problems similar to Gossi: If you’re willing to donate to this project, leave a message on the blog. More information on how you can donate is on the way within the next days!

Inside the open well algae and other parasites grow. The village overwhelmingly agrees water quantity followed by water quality are the most pressing problems. It's obvious when the most common health complaints are related to dehydration (lack of quantity) and water borne illnesses (lack of quality).

The march down a steep slope battered by erosion is treacherous. When the well runs dry in April, women have to fetch water at night in pitch black unless they're lucky enough to have moonlight.

Leah stands by Gossi's sole well, which is only one meter deep. The well is in the middle of a wash next to microbe-infested standing water--a breeding ground for malaria.

Women carrying water from 1.5 kilometers away pass children, who accompany us to the only well in Gossi.

Not enough wells

2007-02-05T09:34:00.000+01:00

Leah and I have been busy to say the least. We don't have access to electricity at our post, and Internet time is precious, so I've been spending my time online elsewhere besides on the blog. Below is a description of only a portion of our work here. It would be too difficult to explain it all.

The community of Tourou is composed of 16 villages and is situated in the Mandara Mountains, in the Extreme-North province of Cameroon. It’s inhabitants, the Hdi and Maffa, have lived in the mountains for centuries, ever since the Fulbé ethnic group chased them there from the plains of Nigeria and Cameroon. Today they continue to farm the steep hillsides, planting millet and beans. Water has been difficult to come by in this stunning landscape, where a handful of lucky tourists visit during the dry season. A medium-sized dam project conducted by a Canadian NGO in the early 1980s has turned out to be a relative disaster. This was the era of big projects. The organization was supposed to supply a portion of Tourou with irrigation and running water. Today, all the irrigation equipment remains in disrepair except for the dam. Once the pump-house broke, the people of Tourou had no desire to fix the monstrosity for lack of funds and support for the project.

That was then…

In the fall of 2005, the community formed a group called the Association of Volunteers Intervening in the Conservation of Soil and Water through Wells, Check Dams and Reforestation (AVISE). The idea of the group was to take charge of Tourou’s own development and train people how to create modern hand-dug wells. Through the support of former Peace Corps Volunteer Eric Pohlman, the group received a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for technical training on how to dig wells themselves. Each arrondissement leader chose someone from their community to attend the training. Today those people are the members of AVISE and resources to anyone in their community who wants to dig a well. Several wells have been built with the technical assistance of AVISE members. Some community wells have been funded by a handful of donors in the United States and a couple private individuals living in Tourou who use them specifically for their own use.

Specific Problem to be Addressed:

This project addresses several water-related problems in the villages of Tourou:

1. The highest ranking need of a community needs assessment conducted by Peace Corps Volunteer Eric Pohlman in April 2005 was “more water sources.” The water problem in Tourou is foremost on everyone’s mind and is starkly obvious especially in the dry season. Acute water shortages during the dry season in Tourou-centre create lines of up to 60 people long at the only reliable water source during the dry season. Preliminary community assessments for 2007 suggest that water quantity is still priority number one; followed closely by water quality. There is even a growing knowledge within the community as how to take care of and safely use a well, so as to minimize contamination and ensure the quality of the water. One woman recently explained through a translator that she notices a marked decrease in the quantity of severe diarrhea cases her family came down with when she began fetching water from an AVISE well last year. Before that, the closest accessible water source was a reservoir presumably infected with schistosomatis and other water borne diseases. Over the next two years, my wife Leah and I hope to conduct presentations explaining water sanitation. In the process, we’ll be working with and training the volunteer members of AVISE and leaders from a newly formed team of health of presenters. In addition, the development of a ceramic water filter by a team of engineers from the University of Virginia is near completion. We’re planning on having the filter ready for mass production by May of this year.

2. Distant wells overly burden the female population who are entirely responsible for the transport of water to the home. During the dry season, lines of over 60 people can be seen at one of the village’s forages. Women during the end of the dry season (April-May) have to walk between 5-10km.

3. There is only a minimal opportunity for dry-season gardens and tree nurseries with so few reliable water sources.

4. With no dry-season gardens and few tree nurseries, the nutritional content of the diet in Tourou is poor and the possibility of reforestation is unlikely. As an volunteer of agroforestry, all efforts to teach any agroforestry technique is considerably hampered.

Signs Suggesting Long-Term Sustainability of Projects:

AVISE was trained by a highly reputable, local NGO called GOIB. The goals of GOIB are to give communities the technical knowledge to find water and dig for it themselves without outside assistance from foreign aid missions. An expensive bore well sunk to 20-50m might be a dependable source. However, it requires inputs of technical support and from engineers heavy equipment that the community has no idea how to operate. What’s more, the price is nearly five times as expensive. The approach of AVISE is participatory to ensure long-term sustainability.

On average one well costs 556,000FCFA – 770,000FCFA (or ~$1116-$1546). The community always organizes to fund between 40-45% of this tab however, by donating labor, sand, gravel and well digging equipment. Buying cement and rebar to make the cassion rings that frame the interior of the well is prohibitively costly. This brings the cost from outside funding down to roughly between $614 and $928. This total includes unforeseen costs.

After a well is dug and equipped to ensure good water quality, a management committee is set up for each well, so families can have equitable access.

Currently, AVISE and I are in the middle of determining which communities are more deserving of new wells. Some factors that may determine priority are (1) water quality of surrounding wells, (2) the geographical distance and the type of terrain women must walk to find water, (3) which wells dry-up in March and April and (4) the enthusiasm/organization of the community (e.g. has the quartier [neighborhood] already started far in advance of others?)

The growing population is currently stretching its water sources to the maximum.

To compete with this trend it is imperative to at least keep up with that growing population, but even better to make it easier for dry-season gardens and tree nurseries to exist.

Right now we are organizing to raise funding in the US from private individuals, while I contact funding agencies who work in Cameroon. We're just too late to receive funding for this year. Over time, our goals are to connect Tourou with donors so they can continue to receive financing when Peace Corps leaves.

If you're interested in donating, please leave us a message on our blog.

2007-01-05T13:51:00.000+01:00

one picture

2006-12-26T10:06:00.000+01:00

The Wonderful World of Dsyentary

2006-12-03T15:36:00.001+01:00

Hey you two,
We're almost finished with training! One and a half weeks to go.

Things are good now, but last weekend and last week I had bacterial dysentary. I basically didn't want to eat anything. It was my first stint of a mini culture-shock experience. I had also been vomitting a lot the week before that too. It all sounds bad, but it could have been worse. Everything with illness has to be put into perspective. Getting malaria is like getting the common-cold here. One of our language trainers has it all the time it seems. I asked him one day how he was doing. He said he was a little sick...with MALARIA. (He stays out with his friends at night, so there's a higher chance that he would get it. That's when the mosquito that carries malaria is out biting people.) A month later, he had it again. What's really important is that one good to a hospital when there are symptoms of malaria. People are dying of malaria, because they can't pay for medical services. People would rather go to traditional healers. I don't blame them. It's much cheaper.

Leah too has been sick sometimes with some stomach related issues. Overall, we've been under a lot of stress lately with the routine.

I think Leah and I will really miss our host family. They're fun. Leah and I are always teaching the kids yoga. Leah and I creating our first home together will be nice however. I will have to say that I won't miss almost tripping-over chickens. For some reason I'm not a fan of stepping in the feces either...or the goats breaking into the compound and knocking over the dishes. But that's just me. Others may love it. Chickens eat a lot of the scraps you don't want, but you have stay up on cleaning up after them.

On another note, I was almost pickpocketed yesterday in a crowded area. A guy walked right past me, and I felt his hand on my pocket. I snatched his hand immediately and we just stared at each other for 3 seconds. I totally lost my French in the face of such incredulity. Then I started grunting sort-of: "Unhhhh! Unhhh..." He wasn't running away, so I started to have pity for him. He seemed really scared. I let him go and he went up to other volunteer 10 feet away and was about to pickpocket her, until I told her about his proximity to her. Apparently, since Christmas is coming up, thefts increase. It makes sense, because a current volunteer got pick pocketed TODAY!

We're almost about to swear in as volunteers. I expect to get more pictures up by the end of December. They'll most likely be of our new home.

Site Visit to Tourou

2006-11-19T14:32:00.000+01:00

Leah and I just had our Site-Visit. What does that mean, right? Well, it means that we now know where were going to be for the next 2 years, and a general idea of what projects were going to be part of. Our site is Tourou in the Extreme-North province, next to the city of Mokolo.

We didn't bring our camera, but the place is beautiful and not as hot. Sometimes you can wear a jacket in the mornings. It's in the mountains and overlooks a famous geological formation called Rhumsiki at some vistas.

We're taking over for someone who is considered by some the most effective volunteer of all the volunteers our group is taking over for. No pressure, right?! Eric has been working with water and wells for the most part. Over his service he helped organize a community organization to begin digging wells in the community. Lines at certain wells in the dry season could be as long as 60 people, but no more. Eight public wells have been dug over the past year or so, and 30 more have been mapped and planned in the community. What's more is that I'll be working on other agroforestry techniques over the next 2 years and maybe helping a team of engineers create ceramic water filters in the community.

Leah is essentially opening a new post in the same town as me. She will be working with the doctor based in Tourou and doing presentations on health issues. It's possible that we'll be working together quite a bit on health/water issues. Right now its all overwhelming. I have a feeling it will be for about two years honestly.

I'll have pictures for the blog by Christmas I hope, but until then I'll just say that the land is very open and desert-like. The difference here is that all parts of the land are being used. Every tree has been "topped", meaning the branches have been cut off and new branches have resprouted. This method creates more cooking wood for the people. And the mountains are cropped all the way to the top. If there is a crack in a rock, someone will put a seed in it. The land is populated to the extent the Tourou's population is capped at 44,250. It sounds sort of large, but it's 16 villages, or cartiers, spread out over an area of about 100 sq. miles. Don't quote me on the size though.

More pictures

2006-11-05T14:41:00.000+01:00

Leah and I just returned from a trip to the Extreme-North of Cameroon to see sights of volunteers. It was interesting. I would say more, but I just lost a huge blog entry, because the computer crashed. But you really just want pictures anyways, right?

They're of our home, laundry, etc.

Okay...two more baby pictures!

2006-10-29T14:21:00.000+01:00

This is Tantine our host sister.
Here is a random baby.

Learning French and Slowly Navigating the North

2006-10-29T13:17:00.000+01:00

Leah and I have been constantly involved with learning the culture, the language(s), etc. That's the best way to describe the last month, although it seems much longer in some ways. For any of you who would like to visit Cameroon, French will help you so much if you're coming up North, where we are.

Right now, for training, Leah and I live with a host family in the town of Pitoua. Our residence has been called by other volunteers the "Ritz Carleton", because compared to other homestays, we have running water, electricity and a TV! What's more is that our family is so modern for Cameroon. Our host father Jean-Claude helps considerably around the house with cleaning clothes, sweeping and occassionally assisting with food preparation. Our community is largely Muslim, but our host father jokingly subscribes to Nietzche. Yes we are mocked by other Peace Corps volunteers. Apparently some people are having very different experiences than we are.

As in most rural villages, there are plenty of animals. We used to be awoken by a rooster every morning. But we ate him last week... Other wonderful foods are crickets, which are fried and salted and taste like potato chips with soy sauce. Very tasty. Last weekend we had "veron", or monitor lizard. It tastes like fish and chicken together.

French is difficult, but Leah and I both are learning slowly. The other language that is even more commonly spoken in the north is Fulfulde. We'll most likely learn bits and pieces over the next 2 years.

The pictures are of (1) everyone in our group in Yaoundé the capital, (2) Leah with some of the local children.
More later...

In Yaounde

2006-10-02T18:16:00.000+01:00

Leah and I are both jet-lagged still. We've been having constant trainings and activities. It's tough to get into more specifics than that however, partly because I'm a bit tired--again, the jet-lag. Additionally, there was a Sunday night wedding at the hotel we're staying at. The loud music kept many of the volunteers awake until the early morning.

We haven't been out of the hotel yet to walk the city of Yaounde, partly because of security concerns. It's understandable however. Yaounde is a complicated city. I have no idea where we go everyday in our Peace Corps convoy of Land Rovers. The other concern is that not all of us speak enough French. Some people are fluent, but some volunteers, like Leah and I, have not really studied it at all.

On Saturday, we'll be leaving beautiful Yaounde--the weather, although very humid is fairly cool as it is the rainy season. We'll be training around the City of Garoua in the North Province. The picture I recently posted with the volcanic spires in the background is where we will be. Leah and I will live together with a host family. Everyday I'll have to bike 7 km to join the Agroforestry volunteers. Leah and I will be living are the other Health volunteer, which is what Leah is. That's all for now.

A bientot

Here's what we (well...this is more like Brad's prediction) think the landscape could look like

2006-09-26T05:12:00.000+01:00

We'll be in one of the northern provinces: Adamoua, Nord or Extreme-Nord. Visit http://ebotashu.tripod.com/cam.html for more great pictures.

About to leave Oregon...

2006-09-25T06:35:00.000+01:00

Leah and I are almost completely packed. At the moment we sort of are just ambivalent. We're ready to go, but enjoying seeing our friends.

Stay tuned for more blog madness over the next 27+ months of Peace Corps training and service.