Progress & witchcraft

Algol
Hamish Tait, Robin Hastie & Jim Hepburn
Sat 23 May 2009 15:06

ANNE

 

Work:

Slowly getting back to normal after Shona’s brief visit. We think she will be glad to be home again, even with all the anxieties about her new job. Hamish and I worked her pretty hard in the hospital and the schools. It was a pleasure to see her at work again – there is so much a good physiotherapist could do here. People end up paralysed for not very good reasons sometimes, except that no-one knows how to help them.

 

The most exciting thing to happen here – so far – is the start of construction of a classroom at Membeng Primary School. After months of fundraising and worry about the weather beating us, a lorry load of men and equipment finally turned up last Tuesday. I was lucky enough to be there at that moment and felt as if the cavalry had arrived (see photo). The driver asked for help from the population to unload his lorry but Tuesday is market day in Zidim, so Membeng was virtually deserted. The only people there were 4 football teams getting ready to play in our tournament and two drunk teachers who had been left in charge. (It was after school hours but I am not sure that’s a good enough excuse). One drunken teacher climbed on to the lorry to help, threw down a plank and it shattered – an auspicious start. He was escorted safely down on to lower ground. My favourite drunk (NOT) then proceeded to urge primary school age boys to stuff 2x100 kg sacks of millet into our car for me to deliver to Zidim on my way back. Meanwhile in the red corner, Mandoula were accusing Membeng of cheating in a previous match by using secondary schoolboys in their winning team. Both games were abandoned until a solution could be found. Definitely a day of mixed fortunes but nothing could spoil the thrill of seeing the start of a classroom, thanks to money raised by family, friends and friends of friends.  The team from Fondation Bethléem is making good progress on the classroom (attached photo taken today 23/5).

 

Next morning, Godam and I headed back to Membeng at 6.30am to see how things had settled and check on our workmen. The men were happy – the community had got together and helped collect many lorry loads of sand and gravel from the river bed and work was already underway to make the bricks( see photo). It is all rather different here – materials are being stored in a classroom and the men sleep there too. This is all absolutely normal here. The bricks are made and left to dry in the sun but they mustn’t dry too quickly or they will crack, so there is a constant stream of parents and pupils watering them, in spite of it officially being the rainy season. All this water has to be collected from puddles, the still dried up river bed (dig a hole and it fills with water) or, as a last resort, the precious well.

 

It was a 7am start the next day to hold a meeting at Membeng to try to get to the bottom of the football controversy. After a fairly heated exchange, it was decided to have yet another meeting involving the two head teachers, coaches, team captains, Godam and me. Just as everyone was about to leave with nothing clarified, the pastor announced that he wanted to speak.  Everyone sat down again under the tree and waited politely. I expected a little prayer that truth would emerge and that anger would disappear. No - the pastor wanted to know who would pay for food for the construction workers. I had to gently remind everyone that the deal had always been that the population provide 10% of the funds necessary to build this room, whether in money, manpower or kind. That evening the villagers got together and worked out a rota and so far the workmen seem happy with the results. They have reached the stage of putting in supporting pillars and are almost ready to build the walls.

 

At the next pow-wow over the football carry on, it began to look as if yet another meeting should be held, before everyone agreed to simply replay the game in question. The first round is now over and we are about to organise the final stages. I was amused/ shocked to see boys sharing football boots – one wearing the right boot and one the left! Just another example of how poor and how resourceful people here are. Our car has broken its record and has now had 17 people in it. Crazy and I wouldn’t dream of doing that at home but here it is the only way to move people fast.

 

Village life:

It is now more than two weeks since the last rain, the temperature is still in the 40s and people who sowed their main crop of millet are talking of resowing. Either seedlings have died or the goats have got them. Water is too scarce here to use for irrigation except for the village of Boula about 10 kms from Zidim. There almost every house has its own well and tropical fruits can be grown. Irrigation is widespread. Prudent people will have kept some seed back to allow for resowing but there are always some who have not managed to do that and face a year of begging for food from family and friends.

 

Godam’s sister married a cousin of the Chief last Sunday after living at the Chief’s “palace” for several weeks during which she received instruction in the Muslim religion and changed her name from Chantal to Djeinabou. She is obviously reckoned to have made a good match. The festivities started with suitcases of pots and pans, the traditional gift, and about 60 lengths of material being taken to the Lamidat (chief’s palace) for a brief show of presents - photo of procession attached. The gifts were then carried on the heads of drum and flute playing villagers back to Djeinabou’s family home for a hoolie involving the eating of lots of sheep and goats. Contributions of about £300 (a huge sum of money here) were made to the husband’s family and they will now decide how much Godam’s father will receive as a dowry for his daughter. As mother of 4 daughters, I quite like the sound of that!

 Random Thought; we now know where the inspiration for the statue "Angel of the North" came from.  Attached is a photo of the Zidim version.

 

Hamish

 

 

For us, it's been fascinating following the story of MPs expenses.  It throws into sharp relief the differences in culture.  Here, nobody would regard what's been happening as unusual, the press would not be interested and even if there was a story, there would be absolutely no question of money being paid back.  Corruption is inbuilt into the system here and everyone accepts it as normal.  Even when people recognise it's happening they feel powerless to do anything about it.  I suppose we should be grateful for the freedom & power of the press at home!  Maybe it's time to think of the next challenge for us and plan a revolution here!

 

Once more, a huge thank you to people at home.  Already my appeal for funds for a blood analyser has reached £4,000!  You folk are so generous.  I now know that I can go ahead and order the machine confident that it will be up and running before we leave.  I hope to be able to acknowledge all the donations individually, but this will take some time!

 

Now that we’ve had the first rains, people are busy in their fields and there’s been a dramatic reduction in the number of patients turning up at the hospital.  I think we’re past the hardest part of the year in terms of workload and am hoping to enjoy my last months here feeling less stressed.  Having said that, Anne Poppelaars is going on leave mid July and won’t be back before we finish.  So far, there’s no definite news of arrangements for back up cover, so life could be interesting!

 

In a previous blog, I spoke of a young lad with a nasty head injury.  We got some guidance via Sam Eljamel in Dundee and an organisation called the Swinfen Trust, but decided his assessment and treatment were beyond us, even with the good advice given.  A neurosurgeon in Yaoundé (capital of Cameroon) has offered to operate on the boy charging only the cost of materials.  Thanks to money which has come from folk in the UK and in Holland, we have been able to put together 400,000 CFA (about £550) to help with the costs of hospital fees, travel and accommodation for the family.  I have attached a photo of the boy, Michaeli.  In the photo, he is helping make up gauze swabs for use in theatre; no pre-packed sterile supplies here!  He is a very cheery likeable lad, so we’re hoping all goes well.  He left for Yaoundé on Friday in the company of the two Dutch students who’ve been with us for a couple of months and who are heading south for a bit of tourism.  It’s quite a journey – around 10 hours by bus to nGaoundere where they get an overnight train for Yaoundé.  The train journey takes upwards of 15 hours, depending on derailments and other hazards.  The accommodation on board even in 1st class makes our rail system look positively luxurious!

 

Since September last year, we’ve been without 4 wheel drive as the locking mechanism for the front wheels failed.  The garage in Maroua said they could get replacements, but nothing ever materialised and the anxiety levels were mounting as the rainy season is starting.  Apparently the head mechanic at CTM, the garage in Maroua, has a training in metalwork and did a three month course in car maintenance to get the job!  Some of the advice he’s given has not made sense even to a mechanical bird brain like me, and now I understand why!  Nothing for it but to contact Philip Cockburn in Strathkinness who’s looked after our cars for many years.  True to form, he located the parts in no time at all and Shona was able to bring them with her when she arrived two weeks ago for a visit.  One of our maintenance staff here trained as a mechanic with Mitsubishi, so he was able to fit the hubs as well as doing various other maintenance jobs on the car.  We are worried that Zidim could become cut off at the height of the rainy season in August.  Our shorter route becomes impassable due to deep mud and the other road now has a problem in that the bridge between Zidim and Mofou (which is just next door) has collapsed.  Last year, we knew it was weak, but thought it would be OK to drive over with two wheels on the edge of the bridge and two in the dirt at the side, but now there’s just no bridge only a huge hole!  Anne took the attached photo.  At present, we can bypass it by driving through a field at the side, but when the rain really comes, that won’t be possible as it will be a rice paddy field!.  It’s the State’s responsibility to do the repairs but we’ve been waiting since December 2007!  They did send a surveying team, complete with theodolites and all the measurements were taken, but no sign of any work starting.

 

Finally, witchcraft IS alive & well in Cameroon!  We naively believed education would be the answer for enlightenment here, but have discovered differently.  On Tuesday, we received an 18 year old girl in an hysterical state and real panic.  She was convinced she was gong to die.  It turns out she believed her teacher at the Lycée (further education college) had cast a spell on her and tradition has it that only the sorcerer who has cast the spell can remove it.  Modern medicine has no answer for this – only sedatives and tranquilisers.  Apparently this is not an uncommon phenomenon here (although it’s the first time I’ve been aware of it!) and it is fairly recent here in the Extreme North, having been brought by teachers who’ve come from the south of the country where there is more access to education and they’re supposed to be more sophisticated!  Now, we realise that there are probably some teachers at home who might think this would be an interesting and novel approach to class discipline, but beware.  The teacher in question is currently in protective custody as the local population is up in arms and threatening to kill him.  Think I’m on their side!  I’m afraid to say, all the training I had in communication skills at home failed me completely with this one.  Fortunately, the pastor and his wife came to the rescue and were able to give effective counselling.  And so the girl is on the mend, no thanks to me!

 

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