ANNE

Work:

With schools starting officially at the beginning of September, preparations are already underway. Godam and I have planned a series of meetings with parents to try to encourage them to send all of their children to school, especially the girls and to emphasise the importance of a good education as the best route out of poverty. I will also be able to tell them about the generosity of Mannofield Church in Aberdeen. Thanks to them, each school will get a good start to their fundraising to build new classrooms or dig a well. As I said, school starts officially on 1^st Sept. but it is recognised that many parents will keep their children at home to work in the fields until they are ready to cut the first millet. Classes will not really get started until the end of Sept. or even October.

Home:

After our trouble with people arriving at the house asking for money, the pastor came to see me. He explained that there used to be missionaries in our house who seemed to be sent money to distribute to anyone who turned up at the door. He said he would speak to the congregation on Sunday when we were in Maroua and explain that our rôles as volunteers are different, that we come with ideas for development and not with sacks full of money. The next request we got for funding came from the young women’s group of the church.

This week I have tried to make yogurt and cheese. The yogurt was a miserable failure – I now have lots of sour milk to make scones or Irish soda bread with. The cheese is maturing on a shelf. The fridge is wonderful again and I am back making ice cream.  The coconut version did not go down well with Shona. How could I possibly have forgotten that coconut is the only thing she doesn’t like?!

Addictions:

It is a well known fact that Cameroonians are addicted to football – now we have proof! The other day I went to answer urgent knocking at the door. Before I got there, Amos, one of the nurse/surgeons was in with his shoes off ready to watch a game on our television. I pointed him in the direction of the acting Médecin Chef’s house where all the action clearly was, judging by the blur of white coats I had seen going up the path to his house. They were moving so fast they could have passed for Europeans. Dr. Djemba himself took it further by ensuring that the generator was started the other day at 4.45am so that he could watch the Olympic final. Having wakened the whole village at that ungodly hour, he then went back to bed, obviously having decided that there was no need for a ward round that day. Poor Dr. Dj is so worn out with all this viewing on his pub-sized telly in his doll-sized house that when he goes back from the hospital for his “petit déjeuner très vite” each day, he often falls asleep. One day he slept for 5 hours and forgot about work. If the generator is on during the day, he can be seen rushing up the road to watch and goes hysterical if the technicians forget to put power through to his house. Addictions are terrible things.

Market:

At last exciting things like tomatoes and sweetcorn are arriving in Zidim. The quality is not good yet but at least they are on their way back. I never realised how many tomatoes I used at home until they suddenly disappeared here because they were out of season.

Hamish

Shona’s boxes have arrived! The crab sorcerer told us back in June that they’d arrived in Cameroon and it turned out he was right – they landed shortly after Shona did. Trouble was they got stuck in Doula for weeks. Took several increasingly irate phone calls to get action and we took delivery last weekend. Anne had a phone conversation with the lorry driver who seemed worried that she might be angry (rightly so!). When we got the boxes delivered to the Mission it turned out the lorry driver had dumped them with a shopkeeper in Maroua who made the final delivery. I suspect the lorry driver was too scared to make the delivery himself, but it was his loss as the shopkeeper got the tip! We had great fun(???!!!!) trying to reassemble all the zimmer frames, but now that it’s done, hopefully the hospital and the patients will benefit.

The hospital is still relatively quiet. Now that the rain has arrived, transport is more of a challenge. The millet has really grown – now about 5 metres high and the houses are well hidden behind the crops. The transformation in the landscape is just amazing. It’s hard to believe that it’s a year since we arrived, but seeing the landscape looking as it is reminds us of just what it was like.

Shona is coming to the end of her stay here and I have to admit to being very proud of the contribution she’s made here. She has worked out a programme to teach some basic skills and two of the nurses, Julienne and Tabitha, have been very enthusiastic students (attached photo shows the two of them in a training session, with Tabitha acting the role of the patient). She will be leaving some really tangible skills behind. Unfortunately, the Cameroonian physiotherapy “stageur” has proved a real disappointment. It sounded ideal – he allegedly speaks French, English and Fulfulde so could act as interpreter. Several problems have emerged; he does not translate accurately what is being said (perhaps because his language skills are not as good as we were led to believe), he seems to lack basic skills (we suspect massage is the limit of his capabilities) and he shows absolutely no interest or enthusiasm (see photo; note where the patient is and where the aptly named Laissez-faire’s gaze is directed!). Basically, he’s a waste of space. In fairness, sending a newly qualified person to a remote situation like this with no proper supervision is far from ideal.

Although the hospital is quiet, I am finding the workload quite demanding. I’m afraid to say that the staff are showing increasing lack of confidence in Dr Djemba and I always seem to be the first port of call. He is very willing, but does tend to hide in his office and not come out to see what work is waiting. Having said that, I do rely on his knowledge of tropical medicine and am glad that he is there to share the on call. He offered to do extra weekends on call at a commercial rate, but the hospital administrator said they had already promised two weekends a month to Serge, the locum from the Provincial Hospital in Maroua who’s already been helping us out. Do they think Serge is better value for money? This week, several members of staff have had quiet words of encouragement for me which I have really appreciated. I suspect they are worried I might turn chicken and run, but nothing could be further from my mind. This Friday, Dr Djemba gave a lecture on anaemia for the staff. Fascinating stuff. Lasted 1½ hours. He’d written some notes, but had difficulty reading them (I can identify with that!), and when they ran out, he just read from the book. I found some of what he said a bit eccentric and had to intervene at one point to correct a major error. Difficult as I don’t want to offend him. Not exactly the most coherent presentation I’ve heard. In fact, I’ve heard the nurses here give talks which were much more competent.

Driving in Maroua is a real challenge. I’m now looking for someone to paint yellow “motos” on our car as I’ve now bagged three of them. Basically they pay no attention whatsoever to what’s happening around them so I claim none of it was my fault and they all chose to run into me! The last one was a small moto with four adults on it – no wonder he couldn’t stop in time. Quite a crowd gathered round and a local police superintendent appeared. He was great. Speaks excellent English and clearly wanted to avoid trouble. He helped us deal with the situation and seemed to be on my side – he’d seen the whole incident and told us we’d been drinking in the same bar!

We have to say a huge thank you to the folk of Mannofield Church in Aberdeen. Thanks to their generous donation, Anne has been able to give the development funds of each of her four schools a significant “step up” (in fact, this money is the start of their funding). I have been able to buy 30 mattresses and mosquito nets for the hospital. The beds are mainly basically concrete platforms so comfort is not a priority and we are at the height of the mosquito season so it seemed absurd that a health facility is not providing 100% protection. The mattresses have been produced here in the Extreme North and are covered in vinyl so are very practical. There were already a number of mattresses and nets in place, but well short of full cover. One of the hospital’s objectives for 2008 is to provide mattresses and nets for every bed and this donation has taken us a long way towards meeting that target. I have attached a photo of a basic bed and one of the same platforms with the mattress in place to give an idea of what I am talking about.

Finally, especially for the “Strath Tavern” crowd, I’ve included a picture of the route to our favourite “local” – Zra’s bar” (belongs to the hospital’s head of midwifery). Actually this is a photo of us on the way back – quite a test of co-ordination! Normally we sit outside to enjoy our drinks, but this week the heaven’s opened so everybody crowded into one small room. The noise was incredible as everyone tried to compete with the sound of torrential rain on an aluminium roof, but the atmosphere was just great!

Shona

Santa has finally arrived, Thanks to DHL Britain!  All the equipment and schoolbags have arrived in time for my last week, but hopefully Julienne and Tabitha will find the physio equipment helpful.  I’m so touched again by everyone’s generosity, I’d forgotten how much equipment and how many schoolbags I had received from my friends, colleagues and family, to give to the schools and hospital.  A special thank you to Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle John for their contribution towards the shipping costs!

For future information, don’t ever take Zimmer frames apart.  If you’ve ever seen the Krypton Factor on TV you’ll understand what I mean, but we’re gradually getting there and hope to take the equipment down to the hospital on Monday.

Heather and Mum are going to distribute the schoolbags and equipment once Heather gets here. I’m a bit gutted I don’t get to play Santa, but they’ve promised to take loads of pictures for me.

While I’ve been away, Abbey National have taken Customer Services training from DHL Maroua.  I’ve unfortunately had my card copied and some money stolen from my account.  Abbey are still “investigating” it apparently, 2 weeks later.  On a positive note though, the thieves have upped my overdraft enough to cover my direct debits over the next couple of weeks.  How thoughtful!

Andy has now arrived, Air Chance (France) have lived up to their name and delivered him, minus his baggage.  Mum and I are particularly upset about the Cadbury’s chocolate he’d brought out for us; we will be looking for compensation from Air Chance for the stress caused.

I finish in the hospital on Tuesday, I can’t believe it’s 3 months already.  I’ve had an amazing experience. It’s been lovely to work with both Mum and Dad and it’s so nice to be able to know where they are and who they’re talking about now.  Hopefully Julienne and Tabitha will be able to continue with some of the physio stuff, along with Laissez-faire……………………..