Anne

Work & Play: after Shona’s safe arrival in the middle of yet another lengthy power cut in the Extreme North of Cameroon, this has been a week of work mixed with play to some extent. On Monday our trip to a village called Pétté allowed Hamish the chance to see the hospital there and gave the Dutch students, Shona and me a shopping opportunity. There is a lively group of women there who run a bakery, make “Swiss” cheese, yogurt and soft toys. To our relief we also discovered that the Femmes de Pétté run a fairly basic restaurant serving a Cameroonian speciality, omelette sandwiches.

Tuesday saw the same group of us plus Godam heading for the Fondation Bethleem at Mouda with a lovely young girl called Nafeesa (See photo). We were on our way to order a tricycle wheelchair for Nafeesa. She is the young woman who has been crawling 5 kms each way to our literacy classes in Boudoum. When Godam and I tracked her down to her village, she was sitting on the edge of a well fetching water for the family. She moves with such speed, grace and dignity that it is hard to believe she is paralysed from the waist down, due, Hamish thinks, to polio. Thanks to Heather’s curry parties in our house (we hope the smell has gone by the time we come home!), Nafeesa will get her chair at the beginning of June. She will then spend a day at Mouda being trained in its use. In the meantime she has an ordinary wheelchair on loan from the Fondation Bethleem which will allow her to get to Boudoum with the assistance of the other girls going from her village. On Tuesday of next week she will come to the hospital to work with Shona to see if there is some way she would be able to stand or move about upright for short distances. After that, Shona, Godam and I are heading out further into the bush to do the same thing with a 6 year old girl from the beginners’ class at Boudoum.

Meanwhile we are still waiting for word that the construction of the new classroom at Membeng has started. Patience is a virtue in this country and not something I am overly blessed with. I can’t wait to start taking photos. The football tournament is progressing and people are now making predictions on the winning school. When available our car is used as team bus. The record so far is 3 adults and 11 big kids! Senior pupils are busy with a writing competition to be judged by Godam and me. There will be prizes for the winning girl and boy in each school and overall winners. I look forward to reading their work as they describe cultural events. The plans for next year are with my VSO “buddy”, awaiting his opinions. I then have to do the same with his before we can give them to the Development committees ready for the next school year and the next volunteer.

Hamish

We gather the traditional festivities were held in the mountain a week ago (see last blog), but no, the nassaras were not invited.  We were, however, invited to the lamibe’s fête last Saturday.  Once a year, all the chiefs in the area get together for what we suppose you’d call their AGM.  This year it was the turn of our Lamido in Zidim to be host.  The day started mid afternoon with the arrival of all the chiefs then the “Prefet” of the district.  Various dance groups performed and expected to be rewarded with money.  After that there was time for a rest before the start of the evening festivities.  We returned at the appointed hour, 1900, and were shown into the Lamidat (chief’s palace) where we sat in what could only be described as a reception room come garage!  It wasn’t clear what the delay was about, but eventually (1½ hours late) the Prefet arrived and dinner could start.  It turned out that one Lamido had screwed up the whole proceedings by dying that afternoon.  This meant all the dignitaries had had to go to his village to pay their respects, and that the “cultural evening” had to be cancelled.  The Lamido in question had been ill for some time and had been unable to attend the fête anyway.  Photos show our Lamido making his speech to the crowd (sound system as good as and reminiscent of the good old days with the Donkey Derby!) and a group of traditional dancers complete with Santa Claus beards.

Last weekend, arrangements had been made for our locum, Serge, to provide cover.  Friday being International Labour Day was a public holiday in Cameroon, and the plan was Serge would arrive early on the Friday.  Well, there was no sign of him on Friday evening and on Saturday morning I went to check what was happening in the hospital.  I was told, no, he had not arrived, so assumed I would be providing emergency cover.  Around midday, one of the Dutch students came to the door to say I was needed in theatre.  When I arrived, I discovered Serge was there but no-one had thought to let me know.  I had been asked to give guidance to the surgical team dealing with a 14 year old boy who’d fallen onto the mechanism of a grinding machine which had torn open half his abdomen, removed most of his liver and the right half of his diaphragm as well as shattering his pelvis and several ribs.  I wasn’t sure what they were expecting from me – I am no surgeon – but it became clear all they wanted was confirmation that there was no prospect of repairing the damage and that the right decision was to close the wound and leave the boy to die.

Monday we visited Pétté, a village north of Maroua where there is a well respected hospital which was set up 40 years ago by a Swiss doctor, Anne-Marie Schonenberg.  She is still there and very much in charge – quite a formidable character.  They have been running a very efficient programme to follow their AIDS patients and we went to ask if we could see the system they’re using.  She could not have been more helpful, and gave us a copy of the software system they use.  The day of electronic record keeping may yet arrive in Zidim.  This will be a huge relief to my nursing colleagues; my writing was always infamous and hasn’t improved.  Add to that, a poor knowledge of written French and you can imagine the difficulties the staff face.

After taking Nafeesa back to her village, we passed a couple of our hospital nurses giving Yellow Fever vaccination in a nearby village - see photo.

We are spending our last break at Maga before the hotel closes for the wet season.  This is where the hippos are to be found and we learned a couple had been killed this week.  The heads were removed and brought back to have the teeth removed for the hunters to keep as trophies.  The rest of the carcases will be eaten by the villagers.  Attached photo shows one of the heads being boiled so that the teeth can be removed.

Meantime, once more I have to say a huge thanks to all our supporters back in the UK.  My appeal for funds for a blood analyser for the hospital is now at the halfway mark thanks to really generous donations.  Last Saturday, a group of our friends who meet once a week in a local pub, raised £465 through a bottle raffle.  Having seen some of the photos of the evening when the raffle was drawn, we’re really jealous that we couldn’t be there!

Finally, I’m convinced I’ve stumbled across a new cure for mild malaria.  The evening after Shona’s arrival I developed all the classic symptoms; fever, headache, abdominal pain and generalised muscle aches.  By the following morning all symptoms had mysteriously disappeared without any medication.  Now as it happens, Shona had brought a supply of chocolate with her, carefully preserved in a cool bag in her hand luggage.  I had felt obliged to eat a bar of Fry’s Turkish Delight after the onset of symptoms, so clearly that was the cure.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to continue with a proper study as Anne ate the only remaining bar!

Shona

Yet again, another interesting week in Cameroon!  Mum and Dad have now made the transition to completely mad Nassaras!  I think they will struggle to fit in with the European lifestyle when they get home.  Precious evenings off are spent sitting zapping insects with the Executioner fly catcher or squirting goats in the garden using a super soaker water pistol!  This has all been part of their development though, as they realise bare feet are no longer required to kill insects.  As I type this Dad is sitting waving the Executioner above his head!

We have had a pretty packed week visiting the hospital in Pette and the Fondation Bethleem again.   Then on Wednesday morning we headed back to Waza National  Park in search of elephants.  On arrival, we were again lucky enough to find ourselves with the head tracker of the park, gold medal winner Monsieur “Past-it Pisteur”!  We believe he earned his medals in 1802!  Thankfully we had Halilou driving us again and he has eyes like a hawk, so we managed to see a lot of different things, including Baboons for the first time, I think Monsieur is still looking!!!!!!!!!

When we were unable to find elephants in the park, we were taken outwith the park on Thursday and Friday to the nearest village where at various different times, over 2 days we picked up a total of 5 extra people to help us locate the elephants.  At times this included “Hands-Free off Road Driving”. We were taken through dense bush to follow elephant droppings, Monsieur “5 seconds behind everyone else” would then direct us in the opposite direction from the droppings and broken branches!!!!!!! He was however very confident when directing us to a shaded area to sit and wait while they “tracked” the elephants. Both days we kept ending up in the same village. He was taking us round in circles! 

On the way home, in usual Cameroon fashion, nothing went to plan.  We stopped to help 3 trucks carrying wood as one of them had run out of petrol.  Instead of one of the other two going to get some petrol, they waited for help…………. We then gave one of them a lift to the nearest petrol station.  About 15 minutes later, we ran out of diesel!  Halilou thought that the petrol gauge had been wrong; he was right!  Halilou then pumped the diesel left in the fuel pump into the filter and that was enough to get us on to a better stretch of road, which we made by about 100m.  A group of guys were repairing the bad road thankfully and they were able to take Halilou off to collect more diesel, it was all very quick really, no waiting for the AA here!

We are spending the rest of Saturday and Sunday in Maga recovering. We have spent a leisurely afternoon by the pool.  I am proud to announce that Mum, at the age of 21+ has just done her first water bomb! The British swimming pool safety rules don’t apply here. 

Next week I think the plan is to spend a wee bit of time down in the hospital again. I think both Mum and Dad have a couple of projects lined up for me………………..