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!
