summer rains
The picture shows lilies in what is usually sand just outside Bogo. The rains start about July. Most volunteers, especially in Education go back home for the summer months until September because roads become impassable and travel is difficult. I didn’t because I had limited savings which I was using to pay for J2 at university, I wanted to pay for the children to come out and see me and I needed to keep a bit to keep me going when I first got home as finding a job was likely to be difficult.
It has been raining heavily and electricity is intermittent.
I fell off a moto this week for the first time. The tracks are really boggy and we were with a younger driver we haven’t used before who couldn’t keep his balance so well. I rolled onto my back in the mud and had to arrive at the interviews with these 3 collectives that make pottery covered in mud. Being ‘dirty’ is the cardinal sin here rather than being late. It did not help that the group were mainly in their 50s-60s, gold rings in their noses, cheek bones and teeth to die for! We were going very slowly and fell in soft mud, but if my mind is willing the flesh is weak. I got back on the bike and my whole body started trembling in protest. It happened similarly with the push bike incident. I see it as a sign of my increasing age along with a sudden genuine interest in reading very thick history books on the 20th century – because I lived through chunks of it, now described as ‘golden years’, 1959-1973 and ‘crisis’ years, 1974 -1994! It also helps me understand why Cameroon is in the state it is in because world economics and the world social revolution from an essentially rural, agriculturally dependent economy to one where urban life reigns has passed them by and left them disproportionately worse off.
Iris rang me last night from the airport, about to go home and it really upset me. I had to get out of bed, make myself a cup of tea and go and sit outside and look at the stars to calm myself down. It’s the missing close, loving relationships that chokes me every time, not other deprivations. Why are Cameroonians so lacking in that area and I don’t mean sex, it’s emotional sensitivity.
I won my battle with B about the sheep being taken out into ‘the bush’ every day, but only because Hamadou the carpenter intervened. This week I had to get him to speak to B about shitting in obviously visible places close to the house and coming to the house 2-3 times during the day which is totally unnecessary. I don’t know whether the shit issue was a protest against me not cleaning up the chicken shit quick enough for his liking last week, but it’s tiring and makes it virtually impossible for me to feel close or trusting to him, but that is their style according to Hamadou. You just have to go over and over the same ground – probably an education thing. It is a pity because generally my overwhelming feeling towards people here is of respect for living in such difficult circumstances and compassion.
There are no new volunteers coming to Bogo in September and VSO have cleaned out the volunteer houses. I have heard from Eve (education – Canadian) who is back in Montreal starting a post grad course and Lara (HIV- joint French-American citizenship) who is back temping at her old job in Brighton, England. I’m not sure why she settled in England. I’m not gutted that there are no vols in Bogo because there is no guarantee they would be your best mate, but it just reduces any possibility. There are only 9 new volunteers coming to the Far North this September when there were over 30 last year. I don’t understand the shortfall when so many thousands of people apply for VSO. Maybe word is spreading how tough it is! Most of the volunteers who left would not have been very flattering.
I am proud of my culinary skills this week. I have found that I can get peanut oil here to use for cooking which is relatively inexpensive and delicious. I made patties out of grated potato, onion and peanut paste (a bit like peanut butter without preservatives), fried them and had with ratatouille and last night a concoction with red kidney beans, onions and tomatoes and sauté potatoes.