I've been crazy busy but I don't have too much news

Even though it's been weeks since I've written I really don't have a huge amount to report. I have been really busy over the past few weeks, especially since Max has now gone to Bamenda to study in the past few weeks, so I have all of the responsibility for the CSP now. It's great. I love all of the independence that I have now, although it is quite hard work. The OCD is working overtime to make sure that I get everything covered, and loving the fact that there is no way I would get everything covered if I didn't write very comprehensive To Do lists.

I like the way I get to do all of the shopping for the children now, and I do all of the stuff like pay their school fees and write the reports and all of those things. I'm getting seriously good at getting good prices for stuff too, especially in Bamenda. I have a foolproof way of haggling that hasn't failed me yet. The general rule is that white people get charged about double and then a bit extra of what a local would be charged, but I recently bought shoes for 2000 for a kid after I was quoted 12000. I got such a retail therapy rush after that one! Even my Gracy's chicken sandwich tasted better!

We're running a new programme to get all of our sponsored children tested for HIV, along with other children, because there has been a special fund raised in the UK by the lovely Christina, and her Commit 2 Africa charity, so that's how I'm spending my Fridays at the moment. Thankfully, so far, all of the results have been negative, which is just so unbelievably lucky, so it hasn't been as awful as it had the potential to be. The hospital care continues to amaze me, they're really good at what they do. Because I wrote them a letter a few weeks ago telling them that they are really good at what they do, I get treated a bit like a celebrity there, it's great. Everyone who I've ever dealt with in the hospital always comes to say hello, and the matron comes from wherever she is in the hospital to chat to me, and the last day we were there, one of the registrars, Etienne, basically shadowed us around the hospital to make sure that we were always getting seen to wherever we needed to go, and the lab stayed open late to take our samples and everything. It's amazing what a few words on a sheet of paper can do! I knew at the time that it wouldn't be a bad move to write the letter, but I had no idea that it would prove to be such a big deal. I wouldn't have written it if I didn't really believe that they deserved it though! I wonder if they would act the same way if a local person wrote a letter.

We didn't complain a few weeks ago though when I took Daniel because he basically was too sick to work for a whole month. He had a few different symptoms at the start that the others have had in the past few months that indicate that he probably had a bacterial thing in his digestive system called Giardia, but then even after the meds he still felt nauseous. I was really really worried about him, especially as the longer it went on, the more it seemed like it was more in his head that a physical ailment. The month included two trips to hospital, once to Mbingo, then to Njinikom, which is when they literally registered him and then knocked on Dr. Jim's door, and practically kicked out the person that was in with him so that Dr. Jim would see us. We skipped loads of people. It's a tough one to decide about, because you do feel really bad about skipping all of the people, but he just felt so crap, and everything takes so darn long that it's kinda nice to be able to shave some time off here and there. I'm pretty sure if I ever feel as sick as Daniel has been I won't care who I'm cutting in front of, as long as I get to see the good doctor. Anyway despite the two visits and another with Anita to hospital over four weeks, he didn't really ever get an answer on what was wrong with him, and then a nice text message from a girl that he likes came one Friday, and lo and behold he was up and about the next day going off to the tea plantation to check out the literacy project that he's the custodian of. While I'm soooooooooooooo glad that he's better, the whole thing makes me worry about him a bit. I know he suffers from depression, and I just couldn't figure out how to help him at all. I even had reached the stage where I warned him that I was going to have to engage the tough love strategy and go in and get him up out of bed on the Monday morning. Thank God, he was up and about two days earlier though, cos I really would have hated to have to do that. I wouldn't know how to begin!

The seasons here are changing with the arrival of the dry season, although the wet is still putting up a fight with a few showers here and there, mainly at night, although today it rained for most of the afternoon, which I am so grateful for, as we have had no water for the past nine days. We've gone longer without water before, but I could collect roof water every day for flushing, but that's not so easy in the dry. It's not pleasant, although I do pay Victor, our bike driver, to get water every day, but I still have to use it really sparingly. It's seriously hot in the daytime, and it's really pleasant walking to work, although walking home up that mother of a hill does not a very attractive Dee make. Sweaty? Yes! But attractive? No! Rather ironically, we have been told that the water is far more reliable in the dry season, because the rain is not washing lots of debris into the drain, but so far, I am disinclined to believe that!

There is also a strange atmosphere about in the area at the moment. It's not scary or anything, before anyone starts to worry, but there's a security clampdown around here because Paul Biya (the president) is supposedly coming to Bamenda at the end of this month. It makes a lot of sense now that the bandstand was pulled down in town a few weeks ago, although if they actually manage to get a new bandstand built by the end of this month that will leave me with one HUGE question: If they can actually build things that quickly when the president is coming to visit, then why does it literally take decades for them to build anything else? So in preparation for the visit, the Gendarmes are really out in force on the roads, looking extra hard for bribes as far as I can make out (well if everything I hear is to be believed, it's what Mr. Biya would want). On the way to Njinkom last Friday, they stopped us on the road and went over my ID with a fine tooth comb hoping for there to be some way to get some money out of me, but I had everything in order. Thank God, I had gotten my new ID made a few weeks ago and stamped at the Gendarme Office in Belo, cos I had completely forgotten to do that for a few weeks, and had been going around with my old, out-of-date visa. The other thing that they're doing is imposing an eight o'clock curfew in Bamenda, which means that the whole city basically shuts down at half seven.

I'm off to Yaounde with Daniel in a few weeks to get my visa renewed, although that is really just the catalyst for our trip, as mainly we're treating it as an opportunity to eat and drink all sorts of delicious things. I am SO excited about the thought of fresh French baguette and pate, and some lovely red wine. And ham, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ham!!!!! And chevre. Yum! All washed down with good wine. I will also be buying a camera there, and finally will be able to start supplementing the blog with photos. My camera is dead, having been killed by The Evil Virus, and there's a good one on sale in Bamenda, but I'd say I can get a better deal in Yaounde. We have to figure out if the night buses will still be running if the curfew's still in effect though. Getting the day bus down there isn't so bad, but it completely sucks if there are only day buses running when we're coming back because it will be impossible for us to get back to Belo, as we get in so late. I guess we have a few places to stay in Bamenda now, but after a trip like that, you just want your own bed. Daniel has not shaved now for about six months, (more about that later, in connection with something else), and we have decided that we might treat ourselves to a bit of a pamper in the Hilton while we're there. He's more in need of it than I, as he is quite caveman-like at the moment, although if the water doesn't come back before I go, I'm definitely treating myself to something. I am going to use the afore-mentioned camera to take awesome before and after pictures in the entrance of the Hilton (provided that they even let him in the door of the place in his current state.)

We have had to say goodbye to the lovely Zeph this week, although she is still in the country, currently staying in the AMAZING hotel in Kribi, because we told her she had to go there before she left. I'm mad about Zeph, and I really miss her I have to say. She's hilarious, and a great buddy for the chats, just really good company. I hope she's having a great time there, although I happen to know she had the hotel calamari for dinner last night, so I'm pretty sure she's doing Kribi right! We said goodbye to Geneen a few weeks ago too. She was the American nurse. We also got a new volunteer, from America, although I get the impression she will be less social than Zeph or Geneen, as she's here to do research to help her get into a Masters' course in the US. She literally was here less than a week, and she got malaria, so I had her to stay in mine on Friday, so that she didn't have to stay in her house on her own when she was sick. She was really unlucky because she says she literally only remembers being bitten once here, and she got malaria. Although she wasn't taking any prophylaxis either so I guess it's a lesson hard learned. It can be a big deal, but if you get the right treatment meds, it just takes a few days to get over, so I think she's on the mend now.

We went to a party in Bamenda on Saturday. We've not had any trips in a while, saving a bit of moola for the trip to Kribi for New Year's Eve, and myself and Daniel knew we'd be going to Yaounde this month too, so we decided to make an effort to spend time with a few new people. While I love Daniel, Simon and Anita, four is quite a small number, so it's nice to have a slightly larger circle. Simon knows all of the VSO people as they always have workshops together and stuff. So we went to a dinner and drinks in one of their houses on Saturday, which was both delicious and great fun altogether. And there's two Peace Corps volunteers in Njinikom too, who we've just gotten to know recently and one of them is especially sweet. I wasn't sure what to make of her at first, but she came and hung out for the afternoon and we went for a drink on Wednesday and she's a dote. We went to a Peace Corps Halloween party on Saturday night from the house, and it was pretty big news. Americans are mental about Halloween, so everyone had worked really hard on their costumes. Daniel lives in his costume at the moment, because he went as Jesus. He has lost count of the number of children who have called him Jesus in the last few weeks. It goes down a storm here as you would imagine in a nation that's bonkers about church. I used my Irishness as an excuse to get away with not making a costume, and also the fact that we only decided last minute that we were going. It was really fun, to go and mingle with lots of new people, cos I do miss going out. I'm really happy here, but that doesn't mean that when the weekend rolls around I don't hanker after having the craic and a few glasses of Guinness and a few Coronas in some of Ireland's finest drinking establishments with a bunch of you lot! I hope some of you will ably assist me in making up for lost time next summer! Supposedly we're off to Bamenda again on Friday which will be fun too. There are even rumours of a trip to the really nice Dreamland that we discovered at the start of our trip to Yaounde and Kribi last time, which would be amazing.

I think that's about it for now. I'm off to have some delicious veg stew which I made earlier and it's proper good, and I'm trying to make sure I keep eating healthily. It's be great to get through all of my time here without getting sick very much, so I'm very conscious of eating all of the vitamins and minerals I can. Especially when there's not as much water around, and lots of the shops are selling out of bottled water too cos of the shortage, so I have to be sure to keep lots of goodness in my diet.

Keep all of the messages and e-mails coming! I miss ya all loads!

Special mention to my mum for a really long e-mail. Good job!!! It was great to read all the news.

Also a big hi to Kate, Brendan, Brian and Aoife, who were all together this weekend. I hope you had a great time in Kinsale, and that you at least missed me a bit, cos I thought of you all lots this weekend!

Hugs xoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxox