Boo to February, YAY to March!!!

So February started off with me on a lovely natural high and realising that there was less time ahead of me than behind me. However, it descended into a pretty tough month (the toughest of my life I think).

The first thing that we did was lovely, which was a compound campfire. I have gotten really good at shopping for food in the Bamenda food market (you can get lots of goodies there that you can't get in Belo, like aubergine and courgette and things and when your vegetable variety is limited to 10 vegetables ALL the time, you get tremendously excited about things like that!), and I know it might sound strange but I really like going over to chicken island, going to see my chicken lady and weighing them in my hand to get the best value for money. It's one of the things here that really makes me stop and think "Hey this is a bit different from my life at home", when you're calming down a squalking chicken by putting your hand on it's breast, and thinking no, I reckon that other one that's running around has fatter feet and is a better buy. I admit that I draw the line at killing and feathering myself. I've seen it done, and I think I'd be fine to do it if it was just one motion with a sharp knife or an axe, but when we asked Christina to show us how to do it, she proceeded to saw through the neck and it took ages, so now I just hand over 500 extra CFA, and come back for my chicken in half an hour, to be handed a bag with two feet sticking out of the top of it, connected to a still warm chicken. After the disaster of the chicken that we bought for Christmas, which was so tough we couldn't even eat it, it's so good to have a treat now so I tend to buy it about every second week, and we make something yummy, even if it's just myself and Simon. The big compound campfire, we had possibly the most delicious Indian meal I've ever had. We were supposed to be going on a big hike to the Mbingo cliffs, which are absolutely stunning cliffs that are about 15 minutes drive away, and there's good hiking that includes a bit of bushwhacking and a spot of ridge walking. I've been dying to do it since I've come and have always been busy when the others have been doing it, (you need someone who knows the way, cos it's easy to get lost). However, early in the morning that Sunday, I started showing some symptoms of something, which turned out to be my second dose of malaria, along with a nasty little parasite called Giardia. The combination of the two meant I couldn't keep down any food or water for a week, and on the Friday and Saturday I was on a completely different planet for about 36 hours, with a really high fever, and plenty of hallucinations. (they were really nice ones though, I was chatting away to my family, all of whom I thought were in the room with me. Great chats altogether.) After the last time that I got malaria, even though I'm meticulous about taking my prophylaxis, I figured the smart thing to do was to keep a treatment. I guess I just susceptible to it, but apparently if you take the prevention, the dose you get is not as bad as if you're on nothing. Considering that this dose was definitely worse than the last one, and I was completely out of it until the Saturday afternoon, it was a good thing I had the treatment, because the hospitals here are not really open on Sundays for out-patients or new patients to check in. However, when I went to the hospital to Dr. Jim (who is AMAZING!!! His wife Terry is completely awesome too. Literally two of the nicest people I've ever met) and got the tests done, I found out I had a pretty bad case of Giardia too (it doesn't usually show up in tests but Westerners are a bit susceptible to it, so if we have the symptoms, then that's what we get treated for, but in my results it showed I had a really high reading) so I went on the meds for that one.

Then just as I started to feel slightly normal, I had to go into Bamenda to try to sort out my visa. I had been given two extensions in Yaounde, but Immigration had told me that I couldn't get another one, and that I would have to get the residents permit. Usually it costs 250,000 CFA, but the guy in the office assured me that I could get volunteer status, which means it should cost 7000 CFA. Of course, it took me a few weeks to gather all of the paperwork, and when I went back into him, in typical Cameroonian fashion, there was a problem, and lo and behold I was not eligible for volunteer. I guess the Cameroonian government felt I hadn't spent enough here as it was, and sure why take 7000 when you can demand 250000. I was so incredibly mad at the whole system. And incredibly stressed. So I was told that the only thing I could do was to chance staying here illegally (yup, not an actual option really, although I was so angry, still sick and really stressed and for a fleeting second nearly considered it), or to leave the country to come back in, and get a re-entry visa. Cameroon is surrounded by the following countries: Nigeria (the border is seriously sketchy, patrolled by bandits, and the Cameroonian army is deployed there, and that wasn't an option), Chad (the same Chad where the Irish army are on Peace-keeping duty-again not an option), Equatorial Guinea, (currently, along with Somalia, the pirate capital of the world)....I assume the pattern that's developing is pretty clear. Bottom line is that when you're in Cameroon, if at all possible, you should try to avoid having to take a bus across a border. All of the border areas are pretty lawless, and it's there that the Cameroonian army do most of their work. They put soldiers on buses, although not every bus, there are bandits all over the place, and it's all pretty dodge. Anyway, thinking I had no option, I made the decision to go to Gabon, which was the best of a bad lot. I was pretty stressed, didn't sleep for a week, and left my passport in to the Gabonese embassy to get my visa for going into Gabon. I was supposed to collect the passport on the Friday middle of the day, and at the eleventh hour, my aunt came for through for me, with a donation to buy the proper residents permit, and the Catholic Mafia struck again. I literally couldn't speak on the phone I was so relieved and emotional. I just had to hang up, and burst into tears. And that concluded the most stressful, miserable, sick, sleep-deprived, depressing, and depressed month of my life.

I was in Yaounde, and Simon had his VSO conference there at the same time, so thank God I hadn't been there on my own, and my Peace Corps friends were amazing trying to give me advice and help me out with putting me in contact with a Peace Corps Volunteer who was near the border. But by the time the Friday night came, I felt we had earned the expensive dinners myself and Simon had been eating all the week. (He was staying in Bastos, which is a slightly freaky area of Yaounde, in that you could be in London or LA. I had a bit of reverse culture shock. The prices reflect the area though too.) Then on the Saturday, we went to the Hilton to watch the rugby, and I saw the only match of this year's six nations that I would get to watch which was the England France game. Obviously I would have preferred to see an Ireland game. I saw the ill-fated last ten minutes of the Ireland France game, but the less said about that the better. But after the preceding few weeks, it was so nice to sit with a cold Heineken, and watch any rugby at all!

The next day I made one of the most useful purchases of my entire stay in Cameroon, a big-ass pair of proper naff 80's headphones. The ones like you used to buy to plug into stereo systems when they were huge and bulky and had a record player on the top. (Also included in my recent stash of 80's items is a proper old-school rain jacket, which looks like I got it straight from the wardrobe department of the movie E.T.-It will be making its Arklow debut on the St. Mary's hockey field, and no doubt will be the subject of much abuse from my students). Needless to say I can rock the headphones. (Ahem. I literally don't think the coolest person in the world could carry them off). However, I don't give a crap. They're proper loud, and they drown out pretty much everything on the buses or in the cars when you're travelling. I vowed that my trip to Yaounde during the visa debacle would be my last trip on a night bus, cos I've decided I don't gain anything, and the last time I got there it was still dark, which entirely defeats the purpose. So I had my great huge earphones and a day bus and it was all fine. We actually got back in time to watch the Scottish game, rushed across town to the most Western bar in Bamenda, to find that there was no electricity. So near and yet so far I thought! Ah well, the legend that is my friend Brendan gave me text updates through the game, as he, my parents and Kate have been doing during the whole campaign. According to Simon, I was so crazy when I was getting the text updates, he was relieved we weren't able to watch it. But in my defence, the Scotland game was a pretty stressful one!

So back to Belo, and normal life, and I was completely ready for March to usher February into history! I have done the timeline of how long I have left here, and I have set up a reasonable timeframe for everything that I want to do. When I came, I think I probably spread myself too thinly, and my teaching in the school is the thing that has had to take a backseat, but nothing seems to be organised in a structured way. I show up to teach, and find that my children aren't there, or that there is another teacher in my class, or that classes have been cancelled for any one of a myriad of reasons. However, the three main projects that I have been working on here have been going really well, and I will meet my targets for all three.

The orphan project is properly set up, and well-run, and is completely transparent now. I have begun to train up two field workers in Janet and Carine, two of our older girls in the programme. They're both sponsored, and they're incredibly capable and responsible, and it's so nice to be able to put them in a position where it's clear that someone believes in them, and I am lavish in my praise of them, as children are so rarely in receipt of it here, but they deserve all of it. It's incredible. The project will be transparent, well-organised and completely run and staffed by Cameroonians apart from some input from myself and another on-line volunteer (a complete legend called Christina, who is coming for a visit in a few weeks-I can't wait. She's fantastic, so I'd say it will be great craic.) Plus both the girls are walking about 3 feet taller than they were when they came, and they each get a small wage, and they're brilliant. It's because I have handed over, and am training them and mainly now in a supervisory role that I finally have time to do the blog.

I have properly established the linking project between St. Mary's and ABC and GMM, and I'm hoping to extend it to do some work with the Catholic Hospital in Njinikom too.

And my teacher training project is going well. I have a class on Saturday, and then only have one module left, and will do my field evaluation visits over the next few weeks. It's a strange feeling to just have a few months left and realise that the timelines I had drawn up for my projects are all in the last quarter, and that the goals will be met.

Sometimes I feel bad about the teaching, but it is such a colossal waste of my time to trek to the school when I don't have a class, and at the end of the day, if a kid has to be brought to hospital, that's going to take priority, and after the last month, there is no way I'm not taking care of myself if I don't get enough sleep (The usual window without incredibly loud drumming and awful Nigerian or Cameroonian music is between 4am and 5.30am), especially since Dr. Jim told me one of my big problems healthwise here was that I'm not getting enough sleep, which is wreaking havoc with my immune system. I will be mainlining Pharmaton plus whatever other supplements I can get my hands on when I get back. I dread to think how the year would have gone if I hadn't been taking the Pharmaton here every day!

I am really loving it here at the moment too. I have been really lucky in that I have made some really amazing friends, and I have the best of all worlds. In Simon, I have a rock, without whom I wouldn't get through the year, I'd say. The Belo volunteers are such fun, and really chilled out, and then the Peace Corps are a nice mix of chilled out and big party people. This week was perfect. On a couple of nights, myself and Simon had tea and cake or Chocolate Fingers (Cadbury's ones, by some miracle, a random shop in Bamenda had them) and watched Lewis (yes, the ITV detective drama starring Kevin Whately, and no, I'm not in my late sixties), which was AWESOME, although the fact that we loved it so much was the cause of much hilarity among the other volunteers here. The for Patrick's Day, I made a HUGE pit of Colcannon, and there was just 8 or 9 of us and it was deliciously chilled out with some wine. There was an attempt to drink some Guinness, but I manages about a glass and abandoned that plan. It might say Guinness on the bottle, but it is definitely NOT! Can't wait for a proper creamy glass when I get home. Then on Saturday, I planned to go into town to watch all three rugby games. Truth be told, I was more pumped about that than about Patrick's Day. Plus since it was the England game, there has been lots of abuse flying back and forth between myself, Simon and Ruth. So we rocked up, and got the remote, and the damn match wasn't on. Myself and my friend Kat had planned a night out dancing anyway, so we ended up with another friend, Dustin, having a few beers for the afternoon, while I received text updates practically on a tackle by tackle basis. There was much toasting of all things Irish rugby, as well as the Irish cricket team, and Simon, and a new volunteer, J, also, English had gone home, so obviously I had to send many witty text messages (well I thought they were witty, the others didn't agree so much!) Then we met up with the rest of the gang, and went dancing in the Ayaba hotel. I'm not a huge fan of nightclubs at home, and they are a whole different ball game in Cameroon. Early in the night, when at home the only people on the dance floor would be a gang of very drunk girls, it's ALL groups of guys, who are not shy about dancing VERY close to one another. It ended up being great craic, although I don't feel the need to have another night in a club now before I go home. I've done 5 nightclub nights in six months and I'm pretty sure that fills up my quota for about 18 months!

Random thoughts, ramblings and observations:

The rainy season is back this week. I know that it will make everything very green and pretty, but I have to admit I prefer the dry, despite the dust. It's just a balls not being able to really go anywhere in the afternoons, and the mud is unbelievable. Plus we usually lose water and power even more than usual. (No running water count is now at three and a half weeks, except for two periods of about an hour and a half each, which were lifesaving cos I could fill up all of my bottles-I keep about 6o old drinking water bottles. It's usually a good system, although last week I accidentally drank river water cos I'd forgotten to peel the label off. It's a mistake I won't be making again. I can think of better ways to spend my day than having to stay within a few feet of my bathroom!) The upside of the rainy season though is that I get to use my Mary Poppins umbrella and my 80's rainjacket. Not at the same time of course! I wouldn't want to look stupid!

I am sooooooooooo excited about Electric Picnic. WOOHOOO!!!!!!!! I swear this is going to one hell of a summer! I'm really on the home straight now, so I can actually start thinking about it properly cos it's only a few months away! Of course the other side of that is that I will have to leave my kids, although it wouldn't be hugely shocking to me if I tried to stuff Joel and Amos into my suitcase!

My hair is (for me) super long! Having posted a pic of myself with Joel and Amos, the one thing everyone commented on was my hair. It's weird for me, and all opinions regarding what I should about it will be considered cos I don't know what the hell to do with it when I go home, cos I don't have a clue.

I have found an amazing tailor, and since I wasn't exactly exercising astonishing self control on the clothes buying front (in my defence, the frip is THE best vintage store in the world, and I'm picking up class stuff for 100 and 200 francs (It's 656 francs to a Euro. Cha-ching!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I may have a problem closing my suitcase on the way home. They're so sweet in there too. I love going in and having a little sit down and chat with them a few times a week. I go in when I'm not getting stuff made too-I'm honestly not getting dresses made a few times a week!

I think that's about it for now. I finally will have time now to keep this updated a bit more regularly, now that the girls are doing most of the work, and I have done all of the legwork so the systems are all set up at this stage. There's a few fun things coming up too. Simon's mum is coming for a couple of weeks, so I'm taking some time off to do some touristy stuff, and to go to Limbe, which is the other beach resort town here besides Kribi, but it has black sand because it's at the foot of Mount Cameroon, which is an active volcano. Then Christina is coming for two weeks in May, and I'll be starting my wind-down proper a week or two after she's gone.