Real Cameroonians Wear White.

       A few weeks ago I wrote about the ways that I've been spending my time other than working. And it's true, the month surrounding Christmas was a little bit of a dead zone when it came to any official productivity. But in the weeks since then I've finally started thinking about my time here and the ways that I want to spend it. Before the holidays, I had two main tentative work partners: Heifer International Cameroon and the local Government Bilingual High School. Heifer (here's it's pronounced high-fer) is the organization that I was officially assigned to by Peace Corps-I have a desk at their office and an established line of communication between Peace Corps and my supervisors there. But as I'm quickly learning, there's an incredible amount of flexibility in Peace Corps service (at least in Cameroon), and it's primarily up to me to figure out which work partners that I'm interested in working with.

         My assignment with Heifer is a little confusing-I've been assigned to work with a farmers' group that has already been "weaned" from Heifer's official program and is now (ideally) functioning independently. They have already received their gifts (in this case dairy cows) and related training. I've been quite impressed by the comprehensiveness of Heifer's program so far; they work to incorporate all potential factors of success for a small-scale farmer. The farmers that I work with all received a package that included (for each farm family-there are 20 in the group) their own heifer, materials to build a shelter to house it, seeds, and gender relations and HIV/AIDS awareness training. Heifer strongly encourages zero-grazing feeding systems that, for all of you organic and local food lovers out there, is the opposite of free-range practices. I was a little confused when I first heard this (having also come from a culture where free-range animals are prized so highly) but have now learned the advantages of such a system for dairy cattle that must be milked every day. In addition, zero-grazing systems allow farmers to have better control over an animal's diet and access to it's manure, which can be spread on farm fields or used for biogas production (more on that another time). Basically, animals being raised on such a small-scale don't have the same negative consequences as their counterparts in larger-scale operations.

           I'll be the first to admit that there is a lot about life in America that I miss and wish Cameroon had (there are no bagels here. literally unacceptable. and don't even get me started on taxi etiquette). But when it comes to the way that Cameroonians treat their livestock, Americans could learn a thing or two. Granted, the entire system is completely different. More than half of the population depend on agriculture as their primary source of income. But this means that Cameroonians have a dependency to each and every animal under their care. The health and productivity of each animal is extremely important and requires constant monitoring. In the farmers' group that I work with, the gift of a heifer (female cow) has been literally life changing-their average family salary before their gift was approximately $200 annually. Now, (with careful planning and care) they are able to produce between 6-10 liters of milk per day (earning between $2-4) for 10 months of the year. That's already $900. If they are able to get their heifer pregnant each year (which Heifer encourages all farmers to do), they are also able to sell the offspring for between $600-1200, depending on gender and size. Of course, there are expenses associated with livestock care, and not all of the above numbers are strictly profit. But the amount of benefit that each family receives is undeniable and continues year after year. The differences between a farm that works with Heifer and one that does not are visible (of course, farmers working with Heifer tend to be innovators and may have already been at an advantage). But all in all, I'm feeling fortunate to have the opportunity to work with an NGO that is doing such impressive work.

            I've been (at least in name) been working with Heifer for a little while now; I think my first day there was in early December. But more recently I've started an additional side project (turns out that working as a Heifer extension agent is far from full-time) at a local health clinic. The process by which I've continued to meet people and learn about new organizations is interesting and circuitous-I've passed this particular health center almost daily but didn't know it was there until one of my neighbors invited me to show me her workplace a few weeks ago. It turns out that she works (as a statistician?) in the HIV/AIDS department of the health center (which is much more comprehensive than I would have expected). The health center is religiously affiliated (which I was initially trying to avoid), but I've come to realize the importance of religion in everyday life to Cameroonians and have made my peace with it. Side note: I'm asked almost daily about my religious views and if I'm a church-goer. To their credit, my answer of being Jewish and that "they don't have a church for me here" seems to satisfy most people, and many continue to invite me to attend their church. In fact, my Francophone neighbors are so committed to their weekly worship that they attend services each Sunday…in English. 

            The most casual aspect of my work at the moment is the semi-regular tutoring sessions that I have with some of the children in my neighborhood.  They're relatively informal and take place one-on-one, but they've proved to be a good way to get to know my neighbors better and spend some time learning from each other. We primarily work on math (it's basic enough that I still remember enough to help them) and today I started working with my next-door neighbor on her English homework. Luckily, the subject of her exercise was elephants (why elephant vocabulary is deemed essential for a basic level English class is beyond me), as I gave a presentation on elephants in French during Pre-Service Training. So I even had the corresponding French vocabulary to use as necessary. I've noticed recently that it is quite common for students to be held back a grade or two, which creates a wide spread of ages in a given classroom (this seems especially true for girls). In my neighbor's family alone, the oldest boy is at least two grades ahead of two of his older sisters. 

            So there are finally some work projects showing up in my life, but it's important to have some playtime as well. This week brings the end of the month and other Volunteers in the region to town as they come to collect their monthly living allowance. The advantages of living in a major banking city are numerous, but this might be my favorite. Seeing friends from stage about once a month is a frequency that allows us to stay updated on each others' lives (without running up huge phone credit bills-the phones here are all pay-as-you-go) without interfering with our individual integration in our communities. And for me personally, I get to see my friends from the other parts of the region without having to travel at all. That might sound like a drawback (as I'd previously assumed that I would want to get out of my village each month), but the condition of the roads is generally pretty bad and even short trips can be quite time-consuming (and motion sickness-inducing…).

            Another recent highlight came last week, when Edith and I finally caved and each bought an ice cream bar. I know that it's the end of January and probably the middle of winter for most of you reading this, but here we live in a never-ending summer. This time of year is dry season (the dust is choking and inescapable) and it gets pretty hot during the day. I've probably lost all sense of temperature by now (although I used to be quite proud of my ability to survive/sometimes enjoy Minnesotan winters) but my first ice cream in months was borderline incredible. Some might call it a game-changer. Also counts as another benefit of living in a big city (many small towns have soft-serve ice cream machines, but we've been warned of the dangers of associated amoebas and I haven't wanted to test my luck). A last note on the topic of dry season: I've been starting to work with the farmers' group in my village, and attended a group meeting early this week (an hour in, not a single person had shown up). But I was surprised and pleased to learn about how common awareness of climate change is here, even among rural villagers. One of the group members expressed his worry about the timing of the rains and the recent unpredictability, which he attributed to the changing climate. This is my first experience with dry season, but I've been told that it is supposed to last from November to March or so. Which made the recent rainstorms that we've had all the more surprising. I wasn't expecting to see any rain for at least another month or so, but it's rained twice in the past 36 hours-quite strange. No snow yet though.

TL,DR: I'm finally back to (or starting…) work and as expected, things are slow to get off the ground. But I'm continuing to learn about my community and get to know my neighbors and other people around town. It's kind of like being a celebrity without doing anything to deserve it. So I guess it's just kind of like being a regular celebrity these days.

P.S. Got a care package from home last night-guess who has more maple syrup than she knows what to do with!? Turns out there are advantages to having parents that buy it in five-gallon increments.