Yes this is a grand overstatement, but it sounds better than: a peace corps volunteer who goes to remote villages for health animations, attends a beekeeping conference and is experiencing a drought. Honestly the last one is worst than it sounds.
I was back at post for only ten days after the Inter-Service
Training conference before going to a beekeeping conference in Ngaoundere. In that short period of time I was able
to hit the countryside and do a series of malaria and nutrition animations in
very small villages on the lake and out in the bush (the countryside). One of the villages Housseini and I
visited in the bush looked like it was out of a Discovery Channel show with
it’s painted houses that I never saw in the villages that sit on the road from
Mbakaou to Tibati. The villages by
the lake are also important to visit, because I found, to my surprise, that
many of the locals are still lacking a lot of information on malaria despite
their close proximity to the lake.
On top of this they are a fair distance from the nearest health center
making a visit expensive, difficult and often done in only extreme cases. This is a major problem for healthcare
in rural Africa in general. A
round trip motorcycle or car ride to the nearest health center plus the cost of
treatment, can be a major blow to the family budget of a farmer or
fisherman. This is why prevention
(especially with malaria) is so important and why I believe these odd little
visits to villages are absolutely worthwhile. I just hope the information is well received. It can be a difficult sell convincing
people to do anything different in their personal lives, especially if the
information is coming from an outsider who does not even speak Fulfulde/Hausa/Gbiya.
Regarding the second overstatement, I recently attended a
bee keeping conference. As you
might have deducted, income (or lack of) is a strong detriment of proper (or
any) treatment. Upon hearing of
the conference, I saw the production of honey as a possible income generating
activity in the surrounding communities.
My before mentioned counterpart Housseini runs a local agriculture group
in the small town of Bolinting. We
are planning on starting the project with them. As someone who use to be afraid of bees, this conference
posed some challenges, but with a rudimentary bee keeping suit (a wide brimmed
hat, raincoat, jeans, hiking boots, gloves and a mesh around my face) and lots
of smoke derived from leaves, branches and cow poop, we were able to protect
ourselves. However now my hat
smells like smoky cow poop. The
conference was interesting and I hope to keep you all updated with the project
as it comes into being.
Finally, the biggest problem I have been facing recently has
been the lack of rainwater. It is
the end of dry season however rainy season is coming late leading to many of
the wells drying up. Worse, of the
five pubic water pumps in town (many built by foreign NGO’s and corporations),
only one works. There is another
one but it is privately owned.
There is a well in my compound however it is almost completely dry. When I throw the bucket down to fetch
water, the side of the bucket hits the bottom of the well and it usually brings
up muddy water. I do have a water
filter that cleans the dirty water, but it often means not having very clean
showers and buying lots of bottled water too. It is a worrying concept and it surprises me that people
seem so less concerned than myself.
The problem is also affecting cities and other regions. In the regional capital of the
Northwest, Bamenda, water has finally started running through the pipes after
not working for three weeks! And
this is a city! It does rain
occasionally and when it does it rains hard. But it is a troubling development if it does not start
raining regularly soon.
That is all for now!
I hope you are all well!
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