Friday, I did an oil change on the Toyota Landcruiser while instructing Tim, Bethany, Joan and Abdu on everything I was doing. It was pretty simple; no hiccups or problems. Afterwards, Bethany, Tim, Abdu and I played Monopoly. Bethany won even though I had both Park Place and Boardwalk. At the height of my game, I had two houses on both. If only someone had landed on them once, perhaps things would have worked better for me, but no such luck! Maybe next time…
That night, Abdu and I went into town for dinner. It was getting dark when we started to walk along the main road into Banyo. We walked for about ten minutes before a motorcycle taxi came along and we got a ride into town. It cost 200 francs (roughly $.45) for the five minute ride. Abdu rode in the middle and I was on the very back end. I was surprised at how safe I felt on the very back, holding onto the luggage rack for support. I see three people riding motorcycles quite often and I always think it has to be scary for that third person. But we didn’t really go that fast. I’d say the fastest we were going was about 25 mph downhill. These 125cc (.125L) 4-stroke single cylinder motorcycles top out at about 45 mph on a paved road, unloaded. So naturally, we didn’t gain much speed. The taxi drivers around here really use and abuse the machines. They’re certainly not supposed to have three people on them or much of any weight. Bob said one time he saw someone carrying four 80lb sacks of concrete mix on the back of a motorcycle. The suspension just bottoms out and you have to pretty much drive in first gear the whole way but I guess if it’s the only way you have to get from point a to point b, then you have no other choice.
The taxi dropped us off at Salamoun Voyage. Abdu and I split three plates of soya steak meat, four loaves of bread and we each had a cup of hot, sweet tea. It was 2,000 francs ($4.20 or so) for the meal. It filled us up and was pretty tasty. We walked around town for a little bit, stopped in a grocery store to buy some bottled waters and some candy. I was hoping to get something unique to Cameroon and I didn’t know what to get so I just told Abdu to pick out a candy he likes. He picked out some lollipops and I kind of laughed inside a little bit. Maybe next time I’ll know what to look for and pick it out myself. I asked Joan what some candies unique to Cameroon/Africa are a few days ago but didn’t write them down right away and couldn’t remember the names she told me. I’ll have to ask again and get those the next time I’m in town.
We walked around for a bit longer and bought some meat on a stick being fried on the street. It was 50 francs per stick of meat. It was okay, but didn’t have the flavor of the soya at Salamoun Voyage. It also probably wasn’t as healthy either since it wasn’t exactly hot and fresh but so far I feel fine. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. It took a little while to get a taxi back into town. To hail a taxi you either stick your fingers up out in the air as one is driving by or make somewhat of a hissing, “pssst” noise as they drive by if they didn’t see you at first. I guess they really tune their ear for that noise because I was surprised they heard Abdu “pssst” over the “waaaaahhhh” of their engines. The first several people that stopped either wanted too much money to get back (600 francs) or didn’t want to drive to Wouram because you have to pass a police checkpoint. If they stop you and you don’t have the proper insurance papers (which most don’t), then the taxi driver will be bribed and they just don’t want to deal with that. Finally we found someone for 400 francs that wasn’t afraid of the police. We made it back safely, this time I rode in the middle. When we were back Abdu, Dayyibu and I watched a movie I have called, “No Country for Old Men.” It’s about a hunter who finds money from a drug deal gone bad out in the middle of the desert in west Texas. As a result of finding this money, another man who also wants the money and knows the hunter has it, tries to hunt down the hunter. In the process, he kills many people. It’s a pretty suspenseful movie with lots of shoot ‘em up scenes. I think Abdu and Dayyibu really enjoyed it. Dayyibu kept on saying throughout the movie, referring to the man who ruthlessly kills everyone in the process of trying to get the money, “that man is a very very bad man.” From what I can see, most of the American movies that are around here are mostly Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, kung fu movies. I think it was like something they had never seen before.
Saturday, Bob and I hooked power up to Dayyibu’s house by connecting it to the power coming into my house. It took a few hours and we had to crawl into the roof for a little bit, which felt like Texas and made both of us sweat quite a bit. Apparently it isn’t as hot as it’s going to get, yet. March and April will be the hottest and I’ll see how it stacks up to the Texas heat. Saturday was also Tim’s birthday. Joan cooked lasagna, some garlic bread, and made some jello for dinner. We had coke and sprite as special treats to drink. After dinner we had some cake and ice cream that Bethany made. Afterwards, Tim opened presents and we watched a movie I have called the Transporter. It’s about a guy whose job is to transport goods, no questions ask. Things go wrong and bad guys are trying to kill him, he has to rescue a girl, so on and so forth. I’d say it’s like a James Bond movie in a sense. Lots of car chases, fight scenes and things blowing up. I think the family enjoyed it.
I went to church in Wouram today, where I went the first Sunday I was here. The music was very lively and the sermon was on forgiving those who do wrong to you, and not counting transgressions. The forgiving someone 70x7 times reference came up a few times. I didn’t catch the entire sermon since it was a little hard to understand the pastor at times, but I caught the basic gist of it. After church, we had lunch at the Lokkers home and now I’m on the internet. Until next time...
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Cleaning carburetors, learning about diseases...
Wednesday was the first day where I didn’t see Bob at all until after dinner time. He and Sulemanu went to a different village to fellowship and assist “refugees” from the Central African Republic. We say they are refugees but they’ve lived in this area of Cameroon for a number of years now. There was conflict in the C.A.R. a decade or so ago where the president had armed a group of militias around the country in order to maintain peace, prevent any incoming attacks from neighboring countries and all around just have an army for defense. Well, the money the president had set aside to pay these militias soon ran out and the government wasn’t able to pay these people for their services. As a result, the militias basically kept the weapons they were supplied with and started terrorizing people around the country. They would kidnap people, hold them for ransom, and demand bribes from innocent, peaceful people. A number of people left the country and flooded into Cameroon. They live a ways away, probably an hour or so. Most that left settled with extended family members in Cameroon or settled on the edges of already existing towns. I imagine a lot of the work Bob and Sulemanu did involved non-English speakers and it would’ve been probably more of a hassle to have me around so I stayed in Wouram and did some work.
Dayyibu and I put the tire back on Bob’s motorcycle wheel, put the wheel back on, and adjusted his rear brake. I also determined the engine to a water pump here has no compression. It’s kind of at a dead end for now until I can find a compressed air source to do a cylinder leak down test to determine where the leak is coming from. I also started to work on an orange Mitsuba motorcycle that hasn’t run in a while. The spark plug boot, or cap, was missing and the bare, non-insulated spark plug wire was just wrapped around the tip of the spark plug. I went into town with Dayyibu, bought a new spark plug boot, dropped into Salamoun Voyage to eat some more soya (steak). While there, I also had some fried bread known as jinjin. It was kind of sweet and tasted a little like a croissant. I think it had a little bit of sugar sprinkled on it. I also had a fried plantain which was not as appetizing as I thought it would be. I figured I like bananas, especially the delicious bananas here, but not this fried plantain. Oh well.
When we got back, I put the spark plug boot on the Mitsuba motorcycle, sprayed some fuel down the throat of the carburetor and gave it a start. It started up after many attempts but was running a little rough.
After dinner, Tim, Bethany, Joan and I played a board game called Break the Safe. It was pretty fun and we all had a good time. Afterwards, we had carrot cake and Joan told me, in a very casual tone, all about different diseases you can get here and the kinds of medicines they take a few times a year as a precautionary measure. It’s a little scary the different things you can get here. One thing, called onchocerciasis also known as filmaria, or river blindness is where a worm will enter your body, usually through undercooked meats, and then it will live inside you. If it gets bad enough, after like a few weeks or months of having it, you’ll see little worms crawling under your skin. If it enters your eye, you can go blind. One missionary, in a town not too far from here had it, or rather, still has it. Once you get a full blown case of it, it stays in your system for up to 15 years! Another disease, which I believe was similar hookworm is a similar one to filmaria where little larvae will enter your skin and stay at the surface. They often get into your skin if you put on wet clothes. Let’s say you just did laundry and it’s drying out in the sun but is not quite fully dry in some areas. If you put it on and there is a larvae in there, it’ll get into your skin and form this lump that grows and grows. You can get it out by putting some Vaseline over the lump, putting a band-aid on and the little larvae will try to escape from being suffocated. That’s when you can pick it off and get it out. Both Bethany and Bob have had it. Bethany got it from clothes that were dried at a resthouse (hotel). Instead of the clothes being dried in a normal clothes line, they were dried directly on the grass or on bushes. It seems it would kind of defeat the purpose of washing them, depending on how dirty the clothes were in the first place. She put some clothes on and got hookworm. Bob got it from putting on hiking boots that had gotten wet. They weren’t fully dry before he put them on again and a sore developed around his ankles. I really hope I don’t come back with anything. When I come back to the states, for 2-3 weeks I’ll have to take doxycycline (an antibiotic) to prevent getting malaria in case it’s still in my system which it might be and might just be right now. I’m just currently immune to it thanks to the mefloquine pills I take once a week. I’ll also have to take a few of the meds the Lokkers take as precautionary medicines towards the end of my trip to get rid of anything that might be starting. I really can’t give blood for a very long time once I come back.
Thursday, I cleaned the carburetor for the orange Mitsuba motorcycle. It runs great now and actually works better than the blue one. In the afternoon, I taught Tim, Bethany and Joan how carburetors work and then took the carburetor that I just cleaned apart again to show what the different parts look like. There is a diesel powered air compressor here that was used to power a water pump for a well. It hasn’t run in about a year but if I can get the engine running again, change the air hose fittings, tighten up on some air fittings and change a broken pipe, then it’ll be a working, useable air compressor like my one from home. What a blessing that would be. It’ll make cleaning carburetors easier, blowing up tires easier, cleaning dust off of EVERYTHING easier, and I’ll be able to do cylinder leak down tests on the two water pump engines that don’t have any compression. That’ll be the start of getting those two engines running again so it would be extremely productive to get this air compressor working. Bob said he’ll try to find the owner’s manual on it so we can figure out why some things are the way they are and possibly why it won’t work. I’m excited.
Dayyibu and I put the tire back on Bob’s motorcycle wheel, put the wheel back on, and adjusted his rear brake. I also determined the engine to a water pump here has no compression. It’s kind of at a dead end for now until I can find a compressed air source to do a cylinder leak down test to determine where the leak is coming from. I also started to work on an orange Mitsuba motorcycle that hasn’t run in a while. The spark plug boot, or cap, was missing and the bare, non-insulated spark plug wire was just wrapped around the tip of the spark plug. I went into town with Dayyibu, bought a new spark plug boot, dropped into Salamoun Voyage to eat some more soya (steak). While there, I also had some fried bread known as jinjin. It was kind of sweet and tasted a little like a croissant. I think it had a little bit of sugar sprinkled on it. I also had a fried plantain which was not as appetizing as I thought it would be. I figured I like bananas, especially the delicious bananas here, but not this fried plantain. Oh well.
When we got back, I put the spark plug boot on the Mitsuba motorcycle, sprayed some fuel down the throat of the carburetor and gave it a start. It started up after many attempts but was running a little rough.
After dinner, Tim, Bethany, Joan and I played a board game called Break the Safe. It was pretty fun and we all had a good time. Afterwards, we had carrot cake and Joan told me, in a very casual tone, all about different diseases you can get here and the kinds of medicines they take a few times a year as a precautionary measure. It’s a little scary the different things you can get here. One thing, called onchocerciasis also known as filmaria, or river blindness is where a worm will enter your body, usually through undercooked meats, and then it will live inside you. If it gets bad enough, after like a few weeks or months of having it, you’ll see little worms crawling under your skin. If it enters your eye, you can go blind. One missionary, in a town not too far from here had it, or rather, still has it. Once you get a full blown case of it, it stays in your system for up to 15 years! Another disease, which I believe was similar hookworm is a similar one to filmaria where little larvae will enter your skin and stay at the surface. They often get into your skin if you put on wet clothes. Let’s say you just did laundry and it’s drying out in the sun but is not quite fully dry in some areas. If you put it on and there is a larvae in there, it’ll get into your skin and form this lump that grows and grows. You can get it out by putting some Vaseline over the lump, putting a band-aid on and the little larvae will try to escape from being suffocated. That’s when you can pick it off and get it out. Both Bethany and Bob have had it. Bethany got it from clothes that were dried at a resthouse (hotel). Instead of the clothes being dried in a normal clothes line, they were dried directly on the grass or on bushes. It seems it would kind of defeat the purpose of washing them, depending on how dirty the clothes were in the first place. She put some clothes on and got hookworm. Bob got it from putting on hiking boots that had gotten wet. They weren’t fully dry before he put them on again and a sore developed around his ankles. I really hope I don’t come back with anything. When I come back to the states, for 2-3 weeks I’ll have to take doxycycline (an antibiotic) to prevent getting malaria in case it’s still in my system which it might be and might just be right now. I’m just currently immune to it thanks to the mefloquine pills I take once a week. I’ll also have to take a few of the meds the Lokkers take as precautionary medicines towards the end of my trip to get rid of anything that might be starting. I really can’t give blood for a very long time once I come back.
Thursday, I cleaned the carburetor for the orange Mitsuba motorcycle. It runs great now and actually works better than the blue one. In the afternoon, I taught Tim, Bethany and Joan how carburetors work and then took the carburetor that I just cleaned apart again to show what the different parts look like. There is a diesel powered air compressor here that was used to power a water pump for a well. It hasn’t run in about a year but if I can get the engine running again, change the air hose fittings, tighten up on some air fittings and change a broken pipe, then it’ll be a working, useable air compressor like my one from home. What a blessing that would be. It’ll make cleaning carburetors easier, blowing up tires easier, cleaning dust off of EVERYTHING easier, and I’ll be able to do cylinder leak down tests on the two water pump engines that don’t have any compression. That’ll be the start of getting those two engines running again so it would be extremely productive to get this air compressor working. Bob said he’ll try to find the owner’s manual on it so we can figure out why some things are the way they are and possibly why it won’t work. I’m excited.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Mmmm steak!
On Sunday, we had family church, which is where Bob, Joan, Tim and Bethany spend church at home, listening to a sermon on a tape and do an open discussion between them. I’m not sure how often they do it but this past Sunday I participated. We listened to a sermon that a family friend from I think Minnesota had put on an MP3 player for me to take to the Lokkers. The sermon was on always looking to Jesus in times of trouble, confusion, questions, or just in general any time. That seems to be a pretty big theme in the New Testament and the pastor wanted to stress that.
Afterwards, we mostly relaxed. Abdu came over to my house and we watched Twelve Monkeys. It was an interesting movie and I think Abdu was a little confused at times, and so was I. By the end I more or less had a sense of what happened and did my best to explain it to him. It takes place entirely in America and so I did my best to explain the social cues and context of phrases, sentences and the meanings of certain things that he probably wouldn’t understand not being from America and not seeing a ton of American films. I think he got most of it. Afterwards, Bethany, Tim, Abdu, Dayyibu and I played Monopoly. Dayyibu and Abdu had a little bit of trouble at first since they had never played but I think the next time we play they’ll do much better.
Yesterday, Dayyibu and I went into town to get a few things. We needed to check the price on a sprocket (the chain-driven gear on the back of a motorcycle) for Bob’s bike since it’s wearing out. We can’t get a new one but we can fix the piece to it that’s wearing out with a welder so it’s okay. We tried to find a sheet of gasket material so I could cut a new gasket for an engine that was in pieces but no such luck. We ended up using paper from an old calendar to cut a new gasket. We dropped a motorcycle wheel off at a machine shop to have them wire brush the inside of the rim since it’s very rusty and can create a hole in a tire tube as you ride the motorcycle. When we got the wheel back, it actually felt worse than when we dropped it off. They didn’t really smooth out the part that we wanted smooth. Instead, it looks like they took a grinder to it, and it now has sharp bits of metal. So much for that. I ended up taking a wire brush to it myself and then some sandpaper. It’s pretty smooth now. While in town, we also stopped at a hardware store to pick up some electrical connectors so Bob and I can work on hooking power up to Dayyibu’s house. We also stopped at a grocery store so I could get some bug killer for my room. I had an ant infestation in my bathroom but now it’s all taken care of.
Last, but certainly not least, we stopped at a place called Salamon Voyage. It’s a taxi park where people wait for buses to come along and take them to other cities in Cameroon. It also has a chop house in the back where people who are waiting for the next bus can get some food. I wanted to go there because I heard they have good soya, a dish with cut up bits of steak meat. It was delicious. It tasted just like a steak from back home. Dayyibu did the ordering and I just sat down and waited. It cost 500 francs (a little over a dollar) to get a dish that had probably about a third pound of meat. They also give you a plate that has a little bit of salt and pepe (a pepper similar to cayenne) on it. You eat the meat with your fingers (with your right hand) and can dip it into the salt/pepe. Dayyibu I and split three orders of the meat and we each had a cup of hot tea. The tea was very good and sweet, with lots of sugar. All in all the whole meal cost a little less than 5 dollars between the two of us and filled me up pretty well. The area where the giant meat slaps are cut up looked pretty unsanitary but hey, that’s what the fire is for. Joan said as long as the food is still hot when you get it, you’ll be okay. Never eat something that isn’t hot except for fruits that have not been peeled yet. They’re still okay.
The chop house had picnic tables with benches to sit. It was a little awkward because just about the whole time we were there, there was a man down the table from us that would NOT take his eyes off of me. It was just constant staring. It’s like he had never seen a white man before. Other guys in the room gave me occasional glances but not the blatant stare of this man. I’m used to getting looks in town, most of them are indifferent. Sometimes the children smile and wave and shout “Nassara!” (white man). And then adults who personally know whoever I’m with, like Dayyibu or Sulemanu, will come up to me with a smile, shake my hand and say “good morning!” or “welcome!” or “how are you?” I do my best to respond in Fulfude, trying to learn the language, but then ultimately I have to say “Mi yafi, mi famay ko bii da Fulfulde” which means “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Fulfulde.” They just smile and continue in as much English as they can.
Yesterday, I taught Tim, Bethany, Abdu, Joan and a man named Hagi, more about engines using a chalk board to draw out diagrams. I also continued to work on the engine that was missing a gasket but it has no compression. I can’t determine where it is leaking compression without an air compressor, so we’re going to have to figure out a way to hook some compressed air up to a tank. It may be a while before we have something though. Afterwards, Abdu and I watched another movie. Then dinner time came and I spent the evening with the Lokkers.
Today, we went into the “bush” to take a man from the church home. The bush is basically the middle of nowhere. It’s referred to as the “bush” because, as you can guess, there are lots of wild bushes and not very many roads or paths. To get there, we drove in a Toyota Hilux, which is basically a beefed up version of the Toyota Tacoma. Its suspension is very stiff and the half hour ride there was very rough. I even hopped a few inches off the seat a couple times when we hit deep pits in the road. We loaded up some firewood at the man’s home and took it back with us to use during the wet season. They burn fires in the bukarus (the grass roofed huts) in order to keep bugs out and get rid of moisture. Currently, I’m teaching Abdu how to use his newly set up Yahoo mail account.
That’s all for now!
Afterwards, we mostly relaxed. Abdu came over to my house and we watched Twelve Monkeys. It was an interesting movie and I think Abdu was a little confused at times, and so was I. By the end I more or less had a sense of what happened and did my best to explain it to him. It takes place entirely in America and so I did my best to explain the social cues and context of phrases, sentences and the meanings of certain things that he probably wouldn’t understand not being from America and not seeing a ton of American films. I think he got most of it. Afterwards, Bethany, Tim, Abdu, Dayyibu and I played Monopoly. Dayyibu and Abdu had a little bit of trouble at first since they had never played but I think the next time we play they’ll do much better.
Yesterday, Dayyibu and I went into town to get a few things. We needed to check the price on a sprocket (the chain-driven gear on the back of a motorcycle) for Bob’s bike since it’s wearing out. We can’t get a new one but we can fix the piece to it that’s wearing out with a welder so it’s okay. We tried to find a sheet of gasket material so I could cut a new gasket for an engine that was in pieces but no such luck. We ended up using paper from an old calendar to cut a new gasket. We dropped a motorcycle wheel off at a machine shop to have them wire brush the inside of the rim since it’s very rusty and can create a hole in a tire tube as you ride the motorcycle. When we got the wheel back, it actually felt worse than when we dropped it off. They didn’t really smooth out the part that we wanted smooth. Instead, it looks like they took a grinder to it, and it now has sharp bits of metal. So much for that. I ended up taking a wire brush to it myself and then some sandpaper. It’s pretty smooth now. While in town, we also stopped at a hardware store to pick up some electrical connectors so Bob and I can work on hooking power up to Dayyibu’s house. We also stopped at a grocery store so I could get some bug killer for my room. I had an ant infestation in my bathroom but now it’s all taken care of.
Last, but certainly not least, we stopped at a place called Salamon Voyage. It’s a taxi park where people wait for buses to come along and take them to other cities in Cameroon. It also has a chop house in the back where people who are waiting for the next bus can get some food. I wanted to go there because I heard they have good soya, a dish with cut up bits of steak meat. It was delicious. It tasted just like a steak from back home. Dayyibu did the ordering and I just sat down and waited. It cost 500 francs (a little over a dollar) to get a dish that had probably about a third pound of meat. They also give you a plate that has a little bit of salt and pepe (a pepper similar to cayenne) on it. You eat the meat with your fingers (with your right hand) and can dip it into the salt/pepe. Dayyibu I and split three orders of the meat and we each had a cup of hot tea. The tea was very good and sweet, with lots of sugar. All in all the whole meal cost a little less than 5 dollars between the two of us and filled me up pretty well. The area where the giant meat slaps are cut up looked pretty unsanitary but hey, that’s what the fire is for. Joan said as long as the food is still hot when you get it, you’ll be okay. Never eat something that isn’t hot except for fruits that have not been peeled yet. They’re still okay.
The chop house had picnic tables with benches to sit. It was a little awkward because just about the whole time we were there, there was a man down the table from us that would NOT take his eyes off of me. It was just constant staring. It’s like he had never seen a white man before. Other guys in the room gave me occasional glances but not the blatant stare of this man. I’m used to getting looks in town, most of them are indifferent. Sometimes the children smile and wave and shout “Nassara!” (white man). And then adults who personally know whoever I’m with, like Dayyibu or Sulemanu, will come up to me with a smile, shake my hand and say “good morning!” or “welcome!” or “how are you?” I do my best to respond in Fulfude, trying to learn the language, but then ultimately I have to say “Mi yafi, mi famay ko bii da Fulfulde” which means “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Fulfulde.” They just smile and continue in as much English as they can.
Yesterday, I taught Tim, Bethany, Abdu, Joan and a man named Hagi, more about engines using a chalk board to draw out diagrams. I also continued to work on the engine that was missing a gasket but it has no compression. I can’t determine where it is leaking compression without an air compressor, so we’re going to have to figure out a way to hook some compressed air up to a tank. It may be a while before we have something though. Afterwards, Abdu and I watched another movie. Then dinner time came and I spent the evening with the Lokkers.
Today, we went into the “bush” to take a man from the church home. The bush is basically the middle of nowhere. It’s referred to as the “bush” because, as you can guess, there are lots of wild bushes and not very many roads or paths. To get there, we drove in a Toyota Hilux, which is basically a beefed up version of the Toyota Tacoma. Its suspension is very stiff and the half hour ride there was very rough. I even hopped a few inches off the seat a couple times when we hit deep pits in the road. We loaded up some firewood at the man’s home and took it back with us to use during the wet season. They burn fires in the bukarus (the grass roofed huts) in order to keep bugs out and get rid of moisture. Currently, I’m teaching Abdu how to use his newly set up Yahoo mail account.
That’s all for now!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
This is a particularly long one. Sorry!
Camping was pretty fun. Abdu carried most of the stuff: the three tents and four sleeping bags. The rest of us carried what little personal belongings we needed and food. It took about 15 minutes to walk where we camped which was just off of the trail we took to hike up the mountain a week ago. We got there, set up our tents, cut some firewood, made a fire and ate some sandwiches that Joan made for us. The four of us ended up playing games on my iPod touch for about two hours until eventually we decided to go to bed. Tim and John had their own one man tents while Abdu and I shared a four person tent. I noticed that the moon, which was about half full, seems to disappear (or reappear) at a 45 degree slant. It’s been a while since I last looked up at the moon in America but as I remember it, it seemed to get cut away at with the crescent part of it fully on one side, with both tips of the moon in a somewhat vertical line. I remember in Brazil, the moon, when half full, looked like a boat. The tips were horizontal. Here it’s angled. I’ve heard it has to do with your reference to the equator and such which seems to make sense. Does anyone know anything more about this?
We woke up early, at about 4:30 so we could pack up and get back to the house by 6. John and Sherri had to catch a plane at 8 to go home. The “airport” which is really just a dirt runway is about fifteen or so minutes from the house. I rode on the back of Dayyibu’s motorcycle to get there and Abdu rode the Mitsuba bike there. Everyone else rode in Bob’s Mitsubishi SUV. When I got there, I was able to ride around on Dayyibu’s bike for a little while along the runway (which was much smoother than the dirt roads here). Shortly afterwards the plane arrived and John and Sherri were off. Tim and Bethany then practiced driving around on the two motorcycles while Bob, Abdu and Dayyibu helped coach them. Everyone but Abdu and I left and I got to ride around a little more, take some pictures, etc. Abdu and I left and on our way back we were stopped by a Gendarme, a national Cameroonian soldier in a green military suit with a red beret. Gendarme, when broken down from French to English literally means a “person of arms”. They’re at a lot of check points on the main roads in Cameroon and aren’t really a problem as long as you have a driver’s license, insured vehicle, and any other necessary papers. This guy just stopped us, asked in French, “Wouram se blanche?” or something like that, basically meaning “Are you with the white people from Wouram?” since Bob, Joan, Tim and Bethany had just passed by on the same road a few minutes prior and I was obviously white. Abdu said yes and he waved us on through. Apparently being a white person from Wouram is pretty much a green light for no trouble since we’ve brought some good to the town (the hospital).
Then, a few minutes later we drove by a group of local police from Banyo who asked us to stop. They asked for insurance papers for the motorcycle. I had no idea what was really going on since they were speaking in French. The police officer asked me if I spoke French and I replied “un peu” (a little). They asked for papers and I whipped out a photocopy of my passport and visa which I had on me. Some of them laughed pretty hard. They didn’t care about my passport. They wanted insurance papers. They told me they would take me to the office and I gave Abdu my cell phone to give Bob a call for help. I had no idea what was going on. I thought they were taking me to their police station for questioning. I was motioned to hop on the back of one of the police officer’s motorcycle and he gave me a ride to the Wouram Baptist Hospital office. Duh. They didn’t care about me. The Mitsuba motorcycle Abdu was driving, on the other hand, which had just been fixed (the one I fell off of), had no insurance, so they wanted to impound it. By the time I got to Wouram, Dayyibu was already setting out to try to reason with the police into not impounding it. He came back about 30 minutes later and fortunately, they didn’t impound it or ask for a bribe. Yay! All is well and no harm done; just a minor inconvenience and my first encounter with the local police. I will forever remember them breaking out into laughter as they read the details of my passport in Pigeon English… “Mr. Benjamin Joseph Castria. United States of America.” *Chuckle chuckle chuckle*
By the way, I forgot to mention this in an earlier blog but the auto/motorcycle insurance here is whack! It’s basically an extension of your registration. You have to pay for a yearly registration, which comes out to $20-$100 depending in if it’s a motorcycle, car, truck, whatever. Then you have to pay for insurance which is government run as I understand it and you’re required to have it. It’s in the same range of costs as the registration depending on the vehicle. However, when you actually get into an accident, the insurance company is nowhere to be found. They don’t want to pay up. They never pay for anything apparently. It’s all up to you (or whoever caused the accident) to pay for the accident expenses out of pocket. So like I said, it’s basically an extension of the registration. No actual insurance. Another thing is vehicle inspection: There are no emissions inspections but there are safety and road worthiness inspections that you have to get done on a regular basis. However, no one really does them. If the police or gendarme stop you, and you don’t have a valid inspection sticker, they just demand a bribe. If it’s the kind of police officer that would demand a bribe in the first place, even if you do have a valid inspection sticker, they’ll find something else wrong and demand a bribe anyway. So there’s no point in getting your car inspected. You can just deal with the bribes on the spot, or pay for it to be inspected and get bribed anyway. We are very fortunate in America.
The rest of the day went fine. Bob’s motorcycle has a slow leak in one of the tires. I took it off and Bob, Sulemanu and I worked hard for a while to get the tire off of the rim. The whole time I dreamed of being back at Vespia’s despite how much I hated working there. Removing tires from a rim really is so much easier when you have a machine that does 90% of the work for you. Unfortunately for here, labor is cheap, machinery is expensive. We need a wire wheel to complete the job since the tube keeps going flat due to a rusty inner rim. Doing repairs around here has been harder than I thought it would be. It’s not because the machines themselves are difficult to disassemble or figure out, for the most part. But really, it’s the lack of quality replacement parts available. Motorcycle batteries around here have an average life of 3 months according to Bob. One part of Sulemanu’s bike that is most likely causing his electrical problems is a piece that has already been replaced several times. Each replacement is just a cheap and poorly built as the last. It doesn’t last long before needing to be replaced again.
The internet today is particularly slow but I was able to load a satellite image of Banyo and pinpoint where we are. If you copy and paste +6° 45' 0.10", +11° 49' 44.82" into google maps (or just follow the hyperlink if it shows up in this blog), and click on satellite image, it’ll give you the exact location of where Wouram is. The building that the arrow is directly pointing to is Dayyibu’s house, ten feet from my house. My house is kind of hidden by trees though, just a little bit to the west. +6° 44' 55.95", +11° 49' 50.70" is Dr. Smith’s house, where I am currently using the internet. +6° 44' 58.02", +11° 49' 43.44" is the Lokker’s home and +6° 44' 59.32", +11° 49' 51.28" is the hospital.
I love being in Cameroon and experiencing a new culture but the things I miss the most are the variety of foods, regular speedy internet access and hot showers. The only things that bother me are the dust, which isn’t actually all that bad unless you’re on the road, and occasionally there is a lizard or other large rodent living in the ceiling above me that only seems to come out at night. It scurries along and sometimes can be really loud. It’s fine when I’m already sleeping but creeps me out as I lay in the pitch black darkness waiting to fall asleep, or if I wake up briefly in the night. We’ll eventually set some sort of trap to try and get it out of there. It wouldn’t be good if it started to eat the electrical wires. Despite stereotypical scenes of roosters cockadoodle doing at only 5 in the morning, they actually do it anytime from 4 in the morning until sundown. It’ll be 3 in the afternoon and I just here chickens start to cluck and roosters making noise. It doesn’t bother me but it’s something I never knew before.
Today, Bob picked up some mail from the hospital where it gets delivered and I noticed the postmark date on one envelope from the U.S. said November 18th. Two months is about the expected mail delivery time from the U.S. to here right now I guess. I asked Bob what it costs to send a letter within Cameroon and he had no idea. He said he hasn’t used the postal system in years. If you need to send something to someone, you find someone you know who will be travelling to that town and knows the person. It’s cheaper and much faster. Joan told me one time a few years ago, a friend of theirs from the U.S. sent something via UPS to Banyo. The Lokkers got a call from the UPS office in Younde (the capital) and they said, “we have a package for you. Pick it up within 24 hours or it’s getting thrown out.” Younde is about a 20 hour trip I’m pretty sure. Yikes! They somehow managed to get in anyway, I think through a friend in Younde who picked it up for them and held onto it. It’s hard to deliver goods across country when many of the main roads are unpaved and almost impassable a few months every year. Good roads and good means of transportation is key if a country is to be economically productive and efficient. Yay for the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System of America. If you don’t know what that is, that’s any highway that starts with an I, as in I-95, I-10, I-80, etc. Basically, yay for smooth 65 mph roads with no traffic lights.
The weather here is not as bad as I thought it would be. It’s hottish but not as hot as it is in Texas. The sun is pretty bright but again, not as intense as in Texas. It’s surprising considering I’m closer to the equator here than in Texas. Go figure. The rest of the afternoon I showed Abdu how to do some stuff on the computer: how to type, how to find music, pictures, etc. I let him practice for a bit while I read a magazine. Now I’m posting my blog, will eat dinner in about an hour, probably watch a movie with the Lokkers tonight and have church tomorrow morning.
Until next time…
We woke up early, at about 4:30 so we could pack up and get back to the house by 6. John and Sherri had to catch a plane at 8 to go home. The “airport” which is really just a dirt runway is about fifteen or so minutes from the house. I rode on the back of Dayyibu’s motorcycle to get there and Abdu rode the Mitsuba bike there. Everyone else rode in Bob’s Mitsubishi SUV. When I got there, I was able to ride around on Dayyibu’s bike for a little while along the runway (which was much smoother than the dirt roads here). Shortly afterwards the plane arrived and John and Sherri were off. Tim and Bethany then practiced driving around on the two motorcycles while Bob, Abdu and Dayyibu helped coach them. Everyone but Abdu and I left and I got to ride around a little more, take some pictures, etc. Abdu and I left and on our way back we were stopped by a Gendarme, a national Cameroonian soldier in a green military suit with a red beret. Gendarme, when broken down from French to English literally means a “person of arms”. They’re at a lot of check points on the main roads in Cameroon and aren’t really a problem as long as you have a driver’s license, insured vehicle, and any other necessary papers. This guy just stopped us, asked in French, “Wouram se blanche?” or something like that, basically meaning “Are you with the white people from Wouram?” since Bob, Joan, Tim and Bethany had just passed by on the same road a few minutes prior and I was obviously white. Abdu said yes and he waved us on through. Apparently being a white person from Wouram is pretty much a green light for no trouble since we’ve brought some good to the town (the hospital).
Then, a few minutes later we drove by a group of local police from Banyo who asked us to stop. They asked for insurance papers for the motorcycle. I had no idea what was really going on since they were speaking in French. The police officer asked me if I spoke French and I replied “un peu” (a little). They asked for papers and I whipped out a photocopy of my passport and visa which I had on me. Some of them laughed pretty hard. They didn’t care about my passport. They wanted insurance papers. They told me they would take me to the office and I gave Abdu my cell phone to give Bob a call for help. I had no idea what was going on. I thought they were taking me to their police station for questioning. I was motioned to hop on the back of one of the police officer’s motorcycle and he gave me a ride to the Wouram Baptist Hospital office. Duh. They didn’t care about me. The Mitsuba motorcycle Abdu was driving, on the other hand, which had just been fixed (the one I fell off of), had no insurance, so they wanted to impound it. By the time I got to Wouram, Dayyibu was already setting out to try to reason with the police into not impounding it. He came back about 30 minutes later and fortunately, they didn’t impound it or ask for a bribe. Yay! All is well and no harm done; just a minor inconvenience and my first encounter with the local police. I will forever remember them breaking out into laughter as they read the details of my passport in Pigeon English… “Mr. Benjamin Joseph Castria. United States of America.” *Chuckle chuckle chuckle*
By the way, I forgot to mention this in an earlier blog but the auto/motorcycle insurance here is whack! It’s basically an extension of your registration. You have to pay for a yearly registration, which comes out to $20-$100 depending in if it’s a motorcycle, car, truck, whatever. Then you have to pay for insurance which is government run as I understand it and you’re required to have it. It’s in the same range of costs as the registration depending on the vehicle. However, when you actually get into an accident, the insurance company is nowhere to be found. They don’t want to pay up. They never pay for anything apparently. It’s all up to you (or whoever caused the accident) to pay for the accident expenses out of pocket. So like I said, it’s basically an extension of the registration. No actual insurance. Another thing is vehicle inspection: There are no emissions inspections but there are safety and road worthiness inspections that you have to get done on a regular basis. However, no one really does them. If the police or gendarme stop you, and you don’t have a valid inspection sticker, they just demand a bribe. If it’s the kind of police officer that would demand a bribe in the first place, even if you do have a valid inspection sticker, they’ll find something else wrong and demand a bribe anyway. So there’s no point in getting your car inspected. You can just deal with the bribes on the spot, or pay for it to be inspected and get bribed anyway. We are very fortunate in America.
The rest of the day went fine. Bob’s motorcycle has a slow leak in one of the tires. I took it off and Bob, Sulemanu and I worked hard for a while to get the tire off of the rim. The whole time I dreamed of being back at Vespia’s despite how much I hated working there. Removing tires from a rim really is so much easier when you have a machine that does 90% of the work for you. Unfortunately for here, labor is cheap, machinery is expensive. We need a wire wheel to complete the job since the tube keeps going flat due to a rusty inner rim. Doing repairs around here has been harder than I thought it would be. It’s not because the machines themselves are difficult to disassemble or figure out, for the most part. But really, it’s the lack of quality replacement parts available. Motorcycle batteries around here have an average life of 3 months according to Bob. One part of Sulemanu’s bike that is most likely causing his electrical problems is a piece that has already been replaced several times. Each replacement is just a cheap and poorly built as the last. It doesn’t last long before needing to be replaced again.
The internet today is particularly slow but I was able to load a satellite image of Banyo and pinpoint where we are. If you copy and paste +6° 45' 0.10", +11° 49' 44.82" into google maps (or just follow the hyperlink if it shows up in this blog), and click on satellite image, it’ll give you the exact location of where Wouram is. The building that the arrow is directly pointing to is Dayyibu’s house, ten feet from my house. My house is kind of hidden by trees though, just a little bit to the west. +6° 44' 55.95", +11° 49' 50.70" is Dr. Smith’s house, where I am currently using the internet. +6° 44' 58.02", +11° 49' 43.44" is the Lokker’s home and +6° 44' 59.32", +11° 49' 51.28" is the hospital.
I love being in Cameroon and experiencing a new culture but the things I miss the most are the variety of foods, regular speedy internet access and hot showers. The only things that bother me are the dust, which isn’t actually all that bad unless you’re on the road, and occasionally there is a lizard or other large rodent living in the ceiling above me that only seems to come out at night. It scurries along and sometimes can be really loud. It’s fine when I’m already sleeping but creeps me out as I lay in the pitch black darkness waiting to fall asleep, or if I wake up briefly in the night. We’ll eventually set some sort of trap to try and get it out of there. It wouldn’t be good if it started to eat the electrical wires. Despite stereotypical scenes of roosters cockadoodle doing at only 5 in the morning, they actually do it anytime from 4 in the morning until sundown. It’ll be 3 in the afternoon and I just here chickens start to cluck and roosters making noise. It doesn’t bother me but it’s something I never knew before.
Today, Bob picked up some mail from the hospital where it gets delivered and I noticed the postmark date on one envelope from the U.S. said November 18th. Two months is about the expected mail delivery time from the U.S. to here right now I guess. I asked Bob what it costs to send a letter within Cameroon and he had no idea. He said he hasn’t used the postal system in years. If you need to send something to someone, you find someone you know who will be travelling to that town and knows the person. It’s cheaper and much faster. Joan told me one time a few years ago, a friend of theirs from the U.S. sent something via UPS to Banyo. The Lokkers got a call from the UPS office in Younde (the capital) and they said, “we have a package for you. Pick it up within 24 hours or it’s getting thrown out.” Younde is about a 20 hour trip I’m pretty sure. Yikes! They somehow managed to get in anyway, I think through a friend in Younde who picked it up for them and held onto it. It’s hard to deliver goods across country when many of the main roads are unpaved and almost impassable a few months every year. Good roads and good means of transportation is key if a country is to be economically productive and efficient. Yay for the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System of America. If you don’t know what that is, that’s any highway that starts with an I, as in I-95, I-10, I-80, etc. Basically, yay for smooth 65 mph roads with no traffic lights.
The weather here is not as bad as I thought it would be. It’s hottish but not as hot as it is in Texas. The sun is pretty bright but again, not as intense as in Texas. It’s surprising considering I’m closer to the equator here than in Texas. Go figure. The rest of the afternoon I showed Abdu how to do some stuff on the computer: how to type, how to find music, pictures, etc. I let him practice for a bit while I read a magazine. Now I’m posting my blog, will eat dinner in about an hour, probably watch a movie with the Lokkers tonight and have church tomorrow morning.
Until next time…
Friday, January 22, 2010
Oh boy.
It’s been an interesting past couple days. 1) I got diarrhea and 2) I fell off a motorcycle.
On Wednesday, I slept in a bit late. I didn’t get up until 8:45 and had to hurry to get breakfast before Bob started his daily devotional with the Fulbe guys at 9. It’s okay though, nothing happens before 9 anyway. After the devotional, I went with Sulemanu to a baby naming ceremony for someone in the church. It is a Fulbe tradition to not name a baby until one week after it has been born. Also, during the ceremony, they shave the baby’s head and snip the tonsils although I didn’t witness that at the ceremony. It probably happened after we left. Before going to their home, Sulemanu and I stopped at a grocery store so I could buy two bars of soap, just as a present to give when someone has a baby. One bar was from me and the other from Bob. They named the baby boy Ali. The father and mother live right in Banyo. I rode on the back of Sulemanu’s motorcycle to get there. Dayyibu and Umaru were also there. I had never met the father or mother before but they were very glad to have me in their home and very welcoming. I got to hold the baby, take a few photos and socialize a little bit. The women all congregated in one room while the men congregated in another. The men were in the same room with the women for a short amount of time to socialize but it was very crowded so we retreated back to our own room right next to the women’s room.
There, the guys mostly talked in Fulfulde and occasionally asked me a few questions in English about Obama and American education/culture. Sulemanu told me that when a baby is born, if the family is wealthy enough, they slaughter a cow. We ate bread and dipped it into a beef broth made from the cow. When the broth ran low, we used forks to eat chunks of beef left over in the bowl. This was the first time since I’ve been here that I had to remember to always eat with my right hand. The man is a Christian church-goer in Wouram but comes from a Muslim background so I didn’t want to do anything impolite. We also ate avocados. There were two avocados that were cut into quarters and we used spoons to scoop the fruit out. We drank hot tea with sugar at first and then cold milk. They said the milk was from a cow so I imagine that it was genuine milk, not the milk we typically have which is water mixed with dried milk powder.
It wasn’t until I was halfway through drinking my milk that I realized it probably wasn’t pasteurized. I felt fine the rest of the day though. I hadn’t gotten sick at all yet which really surprises me. I was expecting to probably be sick for the first few days after I got here. Yay for modern medicine. The milk was very sweet and almost reminded me of egg nog. Like I said, I hadn’t gotten sick at all yet but at 5 this morning I woke up and was not feeling too good. I had diarrhea and took some Pepto Bismol. I woke up again at 6 had to use the bathroom and decided to break out some Cipro that had been packed for me in a medicine kit prepared by Passport Health Services in Lawrenceville, NJ where I received my yellow fever shot. Things like Pepto Bismol and Immodium A.D. only cover up the symptoms up diarrhea but Cipro is actually an antibiotic to kill the bacteria. I woke up again at 7 to use the bathroom and again at 8:40 when Dayyibu knocked on my door to ask if he could use my surge protector outlets to charge his phone battery. I felt okay but not great. I went over to the Lokkers’ home and ate a tiny amount of breakfast. Joan gave me some Gatorade to replenish myself and I went back to bed. I slept until about 12:30 and felt great. I took another Cipro at 6 and I’ll take two more tomorrow and two more the next day as the directions say I should do. I can get Cipro here at the clinic so if I run out, I’ll be okay. Not only will it be cheaper than in the states but I don’t need a prescription. I can just walk into the clinic, request some, pay a little bit, and there we go. It’s like that for all medicine. If you know exactly what you need, you don’t need to see a doctor. Just go for it.
I told Joan about the milk and she said that the Fulbe always heat their milk up before consuming it but it was cold when we drank it. She said then it might’ve started to grow some bad bacteria as it cooled. Since I’m the only one around here who got sick it most likely wasn’t anything from last night’s dinner but who knows. It could’ve been something from days ago that is just now giving me trouble. I think it was the milk though.
After the baby naming ceremony yesterday, Sulemanu took me back home and I had a little more to eat. A friend of Joan’s named Esther had brought over some foufou with jamajama leaves. It’s a fairly bland dish that they say doesn’t really have a whole lot of nutrients but just fills you up. The foufou is made from corn flower that is mashed, boiled in water, dried out, and boiled again. It’s white and has an almost matzaball soup like texture. You eat it with your hands and break the foufou up into smaller pieces and scoop a little bit of the jamajama leaves with it as you eat. Most of the people in this area seem to be fairly healthy although some are definitely malnourished. Bob says that’s not because they don’t have food to eat but rather they choose to eat the cheapest things they can make or find, like foufou. It’s simple and very lacking in nutrients.
After lunch, I went to the shop to prepare to teach Tim, John and Bethany on how to put a small engine back together. Dayyibu and I had taken a Briggs and Stratton engine most of the way apart. Now we were just cleaning it/cleaning off the old broken gasket material. I got most of the way put together before I realized that a new spare gasket I thought would fit for the engine, didn’t quite match up. The gasket was made for a similar model Briggs and Stratton engine but it not this one. It’s unlikely I’ll find the gasket for the engine in town so I’ll just have to buy gasket material and make one. Hopefully the engine can be together again soon and it’ll run.
After calling it a day on that small engine, Dayyibu, Abdu and I worked on trying to get a Mitsuba 125cc motorcycle to run. It hadn’t run in a while and doesn’t have a battery. Every motorcycle around here has a kick start in addition to an electric start. We put some gas in the gas tank which Bob thought might have a leak, and Dayyibu tried to start it. It wouldn’t start. He got tired of kick starting it, which is very slow so we tried to run with it. Abdu and I pushed while Dayyibu rode it down a slightly downward sloping section of the grass. I sprayed fuel down the throat of the carburetor and it attempted to start but wasn’t really getting going. Abdu and Dayyibu tried a few more times to get it started going up and down the slope. I told them they were wasting their time and energy doing so but I didn’t mind waiting around for them to get tired out. They eventually gave up and wanted to take a look at the spark plug. We don’t have a spark plug socket, or even a regular deep socket for the size spark plug on the engine so we couldn’t remove it. Most spark plugs are either 13/16 in. or 5/8 in. but this one was 11/16 in. I wasn’t positive the carburetor was getting any fuel to begin with so I disconnected the fuel line to it. Nothing came out. I disconnected the fuel filter and gas started to pour. The fuel filter was clogged. Dayyibu blew through it in both directions to clear it up, I put it back on, and it started up. Voila. We called it a day.
Abdu, John, Tim, Sulamane, another boy and I played a game of soccer afterwards before it was time for dinner. Dayyibu’s wife and mother in-law are leaving on Friday to go to Nigeria where the mother in-law is from. It is customary when someone has a baby (Dayyibu’s son was born 5 weeks ago), either the mother’s mother comes to stay for a little while to help take care of the baby or for the mother to leave to stay with her mom so they can take care of the baby. In this case, the mother’s mother came to Wouram first but now both the mother and mother in-law will return to Nigeria. Dayyibu will be here all alone for 5 months while his wife, baby and mother in-law are gone. We had dinner in the mother in-law’s honor last night. We ate outside and had potatoes, bread and orange fruit juice.
Thursday, after waking up and feeling better we decided to go on a motorcycle ride. Bob has wanted to teach Tim, John and Bethany how to ride in a little area off the main road a few minutes away. We were all set to go with the Mitsuba motorcycle ready and Bob’s bike almost ready. It ran for a bit but as we were leaving it stalled out. Tim and John had already started to walk ahead to get to the area while Bethany would ride on the back of Bob’s motorcycle and I would ride the Mitsuba. The spark plug wire had fallen off of Bob’s spark plug and a new cap had to be installed. It took a few minutes but we were back on the road again. The Mitsuba wasn’t running very well and wouldn’t idle. It was okay as long as you kept your hand on the throttle to prevent it from stalling. I got to the main road at the end of the compound’s driveway and it stalled out. I had difficulty getting it started again but eventually it did. I rode down the road for not more than a minute and I’m not sure what exactly happened. Either the engine hiccupped as I neared idle, I shifted incorrectly (the shifting pattern is different on the bikes here than in America) or I just hit a big patch of soft dust. Whatever happened, the next thing I knew the rear tire fishtailed to the left and the whole bike leaned over to the right and came crashing down. I was COVERED in dust. Luckily I wasn’t really hurt, just a scrape on my right elbow, a scrape on my right ankle and a cut on my left thumb. Not too bad. We decided to call it a day with riding the bikes though. The Mitsuba needed some more work before it was road ready. I rode it back okay, dusted myself off a lot, cleaned my wounds and put some Neosporin and band aids on. I took the carburetor apart, cleaned it out and now it runs just fine.
Today I worked on Sulamane’s motorcycle but it’s electrical problems were just too much for one day. We have to get a battery for it and take it from there. I showed Abdu and Sulamane pictures from America and trips I’ve been on. They were interested in seeing where I live and such. Tonight, Tim, John, Abdu and I are going camping at the bottom of a nearby mountain. It should be fun but I’ve gotta get going to get ready for it.
That’s all for now.
On Wednesday, I slept in a bit late. I didn’t get up until 8:45 and had to hurry to get breakfast before Bob started his daily devotional with the Fulbe guys at 9. It’s okay though, nothing happens before 9 anyway. After the devotional, I went with Sulemanu to a baby naming ceremony for someone in the church. It is a Fulbe tradition to not name a baby until one week after it has been born. Also, during the ceremony, they shave the baby’s head and snip the tonsils although I didn’t witness that at the ceremony. It probably happened after we left. Before going to their home, Sulemanu and I stopped at a grocery store so I could buy two bars of soap, just as a present to give when someone has a baby. One bar was from me and the other from Bob. They named the baby boy Ali. The father and mother live right in Banyo. I rode on the back of Sulemanu’s motorcycle to get there. Dayyibu and Umaru were also there. I had never met the father or mother before but they were very glad to have me in their home and very welcoming. I got to hold the baby, take a few photos and socialize a little bit. The women all congregated in one room while the men congregated in another. The men were in the same room with the women for a short amount of time to socialize but it was very crowded so we retreated back to our own room right next to the women’s room.
There, the guys mostly talked in Fulfulde and occasionally asked me a few questions in English about Obama and American education/culture. Sulemanu told me that when a baby is born, if the family is wealthy enough, they slaughter a cow. We ate bread and dipped it into a beef broth made from the cow. When the broth ran low, we used forks to eat chunks of beef left over in the bowl. This was the first time since I’ve been here that I had to remember to always eat with my right hand. The man is a Christian church-goer in Wouram but comes from a Muslim background so I didn’t want to do anything impolite. We also ate avocados. There were two avocados that were cut into quarters and we used spoons to scoop the fruit out. We drank hot tea with sugar at first and then cold milk. They said the milk was from a cow so I imagine that it was genuine milk, not the milk we typically have which is water mixed with dried milk powder.
It wasn’t until I was halfway through drinking my milk that I realized it probably wasn’t pasteurized. I felt fine the rest of the day though. I hadn’t gotten sick at all yet which really surprises me. I was expecting to probably be sick for the first few days after I got here. Yay for modern medicine. The milk was very sweet and almost reminded me of egg nog. Like I said, I hadn’t gotten sick at all yet but at 5 this morning I woke up and was not feeling too good. I had diarrhea and took some Pepto Bismol. I woke up again at 6 had to use the bathroom and decided to break out some Cipro that had been packed for me in a medicine kit prepared by Passport Health Services in Lawrenceville, NJ where I received my yellow fever shot. Things like Pepto Bismol and Immodium A.D. only cover up the symptoms up diarrhea but Cipro is actually an antibiotic to kill the bacteria. I woke up again at 7 to use the bathroom and again at 8:40 when Dayyibu knocked on my door to ask if he could use my surge protector outlets to charge his phone battery. I felt okay but not great. I went over to the Lokkers’ home and ate a tiny amount of breakfast. Joan gave me some Gatorade to replenish myself and I went back to bed. I slept until about 12:30 and felt great. I took another Cipro at 6 and I’ll take two more tomorrow and two more the next day as the directions say I should do. I can get Cipro here at the clinic so if I run out, I’ll be okay. Not only will it be cheaper than in the states but I don’t need a prescription. I can just walk into the clinic, request some, pay a little bit, and there we go. It’s like that for all medicine. If you know exactly what you need, you don’t need to see a doctor. Just go for it.
I told Joan about the milk and she said that the Fulbe always heat their milk up before consuming it but it was cold when we drank it. She said then it might’ve started to grow some bad bacteria as it cooled. Since I’m the only one around here who got sick it most likely wasn’t anything from last night’s dinner but who knows. It could’ve been something from days ago that is just now giving me trouble. I think it was the milk though.
After the baby naming ceremony yesterday, Sulemanu took me back home and I had a little more to eat. A friend of Joan’s named Esther had brought over some foufou with jamajama leaves. It’s a fairly bland dish that they say doesn’t really have a whole lot of nutrients but just fills you up. The foufou is made from corn flower that is mashed, boiled in water, dried out, and boiled again. It’s white and has an almost matzaball soup like texture. You eat it with your hands and break the foufou up into smaller pieces and scoop a little bit of the jamajama leaves with it as you eat. Most of the people in this area seem to be fairly healthy although some are definitely malnourished. Bob says that’s not because they don’t have food to eat but rather they choose to eat the cheapest things they can make or find, like foufou. It’s simple and very lacking in nutrients.
After lunch, I went to the shop to prepare to teach Tim, John and Bethany on how to put a small engine back together. Dayyibu and I had taken a Briggs and Stratton engine most of the way apart. Now we were just cleaning it/cleaning off the old broken gasket material. I got most of the way put together before I realized that a new spare gasket I thought would fit for the engine, didn’t quite match up. The gasket was made for a similar model Briggs and Stratton engine but it not this one. It’s unlikely I’ll find the gasket for the engine in town so I’ll just have to buy gasket material and make one. Hopefully the engine can be together again soon and it’ll run.
After calling it a day on that small engine, Dayyibu, Abdu and I worked on trying to get a Mitsuba 125cc motorcycle to run. It hadn’t run in a while and doesn’t have a battery. Every motorcycle around here has a kick start in addition to an electric start. We put some gas in the gas tank which Bob thought might have a leak, and Dayyibu tried to start it. It wouldn’t start. He got tired of kick starting it, which is very slow so we tried to run with it. Abdu and I pushed while Dayyibu rode it down a slightly downward sloping section of the grass. I sprayed fuel down the throat of the carburetor and it attempted to start but wasn’t really getting going. Abdu and Dayyibu tried a few more times to get it started going up and down the slope. I told them they were wasting their time and energy doing so but I didn’t mind waiting around for them to get tired out. They eventually gave up and wanted to take a look at the spark plug. We don’t have a spark plug socket, or even a regular deep socket for the size spark plug on the engine so we couldn’t remove it. Most spark plugs are either 13/16 in. or 5/8 in. but this one was 11/16 in. I wasn’t positive the carburetor was getting any fuel to begin with so I disconnected the fuel line to it. Nothing came out. I disconnected the fuel filter and gas started to pour. The fuel filter was clogged. Dayyibu blew through it in both directions to clear it up, I put it back on, and it started up. Voila. We called it a day.
Abdu, John, Tim, Sulamane, another boy and I played a game of soccer afterwards before it was time for dinner. Dayyibu’s wife and mother in-law are leaving on Friday to go to Nigeria where the mother in-law is from. It is customary when someone has a baby (Dayyibu’s son was born 5 weeks ago), either the mother’s mother comes to stay for a little while to help take care of the baby or for the mother to leave to stay with her mom so they can take care of the baby. In this case, the mother’s mother came to Wouram first but now both the mother and mother in-law will return to Nigeria. Dayyibu will be here all alone for 5 months while his wife, baby and mother in-law are gone. We had dinner in the mother in-law’s honor last night. We ate outside and had potatoes, bread and orange fruit juice.
Thursday, after waking up and feeling better we decided to go on a motorcycle ride. Bob has wanted to teach Tim, John and Bethany how to ride in a little area off the main road a few minutes away. We were all set to go with the Mitsuba motorcycle ready and Bob’s bike almost ready. It ran for a bit but as we were leaving it stalled out. Tim and John had already started to walk ahead to get to the area while Bethany would ride on the back of Bob’s motorcycle and I would ride the Mitsuba. The spark plug wire had fallen off of Bob’s spark plug and a new cap had to be installed. It took a few minutes but we were back on the road again. The Mitsuba wasn’t running very well and wouldn’t idle. It was okay as long as you kept your hand on the throttle to prevent it from stalling. I got to the main road at the end of the compound’s driveway and it stalled out. I had difficulty getting it started again but eventually it did. I rode down the road for not more than a minute and I’m not sure what exactly happened. Either the engine hiccupped as I neared idle, I shifted incorrectly (the shifting pattern is different on the bikes here than in America) or I just hit a big patch of soft dust. Whatever happened, the next thing I knew the rear tire fishtailed to the left and the whole bike leaned over to the right and came crashing down. I was COVERED in dust. Luckily I wasn’t really hurt, just a scrape on my right elbow, a scrape on my right ankle and a cut on my left thumb. Not too bad. We decided to call it a day with riding the bikes though. The Mitsuba needed some more work before it was road ready. I rode it back okay, dusted myself off a lot, cleaned my wounds and put some Neosporin and band aids on. I took the carburetor apart, cleaned it out and now it runs just fine.
Today I worked on Sulamane’s motorcycle but it’s electrical problems were just too much for one day. We have to get a battery for it and take it from there. I showed Abdu and Sulamane pictures from America and trips I’ve been on. They were interested in seeing where I live and such. Tonight, Tim, John, Abdu and I are going camping at the bottom of a nearby mountain. It should be fun but I’ve gotta get going to get ready for it.
That’s all for now.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Getting some work done.
On Monday, I got up around 8. Joan made cinnamon buns for us for breakfast. Yum yum! Daayibu, Bob and I did a little more work cleaning up the shop and I think we’ve pretty much organized it as much as it’s going to be for now. We had lunch: peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches for me. Some people had tomatoes, cheese or nutella in theirs.
Afterwards, I had a little lesson with Tim, John, Bethany, Joan and Sherri on the different tools I brought to work with and their uses. I didn’t go over everything, just the basics: Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, torx bits, allen keys, slip joint, needle nose and channel locking pliers, sockets, ratchets and wrenches, etc. We then went to one of the bookaroos (a little grass-roof hut where people meet to chat) where Tim, John and Bethany usually do their schoolwork with Sherri. I used the chalk board there to go over the different tools again, this time so they could take notes. And then I went over the four-strokes of a gasoline engine (intake, compression, power, exhaust if you don’t know), and then taught them the key differences between a gas engine and a diesel (no spark plug, add a direct fuel injector and glow plug, if you don’t know). That was all I wanted to cover that day. I didn’t want to overload them too much, plus they still had math and reading schoolwork to do.
Then I went into town with Daayibu riding on the back of his motorcycle. Sorry mom, no helmets around here! We didn’t go all that fast though. The road to Banyo from Wouram is unpaved and very bumpy so you can’t really gain that much speed safely. In town, we bought some gasoline and oil so I could start actually doing work. All of the shops in Banyo are very tiny one room buildings. They have stuff hanging up and laying outside the entrance, and then when you walk in, you can’t go much farther than four feet in until you hit a counter or wall with more stuff. When you buy oil, the guy working has a large container where it’s stored, he pours some into a liter size bottle, then he pours it from the liter size bottle into another bottle which you take with you. Our gasoline was pretty much bought in the same way except we had to supply our own container. Gasoline can be bought from the gas stations although I think if you’re going to the gas station to get gas, it’s to fill your car, truck or motorcycle. It’s not for just a little bit.
In town, I also bought for myself a surge protector. The room I’m in only has one outlet and if I want to use my external hard drive, I need to have at least two outlets. The guy originally wanted 4,000 francs ($8.40 or so). Daayibu bargained with 2,000 francs but the guy wouldn’t go lower than 3,000. So I got myself a nice surge protector with a bunch of outlets for a little over 6 bucks. Not bad. Although, I’m not sure how well it really protects against surges. Bob told me everything here is so cheap, if there is a surge, most likely my stuff will blow before the surge protector will actually do its job. I’m just crossing my finger nothing bad happens. He said surges aren’t really a problem anymore anyway. They used to be more frequent when they first moved here but it’s a lot better now. I’m not too worried. We stopped at a grocery store-again, it’s one room, no more than four feet of walking space. I wanted to get some coke since all we’ve been drinking for the most part is water. Occasionally there is iced tea or kool-aid to drink and in the evenings or for breakfast, Joan or Bob will usually put some water on the stove to make brewed tea from tea bags. But other than that, I haven’t had a coke since Bamenda. I bought two bottles, one for me and one for Daayibu as a way of saying thanks. Each bottle was 1,100 francs (about $2.40 or so). They’re 1.5 liter big so if you do the math, I think it comes out to about an average price considering if you go to a convenience store in the states and buy a 20 fl. oz. (2/3 liter if my math skills are correct) coke, it usually comes out to about $1.50. So it was definitely average price, if not, than better than my local convenience store.
Before heading back, we stopped at one more place so I could buy credits (minutes) for my phone. Bob said phones from the U.S. don’t usually work here but phones from France do. I brought the phone Julie and I bought in Amsterdam last May with me, since it’s the only phone I have that uses a SIM card. Since it worked in France/Holland, I figured it would probably work here too. Bob gave me the SIM card from a phone he doesn’t really use so that way I wouldn’t have to buy a SIM card. All I had to do was stop at a one person booth for buying phone credits. They have many all over town. Basically, you give the person the money you want to credit to the phone, they take your phone number, use their phone, call a number, enter your number, and then you get a text message letting you know how many credits have been added to your account. It worked! I bought 6,000 francs (about $12.60) to make an occasional phone call to home to say hey. It costs 300 francs/minute to call the U.S. so my phone calls probably won’t be longer than a few minutes at a time. That night, I called home and got to chat with my family for a little bit which was really nice.
When we got back to Wouram, Daayibu split his coke with me, Solomon (a very friendly guy who lives in Wouram), Daayibu’s wife and Daayibu’s mother in law. I saved the other coke to split with the Lokkers and put it in their fridge.
I walked around with Bob a little bit in Wouram, stopping by to say hello to a few people. We stopped at one particular spot where a friend of his was building a new house. The foundation gets laid out with a row of concrete blocks so termites don’t crawl up. Then every layer after is made from mud/grass bricks. They pay workers about 25 francs to make each brick, and then I’m not sure how much it costs to lay it all out. All in all it’s about $60 worth of brick material for this one, three room or so house that is being built. Once built, a wooden frame is assembled for the roof. If it’s going to be a grass roof, it has to be very steep for the rainwater to run off quickly enough so it doesn’t leak through the grass. If it’s going to be a tin roof, it doesn’t have to be as steep. Then, if you want to add an extra layer of protection, they use a sand/concrete mixture to cover the bricks on the outside. This way, when it rains, if the water splashes up from the ground, it doesn’t erode the mud bricks at the bottom. A lot of the houses here that don’t have that layer of protection have really pitted bricks at the bottom. Windows and doors are added in the last step. And that’s pretty much how the houses here are built.
When we got back, I started to work on a two stroke “Yamaha” generator that Bob had used a little bit about a year ago and then it died. I use quotation marks around Yamaha because it says “Yamaha – Made in Japan” on it, but Bob says a lot of name brand small engine equipment isn’t actually that name brand. Some outfit in China will use the Yamaha or Honda name, the exact same lettering/font, slap a made in Japan decal on it, and try to sell it as one. He’s pretty sure this generator came from China. He didn’t realize at first it was a two stroke engine (which requires mixing oil and fuel together) and he was just running straight fuel in it. It stopped working on him, and he figured he probably scored the cylinder pretty bad and that’s why it wouldn’t work. I used an insect sprayer to spray some gasoline down the throat of the carburetor and gave it a few pulls. It started up for a second until the gasoline was all used up. Just a quick lesson on engines, the same one I gave to Tim, John and Bethany: a gasoline engine needs three things to run: 1) Air/fuel mixture 2) Spark 3) Compression. Since I basically spoon fed the engine its gasoline, I knew it had enough compression and spark to run. Spraying fuel down the throat of the carburetor is pretty much my tried and true first step I always use to determine what’s wrong with an engine since it eliminates spark and compression being a problem. I did a compression check anyway and it got 100psi which is pretty good for an engine this size. Now I know the cylinder probably isn’t as scored as Bob originally thought. Before I could actually put gas in the gas tank and try to get it really running, the rope broke. It was getting dark so we called it a night. I came back to it today, fixed the rope, and the generator runs just fine.
Today started with a devotional in a bookaroo with Bob, Daayibu, Solomon, Yousefa (I think that’s how it’s spelled), a few other guys, Joan, Daayibu’s wife and Daayibu’s mother in-law. It went from around 9 to about 10:15. The devotional was done in Fufulde but I was able to follow along in my Bible and Bob explained a few things in English along the way. We were in John, Psalms, and Romans a bit but the focus was in Corinthians about faith, hope and love, but most importantly of all being love.
After the devotional, I fixed the generator’s rope. I took apart a Briggs and Stratton engine that had no compression so I could show Tim, Bethany and John the internals of an engine. I wasn’t able to get it as far apart as I would have liked by the time we were ready to do the next lesson but I at least had the piston/cylinder and valves exposed. I also went over 2 stroke gasoline and diesel engines, as well as calculating engine displacement and compressions ratios. After the lesson, I worked on getting the Briggs and Stratton engine completely apart. It turns out, whoever messed with it the last time it ran didn’t put it back together correctly. The crankshaft and camshaft were not lined up properly and that’s probably why it won’t run. Tomorrow I’ll put it back together and see how well it does.
In my last blog I mentioned the dishes not being washed with soap and water in between each use but I don’t think that’s true anymore. I think what happened the last time is that someone was done with a dish, put it near the sink to be washed, and then later in the day they wanted a dish again, there were no more clean dishes around, so they grabbed the same plate they had used earlier. I’ve observed more carefully today and yesterday and it looks as though the dishes are washed with soap and water in between each use. We do try to minimize dishes though. We use the same cup throughout the day. Near the water filter there are spots with everyone’s name plug two guest spots so you have a place to put your cup for the day. That’s all for now. Time to get dinner soon!
Afterwards, I had a little lesson with Tim, John, Bethany, Joan and Sherri on the different tools I brought to work with and their uses. I didn’t go over everything, just the basics: Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, torx bits, allen keys, slip joint, needle nose and channel locking pliers, sockets, ratchets and wrenches, etc. We then went to one of the bookaroos (a little grass-roof hut where people meet to chat) where Tim, John and Bethany usually do their schoolwork with Sherri. I used the chalk board there to go over the different tools again, this time so they could take notes. And then I went over the four-strokes of a gasoline engine (intake, compression, power, exhaust if you don’t know), and then taught them the key differences between a gas engine and a diesel (no spark plug, add a direct fuel injector and glow plug, if you don’t know). That was all I wanted to cover that day. I didn’t want to overload them too much, plus they still had math and reading schoolwork to do.
Then I went into town with Daayibu riding on the back of his motorcycle. Sorry mom, no helmets around here! We didn’t go all that fast though. The road to Banyo from Wouram is unpaved and very bumpy so you can’t really gain that much speed safely. In town, we bought some gasoline and oil so I could start actually doing work. All of the shops in Banyo are very tiny one room buildings. They have stuff hanging up and laying outside the entrance, and then when you walk in, you can’t go much farther than four feet in until you hit a counter or wall with more stuff. When you buy oil, the guy working has a large container where it’s stored, he pours some into a liter size bottle, then he pours it from the liter size bottle into another bottle which you take with you. Our gasoline was pretty much bought in the same way except we had to supply our own container. Gasoline can be bought from the gas stations although I think if you’re going to the gas station to get gas, it’s to fill your car, truck or motorcycle. It’s not for just a little bit.
In town, I also bought for myself a surge protector. The room I’m in only has one outlet and if I want to use my external hard drive, I need to have at least two outlets. The guy originally wanted 4,000 francs ($8.40 or so). Daayibu bargained with 2,000 francs but the guy wouldn’t go lower than 3,000. So I got myself a nice surge protector with a bunch of outlets for a little over 6 bucks. Not bad. Although, I’m not sure how well it really protects against surges. Bob told me everything here is so cheap, if there is a surge, most likely my stuff will blow before the surge protector will actually do its job. I’m just crossing my finger nothing bad happens. He said surges aren’t really a problem anymore anyway. They used to be more frequent when they first moved here but it’s a lot better now. I’m not too worried. We stopped at a grocery store-again, it’s one room, no more than four feet of walking space. I wanted to get some coke since all we’ve been drinking for the most part is water. Occasionally there is iced tea or kool-aid to drink and in the evenings or for breakfast, Joan or Bob will usually put some water on the stove to make brewed tea from tea bags. But other than that, I haven’t had a coke since Bamenda. I bought two bottles, one for me and one for Daayibu as a way of saying thanks. Each bottle was 1,100 francs (about $2.40 or so). They’re 1.5 liter big so if you do the math, I think it comes out to about an average price considering if you go to a convenience store in the states and buy a 20 fl. oz. (2/3 liter if my math skills are correct) coke, it usually comes out to about $1.50. So it was definitely average price, if not, than better than my local convenience store.
Before heading back, we stopped at one more place so I could buy credits (minutes) for my phone. Bob said phones from the U.S. don’t usually work here but phones from France do. I brought the phone Julie and I bought in Amsterdam last May with me, since it’s the only phone I have that uses a SIM card. Since it worked in France/Holland, I figured it would probably work here too. Bob gave me the SIM card from a phone he doesn’t really use so that way I wouldn’t have to buy a SIM card. All I had to do was stop at a one person booth for buying phone credits. They have many all over town. Basically, you give the person the money you want to credit to the phone, they take your phone number, use their phone, call a number, enter your number, and then you get a text message letting you know how many credits have been added to your account. It worked! I bought 6,000 francs (about $12.60) to make an occasional phone call to home to say hey. It costs 300 francs/minute to call the U.S. so my phone calls probably won’t be longer than a few minutes at a time. That night, I called home and got to chat with my family for a little bit which was really nice.
When we got back to Wouram, Daayibu split his coke with me, Solomon (a very friendly guy who lives in Wouram), Daayibu’s wife and Daayibu’s mother in law. I saved the other coke to split with the Lokkers and put it in their fridge.
I walked around with Bob a little bit in Wouram, stopping by to say hello to a few people. We stopped at one particular spot where a friend of his was building a new house. The foundation gets laid out with a row of concrete blocks so termites don’t crawl up. Then every layer after is made from mud/grass bricks. They pay workers about 25 francs to make each brick, and then I’m not sure how much it costs to lay it all out. All in all it’s about $60 worth of brick material for this one, three room or so house that is being built. Once built, a wooden frame is assembled for the roof. If it’s going to be a grass roof, it has to be very steep for the rainwater to run off quickly enough so it doesn’t leak through the grass. If it’s going to be a tin roof, it doesn’t have to be as steep. Then, if you want to add an extra layer of protection, they use a sand/concrete mixture to cover the bricks on the outside. This way, when it rains, if the water splashes up from the ground, it doesn’t erode the mud bricks at the bottom. A lot of the houses here that don’t have that layer of protection have really pitted bricks at the bottom. Windows and doors are added in the last step. And that’s pretty much how the houses here are built.
When we got back, I started to work on a two stroke “Yamaha” generator that Bob had used a little bit about a year ago and then it died. I use quotation marks around Yamaha because it says “Yamaha – Made in Japan” on it, but Bob says a lot of name brand small engine equipment isn’t actually that name brand. Some outfit in China will use the Yamaha or Honda name, the exact same lettering/font, slap a made in Japan decal on it, and try to sell it as one. He’s pretty sure this generator came from China. He didn’t realize at first it was a two stroke engine (which requires mixing oil and fuel together) and he was just running straight fuel in it. It stopped working on him, and he figured he probably scored the cylinder pretty bad and that’s why it wouldn’t work. I used an insect sprayer to spray some gasoline down the throat of the carburetor and gave it a few pulls. It started up for a second until the gasoline was all used up. Just a quick lesson on engines, the same one I gave to Tim, John and Bethany: a gasoline engine needs three things to run: 1) Air/fuel mixture 2) Spark 3) Compression. Since I basically spoon fed the engine its gasoline, I knew it had enough compression and spark to run. Spraying fuel down the throat of the carburetor is pretty much my tried and true first step I always use to determine what’s wrong with an engine since it eliminates spark and compression being a problem. I did a compression check anyway and it got 100psi which is pretty good for an engine this size. Now I know the cylinder probably isn’t as scored as Bob originally thought. Before I could actually put gas in the gas tank and try to get it really running, the rope broke. It was getting dark so we called it a night. I came back to it today, fixed the rope, and the generator runs just fine.
Today started with a devotional in a bookaroo with Bob, Daayibu, Solomon, Yousefa (I think that’s how it’s spelled), a few other guys, Joan, Daayibu’s wife and Daayibu’s mother in-law. It went from around 9 to about 10:15. The devotional was done in Fufulde but I was able to follow along in my Bible and Bob explained a few things in English along the way. We were in John, Psalms, and Romans a bit but the focus was in Corinthians about faith, hope and love, but most importantly of all being love.
After the devotional, I fixed the generator’s rope. I took apart a Briggs and Stratton engine that had no compression so I could show Tim, Bethany and John the internals of an engine. I wasn’t able to get it as far apart as I would have liked by the time we were ready to do the next lesson but I at least had the piston/cylinder and valves exposed. I also went over 2 stroke gasoline and diesel engines, as well as calculating engine displacement and compressions ratios. After the lesson, I worked on getting the Briggs and Stratton engine completely apart. It turns out, whoever messed with it the last time it ran didn’t put it back together correctly. The crankshaft and camshaft were not lined up properly and that’s probably why it won’t run. Tomorrow I’ll put it back together and see how well it does.
In my last blog I mentioned the dishes not being washed with soap and water in between each use but I don’t think that’s true anymore. I think what happened the last time is that someone was done with a dish, put it near the sink to be washed, and then later in the day they wanted a dish again, there were no more clean dishes around, so they grabbed the same plate they had used earlier. I’ve observed more carefully today and yesterday and it looks as though the dishes are washed with soap and water in between each use. We do try to minimize dishes though. We use the same cup throughout the day. Near the water filter there are spots with everyone’s name plug two guest spots so you have a place to put your cup for the day. That’s all for now. Time to get dinner soon!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
More updates.
On Saturday, Tim, John, Sherri, Abdu, Daayibu and I went on a hike on a nearby mountain. It was pretty exhausting but I’m glad I went. We got pretty high up and I tried to take the best pictures I could but the area is so dusty you can’t see as well as I would like. These mountains are pretty close to where we’re living. It took no more than five minutes to walk to the start of them. I’ve never lived anywhere where I can just look in the backyard and see gigantic mountains. It seems so out of place but I like it. We started at 7:30 in the morning. It took a little over two hours to get up and a little under two hours to get back down. If anyone that went on the past Vermont trip is reading this, it was equivalent to that exhausting of a hike. When we got back I took a shower, ate some cereal, rested for a little bit and then organized the shop a little more.
In the late afternoon Bob, Tim, John, Bethany, Abdu and I played soccer. Bethany, John and Bob’s team won 6-5. For dinner we had beans and rice with tomatoes and onions. After dinner Bethany, Sherri, John and I played a card game called Dutch blitz. I had never played it before but it was fun. It’s a very fast paced game with everyone slapping down cards on the table in sequential order as fast as they can. I’m more of a thinking card game type of player. After Dutch blitz, Joan, Bethany, Sherri and I played a game of hearts (thank you very much Julie/Julie’s family for teaching me how). It was a lot of fun. Pretty soon I think we may play a game of canasta and I’ll teach everyone how to play spades at some point (thanks again to Julie/Julie’s family). Mom, I think I forgot to pack the deck of cards you bought me for Christmas but I did grab another deck that was laying around in my room during my last minute, hectic packing. So it’s okay, I have some cards. After playing hearts we all went to bed.
Today I woke up at 8:45 and headed to church at 9. It’s just a quick walk up the road. The service lasted a little over two hours. It started out with some lively singing, in English. Then there were some announcements. Then there was some more singing in a native language. Next came a Bible reading, some more singing and then the sermon. It was spoken in English by the pastor and translated every few sentences or so into a native language. Then there was some more singing, the offering, and then the benediction. The service was pretty lively and just about everyone claps in rhythm to the songs. Many of the men were dressed in collared shirts and slacks while the women were in colorful dresses.
I’d say the thing I miss the most about being in America, besides my close friends and family of course, is the variety of foods. Oh my goodness we don’t know how good we have it with the simplicity of going out to a grocery store with a wide selection of goods. For the most part it seems people eat a lot of bread with jam, cheese or butter. Dinner at the Lokkers has been wonderful every night. Friday night was taco night and it reminded me of being home when my mom would make us tacos. Delicious. The Lokkers have all been very nice and generous in opening up their home to me for meals and socializing. I’m very blessed to have them right now.
Cleanliness isn’t nearly as big here as it is in the states. I’m not sure how often people in this area take showers, maybe once every other day or every couple days. One thing is for sure: not everyone uses deodorant. It’s okay though. It doesn’t bother me as much as you’d think it might. Also, I gather people don't wash their hands as often here as they do in the states. And it isn't a big deal if you touch someone else's food. This trip has made me quite a bit more relaxed about germs as result. I kind of have to be. I used to carry hand sanitizer with me a lot in the states but now I don’t worry about it. As long as I wash my hands after going to the bathroom or being in the shop, it’s all good. I went from one extreme to the other: working at Subway we could NEVER touch a person’s food. We had to always use plastic gloves to handle food but here it’s just whatever.
I forgot to say in my last blog at one point on the way to Banyo, when Bob and I passed a few little children on the side of the road, they shouted, “Nasaara, nasaara!” Nasaara comes from the Arabic word for “Jesus of Nazareth” but they just use it to describe any white person since the majority of white people in this region are Christians. I thought it was pretty funny.
I’d have to say I’m enjoying the weather here much more than in NJ. I definitely prefer dry heat to bitter cold. The nights are cool but not so cold I need to wear anything more than a t-shirt and pants. It’s pleasant. My hands are doing much better. They’re not red and cracked anymore like they were this past fall and winter in NJ.
That’s it for now! Until next time…
In the late afternoon Bob, Tim, John, Bethany, Abdu and I played soccer. Bethany, John and Bob’s team won 6-5. For dinner we had beans and rice with tomatoes and onions. After dinner Bethany, Sherri, John and I played a card game called Dutch blitz. I had never played it before but it was fun. It’s a very fast paced game with everyone slapping down cards on the table in sequential order as fast as they can. I’m more of a thinking card game type of player. After Dutch blitz, Joan, Bethany, Sherri and I played a game of hearts (thank you very much Julie/Julie’s family for teaching me how). It was a lot of fun. Pretty soon I think we may play a game of canasta and I’ll teach everyone how to play spades at some point (thanks again to Julie/Julie’s family). Mom, I think I forgot to pack the deck of cards you bought me for Christmas but I did grab another deck that was laying around in my room during my last minute, hectic packing. So it’s okay, I have some cards. After playing hearts we all went to bed.
Today I woke up at 8:45 and headed to church at 9. It’s just a quick walk up the road. The service lasted a little over two hours. It started out with some lively singing, in English. Then there were some announcements. Then there was some more singing in a native language. Next came a Bible reading, some more singing and then the sermon. It was spoken in English by the pastor and translated every few sentences or so into a native language. Then there was some more singing, the offering, and then the benediction. The service was pretty lively and just about everyone claps in rhythm to the songs. Many of the men were dressed in collared shirts and slacks while the women were in colorful dresses.
I’d say the thing I miss the most about being in America, besides my close friends and family of course, is the variety of foods. Oh my goodness we don’t know how good we have it with the simplicity of going out to a grocery store with a wide selection of goods. For the most part it seems people eat a lot of bread with jam, cheese or butter. Dinner at the Lokkers has been wonderful every night. Friday night was taco night and it reminded me of being home when my mom would make us tacos. Delicious. The Lokkers have all been very nice and generous in opening up their home to me for meals and socializing. I’m very blessed to have them right now.
Cleanliness isn’t nearly as big here as it is in the states. I’m not sure how often people in this area take showers, maybe once every other day or every couple days. One thing is for sure: not everyone uses deodorant. It’s okay though. It doesn’t bother me as much as you’d think it might. Also, I gather people don't wash their hands as often here as they do in the states. And it isn't a big deal if you touch someone else's food. This trip has made me quite a bit more relaxed about germs as result. I kind of have to be. I used to carry hand sanitizer with me a lot in the states but now I don’t worry about it. As long as I wash my hands after going to the bathroom or being in the shop, it’s all good. I went from one extreme to the other: working at Subway we could NEVER touch a person’s food. We had to always use plastic gloves to handle food but here it’s just whatever.
I forgot to say in my last blog at one point on the way to Banyo, when Bob and I passed a few little children on the side of the road, they shouted, “Nasaara, nasaara!” Nasaara comes from the Arabic word for “Jesus of Nazareth” but they just use it to describe any white person since the majority of white people in this region are Christians. I thought it was pretty funny.
I’d have to say I’m enjoying the weather here much more than in NJ. I definitely prefer dry heat to bitter cold. The nights are cool but not so cold I need to wear anything more than a t-shirt and pants. It’s pleasant. My hands are doing much better. They’re not red and cracked anymore like they were this past fall and winter in NJ.
That’s it for now! Until next time…
Friday, January 15, 2010
Banyo.
What an interesting past couple days it’s been. On Wednesday, I naturally woke up around 6:30AM. Bob and I had breakfast at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention where we spent the night in Bamenda. We had bread with butter and jam, orange slices and scrambled eggs to eat and tea to drink. Very shortly after finishing breakfast we made our way to Banyo. We passed through the city of Bafoussam, the third largest city in Cameroon, so Bob could pick up a few things, mainly a tank of butane for cooking and a few groceries. We were on paved roads for about 4 hours and on dirt roads for about 7 hours. We passed through a few small villages with houses made mostly of concrete blocks and mud with tin metal roofs, some with grass roofs.
Along the way we talked mostly about the town of Banyo, people Bob has developed friendships with in the town and his family. Bob has a wife, Joan, two daughters Jessica and Bethany, two sons, Brian and Tim, one dog, Jaati and one cat, Tigger. Jessica lives in Holland and Brian is going to school in Texas. Also living here with the Lokkers are one of Tim’s friends from back home named John, and a temporary homeschooled teacher named Sherry. She’s working with Bethany, Tim and John in order to give Joan a nice break. Along the way we also talked a little about the politics of Cameroon because I was interested. Paul Biya has been the president of Cameroon since 1982. He has “won” every election (which occurs every seven years) although everyone knows it’s always rigged. While a lot of people are saying the opposition to Mr. Biya should have won the past election, most are just happy to be at peace and don’t want to create a huge fuss over the elections. It’s not worth the chaos. I was surprised to find out the Mr. Biya isn’t even in Cameroon most of the time. He spends the majority of his time in France vacationing. He’s here to make speeches or attend assemblies of Congress every now and then but that’s about it. Can you imagine if Obama just decided to take off and go golfing 90% of the year? Yikes!
It’s this area’s dry season of the year (late November to April). There is pretty much no rain during this time. As a result, there is A LOT of dust. Bob’s vehicle doesn’t have working A/C so we drove the whole way with the windows down. As a result, we got covered in dust to the point where some parts of my skin were an orangey-tan color. My suitcases and all our belongings were also covered. Every time a truck would pass by going the opposite direction we’d have to remember to roll the windows up otherwise the air would be unbreathable. About halfway through the trip I could barely breathe out of my nose. I find I have to clear my nose a few times a day otherwise it gets to be too much. So far I think I prefer the dry to extreme humidity, like in Houston or Douala. It’s a little more bearable besides the dust.
I’ve never really been one to stare up at the sky at night and look at the stars. However, since the sky is so clear and the surrounding area is pretty much pitch black at night, the stars look BEAUTIFUL! I swear they’re much bigger here than in the states. If only you could all witness it.
Along the way to Banyo we picked up some food to bring home (pineapple and carrots and such). We also picked up some fruits (bananas and oranges) and bread to snack on along the way. We got to Banyo at about 8PM, about an hour and a half after sunset. I met Bob’s family, took a nice warm shower in their bathroom and went back to my room a few hundred yards from Bob’s home. It is it’s own building, with a main room (my bedroom), an empty room, soon to be a kitchen, and a bathroom with a cold shower. I unpacked most of my stuff and went to bed around midnight but not before killing a cockroach that had come in. I stomped it with my shoe and left it to deal with later. The next day it was gone. I guess a rodent probably came along and took it away, or maybe it just wasn’t dead.
Bob and a few dozen other families live in a compound known as Wouram. It’s about 10 minutes outside of Banyo, which is actually much larger than I thought. When I originally said I’d be staying in Banyo, with about 400 people, really I guess what I was referring to was Wouram. It seems that Banyo has more like 10,000-20,000 people. Wouram seems to be mostly built up around a clinic here.
Thursday I woke up around 10:45 since Bob said I could sleep in so I didn’t set an alarm. I found Bob and had some bread with butter to eat for breakfast. I met a few of the people that live in this compound and they all seem very friendly and happy to have me around. For lunch, around 2PM, I had a tomato and cheese sandwich (I just closed my eyes and pretended it was a feast sandwich from Subway the way I always made them). Bob and I went over some of the projects we’re hoping to get accomplished, one of which includes hooking power up from the rest of the city to the houses in this area. The clinic in Wouram has power and a few other houses near it have power as well. Bob’s home and the other homes surrounding his run off of solar power during the day and batteries at night. During the day we’re able to use computers and such but at night we’re limited to running just a few overhead LED lights and fluorescent lights.
In addition to getting power from the town, it looks as though I might be able to get regular internet access. The doctor that lives in Wouram has internet at his house a few hundred yards from my house. He also has an antenna to broadcast wifi but it was struck by lightning and has become inoperable since. Bob has a wifi receiver hooked up at my house and if it’s possible to get the doctor’s antenna working again, I would be able to get internet. We shall see.
After going over the electricity and the first steps we need to take in hooking it up, we started to organize the workshop area. I hung some of my tools on the wall and we did a little bit to clean the area up. Around 7:15, we had dinner. We had spaghetti with tomato sauce, green beans and garlic bread. It was all very delicious. After dinner, Joan, Timothy, John, Bethany, Sherry and I played apples to apples which I haven’t played in a long time. They have a variety of board games here and I imagine that’s how I’ll probably spend a lot of the evenings here if anyone else is willing to play. After apples to apples I went back to my room, did some exercises (which I’m hoping to get in a good routine of doing), took the quickest shower I’ve ever taken, probably no more than a minute and a half and went to bed.
This morning I woke up at 8, ate some oatmeal and papaya for breakfast, plugged my computer into the wall and wrote the majority of this blog. It’s now 6:40 and time to eat dinner soon. Today, Bob, a guy named Dayyibu and I hooked up power to my room(because it is closest to where the electricity is coming from). I can now use my laptop in my room at any point without worrying about killing batteries for all of the houses. The next step will be to connect the rest of the houses to the same electricity line. However tomorrow I believe we’re planning to go on a hike up one of the nearby mountains. It’ll be Tim, John, a few of the local Wouram residents and I. I’m looking forward to it.
If any of this blog didn’t make sense, my apologies. I have to go rush to eat dinner. That’s all for now.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The first full day
Today I woke up early in the morning so that Vincent, Ina (a doctor) and I could travel to Bamenda. We stopped at a boulangerie/patisserie (bakery/pastry shop) before leaving the city. I bought a croissant and an apple tart to eat for breakfast. All I can say about the driving in Douala is that I would NEVER want to drive there. It was chaotic to say the least. People going everywhere, cutting other people off, all over the road, no lanes, honking everywhere, near misses with pedestrians, bicyclists, motorbikes, cars and trucks!! I was nervous but most of all grateful I wasn't driving. I'd say about 80% of the vehicles I saw had at least one fender bender, most had the whole 360 degrees scraped up with tailights and headlights cracked and broken. Very different from driving in the U.S.
The cars here all seem to be either Japanese, French or German. Toyota takes the lead BY FAR. I'd say Mercedes, Nissan and Mitsubishi are probably all in second place. I also saw a few Renaults, Peugeots, and the occasional Honda. All the cars and trucks seem to drive on diesel while the motorbikes are gasoline. The majority of the cars and trucks seem to be stick shift too, which appears to be pretty normal for places I've traveled outside of the U.S. At the gas stations, you can buy diesel, gasoline or kerosene (for lamps in your home if you need it). After doing currency and volume conversions, kerosene runs about $US2.90/gallon, diesel at $4.55/gallon and gasoline at $4.75/gallon. I was surprised to see gasoline be more expensive. Go figure.
We drove for about 7 hours or so today. The road in the city of Douala was very bumpy and had to be taken with a lot of caution. Once outside the city it was a lot better and for the most part we were able to cruise at what felt about 60mph. Occasionally there would be pot holes, speed bumps or road construction that would temporarily slow us down, but not too bad. All along the way we could see palm trees, coconut trees and banana trees. We also stopped a few times to pick up some food along the way from people selling it by the roadside. Well, Vincent did. He shared some papaya with us. It was pretty good! Very fresh!
We got to Bamenda and settled down at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention, the headquarters for this Baptist ministry in Cameroon. I was able to meet Bob and the two of us went into town to do a little grocery shopping as well as get some food to eat. We went to a little restaurant where we had scrambled eggs over french fries. It was pretty good! I liked it and it almost reminded me of matzah-brei. I also had a coke made with real sugar cane! None of that high fructose corn syrup stuff! We made our way back to the ministry and I helped Bob load his Mitsubishi SUV with some chairs and a computer to take back to Banyo. Tomorrow, we'll leave early in the morning after eating breakfast here. He says it should take about 10 hours because the road is pretty bumpy and rough. Oh boy! Sounds like fun! :-D
I won't be able to upload pictures for a while because I forgot the cable to my camera back in the states. Although I'll get it in about a month. There are some people coming into Banyo towards the end of January/beginning of February from Colorado. I'll have Rachel ship the cable to them and they can bring it with them hopefully. At first I thought Rachel could just ship it to me but it turns out mail takes a while to get out to Banyo. Apparently it gets to the major cities pretty fast but can take a month, or two, or three to make its way to Banyo. Oh boy!
I won't have internet for a while I'm pretty sure so this will be my last post for a few days, possible a week or two. We shall see. Hopefully all goes well! I'm very excited for what lays ahead!
The cars here all seem to be either Japanese, French or German. Toyota takes the lead BY FAR. I'd say Mercedes, Nissan and Mitsubishi are probably all in second place. I also saw a few Renaults, Peugeots, and the occasional Honda. All the cars and trucks seem to drive on diesel while the motorbikes are gasoline. The majority of the cars and trucks seem to be stick shift too, which appears to be pretty normal for places I've traveled outside of the U.S. At the gas stations, you can buy diesel, gasoline or kerosene (for lamps in your home if you need it). After doing currency and volume conversions, kerosene runs about $US2.90/gallon, diesel at $4.55/gallon and gasoline at $4.75/gallon. I was surprised to see gasoline be more expensive. Go figure.
We drove for about 7 hours or so today. The road in the city of Douala was very bumpy and had to be taken with a lot of caution. Once outside the city it was a lot better and for the most part we were able to cruise at what felt about 60mph. Occasionally there would be pot holes, speed bumps or road construction that would temporarily slow us down, but not too bad. All along the way we could see palm trees, coconut trees and banana trees. We also stopped a few times to pick up some food along the way from people selling it by the roadside. Well, Vincent did. He shared some papaya with us. It was pretty good! Very fresh!
We got to Bamenda and settled down at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention, the headquarters for this Baptist ministry in Cameroon. I was able to meet Bob and the two of us went into town to do a little grocery shopping as well as get some food to eat. We went to a little restaurant where we had scrambled eggs over french fries. It was pretty good! I liked it and it almost reminded me of matzah-brei. I also had a coke made with real sugar cane! None of that high fructose corn syrup stuff! We made our way back to the ministry and I helped Bob load his Mitsubishi SUV with some chairs and a computer to take back to Banyo. Tomorrow, we'll leave early in the morning after eating breakfast here. He says it should take about 10 hours because the road is pretty bumpy and rough. Oh boy! Sounds like fun! :-D
I won't be able to upload pictures for a while because I forgot the cable to my camera back in the states. Although I'll get it in about a month. There are some people coming into Banyo towards the end of January/beginning of February from Colorado. I'll have Rachel ship the cable to them and they can bring it with them hopefully. At first I thought Rachel could just ship it to me but it turns out mail takes a while to get out to Banyo. Apparently it gets to the major cities pretty fast but can take a month, or two, or three to make its way to Banyo. Oh boy!
I won't have internet for a while I'm pretty sure so this will be my last post for a few days, possible a week or two. We shall see. Hopefully all goes well! I'm very excited for what lays ahead!
Monday, January 11, 2010
The first leg of the trip
Right now I'm sitting in my hotel room at the European Baptist Guesthouse in Douala, Cameroon. I flew into Douala today, Monday, Jan. 11th via a series of connecting flights. Douala is the economic capital and largest city in Cameroon. I was surprised to find internet at the hotel although I think I'm just stealing someone's unsecured wifi from a home/apartment nearby.
My trip started out at the Philly airport where I flew in the smallest plane I've ever been in. 2x2 with probably no more than 50 passengers. It was also the shortest flight since I only flew to Newark. It seems pointless to fly from Philly to Newark since my house is pretty much in between both but it was cheaper this way. Go figure... Continental Airlines...
Then I had a three and a half hour layover in Newark but it wasn't so bad. I ate (after not eating in almost 15 hours, my stomach was not feeling well from a lack of sleep), talked to a few friends on the phone, bought a nice travel pillow for my neck, sunglasses and a magazine.
I then flew from Newark to Brussels, Belgium (7 hour flight). I slept through most of the flight although I did wake up every hour or two which was really annoying. I'm used to sleeping on flights from takeoff to landing. I then had a 2 and a half hour layover in Brussels in which I had to go through security again which I found odd. When I got off the plane it was apparent that we were at a terminal that was only for arrivals, not departures. It also wasn't a secure terminal which is why I had to go through security again. It seems odd to me that they would have terminals where a plane would fly into but not out of, since now the plane has to move in order to pick up new passengers thus making the terminal half as effective. Also, had they made the whole terminal secure, I wouldn't have had to go through security again. I, along with anyone else on connecting flights, who already went through security at the previous airport, was on a secure plane, and then got off into an unsecure terminal, now had to go through security again. I thought to myself, this is all very inefficient. And then I noticed an ad on the wall that said something like "Welcome to Europe. Innovative. Intriguing. Efficient." I laughed. According to the Brussels airport website, they pride themselves on being one of the most efficient and conveinent airports. I fail to see it. I got through security and had about 45 minutes to get to my next terminal, and then find internet as well as an electrical outlet. I found one outlet and the wifi cost me 10 euros but I did want to email everyone and let them know I had made it this far safely.
Then I flew on a 6 and a half hour flight to Douala which was probably the most uncomfortable flight I've been on. At this point, I had been traveling for close to a full 24 hours, I was tired, and I was cramped with all sorts of aches and pains, and my stomach did not want to eat. It could've been worse though. I did see some interesting mountainous parts of the Sahara as we flew over Africa. It was interesting to see little tiny settlements here and there with giant circular water reservoirs.
I got off the plane and walked down the terminal, which felt like Houston during the summer. I got through the passport checkpoint okay, got into the baggage claim area and immediately people were trying to help me find my bags. There was one guy in particular who looked like he worked for the airport although at this point I'm not sure he did. My two bags came through on the carousel and he helped me make our way to the next customs check point, right before the doors leading outside where hopefully there would be someone waiting for me with a sign. Before we went through that customs checkpoint though, he started demanding money. He reasoned that since he was native, he could go through customs with less hassle. If I paid him to go through security with my bags, it would be easier than for me to do it myself. Plus, the people at customs would most likely charge me more than what he would charge to do it for me. Well this is not what Bob Lokker told me to do. So I said no thank you, I'd be okay. I gave him a dollar for his advice and help so far and told him there would be more money waiting outside. He reluctantly agreed and I did not want to leave my bags with him as he could just run off with them.
Going through the customs was no problem. They only opened one suitcase, took a real quick look, closed it back up and sent us on our way. We got outside and there was no one there for me. Luckily I had a few numbers to call in order to get a hold of Bob and the man who had been "helping" me so far let me use his cell phone. After a few phone calls and about fifteen minutes of waiting someone new was in his way, named Vincent. In the meantime, the man started demanding more money for the use of his phone, etc. Also a friend of his was lingering around also hoping to score a few bucks. I paid the one guy a few dollars for his phone and then a little while later a series of cars showed up at the area outside baggage claim where we had been standing. The friend lingering around asked me the name of the guy I was looking for and I said Vincent. The guy then took off to search for Vicent. Then out of the blue this guy shows up and says his name is Vincent. He said his van is downstairs parked underneath the airport baggage claim in a parking garage and we have to go there. My first thought was, "this guy is not Vincent." I began to get worried I wouldn't make it out alive. So I asked him if he had talked to "Cal" (a person at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention) and he said yes. I asked him what Cal's last name was as I was looking down at a print out of an email Bob sent me with Cal's name. He gave me Cal's full name and then I knew he was legit. Whew!
The two men lingering around, plus Vincent, helped me get down to the parking garage. I then paid the two guys off with some money (according to Vincent, way more than I should have) and then Vincent and I were on our way. We left the airport, got to this hotel and I was so grateful to be able to take a shower and spend a night laying down in a bed. I slept for about 5 hours and couldn't sleep anymore. It's 5:30 am right now and in about an hour Vincent will come find me. We, plus a few other people here at the hotel will leave to find some food, and make our way to Bamenda (a 6 or so hour drive I think). There, I will meet Bob Lokker. I'll spend a night in Bamenda and then Bob and I will travel to Banyo on Wednesday.
Already an exciting trip indeed! I just hope it continues to go smoothly.
My trip started out at the Philly airport where I flew in the smallest plane I've ever been in. 2x2 with probably no more than 50 passengers. It was also the shortest flight since I only flew to Newark. It seems pointless to fly from Philly to Newark since my house is pretty much in between both but it was cheaper this way. Go figure... Continental Airlines...
Then I had a three and a half hour layover in Newark but it wasn't so bad. I ate (after not eating in almost 15 hours, my stomach was not feeling well from a lack of sleep), talked to a few friends on the phone, bought a nice travel pillow for my neck, sunglasses and a magazine.
I then flew from Newark to Brussels, Belgium (7 hour flight). I slept through most of the flight although I did wake up every hour or two which was really annoying. I'm used to sleeping on flights from takeoff to landing. I then had a 2 and a half hour layover in Brussels in which I had to go through security again which I found odd. When I got off the plane it was apparent that we were at a terminal that was only for arrivals, not departures. It also wasn't a secure terminal which is why I had to go through security again. It seems odd to me that they would have terminals where a plane would fly into but not out of, since now the plane has to move in order to pick up new passengers thus making the terminal half as effective. Also, had they made the whole terminal secure, I wouldn't have had to go through security again. I, along with anyone else on connecting flights, who already went through security at the previous airport, was on a secure plane, and then got off into an unsecure terminal, now had to go through security again. I thought to myself, this is all very inefficient. And then I noticed an ad on the wall that said something like "Welcome to Europe. Innovative. Intriguing. Efficient." I laughed. According to the Brussels airport website, they pride themselves on being one of the most efficient and conveinent airports. I fail to see it. I got through security and had about 45 minutes to get to my next terminal, and then find internet as well as an electrical outlet. I found one outlet and the wifi cost me 10 euros but I did want to email everyone and let them know I had made it this far safely.
Then I flew on a 6 and a half hour flight to Douala which was probably the most uncomfortable flight I've been on. At this point, I had been traveling for close to a full 24 hours, I was tired, and I was cramped with all sorts of aches and pains, and my stomach did not want to eat. It could've been worse though. I did see some interesting mountainous parts of the Sahara as we flew over Africa. It was interesting to see little tiny settlements here and there with giant circular water reservoirs.
I got off the plane and walked down the terminal, which felt like Houston during the summer. I got through the passport checkpoint okay, got into the baggage claim area and immediately people were trying to help me find my bags. There was one guy in particular who looked like he worked for the airport although at this point I'm not sure he did. My two bags came through on the carousel and he helped me make our way to the next customs check point, right before the doors leading outside where hopefully there would be someone waiting for me with a sign. Before we went through that customs checkpoint though, he started demanding money. He reasoned that since he was native, he could go through customs with less hassle. If I paid him to go through security with my bags, it would be easier than for me to do it myself. Plus, the people at customs would most likely charge me more than what he would charge to do it for me. Well this is not what Bob Lokker told me to do. So I said no thank you, I'd be okay. I gave him a dollar for his advice and help so far and told him there would be more money waiting outside. He reluctantly agreed and I did not want to leave my bags with him as he could just run off with them.
Going through the customs was no problem. They only opened one suitcase, took a real quick look, closed it back up and sent us on our way. We got outside and there was no one there for me. Luckily I had a few numbers to call in order to get a hold of Bob and the man who had been "helping" me so far let me use his cell phone. After a few phone calls and about fifteen minutes of waiting someone new was in his way, named Vincent. In the meantime, the man started demanding more money for the use of his phone, etc. Also a friend of his was lingering around also hoping to score a few bucks. I paid the one guy a few dollars for his phone and then a little while later a series of cars showed up at the area outside baggage claim where we had been standing. The friend lingering around asked me the name of the guy I was looking for and I said Vincent. The guy then took off to search for Vicent. Then out of the blue this guy shows up and says his name is Vincent. He said his van is downstairs parked underneath the airport baggage claim in a parking garage and we have to go there. My first thought was, "this guy is not Vincent." I began to get worried I wouldn't make it out alive. So I asked him if he had talked to "Cal" (a person at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention) and he said yes. I asked him what Cal's last name was as I was looking down at a print out of an email Bob sent me with Cal's name. He gave me Cal's full name and then I knew he was legit. Whew!
The two men lingering around, plus Vincent, helped me get down to the parking garage. I then paid the two guys off with some money (according to Vincent, way more than I should have) and then Vincent and I were on our way. We left the airport, got to this hotel and I was so grateful to be able to take a shower and spend a night laying down in a bed. I slept for about 5 hours and couldn't sleep anymore. It's 5:30 am right now and in about an hour Vincent will come find me. We, plus a few other people here at the hotel will leave to find some food, and make our way to Bamenda (a 6 or so hour drive I think). There, I will meet Bob Lokker. I'll spend a night in Bamenda and then Bob and I will travel to Banyo on Wednesday.
Already an exciting trip indeed! I just hope it continues to go smoothly.
A preface to the trip.
I just wanted to start this blog out by mentioning how it all began.
Back in May, 2009, Carine Toussaint, the missions director at my home church in Princeton, NJ, Westerly Road Church, contacted me about a possible trip I could take in which I could be really useful. She had just come back from Africa spending a week in Cameroon and a week in Morocco. In Cameroon, she stayed with a family, my new host family, the Lokkers. She had mentioned how Bob Lokker, the dad, expressed an interest in needing someone with mechanical skills/could work with their hands. Carine and I had been on a few missions trips with Westerly Road Church before, specifically to Mississippi to do Hurricane Katrina relief and then again to Brazil. She thought of me when talking to Bob and told me about the opportunity.
She mentioned how there are a lot of motorcycles in town that need consistent repairs/maintenance. She thought it could be a wonderful opportunity for me if I was willing to make the trip. She gave me Bob's email address, I got into contact with him, and ever since it's progressed to where I am now; actually in Cameroon.
I'll be staying at a guest house a few hundred yards from where the Lokkers live. From what I gather it's just outside of the town of Banyo, a small village of about 400 or so people. I'm not positive on these details since I'm not there yet but I'll be there soon and can update if necessary. There will be a shop for me to work in with some basic mechanic's tools. I brought two suitcases with me on the trip, one carrying mostly my personal belongings and the other one carrying mostly some specialty tools that I would need to do repairs. In addition to performing repairs, I'm hoping to teach how to do the repairs to some individuals in the town so that they may continue to do their own repairs once I live, thus saving them money. I'm also hoping to do some carpentry work with Bob, specifically installing a kitchenette in the guest house where I'll be staying as well as probably some other projects.
I'll be here for four months and am hoping to make the very best of it. I'm very excited for what lays ahead in what I'm sure will be a life changing experience.
Back in May, 2009, Carine Toussaint, the missions director at my home church in Princeton, NJ, Westerly Road Church, contacted me about a possible trip I could take in which I could be really useful. She had just come back from Africa spending a week in Cameroon and a week in Morocco. In Cameroon, she stayed with a family, my new host family, the Lokkers. She had mentioned how Bob Lokker, the dad, expressed an interest in needing someone with mechanical skills/could work with their hands. Carine and I had been on a few missions trips with Westerly Road Church before, specifically to Mississippi to do Hurricane Katrina relief and then again to Brazil. She thought of me when talking to Bob and told me about the opportunity.
She mentioned how there are a lot of motorcycles in town that need consistent repairs/maintenance. She thought it could be a wonderful opportunity for me if I was willing to make the trip. She gave me Bob's email address, I got into contact with him, and ever since it's progressed to where I am now; actually in Cameroon.
I'll be staying at a guest house a few hundred yards from where the Lokkers live. From what I gather it's just outside of the town of Banyo, a small village of about 400 or so people. I'm not positive on these details since I'm not there yet but I'll be there soon and can update if necessary. There will be a shop for me to work in with some basic mechanic's tools. I brought two suitcases with me on the trip, one carrying mostly my personal belongings and the other one carrying mostly some specialty tools that I would need to do repairs. In addition to performing repairs, I'm hoping to teach how to do the repairs to some individuals in the town so that they may continue to do their own repairs once I live, thus saving them money. I'm also hoping to do some carpentry work with Bob, specifically installing a kitchenette in the guest house where I'll be staying as well as probably some other projects.
I'll be here for four months and am hoping to make the very best of it. I'm very excited for what lays ahead in what I'm sure will be a life changing experience.
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