Kuugal, Sare

I've been getting a couple questions from people about a few of the same things, so I'll just answer them here.

 

First up, the paludisme (malaria).  I was fine a week after I was officially diagnosed.  Peace Corps gives us malaria prophylaxes we take every week or day, depending on the kind (I take Larium/mefloquine, one a week).  Since that inevitably fails and a good chunk of PCVs contract malaria anyways, we also get a 3-day treatment called Coartem that entails 16 pills over 3 days that pretty much cures you... until the next time.  One of the side effects of Larium, the weekly pill I take, is vivid dreams, which I get every once in a while; when you actually get malaria, you have a fever and get loopy, then pile on a really strong medicine like Coartem to make you better, you're basically MIA for a week, then, boom, you're okay, a little weak, but pretty much 100%.   Alors, pour le moment, la sante marche bien, mais j'attends pour le palu encore.

 

Now for my life, work, home, etc.  With CARE leaving, I still live in the same house in Lagdo; all that happened is I have my own rent agreement with the homeowner (a government agency with the abbreviation MEADEN) instead of being under the CARE umbrella ella a a.  For work in Lagdo, I'm going to start working with smaller health centers around Lagdo and the Lagdo hospital itself.  I'm also going to find different community groups, usually groups of farmers or women, and see what I can do.  My direct boss in Peace Corps came for a site visit last week, and she helped clarify things a lot to different health workers I want to work with because they were confused when I spoke with them myself while CARE was still around because they just assumed I was some CARE dude, so that will get the ball rolling work wise.  Right now, it's just meetings and some more meetings with the folks in charge before I can actually get in the field and see where I can help.

 

More home stuff: I came face-to-face with the Cameroonian power company for a week-long death match that ended up with the SONEL people cutting off my electricity while I was shaving in the morning getting ready to go to the SONEL office to give them all pile drivers and ending the battle.  What happened is that CARE, 70 Countries, 1 Mission, left me with their f'ing electricity bill for the month of June for all the houses in the compound, five of them, so I had to go up to Goliath to tell them, "No.  I will not pay their electricity bill.  We have talked about this three days in a row and you've agreed with me every day that I don't have to pay the bill, and I will start paying my own bill in July.  Stop coming to my house threatening to cut my power every day for a bill I don't pay."  In the end it all worked out, which I have to attribute to the SONEL workers not understanding all the curse words I was saying in English whenever they came to my house.

 

Another thing that starts next week and goes for three weekends in August is our provincial project Arts for Life (Les arts pour la vie).  It's a project that involves most of the PCVs in the North Province that is a 3-day session in 3 different villages with selected high school students at each location.  We basically emphasize good decision-making skills and the students interpret the information we give them with their artistic talents.  Honestly, I know this sounds really lame and something you might be forced to do in middle school or freshman orientation, but in the context of the Cameroonian education system where the teachers and principals really only take advantage of the kids instead of helping them, the students will really enjoy the program we're doing (this is the second year of A4L, and the kids last year loved it).  We've been planning Arts for Life since January, so it's great that's it's finally here.

 

Lastly, I'm getting a postmate!  She's a small-enterprise development volunteer that finishes PC training in a few weeks, then moves on up to Lagdo at the end of August.  Along with her, there are a handful of other new volunteers being posted in the province, so it's great to get some new kids.

 

 

 

   

Corruption Corruption

Corrpution is everywhere in Cameroon, from the gendarmes taking 500 cfa from every bush taxi and truck driver to financing Chantal Biya's wardrobe and hair-care.  It's such a buzzword, catch-all for problems here and in Africa in general, but it's part of a larger problem that affects eduction women's rights, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.  Here are a couple examples of different kinds of corruption that I've seen or heard about:

 

Say 'No' to Sponsors

Let's the tuition for one year at the Lagdo high school in Lagdo is 15,000 CFA ($30), a lot of money for nearly all people here.  There is a 15 year-old girl that has the money, but when she goes to pay, the principal demands an extra 30 mil for his own pocket.  What can the girl do?  She doesn't have many options: How does a young girl in a place with no jobs make money?  This is when prostitution, the prevalence of "sugar daddies" ( sponseur en francais), and unsafe sex practices come in.  This situation also reinforces the oppression women face here; they're already discouraged from leaving the home and, especially among Muslim families, are forced to quit school and get married to older men (because they have the money to pay the girl's family) and immediately start having children.  The high school girl will have to sell herself or quit school, effective ending her scholastic career if her family can't or won't pay the bribe.  If the girl is forced into prostitution or sugar daddy route, the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections will rise given that condoms won't be used.  This is how corruption can affect someone's health and education.

 

Election Fever

Munincipal elections are July 22.  The Lagdo mayor, who I think, all things considered, is a decent guy, is up for reelection and has pretty strong support (... I think, on ne sait jamais).  Early yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, I woke up from a well-need and most likely undeserved nap.  I heard some chanting and the noise of a truck plodding along the road, so I look out the door and see the largest open-air truck I've ever seen pass by filled with atleast 50 people singing in the back.  My thought was, Maybe it's a soccer team going somewhere.

 

A little later in the day, I was waiting outside the lycee for a "summer" Club Sante meeting, one in a series of five I've been trying to organize knowing that it's an uphill battle getting high schoolers to voluntarily come to a malaria lecture during their vacation.  One kid showed up (we cancelled the meeting), late, and he happened to be the son of the former adjoint sous-prefet. (Cameroon is divided up into provinces with a governor for each, appointed by Son Excellence Paul Biya.  Each province is divided up into departments with a Prefet.  Each department is divided up into arrondissements with a Sous-Perfet.  Each arrondissement is divided into *head blows up*) We talked about the difficulties getting anyone to show up because they're probably out in the fields, and I can't just instant message them on AIM as a reminder, but he also said the lack of attendance this week was because of election activities that the mayor was doing at the same time.  Those activities, you ask?  Oh, just handing out money to possible voters, that's all.

 

The audacity of it is what's most striking, and I really shouldn't have been surprised.  The audacity of any politician and elite anywhere is almost overwhelming, whether it's the mayor handing out cash, Paul Biya being worth billions, or GWB giving out so many contracts to Halliburton, he's even giving them A-Rod when he hits the free agent market this winter.