Sur mes genoux

(Part 1 of 2)

Ever since the comfortable but unsatisfying womb of CARE left Lagdo in June 2006, I've been following a strict work policy:  Do Whatever Falls in my Lap (DWFL). 

My DWFL policy could be described using other phrases like "Winging It" and "Sure, Why Not?", but I like to think of it as having a Flexible Attitude Towards Work.

Sorry to pile on the metaphor, but I fell into the DWFL policy out of what I believed to be necessity during the final months of CARE's reign.  CARE is a huge international NGO with an enormous budget, and in Lagdo, they flexed their monetary muscle for their projects.  I was having a difficult time within the malaria project, and I wanted to focus my work to outside CARE's zone, which limited my work options initially to Lagdo Centre and not in the two neighboring villages of Djippordé, a market town directly on the lake, and Gounougou, the first village on the other side of the dam.  (Lagdo Centre is where I live and where CARE had their office but didn't actually do any projects.)

While CARE was winding down in May and June, my work options were limited by the start of the rainy season (planting season) and the end of school, so I was just faire-ing le promenade around Lagdo, not really knowing what I was going to do.  Then one day, I randomly got a call from Yotti, a boutique owner who would eventually become my best friend in village, who said he was the president of a community development GIC (community group) for Lagdo Centre, and that eventually got me involved in the interminable school construction project whose saga is continuing as we speak.

During June and July, based on the suggestion of the PCV in Bamé ("Sure, why not?" I said.), a village 10 km from Lagdo, I started to do weekly animations at the health center there on vaccination days for the women who bring their newborns, which I still do now.  In August, the meetings for the school construction project were pretty frequent, and I did two weekends of Arts for Life.  Through the school construction project, I met some women who had their own GIC, so I started to work with them.  After August and into September, I waited for school to get back into its swing, and by October I was doing a multi-part nutrition and basic health class for the elementary school.  Also in October and November, a Cameroonian NGO with an office in Garoua (ACMS) decided to a sensibilisation in Lagdo about the health products that they distribute and sell (condoms, oral rehydration salts, mosquito nets, etc.), and they wanted me to tag along with them.  Sure, why not?  That kept me busy through December.

This year, the activities that fade are still being replaced, and those new activities are once again starting to fade themselves.  The school construction and ACMS projects are currently dormant, as well as the women's GIC, but those have been replaced with a "cross-sector collaboration" with Michele in Bamé a propos de water-borne diseases and well sanitation in the form of weekly animations at different wells in her village and a series of HIV/AIDS classes with my post mate's English classes at the Lagdo high school.  While the water sanitation animations will continue for the time being, the HIV/AIDS classes will be ending this coming week, leaving a glaring hole in my schedule.  Cameroonian "spring break" is also approaching, and after that, students are busy scrambling and studying for their exams, once again leaving working at the schools, elementary or high school, out of the running for work opportunities.  Despite the current heat, the rainy season is also fast approaching, which is traditionally the slowest time of the year for health PCVs, basically leaving me in the same position I was in a year ago: What am I going to do next?

While the DWFL policy has been working so far, it has its disadvantages.  The most glaring weakness to my plan is that as one thing fades and I'm not sure what will take it's place, I'm thrown into a constant state of despair based on total inactivity until the gap is filled.  There will be weeks at a time where I'll have no idea what I'll be doing a month or two from now.  This despondency is entirely my fault, though.  I made a conscious decision to forego having strong ties with the local hospital early on, and also given my avoidance of Gounougou and Djippordé's respective health centers because of CARE's presence, I was basically out of host organizations to partner with in the Lagdo Centre area, which has contributed immensely to my lack of long-term structure.  (Although I enjoy working in Bamé and at the health center there, it's a little too far out of the way to go there more than twice a week without completely ignoring Lagdo.  The closest thing I have to a work counterpart is Yotti, but that has its limits because he's first and foremost a merchant, and he's also the head of the main Grand North opposition party – the UNDP – to Paul Biya's RDPC, a fact he neglected to tell me until February.)  So, as the beginning of April approaches and my lack of new work is on the horizon, I eagerly await for something to FL.