Workshoppin'

Apologies that I have clearly failed on my goal of weekly blog posts… BUT, it hasn’t been entirely my fault. Firstly, the computer I was given to use after my computer broke, has stopped working on me twice now. Apparently, computers in Cameroon hate me. True story.

Secondly, I spent the past couple weeks out in the field workshoppin’! Hollar! (cue Macklemore – Thrift shop music).

The journey began with a trip to Campo, a community south of Kribi located just a stone’s throw across the river from Equatorial Guinea (and that’s not an exaggeration, see photo below for evidence).

Above: Equatorial Guinea on the left, Cameroon on the right (view from the boat). 

Above: The main drag in Akom2...
Happening place!

In the usual fashion, we set the start time for 9am, and actually managed to have enough participants to start the workshop by 11:30. Us volunteers for the CAMAMF team (the Campo Ma’an Model Forest) completed our “ligne de temps” exercises on our various agricultural products to map out the value chain from production to commercialization (e.g. from farm to fork!). We then repeated this process twice more in the communities of Akom2, and Mann. 

Some of the highlights from the trip included: 

•  Border Boatin’: In Campo, we were lucky enough to take ride down the river separating Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. The river borders two national parks, which can be problematic as the river offers an access point for poachers in the park. While we weren’t lucky enough to glimpse any animals, we were more than content to see the beautiful mangrove forests. Also, how cool are mangrove trees? They are basically trees on stilts!! Awesome.
• Spaghetti Omelettes: My vegetarian diet was more of a challenge than usual in the rural communities of Cameroon, so my choices were generally as follows: rice with meat/meaty sauce, manioc baton, fulong (a spinach dish), pasta with tomato sauce (which I brought and paid people to cook for me haha), or spaghetti omelettes. Spaghetti omelettes are exactly as they sound… an omelette with spaghetti in it (yep- just plain ol’ noodles). But, there are one of the classic Cameroonian cuisine choices that is vegetarian friendly…. So I ate a whoooole lot ‘em! Possibly in the double digits. 
• Electrically challenged: lmagine you have to pick between having electricity, running water, phone network, or internet. What would you choose? For our trip, our luck was ever changing. For example, Campo had electricity and phone network, but no running water and internet. In Akom2 we had incredibly slow internet, but nothing else, while in Mann, we just had electricity. So after a few weeks in the field, I was SUPER excited for a shower back in Kribi. Unfortunately for me, there was no running water or electricity upon my return. However, after a couple hours the water returned, while weirdly enough, electricity came back on for all my neighbours, but not for me (rude!!/je ne comprend pas??). Three days and one visit from the electrician later… I was a happy camper again.  
• French facilitation: At the beginning of the trip, I was co-facilitating my timeline exercise to help the fact that I speak often grammatically incorrect French with my Anglophone accent. So, it was a HUGE accomplishment for me when I led was able to lead the exercise in the community of Mann, all by myself! I will admit that I had help on how to spell some of the words I was trying to write… but, minor details…  

Anyway, time for some photos!:

  

               Left: Our noble steed, the faithful pirogue; Center: Happy boaters!; Right: Super, wicked,awesome mangrove trees! 

 

Above: All the participants of the workshop in Akom2. This was the workshop I was in charge of the budget for.

Above: All smiles after succesfully leading the ligne de temps exercise on my own! :)

Next up for me… Synthesis and report writing! Which actually works out okay given that rainy season has commenced and I am hiding out inside anyway….
Hope you are all staying dry in Canada, folks!

À la prochain! Much love!

- C