Secondly, I had been trying to add this post last week, but since I had promised pictures, this required better internets than I have had access to for some time. Fingers crossed this upload works!!
I spent this past week in another B-ADAPT workshop, this time for Moringa and Allan Blackia (non-timber forest products). At one point during the workshop, my friend Claudine had me convinced it would be a good idea to get my hair braided. So when my tailor later asked to braid my hair, I figured why not? That same evening, I was sitting while a 12 year old braided my hair (the tailor was just the middleman.... clearly), the entire village sat watching, and at least 3 people were touching my hair at all times. A couple marriage proposals (including one for my brother) and 2.5 hours later, I survived to tell the tale! Here are a few other stories from my past couple weeks:
Private flights and med-evacs
A couple weeks back, a
fellow volunteer and I headed to the big city, Yaounde, for some retail
therapy. More specifically, we took a trip to the capital just to buy pange
material (local fabric that comes in 6m bundles) to later have clothes made
with. Six panges and too many francs spent later, our trip was a success. However, while we were in the capital, I found out another volunteer and friend of mine was sick and had been in and out of the hospital. Many doctors visits, tests, phone calls, and massive email chains later, it was decided she needed to be medically evacuated. I immediately decided to extend my time in Yaoundé to stay with her until she flew out.
Fast forward to the morning of the planned evacuation- We arrive at the Yaounde International airport at the arranged time, and head to the transit information desk to determine how to proceed. The woman at transit information tells us there are no private flights today with the exception of one for an oil company. As the evacuation was planned for Nairobi, we then check the Kenyan Airways desk, and office- No go. Meanwhile the medical team is calling every 10 minutes or so to see if we have started the immigration process. The next time they phoned, we managed to obtain a flight number which we head back to the transit information desk with. It is a new woman working at the transit information desk which means we have to recount the whole saga. She flags down the first woman we talked to who is luckily able to confirm the flight arrival, and then proceeds to point vaguely in the direction of a police officer for us to commence immigration.
Following the police officer, we end up back at the Kenyan Airways office….. It appears the officer is confused that the flight is Nairobi bound but not a commercial flight. The medical team calls again to say they have arrived and to ask where the heck where are. When we return to the transit information desk, the women is flustered to see us and has some choice words about the police officer who apparently had no idea what to do with us. She then proceeds to walk us through immigration.
Given that I left my passport back in Kribi, I was never planning to head to Nairobi, but decide to see how far I can make it through immigration. I passed through two security checks, passport control and made it as far as the baggage scan before they kicked me out… not bad. The best news though, was that after over an hour at the airport later, my friend was safely on her private flight enroute to getting the medical treatment she needed.
Whale watching/that time we almost died
During our adventures
in Yaoundé, we had breakfast with a local marine biologist/researcher who
invited us to come whale watching with him the next weekend in Kribi. With visions
of a lovely day at sea complete with picnic, real boat and flipper sightings, we
eagerly accepted. As it turned out, expectations and realities are two very
different things.
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| Above: Super efficient boat launching is as follows: People sit on one side of the boat to weigh it down, while the other side is pushed forwards. And repeat. Many many times. |
Many hours of waiting
due to rough waves and winds (which made our 7am departure seem highly unnecessary),
we headed out to sea in a pirogue, which is basically just a large canoe with a
motor. Within the first five minutes of boating, we had almost tipped on
several occasions, were completely soaked from head to toe, and had half of the
passengers bailing water from the boat. Each passing wave made my stomach feel
like I were on a roller coaster, and after ten minutes I had decided it was
inevitable that we would end up in the water. And because I am a terrible person (slash my camera was
expensive!), I just remember thinking: “Well
at least I can swim, but my camera sure can’t”…..
Fortunately, we did eventually turn around as the driver finally deemed the weather too risky. Needless to say, we did not see any whales. We did however get to visit the sea turtle eco-centre while in Ebodje, so the day was still a success despite the lack of whales.
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| Mmm.. turtle eggs and throat glands. |
Fortunately, we did eventually turn around as the driver finally deemed the weather too risky. Needless to say, we did not see any whales. We did however get to visit the sea turtle eco-centre while in Ebodje, so the day was still a success despite the lack of whales.
Mappin’ moringa
The bulk of my work in
Cameroon had focused on doing a value chain analysis on the agricultural
product, plantain, for the Campo Ma’an Model Forest region. Following this, I was
asked vaguely to “map the value chain” for all B-ADAPT products (there are
many) through using a gps enabled camera to collect data to spatially display.
Given that there are a ridiculous amount of production sites in the region, let
alone sites related to the rest of the value chain, I decided I would map sites
of Moringa nurseries in and around Kribi (which narrows it to roughly 7 sites).
So this past Saturday,
I hired a moto and spent the day zipping along red dirt roads visiting villages
to collect data. Even though it rained and I was running on very little sleep, it was easily one of my favourite days in Cameroon to date. Sergi, my
moto-driver, was absolutely fantastic and knowledgeable about everything from
the locations of the nurseries (since they are often located in backyards and not
roadside), the various flora and fauna on the route, and even how to fix
problems you encounter on your moto (we may or may not have used this knowledge
during the trip).
While the data
analysis and spatial mapping is still a work in progess, enjoy these photos in
the meantime!
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| Ze Simon and Sergi admiring the nursery to the left, and newly planted field on the right. |
À la prochain!
- C
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