Weekend in Kribi

Thorsten is leaving for Belgium on Friday so we thought it would be nice to have a few days away of Yaoundé before. So last weekend, we went off to the sea-side. But instead of relaxing in an expensive hotel, we decided to go "camping". We stayed in the unfinished house of friends of our friends. Which means there was no water nor electricity, but there was a well where we could fetch water, there were beds with matrasses and a garden where the children could play safely.

The sea at Kribi is known to be a bit rough, but we hadn't really expected our children to be mortified by the sound and the waves. Luckily, after a bit of gentle persuasion they decided it was OK to play in the sand at a fair distance of the sea. Once that was settled, we had a great time. Jara, Lisa and Mia (daughter of Julie and Tom who's about the same age as Jara) loved playing in the sand. The nanny's, who came along, loved playing in the sea. And we, we loved having a beer on the beach while the children were playing.
Our nanny's also decided that they could do better than the food in the restaurant and made us a delicious meal.
Saturday night, we decided it was the night off for the parents. We enjoyed the night out, sunset on the beach and long talks without children waking up, crying etc.

We took our nanny's to see how that would work. But we decided that the advantages (parents having a night out, helping hand) did not outweigh the disadvantages (extra people to care/cater for, own agenda,...) so that was the first and last time nanny's would join.



All in all, it was a great weekend away but we also enjoyed coming back home, lighting the oven and having a pizza!

Boys work (2)!

Last weekend the boys finished the pizza oven! We were lucky having picked an afternoon with sunshine and no rain - rainy season is full on and it's raining every day now.
The boys enjoyed playing with the sand, mud, making it the right texture (I didn't know but apparently there's a lot of engineering going into clay oven-building) and patching it all up. Then it was time to get the sand out and light the fire.
Yesterday, we had the first pizza out of the oven and it was... delicious!

Let the party begin!

The only draw back is the rain. We need to get a cover built as when it rains on the oven it could turn our oven into a pile of mud when not protected...

Griet's malaria and its consequences for Lisa

I had malaria last week - No panic! I'm all better now!
For all who know the disease, it is not pretty. Anyhow, due to the medication I needed to take to get better, I am not allowed to breastfeed for 28 days. The medication stays in your system that long and consequently in the breastmilk. Since I have never had any excess milk, and now putting breastfeeding on hold for one month has basically reduced my milk production to a nihil. Even though I expressed as well as I could (especially as I was having a hard time being ill - fever, pain etc) my milk supply has stopped. Unfortunately.

On the other side, since the bottlefeeding, Lisa's been sleeping better and seems more balanced, i.e. not wanting to feed all the time. Even Jara loves 'giving Lisa a bottle'. If we're not carefull, she would even give her own milk to Lisa! When Jara sees Lisa with the bottle, it reminds her of milk hence she now wants to drink milk during the day too (rather than a bottle in the morning and evening). Sometimes she wants to be given the bottle as a baby. Ah well, it won't harm her and the extra cuddle is welcome. She's been eating well and has been a happy little girl (see video below):

Broederlijk Delen moves out of Cameroon

Broederlijk Delen has been working in Cameroon for over 47 years and established its permanent presence in Yaoundé in 1999 only. During these five decades thousands of farmers and poor have been helped in securing and improving their livelihoods. Together with dozens of local organisations we contributed to the socio-economic and environmental improvement of many people and farmer groups. Now BD has decided it is time to leave Cameroon. This information came as a shock to the remaining 16 organisations BD is working with.

Broederlijk Delen is presently working in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and America. For political and strategic reasons a reduction in the country base is necessary. This resulted in the decision to withdraw from some countries and Cameroon is one of them. The decision to stop our activities in Cameroon is based on a number of reasons such as the improved socio-economic situation here in Cameroon but also the desire of BD for more regional concerted action. Whilst this decision is a hard pill to swollow for our partners and development workers here, it is a decision that will be implemented over the next 2-3 years only. This leaves enough time for partners to get themselves prepared for this step. Nevertheless the shock sits deep.

During the coming weeks a detailed exit strategy for all of our partners here will be prepared. It is our aim to support them in the best possible way in their challenge to find other financial sources and partners.

For us this development has also direct impacts as it means we will have to find other work after February 2011. Before that there is however still a lot of work to be done. In terms of actual work however the dynamics are different: the approach to develop and build up a partner base in a country is quite different from scaling down and finally switching off the lights. I expect also that some partners might change their approach towards BD as they have nothing to loose any more. We will see how this maps out.
For our family this step is sad as we have so well integrated here in Yaoundé and thought we would stay here for up to six years. Now the situation is different and we have to adapt our plans. So it remains interesting and challenging! We will see how things develop and will keep you updated!

Boys work (1)!!

Finally we got around to start the work at our clay Pizza oven in our garden. We contemplated about it for a while already and last Saturday was then the day when the boys got around to start it.

The idea is to have a wood fired clay oven in our garden to be able to do these crispy and delicious Pizza's, breads and other delicious things. Our garden is just big enough for this little luxury 'gadget' and the idea to have some friends around for Pizza evenings is too tempting. In a first step Tom, Denis and Thorsten constructed the foundation of the future oven with clay bricks and mud. Now all has to dry before we can construct the dome. Can't wait to continue! It is so much fun and the girls were happy to see the two boys 'play' with the mud!




In two weeks the construction of the dome will take place and then we hope we will have nice Pizzas coming out of the oven soon! Just picture it: a bunch of nice people sitting around the oven with a glass of wine and delicious Pizza'z fresh from the oven! Yep, we try to do our best having fun here!

Kids in action

When I say that Lisa has started to crawl, I'm sure nobody will believe me. So here's a little film. Obviously she's not an expert yet but she's getting there, and more importantly, she's getting where and what she wants... This morning she pulled herself up to stand in the bath. I can't follow anymore, this is going way to fast!!!

Also Jara doens't stop changing. She loves imitation her parents. The other day I found her wearing my bikini shorts...
She sees her father often multitasking on the phone. Well, she can do that too!

Heaven on earth

Last week Friday (Good Friday) was public holiday. So we took the opportunity to discover a new piece of Yaoundé: The Zoo. I have wanted to go there since long, but the opportunity never arose.

The Zoo itself is quite little, quite African (for those who know about African zoo's...) but not too bad - I've seen much worse. It houses a lot of monkey's, a civet cat, turtels, lions and others. The lions did make a bit of an impression on me. You could (if you wanted to) put your hand through the cage and stroke them, but the look on there face made us decide otherwise. They were particulary interested in Jara and Mia (friends daughter of about the same age as Jara) and kept following them with their eyes. A bit further, in the Snake House (or how do you call these things?) a few cages were open... We tried not to put too much attention to that.

However, the main attraction to the Zoo is the little play yard for small kids... Oh well! You should have seen Jara's face when we entered. It was like she had arrived in heaven. I don't think I have ever seen her face lit up like that.

There is a train, mary-go-around, jumping castle, play jungle, slides,...
For Jara and Mia, it was the day of their life.

Now I know for sure: there won't be any stressy days no more ,alone at home with bored and obnoxious children while thorsten is traveling; I'm just gonna camp out at the Zoo!

Jara's 2nd birthday party

I know I know, her birthday is not till wednesday but we decided to have the party early.
So Sunday (Easter) was the big day. Lots of cakes, cookies, chocolate and drinks. A big garden, a sandpit, a real play-kitchen, an Easter-egg hunt and a goodie bag. Do I need to say more? The party was a great success! Well, at least the kids enjoyed it, I hope the parents did too.