Changes, lots of changes

It's been a while since our last blog update and a lot has happened since.
Thorsten's parents have been to visit and especially the girls enjoyed their company. Due to several reasons and circumstances, we were not able to do the traveling we had planned. But they were very understanding and loved spending time with the girls. Thorsten took them and the girls to Limbe for a few days - which they enjoyed a lot. They made themselves at home in our home and helped out with whatever they could - Thank you!



Most of you know, that I, Griet, have been waiting to hear about a job coming through. Well... It has finally happened!! A few months later than expected but still. By the end of May, I finally heard my contract came through and I could start working for HJFMRI (Henry M. Jackson Foundation Medical Research International), an American not-for-profit organisation that supports medical research in developing countries. Here in Cameroon, I am the program manager for the Avian and Pandemic Influenza Surveillance Program funded by DoD-GEIS (Department of Defence Global Emerging Infections Surveillance Program). We support 2 labs that do the research, one in Buea and one in Yaounde. Together with the Centre Pasteur du Cameroon are they the sole laboratories that conduct research in this field.
I have to say - it does take time getting used to going back to work full time, after a few years break (studying, having children, moving around) but I enjoy the welcome change and challange.

Also Thorsten is changing jobs. As you all know, Broederlijk Delen (BD) is moving out of Cameroon so Thorsten's contract would come to an end in March 2011. And in this sector, the jobs are not always plenty so Thorsten started applying on time with the result that he'll start working for GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) from the 1st July. Although BD is sad to see him leave, it's a great opportunity and we're both happy to be working and living in Cameroon a little while longer. What Thorsten's new job is all about, I'll let him explain :-)

With the new jobs comes also the fact we have to move to the town centre. We have been contemplating moving for a long time, although we will miss our little paradise. But commuting to town has become impossible due to increasing traffic. On top of that, they're closing the roads on a weekly basis these days which sometimes prevents us from leaving our house the whole day. And Jara's starting school in September - which is also in town. But I will look forward living closer to our friends and not having to loose 2 hours a day on school/crèche runs only.

Enough about the parents, Jara and Lisa then. They're both doing great. Jara is still a princess with a strong character. She's very stubborn and knows what she wants (or not want for that matter)(it must run in the family, somewhere). The best way to get her to do something or listen is to make a deal. On the other hand, she's incredibly gentle and sweet with Lisa (who's cutting 4 teeth at the moment), gives her her bear or a bottle of milk when Lisa's crying. They've also become very close and play together a lot. Lisa's usually copying Jara, which sometimes leads to hilarious situations and Jara's usually bossing Lisa around. Lisa's is a very easy gentle child who can play on her own for ages. Where Jara will make a scene when she bangs her head, Lisa will say "Aw, bobo"(french baby language for pain), rub her head and will continue her game. She's tough!

We're moving

That's it! We're moving!

We're sick and tired of the road closures, distance to town, school and friends. Jara and Lisa helped us creating and decorating our new home...
They did also a bit of decorating themselves...

 

 

 

 

Easter in the tropics

Easter this year is easy to describe:
good friends, lots of sun, pool, too much chocolate, beer and coffee, jeu de boules,

 

Saturday we went decorating eggs and needless to say Jara did not want to rinse her hands in the pouring rain. Interstingly enough, she did not mind getting paint all over herself.

The easter-egg-hunt was a big hit - even with Miko (our dog) who found some more chocolate the day after...

no comment...

business as usual

We went to Kribi (sea side) a few weeks ago but forgot our camera... Ah well, at least it could not fall in the water.
This time it was a great success (so no time to take pictures anyway). Jara and Lisa enjoyed the sea, were not so afraid of the waves anymore - I even had to run out to Jara one time as she was running in to the sea and would have been caught badly by the waves if I hadn't caught her just in time. Lisa, our little tomboy, enjoyed being splashed and didn't mind the waves at all (which resulted in a painful ear-condition for 10 days after wards...).
Every morning, next to our hotel, fishermen went out in the sea to bring back the catch of the day. Jara and Lisa enjoyed the attention they got ("oh, ce sont des jumelles?" "mais qu'elles sont mignonnes", etc) and Thorsten and I were curious as to what they caught. Disappointing actually. Thanks to (or better despite of) big international fishing companies, there's nothing left to catch for the local fishermen. We saw several nets being pulled in and each time there was nothing worth selling. A few tiny fish (I mean tiny - 5-10 cm long), a few jelly fish and a crab or two was about the average.

At home, things are business as usual. Thorsten's in Belgium for the annual reflection days of Broederlijk Delen - the last for him as BD is closing down in Cameroon by next year. Jara enjoys her "toute petite section" (kindergarten) and Lisa joins her 2 days a week in the creche. They are growing up remarkably fast and engage in role play's together (where it is usually Jara who instructs Lisa and Lisa who, more often than not, refuses to become Jara's servant).

 

 

 

 

The rainy season has started and when I was on my way to the creche this morning, the river Mfoundi had overflown (is this correct English?). The water was knee deep at certain places and I could only be grateful not to have to be in a taxi...

A belated Happy New Year!

We're not yet February, so I suppose I'm not yet too late to wish every one a happy, great, full of challenges, wishes-come-true and colourful New Year.
We started the year well and are looking forward to an interesting and eventfull 2010.

So what happened?
In December, Griet's parents came from Uganda to celebrate Xmas and New Year with us. We started the holiday with a party at home, full of friends and nice weather:



After everyone recovered, we set of to Kumbo, with a few days stop-over in Foumban.
In Foumban, we visited the Sultan's palace (the Sultan still lives there today with his numerous wives), enjoyed the scenery and the kids had a blast on the playground. It was especially nice being with the family and even though Jara and Lisa don't see/hear the grandparents all that much, they take to them within a few hours every time.



Christmas and Christmas eve, we spent in Kumbo. Due to unforeseen circumstances we spent the days in a pastoral centre, which has the charm of an old and rundown boarding school without water (and if, only icecold)... But the scenery was beautiful. The weather was crisp and clear in the mornings, nice and warm in the afternoons.



Then came the phone call we were all dreading – things were not going well at all with Griet’s grandmother and Frans en Lut had to rush to Belgium. Luckily, they managed to get on a flight the same day and were able to see Moeke, spend some time with her and say goodbye. Moeke passed away a few minutes after the fireworks on New Year’s Eve – May you have found your peace now Moeke, we will miss you.

Since we had plans to meet friends for New Year in Buea and Limbe, we decided to go anyway. Although the day was overshadowed by the news from Moeke, it was great spending the time with good friends.

Lisa's walking

I just wanted to share this video with you!

girls only!

It's been a while that we (women) have been talking about it. "We should go away for the weekend and leave the men with the kids" and "I need sleeeeeeeeeeep". So a few weeks ago we did what we did: We went to Kribi for sea, sand and sleep. It was great. 4 women, no men, no kids. We slept, swam, eat pizza, played games, made long walks on the beach, ate fish in the harbour but above all relaxed!

trip to the North West

Thorsten had to go to Kumbo for partnervisit (as he often does) and this time, Jara, Lisa and I joined. We added a weekend in Babungo with friends and the holiday was complete!
The North West is one of the most difficult places to go to because of its inaccessible, very bad dirt roads. Interestingly enough, the North West is also the country of the opposition... In the hight of the rainy season it is almost impossible to go there due to the heavy rains that turn the road into a mud pool. We're at the end of the rainy season: roads are accessible, but you still have the odd shower to wash away the dust.
Click on the images to enlarge them!



The first part of our trip, we stayed on the "hill of immaculate conception" in Kumbo. Filip, the BD cooperant working there lives on the bishop's hill and we stayed with him. While Thorsten was of doing his work, I hung around with the kids, strolled up and down the hill and watched the goats and chicken (especially Jara wanted to look for them).

Wednesday the kids and I joined Thorsten en Filip to Mbiame, a little village on a 1.5-hour drive, where BD's partner organisation ATP (Agricultural Training Project) has a demonstration farm. The drive was just beautiful! It was like driving through Scotland with bananatrees. I had to sit in the back and hold Lisa's head while she was asleep because of the road condition. I think her head would have fallen of otherwise.
ATP is training young (and older) promising farmers of the region in alternative farming technics. Over the course of one year they spend 10 times 2 weeks on the demonstration farm to learn through practice and theory. Afterwards they go back to their villages to do their own farming. For three subsequent years they will be followed up by the project in their villages to assist them with their farms and to give advise. It is a really promising and innovative project that can change the lives of the students!



Thursday we left for Babungo, a small village in the valley surrounded by waterfalls. Tom and Julie joined us on Friday and we spend the weekend just relaxing, not doing too much. The women (Julie, granny Jude and I) went to visit a nearby pottery shop where we saw pottery happening from beginning to end. I did some pottery myself in Thailand but never realised the lenghty process of getting the clay to be the way it's supposed to be. And of course we had to indulge ourselves in the shop...
The boys (Tom and Thorsten) went for a hike up the hill and the kids loved pottering around, having a communal pee on the potty and being the stars of the village. So everybody was happy.



Every village in the North West has a fon, so also Babungo. The fon is the king of the village or chiefdom and people go to him for advise, to solve problems etc. He's the cultural leader of the village. In Babungo, the fon is only about 35 years old, but has already several wives. In addition, on becoming fon, inherited many wives from his late father. His palace is packed with wooden statues that people make and donate to him. His living quarters are an interesting mix between traditional and modern goods. It's complicated!
Anyway, the fon's palace was well worth a visit as you can see on the pictures!

Mais c'est normal en Cameroun!

In Cameroon, founders and directors of local NGO's and organisations seem to have developed an interesting pension scheme.
They apply for grants and funds with international agencies to run their organisation: to pay for trainers and trainings, materials, project costs etc. All very well and good organised, proposals look solid.
Then an audit is done to see that the money is spent accordingly. And usually it's the organisation hiring the auditor.
But then you come, and you look into the spendings yourself, you check why suddenly a thrustworthy member of staff leaves or hire an auditor yourself.

And that's where the pension scheme comes in.
Suddenly it seems that hard working people only get a percentage of the wage they sign for. Their payslip may say 100.000FCFA but in practice the person goes home with only 50.000FCFA.
When you question this with the responsible of the organisation the reply is usually something like "Mais c'est normal en Cameroun".
And to a certain extend it is.
People who start a little NGO usually see it as their baby and a good way to get funds from international agencies. They may be doing good work all along (improve livelihoods, give training and built trainingcentres), but it has become absolutely acceptable to cheat on the accounts and steal to save for later, start a private business or whatever.
It is not only Broederlijk Delen who is coming across these issues but the majority of our friends here working in international development are coming across similar situations.
It creates a catch-22. Do you stop all collaboration with the organisation in question but then jeapardize all personnel as well who will be going from a small income to no income? Or try to work with the organisation to improve their habits, knowing that behavioural change is about the hardest thing in the world to do...

a few movies...

of the kids of course... who else?



Jara and Mia in the tub, having a lot of fun with skiing pinguins.
And Lisa going shopping for books... Not really but she is dying to walk and we are tired of walking with her haha

a boat trip on the river Nyong

Since we just got back from Europe, we thought: high time for a day out!! So last Saturday we went on a boat trip in Ebogo, an eco-tourist site a little but further down the road from Mbalmayo. Not far, easy to get there and a great day out. Jara and I went on the pirogue, while Thorsten and Lisa stayed ashore. After our trip a great meal with freshly caught catfish and a cold beer. What else do you want?
Jara was happy to see her best friend again and we were happy to catch up on the latest gossip!

And we're back!

Yes, after a couple of busy months, we're back home, settling in all right. Thorsten has started work, Jara has started kindergarden, Lisa has started walking (holding on to 2 hands of course) and I, I've started going through our pictures and realised there are too many!

We'll start with the beginning. Click on the pictures to enlarge them!
Beginning of June, Rhoddy, Thorsten's colleague from BD came for a fieldvisit. As BD is working on an exit strategy in the next couple of years, they had to visit all partners in the country to officially announce the not-so-good news. It was 2 weeks of solid travelling, visiting 16 projects in the Extreme North, North West, Centre and South of Cameroon.


As soon as Rhoddy left, my (Griet's) father arrived for a blitz visit. As he would otherwise have to wait till Christmas to see the kids, he decided to cross the continent for a week.
The weather wasn't great, but we still had a nice time catching up at home and in Limbe. After opa Frans left, Jara kept repeating 'opa partie' for quite a while.


Then it was time for the real holidays. This year, we decided to go to Italy in stead of only visiting our friends and family. We started with the 60th anniverary of Griet's grandparents before heading of to Germany where we stayed a few days.
In Belgium:


In Germany:


In Italy we were lucky to stay in the apartement of Sofie and Sven who are living in Parma. They have 2 small boys, hence everything was on hand (push chairs, toys, baby carrier, trycicle, plastic plates etc) and they are living in town centre with 3 playgrounds on a 5 minute walk! We devided our time between a stay-at-home-and-do-playgrounds-day for the children and an away-day for the adults. It worked out great and everybody was happy.
Jara was especially happy when she managed to convince her parents to have at least one ice cream a day... That is one word she learned very well. Everybody warned us about the hot weather in Parma in the summer, but apart from the first couple of days, it was all right. In addition, we went to the mountains a couple of times and even went to the coast. Obviously had to get some real balsamico vinegar in Modena and have spaghetti bolognaise in Bolonga. Not to mention Parmasan and Parmaham... Did you know there's a town called Gorgonzola? Wonder what that is famous for.
The playground-home-days went like this:


The away-days went like this:


While we were in Parma, oma Doris and opa Heinz came for a couple of days, as did Elaine and Andrea, 2 friends from the UK. It was very nice to have this little reunion and we decided they should next come to Cameroon...

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!