Bicycles

Last weekend, we went to Kirundo, a small town in the north of Burundi, the poorest region. But that is relative. Burundi is poor. Full stop. But it is when you're traveling that you notice it more. 

Some data from Worldbank, CIA factbook etc: 

The national income per capita (GNI) is less than $250 (that means that on average, a person earns less than $250 per year!!), there are 308 people living per square meter and a it has a population growth of 1,9%. Every woman gets an average of 4.1 children (more in the rural areas) and according to the CIA Factbook, Burundi ranks 190 out of 192 countries by GDP per capita. There is not a spot of land that is unused for agriculture. People are cultivating land that is almost as steep as a wall. 

One of the things that really struck me on our trip, in comparison to Cameroon, is the use of bicycles. In Cameroon, motor bikes are the common way of transporting goods. Here, it's bicycles. 

Bicycles in any state, are usually re-enforced in the front and at the back, to carry a load as heavy and big as possible.

Everything gets transported by bike. Often for many many kilometers. On top of that, in Burundi, it's all uphill or downhill. 

Downhill is easy. And for uphill, they often take a ride:

Below some pictures (taken out of a driving car and through the front windscreen) of what people transport on their bicycles:

Bananas...

fire wood...

cauliflower...

more vegetables...

roof tiles...

food for their livestock...

building/fencing materials...

corrugated iron...

more bananas...

charcoal...

... and many more. 

2013 ends with a lot of good-byes. And lots of new expectations. We have moved to Burundi which we will call home soon. We're still in transition but are enjoying the new country, new friends, new ways of living already. Soon we should be in our own place and get back in our routine.

Thorsten has taken on a new job with the GIZ in Bujumbura for 5 years. There should be less travel involved and more regular hours.  

Jara and Lisa seem to have adjusted pretty well. They are very curious to their new school so we had a peak earlier this week. They are excited and like the look of it. They have also been able to connect well with new kids around but miss their friends from Yaoundé a lot.  

Siri has had a couple of rough days. She was down with a virus (a lot of vomiting and diarrhea) and found it hard to adjust. But she's better now, is eating again and playing well. A pity we lost her chubby thighs on the way. 

I also enjoy the new place. I find myself comparing with Yaoundé a lot and am pleasantly surprised in lots of ways. Bujumbura is much calmer, cleaner, easier to go around in. The weather is hotter and more humid. Larger supermarkets are non-existent but there is a good bakery, good butcher and fresh milk products. Life starts earlier here (the housekeeper of the house we're staying at woke us up at 7 am this morning trying to get in) and the girls will start school at 7.30. 

But we also said good-bye to a lot of good friends too. After almost 6 wonderful years in Cameroon, saying goodbye was not easy. 

We made a lot of good friends, saw lots of people come and go and this time it is our turn.

We arrived with one toddler and a baby on the way and are leaving with 3 precious girls. Cameroon is a fertile place! Be aware!

Although I'm sure our paths will cross again, it may be a while at first. But our doors are always open for you. 

Have a wonderful time with your friends and family!

moving on

That's it. Our life in Cameroon comes to an end. By the end of December, we will be living in Bujumbura, Burundi. Same continent, different country. Same same, but different. A lot different I think.

Thorsten will continue working with GIZ, but within a different project. If all goes well, there should be less extensive travel involved. The girls, especially Jara, have always found it hard when Thorsten was not there.
I hope to return to work too at some point.

We're looking forward to the change. We have spent 5,5 beautiful years in Yaoundé and it will be hard to leave. But we're happy. We've seen so many good friends come and go and now it is our turn.
We told Jara and Lisa and they seem excited. Although when we told them they'd be going to the Belgian School, we realised they expected to return to Europe... I know, it is confusing for their little minds.

Until then, we'll continue our little life here.
Jara has started first grade, which, for German tradition, is a very big thing. It includes choosing "Schulranzen" (schoolbag, sport sack, pencase, folder etc all in the same theme), having a "Schultüte" filled with toys and sweets and having a party. Thanks to some good German friends we were able to have a real Schultüte party:

Lisa was very good not getting all the attention, but obviously is expecting an equal opportunity next year ;-)

Siri getting bigger and cheekier each day. She's walking, more or less, and enjoys the attention she's getting from her sisters, who adore her. And, for a change, she's a great eater! (Those of you who don't know, Jara and Lisa aren't the greatest eaters).

She's so full of love and laughter, it's amazing. I'm curious how's she's going to deal with the changes.

Milk

Milk is delicious. Providing it's fresh and does not come in a brik after been UHT'ed and traveled for 5000 miles to get here.
Unfortunately, the last kind is the only kind available in Yaoundé (oh, and the powdered milk à la Nido etc). If you're lucky you can find fresh powdered milk on the market, sent down from the North or North West of Cameroon. Because there you can find milk. There, people have a tradition of herding cows, making yogurt and cheese. 
So when a friend and I found out that there IS in fact fresh milk, only it doesn't get to Yaoundé we decided to change that. 
We found a dairy in Kumbo, the Tadu Dairy Cooperative, that was willing to try it out. That was more than a year ago. 
Since then, we've set up a regular dairy delivery to Yaoundé of fresh milk, yogurt and butter. It's quite a challenge to get the dairy (and especially the milk) down and cold as it should. Kumbo is a 7 hours drive away, and that's on a good day without traffic. 
This is how it's usually done: 
We send the Dairy our order (and that of 80+ other milk lovers in Yaoundé) and a week later it arrives. The Dairy puts everything in big coolers filled with ice bottles. They drive the order up to Bamenda where it gets loaded on top of the night bus. Overnight, it travels down to Yaoundé and arrives here in the early morning nice and cold.
We've been having orders for over 350 liters of milk and more than 500 yogurts (of different tastes) and so far, none of it has arrived bad. 
The Tadu Dairy Cooperative is a cooperative that has had quite some funding and support from (mainly) US organisations such as Land O' Lakes, USAID and others. They are now completely independent and provide mainly the North West of Cameroon with yogurt, butter, cheese etc. More information on the success story of Tadu Dairy Cooperation you can find here.

 

life as a "non-working accompanying expat wife"

A non-working accompanying expat wife...What's in a name!?

Non-working; I am not having a job for which I get paid and for which I need to go to an office

Accompanying; I accompany my spouse who's the lead bread winner in this arrangement

Expat; according to Wikipedia an expatriate (commonly abbreviated expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing 

Wife; well, you all know what that means.

In our expat-family of 5, we employ a 2 wonderful people. We have V, our nanny and D, our housekeeper. 

Why employ 2 people if you don't work yourself, I can hear you wondering. 

We employed these people in the time that both T and I were working full time and were traveling frequently for work. Then my contract came to an end so we should just let them go? No. We made a commitment to V and D. They both have (extended) families that depend on their income and we make sure that income is sufficient and assured. 

V and D are extended family to us and are even more so for the girls. 

And I won't lie, it's great to have the house help. 

So what do I do with all that free time? ALL that free time is relative. Jara and Lisa are attending a school about 15 min drive away. It's a great little school but the hours are crazy. Add the after-school activities and playdates and I do an average of 4-6 (school) runs a day. 

And of course there's still Siri who's only 6,5 months old. And then there are the errands to do which take so much more time and energy as they would in our home country (electricity, water, internet and telephone all need to be paid in cash at their respective office, but that's another story). So my free time is pretty scattered throughout the day: 1 hour here, 30 min there etc.

But I don't complain. It's great to have V and D around and it's thanks to them that I can spend a lot of my free time on my new hobby. 

I bought a sewing machine a while ago and am really enjoying making things from scratch. The abundance of cheap fabric (9-10 Euro for 5,50m) gives room for a lot of trial and error ;-) and results often in pretty little things. 

Holala

yep, I've done it again, ignored the blog for too long.

On the other hand, quite a lot happened and I just did not have the time to keep up. 
I won't bore you with the usual weekend trips to the beach or hills and birthday parties we've done and had since February but I'll get straight on to the big news: 

Indeed, we've become the proud parents of a beautiful girl, Siri Marie. She was born on 10th September after a speedy delivery of 1h10 min! All went well and both mother and baby are doing great. 
I had left Cameroon unexpectedly much earlier as planned because I was diagnosed with kidney stones. Because it would not be possible to treat the kidney stones and look after the unborn baby, it was decided I would return to Belgium asap in case the stones descend. So I spent the rest of my pregnancy worrying about stents and descending kidneystones, only to find out after delivery, after further examinations, there were no kidney stones...  

So now, we've returned to Cameroon after a long stay in Belgium. It was great spending so much time with family and friends. Jara & Lisa loved getting to know their cousins much better.
They also went to school in Belgium. The school, who's working on a experienced based learning approach, was a great change from the French system, which they are used to in Yaoundé. It took Jara a few weeks to get confident enough and take initiative in class as she's used to sit, listen and be told what to do. In the end though, they regretted having to leave this creative environment.

After a few weeks of adjusting, we're back to normal. Jara and Lisa have found their friends (although Lisa's 2 "best" friends have left the country while we were in Belgium) and are settled back in school. Thorsten's is busy again at work and traveling a lot and Siri, after about a week of adjusting to the climate, is growing so fast you can almost see it. I hope to get back to my new hobby, sewing, soon enough, as long as Siri leaves a few more hours between feeds. The unlimited choice and supply of beautiful fabrics really are a big incentive to get creative.
 

Elephants and more

I realised it's been way too long since I posted something on the blog... We're already the end of February 2012 and the last time we wrote something was in November!!
 

So.
 

With the Christmas holidays, we decided to go to the Extreme North of Cameroon, a trip we actually wanted to make last year, but didn't happen.
With a couple of families, we went to Boubandjida, one of the most bio-diverse national parks in Western/Central Africa. Only draw back with such beautiful places... they're a LOOOONG way away.
Thorsten drove up to Ngaoundere (2 days drive) with Andreas and Mauricette, the children, a third couple and I took the overnight train (15 hours).
What an experience. I was a little worried as you never know how it will go. We've heard enough stories of delays (not only hours, but also days stuck in the middle of nowhere), robberies, derailements, but also of the nice and wonderful experience, the quality of the sleepers etc. Plus, Lisa gets very motion (travel) sick. But it was great. The train left on time, we arrived -reasonably- on time, the sleepers were great, clean,... And Jara and Lisa slept like angles all night.
From Ngaoundere, it took us another 2 days of driving to reach Boubandjida (but that can be done in one day, we realised later, as the roads have been improved).
Boubandijda was wonderful. We saw lots of animals, we had a great time and deicided on the spot we're going to go back.

Since we're back though, we've been hearing about horrible things that are happening in the Park. The park is (or rather was) very rich in elephants, but since the beginning of 2012 hundreds of elephants have been killed for the ivory. Here,here and here some more information about it. It has become a national crisis.



After Boubandjida, we continued our trip to Maroua, the capital of the Extreme North of Cameroon. A different country! It is one of my favourite places in Cameroon. The pace of live is more relaxed, people are friendly and hard-working and the city is beautiful. We were lucky to meet up with friends who we hadn't seen in a long time. It was great to spend time with them. Mia, Jara's first 'best friend' in Cameroon moved up to Maroua nearly 2 years ago and they've seen each other maybe 2 times since. It was again love at first sight.

Birthday's at the beach

8 adults, 9 children between 1 and 5, boardgames, birthday cake, treasure hunt, sun,  sand, sea, pool and pizza. That's all you need for a few days away!

Lisa and Miriam both turned 3 lately so we decided to celebrate on the beach. There's nothing more than a beach party, no?

Girls' trip to Maroua

Julie and Tom (friend of us, of whom you can read in previous posts) moved to Maroua last year, but we've never been able to pay them a visit. Recently they had a baby and my contract finished - so the perfect combination for a trip 'Up North'!
Jo and I set off for a short break to another world. And that's what Maroua is! It's like being in another country. And we were 'lucky'. We saw the Extreme North in its best: it was green, it rained a few times, millet was growing high, there was water in the river. Within a few months, it will be all sand and dust what you see.

Apart from seeing Julie, Tom, Mia and meeting Naëlie, I also caught up with other friends and we made a little trip to Rhumsiki.

Rhumsiki, in the Mandara mountains, is well known for it's beautiful rock formations and terrific landscape. We did a 2.5h walk in the morning and enjoyed every minute of it.
On the way back, we stopped at Tourou, where it was market day and learned that a market is not necessarily and primeraly about buying and selling. In Tourou, it's about meeting friends and drinking Bili-bili (millet beer). The women wear calabash hats and have a stick in their nose.

Maroua may not be as sofisticated as Yaounde, but I love the tranquility, the feel of the town and they've got fresh cheese, milk and tofu (in Yaounde you can only get imported milk and cheese - there is supposed to be tofu but haven't found it yet)!
Plus - I'm having a leather bag handmade and delivered to me in Yaounde in a couple of weeks time!! What a luxery ;-)

catching up

3 months have flown by!

We’ve been to the beach for a weekend (or two), had my (Griet’s) parents over and Jara celebrated her 4^th birthday.

We try to get away about once every 4-6 weeks, for a short weekend or a few days extra to escape the city, the crazy (taxi)drivers, the hassle, the leaks in the roof, but also to explore a bit more of this beautiful and diverse country.

Kribi is often choice number one. And rightly so: with its sandy white beaches, delicious shrimps and prawns, barracuda or any other catch of the day. Jara and Lisa love playing on the beach and are getting used to the waves (the first time we went to Kribi, they didn’t dare going close to the shoreline). It’s just a nice break from the city.

We went in March with our good friends Axel and Tina, and again just last weekend with “the board game gang”.

In March, we spend the whole weekend at the hotel, and decided that pool next to the beach is the best idea! The kids loved going back and forth between beach, waves and pool.

Last weekend, we were with 3 families and 6 kids between 5 and 1,5. Again, pool, beach and waves were the perfect combination. If Jara and Lisa had any reservations against the sea/waves left, they were gone by the time we hit the beach. We found a place that served dinner before 7pm, so we got the kids in bed in time for us to have a nice long evening – usually spent playing one of the many great board games.

Jara turned 4 in April – how time flies!! Oma Lut and opa Frans arrived just in time for the party. Even though there was no specific theme, all the presents, girls and cake were in the Princess theme… must be the age.

Bamessing, is another such gem in this country. When Frans and Lut came to visit, we took them to Bamessing during the Easter weekend. We stayed in a guesthouse in a small village, went to the local market, did walks with the kids in the hills, dried our own mushrooms, had an Easter egg hunt (amazing how the Easter bells – or rabbits found us in the middle of nowhere!) and even found a cooperation that produces local cheese and yoghourt (very, very hard to find in Yaoundé). It was great, spending time with family and friends, relaxing and beautiful. Once we were back, Frans and Lut took their role as grandparents to heart and took the girls for a boat ride, for swimming and walks. Frans did some little maintenance at home, for which we hadn’t found time yet and Lut taught David (our cook/housekeeper) how to make “hesperolletjes”, a very nice Belgian dish.

Lut stayed a week longer and really made a connection with Jara (who always needs more time before she lets herself getting attached to people), which was great, but it also made the goodbye harder. Thank you for coming oma and opa, we really, really enjoyed your stay!

Now it’s counting down to the holidays when we’re going back to Germany and Belgium for a month. Time to catch up with friends and family, have our yearly medical check-ups, do some shopping but hopefully also have some time to rest!

To prophylaxis or not to prophylaxis?

In Cameroon, malaria remains the first cause of morbidity and mortality among the most vulnerable groups. It is responsible for 35 - 40% deaths in health facilities: 50% morbidity among children below 5 years of age, 40 - 45% medical consultations and 30% in hospitalizations. So you first reaction upon arrival in this malaria infested country would be: YES, prophylaxis, absolutely, definitely! But making the decision isn’t all that easy. Do I want to take drugs for many years uninterrupted? Do I want my children to take drugs for many years uninterrupted? What do I take and what do I give my children? Lariam? Maybe they’ll get the nasty side effects – will this influence my children’s development? Malarone? Hardly affordable on a long term basis. Artemisia? Do I want to use the last weapon to kill malaria as a prophylaxis and so inevitably increase chances of drug-resistance?

Most of us (expats) don’t give our children, nor ourselves anything. We use all preventive matters to avoid being bitten in the first place (sleeping under nets, repellent, long sleeves after 6, etc) and hope for the best. But it’s not 100% safe, with its consequences: I (Griet) had malaria when still breastfeeding Lisa and so had to give up breastfeeding. Jara had malaria last year. Although it wasn’t very sure, because a blood test is not always reliable. Young children often don’t show malaria in the blood, or will not be very sick. So it took us some days before the doctor decided to treat for malaria, after which Jara’s headache and fever went in no time. But these are the good stories. We are lucky. A friend and classmate of Jara, had malaria 3,5 weeks ago. She is still in hospital, repatriated to her home country with failing kidneys and we’re all hoping the kidneys will resume work soon. If not, she may be on dialysis for the rest of her life.

So what do we do? In Yaounde itself (and especially Bastos, the quartier we are living in) malaria is not such a problem as in other regions of the country. Although – as you can read, we’re still at risk.

We decided that we don't want our children to be on drugs for many years, but we do give them prophylaxis when we're going to a malaria infested area (such as the beach). And then we become very creative, imaginative and convincing to get Jara and Lisa to swallow that bitter pill.

roll-on 2011!

Finally, by the end of January, we received our car (it took almost half a year to come to us, but that's another story all together).
Not much later, we had all the papers required so time to get out of the city!

We went for a weekend to Edea. Edea is a middle size town about 2 hours drive from Yaounde under good circumstances - which we were NOT having... Due to Friday afternoon/evening congestion, it took us more than an hour to get out of town. On the way we also saw a horrible accident (luckily it was already dusk and the girls didn't have to see it) so arrived much later than planned. Edea is not high on the must-see list of most travelers, but it suited us just well. Good food, the beach not far, a pool, dinner at the riverside, great location, the rooms were clean and tidy... just what you need for a short get-away. We had long forgotten about the drive once we sitting in the restaurant, overlooking the river with a mountain of grilled gamba's (tiger prawns) and a pint of beer ;-)

Last weekend Thorsten did one of his many projects on his list: a new pizza-oven. Again, it was great fun making it. Jara and Lisa loved getting their hands dirty and "helping" papa with building the oven.
We had some friends over who were all eager to help and learn... and be invited later for pizza... It turned out to be quite a party - some were manning the BBQ, others the drinks, people brought salads and desserts and while the small kids ran around in the garden, de big kids got their hands dirty.

Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas or St Nicolas is big in Belgium and Holland, very big. He's even so huge he came all the way to Cameroon to visit all the children that had been good throughout the year. All who had been good got a present, who wasn't didn't.

So Jara obviously had doubts whether she'd get something - who's never naughty heh?


Also, we'd been coaching Jara all week (several months actually) to give her pacifier/dummy/tut tut to Sinterklaas. So he could give it to another small baby who hasn't got one.
Big was our surprise she actually gave it herself! Very proud of our little big girl now.
Luckily she did get a present afterwards - after giving away her tut tut, she definitely deserved it.

Lisa didn't seem to think too much of Sinterklaas and his helpers - although she didn't want to come too close either :-)



The nights without the dummy have been fine. We've had a lot of ups and a few downs but I think she's made it now. A hell of a milestone has been taken last week!

In the mean time, also our Christmas plans have changed. We were due to travel to the extreme north of Cameroon with some friends, but unforeseen circumstances have made us change this. Jara and Lisa have been asking for their grandparents (and the grandparents for them) so we decided on the spur of the moment to book tickets to Germany. It'll be nice: gluhwine, christmas markets, central heating, snow, hot latte with chocolate,... Don't want to think of the running noses, cold feet and frozen fingers just yet...

Kid's playground in our place

In our last blog we already mentioned that we have felt like being in a roller coaster for the past months. Lots of things have had changed but all definately to the better. We are very glad with the new house and enjoy living in the neighbourhood of our friends. No more daily hassle with all the yellow taxi drivers on daily commutes.

Both Jara and Lisa love to paint! Initially they paint on paper or pots, but at a later stage they usually end up to train for the body paint competition. Well I think they are on a pretty good way to win...

In the meantime we have had also time to enjoy lots of quality time with our kids and friends and have even managed starting our own little playground in our garden. Thorsten has far too many ideas to find excuses to do some woodworks, while Griet needs to entertain the two angles alone. But at least we have now a wonderful slide and climbing tower! Kid's love it! See for yourself in the pics.

After the roller coaster

It's been a while... yet again. And as Julie pointed out as a comment on the last posting, it's time to add some news.

Since June, I feel like we've been on a roller coaster and it's finally slowing down (that's a good thing!).
Jara and Lisa started the summer holidays in Bietigheim, Germany with Oma and Opa Huber. Thorsten had 6 weeks of training at the GTZ head quarters so it was the ideal opportunity for the girls to spend some extra (bonding) time with their grandparents. The grandparents enjoyed it at least as much, if not more, to be in charge of our precious little princesses. I stayed behind in Cameroon as I was working and had a few busy weeks ahead - a military health conference in Yaounde and a GEIS retreat in Kenya.
I had never been to Kenya before so it was a welcome change and distraction. I enjoyed getting to know my colleagues from the US and Cameroon from a different angle - the retreat was very relaxed, laid back and on the beach...



Beginning of August, I joined my family in Belgium and had a very short but intense visit. We also met our new nephew Mats (son of Dries and Grietje) who was born in December. He was baptized while we were there and Jara and Lisa enjoyed playing hide and seek and showing him the tricks of the trade.






Once back in Cameroon, we moved houses and are so much more enjoying living in the centre now. No more roadblocks, no more trying to avoid drunken policemen at night, no more spending hours and hours in traffic jam. We're happy people. We're living in a very nice and quiet neighbourhood, residential street and lots of friends around the corner. And we've got a swing!

Jara started kindergarten on the 1st September and she's loving every minute of it. She was very pleased to see there were scissors in the classroom because this meant she was gonna WORK! Also Lisa is going to the creche 3 days a week.
Jara and Lisa have developed soo much over the last few months. Jara's become a cascade of words in a mixture of 3-4 languages, but she definitely manages to get her message across. Sometimes the way she thinks is just hilarious. Lisa's also speaking lots, mostly copying Jara and every word you say.. time to watch our language! Physically, she's got no fear and loves climbing high structures and balancing on the cords. They also learn to play together much more and it's nice to see how they engage in their role plays - Jara the bossy teacher, Lisa the caring mother of her little bear.