Lake Nyos

View of Lake Nyos from on top of the cliffs.

Lake Nyos is well known for the disaster in August 1986 where the lake suddenly "exploded" and killed over 1,700 people and more than 3,500 livestock. Lake Nyos is one of the three "killer lakes" or "exploding lakes": Lake Nyos, Lake Monoun, and Lake Kivu. Lake Nyos and Monoun are both in Cameroon while Lake Kivu is on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. The "killer lakes" are so called because they are saturated with carbon dioxide and if the water of one of these lakes is disturbed the gas can suddenly be released. When this happens it is called a limnic eruption. Both Lake Monoun and Lake Nyos are crater lakes. Crater lakes form in the caldera, or crater/opening, of dormant or extinct volcanoes. There are many crater lakes in Cameroon but only Nyos and Monoun have the potential to have a "limnic" eruption.

Governor's entourage standing at the dam.

I had the chance to visit Lake Nyos on the anniversary of the disaster with the mayor of the North-West region and many other officials and delegates. I was at the Senior Divisional Officer's office one day waiting for a meeting with him, some Peace Corps Admin, and other Peace Corps Volunteers when I found out that I had arrived several HOURS early. So, since the mayor's office was close by I decided to go and introduce myself to some people there for protocol and to see if I could find any information on natural hazards and disasters of the North-West.

I did my protocol and then tried to find anyone who could tell me anything about the types of natural hazards experienced by the North-West. (I was interested because I am currently going for my master's in Mitigation of Natural Hazards, in case you weren't aware). I was not having much luck. Then finally the Head of Protocol told me that the person who dealt with those things was preparing for a very big meeting the next day and that he could take my number and inform me when the person might be available to talk to me. So, I gave him my number and went back to wait for my meeting.

The next day, August 21st, the Head of Protocol called me and told me that there was going to be a very important meeting that day about the very things I was asking about and that it was going to start soon so I should come right away. I was at work so  I asked my counterpart if I could go and I went. When I arrived at the governor's office I was shown into the conference hall and told to sit in the audience. There were camera crews, delegates, the mayor of the North-West region, and many other important people. Apparently it was the anniversary of the Lake Nyos Disaster in 1986 and the government was giving some continuing disaster relief to the people of the affected areas. This meeting was a press conference for the governor of the North-West region to announce what was being given and when, and to announce that he would be  traveling to meet the Senior Divisional Officer and other delegates at Lake Nyos for an official ceremony of handing over the disaster relief. The governor announced that everyone present at that meeting was invited to come to witness the occasion! So, after the meeting I asked just to be sure that I was included in that invitation and I was!

The following morning I went very early to the governor's office to wait for the group to leave. Almost everyone had shown up. I was in the Head of Protocol's truck, the one he was in not his personal one, with the Head of Protocol, the driver, a news reporter, and three camera men. Yes, this was all in one small Toyota pick-up truck. Finally, we were on our way! The drive was to take five hours and we were getting a late start at 9am, especially since we had to make it back the same day. So, the convoy of trucks and cars and SUVs (almost all Toyota, as most vehicles in Cameroon are) went speeding through the jungle, plains, and hills in the sun and streams and mud and rain. Finally we came to the last hill, at the top of which was Lake Nyos. We went up and everyone got out to look around.

Guard houses a Lake Nyos.

There is the lake and some guard houses and barracks. The only people who are up at the lake constantly are some gendarmes. Then there is the small village of Nyos in the valley near the hill. There was one foreigner there, a Spaniard, who had mountain biked all the way through the North-West region and was going to be going all the way through Cameroon.

The lake is in a crater so it is surrounded by cliffs and hills on all sides except at one point where it lets out and a dam has been built. The plan for the dam is to make it a hydro electrical power plant. From the top of the cliffs around the lake the three de-gassing pipes can be seen sticking out of the water at the center of the lake. By using these pipes the dangerous gas in the lake has been reduced by  about 80%.

Cliffs around Lake Nyos.

Once the Mayor had gone down to the dam at the outlet of the lake, he went to the meeting hall and gave a brief presentation. After that it was back into the vehicles to hurry back to Bamenda. Everyone took off, speeding down the hill and over the bumpy, rocky roads! It was a little frightening as we splashed through ponds left by the rain and the cars were showered with the muddy water. Although we had made our visit to Lake Nyos brief we still found ourselves speeding through the jungle in the dark. Finally, at almost 10 pm, we arrived back in Bamenda where a police escort lead us to a hotel where there was a reception dinner waiting. Even though many people were very tired we stayed after the meal until the Mayor left. As soon as he did leave though everyone else rushed out. I found a moto and went home. I was very tired. The day had been very long even though most of it was spent riding in a car. I'm very glad that I got the opportunity to see Lake Nyos and learn so much about the mitigation efforts going on there.

Moving to Bamenda

Bamenda

Peace Corps decided to move me out of my site for security. I knew that it was the best thing to do but I also knew that I would miss Menji, my projects, and the friends that I had made. I was taken to my village by Peace Corps in order to pack up my house. I expressed to the logistician that I was sad to be moving, that I had projects and work that I felt that I was abandoning by leaving. He told me that safety is paramount, how much can I expect to do for a community if I am always nervous and on edge? I knew that this was true and hearing this made me feel better about moving. He and the driver helped me get through packing up my house and saying goodbye to all of my work partners and friends.

               Within four hours of arriving in my village my house was packed up, I had said goodbye to everyone, and we were on the road to Bamenda. We arrived at my new house just after dark. We got my stuff in the house and said goodbye. It rained but at least the power stayed on! (I don’t know why but almost every time I arrive at a new place the power is out. (China-2009, Nevada-2011, Yaoundé-2013, Menji-2013, Angelique’s site-2014).

               My stuff was scattered all over the living room, or as they call it here, the parlor, and I did not feel like sorting it all out that same night. So, I set up my bed and went to sleep. The next day I started organizing everything and trying to put things in their proper places.

Bamenda  from above.

               I arrived in Bamenda the last night of Ramadan. So, the next day I got to see some pretty impressive motorcycle and car riding in “Old Town”, a mostly Muslim section of Bamenda. I also saw a motorcycle crash, no one was hurt thankfully. Everyone was running around yelling and the people driving were swerving all over. T was very interesting. I had to prepare my house though, so I hope to be able to see more of this celebration next year.

               I have been in Bamenda since the end of July. I have basically got my house completely arranged now. I have all of my furniture and everything that I need. The only thing I need is some work done that I need a technician for; a few things are still not working around the house.

               I really liked my village although I have to admit that being in Bamenda has its benefits. I am a ten minute cab ride from the bank and the main markets and the main super markets and only a five minute walk from any daily needs. It is nice and bad at the same time to be in a city because it is expensive to live in a city, especially on a Peace Corps budget. I am learning to adjust though. I think I will soon be used to it.

Dancing with a Mama in the market!

               I am hoping that being in a city has some advantages in being able to get some good work done. I am excited to see what I can do with so many resources being consistently available and easily accessible. My new host organization is called SIRDEP (Society for Initiatives in Rural Development and Environmental Protection). The office is only about a five minute walk from my house, so it is very convenient. My new counterpart is Elvis although I work closely with Emmerencia as well. Everyone at SIRDEP is so nice! They seem really great! I could not have asked for a nicer group of people to work with. Emmerencia’s daughter just had a baby so I crocheted a baby blanket. She really liked it and appreciated it and now several of the women from the office want me to teach them how to crochet! Now I am working with SIRDEP, looking at projects that they are working on or are trying to start to see how to move forward. It is like having a bunch of homework because there is a lot to read but I am excited to get started.

Kitten-

               While I was in the United States I left my cat with another volunteer who is a friend of mine, Angelique. My cat is still rather young and is sometimes poorly behaved. I am lucky because while I was gone my friend trained her up a bit. She is much better now. She still often misbehaves but it is not nearly as often or as badly as it was before. My friend though says that she does not want to have to watch my cat for that long again! I understand though because I know that my cat can be a handful. And it turns out that my cat who I thought was a girl might actually be a boy! I will be taking my cat to the vet soon to get an expert opinion.

                                            My kitten not long after I got it.

               Sometimes my cat is a hassle but I am also very glad that I have her. She is company when there is no one else, she keeps the number of insects in my house down, and I hope that if there were ever mice or rats (knock on wood) that she would take care of those too.

               She was supposedly born in July but I am not sure that she is fully grown yet. She is still very small, but then many Cameroonian cats are very small. I am hoping that she will calm down as she grows up. I do not mind frenzied out bursts sometimes but three times a day is too much. At least that is how often it was before I left for the States. Now it is more like once a day or once every few days.

               And I guess it is actually a boy. The cat that I have had for almost a year I am just finding out is probably a boy… and he has a girl’s name, gah!

First Time Seeing America in Nine Months

It had been almost nine months to the day when I saw the United States for the first time since leaving for my service in the Peace Corps. I arrived in the O’Hare airport and just stared at everything and everyone. I felt somewhat scared and yet everything was so easy. When I wanted to talk to someone, ask someone a question, or accidentally bumped into someone, I knew what to do; I did not have to question what I was doing or worry much about what would happen. Everything was so familiar but in a nostalgic sort of way, an unreal sort of way. It seemed as though just being, just everything was too easy.

               I had thought, before arriving in the United States that I would want to try everything and to eat all different sorts of food or everything in sight but as soon as I landed I seemed to lose my appetite for all food. I knew that I had to eat though so I looked for something that might seem appealing but everything just seemed too complex. I actually almost found myself wishing for some simple njama njama! I wanted something familiar. I was about to give up and just wait to eat when I saw a basket with apples for sale. I picked one and paid for it feeling rather like Captain Barbosa. It was the most expensive apple I have ever bought. It was a green apple and it was great! Apples are hard to come by in many parts of Cameroon. I think that many, if not all, are imported. I was surprised at how happy so simple a thing could make me feel.

               I had a brief layover in O’Hare and the airline workers announced that the flight was over-booked and they were requesting volunteers to come forward to give up their seats. For a long time no one moved even though the airline was starting to offer some great flight deals and promising to get them on the first flight tomorrow. I was considering giving up my seat but was not sure that I should since I had a connecting flight to catch. Eventually enough people came forward which made my decision for me. It turns out that it was a good thing that I did not give up my seat, not only because I had another flight and it was the last flight of the day, but because that next flight was the very last one going to my local airport for the next month! It was the last flight before they were going to close the local airport for runway construction. If I had given up my seat then I would have been stuck for a lot longer than I had thought.

               It felt great to be at home. I got to see many of my friends and family. I think that there were only five or six people that I did not get a chance to see while I was back. I also got to do many things that I used to do like dancing, going to the movies and the theatre, and teaching/working with students at Upward Bound. I also got to spend a lot of time with my mom. I was very glad of this because I had been missing her and being able to talk with her on a regular basis.

               It was great being able to dance again even though I have lost much of my strength and stamina. I was very glad to be able to join in classes again! It was very relaxing and a great stress reliever. I tried never to miss a class. I got to spend time with Dianna, my dance teacher, and some of the dancers that I had not seen since before I left and some that I had not seen for several years.

               One of my favorite things, apart from seeing the rest of my family, was seeing Monica! I was so excited that she was able to come and see me while I was back! Our visit together was short but I was glad that we got to see each other at all. I think I might have been quite devastated if I had not been able to see her. I am hoping that she will be able to visit me here so that I can show her where I live and what I do! We will have to wait and see though.

               It is funny. All while I was in Cameroon I was missing the United States and everything about it but then when I was there I found myself missing Cameroon! After about two weeks I found myself looking forward to when I would be able to return. I was very happy to be back in the United States but as I have already said, it was strangely nostalgic and unreal too. I felt very at home and yet also as though I was an outsider, trespassing in the lives of people I know, like I did not really belong there. I often felt like I was watching scenes being played out before me which I was a part of but not meant to take part. It was a very strange feeling that I am sure was largely part of culture shock. I am sure that I will feel it again when I visit again and when I return at the end of my service as well.  I wonder how long it will take for things to go back to normal again. Overall though I was very glad that I took a break and spent some time with my family and friends! I think that it reinvigorated me and gave me strength to continue with my service.


Random pics from my time back home!

Six School Tree Nurseries

             Prunus Africana, Leucaena Leucocephala, and Acacia Angustissima. The Prunus is a medicinal plant and would raise money for the school and the Leucaena and the Acacia are both agroforestry species and could be used to improve the soil fertility of the school gardens or provide some shade for the school yard.

Over the course of April and May I worked with ERuDeF to establish six tree nurseries, each at a school that ERuDeF had either already worked with or was planning to start working with in the near future. First I went around and introduced myself to each of the schools that we were planning to work with and to introduce the idea of creating a tree nursery with them. Then, on the next visit that I made to the schools, I described the program, what the school was expected to contribute, and the species of trees that we would be planting. We had to plan and do all of this very quickly because exams were going to be starting soon and once that happened all of the teachers and students would be too busy to do anything else. We asked the schools to contribute the land for the nursery (since the trees, once planted would become theirs), the fence and shelter, and we asked for some students who were interested to help us plant on the day of planting. We planted

               So we had everything ready to go, most of the schools were close to finished with their shelters, the seeds had arrived, and we were hours from planting when the seeds got locked into the office of one who went to the field and would be gone for a week! So, I had to rush around to all of the schools and reschedule the day of planting at each school. Many of them were not happy about having to reschedule on such short notice but we did it. It was ok and it worked out.

               When the person returned from the field I got the seeds and we did the planting. Preceding the planting at each school Emmanuel (an ERuDeF employee) and I gave a short lesson on the environment and the importance of trees.

               Here are some pictures and some specifics about the planting at each school.

We started at GTHS (Government Technical High School):

The soil was tougher than we had thought at first so the tilling was difficult. The students wanted to take the seeds home to plant them at their houses.

The second school was Standard Primary School:

The girls were chosen by the teachers to help with the tilling and the boys were sent for palm fronds to finish the shelter. They were very interested in the tree planting.

The third school was CS Fontem (Catholic School of Fontem):

 

The students were very excited to plant trees but then it poured! This is after the rain but we are all soaked because we had to finish the shelter in the pouring rain and till the soil! It was cold! Most of the school got to help in the planting.

The fourth school was CS Menji (Catholic School Menji):

The students came prepared with their hoes. As we did the planting they were good at staying organized, though there were so many students that wanted to help we had to keep switching out so that everyone could do something.

The fifth school was GBHS (Government Bilingual High School):

So many students showed up to help with the planting here; we had to send some away because there were simply too many in the area. We ended up with around fifty. Many of the neighborhood children that I know were among the group from this school.

The sixth school was Our Lady Seat of Wisdom:

This is a school that was established by a group of Italians following the Folkari movement. It is a private school. We worked with the Environmental Club. The club had nearly fifty members so we worked with just a selection of students from the club.

Mushroom Cultivation TOT

     At the beginning of April, only one month after PST-Reconnect ended, I found myself back in Bamenda for a training on Mushroom Cultivation. I requested to be at the training because of the women's group that I was working with in Menji; I thought that it would be a good income generator since many people in Menji like mushrooms but no one really grows them. The training was fun because Angelique was also there, so we were able to hang out. So during the mornings we were in sessions and then in the afternoons we were able to explore some of Bamenda.
     The sessions were held at our hotel, in the conference room, and at the mushroom training center. We went over everything from marketing and pricing to the substrate preparation and mushroom harvesting. The training was not too difficult though it was presented in an unusual order; the last thing we learned was how to actually grow the mushrooms. We figured it out though, through many questions, and got through the training. I hope that I will be able to use the knowledge that I have gained. I wonder how well it would work in the U.S.?
     The hotel that we were staying at is situated right at the end of Commercial Avenue. This means that the main market, some major supermarkets, and the main restaurants that sell almost-american-type food were all right there and very accessible. It was fun exploring and getting to know this major road of Bamenda. Though Angelique and I mostly just bought junk food at the gas stations and took it back to our room and watched movies. We did this not because we were not interested in seeing other things on Commercial Avenue or other things around Bamenda but because by the time sessions ended each day we did not have enough time to sit and eat or look around the markets too long before they closed. It was still fun though!

Learning how to prepare substrate materials.

Sterilizing prepared substrates.

Preparing bags of substrate material.

Adding mushroom spores to substrates.

End of training! I received my training certificate!

 

Visit from a Volunteer and Women's Day

After PST-Reconnect, I traveled with Angelique back to my site for Women’s Day on March 8^th. We arrived in my village the day before the holiday and I showed her my small but adorable little house. The next day we got dressed in our Women’s Day pagne, I had the pink version and Angelique had the yellow version, and we went to the field. We went to watch the ceremony, hear the speeches, and see the march-pass. I greeted everyone that I knew and introduced Angelique to them. I tried to find the women’s group that I had been working with but I could not find them in the crowds. There were many speeches given. I was surprised that only two speeches were given by women. I wondered if it was a planning oversight or if all of the other capable women’s leaders were too shy. I was also surprised at how much bigger Youth Day celebrations had been compared to Women’s Day. It seems as though they should be celebrated with equal enthusiasm. The ceremony followed the same pattern that all Cameroonian holiday ceremonies follow. Near the end Angelique and I left so that we could get supplies for dinner.

               During her visit Angelique gave me some tips on how to cook since I did not know how to prepare much and had been making myself sick due to poor food prep. She also got to meet my cat who she now calls “psycho-kitty”. I swear that my cat is not that poorly behaved…

               Anyway the visit went well and at some point I will go to Angelique’s site as well. I saw her house because we stopped there on our way to my village but we only stayed the night so I did not get to see where she works or much of her village.

This is me in my Women's Day pagne with Olive, a friend of mine who is from Menji but is currently going to school in Yaounde.