Meiganga: say it anyway you like

Before ANYTHING ELSE: Thank all that is holy for our newly elected president. Words cannot express. Lets hope he is all I want him to be and more.

So I am looking down the barrel site visit week and equally exhilirated and terrified. To sum it all up: overwhelming. I had a nice volunteer to show me around and live with. She really was helpful with everything and I can't thank her enough. One night she made the comment "I thought coming from training you would have a lot more energy" and realized that I was just overwhelmed by it all. I mean I was meeting all these people, running around a new town, walking around this house, getting a glimsp of my LIFE for the next two years. I mean my french isn't up to par, there is more work that I know what to do with and I was seperated from these people who have become like a family for me the past 6 wks. With all that said, ultimately I think I am incredibly lucky.

My house: PC luxury, they really don't tell you about some of these houses in the pc interviews: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, electricity, running water, a water HEATER, flowers all around the front of the house. It doesn't really feel like pc in that place. But its a-okay by me, i'll learn to adjust.

My postmate: super mellow, really nice guy from Ohio. He is an english teacher at the local high school, has a good sense of humor and a general go with the flow guy.

One of the bummers of my post is that my province is pretty isolating, due to the terrible conditions of the road. So seeing other volunteers often isn't much of a reality. The closest large town is about 4 hrs on a bumpy dusty road, but it is the train stop to the south so a lot of people will be traveling through. I have got "le couple" in the next major town over, so things are looking up.

So the town of Meiganga is pretty big with a bit of a bordertown feel. We are right on the border with the Central African Republic, so lots of refugees and people moving through. The downtown isn't a sight, but the region surrounding the town is gorgeous right now, green mountains, with waterfalls and lakes. I can't wait to explore the region. The climate is quite cooler than the north, there were even some nights where I needed a BLANKET. There is a larger diversity of food available, so of course I am happy. Plus I have a mango tree outside the house and a avo tree down the street. AYO! things are looking up for miss "I am going to tempt volunteers to my post with culinary wonders barefoot contessa would ponder." I had the most incredible grilled fish the first night. I was sitting in this dingy bar, totally exhausted, but man was I happy. This lady grilled it straight on the street, rubbed a little salt on it, put some mayo on the side(who would have thought so good) and spicy chili sauce, some onions and toms. God, I craved it all week.

But the work, OH the work! I am SO excited and motivated, I can't even express it. So I have these two counterparts I am set up to work with. One works with a local NGO that basically serves as a community connector to the large intl. NGOs here like UNICEF and the cammeroonian gov't. My counterpart is absolutly wonerful, really motivted and smiley. He speaks the local languages(there are two in meiganga!) and couldn't be nicer. The other is this powerful and warm women who is from the west but her husband and her run the small private hospital in town. They need me to help with organizing the pharmacy, pre-natal/nutrition consults, and much more. Then there are three women's centers in town. One I am going ot work with to help get a little more organized and work generating some more money to expand the services of the center. The big work at the center is teaching income generating and language classes to young girls who have dropped out of school. So I am hoping to do some cooking classes with them and maybe some self-confidence/business classes. (Let me just previce this all with this is what I think I will be doing, things could completely change after the first three months)

I also stopped by this other women's center that was built only a few years ago, 14 empty rooms with signs above the doors, signifying what they are meant for "infirmiry, classroom, midwives, sewing room, kitchen, ect" but nothing is going on there. So it is my pet project to try to get some action into that place!

There are small projects with a library run by catholic nuns, computer labs for a church and the ngo, i might get involved with UNHRC in town, but I wasn't able to meet with them that week. Then the last day I stopped by the meetings of these two GICs, which are basically women's groups. It was fascinating. One has been around for a few years and is extremely organized. They managed to get some loans from banks and have a weekly fund to pay it back. They time it so that each woman can take out money right before the school year and therefore send their kids to school. They also rent out a room and teacher for classes in reading and writing, income genreating act. and health. They are trying to get birth certificates for all the orphans in town so they can go to school and what not. The second just started,but are really motivated, they mostly do work in the fields together and then sell the products. I hope I can do a lot of organizational work with them.

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! Hopefully my french, fulfulde, baya will be up to par and I can help this community out some more. A major part of my work the first three months will be conducting evaluations of the community and their health issues to see what work is most needed and learn about the community at large.

Quick funny story: so Halloween was a blast. It was exhilarating to stay out past dark and listen to some American music. We had our counterpart workshop all day and didn't get finished til late so I was running around trying to get my costume together and get to the party where everyone already is. So I have a typical colorful pagne outfit already made, but my plan to fufill the chiquita banana role was to tie real bananas to my matching pagne wrap. So it is about five and the marche is basically shut down, two fellow volunteers have mercifully agreed to help me find these bananas. Man I will do anything for a good halloween costume. So only one guy is selling bananas at this point, they are moldy and way overpriced but it felt like salvation. I was only able to keep the entire outfit going for the first 15 mintues of teh party, but it was a mild sucess for me!

So one special thing about Meiganga is this red dust. The cars you take out there are what people call "prison buses" they basically just stuff you in there and everyone has themselves covered with some wrap, because this red dust gets EVERYWHERE, and i mean everywhere! It didn't seem that bad one the ride, but when I took a shower later that night, I found it in places I didn't even know dust could exist. When I took a shower yesterday, after washing my body, I shaved my legs and the water was still running red. So all who plan to visit and I assume that is most of you, keep your whites at home!

Okay, time is running out. I will write more later. I still miss and think about you all on this side of the planet. Write, call, send packages with spices and magazines. I have a new PO box in meiganga

Allison Sander
B.P. 89
Meiganga, Cameroon

still follow all those notes on sending stuff.

Much love