What the heck am I doing?!

The question that I’ve been asked most frequently by the folks back home is: "What kind of work are you doing over there in Africa?” 

Officially I am here in Cameroon as an agroforestry volunteer, working as part of a program called “Sustainable Livelihoods.”  (Previously being the environment sector, with the program L.I.F.E: Linking Income, Food, and Environment, but things are always a-changin’!)  The main objectives of this program are as follows:

1. Strengthen the production and value addition of agricultural goods
2. Promote sustainable agri-business initiatives. 

So what am I actually doing?  Ha. *Ahem*.  Errm... Well, that’s a very good question, and to be honest, every time I am asked this question, I am a little bit stumped and a little bit disheartened, because I really just don’t know yet.

I cannot tell a lie:  I have had a few days where I barely left the house at all, and instead stayed inside watching sitcoms or reading all day, being a “complete waste of space”, as my friend Lianna would say.  I’ve had days where the best I could manage was to fetch water, or to drag myself to the carrefour to buy peanuts just to force some human interaction. (Keep in mind that I had this same problem in Montreal, where I had to create goals for myself:  Today I will speak with at least 5 people, and according to my mom, the mailman and the cashier at the grocery store didn’t count.  So you can only imagine how difficult it is for me to go out and face the world in a foreign language!).  I’ve had days where I’ve been frustrated beyond belief for feeling so completely idol in a foreign country, and for not being able to do anything tangibly productive.

Then I remember that this is normal. (Kind of.  Well, parts of it, anyway).  It is not expected, and not even encouraged, to just start up a bunch of projects upon arrival to post.  The first few months are primarily for getting settled into a new home, a new community, and a new culture.  These first few months, I am here not to create change, but rather to observe, to learn, to adapt.  Each day, I coax myself out of the house to go for little walks, sit with neighbors, and practice Fulfulde with people at the carrefour. I am doing my best to build friendships, build trust, and to build a life for myself here.  Along with this, I am taking French classes and Fulfulde classes, because as always, communication is key.

I am taking time to learn about Sanguéré-Paul.  After all, how can you start a bunch of development projects without knowing what the community’s needs are?  So far, I have only conducted informal interviews with friends that I have made and community members who are patient enough to try to endure my accent.  Through these conversations, I have learned what the community members believe to be the most pressing problems in the village.

The other day, my friend Gargasol invited me over to meet his family and to discuss development.  He asked me how Sanguéré-Paul can become developed.  At first, I kind of thought this was a rhetorical question, or that he was going to give me his own opinions, so I sat quietly waiting for him to continue speaking.  Nope.  He was truly asking me, because after all, this is what I went to university for;  I should have all the answers, right?  When I realized that he was, in fact, expecting an response, the best I could say was that there was not one simple solution.  If it were that easy, well, then it wouldn’t be so darn difficult!  If there were one quick fix to development, then we probably wouldn’t still be having this conversation, and organizations like the Peace Corps wouldn’t be working in the same country for 50+ years.  Sanguéré-Paul will have to work towards development by attacking their challenges from all angles.  We need to consider all of the challenges that people face everyday, and then work our hardest to find ways to overcome those challenges in a sustainable fashion.

We discussed striving for general improvements in education, health, environment, and economic situation, and we discussed how many different factors have to work together in order for the village’s development to progress.  Then I asked him what he thought were the most pressing needs of Sanguéré-Paul:

• Water.  There is not enough potable water here.  They want to build more wells, and need to build more wells, but this is expensive and they need to collect money from each household.  He recounted the situation of Sanguéré-Ngaoundéré, which is at the junction of N1 and the road to Djalingo, about 3km from Sanguéré-Paul.  In Sanguéré-Ngaoundéré, there is hardly any water at all.  People are drinking water from streams, or wherever they can find it.  Consequently, the health conditions are terrible and there is an extremely high prevalence of typhoid and dysentery, as well as other diseases.
• Health.  There is a health center here in Sanguéré-Paul, but it’s not open yet and there is no equipment.  The building was constructed a few years ago, with funding from the US Embassy, and now it’s up to the municipality to hold their end of the deal by financing the equipment and hiring the staff.  Nobody knows whether the municipality is still working on this or if they have just forgotten/given up.  “How are we supposed to treat our children’s illnesses if there is no health center?”  The closest health center is in Djalingo, which is 5km and a 400cfa moto-ride away.  Many people have difficulty finding money to buy medicine for their children.  Gargasol’s son currently has malaria, but he has no way of treating it.
• Trees.  People are cutting trees en brousse and not planting more.  I’ve heard many people state this as a problem.  Gargasol would like to start a nursery and plant trees in his yard (specifically a mango tree so that he can generate income by selling mangoes).
• Education, just in general.  Keeping kids in school is key.  School fees are expensive (7,500cfa per year at the primary school, and 23,000cfa per year at the high school), and if you don’t have the means to pay, you aren’t allowed to go to school.
• Food sources.  Like many other people in the village, Gargasol doesn’t have a formal job.  He used to work for IRAD, and he still tries to find little bits income here and there, but there is no work to be found anywhere.  The family has great difficulty finding enough food or money to buy food.  On top of it all, he has to take care of many of his brothers, including one brother who is in prison, who he delivers food to occasionally.
• Drugs. There are many young men (17-18 years old) who are taking drugs (I’m not exactly sure what kind of drug).  This wasn’t a problem before the year 2000, but between then and now, it has become a problem.  Many people are scared of the carrefour because of these aggressive boys.  I explained that I, too, am scared of these boys, and it is probably not safe for me to go directly interact with them, and also there is probably not an easy way to get them to stop taking drugs.  Instead we discussed that a sensitization course at the school would be best.  A method of prevention.  We need to teach kids in school about the negative effects of drugs, keep kids in school, and create more afterschool activities so that kids are not idol.
• We also just talked generally about how it is important to think of the children’s future, and ensuring that they will survive and have good lives after the current generation is no longer around.

This conversation, which lasted almost two hours, left me feeling challenged and a bit overwhelmed, but extremely motivated.  That being said, not many of these problems are agroforestry related (though the agri-business and economic aspects will certainly prove beneficial).  Personally, I have no problem with this.  I am willing and eager to help in any domain that I can.  However, Peace Corps requires that I at least try to do work within my sector, and I’m sure as I talk to more people in the community, I will find plenty of ways to do so.

So what exactly am I doing here in Sanguéré-Paul?  I’m learning.  I’m learning how to coax myself out of my shell and that sometimes all it takes to start a conversation is a simple greeting.  I'm learning a new language and a new culture.  I'm learning how to fit in in a place where there is absolutely no one who looks like me or shares a common background with me.  I’m learning about my new community and the challenges it faces.  I’m learning about development in ways that a classroom could never teach me.  And with all that I am learning, I will hopefully soon be able to work together with the people of Sanguéré-Paul on a path towards a better future.