Thursday, January 15, 2009

January 15, 2008

Hi everyone, just a quick note to say hello. I have to go to Yaounde next week and will have free, hopefully extended periods, on the Internet at the office to write a longer blog and post more photos. Since I last wrote I have been trying to meet with everyone that my predecessors worked with and those vital to working well here. Since everything basically gets done in the mornings here I have been able to go to one, maybe two, offices a day. So far, I have met with the Department of Agriculture, all three high schools (and a elementary/primary school but there are eight+ in total), almost all the health centers in Banyo (but there are 4 plus the central hospital and 3 out in the countryside "en brousse"), a health club at the high school, one of the women's savings groups that my neighbor belongs too, and numerous other ministries and such but without much success on those fronts yet. I went "en brousse" to a health center about an hour away via moto on Monday and am still recovering from the trip (roads are a little bumpy!) It was interesting to see the area (very rural and closer to Nigeria) and I was able to meet the village chief when I was there and climb a small hill to survey the area. As I was leaving the health center to return to Banyo, the worker I was with came back from the village with a chicken that the Chief gave me. The whole ride back he had to not only steer the moto through this really, really bumpy road, but also hold on to the live chicken by its feet! It was really interesting to see! I gave it to his friends to cook up and got to have a little the next day. I don't think I will be able to kill a chicken here so I am glad there are many who can as I sure that is not the last chicken I will receive here!! Man..did that chicken have a wild last voyage :)

My post mate and I climbed the nearby Banyo Mountain last Saturday-recently redone-there were even stairs!! Is this Cameroon?? I have seen worse trails in Canada! We started about 6:30 am and then came down around 11 am. It was straight up at the very end and pretty hard but really cool to see the view below. There are also remnant's of the old German prison and fortress up there that you can still see. I will post photos next time of it all. This hike is also on those who come to Banyo's itinerary (advance warning!)

Hope you are all staying warm!! I hear it is cold there! Minus the immense dust here, it is beautiful! Wish you were here! Til next time, love-Anna

1 comment:

Brendan O'Connor said...

Great pics above Anna, and neat to start to get a sense of some of the stuff you're working on too--keep em coming, am so curious to hear from somebody i know what the time will involve over there!

And wild story about the chicken, that's crazy!