So we’ve had some follow up questions to some of our posts and thought we’d take this time to try to answer them.
What happened in July?
Other than some cryptic references to a “traffic accident,” we apparently weren’t very clear. While crossing the street on a Sunday afternoon to go to the market before a friend came to visit, Kiyomi was hit by a motorcycle. Clearly she’s okay. Jack was just a step ahead. The oncoming car had slowed for us to cross, but - typical of motorcycle taxis here - the bike swerved around the car without looking to see why it might be stopping, and slammed into Kiyomi. She was thrown to the ground, literally stunned for a moment. The passenger on the bike found another bike, while the rider sat and muttered something about whiteman not knowing how to cross the street. Kiyomi informed him that since he’d just hit her, he really ought to apologize. An old pa, who’d seen the whole thing, yelled at the okada boy to “get off that bike and make sure she’s okay!” The guy then came and made many apologies and bought Kiyomi a bottle of water while she and Jack made sure everything still moved in the appropriate and expected way. We continued on with our shopping after a few more moments to catch our breath. By the time we got home, though, Kiyomi was limping and couldn’t make much use of her right arm, which had taken much of the force of the fall.
We learned later that, had we gotten information about the driver, we could have made a complaint with the police and tried to have his license revoked. But drivers here are so reckless and dangerous, it never occurred to us that there might be some legal guidance around their behavior, let alone penalties.
Kiyomi could not use her arm for a month, and Peace Corps recommended physical therapy, but since Kiyomi’s dad was visiting at that time, she decided to delay until he left, and now she only has occasional twinges of discomfort in her elbow.
Two days later, in the hours before sunrise, we had clothes stolen off our front porch, where they’d been left to dry. We’d left clothes on our porch to dry overnight the entire preceding year and never had any issue, but now we only dry clothes outside if we’re home, and otherwise, our office has turned into a laundry room. We made complaints with the police and gendarmes with the help of our amazing regional office manager, and they each sent someone out to wander around the yard and nod. The police even had someone in custody at one time, but nothing more has ever been said of the matter, and we have to assume our things are gone for good.
Needless to say, it was an incredibly demotivating time, and we really wanted someone to talk us into staying. But even that realization was good for us, even though no one ever did talk us into it.
Do you regret “Peace Corpsing”?
No. We would do it again. We discuss sometimes whether, knowing what we do now, we would have been so quick to accept the assignment to Cameroon (Mexico is our most favorite place in the world, perhaps somewhere in Latin America would have been nice…), but we will never wonder what would have happened, and where we would be in life now, if we had stayed in Pittsburgh – and we always would have wondered, and regretted, if we hadn’t joined Peace Corps. We both believe strongly in the benefits of overseas travel and think no education is complete without it. Even less than ideal experiences are importantly shaping to a global mindset and an inclusive worldview – and whether you like it or not, we are part of a global community now, and if you’re a Christian, you don’t get the luxury of not liking it, you’re obliged to take an interest in the world. So we’re here, not liking this part of the world all the time, certainly, but we would do it again. Peace Corps gives you the opportunity not only to visit a place, but to live like a local and experience a different way of life. Part of our frustrations, we’ve speculated, may be due to an overly strong emphasis on the development part of our job – from our own American work ethic, to the subtle and not-so-subtle judgment, real and imagined, of other volunteers – whereas the reality is that the development work is only a part of why we’re here. Peace Corps has three goals, and sustainable training and capacity building is one of them – the others are: living here, experiencing the place, the food, the people, the shopping, the cooking, the handwashing, the life; and telling other Americans about it. Which isn’t to say that we’re not busy. Our part-time work with our host organizations has left time available for other work in the community, and we find ourselves running into scheduling issues and needing to tell people we can’t take up another work effort right now.
If you don’t like it, why do you stay?
We’re not sure. We do know that we didn’t want to be talked out of leaving, but into staying. We know that we could Early Terminate our service at any time. If we wanted an excuse, we could be sent home at the first indication of pregnancy. But we haven’t done those things, even though in moments of frustration we’ve both declared ourselves ready to call Yaounde and get on the next flight out. Usually at that time the other will recommend seeing how things stand the next day before making that call, and we always decide to stay. We also know that if for some reason we were to be administratively separated, we would fight it at every step. We want to come home, we miss our friends and family and way of life. But we don’t want to leave just yet. Call us romantics, call us idealists, call us fools – we are creatures of resurgent hope.
We remember having a dumpling feast with our ESL students in Pittsburgh, learning about Japan, Kazakhstan, and two different areas of China, the discovery that all three places have very similar ways of making and enjoying dumplings. Our world was expanded and improved by the friendship of those people, even though it was a relatively short time and relatively small things that we enjoyed together. So we hope for the small things here.
Have your opinions of Africa changed?
Yes and no. Everything we are taught in the States about “Africa” is wrong in Cameroon. We can’t speak to the rest of the continent – it could swallow the US three times over and still have room. We know that geopolitically the African continent has been sorely wronged by the Western world throughout history, and believe that all promised aid and debt relief should be provided in the most expedient way. But people can feed a family without difficulty on $2 a day here; and the kids running around in ratty clothing are doing so because they’re running around on red clay and their moms don’t want them to ruin their good clothes; and the babies with no pants are toilet training; and people are more likely to be sick with the effects of obesity, to suffer diabetes and heart disease, than to die of starvation. The problems here seem to stem, not from endemic poverty, but from an over abundance of free aid that’s undermined the agency, independence, creativity and mastery of an entire nation. So we think the best thing that could be done for Cameroon is to leave it alone. To back out and stop international funding, once amounts already promised have been met. Let Cameroon learn the value of its own people, identify its own solutions in context, develop its resources and set its own path to full modernization. Send people to provide training, but stop throwing money at the problems here, stop handing over fully developed projects deemed necessary by the international community, stop building infrastructure – instead, teach, and let Cameroon make those decisions about what is needed for Cameroon. Hand in hand with that is to also stop sending missionaries to live on American salaries. This reinforces the idea of “rich whiteman” who lives in a big house on a hill with no real connection to the daily lives of the people they’re supposed to serve. While well-meaning, the influx of funds and lack of haggling makes it much more difficult for those of us who are living on the local economy, and the wholesale funding of efforts and provision of material goods is both counter to good development standards and counter to Christian ideals.
What are you working on now?
We have been busy recently! Kiyomi continues to work on staff development training with ACMS, and recently began work with another NGO, HEDECS, where she’ll be supporting development of several programs and coordinating a review of the strategic plan and restructuring of the board. Jack has got the computer lab at the Delegation up and running and has two colleagues trained to continue with it. He’s also been “freelancing” as an IT consultant to various organizations. Together we’ve started working with another NGO and the Delegation, and two other volunteers (the new married couple here) on a series of traveling teacher training seminars that take us around the North West Region. We’ve also begun collaborating with another volunteer and a local landowner on the development of an ecotourism business outside of Bamenda. That’s all kept us pretty engaged, but we hope to be able to also help with the development of a local library soon, and Kiyomi has had interest from some women’s groups in entrepreneurship and business classes. We expect that will see us at least to the end of the year, and after New Year we hope to do some more travel around the country as we head into our last six months here. Regrettably, we had to give up the literacy class for the time being. Over the summer while we were away from it, it transitioned into a reading practice class (certainly still an important effort) with only a few students, that did not warrant three volunteers, and other opportunities needed that time.
