Two months in Fontem and I am 1/3rd of the way
through my experience! It is going by fast, I think might have to stay
longer J
Just a quick update on life here:
Im not the only American in Fontem! There are actually two
other Americans here from the Peace Corps…
A girl from Chicago and a boy from Florida.
People still can’t understand my English and everyone tells
me I am “eating my words”.
I am fat? One lady came into my ward looking for her
daughter and described her as being almost as fat as I was, and then started
laughing hysterically! And friends, if you are laughing at me…when I show
people pictures of my family and friends at home, they say you are fat too! But
don’t worry…this means we are healthy and we eat well!
I found a lizard in my room a few days ago and as it ran up
the wall, I didn’t even bother trying to catch it- this is how I know I am
getting used to the African wildlife.
I discovered that all of the staff in the hospital call my
ward “America” because it is the newest addition to the hospital and it has the
most “advanced” rooms.
Our banana tree is almost ready to harvest!!!
A couple of weeks ago, the girls in my house and I were invited
to dinner by a nurse that works in the hospital. He prepared some African dish
with meat. I was so excited we were eating meat! In the US, we normally eat the
outside portion of the animal…in Africa, you normally eat the inside of the
animal. I realized this after I was served a plate full of meat I didn’t
recognize. I just couldn’t bear to eat it and I shoved it onto Chiara’s plate
when our friend wasn’t looking. I was left with a large ball of meat on my
plate that I couldn’t get away with hiding, so I ate it. It was the size of a
baseball and really chewy…God only knows what this was but really, I don’t want
to know! And speaking of strange meat, people here eat all kinds of animals…
rats, snakes, dogs, cats (so sad). There are some friendly cats that hang
around our house, and one of them is really skiddish. I asked our neighbor why
he is so afraid of people and she explained to me that he was traumatized. A
couple of years ago, this cat ate some fish that belonged to a patient at the
hospital so the patient caught him and tied him up by the legs. He knew the cat
spent a lot of time around our neighbor’s house so this man wanted to ensure he
was not stealing someone’s cat. Our neighbor received a phone call from this
patient who asked, “can we eat your cat?!”. He was going to eat the cat because
the cat ate his fish!
I am sure this is just a coincidence to the last story about
eating meat at our friend’s house, but last week I was feeling really sick. I
stayed home from work for two days and returned to work on Friday. When I went
for mass in the morning, everyone was surprised to see me and asked me if I was
feeling better. How did they all know I was sick? Then I went to the hospital
and all of the staff (even people I didn’t know) told me they heard I was sick.
Talk about small town news! It was nice to know that everyone cared… this is
definitely something we could use more of in our country.
Work at the hospital is going really well! Patients usually
stay in the hospital much longer here than they do in the US…I would say the
average stay here is 10 days. Because the patients stay here so long, we really
get to know the patients and their families…it is nice to build these
relationships but also sad when the patient doesn’t make it. In the US, we see
a lot of heart disease and trauma. We see some of the same things here, except
we also see some interesting things like tetanus, meningitis, malaria, kaposi’s
sarcoma, snake bites, AIDS, and typhoid fever. Also something really different
about hospitals here is that they have no blood bank. If a patient needs a blood
transfusion, they have to find the donor themselves. If they can’t find a
donor, a nurse might offer to donate but if they can’t find anyone… it’s not
good news for that patient.
Something my nursing friends will appreciate: One of the
problems with the medication system in the hospital is that all of the
medications for the day are stored in one large box with the patient’s bed
number and the person administering the medications has no idea which
medications they are giving at certain times…the medications are in a box with
pills inside supplied by a nurse working a different shift. I suggested a new
system of supplying medications each shift, and writing the medications on a
sheet of paper with the patient’s bed number so that the nurse knows what
he/she is giving. After a couple of weeks, the head nurse implemented my idea!
I am happy because this will be much safer for the patients. Chiara and I are
working on trying to create some documentation for wounds so hopefully we can
create something useful for the hospital staff that they will find helpful even
after we leave.
A few weeks ago when it was my turn to cook, we didn’t have
much food in the house. To be economical, I decided to cut some greens (aka:
leaves) in our neighbor’s garden to prepare for dinner. There are many
different kinds of greens here…one type is called “green”, another is called
“bacon” (I really got my hopes up the first time I heard we were eating bacon
for dinner), and there are many more. Our neighbor told us that we were free to
cut as many “greens” as we would like, so I went chopping away. It was dark
outside so I couldn’t see very well…our neighbor came outside and saw me
cutting and yelled at me because I accidentally cut down her mint bush. She saw
me with a handful of mint and was not happy (I had a whole bucket full of mint
she didn’t see because it was dark)…she directed me to the green bush and again
I started chopping away. When I got home I realized that I still did not cut
down “green”…I cut “bacon”! This type of leaf takes a long time to prepare so
we were not even able to eat it! In the end, we had an angry neighbor, a month
supply of mint, and a shabby dinner…that’s what I get for trying to be
economical!
On Sunday, I went with five other people to another village
for mass. We drove one hour in the car (going 5mph the whole time, rocking back
and forth so much that we were smashing each other because the roads are so
bad) then we parked the car and walked uphill for about 40 minutes. It was SOOO
BEAUTIFUL! The sun was shining, and as we were climbing this hill, I turned
around and could see mountains, a giant waterfall, palm trees, a river….it was
amazing! The church we went to was really cool! It was smaller than the living
room at my dad’s house and it was made out of mud/cement? I would say there
were 50 people inside this tiny church! The only decorations inside were a
picture of Mary, a cross, and a coffee table for the altar. The stations of the
cross were literally written on the wall: “Station 1” “Station 2”, and so
forth. There were many people outside that couldn’t fit inside because it was
so crammed. The whole place was loud with singing and dancing, it was awesome! It
just goes to show that you don’t need fancy decorations to have a beautiful
mass! Just about everyone personally greeted us and made us feel welcome. I
understood almost all of the homily which was in Pidgin…this was a big deal for
me because I have not understood a single Sunday homily since arriving here. I
still can’t speak Pidgin though because I feel awkward speaking broken English.
After mass, we went to the palace of the Chief and ate lunch. Oh and we drank
palm wine! Yes, wine from a palm tree! It was delicious!
I have been asked many questions about America when people
hear I am from the US. Some people ask me if I see celebrities on the streets. We
currently have three young girls in our ward in isolation for chicken pox. I
have been spending time with them when I am not busy because they are very
bored inside isolation. It is almost scary how far off their interpretation of
American life is! They asked me about my maid and when I said I cook and clean
just like any other person, they laughed at me! They didn’t believe I actually
did cooking and cleaning at home…not to say that I do a lot of cooking and
cleaning at home…but in theory, I can. They even felt my hands to see if they
were soft or hard from washing clothes…so I was busted when they asked this
question because we use washing machines.
One thing I have learned from this experience is how much
you can give a person without money. I didn’t come from the US with money to
give…not to mention my salary at the hospital in one month here is less than I
would be making in five hours in the US. But I can still give many things
(inside and outside of work): my smile, my laughter, my time, my knowledge, my
greetings, my positive attitude, my love, my encouragement, my unity…myself. I
am only beginning to understand how powerful these gifts can be when you really
have nothing else to offer. Its something that I have heard of before, but only
now am I able to experience how meaningful they can be when you receive them.
School has started here in Fontem. All the kids here wear blue
uniforms to school and pink uniforms to nursery school. The roads are flooded
with kids walking to school in the morning…many of them call me “white man”,
but I have to correct them and say “white woman!”. Even the nursery school kids
walk by themselves! Imagine- we cannot even leave our kids at the bus stop in
the US without worrying about strangers and Cameroon toddlers are carrying
their diapers to daycare, walking by themselves!
That’s all for now…I hope American life is treating everyone
well!
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