last night was the barcelona vs. real madrid football game. there;'s a restaurant/bar at the end of our street that had it playing on the big screen. we decided to go for it...and i took sides with real madrid while shaye was rooting for barcelona just to be difficult. we were hungry so we were out to find some food as well (the restaurant for some reason wasn't serving last night) ... we bumped into a friend/neighbor and he paid our taxi fares to a place down the road...he didn't eat anything, but was uber kind enough to buy our one plate of "curried" (not really) rice and grilled fish. it was excellent! then we went back to see the last minutes of the game...as great as my hope was for madrid to pull out of their one down slump, it didn't happen. but it was still a good night... we can't help discussing often our joy of being in africa. it really hits me sometimes. i'm so blessed to be here. learning how other places of the world work. learning about these people and their hardships and their enjoyments. learning their way of life a bit. and everyday i learn something new about the way they see the world. i really love it.

thanks for all your support in coming here....

written by  theresa on November 30, 2009 from Douala, Cameroon
from the travel blog: to africa
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the march started and there were maybe 60 people. it was a good enough crowd for me. the drummers and trumpets led and the people behind them enjoyed with dancing while meandering our way down the one side of the street. the sun was SO bright. thank goodness i bought a handkerchief since i've been here because for sure i've put it to use... and don't think i'm complaining..because i'm most definitely not. i'd take these hot sweaty days full of sunshine and music over a cold icy day in lex almost ANY day...(it's the people that draw me home!)

and more later because i'm almost out of time!! ah...these damn internet booths!

written by  theresa on December 1, 2009 from Buea, Cameroon
from the travel blog: to africa
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on wednesday they were totally inviting. we met everyone and mr muma showed us around again. (i'll upload photos later). we started out doing prenatal visits. (which i've never done) it was TOTALLY awesome listening to the fetal heart sounds through this funky little silver tube that was small on one end and large at the other. the fetal heart was more like a feeling, a vibration in your mind instead of a sound though and i found that exciting. you just have this sensation of a heart..a life. and touching all these pregnant bellies and visiting the baby ward where there was a 2 day old baby and 3 other newborns with mom's eager to allow us to hold them. just that first day i started 2 iv drips for malaria patients and gave an IM shot to some kid. (they rarely give an IM in the deltoid...ALWAYS in the butt...poor kid) ...it was a totally fulfilling day. i learned so much about a clinical setting and prenatal info.

and today i went again because muma said they would be going out to the community to give vaccinations. obviously i couldn't pass this opportunity up!
i got there just after 8 am and changed into my scrubs. we set out fairly on time and walked down these rocky back paths to some random schools made of cement and tin. (unfortunately i don't have MANY photos because the batteries in my camera were nearly out, but i did catch a few!)... the kids were all sitting excitedly in mini chairs at mini tables...and some were crying because they thought the whiteman and white coats were going to stick them with needles. it wasn't long before they realized we only had oral "sweets" (medicines) for them to take and most of them were eager to take them when they saw their friends smiling faces. some even asked for more. we went from room to room of these weather rubbed buildings passing out these sweets. my duty was to mark the left pinkie of each child who had received each of the three medications: polio vaccine, vitamin A, and worm medication. the meds were only for children 5 years exactly and under, so we were dealing with probably some of the cutest kids in cameroon.
we went to maybe five different schools. at each one the kids would wave hands through the windows and cry "whiteman"... sometimes after i was nearly out of view from them.

i was offered a stick of sugar cane at one point. they laughed at me as i oddly fumbled the cane about trying to figure out how to even begin to eat it. but once they showed me i definitely had the hang of it. you have to bite the outer shell and tear it off with your teeth. and then you take a knife and cut the stem into four parts (this makes it easier to fit that whole bit in your mouth). you bite away one of those four parts and chew and suck on it until you're sure all the sweet watery sensation has left the roughage and evaded your senses. it's too enjoyable, really.

after we got through with the schools we went to the community. trekking up and down rocky mountainside paths to find all the "pickens" under the age of five. in the village were the younger ones and they weren't quite as eager to receive the sweets from the people in white coats. some screamed. some wept before we even got close. and one was caught quietly slipping away down the street. we sat at a little community center and waited while the town crier went to the random homes to announce our presence. while we sat i discussed my small understanding of the pidgin-english language with some local men.
i de talk small pidgin, you see? and i de hear pidgin more.
they were enjoying some shots of whiskey from these small sealed plastic bags. they said this was the way the poor man could taste good things. it was about 10 cents a shot. very tempting really.

so after we started heading back to the clinic i realized how exhausted i was. it was HOT. i was thirsty. i was hungry. and i was WELL pleased with the day! :)
four of us stopped at a little restaurant and i enjoyed a full plate of ndole (usually i share a plate with shaye) and a gordon's spark.

and back at the clinic i got to observe/assist with a circumcision. it was SO painful to watch. apparently the blade was slightly dull so i'm assuming it made it that much terrible for the 5 week old boy (they usually do it within the first three days). i was a little sickened honestly. she kept cutting and tying surgical sutures around pieces of skin...attempting to stop the bleeding. finally it stopped. i really was scared but... wow. it was intense to watch. i don't think i'd like to do one...but maybe someday. we'll see.

anyways. i'm about out of time but on one last note:

I MIGHT GET TO CLIMB MT CAMEROON!

written by  theresa on December 4, 2009 from Douala, Cameroon
from the travel blog: to africa
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mt Cameroon sits at approximately 4,095 meters above sea level as the second highest peak in all of africa and the highest peak in west africa. she's an active Volcano, erupting 7 times in the last one hundred years. when the eruption of 1999 occured, geologists predicted that it would be another 10 years before another eruption could take place... then came the eruption of 2000, only 9 years ago! so much for prediction nature!

that morning of oct 13th we overslept just a bit, our alarm malfunctioned...OF COURSE! Helen helped us out by making us some kwacoco (a mush concoction of dried fish, prawns, vegetable, cocoyam, and various spices wrapped with a leaf into a tight, compact roll of goodness). we downed one roll in the back of a taxi, giddy and nervous as we watched the mountain looming above us on our way to meet our guides and porters. i was assuming the lack of activity since august was sure to raise it's ugly head in the next three days...and the "khata" left residing in my lungs was undoubtedly going to take it's toll on me as well....

as we gathered our supplies together, i was a bit shamed by the comparison of my bag and the porters. they would be carrying most of our food/water/shelter supplies and we (shaye and i) would carry only what we needed for the time being: spare clothes, socks, shoes, chinchin and about 2.5 liters of water....and 2 hiking poles.

we, the five of us and our mass of supplies, piled into a taxi and were transported to the end of a paved road where one building existed with little else. a sprinter was repeatedly tackling a small incline nearby as we gave our official introductions to one another.

hans: guide. experienced guide of 123 official tours up mt cameroon and numerous undocumented others. (he didn't tell us this directly, but we realized it later.)

mr. simon: "porter. not just for two days, but many years before."

edward: porter. guide on occasion in other locations, and guide-in-training/porter today.

at approximately 815am at 1010m above sea level, we started out steadily up a small path barely visible along the edge of the building. we stopped maybe five feet up to discuss a plant, it's purpose, and it's latin name.

really? is this the pace?

turns out that mr. hans has a vast amount of information stored in his head and he shares it humbly, generously, and often. the slow pace was difficult in the beginning, but mr hans repeatedly laid out that there was "no need to be sporty"....there was a mountain to discover.

we hiked initially through the Upper Farms of Buea where we saw the Lady of the Mountain (winner of many of the past Mountain Races)...she coasted away to the valley with ease i'll never know...
...past the prison and prison farms where prisoners waved their hands through the bars and hissed at us romantically...
...through the anthropic forest...which contained plaintain and banana trees, and volcanic bombs (giant boulders that had been thrown from past eruptions)...
...into the secondary forest...with more crops of cocoyam and other plantations...
...into the primary forest...with no human intervention and only a small path to lead us through the vibrant green of an african jungle...the tropical mountain rainforest.
...it was too exciting to feel any type of fatigue. besides mr. hans was an excellent guide and knew when we needed a rest, a swig of water, and a taste of chin chin and groundnuts.

i'll never be able to repeat the names of the places mr. hans brought us...nor the names of every plant and animal and sound he directed our attention to...not just the common names, but the latin names as well...

we stopped at a spring and Hut 1 around noon. i'll name the spring 'Butterfly Springs' because sadly my memory is that of my mother's. we devoured our delicious kocoyam and wrote our names with ash on the underside of compound's roof. there was a small shower of rain, which hans considered a blessing....and onward we go....
it wasn't long til we were on the brink of a steeply sloped savannah. apparently hunters and new trainers didn't appreciate the grasses so they set fire to them. not long ago shaye and i had seen fire on the mountain from our little home, so seeing the damage was quite interesting.

at 2000 meters, mr. hans and mr. simon performed a small dance and song to "please the mountain" in response to our foreign presence here. i thought they were gathering fern leaves in case of necessary relief, but found it was for quite a different event. they handed them to shaye and i and requested that we sway back and forth in rhythm to mr. simon's claps and mr. hans chants...so we danced, in hopes to honor the mountain...and continue to have such a safe journey.

as we hiked we watched the landscape miraculously transform. the jungle disappeared, the grasslands wore slightly thinner. we met the 'magic tree' that fades in and out of sight as you climb.....we climbed til it seemed we were level with the clouds....til humanity was barely visible below us...and heaven seemed only a step away... we climbed til we reached new plant species and an even steeper slope....we climbed off course a bit just to view a volcanic vent... we climbed til we reached Hut 2 around 5 in the afternoon....and this is where we stopped for day 1 of our adventure.

mr. hans brought shaye and i to check out a huge cavern with red soil at the base and ferns at the entrance. in the US they would've built stairs and hand rails, but here we lowered ourselves carefully step by step, rock by rock into the dark abyss. it was a dream.

and after that shaye and i roamed about like irresponsible children, posing on rocks and exploring the terrain like true adventurers, while mr simon chopped the firewood and edward and mr. hans prepared our beds. we laid a sleeping mat next to the fire and dozed while edward cooked a long awaited, delicious meal of rice and veggies in tomato sauce. we took some tea outside and gazed at one of the most brilliant skies i've ever seen. it'd take my whole life to count those stars. lucky us, we each saw two shooting stars...and only now i'm realizing we forgot to make wishes on them. not that it mattered... our dreams were coming true anyway (says shaye) haha... cornbusters....

but really.. really really... what a dream. we were on mt cameroon...in africa...climbing the highest peak of west africa...accomplishing...or at least attempting to accomplish...some of our wildest dreams. what else could we wish for?

and then we lied there..on a bed of wood only a couple feet off the ground...wrapped snugly in sleeping bags... laughing ridiculously at the situation we found ourselves in...too excited to be exhausted. who would've thought!

but somehow we eventually drifted off to sleep... completely necessary to prepare for the 5 hour climb to the summit that we'd be facing the next day.

.....................................

written by  theresa on December 16, 2009 from Buea, Cameroon
from the travel blog: to africa
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if i could pass you the world
just pass it right through
i think good things would happen
if the world was with you
cuz your heart's just like gold
and i hear what you say
about going to learn
and coming back someday
to spread a little hope
and share what you know
so your people can hope
so your people can grow
if i could open the world
just peel it open for you
believe me i'd do it
i'd cross oceans for you

written by  theresa on December 25, 2009 from Campbellsville, United States
from the travel blog: to africa
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