Bana Workshop in Conservation Agriculture/L'Agriculture Naturelle

Bana Workshop in Conservation Agriculture/L’Agriculture Naturelle

Madame Oussematou organized and coordinated all of the required preparations for the two day Conservation Farming (l’Agriculture Naturelle) Workshop held November 10 and11 in the Village of Bana. The purpose of the Workshop was for us to expose Bana farmers to the basic principles of Conservation Farming and to gauge their interest in being the core group to spearhead a long term CF pilot project for the area.

Conservation Farming (L’Agriculture Naturelle) Workshop Venue
Bana itself is a distance of about 150 km. south from Bamenda in the West Region of Cameroon. At the outset, some explanation about a few points to do with Cameroon rural life as they relate to Bana may prove useful; for instance, the real meaning of the term ‘village’ in Cameroon culture, traditional structures of Village authority, the nature of peasant farming (l’agriculture paysan), the meaning of conservation farming (l’agriculture naturelle ) or as is referred to in some African countries (e.g. Zimbabwe) ‘farming God’s way’. A few comments also are included on French/Pidgin communication barriers and the need for input in this regard from the local Ministry of Agriculture technical specialist.

A village in rural Cameroon typically refers to an area or tribal district with a traditional royal family and a King who is of royal dynasty or lineage in what is largely a tribal culture. So in Bana the area/village is Na and the prefix Ba simply means ‘people of’. We are informed that Bana is a larger than average size village in Cameroon, covers quite a large area and has a population of about ten thousand.

As appears pretty much the situation for most countries of the African continent, a preponderance of women do the farming of Bana and in fact are the backbone of ‘l’agriculture paysanne’. The imbalance is reflected in the gender mix of participating farmers who attended the workshop, 11 females and 4 males.

The workshop presentation was based on the CFGB Conservation Agriculture power point provided by Alden Braul to the Sorflatens during their visit to the CFGB office in Winnipeg during mid-August 2011. The Bana audience turned out to be totally French speaking (as well as Pidgin) and which we realized long in advance would be the case. I translated and adapted the Conservation Agriculture/ l’Agriculture Naturelle power point into French with assistance from Oussematou, the IDF Coordinator, so as to give it the right Cameroon French flavor.

Further assistance in delivering the presentation (which lasted about three hours overall including follow up discussion) came from the local Ministrie de l’Agriculture extension person, Jean Wouapi (N’Buh which means a highly placed Village Notable). Jean (above right) is a career employee with the Cameroon Ministrie , an agriculture engineer and slated for retirement in two years. Jean was well able to convey all of the more subtle nuances contained in the presentation, especially using Pidgin dialect mixed in with local French idioms of a highly contextual nature. If the Bana proposal takes hold and moves forward, an agricultural specialist and facilitator like Jean Wouapi will be required for successful implementation.

The CF Workshop and presentation was a resounding success! From everything that we could see and hear during the wrap-up at end of day, participants unanimously endorsed the proposition of a pilot project for Bana Village. Day 2 of the Workshop with its tour of several representative farms was an appropriate follow-up. The tour illustrated very well some of the
prevailing cropping practices and the resulting low levels of productivity in some cases, particularly of primary food crops like corn/mais. Workshop participants agreed that the need for farming practices in Bana based on conservation farming principles is evident.

Programme Agenda Planning the Farm Tours

The workshop was excellently planned and coordinated by IDF staff and all participants were well provided for, so much so that there were even a few interested onlookers. These two village elders were actually guests of ‘Matou and seemed to enjoy the proceedings as much as the farmers themselves.

Workshop Day 2

Most of the Workshop Day 2 was devoted to farm tours and viewing the farms of several participants from the previous day. In addition, we also visited the Royal Palace and met with the traditional Chief or Fon (King) of Bana and also the Office of Mayor (l’Hotelier) where we met with the Director of Administration.

The tours were of four farms in total, two of them farming livestock (pigs) and one of those with a few vegetable crops, pretty well entirely for family consumption. The two pig farms were one and two sow operations, one of them feeding out the weanlings and the other selling weanlings to another farmer for feeding out. The pigs, sows and feeders, mostly get to eat the green part of the cassava plant, other plants, and kitchen scrap. As it turned out, based on our further research it just so happens that feeding uncooked cassava to pigs is highly problematic for the health of the pig in the same way as it is for humans on account of the toxic nature of the cyanide product contained in chemical makeup. Our little bit of on-line research here was prompted by the untimely death of some pigs that we were advised of in Wum.

The other two visits were of crop farms, one of them operated by a woman doing corn/mais and Irish potatoes on a few hectares (at more than one location) and the other by a fellow (named Victor) with quite a large area of horticulture, maize and root crops (about 4 or 5 hectares). Victor’s range of crops (extended family production actually) is quite diverse and the mix includes corn, coffee, Irish potato, banana, okra, oil palm, beans, ground nuts, cassava (white and yellow or sweet), yam, cocoyam, melangin, plum, and farmed fish (talapia) from the on-site farm pond.

Visit to Traditional Chief (Fon) of Bana

After completing our farm tours early afternoon of Day 2 we made an obligatory visit to the Kingdom of Bana Royal Palace and were honoured to have an audience with His Royal Majesty Sikam Happi V, the traditional King (Chefferie Traditionelle) or Fon of Bana. By Cameroon standards we were told Sikam is very young to be in such a high position. He is perhaps around 30 years of age, possibly a little less and became King 7 years ago upon the death of his father. Even though he has more than one wife, his values as a young King, we are told, differ markedly from the more traditional ways. For instance, he doesn’t lay back on his laurels waiting for his subjects to support him, but is enrolled in university and pursuing higher education. We each made short introductions about ourselves (in French) and I observed that in her comments ‘Matou spoke of the Conservation Agriculture Workshop to which the King responded with a sincere nod of his head.’

In those regions of Zimbabwe that were evaluated in the tri-partite CFGB project, local government and traditional leaders were considered to be important participants leading to success of the projects. The importance of maintaining healthy working relationships with local leadership was emphasized. The report said that "CF projects must coordinate and consult with all relevant stakeholders so as to to minimize challenges and conflict during the project. This should include working closely with local and regional government authorities, government agriculture extension services, local elected and traditional leaders (like the Chief) and other NGOs working in agriculture and community development" (e.g. like IDF).

All of our company were honoured when HRM Sikam invited the five of us to be his guests for dinner. In all, we were; Thérèse Oussematou of IDF, Josef Tafrey (our good friend and rice farmer from Menchum Valley/ Wum), M’Buh Jean Wouapi (agricultural engineer and Bana extension specialiste, Ministère de l’Agriculture du Cameroon and Noteable) plus CESO VA’s Lydia and Allan Sorflaten. The menu included goat meat, corn foufou, cassava and plantain and a choice of pop, beer, or wine as beverage. The wine was a superb 2005 Bordeaux, not really standard drink in this part of Cameroon and served in juice glasses. After eating (not actually with the King) we met him again on the steps of the Palace (an excellent photo opportunity), chatted for a few minutes and exchanged gifts (white Canadian ball cap and small flag of Canada). His gifts to our party were individual invitations to a special Royal event, a ‘fantasia’ being held at the Palace Sunday November 20, 2011, ‘La Reception Que Nous Offrons a l’Occasion des Funerailles des Reines, Princes, et Princesses.’ As the event promised to be very cultural and replete with traditional singing, music and dance, we decided once again to make the long trek from Bamenda to Bana on that day. (Note: at the time of writing this blog, we’ve now just returned from that event and indeed it has exceeded all expectations)!

Visit to Local Government Officials

A further official visit was made during the Day 2 workshop afternoon to the Bana town hall and a short visit with the Secretary General or chief administrator of the local government. ‘Matou told him about the

Conservation Agriculture Workshop just completed. At its conclusion she was exceptionally pleased with the visit as it resulted in her being provided with a municipal document that she’d been trying to access for a very long time. She suggested in all seriousness that it was the presence of a couple of Canadians who influenced the release of the long sought after document.

Soil Fertility

Officials with the Canadian Food Grains Bank recognize that after years of cultivation using poor management systems and few if any inputs such as fertilizer and organic matter, the soil fertility in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa is at a record low and on the decline. This is as true for the Cameroon, and in particular the area around Bana, as it is elsewhere on the continent. As further stress is put on the soil resource from increasing populations, economic conditions and reduced fallow periods, soil fertility continues to decline. The soil environment, the poor local economy and the largely indigenous farming systems that characterise Bana make the sizeable agrarian population extremely vulnerable to changing weather patterns, increased poverty and food insecurity. The overwhelming poverty among most farmers makes it difficult and next to impossible to deal in a meaningful way with soil fertility issues. We were told that these days it is just about impossible for a farmer to relocate to another site and expect any crop to grow on account of the widespread soil infertility. Manufactured fertilizer is just about impossible to secure for reasons of cost, as is also the purchase of livestock manure from the outlying graziers. If soil fertility does not begin to improve, the region is doomed! However, with the possibility of moving to more sustainable (CF type) farming practices (some of which is already happening in a number of African nations) and a glimmer of interest by some national governments in CF principles, there is reason for hope! We hope there is hope as well for Cameroon.

What Was Learned From the Farm Tours?

 Bana small holding farmers are practising very few if any of the principles associated with CF, generally no ‘zero tillage’, no mulching as a rule, though from what we were able to ascertain from the farm tours, perhaps some limited crop rotation practice.

 The soil is extremely infertile and most farmers do not/cannot apply fertilizer amendments. There are little if any applications of manure purchased from livestock graziers for reasons of cost. Around Bana, the fertility issue seems to have been dealt with over the years and right up to the present by abandoning one plot after it has been used for a time and allowed to run out and then moving on to another location. In this way the downward spiral repeats itself and the farmer moves on to another location for a time until this land too becomes depleted. Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more difficult to find suitable locations on which to farm in such desparate fashion.

 Soil ph considerations and the need for correcting soil acidity with lime was a non-starter even among the Agriculture Ministry extension person.

 Even among what I consider is the most progressive farmer we encountered among the group, it still was extremely surprising to see Victor and the others consistently planting field crops in rows running down the slope rather than across the slope in a terraced fashion and in what I suspect should be standard practice.

 Even where large accumulations of potential mulching materials have accumulated, no thought or effort seems to have been made to consider it as cover for the soil and the benefits from mulch that can accrue as with CF principles. Even in that seemingly productive area north of Bafoussam (note: our visit with Paul Ymele of the Bafoussam



Rotary Club), field after field of this ‘baysage’ was simply accumulation from the previous crop’s clean up being readied for burning.

 There is a medium height fern-like weed that farmers appear to encourage the growth of in corn and other of their row crops. They explained that the shade from its rather plentiful canopy discourages the growth of other weeds. I am extremely doubtful of any net benefit that can accrue to whatever crop is at risk here (we see it purposely left in corn, potatoes and beans, etc.)) on account of the net nutrient uptake differentials that are likely to occur. A clean cover of mulch may be the more desirable alternative.

Sea Hearts for Hope

Sea Hearts for Hope.

Africa has long been known for its large array of hand crafted beads. Twined with naturally growing rich mahogany coloured Sea Hearts that grow deep in the Rainforest of the Cameroon, we have experimented to build a simple but elegant design that will incorporate both the handcrafted wooden beads made in Northern Cameroon and the Sea Hearts collected from the Rainforest in the Northwest of Cameroon.

The long term goal is to have marginalized people (handicapped, HIV AIDS persons, the very poor) hand make Sea Hearts for Hope chains that will be able to be sold, lifting lives from hopeless poverty to a better life. Hope for sending children to school, paying school fees. Hope to pay for HIV AIDS antiretroviral drugs. Hope that will provide money for better nourishment for the family. HOPE.

Our story of the development of this project. As CESO volunteers, ten years ago we discovered Jacqueline and Bingy in Tobago. Bingy was collecting seeds from the rain forest and they were hand crafting jewellery with these seeds. Unique among these seeds was the ‘Donkey Eye’, interestingly a member of the Entada Gigas family. For those of us who did not venture deep into the rainforest to search out these prized seeds, occasionally one can find a Donkey Eye washed ashore and left by the tide.

In Bamenda, we quickly spy a larger version of the Entata family, some heart shaped and some as large as 3 inches in diameter. The rich color, the smoothness of the seed gives one a tranquil feel for the beautiful surroundings in which it grows.

We experimented with different designs. We discovered that Prescraft, an upscale craft store in Bamenda (operated by the Presbyterian Church) was selling key chain holders made with the heart shaped Sea Heart. We began by using these beautiful sea hearts to build designs using hand crafted wooden beads from Northern Cameroon. We had brought a number of beads donated by the Colchester Community Workshop that make the chains unique. Gold and silver accent beads really set a chain off beautifully.

We modified the design, moving to drilling the Sea Heart in two places to eliminate the need for an insertion of a screwed hook of any kind. I still have my first chain made with the drilled hook and continue to love it. One design style we have settled on is a light weight chain that slips over the head. This eliminates the need for any hooks. Although this is ahead of the story, below are two examples made by workshop participants:

Next step, to purchase native beads appropriate for the chains. Critical in the design phase has been a very unique 17 year old girl whom we happened to meet at the hotel. She has not been attending school this fall. Mimi is from the very traditional village of Samba and is a member of the Boro grazier tribe (her grandfather is the village chief) who believe in very early marriage (age 14) and do not believe in education, especially for girls. Fortunately, Mimi has been able to attend secondary school here in Bamenda, living in the dorm. This fall, funding was not available for her to attend. Oussematou met with Mimi very early, determined to find out why Mimi was not attending school.

Below is a picture of Mimi and one of Mimi and her mother.

Mimi is very talented and has loved working on designs for the Sea Hearts. On our first shopping trip to the market to look at beads together, we met her school principal who wanted to know why she was not in school and what levels she had completed and what her marks were. He said most empathetically that she should be in school. As well, we met Rosemary, a Baptist missionary who has been working in the village of Samba for seven years and knows Mimi well. Mimi has taken classes with Rosemary in food preparation. Mimi invited us last Sunday to her village to meet her family and participate in the beginning of a week long celebration in her village, Ramadan. This was a great experience for us and the topic of another blog.

We settled on a design pattern. Each will differ according to the person who crafts the design. Jean Baptist and Mimi went on a buying excursion to purchase beads. Bargaining is the mode. Mimi had identified a street seller of beads, Elvis. They settled on a number of styles of wooden beads and established a price. We ordered 100 Sea Hearts pre drilled from Prescraft.

We have held three workshops. The first two here at IDF. Mimi and her mother came from Samba, one lady from Wum, three ladies from Bamenda and one man who is very quick, very strong and creative! They have really enjoyed making their creations. Here is a picture with them hard at work.

The second workshop with them, working with a clasp was introduced along with earring making. Below, ‘Granny’ Elizabeth models her choker and earring creation.

Just as we were leaving for a two day workshop on Conservation Farming in the village of Bana, Oussematou asked us to bring the box with the Sea Heart jewellery. Good thing. The people showed great interest. Fortunately there were six kits in with the 40 already made chains. We were able to hold a workshop at the end of the second day and six people from the village of Bana made their first chain, Sea Heart for Hope. By the end of the workshop, they had worked with Oussematou (they speak only French and Pigeon) to request 100 kits to be sent to them to fabricate for return to Canada with the Sorfaltens to be sold! We will pay these people for their labour when we pick up the completed Sea Hearts for Hope on our way to Douala to fly home.

Workshop in Bana:

In the big picture, it is the handicapped and HIV AIDS positive people, the marginalized the Oussematou wants to target for an extended pilot project, Sea Hearts for Hope

Two Soccer Balls, Two Schools

One Soccer Ball, One School

As we approached Minedub School  in the Wum district, our driver Stephen and Madame Oussematou suggested that  this would be a good spot to deal with one of the five soccer balls donated by Canadian Tire in Truro. They felt that the children here should be the recipients of the ball because the school is more rural in nature and students are mostly the children of ‘graziers’ whose families tend cattle on the surrounding hillsides. Everything about these grazier people, pretty well their entire socio-economic existence, including their concept of wealth, traditionally is tied up in their cattle. So it’s not surprising for us to hear that their values do not emphasize formal schooling and there is resistance by some to send their children to school (even though school attendance in the Cameroon is supposed to be compulsory through the elementary age levels). The Minedub school they told us was placed here in this more decentralized location away from Wum in an effort to try and make it easier for these children to attend.

    

Before proceeding further with the “one soccer ball/one school” story, a few words about ‘grazier’ cattle are in order. These are the Zebo breed  of tropical cattle which here in northwest Cameroon are the big white cows with that distinctive hump over the shoulder area. We’ve seen a number of really big herds thus far, as many as a couple of hundred head at a time. Another interesting little anecdote about cattle in Bamenda; about 2 or 3 a.m. the other morning Lydia looks out our front room window and in the glare of the sodium iodide streetlight just outside what does she see but one of these large herds of white Zebos filing down commercial avenue heading towards the Hotel Ayaba in a torrential downpour. Oussematou said the graziers often move cattle through Bamenda in this way but always at night.  I guess if the Aussie graziers can do it, so too  can the Cameroonians!

As we arrived at the school, three teachers came to greet us. The students, all 150 of them, were very curious.  A physical education class was underway on the playfield using a tiny, plastic ball, their only  ball we were told.  Then we informed the teachers that we had a football to present to the school and  they quickly made a plan. The Principal of the school was away for a short while and one of the teachers used her cellphone and contacted the principal who said she’d be back momentarily. In the interim, they decided to allow all of the children to line up along the playfield and have the gym class form teams and demonstrate how the new football (i.e. soccer ball in Canada) would be used.  The first activity they arranged was to form two lines, girls on one side, boys on the other,  with the children arranged tallest to shortest.  The gym teacher (probably a ‘circuit rider’ from Wum) came out in her green gym outfit and began to direct operations. The action really began when a goalie was sent to the other end of the field and Lydia was asked to toss the ball into the air (sort of a  ‘face off’) and from there, voila, the game began.  Can you imagine just how exciting it must be to play with a real soccer ball after playing with a small plastic facsimile of one?

The children entertained us with an impressive game which allowed time for the principal to get back.  She arrived on the back of a motorcycle, the most common (and cheapest form of taxi service) in the Cameroon. She took us on a tour of the school which itself consists of the old building and a new one.  The basic structure of the new building is quite decent, though rudimentary by our standards. The interior furnishings however are another matter. Apparently the community/parents are responsible  for the interior and it is indeed extremely spartan. For instance, within the new structure there is a divider made of cardboard pieces hand-stitched together and separating a tiny office for the principal from the one large classroom. This class room is shared by two groups of about 30 students each, with half the desks facing in one direction and the remaining half in the other.  The newer building has windows and concrete floors and the desk materials were provided for and built by the community/parents. 

The older and smaller building houses the two youngest age groups and is another matter entirely! Perhaps apart from the desks, these too built by the parents, this structure is in great need of physical improvement, perhaps even complete rebuilding. 

The picture on the right is taken in the old school. On the far wall can be seen what is intended to be a window, though for some reason it appears to have been somewhat modified, perhaps to function as a second door? But there is no window frame and for all intents it is not a window. Nor can the doorway (the direction from which the photo is taken) really be considered anything more than a ‘walk-through’, as there is no door or frame. The floor is bare dirt, always dusty and contributes to persistent bronchial   problems. The floor is also a source of the ‘zigger’ worm that burrows up into the soles of the children’s feet  in certain seasons of the year and is a very painful condition for them. Though there is a roof (of sorts) in place, the classroom is more or less wide open to the elements, wind and rain in wet season, wind, dust and cooler temperatures in dry season, not to mention insects, domestic livestock and other nuisances.   Domestic livestock actually wander into the classroom at night and the teachers must clean up the manure droppings from the dirt floor before classes can begin in the morning. The children are like children everywhere and are terrified by the thunder and lightning to which they are so directly exposed in this building.  We talked with the principal about this situation and she said it would be good if building materials could be obtained and the necessary improvements effected.

It really bothered us to see about 20 of the children here at Minedub school with distended bellies. On the Monday following our visit there Lydia went to the pharmacy across the street from the IDF office and spoke about the situation there with Dr Nkwenti /Davidson (Ph .D. Pharmacology, University of Washington). We’d met this individual by chance during our first week here when Lydia had asked him a whole lot of questions about the diabetes situation in Cameroon. Now he viewed our pictures and live movie clips and could hear and see the heavy coughing and distended bellies. In response he said that he would contact the Dept. of Health for follow up. Hopefully they will do so and undertake further action as needed. 

Second Soccer Ball, Second School
Bana is a village of 10,000 people located three hours south from Bamenda in the West. The breath taking beauty of this region is set in fairly high altitude rainforest terrain at an elevation of about 1000 meters. . The local economy is totally agricultural based and dependent on some extremely infertile soils. The dry season extends from November to March and wet season from April to October. Bana was the location chosen for Allan’s seminar on Conservation Farming (l’Agriculture Naturelle), and Yes, as the spoken language here is French or Pidgin, all of the proceedings were presented by him entirely in French

From a socio-economic viewpoint, the village has two extreme contrasts in the kind of people who live in the West Cameroon. First of all there are a few rich property owners who have made their fortunes elsewhere and have chosen to build lavish estates here in Bana, their home village. The estates are manned by servants and may be occupied by these owners for as little as two weeks per year. Generally speaking, these people seem not to be interested in alleviating, let alone noticing the extreme poverty that surrounds their villas. Most of them seem not to have any interest in trying to help alleviate the desperate conditions that define their village.

But there are exceptions and for these persons ‘Matou’ is thankful! Bana village women were working the farms during the day and leaving their small children to fend for themselves. A man of only modest means chose to donate his property (house and building) for a preschool. We visited the preschool with the intent of leaving soccer ball number two for the children.

The children were busy drawing numbers on their slate boards (actually boards painted black). It was amusing to see the little black faces smudged with white chalk!

Behind the classroom is a bed where a sick child is able to sleep. A room at one end will become an office eventually and the other end is used for storage and a nearly empty first aid kit that we will attempt to replenish before we depart.

Children enthusiastically filed outside, each carrying a blown up balloon, singing and dancing along the way. A few of the children are as young as two. The idea with the school is to give the children a good start, getting them used to going to school and learning. They sang a version of head and shoulders, identifying each part of the head and face in French. The soccer ball was almost the size of the little girl who played hide and seek from behind the ball. The children lined up on the steps of the school and learned very effectively to chant ‘C-A-N-A-D-A’! That alone was enough to make our day!

When time a resources permit, there will be new feature uploaded to U Tube: Second Soccer Ball, Second School.

It was extremely satisfying for us to see the teachers working with those little preschoolers so effectively

On the way back to Bamenda from Bana on Saturday morning it was our further good fortune to experience another fine illustration of ‘le couer généreu’ in Cameroon. ‘Matou conducted a second mini tour for us around the campus of a university donated by a rich man to train students in technical fields. Here you see the sign for the campus, student housing and other buildings and signage marking the entrance to the Fotse Victor University Institute of Technology 3

Here you see campus buildings, a generator and part of a sports field. The government is involved with the running of the university now. In sponsoring this Technical University in his home village and then turning it over to the government to operate, the man made it a condition of his agreement with the government that student tuition fees will not exceed CF50,000 per year ($125 Can). His purpose is to make a University education available to deserving students in his home community regardless of their ability to afford it. Today he continues to give scholarships, build churches in the community anonymously and much more.

Nutrition Counselling Person with HIV AIDS

Nutrition Counselling

Last Thursday October 3rd the three day Train the Trainer Nutrition Counselling Seminar got underway. The seminar sessions were preceded by several months of research and planning efforts by Lydia who managed to put together a several hundred page training guide last summer in Nova Scotia, the whole time remaining in close( e-mail) consultation with Madame Oussematou in Cameroon. Among her many other activities the last month here in Bamenda, she spent further time fine tuning the training document, preparing it for printing and coordinating many other activities required for the workshop presentations. The workshop participants at this stage were the five IDF staff members who in turn will become trainers as the program eventually is rolled out to the intended target audience, namely a category of IDF client known as a Promoter.

When our Cameroon assignment in Bamenda was being defined, Oussematou described these client Promoters as HIV AIDS +ve persons (mostly women) who they’ve worked with to qualify for a small loan from a microcredit program (operated by a Women’s Cooperative Credit Union). IDF apparently helped to create this small credit union with a small amount of funding from the International Labour Organisation (ILO). ‘Matou’ certainly is adept at leveraging extremely limited funds so as to get the largest possible impact from the smallest amount of available dollars.

The women entrepreneurs with whom IDF works are very low-income women with limited or no educational background. On average these women are between the age of 30 and 40, have had 5 children and only a primary schooling background. They earn between $40 and $100 dollars (Can) each month and generally run small convenience stands selling food and household items like rice, oil, spices and toilet paper. Many of these women’s first language is Pidgin and they have difficulty understanding and speaking English. For this reason it’s more effective if community volunteers can be empowered indirectly through the development of training modules and training them as trainers, rather than working directly with the Promoters.

Earlier in the year, Oussematou told Lydia of two topics that would not only benefit the women entrepreneurs but also single adolescent mothers, community volunteers and other beneficiaries (people living with HIV, and orphans and vulnerable children). The topics mentioned were nutrition and nutrition counselling and she said that "Lydia’s background is greatly suited to helping us in those areas". She also indicated that it would be of great use to them if training modules could be developed on these topics and then used to train IDF staff who in turn would give training to community volunteers and beneficiaries.

The assignment with CESO and IDF was defined last June. Lydia spent the intervening months leading up to it working with a nutrition manual that had been developed by a previous CESO volunteer. This base manual was developed by the Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care, Makerere University, School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda.

The Rotary Club of Truro sponsored the Nutrition workshop, paying for the printing of the Manuals (five of them) as well as other related expenses. These manuals will be kept in the IDF office and used for training of the trainers who then will train the community volunteers to go out into homes in the various villages to counsel HIV persons in nutrition. Because the people in the villages speak Pidgin and many are illiterate, Oussematou herself will rewrite the program and bring it down to a very simple level using mostly graphics and pictorials to make it more easily understood. 2

The manuals in action:

The Food Groups used here are different than we are used to. One reason is most of the population does not drink milk. So, there are three food groups: Energy Foods, Immunity or Protective Foods and Body Builders plus Extras. Using the internet, Lydia found single pictures of some 50 foods to use as Food Models. You can see the Food Pyramids the Trainees built up on the wall.

Fortunately Lydia had saved a set of bar graphs from her years of teaching (no longer for sale through the Ontario Milk Marketing Board). They served as graphic teaching tools and are included in the manual in small version.

As well, $600 Can. of Rotary funding paid for transport and accommodation to visit the field office at Wum. Two people from the Wum office took the Nutrition workshop. That trip gave us insight into the living conditions of the persons who are dealing with HIV AIDS. We were able to meet a number of Promoters in the village who operate businesses and being HIV positive were able to qualify for microcredit loans from the credit union. Going to Wum required a driver/car for two days and hotel accommodations (this being a story for another time) for the driver and three of us. Oussematou kept meticulous records of this trip as she and her staff do of all their activities. Funds are extremely short and so Rotary assistance was much appreciated by IDF. When we brought the cash from Rotary for the trip to Wum ($300 US dollars), Oussematou said, "Rotary will not be disappointed in our use of these funds."

There was some money from Rotary left over for lunch time food ingredients and preparation over the three days and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. First, we had to get the stove going. This facility has great potential and a few years back had been used for programs such as one for Teen Age Adolescent Mothers. Everything was very dusty. We shopped at the market and managed to prepare two great meals. The first was a pasta salad (they had never eaten cold pasta before) served with soya chocolate milk in tetrapacs with lovely snacks-apples from South Africa, ground nuts and bananas. Because of concern about whether or not the stove would work, Lydia cooked the pasta in advance at the apartment. They mixed up three batches of the salad and there were no problems, neither in preparing it or eating it.

At lunch time on day two they worked on getting the stove going (and with his trusty knife, Allan included) and we made a healthy pot of corn chowder, multi-pizzas, and cinnamon buns along with lemon/lime bottled water, soya supplement (used as a liquid supplement mix for infants, the
elderly, and starving persons; in short, anyone who needs a nutritional, highly digestible and easy to swallow liquid based food.

Another interesting thing that happened is we had canned corn for the chowder and canned tomatoes for the pizza. Lydia discovered one of the trainees attacking the top of the can with a knife so as to open it, not to mention a can opener was sitting there on the table beside him. He had never seen or used a can opener before. Virtually all of the people here normally do not eat anything in the way of processed food. To them it’s costly and not part of their cultural tastes!

This picture shows Terrance Ndikum, Jean Baptiste and Amah Julius hooking up the gas range.

We managed a bowl of corn chowder for everyone, including the secretaries and office personal.

Lydia demonstrated the first batch of biscuit dough for the cinnamon rolls. They made at least eight more batches. Everyone was responsible to bake their own pizza. Then they got going on cinnamon buns with ground nuts. With the last batch they used everything that was remaining to make one great big cinnamon roll that would feed the two participants from Wum staying overnight that evening in Bamenda. All this prepared food was very popular, highly appreciated ! Great fun and a great experience!

The day two and day three seminars focused on Community Volunteer training to counsel persons with HIV AIDS as a Nutrition based treatment for improving immunity to prevent infection and treatment for nutrition related problems resulting from HIV AIDS (diarrhoea, vomiting, mouth sores, weight loss, depression, isolation, rejection). Here are pictures of role playing the patient being interviewed by the community volunteer for counselling:

The wrap up focused on developing a plan of action to implement a pilot project in ‘Nutritional Counselling for HIV AIDS’ to reach the community of persons challenged by HIV AIDS.

Thanks to the Rotary Club of Truro for helping out here.

Allan and Lydia Sorflaten

November 6, 2011.

PS "Even the people from Wum are able to go the the rotarycluboftruro.ca web site and can view what Lydia’s efforts have produced here." (AGS).

Cameroon National Election

 
Cameroon National Election
Even before we ever arrived in Cameroon we were a little concerned by the idea of a Presidential election scheduled to happen here only a couple weeks after our arrival. For more background information about the political nature of life here, you should read a few pages in Joan Baxter’s ‘Dust From Our Eyes/An Unblinkered Look at Africa’. As you may already know, Joan is a Nova Scotia author and journalist who spent more than twenty years working and living with her family in Africa, including the Cameroon. She is now a resident of Colchester County in the vicinity of Tatamagouche.
This picture is our road with our apartment building in the background (left side). In the foreground is a poster advertizing Paul Biya for President. A taxi is going to pass the joggers! You can see the gate to the Catholic University and church to the right of the second sign. Our first view of Bamenda was from the hills that surround Bamenda.
The first big event for us during the campaign was the President’s visit to Bamenda. The large viewing stand on Commercial Avenue was built some time ago for just such events as this and now was decorated with ribbons, banners and streamers. From our IDF office window on the fourth floor of the Co-operative Building we could see and hear the escalating activity. It was quite the fanfare as the President arrived mid-afternoon and we could see the excited crowd and feel the hype. Then there was suddenly a torrential downpour and most everyone scattered except the uniformed policemen who stayed at their posts. The President’s entourage promptly left after their party got rained on. A short while later after work we used a taxi to get us through the hordes of onlookers and home safely.
Just two days ago it was now post-election fanfare and we viewed another major drive-by right down below our apartment’s balcony. All the shiny black government cars sped by with flags flying, horns 2
blaring and lights flashing! There were probably 10 VIP cars in the group and they probably were coming from the mostly unused airport in Bamenda. That airport seems to be used by the President but not by other citizens who are required to travel at least six hours by bus or car to get here from Daouala the commercial capital or Yaoundé, the political capital.
Below is a picture taken on our walk to work of the moto taxis waiting for passengers.
As Oussematou our host client puts it, people get very excited here when it comes to an election. So many interesting things appear to happen! The streets became even more interesting as October 9th, the election day neared. Below shows a group of people in front of a board where the daily newspaper is posted. This is a daily event that happens just across from our office building. 3
When election weekend arrived, we were given serious directions from IDF (Oussematou) not to leave the apartment. So we followed orders and there were no problem. Lots to do/lots to be interested in including what we see going past our apartment on the street. Having the ‘stick’ for dial up internet (really the equivalent of a high tech dial up system) can be frustrating but it sure is nice to have internet sometimes at the apartment. Lydia tells Allan the best time is the middle of the night but between 3 and 4 a.m., but that isn’t necessarily so bad when one goes to bed with the chickens.
Saturday, the day before the election, there was lots of activity going past our apartment. Army trucks filled with soldiers, seemingly excited groups travelling on their motor bikes in a cavalcade supporting one party or the other. Then Sunday, total quiet. That was election day. So Monday arose a new day and it was business as usual. Home free we thought but unfortunately ‘twas only a piece of cake’ to that point.
Our ears perked up when a few people told us it would take several weeks to count the results. Finally, last Friday we heard that later in the day the election results would be announced. Most of that day we were in a Plan workshop in Bafut/Foyre (Foyre is a community of Plan, what we’ve all known in the past as Foster Parent’s Plan) and returned to Bamenda late that afternoon. At that point even the taxi driver Stephen and John the Baptist from IDF had the hair rising on the backs of their necks. Commercial street, normally bustling with activity, was totally quiet, not a taxi cab in sight. At the corner turning onto Commercial Street and at several points thereafter there were groups of riot policemen wearing full body protection. Lydia is very careful about taking photos and for sure in this situation there were no photos! When we arrived at the apartment, there was no question about what we would be doing overnight and maybe even all day Saturday. Shops had been closed, it seemed everyone had been sent home and our home here indeed seemed a good place to be!
All along we had been noticing increasing numbers of armed military personnel on the streets around Bamenda. That same weekend, we were into the hotel Ayaba for a beer, just a short walk down the road from our apartment, when three of these soldiers came in and sat down at a table right next to us and more or less threw their guns down on the floor with kind of a resonating ‘crash’. They too were in for drinks, on this occasion Fanta orange from supersized bottles while they watched BBC World News on the big screen TV next to us. Rather surprisingly, we did feel quite safe here at the Ayaba, this government owned hotel which we later realized was housing our soldier friends while they were here in Bamenda. At this point we hadn’t seen any TV for three weeks and managed to see the bodies of Mohammar Gaddafi and his son at rest in the Sert meat cooler. We also had quite an in depth visit that evening with the (French speaking) accountant for the hotel who explained that the President was a good friend of Gaddafi and had travelled to Libya on one or more occasions for a state visit. Humm.....!
So, the election results were announced to more or less empty streets. Of course everyone knew what they would be but nevertheless we did listen in on radio to some of the long awaited results. What was especially disconsoling was the number of zero votes consistently reported for the opposition in the various ridings. 4
On Saturday we ventured out to the market to procure some needed supplies of vegetables and fruit. Canned goods here are virtually non- existent, possibly excepting a very limited selection of canned meats and fish from France, Holland, Tunisia, Portugal and Brazil. All root crops are prepared at home beginning with the removal of soil, then thorough scrubbing .

Eggs are sold loose in a thin black plastic bag and then contained again in another similar type of bag. And yes. Lydia does wash them again after we get home from the market. Furthermore, it’s not unheard of for us to arrive home with chicken feathers still on the eggs. And sometimes there are little surprises in the eggs themselves, like the signs of a fertile egg or even a developing embryo.
The produce is beautiful and bountiful. The best of bananas, papaya, oranges, mandarins, some pineapple, plantain, okra, egg plant, carrots, cassava, yams, Irish potatoes, melons, green pepper, hot pepper (ask Allan to tell you about that one/he can only call it a ‘very unpleasant experience’), fresh basil, freshly dug dirty peanuts,peanuts washed in their shell , lightly cured peanuts, boiled peanuts, roasted peanuts, peanuts in bags, peanuts on burlap bags, peanuts in recycled bottles, sugar coated peanuts (home made) but NO PEANUTBUTTER. In this land of peanuts (ground nuts so-called), no peanut butter reflected as a total lack of processed food.

So, it’s Saturday last and if we don’t shop, we don’t eat and Lydia calls Stephen, our very reliable driver. Yes Mama he says, and picks us up at the apartment and we make a plan. We would go and park at the near end of the market next to the New Life Store (has soya milk and usually Diabetic Style Bread) and

get our required fruits and vegetables from this end of the market. We gave Stephen the list and money and followed him from stall to stall as he chose, bargained and bought.
Protein for us is canned tuna, sardines, occasionally the forbidden Spam (high salt) and mostly real nice charcoal barbequed fish imported frozen it appears from Portugal. We pick up this fish (barbequing done right before our eyes) each night on our walking trip home. Our guy normally knows exactly what we want but this past week we went all out and bought a barbequed bass that Lydia picked apart and curried. It was so good! We don’t buy unrefrigerated pork or beef sitting at the stalls in the hot sun. There is a cold store inside of which is filled with large chest style freezers, all filled with frozen ungutted fish of various descriptions. We’ve decided however that we prefer the barbecued fish from ‘our guy’, Thanks!
So, Saturday passed, very quiet and then Sunday. Our apartment is right across from the Catholic University and its Mancom Cathedral. There are three masses each Sunday morning. The 6am one is the best with drums and is in English. At 9:30 is a service in French and then at 11am another service in English. Furthermore, each Sun am we are blessed with continuous beautiful music drifting into our apartment from just across the way. Our favourite (and they do this every Sunday) is Jesus Joy of Man’s Desire. Later on Sunday, just as we have done each weekend since our arrival, we enjoy a lovely walk up the hill to the cathedral and around the circle with its lovely view of the surrounding mountains. Clouds can tend to be quite majestic appearing here and the sunsets are framed by the Catholic University’s Mancom Gate.
We went to work Monday thankful that the weekend was spent peacefully, the election over, the results announced and all seemingly well with the world. Monday we left work at our usual time around 4:30 p.m. This departure normally gives us time to walk in daylight, pick up our barbecued fish, plus a 6
Guiness and Beaufort Light and still get home before dark. Down we come 92 steps from the 4th floor to see all hell broken loose on the street. Motorcycles, hundreds of them, literally flying up and down the streets with people lined up along the sidewalks and down the center divider of the avenue. The motorbikes really were quite out of control; no hands, passengers standing up on the bikes, operators driving like maniacs through the crowds. We knew what we had to do! Just walk as fast as possible towards home and don’t stop for anything. As Allan seem always to be ahead he found it a job to pace himself and keep Lydia close by. The whole trip, usually a thirty minute walk, was really crowded and at some point we had to cross that crazy street. We went to the last possible spot, waited, watched, ran to the center, waited and watched again and then finally ran to the opposite sidewalk. By the end of the avenue the crowd was thinner but the motorbikes continued to whiz by as if they were one. We were some glad to get home. We heard the next day that there were two people killed, one beaten to death and another in a motorbike related accident. Exactly how this relates to recent political events we don’t yet know, though likely there is a connection.
Oh yes, parked beside our usual water supply store on that horrendous trip home was an army truck filled with riot police in full gear, waiting for the scene to calm down so that they could get to the heart of town. In monitoring the traffic past the apartment, Lydia saw an army truck, open back with tear gas equipped policemen . Another truck looking sort of like an assault vehicle (tank) filled with soldiers caught our attention as it went by.
One theme of the pre- election campaigning was Pray for Peace. Here is an English website about the Cameroon : http://www.leffortcamerounais.com/
So, in spite of the recent election, all appears well and we are enjoying the richness of our experience here in the Cameroon.
- Allan & Lydia
October 30, 2011
PS. We have been able to upload three videos to U Tube. Search U Tube:
Menchum Waterfall
One School One Soccer Ball
One School One Soccer Ball Part 11.
Download Real Player .The movies were made using Windows Live Movie Maker

World Polio Day Wum Cameroon

Update from the Cameroon, Africa Prepared for World Polio Day

The following pictures tell the story of how Polio immunization is reaching a remote population in the North Eastern Region of the Cameroon. The office is located in the community of Wum (pronounced womb).

Note the Integrated Development Foundation (IDF) Motor Bike used for transport.

The sketch of the Wum area does not convey the remoteness of this area! 2

They display all posters and keep them forever!

Note that each baby is to be immunized for Polio at 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks and 9 months.

In meeting with the District Health Officer, his concerns appeared to be for malaria because he felt that Polio is covered. I would say the problem is that there are people who the immunization program does not reach due to the extreme remoteness of their location or if parents are negligent or if children are orphaned. In Trinidad/Tobago in order for a child to register for school, the child must have an up to date immunization record.

In the Wum area alone, IDF coordinates responsibility for 450 orphans through their Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) program. A network of psycho-social counsellors tries to visit each orphan for initial assessment and up to three times a week to be sure they are attending school and getting along.

Educational Support, Nutritional Support, Vocational Training, Medical Support and Home Visits/Counselling are their aims.

They identify OVC children by going around from door to door/school sensitization and also by identifying the designated care taker (i.e. kind of like a foster parent) for easy follow up.

A revealing statistic Allan is just now reading in an IDF report is that over 7000 orphans and vulnerable children have been identified in the Menchum district (near Wum) but only 490 are under care. The concern is what is happening to the other 6510. Are they being immunized for example?

In support of World Polio Day, the needs are great. Keep the program moving forward doing all that is possible.

When we were planning to come to the Cameroon, I feared for my emotions to be overwhelmed by the HIV/AIDS women whom we are working with. I found this experience to be SO positive. They are 3

getting Anti retroviral drugs. They are upbeat, accepting of their status and moving ahead with their microcredit loans to work their businesses. I have to tell you that it was the visit to the school that brought me to my knees. That will be another episode. 4

Notice on door as you enter the Ministry of Health Office

Doctor who heads the District Health Office for the Wum district with Ossumatou , our host client and Director of IDF (she is also an early 1980s graduate of University of Montreal) with IDF staff member from Wum in background.

God Bless and support Rotary in the World Polio campaign

Lydia & Allan Sorflaten 5

Picture taken on arrival in Douala.

Ebob, Cameroon Canadian Executive Services Organization (CESO), Allan and Lydia Sorflaten, CESO Volunteers and Oussematou, Director of Integrated Development Foundation(IDF