Title: Beneath the Mosquito Net (
Cameroon)
Status: Active
URL:
http://beneaththemosquitonet.wordpress.com/
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a dog story - 15/Feb/2012 20:56 - 4677 days ago
After you’ve been “home” for a few months and have told the same story countless times, you start to wonder if you might h...
a dog story - 15/Feb/2012 20:56 - 4677 days ago
After you’ve been “home” for a few months and have told the same story countless times, you start to wonder if you might h...
reintegration: the firsts and the nexts - 24/Dec/2011 21:13 - 4730 days ago
The excitement of “coming home” has only worn off by a few degrees as, now two full month in, we are still having firsts. ...
reintegration: the firsts and the nexts - 24/Dec/2011 21:13 - 4730 days ago
The excitement of “coming home” has only worn off by a few degrees as, now two full month in, we are still having firsts. ...
without a mossie net - 25/Oct/2011 21:01 - 4790 days ago
It’s been two weeks since we left Cameroon – 14 days since we zipped the bags, mentally stored our memories and headed for t...
without a mossie net - 25/Oct/2011 21:01 - 4790 days ago
It’s been two weeks since we left Cameroon – 14 days since we zipped the bags, mentally stored our memories and headed for t...
picturing local economic development opportunities - 05/Oct/2011 14:24 - 4810 days ago
A couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough (alongside fellow-volunteer, Cornelia) to be able to facilitate a short photovoice projec...
picturing local economic development opportunities - 05/Oct/2011 14:24 - 4810 days ago
A couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough (alongside fellow-volunteer, Cornelia) to be able to facilitate a short photovoice projec...
exploring livelihoods issues through photovoice - 03/Oct/2011 16:55 - 4812 days ago
Last month, four of us volunteers (Aysha, Rosy, Greg and Caroline) facilitated a two-part photovoice project with MUSAB as part ...
exploring livelihoods issues through photovoice - 03/Oct/2011 16:55 - 4812 days ago
Last month, four of us volunteers (Aysha, Rosy, Greg and Caroline) facilitated a two-part photovoice project with MUSAB as part ...
quilters without borders - 25/Sep/2011 19:13 - 4820 days ago
It’s quite a bit of fun when you can call your hobby “work” – at least for a little while. And all the more wonderful ...
quilters without borders - 25/Sep/2011 19:13 - 4820 days ago
It’s quite a bit of fun when you can call your hobby “work” – at least for a little while. And all the more wonderful ...
closing out the coaching training at IDF - 22/Sep/2011 20:54 - 4823 days ago
For weeks I have been both looking forward to and dreading this last day of coaching training with IDF in Bamenda. This was the ...
closing out the coaching training at IDF - 22/Sep/2011 20:54 - 4823 days ago
For weeks I have been both looking forward to and dreading this last day of coaching training with IDF in Bamenda. This was the ...
oh! for the love of mold! - 13/Sep/2011 22:07 - 4832 days ago
Just last week, Greg put the following status update on facebook: “My shirt smells like manioc. My pants smell like mold. Toda...
oh! for the love of mold! - 13/Sep/2011 22:07 - 4832 days ago
Just last week, Greg put the following status update on facebook: “My shirt smells like manioc. My pants smell like mold. Toda...
trapping tourists in Oku - 29/Aug/2011 12:54 - 4847 days ago
“That’s extortion!” Kay said. And she was right… but if you want to see anything in Cameroon, you kind of have to let ...
trapping tourists in Oku - 29/Aug/2011 12:54 - 4847 days ago
“That’s extortion!” Kay said. And she was right… but if you want to see anything in Cameroon, you kind of have to let ...
the last fifty - 23/Aug/2011 21:29 - 4853 days ago
We will be boarding a plane in exactly 50 days. There have been ups and downs in this experience, so it is a fair question for...
the last fifty - 23/Aug/2011 21:29 - 4853 days ago
We will be boarding a plane in exactly 50 days. There have been ups and downs in this experience, so it is a fair question for...
tales from the northwest - 08/Aug/2011 21:12 - 4868 days ago
Might as well be the wild west the way things are going. OK that’s an outright and blatant exaggeration. The work we have be...
midnight over africa - 11/Jul/2011 20:11 - 4896 days ago
It’s been nearly two weeks since we returned from Uganda and our vacation/work with Villages Connected (more on that coming up...
our week in pictures - 12/Jun/2011 18:22 - 4925 days ago
*Note: “Beneath the Mosquito Net” is temporarily reporting from Fort Portal, Uganda as volunteer trainers and film crew fo...
landed, launched and linked up - 08/Jun/2011 11:18 - 4929 days ago
*Note: “Beneath the Mosquito Net” is temporarily reporting from Fort Portal, Uganda as volunteer trainers and film crew fo...
Photovoice’s new faces in Cameroon - 04/Jun/2011 15:12 - 4933 days ago
Many of you have heard me droning on over the years about photovoice. If you’ve ever listened to me blab on about the method...
coaching with IDF - 30/May/2011 06:30 - 4938 days ago
It’s now end of Day 3 and I am exhausted. It’s the good kind of exhaustion – the one that comes from having put a lot of...
batanga en fête - 16/May/2011 10:13 - 4952 days ago
Last week when I went to Kribi to visit the model forests, we arrived to a town in full festive swing. The main roads were blo...
the forest from the trees - 11/May/2011 21:22 - 4957 days ago
I was humming along to my ipod on the bus trip back to Yaoundé this afternoon to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” … Th...
off to Uganda with Villages Connected - 08/May/2011 12:01 - 4960 days ago
We’re a little over a year and a half in – we’re swamped with work and it’s getting harder and harder to get out of bed ...
the kids of Good Shepherd Home - 02/May/2011 19:02 - 4966 days ago
On Easter Saturday, we were pleased to once again help deliver food supplies to the Good Shepherd Home in Abangoh (Bamenda) as w...
yet another fascinating learning experience - 30/Apr/2011 15:49 - 4968 days ago
Last week we attended the start-up workshop for the African Model Forest Network – VSO partnership. We treaded water with 55...
communal chow-down - 21/Apr/2011 22:39 - 4977 days ago
There is a nice ritual at my new office that my co-workers like to call “la messe” (translation: the mass). No it’s not ...
my third first day - 06/Apr/2011 18:18 - 4992 days ago
This is one of the times when having promised to write “my truth” in this blog causes me a lot of heartburn. I have to som...
better well pressed than on time - 26/Mar/2011 09:22 - 5003 days ago
**this is a re-print from a post on the resilient expat blog** Three Saturdays ago was a hot, humid and gloriously sunny day. ...
Spotting WOWs! in Nigeria - 16/Mar/2011 14:17 - 5013 days ago
Last week I was in Abuja, Nigeria, for a VSO regional conference on Gender and Capacity Building. My first thoughts on steppin...
equal rights and equal opportunities - 11/Mar/2011 01:22 - 5018 days ago
In honor of my second International Women’s Day in Cameroon, I donned my leprechaun-like 8th of March pagne dress and headed...
tortured by facilitators - 08/Mar/2011 22:43 - 5021 days ago
Two weeks ago I apparently decided a good dose of torture was in order. No, I wasn’t dragged over red-hot coals, stretched o...
Revolution tonight? Sorry, Daddy says I can’t. - 20/Feb/2011 14:48 - 5037 days ago
Some of our friends and family “back home” have been asking us whether we’re seeing any knock-on from the recent revolutio...
compass quilt pointing to new directions - 07/Feb/2011 11:23 - 5050 days ago
I know it has nothing to do with volunteering in Africa, but if I hadn’t, I never would have had the courage or gumption to tr...
sexual harassment by any other name - 31/Jan/2011 08:17 - 5057 days ago
Walking home the other night, we stopped at the corner stand to pick up some fruit our friend Léonie had saved for us (a large ...
on fait avec - 19/Jan/2011 13:28 - 5069 days ago
My favourite sayings in Cameroon are: - On est ensemble – translation: we are together. Usually said when partin...
the Ring Road diary - 07/Jan/2011 16:27 - 5081 days ago
Over the holidays, our friends Mirjam and Hanno and Greg and I headed out on a road trip through the Northwest region in their 1...
a christmas wish - 03/Jan/2011 16:09 - 5085 days ago
We didn’t ask for anything this Christmas. No presents for ourselves. No quilting supplies. No camera equipment. No extr...
a photographer’s lament - 19/Dec/2010 14:49 - 5100 days ago
Let me be blunt. Taking pictures in Cameroon can be a major pain in the ass. A little over a week ago you saw some of my photo...
the tail of the uninvited visitor - 17/Dec/2010 14:12 - 5102 days ago
Greg, Dario – VSO Cameroon’s Country Director – and I were chatting about the latest photovoice project with MDDHL and...
I take thee… - 14/Dec/2010 16:17 - 5105 days ago
Ahhhh wedded bliss! Not our own, but that of one of our work colleagues, Kelvin, who got married last Saturday. We attended ...
talking photos–defending human rights using photovoice - 09/Dec/2010 15:37 - 5110 days ago
December 10th is International Human Rights Day! To mark this important date, the second and third Photovoice projects are now o...
Stepping on toes at the 543rd Ngoun Festival - 07/Dec/2010 16:56 - 5112 days ago
The crowd cascaded erratically around us – thousands of partygoers stumbled around like marionettes guided by a drunken puppet...
quilting from scraps - 02/Dec/2010 14:06 - 5117 days ago
The last few weeks have been pretty intense work-wise – so a heavy dose of “anti-stress quilting” was required. Ther...
neighbourhood watch - 12/Nov/2010 10:23 - 5137 days ago
Sometimes we think that because we live in a big city, we can go about our business unnoticed. Be anonymous. Fat chance on o...
the women of MUSAB - 04/Nov/2010 15:06 - 5145 days ago
From Commercial Avenue in Bamenda, one can just barely see the dome of a new mosque being slowly erected at the top of the hill ...
one year - 02/Nov/2010 08:08 - 5147 days ago
We celebrated our one year anniversary in Cameroon on All Hallows Eve. One year down. One more to go. Wondering what kinds...
opening minds on HIV - 25/Oct/2010 19:26 - 5155 days ago
Last Friday and Saturday, in the gaudy “VIP Lounge” of a Bamenda’s Penn Pan Pacific Palace hotel*,we gathered with our col...
fungus among us - 18/Oct/2010 10:16 - 5162 days ago
We’ve done it! After all these years of looking for evidence of lunacy and the idiosyncrasies of human and community develop...
messing up the count - 15/Oct/2010 09:10 - 5165 days ago
Wednesday should have been an exciting day. A few “outsiders” had been invited to visit a Cameroonian organization’s pro...
for the love of chocolate - 08/Oct/2010 08:11 - 5172 days ago
chocolate c.1600, from Nahuatl xocolatl, from xococ “bitter” + atl “water.” Brought to Spain by 1520, fr...
no really…how’s the weather? - 30/Sep/2010 20:49 - 5180 days ago
We received a really cool e-mail last week. My mom sent an encoded and cryptic message asking whether it would be easier to so...
visualizing vacation - 27/Sep/2010 13:39 - 5183 days ago
Our vacation to Kenya and Zanzibar seems long long ago. It’s been a little over a month and a half since we returned to Ca...
230 hours - 23/Sep/2010 07:58 - 5187 days ago
230 hours 13,800 minutes 827,220 seconds Take your pick, but that is roughly the amount of time we were without water at our hou...
tracking gorillas by GPS - 21/Sep/2010 13:54 - 5189 days ago
Excuse me Mr. Police Officer … Do you know where the village of M’Fou is? Rutted and ruptured dirt roads. Tiny villages teem...
How we met the Electrical Meter Owner Man - 01/Sep/2010 16:18 - 5209 days ago
BANG BANG BANG It’s 8:30pm on Monday night. Greg and I were sitting in the living room, watching yet another episode of “H...
news flash: relocated and somewhat resettled - 26/Aug/2010 11:00 - 5215 days ago
When Greg and I started taking about volunteering overseas I was somewhat unwilling to give up certain creature comforts … so ...
no dishes tonight, dear - 11/Aug/2010 14:49 - 5230 days ago
You think you have heard all before, right? But, you surely haven’t heard this one: I don’t do dishes after dark because it...
working up to Plan Z: our return to Cameroon - 05/Aug/2010 14:36 - 5236 days ago
Some stories are best told starting from the end. Like how we got “home” from our vacation. Hold on, did you know we’d...
dressing the part - 25/Jul/2010 10:06 - 5247 days ago
Call it “going local” or call it what you please, but there are certain thing about dressing Cameroonian that can be quite a...
Random Far North - 11/Jul/2010 10:00 - 5261 days ago
We have been asked many times to supply photos from Cameroon’s Far North. Truth be told, when “up there” we hardly explo...
Workshops on a rainy beach… - 04/Jul/2010 09:12 - 5268 days ago
It’s raining. It’s pouring. But nobody is snoring! Last week Caroline and I sat around at a nice resort near the beach … D...
Anything goes on Canada Day in Cameroon - 02/Jul/2010 20:24 - 5270 days ago
Businessmen and NGO directors formally clad in suiting. Ambassadors and wives begowned and bejeweled. Police wielding automa...
this is anywhere–TIA - 24/Jun/2010 20:17 - 5278 days ago
This week, we lost a friend in a bush plane that crashed in the remote jungle along the Congolese-Cameroonian border. We will ...
in my dreams - 11/Jun/2010 11:38 - 5291 days ago
Greg is away this week – travelling South on VSO business – leaving me to “hold the fort” in the Far North. I don’t ...
36 things we can only do in Cameroon - 09/Jun/2010 09:55 - 5293 days ago
1 – Being required to pay for drinks for everyone when its your birthday 2 – Using scary ladders made out of tree br...
sharing coaching - 18/May/2010 18:18 - 5315 days ago
As if to celebrate the completion of just over 6 months in Cameroon, I had a great opportunity to be “Coach Caroline” once m...
Fighting HIV/AIDS without global funding? - 15/May/2010 20:03 - 5318 days ago
I recently shared a York Times article – “At Front Lines, AIDS War is Falling Apart” – describing how aid destined t...
daily dose of chuckles - 29/Apr/2010 22:16 - 5334 days ago
There is nothing better (in moderation) than to go to the bakery at 6:45am to get freshly baked, right out of the oven, baguette...
save me your daughter–in chaa Allaah - 18/Apr/2010 22:03 - 5345 days ago
Emerging into the shadows off our front stoop, we were suddenly faced with a smiling apparition – a teenaged wandering tea sel...
But baby it’s hot outside: conversations with my sweat glands - 15/Apr/2010 11:41 - 5348 days ago
Me: My dearest sweat glands, I’d like to report a malfunction. Erosion is destroying the covering over my flesh and bones &#...
Sex: a taboo subject during job interviews? - 12/Apr/2010 16:53 - 5351 days ago
If you ever wondered if being interviewed for a job in a foreign country would be different, then wonder no more. It’s the s...
an exciting life - 02/Apr/2010 13:00 - 5361 days ago
Here is an excerpt of a typical e-mail I receive from friends these days:
“Sounds like your life is really exciting in Cameroo...
the cost of living…in the dust - 24/Mar/2010 14:40 - 5370 days ago
Last Thursday, a massive dust storm rolled down off the Sahara and covered the region in a blanket of pore-penetrating grime. ...
the faces of HIV - 19/Mar/2010 17:00 - 5375 days ago
This was a most unusual week at the RESAEC office. There was nothing typical or ordinary.
On Wednesday morning, a 30 year old ...
photos qui parlent–photos that speak - 16/Mar/2010 13:31 - 5378 days ago
The first Photovoice project is complete and the photographs are now online!
The photos qui parlent project (“photos that s...
travel vignettes - 13/Mar/2010 05:20 - 5381 days ago
While climbing Mount Cameroon was decidedly the highlight of our latest trip south – Greg’s 3rd, Caroline’s 1st since ...
ecstasy and back to agony–Mt. Cameroon part 2 - 11/Mar/2010 19:29 - 5383 days ago
What goes up must come down.
While I would classify the climb up to the summit of Mount Cameroon as “Caroline pace”, the des...
agony and ecstasy–Mt. Cameroon part 1 - 11/Mar/2010 19:15 - 5383 days ago
Hiking is fun. Hiking is fun. Hiking is fun.
This mantra played in my head as I harrumphed my way up the steep, rocky and ra...
a quilter’s tale - 24/Feb/2010 13:04 - 5398 days ago
We don’t have a tv. The movie theatre (not that they had anything playing) is now refurbished into something else. There a...
hot off the presses–first assignment - 22/Feb/2010 20:44 - 5400 days ago
Dear Assignment Editors:
Please do not fire us.
Perhaps we’re a little behind schedule, but our first monthly sponsored as...
a matter of personal importance - 18/Feb/2010 19:58 - 5404 days ago
I’m a nobody. Not important. A mere mortal. I got a serious reminder of this ego-bursting fact today.
It was supposed to...
cooking youth in a solar oven - 14/Feb/2010 14:16 - 5408 days ago
Thursday was youth day in Maroua, indeed in all of Cameroon. A national holiday, this day celebrates the country’s vigour, vib...
how’s work going? - 07/Feb/2010 13:40 - 5415 days ago
If you think I have been holding out on what I do at work – you’re correct. I’d promised myself that I would spend the f...
me cook? not today. - 01/Feb/2010 12:17 - 5421 days ago
It was a good plan, really. Should have worked like a charm.
When Greg and I set out our fundraising for CUSO-VSO, we promised...
one woman’s story–LIVING with HIV&AIDS - 31/Jan/2010 16:30 - 5422 days ago
About 12 years ago the husband of a woman – let’s call her Mary – who was from a village near Bamenda got sick and die...
packing a bag–tools to help organizations learn - 29/Jan/2010 01:00 - 5424 days ago
Remember those bags that flew through the air on the road not taken? While I had plenty of clothes, the plan was to pack anoth...
the road not taken - 25/Jan/2010 21:32 - 5428 days ago
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as ...
Barack Obama mania - 20/Jan/2010 17:51 - 5433 days ago
It’s been a year today since inauguration. And this is Africa. How much of a connection do the Cameroonians have with U.S....
from Waza with love - 12/Jan/2010 19:45 - 5441 days ago
In contrast to the previous post, our Christmas present to ourselves were animals – live ones! Wild and protected.
On Boxing...
from abattoir to appetizing - 10/Jan/2010 20:01 - 5443 days ago
Where does meat come from? – ask a Canadian youngster and you might hear “from the supermarket, duhh!”
Buying meat in Cana...
in case of fire, dial 118 - 04/Jan/2010 19:51 - 5449 days ago
FIRE! FIRE!
Voices are getting louder. The street buzzes with excitement.
FIRE! FIRE!
Sparks, flames, smoke. The second floor ...
christmas in cameroon - 25/Dec/2009 16:57 - 5459 days ago
“Tell me, all of Cameroon wants to know …” a radio station reporter with recorder in hand ask, “how are your Christmas...
scared shitless–the dump that saved my life - 22/Dec/2009 10:57 - 5462 days ago
* warning: although we promised our families we’d always be clean and classy in our blog posts, this post is an exception*
Ha...
the women of APAD - 15/Dec/2009 16:55 - 5469 days ago
Saturday morning, my friend Catherine and I got dressed in our finest local garb and headed out to meet some of the women of APA...
oh crap on two wheels - 09/Dec/2009 14:12 - 5475 days ago
It was bound to happen. I have to learn to ride a motorcycle for my job. Two wheels and a roaring motor down wide streets alon...
a pat on the back for volunteers - 06/Dec/2009 16:31 - 5478 days ago
December 5th. Mark it in your calendar from now on. This is the International Volunteering Day.
OK, so every day is the inte...
doctor–patient confidentiality in three acts - 02/Dec/2009 18:01 - 5482 days ago
This week I have seen too many doctors. Amoebas for one friend, malaria for me. While I would rather not have gone at all, t...
one day: ending violence against women - 01/Dec/2009 20:12 - 5483 days ago
Last Thursday I represented my local partner at a special event marking “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Aga...
twas the night before Tabaski… - 27/Nov/2009 21:16 - 5487 days ago
T’was the night before Tabaski and all the through the house, not a creature was stirring… except for a sheep!
Last night we...
getting to know Maroua - 24/Nov/2009 06:12 - 5490 days ago
A couple weeks in, we are learning to get around Maroua, see how things work and where to get the best food, household goods and...
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