611 Days
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 04/Jul/2011 04:00, 34 days ago
It has been 611 days since I left Canada for Cameroon and although I didn’t stay two years like I had initially thought I would, I have definitely had a lifetime of experiences. A lot of things can happen over the course of 611 days here are a few of the highlights:Top Lesson Learned:Development from the grassroots is often talked about, but I got the chance to experience it and to see it in action. My experience with IDF showed me that development work has real and measurable impacts when it is the local organization or population who tells the development worker what they need and the worker simply acts as a facilitator to empower that organization or population to meeting their own needs. This sounds simple but it is extremely difficult for two reasons: first, it is difficult as the development worker to admit that you don’t necessarily know best even though you’ve been brought in because of your expertise, second, it is difficult to convince the local population that the “white way” isn’t necessarily the “right way”.   Working with IDF was an honor and a privilegeTop Difficulty Faced:Corruption is part of everyday life here, from giving a motivation at the post office to be able to pick up a parcel, to paying government officials to attend meetings and events that they should be attending anyways. Every day it seemed I heard a new story about corruption, the tennis guys complained about the corruption of the Cameroon National Tennis team which required players to buy their way onto the team, IDF told me stories about Requests for Proposals from the government where the applicants were expected to bribe the officials to get the bid, and VSO volunteers even expressed concerns over the financial management practices in their partner organisations. I now struggled with the fact that I no longer find myself surprised by these stories because I had come to accept corruption as a part of life here. It is an ethical dilemma to be in a situation where you can help someone in need but in order to do so you need to grease an officials hand to get the necessary approvals– do you take a stand against corruption which results in the marginalised suffering longer? Or do you turn a blind eye in order to help someone in need? Top achievement:IDF has a website and is fully capable thanks to its IT technician, Herve, of keeping it up to date. Already small successes have been seen thanks to more visibility locally, nationally and abroad. I feel very proud that not only did I help IDF implement a website which they had struggled to do for so long, but that the end product of the website doesn’t cost IDF anything, has been understood and mastered by IDF staff, and has received positive feedback from people from all over the world. Having a website has also encouraged IDF to improve their documentation and capitalisation of experiences which has really ensured that IDF’s history, experience and successes is well captured and can be communicated easily to future staff and the interested public. The IT technician has worked extremely hard at mastering the site and should even be able to help other organisations with setting up websites. It is a true example of IDF mastering something through capacity building with a volunteer and then eventually being able to capacity build with other organisations itself.IDF Webmaster!Top three unforgettable people:1. The Spiras– There are two people here but I am counting them as one. After overhearing Caroline and Greg in the Paris airport say they were heading to Cameroon to be VSO volunteers, I latched myself to their side and didn’t let go. We all experienced the challenges of the Far North together such as unsuccessful placements, running out of gas and extreme heat. Despite the challenges however we did manage to make some great memories such as bonding over the Big Bang Theory and Burn Notice, making it up Mount Cameroon, discovering the tasty wonderfulness of plantain and corn soup, and of course celebrating Christmas together with a plantain Christmas tree in 2009 and 125 orphans in 2010.The Three VSO Muskateers!2. Oussematou Dameni Therese– As theIDFcoordinator, I worked closely with Oussematou over my time at the Integrated Development Foundation. She is quite an inspiration, having studied in Canada she has a very North American work ethic, unlike many other people I’ve met in Cameroon. She is generally on time, a hard worker, forward looking and realistic. She is 110% dedicated to improving the lives of the marginalised and to empowering people all over Cameroon to take ownership of their lives and to bring development to their country. Her commitment to IDF’s work and mission and the resulting success stories I witnessed and heard about her work reinforced my desire to pursue development work.  The IDF Coordinator - Oussematou Dameni Therese3. Paulinus Nyongo Ncham– A tennis coach at theAyaba Tennis Clubwho is perhaps one of the most caring and generous people I have ever met. Not only did he help me perfect my tennis skills but he was also always willing to help me organize the orphanage donations in addition to helping me out with anything else such as picking up things at the market for me so I didn’t have to pay the “white price”, and helping me to set up an outdoor light for security. I helped him develop a website to market himself and his tennis abilities and it looks like he may be travelling to the UK to work for a tennis academy there. You can visit his websitewww.paulinustenniscoach.wordpress.comMe and Paulinus Tennis Coach Extraordinaire!611 days... other ways I could have classified this time could be 2995 games of FreeCell played (with a 98% win percentage), 2015 kg of food delivered to the Good Shepherd Orphanage, 1195 items classified in the IDF information management system, over 400 hours of tennis played, hundreds of marriage proposals received (and declined), 92 books read, 27 television series watched, a dozen courses of antibiotics taken, 7 permanent calluses caused from my tennis racquets, 5 bottles of sunscreen applied, 4 websites created, 3 mountains conquered, 2 second place titles won in the Ayaba Tennis Club competitions or...One amazing experience that not only helped me figure out who I am and what I want to do but also that showed me what I am capable of and permitted me to make a difference.