Author: Team Communicatie

Two weeks ago, our LiveBuild volunteer Eva told you about her live in Cameroon (and how she got water for example) in this blog. Today she’ll tell you about the rest of her week.

Wednesday, January 24

The day starts, as usually, early. At 8 am we get up and I make some bread with fried eggs for breakfast. There is still no running water so that means we have to fill the water bottles and carry them home every day; luckily it’s close by. Besides that the morning is quiet. Normally I would go to the LiveBuild office in Utrecht on Wednesday. I try to maintain that rhythm. So at 10 am I set off to Eyole’s office, one of our partners who has the Centre for Environment and Development in Buea. I write for this blog post and update my administration. A quiet day. At least if you don’t count the racket from the road next to the office. I work til 4 pm and go home to change.

Delicious food and stunning views

I’m meeting some friends at IYA at 6 pm to eat something. ‘IYA’ means ‘mother’. The restaurant is located at a great location with views of the beautiful gardens and Mount Cameroon. The restaurant is cosy, warm and, as one of the only places in Buea, well decorated. Everywhere you look you see art that’s made in Cameroon. The employees are friendly, something that’s not always a standard in restaurants.

We order two avocado salads  and one tonga roll, chicken filled with shrimp and spices in tomato sauce served with rice. The cocktails here are delicious so I order a Mojito. We toast to live, while we watch the sunset and the changing colours of the sky behind Mount Cameroon.

I’ll definitely come back to this lovely place that really feels like coming home to your mother. So if you’re ever in Buea, Cameroon this is a must

Friday, January 26

Tonight we’re going out. We meet at 22.00 at Twist. This is a restaurant/club on the fourth floor in the centre of Buea with a fantastic view. During the day it’s a little more quiet and if you’re lucky you have an amazing view of the surrounding area and you may even see the sea nearby Limbe and Tiko. While you’re enjoying this view you can see the life in Buea pass by: the yellow taxis which are always honking  to pick up new customers. They drive to the busy parts of the city: Malingo, Classquaters, Buea town or Mile 17. in the background you can hear music from Cameroon and Nigeria. Mr Leo from Buea with his new hit Partou or one of Davido’s hits. I think it’s enjoyable, joyous music.

At night the music volume in the club gets turned up, Water pipes appear and the youth come here to meet and drink a cocktail (slippery nipple or sex on the beach). We share a cocktail that is pretty strong and talk about various topics: The protests, life at university and music.

Nightlife fashion

Around 1 am we go to club Ebony. It’s normal here to reserve a table beforehand with a bottle of alcohol. Every group sits and dances around their own table instead of on a dance floor. Such a shame cause they’ve got some moves here!

In case you think there is no fashion style in Cameroon: You’re wrong. Especially young people in Buea know how to dress and sometimes it’s a competition for who does it best. Especially girls go all out. From tight dresses that expertly show their figure to high heels, jewelry and a different hairstyle every week.

The man are no stranger to some vanity as well. When you walk in club Ebony you come across a huge mirror where everyone stands in front of taking selfies. All kinds of poses pass by. Those photos are subsequently shared on facebook.

 The whiteman (that’s what you’re called as a white person) is often laughed at because of his style. You see a lot of tourists passing by in big safari trousers, wide beige or brown shirts and dirty shoes, or even worse: hiking shoes. Fine for a hike of course but not for a club. I wear a dress but without heels so i can dance a lot. At 4 am we call it a day. It was an amazing night!

 

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Hi, I’m Eva and I’ve been working for LiveBuild for a year now. I monitor and evaluated the Kasema project that consists of 5 villages: Kake II, Small Ekombe, Diffa, en Marumba I and II. Three of those villages already have clean (drinking) water. Only both Marumba’s don’t have it.

At the moment I’m staying in Cameroon for 2,5 months. I went to Cameroon in 2014 and fell in love in and with the country. I have a son with my Cameroonian boyfriend. My boyfriend still live here but he has visited me two times. This is the third time I went to Cameroon with my son. This coming period I will write short blog posts about our experiences in Cameroon and about my activities for LiveBuild. I’ll start with a sneak peek into our ‘normal’ live here.

Monday, January 22

Getting water

It’s 7.30 am and my son is awake. My day often starts when he wakes up, although i have to say sometimes that can be really early. He wakes up from the crowing roosters, one of the many bikes speeding past or sometimes from the garbage truck which rides around lound honking the horn to pick up the garbage. a great initiative ofcours but is it really necessary to do it so loundly this early in the morning? Apparently that’s normal here, since most people are already awake anyway. They start their day when the sun is that hot yet. This way they can, for example, work the land they use to grow food.

The day starts early for us as well. I get up and make breakfast for us: most of the time that’s baguette with an egg and yoghurt with oatmeal for my son. When we’re done it’s time for a bath but that is a challenge today. We don’t have any running water since last week. I live in an apartment where 8 other families live. We live on the third floor and the building is connected to a private borehole.

Normally you just open the tap and water runs out. At first glance this is clean water but appearances can be deceiving. This water comes directly from the ground so is not filtered or treated. If you let the water sit for a while you can see all kinds of particles sinking to the bottom of the glass. This is mostly sand but god knows what else is in there. The water is full of bacteria so you really can’t drink it. I was even warned to not brush my teeth with it. Anyways, as mentioned before, since last week we don’t have running water anymore. Because it is dry season, the water source is empty. The whole neighbourhood suffers from this and it also means we have to get our water from a water tap a little further out. We set off in our pyjamas with around 10 bottles which can carry a 100 litres together. I carry my son on my bag and take back two full bottles. After all this work we can finally wash ourselves.

‘Banananaaa’

Meanwhile it’s already 10 am and my boyfriend leaves for work. Together with my son I visit a street with all kinds of little shops that sell food. This is our supermarket. I buy eggs, milk powder, since real milk is scarce here, flour and sugar. You might have guessed it alrady: I’m baking pancakes for lunch. Yum! Most of the time we have some fruit as a snack. That’s so much nicer here. My son loves the little, sweet bananas and shouts ‘Banananaaa’ all day long. Just like a minion. It’s too bad i don’t have an oven here otherwise i certainly would have baked banana bread.

After an early lunch I take my son to bed. He is almost two so luckily he still takes a nap in the afternoon. I mostly use this time to do something for myself, like writing the beginning of this blog post, checking my email if the internet works or sometimes just watching some television. I can watch the newest films and shows here. I watch the new movie; the mountain between us and when my son wakes up I prepare us to go outside. We visit my boyfriend at work around 3 pm and I also run into some friends there with whom I catch up. Everyone here loves children and so keeps an eye out for my outgoing child.

The end of the day

Around 5 pm I go to a little restaurant where I order jollof rice with chicken for us Most of the time I eat extremely early for Cameroonian standards. My son often gets hungry around that time and is already asleep by the time the people eat hear, around 8 or 9 pm. Today I buy our food, that’s around 2,30 for one meal. That is enough for both of us. It saves me a lot of time in the kitchen even though I cook quite often and make spaghetti with homemade sauce, peanut soup with rice, hotpot, that means cooked potatoes in tomato sauce, kip dg, fried chicken and fried bananas in tomato sauce and vegetables (my favourite!). I can’t really make the more traditional dishes like kati kati, okobong, ndole, eru or ekwang yet. I’ll leave that to the experts while I watch.

We’re home at 7.30 pm and we watch some TV and play a bit. After that it’s time for a bath, or maybe better put; it’s time for a bucket. I wash my son in a bucket. He can still sit in it and loves it. I heat the water a little so it isn’t too cold for him. I think I’ve used about 30 litres of water all day. Believe me, if running water isn’t readily available you’ll be much more efficient in using it. You don’t take it for granted anymore. That is one of the reasons I love working for LiveBuild; contributing to the access to clean (drinking) water.

After my son’s bath it’s time for a bedtime story and bed. He mostly goes to sleep around 8 pm. That is the same time my boyfriend comes back from work. Therefore I sometimes wait for him to come back before putting my son to bed so he at least still sees him awake. When the little one is asleep we go and sit on the bench on our balcony and speak about our days with a beer. Yes, that is possible here on a monday. There are no rules for that! Such a good way to end our day.

Two months ago we were able to tell you that there is running water in Diffa, but what does the local community actually think of it? Eva is in Cameroon at the moment and she spoke to a few citizens about their watertaps.

Emilia and Eyole told us that the community wasn’t all that enthusiastic in the beginning and that they had to get used to the taps, but this has changed. A large part of the community uses the taps now instead of the water pumps.

Jacob Namatha (65 years old), also called Big Day, said: ‘ I am happy for the people of Livebuild. Now we have three sources of water. The stream, the borehole and the standtaps. We are free from diseases.’

Novel Namatha (14), daughter of Jacob, added: ´We use water to drink, cook food, bath and wash our dresses. I am happy we have standtaps now, it is easier to use.’

These kids had to walk several kilometres to get water from further located streams, but that’s history now: they’ve got a tap right in front of their school.

With help from the WASH program the community learns about the quality difference between the water from the pumps and the water from the taps. Additionally, because of constant training they are also made aware of the proper use of clean water. Furthermore, they are trained and prepped to eventually be responsible for the water system themselves. Overall, Diffa is facing an exciting time but our local team members will assist and support the village where necessary.