See you later Bamenda!

I can’t believe I am leaving Bamenda tomorrow morning. Excited to travel a bit here and see a different part of the country but it has been an emotional week of getting ready to leave.

Our last 3 days at SAJOCAH were amazing. Despite all the initial frustrations with adapting the wheelchair the experience and what I learnt at SAJOCAH has been priceless and so great. I think I am still processing my time there and can’t fully put into words what the SAJOCAH experience has taught me but overall I think it has been a balance of personal and professional growth and really I can’t ask for much more from a placement experience and the Cameroon experience has really been so much more than a placement!

On our final day at placement we walked into the devotion hall where everyone meets in the morning to a round of applause. Part of this applause was saying goodbye to us and wishing us a safe journey home, but a big part of that applause was for our friends and family at home. Part of the donations for SAJOCAH that you so graciously sent here with us ended up purchasing a 3000 litre water reserve tank for them. You, and I don’t think even I will ever fully know how much that means to them. Sr. Judith spoke that morning about how when they asked all of the people currently at SAJOCAH which is more important to them – light or water – the unanimous answer was they would sit in the dark if only there was consistent water. Well up until Wednesday there was not consistent water. Whenever the power goes out, and sometimes even when it isn’t, the water stops. This means no drinking water, no cooking water, no cleaning water. It’s hard to imagine a health care facility at home without water. We experienced this for a few days at SAJOCAH and when there is no water the children with visual impairments that board at SAJOCAH along with the caregivers of the clients/patients there have to trek for a bit down the bumpy, rocky, dirt road to get water and then carry it back. We never saw the exact location of where they get the water but Sr. Petra says it is not safe and she is always worried about people and the children that go down being injured. Now with the 3000 litre water reserve tank they won’t have to do this anymore. Now rain water will collect (up to 3000 litres of it) which will happen often now that rainy season has begun and they will have water – always! SO THANK YOU! And thank you for allowing me to be the courier of such a great gift to the friends and family I have made here in Cameroon.  Let me tell you the tears started as soon as we walked in the door to hear them clapping. They also sang a thank you version of “If you’re happy and you know it” which we of course joined in with since we have so much to thank them for! Afterwards everyone walked to the on-property site of where the reserve tank was that Promise the engineer had spent all holiday Monday and Tuesday building a proper stand for it and positioning it securely. With all his hard work Promise presented the tank to Sara and I (to you!) and then we presented it to SAJOCAH! And the tears were of course still flowing – such an overwhelming experience of emotions and it was not even 9am yet. The remainder of the donations for SAJOCAH will be going towards supplies and resources needed for Sam and Promise to continue wheelchair adaptations that are so needed here. So for the remainder of the day we continued some work with the clients, ate a wonderful lunch with Sylvain, Karlien and Promise, gave a workshop on safe positioning and handling techniques for the mothers of the children there, met with Sr. Petra for a feedback session, to talk about our overall SAJOCAH experience and pass off our treatment plans so parts of them can hopefully be continued, and then said our goodbyes. All were perfect endings to a great day. But probably the best ending was when Sr. Judith said goodbye to me. She told me that I am now a part of the SAJOCAH family, and that they are a part of me – she could not have said it any better.

Yesterday Sara ran an art therapy workshop at the BCCSDR that I heard (and know) went really well! She has worked so hard on it the entire time we have been here and I hope she is as proud of herself as I am of her since I know she was pretty nervous leading up to it. Unfortunately I did not attend but Sara understood. Instead I finally got the opportunity to go and watch a goalball game. Well let me tell you goalball is an intense, physically and sensory demanding sport. The game I watched was played by people with visual impairments, but because everyone regardless of level of vision is blindfolded it is played around the world by anyone. The actual goalball is an almost nerfball like material that doesn’t bounce a lot but has bells inside of it. The object of the game is to roll the ball across the court into the other team’s net. Probably the biggest part of the game is defending your goal which requires some serious hearing skill so that you know what direction the ball is coming from, as well as how close it is to you so that you can get low to the ground to block it. This means sometimes diving to the sides so you are lying down to get as large of an area covered as possible. Spectators much stay silent during the play so that players can hear the ball, but so that they can also hear their teammates so they know where each other are and what their strategy is. That is a really rough spectators description of the game and I have read quite a bit about goalball during my stay here but I thought the spectators view was better than an instructional guide. I then had a nice lunch with Ruth and came back to the centre to finish up my draft proposal of a workshop program on inclusive sport. This was my big project for the centre and it took me a really long time to figure out exactly what the structure of such a program would or could  look like but I finally figured it out. So my proposal to the centre is regarding a travelling educational workshop to schools and mainstream sporting organizations in the Northwest Region of Cameroon about Inclusive Sport – what inclusion means, why it is important (and necessary), what inclusion in sport specifically means, and how sports and physical activities can become inclusive – might have taken me awhile to pull it all together but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and I look forward to hearing some feedback from Mr. Julius today. As a side part to this project I also put together a brief resource manual on Inclusion and Inclusive sport that can help guide the workshops, as well as be kept at the centre for organizations to refer to in the future. On behalf of the centre I also need to say a big THANK YOU here as well. The donations that went to the centre have been able to put together Sara’s art workshop as well as purchase a new laptop computer for the centre which was definitely needed as in the words of Mr. Julius – “all of the centres laptops are from WWII” and do not work what so ever. Running a Coordinating Centre for Research and Disability studies is pretty hard to do without a computer so they are extremely grateful that they will be able to continue effectively and efficiently making a difference in the lives of people with disabilities in the NWR, as well as in the community at large. The remainder of the BCCSDR donations will be going towards continued programming like follow-up workshops to Sara’s art therapy one, as well as an integrated kids camp they run a few times a year for children with and without disabilities.

So that brings us to today – our last official day in Bamenda. I’m looking forward to sitting down with Julius to go over our time here, having a nice dinner out (we think) and then going to Dallas Cabaret to finally experience some Cameroonian nightlife. Then we are up early tomorrow morning to take the bus to Limbe!

The past week....(running out of original blog titles)

So what has happened this past week? Well we officially finished the wheelchair!!! As frustrating as the process has been it felt really good to complete it and the child sat so much better and could engage more in interactions with others. Yes it wasn’t perfect and yes there are things we would still adapt or change, but compared to how he was sitting before, we think it is going to make a significant difference for him and his family.

With the wheelchair being done we could now move onto working with other clients one on one. It felt so great to actually apply more of the practical OT skills we have learnt on previous placements, as well as continue developing our skills at interacting with and assessing clients. I have switched from working with kids at SAJOCAH to working with adults with stroke or other developmental delays and even after just one day it has been incredible rewarding. To see someone that is very rarely engaged in productive activities or interaction with others sit and focus on a task and converse with me for over an hour was pretty cool.

Friday evening Karlien, Sara and I went to the market to officially order our dresses and pick out our fabrics. We had a total of one hour to do all this which you think would be enough time but when a torrential downpour hits in the middle of going to different fabric stalls and there are probably over a million different fabric prints to choose from, time goes by incredibly fast and we were practically kicked out of the market as the gates were closing at 5. We had to draw and describe the styles we wanted since they incorporated some traditional elements from here, as well as modern western style so that they are more wearable at home so we aren’t entirely sure how they will turn out but I am very excited to see it and hopefully wear it here one day before coming home. I’m not going to describe the style or fabric here since like I mentioned I’m not really sure how it is going to turn out so you will also just have to wait to see it in person or in pictures from the trip.

The Chief's Palace at Bandjoun

Mosaic artwork at Bandjoun Station

Yesterday we took a day trip out of the North West Region of Cameroon into the West Region which is Francophone…..so Sara became my translator for the day. It is only about an hour away and our first stop was the Chefferie in Bandjoun which is the Cheifdom there. Although some similarities in the design of the palace, there are definite differences between this palace and the one we visited last week in Bafut. They do represent two very different tribes but it was really interesting to me how two Palaces and regions so close together in proximity are so different. I found this especially with the art work…in Bandjoun there is a lot of intricate and colourful beadwork on the thrones, headpieces, bowls, pretty much everything. We have not seen this type and style of artwork/decoration anywhere else our entire time here so it was very nice to see. On the way home we stopped in it at Bandjoun station which is an artist’s retreat recently established by Bartholomew Togo, an artist from Bandjoun who now lives in France. It has beautiful mosaic tile artwork on the building and walls surrounding the compound. Unfortunately it is not yet opened to the public but the artist had just come in on the 16^th so we were able to meet him and talk with him for a few minutes outside of the retreat. On the way home we had the driver and Godwin (our tour guide from the previous two weeks) drop us off at Handicraft Cooperative. I think I am officially done my shopping (well to be honest I will probably still purchase some things in Limbe and Kribi). Afterwards we ate dinner on the patio of the restaurant there – a great dinner of roasted fish, plantains, chips and vegetables. One of our more expensive meals but it was a nice treat and there were amazing views of the city.

Out for dinner!

Today is National Day. May is officially the month with the most holidays here and apparently sometimes all the holidays fall in such a way that people here have over an entire week off at once because they all line up in a row. As with a lot of the holidays here it involves a march pass. Sara and I originally received tickets to view the march pass from the Grandstand on Commercial Ave here in Bamenda, but last night Hannah who is the director of the Foundation of Adapted Sport and Physical Education for the Disabled invited us to go with her to Mbengwi to march with her organization. So we decided that we would rather participate in the march as opposed to just watching it. It was a great experience and nice to be a part of their holiday instead of just viewing it as a bystander.

After the National Day march pass with FASPED

Tomorrow is the start of our last week on placement here….I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….time has flown by. I’m of two different mindsets about my time here being almost up. There is a large part of me that is not ready to leave. Now that I am getting more of an opportunity to work with clients at SAJOCAH and really just getting into the swing of things there I’m not ready to leave that and would love more time to learn and practice OT there.  On the other hand, I feel like I am ready for placement to be over. I would probably feel this way no matter where I was on placement so it’s not a new feeling, but I am also excited to come home and see friends and family. Knowing me I’ll probably cry on my last day at SAJOCAH and my last day here because I really will miss the place and the people….it’s been an incredible ride and I’ve learnt so much about Cameroon, OT and myself. There have been both positives and negatives to my time here with the positives far outweighing the negatives, but both have taught me a lot. Truly grateful for this experience and all that it has been!

But it’s not quite over yet….still 2 more weeks of experiences to pack in. We’re almost done planning our week of travel to Limbe and Kribi so Sara and I are both excited for some relaxation time on the beach.

Week 4....already?!?!

I can't believe I have been in Cameroon for a month now and only have 3 weeks left! It has gone by way too quickly!!!

So last week we worked really hard to finish the wheelchair at SAJOCAH but when the end of Wednesday came it was still not complete. So close to being done but when the client sat it in he started to slip out despite shoulder and waist belts. This was something we had not noticed in the trial runs of our adaptations but was something that definitely needed to be fixed. We were both very frustrated at the end of Sunday just due to the amount of time we had spent on one wheelchair for one child but after a lot of reflecting and talking with each other and a few other people we realized that we have learnt more than we thought we have in making the wheelchair and although we have only spent limited time with other clients, those times have been fantastic and have also been valuable learning experiences. Although we may not be learning as many specific OT practical skills, the soft skills we are learning through this experience - creativity, flexibility, adaptability, patience, reflection etc - are so valuable and will not only serve us in our professional careers as OT's but in our personal life as well. And sometimes these skills may be more important and harder to learn than the practical skills. So all in all I am incredible thankful and grateful for this experience and still have 1.5 weeks to go in placement and 1 week left to continue our Cameroon adventures outside of Bamenda!

Thursday and Friday we worked at the Centre - had to go to town to use the internet for a bit since it was out here but that was a nice change of scenery. Afterwards we went to Handicraft Cooperative to begin our shopping of art and craft pieces that are just beautiful here. This was the first shopping we had done that wasn't basic necessities like food and cleaning supplies so we were pretty excited. And Friday we finalized our plans for the weekend!

Shela, Sara and I at the top of UpStation around 6:30am!

So Saturday we woke up early, but not bright since it was 5am to go walk upstation (which is the hill with the main road leading into Bamenda from Douala). We met Shela (the admin assistant at BCCSDR) and started our climb from finance junction. This is something a lot of people in town do every morning from about 4:30 to 7am, but Sunday is the most popular day for it. There were still quite a few people running and/or walking up/down the hill when we began around 6am. We decided to just do a fast walk about but Shela laughed at us since our fast walk was the same as her jogging; not that we are in better shape than Shela but I think it just has to do with the pace of life here! It only took us about 45 mins to walk up and then back down with a quick break at the top for some pictures to prove our accomplishment. We decided we didn't really feel like making anything for breakfast so instead went into town to go to PresCafe to treat ourselves to a big breakfast and so Sara could get a cappuccino. It was so nice to sit back and just eat a leisurely breakfast. Then we headed to the market to meet Ruth about getting dresses made. Haven't quite found the styles we want so decided to check some out online, sketch what we like and then head back to pick the fabrics and get them made. So we had some time left and did a little more shopping at PresCraft on World Fair Trade Day. Both Handicraft and PresCraft are part of the World Fair Trade Organization so it was great to support them on a day recognizing the global Fair Trade movement! When we got home it was time to get ready for the wedding, so after getting dressed up for the first time here we arrived at the Cathedral at 3pm! It was a beautiful ceremony although a tad long at 3hrs, and it was in French. Sara did her best to translate but even she said she had trouble with some of the accents and specific French dialect they were sometimes talking in. Really enjoyed the music and dancing and joyous spirit that was part of the entire ceremony!

Menchum Falls!

Sunday we headed off for another adventure to visit Menchum Falls, a crater lake called Lake Illium and the Fon's Palace in Bafut. The falls and Lake Illium like I've said multiple times about the scenery here were just breathtaking. The colours of green and the blue sky on Sunday were almost surreal and to walk through the hills to arrive at a crater lake was so cool! The drive there was also really picturesque and took about an hour. On the way home we stopped at the Fon's Palace which means the Chief of Bafut. There we were greeted by the head wife Ma Adela who introduced us to the Fon's 6th wife to take us on a tour of the Palace and Museum. Such a unique experience and so different from anything I've every experienced. The current Fon is the 11th Fon of Bafut and became the Fon in the 60's when he was only 15 years old. He currently has 48 wives....but they are not all directly through marriage but a good majority were inherited from his father, uncles and brothers when they passed. In the museum are carvings and statues all the way back to the first Fon's reign which began in the 1700's. There are also the furs/skins/teeth/foot of the elephant, buffalo, python, and leopard which are the animals the Fon can transform into to escape dangers. He also wears a seashell bracelet which stays with him when he transforms so that hunters of the animal know he is not just an ordinary animal and should not be hunted. After getting the tour the head wife invited us into her home for a drink and snacks and it was great meeting and talking with her. Her daughter (the Fon's first child) lives in Canada and knows our professor that was here for a bit with us earlier and is how we were able to meet Ma Adela.

Another great weekend and we already have ideas for the weekend to come and have started to book and plan our last week of travels!

Cliff Top Trekking

The cliff we trekked up and across the top of!

The past week has been a week of ups and downs, but primarily ups and was capped off walking way up to the tops of the Mbingo Cliffs about 40 mins away from Bamenda.

Tuesday was Labour Day here so we had the day off, but Monday was also considered a public holiday so we had a half day at SAJOCAH and finally felt like we had a handle on how we are making the wheelchair adaptations. So on Tuesday we went down to Commerical Ave for the march to celebrate Labour Day. The march consisted of pretty much every labour group, organization, business, ministry etc marching together. Each group either wore printed tshirts recognizing their organization or, my favourite, dresses and shirts made out of matching, colourful, printed fabric that had their organziation's name and/or logo on it. Such a colourful parade with people excited to be representing who they work for and no floats or sponsors were needed. Favourite group might have been Les Brasseries du Cameroon which makes the beer Castel. When they marched past the dignitaries in the grandstand (we stood directly across the street from this) they all popped the lids of and chugged back their bottles of Castel. I also enjoyed the bakeries that marched and threw fresh bread out when they got to the end of the route (although we stayed back from that as we had heard quite a few injury stories from people scrabbling to get the food!). After the march everyone here pretty much parties with their colleagues and families moving from one restaurant/bar/house to the next for the rest of the day. We on the other hand took it easy and I think had omlette and irish that night (1 of 3 times last week).

Working on the wheelchair

Wednesday and Thursday we were back at SAJOCAH and were able to complete the back and seat cushions for the wheelchair. It felt pretty good to finally have something to show for all the work and brainstorming we have done so far, even though it has taken much more of my time than I wanted or expected it to. In the afternoons we ran our first therapeutic play groups. The focus was on children with upper extremity impairments to use different play modalities to encourage and facilitate more functional use of their upper extremity. One group had children with one arm with limited or no current function and the other group had children with upper extremity coordination difficulties. We used the same activities for each group with a focus on art using drawing with crayons and modeling clay or silly putty. It was so much fun working and playing with the kids, but challenging at the same time. Each child progresses even within one group session at such different rates from the next child and all of the children came into the group with differing abilities. Some of the children also presented challenges to Sara and I's planning and creativity with either their personality (being very protective of their upper extremity that is weaker) or cognitive challenges. We realized we had to make some adjustments and that a group setting was not the best for all of the children  initially selected to be a part of the group. This week we will apply our adjustments and continue to reflect and learn from the experience to ideally find an optimal upper extremity play group protocol that could be continued at SAJOCAH after we leave.Wednesday night we went to Saint Sylvester's for dinner for Mr. Julius's birthday who turned his former age plus 1.

Friday we were back at CIS (Centre for Inclusion Studies which is the new name for BCCSDR). A slightly frustrating day as we did not have internet basically the entire day. Now I knew coming that internet was not always a guarantee and if I was here travelling I would not mind in the least if the internet didn't work. But being here on placement and having work and research to do, having no internet to do that research is a bit of a challenge. It does make me think about times when I didn't have the internet to complete research projects or look up information. All of you young ones reading this (you know who you are!) will probably laugh at me but even in undergrad I remember going to the library to take out books and articles. Yes the internet did exist then, but I still used the library as it had more to offer than the internet. Crazy to think how quickly that has changed and how reliant everyone and everything is on the internet. But I was able to get some work done and Friday night we went to dinner with Mr. Julius, his friend who is a court translator for the UN in Rwanda, and Lynn. Again it was a great dinner of roasted fish, irish, plantains and vegetable.

Saturday I needed to do something. I was not about to spend another weekend or day waiting around for the computer and not having anything planned. But this can be hard to do when somethings are not recommended for me to go off and do by myself (Sara needed to get caught up on some work). But I did what I could and went for a walk in the neighbourhood. Previously I had just walked around the main streets that lead to and from our place to the main road for taxi's, omelette and walking to the Ntarinkon market. This time I took a few of the dirt rounds around our house and it was so nice just to be by myself with only the sound of my feet hitting the dirt, wind in the trees and cicadas in the grass. One of the biggest adjustments I have had to make since coming here was not having time to myself and not being able to just go out on my own whenever and where ever I feel like it. But the 30 minute walk did the trick and it is nice now knowing a bit more about the neighbourhood! Saturday night we went to dinner with Ruth, Andrea (from Switzerland) and Karoline (PT from Belgium with us at SAJOCAH). Back to Saint Sylvester's we went (good thing I like the food there). Another great meal before Lynn, Leo, Patrick and Marcel joined us before we all went to Dreamland Cabaret for our first nightlife experience. We had only planned to stay until about midnight since we had big plans for Sunday and it turned out Dreamland was not nearly as  busy as usual. But getting a taxi after 9 is almost impossible so we didn't end up leaving until 12:30 maybe. I know that doesn't sound late at all, but when you've been going to bed around 10 every night my eyes could barely stay open by 12:30. We did dance a little bit but have promised to go out another night to really see what Bamenda nightlife is!

Our guide Godwin and I

Sara, Karoline and I on the top of the Cliff

And now on to Sunday which I can safely say has been the BEST day since arriving here. We booked a guide through a ecotourism and development group called BERUDEP and set out for a Cliff Top Trek in Mbingo (where we visited the hospital our first weekend here). Karoline joined Sara and I and we had a fantastic guide named Godwin. I'm not sure words can do the trek justice. We trekked for about four, maybe five hours up, across and down the cliff. The side we were trekking on had lush greenery, trees, a few houses, cows and some waterfalls, yet directly on the other side was a sheer rockface. When we finally reached the peak of the cliff it was breathtaking and after taking pictures I took a few minutes to just take it all in without the camera. Like I said before I don't really know what words to use to describe it and the feeling of looking out over the cliff top. It rained a little bit on the way down but it was refreshing after what had been a very hot trek that left me with quite the sunburn on my shoulders (despite spf sixty sunscreen!).

Favourite moment of the trip so far: Looking out over the cliff

It is half way through the official placement part of our trip and I can not believe our time here has gone by so quickly...wishing it would slow down and we could have more time to both work at SAJOCAH and CIS and travel the areas near us (just 2 weekends left in Bamenda and 3 more weeks of work)! Lots of exciting things planned for this week since Sara and I decided there is no time to waste but I am looking forward to my first home cooked dinner in over a week tonight!