June 5

I spent the day in bed trying to get down my fever and eating rice with salt and margarine. My family thought this was very odd, to put margarine on rice. Now that I think of it, it’s a bit bizarre, but it’s the food I was given when I was sick when I was a kid so it’s my comfort food. But I got lots of—“you are putting what?” on your rice looks.

June 6

I was pretty much completely fever free and Pius and Mirabelle were heading off to the rural farm for all of Monday and the majority of Tuesday, which meant that if I didn’t go with them I would have pretty much absolutely nothing to do at home for the next two days, which I felt was worse than feeling a bit under the weather.

We went into town to get provisions such as potatoes, salted fish, Maggi bullion cubes, which they seem to flavour most things with, oil and peanuts which they put in a hand crank. I was quite delighted with it, I like those kinds of contraptions and the woman did not seem to be enjoying herself doing it, so I asked the woman if I could crank it and grind them. She said yes and they watched me grind it, and were quite amused. After getting potatoes I got several women who asked if I would marry their son. I wear a plain silver “wedding” band when I travel by myself. They saw it when Mirabelle lifted up my hand and together cried a rather loud sound of dismay. We got some crackers I could put peanut butter on that I brought from home and some more bottled water for me and we were on our way to the village. We drove through beautiful green hilly areas with streams and a river and lots of huts and gardens growing on steep hills. About three hours later we were there. Pius went into the main village there and rounded up 5 men to work with us. They took dead, damp palm leaves and rolled them up into a flat doughnut, put them on top of their head’s and then mounted a bucket of samplings on top. They gave me the palm leaf cushion and mounted the bucket with plants on top of my head and then we ascended. Putting that kind of weight on your head makes you REALLY feel you leg muscles and your lower back that is trying to keep everything balanced. For the next few hours we measured out where to put the palm saplings, they had to be properly spaced throughout the area. It rained sporadically during the entire time. I learned how to use a digging stick and now have somewhat of a better idea of what a meter looks like. When we came down at 5 our hut had partially caved in because of the rain. I being ALL about safety was not amused and after a dinner of rice with fried fish in a tomato, onion, maggi sauce, I slept in the car for fear there would be a large rainstorm and that the whole house would cave in.

June 7

We woke up with the sun, around 5:30, ate fire re-heated rice and fish and then headed out to plant more. I was in charge of holding the stick so things could be measured. Then Mirabelle and I planted papaya trees and “tree tomatoes”, which as far as I can tell are sour plums. Around 12 or so we packed up and headed back to Bamenda. On the way we saw a woman who needed a ride. She was going to town to sell palm oil so some men from down the road hauled the huge buckets of palm oil into the car. One of them said he was hungry and that I should marry him so he has enough money to eat. Let me tell you, this man looked well fed. But being “hungry” seems to be the main scapegoat for why I am proposed to. Mirabelle told him I was married. He was not satisfied. He wanted to know about this man. I told him he was back in America. Then we had to get back on the road. We picked up a teenager and then later an older man all looking for a ride to Bamenda. Apparently when you live in a village, there isn’t really transportation anywhere so you either wait by the roadside or you know someone who has a car and have them drive you. They compensated Pius; it is like a loose bus system of sorts. When we got back home there was no electricity, there hadn’t been for over an hour. My plan had been to check e-mail and clean up my room but that was no longer an option. However, after I ate dinner, the electricity came back on, I check my e-mail and then at 8:30 I went to bed because I was pretty exhausted from not sleeping very well the night before in the car.

June 8

This morning we went to a sort of fair for World Environmental Day. We were going to exhibit NDEF and what they do with plants as well as make some money for the NGO by selling some trees that had been marcotted, some seedlings and other s that had been grafted. All will bear fruit in as little as 2-3 years. We also sold honey from the hives and a skin lotion for skin ailments made from bees waxy, Vaseline and vegetable oil. I also met a German girl who works for another environmental NGO. She and the Americans as well as a French girl all live close to each other and meet up every Wednesday night to go to a market and get dinner. Since today is Wednesday, I will be joining them and I am very excited!