our man in cameroon

First off – check out the list of bloggers in Cameroon on the right side of the page.  It grows.

It is dominated so far by volunteers and NGO workers.  My apologies for those blogging in French – For simplicity I’ve decided to keep this to English language bloggers.

For wider news on Cameroon check out my del.icio.us links.

Also I wanted to welcome two people, new in Cameroon and new to blogging.  Fellow VSO-er and Brit Emma O’Driscoll is based up in the far North and her battles with hellish transport and amoebic dysentery put my minor whinges and niggles to shame.

She writes of her illness and subsequent trip to the docs:

…I described my symptoms in rapidly deteriorating French, was weighed (I had already lost three kilos) and had my temperature and blood pressure measured; a prick of blood was taken from my finger for testing, other tests were carried out and finally I was asked to return at around 2pm for the results.  I went back to the Mission, forced some rehydration salts down and immediately felt better, so I wasn’t surprised when 2pm came and it turned out that I didn’t have malaria.  “Amoebas,” said the doctor, examining his findings.  “You have to be very careful about what you eat and drink – no fruit, no tap water – wash everything carefully in filtered water.

Also new, but not yet in Cameroon is Jen McQuhae, a Canadian working for Kiva. She’s due here, according to her first blog post, in a couple of weeks.

I’ve had an interest in Kiva ever since seeing its co-founder Jessica Flannery talk at “Thinking Digital” a conference in Gateshead, Newcastle.  I was very moved by what she had to say.

Her decision to “do something” after experiencing poverty at close quarters on her travels struck a chord.  The genius of her solution that encompasses fundraising, blogging and microfinance is an inspiration.

After her talk I probably scared the life out of her as I went to say hi and gushed my admiration and approval. Now here I am in Bamenda and I find that Kiva is already here in the shape of Brit Yuan Potts.

He writes:

Of course things don’t always go swimmingly, even when some British chap from Kiva is attending your meeting. One recently dragged on for four and a half hours. A group of borrowers had failed to bring any money, meaning the centre’s repayments were short by 43,500 Francs. When this happens, the rest of the centre is expected to make up the difference, which is no laughing matter when it’s a big sum like this. Cue much grumbling and discussion. But eventually a resolution was found which kept everyone fairly happy and made sure the meeting met its obligations.

Looking at the work I have to do when I am here,  I might also be contacting Kiva and hoping they’ll share some of their expertise.

I am going to need all the help I can get.