Wrap it up!

From the 13-18 Aug me and Frida spent some lovely days of sunbathing and relaxation on the coast of Cameroon, in a little city called Kribi. The place is known for its beaches and fairly well-developed touristical commodities. There are quite a few hotels and there are frequent busses going to and from the cities like Yaounde. The bustrip itself is an experience never to forget!
Our hotel, Jardin d'Eden, was just next to the beach. Waking up and going to sleep to the sound of waves instead of loud music was great! And of course we went swimming in the ocean. And of course we had the lovely fresh fish and shrimps!

Our time here in Cameroon is running out! When writing this we have only five days left and it is time to wrap up our work and to say our goodbyes. The last work is soon done to the transcriptions from the interviews and questionmarks are dealt with. Last week we did yet another focus group discussion/interview, this time women with high socio-economic standards. The women were ever so talkative, which indeed means that we have a good material to work with! Four interviews all in all. One more than planned. We are well pleased!

Having so few days left we want to make the most of it. Yesterday we went dancing at our gym, Buffalo new Fitness club in Essos, again. We finally got to do some pongo! It is actually a dance deriving from Ivory coast, but coming across it when we've met people, we were in the need for a lecture in how to do it properly. So much fun! Other than that we have been doing different kinds of traditional dances, all great fun and a lot of movement!
Moreover we have visited the zoo here in Yaounde, done the last shopping and had a great time!

Two weeks after returning to Sweden, the first draft of the essay is suppossed to be finished. So we have work cut out for ourselves. But for now, all goodbyes to tell!

To be continued..

// Linnea

What a day!

Temps passe vite! and a lot has happened since we last updated the blog.

The first week of august was the international breastfeeding week. Since our degree project has a lot to do with breastfeeding we were invited by the dietitian at the Ministry of health to participate at a ceremony promoting breastfeeding.

It was very interesting. Representatives from Unicef, the government and different NGOs gave speaches and there were plays and dances. Then we stayed and had some bouille and talked to various NGOs, working with the theme of breastfeeding. It was all very good, but the week has been celebrated since 1958, and even though ministers from the government were there, the celebrations in Yaounde had not seamed to reach much beyond the ceremony since hospital staff from other smaller hospitals in the country had never heard about it.

When we told the staff of one of the hospitals about the upcomming breastfeeding week they decided to arrange what they told us was going to be a small celebration, but when we got there we were met by what semed like one hundred breastfeeding mothers singing a breastfeeding song, specially composed for the occation, written by one of the nurses. Doctors, nurses and professors gave us all lectures about advantages of breastfeding. We ate sweet bread and of course bouille.

Other things we have been doing has been to present our project to the university here and we have also tried to do a fourth focus group discussion, but the last group is a bit harder to get hold of and the interview will not happen until next week. We have also been trying to meet with Nestle, but the meeting coincidated with a monsoun rain and it seemed like the whole capital decided to stay home insted, since we had three cancelled meeting the same day.

Last monday we visited the artmarket and after a lot of bargaining we got a lot of nice things to take home to friends and family.

The computer I am using is giving me electric shocks so I am going to quit now and I am not going to put my camera out for the same ordeal that I just suffered, so the picture to this text has nothing to do with it really it is just a nice picture of wooden statues in Banja at one of the Chefferies. I will update with a coupple of suiting pictures plus tard.

//Frida

Mountains of foods!

Sunday evening in Yaoundé. We have now seen and enjoyed the hills of west Cameroon! After a five hour trip by car, we reached the village of Bandja late Tuesday night last week. We had not expected to see such a landscape - the greens, the exotic forrests, the mountains and the small cottages spread all over the place. The air was fresh and cold. The contrasts to Yaoundé concerning sounds (here-silence), struck me the most. It was lovely to see yet another face of this country!


During the proceeding days we did an interview, talked to medical staff and viewed the surroundings of the village. Mostly though, it was a short, but ever so interesting and important course in the foods of Cameroon! We were invited to visit five of the women we interviwed and their families, to see how they live and spend their time. They also showed us how they collect water, do their daily neccecities and how they cook their food. None of us, Frida or me, could prepare food on a open fire like these women! We tried some foods, for example makabo rapé (grated and boiled makabo-root in a leaf, in the pic.), makabo-stew (with green leafs, smoked fish, spices etc)and bouille (corn-porridge. Simple foods, with most ingredients from the area.
The corn used for the bouille is dried in the kitchen, over the open fire.

In this picture you can see a very common kind of street foods: barbequed prune and plantaine (a kind of banana). Tasty and very cheap!


The last day in the west, we spent visiting other villages and cities in the area. For example Bafoussam, where we viewed its "chefferie" and were guieded around by the queen. A "chef" is the "king of the village", living in plygami with many women. The title is inherited. Unfortunatley, the "chef" was not present during our visit. But we got to see a whole bunch of masks and artifacts used during different kind of ceremonies. Very interesting!

On Sunday morning, me and Frida took the bus back to Yaoundé. The trip took just over five hours and with a big bag of groundnuts we got back safe and sound!

// Linnéa

Hills and water!

I think we could update the page a bit more often, but as with everything life tends to get inbetween, and here life becomes particulairly noticable as you can go througt your whole register of feelings in just one day. Having said that I want to say that this week has been the far most productive one since our mentor has arrived and we have been able to do our first focusgroup interview with the mothers. We got some very interesting answers and we learned so much. Both about working with the method and about our subject on infant feeding. After the interviews we spent hours transcribing everything, that meant going through everything we had been whriting down during the almost two hours long interview and also everything that was whritten by the three assisting whriters. After that we revised the questions again to get an even better discussion with the next group of mothers.


Enough about work. Yesterday was a day with almost no work and just fun. In the morning we went with our friend Armand to take a long walk along the hills of Yaounde. It felt good to be upo in the mountains again with the fresh morningair and the silence that we never get to enjoy otherwise, not without the earplugs. Then we went to the pool and for the first time since we got here we could enjoy an abundance of wather. It is funny how we take things for granted at home like water, and silence and even effectivness. Yes, this week has really been a good week. In the beginning of the week I was sick and I had been feeling a bit crummy since soon after arriving here, with fever, vomiting an upset stomach etc. Since I had fever it led us to think that I might have malaria, but linnéa talked to a doctor that gave me a recipee for bowelinfection as that would explain the other symtoms to. The medicine has seamed to be working and from thursday I have been feeling better than ever.

There is alot to whrite but right now there is no time because soon we are going to have lunch with some of the people we are working with. We are looking forward to it as alot of people are engaiged in our work and find it interesting.

/Frida

La ville de sept collinas!

Monday and off to work again, after a interesting week-end! Yaounde is also called "the city of seven hills", hence the title. To see the full size of the city, we decided to take a lovely stroll up one of these many green hills on Saturday. Since we have not been exercicing alot, it was ever so pleasant. Furthermore, we made an early visit to church on Sunday morning and later the same day some networking. We met a Colonel, two teachers and also a colleague of ours- a dietitian, working in the military sector. We have truly learned that one can never have enough contacts!

Today we set out to get some statistics for our study. After somewhat of a secret process, we got hold of the very latest data. Unfortunatley the latest data is from 2004. They are just about to release a new rapport, so we hope that it will happend before we finnish our study. After that quest we went on to do some gift shopping for the mothers that we are going to interview.

Both me and Frida have been longing for coffee for a long time now, and today we decided to do something about it aswell. Late afternoon we headed to Bastos area to fullfill our need and bless our throats with the tastiest of beverages. Coffee... It was a perfect ending to a good day.
Not to forget, we tried a new fruit today. Cola de singe, it is called. It looked promising with it's red color, but unfortunatley it tasted like cabbage. The favourite so far is grilled "prune" (plommon). These are not at all like the ones you can find in Sweden. These taste like lemon and cream!

All for now, best regards

// Linnéa

Amazing day

Yesterday we were just going to go on a quick visit to a hospital, we have been to before, to visit the pediatrition and the pediatric ward. The days here almost never turnes out the way we plan them and the pediatric turned out to be in Paris, so after talking to a mother who just gave birth about information on breastfeeding we went with Math to an orphanage near by. On the orphanage they were celebrating the end of term and we got a worm welkomming from both staffmermbers and all of the children. The director showed us around in the new buildings and after that we stayed and talked to the children. We did our best to communicate on our rocky French, but it went surprisingly well. I think that with a lot of willpower you can come a long way. We also thank the children for being so patient and understanding.

The children in the orphanage, that we visited, were between 6 to 14 years old. Our focus for the study is the nutrition for infants (0-12 months), but a big part of the reason for being here is also to se the bigger picture. I explained to one of the girls about our study here in Cameroun. Then she asked me when we were going to do a study on 8 year old girls. My heart sank and I said that I diddnt know.

The children we met were really amazing and I dare to say that the few hours we spent with the children yesterday were some of the most giving hours of my life.

//Frida

On our way home last tuesday we stopped and took a quick snap shot in one of the beautiful surroundings of Yaoundé

Second full week is rolling

This week begun with yet another visit to a hospital here in Yaoundé. It is the same hospital as we spend time at last week. This time around we got to see the pediatrics ward and got some inputs from a nurse working there about the situation on nutrition for infants. We constantly get very important new point of views, which enables us to move forward in our learning. For us, the focus points for the interviews would be completly different if we hadn't done this "reality-check" that we are doing right now.

Tuesday brought on a new hospital, in which we will do our first group interview. A warm welcoming and a wish to show us the pracice of the different hospitals is a red line through our visits. We are thankful for that.

Today, me and Frida will go to church with our Cameroonian mother, Suzanne. There will be singing and dancing, and we are also promised a play. I'm looking forward to it all!

More pictures will be published soon.

// Linnéa

This is our view from our house in the outskirts of Yaoundé

Saturday night!

Yesterday Frida turned 25! We started the day by doing some work for our study. In the evening we celebrated Frida on her birthday by going to Bastos with Armand and two of his friends for a drink.

Today, Saturday, we have been taking it easy. A walk in the area where we live and some reading. We have both been a bit slow today, because of a cold we both caught.

At this very moment, we are waiting for the dinner to be prepared. I think that we will have fried fish tonight. Bon apetite!

Our own internet doesn't seem to work today, so I'm using the family's computer now. Hence the short note.

// Linnea

Update

Finally we have internet at home!

Sorry about the long wait. Time is running away so fast here. It is hard to beleve that we have been here for a week already. 8 weeks to do our data collection has felt like a long time but right now it feels like for every rock we look under there are so many moore things to find out. 8 weeks suddenly doesn´t feel as long anymore. Our journey here is not just to do a great study but also to do a deep dive into a culture, a language and a society that is so different to ours. We took our last safe breath one week ago and we will not stand on dry land for another 7 weeks so we´d better get the very best out of everything.

We have accomplished a lot of things this week. We have mostly been to a hospital here in Yaounde, testing our questions on a couple of mothers and talking to the chief nurse about their practices regarding infant nutrition and consultation. The staff we met was very dedicated and gave us a lot of insight on the main problems that breastfeeding mothers in Cameroon face today. We have also got some studying done and tomorrow we are meeting with the ministry of health.

//Frida

Yaounde, Cameroon

We arrived to Yaounde airport on thursday afternoon after a 10 hour flight from Paris. Our new friend Armand met us at the airport to take us to our accomodation. But we just got enough time to change our clothes because we headded to a big celabration for the coronel, the father of our house.

The next day we went to the embassy to get our passports stamped and signed. Then we met Mahte, our personal guide and extra mother. She helped us with some practical things and some shoping at the market for mosquitonet etc.

The next day we were just going to go to the market for a quick stop with Suzanne, mother of the house. Six hours later we had seen alot. Everywhere we went people shouted blanche, blanche (white white) wanting to get our attention. we got to see alot and learn alot waching Suzanne bargain.

Sunday was church day with beautiful gospel. The bacteria here is different and Frida left church early... Then celebration once again! Oh, we can dance as well as everyone now!

Time to finish now, best of wishes

Linnea, Frida

Time to start the blogg!

On Thursday, the 1 July, me and Frida goes off to Cameroon for 8 weeks. We hope that we can write as often as possible so that you know what we are up to and that you all can keep up with us!

// Frida, Linnéa