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