It's Been Too Long...

It's been too long since I posted a blog, and I apologize to everyone for that. We have been so busy going out into the field every week day that by the time I get home around 4:30 all I hope for is the cold shower that awaits me (if the water is flowing).  For those of you who haven't seen, I posted some pictures on Facebook ff my adventures here so far, especially some from the latrine installation I mentioned in my previous post.

Today, after 3 weeks, we finally finished our first Biosand Filter in the village of Misellele. After some confusion about the manual (mostly us just not reading it correctly) we now have more than enough materials to finish the 6 filters we intend to finish here. Hopefully we will finish our second filter in Misellele tomorrow and then pack up the rest of our materials to use in the other two villages we will work in.  We really hope that  the people we have installed these for will continue to use them after we leave, but Alyssa and I are not optimistic because they take so long to filter the water. We hope that these first few filters will be followed by many more installations by the organization we are working for, NKong Hilltop

I have experienced so many cool new things here. I went to a born house, which is a huge party they throw for  a family when they return home from the hospital with a new baby. There was music, food, drinking and dancing  and a videographer capturing it all on film. It made me smile to think that in 10 years when the family watches the video they will be like "oh yeah...that white girl was here for that summer!"  I also was invited to attend a meeting with Celestine where she meets with local women who are of her ethnicity. They all wear the same dress, speak their native dialect, sing and dance to traditional songs and eat and drink. Being invited to be one with them was very humbling. They consider themselves sisters, and to have them consider me a sister to them made me feel very honored.

Everywhere we go we take taxis or the company truck and I have learned some of the rules of the road here that I thought I would share with all of you:
1. Pedestrians do not have the right of way
2. If someone or something is in your way, go around it. Opposing traffic will get out of your way or stop for you
3. If your car's speedometer doesn't work...that's totally okay, just keep on going
4. If you don't have any cones and your car is on the fritz, just dig up some grass from the side of the road and stick it on the road instead of a traffic cone
5. The number of seatbelts in your car does not determine the number of passengers. Most taxis will take 5 passengers, sitting two passengers in the front seat. We have traveled with 9 people in a 5 person station wagon and  7 passengers in a 5 person pick-up
6. All vehicles are off-road vehicles and wear the pavement ends the dirt road begins. Most local African roads are dirt and rock
7. The cars here are almost exclusively old Toyotas, but I have seen some Mercedes and mitsubishis around, as well as the very occasional VW, BMW, and Porsche. I have only seen one American car here.

Well that's all for now. Love and peace from Cameroon!
Katie