Abuh

"Africa: where nothing works, but everything works out."

Greetings to one and all! Forgive me for abandoning you this week. I meant to post another update or two, I really did, but an unexpected adventure (the best kind) popped up and kidnapped Sarah and me for a few days. Saturday we went to Brittany's house to have tea and cake with a few of her Peace Corps friends; Darcy, Sam, and Chiloh. After a lovely afternoon of talking and relaxing, we went back to the Jackson's for a postponed Pizza and Movie night. But instead of bidding them farewell and falling into bed, Sam invited us to come with her, Darcy, and Brittany up to her village, Abuh, for a few days. It was a lovely chance to get out of the house and see new places and meet new people, so Sarah packed our backpacks and spent the night at Brittany's across town. In the morning after breakfast we packed up food and blankets and set off!

The first leg of the trip was a taxi back across town to Bambui, where we got a car to take us up to Fundong, about an hour or two away. We stopped at Claire's house (another PC volunteer) to say hi, then from her house the five of us, with our stuff, jumped on bikes to take us up the last part to Abuh. The road was not wonderful, to say the least - in fact, it was definitely worse than the road to Sabba Njowra. But an adventure nonetheless! Brittany and Darcy's bike only fell once, which is credit to all our drivers, if you had seen the road. I refrained from taking pictures, so as not to make you all fear for my life.... just kidding! .....

The view from Sam's kitchen window <3

And finally we came to Sam's house! She had running water, but no electricity, so we made use of her candles and kerosene lantern as we made dinner and talked. (And after sitting all evening around the lamp, the kerosene or smoke or whatever turned everything inside our noses black! Again, no pictures, haha. Sorry.)

We also met her neighbor Teziah, who is the friendliest person I have ever met! He greeted us all with hugs, and was just so happy to have guests in Abuh. He works in the clinic, where Sam helps out, and would greet us every morning before leaving for work. We visited the clinic on Monday morning, and took a tour. By American standards, it's horrendous, but for a little village out in the African bush, it was much bigger and cleaner than I expected. There were two wards (one for mothers and newborns and one for everyone else) an office, a delivery room, the pharmacy where they kept all the drugs, and the lab, where Teziah works. And there was a microscope! That was what shocked me the most. Of course they have no electricity, so he has it right under a window where the light will come in, and in the pharmacy the refrigerator was gas-powered, but still. I was amazed by the microscope. In the lab Teziah can test blood and give vaccinations and everything.

The baby who didn't cry :)

After the tour they had clinic, where dozens of mothers and their children lined up outside and listened as Sam and Maxilin, a woman who also works there, sang some songs and gave a lecture for several minutes, then answered whatever questions they had. Then came time to weigh the babies! Every month they weigh them all one by one in a basket and record the children's growth. Of course, every single baby cried but one! But it's all good. The whole adventure, from Bamenda to Abuh and back again, was great. It was freezing cold up there in the mountains, but we fended it off with lots of tea, hot food, and socks and blankets galore. We spent most of our time just talking and laughing and eating cake and getting to know each other better. All of them are wonderful people.

And now we are back! Brittany, Sarah, and I spent the morning making our way back down to Bamenda, via bike, bus, and taxi. Apparently Grass Valley is not the only place that has "Grass Valley Week" ...or an October break, anyway, haha. So this week the girls are taking a break from school and we have a family from Yaounde visiting us, the Naines. Sarah and I will probably still work on the Luke lessons a bit, and I have school, but it's nice to have a change of pace.