a good week.

Just a quick post to say that things are looking up – I have some money and Turay has been providing decent food. I’ve decided to put the sketchy money situation behind me, because I’m convinced that Turay didn’t intentionally do anything wrong – he just doesn’t have a good financial mind. He also withdrew some money from the SDI savings, as I asked, and there is additional financing coming in from some external sources. I can now use SDI money for SDI activities and my own money for everything else. Turay is easy to work with, but it’s not an equal partnership: I’m pretty much running this organization at this point. I really wanted to work with other people to accomplish something, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

I’ve talked with a couple groups of people to learn what are their problems, and will soon be working up some proposals to share with them to see which is best. The most interesting idea right now is buying surplus produce at a low cost that would otherwise go bad and opening a restaurant. It would provide free food to people that would otherwise go hungry, while later in the day selling the same meals for a moderate fee to people that can afford it. Not sure if I have the knowledge to start a futures market here in Cameroon though!

Tomorrow I have meetings planned with two local NGOs that provide microfinance services to the poor. This is another area which is crucial for bringing people out of poverty, but these orgs are already working in that space. I originally thought that I could start my own microfinance institution, but have decided against it because of these other orgs … and anyway, it would require a significant amount of cash up front.

I also have a new phone number – this is my phone, not one from Turay. The number is +237 7656 2434.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I am very jealous of you all.

shawn.

water.

Today the water is flowing. The SDI office has water pipes -- for example, my bathroom has a showerhead and a regular toilet -- but water never comes out of them. Instead, there is a separate faucet outside which is usually dry. However, two or three times a week the water starts to flow. At these times we fill up all the buckets in the house so we have water for the next few days. One of these buckets is in each bathroom, used to manually flush the toilet (pouring water into the head) and bathing (pouring water onto the head).

This is enough water to bath every other day or so. It's also enough water for me to drink, after purification -- the water out of the tap is non-potable, even for the natives. People living here in Bomaka usally get water from the main quarter, Molyko. I've had a bit of this water and don't feel sick yet, but I don't want to push it, especially since I have a purifier. The purified water is good, after I figured how to use it correctly -- if you do it too much it tastes vaguely like bleach.

Instead of using the purifier, the water can also be boiled, which is done for making coffee or tea. And yesterday Turay got some Nescafe, which I drank today. Yay! I feel much happier -- kinda sad that simply drinking Nescafe can make me happy, but a $2 can of instant coffee is a pretty cheap thrill. Turay seems to be back to providing food -- today there are bananas and bread, and he's gone right now to get some vegatables -- so that's good. It also means either he's lying about not having any money or robbing people -- but at least I'm getting good food now.

I also discovered a cybercafe three buildings up from SDI -- it's the other direction from the main road, which is why I didn't know about it before. It's CFA500 for 3 hours, which is like 30 cents an hour. It's fairly fast when there aren't many people there, but with only 7 workstations it is often full. And I can't bring my own laptop, but I can use my flash drive to transfer files.

shawn.

Food!

Quick update: This morning I got up and there was a nice fish dinner, that I think the girlfriend (or whoever) made. As you can tell, Turay doesn't really explain much -- most of our conversations start with "What is your program for today?" and don't go much further than that. But at least I had a real meal for the first time in 3 days.

This morning was the first time I've actually considered just packing up and coming home. I'm not really that depressed, but it did cross my mind. Actually, the past couple days is when we ran out of coffee, so maybe I just need some caffeine -- I get mopey when I don't have my caffeine. I'll have to go and find some Nescafe.

I guess today we're going to talk with someone who Turay mentioned before, but Turay's accent is more difficult than almost everyone else around here -- he's from Sierra Lione, and everyone else is, duh, from Cameroon -- so I can't really tell. I had been planning on just walking around and thinking about what I should be doing, but I suppose actually doing something would be better.

Fight!

Well, today I had a shouting match with Turay. I was trying to figure out what SDI should be doing -- right now it is an organization without a mission, or rather with such a broad mission that it has no mission. Then he went into the kitchen where I saw he was cooking plain white rice. Again. So my food today was some boiled plantains, 2 oranges that I bought myself, and some plain white rice. And less than an hour ago I was calculating how much food I should have and realized that he is screwing me over. Here are my calculations:

10 weeks in Cameroon project fee (includes room, board, admin, etc.): $1020USD
per week: $102
in CFA: 51,000 (at CFA500 = $1)
Room in Bomoka: CFA4,000/wk
Food: 2,000/day = 14,000
Remaining: CFA33,000/wk.
Let's take 40% for administrative overhead, which is insane, but still:
left with: CFA19,800/wk.

So I'm looking at this and seeing I should be able to spend CFA20,000 per week, which is only $40 but enough for me to get work done with. And I should have CFA2,000 a day -- for only me -- to eat. Actually from the price list I was previously provided, I should be able to eat lunch and dinner each in a restaurant for CFA1000. So with plain white rice for dinner twice in a row, I was mad. Especially since I have to conserve my money and can't afford a 1/2 litre $1 beer until he can pay me.

So I start raising my voice and complaining, like I have before, that my money has been spent improperly. And also that I have been deceived on this whole thing. I suppose part of the fault is mine -- I haven't checked out this place as much as I should have. But I came here believing what I saw in the annual report and the flyer, which said there were 6 programs underway, including a computer lab where people were being trained, and a staff of around 5. When I come here there is one person, no projects being run, and no computer lab -- well, one old computer, plus of course the laptop that I brought. Which btw cannot currently be paid for. I think justified.

Then I started arguing that I don't see what the purpose of SDI is. SDI is a business like any other, and that there needs to be a market for what it is providing -- in this case, some social benefits. There are a number of other NGOs that are successfully providing social benefits, and SDI is not doing anything other than sucking money and not providing anything.

If you could guess, this did not go over very well, and he started yelling at me. I need to go and talk to those other NGOs, and this is not like America, where if you open a small organization all the other organizations help you out until you're big enough to stand on your own. I don't know what America he's talking about, but whatever. And I need to talk to those organizations and see how they started -- would I have told them to shut down? Then he told me I hurt his feelings.

Anyway, I guess what we settled on was that starting next week I would start working on the projects which they had already started and actually have some specific funding that needs to be used for that purpose. There are two projects: 1) get birth certificates for some orphans that don't have them, and 2) provide some food/education/whatever for some women that have been identified. Not too exciting, but at least I will provide some good while I'm here. The microcredit idea that I mentioned briefly before I believe is already in practice here in Buea, so there probably isn't a lot I could do there, but who knows -- I'll probably still talk to them and see how things are working.

Ugh. I think Turay has a girlfriend here now. She just walked in and introduced herself -- her name is Constance. Ugh, I so wish I wasn't here now. Ugh, I said ugh 3 -- no, 4 times. I'm starting to think this whole adventure was a bad idea. I guess what I need is to concentrate one what my goals are: 1) getting enough knowledge and perspective so that I can write a good statement of purpose for grad school, and 2) helping people. With lack of funds I can only do so much for the latter, but for the former I think it has clarified my thoughts a bit -- I'll try to write a blog later on that so you all can provide some comments.

Oh, I did have another view of the whole Turay / SDI situation. If I look at it from his point of view, helping SDI is the same as helping the people of the community. So while I see the money he spent on the rent and paperwork and new phones and blinds and kitchen utensils and beds and a portable safe (?) as OVERHEAD, he sees it all as an INVESTMENT. I suppose that world view all makes sense for the naive person that Turay seems to be.

Too bad it doesn't help me. I asked Turay if he could give me just a teeny tiny bit of cash to hold me over until the end of the month when there will be more available, and he said there isn't any. None. Asking how we would eat, he said I shouldn't worry and we will eat. Do you think I should be comforted? I know he's lying -- there's no way he would spend lots of money, and then all of a sudden there is nothing, but what can I do?

Though to me honest, I think I'll be ok if I concentrate on my own goals and not concentrate so much on actually making a difference. It's pretty sad that I think that I could have made a difference if only I had picked the right organization, but I don't know what to do. When I was first discussing with Turay about SDI and asked if I could get my money back if I found it wouldn't work (minus administrative fees), he said of course. Since the money has already been spent, I don't think that's an option. I then can't afford to go anywhere else, but at least my stuff is secure -- Turay at least is not a thief -- so it could be worse.

But Turay is not good to talk with, and there are no other volunteers. There is one Cameroonian named Ofe that works with another organization called Help Out which does human rights -- I've had a couple beers with him, and he's a good guy. But that's about it over here. I think I need a volunteer support group.

This weekend I was thinking of going to Limbe, but I was persuaded out of it by Ofe and Turay because they think it's dangerous for me to go there by myself. So I guess I'll hang out here -- I wish I either had the place to myself, or lived with someone I felt like socializing with. Living in the same building with the guy who, IMHO, spent all of my money and now has nothing but rice and plaintains for me to eat, frankly sucks.

A quick update

Hello readers! Not really much to say today, but I'm at the internet cafe, so might as well type up something. Turay has taken when I said about not having any money for SDI to heart, which means that rather than having 3 meals a day, now there is some plain white rice for dinner and that's it. Sigh. Now I need to explain to him that I already paid for food, and it's not just one meal of white rice a day.

I don't think an ATM exists in Buea, so I think I'm going out town tomorrow to get some money. Right now I have a bit less than $5 in my pocket, which should be enough to get me to Limbe. I might just stay there Saturday night and come back on Sunday -- I don't know much about Limbe, so might be interesting.

Oh, Turay gave me one of his mobile phones. I have no cash available to add credit, but if it works the same as western phones, I should be able to receive calls without paying. The number is +237 7450 5791.

Life is pretty relaxing right now since Turay does nothing with SDI other than checking the web page to see if there are any new grants. And since there is no money he can't really argue that I'm not doing much either. Yesterday I did meet with a group of rural women and we talked about some of their issues. It sounds like they have some issues with lack of credit, which microcredit institutions should help. I'm finding out these orgs exist right now, so I need to figure out why they aren't helping enough women -- perhaps lack of funding?

Oh, so I figured out how to get free internet too :-) The place I normally go to is supposed to require this little program to run while you're connected, and when it's running you can't do anything unless you're logged in. Well, if I unplug the internet connection then the program allows me to kill it, but I'm still connected! Once in awhile I actually connect and spend some of my credits so that it's not too suspicious -- if you can imagine, I kind of stick out in a group. I know, I come to internet to help people but I'm "stealing" internet. Oh well, that's life.

Man, I could go for some pizza!

My life as an accountant

I got pictures working, so I'll include a picture every time I post! This is my bedroom at SDI -- it's really not too bad, and there's a desk to the right you can't see.

Over the past week I've been trying to get SDI's finances in order. I had at one point hoped that there were some records somewhere that listed how money was spent, but the only thing I ever found was a 2007 annual report which contained only estimates for 2004-2007. Sometime last week I decided that one way I could make an impact was to set SDI on a path to eventually being a real NGO. I also wanted to have written down exactly what my money was spent on, to see if it had really been misallocated.

So I talked with one of the so-called volunteers (she uses Turay's computer for homework, and in exchange runs errands for him) and she and Turay wrote down a bunch of things that had been purchased. I found a program called Mango, which is a simple financial system for NGOs based on Excel spreadsheets, and I put everything into there. Then I added the money that I had donated and started adding everything up.

The result: all the expenses actually were MORE than my donation. I talked to Sulaiman and he said that there was no money. No money! Since he has a job, I set it to $0 available by adding a "donation" of money to SDI in order to cover expenses. But all of my money was spent moving the office to a new location, prepaying rent for 6 months, and buying a bunch of crap they didn't need.

So I guess I have blackmail material here :-)

So I'm going through this, and start telling Turay that he misappropriated my funds. I showed him what he said the funds would go for -- among other things:

The fees that you pay goes to the project; it is better that it goes into the community and helps develop the area you will be working and put your name on the map of development actors rather than getting stuck in a western country.

I told him that 0% of my money went to helping the community -- it ALL went to overhead and administration! He sat there with a stupid grin, not really knowing what to say, because I was totally right. I wasn't even yelling, but I was firm. If nothing else, this experience is teaching me how to deal with people.

And his response? That my money IS going to help the community -- indirectly. His thought is that because SDI exists, that in itself helps the community because SDI will eventually help the community. I think he really believes this bullshit. I explained that no, my money went to OVERHEAD. 100% of my money went to overhead -- not helping the community. He seems to understand the difference between overhead and actually helping -- explaining that no NGO would spend more than 20% on overhead -- but he says that my money will eventually go to helping people, so it wasn't being really being spent on overhead.

God. I just told him that his job was to change the amount of funds available from $0 to something more than that. And that I wasn't really going to work all that hard helping SDI until there is funds -- because I was certainly not contributing anything else because my money had been misappropriated. So there are some bank accounts that have some SDI money in them, and I highly recommended that he withdraw some of that money and put some of it as SDI money and some of it as paying back the laptop that he was supposed to have money for. He said he would have that done before the weekend, so that's good news!

All in all, I guess I feel pretty good about it. I don't think SDI will really ever succeed because I think Sulaiman Turay is lazy, naive and not that bright. That and I'm blogging on a public forum about the org lol. But who knows -- maybe setting up accounting and forcing him to record expenses will make it more clear that you can't go spending money on stuff you don't need.

Oh, speaking of expense recording, I also setup a system where a person withdraws funds from the SDI pool of cash (well, when some actually exists), he or she then gets a voucher with which all the expenses from that money are recorded. Then when the money is depleted, the voucher goes into a pouch and another one is received. At the end of the month, all of the vouchers are added up and categorized into the Mango spreadsheet. It's lightweight, simple, and all these little expenses such as taxi fares and internet access can be recorded as they are spent. I'm pretty happy with it :-D

So, I think I'm about done with doing finances. It's now time to start figuring out what to do to actually help things around here. Without any money it's not too easy, but I can at least write up a proposal for when we do have money. And stuff around here is pretty cheap, so I should be able to get by. The important thing is that Turay understands that he needs to get this fixed, and I think I accomplished that.

I mean, it could be worse -- at least he's not a Nigerian scam artist.

So, what's Cameroon like?

I have been reminded that I’ve been jotting down my own thoughts and have not provided a true window as to where I am living. So, I’ll try to help everyone out with that.

It’s like I’m on a big farm. But the farm has the geographic size of a suburb, but a quarter of the population. I go to sleep by the sounds of crickets, or dogs, or frogs, or monkeys. And add in the chickens screaming cock-a-doodle-doo throughout the night – unless it is drowned out by the night club next door – and you’ve got it down.

So today, after messing with trying to call UK and the line not going through and the phone at the office not working because all the credit being used up and after trying to call at the nearby internet / international call place and not believing me when I said that you need to dial 44 first to get to UK and them saying but it’s ringing – so I guess you don’t need to dial the country code, and me saying but how does it know to dial the UK? And they saying because you told me, I needed a drink. One nice thing about Cameroon is that everyone drinks a lot of beers. Especially Guinness Smooth – you can be an instant winner of a free beer or a motorcycle, if the bottle cap has the right picture on it! And they are 50cl large, which is half a liter, which is … definitely bigger than a toll boy. And each one is 500CFA (Central African Francs), which is pretty much $1 – actually less than $1 with the current exchange rate. If Turay would actually pay me for the laptop I brought over I would be doing really good!

Anyway, after all that bullshit I wanted a drink. So I ordered a Guinness Smooth – not a winner – sat down, opened by laptop and started working on SDI financials. In walks a hen, followed shortly by a cock – I didn’t notice until I heard squawking and there he was, gettin his groove on with the hen, who didn’t seem happy. In fact, Sunday there was a meeting with a group of Cameroon NGOs, and in the middle of it a hen with 4 cute little chicks walks right in seeing how things are going.

So blah blah blah, here’s how I will get this blog to the information superhighway. It’s 10:15PM right now, which is 3:15 CT, so after this I’ll try to get some sleep or work on my French. As I write this, the florescent light in my room is flashing, trying to turn on, but it can’t because there isn’t enough voltage to get the starter started. Tomorrow I’ll get up and have some breakfast prepared by Turay or maybe just some bread and chocolate – but always Nescafe! Then I’ll walk down the road that SDI is on called Chief’s Street – because some Chief who I’ve never met lives here. Oh, a Chief is the leader of a tribe, of which there are 260 in Cameroon.
It takes around 5 minutes to get to the end of Chief’s Street, and then I wait on the road to hail a taxi, which are mostly Nissan Sentras painted Yellow. Before one passes it honks to let you know it wants to carry you, and you point the direction you want to go – with a little point if you don’t want to go far or a long thrusting motion if you want to go to the next town. When the taxi stops you shout out where you want to go, and if he is going that direction, you jump in. The people that are already in the car make room for you, and off you go.

Right, these aren’t private cabs. They are very frequent and cheap, but there can be up to 5 people in the cab, in addition to the driver, at one time. And these are stick shifts – haven’t been in the middle yet. Anyway, off I go, and it’s really only a couple minutes to the internet café – called Fatabe House – where he lets me out and I pay 100CFA: around 20 cents. Actually I walked it last time and it wasn’t too bad. I sit down, plug in my laptop and work with the super-shitty internet which isn’t actually all that slow, but it gets stuck constantly, so you have to pause and reload downloads all the time. It’s 200 CFA (40 cents) an hour, so I can’t really complain – especially since I figured out how to get my laptop to connect without paying J. Going back is a stream of cabs – literally almost every vehicle going down the road is a cab honking at you, mostly with 3 or 4 people already in it.

Let’s see … hey my light just went on! It’s been flashing for at least an hour! I say I’m in Buea, but actually Buea consists of a number of “towns”, which are all walking distance from each other. Let me grab my map and I’ll list them ….
Eww, almost stepped on one of those big roaches. This is the slowest roach ever – you think about stepping on it, but it runs away kinda slowly. I’ve never killed one, and there’s only one at a time, so it might be the same one hanging out. I just had some rice, which was sitting in the cupboard from lunch – there is no refrigerator, but it hasn’t been much of a problem so far – and a banana, of which there are always plenty – Chief’s Street has banana trees all over the place.

Anyway, the map. I live in Bomaka, which is on the road to Kumba. Just a couple minutes down the road is a roundabout called “Mile 17”, because I guess it’s 17 miles from something -- a mile down the road is “Mile 16” and a bit more down the road is “Mile 14”. If I turn right at the roundabout there is Molyko, which is a fairly large town that contains the University of Buea. Inside Molyko is a place called “University Junction”, which is just an unnamed road that leads to the University. There are no road names, and no addresses either – except for being relative to some other place.

Past Molyko is Bonduma, and then Great Soppo, but in between is Suppo Market (not quite supermarket, although there is a market fairly often), which I have a picture of if I can get them working. Keep going straight and you arrive at Alliance Junction, and if you take a right you go towards Clerks’ Quarters (pronounced like Clex quarters). There is also Bokwango, Moyamovia, Muea, Mutenganae, Lyngo Village, and finally Buea Town (the picture) at the foot of Mount Cameroon – which has an Ecotourism center I need to visit!

It’s really hard to remember these names. One of the girls who does some of the cooking is named Moloka, which I always get confused with Molyko (pronounced mo-lee-co). I’m still confused why these girls come over to do cooking, eat in the kitchen, and then leave. Turay seems to not want them around, but he doesn’t complain too much. Teenage boys come over too – one of them likes to whistle loudly and play solitaire while he waits for Turay to get home – one of the reasons I have decided to hang out at the bar next door.

I have not seen a single white person since last week Monday when I arrived. Most people simply ignore me, except young boys and girls stare. People are generally polite treat me mostly like anyone else – I haven’t noticed people trying to charge me “white man’s price”, although I haven’t done a lot of shopping either. While I was walking today, an older man on the other side of the road actually saluted me saying “Ho chief!” or something like that, which I admit was pretty weird. But overall, everything is very laid back.

Oh, my living quarters! I live in a 3 bedroom place along with Sulaiman Turay (in a different room of course!). My room has a double bed, a table and chair, and a leopard-print upholstered chair. The bed has a thin foam top as a mattress, which is really hard, and I can feel the wood slats all night. But surprisingly, even though I wake up often throughout the night, my back feels better than it has for months! Also there is a wooden box with a lock that Turay said is for my valuables, but I just keep my dirty laundry in it – I mean, come on! if someone breaks into my room, do I really want to have all my valuables in a box that someone could easily carry away and get into with an axe? I keep my door locked (with an old-fashioned keyhole-type-key) whenever I’m not there anyway.

I also have my own Western-style bathroom, complete with a toilet and shower! However there is no running water, so there is a separate big plastic basin on the floor which I fill with water whenever the outdoor faucet actually works. With the basin I wash my hands, flush the toilet, and take showers / baths – no warm water for me! Fortunately at this time of the year it’s pretty temperate, so it’s really not too bad.

Water purifier is working just fine, even though the water I drink tastes a bit like chlorine and bleach. And my eye had a little sore on it – from the purifier, which I read later said that you need to wash your hands thoroughly after using it because you can damage your eyes – oops! But definitely nothing too bad, am healthy and actually definitely well-fed – better fed than I need to be, actually.

Food involves a lot of fish – whole fish, with bones – and I’m getting better at picking them out before I actually eat them. There are lots of bananas and plantains for dessert, which are yummy. Rice is also common, mixed with the fish, along with tomatoes and peppers. Breakfast consists of a couple hardboiled eggs with tomatoes, pepper and a lot of oil, or instead du pain avec chocolat. They also have French fries! With extra grease! Actually, everything has lots of oil – I was told a liter of oil lasts around 3 days here, which seems like a lot, right???

FYI, I don’t re-read my blog posts, so if there are grammatical errors, you will just have to live with it. That’s all for now! Keep up the comments and email me – I read them all, and it’s so nice to hear from back home!

shawn.

Waiting for internet

As of right now I have typed up 3 blog entries (4 including this one), 1 of which I have emailed to a couple people and 2 that no one has seen. So I thought today would be a good day to go to the internet café, create a blog account, and upload my posts. I got here today and after 5 minutes – with which you can accomplish absolutely nothing on this slow connection – and the internet connection died. It’s been at least an hour right now, and I’ve captioned all my Paris pictures and deleted some others, thinking that by the time I got that done the connection would be up. No such luck. So I’ll type out another blog entry and hope that it works by the time I’m done.

This morning I sorted through all the material that Turay had, a big stack of it. More than half of the material was information about other organizations and some education sessions. Most of the other half was SDI stuff, which would sound good. However, nearly all of that half are proposals for studies, proposals for helping others, and requests for money. As for financial records, there are the aforementioned yearly projections, which are the bullshit ones of over $100,000USD for the year, and also a budget which also doesn’t seem right. The best I could find was the 2007 annual report, which had I think 6 rows of numbers for each year, 2004-2007. However, I could find absolutely nothing to back up those numbers.

So from the looks of it, Sulaiman has been spending all his time a) Writing proposals, b) Sending those proposals to other organizations, and c) Waiting to get funding from those organizations. And the only funding I have found is £250 from Hope for Children in 2008, earmarked for registering orphans with birth certificates. And this money is nowhere to be found because apparently he cashed the check but then didn’t get cash until it was withdrawn from the org, and now the check has cleared from Hope for Children, but the bank says it hasn’t. That has been going on for 8 months. So the only funding has come directly from Turay lecturing at the University of Buea. But of course, none of that is recorded either.

I found out that this week is “relaxing week”, because it’s my first week here and I am to start work next week. I guess it’s relaxing week for everyone, as Sulaiman hangs out and talks with 5 other kids. The kids come over and try to get Turay to do their homework for him, and then wait until there’s some food. Meanwhile Turay tells them that he’s not doing their work, complain that they only come over for food, and tell whatever girl is around to make some lunch or dinner, which they usually do. Of course, never does he tell them to get out.

So I’m not too happy with the dedication level of Sulaiman. It might be that he’s just a push-over, and that’s why not that much hasn’t been done. Maybe he just needs a bit of a push and some organization. I did get him to write up some details on that 2007 annual report, so that would be helpful. There needs to be a strategy going forward.

Today I also typed up a list of the local organizations with which we might be able to cooperate with. I was going to send some emails, but, as I said, the internet is down. One of the organizations here in town actually seems to be doing some real work – I wonder if that is for real or not. I think I’ll propose doing that next week – contacting the organizations directly and finding out how things are progressing with them. However, since SDI is so indefinite, I wonder if there is a purpose in that.

Well, I’ve had enough of this. I’m taking the taxi back to the “compound”. I wish I could share my blogs with people today, but hopefully tomorrow. Ciao.

Feeling better

Last night I had trouble sleeping over fears that the SDI people would find out that I knew about their devious plan and decided to kill me. This morning I woke up and felt better, ready to make a new pass at it. I went with Turay to the internet café and sent yesterday’s blog post. I got a response back from Steph that apparently this is how all the African NGOs act. That actually made me feel better – not so much like an idiot who didn’t do sufficient investigation.

Damn, right now it’s 10:15pm on a Thursday, and it sounds like they’re having a party in the room next door. There are music and tubas and steel drums and it sounds like a dance hall party. I guess that’s what happens when your windows are open. It’s like Jamaica here, I swear – the climate is fairly wet and there are lots of black people walking around, hanging out and selling things, and there’s a party every night. I think they’re doing African “Hot hot hot” right now ;-)

Anyway, I ran into that guy Martin on the street walking home and talked with him a bit. Then after I got back home was talking with Turay, and he started explaining how the people on the board, such as Martin, only stop by when there is food, and that him and the rest of the Executive Board don’t really do anything; they are only around when there is money to spend. Then he started complaining about how the board was supposed to run meetings and come up with projects, and that nothing has been done at all recently.

That leads me to a new conclusion about the organization: Turay has dreams about helping lots of people, but he’s more of a day-to-day run-the-office type of person. He was depending on the Board of Advisors (BOA) to figure out what to do, and then he would do it. You can tell he likes to help people – there are always students and ex-students at the office who he is helping. The problem is the people that built this board teach stuff like finance, and so built this big silly bureaucracy to organize this little NGO. I was reading the constitution, and it says there must be a minimum of 15 members of the Board of Advisors, and a minimum of 6 on the Executive Board. In reality, there are (I think) 7 BOA members and the only one that does anything is Turay, the Executive Director. There is a person listed in charge of specifically gender issues for fuck’s sake – and I wrote last time how little the org has really accomplished.

So, Turay and I are both in agreement: we need to amend the constitution, get rid of a bunch of people that don’t do anything, and get an international Board of Advisors, all of which are dedicated to the cause. I also talked with him about going through the material and figuring out where we are at, and then coming up with a future direction.

So, I feel much better than before. There is a direction (which I always like) and I’m in the driver’s seat (again, I like).

Oh, also I used my water purifier for the first time today, and drank 600 mL of purified water. Hopefully my stomach continues to like me; this morning it felt a little weird – kinda like when you haven’t eaten for awhile and are really hungry. But nothing too bad so far.

SDI: What organization is this?

First: I am safe and sound! I have plenty to eat, a real toilet, electricity, and am healthy and taking my malaria medication. Phone calls are very expensive – calling cards don’t seem to exist and you need to make calls in town.

I am starting to wonder if Social Development International is a legitimate NGO, or just a group of people living off of grants and donations from others. Before coming over, everything seemed to be in order: they had a decent website, a business plan, a list of volunteers. They were focused on a variety of programs. They required a strong statement of purpose and a CV. Finally, the cost seemed reasonable: $300/mo for food and board, which is similar or less expensive from other groups in the reason. I got relatively frequent correspondence and no requests for large sums of money. In short, there were no signs of any scam.

But I should clarify. There were no signs of any Nigerian-Western Union-money-locked-in-estate scam. But that doesn’t mean that the true purposes of the organization were being revealed to me. I failed to see that there are multiple ways of being fleeced than trying to drain a person’s bank account. It is starting to look and feel that, in least in my case, SDI has received enough money from me to feed around 5 people every day – 3 meals a day – and that they are content to leave it at that.

But I get ahead of myself. Let me state the facts:

1. I have looked at the SDI Constitution. The SDI Constitution seems well-written, although board-heavy: 12 people on the “Executive Board” and 19 additional “Invited Board of Advisors”, of which an unknown number are actually on the Board of Advisors. From what I can tell, the Executive Board does basically nothing; they were part of a group of people that took an e-class sponsored by the World Bank, and Suliaman Turay (my host) is the co-founder and executive director. I met one board member named Martin today; more on him later.
2. I viewed the 2008 List of Cameroonian Organizations. There are 27 registered private NGO-type orgs which assist children in the district which has a size of approx 75k residents. This seems like a lot.
3. I viewed the 2008 and 2009 Objectives. These are lists of activities that SDI has proposed for each of the respective years. In 2009 there are 15 just for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), although that’s the only one I have, with a total estimated cost of $158,000. All of this money is supposed to come from Hope for Children, Global Giving, Ministry of Social Affairs for Cameroon, and InterConnection. As of right now, SDI has received a bit over $500 from Hope for Children and that’s it. The 2008 Objectives are for far far more activities, likely because it’s not just for OVC.
4. I have not seen anything documented about specific program results, although apparently they exist somewhere – the offices just moved a week ago, so some things are in boxes. Also I asked for financial records, which I’m not sure exist.
5. I have met 5 people that have been introduced as volunteers. One of them is a social worker who works at the Social Center – a center paid for by the government – whom I was talking with. She started to hint that I needed to get her a laptop. And that I should leave my laptop here when I left. And if there was some way to send her one from the States. She was talking about laptops because I gave one to Turay who promised to pay me for it when I arrived. It’s not much: $250 or so used. Apparently the money will be here next week. But he did advance me 10,000CFA today! – I think around $20.
6. As I mentioned before, I met for the first time Martin, who is the head of the Training Unit. From what I can tell he has not trained anyone. He spent last week in a different province apparently doing some training, but it’s hard to say how much. And the training was not with SDI. Martin was very interested in how I liked Cameroon, the weather, the people, and working at IBM. He did not seem to care much about what I was going to do at SDI. He also said he could take me on tours and to night clubs to meet women. He was a very smooth talker.
   

So that was all before Turay came back from doing some work at the computer lab. There he was trying to look through applicants who would volunteer doing some online work with the United Nations for SDI. More on this (also) later.

I had told Turay I wanted to interview him also this evening. It was originally supposed to be at 3pm, but he wanted to do that computer work. I think he returned at 7pm or so. One of his volunteers had some questions for him, so I didn’t start the interview until 8:30 or so, and went until around 10:00. I didn’t tell him my views on some of his ideas – kept it mostly informative. I took notes, and I’ll list most of them here:

• Accomplished within last 2 years:
  • Trained 15 youth on ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) with a computer lab which was setup. This died 4 months ago, as computers were leased and ran out of funds. Training was basic typing, Office, etc. Subsequent follow-up was that youth would stop into office looking for work
  • Sensitization training – health & family planning – in schools, with help of Social Center (remember, Social Center paid by gov’t)
  • Support 3 OVC children, trained in tailoring, I think found some homes
  • Presented 5 seminars, not many details on what that did
  • Brought HIV material from government to Social Center
  • Operated call boxes – a person with a cell phone which you can rent to use. The purpose of this was to make money to pay for other things. But a couple volunteers stole everything.
  • Professional training / advice for youth – no more detail on this
  • Identification of 390 elderly for counseling. None were helped – apparently no funding
  • Some stuff having to do with environment education with biomass, using charcoal for cooking, solar energy
• Active members are 5:
  • Martin, who I met
  • The program coordinator, living in another city
  • An admin assistant, who recently left because of insufficient funds
  • Osan, head of the gender unit (unclear what this person has done)
  • Suliaman Turay
• Then I asked about the volunteers. Apparently the people I met are former students who stop by once in awhile and run some minor errands and do cooking. They seem like nice, intelligent people, but unclear if they have actually done any work.
• The 2008 Operational Plan has accomplished basically nothing which was proposed. Reason: insufficient funding (I forgot to ask how much funding total has been received!) Apparently most NGOs with funding available ask for an Operational Plan, which is the huge list of activities.
• Short-term goal is opening up an ICT training center so that people can learn skills to be self-employed and involved in the global market. Want to open a Vocational Training school where they teach advanced software skills (software dev / business / maintenance), social entrepreneurship, bookkeeping, health, social responsibility.
• How to pay for this? By opening businesses:
  • Internet Operating Center – basically a for-profit Internet Café, and …
  • A bakery.
• Proceeds from these two businesses allow people to go to the vocational school for free.
• Also, get money from the government:
  • Give office space
  • Pay for social workers
  • Pay for basic utilities
• My role in this? Talk to existing ICT groups in the area and see how to overcome challenges such as lack of funding. Look for potential partners. Come up with a project proposal which meets objectives. Submit the project proposal for funding.
• The “UN online volunteers” (I think http://www.onlinevolunteers.com) mentioned previously? There are more than a dozen of them so far, whose role is to write funding proposals and to recommend policies. These proposals are then sent to an organization who will then hopefully send money. So far has raised $0, although one proposal was sent to Staying Alive Foundation and is currently under review.
• Asked if there was anything else I should know: SDI is currently having trouble paying for 1) previous rent 2) phone lines 3) back-payment for assistant who quit
• Another big cost has been preparing paperwork for the government in order to get funding. Paperwork cost 85,000CFA (around $170US) to complete, which includes what work the org has already done, etc. I asked to see this, because I thought it would be very interesting. Oh, also corruption is very common in Cameroon (he didn’t say that at this point, but I’m reading between the lines). And when I asked where the money came from, he said the living stipend I sent partially paid for it. Not to worry! There is enough money for my 10 week stay.
• Finally, what is the plan for the next 6 months? Answer: “At all costs” create an income-generating activity so that we don’t have to ask other groups for money. Specifically the afore-mentioned Internet Café, with 4-5 computers will make 10,000 CFA/day. SDI is “very close” to a partnership with miva-net-alliance (something like that) which would provide a satellite internet connection. (Note: there are already a number of existing Internet Cafés, so would not be providing a brand new service).
  

And that was the interview. So … today has been an eye-opener. Add up the total number of people really helped: I think 3. In 2 full years. With 12 people on the Executive Board. And a bullshit (probably) statement of Objectives. At this point, I think that the options are a) SDI just wants to make a living for the people running it, or b) Turay is naïve and really thinks he can get all this funding. Turay is a really nice guy, and I have a key to the place and my door is locked and there is always plenty of food. The place is quite clean and nice – for Cameroon standards at least, which means no running water – Turay and I are both staying at the SDI headquarters.

Which brings me to: what do I do now? I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about my options – I’ve spent most of the time typing this all up to you, dear reader . But I have 2 suitcases and 2 bags worth of stuff. I have more than 9 weeks that I’m supposed to be here. When I asked originally if I could get my money back if it didn’t seem like a good match, he said that would be fine. But with the money already spent, it seems doubtful. I currently have only the 10,000 CFA advance for the laptop, so I need to try to find if there is an ATM anywhere.

In short, I’m a bit concerned. Stephanie – you were right. I didn’t look into this enough. I feel like an idiot. I just went by my gut feeling of this being a legitimate organization, and I feel my gut has more than likely led me wrong. And I feel like I’ve come all this way and don’t see any way in hell I can make a difference within this organization. I suppose if option b) is true I could try to change the entire direction of the org, but of course there are major problems with that as well.

On the positive side, it is a big learning opportunity, to see how people in Cameroon live. But there’s no way I could just do that for 9 weeks and treat this like a big holiday. I can also see what is really needed around here: microcredit – but I can’t see setting up a microcredit operation in such a short timeframe – with no funding. There are also other organizations in the area, but all I hear is that Cameroon is majorly corrupt, and it’s quite likely that corruption has filtered into all the orgs as well. I could just leave the whole thing early, but what a waste that would be. Anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

Arrival in Cameroon

I woke up this morning at 8am for my flight at 10:30. This would have been enough time, except that I waited for a taxi outside the Hotel Baudin, where I was staying, for around 20 minutes. The taxi eventually got me there an hour before my flight was supposed to leave, barely enough time to check in. Then I waited in line to get through customs for nearly an hour, ran to a bus that was to take us to the plane, and sat there for around 15 minutes, waiting for others who were also stuck. Finally the bus took us to the plane, and we sat in the plane for half an hour before taking off. So I would have time to get something to eat, but I didn’t. So I was very hungry – and I was very glad when we got food. Air France has good airline food: got champagne, wine, cannoli, cheese cookies, bread, yummy.

Anyway, we finally arrived in Douala outside the terminal, so had the pleasure of the hot and muggy Douala afternoon – quite a change from chilly Paris. At this point I didn’t know how I was to find my driver, so I wandered through the terminal, seeing people with signs, none of which bore my name. I finally got to the baggage area, and it was chaos. To the left in the balcony were around 20 teenagers checking out the spectacle. All around were people getting baggage, people trying to organize, and people with carts trying to organize other people to put their baggage on the carts. One approached me and I declined – multiple times.

I spent awhile looking for my ride, but no one was to be found. Finally a man dressed in white with a uniform that said service asked me who I was looking for. I showed him the piece of paper Mr. Sulaiman Turay (executive director of SDI) sent me, and the serviceman made a call on his mobile. He said he found the person, so I grabbed my bags and waited for him as directed.

Apparently he was leading a group of around 30 white people. In fact, they were ALL the white people in the station. And like the pied and the piper, he led them all off and never looked back.

So there I was, with no clue what to do next. I asked another person in the same uniform to dial Sulaiman, and while I was talking with him, another younger man came up to me, asking who I was looking for. I told him, and of course he knew exactly where he was. And he knew exactly who I was too – after I told him. It seemed fishy, so I was understandably hesitant. At that point a third man in a white wife-beater came up to me and actually knew my name! He said that my ride was waiting outside and told me I had to give €10 to the military guy next to me so he wouldn’t go through my luggage – I didn’t believe that either, but I figured he at least knew where my ride was, so at least I could get going. So I gave him €15, all of which he took.

Apparently, bribing and corruption is very common here. Just after I arrived in the terminal I watched one man semi-discretely hand another some money. In fact, the wife-beater guy palmed some cash to the military guy, which I suppose I also bribed.

Anyway, one person grabbed one bag, one another, and off we went to meet a man with a sign “Welcome Shawn Lauzon!” who I was soon to find out was Mr. Sulaiman Turay himself! He said he had been waiting since 5:10 – the flight was a half hour late and I was in the station for another 30 minutes. Turay said we needed to walk down a hill to find the car, so off we went, with a couple more guys who decided to accompany us, none of whom I knew. But I kept my eyes on my 2 big suitcases, while I carried my Puma messenger bag and the hiker’s backpack.

We all got to the bottom, put my stuff down, and proceeded to wait for the driver. At that point the other people carrying the luggage started harassing me for money for carrying the bags. I thought they were with Turay, but it quickly become apparent they were just hustling for cash. The problem was that they saw the money I had left ($25 at this point) and so weren’t going to stop until I gave them some. I gave the $5, and of course they wanted the $20. So fine, he gave me the $5 and I gave the $20. Of course, another guy said that that now he needed to get paid, but I had had enough of that and kept my $5 to myself. So now I’m €15 and $20 lighter to get 2 bags carried down a rocky hill which took 2 minutes. I guess it could have been worse -- when we finally arrived at the car, Turay tells me “I was worried I wasn’t finding you – I thought the scammers had got you!” At this point I have $5 and about €2 in coins, and we left Douala, Sulaiman and me in the back, the driver in the front, without finding an ATM.

I wasn’t sure how far Douala was from Buea – I was told it was between 30 minutes and 2 hours away from Kenny, a friend of Stephanie’s, depending on the traffic. And everything was smooth, weaving around cars in a 2 lane highway with no real lanes, until we hit the bridge. And there we waited. We waited enough that we actually turned off the car – three times. Meanwhile, little motorbikes with 2 or 3 people riding it were buzzing by us on the left and right.

While we waited, vendors in little shacks were hanging out, talking with each other, and once in awhile someone would walk by down the middle of the road, selling rolls of toilet paper out of a multi-roll pack. We waited for 45 minutes before getting into the roundabout causing the whole backup. Traffic laws are nonexistent; as Turay said, it’s “battle of the strongest”, with 2 or 3 cars jockeying for position while trying to squeeze through a narrow road. So you might be able to imagine the clusterfuck which is the Cameroonian roundabout. Thankfully we made it without getting hit and started driving a bit faster.

The road alternated between semi-smooth, semi-smooth with huge potholes, and a road before the asphalt has been poured. All around to the left and right, hundreds of people were hanging out in little shanty bars drinking beers. We drove past dozens of these before getting on the main road out of Douala. At this point we started going what seemed very fast – 130km/hr, which I suppose wouldn’t be that fast if not that there are no road lights and we passed cars with little room to spare before getting front ended by other cars doing the same thing. Twice there were some flashlights ahead, which caused us to slam on the brakes to avoid running into around 50 head of cattle, being led down the middle of the road towards the market.

There were two other stops on the road: one was a military checkpoint where they looked at our id cards (or passport, in my case). I learned later that the checkpoints are actually illegal – they are government people illegally moonlighting and requiring 1000-5000 CFA ($2-$10) if your papers aren’t exactly in order. The other was a man holding a rifle next to an old woman in a chair taking 500CFA ($1) as a toll for road maintenance.

I would be lax in admitting that the whole drive from the airport to where we were staying was a bit scary, and not just because of the change of a car crash. After we got off the main road, we stopped at a gas station, where Sulaiman got out of the car, mumbled something in Pidgin (bastardized English) and left. Then the driver left. Looking out, there waited sat 10 cars with twice as many bikes and three times as many people hanging out. Obviously I stick out just a bit. I started to think “What have I gotten myself into – they have left me here!” Then left and Turay had brought me some bottled water.

Leaving the junction, we drove a bit and turned down this muddy dirt road, with a couple shacks on each side and some people walking along. At this point I started to consider how I could be led to my death. I thought “What do I really know about this org? I didn’t talk to anyone else about it – just that they had a reasonable website, an annual report, and he got me a Visa with a semi-professional stamp.” I started to envision the car stopping and someone putting a gun to my head and either kidnapping me for ransom or raping and killing me. So, I guess I started to freak out. My one positive thought was “Really? I’ve already sent $1200 over there, so what was the point of kidnapping me?” Hmmm … looking back at that thought, it doesn’t make me feel better. If I’m a person with $1200 available, perhaps a random could provide even more???

But obviously since I’m writing this you can likely surmise that it is all OK. We arrived at Turay’s home, which doubled as the office, and were greeted by his 5 volunteers / students. There were 2 young men who seemed quite intelligent and 3 young women who seemed – well, they just seemed quiet. They all put me at ease though – especially after I opened the bottle of wine from Paris. I wish I brought more! We had a lovely meal of fish, fries and plantains. We talked about this and that, politics and Paris, and the kids left and I went to bed. Sulaiman and I are the only ones remaining as I write this, and he has bolted the doors, propped a chair against one and poles against the other “as a warning bell, in case people try to break in.” I have locked the bedroom door from the inside and the bathroom door as well. None of this is altogether comforting, and I’m not at all sure what to do if the poles fall down. But I suppose the chance of something happening tonight is pretty slim, so I’m off to sleep now. As I was told when the volunteers left –a demain (see you tomorrow)!