Life in Oku


If life in my bungalow in Dschang is like camping, life in Oku was even more rustic but better than camping in the forest. I rented a three-room "apartment" in the village (bedroom, bath, and a third room that served as my parlor, field room, office, and kitchen). It was pretty comfortable once I got used to the "life" going on just outside my window (life begins at 5:30 am here). Families use their houses only for sleeping it seems. Everything else – visiting, preparing food, doing laundry - goes on in the courtyard. People live in compounds, which are a series of buildings. In my case, the buildings were in a square, with my apartment and a series of rooms that they rent on two sides and the family house and kitchen on the other two sides. The kitchen where they have their wood fire for cooking. They also eat and take baths in there. It was interesting to observe this way of life – since I have never lived in a compound before.


This place was luxury compared to 99.9% of the people in Oku. Most people live in mud-brick houses with dirt floors and no electricity or water. I had electricity (with a wall plug for the computer), tiled floors, a flush toilet, and a sink with running water. The water was shut off occasionally so I had to store water in a pail. Once the water was off for three days and I had to decide between water to drink or use it for, ahem, flushing the toilet. The problem was solved when the water came back on but I stored more water after that. I cooked on a one-burner camping stove that burns butane in these little blue canisters (you can find these all over the world). It worked well. I heated water for bathing with a Sun Shower that uses the sun to heat water in a black bag. It heated water well but the air temp is so cool that bathing was a shivering experience. Needless to say, bathing was out of the question in camp, brrr.