The Food Issue

The thing I miss the most here is the wealth of food choices that we can find in even the tiniest supermarket back home. When I first arrived in Dschang and was shown the “supermarket,” I had a minor panic attack. There was hardly anything to buy! I could buy sardines, cans of tuna ($3), powdered milk (four brands, three sizes each), tea, instant coffee, canned peas, canned mushrooms, tubs of margarine (pure trans fats!), Laughing Cow “cheese,” pasta (yippee), rice, and some bottled herbs. That was about it. The entire store contains only one food aisle and that was only to the waist-high shelves. I assumed that the supermarket in Dschang would have the same things that I found anywhere else in Cameroon. Even the one supermarket in tiny Kumbo (where there are two hospitals to provide the demand, I suppose) had all sorts of goodies (like Kool-aid and peanut butter). I guess Dschang is too small.

Local produce is cheap and good. I can find carrots, cabbage, green beans, potatoes, green peppers, and very fine plum tomatoes in my neighborhood market. On market days (once every 8 days in the main market area - see previous posting) if I am lucky and go early enough, I can find “village eggs,” which we would call organic eggs. They are infinitely better tasting than the commercially grown eggs. They are hard to carry since you just put them in a plastic bag and walk carefully. Haven’t broken one yet.

What to do? I decided long ago that I don’t like the local dishes enough to spend the HOURS required to prepare them. To say nothing of the hours it would take to learn to make them. I could hire someone to prepare my meals but living at this hotel precludes that (neighbors needed). So being an intrepid traveler, I had to make do – with the help of friends back home.

With the help of three “care” packages, I managed to make some tasty concoctions using soup and pasta mixes. I usually make up a pot of chopped produce (whatever is available that week) and one of the mixes. Although it sounds monotonous, each one is different. I also make a pretty good marinara pasta sauce with those plum tomatoes. I found another small supermarket run by a really nice man from Lebanon. He has the usual stuff but he carries real cheese and Mars bars. What a find!

International Women’s Day, March 8, 2007

In the US, International Women’s Day passes without much notice. Here, in Cameroon, it is a BIG DEAL! I found out about the big celebrations only the day before. It is usual for a woman to have a tailor-made dress for the occasion. You select one of three colors/designs but the design of the dress can be anything you want. So I didn’t have an "official" dress, which was the cause of some embarrassment since I was dressed so blandly in comparison.

The day is quite festive with the main event at the town grandstand. I finagled a seat inside (out of the hot sun). There is speeches, poetry, and dance competitions (with the men "officials" joining in – the cause of great mirth among the crowd). But the main event is a parade of the dozens and dozens of womens groups, all in their special dresses with flounces, flourishes, and fancy. Many were organized around HIV/AIDS, poverty reduction, and elimination of domestic violence. Many were rural groups, each with a banner or sign. It went on for about two hours with the high school band playing in the background. Afterwards, I hung out with some of the university women faculty who were a hoot. I met most of them that day – about time!

Flag Expedition

Some of you know that I was awarded an Explorer’s Club Flag. It is considered an honor to carry one. Each flag is issued "on loan" and has its own history. I applied to carry a flag for the research portion of this trip and was awarded Flag #50. It dates from 1932 and has been all over (and above) the world, including Ethopia, Easter Island, Farallon Islands, and a trans-global balloon flight. And now to Cameroon.

Part of the tradition is to take pictures of the flag at interesting points of the expedition. The first photo is with members of the faculty and administration at the University of Dschang. From left to right, Jonas Pinta, chair of the Botany Department; Pierre Tané, Dean of the Faculty of Science; Anaclet Fomenthe, Rector (President) of the University; me; and Ajaga Nji, Vice Rector for Research and Cooperation.

The second photo is me with the fon (king) of Oku. On my arrival in Oku, he had asked me to return with my observations. Following our discussion, we snapped this photo (and drank a little palm wine).

The third photo represents the true nature of the expedition. At the left is my main man, Isaac Fokom who has been part of my research from the beginning. At the right is Joseph Keming who joined my work in the second year. I couldn’t do this work without them. We are standing in front of Tree #2 in the Sacred Forest, one of the largest trees in the study. Unfortunately, it is dead because of harvest.

Forest Conservation News

The news is not good for the forest and the tree I am studying. The forest is still beautiful but it is increasingly disturbed. Large areas have been subjected to fires (many deliberately set). Most species do not seem to be fire-adapted so you see vast areas covered in bracken fern that come in after a disturbance. One of my plots was burnt and 2/3 of the trees are dead. Harvest has also taken its toll. All of the trees in my control plot (never harvested before - photo to left) were dead. These included most of the largest trees in my study. It seems the former fon (king) got paid off by some bark buyers and he allowed the harvest to begin. Every tree I saw had been harvested. The trees that have survived – so far – look sick with the main branches dead and only small suckers coming out (second photo). But two plots were harvested gently and they will probably do ok. There is also a lot of goat and sheep grazing, much more than I saw in the past. Everywhere you go, there are hundreds of the seedling-eating devils. Wherever there are goats, I find no seedlings. This is probably also true for the other forest species. But data is data and I will work it up and sound the alarm – if anyone will listen, much less do anything about it. The new fon (the former one died recently) asked me to write up a report about what I saw. The jury is still out on his conservation attitudes. Time will tell.

Wilderness Camping

I made three trips up to my highest camp (close to 10,000 feet). It is completely rustic although we "rent" a man’s hut that we use to build a fire to keep warm and the guys cook on – just like they do at their homes. The fire is made inside and the smoke goes out the grass roof. It stays pretty toasty in there. I had never been up there so early in the year and I was surprised at how cold it got at night. Before, it got into maybe the high 40s but it got to freezing this time. Each morning, the tent and everything else was covered in icy frost. The first trip, I was shivering cold during the night. The second trip I brought an extra layer of clothes. So I slept in long underwear, fleece pants and top, wool sweater and jacket. The guys just have a t-shirt and light jacket and use flip flops around the camp! In the photo, the summit and the grassland savanna can be seen in the background.

Left to right are Isaac; Lufsamba, and Joe, my indispensible field assistants. This photo was taken in front of the palace.

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.

Students

The students are amazing. Everything they learn is from lectures and they are writing like mad to get it all down. Since there are no textbooks to look up anything, they need to get every word. Someone told me that they can get through a Ph.D. and never see a textbook. They don’t seem to have any laboratories so they have little practical knowledge. Whatever their limitations, they make up for in their enthusiasm. I’m not sure how they are evaluated. It seems they attend classes and at the end of the year, they take a comprehensive exam and if they pass it, they go on to the next year. Once I figure this out, I will clarify this.

Tuition is just $100 for the entire year and it is kept low so that young people have something to do. They struggle along with very little money or even much of a hope of a job when they finish. However, they must come from families with at least some means since they come from all over the country. They need to find some kind of housing and meet expenses.

For second year students, I designed some simple exercises based on some botany labs I used to teach. I introduce the topic (Leaves, roots, etc) and use the laptop and projector as a “microscope” or as a way to demonstrate the topic. I give them a few questions based on what they are looking at. At first they seemed really shy about interacting with me. They are not used to speaking with their teachers. The first two labs, I had to talk them through it. By now, they are used to my style and they seem to like it. Here they are looking at flower parts and working on identifying some basic flower morphology.

I suggested to the Dean that they use the office that they built for me and convert it to a Departmental library. They love the idea. So these students will have access to at least a dozen recent textbooks and the CD ROMs that come with them.

At the Market


To buy produce one must go to market. Big Market Day is held every eight days and Small Market Day is every three days after that. Either day, sellers bring their produce or other things to sell to the main market area. It is a bustling place with hundreds of people moving around, small boys with their wheeled carts to carry your purchases, and cars trying to weave around the masses of people. It is exciting and a little intimidating since any purchase necessitates the interaction with the seller and of course, it is all in French or Pidgin or some combination of the two. However, I enjoy the interaction and of course, getting really fresh produce. It is time-consuming. Not like a quick trip to Publix.


My favorite things to buy are "farm eggs." These are MUCH better than the commercial eggs which are tasteless things. They also hang around without refrigeration for who knows how long. I also like passion fruits. They are the best fruit in the world and taste a bit like a sour version of a kiwi. I buy as many as I can when I find them. The tropical fruits are really good too (papaya, pineapple) and about 25-50c each.

I bought peppers and tomatoes from these women. Hard way to earn a few francs.

At the University

The university is pretty small as far as infrastructure is concerned although there are 13,000 students. It has an "upcampus" at the top of the hill and a "downcampus" about a mile away at the bottom of the hill. The upcampus was built by the US as a land grant college. I don’t know the year but the buildings look 70s era. The buildings are really solidly built but are slowly crumbling away since there is no money for maintenance. Everything is dirty, mostly due to the very dusty dry season. Many things are broken and left unrepaired (cabinet doors, broken tiles, dangling light fixtures). The American builders also never finished the job since they were accused of spying (on what I can’t possibly imagine) and left. My office is located upcampus although all my classes are downcampus. Fortunately, where I live is about halfway between them and it is an easy walk to either place.


It is a challenge to teach here. The most annoying thing is that there is no water on either campus except for a spigot outside the main building upcampus. Even though there are toilets, you must flush them with a bucket from a 55-gallon drum. The toilets have a sign on the door "Sanitaire," a misnomer if I ever heard one. They are also unisex and locked for faculty use only. The students have no access to toilets that I know of. Guys have it easy, they go anywhere but I don’t know what the girls do.


The other really annoying thing is that the power goes out for at least some period of time every day. At least once a week, it is out for the entire day. This week is has been off more than on. If the power is out, it is out over the entire city. This usually happens when I am settling down for a productive time of writing or course preparation or when I am intending to go to the faculty internet room to do email and such. Can you imagine FPL getting away with that? A former Fulbrighter told me of this so it seems to be a chronic problem. They seem to take it all in stride.
Once reason I chose to live at the "resort" is because they have their own water source. Anyplace else, the water can be shut off for hours, days, or weeks. I can live without electricity but not water. I see people bringing containers up the hill to get water from the campus tap or doing laundry. The Centre Climatique also has a generator but they only fire it up at night. So while the rest of the city is dark, we have lights and I am grateful for it.