Tuesday June 16, 2009
There was no community work today. However, that didn’t mean a day of rest. We traveled up to Carifu Quarter’s section of the line to inspect their work. Their quarter head hoped we could find an alternate path that avoided many of the rocks they were hitting. No such path existed. So, we told the quarter head to dig as deep as physically possible in that section of the line. I guess that’s the disadvantage of having only manual sources of labor. A storm in the afternoon transformed our street into a small river.
A surprise was waiting for us after dinner. Despite the terrible roads, the pipe and supplies were in the village. It took the villagers a short time to unload the truck. After unloading, the truck got stuck in the mud. A small contingent of villagers pushed and pulled until the truck was free.
Wednesday June 17, 2009
Our first task of the day was to move all the pipes from the soccer field into the school house. Our small group worked quickly and we put the last pipe in the classroom by 8 AM. To celebrate, we headed off to the chairman’s place for a free beer. Only in college and Cameroon is it acceptable to drink beer at 8 AM.
Since we had no other work to be done on the pipeline, we stopped at the storage tanks to assist the carpenter in mixing/placing concrete. Mr. Willie is the carpenter for the tanks. He is a very knowledgeable man when it comes to construction practices in Cameroon. It’s amazing what these men can do without machines. All the concrete ingredients are mixed on the ground. Then, the buckets of fresh concrete were passed via a line of workers up to the top of the tank. Other men placed and finished the concrete. The result was a tank that wouldn’t look much out of place in the US.
We played some more football today. The game came down to penalty kicks after tying in regulation. The goalkeeper made an excellent save on my shot. Mark was the only one of the three whites to score in penalty kicks. In the evening, all of us (including Carine) visited the local “movie theater.” This movie theater is nothing like those in the states. The small room was filled with benches that faced a 19” TV. The place was packed when we arrived. The cost was 50 CFA (about 10 cents) for one movie or 100 CFA for the double feature. (We arrived too late to see the first half)
The movie itself was a Nigerian soap opera. (Cameroon is not yet developed enough to have their own movie production studios) Like all soap operas, Nigerian soaps are overdramatic, terribly acted, and poorly written. In addition, the sound quality is marginal to put it nicely. Doors close with loud bangs and voices go from inaudible to booming in seconds. Overall, I find the films to be hilariously bad.
The plot of this particular film centered on a man who was dating three girls at the same time. The girls happened to be best friends and when they found out the truth, things got nasty. A girl was raped, someone was killed, and people were thrown in jail. But in the end, everything turned out just dandy. The good guy got the girl and the bad guy was put behind bars.
There was no community work today. However, that didn’t mean a day of rest. We traveled up to Carifu Quarter’s section of the line to inspect their work. Their quarter head hoped we could find an alternate path that avoided many of the rocks they were hitting. No such path existed. So, we told the quarter head to dig as deep as physically possible in that section of the line. I guess that’s the disadvantage of having only manual sources of labor. A storm in the afternoon transformed our street into a small river.A surprise was waiting for us after dinner. Despite the terrible roads, the pipe and supplies were in the village. It took the villagers a short time to unload the truck. After unloading, the truck got stuck in the mud. A small contingent of villagers pushed and pulled until the truck was free.
Wednesday June 17, 2009
Our first task of the day was to move all the pipes from the soccer field into the school house. Our small group worked quickly and we put the last pipe in the classroom by 8 AM. To celebrate, we headed off to the chairman’s place for a free beer. Only in college and Cameroon is it acceptable to drink beer at 8 AM.
Since we had no other work to be done on the pipeline, we stopped at the storage tanks to assist the carpenter in mixing/placing concrete. Mr. Willie is the carpenter for the tanks. He is a very knowledgeable man when it comes to construction practices in Cameroon. It’s amazing what these men can do without machines. All the concrete ingredients are mixed on the ground. Then, the buckets of fresh concrete were passed via a line of workers up to the top of the tank. Other men placed and finished the concrete. The result was a tank that wouldn’t look much out of place in the US.We played some more football today. The game came down to penalty kicks after tying in regulation. The goalkeeper made an excellent save on my shot. Mark was the only one of the three whites to score in penalty kicks. In the evening, all of us (including Carine) visited the local “movie theater.” This movie theater is nothing like those in the states. The small room was filled with benches that faced a 19” TV. The place was packed when we arrived. The cost was 50 CFA (about 10 cents) for one movie or 100 CFA for the double feature. (We arrived too late to see the first half)
The movie itself was a Nigerian soap opera. (Cameroon is not yet developed enough to have their own movie production studios) Like all soap operas, Nigerian soaps are overdramatic, terribly acted, and poorly written. In addition, the sound quality is marginal to put it nicely. Doors close with loud bangs and voices go from inaudible to booming in seconds. Overall, I find the films to be hilariously bad.
The plot of this particular film centered on a man who was dating three girls at the same time. The girls happened to be best friends and when they found out the truth, things got nasty. A girl was raped, someone was killed, and people were thrown in jail. But in the end, everything turned out just dandy. The good guy got the girl and the bad guy was put behind bars.
Left: Standing in front of a felled Boma tree near the storage tank
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