The return to Manjuwele
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Lirije
12 Mei 2017 | Kameroen, Limbe
Hello all,
I haven’t written this blog since I did my internship in Liverpool which is five years ago now. Time flies! I am still in Liverpool and have done quite a bit of travelling since. This year alone I have been to Mexico, Cuba, the US (east and west coast) and Barcelona. I haven’t written a blog about those trips but I thought it was time to start it up again.
Right now I am in Limbe, Cameroon for work (LPG Adoption in Cameroon Evaluation – LACE) together with my boss Dan Pope. I have been working as the research coordinator and analysing the qualitative data since January 2016. I have been once before (June 2016) to do some qualitative training with the fieldworkers. It was a short trip, only 5 days. This time the trip is 12 days and we are here to launch a new study – a pressure cooker intervention helping people to stop using wood for cooking (the smoke is really bad for the health of poor women and children).
We had to do some preparation for this trip and one of them was sorting the visas. Unfortunately, the embassy had changed their policy and needed an extra day to process the passports which meant that we wouldn’t receive them until the night before our flight. It was a bit stressful as they arrived at 1am and we head to head off to the airport at 3am. Luckily it all worked out! Setting my alarm for 2:30am was quite painful but managed to get up, do some final packing and be ready in time for the taxi. It was nice and quiet on the road. At the airport we had to go through the usual checks. Whilst we were waiting for the security check a woman just opened another lane. She was something though. The guy in front of me was on his phone and she started yelling at him that this was not allowed. Then she proceeded to yell that she would sort us all out. We had a laugh with the guy in front of us and we were all hoping not to have to go to her lane. Guess what?! We did have to go there.. She said it was better to spend some more time with her and to get everything out of your luggage then to spend 40min waiting for your luggage to be checked. We were just glad to be rid of her but the guy ‘s luggage was picked up and he had to wait a while to go through.
We had to go through duty free, as that’s how they cleverly make you go through it and buy this. I bought a new perfume and a new purse. After that I wasn’t allowed to go into any shops anymore! We had some coffee and then it was time to board. We flew from Manchester to Brussels where we had a transfer time of just over 2 hours. It was very easy and straightforward. We had to go to terminal T and we couldn’t wait to get some breakfast. However, it seemed that there was nothing, no shops in terminal T. That was a bit of a disappointment but at least they had nice lounge chairs so we could relax for a bit. Then it was time to fly to Douala. The flight was fine, watched a movie and tried to get some sleep.
At 4:35pm we landed in Douala. When we got off the plane the heat was already hitting you in the face, 30+degrees and almost 100% humidity. Yikes! We had to show our boarding pass when we got off but Dan had thrown his one away, not realising that we would have need it, as this wasn’t required for any of the last trips he went on. Luckily, he had the boarding pass on his phone and we went on our way to the checks. First up was the yellow fever certificate check. After that we had to go through passport control. We chose the right lane which seemed to go quicker than the others which was good as I always choose the wrong one! However, at some point we had to split up into two lines. You would think that that would be straightforward. The lines were formed for the two desk but then people kept crossing over to the opposite lane so there was no point really to form the lines to start with!
I managed to get my luggage quickly but we had to wait a bit longer for Dan’s luggage. Outside it was even warmer than I remembered. Humphrey was picking us up to take us down to Limbe. We found him relatively quick and soon we were on our way. We originally had a different driver but his car broke down and it wasn’t ready yet. Humphrey quickly had to get a taxi for us and whilst we were making our way through very heavy traffic (read driving on the pavements to get around) we stopped at another place. Dan and I were a bit confused but apparently, this driver was too expensive according to Humphrey so we switched taxis. As you do. The remainder of the journey went fine until out of nowhere a cow appeared and we had to swerve to avoid it. In doing so the cow still hit the side mirror and on the other side we hit a motorcycle. Luckily the cow and motorcyclist were fine and we got off relatively well. The car had some damage but it could have been worse. Humphrey was sitting in the front on the side the cow appeared and he was still in shock. Normally they travel in herds but this one must have escaped. Whilst continuing our journey it started to rain quite heavily and then we stopped in Limbe a few kilometres away from our destination – the lodge. Again, we were surprised that we stopped and Humphrey decided that this one was asking too much money all of a sudden so we had to switch cars again. Almost felt like musical chairs. Luckily, we were nearly there and the final stretch was fine. It felt like the car journey took forever, perhaps also driven by sleep deprivation.
The arrival to the lodge was superb. Svend and Edwidge were waiting for us and Edwidge had made some food – which couldn’t have come at a better time. We did some catching up while we ate a fish chowder type thing and some nice avocado salad. A G&T was an absolute must. After that it was time for bed! On to the next adventure!
The next day (Thursday) we did some strategizing in the morning and worked on a few things for the launch. Edwidge makes a mean avocado salad which I still remembered from the last trip and she made it for lunch today. It was amazing! One of my favourite things. She said she has an avocado tree so plenty of avocados to pick from. When the avocados are all gone, she buys them in the shop and they are super cheap ~100 FCFA (~20p) and they taste so much better than in the UK! After lunch, Humphrey came over to talk about the project and do some planning for the next few days. We decided to go to the office and meet the fieldworkers to also get their input on pressure cooker launch. The last time I was here it was only a short trip and apart from a few times we mostly stayed in the lodge. Therefore, it was really nice to get out and about and see the office which I hadn’t seen before. It is a great space and has a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and storage room as well. The fieldworkers were out collecting data and would be coming back around 4pm and one by one they were arriving. It was so nice to see everyone again. It has almost been a year since I last saw them. We had a catch up and then did some planning for Friday and Saturday (day of the launch). Their input was very useful and we made good progress. At the end, Humphrey being Humphrey said that today was okay but tomorrow will be better. What does that mean?! I thought the discussion was productive, oh well!
After the meeting we went back to the lodge to do a bit more planning and randomization of the intervention groups. Humphrey came back with us to discuss a few more things. I sat with Svend and had some good conversations. He also asked if I wanted a G&T as it was past 5pm already. Why not?! When Dan was done talking to Humphrey he came over to sit with us. Humphrey lingered and was sticking around. Edwigde wondered whether he would stay for dinner but when Dan asked him he was very vague so Edwidge asked him as well. He said that he had food at the house and he was waiting for his taxi but that he wanted something light. By the time the food was done his taxi came so he had to go. He took his food in a doggy bag and went home. We had some really nice fish for dinner. Edwidge is a really good cook! We sat outside and ate with her and Svend. After a while I was feeling super tired and couldn’t stop yawning. I decided to go to bed at a reasonable time as we decided to go for a run early in the morning. As the weather is super warm and humid, you don’t want to go running late in the day.
I woke up in the night and there was thunder, lighting and heavy rain. It went on for a good hour and couldn’t really get back to sleep. It sounded like the rain was going to go through the roof! Eventually the storm calmed down and I fell asleep again. My alarm went at 6:30am the next day as Dan, Edwidge and I were going for a run. When I woke up I heard it raining and wasn’t sure whether we would still go as some of the paths can be super muddy and didn’t feel like ruining my shoes. I messaged Dan to see whether we would still go but then I thought I am up now I may as well. Also with the rain it wouldn’t be so warm and stuffy so I thought we should make use of this. At 7am we were all ready to go and set off. However, Lou the neighbours Alsation dog was following us. Then Gregory, Edwidge’s little dog followed us too but she wanted none of it as he never goes off on his own. Edwidge grabbed a small grassy stick and tried to chase him back in. We thought it worked and started running. Lou was running with us and after a while Gregory appeared again and wanted to join us. So there we were, three people and two dogs going for a run. We did quite well, especially considering the temperature and the little hills. Since the dogs were with us we couldn’t run by the road so we had to return the way we came and take another patch. While we were running Lou had seen some baby goats and he was chasing them. There were quite a lot of them actually and I was scared that Lou would actually kill them. We had to separate him from them and luckily all the baby goats made it out alive, phew! Otherwise we’d had to buy the goat as it won’t be of use to them anymore. The run back to the lodge was less eventful although I was a bit worried about Gregory as he is not a big dog and I don’t think he is used to running this much. Luckily, we all made it back to the road leading to the lodge and Dan asked whether we should do another stretch. I thought he was talking about the short road to the Lodge and thought of course we can do that but he meant another lap. Edwidge and I passed. We did 3km which we thought was quite good for the first time. We plan to go again tomorrow morning.
After a shower and some cool down time overlooking the sea it was time to get back to work. The fieldworkers, Humphrey and Nganda were coming to the Lodge to test out the pressure cooker and practice for the demonstration tomorrow. When Humphrey arrived, he told Edwidge that the food he took home the night before was amazing and that it was like having a party in the house. Apparently, everyone was pinching and eating the food and they were surprised that he had brought food back home but they said he can do it every night from now on. We also talked about the apple watch that Dan had and they were astounded by the cost of it. Humphrey said that Dan must be among the top 1,000 richest people in the UK. When Dan told him about how much money went to the team in Norway from some analysis he again was in shock. He said he would happily go and work there for a few months, but then of course the cost of living is high as well.
Anyway, we had ordered 70 pressure cookers and they were arriving today from Douala. Hilda did very well with the pressure cooker demonstration. However, the pressure cooker seemed to be releasing steam where it shouldn’t do so we were a bit concerned about the launch tomorrow. Luckily the other pressure cookers just arrived and Nganda brought another one to test and the supplier. It seems that it was our original pressure cooker that had some problems, but the other one was fine. Phew! The supplier was quite an interesting man, but mostly spoke French with a bit of English and he was wearing traditional clothing. I am still amazed by the fact that people here wear jeans and long sleeved shirts while it is boiling outside and everyone is sweating like crazy because of the humidity. After the demonstration, we did some more planning and getting ready for tomorrow. Nganda and Humphrey had to sort out the pressure cookers, Mispah made arrangements for refreshments for tomorrow and I did some final checks for the materials and agenda.
Time for lunch! We had some prawns in a nice sauce and rice whilst the field team had some fish that we had the night before. We were talking about lots of things and Humphrey was still a bit unsettled about our little run in with the cow. After our late lunch the field team went back to the office for the final preparations which gave me a bit of time to work on some analysis. I am looking forward to some time to relax and have an early night as we have to get up early for our run and then we have the big day of launching the pressure cooker intervention.
Speak soon!
Xx Lirije
Ps. I was planning to post this on Friday but due to some technical difficulties it had to wait. Don’t worry, a next one is coming soon!
I haven’t written this blog since I did my internship in Liverpool which is five years ago now. Time flies! I am still in Liverpool and have done quite a bit of travelling since. This year alone I have been to Mexico, Cuba, the US (east and west coast) and Barcelona. I haven’t written a blog about those trips but I thought it was time to start it up again.
Right now I am in Limbe, Cameroon for work (LPG Adoption in Cameroon Evaluation – LACE) together with my boss Dan Pope. I have been working as the research coordinator and analysing the qualitative data since January 2016. I have been once before (June 2016) to do some qualitative training with the fieldworkers. It was a short trip, only 5 days. This time the trip is 12 days and we are here to launch a new study – a pressure cooker intervention helping people to stop using wood for cooking (the smoke is really bad for the health of poor women and children).
We had to do some preparation for this trip and one of them was sorting the visas. Unfortunately, the embassy had changed their policy and needed an extra day to process the passports which meant that we wouldn’t receive them until the night before our flight. It was a bit stressful as they arrived at 1am and we head to head off to the airport at 3am. Luckily it all worked out! Setting my alarm for 2:30am was quite painful but managed to get up, do some final packing and be ready in time for the taxi. It was nice and quiet on the road. At the airport we had to go through the usual checks. Whilst we were waiting for the security check a woman just opened another lane. She was something though. The guy in front of me was on his phone and she started yelling at him that this was not allowed. Then she proceeded to yell that she would sort us all out. We had a laugh with the guy in front of us and we were all hoping not to have to go to her lane. Guess what?! We did have to go there.. She said it was better to spend some more time with her and to get everything out of your luggage then to spend 40min waiting for your luggage to be checked. We were just glad to be rid of her but the guy ‘s luggage was picked up and he had to wait a while to go through.
We had to go through duty free, as that’s how they cleverly make you go through it and buy this. I bought a new perfume and a new purse. After that I wasn’t allowed to go into any shops anymore! We had some coffee and then it was time to board. We flew from Manchester to Brussels where we had a transfer time of just over 2 hours. It was very easy and straightforward. We had to go to terminal T and we couldn’t wait to get some breakfast. However, it seemed that there was nothing, no shops in terminal T. That was a bit of a disappointment but at least they had nice lounge chairs so we could relax for a bit. Then it was time to fly to Douala. The flight was fine, watched a movie and tried to get some sleep.
At 4:35pm we landed in Douala. When we got off the plane the heat was already hitting you in the face, 30+degrees and almost 100% humidity. Yikes! We had to show our boarding pass when we got off but Dan had thrown his one away, not realising that we would have need it, as this wasn’t required for any of the last trips he went on. Luckily, he had the boarding pass on his phone and we went on our way to the checks. First up was the yellow fever certificate check. After that we had to go through passport control. We chose the right lane which seemed to go quicker than the others which was good as I always choose the wrong one! However, at some point we had to split up into two lines. You would think that that would be straightforward. The lines were formed for the two desk but then people kept crossing over to the opposite lane so there was no point really to form the lines to start with!
I managed to get my luggage quickly but we had to wait a bit longer for Dan’s luggage. Outside it was even warmer than I remembered. Humphrey was picking us up to take us down to Limbe. We found him relatively quick and soon we were on our way. We originally had a different driver but his car broke down and it wasn’t ready yet. Humphrey quickly had to get a taxi for us and whilst we were making our way through very heavy traffic (read driving on the pavements to get around) we stopped at another place. Dan and I were a bit confused but apparently, this driver was too expensive according to Humphrey so we switched taxis. As you do. The remainder of the journey went fine until out of nowhere a cow appeared and we had to swerve to avoid it. In doing so the cow still hit the side mirror and on the other side we hit a motorcycle. Luckily the cow and motorcyclist were fine and we got off relatively well. The car had some damage but it could have been worse. Humphrey was sitting in the front on the side the cow appeared and he was still in shock. Normally they travel in herds but this one must have escaped. Whilst continuing our journey it started to rain quite heavily and then we stopped in Limbe a few kilometres away from our destination – the lodge. Again, we were surprised that we stopped and Humphrey decided that this one was asking too much money all of a sudden so we had to switch cars again. Almost felt like musical chairs. Luckily, we were nearly there and the final stretch was fine. It felt like the car journey took forever, perhaps also driven by sleep deprivation.
The arrival to the lodge was superb. Svend and Edwidge were waiting for us and Edwidge had made some food – which couldn’t have come at a better time. We did some catching up while we ate a fish chowder type thing and some nice avocado salad. A G&T was an absolute must. After that it was time for bed! On to the next adventure!
The next day (Thursday) we did some strategizing in the morning and worked on a few things for the launch. Edwidge makes a mean avocado salad which I still remembered from the last trip and she made it for lunch today. It was amazing! One of my favourite things. She said she has an avocado tree so plenty of avocados to pick from. When the avocados are all gone, she buys them in the shop and they are super cheap ~100 FCFA (~20p) and they taste so much better than in the UK! After lunch, Humphrey came over to talk about the project and do some planning for the next few days. We decided to go to the office and meet the fieldworkers to also get their input on pressure cooker launch. The last time I was here it was only a short trip and apart from a few times we mostly stayed in the lodge. Therefore, it was really nice to get out and about and see the office which I hadn’t seen before. It is a great space and has a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and storage room as well. The fieldworkers were out collecting data and would be coming back around 4pm and one by one they were arriving. It was so nice to see everyone again. It has almost been a year since I last saw them. We had a catch up and then did some planning for Friday and Saturday (day of the launch). Their input was very useful and we made good progress. At the end, Humphrey being Humphrey said that today was okay but tomorrow will be better. What does that mean?! I thought the discussion was productive, oh well!
After the meeting we went back to the lodge to do a bit more planning and randomization of the intervention groups. Humphrey came back with us to discuss a few more things. I sat with Svend and had some good conversations. He also asked if I wanted a G&T as it was past 5pm already. Why not?! When Dan was done talking to Humphrey he came over to sit with us. Humphrey lingered and was sticking around. Edwigde wondered whether he would stay for dinner but when Dan asked him he was very vague so Edwidge asked him as well. He said that he had food at the house and he was waiting for his taxi but that he wanted something light. By the time the food was done his taxi came so he had to go. He took his food in a doggy bag and went home. We had some really nice fish for dinner. Edwidge is a really good cook! We sat outside and ate with her and Svend. After a while I was feeling super tired and couldn’t stop yawning. I decided to go to bed at a reasonable time as we decided to go for a run early in the morning. As the weather is super warm and humid, you don’t want to go running late in the day.
I woke up in the night and there was thunder, lighting and heavy rain. It went on for a good hour and couldn’t really get back to sleep. It sounded like the rain was going to go through the roof! Eventually the storm calmed down and I fell asleep again. My alarm went at 6:30am the next day as Dan, Edwidge and I were going for a run. When I woke up I heard it raining and wasn’t sure whether we would still go as some of the paths can be super muddy and didn’t feel like ruining my shoes. I messaged Dan to see whether we would still go but then I thought I am up now I may as well. Also with the rain it wouldn’t be so warm and stuffy so I thought we should make use of this. At 7am we were all ready to go and set off. However, Lou the neighbours Alsation dog was following us. Then Gregory, Edwidge’s little dog followed us too but she wanted none of it as he never goes off on his own. Edwidge grabbed a small grassy stick and tried to chase him back in. We thought it worked and started running. Lou was running with us and after a while Gregory appeared again and wanted to join us. So there we were, three people and two dogs going for a run. We did quite well, especially considering the temperature and the little hills. Since the dogs were with us we couldn’t run by the road so we had to return the way we came and take another patch. While we were running Lou had seen some baby goats and he was chasing them. There were quite a lot of them actually and I was scared that Lou would actually kill them. We had to separate him from them and luckily all the baby goats made it out alive, phew! Otherwise we’d had to buy the goat as it won’t be of use to them anymore. The run back to the lodge was less eventful although I was a bit worried about Gregory as he is not a big dog and I don’t think he is used to running this much. Luckily, we all made it back to the road leading to the lodge and Dan asked whether we should do another stretch. I thought he was talking about the short road to the Lodge and thought of course we can do that but he meant another lap. Edwidge and I passed. We did 3km which we thought was quite good for the first time. We plan to go again tomorrow morning.
After a shower and some cool down time overlooking the sea it was time to get back to work. The fieldworkers, Humphrey and Nganda were coming to the Lodge to test out the pressure cooker and practice for the demonstration tomorrow. When Humphrey arrived, he told Edwidge that the food he took home the night before was amazing and that it was like having a party in the house. Apparently, everyone was pinching and eating the food and they were surprised that he had brought food back home but they said he can do it every night from now on. We also talked about the apple watch that Dan had and they were astounded by the cost of it. Humphrey said that Dan must be among the top 1,000 richest people in the UK. When Dan told him about how much money went to the team in Norway from some analysis he again was in shock. He said he would happily go and work there for a few months, but then of course the cost of living is high as well.
Anyway, we had ordered 70 pressure cookers and they were arriving today from Douala. Hilda did very well with the pressure cooker demonstration. However, the pressure cooker seemed to be releasing steam where it shouldn’t do so we were a bit concerned about the launch tomorrow. Luckily the other pressure cookers just arrived and Nganda brought another one to test and the supplier. It seems that it was our original pressure cooker that had some problems, but the other one was fine. Phew! The supplier was quite an interesting man, but mostly spoke French with a bit of English and he was wearing traditional clothing. I am still amazed by the fact that people here wear jeans and long sleeved shirts while it is boiling outside and everyone is sweating like crazy because of the humidity. After the demonstration, we did some more planning and getting ready for tomorrow. Nganda and Humphrey had to sort out the pressure cookers, Mispah made arrangements for refreshments for tomorrow and I did some final checks for the materials and agenda.
Time for lunch! We had some prawns in a nice sauce and rice whilst the field team had some fish that we had the night before. We were talking about lots of things and Humphrey was still a bit unsettled about our little run in with the cow. After our late lunch the field team went back to the office for the final preparations which gave me a bit of time to work on some analysis. I am looking forward to some time to relax and have an early night as we have to get up early for our run and then we have the big day of launching the pressure cooker intervention.
Speak soon!
Xx Lirije
Ps. I was planning to post this on Friday but due to some technical difficulties it had to wait. Don’t worry, a next one is coming soon!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
