going on 27

I remember my dad telling me about his reaction to AADBs first project ‘Cadeaux for kids‘ when we gave Christmas presents and food to orphaned and other families in Bangou and Bangangte. The gifts seemed kind of trivial; pens, oil for cooking, a t-shirt, but the families generosity was disproportionally bigger.

You can see they joy and appreciation for such a little act of kindness. My dad reminded me about how when they would give us presents for Christmas, race cars, Xbox, designer clothes, hundreds of dollars in cash, we acted slighty more excited than if I had found 50 cents on the street. The joy of giving, and receiving, had somehow been lost.

Those simple things like genuine excitement and appreciation, generosity, kindness, really are gifts from God and despite all the giving we do on Christmas, don’t forget to appreciate it, and enjoy it. That’s the spirit of Christmas and two years ago I had to go all the way to Cameroon to remember that.

Merry Christmas!

The American Association for the Development of Bangou (AADB) has been working on a few projects, some which are now finished, some which will happen later this year, and one big one, which we still need your help with.

You already know about the Christmas charity (cadeaux for kids) which went very well, we plan on doing that again this year. It provides food, school supplies and a toy for each child, but most of all hope.

A public toilet has been built in the Carrefour where all the taxis park to take people all over the west. There was no toilet before so everyone, including women and children would go in an alley which was continuously dirty. This same alley is a major route between Bangou and Batchingou and market mommies who sell local peanuts, bananas and whatever else is in season. Now this area will remain clean and people can do their business in private. During a need analysis for the community, public toilets were listed as one of the top five needs for the community.

The Antonio Rodriguez scholarship will take place the next school year. AADB will pay the school fees for five preschool students and thirteen high school students, including the top 2 students for each grade (grade 6-12).

A multimedia center will be built near the Bangou-ville high school. Part of the building has already been assigned for its use and 10 (old) computers have been donated by a Bangou (Hyppolite) who lives in France. However much work to renovate the building still remains such as cabling networking equipment and other miscellaneous work. Also, while in the US I will see if we can get a good computer donated to manage the other computers. AADB will help finish the project so that it will be ready early 2009. This project will bring internet and computer training to Bangou for the first time.

There are also a number of small projects which AADB helps with in the village which have not been reported but have made a large impact in one person or a few people’s lives. In every community, there are local crazy people that scavenge garbage for food sleep where they fall. AADB has often fed them and given them some change to buy cigarettes*. There have been some funerals for some less fortunate families which AADB has been able to which contribute. There is no need to mention how important it is for families to bury their loved ones in a worthy manner, but it is even more important in their village tradition. Lastly, when certain people from the village have been hospitalized, AADB has been able to help pay part of their hospital costs.

These projects, or acts of goodwill, are not things that I can write on my quarterly report because they fall outside of my Peace Corps goals, but it is these small acts of generosity and compassion that will make a lasting impact on the people who AADB has helped. To help, I will soon be setting up a web site, and there will be a fundraiser in TX in May.

*I’m not a smoker nor do I advocate it, but, as my favorite crazy guy put it, sometimes a papa just needs his pipe.

Cadeaux for Kids gave gifts and food to 6 families. Below is more about each family and some pictures.

Aladji helping sort through the cadeaux (presents)

The first family was Caroline’s, a widow with 5 kids who works has a field which she uses to feed her kids, and the rest she sells at the market to be able to buy oil and whatever other small things she needs. She cannot afford school for her kids so she home schools them. At least 2 of them are of school age, so I’m going to ask her if she’d like to send them to school so that we can sponsor them with an Anthony Rodriguez scholarship.

Caroline’s family along with Aladji and I. He is not in his night gown, that is what people often wear around here. I still find it amusing.

Second family was is a 16 year old handicapped kid with a bad leg and lazy eye and bad hearing, along with his dad and sister. His mother died a few years ago. He showed me his report card, and despite his handicap, he is doing very well in school. His father was very appreciative of the gifts and he said ‘vivre la solidarite American – Camerounese.’

I really appreciated how thankful this father and son team were. He said to send a thousand thank you’s to ‘my American friends’.

Third family was Taco’s which is 8 kids including Taco, and his irresponsible, allegedly, prostitute mom. The previous Peace Corps volunteer was in the village when I went there, so I invited her along. Because there were so many kids, she got the most gifts and food of any family. The kids seemed happy with all the stuff, but the mom acted kind of weird about it and started getting lettuce to give to me right after. Either way, the kids got to eat well for Christmas, and get a few gifts and school supplies. I also asked to see Taco’s report card and he isn’t doing very well, so the previous volunteer is going to find a tutor for him.

The other three families live in Bangante, the town where I trained.

The Ypolite family was my host family during training. The dad is a science and English teacher at a school and the mom works at a preschool for free. They have three kids, around 13, 14 and of course Andrew at 3. Although not as poor as the families in Bangou, you could see that the charity helped them have the best Christmas ever.

Valerie’s family in Bangante was also a host family for a volunteer. She has 8 kids which she raises pretty much by herself because the dad works in Douala and comes home only once every couple of months. Valerie also has health problems which make her life a little harder than necessary.

Marino’s family was again a host family. She has 5 girls from 2 to 16 I think and works at a school in some capacity I think, but she hasn’t been paid in about a year. The dad also works for the government in some function, maybe a professor, but I’m not totally sure. I got a cool video of her and her kids going through the presents. Click below for a video:

A video

Each family received notebooks, pens, cookies, oil, powdered milk, a papaya, a drink such as Fanta or coke, 2 kilo’s of beef, a bunch of beanie babies and other gifts that you guys sent. We spent 25 dollars per family some more, some less, way over budget, but your generosity was so overwhelming that we were able to give a little extra to each family. In total, we spent a little over 150 dollars, not counting transportation and any other expenses which my PC salary, your tax dollars, paid for. The families I visited send each of you that helped a very big thank you and great new year.

Personally, it was probably the best Christmas I’ve spent, giving instead of receiving. Not that I mind the receiving, but the giving is so much better. I wish everyone could have been there each time we gave the bags of presents to the families. Each family showed their appreciation their own way, but they all were very thankful and will not forget the generosity of some Americans in Texas.

I sent out a mass email to update everyone on what I was doing as well as fill everyone in on a charity that Anthony and I have started. It doesn’t have a name yet, but the main goal is to help current development workers like myself, with funding and other help for projects. We are in the process of making it an actual tax-exempt charitable organization (check The Fund page to the right), but in the meantime, I still have a project I would like your help with.

Cadeaux for kids, is a small project I would like to fund to help very needy families I have met. This of course includes Taco’s family. The goal is for them to have a happy Christmas with food (not just peanuts) on the table and a couple of toys under the tree, if they even have a tree, and for them to know that their neighbor to the West, the United States, cares about them.

Hopefully I can get $100 bux donated for this. This should be enough to feed and give toys to about 6 families which I already know will need the help. So far we have $50 bux and a box full of toys, so we don’t need much more! Or if you prefer you can send toys directly to Cameroun via my Peace Corps address: BP 215, Yaoundé, Cameroun.

Anyway, being that I’m doing development work, you knew the day would come when I was going to start asking for stuff. Hopefully, I won’t lose too many friends over it. But I promise not to become one of those sappy infomercials.

I just got 4 packages today, 2 from my mom, one from my sister, and one from the Lee’s (all three of them !)

Although each one had things that made me smile the kind of smile that you wouldn’t trade for a thousand dollars, my favorite things were the pictures.

The Lee’s sent me pictures of their new baby, which as fake as it sounds, made my day. No one wants to see baby pictures, unless they are in Africa and don’t get to see an important moment of their friend’s lives.

The others were pictures my sister sent me of the family. I really do miss them. I didn’t miss them when I lived a short drive from them, even though I didn’t see them that often, but now that I can’t, I really miss them. There is something to be said for people that have to love you. They have to, but you can’t help but love them anyway.

So, encore (again), Merci beaucoup (thank you a lot) pour tout les cadeaux (for all of the gifts). The gifts for families and kids here will go to people that really will appreciate them in ways we can’t, and the things that you sent me will be enjoyed in ways I could never enjoy them in the U.S.

The lee’s package. The photo on top made me laugh, and its now hanging on my photo wall in Bangou, Cameroun.

my mom’s packages. She has sent me close to ten packages by now. The last one is funny. She sent me a ‘Globe’ magazine with brittney spears and brad pit on the cover.

my sis included gifts for girls for Christmas, which I was badly missing. Also some really good junk food. Looks like my weight gain will continue. The Jeff Foxworthy beef jerky made me laugh for about an hour.