going on 27

Tchi tchi water well

agvelarde — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:41:06 +0000

The water well is complete! Interesting that he made it a faucet instead of manual. I can see the pro’s and con’s, but he said people were really happy to have clean water near-by.

Check out some pictures in the AADB album.

Tchi Tchi well

They will have water for Christmas

agvelarde — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:46:01 +0000

This is from an email I got from Aladji, the general manager of AADB in Bangou a few weeks ago:

la population de tchitchi doit fêter avec l’eau

For the last year, AADB has been fund-raising, planning, hoping and praying for a water well in Tchi-tchi, a neighborhood in Bangou. Our hope was that the people of Bangou, would have clean water to drink, by the end of 2011.

Early on we struggled to make it happen. We raised some money at the start of the year from friends and family who have always been supportive of our efforts since my time in Bangou with the Peace Corps. We were able to fund the Anthony Rodriguez scholarship – paying the school fees for the 20 students with the best grades in 2011, but funding for the well still eluded us.

On top of that, at the start of the year, Aladji had to go to work near the Gabon border – a few days away from Bangou, and would not be in Bangou for most of the year. Aladji works for free, because he loves Bangou and his people and sees it as part of his responsibility as someone that is seen as a leader in the village to help.

A few months ago, I brought this problem up with my small group at the District church in DC. I went to them asking for prayer, but they wanted to do more, and they asked how they could help, how they could give to make it happen. They were so encouraging, that I sent an email to ask for help to raise the last part of the funding for the well. Many of you came through, with money, prayer and support, to make it happen and we were able to raise the rest of the money.

Yesterday, Thursday, December 23rd, I spoke to Aladji as he was on his way back from Tchi-tchi where he said the people of Bangou will have clean water for Christmas!

From a personal perspective, I’ve been having a difficult time dealing with Christmas in Washington, DC. I have great friends and a great church in DC, but I also miss my friends and family in Texas. DC is full of smart, driven people who want to do great things and are very ambitious. It’s easy to get lost in the rat race and forget about the important things in life. I don’t lack anything I need – yet on Christmas, it’s easy to feel like you don’t have enough. I think that’s because I haven’t been giving enough. That phone call from Aladji to tell me that the people of Bangou will have clean water for Christmas made my Christmas, and it should make all of yours who have supported AADB and this project.

Congratulations and Merry Christmas to everyone. Bangou HAS clean water for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As soon as I get pictures, I will share them on here.

Hommage to chef top

agvelarde — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 14:08:33 +0000

My first actual visit to Bangou, not counting a 30 minute stop by the bank, was during training when all trainees go off to their selected villages and stay there for a week. When I got there, the Volunteer I was replacing set up a meeting with the Chief of Bangou, along with a few other important people of the village, including Chef top.

Me, Chef top and Aladji with scholarship recipient From 2008 AR Scholarship

Chef top was a sous chief under the Chief, which meant he managed the cartier, or neighborhood, I happened to live in. He was a fun, funny older man, that worked in Douala, Cameroon’s biggest city, for most of his life and now lived his retirement back in village, and was very hands on when it came to village problems, development and tradition. It was in his cartier where I started my Peace Corps service, asking questions in my barely comprehensible French and trying to figure out a way for me to make a difference.

Out of the people I knew, he was the only one with a car in my village and he would chauffer me and Aladji around often to different areas of Bangou for some meeting or cultural event. Even though I was his junior by decades and low in the traditional hierarchy, he always made space for me at the meetings and demanded that people pay attention while the young man with bad French made his point and after trying, he would often interject to translate in the local language what I was trying to say.

This man with a kind heart, great sense of humor and so important during my time in Bangou, died a few weeks ago. I was told that one day he was fine, then overnight he started feeling really badly. He went to Douala to the hospital where he died soon after.

It was pretty unexpected and the whole community of Bangou was shocked and saddened by his passing away. Hearing it here, back in the United States, I was especially sad, knowing that when I go back to visit I won’t see him sitting on his chair at his little hardware store overseeing his cartier and solving problems for everyone. It is truly a great loss for Bangou and my condolences go out to the people of Bangou, his family and everyone who feels the loss of this great man – Chef top.

Cheftop on the far right From Other pics

From Anthony Rodriguez Scholarship 2009

From 2009 AADB/Peace Corps Business classes

les mignons

agvelarde — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:56:09 +0000

One of my favorite things to do while I lived in Bangou was go to the ‘Ecole Maternel’, the pre-school. Those kids are SO cute, and at the pre-school they are taught basic English and French, since usually in Bangou kids will first learn the local language named Bangou.

The education system being as bad as it is, kids need as much of a head start as possible to be successful. AADB wants to encourage more kids to make enroll and learn at the pre schools.

One day, I would LOVE for AADB to be able to start its own pre school, but with our limited budget, we at least wanted to make a small showing that we appreciate what they are doing. What do you guys think? Should AADB get more involved with the pre schools?

From Bangou in 2010

Paradise lost

agvelarde — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:30:16 +0000

I’d never payed much attention to Africa and its history, probably since it was never taught in our schools. I don’t think that even if we did want to teach it, we could, as Africa is made up of hundreds if not thousands of different tribes and nations with history that goes back thousands of years but because it has been shared orally thru generations, it is steeped in mysticism. Teaching people about “Cameroon” or “Nigeria” would still be a Western history lesson.

My experience in Bangou was chance to see and live in a culture that not many whites got to see. I use their term, because to them, coming from America and with my lighter skin, I am a white man. This is a loaded title but I won’t go into that right now.

I got a chance to, in a small way be part of the history of Bangou. I integrated, ate, laughed and cried with them. I really did. At a funeral for one of the elders of the church I attended I indeed shed a tear for my sister.

These people became my people, Bangou became my village, and my friends there are still my friends now that I am in the US.

I want to help the village, help Bangou be the best possible village in Cameroon and even West Africa. I see Bangou being able to keep its tradition and culture, the history of the hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who have been Bangou, alive in a way that Africans understand and our people have long forgotten. The wisdom of the earth, where we came from and where we will one day depart to, is in a real way still alive in Bangou. The feeling that we are not above, or over the earth, but part of it and that our history and ancestors live on to teach us lessons and help protect their people and land is being practiced in Bangou.

This is the main thing I want to save, this hard to describe, mystic quality which we in the Western world, surrounded by buildings and things we have created, and noise from everywhere, have lost.

If you’re able, help me save this way of life from becoming extinct from the world. The NGO I started; American Association for the Development of Bangou (AADB) will put all its efforts into saving the way of life we are quickly destroying. 100 percent of all donations go to projects to save the culture and tradition of Bangou and help Bangou have a good education and healthy living environment.

Donate at americansforbangou.org