September 24th, 2014 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps | No Comments »
“We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.” – John F. Kennedy.
My host brother has been a huge help in carrying my water jugs.
“Elle est fatigué.” A woman just said that I am tired. I was pumping out water from a water pump into a big yellow jug that looks exactly like the logo of Charity Water.
“Non. Je ne suis pas fatigué. Je dois apprendre,” I said in somewhat broken French that I wasn’t tired and that I needed to learn to use the pump. One of my biggest challenges so far since starting my service is learning to get water from outside of the home. Using the water pump is not hard but it requires a lot of body work. When pumping out the water, it feels like kayaking. What’s even harder than pumping out the water is carrying water as the jugs are incredibly big. Women who put big buckets or jugs on their head makes carrying water seem so easy, but it’s not. It requires a huge muscle power. These people who can easily carry water learned to do it starting at a very young age while I always got water though a simple twist of a knob right in my own home when growing up. My host siblings have been helping me carry my big yellow jugs back to the house. These yellow jugs carry probably about six gallons of water each. I am always so impressed that little kids as young as five can carry big buckets of water. I am determined to learn how to carry these heavy water jugs and build a muscle power before I am posted. However, at least carrying a two to three gallon bucket is not a problem at all for me.
Another challenge I have been facing is laundry. I have to first note that in almost all homes in Cameroon, there is no washer and dryer. If I did my own laundry by hand, I would just mix soap and water with the clothes in a bucket and stir the clothes. Then I’d rinse it with clean water and call it a day. But my way of doing laundry by hands is not acceptable by the Cameroonians. My host mother and sister gave me a demonstration on how to do laundry. They take one bucket and put water and soap in it. Then they put all clothes in there. They then take one clothing at a time and scrub it with their hands. Then they put it into a bucket with clean water. They do laundry in a way that they can remove all the stains and dirt. Their work is impressive. When I tried to do it myself, my host mother giggled. No matter how hard I tried to imitate their way of doing laundry, I still couldn’t do it correctly. My host mother and sister were so patient and nice that they helped me do some of my clothes. “Je dois apprendre faire la lessive comme vous avant que je pars ici.” I told my host mother that I need to learn how do laundry like them before they leave. She told me that I will. It’s a matter of practice.
While I have been given new challenges, Peace Corps has removed some obstacles from me as a person with disabilities. Because my vision is not too great at night, I do not have to worry about navigating the town where there is very little to no light at night because Peace Corps has a strict policy that no volunteers can be out at night due to safety and malaria. I would have been ok with navigating with just a flashlight through. I also do not have to worry about not being able to get to many places. No Peace Corps volunteer can drive and this policy works in my favor because I cannot drive due to having some vision loss. Moreover, majority of the people in Cameroon do not have a car and cannot drive. That means that I’m living in an environment where everyone is like me and I do not have to worry about being restricted as to where I can go because the transportation system in Cameroon is accommodated to people who do not drive. There are buses, bush taxis and moto taxis.
