In the city

Street life - yellow taxis hooting, elegantly dressed ladies picking their way along the hole-ridden roadside, stalls selling peanuts and phone cards, a photocopier in the middle of a rubble-strewn building site ... with people queuing up to use it. Dusty, dirty, noisy, fascinating.

We've been lucky to have enough water at the hotel. Yaounde is short of water, and some districts have no water for one day a week. People have to fill containers first thing in the morning, then none till next day. But everyone is clean, with clean clothes and polished shoes. They say it's better to be late than not well dressed!

Last night we had our first real power cut, in the middle of dinner out in a small grill place. Two of us had our head torches (good on us Welsh women!) and thank goodness, with no street lights to see our way around the potholes. Don't look down them, you don't want to know! The storm took out the hotel air conditioning, but left the satellite TV intact to see the Cameroon football team's international against Italy. Those bars with their own generators were doing extra well last night!

Then today, our first tropical downpour. We abandoned our hotel terrace when the rain came through holes in the canopy - and watched the canopy take off a few minutes later! Should I bother to buy an umbrella? With the rainy season about to start, this was a good taster session - raindrops is too gentle a word for this stuff. The street quickly emptied as everyone took what shelter they could find. Now, it's cooler. We don't really have dusk here, just the rush hour traffic and then it's dark. I keep missing it, just have a quick shower and - oh, it's night. I'm betting that everyone has their torch tonight!

A picture of you

Cameroon is so rich in natural resources, it's hard to understand why the country is so poor. Our in-country training here in the capital, Yaounde, is just a first step at finding out. I certainly don't expect to get all the answers in the 8 weeks that I'm here.

In VSO UK training they talk about a foreign culture as being like an iceberg. We volunteers are like seagulls landing on the iceberg for a short stay. How do we find out what's happening beneath the surface? Find some friendly penguins and ask them!

We've met friendly VSO staff and volunteers, each willing to share a bit of the puzzle. We're doing a bit of shopping, going out for meals, using our varied levels of French to talk to local people.

A visit to Mont Febe monastery and museum gave us fine views over the hazy city, spreading over its hills. The museum gave us a glimpse of a rich ancient culture, with over 230 ethnic groups and languages. Folk here smile a lot, and we could see that in the wood and clay figurines from older times.

People feel a strong loyalty to their kith and kin, their community, in ways we seem to have lost in our world. These cultural differences are going to be the toughest things to learn, and to accept that things are not better or worse, just different. As an example, a cultured, western-educated, middle-aged professional told us that when he goes back to the village, he doesn't speak his opinion until his uncle has spoken, and then he does not contradict his uncle in front of other people. He has to find another way around it. Tact, discretion, empathy - a lot to learn here.
I'm looking forward to seeing the land when I travel to the north west province on Saturday. Cameroon has the whole of Africa in one place, (about twice the size of the UK I think). Three volunteers are going up to the Far North, a desert region bordering Chad with temperatures in the 40s. Ten of us (including the 5 Welsh volunteers) are going to the north west, a hilly region of grasslands, arable crops, forests.

Our trainers tell us there is an abundance of food in Cameroon, with a wide variety, but 40% of the people go hungry. Seven out of about 20 million population live in poverty. What can we do to help?

Welcome to my world

Storms in France on Sunday led to early morning flight cancellations, but being in a group with other volunteers made the delays much easier to bear, and gave us plenty of time to start getting to know each other. Air France's "involuntary reroute" took us via Casablanca and we flew over the Sahara in the dark - so much dark, no light pollution here!
Arriving in Yaounde past midnight, our welcome by the local staff was warm and immensely helpful, easing us through customs formalities and delivering all 12 of us safely to a hotel. Hot and humid, an impression of smoke in the air, ramshackle industrial buildings on the road from the airport, reminded me of Greece.
Amazed to find an ensuite bathroom with W.C., fridge, TV, aircon and a fleecy blanket! It's not luxury but better than I expected of a volunteer organisation. Another woman mentioned that her room door seemed to have been jemmied at some time - yes, so has mine. I put the chain on the door, did my best to fasten the windows shut and hoped nobody would climb on to my balcony.

Disturbed dreams of mosquitoes woke me early, and from my window I watched groups of smartly uniformed children walking to school. Adults stopping at a street stall, some women in traditional brightly patterned frocks, a man carrying a large bundle on his head, people shouting at a car - what was that all about?
On the shady side of the hotel, I will soon find out just how hot it is out there today!

These foolish things

Packing for an 8 week trip is not easy - I've just spent 2 days on it!  I've had official advice from the volunteer website, plus conversations and emails with previous Welsh volunteers, which meant I've ended up with an amazing amount of stuff.

The weather will be hot and dry at first, but I'm going up into the north west hills so it should be cooler than in the capital, Yaounde.  Then when the rains come, someone told me rain bounces off the road and it's cool.  But if you're used to 30 degrees or more, what feels cool?

Clothes have to be smart, and there's a big emphasis on keeping your shoes well polished.  I have to make a good impression to live up to expectations and show the proper respect for my new colleagues and the others I meet. 

Then there's the medication.  As well as my malaria tablets, I've been advised to take pretty well anything I might need for whatever may happen - from athlete's foot to verrucas!  I've got about half a litre each of anti-mosquito stuff and Factor 50 suncream; plus shampoo, shower gel ... it all makes for very heavy luggage.  Of course, I shan't be bringing all this stuff home, whether I need it or not (and I hope not!)

I'm also taking pens, pencils, paper, teabags - all recommended as gifts for local people, a way of making good connections.  It's going to be important to build up relationships if my work is to be effective.

Anyway, the bags are packed, and I'm ready to go.  Just a last minute problem of how I'm getting to Swansea tomorrow for the National Express coach to Heathrow...

I heard it through the grapevine

Sometimes information for volunteers comes like drips from a leaky tap, then suddenly the water pressure is turned up and we almost drown in the torrent. 
Two large files hold my downloads from the VSO website - country briefing, health and safety, equality and diversity, programme area plans and updates....  It's hard to take it all in, but I've gained an overall impression of Cameroon as a country with immense difficulties. 

One striking fact is that if I had been born and lived there, I'd probably be dead by now! Life expectancy is not much over 50.  And the infant mortality rate is pretty high - I can only imagine the impact of losing your babies, thank goodness it never happened to me.

VSO's training at Harborne Hall in Birmingham has been inspiring. Excellent co-trainers work hard over intensive weekends to open our eyes to cultural difference, learn new ways to facilitate groups and focus on genuine participation.  I've loved it, felt more inspired by this than any other training course, including my PGCE.

So much is gained by meeting other volunteers - a marvellous mix of ages, skills and experience.  People have different motivation but all want to make a difference.  Life isn't just about survival in our western european luxury, upgrading our phones and TVs seen as the measure of success.  These volunteers seek to do far more than that.  And it's clearly a life-changing experience, even for those, like me, who are only going for a short time. 

What's going on?

Excited, anxious, hyperactive, indolent, enthusiastic, cautious, optimistic...

In just a few days' time, I'm setting off to spend 8 weeks in Cameroon in West Africa. No, it's not a holiday - I expect to work hard most of the time, and face some pressure to get results.

I first heard about this scheme a couple of years ago. "Wales for Africa" - the Welsh Assembly Government were putting money and effort into development work in sub-Saharan Africa, forging links between organisations, schools, and communities.

A branch of WAG had set up a project for Welsh public sector managers and leaders to do short-term work placements through VSO, an international volunteer organisation. The idea behind these "International Learning Opportunities" was that of shared learning. The people who went out to Africa would share their transferable or specialist expertise, helping to build the capacity of local people to develop in their own way, to achieve their own goals. Returning to Wales, they would bring their own learning back to benefit their home organisations and the public sector in general.

Great idea isn't it? WOW, I thought, wish I could do that! At the time, no way. But then last July my boss sent me an email. Public Service Management Wales was holding a drop-in event in Lampeter University to publicise this ILO scheme. Why not go along? So I did.

And now, many months later, here I am, getting ready to depart at last!