Since it’s the rainy season in Cameroon, it isn’t surprising that it rains everyday in Buea. Every precipitation that amounts to more than a sprinkle, however, seems to be accompanied by power outages at the university. A few of the power outages have involved the entirety of Buea, sometimes for hours at a time.
Things are going well on the work front. I’ve designed a questionnaire for distribution to antenatal clinics to evaluate current PMTCT practices, and I’ve been working with Dr. Nde, the head of the department of public health, to refine the questions and layout. Turns out, the number of workers in the Buea Health District that would be targeted by this questionnaire is small enough that I can administer the questionnaire myself, one on one with the workers. According to Dr. Nde, interview style questionnaires elicit more accurate answers from a Cameroonian group. I think I’ll go with his advice on this one and not bumble around blindly on my own.
Speaking of bumbling around blindly, while my French has gotten better I still have some trouble with things that are more complex than greetings or cooking (most of the French I’ve picked up is from a woman from Gabon and her 11 year old son who are also staying at the guest house—Mark Anthony, the boy, only speaks French and points out French words while I cook, hoping I make too much, which I usually do). Anyways, I’ve finally received a copy of the Cameroonian National PMTCT Guidelines from my Dean, but alas, it’s in French, all one hundred and twenty odd pages of it. There is a school for interpreters and translators, but from what I’ve gathered from a few colleagues, if I want to get something like this translated without paying a large fee, I’ll be wading into Cameroonian inter-departmental politics. Hmm. This should be interesting.
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