I'm a movement by myself, but I'm a force when we're together.

Hey guys! Well, things continue to get better and better during my time here. Actually, I’m afraid you are all going to get sick of hearing how well things are going! Haha. I am as busy as ever right now with work, church, and my social life.

Work continues to improve. We now have two social groups: Kumba Social Group and Manyeman Social Group. The Kumba Group is well established and I LOVE the meetings. We are all getting extremely close and enjoy having time together, learning together and sharing experiences together. At our last meeting we all learned how to make soap. It was a really great opportunity for the women to learn a new skill that they could use to help raise some small money for their families and for our group. We now have 16 members and growing! It’s very exciting. The Manyeman Group existed a while ago and then fell apart when the organizer left, but we are trying to get it started again. At our first meeting we had 10 members. That group is going to be a little more difficult. The person who originally began the group started it out as solely a money making scheme of raising fowls. After time, the organizer went back to the US and everything fell apart. So, the group seems to be more interested in financial benefit than a social group pertaining to health and well being, but we are struggling to help them overcome this mindset and perhaps find some way to restart the fowl business. The social groups are really one of the highlights of my jobs.

I have had some hard days with counseling recently. It’s hard to have family members approach you with tear filled eyes and beg you to tell them their relative will survive when you don’t know if he will or not. The last thing I want to do is create false hope, so it’s such a sad situation. I am just really frustrated with the medical system here because preventative medicine is completely unheard of and often times families come to the Health Center when it is already too late because of lack of resources. It’s really difficult to have to witness, but there are those few success stories that make it all worth your while. For example, remember the woman I talked about whose medical care I paid for otherwise her baby would be born blind? Yeah, well, she delivered a beautiful baby boy last week and as far as we can tell so far he is happy and healthy! One other woman from our social group (the first woman I counseled!) also delivered last week and is healthy and happy with a beautiful baby girl! It is these wonderful miracles that force me to wake up in the morning and do it all again (not to mention Agie coming to my window every morning at 7 and shouting MEGAN COCHRAN, MEGAN COCHRAN time for work! Haha). Yeah, there are sad times, but what am I going to do? Stay in bed and feel bad about it? Nah, I would rather go out there and try to do as much good as I can while I can, ya know? So, we are staying busy! World Aids Day is December 1st so we are preparing! I will let you know how it goes.

I am LOVING Kumba Town parish right now! Last Sunday was Presbyterian Church Day in Cameroon! It was quite the celebration! We had a full church service with communion (approx. 4 hrs.) and then a choir competition, the Christian Women’s Fellowship traditional dances, and a Young Presbyterian Parade (approx. 2 hrs.) and after ALL of that we had A HUGE lunch! I was exhausted and thought the festivities were finished, but boy was I wrong, we still had house parties to attend! Wow. It was an incredible day.
Really, I can’t describe how loved and welcomed I feel. My African family is pretty great. Agnes, Dennis and I are together constantly and Maryann and her nieces (two WONDERFUL girls my age, another Agnes and Catherine) are such incredible supports in my life. Last night Agnes and Catherine came over and taught me how to make Ndole-a green vegetable mixed with craw fish, groundnuts, meat and a BUNCH of other stuff. It takes FOREVER to make, but is totally worth it. While they were here Agnes, her two nieces, Dennis and my other friend Yan all came over. It was a packed house, no room to move, and too hot to breathe, but I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t want it any other way. Basically, there are some ups and downs, but with such a wonderful support system, I think I can get through anything. Hope you are all doing well! Happy Thanksgiving and all that good stuff! Oh man, I wish I could have some turkey and stuffing! Eat some extra for me. Here are some pictures to wrap it up.

Oh and PS The power has been out for 30 minutes, so I'm writing this by candle light.

Learning how to make soap.

Taking turns stirring the soap. Let me tell you, it's a LONG process.

One of the choir groups processing into church on Harvest at Kumba Town.

Agnes and Catherine (Maryann Mukete's nieces and my best friends here)

Agnes and Catherine teaching me how to make "groundnut sweet." Basically, peanut brittle.

The Christian Women's Fellowship showing off their traditional dancing skills on Presbyterian Church Day.

My African Family all hanging out at my place.

from the moment i wake up, before i put on my make up, i say a little prayer for you.

Hey everyone! Of course, it has been far too long once again. This time due to no fault of my own, but to the lack of internet in Cameroon. Oh the joys of living in Africa. Once again, let me tell you, my ability to be patient is growing by the day. Things continue to go well, thanks be to God. Last week was very intense.

A nurse that worked at the Health Center, Odette, passed away very suddenly, so it continues to be a really hard time for the Health Center staff. She was a woman I met my very first day here. We are all saddened by her loss. So, the majority of last week was spent discussing grief with the staff at the Health Center, having emotional discussions with Agie, who was a dear friend to Odette, and trying to figure it all out for myself and give myself some time to mourn. Her funeral and wake keeping were incredible. On Fridays, the mortuary opens for the release of the corpses. There were hundreds of people there; family members, relatives, and friends all standing waiting for their loved one's body to be released. Most of the family members there have kabas made out of the same material in honor of the deceased or wear t-shirts and buttons commemorating the life of the individual who passed away. Agie and I wore t-shirts to honor Odette's life. When Odette's body came out all of us were brought into a bare, open room. We sang songs and sat together and waited for the coffin to be brought in. Her body was carried in by eight men. When she arrived the women who were in attendance (maybe about 100 or so) crowded around the casket screaming, weeping and mourning. The men stood back, but were very open with their emotions as well. It was extremely moving. I have never experienced anything like it. Then, the body was carried out, loaded into a truck and we all followed the vehicle in a procession to the church where her funeral took place. It was a double funeral because another member of the church had passed away on the same day. The funeral was very moving as well with powerful testimonies from her family members and friends. From the funeral we moved to her house for the wake keeping. Her body was placed in the living room for viewing and all of the guests sat outside beneath tents and canopies. A brief service was held. Then, we all spent time together in fellowship singing, dancing, praising God and remembering Odette. It was a very powerful experience. From her home, a group traveled to her village to bury her. The wake keeping is a celebration of the individuals life the night before the burial. The group left at 2am to go to her village. It was mainly close friends who attended the burial, so I did not go, but I feel extremely blessed to have been a part of celebrating her life and we will continue to mourn her loss.

The day the funeral/wake keeping took place also happened to be Halloween. Halloween is not celebrated in Cameroon, but Eric (my bikeman friend) and I split a Twix in honor of the occasion. Haha. He loved it.

Work continues to go extremely well. Dr. B arrived which is exciting both for my personal life and work life! When Dr. B is here all the HIV/AIDS work seems to go a lot better since it is his main focus. So, he is a huge blessing. I traveled to Menyemen with him this past Tuesday. Menyemen was one of the first Presbyterian Health Center's established in Cameroon. We are going to start an HIV/AIDS clinic there on Tuesdays. There is also a tuberculosis/leper colony there. I was extremely shocked by this. I was not even aware that places like that existed anymore. Apparently, I was pretty ignorant. It was a really emotional experience. The group lives in a remote area on the hospital grounds. Most of the patients are missing limbs, have intense rashes, or other very visible signs of sickness. Doctors are still sort of unsure about how these diseases are spread, so for the most part, these people are completely ignored by the general population. Some of the patients have been living there for over twenty years. I gave them a talk about the importance of psychosocial work and introduced them to Dr. B. We are going to start a support group there next Tuesday which the group seemed very excited about. They really just appreciated that we came to visit them at all. They are extremely neglected. Overall, the trip to Menyemen was very exciting. There are many opportunities for us to do a lot of good there, so I'm praying we will be able to help in whatever ways we can.

This past Sunday, I attended church at the Presbyterian High School because they were inducting new staff: a new Vice Principal, Disciplinarian #1 and #2 and some new teachers. It was quite the occasion. The service was great, but the party afterward was even better! We sang, danced and ate until we couldn't move. It was a wonderfully joyous day!

But an even more joyous occasion than that celebration was the news of the Obama win for the Cameroonians! It was a huge day for Africa. Maybe even bigger than for the US (haha, not quite, but it was a big deal). People were so moved by Americans voting a black man into the presidency. People were openly weeping, dancing and everywhere I went people congratulated me. It was a pretty great day over here. Of course, I wish I could have been in the US for the momentous occasion, but it was pretty cool to see it from the eyes of people in another country.

Next week continues to be an extremely busy one. We have another social group meeting on Monday, travel to Menyemen to start the social group on Tuesday, Wednesday we are giving a health talk at Kumbatown parish and Thursday and Friday we have to write reports on all of those things. Then, Sunday is Presbyterian Church Day!!! The day they gained their independence! So, we are all anxiously awaiting next Sunday! I am definitely staying busy here, that's for sure. I have been taking a lot more pictures, too! So, get excited! I can't put them all up unfortunately, but here are a few. Miss you guys!

Rev. Abwenzoh, me, and Mami Pastor.


At the mortuary waiting to see Odette. I am wearing one of the t-shirts that was made in her honor.


This is where I work! Presbyterian Health Center, Kumba.


Eating my favorite meal: fried plantaines and beef stew. Mmmmm.


Agie's favorite meal: pepe soup with cowtail and boiled plantaines. Yeah, I don't get as excited about this one, but she LOVES it.


Staff at Menyemen Health Center, the tb/leper colony community, and me and Dr. B.


Yeah, this is why you are late sometimes in Cameroon. Cattle definitely have the right of way.


Receiving the chicken gizzard is a sign of honor here in Cameroon. This is Rev. Abwenzoh eating the chicken gizzard (partly on my behalf)at the party following the induction of the staff at the Presbyterian High School.