Greetings from Buea!

Dear friends and supporters,

We arrived August 11^th here in Buea to start implementing the windmill project in M’muock. Our friend Patricia and her brother Emma picked us up from the airport and since then we have been trying to adjust to the Cameroonian way of life again. Unfortunately we are living on a construction site for now – but the house will be finished soon an then we can move into our new room. And if Johannes keeps on helping the workers on the weekends we will move in soon I am sure

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We already met Vincent from Nkong Hilltop last Tuesday and arranged a meeting with him for August 15^th where we discussedall the details for the project and the next steps. One of the results of that meeting was that Nkong Hilltop offered to share their office with us! So since yesterday we have an office together with our project assistant Edwin in Great Soppo. And guess what – we even got an Internetconnection in the office!!

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Then Nkong Hilltop also got a car donated that we now might be able to use for our project visits – it’s  4×4! So it seems our car problem is solved too!

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Our projectassistant Edwin will be working with us part time – he will be helping us with research and with knowledge on Cameroonian customs and traditions – as he comes from the project village and knows most of the customs and people there. He will be a big help for us and already tried to adjust us to cameroonian food – he invited us out for lunch – it was great food – but just tooooo much for us europeans J - it was stew with beans and rice – but the portion for one would have been more than enough for the two of us.

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On Saturday we were invited to Dr. Kennedy – who is the junior brother of the Fon of the village M’muock. Dr. Kennedy was our contact person to the village all the time that we were back in Germany. He is part of MUDECA – the M’muock Development and Cultural Association. There perpose is to contribute to the development of the village. We will have a meeting with them next weekend to discuss the next steps in the project – especially the topics of financial contribution and sensitization as well as data collection in the village.

What are we doing these days?

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For now we are informing everyone here about the next steps and trying to coordinate all partners. We are discussing the last bits that were unclear. And we are preparing for the data collection in the village – I myself am working on the questionaire. We want to collect some socio-economic data and some data on energy-usage before starting the project in order to measure our impact later on. And I am researching on environmental trainings that were helt in Cameroon before and of course I am working on informing our sponsors back home on what we have been doing so far J

Johannes our projectmanager is coordinating everything and for now he is collecting information in the needed material for the wind- and waterturbines and comparing prizes. He is desperately waiting for our box that we sent from germany by ship – as it contains the magnets!! When they are there he can start building the demonstration sets here in Cameroon!

Apart from work we are meeting a lot of old friends here in Buea and we are trying to learn Pidgin English – so that everyone in the village will understand us.

The rain

It is raining a lot these days - bit it stopped 2 days ago. Of course we did not believe that it would be cold in the rainy season - so guess what - I got a very bad cold… sneezing and caughing in the office now… well I guess I deserved it - and I am sure it will be gone soon!

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Now back to work - take care guys!

Talk to you soon

Cornelia and Johannes