A week in the life of a Bambui EWB volunteer

Okay so I’ve been utter crap at updating my blog even though we have done some fantastic things this week, but we have so much going on it’s hard to find the time to tell people about it so here goes.

Monday

We had our very first staff meeting (suggested and organised by me) we thought it would be a good idea to keep BAWA updated of what we are doing. We planned to have it in our office thinking it would be two or three people…then more and more turned up until  we had all the BAWA staff, some board members and the chairman all squeezed in our office. But it was a good chance to talk through things. Even if I talk too fast and nobody can understand me. We went through our timetable was and any concerns we had 

Tuesday

We had our very first day off. I know I can here you, everyday is a day off and you only have been working for a week. But let me tell you it is exhausting assimilating to a new culture and constantly thinking about water engineering. So we decided to do some shopping for handcrafted pieces for the new Reignite shop, we went to Ndop a village about 1 hours drive away. There we went to the market, then found this lady who makes hand-woven baskets.

We also went to visit a ceramic production facility, where they gave us a tour round and showed us the traditional way they make the pots and figures. They had an amazing guest house and all their pieces were amazing. If you want to have a look, they also ship to all over the world 

http://prescraft.com/

Then it was the drive home where we stopped off at a waterfall and I had a bit of a paddle to cool my feet.

Wednesday

It was back to work on Wednesday with a boring day in the office. We did bump into the chairman whilst out and about and he came and had lunch with us at our usual. Where you have rice, tomato veg sauce and chicken for around £1.50

Thursday

It was back up to get measurements for the gravel and sand filters and I got to do some mapping of the river using pooh sticks. We all got a bit wet but luckily I brought my wellies to Africa. I got to visit one of the farms for my irrigation and took a soil sample, then it was back home to mess around with it and try and do some testing. I sat outside the house and a few people popped round to find out what I was doing because I must of looked like a crazy person squeezing mud and looking in a textbook.

We also stopped by the quaterheads compound on the way back and I saw my first pineapple plant and the cutest pig. 

Also during the night there was lots of banging of drums and singing just around midnight, which was down to the Kwifor. The Kwifor is a secret society of Bambui people who monitor the region, nobody knows who they are but they have greater power than the King and have on occasions sacked the reigning Fon. We still don’t know what they were saying.

Friday

So today we were doing our final walk around the mini cities, new apartment blocks that are being created to meet the demand from the new university being built in Bambui. This was mostly for Chris work on sanitation as many of these complexes have a small septic tank leading to a soak away. However the soakaway pits are far too close to the buildings and they have too small a capacity for the people. 

So that's all folks :D