one week's difference

I haven't posted in a week, partly because I was out of town "camping" with my boyfriend, his dad and stepmom. I say "camping" because it was much more luxurious than any camping trip I'd ever been on (and even more luxurious than my house in Cameroon considering there were hot showers!) but a very good time none-the-less. We left the dogs behind for the two nights we were away, and our friends took very good care of them.

Meanwhile, Cricket has grown even more, and lost almost all her black markings. Her white spot on her face has practically disappeared too, though her chest and tiptoes are going strong.

her white tip toes:

photo with my feet for size comparison:

happy puppy:

kisses:

Buddy teaches Cricket one of his bad habits:


I took these pictures with my new phone. Let me tell you, no technology advanced more than phones while we were gone. I was a little slow on the uptake for telephone technology before, and this is actually the first phone I have owned with a camera function. I am very pleased with the quality of photos it takes. It's quite a leap from a call and text capable flip phone to a touch screen phone with camera which can check my email.

Yesterday we took Cricket to the vet for her first shot. The vet laid down a line of squeeze cheese in front of her, which meant she didn't even bat an eye at the needle he then stuck into her back. Just like that, her second vet visit was over. By the way, Buddy is nearly all healed from his neutering surgery a couple weeks ago.

cricket and buddy become fast friends

Saturday marked six weeks of Cricket being among us! Since puppies are generally ready to be adopted and re-homed once they reach six or eight weeks, I consider this a milestone. She is old enough now that not having her real mom around doesn't set her behind any other American puppy. I'm very glad we are through this first danger zone, though she never gave us any reason to worry.

She seems to be constantly getting better at everything. She walks splendidly, and in fact can now run at a decent pace. She's gotten used to her collar and I made a little harness attachment to go with it (which she has already practically outgrown since I made it a week ago). She is even climbing steps, though she can only ascend and needs practice descending them.

Here's a video of Buddy and Cricket playing, complete with some characteristic Basenji noises. Also notice Cricket's tough girl face--you wouldn't mess with her would you!

cricket and buddy play

Don't worry--she was fine after that fall! Once we knew she was okay we watched the video again in slow motion--certainly the funniest thing I've ever taped.

what makes them basenji: buddy

Buddy is a light tan color with white on his chest and feet. He also has white markings on his face which we think are beautiful, along with his thick black eyeliner. Buddy's tail does not curl as consistently as Honey's did. It is always looped up when he's having fun, but just being bored can make it hang straight down. Buddy is no taller than Honey was, but he's closer to 40 lbs. He is all muscle. Buddy was neutered last week and is healing well.


Buddy is also a fast and skilled hunter. He earned his spirit name, Broken Ear, because as a puppy one of his ears stood upright and the other stayed floppy. They both stand up now, leading us to call him Once Broken Ear instead. Honey's nickname was Wormbutt, because when we first got her she had tapeworms and it took forever for the medicine to knock them out completely. I always thought Buddy's fur was slightly softer than Honey's, though both were short haired dogs. Buddy grooms himself much like Honey did, though Honey was a little more thorough. Honey would actually clean Buddy's ears and nails for him! We never trimmed either dogs' nails, and Buddy always wears his down completely because he runs around so much.

We also sometimes refer to Buddy as a bear, because he looks like one if he sits up. Honey was a deer.

He's a cuddle fiend. He always sleeps next to one of us on the bed. He doesn't make any noise when he is asleep and moved, but he will try to steal back the spot you just moved him out of immediately. Buddy often sleeps on his back with his legs up in the air, sometimes fully extended. He likes to lay in this way, but then bend his neck so that his head is twisted around next to his torso.



In one way Buddy and Honey were complete opposites. As I said before, Honey hated meeting new people. Buddy loves it. He loves everyone from the second he lays eyes on them. This can be a little scary to some people, since he jumps up to say hi and could knock a smaller child over. Whenever a new person came over he wanted to sit right in their lap on the couch, and needed to hog all their attention if they tried to pet Honey.

Buddy of course loves meat, cheese, and fish. He also will try almost any other food we offer. He liked those cores in the center of pineapple slices, as well as dried fruit, carrots, basically anything we give him. Treats are a good enough incentive to do tricks--he knows sit, lay down, shake, and spin around. Shake is his least favorite--if you don't have a treat he often refuses to shake and keeps on sitting. However, he seems willing to shake for anything on our dinner plates--he basically begs by pawing at us in the same way he's supposed to for shaking.

Buddy makes lots of noise. He will occasionally bark, but more likely he will makes some kind of whine or howl sound. This happens when he's playing, or locked up when he can hear something fun going on, or sad.

Buddy used to howl along with the call to prayer each evening in Meiganga. Allen's house was across the street from a neighborhood mosque. He lived in a Muslim neighborhood, so there were quite a few around. In the evenings Buddy would hear the call to prayer over the various loudspeakers in every direction. The surround sound would echo off the houses and Buddy would howl right along like a lone wolf. It was actually a very sad noise and the one or two times I heard it made me want to comfort him.

video of Buddy howling

Fetch holds Buddy's attention much longer than Honey's, though not indefinitely. He prefers chase games, either chasing Allen, other dogs, lizards, or sometimes an imaginary target. Both Buddy and Honey always ran laps around the house after baths. Buddy runs lap after lap, jumping up and down over the couches.

puppy chow

Cricket continues to grow. She is pretty good at walking, and even runs some now. She's eating solid food now, and doesn't get any milk anymore. We started her on solid dog food by soaking it in milk until it was nice and soft, then giving her food that was less well soaked until she was happy to eat her puppy chow. She likes exploring the back yard but still jogs back and sits on my feet every once in a while. She only looks sad in the last picture because she always looks sad--her eyes are just so big they seem to constantly be begging! Her tail is up and that means she's happy.






Check back tomorrow for the Buddy installment of "what makes them basenji."

what makes them basenji: honey

For the benefit of those readers who have not yet met our dogs, I'm going to describe their looks and mannerisms over the next couple days. They have many of these characteristics in common with Basenjis.

Honey was at most 30 pounds, and was perhaps 18 inches at her shoulders (two feet tall including her head). I believe this is rather large for a Basenji. She had reddish brown fur, with white socks and chest. Her tail was tightly curled unless she was laying down, or extremely stressed or upset.


Honey was a very fast runner and skilled hunter (she caught mice, lizards, spiders, and birds). Her ears stood upright once she reached maturity. Honey groomed herself much like a cat, but occasionally still needed a bath because Africa is so dusty. She hated baths, but tolerated them best with a removable shower head with a flexible neck which could be placed against her skin with mild water pressure. She disliked cold water, but often had to tolerate that too.

Strangers were Honey's least favorite thing--she found meeting new people very stressful and it was best if the new friend ignored her and let her approach them when she was comfortable.

Closed doors were no match for Honey's intellect--she quickly taught herself to open them by standing and pushing down on the lever-style doorhandles common in Africa, then pushing or pulling the door until it opens. Buddy watched her do this many times but never caught on to be able to open doors himself.

Honey had no fear of heights. There was a small ledge which wrapped around my second house in Africa (I lived in three different homes throughout my two years in Peace Corps) which Honey loved to walk out on and survey the neighborhood from. Unfortunately, the ledge was at least twelve feet off the ground and she fell off it a couple times before I figured out that a biden (plastic jug) full of water could prevent her access. She also caught on to tricks, and even invented one for herself, "spin around," while I was trying to teach her "stand up."

Honey's favorite foods were, in order from most desired to least favorite: fish, eggs, meat, treats, cheese, any leftover people food, dried cranberries or apricots, beniegts, and bread. No punishment was harsh enough to deter Honey from breaking into a trash bag containing fish. Honey preferred anything that was leftover from my plate. She became accustomed to licking my plate once I'd finished, and in fact would demand it by progressing from grumbles to whimpers and whines to flat out barks. Once she started this behavior I stopped giving her every plate to lick, but she never gave up. Once she decided it was her turn with my plate, the only way to calm her down was to clear the table (or give her the plate I suppose, but you can't reward bad behavior like that).

Honey had many noises in her repertoire besides barking to get her point across. She always made a happy, low grumbling noise when she greeted me at the door, sometimes followed by a yodel or whines. She made a less happy version of this grumbling noise when she was asleep and you moved her. Honey could, and sometimes would, bark.

There was a mosque outside my bedroom window, and she loved to sit and watch the men prepare for prayer by washing. Honey also preferred small spaces, especially if she was scared for some reason. She liked lying underneath the couch as much as she liked lying on the couch. She also enjoyed cuddling, and would steal my spot in the bed right up against the pillow if I got up in the night.

(click the bottom right corner of the slideshow to go to the web album and see larger photos.)

what kind of dog is that?

It seems obvious to everyone that Buddy isn't a typical American dog. Most people ask us what kind of dogs we have. We've boiled the explanation down to this: Buddy (and Cricket) are dogs we brought back from Africa. They are indigenous to Cameroon, but very similar to a breed called Basenji. Most people are not familiar with Basenjis, but they seem a lot like a warm weather Shiba Inu.

We believe that our dogs are Basenji mixes, or Native Basenji (from Africa, not from the original stock imported from the Democratic Replublic of Congo which sired American Baenjis). If you would like a Buddy, Honey, or Cricket of your own, check out these sites for information on this special breed, imported from Africa.
Basenji Club of America
Basenji Companions
Basenji Rescue

And now some pictures: as demonstrated yesterday, Cricket likes to cuddle. She snuggles up to Buddy, or Allen or I.

this house is a nursery

Allen and I are staying with two very generous friends of his, who have offered up their basement as our temporary home. They are animal lovers, and when a bird starting nesting in an old hanging planter in their breezeway, they let nature take its course. The bird, "Chirps," started bringing his girlfriend home and then there were little chick heads popping out of the planter. So, consequently, this house might as well be an animal nursery, with five chicks adding to Cricket's antics. The baby birds hopped the nest for their first flying lesson yesterday, and most didn't make it out of the breezeway. So, they are taking their sweet time getting their fly on, and we have to take Buddy out front to use the bathroom. I still take Cricket out the back, but carry her through the chick danger zone. She's still pretty little, but there's no reason to risk the little chicks lives. Currently, of the five chicks, one died, one is outside in the trees in the yard, two are still in the temporary box nest, and one is missing (presumably outside too?).


Buddy, meanwhile, is warming up to Cricket's presence. He tries to play with her some, and seems to know to be gentle with her. She loves the attention, and fights back with little paw swipes and snaps at his face. Buddy is scheduled to visit the vet tomorrow to be fixed.

my first collar

Yesterday, Allen and I stopped at the pet store to get Buddy a tag to replace the current one which lists his Cameroonian phone number. Actually, it reads "Buddy Reperton/79 49 60 00/Corps de la Paix/ U.S.A Government Property," because Allen thought it would deter people from stealing him (see Allen's blog post here about when Buddy turned out to be stolen).

We also made Cricket a tag to wear on her first collar. Hopefully readers can compare Cricket's size relative to my hand, since she is growing at lightning speed.

cuteness overdose

I've fallen behind this week (is anyone surprised?) so here's all the pictures I should've been posting this week.

To start us off, I'm posting two pictures I should have started the puppyhood blog off with, since Cricket is mere minutes old in them.



We move on to a pair of shots which show one of Cricket's favorite places, in a hammock made of a scarf. When we were still in Cameroon, Allen and I had to take Cricket with us most places since she needed to be fed so often. We carried her around in a little cloth backpack I had sewn down to her size. When we took moto rides, I wrapped her in this scarf too to keep wind chill down for her.

We made many Cameroonians laugh at restaurants and cyber cafes by breaking out a bottle and feeding Cricket at our table. Some laughed, but others were more shocked, leading Allen to suggest that they were surprised what white people's babies look like.


Finally, one shot of Cricket on the day she opened her eyes.

Tomorrow we'll jump ahead to the present day (and a much bigger puppy!) to showcase her new collar.

tentative steps

Once Cricket was nearly two weeks old, she finally opened her eyes! Her eyesight, however, did not seem to benefit from her eyes being open. It's taken at least a week for her to lose that glassy, fogged over look and now she's started to see obstacles in her path. She also started wobbling around on four legs instead of the army crawl we were all used to.



Also, before leaving Ngaoundere I had a friend paint henna for me. Cameroonians use a Chinese brand of hair dye instead of the traditional plant to stain their hands and feet in delicate patterns. Aissatou, who painted mine for me, came over a few hours late and didn't have time to paint my hands before I had to catch the train south. She did a beautiful job on my feet and a small design on my chest. I had henna done once before in Cameroon and the motifs were very similar: flower petals, scrolls, and dots.

catch up

Cricket is already three and half weeks old, but we need to play catch up on all the adorable footage we have of her since birth.

Here's some pictures of proud mom Honey and puppy Cricket. These were taken before the problematic third labor of her last puppy, so both dogs are tired but well at this point.




The first video is of Cricket nursing from Honey, who lived for about two days after Cricket was born. The second is a video of big brother Buddy's reaction to three-day-old Cricket.







More pictures and videos tomorrow, as we continue to catch up to present day.

Au Revoir

My last month in Cameroon has by far been the hardest. This is for two reasons, the first is saying goodbye. Saying goodbye here is in one way much harder than saying goodbye to everyone stateside two years ago: I have no idea when, or if, I will see my friends here again. I have tried to help everyone I want to stay in touch with set up email account and learn how to check them, but communicating with my friends here will be much harder than communicating with family back home ever was.

Secondly, three weeks ago my dog, whom I've written about before, died. Honey became pregnant despite the birth control shot I got for her. She had three puppies and died of complications. Of course she was very important to me, as most pets are to their families. Honey was always happy to see me and happy to listen or play, which was the best medicine for a bad day in a foreign culture where it's work to have conversations. Two of her puppies were stillborn, and the third is thriving. For now, this blog will become a puppy blog, all about Cricket's growth. So check back regularly for pictures and videos of Cricket's development. I promise to be more regular about posting, since I will be in the states, an internet haven. Also, even when I don't have anything interesting to say, puppy pictures will brighten the worst or best day.

An entry from our guest blogger, Mom!

The deepest impression I have of Cameroon is of overwhelming hospitality. Everyone everywhere greeted us with big smiles and gracious words. Carol and Allen’s friends took us into their homes and extended welcome with heavily sweetened tea, cookies and soft drinks, or hot ginger spiced soy milk, or even an elaborate Cameroonian dinner. We visited with various families but always seemed to be in the midst of a multi-generational family. The food was delicious. I wished I were fluent in French but as I am not, taxed Carol and Allen’s translating abilities. The warm regard and high esteem Carol and Allen enjoy as teachers with Peace Corps was extended to us. We had a unique opportunity to glimpse Cameroonian culture. We truly traveled on their coattails!

We landed without incident in Yaoundé. Yaoundé is lush and tropical. Many varieties of palm trees, exotic ginger plants and colorful lizards abound. It was hot and somewhat humid. We had a tropical shower or two. Jet lag slowed me down for 2-3 days. Allen’s aunt, Linda, was not as slowed as I was! Linda came from Ohio. I came from Washington. After waiting an extra day due to a derailment, we traveled to Ngaoundal via the night train. We had a sleeping compartment with 4 bunks. The train traveled all night and at each stop, people peddled fruit, honey, or “baton pistache” a ground peanut, dried fish, pistachio snack tied in leaves. Some of the vendors were young, school age children. We slept off and on through many stops. About 9 am we arrived in Ngaoundal. This was a short stop, so Allen quickly wrestled our multiple (I think at least 7!) bags off the train and we rappelled from the last step of the train to the bank. The next leg of our journey was by “Bush Taxi”, a 25 person bus that took us to Meiganga. The terrain changed from lush to a drier climate with red dirt like Georgia. Small mud brick and grass hut villages dotted the countryside. The land was sparsely forested. Termite mounds and ant hills were plentiful. The road was paved and we made good time.

Meiganga is the town where Allen teaches. Linda and I quickly learned to ride motos and motos took us and our multiple bags to Allen’s home. We met Buddy Repperton, Allen’s African dog. Buddy was very glad to see Allen and Carol and decided Linda and I were tolerable. Allen’s house is in the Muslim quarter and we heard the muezzin call the faithful to prayer. Five times a day the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. Buddy occasionally lends his howl to the loudspeaker call to prayer! We met Allison and Claire, two PC volunteers also working in Meiganga. Claire is working with small business development and Allison is in health education. They extended their hospitality as well. It definitely is to a volunteer’s advantage to get along with the other volunteers in the area. It is quite apparent they form a “family” and share camaraderie unique to folks who both lean on and watch out for each other. Allen treated us to a tour of the lycee where he teaches English. He showed us the library, his additional project. The library is up and running but has not really caught on. Most Cameroonians do not read for recreation and the book selection is limited. The school was attractive but obviously in need of ceiling repair. Allen said he had about 70 students per class and I think at least 7 classes, so that is a mind boggling 490+ students! We attended Mass at a lovely Catholic parish, the Church of Christ the King. It was very African and very elegant. The carvings of Christ on the Cross with Mary and John at the foot were wonderful. The African Madonna and Christ child was beautiful. The music was memorable. The pastor is an exceptionally charismatic, welcoming man. He invited us to dinner and served 3 different Cameroonian dishes. We felt like VIPs!

Allison arranged for us to tour the health clinic. James is a nurse practioner and head of the clinic. Sephora, his wife, is the head nurse. James sees patients, performs some surgeries, e.g. appendectomy, Caesarean section, hernia repairs, etc. The anesthetics are limited, basically local and ketamine. They have around 12 deliveries per month. Sephora said that 80% of the women deliver their babies at home. Most women have only one prenatal visit and that is in the last trimester. About 60% do come back for immunizations. They routinely give tetanus, polio, diphtheria, typhoid and meningococcal vaccinations. Their waiting areas were all full. One small girl was very memorable. She seemed to be about 5 years old. She was beautiful but too thin, even for a child of slender frame. Her eyes were huge and she looked ill. Her father brought her for treatment, which is free for refugee women and children. Allison said she had malaria and a high fever.

We stayed in Meiganga for 5 days. At times it was hot enough Linda and I wished we were cooler, but it was not unbearable. Allen had electricity about half of the time. He cooked on a gas burner. Candles and flashlights helped us see by night, but basically we planned and did what had to be done in daylight. Allen’s house was without water the last 2 days of our stay. Again, preplanning was the key. Allen had a hunch the water might be stopped and filled large containers so we could cook, flush, and enjoy a “bucket bath”.

We hired a taxi to drive us to Ngaoundere. Carol traveled up front with the driver while Linda, Allen and I rode in the back. Buddy sat on Allen’s lap with his head out the window, occasionally retching (Buddy gets carsick!). It was a sight many Cameroonians found amazing: a dog, traveling by car, head hanging out the back window! A school, gathered around the flagpole for morning assembly, erupted in laughter. Most people who caught sight of Buddy turned around for a second, incredulous look. The road was unpaved, dusty, and deeply rutted. Passing a slow truck meant our driver, briefly, had zero visibility. We enjoyed a cool shower once we arrived at Carol’s house.

Ngaoundere is a pretty city with large mango trees. Honey is Carol’s African dog. She is dainty, sensitive and smart. Carol bought vegetables and after soaking in bleached water, made wonderful salads and vegetable couscous. Carol and Allen were our guides as to where to eat, how to travel, how to barter at the market, and myriad other fascinating vital little details of daily life. Every day we saw men, women and young children carrying platters of goods on their heads. Peanuts, bananas, mangos, avocados, carrots, even a traveling tea and Nescafe stand, all were arranged on some type of tray balanced on the head. Everyone seems to have a statuesque carriage that underscores their graceful poise. We visited the women’s center where Carol teaches. Jessie, a PC volunteer at the Norwegian hospital, showed us around the pediatric, maternity and surgery departments. It was fascinating! Carol’s friend, Assiatou, welcomed us into her home and showed us her school. We climbed Mt. Ngaoundere and enjoyed a spectacular view of the countryside. We went to English Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady. We observed the Muslim gathering for prayer at the Lamidat. We enjoyed scenic Lac Tison. We bought sandals and beautiful pagne cloth for souvenirs.

Time flew and our wonderful African Adventure sped by. We journeyed back to Yaoundé by train, giving ourselves extra time for delays. Carol and Allen had Peace Corps meetings to attend. We sandwiched in a visit to the zoo. There were too many memorable events to relate! The generous hospitality we met everywhere humbled me. I flew home with a warm sense of friendship for the people of Cameroon.

next tuesday

Here's a little blog post to catch everyone up on what's been happening in my little world, and to get us all excited for next Tuesday!

Life here is pretty much exactly the same routine as it has been for a long while. I teach a little (9 hours a week), try to get this girls' scholarship project planned well (further description and donation request to come), sew, and cook the same meals on a rotation of about four days. Throw in the occasional, dreadful market trip for vegetables, pagne, and sewing supplies, and that's my life.

So what's happening next Tuesday? My very first and last visitors arrive! Following suit with every other volunteer who has had a visitor and a blog, I hope my mom will be guest blogging here over the next couple weeks. She'll be able to give that fresh perspective and enthusiasm that I truly lack at this point in my service.

In other great news, and thanks to my dad's numerous calls to the Air Maroc New York Office, Allen and I got our tickets home (including our dogs, Buddy and Honey). It's great to finally have a definite date to countdown to. I'm ready to come home.

Stay tuned!

chez carol et honey

Here's some pictures of my new house. There's a nice big yard for Honey. The sewing room/kitchen is messy because I had just finished a project. While I'm no obsessive compulsive, it is usually in better order than this. But this way, you can see my artistic process? In addition to the two rooms pictured, there's a bedroom and bathroom.

This morning I left my house and it smelled funny outside. I realized what the smell was when I walked out to the street, past the field where they were butchering a cow. Not the most pleasant of events to walk in on.

Thanks for reading!

Moving and Movies

This morning I watched Julie and Julia. After two minutes I thought that I was going to get very tired of Meryl Streep’s Julia Child impression, “oooohh… Bon Appetit,” but I settled right in quickly. I can imagine sitting in a Parisian restaurant with Julia Child and being embarrassed at how loud she was, but her enthusiasm for life and delight at all things would more than make up for it.

I’ve become a stronger cook since being here: out of necessity, since I don’t like being hungry, and the practicality of filling a few hours in the kitchen. (Which, since moving, my kitchen is just another room with my stove and shelves in it… dishes are washed in the shower). The drawback of trying to improve my chef skills in Cameroon is the unavailability of ingredients. I keep watching Julie and Julia both melt butter and whip cream, which is impossible here. (Truth be told, I can get most ingredients like that in Ngaoundéré, but the cost is prohibitive). My consolation is eating homemade birthday fudge for breakfast while viewing the film. I brought half the ingredients back from my stateside vacation; the reason for my long hiatus from this blog. This is the most decadent thing I’ve eaten in Cameroon, though fudge would be a contender for the most decadent food anyone has ever eaten.

So, as I’ve already mentioned, I’ve moved! I’m still in my original city, but on my third house. The new house is actually one big house that was divided into three apartments, one of which is for me and Honey. We have a bedroom, a living room, a modern bathroom (running water in sink, shower and toilet… though no water heater), a third room which is the kitchen/sewing room, a great porch, and big yard. I hired a guy to build a small piece of wall to cut off my section of yard from the rest of the compound. A twenty foot high concrete barrier walls off the house and yard from the street. There’s a couple living in one of the other apartments with their toddler, and the other apartment is rented by a man who works somewhere else and keeps it to stay in Ngaoundéré occasionally. We also have a guard, who lives in a single room with his family at the entrance to the compound. He has a young male dog, which has fallen in love with Honey. It’s good she has company, but she’s used to playing with Buddy, who is twice her size. She is twice this dog’s size, so she wins and knocks him down the steps. He also chases her around the yard, but she’s built like a greyhound and wins that game too. His name is something like Matson, but I’ve just been calling him Pup.

Since my new house is a bit of a walk from downtown, where I used to live and still work, I’ve been biking in to use the internet and see visiting volunteers. I’m really enjoying the added exercise to my routine. I’m here en ville at the moment posting this blog, but next I’ll bike home and try to poach an egg, since they are so cheap here (75 cfa or 15 cents per egg) and I won’t feel guilty when I screw up a few times.