{"id":1054,"date":"2011-08-15T18:11:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T18:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2011-08-15T18:11:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T18:11:51","slug":"from-tess-marstaller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=1054","title":{"rendered":"From Tess Marstaller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peace Corps Volunteer, Cameroon <\/strong><\/p>\n

Asinge, Friends!<\/p>\n

At a few degrees above the equator, my Cameroonian village in West Africa can at least depend on one thing arriving with consistency \u2013 nightfall at 6:30.\u00a0 Water in the public taps, phone network, electricity, the long promised road repairs, teachers for the new school year, cross your fingers but don\u2019t hold your breath.\u00a0 Electricity has been out for almost a week now.<\/p>\n

Today I traveled to charge my computer, only to find that riding over broken roads on motorcycles, or jungle humidity, or maybe lizard droppings, have gotten the best of my keyboard.\u00a0 So many letters don\u2019t work, what I\u2019ve typed looks like code!\u00a0 I\u2019m typing by candlelight and have put out buckets to collect rain for my bath and dishes.<\/p>\n

My alarm clock will be the bustle of early morning village life: chickens, babies, wood-chopping, open-fire cooking, neighbors yelling greetings to those trekking to their cocoa farms or hauling water.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all part of my roller coaster ride as I try to integrate into my community as a Peace Corps health volunteer, the first foreigner to have a presence here in 20 years.\u00a0 The learning curve has been more like free fall as I get used to hearing \u201cWHITEMAN\u201d yelled as I pass by villagers still taken aback by my presence, and keep my front door open despite my desire for privacy to respect the culture of openness.<\/p>\n

My job, helping this community identify and address their health development needs, has been the most rewarding, exasperating, and eye-opening experience I\u2019ve ever been thrown head first into.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most moving has been teaching reproductive health to young women who are going through adolescence and womanhood without even basic information.\u00a0 The school curriculum includes no sexual education, though premature pregnancy and STD\u2019s are major problems among youth. \u00a0The first time I held a seminar for 7th <\/sup>– 9th<\/sup> grade aged girls I put out a \u201cQuestion Box\u201d for their confidential matters and could not hand out slips of paper fast enough for their outpouring of uncertainties.\u00a0 I cried reading them later, realizing I\u2019d hit a nerve of serious need that I could actually respond to.<\/p>\n

Helping them navigate pregnancy, child-rearing concerns, introducing the benefits of family planning, and sending the message that they can positively influence their own lives is a role I love.\u00a0 Doing so in the context of rampant need and the social and cultural complications I\u2019ve been learning about for years is a dream come true.<\/p>\n

Still, the going is slow.\u00a0 The heat, harassment and endless house malfunctions can make crawling out of bed utterly overwhelming.\u00a0 Yet, the headaches of trying to function where basic functioning often seems out of reach are made immediately worth it by the thrilling moments.\u00a0 Yesterday a nurse and I hosted the first session of a support group we are trying to launch for HIV+ women.\u00a0 It has taken months to find even a few women willing to share their status with others.\u00a0 Talking about the free treatment available to these women, who have never had autonomy over so much as a dollar, let alone their own health, was powerful.<\/p>\n

Kids have been the golden ticket to feeling at home here.\u00a0 Their adoring greetings (\u201cAuntie Tasse, Auntie TASSE!\u201d) and laughter as we draw and play cards on my porch always brighten my day.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait until they return from their relatives\u2019 holiday care so I can distribute the equipment and supplies you sent through the Women\u2019s Society.\u00a0 What an amazing outpouring of childhood goodies that these kids have never known.\u00a0 My heartfelt thanks to you all.\u00a0 For pictures of my recent summer camp, check out my blog at tessincameroon.blogspot.com<\/a>.\u00a0 For questions or more dialogue, email me at tmarstaller@gmail.com<\/a> Thanks for your prayers of support!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peace Corps Volunteer, Cameroon Asinge, Friends! At a few degrees above the equator, my Cameroonian village in West Africa can at least depend on one thing arriving with consistency \u2013 nightfall at 6:30.\u00a0 Water in the public taps, phone network, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-message"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-h0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1055,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions\/1055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}