Stress

"Stress is the unavoidable by-product of caring deeply about something or someone."  Oy, jeese.  Catbird must care an awful lot about Hands-On Research School, Cameroon, because her stress level is higher than Mount Cameroon itself, whose peak we did finally see briefly one morning this week.  Did we mention it is the rainy season?

Mt. Cameroon from University of Buea

Gray hairy mildew inside and and air pollution outside.  Catbird's freshly washed pajamas went sour on the clothesline outside our room.  Twice.  Catbird conceded defeat and threw them in the dirty laundry pile.  Likely there will be discards when we arrive home.  Fellow Physicist next door showed me his canvas fanny pack--completely haired over. Just like the wall behind Catbird's nightstand.

Catbird did make an excellent choice in ditching the comfortable walking shoes (can't wait to get back to them) for her clunkier but waterproof hiking shoes. Even waterproof boots won't help you when the rain pours in from above,though, so there is a pair of socks in the office windowsill, hopeful for enough air and sun to prevent fungal slime.

Birds enjoying the rain

Campus is actually quite pretty but spread out, and this is not a litigious society, so Catbird's daily walk to the auditorium, meals, etc. includes leaping over several drainage ditches and slogging through running water and mud as often as not.  This morning Catbird found herself skating across an algae slick on the smooth concrete and counts herself lucky to have remained upright.  Catbird is well aware there may be a patch of wet concrete out there just waiting for her ass and elbow to land.

Daily path from Catbird's office to auditorium

One of the labs here at the Hands-On School studies human locomotion.  To enhance the data collected, they have asked some of the local folk walking by with trays of peanuts or bundles of yucca on their heads to come in and walk across the sensor.  Since many people farm the back acreage of the campus, there is a daily parade of workers skilled in the art of balancing loads.  Our first recruit was a young woman who brings her roasted peanuts to sell every day in front of the labs; she was quite shy and not a little intimidated by the process, but she was also game and did very well.

The flatworm lab is new this year and very exciting.  The young woman who runs the lab is really a great speaker and teacher and is passionate about her worms.  We surely hope we can recruit her again next year for HandsOn Shanghai.  My Physicist says she is a rising star and we expect great things from her.  Of course, that is true of most of the lab leaders here. 

It was a major battle to get campus to unlock the bathrooms in the labs and here in the Administration building where Catbird works, the staff refused.  ("That's not how we do it here.") Catbird was provided a key, which bent like playdough when she tried to use it, so she hikes three buildings over to the lab wc. This can take careful planning on Catbird's part.    

 

There has been no running water on campus this week.  Rain barrels collect roof run-off and then those barrels get dragged into the bathrooms where one is provided with a bucket to scoop it into the used toilet.  Catbird suggested the best thing we might do for the University of Buea is to send them a plumber.  FPs pointed out that the absence of materials such as PVC pipe might render the plumber moot, and Catbird concedes the point.  As a second choice, we use a lot of handwipes and their ilk.  Too bad we didn't bring more.

Our first evening with our lab leaders, one tripped and cut his foot.  We used a good bit of our liquid hand sanitizer just getting the foot clean enough to examine.  After we disinfected and dressed the wound, Catbird requested a driver to take her to the nearest pharmacy to replenish her supplies.  At three (count them:THREE) pharmacies, we were told NO hand wipes, NO hand sanitizer, NO peroxide, NO alcohol.    We now consider it liquid gold and measure it out by drops.

(Catbird has tried to post this many times and hope for the best this time.  Cannot preview so forgive the rough edges.)