Tom Collins, business management adviser, Cameroon
Tom Collins from Rathfarnham in South Dublin left his role in business management to join VSO in March 2008. Tom currently works as a business development advisor with a regional council in Cameroon. Below Tom describes a typical day in Cameroon.
Get up time/breakfast
My alarm goes off at 4.40am. I scan the floor with my torch before stepping outside my mosquito net to check for snakes and scorpions. I do yoga exercises for an hour. It is normally so hot here that you have to walk or cycle very slowly and avoid doing anything energetic, otherwise you will dissolve into sweat. Breakfast consists of fruit in season, porridge oats, bread and tea. Only food grown locally is available here and the choice is always very limited.
Getting to work
At around 7.30am I head for work on my bicycle. It is currently mid-winter here. The temperature sometimes falls to a low of 20 degrees at around 7.30 am, climbing above 35 degrees in the mid-afternoon and not falling below 30 degrees before I go to bed. On my way to work I pass the local primary school and often groups of children jog along with me or hang out of the back of my bicycle on their way to school.
My job
I am nearly always the first to arrive at the Maga council building. Work is supposed to start at 7.30am. Less than half the employees ever turn up for work. Very few come every day, on time or for a reasonable length of time. Those who do come to work shake hands with all those already there and have ritual conversations about the cold and whether they slept well and some sit outside chatting all day and do no work at all.
Virtually everything in the building is not working. The council is in severe financial crisis, salaries are four months in arrears and there is no money for materials of any kind. My job - strengthening the capacities of the council - is to change all that! It would be easy to throw up my hands in despair but when I see the widespread hunger, disease and death around me I am much more strongly motivated in my work. I get very strong commitment from the mayor, his deputies, the councillors and the staff of the council. I am encouraged by progress to date and I think that good improvements can be made.
Food
Lunch usually consists of beans, which I have previously steeped in water for 24 hours and then boiled for 2 hours. I make up a sauce for the beans with onions and tomatoes and also eat some bread and bananas. The highlight of my week is fresh fish, “captain”, a lake equivalent of sea bass, which is excellent if you can get it. The choice of other food is extremely limited.
How I relax
In the evening I have a small amount of time to do some extra work, read a novel or listen to music on my ipod. When there is no power in the evening, usually the only thing I can do is play my tin whistle and my harmonica. Occasionally also I venture out to a local bar if it is showing a football match.
I normally go to bed between 9.00pm-10.00pm. At this time of the year at night I hear just the screeches of owls, the hissing of lizards and barking of dogs. There has been no rain since September but once the thundershowers begin in March huge numbers of frogs and toads will appear from nowhere and there will be a loud chorus of croaking. The snakes will have a feast.
