#12 - SPECIAL: Harambe Cameroon Launch (Part 1)– Preparations ... Radio Show, Depression, Harvard role model, Birthday, D-DAY

 
I’m working with young college and high school

students. I noticed students really want to be involved. They want to be engaged, do something with their spare time. So when they hear of a project like Harambe, they are really excited and want to be involved. A friend of mine, Joshua, who’s the Marketing Director of the Harambe team told me, “you know Olivia, when you tell someone you are involved in a project that seeks to help others, they look at you with awe, because you are doing something great!” Another member, Patrick Eka the Logistics Director said, “before, I used to just stay at home, watch TV, hang around the neighborhood, but with Harambe I have something to do, I am pushed to think, and to come up with plan of actions with  plan Bs... I’ve never had work experience, but Harambe is like a job, and it has given me confidence in myself.”

 I tell you when I hear comments like that it feels so rewarding. And I know, I increasingly know, that that’s the effect Harambe would have on Cameroonian Youths. Once we get a media-hype and we get the competition on its feet, it will push young people to think beyond themselves, to be involved in the development of their community. It will knock the students out of their lethargy and intellectual torpor. With more testimonies like that of Joshua or Patrick, I’m more convinced of the positive impact Harambe-Cameroon will have on Cameroon’s youth.  

We were on “Family Show”, on Wednesday (the 4^th).  It’s a radioshow many youths listen to. They call in, confide their problems to Tata Michelle, and she advises them. So, she invited me to the show. I have to say Tata Michelle has been so wonderful to me, last year she invited me on the show too, and this year she’s been so supportive and encouraging. I love her! So I went with my team. We prepped up before, made sure everyone was speaking from the same chorus, and theneveryone had to prepare a “What’s Harambe to me?” speech.  It was wonderful! Really. I was such a proud mamma listening to each one of them describe a “personal story” of what’s Harambe to them. At the end of the show, the ambiance was great in the studio, the young audience are looking forward to the competition,  and we had great feedback from friends and family, who called us right after the show ended. 

Now, the walk back home was something else. We left the radio station at 10:30pm, in a neighborhood where there are no cabs, so… we had to wait on the desert streets for about 40 mins to find an available cab. We had to walk… me in heels. I tell u... what wouldn't we do for Harambe!? 

It gets rough

• I won't lie... it really does get rough. At a certain point, your thoughts are bouncing all up in your head, you don’t know what to do, you need to bounce your ideas off someone else, but everyone seems busy or clueless about what’s going on in your head. Your team mates approve most of what you propose, your friends don’t understand all the angles of your decision, and others are simply uninterested!  It gets tough, to have to strategize, plan all on your own, while at the same time being your self-critic …  At a certain point it starts weighing down on you… you get tired of being your number one judge, critic and fan…. You burn out! 

• Leadership can be a very lonely spot. 

• The battle is in the mind.  

• You know, at times you might surround yourself with all the positivity you have, with role models staring at you from left to right, with words from loved ones cheering you up… but when you fall in that whole of gloominess and depression, you need an external person to take you out. At that point, you might know what your cure is, but you don’t want to use. You might have everything to feel happy and blessed about, but you choose to remain in your depressive mood... There’s really  something sweet about depression. Lol.  So, during those moments, you need that someone that would pick you up, and shake you out of your moodiness, and boost your energy… It’s really important to have at least one person like that in your life.

 

• Now, with me being here in Kmer and my best friends in the US and all over the world, I can feel the blank. 

•  A new great friend often reminds me, “no pain, no gain. No sweat, no sweet…"
  

• And that great friend came handy at the very moment I was breaking down… one week before the inauguration… man it was rough. But he knew what I was going through… freed his schedule, spent the entire afternoon with me to make sure I got my spirits up.  And  it worked. That was priceless!

D-Day-2 – Interesting Harvard dude 

• A friend of mine, Sitina, sent me a text message to invite a friend of hers, Michael, a Cameroonian graduate of the Harvard Law School, at our inauguration.  I called him so we can meet up, to explain to him what Harambe is all about, etc.  I did my pitch,  he listened attentively, asked some mindful questions, and  we were on the same frequeny. He went on and told me about his path:  Went to boarding school in kmer, did his undergrad at university of Yaounde II (SOA), obtained his masters in 4 years, then left to Boston U –Law School with a 75% scholarship… was told about the Harvard Law opening exclusively reserved for US-citizens, but because he was so smart, he received a waiver signed by the late Senator Ted Kennedy… did the 3 years Harvard Law School thing, graduated 2004, and today he’s back in Kmer, trying to make an impact in his country. That’s his life in 5 sentences, as u can imagine, I was impressed! But I was even more impressed by his humility and down-to-earth-ness.  He gave all glory to God, and kept counting his blessings… didn’t know I’ll bump into a Harvard Law School young alumnus  here in kmer, u know? U would expect them to be on wall street,  at JP Morgan, in Hong Kong or Switzerland, trying to milk out all the advantages that come with their prestigious degrees… but that’s not the case for Michael. The simple fact that he is in Cameroon, working for a Cameroonian company speaks volume by itself. 

• That’s why I wanted to highlight Michael’s story here, ‘cause those are the kind of success-stories we need to narrate more. He’s someone we need to highlight for young people to get inspired, he’s a role model everyone, especially in the Diaspora, can look up to. Dr Michael, when you read this… I say three thumbs up!

D-Day-1 = B’day

•  B’day Equation: 11/11 = 11+11  

• Such an uneventful b’day! Went to work, came back from work. They cooked rice and tomato sauce. I worked on my Harambe presentation.  A very ordinary day!  

• But, I received so much love from all over the world. I love you guys! Perhaps all that positive energy contributed in making the Harambe-Cameroon Launch (the next day) a success despite all the odds! I tell you, that day, the whole universe conspired to make that event a success.

D-DAY: Harambe Inauguration Ceremony 

-  The Day of…. Thursday, November 12^th 2009.  

- Woke up at: 7:30 

- Went to pick up some red chairs we rented with Cynthia, our Public Relations Officer (PRO)

- Went to rent a mini-truck to carry the tables  and sound system to our venue. I'll upload a picture of our Cameroonian U-Haul... lol.

 

- Between 12 and 3pm we were setting up the room: flowers, chairs, speakers, ... 
- David placed the Banderole outside at the gate. 

- In between, I had to go to the bank to withdraw my last savings from my Bank of America account. lol. I'm serious though...

• As I'm writing down this  note I have about $5 left in my Bank of America account, and about 1,600FCFA (i.e. $3) in my local account. Lol. Smh! All my money, savings and money i had lent to people, have been invested into Harambe. Whether it’s giving a stipend to my team of 5 students, or paying for the chairs for the conference, or paying for the hostesses, or the material to sew their dresses, the banderole, the badges, the legalization of Harambe-Cameroon, the phone calls, letters of invites, printing all the material, renting the projector, renting the mics … I mean, every single expense drained all I had left in my pockets! Now, u better not think I have a tree at home I can pick my money from… uh uh… and I did not serve myself in daddy’s pockets, noh noh… I tell u, he was as surprised as everyone else that evening of the inauguration!  This was my very personal and solely individual financial investment in Harambe. 

• I’m not worrying though, cuz God sees. He’s my provider and He will supply! Come to think about it, I ran a $1200 budget with about $800 in my pockets. I dunno how it worked out… but it did. Today I’m debt free: paid the photographer, hostesses, everyone! 

•  Plus, let me be real here… I honestly don’t need much money; I practically have everything I need at home... I have my bed, breakfast is ready in the morning, I take the car to go to work, if not I take a cab, when I come back from work food is ready-set on the table, TV works just fine, I have a USB-internet flash drive I use to go online … once in a while I go buy Soya (roasted meat)  or brochette-de-porc when I come back from work, then I chill home with my cousins and mommy, I listen to Joel Osteen before sleeping, and I sleep…  that’s about how my ordinary day goes. I really don’t have that many expenses!  On weekends, I chill with family and friends, once in a while I might go on a date, the dude handles the bill… In short, I honestly don’t have that many expenses… so I can’t complain about the few dollars in my account.  

•  What I need now though is to raise funds for the next step of Harambe Cameroon i.e. the elevator pitch contest of January 15^th.  And I need to raise funds for administrative costs, i..e. helping my team work efficiently; cuz I know not everyone is I know not everyone has all their basic needs met. Some of the students I work with take a taxi all the way from Odja to Ngousso (20+ miles), every Sunday for our weekly meetings. And sometimes when we finish at about 9pm, they have to go back in the night…. I mean, I understand how rough it can get on them, that’s why I want to help them out more.; to make Harambe easier on their backs and their pockets. Those are the sacrifices we must make at the beginning of any endeavors. Patience and Determination are the key words here. The money is definitely coming, it’s just a matter of time...  

 Back to D-DAY… So the Day of the Inauguration was crayyyzzyyy… 

• We had scheduled to start the event at 5pm
•  We were at Royal-Co (the venue) setting everything up, from 10am to 3:30 pm.
• I left to go change at home… on the way home there was an infernal traffic jam on a road that’s never jammed! On the descente/vallee Carrefour sorcier – pass les rails – uptil Hopital  General… I was like “what kinda thing is this? Bahluck!” I bought myself some roasted corn, to chew my stress away on that corn.

• By the time I got home it was 4:20pm… the clock  seemed to be ticking ten times faster than usual...At 4:45 I was running out of my house, with my beige dress pants on, my white singlet, my beige suit on my right shoulder, my bag in  my left hand, my gold shoes in the other , make up dumped in my bag, my blue UNICEF folder with all my speeches and important documents held tight between my teeth…  jumped in the car, head off to Royal Co… it was 4:50 already… In the front seat, I was doing my make up, dressing up, spraying perfume, while picking up phone calls every two minutes… I tell u it was frantic. 

I get to Royal Co at 10 past 5 and the room is half-packed. Our guests were surprisingly very punctual! (The reason for the punctuality I think is because 5pm is a perfect time for workers and professionals. They just came to Royal-co right after work).

There we are at Royal-Co. I only have my PRO in sight, the hostesses are there, and are gorgeous! But, the other 3 members are not there yet. 

The Vice President who has the cable to connect the projector to the computer, plus the final power point presentation, as well as the slide we planned to keep the early guests busy,  is still at home – NOT DRESSED YET! The mics have not arrived yet! The room is getting warmer and warmer… the guests are getting more anxious and antsy in their seats… Oh God, I was about to tear my hair apart… I called my VP asked him to jump in the next cab ASAP! I went in front of all our guests to apologize for the delay. I told them we will start in the next 30 mins as we are waiting for the mics and the cable to connect the projector. I heard one of the professors uttering “30mins? I am about to go back home!” ohhh my….  I tell u, I had to keep my coooooooool.... My PRO and I started brainstorming “what to do now!” My dad and uncle arrived… they had a business meeting to attend at 6:30 pm, so they pressed us to start the event without mics, since the room was not too big. So we did…

It was 5:40pm when we started the program. The kind of Improvisation and Freestyling my PRO and I did was unprecedented! hmmm... we had planned a very elaborate organized agenda for that evening, but with everything falling apart we had to crop things here and there, ask some one of our guest speaker to speak before the other, cut out the breathe-out-sessions… we went straight to the essential. And all these guests, all professionals, in suits, were staring at us, most times very emotionless despite my efforts to make them smile with my smile… In my head, I was just like “God, I beg you, just get us through this night fully sane!”

• So by the time both our guest speakers delivered their great speech on the value of Harambe, and why we need all the support possible, the stress kinda cooled down, cuz it was great to hear all those praises, in the middle of all this chaos, from our speakers’ mouths. But by the time they were done, we had to move to the next thing… we had planned to show 2 clips of our members saying “What’s Harambe to Me”, but VP was still not in sight with the videos… Oh God… so we had to move to the Plan B… i.e. do the Presentation (the heart of the program) right away. The problem now was that the presentation I had was the rough draft I had in my computer, the final draft was, again, with the VP (on his laptop)… well, since we didn’t have much options, we had to do with the draft –presentation. Luckily, our Financial Director got us a cable to connect the projector with my laptop.

We dimmed the lights, connected  my laptop to projector ,  and started the presentation. My uncle, who was seating in the front seat volunteered to flip the slides for me (cuz none of my team mates were available to do it)… and so the show began: “What’s Harambe endeavor?” “Harambe is an alliance of African students in leading universities in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Asia… who came together ‘cause they share the frustration of a people…"

Slide after Slide, I was speaking, showing and explaining

our terms, our goals, our vision. I tell you, I don’t even know what I was saying. I felt like I was just putting one word after the other. Couldn’t hear myself, nor my thoughts. I was just blurbing out sounds! Then came the section of Harambe-Cameroon … this is where 3 of my team mates had to present the Cameroon program. VP was still not in sight… so I kept going, explaining Harambe-Cameroon, to the point VP suddenly arrived in the room, and he took over. Cynthia, our PRO followed with her slides... Now… the things here is, since it was the draft presentation, you could see on some slides things like “Cynthia elaborate on this point”, “Adrien insert what this means”, “David explain the vision”… Oh Gooddddd…. I wanted to bury myself in my seat as I read those things on the slide… maaaaannnn in my mind it was just “catastrophic!” I stood up to end the slide show. I  wrapped up what my collegues had said, and then I clicked on the last slide: A powerful picture, with a powerful question - what we now call the Harambe question:

  “If not now, when?
        If not here, when? 
            If not you? who?”

Before I even said "thank  you", they were clapping! clap!clap!clap! I tell you, they clapped so hard like it was the end of a Hollywood movie. lol. Their applause erased all the uncertainties I had in my head about our presentation. You could see the amazement in their eyes, and you could sense the positive energy in the room.

We then opened the floor to questions and comments…  U know, before the inauguration we had planned not to

do Q&A ‘cause we know how Cameroonians can sometimes be naysayers and  energy-suckers. So we had planned to take individual questions at the end of the ceremony; and not give a chance to party-poopers. lol.  But as I felt the atmosphere in the room that day, I knew people wanted to comment/contribute/criticize constructively… So we opened the floor…

•  RFI journalist spoke, representative of University of Yaounde spoke, Head of department at CSPH, president of student clubs, General Manager of Mont Febe hotel, National employment fund… 

All the comments were positive, encouraging, supportive.

In my mind I was thinking “did they really see this presentation?”
And when they commented on my eloquence and how articulate I was, I smiled, but in my head I was wondering if they really listened to me blurting out those words after words, lol… I tell you I was more astonished by their commentaries than they were by our presentation. 

The room which actually was steamy hot at the beginning of the event, cooled off (without AC) during the questions and answers session.  Seriously, I could even feel a breeze in the room, like God was blowing some air on us… 

•   See, there are things that are beyond our understanding. This was beyond mine. The only way I can understand this is that God was present there with us, and He covered our mistakes. He caused our guests to see us the way he wanted us to be seen! 

That’s my testimony of God’s love and unfailing faithfulness. His amazing grace is upon us. To God be the Glory!