Aimer La Vie

04/05/2012

2012-05-04T05:03:00.000-07:00

04/05/2012

Well, I done did it again. I have not put an entry in almost a month. I’m at the case in Yaounde and its surprisingly quite. Usually there is atleast a dozen people here passing through, doing committee work, or visiting the PCMO. There is actually SED steering going on, but they’re in their meeting right now until 3. Why am I here? Because I’m going to be back on American soil in A WEEK. It still has not hit me yet. I’m going back home for my sister’s graduation, and of course to relax with my dearly missed loved ones.

Getting here wasn’t bad at all. From Batouri and Bertoua I took the first buses out and neither broke down. There were plenty of stops along the way to pick people up. I had 2 chicken at my feet from Batouri. One of which pooped on my bag. C’est la vie. I got my signs all the way here without any damage and LaHomma and Kim loved them. LaHomma is our Country Director and Kim is the Director of all 5 programs. Both of these amazing humans will be leaving us in June which is a real bummer. I hope whoever replaces them can fill their shoes. I’ve only known them for 8 months and had a few conversations, but these are the humans that make things happen and do it well. I have pictures of these signs on my fb. I actually almost forgot the signs on the bus in Bertoua because right when I arrived I got a text from my post mate saying she couldn’t find where I left my keys. I hid them in my yard so she could check on my house periodically when I’m gone. This consumed my mind and by the time I got to the Bert case I realized what I left behind. I rushed back to the agance and they were still there, thank God. The dude who works for Alliance said someone tried to steal them, but he knew it belonged to the one white guy on the bus. I did my banking in Bertoua just to get it over with before I came to Yao. I take out as much money as I can from my bank. I don’t trust it in there because of corrupt reputation this country has. Banking is interesting here.

I don’t think I’ve shared my experiences with my bank yet so I will now. I bank with BISEC. PC gave all of us a list of “acceptable” banks to use for our 2 years here. My bank doesn’t post it hours? But I found out from speaking with the guards out front that they are from from 8:30-12 and then 2-5. I was there at 7:45 after eating breakfast so I just decided to read so I would be at the front of the line to get in. Front of the line because once the bank opens everyone rushes to the 2 only tellers to take care of their business. During that time people slowly started showing up, and by 8:20 there were about 30 people waiting outside the doors. The bank opened late, like 9:10. This hasn’t happened to me before, but schedules don’t really exist in Cameroon. When the other guard inside comes to the door to start unlocking everything everyone swarms to the door. Luckily I was still in front. People will try to weasel their way to the front, and more often then not Cameroonians don’t care. But I do. “Que faites-vous?! Respecter la ligne!” The more French I learn and the more I’m in country the sassier I have become, but it really is necessary here. People speak loud and emotionally. Its just how it goes. I could go to the ATM, but it only gives the largest bills 5.000 and 10.000. Those are hard for me to break in Batouri and also perpetuates that I’m a rich white man in Cameroon. This is why I go inside and specify what bills I want. Once I’m processed all I get is 10’s and 5’s. I ask where the smaller bills are and he says they don’t have the money. Don’t have the money?! Your a bank. But this is Cameroon. Thats how it goes, c’est la vie. The bank is the closest thing to nice here besides the embassy. I always go to the bank in frip (used) clothes and look disheveled. I’ve heard of other volunteers getting robbed right when they leave the bank. Besides that tatic I always walk to the bank and then drop all the money off at the case right after. There’s also a TV in the bank and people in line make noises like “aye, oy”, and click their mouth after a disappointing story about some other African country with problems. Right now it seems like theres a lot going down in Africa. One time at the bank there was this mama right up on me from behind while we were waiting in line. Like both breast on the shoulder blades, so I broke wind. Didn’t even phase her. I have checks here that I haven’t picked up yet because I know it would be about a 2 hour activity to get something simple like that. Customer service also really doesn’t exist at the bank. When I banked in America it seemed like all the tellers were on Zoloft. Everyone happy to take or give you your money. Not here. Straight faces. Theres also a lot more protection in the banks here. Guards inside. Gendarmes outside with guns. There is a guy who stands by the door to slide up and down the gate when you enter or leave. Banking can take a long time, so if you ever find yourself complaining about your bank in America just be happy your not banking in Africa. I’m sure if your a person with tons of money you get the proper treatment, but for the most part its comme ca.

So I left for the bus at 5 am Thursday to make sure I got a ticket and didn’t have to wait in line. Waiting in line at a bus agance is even worse. People cut every time and people rarely say anything. The last time I waited to buy a ticket from Bertoua to Batouri I was in line for an hour and a half and got the second to last ticket for that bus. The bus I took this time to YAO was the VIP bus. Air conditioning, didn’t work, a bathroom, unusable, but the seats were comfy. They also have a TV playing music videos the whole 6 hour drive. I finally got to see the videos to the music I hear blaring outside my house in Batouri. I slept most the way except with Stephanie woke me up for an ID check. The gendarme stops buses to make sure everyone has an ID. They breeze through the Cameroonians with IDs and scrutinize the white people who have IDs. Thats how its been for my post mates and I. They also make stops so people can drain the main vain, women too. I forgot to mention Stephanie, my post mate, came with me to YAO to see the PCMO.

We arrived around 2 at the PC HQ. I took care of most of my business to get ready to leave for the states. Get my WHO card so they know I don’t have diseases, my no fee passport, my drivers license so I can drive a car back home. Which I haven

t done in 8 months. Dropped off reimbursement forms, checked for mail, and gave the signs to Kim and LaHomma. They liked the gesture. Cleaned up, ate dinz, and then copied some movies from other people hard drives. Its amazing how many movies/videos/music are available and get swapped between PCVs. One girl has the Billboard top 100 music from 1950-2004.

Now it is friday morning and feels tres comfortable. Its just 4 other humans and me in the case. I’m going to miss the East regional meeting on the 5th, which is in Bertoua. Plans for today? I’m gonna write letters, finish this post, complete my VRF, and probably go on a stroll through Yaounde. VRF is volunteer report form. Every volunteer has to fill out a very lengthy electronic report about what they have done the last 3 months and what they plan to do the next. Its very in depth. We learned all about it at IST. I would prefer that over the paper version that was phased out last year.

I’ll be reporting mostly on the last month which was real busy for me. Preparing everything before I leave for a month. Thomas Marie (my CP) is a solid hard working human being. I’ve said it before, but that dude does not fit the mold of your typical Cameroonian. I hope to return to most of the TODO list check off we came up with at our last meeting. All of this reporting goes to PC Cam HQ then PC Washington, and finally the government to evaluate the process and productivity of the PC program.

Whats new/changed for me at post. MEEP MEEP (my cat) is growing and becoming more of an outside cat. She sometimes gets in fights with another cat who lives at a boutique down the road. One day they were fighting on the metal bars that cover the windows. My neighbors grabbed my cat and I told them through the window it was mine, so what do they do? Chunk it over the fence into my yard. She uses one side of my sink as a litter box which I’m cool with. I wouldn’t even mind cleaning it up off the floor since its all concrete, but I’m happy she uses the sink. I also got a monkey. I don’t know the species or genus but I have a hommie PCV who is great at identifying animals. I got him from Esperance, one of the institutions I work with. I’ve been to Esperance multiple times and never knew they had a monkey, but the last time I was there pere Gaston pointed him out and asked if I wanted him. This monkey was in poopy living conditions. He was tied to a small twisted rope in a cage that most people would keep a small rabbit in. Pere Gaston said they have had him for over 2 years. After seeing all this I said I would love to take him. His name is Africa. He’s pretty docile. He wasn’t so docile on the trip to my house, but I feel he's much happier in my front yard. When I’m in the US I’m going to get him a harness and one of those running zip lines for dogs for him so he can move around more and get into the trees. You know those zip lines for dogs who need exercise, but can be trusted to stay in the yard? Comme ca. MEEP MEEP hasn’t warmed up to Africa yet. Africa doesn't really care about MEEP. He acknowledges the creature but doesn’t really care. He actually presented his butt towards MEEP the first time they met. There are pictures on FB of that first encounter. He also pooped all over the crib when MEEP was around, so those two won’t be in the house together again. MEEP gets close to him when he’s outside to investigate. I feel after 2 years they will warm up. J'espère que. My house still has a leak in the roof in my back room. Rainy season has started and we’ve had some awesome storms. With the tin roofs it gets so loud I can barley hear anything. But its just starting, I hear its going to become stronger more frequently. That also means power will be out more often. I will see the flash of lightning and then the powers out. I like it when the powers out because its quite except for the few electronic shops that have generators going. There are also the huge stadium lighting that comes from STBK, the logging company because they have huge CAT generators. It takes away from being able to see the stars clearly. Speaking of power being out, I went out to eat dinner one night when the power was out and there was an important soccer game going on. I don’t follow it much but I guess it was the finals. There were literally 30 people outside about 5 different electronic shops that had generators watching the game. Thats love for the sport, and the excitement that exploded after a great move. People running in the street cheering. That was a groovy first experience. I don’t know the teams that were playing.

Radom note. Stephanie just reported that the Yaounde “dermatologist” diagnosed her and said she is allergic to the sun. Seems weird, but she has to completely cover her body with clothes for the rest of service which will be quite uncomfortable with how hot and humid Batouri is. She is also get 5 blood test done.

I finished two books. It seems I always says the books I read were great and I highly recommend them, but it continues with these two. Deep Survival is a great book about what goes on neurologically to make a person survive. Very well written with collection of great survival stories. I just finished my other book on the way over here called Zeitoun. Just read the wiki summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitoun_(book). Reading this book really took me back to how terrible Hurricane Katrina was handled, but to read the personal experience of this man and his was eye opening. Out of all the books I have recommended to read. Read this one FIRST. I also just read that it will be a movie in 2014 which I hope is truthful. I started a book in training called Two Ears of Corn but didn’t finish, but my loving family sent it to me in a care package:) Most AGRO post already have the book at their post but I’m opening one and a health volunteer was there before me. It was written in the 80s, but its spot on for the topic of agriculture development in developing countries. Hopefully I’ll finish that on the trip home. I have a hommie from the South coming in today. There’s also some cinco de drinko party going down in the East. Glad to be missing that.

Oh, this past month my post mates and I also made soy and soy milk, both of which didn’t come out too well. The soy wasn’t solid, but it still tasted great. The milk was just bad. I think there was too much water in the mix. I added cinnamon to it thinking it might make it a little better, but it just tasted like crappy lemonade. I still drank it all because I dislike wasting. But like scientist do, experiment. I’ve got to get it down pat before Thomas and I start giving animations on how to plant it, processes it, and eventually use it as an IGA. It will hopefully also help with the malnutrition problem in Batouri.

Another random note. You know Eddie Murphy has a song, #7, on Billboard’s top 100 for 1986. L'année je suis né. I never knew that dude made jams. He should stick to movies and standup. Another interesting song New kids on the block - This one’s for the children. If you want my body and you think I’m sexy, come on let me know! Anyone know that song. I love but don’t know the artist or name of the song.

I should have put this at the beginning of the post, but when I left Batouri it was the Fait du travail. It’s like labor day here, but they still celebrate the same as other faits. Its done at the place de fait. The put down the white walking lines. Companies get T-shirts made and march with signs representing their business. Comme many all the other faits everyone gets drunk to celebrate. By the time I arrived in Bertoua I already missed their march but saw everyone with their tshirts. People still work, but the hours just change. Nothing changed for me when I took the first bus out. I also forgot to mention how terrible the roads are getting. I met the cheif at the depart of transportation, he liked my homemade wine. He told him it will help him get his member up. He was already a couple beers in. His job is to maintain the road between Bertoua and Batouri. I asked him if they ever level it out and he said they do it only once a year and in June. I hope thats true especially since the rainy season has started. The trip to Bertoua gets a little longer every time, but the plants next to the road are now green and flourishing again because of the rain. I also see at least one overturned logging truck or other vehicle because they drive crazy down a crappy road. I’ve said this before. People drive crazy here, but its kinda like the chaos theory. There is harmony in the chaos. Definitely not all the time. For example, in Yaounde with all the taxi drivers. They are quite skilled at getting very close to each other without hitting, but the evidence there from scratches on the cars.

One more random note before I wrap this up that I forgot to mention when I talked about women’s day. On the panya they had 2035 written as they day of success? I dunno. When Cameroon will become something so much better. I don’t know why they picked that year, but I have a hypothesis. I think Paul Byia just decided to pick a year that is so far ahead he doesn’t have to worry about actually meeting that goal. He’ll be dead or replaced before that time. Good political move. I hope Cameroon is a better place come 2035, but thats 23 years away. Imagine what Africa will be like 23 years from now, not to mention the world, but so much is going on this continent. For those Americans on the 24 hour news cycle I’m sure your seeing all the change. I rarely watch TV or see one in Batouri, so seeing the news is a trip.

I just got two packages from 2 SUPER solid humans! Thank you Ralf and Kyle. Made my Friday like you can’t comprehend: ) It’s 1 now and I’m gonna get some ef double oh dee and do the rest of my stuff today. Du courage mes amies. A la prochaine.

13/04/12

2012-04-13T07:42:00.001-07:00

13/04/12

So its Friday the 13th. Its interesting how sorcery and mystical belief are such a large part of the culture here, but there is not “day of superstition” in existence, yet. I should explain Friday the 13th to my neighbors when I get back to post. Right now I’m just in the Yao case and its surprisingly quite. Only Agro steering committee and a hommie for medical reasons are here. Most everyone left for lunch after our second day of committee work. Back up.

IST finished great. It flew by fast because our days were scheduled just like training and the evenings were spent exploring Bamenda or socializing with les comrades we haven't seen in three months. Or seen together as a group. Our AGRO group has gone from 19 to 13. The previous group of volunteers was 29 and is now 28, so our group is tres petit. I won’t go into the details of why people have left, but our PM gave us some grandpa speech about how our program is holding the “black flag” since so many people have left our program. Poor move on his part considering he was talking down to the 13 dedicated volunteers who are still in country and missing their friends who chose to leave or had to leave. Their was an apology later, but it was like being talked to as children. As for the IST work, it was beneficial, more so for the PCVs. I think its necessary that the counter parts are there, but some of the topics were just flew over some heads. Like Thomas, my dude. He’s not highly educated. Some sessions were more like college lectures that sometimes droned on. It was all beneficial info, just some long days. Nothing really to complain about. We had great accommodations, beautiful views, our fellow Americans, and got to meet our new American PCMO. Super solid human being from Hawaii. She is the new permanent American PCMO that PC Cameroon has been searching for the past year. We also found out our Country Director will be leaving in July. Our Director of training will be leaving in June. Our PC HQ will be changing locations as well as the Yaounde case by the end of the year. The Agroforestry program no longer exists. It is now the “Environment” program. We were told to choose between the Environment or Agriculture program as the name. Each had their own goals and objectives, but I feel the obviously blend together. You can’t separate the two no matter how good your wording is. I’ll go more into this when I get to steering meeting. Our last day we had a session on what committees you could join. There is a Environmental Education/Food Security, Gender and Youth Development, Youth Task Force, ICT (Tech stuff), and steering committees for every program. The steering committees give the feedback that hopefully help shapes each program and progressively improve its qualities. I’m on steering because they want someone from every region on our committee. Our last sessions were “Best Practices.” Thats where current volunteers come and share their personal stories in the field about what has worked, what didn’t, specific projects, collaboration projects, kinda like what you might read in their blog post.

Other programs peaced out back to post on Sunday, but Agro’s stayed because we had a field trip planned Monday. Id say more than half went to either of the beaches. Especially the people from the grand North. I don’t blame them. They made the long trip down, why not take advantage of already being somewhat in the area to take some mental days before the 2 day trip back to post. Shane and I got our hair plated. Plated is how you say braided in pidgin. Nothing was open Sunday but we had some barber as his homegirl to open up her weave shop to we could get it done. I had some awesome shwarma wrap once mine was done. Oh yea, there was also a club at the hotel we stayed at. Called Club Rocket. It was called that because they tried to make the front of the building look like a rocket. It does, but without the pointy cone at the top. I didn’t to go into the club because I only brought sandals to IST and it wasn’t “club attire.” I don’t think I missed too much. There wernt even mirrors in the club. Maybe thats not an anglophone thing. I also heard people had ringing in their ears the next days during sessions. I was informed that there were people with cameras who would go around and film people dancing and it would be projected on the flat screens in the club, kinda like soul train. But soul train didn’t have the TVs where they were dancing.

One thing, actually two things, I really love about the NW region are the mountains and pidgin. Pidgin is like an undereducated middle schooler speaking some very unique form of slang. I’m very happy to be in francophone, but I think I would enjoy speaking more if it was in Pidgin. Our field trip Monday was to the Nazareth agroforestry center and a mushroom center. The Nazareth place mostly concentrated on raising animals and vegetable gardening. Not too much on agroforestry techniques. They raised chickens (for meat and eggs), rabbits, cane rats, and pigs. Then they also had what I would consider a community garden. They teach people how to grow and then give them their own plot to practice on. It was a fairly small scale operation run by the Catholics. The mushroom place had their work down to a science. We watched a not very informational documentary on their group for 30 minutes and then took part in the whole process of starting mushroom spores. This center is so popular Paul Byia even visited it. They sell a bunch of mushroom related products that claim to do amazing things. Mushroom milk? I dunno what that was about. They also made a delicious mushroom soup before we took the family photo. After arriving back at the hotel I went out into town one last time to see if I could find anything at the frip, the street thrift store. I had some Cameroonian say “whats up my nigger?” Probably because I looked like Shawn Paul. I just laughed because that blew my mind, au Cameroon. I didn’t find any shoes at the right price. I was looking at some Puma high tops from the 80s, but I lowball when bargaining. I think it helps me out though since I shouldn’t be acquiring too many possessions here. Especially since I’m addicted to panya. Anyone ever heard of Settlers of Catan? Wild game. That was played pretty frequently. That night I just talked with the remaining Agros, slept, and left at 6 am the next morning for Yaounde. Got my braids undone in Yao because I couldn’t sleep in them. I broke the rib on the case hoop because I was trying to dunk in HORSE. I got to play ultimate frisbee at the US Embassy that evening which was a trip. We played with the Marines stationed there. We had to turn our cell phones off and leave them in the security building. Go through a medal scanner and get our stuff x rayed at the airport. There was lush green grass and landscaping on the inside. A heated pool. Golf course behind the embassy, not part of it. I didn’t get to see the Marines house, but I hear its just like an American home. They have a dock to receive all their American goods that get imported in. It was a trip being there. That and dinner were the last things I did in Yao before heading back to post. Next morning Bertoua then Batouri. Meep Meep was happy to see me. Since coming back to post I jumped back into my regular routine. Worked more with Thomas on his farm, planning on what he and his team will do during May, and catching up with friends in town.

This past week and a half also went by really fast because I had to be back in Yao for Agro steering committee. Which is where I am now. Upon arriving in the case and having internet I saw an email from TIKI telling everyone I shouldn’t be coming to steering. Once he saw me here there was no issue. His reasoning is the East shouldn’t be represented because I’m in the only Agro in the East. There is also “rule” that each region needs 3 sector members to have a representative. I think its silly and there should be a rep from each region, which there is now. I got grouped with the South region since no one wants to replace the current rep. Business this meeting was about changing from Agroforestry to Environment, discussing FITU (Focus In Training Up), and changing wording so D.C. will like the new program goals and objectives. There was a lot more stuff but I don’t want to get into those details. We reviewed the good, bad, and discussed improvements for PST and IST. How the committee is going to change with the new group of Agros. Developing calendars. We got a security PC Cameroon update from LaHoma, our CD.

Crime is up in Cameroon. There were 15 burglaries in the last year. Some homegirl in the East had her house broken into. But she went to the beach before IST and after, so she was gone for over a month. I haven’t had any issues thank goodness. I’m pretty prudent though, hence the guard cat. Some official from D.C. is coming to visit and talk with volunteers in the West and North West because thats where most of the crime is at. Talk with them to make sure they are “feeling” safe. Its gotta be so hard to be Country Director. I can understand why she's ready to leave in July. I can only pray the next CD is as solid as this one. I’m getting a local painter to make these Solid Human Award signs for LaHoma and Kim before they depart from PC Cameroon. While I’ve got the internet I’m getting seeds sent to me from Trees for Life and ECHO. I also tried signing up on couchsurfing.org but you need to pay and I have no US bank accounts. OH. PC Mali closed down. Don’t know why? Google it. The current volunteers have the choice to go home or find other African countries that can take them in. We are going to take some in, I dunno how many. I dunno what I’m gonna do with the rest of my day here in Yao. A lot of volunteers are going to Hilton happy hour. Its a bar on the top floor of the hotel so you get an amazing view of Yaounde, but 5.000 for 2 drinks. Its 5.000 for me to get from Yao to Bertoua. I got my hair cut and bear trimmed so my PM will stop calling me Osama. I think I looked pretty hood with a scarf wrap and sun glasses. I’m gonna go walk around Yaounde for a bit and then probably come back and read. Nothing exciting. Oh, this is also my first time to stay in the case room that has A/C. I havent slept under a blanket in months. Maybe a bed sheet a couple of times but never a blanket since I’ve been in country.

24 more days until I head back to the U.S. Thats going to be a mind trip going and coming back. Just traveling to a developed area of Cameroon is a trip being away from Batouri. Paved roads or sidewalks. George foreman grills. I can’t wait to be home but I’m wondering what its going to be like once I get back. I’ll worry about that when it happens. I got some awesome mail from friends : ) Thank you again. Letters are en route so give it 3 weeks or a month.

Google “Moon Tiger” insecticide. Actually, it doesn’t come up. Just some score card for a safety rating on Moon Tiger mosquito coils. Moon Tiger is a company that makes an insecticide spray here and is probably illegal in multiple countries. Some volunteers get a bad headache or other reaction after they spray and inhale it. It kills the nervous system of whatever you spray it on, which doesn’t happen slowly. So you spray a cockroach and it usually creeps off and dies somewhere else. Now Meep just kills the cockroaches. I wish I had a can with me so I could write down the chemicals in it, but its terrible stuff. Another random thing, last week when I was walking around town I had some guy come up to me and try to sell a “diamond” which was a chunk of quartz. I offered him a dollar (500 CFA) but no game. My only plans until I leave the country are work with Thomas, help him recruit more people for his GIC, and get seeds. I’m out for a walk now. Peace out mes amies. Nous sommes ensamble.

20/03/2012

2012-04-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

20/03/2012

I am sitting on a “leather” couch in my room at the AZAM Hotel in Bamenda, Cam in the NW region. Just finished another delicious dinner offered to me with the other volunteers that are here with me for IST (In Service Training). In service is training. IST is something all volunteers PC worldwide do 3 months after being at post. The all meet up with their counterparts for a week long conference where we get further training and share all of what we observed and learned at post. I’ll come back to this, I want to start at the beginning of last week and end back up here, the present.

Last Monday Thomas and I had our first meeting with the other farmer leaders of Batouri to get the information we would present at IST. Develop the needs of the community, resources available, challenges to overcome, and future work plans. We passed out 20 fliers and I would have hoped to get half of that but didn’t expect more. I only passed out 4 and Thomas shared the rest. 14 people actually showed up to the meeting. Not everyone showed up at 8:30 when the meeting started, which is perfectly normal. After the meeting Thomas took everyone on a tour of his piece of land to show what he has and where things will be. We didn’t finish until 11:30. Thats longer than I expected, but its great. I though it showed these people we interested, engaged in the conversation, and will hopefully be coming back. It consisted mostly of neighbors, bee specialist, moringa specialist, and aquaculture specialist. Thomas is the local soja expert. I havent seen much soy grown in Batouri. That will hopefully change if the public develops an appreciation for the plant and want a changed. After that I had my lunch and then read about the medicinal plants and trees we want to use on his farm. Tuesday wasn't anything special, just my Fulfulde/French class and Thomas‘ work day. It was poopy because neither thing worked out, which was cool because my stomach wasn't feeling good. I think my gastro-intestinal issue is coming back up. Its groovy though. I’m getting a blood and stool test done at HQ on my way back through Yaounde to post to see if there is anything living in my body. I still dont feel 100 percent. My tummy gurgles frequently. When I went to that class the teach never showed up, Mohammed. When I went to Thomas’s he was too pooped to do anything for our workday. So we talked about when we would meet up the next day to put our poster together. We also talked about travel plans to Bamenda. I got a ride from Stephanies counter part who has a car, but he was leaving Friday evening and Thomas couldn’t make that. Wednesday I meet up with a different Thomas who is the chief du Camtel. Thats the dude I met on women’s night. He wants to work on his english, so I could said we could both help each other out with that. He would speak english to me while I would speak in French and correct each other. I showed up and his voice was almost gone. We spoke only for a bit and then I got a picture from him that was took at Women’s Day of us. I wanted to get a copy from the print shop. I found out he lives in the Camtel building. A small perk of being the cheif. It sucks because his family is in the West region so he is here alone in the East. They had the space for him in that building. Its one of the biggest buildings in town but is completely empty. I think 1 office is in there, his living quarters, and a lot of empty rooms. There 1 1/2 radio towers at the building (one is not finished). Once I get cooler with Thomas I’m gonna see if I can climb up with towers to get a bad ass shot of Batouri at Sunrise and Sunset. I told him we’ll hang out again when I get back from IST. I had a French lesson that afternoon, but my teacher was in Yaounde and didn’t tell me. As much as nothing really went as planned this week after Monday, it was groovy because I wasn’t feeling 100%. Later that afternoon I went over to Thomas’s to put together that poster. I got the supplies and pictures printed earlier that day. Imagine who I find at Thomas’s asleep on his village bed? Mohammed, the dude who teaches the Fulfulde/French class and it also my tailor. He was in Yaounde which is why he wasn’t at the class. He also hasn’t finished my clothes which he’s had over a month now. I wanted to show my spring collection of Panya at IST:( Thats also groovy. I have 4 more different patterns to get transformed into fly outfits. Thomas and I got everything on the poster: map of his new farm layout, map of Kadey district (showing where his GIC works), photos, and the information collected on Monday. He asked me for 5.000 to travel. I don’t ever give Cameroonian’s money, but I knew PC was reimbursing his travel and that he didn’t have the money up front. He paid me back no problem now that we’re here. After that I went to what I thought was going to be a dinner at Fati’s. Fati is the wife of the guy who owns two big boutiques in Batouri. Janelle and Jessica were invited and they extended the invitation to me. I was the first one there and nothing was set up for a dinner and there was just some werid guy there. Weird because he looked like a creeper. Tight pants (zipper was open), tight shirt, slick jerry curl looking hair. I found out he is in somewhere in Fati and Ali’s family. He’s living with them until he returned back to Chad. He’s trying to find diamonds so he could become rich fast. A millionaire. He got some kids to get us all drinks and kept saying he didn’t know why Fati wasn’t showing up. He also gave off a creepy vibe because he kept asking for Janelle’s phone number and was talking about visiting her or calling her. Janelle told me about this guy creeping on her sometime before this event, but now I had a face to match up to the stories. We left at 7:30 to go and get some food. I got a package and a letter that day! Exclamation point because I want to try and relay the excitement and happiness I felt when I got them. The contact from those 2 solid humans made my month. Tons of pictures to add to my walks and some chocolate to eat.

Thursday. I know I don’t usually break my post into paragraphs. Sorry if that bothers any readers. Those who read this probably know I’m not the most skilled writer and just brain spill when I put up a post. Thursday morning there was an open house at the school Jessica works at, Lycee Technique. Or there was supposed to be. I showed up an hour after it was supposed to start and it was pretty empty. I ate my breakfast while I waited for 30 minutes to see if more people show up or doors open. Students were supposed to be out showing their work or skill. Carpenter kids with their furniture out, girls with dishes they cooked or clothes they had sown. Nothing changed so I walked home. Side story, that morning a guy asked me to buy him 2 donut hole (binget) I spelt that wrong which is why i put donut hole. It started out like most conversations when someone ask me for something. A simple salutation and right to the demand. I respond the same every time. “Why do you ask me for money/something the first time you make an introduction with me? You don’t even ask me my name but ask me for money/something because of the color of my skin” Same response “Oh no, its not like that” “Its exactly like that. (This guy was pretty intoxicated and it was 9:30 in the morning) How come you have money for alcohol but not for nutrition? I do not understand your reasoning. Maybe you can work and buy your own food.” My momma even backed me up and told the dude to leave because he was derranging the people here. Anyways I walked back home and started a new book called “Deep Survival”. Another very interesting book I recommend to a person looking for a new book. I did a little cleaning up of my house and yard. Janelle called me up and said she was at the restaurant we eat at and that kitten is there. Next thing I know I had a cat in my house. She brought home the stray cat for me. I’ve wanted this cat but the lady who owns the restaurant has always been like “I dunno whose cat that is.” Right now Janelle is taking care of her and her name is “Meep” or “Meep meep” if you’re excited. In recognition of Beaker on the Muppets. Meep is a very loving cat who licks my hair and rubs all over me. She also loves my yard and being outside. At 4 pm that day I had a meeting with this dude name Paul who works at STBK. STBK is the huge logging operation in the East. The largest in Cameroon I believe since most of the trees are located in the East. They have another company under its name in Mindourou. Paul is in charge of the reforestation project they have. Its very small compared to the rate at which they harvest. They don’t even plant the main species they chop down, the high priced wood. STBK sells solely to Italy and they make amazing furniture out the red wood out here. Justin, the owner of STBK, has a showroom with amazing hand-made hard wood furniture. I was happy with what I saw a decent start. They want to plant 20 million baby trees on their plantation, which is ~40 hectares. I haven't been to the plantation yet. They only have 6 people working on the reforestation project. The project was started in 2009. The definitely need more people but probably won’t get any more because Justin is a businessman. I told Paul to think about what work I could do with him and his team while I’m gone. There is some lady who will be in Batouri when I return who works on the project too. I can’t remember her exact place in things, but she oversees what is being done by Paul and his team. I need her and Justin’s permission to work at the pipenier. I’m sure I’ll just be giving manual labor help because they know how to build and run their own propigators and harden off baby tree’s to go in the field. It will be good experience for me and maybe I could convince Justin to replant the species of tree he cuts down the most. Thursday was also the day that the Duchies were having a going away dinner. They left Friday morning. I was going to go, but didn’t because I wasn’t feeling better. Not enough to dance. I watched a movie called The Kite Runner instead. I would also recommend people to watch that movie.

Friday. That day was slow. I didn’t do much but spend the day prepping my house for my 10 day absence. Asked Benjamin to keep an eye on the house and record the numbers on the electricity counter while I was gone. Cleaned all dishes, buckets, whatever. Swept up some and packed all my stuff. I was leaving with Pere Gaston at 6. Janelle met me at my house just before 6 to grab the cat and keys. Pere Gaston actually didn’t show up until 7, no prob since it was a private ride to Yaounde. We got to go down this private road that I’ve heard about multiple times from other volunteers. Its for Justin’s logging trucks. He built it when his company started up so they wouldn’t share the same road as the agency buses. It helps shave a couple hours off the trip. Within 30 minutes on that road we saw an agency bus on its side when we came over a hill. Probably because they came over that hill and coasted down to fast to keep control. It was a 6 hour trip. We stopped at hour 5 for food and a break in Ayos. We stopped on the last 2 hour stretch so Pere Gaston could take a wizz and when he tried to start the car nothing happened. Luckily we were on a slight downslope. I got out and pushed for a bit until he could get the truck to start. A little before Ayos is when we hit paved road which made the trip more comfortable and sped it up a little bit. One interesting this is they would have a city with its name crossed out on a sign on the left side of the road and on the right they had the name of this city you were entering. So you could know which town you just left and which you are entering. We passed through like 5 check points on this road but got waved through all of them. They usually stop the bigger trucks hauling products. I think we had to pay 500 CFA at one, but that was like their toll booth. Right after that toll booth there was about 20 meters of people just selling pineapples. There were hundreds of pineapples on both sides of the road. This was around midnight. We got into Yaounde around 1. I got at PC HQ just past 1. 1 is supposed to be the cerfew for PCVs, but I got in without a problem. The case was empty except for 1 other person from my stage. Everyone else went to the US Embassy to party with the Marines at their house for St. Patty’s Day. I skped with Logan and talked with Abigale. People got home at like 2. I surprised a lot of people. It was good to see people from the north, extreme north, and just anyone not from the East. There were about a dozen people from my stage staying at the case before we all peaced out Bamenda.

Saturday was a rest day for me in Yaounde. I ate at some Lebanese restaurant. played basketball, wrote letters, and walked around Yao. I messed up. At this paragraph I was called down to the lobby to interact with my fellow humans, so I set this aside to come back to. I didn’t until a week later so I’m going to wrap it up here and start another post for how IST finished and why I’m in Yaounde for steering committee now. Nous sommes ensamble.

08/03/12

2012-03-10T03:55:00.003-08:00

08/03/12

Gosh wilicures its been a long time since I’ve updated this but Je suit content! It’s a full moon tonight, and I haven’t written about awesome events that usually happen with me on full moons in a good while. Good things have happened frequently on full moons for me even thought the crazies come out as my mother would say. I also had a very special person send me a message of how amazing the universe really is and it revealed itself to me today: ) So its been over a month, so much has happened in this past month, but even more so today, so I’ll start off with today before I delve into what I’ve been up to the past month.

Today is Women's Day in Cameroon. A day where women are commended for their work and life, kinda like mothers day, except for everyone with a vagina. Lemme start from this morning. I got up and had my hired help, Harris, come over while I did work outside. He did a kick ace job as usual. He’s been asking me to buy him a phone instead of paying him cash. I ask why and he says its because he spends his money on food and doesn’t know how to save. I can’t buy him a phone because anyone who buys a phone in Cameroon has to have it registered to their ID card. I explained that to him and told him that he should save half of what he makes each month, 2.500 CFA, for his phone. He asked if I would hold on to it for him. I asked why and he said he would spend it on food or other things? I told him he needs to learn how to save money, but Janelle had the same situation with her hired help, so for the time being I am copying what she did. I told him I would hold on to half of his pay until it reaches 10.000 CFA, then he needs to learn to save on his own. Since that will take 4 months I’ll have a good amount of time to talk out the importance of saving and not blowing your money on whatever. It will also help my french, which Harris has done each time he comes over to work. I practice my french while he practices english, more so me practicing french.

Stephanie came over to drop off her stuff before she departed today for Limbe. I’m close to the place de faites so it didn’t make to watch the parade, go home, pick up all her stuff, and then wait at the agency. Homegirl is going to Limbe with a couple other hommies before IST as a time to relax. I decided to stay here to set up a program with my counterpart, save money. I will have my relax time come May, and another year after that, so no rush for me. She dropped her stuff of and then all the volunteers met up to watch the women’s day parade. Back to that. Its a day to celebrate women. All the women, representing different groups, get their payna made up in all different styles, march in groups, and then hit the bars all afternoon and night after. Its supposed to be a day where the men do the “women’s” work while they get to relax. But really a majority go out and get celebrate all day and night. They drink, dance, and sing for the next 24 hours. But some ladies get a little too hammered. Like today I would walk by groups of women saying “Bon faite!” (happy day for you) and would get yelled at. Things like, “Go home, this is not your day” or “give me money, ect”. The city was busy but the marche was empty. Some women were respectful and nice when I wished them a good day, but most I encountered that afternoon were groups who were like the cool kids in high school. There were also the french girls who work at College Barry, the private school where I take my french lessons every Wednesday, at Women’s Day. These french girls are also volunteers who serve 6 months at a time. One is an accountant for the schools and one teaches. I met them for the first time last week at a dinner I was invited to. (I know I’m milanging (mixing) todays events and whats happened over the past month) The dinner was at the home of a solid, 2 solid, human beings named Ali and Fati. They own 2 boutiques here that sell whatever your need. I ate a fantastic meal. Cabbage salad, chicken, fried plantains, cous cous de manioc, and koko. There was also bread and they even brought me a new bottle of water. With some Cameroonians‘ the hospitality is unbelievable. I dunno if its because I’m white and they know I’ll be here for 2 years so they want my business, but I really feel they are genuinely kind hearted human beings who want to share a meal and rest with people of a different culture. In Cameroon, when you get invited for a drink or meal the inviter always pays.

I wanna take a moment to share a quote I read in my, “Roles of the Volunteers in Developent” book given to me by the Peace Corps:

“...people in Western civilization no longer have time for each other, they have no time together, they do not share the experience of time. This explains why Westerners are incapable of understanding the psychology of sitting. In villages all over the world, sitting is an important social activity. Sitting is not a ‘waste of time‘ nor is it a manifestation of laziness. Sitting is having time together, time to cultivate social relations.” -- Andreas Fuglesang

I will disagree with this statement to a certain extent, but to a greater extent its true. Voala! Facebook. People are so busy to keep up with all their “friends” so its just easier to mass message people about whats going on in their lives, post photos, complain about something and then forget about it enough to do something about it. I’m guilty of it. Facebook is a unique communication tool, but people in America really don’t just sit, rarely, and talk compared to undeveloped countries. Between FB and anything made my apple developed nations are filled with millions of people in their own world wanting to share it with everyone through an electronic device. Snail mail is a great example too. Who takes the time now in the 21st century to write a message on paper. Most don’t because of urgency or convenience. I tried to write letters and make birthday cards as much as I could in college and it was a great stress reliever for me. Its also a great surprise in the mailbox in between things that should be recycled or bills. I’ll say it again, mail is gold to me here, so thank you to the human’s who continue to take the time out of their day, an hour or 2, and pay less than $2 to let me know whats going down in your life. It is greatly appreciated. I have a collection of letters in the states and I’ve started a collection here. Its great support, along with the pictures I get. Thank you mes amies. Nous sommes ensemble.

When I say Americans don’t just “sit” I mean aside from families inside their homes. I mean communities/neighborhoods. At least for me. Most people have their high security fences. Like their privacy. Stay inside. There is the occasional bi-annual block party. People will have their lunch/dinner dates, go get coffee, ect. But I remember when it was difficult to get people together for potluck dinners in the community garden at A&M. Just seeing if people could spare the time to make a meal and meet up at a common place to share a meal and talk. I think a big problem with the world today is that things are moving too fast for our species to comprehend whats really going on.

The difference here is what I observe. Outside most days in my quartier are adults sitting and talking. Making food. Kids playing. There is no denying there is a severe lack of work in Batouri, specifically for the youth, which might be observed or interpreted as laziness. Kids drop out of school early because of costs or girls get pregnant early. But having a conversation is something that is done well here, but its usually done over a beer.

For example, every Tuesday after my French/Fulfulde class Ahmadou takes Stephanie and I out to lunch. So he graciously pays for our delicious lunch every Tuesday. He is also my tailor, so it makes me feel low to bargain prices for clothes he makes for me. Different story. Lunch is somewhat awkward. We all serve and eat in silence, I try to start conversations, but once the food is done is when conversation really starts. We dive into different subjects. Polygamy and drug use in Cameroon vs. America was the last discussion we had.

To go back to a point I started earlier with dinner at Ali and Fait’s. They invited all the volunteers and the french girls over for dinner. We all ate and then just talked for 2 hours. We talked during the meal and after, and my western self wanted to just leave because I ate, I felt I had no more reason to be there, I’ll see y’all later. But I relaxed and tried to participate as much as I could in the french discussion. A good part of it was about fashion, I was the only male besides Ali, and how exposing ones self is disrespect to the female body. The subject was fashion because the TV was on during dinner on the fashion channel here. Fati and Ali are Muslim. I agree with them. I think its pretty obvious how messed up of a world young girls are growing up in, both in developed and undeveloped countries, but for different reasons. Developed because computers make people look like they shouldn’t setting expectations that are unattainable and can be explained by the movie Mean Girls. Jobs are created for people to help girls/women with disordered created by the idea that they are not “beautiful” or “acceptable” in their society. Thats bizzare to type. Undeveloped because of early pregnancies that pull girls out of school who have no means to provide for their children. If you don’t know what breast ironing is but google it. See why its popular in Africa. Or genital mutilation of women.

It was kinda bizarre sitting in Ali’s house watching a fashion channel, a whole channel, devoted to fashion. Showing whatever season is in with cloths that cost more than what people make in a year here and the people wearing them get paid to look a particular way down the length of your average American driveway. The world is so weird. I like that its weird, I think diversity is good, but some aspects of the human society are SO bizarre. I mean a designer comes out to bow after all his models display his thousands of dollars of work and he is celebrated for his “unique” craft. Wild. I’m a guy, I obviously don’t understand the “benefit/beauty” of developed countries fashion. But I do know how beautiful panya is. Thats fashion for me. Amazing colors and patterns and can be transformed into anything you want by a local tailor.

I get off on too many rants, back to today. I came home from the women’s day celebration and made invitations for the meeting Thomas, my counter part, and I want to have next Monday. We are pulling together his neighbors, farmers, community leaders, anyone who is interested in turning his farm into a demonstration ground for agroforestry practices. I spent a good amount of time making things neat, making sure my french was correct, and stamping the invitation before I went to go make copies. Thats when I started to get derranged (bothered) by the women from women’s day. No problems though. It cost double the price, 50 CFA, to get a copy made because the electricity was out and they were running on generators. I handed out 4 to people I knew and I left the rest to Thomas to pass out over the next 3 days. I missed lunch and grabbed some yogurt and a baked good from the boulangerie. I also stopped by my friend Mohammed’s shop because I had not seen him in over a week and he gets upset if I don’t see him in a day. We talked for a bit and I bought some panya. I have 4 types of panya to get made. I’m addicted if I havent mentioned that before. There are just some times I don’t want to miss the opportunity to have a particular kind. I would get them made, but Ahmadou my tailor, takes his time with finishing work for whatever reason. After Mohammed’s I went home and prepped for work at Thomas’s. I set up a schedule with him to work at least 2 hours every Tuesday and Thursday starting at 4 in the afternoon. I haven’t mentioned how awesome Thomas is or maybe I have. He has a sizable pice of land where he cultivates Moringa (an amazing tree), soy, medicinal plants, raises fish/chickens, and grows other legumes/fruits. Today we cleared the future soy plot of weeds and started his compost pile. Most people just burn leaves or whatever could be composted and returned to the earth.

Another side story from this month. Last Wednesday I participated in Janelle’s handicap kids class. She meets these kids every Wednesday and presents different topics. This month its science/environment. So she was talking about the importance or recycling and not littering wherever you please, which almost everyone does in Batouri. She did an exercise where she broke the kids up into groups and gave each group a bag and 5 minutes to fill it with trash. It took less than 5 minutes because trash is everywhere. I was surprised at the number of kids who were grabbing hand fulls of leaves and grass to put in the bags as opposed to wiskey sachets, laundry detergent sachets, or plastic bags which are everywhere. They really didn’t grasp the concept of what breaks down back into the earth and what takes decades, or never, to decompose. Then we talked about what possible things you could do with trash. I stuff things I can’t burn into plastic bottles to make “bricks” that I will use to outline my garden. I think I might have mentioned that before. But the woven marche bags can be used to tie batton de manioc or tie bamboo structures. Plastics can be woven together to make bags or otra chose. Usually all trash is just burned here in a pile that someone starts somewhere on the side of a road. There are household private trash piles, secluded area trash piles, and town trash piles. Back to this class and the lady who started the group. This lady, Pauline, is this ship. She runs the group of kids because she has adopted 13 kids. Pauline helps Janelle run the classes each week. She herself is handicap and started the GIC Amicale des Handicapes de la Kadey a Batouri (AHBRI).

Back to Thomas, we cleared his land, started a compost pile, and then discussed plans for his farm. He drew up a very swell map of what he wants his land to look like, something to present the group on Monday and at IST. Then we walked around and talked all about his land, potential ideas, problems, resources available. All the things we will need to present at IST. We have tons of ideas and A LOT of work to put those into action and make them sustainable. Which is why I am excited about Monday. I hope things go well and there is a good turn out. Thomas said he could get 20 people, but I already passed out 4 invitations. I anticipate 10 will show up, which is fine. We just need to figure out the needs of the people of Batouri, the resources available, the challenges, and where to go from there.

Thomas also showed me how to sharpen my machete. It’s funny because the very first article I read from “Sticks and Stones”, the Agro newsletter, was about how proud a PCV was that he could sharpen his own machete and how he was complemented by Cameroonians on how he kept it sharp on his own, which took him a long time. I thought the first article was a joke but I appreciate knowing that local knowledge now. Its nothing difficult, but it was a good time of bonding. Learning how things go down in Cameroon. This whole first day of work was a great time of bonding. Much more laid back than my days of helping run the community garden at TAMU. Things were so specific. Dr. Novak’s an amazing person, but I do appreciate the laid back simple hard work of Africans. Thomas, I think, is like 50 but he’s pretty swole. Why? Because he eats simply and works every day. I’ll need to get a bunch of before photos of his land before the real changes take place.

Another side note. “Chop my money”. You tube it. That song is on right now and I don’t think I’ve mentioned how much it plays here. All day every day. I wake up to it, I fall asleep to it, I heard it when I’m reading books. I forget who its by. Something like PK squared. Its playing right now which is why I put another random note.

Its early Friday morning now and I need to sleep. I’m going to cut it off here, but continue tomorrow because much more happened today. Today was a busy and interesting day................................

It is now Saturday morning and I am house sitting at Janelle’s because her house cleaner is coming over but she had to be somewhere else. My plans today are clean my bike, make a birthday card, research trees, and prep for Monday’s meeting. I’m happy I have my bike here now, but as an American I get deranged even more. Its groovy. People are people, I like inducing smiles even if its at my expense. I brought my GPS here so I could ride around in the early mornings and map out Batouri. I tried getting this program that will tell you when your GPS will get the best signal (date and times) based on the satellites orbits, but it doesn't work for Mac. Since I got my bike I got to take a small trip with Jupiter to this huge rock formation where Catholics come once a year in August for Mass. People from all over completely fill this huge rock coming out of the ground and there is a little church stand at the top.

I forgot to mention the end of Women’s day. I was invited to dinner with a group of people by Janelle. Janelle knew one person there who she works with. We both got to meet this dude who is the chief of CAMTEL in Batorui. CAMTEL is the government run telecommunications company here. MTN and Orange are the other networks. Orange in French. I dunno what MTN is. Anywho, he wants to learn more english and I want to learn more french so hes going to show me around the huge Camtel building next Tuesday. One of the biggest buildings in this town and only 12 people work there. They have a huge antenna too which led me to believe they were well established here, but that is not the case. Thomas, chief de CAMTEL, has just been here for over a year. He is from the West region of Cameroon, but was moved here to help out CAMTEL in Batouri. I’m going to wrap this post up here. Hopefully in the future I won’t wait a month before my next entry so I can not make things so lengthy. I make notes of what to write about or cultural topics to bring up, but this post is already so long.

13/02/2012

2012-02-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

13/02/2012

This post will be about the first two cultural events I got to witness. A celebration of bilingual week and Youth Day. Bilingual week is supposed to be a week signifying the importance of knowing both french and english in Cameroon because it was colonized by the French and the British. Each year has a theme and this year’s theme was “Bilingualism for responsible citizenship.” Jessica, the ED volunteer, had some of her kids perform a skit at the lycee bilang where she works. Schools all over Cameroon celebrate this week doing things like debates, soccer games/ other sports, skits, songs, poems, faux news reports, and dances. We only went to the celebration on Thursday at Jessica’s school, but there was also another celebration Friday at the place de fait. Usually clusters of schools will meet at one school to do whatever actives were planned. There were three schools that met at Jessica’s school that Thursday.

It was scheduled to start at 8, but ended up commencing around 10. All the student’s desks were put out for the audience (students), there were chairs for the officials in the front rows, and a judges table for 3 individuals. I don’t know who they were. I don’t know where to begin. They commenced the celebration with the Cameroonian national anthem. On the program it said they would sing it in french and english, but it ended up only being in French. Students here have a deep lack of respect. Once the events started no one got quite, maybe a couple of people. People talked continually throughout the actives or yelled out things to derange the people performing. The skits were consisted of messages of why it is important to know english. The poems were usually about why education is important or had some kind of religious message. The dances and songs dominated the schedule. Most of the dances were pretty risqué too. A lot of hip and chest movement, both with men and women. It was bizzare to see teenage girls showing their backside to display how well they could move their hips after there was a poem about Jesus. All of which was encouraged. The kids were cheering for these excellent dance skills. Sometimes a girl would come down and get down right in front of the school officials. Its all normal here, but I found it very bizarre. I couldn’t follow the skits or most of the poems because all the students were just talking in their own world. It seemed like a waste of time to me. The faux news reports were all the same. Each school had to perform the same one which was about 15 minutes, too long for the attention span of most of the kids. We didn’t get to see Jessica’s skit because we had to leave at twelve for another meeting, but she didn’t mind. She said her kids didn’t do that well anyway. I’m missing quite a few details but this was a while ago and I really don’t have many positive things to say about bilingualism week. The PC teachers I talk gave the same consensus that the students don’t really care about performing well. Bilingualism week is kinda like “dead week” in college before finals. Theres no school except for practicing for the celebration.

Now Youth Day. Youth Day is supposed to be a celebration of the next generation of Cameroon. This celebration was a lot bigger because schools from all surrounding villages of Batouri came out to march in a parade. This parade was in front of the place de fait. Another instance where things are supposed to start at one time, but usually run an hour late. I forgot to mention what the place de fait is. Thats an open structure that is just a place for officials to sit. The schools/orgranizations spend an hour or two lining up and getting ready to march while the spectators line up on one side of the road. The opposite side of the road from the place de fait so they don’t block the site of the officials. There are 4 white lines on the main road, kinda like a track at the Olympics, so the people can walk in a straight line. On the spectator side there are police and gendarmes with belts and batons to whip kids if they get too far into the road. Not everyone from each school gets to march in the parade. I don’t know the selection process. On the other side, place de fait side, there are officials in suits making sure people march in lines which seems to be one of the most difficult tasks. It was rare to see any school or organization match together in an organized fashion. There were schools, muslim schools, nurse schools, teacher schools, organizations against rape, organizations against corruption, groups of people who looked like cheerleaders, one band, a private high school, a women’s group that Stephanie marched with, and many more. The whole parade, once the marching started, was about an hour an a half. As the groups pass the officials they turn their signs representing their club and hold out their left hand horizontally, kinda like a salute. Each school or group was yelling out a song of some sort. Some schools had their students with ribbons tied on the wrists of their left hand. I couldn’t discover the significance of that. Maybe just some flair. The teachers who were marching with their students had on their flyest dresses with embroidery. Between the teachers and the officials in suits kids were constantly being yelled at to be a certain position so they were aligned vertically and horizontally.

Does anyone remember dragon sticks? The things that were popular in the 90’s? They were popular with the older kids at my day care. I saw two guys with those in the parade. There were also kids on the side lines yelling at the students marching deranging them. Once the parade finishes the older groups or organizations go out and drink to celebrate Youth day. Stephanie was invited out to go drink with her women’s group after the parade. Drinking is a big part of Cameroonian culture, but these celebrations just give all the more reason to go out and drink.

I’ll finish this with the main mode of transportation here, motos. Motos are just motorcycles. But the cheapest kind you can find from China. They cost between 400.000 - 800.000, the average ones. Theres no real “rules” for becoming a moto driver. It seems like anyone can buy a moto, just post up somewhere, and wait for someone to ask for a ride. I know in Beartoua, the regional capital, there is a certification that drivers must pass to get a green vest that shows they are “legit” Some wear helmets but most don't. Most moto trips cost 100 CFA, but sometimes 150 CFA at night. I know in Batouri its always 100 CFA night or day because the town is so small are there are moto drivers everywhere. Being white some moto drivers will try to ask for more money and give bogus reason why it cost more. All you have to do it walk away because they won’t do anything. I’m also impressed with what moto drivers can load up on their crappy bikes. I’ve seen goats, pigs, 6 50 kilo sacs of cements, motos on the backs of motos, furniture sets, motos with 4 people including the driver, motos taking 4 kids under the age of 8 to school. Motos with a guy dragging 4 meters of rebarb behind them. I’ve seen motos carrying 6 crates of beer. Africans make it work. There is also a good chance your moto driver is drunk. I’ve seen it multiple times where moto drivers are sipping on whiskey sachets. No laws against that. There is also no real age limit to drive motos. I’ve seen muslim kids in Beartoua on motos who looked like they were 13. Their feet could barley reach the ground when they were on the moto. There is a good reason why PC requires its volunteers to wear helmets while on motos. Moto drivers also pay to get like a custom leather covering for their gas tanks ans seats. They also somtimes keep the bubble wrap over the parts of their motos to keep it clean as long as they can. Decorating motos is also popular just to make theirs‘ stand out from others. Flowers or little sticker pictures. Not much more for now. I’m about to meet my community host and counter part. Toodles for now.

07/02/2012

2012-02-13T07:35:00.001-08:00

07/02/2012

Its been a while and I have a lot to share, but I’ll start off with the random event that finished my day of work. I just came back from meeting a potential counterpart with Steph and her host country hommie and we stopped at a bar to get some juice. We were talking for a while and then a dispute broke out over something. I think this dude had a tab and wasn't going to pay it. He was very intoxicated and was a grown man. He was arguing with a girl who looked to be 18 or something. I heard a slap from outside the bar so I started to pay attention. Then he started to grab her shirt and she grabbed his. Thats how fights seem to go around here, from the ones I’ve seen. Each person will grab each others’ shirt and hold their arms stiff and just kind swing each other around. Then the dude grabbed her throat and I got up to separate them. Other people in the bar just watch. Thats another thing I’ve noticed. Cameroonians usually don’t get involved until its escalated into a fight. I got them separated and assumed the girl just left to get a way from him, but she ended up grabbing a bottle and trying to hit him in the face. At that point I just left because other Cameroonians came in. Then the guy started yelling at me and went crazy, throwing a tantrum like a child. He’s yelling loud at everyone while taking his shirt off. He threw his shirt on the ground picked up a glass and threw it at his head, but it bounced off and just broke on the ground. Then he started crying and smashing his head on the metal door that closes the bar. Thats when Ahmadou suggested we leave. So we all left and he just kept yelling. In Africa, at least in Batouri, no cops show up. They have “jungle justice” here. Jungle justice is if someone steals something from you and you yell out “vouluer! Vouler!” (Thief) There is a high probability that people will hear that and then attack the thief. Not just attack, but beat the life out of him. It may be more applicable for Cameroonians or white people in large cities, but thats how things are taken care of out here.

Quite a bit has happened since I got over giardia and went to Beartoua for the regional meeting. I got back to post at the beginning of February. When I was walking through centre ville one day there was this old lady, probably drunk, who was just dancing in the middle of the street. I think thats a cool freedom because no body cares and there are no police or gendarmes to take her away to the “sidewalk”. People can just do that here. Cameroonians atleast. In centra ville any electronic shop blasts music on their speakers, all with different songs. She was just getting down in the middle of the road. Radom note: did y’all know Seth Rogan is in Donny Darko? He’s the friend of the bully with the mullet? I also saw 16 candles for the first time and noticed in the opening credits 2 high schoolers were holding pinkies. Was the cool in the 80s? It sure is cool here. I hold hands with dudes all the time in market now. Actually, 3 main dudes. I think they are showing off that they are close enough to the white person in town to hold their hand. Or maybe its just simply a sign of friendship. I’ve also been told by my female post mates that Cameroonians ask where Sampson is. “Ou est votre frere Sampson?”

Culture experience. Lemme talk about bus rides. I might have touched on it in a previous entry, but I’ll go in depth here. I’ll use my last trip to Beartoua as an example. I wake up at 6 am and grab my bag that I packed the night before and head over to the agency. I get there and wait in line to buy my ticket. There are 3 separate counters, but each counter sells tickets for 2 or 3 cities/villages only. So I get in the line for Beartoua and Kenzou. Lines also don’t really exist here. People cut and its just part of the culture. Cut anywhere. At the bank, grocery store, buying credit for phones. I dunno if its people trying to show how “macho” they are (males and females both do it). So when I do get to the counter I say where I wanna go give my ID and money and she writes me a ticket with the bus license plate one it and a number. We ride in old prison buses out here. They use the prison buses Eastward from Beartoua, the regional capital. They have another type of bus, I forget the name, but its not used much because it goes slower on the crappy dirt roads. I also don’t remember the name of the company that makes the buses, its starts with an S, Sacam? They put 5 people to each row, sometimes 6, and there are 5 rows. No isle way. A seat folds down to be an isle seat. There is barley any leg room and the seats resemble the cushions of those cheap floding stadium seats you can bring to ball games. Babies in laps and always an odorous person. Odors don’t bother me. Makes me more comfortable when I break wind. There are usually 2 people from the agency who ride with each bus, the driver and then the “woker”. The “worker” for the agency either stand behind the back row, stand on the back bumper outside the bus, or the stand on the top of the bus holding on to the straps that hold down all the luggage or goods that are strapped. I’ll get to the top of the bus in a minute. By “worker” I mean the person who changes the tires, opens the back door for ID checks, load and unload luggage, or work on the engine. There are also 4 places in the cabin up front. One for the driver and 3 for more passengers. The engine is right under the middle seat of the cabin, so there is a lot of vibration and heat. Lately whenever I sit in the back with everyone else an employee will tell me to move to the front for a cabin seat which is more comfortable. It seems they only put white males and “grands” in the front. White males because they made Stephanie stay in the back. “Grands” are the important Muslims, the ones who have been in the game for a while and have the fliest boubou outfits. I don’t mind because I barley have leg room in the back, but I don’t like to perpetuate the stereotype that the “white man” always gets a better seat.

Buses also don’t leave until they are completely full. A bus may be scheduled to leave at 7, but may not leave until 8 because its not full. Its more of a problem for afternoon departures. So the top of the roof. People are moving all sorts of products. People go to regional capitals to buy products that smaller towns don't have, or to just get them cheaper. They have any kind of animals, 50 kilo sacks of grains, rice, petrol, or gas bottles, ect. Motos, and all sorts of bags. The space that takes up the roof luggage rack is usually equivalent to what could be fit inside the bus. Once everything is loaded up and everyones on we roll out. Going out of and coming into cities we pass check points with gendarmes. Gendarmes are like the “military” here. Most all are corrupt. The white people always have to show their IDs. Sometimes its everyone. If a Cameroonian doesn't have an ID they fold up a piece of paper with money in it and give it to the guard. A small illustration of corruption. The ride itself is pretty bumpy and very dusty. Bumpy because of all the traffic from logging trucks. There are some stretches of road that are like ruffles potato chips, some with big dips. There is no left and right side. There is usually one path that both directions take, and when two buses/cars are traveling at the same time they just space out a bit but are about 2 feet within each other. Going up hills is like 5 mph, and going down hill is pretty fast. I don’t know exact speeds because I haven't been on a bus yet where the gauges work. The buses will stop for people who just wanted to get to their small village along the way to the larger cities, or they stop if someone wants to buy something on the side of the road. They just yell at the driver to stop, buy their food or whatever product, it gets thrown on top and then we continue. Once people start leaving the bus for their village there are also people waiting by the side of the road to hitch a ride to the big city if there is room. They usually get picked up, but sometimes the driver picks up too many people. That was the case on our return trip to Batouri. We were about 10 km out going up a hill and the bus just died. I waited with Steph for a bit, but then decided to walk the rest of the way. I have faith in Africans and their ability to jimmy rig anything, but I didn’t want to wait beyond the 30 minutes I already had. The bus did get fixed and they picked me up 2 km outside of Batouri. Another thing about the dust on bus drives is the African spray tan. Everyone gets sooooo dusty. Jersey shore tan. You could take your fingernail and scrap off the dust and draw pictures in your face. There are also signs in the bus that say “Throwing up, spitting, and talking to the driver are forbidden”. Most of the tires have different patterns because they just put on what works. Even the replacement tires on the roof of the bus are old and sometimes close to bald. Another things is we usually have to take 2 breaks so the driver’s “worker” can add new water to the radiator so it doesn't over heat. I believe most of the drivers are Muslim so they don’t drink, or shouldn’t. I’ve heard from people in the North and Extreme North that the Muslims drink, just in private. Its only 100 km from Beartoua, but our trip usually takes 3-4 hours. On the bus people like their music. There are usually 3 people who are playing their own music on their telephone for everyone to enjoy. A lot of Rhianaa. Buses honk when there are people on the road walking from village to village so they step off a bit as to not get hit. Its usually people who went out collecting wood or are bringing back clothes after washing in the river. I really am impressed with the durability of these buses. These are also jus the small buses. There are large charter buses that go from Yaounde to Beartoua or other regional capitals. PCV’s are told never to travel at night because of highway bandits. We have a really solid human here in Batouri who runs the Alliance agence in Batouri. He always makes sure we have a safe departure and return. At least with our buses we don’t have the problems that are in the west with very diverse topography that makes traveling hard during the rainy season. I’ll have to see what traveling it like during rainy season here.

Another thing I really appreciate about Cameroon is how most things can be custom made. Security doors, furniture made out of solid wood, shoes/sandals, grills, shops. I got some nice leather sandals made for 7.000. I wanted some for my bou bou outfits. I also got another pair made just to wear around because I get made fun of for wearing my “babouches” (shower shoes) all the time. I do it to look poor, but they wear down pretty quickly. But this other pair of sandals is too small. Its cool with me, helps me bargain down the price. The same people who custom make shoes fix shoes. If anything detaches they resow it. Or you can get your shoes reenforced before they break. Thats like 500 CFA, just a dollar. There are people with established stands and there are also people who travel around with their tool box looking for work.

I’ve also mentioned this before, most every product can be bargained. Which I love because I’m frugal. It really comes down to who has a better argument or puts in more time. I also bargain down the price for my fish or tools from the hardware shop. First of all, the original price given is much high just because I’m white. So when they give me a price too high I just low ball them and explain I’ll give them a price too low since they think they can give me a price too high because of the color of my skin. Sometimes the vendor just gives up and asks for the money I say I’ll pay. Or I’ll make deals, like I get these plastic trash cans to make wine in and tell the dude to give me a good deal on them and I’ll give him the wine I make in them. Two other good techniques is just walk away or say I’m going to another vendor. Or it could go the other way and the vender just says leave. Its all a game. I Love it. For more established stores, not boutiques, prices are set and cannot be bargained. But established stores are weird. You pick your products, go to a guy that write you a receipt, then take that receipt to another guy where you pay and get that receipt stamped. Then another guy records the money received in a log book. I’ve only seen computer systems in regional capitals.

I’ll finish this entry with photos and how much Cameroonians‘ love photos. There are always group photos of GICs or when any group of people meet up (organizations, friends, celebrations). Developing photos is one thing, but there are also these photo studios. They have both 35mm and digital. Black and white or color. In the studio there are these weird backgrounds. Like waterfalls, jungles, egyptian pyramids, a fancy looking house with a Benz in the garage. They also have flowers, chairs, and other accessories to accent your photo. I decided I want to get head shots of PCVs that visit me or Cameroonian friends that I make here. Silly pictures. Good memories. Things I can laugh at and reminisce about when I need a cane. It only cost 500 CFA to get the photo taken and developed. If you give the digital files of photos is 300 CFA to develop. Cameroonian’s like photos of themselves. When I was in PST there were a couple of the language teachers with pictures of themselves as the background on their computer. I have also noticed in some houses of Cameroonians I’ve been invited to that they have pictures of themselves. I dunno why. Maybe they felt they looks super fly and want that to be a reminder to not loose it. This is already a long entry. I’ve got two cultural celebrations to write about that were both bizarre. Bilingual week and Youth Day. I’ve got pictures from both for fb, but I’ll write about that after I visit Mindourou. Oh yea, I’m finally gonna visit where my community host lives. I am blessed to have my post mate Janelle accompany me on this trip so nothing is lost in translation when I try to discover what work is actually possible in his village. I leave this Sunday, the 12th. Wow. In about a month is will be IST. Toodles for now. Du courage Americans. I’ve heard how crazy some things are in America. I’m glad to be in Africa except for the fact that my loved ones are across an ocean.

12/01/2012

2012-01-13T06:57:00.001-08:00

12/01/2012

I’ve been back at post for a couple of weeks and its my usual siesta time, but I’ll share some thoughts instead. I found out the Tobacco man of the east will be coming out the 16th. I think our last post mate Janelle will be returning at the end of this month. Also at the end of this month we, the East, have a regional meetings where all volunteers meet up at the regional capital to discuss how things have been going at post and what possible collaboration projects we could do.

Some new things. I have some hired help. Originally there was an older man named Beroko who worked for the previous volunteer in this house, cleaning and doing laundry, but he is now a chef. He asked me if he son could do the same work. I didn’t want the help but he doesn’t go to school or have other work, like most of the youth here and in all of Cameroon. I didn’t want him here as frequently though. The previous volunteer had Beroko come by 8 times a month, so twice a week. I have his son, Harris, come by twice a week, but only 2 times a month. He gets paid 5.000 CFA a month. My place is now not as dusty during the dry season and he cleans my clothes better than I ever have. He's 22 I think. He’s coming by tomorrow actually, and he actually shows up on time, which isn't very African. But he also lives right across the street. By recommendation of my parents I have also started a daily recount journal. Not really a journal, but just what I did that day. Thank you mom and dad, the idea has been facile and beneficial. I think it will also be nice when I am old to go back and read about all the random things I did day by day. I have a blog, but these are mostly rants or observations of culture. I am also using the awesome journal my sister gave me as a gift right before I left : ) I Love and miss you all very much : )

I bought a couple of street DVDs one night and have only watched the music video collection of Michael Jackson (like 20 videos). Let me enlighten you on how random some of these illegal street DVDs are. One DVD called “Pirates de Caraibe 3” has all 3 Pirates of the Carabian, The Medallion with Jackie Chan, Walking Tall with The Rock, Sin City, and National Treasure. The second DVD has 8 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Thats usually how movies are sold here. Either by genre, or by actor(s). My last DVD is 4 movies by Stallone and 4 by Chuck Norris. Everything but the Michael Jackson DVD is in French, so I figured it would be good listening practice. Let me get back to MJ though. I don’t remember a lot of MJ music videos, maybe the big name ones that are recreated for talent shows, but his videos are wild. Or bizzare. Like BAD. Super unique which I like, but I didn’t fully appreciate his style of creation. It makes me want to see “This is IT”.

I read a book called “My Life as an Experiment” by A.J. Jacobs and would highly recommend it. This is a book that was sent to me by my awesome Bybee. I feel I would get along well with A.J. and look forward to reading his other book that was sent to me. He just puts himself into different experiences and reports about them. I like putting myself into experiences as well, comme le corps de la paix.

I don’t know if I’ve shared this before but street manicures are popular here. I don’t know the cost, but there are individuals who walk around clicking scissors to get peoples attention who need their nails tidied up. Must be interesting to see hands all day, and feel different hands all day. I usually see the Muslims getting this work done. I’ve also only seen it on the hands and never the feet.

In PST I did a presentation on the Neem tree (the magical tree) because its an awesome species. One fact I brought up was that its popular to use the young stems as a tooth brush, especially in India. One morning I saw a guy walking around rubbing a twig in his mouth and he confirmed with me that it was neem. Called it the “La brosse au Afrique”. Side note. I love how popular salutations and good byes are here because of the variety of selection. Its going to be weird to go back and visit America with that sense of friendliness with strangers and it be accepted, for the majority.

One night for dinner I was having fish and baton with Stephanie and I saw some stuff gong on behind the fish mama stands that caught my curiosity. So while my fish was cooking I got up to investigate. One place, where I thought kids were playing foosball, they were playing craps. Everyone was very inviting but of course I had no interest. The next was a theatre. But it was a porno theatre. At least at night it is. I walked in through the curtain and theres porno playing on a 90’s TV with a bunch of benches and men in a dark room. They all yell at me so I peace out pretty quick. I asked my friend Omar and its a theatre throughout the day, 100 CFA per showing, but they just save the dirty stuff for night time.

When electricity goes out here, which has been happening more frequently, people can go to boutiques and pay to have their phone charged. The boutiques with generators bien sur. 100 CFA a charge. Or its also popular to charge your phone at the travel agencies. There are just open outlet plugs where people get to mooch off of.

Another interesting thing, in the clothing or sheet market area shop keepers will spread water on the soil in front of their shop to keep the dust down so their product looks good. This is because dust is everywhere during the dry season. I like getting to pee on the side of the road and watch a plant turn green again because my tinkle washes the dust off. This is another reason why washing shoes is so popular. I usually wear my bathroom sandals or Chacos out and my feet always come back gross. Shoes area really big here, like status wise. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that before. Which is why its important to keep your shoes looking fresh and cleaning them probably daily. I don’t yet, but assume I will. I’ve only cleaned my Chacos a couple of times and my mountain boots after the field trip to the NW region where we had to help push the bus up a hill. I bought some nice “leather” sandals to wear with my bou bou ensembles. Since they’re made in China I need to take them to a shoe dude to reenforce the work so they actually last.

The local water spot recently broke as well. Its not a pump forage, but just a spout that people fill their bidons and buckets at. I don’t know why its broken, my neighbors say its because kids play on it all the time. I think there’s more too it. Anyways, I am blessed at my post because I have a well that has a pump in it to move water to this water tower that is then gravity fed into my house. There are maybe a handful, < 5, other houses that have this in Batouri. My immediate neighbors asked to use my well so they didn’t have to travel to the other forage to get their water and I had to deny them because they then word would spread out that the white man opened up his well to the neighborhood. Its also really deep and empty since its the dry season and in my post book a previous volunteer mentioned that they let their neighbors use the well but when the bucket dropped it hit and broke the pump. So a large sum was paid to replace the pump. Getting asked for water, money, or a way to America has become very common. Kids usually ask for 100 CFA. Adults ask for a “financier” for a project they want to do or just for work. Then some people apparently have money, but need help getting to America. I have no idea how that works so I just tell them to visit the embassy in Yaounde to find out the process and application. I need to load a picture of what it looks like from my water tower just so you get an idea of what its like to live in this house with all its amenities. Initially over sight visit I thought I would like all the space, but now its just too much. I am surrounded by traditional houses with earth bricks and subtle tin roofs, but most have electricity and even satellite TV. Omar, my breakfast homeboy, lives in one room with a bed and shares that with another dude who I guess is a friend. Having this place makes me very hesitant to invite people over. There have been quite a few people who insistently ask when I’m going to invite them over to party or just to visit and I just say “one day” or “patience”. Patience is the common phrase if someone is sick or not doing well. “Just have patience and it will be ok”.

My community host, Hubert, who lives in a small pigmey village called Mindourou, actually came to Batouri for a visit. I didn’t get to see him over site visit because there was not enough time. From Batouri its about another 3 hours on the prison bus and if I miss the bus in the evening I’m spending the night there I would assume at his place on the floor. Well, last Sunday I get a random call from him at about 8 am saying he will arrive in Batouri in about 30 minutes. About an hour later he shows up and one of his sons is with him. I found out his son lives here in Batouri to go to school. So I assumed Hubert came into town so we could meet with the institution he works, CODAS, with together and come up with some ideas, plans, maybe a visit to his village. We walk to CODAS and its closed like most places on sunday. Apres ca we head to my place where we can rest for a bit, since he just traveled for 3 hours, and come up with a game plan. The plan was, meet later that evening, for dinner I guess, and visit CODAS Monday morning at 9. Time is very different here so I knew it was going to be around 11. I wait at my house all evening and never hear from Hubert again. I actually end up falling asleep waiting for him and wake up around 11 pm and get into bed. The next day I get up ready for the meeting at wait until about 11 and then head to CODAS to see if he was there. When I saw the guy in charge of CODAS I asked if he’s seen Hubert and he said “Oh, hes in village”, but I informed him that he came into town to visit. When Hubert arrived he informed me he would be leaving here Tuesday so I figured the meeting was not going to happen. I called him up Tuesday night to see if he got back to village ok (He has a village phone, its 1 phone for everyone to use in the village). Someone else answered and said Hubert would call me back. He calls me back and says he’s still in Batouri. So I make another attempt at setting up a meeting. I ask him if he could meet at my house tomorrow morning, Wednesday, and we go to CODAS to discuss possible work. He says sure, we’ll meet at 9 and head up there. He also apologized for not making the last meeting because he was too tired. I’m making the assumption he was just spending time with family here because he probably doesn't get to see them often which isn't a problem with me. I waited until noon Wednesday for Hubert at my house. I didn’t call him this time or go to CODAS. I feel if he’s not going to put in the effort in a meeting, he’s not likely to put effort in the possible work that could be done in his village. I haven’t talked to him since. I told him I would plan on visiting his village at the end of the month, but I would like to do with Janelle whose french is much better than mine. Its a 6 hour round trip and cost 3.000 and I know my french wouldn’t comprehend most of what would be brought up. Hubert only has like 12 teeth and he speaks very quickly. But then I remembered our regional meeting at the end of the months, so maybe it will be early February when I visit.

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time out of their day to keep in touch, write a letter, or send a google text. It makes a big difference. The loneliness has sunken in for me after this first month. I get out explore, try to make conversation with people, explain why I’m here. But I finally feel the “fishbowl” effect that was constantly described to us throughout PST. Being in such a large “different” house doesn’t make it any easier. Its also a time period where we aren't doing much but integrating. Thank you again, it really makes my day.

One last random thing before I end; I saw a chimpanzee today when I was walking around as someones “pet”. I’ve seen other “pet” monkeys around, but never a chimpanzee. All I really got to see was this lady bothering the monkey and treating it like a child whose been in trouble. Yelling at it and trying to hit it with her sandal and then laughing. All thats going through my mind is that monkey biting this ladies calf or that story where the huge chimpanzee in America nearly ripped that ladies face off.

Nous sommes ensemble et du courage.

02.01.2012

2012-01-02T10:46:00.001-08:00

02.01.2012

Bonjour fellow humans. It has been a while since I’ve publicly recorded my experience here and I have the energy to try and recall some of my past experiences. Right now I’m in Beartoua at the case relaxing and doing my banking. Other people from the East came to buy some other products like gas, stoves, whatever else they couldn’t find au village. Stephanie and I got here yesterday and we peace out tomorrow. I’ll be happy to get back home. I left with no water or electricity working at my crib so I hope to get that fixed the week I get back. I’ll also come back to Jessica and Jupiter, the new married couple.

I think my last entry was just about getting ready to get to post. I got to post about 3 weeks ago. I feel pretty moved in, but I was also lucky to have quite a bit furniture and kitchen supplies left over from the last PCV who ET’d. I’ve started a new routine that I plan to continue for the next three months until IST when our stage meets back up for more training. I get up, make some instant coffee, stretch, and then go out for breakfast. Its been a bean, avocado, and french baguette sandwich most every day. They make spaghetti omelets too, but all of that is what popular for breakfast here. Or chocolate bread. The guy who owns the omlet shack is named Omar. He's one of the hommies that i’ve started to trust. I also get to practice my fulfulde with him. He's got a brother who works there as well as at the baguette bakery. Random story. The day before I left Batouri I saw a guy fall down and start having a seizure. I asked Omar what was going on and apparently is a guy who takes medication for horses. I’m not sure what, but its common for people to take animal medication here. I feel they think it makes them stronger? You also don’t need prescriptions here. Maybe for certain things, but for the most part you don’t. There are pharmacies on the road with the food boutiques and then there are they actual pharmacies buildings. I wouldn’t trust a lot of it. Especially the stuff that sits out in the sun all day.

After breakfast, at least for the first week, I was shopping with Stephanie to get things for our initial move in. But now after breakfast I walk through market and just get seen. Meet new people. Get deranged. I try to stay out until it gets too hot in the afternoon just exploring Batouri and meeting people. Exposing myself and explaining who I am and why I’m there. Try to get across that I’m not a tourist. People are pretty friendly especially if you say hi to most everyone you pass by and ask how they are doing. I have found some Muslim friends who I drink chi with. Chi is the cultural tea for the muslims. I have yet to get panya made but I’m also still searching for an awesome tailor. Luckily for me the community host of Stephanie is an awesome tailor. I haven't gotten anything started, but in due time. I’ll build a better relationship with him first. He’s worked with multiple volunteers before so I feel its not a shady character.

So whats it like at my house. It is extremely nice compared to the rest of the neighborhood. Directly behind me are a bunch of traditional houses withe big families. All of those neighbors have been friendly. Get to see a lot of random naked children riding around. The rest of the neighborhood has traditional houses but with concrete external walls. From what I have observed I think I live in one of the like top 20 houses in Batouri. I like being able to start fires in my front yard. I don’t know what I;m going to do with my non perishables yet but I burn paper objects and add them to the compost pile.

Two weeks ago I went out with a friend to find some bamboo to start building furniture and a tree nursery to do trial runs on different tree species. That friend is a dude named Jude who cuts hair here. He speaks english some so I practice french while he practices english. He wants to do work with me and some GICs but really doesn’t comprehend how much work it will take. He just wants additional income than his hair show. Its like 300 for a simple hair cut.

I’ve gotten to meet some of the Catholics who are here but don’t know much about their current work. I know they help out with getting vaccines for babies. The week before I left here I went out and did all the proper introductions with the elected officials, GICs, and other possible organizations to work with. I’m interested to realize what it will be actually like to work with them because I hear many stories of frustration. Once I get my bike out to Batouri my plan is to make tracks with my GPS to fabricate some kind of map of Batouri. It will still be a couple weeks until my bike arrives.

Right now some other hommies are cooking some amazingly scented Thai food. Earlier today I helped make Tofu and soy milk which was awesome. Soy in general is fantastic. I hope I have success introducing soy in the East to curb the demand for bush meat, but realistically thats going to be a huge challenge. Last night we had mexican meat and fish tacos which were delicious encore. This change in food, American food, has been nice. I haven't been cooking at home because of a lack of gas but I’m also simple. I eat out a lot because its cheap and also lets me get seen more. Then I buy vegetables and fruit from the vegetables from the market, clean, and eat them. I want to try and get the most nutritional value out of them rather than cooking them. But I do see myself getting much more into cooking once I get gas. Reading is tres popular here. So is watching disney movies. Around noon time I come home and take a little nape before I go back out to take care of any business or et dinz.

Din din is ready so I’m done for now. I’ll finish saying it was pleasant starting my next rotation around the sun in Africa. I spent my birthday reflecting on the past year and trying to decide what I would really like to try and accomplish this next year. Get great at french is a top priority. I’m already getting pretty good at bargaining. Oh, one last thing. Stephanie and I spent Christmas in Kenzou with Geoff and Julie. We went out on a canoe ride to try and see hippos, but they were not there : ( That night we had a delicious dinner that Geoff’s neighbor/landlord prepared. Or probably his wife. I didn’t do anything for new years. Everyone here went out to one of the clubs but I was exhausted and just decided to read at the case until I passed out. Holiday season is over but now there are a lot of festivals coming up this Spring. Later humans. Nous sommes ensemble.

10.12.2011

2011-12-12T09:19:00.001-08:00

10.12.2011

Bonjour tout le monde. I’m half awake on the couch at the case in Yaounde. I left Bafia yesterday and am now in route to Bertoua. Left it because the PST est complete! 53 people swore in yesterday and pushed Cameroon's volunteer number over 200. The swear in ceremony induced a sureal feeling in my corps. It wasn't super fancy or anything, but it was interesting sitting there knowing it was the event waited upon after PST and right before post. Everyone was looking super fly/ beautiful in their panya. We got to hear many speeches. Three were given from the new volunteers about their experience in PST. One in French, Fulfulde, and Pidgin. The director of training, country director, and ambassador spoke. Its got to be a unique experience to work for the PC and get to see groups of enthusiastic Americans going out into Cameroon after training and see how their doing a year, or at COS. Human interaction is interesting. There was boucoup de photographs that day. So many cameras. Serving in the Peace Corps in the new millennium is a very different experience than all previous decades. From what I could assume. Internet, Computers, Instant pictures, Facebook. Its a trip. Its a trip being in the case and seeing over half the volunteers on their laptops using the internet to skype or fb. Its a blessing to have that connivence to keep in touch with loved ones rapidly, but its just different. There are a lot of old school pictures here from volunteers in the 70s and 80s. Back to the last day in Baifia. After the ceremony we had a homestay family appreciation lunch that was delicious. My mom got super dressed up and even put on a weave to have straight hair. I didn’t recognize her at the ceremony when I was searching, but everyones family got super dressed up. The CD went around to each family and gave a certificate and took pictures with them. Then anyone got a picture with the Ambassador that wanted one. My mom had to peace out early because she had to get back to work. My dad was sick and couldn’t even make it to the lunch. Ensuit people started going to the hotel for the big shin dig that went goes down at the end of every stage. I went early to take a nap to have energy for all the dancing that was gonna go down. That was the first night after 4 months where we didn’t have a curfew or get one extended. The party that night was a lot of fun. There was so much dancing. People could wring out their shirts and some people changed into new clothes throughout the night. Our formatures and formatreces where there. The people who have been teaching us all throughout PST. I went to bed early compared to most, but I had to say peace out to my family the following morning before loading up to come to Yaounde. It was nice walking through Bafia at 6 in the morning. That was the first time I’ve done that. The sun was barley up. The air was real cool and there was fog everywhere. The roads were pretty empty, not many people or motos running. It was also quite. No school children. No deranging. It was a nice atmosphere for my final promenade in Bafia. When I got home mama told me my dad slept at the hospital because of work. My sisters were in different, the 8 year old didn’t want to give me a hug. Mama was nice and gave me a speech that I didn’t completely understand, but I got the gist. I gave my last hugs and before I left on the road I turned around for one last goodbye they were just back in the routine of morning chores.

***********

Okay, this is another entry where I changed locations and let a lot of time pass before I finished. I am not in Bertoua staying at the East case waiting for 2 more volunteers to come in for the night. We arrived yesterday, but stayed today to get some things in the regional capital for our new homes. All I needed was a stove and gas tank and there is currently no gas in Bertoua. There are also 2 visitors here from the SW region. A SED and ED volunteer. Their school is on break so they are traveling to the East and then to the North. Its lucky that we even got into the case. We were given keys, but the one for the outside door didn’t work. Although the cleaning lady just happened to be there that day and at the time we arrived. It only cost 200 CFA to stay at the case per night. Thats less than 50 cents. Its cheaper than other cases because it gets less traffic. The one at PC headquarters cost 500 CFA a night. That place is more like a frat house. A majority of people don’t clean up after themselves or come home at 5 in the morning because the gates close at 11.

Jessica and Jupiter will be at the agency to meet us tomorrow, but they depart the following day to head to Yaounde for their wedding. Once I get to post it will be another welcomed change. “Nassada” is the word for white person in Fulfuldie. That spellings not correct. Its what the Muslims call us. Side note, I was right about that Amanda homegirl getting the star trainee award. Hommies just arrived now. The cost of the trip was 4.000 and we paid 5.000 to get all of our property on the bus. So like $20 to go over 300 km with all the stuff I’m moving with. Its gonna be like 4.000 cfa to get from here to Batouri. First thing I’m doing when I get to post is changing my locks. Theres not much I need to do with my crib. Get a mattress. I’m going to be pretty frugal like I am in the states. There is already a good amount of furniture and other household supplies waiting at my crib. I lucked out with that. I’m distracted. Im trying to write and talk at the same time and I know will just end up making another break in this post. Toodles for now.

5.12.2011

2011-12-05T06:21:00.001-08:00

5.12.2011

Today is awesome! I am high on el eye eff eye. It is a Monday afternoon at the training house and I am relaxing in the main chambre listening to De La Soul. Its a very laid back day today because we swear in on Thursday and peace out to our post on Friday. I’ll probably get to Batouri around Tuesday because I have to do banking in the regional capital on monday. Agros have a presentation to give tomorrow about something you would possible present at post. I’m sharing the benefits of improved cook stoves. We only have one language class today and the rest of day is preparation for the presentation tomorrow. Thats the final thing Its wild to know we are gonna peace out at the end of the week. I will miss the freedom of getting to see all these people that I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet. We would have never met under any other circumstance. Maybe two of these human who were from Texas. This stage group is a solid bunch of humans. It sucks that the Agros and YDs were kind of separated from the Sante volunteers, but theres 2 years of possible visits. There have been quite a few dance parties in the recent past since we are all leaving. We are also going to have a grande party the night of swearing in. There were multiple times where I just sat and watched everyone interact. I did the same thing because I said peace out in the US and got to hang out with some people. It can seem pretty creepy from an observer, but we wont have that at all in a bit. Soon we will all be alone at our post building our own schedules and trying to communicate with the local languages. Some people have other Americans as post mates, but some are au village. There are big clusters of volunteers in the Western part of the country. I have 3 other volunteers in my town. I’m ready for the next change. I’m ready to get to my crib and interacting like an amebia in a foreign solution. Making new friends. Filtering through the snakes. But you can’t blame the people for looking at Americans, or people of different colors, as a hand out. More often than not they recieve hand outs and have come to expect it because they don’t necessarily differentiate between all the organizations here.

I’ve got a lot of plans for my crib. Many are probably not feasible, but time is something PCVs have. I wanna make a shawshank redemption hole. That wont work because it would fill up and be destroyed during the rainy season. I plan on making all my furniture out of bamboo. Theres a lot of that for free in the east. I want to make a structure to hang my bed from so it dangles like a swing. I’m gonna see a fence of moringa. Moringa doesnt grow freely in America, but it is an amazing tree. Google it. I wanna get some chickens and goats, once I’m sure they won‘t get stolen from my crib. I want to paint murals on my walls, but I think coming across quality paint would be difficult. There is a PC project called the World Map project. You basically break down a world map into tiny squares to make it easier to draw with accuracy. Speaking of painting, there is a dude here in Bafia who does these amazing oil paintings from photos. You just bring in a photo and he turns it into amazing artwork. I dunno how much it cost but I really want a ridiculous picture made. Like me riding a polar bear on Mount Cameroon with a bunch of plantains on my back. I also wanna get a painted picture of my host family and me. I’m sure we will get a nice one on the day of swearing in.

I’m also sweating happiness because I got mail today! I got 2 packages and 3 letters. Magical. One package was from my awesome human in Carrollton named KIM! No last names because theres a lot of creepers. If you know a solid human in your life write them today. There is a good chance you have more than one, but just take the time to write one. It really illustrates the message if you take them time to do it, je ponse. Boucoup de hygiene products and some books. My grandmother wrote me too! I also recieved letters and a packaged from my el aye dee why in Colorado : ) I’ve gotta get down on some letters ASAP. Since I’m going to post I would love picture of humans from back home. Cameroonian love pictures of the people American’s know. It blows the minds of certain people when they see that there are blacks, asians, and anyone whose not white in America. They also are just curious as humans are. Anyone whose got the time it would make my month. Address be:

Mike Burbidge

Corp de la Paix

B.P. 215

Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa

C/O U.S. Embassy Cameroon

My address isn't going to change once I go to the East because I’m not going to trust the post to the East. If it makes it to Yaounde no problems I’ll trust it with PC. Volunteers traveling back and forth to Yaounde pick up each others stuff for the East.

I wonder what little kids think when they see me. I’ll be getting water at the well or forage and little kids just stare. I can stare back and it doesn't phase them, but when I speak to them in French most don't respond and look away. But whats going on in their head. How do they precieve white people. For some people au village a PC volunteer is the only American they will probably ever see. Its also interesting to observe the expression of really old people au village who see Americans. Some are amazed because they’ve gone that long in their life and finally see one. I don’t think its that frequently since the PC has been in Cameroon for 50 years.

Side story. I got home last night and drank palm wine with my dad and his friend. Then they whipped out some i dunno what from village. I think it was bark. But they rubbed it up in their hands and then licked it off, or put it in the palm wine. I dunno what its supposed to do. I thought I was going to hallucinate for a bit, but I think it was just a spice that compliments palm wine? Palm wine is alright. Then my dad started saying how he was going to hook me up with a Cameroonian. He went into detail but I didn’t pick a lot of it up. Then I got to meet the sister of my mom whose married to a chief of a village. Apparently if my mom here dies, my dad gets to have her little sister as his new wife. I dunno how that works out of she's already got a husband? I finally comprehended why my family is getting a second house built here. They are building a second house for their family. They have a bunch of extended family in Bafia or close by and they just wanted to have a house built so they could all live together. I still havent seen it. I probably will when I come back to visit.

I shaved myself except for a mustache today. For those who have seen me with a mustache know how giggly it is. I think its gonna trip out my family when I go back home tonight. They already told me they are going to get me pimont and a gourd to drink out of. My hommie, the first hommie I encountered on this journey, is going to be giving a speech at swearing in au francais. There will also be a speech in Fulfulda and Pidgin. If you don’t know anything about Pidgin google it. Its hilarious. Oh, there is also going to be a “trainee of stage”. Stage is what training is called here. I think I mentioned it earlier, but I see how it might be confused as reading it in the english context. No voting by the trainees, just a choice from the teachers based mostly on integration. I found out a dude who is in Bokito started up a boys and girls club during PST. Wild. Boucoup kudos to him. I think its a Sante named Amanda. I think they’re going to announce it at swearing in. I wish Paul Biya and his wife would come to swearing in. That would be mind boggling. I’m gonna miss these human. Miss the frequency of seeing their faces and interaction. But it will also be good to have the rare experience of seeing them months after this to see how different or not different they will be.

I wanna give a verbal salutation to the superbe parents of Lauren Ayers : ) I got to very briefly meet these humans through a computer from the catalyst called Skype. But I have heard multiple stories about how amazing these two people are. I’m shoutin out because I know its going to get read : ) I wan’t you to know I’m very protective of the females in my life and Lauren is one of those females now.

I don’t know if I’ve said this yet. 90s music is awesome in Africa. Awesome for me. I liked 90s music in the states, but it feel fantastic getting down on a decade old music with Africa in the background. I dunno how the gens au Cameroon like it, but I bet it would be popular in the club. Speaking of which I love the clubs here, or the one I have gotten to visit in Bafia. Something you wont find in America, a hard boiled egg sales man outside the club door. Why is he there? Because Cameroonians get ripped when they dance and need the protein. I love mirror dancing. I love dancing in Cameroon in general. There is no judgement. You do something weird and the usual reaction is “wow, creative dance move”. Or they just find it funny to see Americans dance. I wish I knew how to pop and lock. That would blow le gens away. They like the bernie dance. Don't know what that is. Google it. An homage to the classic 80s film. I’m gonna go play volley ball matena. A brain break before I run over my presentation. We just have presentations and a bridge to post session tomorrow. I think we also get to learn about what makes a lock good here. How to tell the difference in quality and what things should cost. Tres important. Dude, 2012 is less than a month away. No one forgot the world is going to end in a year right. A day after my birthday. Better make this year of the chain. If the world doesn’t blow up you can always count on the stability of governments and economies today. Je bloge, about the world blowing up.

23.11.2011

2011-11-23T23:01:00.001-08:00

23.11.2011

It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I will not experience many things “cold” over the next two years, especially with the weather. All of the trainees are getting together this weekend for a pot luck Thanksgiving in Bokito. A host mom here is killing, cleaning, and preparing 3 chickens for us at 500 CFA a head. Everyone is bringing a dish, side, or drink on top of that. There is only 2 weeks of training left. Not even that, but I don’t know the exact day count.

This week all trainees had their IEP presentations. You had to pick a cultural topic and present it in french in front of the other trainees and a panel of language trainers. Mine was on bush meat and the impact on the sustainability of the jungle here. Some other interesting topics were: marriage in Cameroon, breast ironing, and sorcery. Everyone has to do an “animation” 2 days before swearing in, which is a longer presentation. Something that you would probably share with a community group at post. Actually, its only Agro that has to do it. Youth Development doesn’t have to and Health has been doing group Animations with different community groups during training already.

Originally I was going to write all about my site visit once I returned, but that obviously didn’t happen. That was two weeks ago. I’ll give a synopsis and not get too much into detail because once I get to post thats where I will be having my experiences. The East is awesome though. Super duper awesome. I’m in Batouri, which is a pretty large city, but its surrounded by jungle. Cameroon, Congo, Guinea, and the DRC have the most rainforest in the whole continent of Africa. Cameroon has most of it. There are people in my neighborhood with pet monkey. My post house is nice because it was owned by catholic missionaries before PC started renting it out for volunteers. There are 3 other volunteers at my post, a YD (Youth Development), an ED (Education), and a SED (Small Enterprise Development). The SED volunteer is getting married to a Cameroonian in December. I won’t be able to go to the wedding because I will have just arrived at post at the beginning of the month. There is tons of possible work and I appreciate that I have other volunteers to do collaboration projects with. But it will really all depend on what the needs of the community end up being. Or what they are motivated to do. The best honey comes from the East, and thats great because I like apiculture. I didn’t get to visit the community of my host country hommie because that was another 3 hours from my post. I didn’t have enough time just over site visit, but I’ll be going out within the first week of getting to post. The only thing I know about his village is its en brousse and is about 7000 people. The guy has two GICs (Community Groups) One for the men and one for the women. Another thing I like about Batouri is there is a large Muslim population so I’ll get a fair sense of the Islamic culture over the next two years. There was actually a big festival the first Sunday I was on site visit where a goat gets sacrificed and eaten. People go from house to house and just eat.

I got my outfit made for swearing in. I’m addicted to panya. Panya is the cultural fabric here that is amazingly beautiful and original. I’ve talked about it multiple times before, but I’m reiterating. Its like this Ed Hardy parrot design, but no where near as crappy, with green trimmings. I’m actually going to centre ville tomorrow to get some more panya for 1 more outfit before I leave and 6 yards for my sisters and mom here. Matching panya.

I hope I get the opportunity to teach at a PST after I get to post. PST is the training all of us are going through before we swear in as volunteers. Its seems like a very unique experience. To get to see all the ambitious trainees going through training, getting to see where they get posted, watching them struggle with the language like most of us do. It will also be cool to reconnect with other people from my stage and see whats changed. Or whats gone down at their post. One thing I forgot to say about site visit is there are more jaded volunteers than I thought. I didn’t come across any personally, but after talking to other trainees I found that out. Volunteers who are really just over their service. Over trying to continue any kind of development effort. I know things will be very difficult at times, but thats what you signed up for. This experience is what you make of it. It was disheartening to hear people are using the rest of their time to travel and see Africa or remain here since America doesn’t have any more opportunities since they left. You know Cameroon has the lowest ET rate of any country in Africa that PC is in? ET is early termination, when people leave for personal reasons. I don’t know the exact statistics behind that fact. On site visit I also got to talk to quite a few ED volunteers here. If you think you’re a good teacher, try teaching in Africa. These are some of the most difficult environment and situations I could imagine. Class sizes from 75-180 kids. In the North and Extreme North the classroom is always over 100 degrees. Some school systems just have 1 test for the quarter that determines if a person continues or repeats. You could have 25 year olds in your 8th grade class. The age varies so much with each class.

Just today the Agros were at the “middle school” here in Bafia to give a presentation to the environmental education club and I swear I saw a dude who was low 20’s. But I’m not good at guessing African’s ages because they usually look much younger than they are. There are discipline masters at the schools whose job is self explanatory. When we entered the school today that guy just had a leather whip attached to a wooden stick. Another way to punish kids is to have them crawl across the floor on their knees. Why? Because when the go home and their parents see their outfits are dirty they will know why and then get disciplined at home. There are different education systems for the Anglophone and Francophone regions. There is much much more on the education system on Cameroon, but thats enough for now.

Volleyball has gotten popular at the training house. We have a very small makeshift court, but its been a lot of fun. The teachers and guards play with us now. One girl’s IEP was about volleyball so they got to play during their presentation. Mary, the volunteer who welcomed the big group of new trainees in Yaounde, is now a trainer for us this week. She's teaching mostly about the theory of teaching, the education system, and Agros 3rd goal of Environmental Education. She teaches in the Extreme North. Very solid human being. It was here and a dude named Carlos who welcomed us. Carlos is also in the North.

Last weekend we got to go to Bokito for the afternoon and spend time with the Health volunteers. They have a nice set up in that town. They school house is in a compound with another family. The most ripped old man I’ve ever seen lives there. They were showing him how to slack line. He's ripped because he's been working in a farm all his life. We had some drinks and then danced beaucoup. After 10 minutes of dancing word got out in village and the next thing I knew there were a dozen little kids dancing with us. There was one kid who stood out. This kid must have had access to a TV and music videos. He was trying to do pop and locking and gave very skeptical looks when someone tried to challenge his dance skills. Later that night I went with a couple people to the local “club” here in Bafia called Hotel New Palace. Its a hotel with a club next door. Beaucoup du mirrors. I finally got to witness the phenomenon of mirror dancing. Locals are very serious when they dance with themselves in the mirror. Or freak dance with a lady in the mirror. People here love Rihanna. Those were the only songs I recognized. All the other jams were local and are just a continues rapid beat. Oh, theres a song called “Chop my money” which is about spreading your seed. There is also a song here called “I want you my wifey”. Both of which are VERY popular here. The club was weird in some ways. The only sold liquor by the shot or bottle. Its also hood liquor, like the stuff in sachets. No one touched that. I don’t know if I talked about liquor sachets, but simply, they will make you crazy. Crazy because there is nothing like an FDA here to verify was goes into that product. Its not distilled liquor. There is also the belief by some mothers that giving your child a sachet of liquor does the job that vaccines would normally do. Guys at the club derange too much. Another wierd fact here, its not common to hold hands or kiss in public, but being upfront with how you want to insert your penis in someone is very common. Oral sex isn’t common either. People just get to the point here. Theres also no such thing as “returns” with purchased items. Maybe in big name stores in the largest cities, but I don’t think I will ever experience a “return” situation here. Then again, I’m wont be buying many items.

Another quinky dink. My future post mate, the SED volunteer, had the same host family as me. Its really random that 2 volunteers from different programs in different stages would get sent to the same region and city. Its even more rare since very few volunteers get sent to the east. Maybe like 5% of all volunteers are in the East.

It’s time for sleep. I saw a terrible movie this week called 13. You can watch it to find out for yourself, but 50 cent is in it and the dude from the transporter. Just a terrible movie because of the plot. Bonne Nuit mes amie.

29.10.11

2011-10-30T02:12:00.001-07:00

29.10.11

It is 20:45 on a Saturday night. I got back home from the field trip to the north west around 7 and it was a wonderful vacation. I came home to brazed fish, baton de manioc, frit du pomme (french fries), and some carrot/bean salad. It was fantastic. Since papa wasn’t home I got to have second. I just got situated don ma chambre and I’m going to type on this keyboard por un momont. Petetra plus que une momont. I know my spelling sucks. My brain thinks more now in french. Its weird taking a field to an anglophone region and not having much of an opportunity to speak french, besides other trainees. But that didn’t happen often.

I’m going to back up to Monday last week and share a “real-life” experience of what we have read about under the “cultural notes” section of our language book. Physical punishment is very common in Cameroon, it doesn't have to be your kid. I woke up at 5:20 monday morning to do my wash from the first field trip so it could dry while I was at school. I woke up to my mom and grandma yelling at my sister. I didn’t know what it was about at the time because they were talking to fast. My sister was screaming and crying like a pig does when you grab it and hold it tight. Then I heard whipping, like the sound of a switch slapping skin. I don’t know where, but it happened like 40 times. At one point my mom made my sister go out into the little bit of rain that was still coming down that morning and stand there, then get her something. I thought this would be a good point to leave my room and make it to the front porch to do my wash as to not get involved. Right when I opened and closed my doors Epifany came running in crying to her room and my mom followed soon there after. (This was during a period of no electricity so we were using lanterns). Mom comes around the corner through the darkness with a lantern in hand and goes “Bonjour Sampson.” We were told by our language teachers that the families might sometimes but putting on a show or not acting as they normally would because they are hosting an American. That was not the case. So I said Bonjour and went out to the porch to start wash. My mom came out and then started to explain why she had to discipline her daughter. I didn’t catch the complete details, but I’m pretty sure Epifany was asked to clean the bathroom that morning and she said no. Mom does not accept that answer. So after her punishment she did that with other chores and then left for school with no food. I don’t know how my little sister interprets all of that besides do not go against what her mother says.

I saw a 8 year old kid get whipped by a lady when I was waiting outside and talking with my tailor. This was last wednesday, he was finishing up my overalls so I just waited and talked with him. This lady was trying to get this kid to leave for whatever reason. He wouldn’t so she initially came at him with a long flat rod, like a meter stick in shape. He grabbed another piece of wood and backed up against a wall trying to fight off her stick. She wasn’t that aggressive initially. I thought the boy was her son and that was her tactic to get him to go home. Eventually she grabbed him by the hand, brought him to the mango tree and broke off some branches. Then she started to whip his calfs and he started crying and yelling “Tu n’a pas ma mama”. He left around the corner of this shop block and the lady followed him to continue. Everyone could hear it from around the corner but no body though anything of it. There was also a girl who just came up, squatted, and went number un in front of the hair shop next door to my tailor. My tailor told me he would like some help starting a tree nursery in his compound for caco plants. Coco plants. I told him we could check it out next week and see whats possible. I have a feeling he will change his mind once he sees how much time, money, and energy it will take to have a successful nursery. I know he's already busy with work and family. I would like to see where this human resides. The last things this dude made me were another boubou ensemble, overalls, a vest, and a book bag. All of that cost 18.000 CFA. Like $35. The boubou had embroidery so thats what made it more expensive. If it was a normal boubou it would be around 12.000 CFA. This was the first time I did business with this guy. My mom brought me too him. I think he does my dads clothes. Its pretty amazing what this guy does with simple equipment. He uses sowing machines from the early 1900s with a foot peddle. Takes measurements real quick, puts them down in a book with a simple hand drawing of what you want, and comes out with great work. He makes simple things all the way up to custom fitted suits. I don’t know how much that cost here. Before I leave I’ll get a photo of him at his work station. He has been doing it since he was 16. Work seems pretty solid for him. He chills outside his shop and sows chaque jour watching and greeting people all day. I’m going in this Wednesday to get my swearing in panya made. I’m brining some other humans with me who want a book bag made and some other stuff.

I learned a common phrase in Cameroon last week. “Nous sommes ensemble” Its a common fare well that means we are together. I kept using that this weekend with the natives in the anglophone area and remembering after the fact that they don’t know what I was saying. We saw quite a few other white people this weekend. I think they were dutch. I say that because I only got to say whats up to one dude and heard his accent. The rest we just saw walking across town. Its weird seeing other white people here, more so when I know they are not other volunteers. I think its how black people might feel at A&M but not a parallel metaphor.

This upcoming week is another “short” week. We only have 1 language session each day, find out our posts Wednesday, and then Thursday and Friday we work with “community hosts” to prep for our site visit the following week. Community hosts are either work counterparts or people selected by PC to help us get to our post and show us around next week while we are there. People who are opening up posts usually stay with other PCVs who are hosting a PCT. Je’spaire I get to open a post in the east. Health trainees found out their post last week on Wednesday of last week. They did the work shop last week and are now in route to their future posts. When they return after next week Agro and Youth development will just be leaving. I think there is a lack of connect between the health group with us. Its too bad. Maybe that will change in the last 3 weeks before we all depart over the country.

Crazy story. The tone changes here. Last week Monday night health trainees came to Bafia for a medical session with us and stayed in town a bit so we could all hang out. They grouped up and left here around 5:30 back to Bokito. The are in two PC vehicles. A van and land cruiser. On the way back there was a car right in front of the leading PC vehicle that lost control and went head on with on coming traffic, crashed, and then rolled into a pedestrian. The trainees knew it was a drunk driver because they were commenting on how he was driving as they were all heading back. After the accident happened PC pulled off the road and 4 trainees got out to do what they could at these scene. These were people who were EMT certified or work as paramedics in the US. I’m not going to get into the details of what happened after the crash with the victims, but it was terrible. They were in a spot where no local health officials were going to make it out in time to do anything. Ambulances in the small towns cannot provide much life in route to the hospital. 3 of the 4 volunteers who went to the scene made contact with blood and had to go to Yaounde the next day to start a PEP regimen just in case the victims had HIV. I found out about this Tuesday morning through a text from a health trainee friend. I haven't heard anything since and I won’t get to talk with anyone from there for a while. I think I’ll call up Joe sometime this week while he is at site visit.

Matena, the field trip. We left thursday this time since it would take 6-7 hours to reach the north west region. I really don’t want to get into details now after writing about that tragic experience. I’ll keep it short. We visited more GIC’s with tree nurseries and other agroforestery practices. Like piggeries, fisheries, and apiculture (bee raising). PCV Lauren set up this trip because she works with all the people we went to visit. Pidgin is hilarious. I most enjoyed learning about apiculture. One GIC would take the pig dung and put it in the fish pond with other plants. The fish eat the poop and leaves, grow up, and get sold. The water from the fishery was used as a compost tea for the plants and trees. Thy feed the pigs some of the plants, a wheat meal, and palm seeds and continue the cycle. Many sustainable relationships were displayed. The last GIC we saw works with honey, teaching apiculture, and researching other medicinal plants. I bought a liter of honey for my family. Some of the best honey I have come across. Harvested without toxins or processed by killing a lot of the natural goodness. It was 2000 CFA for a liter ~$5. We had a crazy driver. We had to stop in Bafousam because our breaks went out. They went out probably because our driver would break suddenly before a speed bump, and then speed right back up once it was completed. We got there and back safe-fully so I am thankful for that. I also remain in good health which is another blessing. I’m going to wrap it up now. I apologize for a lack of detail on this trip. I will load up numerous pictures with explanations on fb. Its really nice not seeing advertisements and cascades of marketing for holidays that keep the economy afloat to some degree. Especially this time of year with halloween, thanksgiving, and Christmas. No advertisements for the sale of products with no relationship to the holiday. Not even being in a culture that celebrates those holidays has been wonderful because I avoid seeing the exploitation holidays with lost meaning. I love the memories I had the opportunity to make when I was growing up, but certain aspects of the American culture are ludicrous. As an American its possible to appreciate that. Its why satire is such a predominate and popular form of comedy.

23/10/11

2011-10-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

23/10/11

The field trip was awesome, but before I elaborate on that experience I have some random inputs. My grandma here is hood. I don't know if I’ve talked about her yet. Her name is BIC. I don't know how its spelled, but thats how its pronounced. I don’t know hold old she is either. Last week she was poppin Cortam, the malaria med you take after you think you have it. She didn’t finish the regimen because she's hood. BIC has glasses like popular rappers. You know the ones with thick rounded square frames that are usually black. I saw a video with Jumaine Dupree wearing them. She wears those. She put into action why I like concrete floors. After food time she's washes her mouth and spits on the floor. Then she utilizes a spent match to prick food out of her teeth. She stays here on the weekends. Maybe I’ll get a picture of this woman before I depart homestay. I need my french a little better, especially since she's hard of hearing. I wonder how she interprets white people.

I passed my language test last Thursday. The first LPI in PST. I got intermediate high which means I will not have to test out again to get placed anywhere in Cameroon. The tester was pretty generous with everyones level. A dude who just came in a month ago, with no french experience at all, only spanish, went from novice low to advanced mid. We met two PCVs who are leaving in december who tested out at advanced low. They tested out at advanced low after living here for 2 years. A trainee needs intermediate mid to get into anglophone and intermediate high to get into francophone. Cameroon is 4/5th francophone. That just means french speaking. Anglophone is english/pidgin. There are other languages spoken in the francophone areas, but the main language is french. You know how Texas has things in spanish everywhere? You would not find that here. Its hard for people born in Anglophone areas who want to go to universities or take care of personal business. Most of the state universities are located in francophone areas and most personal business is taken care of in Yaounde. We went over this in our last cross culture seminar. Oh, Biya was elected for a 4th term. 7 more years. That dude has been serving as president of this country since 1982! Imagine that for a minute. If he lives through this term that will be 36 years. Cameroon has only been independent since 1960. He has already been president for the majority of Cameroon’s independence. Our CC session was on the physical makeup of the ten regions of Cameroon and its history. Cameroon is very interesting due to its diversity environmentally, socially, and political past.

I found out I might be going to the east for my post. We had a second interview with our PM. He wanted to know if we had any additional input where we would like to get posted after being here for a month, or 2 months for the people who got to experience Ebowlowa. Most everyone put that they were completely open to where they get posted. Tiki wanted something more specific, but no one wanted to give that so they wouldn't get their hopes up. After asking me how I was doing and how the program was going he said, “How do you like the east? Rain forest, jungle, working with a catholic group starting tree nurseries. Its got the best house, best house. 3 rooms, a fence. I stayed there last week.” I said I was alright with wherever he wanted to put me. Well, originally I said I would like the west or littoral so I could have the opportunity to speak french and pidgin, but he said that wouldn't happen. He said it would be one or the other and I picked french. After my interview I went back and told him I’m very interested in the East to remove any doubts. The east is isolated from any other post. There are 2 post there, 1 already open and 1 would be opened. I hope I get the opportunity to open my own post. Post circulate around. After 5 volunteers a post closes so another community can get the opportunity to host a PC volunteer. The posts are in Batouri. That would be in the middle of the most rain forests in Africa. There is a problem of slash and burn cultivation in the rainforests. I’m going to give a presentation on that in like week 7 or 8. All Agro’s have to pick a tech topic to give a presentation on in french. We all find out for sure November 2nd where we are going. These next 3 weeks are going to go by fast. This whole training has gone by fast. We have another field trip this week from Thursday to Saturday. The week after we find out where we are going and then get ready to leave to post. 3 weeks from now is site visit. After site visit it will be week 8. I’m excited about this week because I’ll get my new panya. Another boubou ensemble with the PC 50 year panya, overalls, and a vest. That should be ready tuesday.

So the field trip was awesome. We left early Friday and Arrived in Feutap to check out a GIC called APADER. A GIC is a government community group. Kind of like a CO OP in the states, with the exception of receiving some support from the government. That all depends. Cameroonian’s love acronyms by the way. Google that and see if anything comes up, I don’t remember the name in its entirety. We walked around to check out their field, demo plots, demonstrations of: contour bunds, water catchments, alley cropping, intercropping, and their gas dryer. Agroforestry is kick ass. One of my favorite classes in college was Ecosystem Management. Learning how to work with nature to reach sustainable goals for utilization. This is exactly that. We walked through a jungle like environment to see their water catchment. A snake fell from a tree right on PCV Richard. I didn’t get to see but I heard the verbal commotion about it. OH there was this crazy lady with us the whole time. Not really crazy, more a mental disorder. She literally talked the whole time, 8 hours, we were there. She was nice and friendly. I think she was under the impression she was giving all the tours. I’m impressed with her skill. she went into the jungle with a kabba and sandals on and came out the cleanest of all of us. Word is she's the wife of someone high up in the community so she gets to do what she wants. After lunch we all practiced vegetative propagation. Grafting, marcotting, and cuttings. Then we loaded up and left to our hotel to drop off stuff and then get some dinz in town. A table of people got jacked that night. A dude came up and jacked the money on the table that was being piled to pay for everything. I was eating somewhere else. Where I was eating this young man kept coming up to our table with 50 CFA. He didn’t talk at all but I think he was trying to buy food from us, but we just had the bones from our fish left. He only had pants and look like he lived on the street. Like 15. The owner of the outdoor place kept shooing him off but he would come back. Its instinctual to have sympathy for a human like that, but its hard to have a “right” solution. No one was going to give their bones to him. What does that say about the white people in Cameroon. We give our scraps to the poor? For any new situation I sometimes go to what the natives do as guidance, but thats not the best thing either.

Saturday was packed with activities! We visited COFTRAKOL in Bangante. This a women’s cooperative that produces shea butter. We got a complete breakdown of its history, dynamics, and how everything is made. That was really interesting. I bought some of their shea butter. I don’t use moisturizer, but I got it for my feet since I wear Chacos chaque jour. Almost chaque jour. These women are hard workers. It is quite a process when all done by hand with the help of some machines. They also made some home made insect repellent. A 250 ml jar was 1500 CFA. Like $3.50. It’s hours to get from seed to jar. They work with people in small villages to educate the importance of non-timber forest products to curb deforestation. Also to show how they can generate income for themselves rather than just use the bark of the tree for medicinal purposes.

Next we went to Bandrefam to visit a GIC that works with soy and has a bakery. They make soy milk, tofu, and soap. Getting women to sell tofu is a hard thing to do from what I observed. We got to meet one lady who has been there since the beginning. The milk was fantastic. She makes tofu and sells it on skewers like every other kind of meat. The tofu was mixed with Magi (boulion cube), pimont, and fried like most things and had pieces of onion in between the cube. They call it viende de soja to market it. That means cut of soy. Por example viende de beouf is cut of beef. They just say viande so people assume its meat. After the frying and minor changes it taste like chicken. Inside the home of this lady there were 6 guinne pigs running around. guinea pigs are commonly eaten here. Apres la we went to another GIC where they did pig and rabbit raising. They also raised snails, but we didn’t get to see that for some reason. The use the feces of pigs for the soil and the urine and feces from rabbits as an insecticide for their okra. They get quite a bit of money from both animals. They had the healthiest corn in village that we saw. Rain started coming down heavy so we had to go to the PCVs house for lunch and to chill. It calmed a bit so we went to visit a farmer who has been working with the PC for 8 years. He did pig farming, live fencing, fruit trees, and bee keeping. Thats another thing that was for sale. Some fantastic honey. A wine bottle full for 2500 CFA. just under 5 dollars. Straight from the hive. This guy was very friendly and informative. Live fencing planting fast growing trees to outline your property so no one tries to gank it. We went through things quick there because it was raining off and on and we wanted to be able to get home, which didn’t go as planned in the end. We had 2 cars, the PC Land cruizer and an Amigo van. Amigo vans are what people take to travel around Cameroon. We work on unpaved roads most of the time and things get pretty sloppy after a rain. We couldn't make it up one hill, took another route and ended up almost tipping the van. We got caught in a ditch that stopped us at 45 degrees. Cameroonians are skilled with situations like that. We had people run up the road to us to help out. We had a dozen people pushing the roof back up while the driver moved the can forward and the van got out of the ditch on the first try. Another cool thing about the back road we took was we ended up in a chieferie village. There was this huge wooden hut with wooden carvings where the chief stayed. I didn’t get pictures because thats not good or welcomed. Our tech trainer had no problem going out and getting photos. People told her they would disappear from her camera magically because she took them of the chief’s hut. We got home and did the same thing again. But this time when we came back we had a piece of cake with icing for a girl whose b day is tuesday. That cake was fowel. cake mix from the dollar store tasted better than that. The icing was like straight butter. It was an interesting cake. I’m not complaining about it, I’m just describing how terrible the taste was. It was only 50 cents for a piece. I’m always down for new experiences. We woke up the next morning and shared our feelings about the field trip. Gave feedback on everything and left. When I got back in Bafia I did laundry and went with other trainees to hang out with the YD trainees who stayed here all weekend. I did my homework, grubbed, and now I’m here. Electricity is out again. I enjoy that. Things are quite and dark. Start are new language classes tomorrow. I’ve only got one other human in the class, so learning should be swell by golly! Oh 2 girls from Bokito got malaira over the past 2 weeks. Bokito is where the health volunteers stay. They’re fine now, but had a couple poopy days. I make sleep now. I need to be up at 5 to finish my clothes before I go to school. Have I mentioned everyone in my family is up by 5:30 every day? HEY any human who are “bored” in America. Write a letter or even a simple post card! Mail is gold here and I need pictures or photos for my barren walls. I know things are so “busy” in America but come on. Get in touch with you 1920’s self. It literally makes my week on top of life already being great here. How about if you ever catch yourself fb creeping, just go write a letter.

11/10/11

2011-10-20T01:54:00.001-07:00

11/10/11

Yesterday I saw a dead money attached to moto going somewhere with 2 dudes. Big monkey. It made me wonder how close that wild life is here in Bafia. Tonight I ate porcupine and it tasted interesting. My first, but not last, taste of bush meat. I don’t think too much about what I eat. Food is fuel. I’m trying to find a vocabulary word to describe the taste. Its like a musky leather taste. luckily my mom is a great cook and most of that bush meat taste was covered up with a tomato / veggie sauce. I also had it coated with some fresh pimont sauce. When I was eating it I just had the image in my head of eating the guy that put prickers in the dogs face from homeward bound. I’ll reenforce the fact of how beautiful the clouds are here during the rainy season. When I walk home from school I get graced with an amazing view more often that not. I wish I could load up the videos I am making on fb. No point in loading them up in two places. Sorry if your reading this and don’t like chapter books.

The third week of PST is coming to a close. We have mountain bike training this saturday instead of language class. Some new volunteers came in yesterday to help with classes and I believe two of them are skilled with bike mechanics. They were making any necessary adjustments to the bikes we will be receiving this weekend. I found out my sister did take money from me. After I told my brother he investigated and found the money in her backpack. There was an awkward family meeting one morning. Awkward because the whole family was there and papa pimont was trying to tell me that his daughter stole from me. Since my french was not up to par for the situation I asked my brother to translate for me so there was nothing lost in translation. Nothing is awkward in the house though. I don’t act any differently with my family and the daughter doesn't act any differently around me. I dont hold it against her. I stole at her age. I learned my lesson through the experience because knowing theft was wrong was obviously not enough. I have to lock my door whenever I am not in my room which makes me feel awkward. Whenever I take a shower I have to lock the door, and my room is literally right next to the bathroom. So there is just always the sounds of the door locking when I go into the living room, bathroom, or outside to help my mom cook.

Shane and I are going to interview a farmer for an Agro assignment. We came up with the questions today. All of the agro trainees paired up into groups to go out and find farmers in Bafia to discover their practices. A farmer is anything from a father who raises food for his family to someone who works for a government agency. I think this is a great assignment because It will be a large portion of what we will be doing once we get to post. Just talking to people to find out what they have been doing for their lively hood, and then identifying the needs that we could help sustainably develop. We got the grades back for our tree nursery and demo plot, everyone failed except for 1 group just just barley passed. I think the tech trainers were too critical. From what I have gathered from current volunteers it is difficult to transfer the technical knowledge to the natives. I strongly believe if we implemented a formation on how to make a demo plot or build a small scale tree nursery the natives would not see any reason for the specifics. I feel the same way. But all of PST is a long lesson in patience. Patience is also something people say for everything, if your sick, frustrated, whatevz. Today we also learned how to create malaria smears. Its what we are supposed to do if we think we have malaira, but before we take the coartum. Coartum are the pills we pop if we think we have malaria. These slides go to PC HQ to see if we actually have it or not. I saw a dead snake in the road on the way to the tree farm. A big snake. Like a meter long, black, and it was venomous because we opened the mouth with some sticks and saw the fangs. This snake was dead. Someone before us cut it up with a machete. I’ll finish this after le dejune.

I’m finishing this much later than after lunch. Its monday night of next week and immersion has started in Bafia. English is no longer allowed at the school house during school hours and preferably on the weekend. Our first LPI is wednesday, which is the language test to see if we changed levels at all. There is an “open house” tomorrow where all the formatters have different tables representing different situations we might encounter at post. The stagiers get to walk around and simulate each experience instead of having language classes. Last week on Thursday we saw a video on return PCVs who got HIV. None of them were from freak accidents, they were all from having sex with natives who had it. This video was made in the late 80s or early 90s based on the quality and clothing. Watching that video was interesting. It was also after our STDs and STI talk. Hearing these volunteers talk about trusting the counterpart that gave them HIV or making the decision to have unprotected sex was interesting. I don't have a better vocabulary word. Then listening to their advice they give to trainees. This video has probably been watched by thousands of PCV. I cannot remember the exact stats, but approximately 100 volunteers have gotten HIV during service and 4 have died since 1986 I believe. There were also some stats about PEP use. Google PEP. I didn’t do much this past weekend. My brother left for Yaounde to start at the University again. He only left with a backpack and a sack of plantains. It was actually the sac I bought my mom this weekend. There was a PCV who came to PST to give a presentation on diversity. She brought some sacs that prisoners in her village made. So I bought one for mama here. I also went with my mom on Sunday to some interesting meeting. People kept coming in and giving money and recording numbers in a little book. The people dropping off the money all had this same little notebook the size of a passport. There was one dude with a large accountant looking notebook. I think its like a community lottery. Where everyone chips into the pot and then the money circulates so one day everyone gets a fat stash one day to use on important things. Like sending your kid to school or having something necessary for the house, or the house. I’ll find out when my french improves. This girl who lives across the street from me, another stagier, had her mom peace out to Yaounde for 2 weeks. Her mom works for the election committee as a computer programer. Its akward for Molly, because in the house its her mom and her roomate who is a dude she knows from college. So now its the dude room mate and Molly. Molly is chilling at my families crib on the weekends, but I’ve got super cool field trips the next two weekends. Luckily my brother just happened to leave so she has a room to stay in rather than on the couch. These field trips are super cool. The agro volunteers get to visit current PCV post and see what they've been doing. This weekend we are visiting Richard’s post. Richard has been teaching some tech sessions last week and this week. He works with a couple NGOs. We get the opportunity to have some hands on action with the tech training we've been getting and learn how to make shea butter. I’ll have more details apres le field trip of what we actually do, but its going to be super. Oh yea, I got a weave put into my hair so I could have corn rolls. That looked really creepy. Like a pedifile coke dealer. I have on super creepy picture thats going to go up on fb. The braids are out now. My hair was too short and slick to keep them in. In 3 weeks I’ll try again. I’ll pause for the next post since this is so long. 4th week of PST almost done. I will find out where I’m going to be posted at the beginning of November. December 8th is the swearing in. WILD. Toodles.

05.10.11

2011-10-07T04:41:00.003-07:00

05.10.11

It has been a week in Bafia, so its time for an update. Cholera is now present in Bafia along with other communities. We were intructed to wash our hands frequently and continue to treat our water. My gums near the back side of my molars on the bottom jaw are pulling away from the teeth. The nurse just said to keep brushing and flossing. She said she would write a prescription for mouth wash? Someone ETed (early termination) yesterday. We started off today reading the note he wrote for everyone before he departed. We don’t know why and he asked that be revealed once he left. None of my biz. We have progressively working through our agro curriculum.

I just got back from our field where we broke up into groups to start a seed bed, test plot, and small tree nursery. We use a small metal hand hoe and machette. Pictures on fb. I have 5 new blisters on each hand that should turn into what my heel looks like soon. Oh my gum thing also makes my breath smell like poop because food gets caught in there. It was swollen this morning, but its gone down. I just chew on the left side for now. French classes have been good. Its nice to have them broken up with cultural/saftey/technical information. The lunch lady we have makes bomb food. Its the mom of another stagier. I havent encountered leaky roofs, many bites, or sickness like some of the other stagiers, so I feel blessed for that. I’m also now making my own breakfast in the morning since I’ve watched mama do it enough. It usually an omelet sandwich. Omelet with basil, tomato, onions, and pimont. I have my cup of coffee in the morning with this chocolate powder mix, kinda like Nestle Quick. I plan on buying some weave hair and asking my sister to weave it into my hair so I can have some corn rolls. They probably won’t last long because no one will take me seriously here. Imagine me, with corn rolls, wearing panya, speaking french. It addition to a unibrow. I’ve been letting my unibrow grow out here because no one cares. I wanted to see how bushy it would get. One of my glasses covers it up, the other lets it be free. It will produce a giggle worthy picture though. I don’t even know if thats how weave hair works, or if I just need to wait for it to grow longer.

My mom showed me up in chopping wood yesterday. Although they have a stove most of the cooking is done over a fire for two reasons. Gas is expensive, so they only use the stove to reheat meals. Two, the cook in this smoke house so the smoke from cooking also dries out the corn above and they use that for cous cous. So mama was chopping wood yesterday and I asked if I could help. The ax is home made. Its a metal pole with one end flattened to the ax head can fit on it. The ax wedge is also kind of warped. But she made it work much better than I could. We were just splitting wood for the cooking fire. Last night I had steamed cassava with this vegetable fish casserole mix. Bones and everything. The small bones I could chew up, but the larger spine bones I had to take out. That was not the case with my family and their friends. The stray dogs and cats in our neighborhood eat the scraps that get put out anyway.

I finished reading a great book that my el-aye-dee-why sent to me called “Legacy of Love” by Arun Gandhi. I read it twice this week to let the main points resonate in my brain. Its a short book. I highly recommend it to anyone who reads this sentence. Besides that I’ve only been reading my technical books and french books. I stay pretty busy now that there is a routine. So my new routine. I wake up at 6:30 because my family gets up an hour before that. I don’t want to look lazy. Next I get dressed and my things ready for school, make coffee for everyone, and my breakfast. I was reading in the morning, but now I just head up to school early and read there if I want. From 8 to 4:30 I have school. Grub out good and lunch and eat peoples left overs. Once I get home from school I change into lighter clothing and fetch water for the toilet/shower tub from the well out front and do any sweeping. I take a little break where I sit/read/write. Do homework or study french and then its din din time. After din din I do the dishes suel, shower, and then go to bed to do it one more gain demain. I like the busy days. Time goes by faster and I’m pretty tired around 9 so I pass out quick. Or if I don’t pass out quick I take a sleeping pill and have weird dreams. I haven’t been doing a good job of keeping up a dream journal. I have 2 years for that. My first weekend here was really laid back. My parents haven’t made me go to anything yet. They work on the weekends as well or attend social events. There have been Paul Biya rallies almost every day from what I get to see. I study, wash clothes, and take naps on the weekend. Explore Bafia. Wiffle ball and frizzbe time is popular between the stagiers. I thought I had more to write about but it is not in my brain right now. A plus tard mes amie. Du courage.

Now I remember. I think someone who came into this house took 2.000 mil from me. I know I am missing 2.000 and its not because i spent it or lost it. I’m not making any accusations. I’ll see if the act replicates itself over the next 3 months, at which point I’ll bring it up. My little sister loves Angry Birds. I brought my iphone to use as a video camera and make videos, but it also comes in as an arcade to mes soeurs. I don’t know if I’ve said how beautiful clouds are here. In texas, during summer, there are usually blue skies tout le jours. But here during the rainy season the clouds are amazing. When I go to get water from the forage in the evening its awesome. Like sky mountains on top of land mountains. I can’t take a picture because there are usually always people at the forage in the evening. I don’t whip out anything of attraction when I’m out. If I find another high point that gives the same view I’ll be sure to get some pictures, but its fantastic on top of being surrounded by nature. Another thing. I’ve started to take the moto to town. Its 100 francs for any ride in town. It reminds me of my scooter. They only get the cheapest stuff from China or thats all I’ve seen. Top safe speed of 40. We have to use a helmet here. So when I walk around with my helmet natives as me where my moto is, and then they don’t understand when I respond that it is for safety. Children, as young as 5, just sit in the lap of the driver.

I just got a call from the language coordinator to head back to school for my prescription and medication for my mouth. I have returned from that and its called Hextril, some kind of fancy mouth wash. The Dr. told me she would write a prescription, but I wasn't planning on going out and buying it. But much to my suprise PC bought it for me. Double plus was I didn’t have to pay for the moto ride to school. I forgot to pay because I was in a hurry to get home before cerfew, but the dude didn’t ask me for it either. He just rode off. I am now watching my little sister feed toothpaste to these other neighborhood kids. Its the same toothpaste I use. Colgate “Herbal”. I think its not as effective as regular Colgate. If anyone was $10 to spare send me toothpaste! Please! Of quality. All I would ask to get sent is books and hygene products. Din din is being served now. Now I will really peace out.

29.9.11

2011-10-01T04:54:00.001-07:00

29.09.2011

Howdy! I am NOW in the house of my home-stay family. More specifically I am sitting at my desk in my room. It is almost 10 pm, I am fresh and clean, and have a full tummy of delicious food. I am very blessed with the family I received for the home-stay. We are allowed some input for preferences (smoking / animals / children) But for the most part one human decides where we will be for the next 3 months and I got lucky with this loving family. I feel even more blessed after hearing some of the input from other stagiers and their families. Ill describe the humans I habitate with in a minute.

So there is the NEW youth development program and agroforestry living in Bafia, Cameroon. The health program trainees are residing in Bokito, Cameroon. A much smaller village 20 km away from Bafia. That is where most of the new families are. New, as in have no hosted a PC trainee before. Last Wednesday when we arrived in Bafia we unloaded all of our stuff in front of the “school house” where we will spend our days during the week. At that point all of us started to get matched up one by one with our families. On one side were the stagiers and on the others the new families. It was an interesting feelings. Starting at the natives of Bafia wondering who I was going to live with for the next 3 months. I was one of the last called, so I got to see humans combine and keep guessing who I would get. I was hoping I got this papa who was wearing some fly panya, and ultimately I did. Across the street from my new house is Molly’s home-stay. I am lucky she speaks more french than me because I messed up something right off the bat. We got in the car and I tried to tell my papa and new brother I am funny and ended up saying I was a muslim because my pronunciation sucked. I found out at dinner what I said because I was offered meat and my brother said “No, Sampson cannot eat that because he is a Muslim.” I also got my family to call me Sampson. That was another request you could put on the paper. I use the name Sampson to order pizza in the states as a homage to Half Baked. I just wanted to hear Sampson with a french accent for the next 3 months. My papa said that would be ok, but I had to call him “papa pimont” and call my mama “mama pimont”. Pronounced /Pee-mont/. OH, there were quite a few parents who said they saw us dancing on the Monday Night Show.

The Monday before arriving in Bafia we got the opportunity to be on the “Monday Night Show”. That is a show we watched quite a bit in Ebowlowa. It plays on the National Station CRTV. Its in English and is an hour variety show displaying anything and everything. Apparently all a person has to do is e-mail the TV stations Yahoo account with and idea. They explicitly said “no bible verses, no facebook attachments, and no soliciting”. PC Trainees got the opportunity to appear on the show because David set an appointment. A lot is going on in Cameroon. The election is 9th of October. The 50 year anniversary of independence is coming up. 50 years of PC in Cameroon is this year. There is a new PC program debuting this year: Youth Development. We have the largest group of trainees EVER to come through. So David and another volunteer were being interviewed about what the PC is and why the do what they do. The host was practicing before taping and said “You people make me nervous, so many white faces.” Aside from the PC bit there was a representative from the UN. A reggae music group, a traditional african music group from Cameroon, and a complete breakdown of Cameroons history after independence. At the very end we all got to get up and dance! I have a short clip on my FB page. We had to pay 2.000 franc to get a copy of that episode. It will probably take a month to get it, then I’ll figure out if I can load it up online. That was a really solid experience. That is also a brand new experience for PC Cameroon. David has done interviews about the PC, but never has a whole stage group been part of the filming. At the end I was shaking the hands of all the guest to thank them for their new music and dance moves and one dude, dressed in a cheetah print golf hat and dress shirt, gave me his bone necklace. It was plastic, but I felt special. I was wearing that with my panya when I met my papa au Cameroon and he said “You look Afrique, but you are the blanch?”

Back to my new family. I am blessed with a loving and wonderful family in the states, and I luckily received the same thing here. The father is a surgeon at the local hospital, the mother is a nurse at the same hospital and works with HIV patients. The son is a student at the University in Yaounde studying Biology. I believe he wants to be a Dr. as well. Ma grand seour is 14 and goes to school. Ma petit seour is 8 goes to school. My brother leaves to start the semester 19th October. OH! Just today my mom bought and gave me slippers for the shower. I offered to pay for them but she insisted I do not. I’m gonna buy some Nutella for the crib. I bought some in Yaounde before we left to save for a rainy day, but after I felt SO welcomed by this family I have it to them. Specifically for the girls so they can put it on their bread for breakfast. I am fed so very well here. On top of that ma mama is teaching me how to cook Cameroonian food. Shes pretty much showing me how to do everything around the house. I have actually gained weight here at this present moment. Most dudes loose weight because of the lack of a steady protein source. Girls usually gain weight here. I eat tout le jours. I eat everyones left overs at lunch and also get a meal for breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is nice. Egg and spaghetti omelet with onions, tomatoes, green onions, fresh basil, and garlic. I put all that in a french baguette so I can eat it to school. I also get cafe avec le lait. Powdered of course. They also have this chocolate mixture. I used to not have any of the powder but use them both in my coffee because of the added nutrients. We have lunch brought to us at the school because its convenient. Actually one of the girls moms cooks the food. It is delicious. Great mixture of carbs, protein, and veggies. My mama au Cameroon is hood. She works all day, comes home in her fly panya, changes into shorts and a tank top and gets to work on making an amazing dinner. Then cleans, sleeps and does it again. Shes also a big mama. Thats also how my papa described her when we both me. I help her with the cleaning after dinz because she cooks. She wont let me do it all by myself, but I think she said that will be later after I watch her do it a bunch. The brother is awesome. He helps cook and helps his sisters with their homework. Oh Awkward moment for the day. When I finished doing wash and getting water I was watching music videos with the girls. I don’t know what artist came one, but that video was all dancing. Girls dancing with a lot of rump shaking. A lot of promiscuous rump shaking. After that they put on theses music video DVDs? A compilation of random music videos, like Michael Jacksons - Tiger.

I have no complaints about my awesome family here. I feel I will have french down pretty good in a month since I have to utilize it every morning and night outside of class. The youngest daughter creeps on me a lot. Not in a bad way. I would do the same. She will just stand at the door and stare at me when I’m doing something like reading or organizing. Ill try to talk and its 50/50 if she decides to respond or just look at me like a diva. This family is also well off because of the parents professions. They have fridge/freezer/stove with oven/tile/a moto/ shower/and a well. EVen though they have all of this they don’t utilize it. The fridge just holds some fruits and vegetables and water the collect from the pump. I don't know whats in the freezer yet. I usually have a very noisy characteristic when it comes to peoples homes. They sometimes cook on the stove, but also have a smoke house outside with a wood stove. There is a sink with running water, but we clean the dishes in buckets outside. They have the shower head with running water but all take bucket baths. The moto is parked in the living room but it has yet to be utilized. The toilets are different in Bafia. They use a system called the bucket flush. After you make potty, you fill up a bucket and then pour it quickly into the toilet. That is the flush. 2 buckets if you made big potty. No flushing for number 1.

There is a whole lot more I could write about the program and how training is going but I’m tired and have another day of class demain. Our “school house” Looks like a mansion that was never finished being built. Its cool. Getting to come to school to learn all the technical stuff on top of the lang, but also hear funny stories from everyone about home stay. I’ve gotta go nappy bed now. Until soon. A Plus.

9.25.11

2011-09-25T14:35:00.001-07:00

9.25.11

Been a month in country and two days until Bafia. We all just got back from the dinner at the Country directors house where we got to meet more of the PC staff and the American ambassador. The CDs house is the fanciest home I have been too yet. Compound with a big wall and barbed wire. Gate with a guard. Two generators. A quaint garden. Tons of space for entertaining. Its a PC home. I have finally gotten to meet all the other volunteers! 45 more came in Friday night. The groups are agroforestry, community health, and youth development. Youth development is a brand new program for Cameroon this year. I think its super solid 14 people get to christen it on PC 50th anniversary. Bunch of SOLID humans. Many have world travel backgrounds, impressive academia accomplishments, friends who are PCVs. But all solid humans. I’m excited to develop friendships with all of these people and then tell them a year from now in French how happy I am the universe brought us together. It will also be great to have places to stay all over country when I get the opportunity to travel. I’m rooming with a dude, in the hotel, named Stephen. From New York and Jersey. He reminds me of Chris Farley. A very energetic large comedic man. I have been comparing a lot of people I see here to humans on tv. I think the Training director looks like Jamie Foxes dad or Mike Tyson. Theres a girl here who looks like Amanda bines from Nickelodeon. Stephen like Chris Farley. Someone told me tonight I look like some dude off burn notice. I forgot his name. I was going to google it when I got home.
Quite a bit has happened since my last entry. We left Ebowlowa for Yaounde last friday. When we were leaving a guy who lived behind us, who also worked at the tv station, came out with a carton that looked like milk but ended up being wine. He also had a glass and was giving it for someone to hold. I gave him a can of ham that was left over in the fridge. The can was in the shape of a cat food can. He took it and gave me the glass and started to pour. Once I found out it was in fact wine he got it back and tried to give it to someone else, and no one took it because it was 7 in the morning. I’m sure it was a bon voyage toast. The lady who has a boutique at the end of the road, Anita, just happened to be riding by on a moto and told the driver to stop so she could wave good bye. I found out this lady is 22! I could have sworn she was mid 30s. She was always with a little girl, who I later found out was her niece. I found this out from Shane, who Anita wanted to get down with. She called Shane once we got to Yaounde and was like “Why did you leave without saying good bye to me?”
Quick fast forward. We got to Yaounde and our first stop was HQ. We had to drop off all of our extra stuff so we wouldn't have to bring it into the hotel. We just grabbed what was necessary. We got the opportunity to eat at this restaurant across the street that serves burgers, pizza, and other uncommon dishes. We all got some form of a hamburger which was pretty tiny, but was beef and cheese and tasted fantastic. Ensuit we went back to HQ and saw the place where PCV can pay to stay, like a PC hotel. Sign paperwork for internet use, and those who wanted things out of the safe got it. Popped my Malaria pill and then we headed to the hotel. Then it was just relaxing until the other group came that evening. This place got very hectic with 45 new people coming in with multiple bags of luggage. We had a good dinner and each meal after that has been awesome. Awesome because its continually getting to meet people or new aspects about them. Its also cool to observe these humans fresh off the plane and in country. Even if they have traveled outside the US they have never been to Cameroon. Many of them are disappointed about being locked down in the hotel, none of them have left further than the front door. I keep telling them you have 27 months of exploring, relax if you have to spend 4 days in a hotel. Esp the women. They are not missing great things in Yaounde. There are about 5 or 7 people who are good at french. Most everyone else is starting from scratch. Even the ones who are good will have to make adjustments to certain things they say, the speed at which they say it, and their accent. There was a bunch of processing, paper work, and shots that took place this weekend. Tomorrow is supposed to be a busy day. Luckily the few who were in Ebowlowa get some free time because we did all of it last month. Cameroon ID cards. Getting things locked in the safe. Getting water filters. I cant remeber exactly what we have to be a part of. I’ll find that out tomorrow. We have a broken down schedule for our next 3 months in PST. OH! We are the BIGGEST staging group Cameroon has had. Mostly because of the new addition of the Youth program. That is SOLID. I feel a synergy with these people. It was awesome getting to hear the CD and American Ambassador talk. I wont get into the specifics, but its one of those moments that releases excitement inside of you. A moment that you pull back up during hard times to realize why your doing what your doing. Oh, we also had interviews for home stays and post preferences. I left most all of that open. I figure where I get placed is where i will get placed. I will make the most of it and deal with problems at any post. I know being in Agro I will most likely be rural and wont have electricity or running water. I also believe things work out a certain way for me and I wont get anything I cannot handle. Tiki, the agro PD, says he has had 3 Michaels since he has been in charge and they are all highly motivated. I’ll keep that going. Its good to have an open mind and patience here.
We had african dancers last night! We had to pay 2.000 mil each to get them there and the main dancers is a wife to one of the trainers. IT WAS AWESOME. I don’t have pictures, but I’m going to mooch of someone who got them that night. They went off for a while. I must say they would all be great at tybo and yoga. These humans moved super fast. Not only the dancers, but the people playing the drums too. They have traveled over the world displaying traditional African dance from Cameroon. At the end they started inviting up, more pulling people up, to dance individually and then everyone got down at the end. I was getting down and realized how hard it was to do the moves they were doing. By the end of 2 minutes of dancing my thighs felt like they were going to collapse. I decided If I wanna get ripped here I just need to eat a lot of fish and dance like that. FOOD has been fantastic here. I have been eating a lot of left overs and expanding my stomach back out. I found out we had goat last night for dinner. It tasted like tender beef. We have 2 solid PCVs here directing our movements. They both serve in the north. Mary and Carlos. Carlos had a slick silk bou bou on with some awesome embroidery. He said it was a gift from a wealthy friend in his village.
Not much else is entering my brain right now. I’m in the hotel hallway with 4 other people typing on a piece of machinery with an illuminated screen. The hallway smells funny and I hear sirens in the background. I hear tapping of keyboards like accountants. People are swapping movies and tv shows. Has anyone here hear of Where there is no doctor? Awesome book. A girl in the immersion group has it and I was going to ask someone to send it to me, but I got it on PDF from another trainee. Along with some other great PDFs about sanitation, engineering in developing countries, rainwater harvesting, water treatment, and bee keeping. Oh yea, there was a wedding last night and it creeped out a couple people. Apparently some women were being followed to there rooms, or people were getting knocks on their door at 3 am. Ashley had a kid open her door but get stopped by the chain, then he was trying to undo the chain. The wedding went on until 5 in the morning. It was the subject to start off the safety meeting today with Ruth. Just the introductory one, we will have many in PST. Nothing else for now. Tomorrow breakfast is at 6:45, I’m going to bed. I think I’ll write in shorter gaps so I don’t feel like I miss the good detail. Bafia Tuesday. Meet the home family. Excitement!

9-16-11

2011-09-19T08:28:00.001-07:00

9-16-11

Bon soir les humans. C’est the end of week quatre of immersion! I just got back from having diner with some hommies and I think I’m going to get sick. The food was served cold because there was no electricity to reheat it? They had electricity, but it wasnt enough to power a microwave? It was left over from lunch. I need to learn more words in french. I ate my food anyway. I had le plate de poission avec du riz et la plantain. That is a very common dish around here. It usually what I get down on during lunch. Im going to be a strong fisherman with all the fish I eat now. I think Ive lost 10 lbs, but I still eat pretty balanced here.

Tomorrow is our mock language test. We still have 2 days of real class next week which will probably be used to fix what we messed up on during the mock language test. The test is just going to be an open conversation with a teacher. Lemme tell you whats going down right now. Shane is cooking an awesome meal like he usually does. I’m writing on the couch. The girls are talking about food they wish they were eating right now on the porch among other things. A big storm is about to go down. There is much lightning and thunder right now but no rain yet. Its awesome when it rains hard here. Maybe not awesome, but temporary canals pop up everywhere. Vendors just leave there stuff at their stands, covered up of course. Its interesting. Their food does not get stolen. Maybe it does, but its not enough of a problem for people to take their product home every night. Some other dudes are still drinking before our 7 o'clock curfew. OH a goat came into our house 2 days ago. I didn't get to see it : ( This girl who gets up at 6 said the goat just walked up and through the door one morning. Walked around for a bit and then left. Our guard is watching the one channel we get on the TV. There is this game show here that challenges contestants to driving questions. Imagine the DMV being a game show for teens. Everything you learned for your license is on this show. They have a show like that because there is no DMV here or any education for that kind of thing. I don’t know if people need a license here or not. Driving rules are pretty laid back, especially with motos. OH! Last night at this courtyard area where I get chicken wings from a baby monkey was moving across from table to table. Maybe not a baby monkey, but a small adult monkey. A galago monkey or bush monkey. This girl is great at identifying animals here.

I got some more sugar cane today. 50 franc for 4 feet of cane. I decided its like Africa’s sunflower seed. I never thought how bad it might be to bite off the shell with my mouth. I guess I’ll find out if I get sick. I didn’t get sick from it the first time. C’est tres bien. Maybe it also doubles as some floss when I munch on it. I was burned out on french today. Our class is pretty much discussion on certain topics now. We still do some of the book work, but its mostly dialogue practice. Its interesting doing cross cultural exchange in french. Like describing the octo-mom, the amish, or online dating to our teacher. I always knew American culture was crazy, but I really get to appreciate it explaining certain aspects to someone who doesn’t really know. Swamp people. We always get our gataz. Explaining cyber bullying, 16 and pregnant. The other class talks about some pretty interesting topics. Like what would you do if you had AIDs. What would you do if you friend wanted to kill themselves. What would you do differently if you were the opposite sex. Today we learned about body parts and how to explain when we are sick. That will come in handy over the next two years, or this weekend. Our teacher told us about how common it is for vaginas to rip during child birth. I didn’t get the whole conversation, but its like certain things are eaten that can make the baby come out faster. Then it gets sown back up. We talked about medicine. How America is highly medicated. Explained depression and other mental illnesses. Natural remides are real common here. There are quite a few street vendors who sell pills, I dunno what for. Sometimes its just pill packages with no box. Yesterday at lunch a girl tried to sell us some herbal pills? She talked too fast for me to pick up what benefits she was trying to relay. I’ve seen penicillin for sale. Just straight penicillin. Its common for people to rub tomatoes on their face for good skin. Eggs in the hair. Ginkgo biloba for the throat. We brought up beauty pageants. Actually, just talking about reality TV in America. That can burn a lot of discussion time in class. Also a good way to learn new adjectives.

What else has gone down this week. We have been having lunch at the TV station here in Ebolowa. Its pretty rudimentary. Its CRTV. That is the one channel we get at the crib. They have what you might call a restaurant. The food is outstanding thought. I always get the poission, du riz, and fried plaintains. That only cost 1.000 franc. Just over $2. I also get a lot of peoples leftovers. I feel like I’m stretching my stomaches capacity back out to where it was in the states. I had someones left over n’dola. That is a traditional dish to the west. Its like greens, some kind of sauce, peanuts, and meat. It have a very unique taste. Nothing that is really enjoyable. But our teacher said that dish was just probably not made well. When its made well its bon goute. I had my bean sandwich this morning. Beans are called “la jazz” I found out. It makes my bean lady happy now when I use that term to order my sandwich. I have a bean sandwich with tomatoes and avocado like 5 days a week now. Its my new cereal since milk is hard to come by. I eat yogurt now during my break. Our medical book tells us how to make yogurt here with dry milk and water. I’m sure I will try that some time. I’ve been reading through that book at night before I go to bed. It tells us about all the things that could happen to us while we are here. I will never get near any fresh water sources. Google Shisto. Terrible parasite you get get.

Its going to be an interesting change meeting up with the other stagiers. Our small group has gotten use to some privacy and having space. A week from now we meet 45 other people and go into host families where we really start our training. It will be good to have medical/cultural/and technical training break up our french learning routine, but it will certainly require some adjusting. I’m glad I got all my fly panya. The patterns here are like butterfly wings. I tried to get some more today, but the shop was close for Islam worship. I don’t know the correct term. I want to get this Paul Byia print they have since the election is so close. I don’t support that human, but it sums up a good portion of Cameroon's history. It not something I could wear here either. I would probably get attacked by people have enough energy to dislike that human. I just want it made to wear when I’m back in the states. I already have enough outfits to use between whenever I do laundry. I LOVE all the colors. The few clothes I brought will be for when I go into the bush to do work. Its about $30 for an outfit between the fabric and work, but its custom fitted and very unique. My bou bou outfit doubles as a night gown. Its like fancy beautiful pajamas. Very laid back. I don’t even wear underpants anymore. Less to wash and makes me feel more free. Out of the rainforest and into the prairie. Breaking wind is more noticeable in that scenario though. I’m going to appreciate the hotel in Yaounde so much more now. Warm showers again. GREAT food. I’m going to get to eat what everyone passes up because they are either not hungry or somewhat sick from traveling. Air conditioning. It will be a little celebration for the end of immersion before home stays. I guess nothing else for right now. Its a trip getting able to skype. The internet is so crazy. Having free conversations with humans thousands of miles away with video. Wild. Nothing else is sprouting from my brain right now so I’m doing to depart. Toodles for now. du courage!

9-11-11

2011-09-14T04:10:00.001-07:00

9-11-11

Two more months from now is going to make a cool date. You know yesterday was nine ten eleven AND it was a full moon. I hope something abnormal happened in your life. It is the eve of starting the last week of our immersion program and I have quite a bit to do if I want to test out the Wednesday after next.

This Sunday was better than most. We all actually got to sleep without music blasting from some party at the rented out building and there was also electricity today. Which also means we had water. I asked my fish lady today why there is no electricity in Ebowlowa on Sunday but I couldn't follow her answer. She said something about the market and snake. I keep having these experiences where I realize how much I need to learn. After getting up I headed to the market for some bean and bread sammich. I saw the driver, Valentine, on the way and he hooked me up with half of his sugar cane. Sugar cane is awesome. Its like a grown up lolly pop. It looks like a darker bamboo. You take off the outer shell and then take bites of the inside. Much all the sweet juice out and then spit out the fibers. I like getting snacks on the way to food because I’m impatient. On the way I stopped to talk with my phone transfer credit lady. Thats Anita, I don’t think I’ve talked about her before. Shes got some kids and has a small boutique too. He daughter talks to me every time I’m there. You know the thing white people used to play with in the 20s? The push a circle/wheel with a stick activity? Thats pretty popular here with the kids. Old tires are used more than circles made of wood. Or the kids have something called “a push” Its a CD or plastic lid tacked to the end of a wooden stick. That girl i super cute. The also have 3 dogs who always have flies around them. Their ears are disappearing because of the flies.

So I get to the bean lady, Florence, and there is a fat line. Mostly of older women and kids. Some other hommie from the house already happened to be down there chilling at a picnic table. The lady sells this milky breakfast kind of thing. Porridge-like. I think its powdered milk, water, and orange juice. Its interesting. One of the girls didn’t want to finish hers so I killed it. It was my first time to try it. Ok, I just found out its corn powder, water, with citrus. After that I just went back home and did French work. Book exercises. Then ironed my clothes. Sundays have been consistently slow. Most people watched V for Vendetta. These kids that I talk to came up to the house and wouldn’t leave. I kept hearing kids outside, which is normal, but then I noticed they were creepin and peeking in our windows. So I went outside to practice some dialogue and see what they be gettin down in today. They had two empty bottles so I did that water tornado science experiment things. Never have the seen such magic! After a while I just told them I had to study. They just kept chilling outside until the guard told them to leave. I always see those kids bringing back stuff for their parents from the market.

Justin was coming to take us out at 2 just to see how this program was going. Lauren met us before that to chat because she was in town meeting another hommie. I took a little siesta before we went out. I’m still working on recording dreams. We went out and got a beer to hear more about staging, and to hear funny stories. I left after a short while to grub out on some fish. I was lucky to get any because it poured down 30 minutes before I left. Most vendors just cover their product or whip out a big umbrella to wait for it to pass, but this time quite a few people closed up. My other fish lady didn’t. Her name is Luerrr. Thats spelling more for sound and not accuracy. Then a “crazy” came up and just started at the fish for a while, went away 10 feet, then came back to buy half a fish. I feel bad for the mentally handicap here. They get treated like stray dogs. There is a different interpretation of what it is to be mentally ill. In the US is like, Oh you have a chemical imbalance or genetic abnormality. Here is like your possessed or you get to that point because of age. Friday in the market a dude came up to me with a naked plastic baby toy and started talking really fast. I just walked away after listening for a while. I finally made my way back home to do some more studying. No one was home so I chilled with the guard while I worked. OH. I’m getting 2 more outfits made. Another boubou ensemble, 2 shirts, and some Aladdin pants. Youtube Aladdin for the disney movie. Thats going to be my new dance pants, if they’re fly enough. We’re going to go out with Justin next Saturday to a dance club to celebrate. I’ll go if I feel confident enough in my french. I’m pretty sure I wrote about this but I count find it when I word searched for mirror. Cameroonian clubs have mirrors on the wall so people can check out their dance moves. I’ll be sure to get a video of what looks like. One of the guards was also telling me that liquor gets people into the club? If a person brings a handle of liquor that covers the admittance for 6 people. Nothing more to share at this present moment. I’m going to study some more before I pass out and start another week. Our language test is pretty much an open conversation with a native speaker. After the opening they give us a card with a specific activity, like asking for directions / buying an apartment / getting around with different modes of transportation. To meet the requirements we just need to talk in the present, passe composse, and futur proch. du corage!

9-8-11

2011-09-09T08:31:00.001-07:00

9-8-11

Wellll welll, what it is computer keyboard and conscious. This has been a tougher than usual week, but it passed by so quickly. Tomorrow is Friday and then just have a day of class on Saturday. I am so blessed in my life. We got our perdiem for food and walk around money. I don’t think I broke this down previously, I’m not going to go back and check. We get 5.000 franc per day for food. Thats a little over $10 a day for food. 1.000 for breakfast and 2.000 each for lunch and dinner. If I utilized that all I would be eating like a king here. I don’t think I’m meeting all my nutrient requirements, thats why I make potty once every 4 day. Its not even that impressive when it happens. We get that amount for food, and then 16.000 for 2 weeks of walk around money. About $172 every 2 weeks to live off of. I’m not sure how that changes once we get to post. But that is a fat amount of money here. Cameroon's biggest bill is 10.000 ~ $20. They don’t have a bigger bill. Why? People don’t need it. I get rolled eyes when i have to break 5.000 for a lunch that cost 1.000 or 1.500. Its like I take all the change they acquired the last couple of hours. Ill practice my french with the guards of the house and ask what they had for breakfast or lunch and more often then not they say nothing. I’ll say Porquoi? Then they say no money. I know they get paid decently by the PC but their money goes to other things. Asa gives most of his money so his daughter can go to school. I dunno about John Michell. He mostly speaks french. I gotta pick up my game before I can find out. Or the kids I talk to. Most of them have coffee, bread with chocolate. I used to be disappointed with cold showers, but now I really look forward to them. I feel fantastic at the end of the day cleaning myself with cold water. Its also a blessing to have running water in the house we are living in. A lot of people have to get well water and take bucket baths. That could be me at post so I am appreciating it all right now. Thats an everyday breakfast thing. Or at least when I ask them. This 4 year old told me he had coffee. I hook the kids up with fruit when I see them now. But sometimes they follow me to lunch expecting me to buy them something, but I can’t. Otherwise their friend would come another day because le blanc buys the food. Next time someone calls me le blanc I will say Je ne suis pas le colour. Je suis humain! Je suis sempatie. I don’t have my notes next to me so the grammar is probably bad on that. I cannot wait to speak french specifically for the weird things I will say. Those who have heard my voice know I strive to speak differently. Maybe I’ll start spelling words in french too. I’m trying to learn rap lyrics in french, but that will be later down the road. Like my milk shake brings all the boys to the yard and there like, its better than your, I can teach you, but I have to charge. The teacher got confused when I tried to say I make it rain in class one day.

My room is turning into a classroom. I have poster sheets of verbs and conjugation and phrases. I must say this immersion is harder than any class I have ever taken in my life and it is in the most low maintenance classroom I have ever been in. We sit in plastic lawn chairs for hours a day in a small room and just write on brown poster paper which is ripped from a big roll and tapped to the wall. Its awesome though. I have learned more french in these 3 weeks than I could imagine learning in a semester at a college level. Probably because its 5+ hours 6 days a week. It doesn’t get draining. I just take each day as it comes. I had my first real hard day yesterday. I was so sick of french I didn’t want to say another word at the recap of our independent study. I just got some sleep that night and was high on life the next day. The teachers are so kick ass. They do this year round for PCT. They are very patient and creative. At the end of training there is a big party with food and dancing. I am VERY much looking forward to getting down in my bou bou.

What was noteworthy this week. We had an STD HIV and condom use medical session this week. The PCMO was down with that session. She allowed me to be silly with my answers for the case studies. She also brought “her” wooden dildo. She specifically said “her” rather than “the” wooden dildo. You know 90% of PCV have had unprotected sex while in service. That was a stat from the late 90s, but wow. Flesh on flesh. We get to watch a video about RPCV who got HIV while in service during actual training next month. That should be interesting. STDs are terrible. I don’t know why more people don’t get down with their hands if they are that much in heat. OH. They give us condoms and “dental dams”. Have any of y’all heard of this? Its a rubber tissue thing covered in baby powder and a scent its used for going down on someone. Like a bathing suit for you tongue. Wack. Speaking of condoms I was going to leave mine at the cyber cafe and I was leaving the house with them in my hand. Asa stops me and said “what is that.” I told him it is a preventative measure to prevent seamen from entering a woman's vagina. I think that was too scientific because he still didn’t know. I gave him 2 and told him to utilize it during intercourse. I also decided not to leave them at the cyber cafe because these condoms cannot be bought in town and I didn’t want them to stand out. I may want some water balloons or balloon decorations later. Condoms here are interesting. They do have some name brand, but then they also have the local stuff. Life a wrapper that has a black man making love with a white woman. The white woman was clearly photo-shopped into the picture. I also saw a commercial for a female condom on TV. It was a cheesy commercial but how does that work. From the commercial it looks like a flimsy upside down plastic cup.

Enough about sex and condoms. I elaborated so much because it wasn't french. No real plans for this weekend. Study. Maybe make some videos of what market is like on the weekend. Or how I purchase my food. Or what a business transaction is like for fruit. I have got to wear crappier clothes to market. I think I look like a cheap bass going to market in nice clothes and then bartering with people for food that is already cheap to American standards. They already know I have money. I only try to barter because I get charged a higher price due to the color of my skin. I had a lady just walk up to me at lunch time, hold out her hand and ask for cent franc. 100 franc, like a quarter. I said no and she said porquoi. I was going to get into a conversation but I knew it would lead to a question or sentence I could not comprehend. So I just walked away. Its a hard place to be because yes, its not sweat off my back to give 100 franc that the peace corps provided me. That could buy any of these items: 4 bananas, 4 small tomatoes, 5 mandarins, a loaf of potato bread, 2 individual packs of dish detergent, a big avocado, or 2 batons of manioc. It can buy a lot. But then I become more of a point of interest than I already am. I can’t remember the expression, but Lauren says certain people will come up to her in her village and say “what do you have for me today.” I’ll see what my experience is like at my final post.

After this weekend there is only 1 and a half weeks of class left. Wild. Although it feels like I’ve been in country longer than 3 weeks, it is surpassing to realize we are almost finished with this immersion. Time is flying right now because we have full schedules, have to be back in at seven, and I pass out at 9 or 10. Ooooooohhhhh i get to pop a mefloquin tomorrow. I’m looking forward to some lucid dreams tomorrow night. I’m trying to be more diligent about writing down my dreams right when I wake up do build up my dream recollection capabilities. I believe that helps out with lucid dreaming. Once I get into that I’m going to invest my nightly hours into learning how to control flight. Or be a Sagittarius since that what I be. Once I get enough detail about my dreams I’ll post some here. I tried to catch a chicken in our yard today. We have a group of them flock each day. Did not work. I’m going into it with no technique. It made the guards laugh and I just said J’ai faim! Or I like to watch them with this girls binoculars while I have my coffee in the morning. Can you imagine moving your head back and forth everywhere you move? Sometimes there will be a cockfight in our yard too. We used to have goats come in our yard but they don’t come around anymore. I’m pretty sure they were sold or slaughtered. A male goat makes a very weird nose when it wants to get down with the female goat. This post seems sexually oriented. I’m going to bed. A plus tard mes amie. Get down with your life. du courage!

9.4.11

2011-09-05T08:57:00.001-07:00

9.4.10

Today is Sunday, the second of our language immersion. It feels like I have been here much longer than two weeks. Starting Monday none of us will be allowed to speak english during the hours of language class. So from 8 to 5, not even our breaks. Lunch is ok because we have to go into town for that. We used to have a lady come to our crib with some pretty bon food, but she quit last week when only 3 people showed up for lunch one day. I was one of those humans. Everyone else went out for one reason or another (sick/wanted something different/not hungry). Her food was good and only cost 1.000 franc for a plate. ~$2. Whatevz. Now we get to interact and check out different places in town. Its a little more expensive for not the same variety of food on each plate. School starts tomorrow here. The market has been pretty wild this past week. Ive seen over a dozen new stands pop up selling specifically school supplies. Clothes and backpacks have also been popular.

The week has been pretty routine being occupied with language classes and getting food. I got my second rabies shot and hepatitis b shot. You know the Peace Corps will pay for a volunteers doctor bills if she has a baby during service? They pay for everything except for additional work due to complications. When we got our shots we had a medical session. We’ll get many more of those when we join the other group in september. We only get like 3 this whole month because this immersion program is specifically for language training. Malaria is crazy. You could have the parasites in your liver lay dormant for years and then pop out at a moment. We also learned about Shisto and Dungae fever. Ill fastforward to Friday. Friday is nice because we have an unplanned weekend to look forward to. We are kind of kept in a bubble for our safety, but getting somewhat of a break from french se bon. We got to meet Tiki Friday. Thats the director of the agroforestry program. He will have an ultimate say in where we get placed for post after PST. That is one down ass human. He took us out just to socialize and get to know who we are. He brough a bag of chocolate, chips, and corn cookies. The corn cookies sucked, but food is fuel. I gave my chips to a human who would appreciate it much more, and had my chocolate the next morning for breakfast. Not only did he give us snack, but bought our drinks for the night. We went to a bar called “Play Boy”. Bars here are nothing fancy. Its just a designated place to drink, tables and chairs. Nothing like bars in America. Some have tvs. There were ads on the wall for “Dallas” cigarettes. They will make you fancy. Tiki broke down his history of life, school, and travels. He has been to Texas and it was interesting to hear his foreign interpretation of the state. Out of all the places he’s gotten the opportunity to go to, one place was College Station to visit A&M. He said he stopped liking country music after that. That man has great energy. We stayed out until about 7:30, past are curfew. It was a new experience being somewhere else besides our house after dark. I don’t know if I’ve already said this, but Cameroonian don’t sleep that much. 5 hours a night max, and they like to sleep with the lights on. I forget what I write in letters and this blog. I actually type in a word document and just copy and paste once I get into the internet cafe. I’m hoping to get placed in the Northwest or Southwest region. That would mean I would have to learn some pidgin on top of French, but its mountainous and has more rainforest.

Saturday started out with independent study at the linguistic center. Thats where Cameroonians go to learn English and French. I found a middle school french book thats pretty kick ass. That went by and then we had our close of week review. Thats where we share what we learned that week and what we will work on the upcoming week, in french. We also divided into new classes with new teachers. I’m with two other humans and one teacher. Everyone gets their printed report card in french to use for improvements the next week. After that everyone just went and did their own thing until the weekend. I got to talk with ma future femme via skype: ) Thats when I loaded up my pictures and first blog post. I found out I got to use the internet for free if I brought in my laptop. Or maybe the dude was just confused, he only spoke french. I’ll find out if it works next week. That night we had our first house shin dig. I went to bed early like I do every night. I woke up at 2 am because of some wedding party jamming out and couldn't go back to sleep. Even with ear plugs. I would take like 3 30 min naps but always wake up. They jammed out until 7 in the morning. I have a feeling a party or wedding goes down in a building close to our house every saturday. I was hoping the electricity would cut off earlier Sunday so I could sleep.

So I started today easy. I grubbed out on mandarins. The beignet lady wasnt out this morning so I didn’t get my bean and bread sandwhich. Which by the way taste awesome with tomatoes and avocado in it. Eating that not only taste good, but its a good way to block up my bowls when they get loose. Today we had a brunch at Lauren’s, current PCV, post. It was solid to finally get to see a PCV post. During PST we will get to visit our selected post and stay there a week with the current PCV who holds it. The menu at Lauren’s was banana and choco chip pancakes with eggs and pineapple pieces. It was a pretty fantastic meal. One of Laurens fellow PCV hommies was there visiting for her b day. Her name is Andrea. She lives 4 hours SW from Ebolowa in a pretty rural village. I do not recall the name. We just congregated and heard stories followed by questions. We got to meet L’s African dog. Super energetic. I found out if you leave your dog outdoors here flies will eat their skin. Like eat the fur, get through the skin, and then flesh. Her neighbors ask her how her dog still has ears, and its because she keeps him indoors. His name is peanut and she’s had him since he was a puppy. She also got ringworm from him when he was a month old. After food and the rain we went out for a walk in the village. Her village is small compared to where we’re at. We got to see where the “Comice” was held. This was a huge agro carnival/festival. It was the event of the decade here. We missed it by a month. Apparently it was planned for years in advance, but was pretty much thrown together at the last minute. The show displayed all the technological farming capabilities available in Cameroon. Along with different house structures, food. Its kinda like a county fair. When we saw the spot there wasn't much left. There were some shipping containers holding tractors that were made by a nearby tractor factory. There were some house structures left that are used in the north and some cattle roaming. L said a lot of people just stole stuff from the show once it finished. It was a week long. Her neighbors stole two kiosks from the show. We continued to walk down the main road to two lakes. There was a demonstration at on of the lakes. Something about a pig fish culture farm? Thats another thing that was thrown together. Rather than actually raising fish and utilizing what the demonstration was for the just ordered in full grown fish to show what it would be like. But it was a manmade lake with a house/dock with 10 individual pig pens. Each pig chills in their pen and poops, and their poop drops into the lake. That was supposed to be food for the fish? Or help algae grow and then the fish eat that? The other lake was black like darkness and you could see bubbles coming up from the bottom. Not from anything living of course. There were 3 dudes washing there motos there. We walked down a path along the lake to a swimming spot for the local kids. They were swimming in the black water, all naked. Swimming in any freshwater here can almost guarantee you shisto. Google that. They were having a grand ol time. It probably tripped them out seeing the most white people they have ever seen in their life this Sunday. They had some cool paddle boat thing. Like Float ATX or Paddle ATX. A hood version. Logs nailed together. We stayed there a bit to let her dog run around and get burned out. Lush vegetation everywhere. We walked in the forest a big and found a tree that was cut down whose diameter was around 6 feet. After that we started to head back to her crib because the walk took a while and our driver was going to pick us up at 2. He was also going to take L’s hommie to the bus stop in Ebolowa.

When we got back to the house I was pretty hungry so I went and got a full fish with manioc. The lady was nice and let me take her plate because I had to meet the tailer back at the house. I got my first two tissue outfits. A boobu outfit and then 2 shirts and pants. That cost 19.000. His work was good, but we could bargain down. 2 other dudes got there ensembles delivered today as well. I only want these kind of outfits. I plan on getting two more made before we go back to Yaounde. Its cultural, colorful, and simple. The simplicity helps me during laundry and ironing during the week. I also got a hat with my boobu outfit. That was a surprise because I didn’t ask for one. Once that business was taken care of I went to town in my new outfit was Asa, the house guard. I had to return the plate and then had a drink with him. He is my new brother from another mother. I came home, ironed clothes, and now I am writing. I’m about to give my computer so the group can watch a disney movie. I’ll be doing french work. du courage mes amie! Be so thankful for what you have in America. I have Cameroonians tell me all the time how they want to come to America. Just to have a chance. Asa tells me pretty frequently like I forget. That is another very solid human.

FIRST POST

2011-09-03T10:01:00.001-07:00

8.25.11

I understand this was loaded up after I origionally wrote it, but finding an internet cafe where I could bring my computer safely was difficult.

Bonjour mes amie!! The first entry. This should be lengthy because so much has happened with me being here less than two weeks. My experiences will also seem like they bounce all over the place because thats how my brain works. We arrived in the capital, Yaounde, from staging for additional processing and more orientation. The drive from the airport to the hotel was pretty wild. One of the first things I noticed was a man on the side of the road with a 2 by 4 filled with nails connected to a rope that he was holding. I found out that is used for shake downs on cars or motos. He wasn't in uniform or anything. That is how most of the road blocks are. Nails coming out of 2 by 4s or in metal pipes. We stayed at one of the better hotels in the area for 4 days and 3 nights before driving further south to Ebowala. It is nice change to not have all the amenities of America. Usually the unnecessary amenities in America leads to so much waste. Our hotel was meager by American standards, but we had warm water and air conditioning. Right next to the hotel were shack neighborhoods. Not many people throw trash in a designated can or there just isn't one to use. There is some kind of public works trash clean up, but I haven't found out the details of how that functions. People urinate wherever and whenever the want to. Women are a bit more discrete for obvious reasons. People are selling things everywhere. There are market areas, but children and adults are selling items all day. There are many people who sell recharge minutes for phones.

Most everyone uses pay as you go phones, and the phones are very cheap. I got my phone for $22 with 1.000 CFA credit. Its about 100 CFA a minute CFA (pronounced “See-FA”) is a Cameroonian Franc. A dollar currently gets me ~460 CFA. When you want to add more credits to your sim card you give the vendor your number and say how many credits you would like to add. Say I want to add 2.000 CFA. He text me from his phone and I receive the text saying the minutes have been loaded to my phone. A text is 100 CFA as well. It is free for anyone to receive a call. Using skype’s telephone service it cost 27 cents a minute. It is WILD to receive a call on my weak cell from America. The clarity is fair. It is also possible to use different sim cards on your phone. Why does that matter? It cost more to make calls from network to network. To counter act that people just have sim cards with both networks and change them out when necessary to avoid that charge. There are two main networks here: Orange and MTN. I currently have MTN.

Back to the hotel. It was also above average because they had a public computer with internet AND wireless for people to use. The bandwidth is sub par, but internet is internet. Malware and identity theft is pretty big here so I need to delete all history, cookies, and cache before leaving any computer. The keyboards are subtly different to assist typing in french. I’ll be able to get down on that one day. Cyber cafes are interesting. I have seen a few but only entered one.

The one I entered is in Ebowlowa. Everything is old school and unkempt. Old 90s desktops on homemade desks and benches. Nothing is cleaned or kept in a fashion that would attract you to coming in. Probably because internet isn't everywhere, so you wouldn't need to entice the public to use your spot. You pay for time and 30 minutes cost 200 CFA. you get better deals with the more time you buy. I have also heard you get a discount if you bring in your own computer, but I’ll find that later on. It all works with logon codes to track your time.

The way I’ll be washing my clothes for the next two years is keen. I fill up buckets with water and add a bit of powder detergent. Mix that up and soak in my clothes. The clothes sit in the bucket for about 30 minutes. Next I’ll take a brush to whatever needs something scrubbed of or I’ll just rub clothes together to agitate it like a washer would. After that I squeeze out the soapy water from the clothes and drop it into a bucket with clean water do get out any extra soap before I hang it up to dry. Clean water is used loosely. We are blessed to have water running into our house, but all the water that comes out is full of sediment and has a strong yellow tint to it. Not to mention all the microbial dangers that lie within. Water and electricity is sporadic. Blackouts are almost guaranteed, but it comes back after a bit. The water can turn off at any time. I think a Walmart would make a lot of brains explode here.

I got a little ahead of myself. So we are currently at our new house in Ebowlowa. We will be here for the next month. Then we travel back up to Yaounde to meet up the other 40 volunteers to start PST. Our group of 9 is actually experiencing a brand new program with the PC. We come a month early to learn french. Its a strong French emersion program. Ebowlowa was selected for us because most everyone speaks french here. At the end of week two there will be NO speaking english until its 7pm or on the weekends. Its a lot of work but its paying off. Our house is solid. We have a main living area with furniture, a fridge, TV, and propane stove. There are 3 huge bedrooms and we all get our own bed with a mosquito net. Our bathroom has two toilets and shower heads. The shower is literally next to the toilet and the water is only cold. Thats refreshing before I go to bed at night. Makes my feel cooler as I go to bed. Theres also a good breeze and temperature at night. There are 2 guards at night to watch the house while we sleep and one during the day who also acts as a janitor. There is a lot more but its late and I need to study french. We have french from 8 am to 6 pm with 2 hours of breaks, and then there is homework on top of that. I stay more updated now that I’m logging everything in a word file.

8.28.11

Today is Demanche. Demanche for me involves a lot of free time, but I still use a couple hours to study french. It is actually the one day where we have nothing scheduled for us. I’ll put a picture of our schedule on facebook so you get an idea. Right now its viengt heur (8:00 pm). We just got done watching Robin Hood, the disney version, in our maison. We watched Mulan the night before. It is sureal watching a disney movie in Ebowlowa, Cameroon.

But today started out a little hood. No water or electricity. No water because the pumps that move the water are electric, and there are no backup generators. But I found out that this happens most every sunday. The electricity gets shut off. I don’t know the exact reason yet, but at least we’ll be able to prepare for it next weekend. It also gave insight into what it will be like to be stationed at a rural post. We don’t have a well for our use at this house.

I went to market for bread, carrots, tangerines, bananas, and a bell pepper. Bartering is getting to be interesting. Most everything is initially double or triple cost for white people because everyone things your are super rich. Market was also super busy which was surprising because a current PCV told us that no body works on Sunday. Quite a few things were open though. I ate 8 beignet for breakfast. This mama also sells like a bean sandwich? I’m gonna hit that up tomorrow. Or you can get beans and beignets. There was also this very liquid y porridge. This mama has the stand though. A lot of the locals eat there. In fact! I’m gonna have a bean sandwich with avocado tomorrow. Uhhhhhhh.

So after market I came back and started French work. Verbs...... conjugation...... blah. While I was working we got a visitor. It was another current PCV named Lauren. Justin, the initially PCV (Peace Corps Volunteers) we met in Yaounde, told us about her. He just said he had mad respect for her because she lives in the south, and that is difficult for women. She dropped by specifically for the female PCT (Peace Corps Trainees). *Side note, we are now watching a very funny African sitcom/ soap opera. We only get one station, its called CRTV* So Lauren dropped by to share her experience and basically answer our questions, mostly the female questions. What do you do during feminine time of the month? How to you interact or get accepted with the other women? What are have the high and low points of your experience been? Lauren just finished her COS (Close of service) conference in Yaounde. He two years will be over in December, but she requested an extension. Volunteers can do that for up to 3 month, 6 months, or a year. She requested a year. Your extension work is usually in a more professional environment and it add more to the reestablishment pay. She told us quite a few volunteers are trying to extend. I can understand why. If you have a good gig here, going back to America isn't that much better. I’ve been out of the news loop for a while, but when I left things were not looking too bright.

After showing her our crib we went to a boutique that sold beer, most places sell beer here. Castel and 33 are the popular beers. There are about twice the size of American beer, or 2.5. and 5% alcohol. They all cost 500 franc. Just over a dollar. This boutique was out of a metal storage container on the side of the road. On the way we past a big soccer tournament going on and some kids we played soccer with some days before. I was impressed that these kids remembered my name. I feel bad because I’m not remembering peoples names. I introduce myself all the time to practice my salutations and common questions. After a beer we said a plus tard and went back to the house while she went back to post. Oh, Lauren is hood for what she has delt with in the south. Its not my business to put it on here, but she is tough. Much respect.

Once we got back Will and I went out with Ryan to try out slack-lining. I saw it a lot at A&M, like many human would on a college campus. It is tres difficil. We tied up to a coconut tree and some other tree. Cool first experience. I feel it will be a great way to pay the time and relax after french class. Ryan is pretty skilled, but he said hes been doing it for a while. There were a lot of spectators, but that because no Cameroonian has ever seen it (most likely). We came back before our 7 pm curfew, I shaved, and then we started that movie while we were all looking at french work.

Its like 8:40 right now and I’m pee double oh peeed. It feels good to be tired around 8 like most humans should. Or like they did back in the day without the use of a substance. Another week of intensive emersion lays in front of us. This one is going to be the real deal. Last week was just getting settled in. At the end of each week we are supposed to receive a report card with are strengths and weaknesses. I need to hit up the boulangarie for some instant coffee tomorrow after class. Its like 300 Franc for 60 grams of nestle coffee. All coffee is terrible here. I don’t care. I view it for its function, a stimulant. Bonne nuit por maintenau mes amie! Du courage!