Quick update

Coming back to Bafia for some reason I had certain expectations especially regarding food. After visiting Kumba and eating have a better sense of how much food cost and there is even less reason in my mind why I don’t get better and more food with my host family. 

So the second night, I will spare details of the awkward encounter and lack of a meal  the youngest sister left for Yaounde and the middle sister returned.  She returned with my host mom (which is really her cousin) and her actual older sister and her older brother.  This really makes me wonder who the little sister is in the family since she doesn’t actually look like anyone else in the family and they never refer to her directly as a sister but they also tell me she has the same dad and mom. Hmm? Anyways the moral of all this was that the middle sister keeps talking about how she wants me to marry her brother which of course I don’t want to.  This started when I first got to Bafia and hadn’t met him yet, not that changed anything since I don’t like her and that automatically puts him on questionable ground and most importantly I didn’t come to Africa to get married! So now he is here in Bafia for the next five weeks doing an internship the coincidence is I have five weeks left to training in Bafia. To make things more awkward is the 101 excuses I make every time they bring up me dating or marrying a Cameroonian or him.  But he does speak better English than anyone else and now is the only one who really talks to me beyond how was your day.

Questions:

How are your pc courses going? They are going well we get to have a lot of field trips to groups, businesses, and NGO’s which is really good to see what other people are doing and then to decide what was successful for them or what wasn’t.  this is good to keep in mind for other pcv’s projects as well.

What have you been focusing on? Its hard to say specifically what we focus on because we do so much. But we are learning about some basic business practices, how businesses run in Cameroon, and how to start, carryout, make sustainable, and how to evaluate our projects.  We are also doing work shops on teaching business classes.

How is your host family? Things are very up and down. I ate really well for two days while my host dad was around but then he went back to Yaoundé and things went right back to the way they were.  The first night that happened I got mad and asked where the rest of the food is was and I ended up eating frozen carrots and green beans but at least it was something.

Are you eating better? So a little but it is still a problem.

How is your health? So far my health is still pretty good can’t complain.  The cut on my leg is all better so not to worry.

What have you been up to? We’ve had a lot of field trips in class and a lot of presentations which all have to be in French so between the two I’ve been pretty busy.  We did have another party last night and we got curfew extended again, so that was nice!  I dropped off my fabric to make into some outfits fingers crossed that they turnout how I drew them.  I also bought some more fabric which I’ll drop off when I pick up the other clothes.

This is all I can write for now since I have a big presentation to work on for Tuesday…maybe I’ll be more creative and write more next week

first impressions

Week 5

I am now novice high in French, which means that I’ve gone up two levels and I have four more weeks to go up two more which I think is very possible.  French class since then has gotten much better.  We have a new teacher and instead of four of us there are only two students in class.  I’ve also noticed a big difference between how much I can say and understand from the week before.  I have even gotten far enough that my host family and I can communicate fairly well and they now ask me not to go do my homework after dinner so we can talk which is nice and all I usually have for homework is review French.

                Speaking of my host family things are going okay.  They still don’t feed me super great but I’ll be on my own soon and can cook for myself.  We do talk more but the youngest sister is going to Yaounde the capital to stay with her mother which I’m not happy about since she is the nicest to me.  Instead the middle sister is coming back to Bafia from Yaounde, but she is the one I don’t really like and there seems to be a mix of resentment and jealousy and wanting to show off that she has a white friend.  Not a fair trade but the light is at the end of the tunnel and I can keep myself busy and out of the house.

                We found out our site this week.  In our interview about our site preferences in Yaounde week 1 I had said things like… I want to be in a French speaking area, I’d rather be in a village than a city even if that means not having electricity and running water, I don’t want to be extremely isolated from other peace corps volunteers. Then I found out I was going to Kumba. 

                Kumba is the economic capital of the South West region.  Each region in Cameroon has its own capital, and even though Kumba isn’t the capital it is a bigger city than Buea which is the capital.  It’s Anglophone, and speak pigeon and “simple English”.   On the site summary that I got it also stated that they eat horse meat L.  It is an hour away from Buea.  Buea is the closest site to the beach approximately an hour drive.  I was also told that all the pcv’s in the area our out of the country on vacation and that I would be staying in one of their houses by myself.

                First reaction …reserve judgment until after site visit.

Week 6 (site visit)

                Met my community host which is a person from out site that is suppose to help us integrate socially.  He came to our work shop and traveled with me to Kumba.  He seems really nice, a little quiet, but also very involved and motivated.  He works with and is associated with a lot of different organizations and is very excited to have a CED volunteer to help with all of them.  So it seems like ill have a lot of work to do at site.

                We traveled to Yaounde where we stayed the night.  In Yaounde we (me and three other trainees) walked around, went to the bakery and got pizza, we went to the central park, and hung around the peace corps house.  Then we went out for dinner and had smoothies and sworma (sp??), overall had amazing food experiences.  We also got to have hot showers which I had almost forgotten how amazing they really are.  Then in the morning we were on our way.  I met my community host at the bus station and it took us about six hours to get to Kumba.   

                I got to Kumba and met Jessica my pcv that is hosting me at the bar.  The next day I got to see my house which is huge.  It has three bedrooms, a large living room, a kitchen, bathroom, three verandas, and is located on the third floor above a bank.  I also got to see one of the organizations that I will be working with which is a small micro finance institute, which is about a 10 min walk from my house.  I’m also about a five min walk from the market which is also gigantic.  I met my neighbors and some other Amerians who are staying in Kumba as part of a college program.  Kumba has a lot of restaurants and all kinds of foods.   I ate grilled fish, escargot (which is fried not like they make it in France), fried chicken and French fries at classy burger which is a restaurant but they usually don’t have burgers, etc.  I’m also located in the same village as two other volunteers that will be there until about December or January but should be replaced.  I’m also an hour away from two other CED volunteers one in Tombel and one in Buea.  The climate is also much more relaxed in Kumba than in Bafia where we are training.  People in Bafia constantly are calling out to us and you can never walk anywhere in peace.  It is also a norm here for men to grab your arm (they do this to local woman also).  But it makes walking around a bit of a hassle.  Also they have much less resources as far as restaurants and what the grocery store offers.  Whereas Kumba and most of the Anglophone regions are much more laidback and even if you are the only white person they still understand that it is rude to call out at them in general let alone by screaming “the whites” and pointing.  Overall I had a really good time it was nice to have a break from classes and curfew and I think that I will enjoy my site and the people that I’m living around.

                On the way home I stopped in Buea travel back with Erica.  Where I met a lot of the pcv’s that are staying there.  We left for Yaounde the next morning and got there around 1.  We were supposed to leave at 6:30 but the bus didn’t leave until 8.  Then we stopped in another bakery and got lunch and headed to the bus station.  We got there around 2:30ish but had to wait for the bus which came at about 5 and we all crammed 5 people per row (unless you have kids then they sit on your lap) which usually sits 4.  On the way the bus broke down about 45min outside of Bafia.  So the driver called a bus in Bafia to come and pick us up.   The trip is usually only an hour and a half to two hours but we didn’t get in until about 8:30.

Things I’ve learned from traveling:

·         only take one bag

·         even if you don’t have to if there is a toilet use it

·         bring more food then you’ll need in “designated travel time”

So I’m back in Bafia and have five more weeks of training.

refections on life...without food

On Monday we went to Yaounde to talk to some businesses.  We went to UNICEF and a micro finance institute called an MC2.  The companies were interesting UNICEF was more geared to health and education volunteers but something to consider as a secondary project if I will be in the region that they are operating in, never the less, it’s something to keep in mind.  Many of the CED volunteers will be initially matched up with a MC2 to work with so we could very well work with them although it isn’t mandatory if we want to do something else or if we find that they don’t need our help.  After those two meeting we got to go to the grocery story.  They only gave us 30 min so at first it was a mad dash that I didn’t even know what I wanted to get.  I ended up with a couple different kind of chips, sour gummies, regular gummies, a chocolate bar, packaged cheese, and body wash someone asked me to get for them.  I definitely wanted to get much more but I’m going to wait until I get my move in allowance for my placed to purchase some key things like condiments. After the grocery store we went to this really big bakery, where I got pizza and a grilled cheese type sandwich with actual ham that I split with a friend.  I don’t think I’ve been so happy, it was the best food I’ve had here bay far.  Then on the way home I was stuck in the back of the van which isn’t very comfortable with one of the language professors that came as a translator for the meetings, so we had a little two hr classe mobile (mobile class).

 So I really need to mention the lack of cheese in Cameroon, I can’t quite figure it out.  They have cows, they have goats, but they don’t have cheese or liquid milk.  But most of the stores have some type of refrigerator.  So I’ve tried to ask around and I got two different answers; one, the locals don’t like cheese.  Which is crazy talk to me since there are so many different kinds, how you can just not like cheese!!  Two, someone else told me that it isn’t in their culture to make cheese which also doesn’t make sense because Cameroon was colonized by France and Britain (and at one point Germany) all whom have, eat, and love cheese.  So I had to get some cheep packaged cheese which was imported vs. the actual blocks of cheese like you would see in the cheese section of the grocery store because it was crazy expensive.  A block of cheese of any kind, the size of a small cell phone (but thicker) is about $24 US dollars where as in the US it would be about a dollar or less depending on the type.

In other food news I broke down and tried to have another talk with my family about serving fruits and vegetables.  Actually I had someone write a note for me in French saying that the doctor said I needed to eat more of that.  Which lead to a discussion about what fruits and vegetables are.  That night they bought me some oranges, pineapples, and some strawberry jam (which I didn’t know enough French to explain that this really don’t contain enough fruit to count as a source).  But I was thankful for what they did get me.  They also said that they weren’t going to make me vegetables until they talk to the home stay director which I was more than happy to include in this since the only reason I hadn’t talked to her earlier was because I didn’t want to rat out my family for not feeding me well.  She then explained to them that they can cook any vegetables Cameroonian style (she gave examples) but that she needs to start doing that.  That conversation was on Wednesday its Sunday and so far I’ve only received one salad which is peculiar since they bought vegetable but she still hasn’t made them.  Also last night another trainee came over for dinner since her family had to go to Yaounde because their child is sick and she made it very clear that she eats a lot better at her house.  It’s not a money issue since my family is fairly well off more so than other trainees’ families yet they seem to be eating better.  I will stay hopeful worst case I have to wait another two months for good food when I can cook for myself.  Also I tried one of the bag of chips I bought which are lays poulet roti et thym flavor they came in the multipack I got but they taste exactly like turkey with gravy which ordinarily I think would really gross me out but last night after having dinner of pineapple and fried plantains some turkey and gravy (flavored chips) were actually not bad.

French class hasn’t been going very well.  We have a new teacher that is pretty younge and is use to teaching Cameroonian children French.  Needless to say she doesn’t know how to handle us or how to explain French grammar she just give us sentences and somehow were suppose to figure out the rule.  Which is difficult especially when you don’t even understand the sentence at which point she just repeats it to you 10times and when you still don’t understand shell ignore you for about a half hour.  Still no explanation or attempt to rephrase.  This has been extremely frustrating sine in the last two weeks we’ve had about 3times as many French classes as the first week and a half yet I’ve learned barely anything.  In fact the only French I’ve learned has been in tutoring sessions I set up with our old teacher, homework I do, and the classe mobil.  Which if added up is more and 40hrs a week of French and I don’t have a ton to show for it.  To make this matter worse we had our French exam on Saturday the results will help determine where the CED’s get placed.   My fingers are crossed since I really want to go to a French speaking region not an English speaking one.

Other things that happened to me this week, I had a shirt made out of one of the pange’s I bought.  I haven’t gotten the other two made since I can’t decide what to make out of them.   Also I cut my leg on my rubber bucket on Thursday its kind of a long gash but its not very deep.  I’m posting about this because after some of the health sessions we’ve had I have slightly been lead to believe that even something so minor could lead to amputation or death (although they have been fortunate enough not to have had either problem in Cameroon YET).  Not to scare anyone so far it seems to be healing fine.  Just a heads up though in case that changes.

To answer some of your questions; Is there public transportation? Yes, public transportation is primarily motorcycles or “motos” they have taxis but they aren’t as common in Bafia.  They also have buses and trains but they are only for long trips and are much more expensive and aren’t used for daily travel.

 How much of the city have you seen? Hard to say because I don’t know exactly how big it is.  Ive been to other trainees’ houses, to the central ville which is the main street, to other schools in the area, and the hospital,  but I don’t even know if the rest of Bafia is residential or if there are more businesses or what’s on the other side of the central ville.

Do you eat dinner with your host family or does everyone eat on their own? It’s mixed.  I haven’t completely figured out the norms for eating.  Sometimes I eat by myself, sometimes I eat with all of them even some of them at the table with me, but other times I get the impression that the father eats first then everyone else, it varies from day to day.  But I never eat breakfast with anyone.

Can you describe the house? The house is pretty big, it has a living room with a couch and a couple chairs, a tv, coffee table, a small dinner table.  There is also a kitchen inside with a stove, oven, and a fridge that really only freezes.  There are three rooms although I’ve never seen the dads room and one bathroom.

What is it made of? The house is made of cement.

Do you have your own room? Yes, peace corps requires that I get my own room with a lock.

What's in it? In my room I have a bed, mosquito net, a table which I keep my water filter on, a chair for the table, my metal trunk peace corps gave me, and a closet that has shelves, and a night stand I made out of my water filter box

Any pets other than the mouse? Nope no other pets :(