mini vaca

Things have been going well in Kumba. I still don’t have my furniture but it is still a work in progress.  The more I get to know my neighbors the more they seem to grow on me.  So directly across the hall from me is a laundry service they are a little to pricy for me to afford but still a nice guy.  Down stairs I have a lawyer’s office and below him is the bank that is guarded 24hrs a day by guards.

                For work I’ve just really been meeting people sitting in on something that the other volunteers are doing.  I was suppose to teach a business class on personal finances and budgeting but the afternoon of the class they told me it was rescheduled it to the 28^th even thought I had met with them the day before and had even discussed the session. Oh well it will give me something to do next Friday.  I also attended a HIV/female condom seminar with ACMS.  AMCS works with Jessica the other pcv in Kumba.  I must say that I was very impressed by their seminar and learned a lot on the female condom, how to address sensitive issues in a cultural context, and overall how ACMS conducts its sessions.

                Also I’ve started to take French classes again just for an hour twice a week with the secretary of my counterpart.  We’ve only met one weekend so far so we’ll see how that goes.

                For a couple days last week I had a mini spout of food poisoning.  No big deal; with all the new foods I eat and all the restaurants that I try I feel I’ve been pretty lucky to have been relatively healthy.  So I can’t really complain.  Speaking of food I found out while talking to the other pcv that apparently I’ve had cow stomach when I was living with my host family. I had no idea but now I can cross that off my bucket list.  *cough cough* Well besides the texture it wasn’t that bad, not that I think ill choose to make that for myself.

                Wednesday Kate who is originally from Nguti came to Kumba which was a nice little visit. On Friday Kate, Ryan, Jessica, and I all went to Limbé and went swimming in the ocean.  We got extremely lucky to miss the rain and have great weather for the couple hours we were at the beach.  The bus ride over wasn’t quite so lucky. We got to the car park at about 10:30 and got a bus that was going direct to Limbé so first of all we didn’t leave for about two hours waiting for the bus to fill the whole time being deranged by a bag man to marry him.  Then we finally leave and but have to stop at EVERY car park along the way. So what should have been an hour to two hour car ride too us about four.  It was all worth it to get some beach time.  After swimming we went to a restaurant that is owned by a south African couple.  The restaurant is a little expensive but has great food.  I split a cheese, tomato, and basil sandwich and a cheese pizza with another volunteer.  We had decided to go to this restaurant which is in the gorilla sanctuary and when we arrived we ran into Andrea who lives in Buea which is where we were staying the night.  Andrea was meeting Laura, Claire, and Sam who are all from the North West region of Cameroon. So we had a nice little dinner together.  Everyone was heading to Buea for Andrea’s going away party on Saturday.  The party was really nice there were a bunch of volunteers there, Americans from other non profits, and Cameroonians.  We had hot dogs, French fries, frosted brownies, fruit salad, chopped carrots and green bell pepper with ranch dressing, ginger snap cookies, and equan (a Cameroonian dish).  Good food and great company.

Transition

Last days in Bafia:

Classes were pretty much over it was just last minute things and packing.

Let me tell you about my swearing in dress…

So my host mom took me and two other pc trainees to her tailor about two weeks before the ceremony.   This should be plenty of time to finish.  We were going to pick up the clothes the Monday before the swearing ceremony.  So on Sunday night we get a call from her saying that there were two births in the family and that she has been at the hospital and that they wont be done until Wednesday (the day before swearing in.  the three of us are now stressed.  But what can we do.  On Wednesday morning we get another call from the tailor saying that she’ll be done by 4pm, we decide to go there at 10:30 to check on her progress so that if there is any altercations she can make it from the beginning rather than having to correct it.  At 10:30 she is working on one of the outfits and hasn’t started the other two.  More nervous. But she has promised that she3 will be done at 4.  We return at 4:30; the other two trainees outfits are done, look great, and don’t need any corrections.  She hasn’t started mine.  But once again she reassures me that it will be done and that I can even pick it up at 6am the net morning.  Swearing in is at 10 were suppose to be there at 9:30.  So naturally I’m not happy, but start brainstorming about plan B.  Next morning at 6:30 my host mom calls her again she says that she isn’t done but she’ll be done before 8am and that shell call us back.  Eight o’clock rolls around without a phone call so we call her again and she says that we can head over and by the time we get there shell be done. *plan B have a friend bring a skirt that she already has made out of the same fabric and ill just wear that and change at the bar next to the grand stand where out ceremony will be.  So we head over get there about 8:20 and she isn’t even close to being done.  9:50 I’m zipping it up and as I’m walking out she tries to get me to pay extra.  So this turned out to be my most expensive (still incomplete) dress.  L posting pics soon.

For swearing in I let me host sisters braid my hair.  Give us something to do and talk about on our last nights.  Home stay is a good concept and I understand why peace corps does it.  Here is my take, for some people it did everything it meant to.  Show you what a normal family is like and how they function, practice the language, get exposed to cultural differences, teach them local cultures and about the community, and introduce local foods.  Some families welcomed their volunteers and included them as another family member.  In practice this didn’t always workout.  With that being said I have to say that my host family especially my host brother helped me a great deal in French.  He tutored me all the time even helped other volunteers. 

Swearing in:

The swearing in ceremony had three parts.  The first ceremony was speeches given by our program directors, the country director, by some prominent locals such as the chief of police, and three speeches done by us.  One was in French, one in fafulde, and one in pidgin.  Overall the speeches were nice and then we swore in and officially became pcv’s (peace corp volunteers).  This part was open for anyone to come.  Second we had a lunch ceremony with just our host mom and dad’s to thank them but three of my sisters came instead.  And finally we had the party with just the group of newly volunteers.  Where everyone stayed at one of the local hotels where we held this part of the party.  Overall all three ceremonies were nice.

Moving in to Kumba:

Normally the safety and security officer goes to everyone’s site to inspect their house before they are allowed to move in.  This is done even if the person is going to be replacing a previous volunteer and moving into their old house.  As it turns out the security officer wasn’t able to get into my house when she came to inspect it so what pc did was drive me and the two other volunteers who live closest to me to our sites.  This way they could look over my house before moved in and if it wasn’t okay I would stay with one of the other volunteers close by.   This meant that we wouldn’t have to take public transportation at all the journey would go faster since we were in a smaller more durable car and we could go direct. 

So when we got to my house the landlord let us in but the house still wasn’t done.  He had been given three months to clean the apartment, put screens on the windows, fix some of the electrical plugs, and board up one of the holes in the ceiling.  Since none of this had been done yet I spent the night in Buea with Erica another newly volunteer.  This worked out even better since I bought some items for my house from a volunteer that was leaving soon that was staying in Buea so I picked up those things and brought them to the house the next day when we returned to Kumba.

When we arrived the landlord had a man cleaning the place so we stopped in the market to buy some essentials that I would need for my house.  The rest of the repairs still weren’t done but I could stay in Kumba with Jessica another volunteer.  That same day the lock guy came and changed my locks but said that he would have to come back to finish.  The following day the lock on my bedroom broke and the inside part came out, it took me a little under a week to get the guy to come back to fix it and finish the rest of the locks.  Nothing else had been fixed yet and until the hole in the roof was repaired it wasn’t safe for me to stay in case someone crawled up and into my house.  So a few days later Jessica’s fiancé came and he was nice enough to help me and called a different carpenter who came that same day.  With his help the house by the next day has been re-cleaned, has curtains, screens, a counter top in my kitchen, and he fixed the hole in the ceiling.  I’ve been staying in my house now for a couple days.  I also have gas and a stove so I’ve been able to do some cooking J

I had an introductory meeting with the board members of the microfinance that I will be working with; we will be creating an action plan later this week to outline what work I will be doing with them.  So far thought I haven’t really started anything but I’ve gone to a couple meetings with Jessica and will be teaching some business classes at a seminar sometime in September.  The first three months at site are supposed to be to get to know the area, your counterpart, and your host institute.   Not to say that we aren’t allowed to do anything but when we start something big we should have a better understanding of what we are getting into. 

I hope everyone is doing well at home!  I love getting all of your letters.  Miss you guys!