last days of training

Just 5 more days! Until I’m off to Kumba.

I know I haven’t blogged in a couple weeks and I have a lot to catch you up on but I’ll just give you a brief over view.  So the biggest thing that happened was that I was preparing for my final language test which I did pass!! I had to be intermediate mid to go to post but i ended up getting intermediate high which is one level above so in total I’ve advanced five levels.  So I can leave Bafia on time with the rest of the group.  This also means I get to start taking pidgin. 

                Update on the host family; EVERYONE is now living at the house in Bafia which is quite overwhelming.  There is about nine of us in total and one bathroom.   They are here for church which they go to Monday thru Thursday from 4pm to anytime between 8-9:30 at night. Which means that I’ve been locked out of the house and having to stay with other trainees until they tell me that they are home since my curfew is at 7 but I can’t be at the house by myself for some reason  and I don’t get out of class until 4:30.  Also the week before everyone came I was eating really really well but now it’s back to normal.  They get home after church and still have to make dinner which I often help with. 

                Pretty much every day I end up having a discussion with my host brother on gender roles and females in general.  I think that it’s been eye opening for both sides.  I also wanted to bring this up since I haven’t posted about anything political or about any of the social problems I’ve encountered in Cameroon and this is because I want to be here long enough to get more of the perceptions of the locals rather than just my observations especially since at this time the Cameroonians that I spend the most time with are y teachers and my home stay family which I’m sure doesn’t represent all of Cameroon.

                This week is a pretty easy week for us. We are done with our technical sessions and all we really have to do is one more medical session and “bridge to post” which is telling us everything that we have to do to before we leave, how to get to post, and what to do when we first get there besides that all I have to do is pack.  This is a little worry some since I have no idea how I’m going to get all of my stuff on and off public transportation by myself and to my house and hopefully not stolen.  Things I have to bring:

·         2 suite cases I have

·         Backpack

·         Metal trunk

·         Bike

·         Water filter

And if I can’t fit everything from my room that I have and that Peace Corps gave me in that I will have to buy some market bags for the rest of the stuff. 

But with all that being said I’m excited to get to post.  I am very ready to be done with training. Also I get to pass though Yaoundé again.   I already have plans to use their washer and dryer, get smoothies, and probably some Indian food.  Maybe some other shopping at the grocery store to stock up for post depends on how much time we have.

                In health news I got a scrape on my knee a couple weeks back (different from the bucket wound) that it healing fine.  However I seem to be having a allergic reaction to something on my hand and wrist.   Which is just great.  So I’m on antihistamines and if it doesn’t get better by Tuesday I might have to go to Yaoundé to see the medical officer but should come back in time for swearing in ceremony on Thursday.

                All of the trainees have to wear matching pagné for the swearing in ceremony which I should be picking up from the tailor tomorrow.  So I have a couple outfits now that I think turned out pretty good.  But the two tailors that make most of our clothing are either the mom or the brother of one of the trainees.  So for the swearing in dress I went to the tailor that my host mom uses and recommended.  I decided to do this since the other two tailors have been very backed up and now take a long time to finish anything and do a rushed job.  But I don’t really see my mom wearing traditional clothing so it’s hard to say whether or not this woman will do a good job.

               

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 :(

count down..end of week 3

I apologize for not posting blog last week, Sunday was my day to do that since I would actually have a fair internet connection but I wasn’t feeling good.  I’m not sure what exactly it was but by Monday I was feeling better.  Hard to tell what it was since it could be any number of things that I ate.  I think that only being sick one day in the first three weeks is an accomplishment. 

With that being said we have finished week three.  No one else as of yet has ETed and went back home J.  Classes are good my French is improving but is still my biggest obstacle.  It’s frustrating not to be able to communicate but I have my first language test next Saturday so it will be interesting to see how much I’ve improved.

In other news thing are moving along for us; next week I should find out my post and then the following week I will visit my site for about 5 days (how long ill actually get to be there depends on how far away my site is, some volunteers will be posted in the extreme north which will take them several days to get to).  Except for the language I can’t wait to be on my own, have my own space, cook my own food, clean with soap.    

So the food situation isn’t much better.  I still don’t get a lot of food at my house and the things that I do get aren’t that great.  I’m looking forward to cooking for myself I really miss eating great food.  I have even started to miss American food that I didn’t really like but anything at this point sounds great.  I bought fabric to make into some traditional clothes but I haven’t brought it to the tailor yet so as soon as I do ill post pics.

The weather during the week was better, over cast all day pretty much, and cooler but this weekend it got very hot again even though to the locals think it’s cold.  In other news we had a party with our trainees last night and we were allowed to extend curfew to 10pm!!!  It was really nice for all of us to have a little celebration we had some American music playing and had a few drinks.   Tomorrow the CED’s have a field trip to Yauonde the capital I’m very excited I heard rumors that we were going to get to stop by a “French grocery store” which means I might be able to find some American food …or something similar.  I’ve been having major food withdrawalsL.

Okay im running out of time so im not going to reread this so please overlook grammar mistakes.  Pics coming soon! (probably on fb)

week 1 in Bafia

We made it to Bafia which is where I will spend the next 11 weeks in training.  So now I’m living with my host family which has a father who work at the foreign service building but does community development for Bafia which ive been told by the kid that he oversees the construction of roads (unpaved), schools, ect., but that’s also little unclear.  Then I have my “host mom” who is his niece from what I gather, she has been to and graduated from a university and works in the capital for the ministry but they are on break now? Then there is my host dads daughter who is 20 also graduated from the university but it doesn’t seem like she works.  Then there is another girl who is 16 who is still in school but I have no idea how or if she is related.   So far they are all very nice.  They have had a peace corps  volunteer (pcv) stay with them before.  They all speak a bit of English but the dad speaks the best.  Culturally though I’m a bit confused, they have electricity, running water, a car, and an education yet, seem very unaware of sanitation issues.  For example, we have a well that they draw water from to clean dishes but they don’t boil or treat the water first.  The only time they actually treat the water is when they drink it so they use dirt water to shower and wash clothes, to be clear the running water is brown and the well water is grey. They also never wash their hands let alone use soap.  I get the impression that they don’t know about germs and think that if wiped off or if they don’t see it, its clean. :/

Monday-Saturdays we have training at the pc office which is about a 5min walk from my house.  We usually have four sessions a day except for Saturday when we only have two.  The sessions vary on size depending on who they are for; the whole group, just the CED (community economic development) people vs. the ED (education) people, or our small language groups.  The trainers so far seem very good and also have a very good understanding of American culture and want to help us as much as they can.  Language class was a little frustrating more because I have so much to learn and want to spend as much time as I can on it.  In one of my CED classes we are learning a model for a saving and lending program which we are going to actually do a mock version of but instead of actual loans we can “borrow” (we actually have to pay for them and we don’t give them back) American food such as oreos, snickers, gummy worms, maple syrup, Pringles, etc. it should be fun and we all already miss our junk food.

                Speaking of the food, it’s okay.  My host mom doesn’t understand what a balanced meal is and most meals are only carbs.  Sometimes we have fish other than they all she has made me was rice or pasta.  She finally made a vegetable yesterday!!  At least I think that’s what that was.  Other volunteers have different experiences though so I need to learn more French so I can ask her to make me more vegetables and beans since they have a lot of them available.  On the bright side one of the moms come to the peace corps office and brings lunch which we can buy and she brings everything; meat, fish, beans, rice, salad/avocados, pineapple, and potatoes. So I make sure to eat a lot then and a smaller meal at dinner.  For breakfast I usually get an egg with some bread.

                Other than that, things have been interesting it’s a unique feeling of never quite knowing what to do or how to act.  Not always bad but not always good mostly it’s been interesting.  Once my French is better it will be easier to talk to my host family about the culture.  For now we get by for the most part.  It helps that im in class all day then have hw so only leaves a few hrs with my host family.  Im glad though that they want to try to communicate so we do talk a lot we just have use the dictionary a lot! The most exciting thing so far was that they have a lot of the music that I have like rap/hip hop and they know all the words.  Even songs that just came out they already have so that’s been fun.

              I only get internet at the pc office and have to share it with the other volunteers soi wont be able to get to it every day but probably a couple times a week.  talk to you all again soon. 

love and miss you!

I don't know what you guys want to me write about so please comment and ask questions.  Can you comment if you don't have gmail?? Let me know.

First Few Days

6/2/12

Day 1

Upon arriving in Philadelphia I had orientation which primarily focused on meeting the other volunteers, connecting, and showing how many fears and aspirations we shared.   I was happily surprised to learn that everyone was very much on the same page as me.  I was also relieved to hear that there seemed to be a lot of us who weren’t the best at French.  After orientation we went to a local pub to continue our bonding. So far I think that I’m with a good group of people although we all have very diverse personalities and backgrounds.

Day 2

We woke up early and took a bus to New York got there at about Noon and our flight wasn’t until 6pm.  So we did a little more bonding at a bar, then lunch, then waiting at the gate and playing cards.  Time actually went by pretty quickly.  Then flight to Brussels a three hour layover then off to Yaoundé.  We are staying about an hour and a half from the airport in a “very nice” hotel which has running water, electricity, and wifi. 

Day 3

Breakfast which was bread, then my language test, turns out I did better than some other people (shock) but there are definitely some people who are almost fluent already.  I will find out later which level I’ve been placed in. We got a chance to walk around the city a bit but it was very crowded and busy since there is a big soccer stadium close to the hotel and there was a very big qualifying match today which it turned out Cameroon won.  Lunch and dinner here are not extremely different from American food they serve us a couple different kinds of vegetables, bread, rice which they cover in a very tasty sauce, chicken, and fish.

Ps. Mom they have a lot of  avocados here and one volunteer who is actually leaving Friday since he is done with his service has an avocado tree in his backyard. Oh and your cookies were amazing thanks!

After dinner we went to a concert.  The Community Economic Development Officer’s wife (who is Cameroonian) is a singer and she was performing.  It was at a upscale bar lounge so we got to hear a little African rap which is similar to reggaeton but in French then the CED’s wife did what I’m assuming is a local dance and song.  It was very good and people would get up and dance with her even some of the Congo soccer player (who had just lost against Cameroon). Tomorrow we are suppose to have a lot more paperwork to fill out and then we have a big dinner at our country directors house which I’ve been told might also have our project directors, some mayors and government officials have known to be there if they are in the area, and even some reporters.  I don’t actually expect to be interviewed by the reporters since I don’t know French and it will be aired on local channels.

So far I have not yet encountered any bugs (thank god!) except for mosquitoes that don’t seem to care that I’m wearing bug spray.  The weather here has been amazing not very muggy and weather where I’m very comfortable in kapris and a polo.  However, to ease your minds Bafia which I should be going to on Wednesday for the rest of the 11 weeks will not be quite so luxurious.  It has been nice to be eased in and have a calm stable place for the group to get to know each other more before we head to the unknown our host families, and live with people most of us can’t communicate with at least at first.

Well its about 2:00am here and I need to be up early hope all is well in the states this you guys!! 

love you lots <3