Hey everyone, I realized that I haven't blogged once since my site visit posting and decided that I should attempt to send another post out there. Granted, one of the reasons I haven't been blogging is that, for me, everything has slowly slipped into the "same old." Guess that means I'm transitioning well enough though. These past 2 weeks have been filled with Training. Some of the trainees had their presentations this Saturday (a 20 minute presentation in French, always a good time), and we also had our language assessments. I'm not up to the level I need to be at, so I need 20 more hours of French before I can take another test. Lots of French. However, my class is just me and one other person, Hunter, and we have decided to take French lessons into our own hands. So now our classes have been entirely about our interests. We also took it upon ourselves to explain to our French teacher that Parental Control (the MTV show that they apparently watch here) is not real America, that the parents do not typically line up suitors for their child to choose from.She also asked us about Room Raiders and the Jersey Shore, so we spent around 45 minutes explaining what a Guido was. Needless to say, it was actually a pretty hilarious conversation. Thank you Mtv.
So yea, not too much going on, so I'll just throw in a story from a few weeks ago. When I was still in Nyamsung, the village next to Bafia, after Training my fellow Trainees and I went straight to the bar afterwards, our normal routine. Eventually, I trudge back home, dreading having to use whatever little energy I had left to try and speak French for 3 more hours and cook Cous-Cous. Once I arrived, I went straight to my room to drop off my bag and was hit by a horrendous smell. The kind of smell that literally makes you stop and say outloud to no one in particular, "Holy shit." At first, I thought that the garbage in my room had finally started to smell. Considering the heat this seemed reasonable, so I immediately grabbed my makeshift garbage bag and sprinted out the door. There is no place to put garbage in Cameroon, no garbage trucks come by to pick up the trash, so people tend to just throw it in every direction. I feel bad about doing that, ruining the environment and all, so I ran around in circles holding this bag until my host mom finally took it from me. Relieved, I went back into my room and opened my windows for the first time since living there. The smell made it necessary. After an hour or so I went back into my room and the smell was still there, in fact, it had gotten significantly worse. I could basically taste it.
I decided to look around, because this was getting ridiculous. Of course I find what everyone wants to see in their room... a mouse. However, this mouse had suffered considerably more than any other mouse that I've ever heard of. This mouse had exploded. Yup, I know how to make a mouse explode. Though, I'd say it was more natural selection running its course. This intelligent creature had eaten my laundry detergent. Now it left me 3/4 of its body intact, its ass separated from the rest of it and in pieces, the back feet several inches away from the ass, and the tail in two pieces even farther away.
Slowly, I backed away and ran out of the room to go get some assistance. I found my host mom and attempted to explain that a mouse exploded in my room. This consisted of me hysterically laughing, saying the word mouse in French and boom, with hand signals to show an explosion. She looked at me like I had officially snapped from the "culture shock" that she was warned about. Eventually, I convinced her to come to my to my room and see for herself. Yup, no denying it, she agreed while looking at the body parts, BOOM.
We had the lovely job of cleaning this up, which was a great bonding experience. Then it was dinner time. We both stared at our food and decided that maybe dinner wouldn't be our thing tonight. Such a shame, missing cous-cous, fortunately we can count on having it basically every night after that. Afterwards I decided it was bedtime, so I went to try and close my windows. Wouldn't close. Ugh. Went back out to get my host mom to explain the new situation. After around 45 minutes and enlisting my host dad for help, the windows finally closed. As my host mom and I turned towards my bedroom door to leave, the lightbulb falls from the ceiling and shatters on my floor. My one lightbulb- and we actually had electricity that night. I burst out laughing. This whole night had just been ridiculous. My host mom obviously agreed because she turned to me and said go to sleep and pray. This made me laugh even harder as I nodded in agreement.
Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. So that was just one of the many weird experiences I've had in Africa. Its definitely saying something that when my friends ask "How are things?" I respond with "same old."
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Site Visit
I am now back in Bafia after a week of traveling up north to the Adamaoua region. After 2 days of seminars with my community Host, Bayiha, all of the trainees going to the Grand North got into 2 buses with their community hosts. I was lucky and somehow managed to get the front seat with the driver and one of our trainers. Everyone else was crammed in the back, basically sitting on each other’s laps. After a 2 hour bus ride we arrived at the train station in Yaounde. Tickets were handed out and we paraded towards the first class section of the train station, getting plenty of stares along the way. The train station was air conditioned!! It was amazing. Ironically, inside of the train station was one of the nicest rooms that I've seen since being in Cameroon.
The train itself was a lot of fun. The peace corps managed to get all of us beds for the ride up. I was roommates with one of the community hosts, who was very nice, but an insomniac. It seemed like her mission was to buy a batton de meignoc whenever the train stopped, which was often. So eventually we had a mountain of batton de meignoc in the room. I personally found this pretty amusing since I had just complained to a friend how I won't be seeing batton de meignoc for a while, since they aren't at my post. Apparently that wasn't in store for me. I spent most of my time room hopping and visiting my friends. It ended up being a 22 hour train ride due to the train splitting in half, leaving my section behind. My friend Trevor and I were chilling when all of a sudden we hear a loud noise and the train stops abruptly. We looked at each other smiling and thinking the same thing... C'est L'Afrique haha. It's interesting watching the Cameroonians react to something like the train slitting in half.... because there really isn't a reaction at all. They just shrug and think ok, well now I have more time to nap. And they need this nap because they stay up all night buying batton de meignoc haha.
Eventually we arrived in Ngaoundere where the trainees who were posted in the Adamawa stayed the night. We all splurged and bought hamburgers and basically lived the luxurious city life. After a fun night, I then had a 4 hour bus ride to Meignanga and than another 4.5 hour bus ride to Djohong. It ended up being a but longer because the bus got stuck in a giant puddle. Everyone took turns climbing out the bus window, and the women relaxed in the field while the men pulled the bus out of the mud. A monkey was staring at this scene from a tree with an expression like "What the hell are these stupid humans doing?"
I eventually arrived at my post and it is GORGEOUS. Rolling hills of savannah grasslands with scattered trees, and a bit farther out there is a valley where the national park is. The climate is amazing after being in humid Bafia, and I enjoyed walking around and meeting everyone. I even stayed in a mud hut! A round mud hut with a straw roof....very cool. It is actually pretty roomy.
I met the NGO that I'll be working with as well as the staff at the hospital and they seem great. Very motivated and excited to have me there, which is comforting. They also want me to help them start a health club in the high school. All in all I'm really excited to work with everyone there and am just eager to get started. I will need to learn Fulfulde and possibly Baya as well because only the kids and officials speak French. Definitely going to be one of the many challenges haha. I will be living on a family compound with no running water or electricity. However, the NGO does have internet so I plan on becoing best friends with them.
After two nights there, we spent one night with a volunteer in Meiganga, one night in Ngaoundere and then one final night in Yaounde. Each place of course had plenty of adventures haha. This blog is already very long though so if you're still reading thanks and I hope it was relatively interesting! haha. I miss everyone and will try and get online as much as I can these next 3 weeks of training.
Hope everything is going well!
The train itself was a lot of fun. The peace corps managed to get all of us beds for the ride up. I was roommates with one of the community hosts, who was very nice, but an insomniac. It seemed like her mission was to buy a batton de meignoc whenever the train stopped, which was often. So eventually we had a mountain of batton de meignoc in the room. I personally found this pretty amusing since I had just complained to a friend how I won't be seeing batton de meignoc for a while, since they aren't at my post. Apparently that wasn't in store for me. I spent most of my time room hopping and visiting my friends. It ended up being a 22 hour train ride due to the train splitting in half, leaving my section behind. My friend Trevor and I were chilling when all of a sudden we hear a loud noise and the train stops abruptly. We looked at each other smiling and thinking the same thing... C'est L'Afrique haha. It's interesting watching the Cameroonians react to something like the train slitting in half.... because there really isn't a reaction at all. They just shrug and think ok, well now I have more time to nap. And they need this nap because they stay up all night buying batton de meignoc haha.
Eventually we arrived in Ngaoundere where the trainees who were posted in the Adamawa stayed the night. We all splurged and bought hamburgers and basically lived the luxurious city life. After a fun night, I then had a 4 hour bus ride to Meignanga and than another 4.5 hour bus ride to Djohong. It ended up being a but longer because the bus got stuck in a giant puddle. Everyone took turns climbing out the bus window, and the women relaxed in the field while the men pulled the bus out of the mud. A monkey was staring at this scene from a tree with an expression like "What the hell are these stupid humans doing?"
I eventually arrived at my post and it is GORGEOUS. Rolling hills of savannah grasslands with scattered trees, and a bit farther out there is a valley where the national park is. The climate is amazing after being in humid Bafia, and I enjoyed walking around and meeting everyone. I even stayed in a mud hut! A round mud hut with a straw roof....very cool. It is actually pretty roomy.
I met the NGO that I'll be working with as well as the staff at the hospital and they seem great. Very motivated and excited to have me there, which is comforting. They also want me to help them start a health club in the high school. All in all I'm really excited to work with everyone there and am just eager to get started. I will need to learn Fulfulde and possibly Baya as well because only the kids and officials speak French. Definitely going to be one of the many challenges haha. I will be living on a family compound with no running water or electricity. However, the NGO does have internet so I plan on becoing best friends with them.
After two nights there, we spent one night with a volunteer in Meiganga, one night in Ngaoundere and then one final night in Yaounde. Each place of course had plenty of adventures haha. This blog is already very long though so if you're still reading thanks and I hope it was relatively interesting! haha. I miss everyone and will try and get online as much as I can these next 3 weeks of training.
Hope everything is going well!
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