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!