The season to be jolly

Oh hey! I’m back. How’s everyone doing? USA treating everyone well? I hope so.

Here is the blog about my holidays, please send me updates on your own holiday stories! I’d love to hear them. For the holidays, the volunteers in my cluster planned to meet in Meiganga at my friend Emma’s house. Meiganga is a city that is a 4-8 hour prison bus ride depending on how many times the bus either breaks down, gets stuck in ditches, or just stops in general. And to clarify, its not an actual prison bus, but a metal van, with metal seats and a cage that separates the driver from the passengers, with large windows and a bar going across them. The bus piles as many people into it, or on it, as possible. People are hanging onto the back, sitting on each other, or on the roof with the luggage. Whatever you can get.

As my first solo traveling experience, I was intrigued to see how my prison bus ride would go today and how long it would actually take to get to my destination. While I was waiting for the bus (its rare that anything ever starts or leaves remotely on time), I was offered by a ride to Meiganga by a moto driver. So, instead of a cramped, long prison bus ride, I rode on the back of a motorcycle through the African bush during sunrise for 2 hours. It was beyond beautiful and the moto driver and I had some nice, friendly conversations. It was a 2 hour moto ride afterall.

After that great start to my holidays it only got better. Filled with great food, people, and drinks, Christmas was a success. We spent the day before Christmas preparing the numerous types of chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and delicious desserts. To try and put our minds in the Christmas spirit despite the very warm temperatures and desert-like area we we were in, there was a handmade Christmas tree on the wall, Christmas lights, Christmas music, and Its a Wonderful Life playing from a computer. A definite success. After a night of food and dance parties, we woke up and had delicious crepes, our secret Santa gift exchange, and a day of relaxation. A few of us went to the bar at around 4, and then came back to help with the delicious homemade Mexican feast. A handful of my friends decided to go to a concert, a famous Cameroonian musician was in town. Shortly after they left, we receive a call from them saying that they missed the concert but what did we think of the band coming back to the house for a private concert? And just like that, we had another dance party, but this time with a live, Cameroonian band. The music was great and the musicians were very friendly, nice people. After over an hour of music they hung out at Emma’s, finishing up our first Christmas in Africa with us. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Next holiday- New Years Eve! A few of us (2 of the volunteers in Meiganga and a Cameroonian friend) piled into Youssoufa’s pick-up truck to head back to Djohong for New Years. The first night we made pizzas and relaxed. Actually, food and relaxation are 2 great words to describe the holidays haha. The day of New Year’s Eve we walked around visiting people in Djohong, and each person we went to invited us all to the party at the Sous-prefet’s. So, even though we had planned on camping en bruisse for the night, we changed plans and went to the party. It was a very interesting experience. Everyone would hand in their invitations and then take a seat. After a few speeches by officials, we were then called up to eat buffet-like style.While everyone was getting their food, there were a few people, one of them being a friend of mine, serving people drinks. Once everyone had gotten their food, the table was cleared and the sous-prefet went to the front of the room and read some names. These men and women were then assigned to dance with each other for a song. Thankfully, I wasn’t one of these unlucky individuals. Talk about awkward. After this odd dance, the party loosened up a little to allow others to dance instead of just watching these people uncomfortably dancing. It ended up being a great experience and a good time. The next day we all relaxed some more and then went on a gorgeous hike en bruisse to the valley. After taking in the view, we made the trek back, collecting wood along the way. After a delicious dinner, Emma, Youssoufa, Claire, Caleb and I sat around a fire outside and introduced Youssoufa to S’mores under the large, starry African sky.

Holiday season= success. The entire time, particularly New Years Eve, I kept having moments about how crazy this was. I am in Cameroon looking at these shooting stars, or dancing to Cameroonian tunes as the band plays and my new friends watch, join, or sing along. I never in a million years would have predicted that my next holiday would one- be in Cameroon, and 2- be seeing and experiencing everything that I have thus far. Definitely puts a smile on my face every time I remember that.

I truly hope that everyone’s holidays were great and filled with dancing and smiles. I miss everyone and think of you all constantly!

Keeping my eyes and ears open

Hey everyone! Once again, I’m sorry that its been over a month since I last posted. The holiday season has come and gone and I truly hope that it was a good one for everybody. I am now at my post, Djohong, and settling in pretty well. It’s a beautiful, tranquil village, and for the most part, the people here have been extremely generous, friendly, and welcoming. Particularly the family who lives in my compound and the people that work at the District Hospital. My house is a 2 minute walk away from the center of the village, where there are a few stores and where the big market is on Thursdays. My house is a small with a front room, a latrine, and my bedroom, with a kitchen in my front yard (its a little mudhut with a straw roof haha, i like it. Though its a little dark in there). All of this is surrounded by a fence of something straw-like, and then Bah-iya and his 2 wives and kids are right on the other side, less than a foot away. I now have pictures from coloring books taped all over my wall, adding some color and life to my front room which I appreciate. When I am home I am almost never alone, at least one child, but usually if there’s one word spreads quickly, is in my house drawing or just hanging out.

I’ve been asked pretty often, “What is your typical day like?” I will attempt to answer that question here. One thing that you should know that it is hard for my to pinpoint what a typical day is like. I tend to have no idea what my day will consist of when I wake up. When I first arrived I was traveling to nearby villages with the head doctor for the vaccination campaign and malnutrition screenings. So for at least a week I was caught up in a whirlwind of activity, seeing things that shocked and amazed me every hour of the day. I would also watch rounds at the hospital and observe prenatal consultations. If I’m not traveling or at the hospital, I like to walk around the village and say hi to every person who walks by, and if I don’t feel like saying hi to everyone I shouldn’t walk around haha. I might meet with the traditional leader of the village just to say hi or stay at home and hang out with the family, either by attempting to help them make traditional meals, getting my hair braided, trying to learn the local dialect, Fulfulde, or just sitting there and talking in French. I usually have tea with Bah-iya everyday, which is a time that I have begun to look forward to. A nice cup of tea, or 2 or 3 cups (he really likes tea), and a nice disjointed conversation in French for around 2 hours. The main aspect of my days is truly just keeping my eyes, ears, and heart open to basically anything because thats what keeps everything interesting.

An example of this- Just a few days ago, after saying the greetings in Fulfulde to each person in the family (takes a solid 5 minutes of just hello, and how was your days), I walk up onto Bah-iya’s porch, take off my shoes and enter ready for my cup of tea. There was another man there huddled in the corner, which wasn’t too surprising since people walk in and out of Bah-iya’s place all the time. This tiny, old man ended up being the traditional leader of a village around an hour drive away. However, since very few people have cars here, he biked the 2 hours just to say hi to his friend Bah-iya and give his respects to the head doctor. He only speaks Fulfulde, so Bah-iya translated for me to French which is still also a gamble if I understand or not. Unfortunately, this man didn’t get too much time to meet with the doctor, so I wasn’t too surprised when the doctor informed me that he was going with Bah-iya to this man’s village. I was invited to join, but initially said no. Afterall, these three men would be spending the entire time speaking in Fulfulde and I was getting a little tired of sitting in a room not understanding a word that was spoken. Then I remembered something another volunteer told me, never say no to any opportunities, just say yes and what the hell, it might actually be fun. So I went. This village was extremely en bruisse. When I say extremely I mean that when we drove an hour on the roads that I always labeled as en bruisse, we then left the road for a bike path. We drove on this path with the pick up truck for around 15 minutes and an entourage of men on motorcycles who were instructed to meet us, and then parked the car and walked another 10-15 minutes along a windy path up and down hills. Eventually we arrived at a valley, surrounded by gorgeous mountains and hills, fields of bright green crops, with specks of little mud huts in all directions. It was stunning. We then sat with the chief in a mudhut, I listened to Fulfulde, and at some point in their conversation it was decided that we’d go on a walk to visit the nearby river. We walked through crushed fields where elephants had just stampeded through the week before, crossed little streams that had makeshift logs as bridges, and finally arrived at a beautiful river where three women were gathering their day’s supply of water. Needless to say, I felt that I was once again truly seeing Africa. I was so happy that I went, I fell in love with this little village and its people, and asked Bah-iya if I can travel with him to visit whenever he goes. He happily said yes, and so I hope to one day work with them, and if not just spend time there.

Anyway, sorry this is a long blog, so if you are still reading I’m impressed. hopefully I’ll post another blog sooner than later about my holiday season here. Miss everyone and I hope everyone is doing well. Congratulations to Erin and Jen!! I love and miss you guys and am so happy for you.

Thanksgiving extravaganza and Swearing-In

Oh hey guys. Hope all is well where you are and that you're Thanksgiving was awesome. As I'm sure you all assumed, Cameroonians don't celebrate Thanksgiving. So, my fellow trainees and I decided to take matters into our own hands and make sure we celebrate the glorious day of food. We all put money together and bought a turkey. This turkey was a large ugly thing that decided to constantly talk to itself. It was kept outside the training center, in the back of the building, very close to where I had my French class. So I had the honor of listening to it talk to itself incessantly. In fact, I started to call it Gobble, granted I tried to keep this name to myself knowing this poor turkey's fate. Fortunately, I wasn't in charge of Gobble's demise or the cooking of him. I was given the job of cooking mashed potatoes with 3 other girls. This wasn't exactly easy since we had a spoon to mash the potatoes (pounds of potatoes, enough for 50 people), powdered milk, and butter that's really margarine. We also didn't really have too many other tools but our swiss army knives, but it all worked out and we carried our glorious mashed potatoes in a large pot victoriously back to the training site where the festivities were about to begin. Everyone really pulled together and, as a result, we had tons of food and drinks. Stuffing, macaroni and cheese, turkey and gravy, a bunch of different desserts, and lots more. It ended up being a huge success and a great time.
After over 2 months in Cameroon, filled with traveling mishaps, laughs with new friends, 2 new families and what came with that, illnesses, learning French, learning how to take a moto, dealing with the new food mentally and physically, and tons of other aspects that led to an unbelievable experience, 48 of us swore in as Peace Corps volunteers. During those two months, 2 of us did go home, and I admire their courage and wish them the best of luck with whatever they end up doing.
The Swearing-In ceremony was good. It was like a graduation where all the graduates want to do is get their diplomas and go celebrate. Instead you have to sit and listen to numerous speeches, and at this ceremony half of them are in languages you don't understand, like fulfude and pidgin. Some were in French which I can honestly say I understoof half of. Maybe. Our host families were there as well, and I can imagine that it was even more boring for them. Once again, just like any other graduation. Really exciting, but everyone is also thinking about how they are all going their separate ways afterwards. So, to try and forget that for a night, we all spent that night at a hotel where we just talked, drank, and had a dance party. Good times.
A quick side story- During that night, I went up to my room quickly to grab some soda for a friend. I decided while I was up there to use the bathroom quickly then head back down. Unfortunately, things don't ever go as planned. My hotel room, which I was sharing with Meg, didn't have a working light. So i left the front door open to find the bathroom light. The bathroom door wouldn't close unless I locked it, and I didn't want to leave it open with the room door open, so I locked it. Mistake. I found out a few minutes later that once you lock the door, it doesn't unlock very easily. In fact, it doesn't unlock at all. So I was stuck. I even tried using a variety of tools to help me unlock the door, but no cigar. Luckily I actually had my cell phone with me, thanks to awesome pockets in my skirt. I called Meg telling her I had a slight problem. She comes up, and once surveying the problem bursts out laughing. Together we laugh for a little but then decide that I can't stay in the bathroom forever. We decide to grab Trevor as well for assitance. Meg and Trevor then proceed to work with a leatherman, and a variety of other tools, to get me out for around 45 minutes. It was a really freaking strong door. It was pretty much being destroyed but refused to surrender and let me out. Eventually Trevor was like alright Lindz, I think you should just try and push. So I try that, again, but that didn't really work (not surprising). Then we decided kicking was a good option. After 3 solid kicks, James Bond style, I kicked down the bathroom door. Badass. Though I guess a badass wouldn't have gotten locked in the bathroom in the first place. I'll let you guys decide. Regardless, it was a hilarious situation and I once again have to thank my two amazing friends for helping me get out.
Anyway, I am now in Ngaoundere, a stop on my way to my post, Djohong. After a train ride that actually left and arrived on time without incident (very pleasant surprise haha), I've spent the past 2 days wandering around Ngaoundere attempting to buy things for my house. I won't have electricity or running water and very little cell  service, but there is an area 4 km outside my town where I can get service, so if you want to set up a time and day I'll be at that spot for a phone date! I miss you guys and I hope I'll talk to everyone soon.

MTV explanations and mouse explosions

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."

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 Little Things

Hey Everyone! I have officially been living in Cameroon, Africa for a little over a month now, and despite a few bumps in the road, it has been awesome so far. I realized that I had actually begun to adjust when I A) was so unbelievably surprised and happy to wash my hands with running water and soap for the firs time in a month, B) Extremely pleased to hear an overplayed Eminem song playing in a bar here as I held a COLD drink (so rare) and C) I ate a batton de maignoc (a starch like plant wrapped in leaves) with a fish which I peeled off the bones with my hands. Yup, I'm definitely adapting.

My host mother also braided my hair last week. It looked pretty cool, and was definitely easier to deal with, but I eventually had to persuade her to help me take them out. She was a but hurt, but I insisted that with my kind of hair it really needed to be washed with shampoo. Eventually she understood well enough to offer to braid it again after 3 days of washing my hair. I declined the offer haha since my hair still feels pretty gross to me. 

Each Sunday I have been going into the city with my host mother and visiting her family, going to the open market, and wandering around the city getting a few drinks. The open market is always an interesting experience. I basically follow my host mom around like a 5 year old as we wander through narrow walkways between each stand selling fruits, spices, clothes, meat, smoked monkey or eel, etc. It is pretty intense, so I'm always grateful that she is with my during these experiences. Though, each time I go I am learning more and more, for instance bargaining can take 5-15 min depending on how long you really want to stand in the heat among thousands of flies. My host mom likes to take the 15 min route while I like to take the 5 min route. I have also bought a dress with my host mother's guidance. This was interesting because it also resulted in my 9th marriage proposal. This man was pretty insistant, in fact it was my host mom that eventually said that he was too late, that the man down the street already proposed (which was true but obviously I said no to him also). He was only slightly detered as he gave me his business card just in case. My host mom and I have a running joke now about the beaucoup "I love yous".

Finally, I found out my post!!! I am going to be living in the Adamawa region in a city fairly close to the border of Central African Republic. It is basically a savannah, with monkeys and hippos and all of that African wildlife, however it can get down to 50 degrees! I will be working in the district hospital and the chief doctor there is also partnered with an NGO. This NGO works with the refugees in my city, teaching them nutrition, AIDS education, preventative measures against domestic violence, etc. So It definitely looks like I'll have a lot to do. We'll see when I go on my site visit what its really like. I'm also lucky because due to its slight isolation, I have a postmate. He is one of my friends in my training group so I'm excited.

Anyway, I hope everything is going well for everyone. Thank you for the letters, emails, and packages. I truly appreciate it, they tend to make my day. I have written back but it seems that the letters take a while to get to you, but they are coming. Miss you all!

mice, bugs, and craziness

Hey! So, once again, sorry about the lack of blogs. I don't have too much time, so lets see what I can get out. Recently, the Chief of Lable invited the trainees in Nyamsung and Lable to a dinner at his place. The dinner was a great excuse for all of the people in the village to let loose and have a good time. A few beers, a cocoa bean, some great food and good company led to a legit party. I unintentionally also ended up in a dance off with a Cameroonian haha. He had come over to a friend and I, started dancing then walked away. My friend and I decided that we wanted to learn these new and bizarre dance moves, so I called him over. Before I knew it I was in the middle of a circle looking like I was in a cock fight. With my head bobbing and doing the erratic dance moves he was dancing, I think I actually won. Personally, I'd say it was a tie.

Another night was interesting as well but on a whole other level. I have a creature that was in my room and ate my ramen noodles. To save my mac n cheese from this demon creature I decided to stay up all night in the comfort of my mosquito net, and shine my flashlight at any noise. This worked well, my mac n cheese is safe. however the demon mouse who scales walls is still proving to be a worthy opponent. Ok.... its 7:30am and I'm late for french class. Until later.... Miss everyone!! I'll try to blog soon!