C’est La Vie au Cameroun

We flew the 8 hours to paris and then boarded again to fly to Cameroon. I knew immediately that we were headed for a different place once we arrived to the gate for our second flight. In the terminal there were very well dressed Cameroonian men and women and then the group of 42 sloppy white Americans. We stick out like a sore thumb but as we chatted with the people around us they all seem to respect the peace corps and know we are here to do good work. There was one stop over in douala the largest city in Cameroon. We were only supposed to sit for a half hour while some got off and others got on but ended up being stuck in the plane on the runway for more than an hour. Apparently the plane was struck by lightning and they had to wait for clearance to take off again. CRAzY. Also, flying over the sahara desert was pretty amazing, you couldn’t look out the window without sunglasses it was so bright.

Here In yaounde, We are staying in a hotel up the street from the peace corps head quarters and although the two buildings are within walking distance, we have to be shuttled to and from in the pc land cruisers and vans. 15 people piled into a car. We are not allowed to leave the hotel to explore mainly because many of us have no language abilities and do not yet have our cameroonian identity cards. The hotel we are staying in is pretty nice. For American standards I imagine many would be unhappy here, but we have electricity (it did cut out for half the day today), an air conditioner in our room (its actually not too hot though) and a toilette, however the water has not been working since around lunch time and it is now midnight. C’est la vie au cameroun

This week we have had intensive training and info sessions on what will be happening in training the next 11 weeks. We will have 102 hours of language classes (I am at the second to last level after being tested yesterday), hours of health, safety and cross cultural classes, and agro training all day long. GET THIS: we have an entire 1.5 hour health section devoted to diarrhea, sweet! I also learned today talking to one of the agro volunteers training us that I will be receiving my very own MACHETE when I arrive to post and that I will be planting lots and lots of trees.

We will be in bangante by Friday ( a smaller town north of yaounde in the mountains) and will be placed with our homestay families then. Fortunately we have been told vegetarians will be able to keep their habits for at least homestay. And they eat a lot of fish here so this is good news!

The people in the program are all very nice. Everyone comes from incredibly different backgrounds and they all seem to have a ton of previous travel experience. LOTS of Midwesterners, west coasties, kids from the south, and only 4 northeasterners. It's typical though, I have joined yet another organization that is primarily female. The ratio is ridiculous kinda like risd. So for all of you out there telling me my future husband is in the peacecorps, you’re wrong. This is not the marriage corps.

We had a fancy welcome dinner at the PC country directors house. We met his family and the staff for PC Cameroon and were all officially greeted by the American ambassador to Cameroon. Pretty cool! I felt like I was in a movie about Africa in the gated houses of the diplomat neighborhood.

I cannot believe we are actually here! Some things I’ve noticed so far. The clouds are amazing. There was a lizard on the wall in our hotel hallway. We have gendarmes (police/soldiers) posted in our hotel to keep us safe. There is a mango tree out our window. The traffic is ridonculous! Absolutely no rules. Beer is super cheap and plastic baggy pouches filled with whiskey cost 50 cents. Not too bad.

I will be getting a cell phone in the next few days and will get my phone number to all asap. I can get calls for free and I know of a few semi cheap services in the states that people can use to call my cell. There is skype an online chat thing. I think it costs 30 cents a minute. You connect to the internet and can call me. And then there is Africa Dream Card that you by on line to get a refillable number/pin that I hear costs only 10 cents a minute, that is a deal! I miss you all lots and hope things are going well. I am fine and think this whole Africa thing might not be so bad after all.

I have to run, I think the water just turned back on and I need to take a shower!