Twas and interesting 2.5 weeks

Site visit.

1. My home for the next two years proves to be more posh than what Peace Corps lead me to believe when I signed on to come to Africa. Chez Emily will have four bedrooms. One, which is currently used for a laundry room, one for a guest room, the master bedroom of coarse, and the other, will be a studio once I have furniture made. The living room/dining room is fully furnished with 3 big comfy chairs, a couch, a 15 kilo blanket, a dining room table and chairs, a coffee table, a tv if I choose to keep it (but most likely not), a stocked kitchen, and two full bathrooms- one used for pooping and the other (with a hot water heater!) for showering. I will have running water, electricity, and minimal cell phone reception. There is a yard to the front big enough for a vegetable garden and peppiniere (tree nursery) and is enclosed by a live fence. I have a neighbor next door who is wonderful. There were several days this past week where I woke up way earlier than the volunteer I am replacing and found myself chatting with charlotte. I have a hard time understanding her French but with time I will start to understand. She is going to be my surrogate mother in Cameroon I think.

Baham, my town of residence, I find is much more developed and populated (by African standards) than expected but will prove to be a great town to live and work in for two years. There is a town center with a daily market, internet, many bars and boutiques, a petit boulangerie, and a petit super marche (ie the white man store) and easy access to transportation (only 30 minutes from the provincial capital). I am not living in the town center, which is good, but am very close. There are several organizations that I will have the opportunity to work with as well, including: a farm school, a handicap school/orphanage that does a lot of agroforestry work, and a catholic mission complete with an all girls high school also interested in agroforestry. The town is hilly/mountainous with a lot of eucalyptus trees and some beautiful boulder rock formations (called fovu where there are traditional gods that live). It is the same climate that I have been experiencing so far- remember I am only going about 40 minutes away from bangante.

2. The next town is bayangam where my counterpart lives. What is a counterpart? This person is my Cameroonian work partner for the next two years. Michel- who has told me he is my new Cameroonian father- lives in a nearby village on top of a hill on his family compound/farm. To reach his house, I have to take two different taxis, and then a moto to the top of the hill. Bayangam is way more rural than my town but is also much more scenic and tranquil. Michel is the sweetest man alive, incredibly intelligent and motivated. He is a model farmer who I will most likely be learning more from than he learning from me. But he has a wonderful rapport with his community and is very excited to work with a female volunteer so that I we can work more closely with women’s groups. He has worked with pcvs in the past so already has many agro techniques in use including live fencing, alley cropping, seed bank areas, cane rat production (a rodent that is raised here for food it is a cross between a guinea pig and a ground hog and very nutritious), improved cook stoves etc. I will be working with him on creating a medicinal plant garden and apiculture projects.

3. I will also have the opportunity to work in Bangou. We took a day trip here to meet the chef (traditional chief) who is the main work contact there. The volunteer I am replacing has done a great deal of work with this chef on his farm. As a result, he was installed and given a traditional title in the village- translation- he is an African prince now. To get to bangou we rented the best moto driver in my town for the day to take us the hour trip over a small mountain. the road goes up the mountain to the crossroads of my town and the next through another very small village and back down (one point we had to get off the moto and walk it was so steep) to the entrance of the chefferie. This was probably one of the most beautiful views I have seen yet. I will try to send pictures soon that will show you what a traditional chefferie compound looks like too. They generally have triangular shaped roofs and lots of wooden sculptures/wood carvings of lions and various African wildlife.

Bullet point time.

- Good or bad, Alcohol is a major part of the culture here and when you are out with Cameroonians you will often be cadeauxed a beer or two or three.

- Transportation woes. Three tries in three different cars to get back to village from baffousam. The first took us into the market and we sat for many minutes while they loaded raw fish and chickens into the back of the car, the second took us to the police station and we sat in the car waiting for the driver to come out for over a half hour. And finally the 3^rd car got us to where we needed to be.

- There aren’t just mosquitoes in Africa. I got some strange bite on my arm that went from resembling a mosquito bite to looking like ringworm to a full out rash and burning pussy blister. Which means it was most likely caused by a blister beetle, an insect that injects burning poison into your skin when it bites you. Good times.

- Second malady- not so good. I got my first ever urinary tract infection in Africa. Fortunately (shout out to robin) I have so many friends that have had these, I was able to detect it before it got too serious. I wet my pants one morning, the next morning I peed in a bucket in my bedroom because my home stay kids wouldn’t get out of the bathroom in time, and finally my kidneys got real sore and I had a fever. Got the antibiotics and am drinking water like it’s my job and I feel fine. Lesson learned: when in Africa drink water all the time because you can get real sick if you don’t.

- The malaria pills may be making me a little crazy. (Or it could just be stage). I had crazy nightmares all night the other night including one about will smith and his wife. And I cried for half the day on Wednesday for no real reason (This is also a possible genetic disorder thanks to my mother).

- The aforementioned tech trainer Elvis, who is an expert in poultry farming, taught us how to buy chickens and kill them for our Wednesday night dinner(if you want to eat meat here you often have to kill it yourself). We went to the market in the rain got accosted by all the mommies in the market yelling at us for not speaking the local language, I tripped over a bunch of chickens and slid through the disgusting mud back to the kitchen of the training house where we detained the chickens in a closet (crowing loudly) until they were brought to their death bed where Elvis stepped on their feet, bent their necks in half and slit their throats.

- According to Cameroonians, The disconnected Internet epic is now being blamed on a cut cable somewhere in the middle of the ocean and which apparently has affected most of Cameroon. Interesting….

- Food notes: there are these things called beignets, fried dough balls, which are so good but sooo bad for you. Many of us have a love hate relationship with them eating many per day. A common breakfast, or dinner, is a bowl of beans with hot beignets and a little bit of pimente (hot sauce). Also we have discovered the art of the omelet here. They are amazing mainly because they are a great source of protein but they are also cheap and delicious, especially when you get oeuf haricot or oeuf spaghetti (with beans or spaghetti). yes that’s right, spaghetti in the omelet. it sounds awful but is absolutely amazing and satisfying. Ask me in two years about omelets and I will probably have many different words for you but for now its good stuff.

- Taught my home stay children to tango the other night-it was absolutely adorable.

- Made my home stay family a huge platter of French toast when I got back from post. If I heard one more time about how the volunteer before me made French toast I thought I was going to scream. Done and done.

- Where the hell is the promised sunshine of the dry season?

- Also, ou est d’eau!?!

- My homestay family is so religious that I often don’t really know how to handle it. Last Sunday I told them I needed to do laundry and my mom told me it was a bad day for this because they had to pray ( I then locked myself in my room for the entire morning while they held a bible, praying, singing service in the living room and didn’t get to do my laundry). My homestay dad was up at 2:30 in the morning chanting/praying until 6 in the morning one night. My friend walked me home the other night and my homestay mom invited him in for dinner. when my homestay dad came home he started asking him all these questions about god and jesus and why didn’t he want to be like billy graham. Then we had to pray for him. It was very interesting.

- I have learned that Cameroonian men are very persistent. The first question I get asked by every man is, are you a Madame or a mademoiselle. I got groped at a bar the other night, and have been called 6 times at 6 in the morning on a Sunday by a guy that thought he was interested in me. Waiting for the fake wedding ring in the mail….

- Went to the tailor to have my first article of Cameroonian clothing made. I designed a dress and took the drawing to the tailor with the African pagne I found in the market. Having clothing made is so inexpensive here. It will cost me a total of about 10 american dollars to have a dress custom made! We’ll see how it turns out….

- Lastly I made French level! Intermediate high. I don’t really know how this is possible and it is slightly suspicious that everyone that was in intermediate mid and low passed level this time around. I think the language instructors might just be sick of us. But I’m not complaining. I don’t have to sit through class any more.

- Mom if you are reading this, I thought of a few other things you can throw in the package- American candy (chocolate, reeses pieces or peanut butter cups in particular), annies mac n cheese, q tips, travel scrabble, granola bars/protein bars, a pack of s/m white v neck hanes mens under shirts, printouts to rules for various card games and the rules to yahtzee, if dad has any old Atlantic monthlies that would be amazing, surprises are nice too. Thanks!

Thank god stage is almost over, I am so ready to be an adult again.

We are getting ready for our Cameroonian version of thanksgiving. Bought 11 live chickens in the market today for slaughtering tomorrow. Turkeys are available but they are very expensive. I am on team apple pie, pinapple pie, and mac and cheese (made with the only kind of cheese available- laughing cow). There will be mashed potatoes and green beans, onion rings, and various other dishes. Some people have discussed a possible American football game in the morning before the feast but American footballs don’t really exist here. Also there may be some homemade pilgrim and Indian costumes. it doesn’t really feel like thanksgiving time right now. And if it weren’t for our very own, danny quinn, my closest agro at post, we wouldn’t know that Christmas is around the corner. He is having a santa costume made and is making stockings for all the west province kids. He also bought jingle bells singing xmas lights at the marche today- absolutely hysterical. Even though we miss America (a little bit) and our family and friends at home, It will be a great holiday with our new peace corps family.

Have a happy thanksgiving all! Eat some cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie for me!

(sorry i didn't post this earlier, emily! xox-A)