Off to Akono!

Just over two weeks ago, I left my home in Sanguéré-Paul.  Tomorrow, I will be beginning a new adventure in a village called Akono, a small village in the Center region of Cameroon.

Almost immediately upon closure of my post in the North, my program manager called me with this reassignment.  I didn’t know much about the site other than that it is 40km south of Yaoundé, has a population similar to that of Sanguéré-Paul (approximately 3000 people), and that the past volunteer had set up a cookie business as an income generating activity for a women’s group (heck yes!  Cookies!!).

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been living in the Ngaoundéré and Yaoundé transit houses, waiting for the current volunteer in Akono to finish his service so that I can move in as his replacement.  This downtime has allowed me to reconnect with PCVs from other regions and to say goodbye to friends who are finishing their services and returning stateside.  It's also allowed for me to eat far too much pizza while living in the big city (as if "too much" is a thing...ha!) and visit a few tourist attractions (Coming Soon to 'Maria Goes to Africa': photos from my trip to the ranch!  Disclaimer: there were no cowboys).  Most importantly, however, these past two weeks of downtime have allowed me to fully process and accept what has happened, and allowed me to prepare for what is to come.

Like I said, just two weeks ago, I left my home in Sanguéré-Paul.  Tomorrow I will be moving to Akono.  It is almost as if I am starting my Peace Corps service all over again;  once again, I’ll be integrating into a completely different culture, learning yet another new language, and living in an entirely different environment.

At first this thought of starting over again scared the bajeezus out of me.  Its hard to be the new person in town, especially when that means being the sole foreigner, the sole white person, the sole "blanche."

Talking it over with other evacuees, I realized (or at least managed to convince myself) that there's no need to be scared.  Yes, I will be new, but I've done this before -- I've got it down.

My first three months in Sanguéré-Paul, I was nervous to leave my house and really put myself out there.  As Peace Corps Volunteers, we are encouraged to “integrate”:  to really try our best to be members of the community, building relationships and gaining trust (incidentally, this is what makes it so incredibly painful to say goodbye, even after a mere nine months).  Despite the “adventurous” nature of most PCVs, the act of integrating into a totally foreign culture, where nobody speaks your language or can even pronounce your name correctly, can be rather difficult.  I struggled those first three months at post, and thus was initially terrified/frustrated/anxious by the thought of having to relive this integration process.  Yet after having sometime to reflect, I now know that integration will be much easier for me the second time around.  I can do this.

Months ago, I would walk to the carrefour and buy some beans just to force myself to talk to people.  Now, I have absolutely no shame about inviting myself into a stranger's home to share a meal or dancing with random children on the street.  Living in Cameroon (for nearly a year now!!) has given me confidence to embrace awkward and unfamiliar situations.  Being in the Peace Corps has pushed me to learn resiliency and adaptation (throw me in the ocean, and I swear I'll grow gills... or at least learn to speak whale). 

I may be a new face for Akono, but I am no longer new to Cameroon, and I am no longer new to Peace Corps.  Yes, it’s truly unfortunate that I had to leave Sanguéré-Paul, and I will never forget the friendships that I found there, but I am trying my best to look forward to having a second chance.  I now have the opportunity to experience a whole new lifestyle and culture within the same country, and all that I have learned from my failures and success, both integration-wise and work-wise, will only serve to make my transition to a new village easier.  

And yes, maybe it will be difficult and frustrating.  Maybe I will face bumps along the way and have mild (or seemingly-psychotic) emotional breakdowns.  But now I know that those will be completely normal and totally okay given the circumstances of PCV life, and now I know that I have the most amazing support network all around the world, from Marblehead to Montreal, from Alaska to Taiwan, and from Yaoundé to Sanguéré-Paul.

So with all that being said, BRING IT ON, AKONO!  I'm a-comin' your way!