Bienvenue à Sanguéré-Paul!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would just like to add a quick note. I have never been a huge fan of Thanksgiving, but I sure do have a lot to be thankful for this year.

I am thankful to have the most loving family who has done nothing but love me and support me and help me realize my dreams. On good days, on grumpy days, whether I am in the same room or half way around the world. They are always there to talk, to let me vent, to encourage me, and to love me unconditionally. (Especially my wonderful Mommy who has called me almost every night this first week here at post to make sure that I not too lonely or too terrified of the creepy noises in my roof.)

I am thankful to have the most amaaazing friends who even though I don’t get to talk to often, are always there for me. Thank you guys for enduring my continuous rants about things both good and bad, and for continuing to send me entertaining links or stories from your own lives. Love you guys so much!

I am thankful for Cameroon. Yes, the entire country. I am thankful to the people of Bafia and Sanguéré-Paul, who have welcomed me into their communities. I am thankful for the opportunity to live here and work here for the next two years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Life’s a beach.

No, really! I can build sand castles in my front yard! If I pretend that every lizard I see out of the corner of my eye is a crab and that the sound of the bats crawling around in my roof is actually waves, and then of course I’d have to ignore the mating goats that just can’t seem to get enough of each other, well, then yeah! Sanguéré-Paul is exactly like a beach! Minus the water, of course, but then again, I can just close my eyes and pretend as I take my daily bucket bath (agh, who am I trying to impress….it’s more like every two or three days at this point).

Anyways, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do, world!

Last we spoke, I deceivingly told everyone to check out my swearing-in ceremony online at some odd hour of the morning. Whoops.

Well let’s see… that was over a week ago now! Tuesday night before the ceremony, I stayed at the house of Lori, and American Peace Corps staff member who lives in Yaoundé. I felt so incredibly welcomed and spoiled the entire night. The minute I walked in the door, her adorable five-year-old daughter was dragging me to the living room to watch a movie with her (something about a magic grandmother, and there were a lot of poop jokes… it was right up my alley). I could smell apple crisp fresh out of the oven, but of course that was to be eaten after we returned from girls night out. Lori, her two daughters, and I met up with Nurse Mishna and her friend, who were hosting Rachel and Mary, and the eight of us went out for Indian food. We then stuffed our bellies full of samosas, paneer, and dhal, until we were at the point where we couldn’t even enjoy the delicious apple crisp that was waiting at home.

I slept soundly and enjoyed a nice hot shower in the morning. A hot shower! Wowzers! A rarity here in the Peace Corps life. I have not felt so clean in over two months! Then I had a delicious breakfast, which included that promised apple crisp. Best host ever.

Anyways, the ceremony. Eh, ceremony schmeremony. But actually, it was really nice, but also really long. There were speeches. Oh so many speeches. I have to admit, I teared up a little bit during the acting-ambassador’s speech and when we took our oath. We all wore matching pagne and performed a song together (Peace Train by Cat Stevens. Sometimes I wonder how far we can push this hippy-dippy-crunchy-granola thing). Mama Lydie came to watch ceremony and then we enjoyed a nice lunch together.

Afterwards, we went back to Bafia for one last hoorah at our good ol’ Hotel New Palace. Then it was a whirlwind of goodbyes in the morning, followed by one last good meal (pizza and a chocolate milkshake) in Yaoundé.

Fast-forward: TRAINS!!!! The train ride up North was awesome-possum! Man oh man, I love trains. It was approximately fourteen hours long, in wagon-lit (AKA sleeper cars with two bunkbeds each). I had top bunk, which meant that I could ride with my head out the window like a dog, and then once it got dark, I could sleep with my feet out of the window. We were all plum-tuckered out from the party the night before, and consequently everyone in my room was out like a light by 8:30PM. In the morning, we all went to the diner car for some omelets and croissants.

Agh. Words can’t even express how happy the train ride made me.

We arrived in Garoua at maybe 6PM, and were greeted my many of the current volunteers. They were so lovely as to arrange shwarma and beer for us all, as well as to create a “heat” themed playlist for the night.

The next day, Madame Tizi, my community host, arrived at the case (AKA Peace Corps transit house) to pick me up and show me the way to my new house!

The first night in my new house was, well, scary. Someone knocked on my door at about 7:30PM, and though that’s fairly early, it was already dark out. I panicked and refused to let him in, and conversed with him through the window, telling him to come back the next morning. (It turns out it was just Olivier, my 16-year-old neighbor who has been a really kind friend to the past volunteers, and who I have received written recommendations about). Anyways, I wasn't aware of who he was at the time, and thus I was a bit nervous for the rest of the night.

I had no food yet, except for a stale mini-baguette from breakfast on the train, and a chocolate bar. So I did what Maria does best – whipped up a chocolate sammich.

Then I started hearing weird noises from all over. I didn’t know yet which noises I should be hearing and which noises I should be scared of. Turns out these noises were somewhere in between the spectrum. The good news: it was not the noise of creepy people trying to break into my house. The bad news: I have a gazillion bats living in my roof.

Anyways, it’s been kind of weird adapting to my new life here. I haven’t really interacted with too many people, other than my community host, my counterpart, and Olivier. I’ve been spending a good part of every day cleaning, as there has been no one living in my house for 7 or 8 months, and everything is covered in dust. I’ve also been hanging out inside while a repairman fixes all the windows and doors (and by "fixes", I mean he is putting them where there weren’t any before...which is everywhere). I’ve also been reading a lot and watching too much Sex and the City (whoops).

Still trying to figure out the food situation – I know a lot of you are probably wondering about that. I learned recently that I have a reputation of being a sugar fiend. And by that, I mean that word has gotten around that one time I ate four chocolate sandwiches in one day (not like the one I made on my first night here, but rather with a delicious chocolately spread). This isn’t true – the most I have ever had was two, I think – but nevertheless, I’ll defend my title. Things were looking good, nutrition-wise, once I bought my gas bottle and some veggies, but then my luggage arrived and I rediscovered that 54-ounce bag of skittles and gigantic jar of Nutella. Looks like I’ll have to make a trip to that dentist in Yaoundé at somepoint in the next two years... Boy, that’ll be something to blog about! Anyways, fortunately my lovely grandmother neighbor has given me food almost every day. So far I have lived in Sanguéré-Paul for six nights. I have cooked one meal (beans), been given four meals, have eaten at Olivier’s house once, and the rest of the time I’ve just been tasting SO MANY RAINBOWS.

Next week I'll be starting to meet with community members to learn a bit more about Sanguéré-Paul. I'll also be starting my Fulfulde lessons with Olivier's language teacher at the local high school! This will hopefully help me to communicate with my neighbors and to buy things at the market. And I might even experiment with some gardening in my front yard, which actually might just turn into building sandcastles. Things are going slowly, and I'm taking it one day at a time (pole-pole, as we used to say in Zanzibar! Or seda-seda, in Fulfulde), but things are definitely going!

Oh, and I would also like to add that today it was 104 degrees. We're currently in the middle of the "cold season". Ha.

I have tons of pictures to share but this computer wont let me to post them, you'll have to wait until another day!

Later gators!

Quick update on the swearing-in ceremony

If you guys are interested in live-streaming our swearing-in ceremony, it will be at 10:30AM here (4:30AM Eastern Time). The link is at the end of my previous blog post (the one titled Buh-Bye Bafia). Off to Yaounde now!!! :D

Buh-bye Bafia!

I'm packing up my bags and saying goodbye to Bafia in just a matter of days now.  Though I am beyond excited to finish training and begin my service, I will definitely miss my homestay family.  Yes, there were plenty of times where it totally sucked having a curfew everynight and never being able to choose my own meals (you have my word: starting the minute I leave Bafia, I will never eat another bite of fish in my entire life), but I just wanted to share how incredibly appreciative I am for my host family. 

Mama Lydie, Papa Piment, Epiphany, and Patricia have done nothing but welcome me into their home, and have helped me to feel so comfortable here in Cameroon.  They put up with my horrible french at the beginning, correcting my grammar and pronunciation until I became comfortable enough to hold what I feel like is a more-than-half-decent conversation.  They openly and honestly answered any cultural questions that I had, and would always listen attentively as I rambled about things from back home.

They adapted their diets by adding more veggies when they wanted meat, and by cooking potatoes for me when they prefer manioc.  They even pretended to love the meal that I cooked for them that one time. 

Mama Lydie nagged me about cleaning my room and washing my sheets, just like any good mom would, and Papa Piment lectured me about safety and security if I ever did anything stupid, just like any good father should (don't worry...I didn't really do anything thaaat stupid).  They cooked soup for me when I was sick and always let me drink as much of my favorite juice as I wanted, despite the intense labor that goes into making it (cassamangue juice, fyi.  It's beyond amazing.)  

And they've never even questioned the fact that I sleep nearly 10 hours a night when everyone else is already awake and doing chores by 5:30AM! 

I think you guys are getting the point here... my host family has been kind of awesome.  I am totally ready to move to post, but to be honest, it will be a bit strange to come home to an empty house every night.  And while part of my is excited to be able to cook and eat whatever I want, whenever I want, the real Maria deep inside of me knows that whatever/whenever will really just be cookies and chocolate, ALL THE TIME!  (My host family and I have been joking that I should leave all of my clothes behind and just fill my suitcases with chocolate.  Real-Mom was proud of this plan.  The cassamangue doesn't fall far from the tree!) 

Today I packed up all of my bags, and Peace Corps loaded them up into a bus.  They'll be driving my luggage up to Ngaoundéré, where my gazillion-hour train ride ends.  Then, reunited with my belongings, I'll hop on a bus and drive for hopefully no more than another 6 hours to Garoua.  I should be arriving at my house in Sanguere-Paul either Friday night or Saturday morning (at which point I will mark the beginning of my service by cracking open that jar of Nutella and 5-pound bag of skittles that I've demonstrated oh-so-much self control with for the past 2 months). 

Papa Piment helped me rearrange all of my things into my metal trunk, making sure that I could jam as much stuff in there as possible, and the entire family tag-teamed to make sure that I didn't put any dirty clothes or shoes in my suitcase ("You can't arrive to the North with dirty shoes!  You just cant!"). Mama Lydie and I shared a squeal of excitement (mixed with stress due to the fact that I wasn't entirely finished packing) when the Peace Corps came to gather up my stuff.  She helped me stuff Stanley's head into the bag, and then the bags were out the door! 

Enjoy the train ride, Stan! 

I guess it's kind of late in the game, but I wanted to share with you some photos of my house here in Bafia before it becomes completely irrelevant once I move up North! 

Here is my cozy little bedroom, messy as always.  Though this picture was taken weeks ago, and now the room is practically empty.  

Look, Ma!  Clean counters! 

Fridge and stove! Though I'd say at least 75% of the meals are cooked on a wood fire in the kitchen house out back.

Dining room table.

My host-sister Patricia and a few of her friends watching TV.  (Patricia is the middle one)

And of course, this is what they were watching!  Gotta love Dora the Explorer!   (Did you know she speaks French too?!)

This is the only picture I have that kind of shows the front of our house... but I thought I'd take the opportunity to show off my new pagne dress!  Love Lianna's dress here too!

So there you have it!  In less than a week now, I'll be taking pictures of my new house in Sanguere-Paul instead!  (Though I'll try my best to not wait so long to post them.)  

If you guys are interested and happen to be awake before the crack of dawn, try tuning into our swearing-in ceremony!  Click here on the morning of Wednesday, November 20th, at 4AM Eastern Time (if you love me enough / care enough to wake up that early):  http://www.afromotion.net///////////afrotv/43/Crtv-Cameroun

I'm sure it'll be a real gem!

That's it for now!  Catch ya later, folks! 

SO MANY THINGS

Things have been a bit craycray here lately!  And by craycray, I mean…well… You know how at how at the end of high school, senioritis was a thing?  And then after that there was college and all-nighters and procrastination and the utter desire to do absolutely nothing at all even though finals were right around the corner?  Well… That’s where I’m at now.  Minus the all-nighters, because these days if I’m in bed any later than 9PM, it’ll be a rough morning for me. 

We’re wrapping up training in less than a couple weeks, and as a result, the productivity wheels have been turning full speed!  (Or at least trying to…)

What kinds of projects and homework do we have here in Peace Corps Pre-Service Training?

Wednesday we had our Independent Exploration Projects (IEPs).  We each had to give a 15-30 minute presentation en français on a topic relating to Cameroonian culture.  My topic was Mount Cameroon and the Race of Hope.  I’m not gonna give you the whole shpiel (unless you really want to hear it), but here are some fast facts:

• Mount Cameroon is the tallest mountain in West Africa and one of the tallest volcanoes in all of Africa (at 4100m).  It’s also a super-duper active volcano.
• There’s a god (Efasa-Moto) who lives on the mountain who takes care of everyone and apparently has a really tasty sugarcane plantation somewhere up on the mountain.
• The Race of Hope is a 24 mile race up and down the mountain.  It’s apparently super tough and nobody but Cameroonians have ever won.  In fact, last year only something like 5 out of the 30ish American participants even finished the race.  Nonetheless, it sounds like something my nutty mother would enjoy (love you Maaa.).  Though you can also do it as a three-person relay.  
• Last year’s race took place on my birthday, and also took place only 13 days after the volcano’s most recent eruption…. So that’s fun, I guess.

Friday we handed in our leaf collections.  Yep, that’s right: leaf collections.  And you guys though I wasn’t a real farmer.  HA.  Anyways, we had to collect a whole bunch of leaves and press them and dry them and then make them all pretty and label them with all their various names and descriptions.  So sciencey.  So agro.  It went pretty alright, except that Epiphany and Patricia helped me pick the leaves and they insisted that I dry and press a hot pepper too, and when I opened up the press-book, there were maggots everywhere.  Yum.

More gardening will probably happen soon.  And by soon, I mean later this evening.  I transplanted a whole bunch of basil and some other plants a few weeks ago, and to everyone’s surprise, they’re doing really well!  However, a lot of weeding has to get done before our garden evaluations take place in a couple of days.  Plus I’ll have to write up a report about my gardening experience went.  How many of you folks have heard about my traumatic frog incident?  Maybe some things are better left unsaid... 

I have another French presentation this week on leguminous plants.  Guess I should probably start learning stuff about leguminous plants.

I’m still taking both French and Fulfulde classes, which I’m loving.  I finally feel confident in my French, which is awesome, but my Fulfulde notebook is a total headache.  I’m loving learning the language, but my Fulfulde classes are being taught in French.  My notebook has three languages, because with just two of the three, sometimes it’s difficult to decipher.  For example:  be = et.   How the heck am I supposed to know which language is which?  Be = et = and.  There we go…much better.  Nonetheless, I’m having a lot of fun with it.  

Sometime soon we have final exams, too.  Arrrg.  

So yeah, it's been a lot of work, but there's definitely been a lot of fun stuff mixed in as well!  For example, Saturday was "Diversity Day":  a whole day of cultural exchange between the  stagiaires (AKA trainees) and formateurs (AKA trainers).  There was singing and dancing and cooking and eating!  What more could you want?  The whole day was just filled with fun.  All of the formateurs came dressed in traditional clothing from whatever region they were from, and we got to sample foods from each region as well.  Though I have to admit, as much as I enjoyed sampling traditional Cameroonian foods and learning traditional dances, the highlights of the day for me were Kraft mac & cheese and the Macarena.  #Murrica.

On Sunday I went with Lianna to visit her host-mom's dad's (host-granpa's?) bakery.  We got a behind-the-scenes tour of the bakery and we each walked out one piping-hot chocolate-filled pastry richer.  Even better yet, earlier in the day her host-mom taught us how to make crepes, which I then loaded up with Nutella-ish sauce.  Best day ever.

Oh, and of course we had a wicked fun Halloween party last weekend!  We all stayed at a hotel so that we could dance the night away without worrying about our usual 7PM curfew.  I dressed as a successful agroforestry volunteer.  Brought along Mr. Carrot to demonstrate my success. 

AndAndAnd this is exciting news!  Today my community host, Sylvie, came all the way down from Sanguere Paul to meet me for our community host workshop.  She greeted me with the biggest bear hug ever.  Despite the fact that she didn't seem to believe that I am actually capable of communicating in French, she was incredibly sweet and it was very comforting to meet the person who will be helping me integrate into my community and to create an action plan.  We have another full day of workshops together tomorrow.

Oy!  So much more to say but so little internets!  And so little time before it gets too dark to weed my garden...but you know, that can always wait until...errm...never.  Still want to tell you guys all about our agroforestry field trip to the West a couple weeks ago, during which WE DID REAL STUFF WITH REAL TREES!!!!!  But I guess that's still just another story for another day.

The next week and a half will be pretty hectic as we prepare for our swearing-in ceremony (if you want to find a way to stream it, it will be on Cameroonian national television sometime on November 20th.  I can't give you many more details than that, except I think it will take place in the morning, Cameroonian time.  So if you want stream it, you'll have to wake up pretty darn early.  So...you probably don't want to do that.) 

I'll try to post again later this week if the internet situation gets better!  Or maybe I'll try to reorganize and proofread all this word vomit right here... but to sum everything up, everything is supah fine and dandy!  So excited to be finishing up training and to finally get to post!  Only 10 more days now!!!

Ta ta for now! 

Scenes from Cameroon

Hey there, fellas!  Sorry that I've been a bit absent.  Haven't felt like writing much.  Between French and Fulfulde, field trips and fêtes, there hasn't been much downtime.  But a picture's worth a thousand words, right?  So here!  Have ten!

All of the following pictures, except for the first and last, were taken en route to Kumbo in the North West.  Thus, these are scenes from the Center, West, and North West regions of Cameroon. 

Yaoundé, from my hotel window.

Shisong, NW Region

Jealous?  I often forget to look up when I'm walking to and from school here in Bafia (gotta pay attention to these muddy roads!), but whenever I do, I am always amazed at the mountains and palm trees all around me.  I am lucky to live in such a beautiful country!

Stay tuned for a post later this week about our Agroforestry field trip to Banganté!