Model school, chicken killings, weddings... oh my

Let me see if I can recap what has been going on in the last couple of weeks. I guess I will start with model school...

Model school is a high school here in Bafia which is only 4 weeks long and created for us trainees to practice teaching before leaving for post. It’s also summer school and gives students a chance to brush up on some of their weaker subjects. Model school takes place at an actual high school called the lycee bilingue. My first week was a success but it was not easy. Who knew that preparing lesson plans then executing them in front of a group of teenagers would actually be difficult. I mean so far in my little experience teaching it’s the older kids- 10th, 11th and 12th graders that are the more tranquil students. I feel at ease, they’re actually learning what I’m teaching them, whereas the 8th and 9th graders- forget about it. I hate them. I taught them for 3 days 2 hours each day last week and I thought I was going to go crazy. They love to ‘derange’ just to derange (disturb- I’m throwing in a little franglish) I’ve had students throwing trash around, sleeping on benches, talking back to me, interrupting me just to say that this person stole their pen or notebook. I even had a student interrupt me just to tell me that this student and that student are des amoureux so they have to sit together... I know this doesn’t sound terrible but when it’s 45 students for 2 hours none stop, it’s pretty exhausting. Not to mention the 2 hours we spend lesson planning and barely getting through a quarter of it because the students are little ... But on the bright side, we have 1 more week of model school left. Apparently teaching at post will be a lot easier because we won’t have all this other training, host family and curfew business to deal with. Don’t get me wrong I love having this time with my fellow trainees but when you have limitations, obligations and information that continuously piles on top of you until you can’t breathe anymore you end up snapping. I had one of those days last week. I reached my breaking point and ended up giving my 2hr teaching block to another volunteer. It was actually kind of embarrassing. I was talking to our teaching trainer and had a moment. I had to walk away because I couldn’t stop the tears. I found out later that 2 other trainee’s hit their breaking point the day before.

Along with our jobs as teacher trainees we were given the responsibility- as all the other trainees that have been in our shoes, to organize clubs. Every Wednesday school lets out early so they kids have time to participate in extracurricular activities. I decided to have a dance club. My only mistake was not putting a number limit on the signup sheet. Thank God for Christine and Eric- 2 other trainees, who joined the dance club. We had over 70 kids sign up. It’s been hell to manage but last Wednesday we were able to group kids up in specific dances such as the Pinguis and danse de Bafia (both African dances) and also included hip hop and salsa. At the end of the club period we introduced them to the soulja boy dance- haha. For those of you who are not familiar with this American oriented dance please youtube it. “Soulja Boy- Tell’em”. It started out as a joke and one of the other trainees said that we should learn the dance and present it not only to the students in our dance club but also at the talent show this Sunday for all the trainees and Cameroonian trainers- haha. Please youtube it so you can laugh at the idea of 5 of us trainees will be dancing “soulja boy” in front of about 80 people Sunday night.

Last week one of our tech trainings got cancelled and we all went to the bar. A few people got pretty drunk and we witnessed a chicken killing, it was quite interesting considering that I had never seen one before. So Simon’s bar aka the main bar we go to, we call it Simon’s place because one of the young boy that works there, his name is Simon. There’s a house that’s connected to it with a shack that divides the bar and the house and there are always chickens running around the bar. I’m assuming that they raise chickens at the house and sell the eggs at the bar. Some of us were having a couple drinks after our long day had finally ended and Simon started chasing one of the chickens around the bar. A bunch of the guys in our group joined in not really knowing why they were actually chasing a chicken- as you can see there isn’t much to do here recreationally so chasing chickens, or in my case watching this happen was very entertaining. After about 20 mins Simon finally caught it. The following day, we watched that same chicken take its last breathes... The day after that Simon’s family cooked it and offered some to a bunch of us. It was delicious!

Last weekend I was invited to attend 3 Cameroonian weddings. One was a Muslim wedding and the other was a Christian wedding. There were about 6 of us that that attended. Joanna and Michelle went with her family, Jack went with his family, Matt went with his parents, and Nate was the wedding crasher of the night. It worked out pretty well. 3 of us attended one wedding and the other 3 went to the other one. Around 12:30 we all met up at the 3rd wedding and stayed until about 230am. I heard the music at that wedding playing until 430am. I’m pretty sure some people didn’t even go to bed because Joanna and I walked over to a nearby bar for some bread and chocolate around 10am the next day and 3 Cameroonians were drinking, singing, dancing and grabbing at us. I would have found it funny if I had slept more than 2 hours the night before. But in the end we did laugh it off because after all it was 10am and these guys were hammered. Well it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere right... After our stop at the bar for some food we then grabbed our bags and headed to the SED house to use the internet and get our lesson plans done. About 5 hours later and about nothing accomplished we decided to round some people up and go for a bike ride in the woods. It was a great way to end the day even though I had not slept much the night before. Joanna fell twice and I technically didn’t fall. I jumped off the bike every time I lost my balance. It was like off-roading on our bikes, it was great. We got pretty scratched up. It was an awesome adventure. We had an hour to kill before curfew so we stopped at the bar for a beer before calling it a night.

I also want to point out that sleeping in, in Africa just doesn’t exist. No matter what time you go to bed, the morning comes pretty quick. The sun is shining, the roosters are crowing and the pigs are screeching usually around 630am so you can imagine anyone’s’ battle to continue sleeping.

A side from my life at school, at the bar and at home there isn’t really too much else that’s been going on. My family feeds me super late with a mountain of carbs and it’s good but I hate going to bed with a food baby every night haha. Our food of choice here- while we’re at the bar, we usually have a goute after classes. Our snack choices are sometimes pizza bread... it’s pretty good… well, Africa good anyway. It’s basically half of a baguette with tomato paste and laughing cow cheese... I know that sounds disgusting but it’s not as bad as it sounds. I definitely won’t be bringing that back to the States. However, what I will be bringing back are the spaghetti omelet sandwiches. They are amazing. It’s basically an omelet with spaghetti, tomatoes and onions in a baguette and it’s usually eaten in the morning. I’m also a fan of the bread, chocolate n banana combo and cheese, egg sandwich. Speaking of food I had my first mango last week, that was really good. I also had deer for dinner one night, which is apparently a treat because deer is difficult to find here- my first taste of bush meat. Oh and I finally had street meat! It was great, I didn’t get sick from it haha. Or so I think. I’ve actually been having stomach problems for a couple days now... again. I’ve come to the realization that by living in Africa having a solid bowel movement is almost impossible. Ask anyone of us... lol. Sorry, once again- TMI. Like I had mention before filters just don’t exist here. We talk about everything. It’s just about time for me to wrap this up, I have a class to teach in about 20 mins.

I’d like to add that I miss my friends and family every day. I hope that you all are considering a visit to Cameroon in the near future. You are all welcome to come! A la prochain, gros bisous a tous!

Suprise!! Your posted in the...

So today is the 22nd, a Wednesday. Yesterday I found out where my post is going to be.... ready drum role....... I’m going to the East. A village called Diang. I didn’t continue writing the email because we were all in shock and decided to coop over a few beers. Apparently quite a bit of volunteers get really upset if they get posted in that part of the country but after speaking to current volunteers they end up loving it! I was a little jealous of those going to the Extreme-North; I was secretly hoping to be sent to that part of the country. But hey, good news to all of you that are coming to visit me; you’ll be visiting the jungle!!! I’m going to find out more details on Friday when we get our seminar on traveling to post but I have to say that I’m more excited about it now then I was when I first got the news. I got to talk to one of the volunteers who is visiting us right now, she is posted in Bertoua- the regional capital of the East, its about an hour away from my village. So far I know I have electricity but I don’t think I have running water... hurray for the bucket baths. Most of Cameroon doesn’t have running water anyway. The east is very rich in wood, ivory and gold. The climate is hot and humid, similar to that of the Amazon; after all I am going to be living in the jungle! Hope you guys are ready to see some gorillas and leopards when you come to visit! I strongly advice bug repellent, the strong kind, well I recommend that for any part of Africa lol. Another ED volunteer is being placed about 2 hours away from me in a village called Demako.

Monday 20th, June- Wayumbee from Bafia

Life as I know it... Has now turned into a 'jungle book'... Welcome!! I hope I can keep you all entertained with my posts about how the Cameroonian life is treating me.

Apparently drafting emails is the most reliable way for me to communicate from Bafia- our training site for the next 3 months. The internet kicks us off whenever it feels like it and I must say it’s rather annoying considering that Peace Corps has us on a tight leash, only permitting us with 2 or 3 days of wifi- they are our providers. We could pay to get wifi at our host families' houses but that’s really expensive for us. Yesterday, it rained for half of the day which was the most it’s rained at once since we’ve been in Cameroon. Not what I expected at all. But I guess we are in what is called “la petite saison seche” which means we are actually in more of the dry season with random rain here and there which makes it super humid and malaria prone... Not to worry I am taking my Mefloquine every Friday night! Unfortunately even while taking our malaria horse pills we can still get malaria... last night a bunch of us were going over why we think we’re going to catch malaria because apparently its quite common amongst volunteers... great ha. As of right now my legs look like a mosquito's battle field. Yet, I’m not too worried about it, I had pretty bad diarrhea for just about 2 weeks. I was finally put on antibiotics about 5 days ago when I told PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officers) that I found blood in my stool. The blood was an obvious concern to them as opposed to the fact having a liquid bowel movement foe 2 weeks straight and intense cramping wasn't... TMI- I know; sorry guys but here there is no filter, we share everything. We’ve already figured out who we’re going to call when we need someone to come remove the mango flies from our asses if and when we get them lol... Knock on wood. Not too worry about the blood in the stool though, I’m feeling much better and have found my appetite again haha. My trip to the hospital was an interesting one, I must say... I don’t recall ever being asked to poop in a plastic bag before. I think I was most disturbed when I had to bring in the bag the next morning along with 2 other volunteers having similar issues. We were asked for our samples while sitting in the waiting room in front of everyone. Mind you our bags were clear... enough said. We all laughed about it the entire ride back to the training center.

I must say that there are a lot of things that I miss that I didn’t think I would by being in Africa living as the Africans do. Like a toilet that flushes or a real shower. There is no running water in Bafia. The people here have wells or a “forage” where they fill up buckets of water, for drinking, for laundry, for bathing, for washing food, etc... I consider myself lucky because my host family has an actual toilet as oppose to a hole in the ground. When you look at it in that perspective, pouring a bucket of water down the toilet to flush isn’t that bad. I have almost mastered the bucket bath but that doesn’t mean I like it. Given that it is pretty hot and humid here, pouring cold water all over your body at the end of the day feels refreshing, I have grown to appreciate cold showers now- something I thought would never happen back in the States. That doesn’t stop me from wishing for a “real” shower... I haven’t even started my 2 years and I already miss showers, the real ones.

BAFIA

Bafia is located in the center region, which is as you’ve guessed in the center of Cameroon. We are about a 2 hour bus ride northwest of Yaoundé- the capital. The weather here as I said earlier is very hot and humid, quite the tropical climate. It’s funny how I remember saying that the summer was my favorite season back in the States because I loved the heat, well I may be re-evaluating my feelings toward that preference. I have never sweated this much in my life! I mean I break a sweat just from walking from one side of the house to the other. It’s quite amazing actually to think that I even have that much water in my body. But with the heat there’s always a nice tan that fallows haha.

The food here is pretty interesting. I had quite a variety while in Yaoundé but I couldn’t bring myself to appreciate it much given that I was pretty sick once the vaccinations had begun. I was mostly on a banana and hydrating salt diet. My host family has been slowly easing me into the variety of foods that they have to offer. So the first night I got in they made me a fish, potatoes with some kind of red spicy watery sauce. It was good. I did not realize that here in Africa, the idea of eating everything actually meant everything. So when they served fish for dinner, it was the entire fish minus the intestines. I got lucky and only had the tail end. But I watched the rest of the family suck the head and bones of that fish dry... I really like the fried plantains- they are delicious and really simple to make. I also had the opportunity to try the sugar cane from the yard; one of my host sisters used a machete to chop it off. The use of machetes here are extremely common. I was surprised that it didn’t take me much to convince myself not be alarmed when children would walked by me holding their machetes over their shoulders. I’m more afraid of the hand size spider that sits in the bathroom watching me take my bucket bath at night then the people in the streets headed to the fields with machetes haha. Anyway, so I never thought I would say this but I think I’m contemplating vegetarianism hahaha. A side from the fish, I have not liked any of the meat here and I haven’t even tried bush meat yet. I will try everything and I’d rather know what I’m eating after I have already swallowed it. I love the eggs and bread. They're fantastic! I’ve even discovered that they have chocolate that taste just like nutella!!! I know all you nutella fans out there know how happy that makes me! They also have these interesting patisseries that’s a cross between a donut and fried dough and you can find them almost at any market, bar or persons selling them in the street. They serve a crap ton of potatoes which are good too. I’ve tried the manioc which is a particular taste but I enjoy it. The fruit here is amazing, its all fresh!! It’s pineapple season so I have been getting my fair share of fresh pineapples. We have also been finding bananas, avocados, mangos and prunes.

So I have made a few friends here within our training group. There are 42 trainees; half of us are in the education program (ED) teaching English, computers or science. The other half are in the small enterprise development program (SED). We are all roughly the same age ranging probably from about 21 to 44 and I’d say that there’s an even amount of male and female trainees and we have 1 married couple. For the same amount of time that we've spent with each other I feel as though we grown fairly close. The trainers have told us that we are a dynamic and strong group, which is encouraging to hear. I think by the 3rd or 4th day in Yaoundé we all felt that we got lucky with or group. We all get along, everyone seems to be strong in their own way and best of all, everyone has an awesome sense of humor.

We generally have a very busy week, which isn’t surprising considering the integrating process Peace Corps has been putting us in since basically Philly. It’s been such a rapid process that we haven’t had time to blink never mind even think about what’s going on. We went to a nice comfortable hotel in Philly with air-conditioned room, fluffy pillows and queen size beds with a big bathroom, hot water shower, big tv and a nice view- to a “nice” hotel in Yaoundé where the shower pressure was non-existent, cracked ceilings, occasional flushing toilet, 2 beds for the lucky ones and a hallway mirror- to our home stay: total immersion. I think the way they did it was good; they threw us into it without us really noticing what was going on. I mean, now that I think about the conditions we had in Philly or even in Yaoundé I see a tremendous difference but I’m not complaining. I am quite happy with my experience so far. Don’t get me wrong, it’s difficult but it’s only going to get crazier...

Usually we have classes Monday through Friday 8-430 and Saturday 8-12. Sunday is usually chore day and church with the family so that tends to start at 6am. You want to get an early head start on that laundry. When you’re washing it by hand it takes more than 30mins and if you’re me, it’ll take you 2 hours to hand was everything then hang up to dry. We have a 7pm curfew every night, with the exception of a planned party with an extended curfew. We are generally allowed out after that as long as were with our host family and we text our training director our whereabouts. Our evening rituals usually consist of 1-2 beers given that’s what PC allows us. Mostly, we just go to the bar to relax after the day. Some drink, some eat pain au nutella and some just sit around and socialize. We also use this time to go to the market to buy food, clothes or other items that we can bargain prices with. I was a total success in Yaoundé, when I talked the guys into selling me a pack of Marlboro for 1000CFA when he tried to sell it to me for 7500CFA. (500CFA = $1). So for those of you that were wondering, during training we get a stipend every 2 weeks of 40,000CFA (which is very manageable, things are relatively cheap here). We swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers on the 17th of August then head to post the following day. I don’t know how much we will be getting paid yet.

PAINTING A PICTURE

I’m going to try to put pictures up on facebook so everyone can see what Cameroon looks like because it is so different that it’s difficult to describe. It’s very colorful. Yaoundé has red dirt, not too many trees given that it is a city. Lots of pedestrians, cars, moto taxis. People everywhere. It’s nothing like a city you would see in Europe or in the States. Our bar in Bafia consists of a shack with a cooler for the beer, soda and water and crackers, cookies, bread and cigarettes that surround the clerk. The infrastructure is terrible. The roads are there in most places but they don’t seem to have been finished, they just kind of stop on either side. People sell food, phone credit, random clothing in little shacks on the sides of the street. For the most part Cameroonians are super friendly especially when they hear you speak French. They like that.

Training is pretty intense; I won’t spend too much time talking about it because it’ll probably bore you guys. We have 2 main training houses that we study, work and have seminars in. They are both pretty run down but they have the essentials. The teacher training course is held in the lycee bilingue (the bilingual high school). The SED trainees stay at the main training house which we also call the SED house. Now when I say high school, it’s nothing like a high school in the states. This is literally chunks of cement buildings with holes on the sides as windows... super run down. But it works for us. I have a couple pictures but it’s so difficult to upload them because of the internet connection we have here. I will try to go to the internet cafe or at the SED house on or wifi days given that we don’t lose power- which is very common in Bafia. Anyway, so we begin practice training with real students the 1st week of July and I’m super nervous. Today we just had our 15 mins presentation on our lesson plan. I must say I was rather impressed with myself considering my public speaking skills, the trainers were happy with my English lesson ha. Tomorrow we get to find out where we are going to be posted for 2 years and I cannot wait to find out. This weekend we leave Saturday for site visits all week.

Site visit is where we head to our post for the week with our counterpart and meet the volunteer that we are replacing (if we’re replacing one), meet our future colleagues, explore the community, open a bank account etc...

THE BAFIA FAMILLY

So a little about my host family… I have a mother; Micheline and a father; Divine. The father is an English teacher for elementary and secondary school and also attends classes at the university in Yaoundé. He travels a lot so I don’t see him much but when he is home we usually have interesting conversations about Cameroon’s culture, history, climate and Bafia’s community. Politics are off limits, PC discourages any particular involvement since the presidential elections are coming up and voicing an opinion might give the Cameroonians the wrong idea about what we are doing here. Micheline is mostly a stay at home mom but also works at a salon (a wooden shack in the neighborhood- I have yet to see her work in it) She usually is crazy busy doing other things such as working the field, (it’s almost corn season) cleaning the house- and when I say cleaning the house it’s tough labor. They have no such things as vacuums or mops, they’re on their hands and knees with rags- Cinderella style. She also does laundry, fills the buckets with water to leave near the bathroom or kitchen. Sunday morning’s Divine and Micheline play basketball and go running at 6am before church. I get up around 630-7am everyday and she’s up feeding the pigs or doing something. Makes me question her sleeping habits because she is usually up when I go to bed around 930 as well. I also have 3 sisters living at the house Brenda who is 13, Melvin I believe is 10 and Onya who is 6. They have a 16yr old sister that’s staying next door because I took her room- she’s got a tude (like all 16yr olds but she likes me- thank God haha) And there’s the oldest son who I met last weekend. He is in his 3rd year at the university in Yaoundé and came to Bafia for a short visit. I interact mostly with Brenda, Melvin and Onya, they have so much energy and are so curious about everything. When I gave them the Boston Red Sox towel they played with it for 30 mins, along with Micheline because they thought it was so beautiful. It’s amazing to see people appreciate things like that, that you wouldn’t really see in the States.

Let me just tell you a little bit about their cooking arrangements... They have a tiny ass kitchen inside and a more convenient one outside where I’ve watched them cook fish, corn, eggs and plantains... sanitary? Questionable. At least it’s cooked over the fire and I just tell myself that the germs have been burned off, no biggie, it’s like an extended camping trip. I’m planning on cooking them an American style dinner within the next couple of weeks: garlic bread, grilled cheese, pasta with tomato sauce and guacamole (this should be interesting) most other trainees have stuck to pasta and tomato sauce.

Micheline, Brenda, Melvin and Onya have taken me out for walks around town and to the Marché where the usual calls from locals are “oh la Blanche” which I’m getting used to. So far I have bought a couple pairs of flats and earrings for the women in the family (I kinda got suckered into that one). The flats though I needed. Cameroonians are very into the way they dress and it was pointed out previously that flip flops were not acceptable to wear to class, so I needed some nice shoes. I actually bought paigne as well (African fabric which is often used to make clothing) the other day to have some dresses made, I’m really excited to see how they came out. A bunch of other trainees already have a few made and they look nice.