It's now been almost four months since we took off from the Douala International Airport and said goodbye to Cameroon. After traveling for a month through Morocco and Spain, finishing with two days in Paris, we landed at the Orlando International Airport to find an exhuberant family welcome on December 22. It's hard to believe that we've been home almost three months, as it feels both longer and shorter given everything that's happened since then. We celebrated Christmas with both of our immediate families and enjoyed reuniting with friends that were home for the holidays. We took a three week roadtrip in January to visit friends and family, and have continued to travel more weekends than not to visit people we haven't seen in far too long. Since mid-February we have both been working, Erin as a dietitian and assistant to a former professor and Mike as a substitute teacher. We've also been volunteering and trying to find useful ways to give back with our time. On top of everything else, we got to watch the college football bowl season for the first time in four years, and cheered our beloved Gators on to a National Championship victory! Of course we're now watching the Gator basketball team power through another amazing season! We've also celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary and will enjoy partying with friends and family this week as Mike turns 29 and Erin turns 27! Although we've struggled a few times since returning home, neither of us can pinpoint the source of our sadness, stress, anger, or anxiety. There are the obvious answers, but to be honest the difficulties of readjustment sneak up on you (at least they did on us) and we can't really say why we felt that way since we didn't see it coming until we felt the effects. Aside from missing those we grew to know and love behind in Cameroon (and our Peace Corps friends that are now stateside, but far away), we're adjusting well and love being back in the land of plenty, surrounded by friends and family we missed so much over the past 26 months. Our time in Africa isn't over yet, however, as we already hope and plan to return one day.

What's up fools? Erin is taking a short hiatus, which means y'all are left with me. The last time that you heard from us we were still in Yaounde preparing to leave. Since then we've travelled through Morocco and Spain, eating tasty food, enjoying beautiful locations, and relaxing as much as possible before returning home. In each place we've seen one or two key attractions, but we've kept sightseeing to a relative minimum, focusing more on sleeping in and eating well. We have also done a tremendous amount of walking and talking. We prefer to avoid taxis at all cost, because we've found taximen to be the most dishonest people in each town/country we visit. Thus, we prefer to hike a few kilometers with our packs rather than hire a taxi. Taxis are used only in dire situations or emergencies. For instance, if a car hit Erin, we might look for a taxi. But if a motorcycle hit her we would not. Morocco, I must admit, was a nice transition between the developed and developing world. In many ways Morocco is a gateway country. It's only a few kilometers away from Spain by boat, and numerous tourists flock there during European vacation periods. While we visited, we saw tourists at almost every turn: hundreds of people thronging the Medina in Marrakech, but Europeans also popped up in the more remote places. Along the way, we met an American man from Tennessee who knows Tom Farkash in Ouzazarte. Strange and small world it is. Morocco has a very layered culture. The dominant tribe are the Berber, a very proud, and I would say wily people. They always know how to get costumers to buy something or other in their shops. Erin and I escaped having only spent several hundred dollars, money that we don't really have to use. I say escaped simply because I saw herds of folk buying much more than we did. Most of them speak several European languages as well as Berber and Arabic. But one tends to get used to polyglots after spending a few years in Africa. People seem to know more languages than Comparative Literature professors in the U.S. Some of the highlights of our time were the Todre Gorge that was in Tinghir and walking the streets of Marrakech (both of which we visiting with our friend Carie), where every building is painted rose. It gives the building a sunset look, especially in the afternoons. The souks, the Medina, snake charmers, carpet merchants, mint tea, tanghines, and cous-cous flood the senses with sites and smells and titillate the mind. After finishing our time in Morocco and despite our enjoyment there, Erin and I were very ready to continue to Spain. After arriving in Madrid and resolving our hotel woes, we found a nice and modern hotel not to far from Madrid's city center and along a main bus line for €60 a night. Given that the place is brand new and very comfortable, and given that we bought the tickets at the last minute, we felt very lucky to have been able to find a somewhat affordable room. We rode public transportation into the Spanish capital every day and enjoyed being back in the land of good food, quick service, shopping malls, museums, parks, narrow streets, metros, sports bars, supervised children, other people who look the same as us, and hotels in which we wish we could live permenantley. I would say that Morocco had many of these elements, but was also missing a few. Let's take the Metro for example. Very easy, convenient, cost effective, with maps that show where you need to go. Man, it's like people designed these cities to be easy to navigate. Imagine that! Cities designed for use. Marrakech and Casablanca were fairly user friendly, but not quite to the same level. The food: paella, tortilla, bocadillas, veal scalopini, chorizo, quesos y ensaladas variados, blows the mind with its richness and diversity. I feel a glutton because I enjoy eating so much. And the availability of good beer at every bar throws me for a loop. I'm used to one or two choices. It's a brave new world. Well gotta wrap things up because time is running out. I'll write more later. That is if Erin doesn't take the power back. Until then Adíos. Mike

Happy Thanksgiving! C'est vraiment incroyable! (It's truly unbelievable!) Here we sit in Yaounde, almost done with the close of service process. We've been writing and turning in reports, patiently answering the same questions in exit interviews and online surveys (oh, the American bureaucracy!), and allowing ourselves to be poked and probed by doctors, lab techs, and dentists. By I'm getting ahead of myself... We returned to Yagoua, after assisting with training, with our replacement in tow. What fun it is to witness a trainee beginning to discover Cameroon and feel out the role and life of a Peace Corps volunteer. Matt, as I mentioned before, will replace the two of us as a Health Educator, but a married couple working in agroforestry will live in our house. Watching and listening to the three of them talk while walking around Yagoua, Mike and I kept glancing sideways at each other, unable to contain the smiles that crept across our faces. The naivete and sheer newness of them and their experience reminded us of how we entered 26 months ago, and we couldn't help but feel proud for how much we learned and grew (both as a couple and as individuals) in such a (relatively) short amount of time. The week flew by, filled with endless introductions of Matt to people all over town, walking around to show off our Cameroonian home town, trying to say goodbye to everyone, and transferring as much information and work ideas as possible to the incoming volunteers in a few short days. Last Wednesday the Technical High School held a ceremony for the installation of the donated computers. It was amazing and the perfect end to our service. Many community members, the delegate of secondary education, our counterpart and supervisor from the health center, and the principal, teachers, and students of the high school were all in attendance. Having Matt there provided us with our own personal photographer (a perk!). The ceremony was short and sweet, consisting of the kindest remarks by the principal about us and the work we've done for Yagoua (accompanied by applause from attendees and the crowd of students) followed by a few short sentences from me and Mike, a symbolic giving of the computers (handing over the empty boxes), a tour of the computer lab (where one of the new computers was set up next to the old computers they'll continue to use as well), and a "cocktail" of Sprite, Fanta, and skewers of meat. The final two days at post we were quite the social butterflies, bustling back and forth between friends' houses and our own, where we received many visitors stopping by to say au revoir. It humbled us to hear how much we meant to people we hardly even knew, to realize the impact we've had on our community (which until that point was somewhat a mystery). We rolled out of Yagoua in the Danay Express bus for the last time around 12:30 last Friday, with only a few tears shed. As we told everyone, it's not "goodbye," but just "until next time." We plan to return within five to ten years, but the hardest part of leaving is knowing that, in this environment laden with disease and accidents, many of those we now leave behind may not be here when we return. That is especially true of Faissal's father, currently in his 70s, and our HIV+ friends. The saying, "It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all," comes to mind, as the simple blessing of knowing these incredible people enriched our lives immeasurably. We will forever carry with us the memories and experiences of these past two years. We met up Friday night with Carie, Alice, and Eric in Garoua, and then all traveled together to Ngaoundere on Saturday to board the train. Of course Cameroon couldn't make our final trip painless and without incident, as that would be an exception to the norm. The station sold our beds on the train (though we later found out that was just a ploy to get a bribe) so we spent the night curled in chairs in 1st class. Nothing could phase us though, as we were all together and making this journey for the last time (at least in the foreseeable future). We arrived in Yaounde around 8:30 Sunday morning, a miracle in and of itself due to the crazy unpredictability of Camrail. Since then we've been moving a mile a minute trying to complete our law and graduate school applications, prepare for our trip, unpack/repack, and jump through all the Peace Corps hoops to get cleared to leave Cameroon. It can't be all work and no play, however, and since we're here with most of our best friends in country we've been having a blast! Preparations are in full swing for our Thanksgiving feast, complete with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin and apple pies. Yep, we're going out in style! I'm waiting to exhale, however, until I'm comfortably installed in my seat on the plane early Saturday morning and on my way to Morocco. We entered Cameroon on September 25, 2004 and will leave exactly 26 months later on November 25, 2006. We'll travel for about a week with our friend Carie before she meets up with her dad. Then we fly to Spain on December 7th where we'll spend time in Madrid before heading north to Mike's grandmother's village (where she lived before moving to the States as a young girl) and then over to Barcelona. We hope to spend a few days in Paris as well before catching our flight to Orlando on December 21st. On September 22, 2004 we boarded a flight from Gainesville, and will finally return home exactly 27 months later--December 22, 2006. From last week until January I don't believe we'll descend from the clouds. We'll continue to float around not fully aware that we've permanently left Cameroon and reveling in the treat of traveling the world and reuniting with our friends and family. It will truly be a Christmas to rival all Christmases!

Holy Moses, only a week remains! We're currently in Garoua (back where it all began) assisting with the training of the new volunteers who will soon replace us departing volunteers. The fact that our life in Cameroon will wrap-up in the next few weeks wavers between unbelieveable reality and a dreamlike surreality. The new group seems motivated and, although it's nearing the end of a LONG training, still driven by a positive attitude. Post announcements occured yesterday, so Sunday they will venture out into the great Cameroonian unknown for a week to visit their future homes. Yagoua will receive another married couple, this time as Agroforestry volunteers, and fellow Southerner Matt Harvey (who hails from Alabama) will fill our shoes. We think he'll excel in Yagoua as he loves youth and sports, two areas in which we've worked extensively. When not assisting with training sessions and the currently in-process Counterpart Workshop (during which the trainees are introduced to who they will work with over the next two years and the Cameroonian counterparts learn about Peace Corps and its approach to development), we've been taking full advantage of the free Peace Corps computer available to us to progress through our graduate and law school applications, resumes, essays, etc. Applying to schools is never an easy process, a fact only magnified ten-fold by our lack of computer or internet within a 180 km radius. Pity not, for what doesn't kill you only makes your personal statements stronger! The beginning of the end commenced last week when we said goodbye to Maroua. We enjoyed a wonderful send-off: hanging out will fellow departing volunteers, now some of our best friends, eating, drinking, and carry on like only PCVs can. We find ourselves repeating quite often, "This is the last time we'll...," with various endings attached. The last time we travel back to Yagoua will be tomorrow. The last time we spend the night in our house in Yagoua will be Thursday. The last time we take a bush taxi and the Camrail train will be next Saturday. Our sense of excitement and anticipation for the future is tempered by the inevitable sadness of leaving the people, life, and home we've grown to love. We often discuss and estimate how long it will take for us to realize that we're not on vacation and returning to Cameroon once we arrive in the States. We took one more step towards our new reality last night when we said goodbye to our host family in Nassarao, the amazing people who welcomed us into their home for 10 weeks (and many times since), patiently deciphered our French and Fufulde, fed us, and often sustained us over the past 26 months. We've been fortunate, however, to have some time at post simply to visit with friends we'll soon leave behind. We successfully fasted the entire month of Ramadan, and loved breaking the fast with another family almost every night. Then Monday, October 23rd we celebrated the end of Ramadan (truly a holiday to rival Christmas, at least in regards to the amount of food) with Faissal's family (including Faissal and his brother Seihou who both came back to Yagoua), Adams, and numerous others friends and their families as we made the rounds that day. Since then we've made banana bread (a "traditional cake of our country" as we say) that we shared with families to whom we've grown close in our neighborhood as well as the staff at the health center. The upcoming final six days at post will surely seem to pass on fast forward. We'll welcome our replacement on Sunday, introducing him around, showing off our town, and further explaining our work for a few days before he must return to the final three weeks of his training. The computers we (thanks to many of you!) purchased for the Technical High School and Youth Center were delivered by Peace Corps last Saturday, so Matt will attend the dedication ceremonies with us this week. (Don't worry, pictures will be taken!) Additionally, we'll have to finish clearing out our house, pack, turn off the electricity and water, say final goodbyes, and complete a few "to dos" for Peace Corps. The work won't quite be over when we roll out (no doubt with tears in my eyes) next Friday. We'll then spend a week in Yaounde giving final interviews with staff, submitting to endless medical tests, and polishing off our final reports to Peace Corps and applications to graduate and law schools. The sigh of relief I dream of will come on November 24th when we step on the bus to Douala to catch our 5:20 a.m. flight to Morocco.

We just spent our longest stretch of time left in Yagoua, two and a half weeks. With only four and a half weeks left until we travel to Yaounde to close out our service, we will not be in Yagoua for longer than a week and a half from here on out. In fact we return home today for that amount of time, travel to Maroua again at the end of the month, go home for about four days, head to Garoua to assist with training for a week, then pack up and say goodbye during one final week in Yagoua. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times…the time will fly. We left Yaounde on September 23rd, pulling out of the train station as the sun set and Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, began. We awoke at 4:30 a.m. the following morning to eat breakfast with Carie before rolling over and sleeping through most of our first day without food. The Camrail train, notoriously off-schedule and unpredictable, finally pulled into the Ngaoundere station at 5:30 p.m., 7 to 11 hours late (depending on your level of expectations and optimism). We frantically gathered food from station vendors and jumped in a taxi to travel to Wack, our friend Kris’s post, for the night. After two long days of travel by train and bus, we finally returned home and hit the ground running to prepare for our impending HIV voluntary testing and counseling training at the local provincial hospital. Due to some miscommunication, the original start date (September 28th) and duration (6 days) of the training was changed to accommodate a four-day training, held October 4-7. This was a project a year in the making, and after innumerable hours in meetings with the hospital administration, pre-testing participants, writing proposals for funding, and rewriting and printing counselor manuals, we filled the week before the training with innumerably more hours of session and material preparation. The training was met with mixed reviews from the 15 doctors, nurses, and community agents who participated, mainly because we started at 7:30 a.m. and finished around 3:30 p.m. (actually 45 minutes early) every day. All in a day’s work for Americans, but a hard sell to Cameroonians. Although I’m perhaps the harshest critic (and therefore wouldn’t have been happy with anything but a swimming success, a nearly impossible feat in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer), the majority of feedback was positive and we feel we accomplished the end goal of improving counseling knowledge and skills. A few star participants made all the negative comments and self-abuse worth while, and we were once again amazed by the attitude, abilities, and work ethic of a number of the participants who helped us make the training more successful. At the end of this week of preparation and facilitation (all while fasting from sunrise to sunset), there exists no word to describe our level of fatigue. I developed a cold which I have yet to shake, an odd affliction to have while the daily temperature soars to 100 degrees or more (the rains have ended as we usher in the mini hot season). We’ve now settled into a more leisurely routine. With a long list of reports to write, arrangements to make, loose ends to tie up, and people to visit, we slowly, but methodically work our way through each day. We came into Maroua last Friday to work on graduate and law school applications, type reports (yes, at post we’ve regressed to using the old-fashioned pencil and paper), and prepare for the culmination of our Peace Corps experience. We’ll return home tomorrow and look forward to the festivities of our final end of Ramadan celebration, which will afford us the opportunity to visit our friends in town, eat lots of junk food, and spend time with Faissal (who now lives and attends high school in Mokolo and is ranked top of his class) and his brother Seihou (who lives and works in Yaounde for the Cameroonian Aviation Association). It seems oddly apropos that as this chapter of our lives draws to a close, we’ve received news on the passing of three counterparts and friends. During our vacation in West Africa, our friend Boukar died of complications from AIDS. Only in his early twenties, Boukar amazed us with his resiliency after learning of his HIV infection. He graduated from high school and became a HIV counselor at Maroua’s Provincial Hospital, actively participated in a local support group for people living with HIV/AIDS, and gave testimonials to share his experience, hoping to help other youth like him to avoid contracting HIV. It was after one such powerful testimonial at the Youth Leadership Conference that we spoke with Boukar for the last time. Shortly after arriving back in Yagoua, we learned that another friend and counterpart, Mr. Adama, succumbed to AIDS as well. He was only in his thirties and an active member of both Yagoua’s Health Committee and the group of HIV-positive people with whom we work. Finally, and most shockingly, Peace Corps Cameroon lost a valuable member of its Senior Staff last Thursday when Associate Peace Corps Director for Agro-forestry, George Yebit, died while visiting Maroua. Each of these people positively affected our lives in their own way, and they will be deeply missed. As these events have come to pass, they’ve caused me to reflect on all of the changes that have occurred during our time in Peace Corps. It almost feels as if, for the past 25 months, we’ve been birds, hovering above and observing the lives of those we love in America, but unable to fully witness or take part in the daily ups and downs and life changing events. Now as we prepare to touch back down, the reality of the consequences of our absence acts as a cold wind slapping us across the face. I fooled myself into believing for a long time that not much had or would change in America during the course of nearly two and a half years. Having lived in America for 10 times that long, I felt all too familiar with the unchanging, mundane tasks of life at work or in school. I apparently only fooled myself, because time marched on and during our absence I lost my grandfather and Mike lost his grandmother, my sister graduated from college, obtained her Master of Special Education degree, and now teaches in Nashville, my brother-in-law graduated from college and is now preparing to apply to law school, at least three friends got married, three more will be married before we get home, two friends and two of Mike’s cousins have new babies, my cousin built a house, the Gators hired a new football coach and played through three football seasons (currently kicking butt and taking names), other friends have graduated from college, graduate school, and law school, people have found and lost jobs, George Bush was reelected to a second term, my father retired, my father-in-law was promoted and sworn in as a circuit court judge, friends moved away to various corners of the world while others returned to Florida, my best friend is now engaged, and Mike’s best friend climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Through it all, we’ve been in Cameroon, Africa, growing, changing, shaping ourselves and our surroundings. As we prepare to move back to America and begin the reportedly slow and potentially painful, emotional process of reintegrating into that once familiar life and culture, I’m both excited and scared. While I still remain on this now not-so-foreign soil, alternately anxious with anticipation and paralyzed by doubts and questions, I wrap myself in the comforting knowledge that despite all the events that have altered the landscape of our lives in the past two-plus years, it’s now a proven fact that the best friends and family in the world await us on the other side.

I realize we haven’t posted to the blog in months, so I apologize to those of you who enjoy following our daily, weekly, or monthly adventures. There have been times during our Peace Corps experience that I was loathe to post to the blog because we lacked anything to say, no real activity or excitement occurred. Fortunately, I suppose, lately the reality has been the opposite. We continue to be too busy to slow and we’ve jumped from one activity to the next over the past few months. So let me start at the beginning… Last I wrote, we were on our way to pick up Mom and Kelly in Douala to begin their Wild Cameroonian Adventure. It was an amazing visit, full of gorging ourselves on all the American goodies they generously brought us, time with friends, an sampling of our work and the successes and frustrations it brings, and a quick tour of the country and some of its attractions. We started off in Yaounde, where they toured the Peace Corps office and saw the Case de Passage (the hostel-type house where we stay when in Yaounde on business). That was a whirlwind tour, however, and by that evening we were on the train and heading up north. Mom and Kelly jumped right into the role of honorary Peace Corps volunteers, spending the night at a table in the dining car since there were no beds available on train. We made the most of it, playing cards and visiting into the wee hours of the morning. The next stop: Garoua, where they met our host family and few volunteer friends. What an experience to unite two families that love and care for us, and us them. Great food was shared, gifts were given, tears were shed, and hugs were abundant! From Garoua we headed directly to Yagoua to introduce them to our friends, colleagues, and life at post. For three weeks before Mom and Kelly arrived we ran a Sports for Life program, teaching two local soccer teams about HIV/AIDS and life skills through sports activities. We arranged to have the final tournament game between the two teams on the Friday Mom and Kel were in town. As the guests of honor they helped us support the teams and then award prizes for 1st and 2nd place at the closing ceremony. A memory I will forever cherish occurred when the hoard of kids, running and screaming “on a gagné” (“we’ve won”), enveloped Kelly and she joined right in, jumping around with her arms raised in celebration! The next day we toured the town and its “sites,” including the rice fields, the high schools where we’ve worked, the health center, the provincial hospital, the youth center, and the local bakery. They even watched us give a presentation on sexual anatomy and reproduction (in French) at the health center before leaving on Monday. I loved that they pitched in around the house, burning trash, washing dishes, and bravely enduring the lack of water due to it randomly shutting off for a few days. After Yagoua we headed to Maroua for a day before leaving bright and early to travel to Waza with some of our friends and their visiting family members. Our safari in Waza included sightings of giraffes, monkeys, a wild cat, warthogs, jackals, and a variety of birds. We then headed to Mozogo and Koza, Alice’s and Carie’s posts respectively, to tour Alice’s newly established national park (her project of the past two years) and visit them. From there we toured Djinglyia and Rhumsiki before returning to Maroua by way of Mokolo. Our final days were spent shopping in Maroua (of course), dining with Alim and his family, and introducing Mom and Kelly to our volunteer friends at a wonderful dinner to which Mom (and Dad) treated us. After that fabulous two weeks, Mom, Kelly, and I left Mike behind and returned to Yaounde where we stayed in the posh accommodations of the Hilton (which I loved!). After a final shopping trip at the artisanat and a drink with our neighbor Danielle and her girls, we were off to Douala and the airport. I spent a few days in Yaounde at the Health Steering Committee meetings before returning to Mike and home in Yagoua. The two of us weren’t there long before we packed our bags once more for an extended weekend in Lagdo to assist with the “Arts for Life” workshop with the volunteers from the North province. Upon returning to Yagoua, we finished the Health Committee (COSA) training and awarded them certificates at a small ceremony held at the health center. We also hosted the 2nd Annual Summer Arts Contest at a local night club, where young, local artists performed their songs, raps, and skits before judges and were awarded monetary prizes. Organized in large part by a few of our friends and contacts in Yagoua that love and support the arts, we were able to step aside and let them run the show. Definitely a step in the direction of sustainability! (On a personal note, that was also the night I found out my best friend, Jamie, got engaged!) Totally unrelated, except that it concerns our work, Madame Jeanne and Bouba (nurses at the health center) now give bi-weekly health presentations at the health center on their own, using presentations we developed. This creates a sustainable educational program at the health center, one we hope continues in our absense. Of course, as restless work-hungry Peace Corps volunteers, we traveled once more for the youth leadership conference, organized and held in Maroua. This was the brainchild of Mike, and brought together 12 young counterparts and promising leaders from 8 different towns in the Extreme North for a 3-day seminar on leadership, communication, team building, professionalism, networking, how to stay healthy, and offered a means of linking them with provincial organizations and resources. It was a success, to say the very least! The main complaint on the participants’ evaluation forms was that it wasn’t long enough! We left directly from Maroua for Yaounde for a few days of work before heading on our final vacation to Benin, Togo, and Ghana with Jeff. What a quick-paced, yet fabulous 10 days of relaxation and site seeing. We wore ourselves out, never staying in one place for more than a few nights. We partied with fellow Peace Corps volunteers and walked the slave route of Ouidah (a voodoo village) in Benin, quickly crossed through Togo, relished in the creature comforts of Ghana’s capital, Accra, toured an old European fort in Elmina, and walked (though briefly) through a rainforest near Cape Coast before heading back to Benin to catch our flight back to Douala. After our trip, we returned for a few days rest in Yaounde before checking into Hotel Mt. Febe with the rest of our training group for the Close of Service (CoS) conference. We lived it up in style for four nights and three days, learning about paperwork that needs to be filed before departure, how to reintegrate into the States, how to prepare resumes and interview, etc. as well as enjoyed time as group for the last time before we return to our various corners of the United States in November. After CoS Conference, 12 of us stayed on to assist with the training design workshop for the upcoming training of new volunteers who will arrive on September 30th. We started Thursday the 14th, worked through Saturday, then wrapped that up on Monday before moving into the training of trainers workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday. We stayed on in Yaounde until today finish up loose ends and work projects. We wrote our sessions plans for our upcoming week at training in November, revised and printed manuals for the HIV/AIDS counseling training we’re facilitating (September 28-30 and October 5-7 at Yagoua’s provincial hospital), and began the arduous process of applying to graduate and law schools. We’re also thrilled to announce that on Thursday we bought six new computers (complete with keyboards, mouses, speakers, monitors, dvd players, and 4 back-up systems), thanks to the many people who so generously contributed to the “Computers for Yagoua”! We leave on the train in about an hour to head back north after a month away from post. We now have less than two months left there, as we’ll be heading back down to Yaounde to start the CoS process on November 17th. There’s still so much to accomplish between now and then…graduate and law school applications, assisting with training and our replacement’s site visit, saying goodbye to our friends and surrogate family with whom we’ve shared the past two years. It won’t be easy to leave Cameroon, our home for what seems like forever now. When it’s all said and done, however, I believe we’re ready to move forward and enter the next phase of our lives. With all the work and emotional stress that awaits us, we’re be happy to board that plane on November 25th and to spend a month traveling in Morocco and Spain before finally touching down in Florida on December 21st! A bientot…

I remember a time when we posted to the blog every week, or at least every two weeks. Apparently those days are long gone as it's been quite awhile since we posted with less than a month since the previous post. Fortunately for us, that means that we're busy with life and work, so we can't complain. We last left you while in Maroua at the mid-point of our mini-bike tour. The ride home proved less challenging, perhaps because we knew what was in store and were, therefore, mentally prepared. We left bright and early and were truckin’ it out of town, happy with our pace, and optimistic about the day ahead. About 40 minutes into the ride I had a near head-on collision with an old Fulbé man who ran into my front tire. I landed in a ditch, full of mud, pee, excrement, and who knows what else, with him on top of me. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled, which I expressed by screaming various explitives in English. Fortunately, Mike rushed to my rescue, trudging into the ditch to reclaim my bike, walking me down the road a bit so I could cry and vent away from the crowd, then chivalrously returning to defend my honor to the men who had gathered to proclaim the accident my fault since the other person involved was but a "simple man." I regained my composure and walked over to shake the man's hand and apologize, which only won me hardened stares and no response from him. We quickly extricated ourselves from the situation so as to avoid the mention of money (always a topic broached when the Nassara may have wronged someone in some small way), though once back on our now not-so-merry way I broke down and bawled for the next 10 minutes of the ride. Perhaps the funniest part of the whole situation was, after removing myself from the contaminated ditch now covered in...I don't want to think about it, an old woman passing by noticed how filthy I was and motioned to Jeff that he should get me in the ditch so I can wash myself off. If only it could have been that simple! We did come upon a somewhat flowing river 15 mintues later (thanks to the downpour the night before) where I was able to calm myself and wash my soiled self and bike. The return to Moulvoudaye and then to Yagoua (the next day) passed uneventfully, thankfully, and we now love slipping in the sly comment, "While traveling to Maroua on our bikes...", so as to amaze and dumbstruck Cameroonians. That was about 5 weeks ago now, and much more has happened since then, regarding both work and fun. Unfortunately all of that excitement will have to wait until the next installment. We're currently in Yaounde, having arrived by train this evening (only 7-8 hours late this time), on our way to Douala to pick up my mom and sister at the airport tomorrow afternoon. That's right, we're greeting our first (and definitively only) visitors! We're beside ourselves with happiness and anticipation, and look forward to recounting all of our grand adventures via the blog in the near future. At the moment, I must surrender to my fatigue with the promise that we'll write again in a few weeks.

We received some disheartening news this week. While funding came through for our HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) training for doctors at our branch of the provincial hospital (exciting!), funding for the planned youth leadership conference, Sports for Life soccer training and tournament (which teaches about HIV/AIDS, life skills, etc.), and our 2nd annual summer arts contest were all turned down. Unfortunately, opportunities to find money for our projects in Peace Corps are now slim to none, so Mike and I were forced to apply to the same agency soliciting funds for both the VCT and youth leadership projects. Understandably, they were only able to give money for one of the projects, as they would both benefit the same community. So we vented and sulked this week, and are now determined to rearrange the logistics a bit and scrape together money we didn't use from our peer educator training last fall to allow these three ideas to become full-fledged activities. We've already signed up two teams for the soccer training/tournament and will hold a meeting next week with leaders from Yagoua's various neighborhoods to drum up more participants before we kick off the project with the training of coaches next weekend. Wish us luck! Hey, they don't call this grassroots development for nothing! Still on the challenging side of life, but related to fun and not work, our friend Jeff came to visit us last Wednesday (no, that's not the challenging part). After a BBQ with kabobs, baked beans, margaritas, and watermelon (we're always so proud we can produce such a thing, hence why we boast about it) on Wednesday night, we left Thursday afternoon for a mini bike tour. For 3.5 hours we biked from Yagoua to Moulvoudaye (Jeff's current home) through a forest reserve and alongside a growing river (thanks to the start of the rainy season) and lush green fields. Mike and I had never seen anything like it in Cameroon, and were stunned to find such green beauty right in our backyard. It reminded us of the Florida woods and horse farms near Ocala. Upon our arrival in Moulvoudaye on Thursday night, we feasted on Kool-Aid popsicles, lemonade, red wine, simosas, and chocolate chip cookies (don't forget that we biked 45 kilometers), then were up and out before 7 a.m. on Friday to begin the second part of the tour: Moulvoudaye to Maroua. This grueling 70 kilometers took us almost 6 hours, thanks to the flat tire I got just before the halfway point. Fortunately, we were near a town (as most of the route consists of long stretches of nothingness) and were able to get both my tire and the spare repaired as well as to refuel our bodies with juice and snacks. We arrived in Maroua around 1 p.m., and promptly gorged ourselves to replace all those lost calories. The sites and sounds of Maroua never looked/sounded so sweet! Trace TV (the music video channel that's our connection to the pop world outside), the air-conditioning and pool at Maroua Palace Hotel, dinner at Porte Mayo (the "fancy" French restaurant where we dined with Alice and her visiting mom Friday night), and the comradere of our friends…well it all pleases the senses! We plan to start the trek back tomorrow, and to arrive back in Yagoua by Tuesday. All in all, at the completion of the tour, we will have biked about 150 miles in 6 days (4 days biking with 2 days off)! Quite a physical accomplishment, and all while touring through the beauty (albeit stark and dry at times) of our beloved Extreme North province! We'll be sure to provide more details on our ride (and whether or not we finish in one piece) the next time we post. We've already taken some wonderful pictures so we can post those to the smugmug site (www.costello-events.smugmug.com) next time we're at the internet as well. In the mean time, I'll be posting pictures from the recent l'ecole maternelle (nursery school) graduation ceremony we attended for our neighbors' daughter, Grace. Hope you enjoy!

I thought that I would spell Erin a bit since she’s been so busy lately. She mentioned last blog, which I just reviewed to determine what I would write this time around, that I’m the idea man, but she’s the one that ensures that ideas become reality. The last few weeks we’ve been working extremely hard to get everything in line for our upcoming projects, which translates to oodles of planning, and planning means that Erin sits at the computer and types things out while she asks me to add anything that I might think of as she calls things out. Usually I suggest just enough to say that I had some part in the planning of such and such project but not much more, not for lack of volition but because Erin has already thought about all the detailed steps. She’s currently taking a much deserved nap after executing our first training session for the health committee this morning that went very well and much better than we expected it to go. We rejoice in the unexpected successes, those rarities in a work climate full of expected successes that seem to never materialize or have some systematic fault or entirely perturbing circumstance. Today, everything went off without a hitch. The folks involved did not ask for anything after we told them we could not pay them or provide them with anything for participating, worked enthusiastically after we initially defined the activities and they seemed willing to continue next week. It was a completely positive and encouraging experience. As a counter example we should describe the soccer tournament that we are trying to organize. The ultimate goal is to use a program developed by Grass Roots Soccer that teaches children through participative activities modeled on soccer drills about HIV and AIDS, life skills, decision making, and risk evaluation and reduction. In the program, Sports for Life, the coaches use soccer as a vector for passing important health related information to a sometimes difficult to reach population. Sports, although the draw for youth, is hardly the focus of the training sessions. We first approached the delegate of sports for our town. As the individual responsible for sports activities in our area, we thought that we should ask him how to go about organizing the event. We went to his home, because it proved difficult to reach him at his office, and talked to him about what documents we should create and where we should deliver them. He informed us that we only needed to write a letter addressed to him asking permission, the rules for the tournament, and a charter for our group, all of which we should submit to him along with a 10,000 CFA fee. We left his house thinking that we would prepare the necessary documents and return later to submit them all along with 10,000 CFA. Afterward, a close friend of ours with whom we are working to plan the tournament informed us that he had organized a similar event and didn’t pay anything to the former delegate. Another close friend confirmed that piece of information, and the corroboration led us to go see the prefect of our department. The prefect is the head administrative officer of the department (kind of like a circuit in Florida). When we saw the prefect, he contradicted what the delegate had asserted, assuring us that we didn’t need to pay 10,000 CFA to hold a tournament. They certainly keep you on your toes here: Erin and I are never sure whom we should trust and who’s trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Thieves come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes even having the legitimizing imprimatur of an official government agency. In any case, we returned to the delegate’s office with an advertisement, a letter asking permission, and the rules for the tournament. We explained that the prefect had informed us that we didn’t need to pay 10,000 CFA to anyone. He then tried to gainsay what the prefect had said to us, insisting that this was not any of his business and, in essence, that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that it doesn’t concern him. The system of governance in Cameroon is different than ours. One thing that I ought to explain is that their state centralizes power in the hands of a few individuals at the national level who appoint administrators at the provincial and local level. The prefect represents the civil administration in our area, which means that he holds the ultimate authority over what occurs in our town, in our arrondissment (district), and in our departement (department). Beneath him a sous-prefet (sub-prefect) manages at the level of the district, and the mayor at the level of the town. Therefore the prefect represents the highest power in the area, and to say the affair doesn’t concern him is like saying that something that happens in the state of Florida is none of Jeb’s business. We haven’t yet resolved the problem, but the situation interests us greatly. I wonder what the prefect will say when we relay to him what the delegate said. We grow less and less cautious about confronting what seems to us to belong with the machinations put into place to fool the white people. Your best bet is to break rank and see the superior of the person trying to extort something from you or trying to tell you of some bogus rule that they’ve made up to profit by because you don’t know any better. We shall not miss the total lack of trust in the majority of people we meet. It’s not that I totally trust most people I meet at home, but I don’t need to distrust them either. If I perceive that something is awry, I can usually sniff it out fairly easily. I can’t say the same for our community of Yagoua. I must apologize for the long interval between postings. Erin traveled down to Yaounde and the workload has only increased in the past few weeks. Everything is coming to a head, with new responsibilities multiplying exponentially. We know that we have enough time to finish everything that we need to finish, but gone are the days of looking forward to the end with expectation. We don’t have enough time to think about the future and we try to enjoy the days as they come. Or sometimes we hate the days as they come and the treatment we receive. Funny how time changes its aspect like a contortionist, sometimes shrinking to fill small spaces or expanding to cover what may seem like interminable expanses. Time operates as a gas. At this point its compression makes us breathe it in thickly. Erin left me suffering from malaria to attend several meetings in Yaounde. She sounds kind of callous when I say it like that, as it’s not like she could have waited until I convalesced before leaving. We can’t quite be sure that it was malaria because the doctor never did any lab work before diagnosing me, but as soon as they injected some quinine into my system I felt much better. I had an intravenous drip for a day because I had been vomiting earlier in the day. The next day when I woke I felt enormously better. I took quinine for the rest of the week and by the weekend, at which time I traveled to meet Erin in Maroua, I felt like a new man. The quinine and accompanying antibiotic taxed my system during the week (they both have side effects, most notably quinine which can cause temporary hearing loss), especially since I didn’t take any time off work, but by the time that I arrived in Maroua I felt like a new man. Erin enjoyed her trip to Yaounde and discharged all of the numerous duties with which she was burdened before returning home. She managed to prepare several grants, to ask questions about Peace Corps Partnership, the exhausting program that we must go through to raise money for the ten computers that we would like to buy to equip the computer lab at the technical high school and my youth center, and to finish submitting preliminary parts of her RD portfolio. I had no doubts that she would get it all done. I know what she is capable of, but she called every now and then to express her doubts. I advised her to buckle down, and by the end she finished everything before heading back north. She’s a machine, and I say that with admiration. And what’s more, she scheduled enough time to visit with people who live in the south, to go out to eat at western style restaurants, and to generally empty our bank account. A lady who one could say is prolific in all senses of the word. Work hard, play hard, spend hard.

An ongoing project of ours since last fall has been to research the possibly of buying and receiving computers to donate to several of the educational establishments of Yagoua, specifically the Technical High School and the Community Youth Center (where Mike is based). During our time in Yagoua we’ve noticed a lack of information technology. With more than 65,000 people in the town center and some 300,000 in the area, there are only a handful of computers, and the nearest computer lab is in the provincial capital, more than two and a half hours away by bus. Though we have encountered many intelligent, eager, and motivated youth in Yagoua, these students lack the resources to search out computers in the provincial capital, as the cost of a round-trip ticket is about ten dollars. Ten dollars might sound like nothing to you, but you must remember that many people in Cameroon live on less than a dollar a day. “Why,” you might ask, “does an impoverished community need computers, instead of, say, medical care?” The response to this question touches on the difficulty of development work in general. In the rapidly globalizing world, developing countries, especially in Africa where adequate resources for IT are so rare, find themselves at a huge disadvantage. In order to arm them for their futures, a great push needs to be made to equip them with the knowledge and skills to progress into an information age. Global leaders met in January to discuss the “US Monopoly” in information science. While one might disagree with this phrase, we think the meaning rings true. The developing world suffers from a lack of access to the hoards of information available on the internet, as well as a lack of basic computer skills that could enable them to better manage local resources. In the interest of diminishing this gap in information between the developed and developing worlds, the UN-led assembly of developing nations declared that they would like to have access to computers established in every village worldwide by 2015. Though we believe this to be a relatively unrealistic goal, we hope this current project could aid in at least approaching its realization. Finding computers for Yagoua also corresponds with the goals of the Peace Corps Cameroon Education Project. In the past year there has been a shift towards the development of computer science in the local high schools of Cameroon. In fact, if computers can be secured, Peace Corps Cameroon plans to send a computer science volunteer to Yagoua to insure that the computers are correctly used by the faculty and students of the benefited schools. We never intended this blog to be a place to solicit donations. We strongly believe in this project, however, and therefore wanted to inform you in case it interests you and you feel inclined to donate towards the purchase of computers. Our hope is that together we can help assist in the development of Yagoua and empower a future generation of African leaders by giving the students the key to knowledge and information today. If you are interested, please email us at either erinnilon@hotmail.com or mnilonpccam@yahoo.com and we will instruct you how to donate. Thank you in advance, and we hope this new post finds you all well!

How ‘bout them Gators! We’ve been keeping up with the tournament and happily and enthusiastically cheering on our boys over here. In fact, last night we convinced a friend who works at a Maroua restaurant to reopen at 1 a.m. so we could watch the Final Four game via satellite. It was awesome! And of course, an already amazing night was made even better when our Fightin’ Gators WON! Now we’re hoping they can take it....ALL....THE....WAY! Just an interesting tidbit, the MVP of most games, Joaquim Noah, is Cameroonian, the son of a former tennis champion/current pop star named Yannick Noah. Small world! Last time we posted we were both in Yaounde as Mike participated in the Culture Complementaire (Cross Culture) Committee meeting and I took the GRE. Mike’s meeting went well and the group developed many of the materials for their sessions for the upcoming Business and Education/IT pre-service training. I don’t much care how the GRE went (that might change when the scores arrive in April) because at least it’s over! Yaounde was a blast, as usual, with an “End of GRE/Early Birthday” celebration, complete with Mexican goodies and a Coca-cola cake, the night I finished the test. We also stuffed our faces and emptied our wallets at the all you can eat Chinese buffet at Chez Wou with four of our volunteer friends. Our actual birthdays were pretty low key since we were the only two around the Peace Corps house until the afternoon of my birthday when our friends Haneefa, Esther, and Terry arrived. These girls are about the sweetest three people you could ever meet, and they rushed right out to the local bakery, after which they surprised us with a round of “Happy Birthday” and a candle-filled cake. (You can see this beautiful, delicious creation on our picture site.) Then it was off to Kribi to facilitate a “best practices” session on working with people living with HIV/AIDS at the in-service training of the new health volunteers. Of course, suffering Peace Corps volunteers that we are, this training just HAD to take place in a quaint beach town with the hotel located only a stone’s throw away from the ocean. Mike took vacation to come down with me as this was probably our only chance to enjoy this Cameroonian vacation spot together. It’s quite possibly the prettiest place we’ve been in Cameroon, and the fact that our travel expenses and hotel room were covered by Peace Corps (thanks to my assistance with the training) didn’t hurt. I can’t describe how amazing it felt to be “back home” on the Atlantic Ocean, eating shrimp for every meal, and reveling in the down time shared with Mike, the new volunteers, and some of our friends from training (who also participated in the “best practices” session). All the sessions went really well, and we returned to Yaounde that weekend (well rested and ready to be home) to take the train back to the north. Once back in Yagoua we jumped right back into work despite our fatigue and my newly developed cold. Students are currently on break so we have a reprieve from work at the youth center and meetings with our peer educators, but we’ve been giving presentations (even in Fulfulde), had a successful site visit from Amadou (the Peace Corps representative in the Grand North), prepared for various meetings and upcoming presentations, met with the director and another doctor at the provincial hospital regarding the HIV/AIDS voluntary testing and counseling center we hope to start, and met with the HIV/AIDS support group where I talked about how HIV takes over the immune system and replicates in the body, as well as how antiretroviral drugs work to stop/slow down the process and the importance of adhering to an antiretroviral drug regimen. Trying to convey technical and complicated processes like that in French is difficult, especially when your audience doesn’t speak perfect French either and may not have more than an elementary or middle school education. Mike and I make a good team though, and between the two of us and our creative metaphors we believe the essential information passed. Working with this group of HIV+ individuals can be one of the most rewarding while at the same time heartbreaking experiences. A number of the members, especially the President, are so motivated and seek both the community of the group as well as a way to improve their lives and the lives of others by sharing their stories. The difficult part comes when they begin to talk about not having food at their homes, never having enough money to buy their antiretroviral drugs (often they must choose between food or medications), having to ask their landlord for an extension because they can’t make rent (which one man told me is around $6 a month for him and his family), etc. On top of everything else they try to stay positive and lead a healthy, happy life while never feeling 100% and dealing with spouses also being positive, their children having unknown diseases, and the other day to day trials that are implicit in life here in Cameroon. They definitely inspire me and help to put my life and its “problems” into perspective. With only about 7.5 months left in Yagoua we’re making a mad dash to schedule and design all of the projects we still hope to accomplish. With Mike as the idea man and me as the detail coordinator we hope to realize a youth soccer tournament (that also teaches about HIV/AIDS through sports activities), an art/leadership workshop for teenagers (working with other volunteers; to be held in Garoua and possibly Maroua), a creative arts contest (like last summer where song and skit entries deal with a health topic), establishing weekly educational sessions for women at the health center, a voluntary testing and counseling center at the provincial hospital in Yagoua, establishing a library at the technical high school, receiving computers for the technical high school and youth center through donations at our church in Gainesville… and who knows what else (as Mike is always thinking)! Of course, on top of all the work, we had to clean the house (you wouldn’t believe the layer of dust that quickly accumulates during the hot/dry season), do laundry, and (the fun part of our job) visit with friends and neighbors after our two week absence. We even threw a belated birthday bash for ourselves. In following the custom here, when it’s your birthday you invite people to celebrate and you pay for everything. So we had three of our close friends over to play cards, listen to music, and feast on leg of lamb, vegetables, bread with mango chutney, coconut rice, and banana bread. Good times! Now we’re in Maroua to see our province mates, withdraw money, and seek solace from the 120+ heat in the Maroua Palace pool! Hope all is well back home and that you’re all enjoying the bounty of Spring (I definitely miss that season). Of course I can’t end this without a hearty “Goooooooooooooooooooo GATORS!”

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted to the blog. Erin does such a good job that I almost feel as if my comments are superfluous, but every now and then an audience could use a change in voice just to make sure they’re still paying attention. A little forewarning for those of you who can’t remember the last blog I wrote, I tend to be a bit wordy. So, if you want to skip this one, surf the net for home beautification products or whatever, feel free to tune in next time when Erin will be back behind the desk. We finished a grueling bike tour about a week ago. We visited seven different villages that span a distance of around 100 km from one end to the other. They are arranged in the shape of a C in the mountains north of our provincial capital, Maroua. I’m going to give you all their names now, but rest assured that you will not be able to pronounce most of them or remember them five minutes after you finish reading this text. (Imagine what it’s like coming as a volunteer, unable to remember how to say the names of places or people with everyone and their kid brother coming up to you and saying, “Hello, do you remember me?”) Here are the towns we visited: Kolofata, Mora, Tokombere, Meri, Mokolo, Koza and finally Mozogo. Fun times spent pedaling each morning with the other volunteers in our province, leading an action plan meeting for local groups in the afternoon, and putting on a theatrical performance that teaches about HIV/AIDS stigma at night. We are very proud of the work done by everyone involved and happy that we could contribute as well. Our topic was HIV and our theme happened was “Fight Against the Disease, Not the Sick.” What we meant to imply was that we shouldn’t stigmatize those who are living with HIV, but we should try to stop the propagation of the virus. For the most part, each of the communities received us with warmth and respect, except for the few minutes directly after the concert when children rushed to the stage and demanded prizes, most often t-shirts and condoms. Since our policy was to give prizes only to those who participated in the activities or responded to evaluation questions correctly, of which there was ample opportunity, we had to deny them. They tended to taunt us in order to get what they wanted (which didn’t work of course), and it always left a bitter taste in our mouths after such a successful evening. Erin worked on the generalities of HIV, giving the crowd epidemiological statistics in order to properly frame our activity, we both worked on the stigma section together, and I worked on the evaluation questions. All in all, I am very pleased with our individual efforts and of our collaborations. We both helped to create something well planned, pertinent, and well received. It is difficult to say if the bike tour will have a noticeable impact on the communities where we performed. I for one, tend to doubt that the effects will be lasting. It seems to be the conundrum of all our experiences: they teach us so much, but we affect the community so little. Maybe a handful of people at each location learned something of value that they will put into practice. That’s always a beginning, but it might be difficult to assess, and hard to appreciate, which is a big reason why so many people want to build things: health centers, latrines, wells, and forages. It’s so much easier to see something physical and to tell yourself that because of it you have had a lasting positive influence on your community. The last few months we have had nary a minute to rest our weary bones because of our involvement with different youth groups in our community. Just after returning to post in late January, we began preparations for Cameroon’s Bilingual Day. The authorized version of its creation is that because the country is officially bilingual, with French and English as the two official languages, they have instituted a day to both celebrate the multilingual heritage and encourage the use of English. Cynics and alarmists assert that day was created in the early 90s in an effort to undermine the two Anglophone provinces drive towards succession. We helped the English Club of the Classical High School to prepare for their performance that took place at the Technical High School. They performed skits, songs, poems, and a news program (which I might add is like watching ants build their mound). They put a tremendous amount of work into their performances and Erin and I felt proud to help them. They ended up taking first place, which really wasn’t all that important to us, but it was gratifying to see them celebrating after the ceremonies: singing, chanting, and carrying on for fifteen minutes after everything ended. Just after the Bilingual Day celebrations we departed for Maroua and met with the other volunteers in our province to plan out the bike tour, but we had also been helping kids at the youth center prepare their skits, songs, dance, etc. for International Youth Day, which is celebrated on the 11th of February, with a week of activities including parades, talent shows and sporting events. We helped them correct health related information in two of their skits, and we helped them tighten up a few of their other pieces. The night for the soiree (kind of like a talent show) came and Erin and I attended the kids’ performance. They did superbly and ended up winning second place, despite being a vocational program with only 20-30 students. Needless to say, I was very proud of them and gave them a little prize after they had finished. During Youth Day, Erin and I marched with our group of peer educators, and I also marched with my kids from the CMPJ (which roughly translates as the Multifunctional Center for the Promotion of Youth). Great times in the Yags! At the present moment, Erin and I are in Yaounde, which should be the last time that I am down here before we return for COS (Close of Service) in the second week of September. I must say that time is flying by for us and we have begun to taste the glory of having completed two years of service, two years of challenge, frustration and to some extent self-denial. Erin just posted her WAWA blog, which I thought was absolutely hilarious and very well written. Someone wrote to say that she should be a writer, and I for one agree. She does know how to turn a good phrase. That entry quite humorously sums up our oft befuddlement at the hands of Cameroon and Cameroonians. But along with the trials and tribulations come the sweet successes, the reasons why we stay here. Somehow when we take an account of the good and the bad, the good far outweigh the bad, even though the bad is more frequent. Oddly enough, the sporadic epiphanies and true human connection that come every now and then touch us much more deeply than the racism, provincialism, sexism, classism, and jingoism we have to endure ever day. It’s kind of hard to explain but if you were here, I’m sure that most of you would find that you would want to stay despite all the hassle of being noticeably different and treated with bigotry (as a superman or as a neo-colonialist plunderer). You either know everything cause of your skin color or you represent every evil suffered in the collective colonial history of Cameroon. Of course if you’re black or Asian then everyone expects you to speak every native dialect like a Cameroonian on the one hand, or to speak Chinese (even if your Korean) and to know martial arts on the other. Every volunteer has their reasons for leaving, but what must be sheer obstinacy to not let this thing beat you at first, morphs into a liking and finally a love affair that you can’t quite explain and sometimes think isn’t the healthiest of trysts. So, that is to say, while you hope for the end when you can return to home and hearth, family and friends, movies and mochas, you simultaneously soak up the moments between now and then with relish and fervor because you know this will never happen again. I will leave the next few blogs to Erin. I know that her style is probably a little more engaging for most of our readers, but every now and then you need a break, a new perspective to shock your eyes a bit to help them to see better what the reality is of the view before them. God bless you all in all your endeavors. I hope to see you soon.

The health volunteers that arrived the year before us coined the phrase “WAWA!” meaning, “West Africa wins again!” After learning this new acronym, my friend Carie and I decided a much more useful translation in this environment is “Why ask why again?” In our everyday life here in Cameroon we are presented with questions and remarks or confronted with situations that simply make no sense and make us stare in bewilderment, scratching our heads. Instead of wasting our time deliberating over something that, in the end, possibly has no explanation, we decided it’s best to just shake our heads, mumble “WAWA,” and move along our merry way. As you sit there now, comfy in your big computer chair, browsing the internet with your high-speed connection and stumbling upon our blog, perhaps while enjoying a snack or beverage, not even conscious of the fact that the temperature of your environment is quietly and conveniently controlled by an air-conditioner (I’m not bitter, I swear, it’s just the 120+ degree heat of the hot season talking), you are probably wondering under what circumstances would one use “WAWA.” You might recall a blog I posted probably a year ago now that told of my adventures while running in Yagoua. All those crazed children sprinting after me while laughing and taunting me with cries of “Nassara.” Well, you wouldn’t use “WAWA” then because it’s apparent that those kids are just bored and have long awaited the chance to start training for a 5K. One would use “WAWA” when leaving the house to venture out to the market and receiving catcalls of “Nassara” the entire way. This route, by the way, is the same one taken everyday for the past 15 months, and those children are the same ones that can’t remember your name (after telling it to them repeatedly in their local language) and are still thrilled to tease you today just the same as they did the previous 450 days. “WAWA!?” Or how about when you climb into a bush taxi and make your way to one of the two seats you’ve found tolerable (after 15 months of rigorous experimentation). The other passengers finish filling the bus, though only after each row is filled with four people who then have to move to make way for the fifth person that must be seated in each row to climb over people and seats in transit to their relegated position. Of course every one knows there will be five in each row, so why don’t they just fill each row from back to front with five people from the very beginning to avoid all the hassle? “WAWA.” Then, once everyone is settled, you’ve sat for 15 minutes in the blazing heat while someone, somewhere, does something that apparently must be done before leaving, the driver climbs in his seat. But suddenly, out of nowhere, an argument breaks out and everyone on the bus is screaming. Since the 10 minute-long, heated discussion is all in the local language and the few words you catch make no sense once strung together, you are again left to ask… (Say it with me this time) “WAWA?” Of course I could go on all day, as there seems to be a never-ending supply of actions we simply cannot understand, and not for lack of trying, trust me. The frustrations, the misunderstandings, the questioning of whether or not we make a difference by being here, it all must add up to you wanting to ask, “So why are you still there?” To be honest, it’s for the little moments that cause my breath to catch in my throat, when I realize that nowhere else in the world and in no other time than right now could I be experiencing this. When, while helping the English Club at the Classical High School prepare for Bilingual Day, Bouba stood up for the first time in front of the class and recited Langston Hughes’s “I am a Negro” to whoops and hollers of excitement from his peers. Mike and I being the only white people in the room (and only two of three white people in the whole town), I realized how powerful that poem is to them as Africans, as Cameroonians, and it was overwhelming to realize that I was on the outside this time, I’m the minority. Or when, while waiting on the main road into town to have our bikes repaired, a lamenting wail reached our ears. Looking up, we saw a woman carrying her small, dead child in her arms followed by two other women, all of whom were crying and screaming so all the town might know and feel their pain. In that moment I knew I would never be the cause of drastic change in Cameroon, or even Yagoua, but if one child’s death can be prevented by the use of the information I teach at the Health Center, than that would be enough for me. There are moments when we feel so isolated, so different here. I live for those times, no matter how fleeting, when it seems the world really is just a small village, when the differences in beliefs or culture no longer matter because at the core we’re really all the same. Working with youth really drives that idea home, as we see the flirting, the desire to fit in, the awkwardness, the jubilation at a job well done that we used to feel as teenagers and observed while working with the kids in Sonlight. We found entering our second year in Yagoua to be a bit difficult. Having just returned from our vacation in Switzerland and seeing our family, then touring around Cameroon and enjoying some down time in Yaoundé, we returned to Yagoua to find our peer educators didn’t seem too motivated and that the harassment from children and adults alike was not going to stop just because we were “over the hump” in our service. And, as usual, we wondered just what our presence was accomplishing in this small, dry, often forgotten town on the border of Chad. Perhaps, in the end, you can’t get hung up on the small things or ensnare yourself in the trap of brooding over the big things. It’s best to just keep on your merry way, muttering as you go, “WAWA.” Don’t worry...there will be more coming on what we’ve been up to in a short bit.

Back from Switzerland for more than two weeks now, we still can't clear the snowflake-filled memories from our heads. Snowball fights in Zurich, cobblestone streets lined with Christmas decorations in Como, celebrating Christmas Day and practicing our French in Geneva, playing in the Alps in Interlacken...we cherished every second we shared with our moms, dads, brothers, and sister on our near-perfect Christmas vacation before returning to Zurich once again to catch our flights home. Near-perfect because 10 days just wasn't long enough! Returning to Cameroon on the 29th we just didn't have the energy to repack and catch the first bus to Mt. Cameroon the next morning, so we decided to hit Limbe with its black sand beaches for a little more R&R. We visited the botanical gardens and primate center/zoo, sunned on the beach, reveled in the peace, quiet, and fact that we had nothing to do, and rang in 2006 with a beachside BBQ seafood dinner. Having caught up on sleep, we headed to Buea to conquer Mt. Cameroon, the tallest mountain in Western Africa and 6th tallest in Africa. Upon arriving, we discovered we didn't have enough money for the 3-day hike we planned, so we chopped off a day and signed up for the "race track course," so named for the annual race to the summit and back and because 2 days is insanely fast, as we soon found out. Our hike commenced at 8:45 in the morning and over the course of the next 6.5 hours we trekked through farmland, into rainforest, out into a landscape unrecognizable to us, finally arriving in a savannah-like setting where stood Hut 2, our resting site for the night. The guide was actually impressed that we hiked so quickly and reached camp by 3:25 in the afternoon (Mike even carrying our pack). That night we sat around the fire while our porter made dinner then retired to our "room" where we attempted to play cards with only a flashlight until we gave up that futile effort and went to bed by 8:30. Up at 4:00 the next morning, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before starting off in the dark at 5:00. Armed only with flashlights and our guide, we stumbled up the rocky incline praying for dawn. Flashlights just don't penetrate complete and utter darkness. We took a break around sunrise and gratefully watched light illuminate the vast mountainside. After two breaks we entered an area that resembled the alpine landscapes of Colorado and spied steaming volcano craters. (Mt. Cameroon is actually an active volcano that last erupted in 2000.) At 8:15 that second morning we reached the summit, wrapped in layers of clothing with socks on our hands and towels around our heads as the temperatures were near freezing. The view was spectacular: above the clouds and looking out over the surrounding moutains. At 13,125 feet it is the tallest mountain either one of us has summited. We laid on the mountainside and simply drank in our success for about 30 minutes before the guide said we must go because it was too cold. And then the hard part began... Mike had twisted his knee on the way to the summit, so starting to climb down only aggravated the injury. On top of that, we were into our second day of hiking and our muscles were starting to feel it. We reached the Hut 2 camp again and the porter had to rearrange the bags so that he could carry Mike's pack as well. The congratulatory remarks from our guide on the first day soon faded away as we struggled to stumble down the mountain. Twelve and a half hours after starting towards the summit that morning we finally reached the bottom and fell into a taxi that took us to the ecotourism office's guesthouse for the evening. The fact that they blew the electricity and there was no running water in the town that night didn't even faze us as we crawled into bed. Having blown all of our money, we had to abandon our original plan of traveling to Kribi, another beach in the South province. Instead we returned to Yaounde and the Peace Corps transit house with its free beds, hot showers, tv, movies, and unlimited internet access. Last week we endured the poking and probbing of our medical midservice and discovered we're both cavity, amoeba, parasite, and disease free! Mostly we've just laid around relaxing and catching up on movies we haven't seen, but also researching graduate schools, running errands and meeting with people in the Peace Corps office, and preparing for our 2nd year in-service training which starts tomorrow. Each volunteer will give a presentation on our best practices, and we are speaking about working with youth. After our week of lethargy we jumped into gear this weekend: we enjoyed a date night Friday at a local Indian restaurant and then a new coffee shop; Saturday night seven of us prepared and savored a delicious 3-course feast complete with apple pie a la mode; and Sunday a group of us girls raced go carts at a local track. Most of our friends from our training group arrived yesterday and this morning so we'll have a blast being reunited before we begin the long journey back to Yagoua on Wednesday night. So that's what we've been up to the past month. Hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as we did and are now ready for a new year. Here's to an amazing 2006!

Oh there's no place like home for the holidays... But when you can't make it home, why not meet all of your family in Europe for Christmas?! Well that's just what we're doing, and in a mere 48 hours we'll be boarding a plane bound for the snow-covered Swiss Alps and our parents, brothers, and sister! Life is sweet (as will be all the Swiss chocolate we'll eat). Once we return on the 29th, we'll climb Mt. Cameroon to ring in the new year then head to two of Cameroon's finest beaches for a little more R&R (and fresh seafood). Only the best for us work-weary Peace Corps volunteers! After our amazing adventure on two continents we'll return to Yaounde for our midservice medical exams and 2nd year in-service training before returning to Yagoua in mid-January. Things are amazing at post as well, though we were insanely busy right before we left with the graduation of the peer educator group and preparations for leaving for almost five weeks. Needless to say we're happy to finally be in Yaounde, though restless with anticipation for our departure. Hope you all travel safely and/or enjoy the comforts of home and family during the holidays. We wish all of you the merriest of Christmases and a joyous New Year! Until next year...

Today marks one year since we officially became Peace Corps Volunteers (no longer lowly trainees). In honor of this occasion we both want to share, in our own way, our perspectives, molded, changed, beaten, and uplifted after our first year in Yagoua. Mike… Busy as overworked little worker bees have we been. It feels good after a year or more of milling about, making contacts, seeing whatever we propose fall through, people at almost every turn trying to exploit their relationships with us for material gain while changing nothing in their mindset. I know that most of you must be thinking this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I tell you it’s not far from the truth if it is. The last few months have been truly a godsend to us. Good work, good collaborators with mostly honest intentions, training in Bandjoun, and our upcoming travel to Switzerland for the holidays. I don’t think I could imagine a more fitting life for Erin and me, if I weren’t reminded that we make next to nothing. But hey, you make your priorities, right, and for the moment we don’t have any responsibilities. Despite some recent success, we have been stricken by the inertia of this society in which we live, the lyrics pop into my mind: Many more will have to suffer, Many more will have to die. Don’t ask me why. Things are not the way they used to be. I won’t tell no lies. We believe in our ability to change the perspective of a few individuals, like those of some of our peer educators, but we know in the long run most people will remain impervious to what we are doing. By the time we leave this beautiful, confusing, and stimulating town in the middle of the African Savannah, I doubt if most of the power mongers, protocol adherents or swindlers will have taken much notice of us other than to know that two legitimizers, bumblers, or marks are gone. That being said, a few of our associates and collaborators will have profited greatly from interacting with us, if not for the knowledge we bring, then for the perspective jolt, as Rebecca Brown calls it, that we cause in their minds. What brings this somewhat pessimistic passage about is the World AIDS Day Soiree that our group of peer educators just planned and executed. I think despite a few minor problems the whole affair went off rather nicely. We had a bit of music, four skits, several poem recitals, a news show, and an ongoing quiz for the audience. The group put forth an excellent effort, and I think that the finished product was exquisitely executed, well thought out, pertinent, and highly entertaining. The atmosphere was electric, we had help from the technical high school to install lighting, and we had music to attract our audience. Despite all the positives during our kid’s performances, afterwards chaos ensued due, in my opinion, due in large part to the impoverished perspective of a good percentage of those in attendance. As soon as we had finished, a large crowd rushed the stage, gathered around and then asked for condoms, t-shirts, whatever gift they could. Some of them asked me in English “I want condom.” To which I replied, “I don’t have condom.” The stares of disbelief, me, “Do you understand me?” The reply, kid trying to be funny, “No, I do not understand.” My rejoinder, “If you don’t understand English, then why did you ask me in English?” A typical exchange between Peace Corps Volunteer and smart-ass kid, adolescent or adult here that tries to mock you in his broken-down babble English. This is not to say that ultimately the soiree was a bust or that a good number of people didn’t profit from it, it is only to give you the good with the bad. Don’t want to be a rosy glasses optimist, nor a semi-gothic black as night shades pessimist. We want to give you as real a slice as we can, and the great frustration has been until this moment, and I’m sure will continue to be that we are largely viewed as people who will invest capital in our immediate surroundings, rather than people who can help to increase knowledge, better health practices or a greater awareness of worldwide cultural diversity. The general population doesn’t take the currency we have to pay them. They only take “Cash Money Express,” and have no investment in the long term. The bitter, but not altogether disheartening, truth is that the amount of time and energy it takes to fully explain our role to people, to overturn their prejudice, denotes that those who will understand us enough to greatly benefit from us are relatively few. Erin… Coming from an extremely “politically correct” society, where at any moment your actions could bring about a hurt feeling or, worse case scenario, a nasty lawsuit, I find it hard to adjust to viewing the world, literally, in black and white. We continually hear how things happen “where the whites live” or the mentality of “the blacks” or “the Africans.” Forget that 95% of people we meet have never even left the province or that Africa has more than 50 countries, therefore forcing these people to rely on hearsay and sweeping generalizations when making these statements. If you believe what we’re told, whites are apparently walking calculators, Africans never think of the future, and whites are complicated where blacks are simple (neither being exactly a good thing). “Politically correct” takes on a whole new meaning here. You must follow the guidelines of protocol (which apparently no outsider will ever master), always respect the “grands” (or people who perceive themselves to be), use peoples’ proper titles (which, again, are hard to learn and master), and generally behave in a subservient way so as not to offend (though oddly enough people sometimes exempt us from this and instead treat us as “grands”). If people have made it to the top they want you to know it, remind you whenever they get the chance, and most of all they want to stay there. Depending on the time of day and with whom you speak, America is either a paradise with perfect weather year-round where we hide away crazy people and everyone has a large home with fabulous feasts on the table every night, or a fast-paced land of overworked, money hungry people who don’t care about their families and live in isolation, caring only for themselves. In my experience America fits neither and both of these descriptions at the same time. But what do I know as I only lived there for 24 years? Yes, the cultures, the pace of life, the circumstances, and the people of our two “homes” contain dramatic differences, but the beauty of this experience lies in realizing the universality of people and their way of life. In the past year I’ve witnessed many of the same problems that exist in America, only these injustices and tribulations are aggravated here in Cameroon. At the same time, I’ve been privy to hearing about or seeing teenage angst and rebellion, unrequited love, the joys of motherhood, the innocence of children, the generosity of neighbors, ignorance and racism, mankind’s curiosity…all elements that exist the world over. Having been born and raised in America, specifically the South, there are innumerable aspects of life, people, the food, etc. that I love and miss every day and which I try to share with friends and strangers alike here in Yagoua. There also exists an incredible amount of sights, sounds, and behaviors here in Cameroon that amaze and delight me: watching a mother and father play with their infant while traveling on a bush taxi; the way the leaves on some trees change color and fall from the branches, then get swept up and swirled around in the wind (just like home); the rugged, rocky mountains along the road to Maroua; how drastically the landscape changes from dusty, dry, and sandy to green, lush, and abundant during the three to four month long rainy season; the loose definition of “family” which includes mom, dad, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, people from your village, best friends, best friends’ families, etc.; the smell, sounds, and colors that inundate the senses as women parade around town during the end of Ramadan celebration; the wind in my face as the lights and smells of the nightly street vendors whiz by when I’m on a moto; the curious stares and then hesitant smiles of children as they investigate the Nasssara; the greetings in French and Fulfulde as we stroll through our neighborhood; the slow pace of life; the love for and reliance upon “family”; the feeling of finally being accepted and welcome (even if not by all) in our town; the belief that someone REALLY understands you after explaining in French. To paraphrase Mike, we lead the best life I could imagine and we’d be hard pressed to find one more fitting for us right now. Here’s to an even more productive and enlightening second year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! If any of you are traveling we wish you a bon voyage, and we hope that all of you enjoy the holiday and have a chance to eat delicious food with those you love. Last time we forgot to write about Ramadan and the end of Ramadan celebration. To be honest, neither one of us made it through the whole month of Ramadan. After a late night of partying in Baffoussam while we were both at training, we needed some time and food to recover the next day. That was the first day we broke our fast. Mike did really well and only stopped fasting for another day or so. Both Carie and I stopped during our week in Bandjoun since we didn’t see the point since we were busy with training, weren’t in a Muslim area, and were getting dizzy while having to prepare and lead sessions with no food in our bellies. I picked it back up for one day right before the end, but overall am pretty proud I fasted for 2½ weeks! The end of Ramadan is what it’s all about though! Once the Imam sees the sliver of the crescent moon he signals that it’s the end of the month of fasting and the celebration begins. The holiday technically lasts three days, and many Muslims milk it for all it’s worth, but the main party is the first day (which this year was Thursday, November 3). People have saved money all year then had tailors work their hardest for the past month in order to have new, beautiful outfits for the celebration. After going to the biggest mosque in the area that morning, people parade around town all day, visit friends, the kids receive candy (much like Halloween, only they dress in fancy clothes instead of scary costumes), and you eat A LOT! We actually cleaned our house that whole morning, but once we left at 3 p.m. we crammed in visits to four households and managed to eat five times in two to three hours! It didn’t help our stomachs that all of the goodies served were fried cookies, sweetened popcorn, fried breads, dates, candied peanuts, and sodas. The festive feeling was contagious though and we loved celebrating this huge and important holiday with all of our Muslim friends! This past week found us once again crazy busy (definitely by Cameroonian standards, and almost by American standards), which was awesome! Upon returning from a fabulous weekend with Drew and Nicole (full of a hike to watch the sunset over Maroua, a goodbye dinner for them with many of our other province mates, making a spice cake sent from America, and sharing cocktails and good conversation), Mike and I hosted the Anglophone Club meeting at our house. Mike prepared an amazing chili and served it with rice. About 11 people attended and, as usual, we enjoyed their company. Unfortunately, most of Mike’s Monday was spent at the funeral of a man who worked at the Youth Center. We never had the chance to know him well since he was sick most of the past year and only recently returned to work. Nevertheless his death saddens us because he was only in his 40s or 50s. All of the students at the Youth Center went to the funeral as well and one was kind enough to escort Mike back home since the village where the funeral took place was about 4 km outside of Yagoua. Mike continues to help students with their English, both on his own at the house and through the “Teach English to Prevent AIDS” program he started with the English Club at the Classical High School. I sat in on his second lesson this past Tuesday and was really impressed with several of the students. Of course, many people seem to think they can learn a language without working at it or that they already speak well if they know a few phrases like, “I am speaking English” or “How are you? I am fine.” Mike handled the frustrations that come with teaching teenagers though, and taught a great lesson on values. Tuesday we hosted SOSEN (the group of people living with HIV/AIDS) at our house and helped them finish an action plan for their CARE funded project in which they will stock rice, peanuts, and beans to give to HIV/AIDS orphans and several HIV+ people and their families during times of famine (or during the rainy season before the harvest when there is little food and high prices). They also hope to stock enough now, while the prices remain low, to be able to sell some of the food and make a small profit. They seem very motivated and are now organized and ready for action. Wednesday we gave a presentation on malaria to women at the Health Center. It lasted about 30 to 40 minutes and went SO well. They gave us their full attention, many of them staying just for our lesson and others coming back to finish after they saw the doctor, and afterwards asked many thoughtful questions. Such a great feeling when you actually feel like people walk away from a presentation having learned something! That is what all of this work is for, to give people the capacity to improve their lives and keep themselves healthy. But the day wasn’t over yet…we relaxed at home for only a few hours during which time we prepared for our meeting with P.E.P.S.Y. This session was on hygiene and water sanitation, and they loved our very interactive lesson. We love watching them gel as a group! They really work together to plan their activities for World AIDS Day, are all excited, share their opinions, and get really heated (but in a fun, joking way) when they disagree. (They even wanted to meet 2 hours early this past Sunday to work on their skits, poems, and songs for the event!) We all have a blast joking around, learning/teaching, then sharing a meal at the end. Mike and I noticed after class last Wednesday that most of the 12 hangout together afterwards too, spending their walk home laughing, joking, and talking about the group. (Again, such an incredible feeling to feel like our work and being here benefits people other than us!) Of course, life is never without problems, especially here when we exist as “the outsiders.” Tuesday seemed especially bad as people were constantly yelling “Nassara” in an unfriendly tone, arriving and leaving the high school the kids loitering around thought it hilarious to make fun of us, then many of the students weren’t attentive during Mike’s lesson. The final straw came during our walk home. Finishing our shopping at the market we were about to enter a shop when I felt someone touch my butt. Turning to look I saw a kid running away at full speed. Obviously upset I yelled a few obscenities in English and glared at any and all kids within my view, but that didn’t stop another kid from coming up and touching my butt too! This infuriated Mike who immediately dropped his bag, lost his shoes, and took off after the second kid. Of course this marked the climax of the daily “Nassara show” so a crowd quickly developed and watched Mike hunt down the culprit (who was hiding behind an old man who in turn was shooing him away), put his finger forcefully in his face, and yell at him that he is never again to touch me. The men gathered around me all asked what the kid did, thinking he stole something. I angrily replied that he touched my butt! The men responded to that response with quizzical looks and then attempted to explain to me that this is “just how it is” because I’m white, at which point I continued angrily that it shouldn’t be like that and it is only because the kids aren’t supervised or taught manners. I believe an exact quote (though translated into English) is, “A parent’s job is to take care of their children, no?” Yeah, we showed them! The other excitement this week stemmed from the fact that Yagoua finally has internet and someone stumbled upon our picture website. Both my counterpart, Woumou Pierre, and some random man on the street exclaimed that they saw themselves on the internet. They were so excited, and I think they feel famous (that is the only way to explain why the random man on the street believes I now owe him some type of gift because he’s in our picture). Mike and I said goodbye for another week and a half this past Thursday. I continued to be busy in his absence, helping members of P.E.P.S.Y. do some preparation for the World AIDS Day activities, teaching a class on nutrition at the Youth Center, and doing the rounds about town. Faissal and his family always take good care of us when one or the other is away, and they invited me for dinner knowing my personal chef was away on business. After so much time here, the people in our neighborhood are so sweet to us too. Each day, as we pass, kids and old mommies alike greet us in Fulfulde and the kids yell our names (which only took 9 months for them to learn!). With Mike gone, many of the men in our neighborhood and the vendors in the market ask why I’m alone and we converse in Fulfulde or French about Mike’s whereabouts. The days like last Tuesday are now becoming fewer and farther between, for which we are thankful. Speaking of being thankful, my Thanksgiving plans have changed since Carie will now be giving a training this week and can no longer host our holiday dinner. At this point I’m not sure how I will spend the day, but hopefully it will be among friends. Carie and Mollie did come to visit me in Yagoua this past weekend, during which time we worked on presentations to be done during the Extreme North Bike Tour in February (a tour through 5-6 villages in the west part of the province to fight HIV/AIDS stigma). Carie also helped me with the lesson on sexual anatomy, puberty, family planning, STDs, and reproductive health for P.E.P.S.Y. It’s always fun to work and hangout with other volunteers (hence why being a married couple in the Peace Corps rocks!). Well that’s it for this edition! Please enjoy some good ‘ole American cooking and Thanksgiving goodies in our honor. Love and miss you, and again HAPPY THANKSGIVING (can you tell we love this holiday?)!

Upon arriving in Cameroon and honing our French skills, we soon discovered that often people would use the words “since” and “until” at the end of a sentence, as in, “I haven’t seen you since!” or “I could have slept until.” Particularly annoying was when people would try to give directions and would tell us to “take the road until.” Until where? One might find this information useful, right? With time, however, we too have adopted these sayings and now find them both handy and fun. So in that vein, I would like to apologize for not posting to the blog since… I know I’ve said this before, and you no doubt will hear it from me again, but the passage of time in the Peace Corps never ceases to amaze me. Never before have we had an experience with such a definite start and end time. Combine this fact with the daily ups and downs of working in a new language to facilitate grassroots community development as an outsider in an unfamiliar culture, and you no doubt will find yourself both wanting to savor each day and keeping a countdown of the time that remains. We can hardly believe we’ve been in Cameroon for over a year now and we essentially have only one year left. Previously we thought the time was flying by, and that was when we found ourselves without much work. Usually a day consisted of strolling around town and chatting it up with some people, trying to make contacts, etc. before returning home and settling into our daily three to six hours of reading, letter writing, laundry washing, and general leisure time. Now I find I can’t remember where the time went from August to now almost mid-November. I recall our travel to Yaounde, work starting at post, and a week training new volunteers, but the fact that Thanksgiving and Christmas are nearly upon us blows my mind! The key, I believe, is how busy we’ve become. The new group of volunteer trainees arrived in country on October 1st and the week of October 17th Mike and our friend Kelly were the first set of current volunteers to co-facilitate a week of training. There were some communication problems between the technical trainers and the trainees, which led to a lot of confusion concerning various aspects of training and projects on which they were to be working. Needless to say, the group was thrilled to have Mike and Kelly there so they could speak with volunteers, fully communicate in English, clear up some of the confusion, vent, and let loose a little. I went down to co-facilitate training the following week with Carie. Fortunately we arrived on Friday, so from then until Sunday Mike and I spent some time together after being separated for over a week and before leaving each other for another eight days. We hung with volunteers posted in Baffoussam (the West province’s capital, located only 15 minutes from the training site in Bandjoun), checked out the area, ate lots of grilled plantains, and soaked up the cold weather! The area is very lush and mountainous, so we welcomed the change in scenery as well. Carie, Drew, and I led a day-long HIV/AIDS training for the Agroforestry trainees before Carie and I facilitated the week on Nutrition and Maternal and Child Health for the health trainees. They are an amazing group, really motivated and tight-knit, so we look forward to when they are full-fledged volunteers. Mike and I reunited in Maroua on Halloween to head to Meri to spend the night with Nicole and to collect goodies from her nearly fully emptied house. We arrived in the afternoon and quickly set about making a pumpkin pie and preparing dinner at Hayley’s house (an Agro volunteer from our training group who is also posted in Meri). Along with two other volunteers, the six of us enjoyed episodes of “The OC”, ate s’mores, feasted on Halloween candy sent by Hayley’s sister, carved a pumpkin then ate the pumpkin pie, and watched “28 Days Later” (a scary zombie movie). It was a quick visit, however, and the next day we loaded up the bush taxi with tons of Nicole’s stuff and headed home after running errands in Maroua. Work continues to build and each week we find ourselves busier and busier. The fact that we no longer have time to read and relax is so much fun and actually refreshing. What a change from the first ten months at post! It seems we’ve finally stumbled upon motivated people (mainly youth) and projects that interest the community. Once or twice a week I give health presentations to people waiting at the health center. Mike has already taught three or four health classes at the youth center school (and I will soon join him in this activity). He also successfully started working with the English club at the Classical High School (using a curriculum called “Teach English to Prevent AIDS”). We participated in a project design and management workshop given by Drew and his counterpart from CARE to the local People Living with HIV/AIDS group with whom we work, and we will meet with them next Tuesday to continue activities started at that workshop. There is a vaccination campaign this week to fight the spread of polio and I assisted my counterpart yesterday in checking in on several of the teams that were going door to door in the various neighborhoods to vaccinate children from 6 months to 5 years old. Because of this campaign we weren’t able to hold our previously scheduled training for ten members of the health committee, but we hope to reschedule that soon. Perhaps the biggest project we currently have underway is the Creative Arts Peer Educator Group. While I was at training Mike held the first two meetings, teaching about both the biology and social impact of HIV/AIDS. When I returned we held a session on nutrition and exercise, followed by malaria, and finally project design and management. We meet each Wednesday and Sunday from 4-6 p.m. with dinner provided at the end. Currently we’re in the midst of preparing an educational event for World AIDS Day on December 1st where the group will perform poems, songs, and skits to provide information on AIDS. After they swore they already had a name for the group (“Peer Educators”), which we finally convinced them wasn’t very creative, they chose “P.E.P.S.Y.” which stands for “Les Pairs Educateurs pour la Promotion de la Santé à Yagoua.” Drew visited us this past week from Sunday night until Wednesday morning, during which time he gave the workshop to two groups of people living with HIV/AIDS. We had a blast touring him around Yagoua, watching “The OC” (you might notice a theme here), and just enjoying time with him. We’re in Maroua this weekend to see him and Nicole and host a going away dinner for the two of them since they head down to Yaounde to end their service in less than two weeks. We’ll be back in Yagoua by Sunday to host the Anglophone Club meeting at our house, which means we must cook a meal and prepare the house for at least 15 people. Then in a week Mike heads once again to Bandjoun to facilitate his second week of training, this time teaching about youth activities and working with groups. During his absence Carie will visit Yagoua and assist me in teaching the peer educators about reproductive health and family planning (sure to be a good time with 12 teenagers!). Afterwards we’ll head to her post in Koza to spend Thanksgiving together since Mike will be at training (our first major holiday apart!). Most of you are enjoying fall and the transition to winter by now, and just so you don’t feel bad for or envy us (depending on your feelings about hot weather) we want to let you know that the dry season has officially started. Though that means dry skin and lots of dust, it also means cooler temperatures and lots of wind, so we’re loving life right now (accept when it come times to shower without a hot water heater!). Please don’t ask us the temperature as we’re so “bien integré” that we no longer find 130 degrees to be unbearable and therefore we’re probably freezing when it’s 80 degrees. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to post to the blog again soon, but if not then we want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! We miss you, especially during our favorite time of year, the holiday stretch. Love to you all…

Two weeks ago we attempted to post to the blog, and after spending 30 minutes of paid-for internet time to write it the entire composition was lost to the deep, black hole of cyberspace. So here we go again… We last left you while still in Yaounde. After extending our trip one more day to have more work time and a chance to actually relax, we left for the train station the evening of Thursday the 22nd. Upon arriving and meeting our friends Kelly and Danielle, we discovered that a commercial train derailed, therefore blocking the track, so the passenger train would be delayed. Making the most of a bad situation, we hung out, drank some beers, and ate dinner before finally boarding the train an hour and half late. Alas, we wouldn’t be leaving for another 4 hours! At 11:30 p.m. the train pulled out of the station, only 5.5 hours late. We were thankful to have Kelly and Danielle with us, and we enjoyed the next 21 hours on the train by listening to music, talking, reading, and eating. Upon arriving in Ngaoundere at 4:30 p.m. the following day we decided we deserved a treat, so we instructed the motos to take us to the Hotel Transcam, the nicest hotel in the city. We savored real gin and tonics, Heineken, pizza, TV, hot showers, and comfy beds for the night. The next day we said farewell to Danielle as we left with Kelly at 5:15 a.m. to begin the 12 hour trek by bus to Mokolo (a village an hour outside of Maroua). Nestling into our places on the charter bus type transportation we noticed that the seats felt smaller than usual. Kelly then proclaimed, “It’s not the seats it’s our large Yaounde asses!” So yes, all that fine dining did catch up with us. That evening we arrived once again in the Extreme North, greeted by the return of the unbearable heat as the raining season fades away and the mini-hot season begins for October and November. We met most of the volunteers from our training group that now live in the Extreme North for a celebration to mark our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY IN CAMEROON! That’s right, we’re no longer newbies and actually survived (now over) 365 days in Peace Corps Cameroon. Needless to say, we were proud and partied it up that night with some of the people with whom we’ve grown closest during this crazy adventure and life-changing experience. On the actual anniversary of our arrival, September 25th, we returned to Maroua where we met up with our friend Drew and his parents who were nearing the end of their 10 day visit. We caravanned to the house of Drew’s coworker where we shared a feast together in traditional style, sitting in circle on mats on the ground. We truly enjoyed creating memories with Drew’s friends and family, partaking of Cameroonian cuisine, and getting to know his parents. Despite some minor setbacks (mainly losing their luggage), they loved their time here, found the people to be incredibly generous and kind, and were thrilled to view Drew’s work and life as a volunteer first-hand. Have no fear…we did finally return to our home, life, and work in Yagoua. After being away for so long (Mike about a month and Erin for around three weeks) we jumped right back in, checking in at work and with our friends and neighbors, as well as cleaning our house and attempting to make a dent in our laundry. We’ve started weekly presentations at the health center, which in the past two weeks have proven challenging to say the least. They are currently giving away free mosquito nets to pregnant women so the center is packed everyday with women who have walked from near and far. The women predominantly speak Massa, obviously not a language in which we can communicate, but finding a translator among the over-worked health center staff is impossible. So among the 50 to 100 women present we were able to hold the attention of maybe 10 and we pulled random men hanging around the center to be translators. Particularly interesting was the presentation Erin gave alone last Monday in which she attempted to describe a poster on family planning containing the various methods of birth control. Completely intimidated by the women and having originally planned to do another presentation, she fumbled around in French to give all the information off the top of her head. At the end, some of the women proposed culturally specific situations and questions such as, “My husband paid a lot of cattle to marry me, so how can I tell him that he can’t have sex with me during a certain time period each month?” Another woman explained that if she asks her husband to wear a condom then he will either think she’s accusing him of being unclean or believe that she herself is unfaithful. Knowing the information is never enough, and finding the answer to problems within this cultural context can be demanding, especially since we come from a culture where women have a right to choose and make decisions concerning their bodies. One of the biggest successes of our Peace Corps experience occurred within the past week as well. On Wednesday the 28th we held an open call for high school students interested in joining our peer educator group. We visited the two local high schools that day to advertise in some of the classes, and we were rewarded when 70 students came to apply that afternoon! We were thrilled by the turnout and the large number insured that we found some qualified people among the applicants. We selected 20 people and held individual interviews last Tuesday and Wednesday. From that group we chose 12, 3 of whom are girls, including a brother and sister combo. One girl is even a member of a band, writes her own songs, and offered to have them play accompaniment for the peer educators (as we’ll be using music and art to teach about health). This Wednesday will be our first official meeting for that group, as well as the first meeting with students interested in joining an English group Mike will start that uses HIV/AIDS curriculum to teach English. We’re also continuing to work with the People Living with HIV/AIDS group. We gave a nutrition animation for them this past week, and hope to plan some World AIDS Day activities with them and the peer educators as well as start a voluntary testing and counseling program at the hospital. Between these various projects and assisting with training the new volunteers we will quite busy in the coming months! Of course work is fun, but we've also had a blast together during our down time as we’ve been catching up on movies we’ve missed, and watching Season 2 of “The OC,” which just arrived with Drew’s parents! Oh yes, we’re loving life now. We also enjoyed meeting our friend Faissal’s brother who just returned from studying in Russia and France for the past 7 years. We all loved visiting and chatting with each other as he completely understands Western culture now, and is treated just like a “Nassara” in Yagoua, with people asking him for money and advice on how to get a white wife. He’s now trained in computer science, aeronautical engineering, management, and has his pilot’s license. Three years ago he married a Russian woman and they are in the process of moving to Yaounde for at least a year, provided he can find work. He was so amazing, and even prepared two Russian dishes one night and brought them to our house to share. We look forward to seeing him again and meeting his wife when we’re in Yaounde again. Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, started Tuesday and we are both fasting, doing without food and (often) water from the first call to prayer at 5 a.m. until sundown around 6 p.m. We wake up each morning at 4 a.m., prepare breakfast, eat, do the dishes, and drink as much water as possible before going back to bed until 8 or 9 a.m. Last year, Mike participated as a way to integrate with the community during training, and this year we decided to fast both to share this experience with our Muslim friends and for our own spiritual reasons. The best part of Ramadan by far is the breaking the fast. It’s such a communal activity and we’re creating lasting memories both as a couple and with Cameroonians. The second night we broke fast with Faissal and his family, then while in Maroua we’ve eaten breakfast each morning with Drew and Carie, and break the fast in the evening with Drew’s friend Alim and his family. Obviously we’re now in Maroua. We arrived Thursday to hike a nearby mountain with Drew and Nicole. While in town, Erin is also planning training sessions with Carie as they will be co-facilitators at training the week of October 23, and we’ll both be watching the highly anticipated Cameroon vs. Egypt soccer game today which determines whether the Indomitable Lions will be in the World Cup! The next month is chock full of traveling. Mike leaves Thursday or Friday for his first week at training, then Erin heads down a few days later for training the week after. Then we have Halloween, and we’re also trying to cram in as much time as possible with Drew and Nicole, our friends who will be ending their service in December. One of the hardest parts of Peace Corps is being away from all those we love at home, then forging strong relationships with volunteers and Cameroonians only to have to turn around and say goodbye. C’est la vie! Hope life and the Gator football season is going well! We love and miss you all!

How 'bout them Gators!? What a win, what a game (or so we gathered from the play by play updates on ESPN.com last night)! We stayed up until 3:30 a.m. periodically checking the score and the status of the game. Of course, in the mean time we also watched "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind," which by the way is amazing. We're still loving life in Yaounde...eating well and enjoying time with fellow volunteers. Preparation for training (the whole reason why we're here) continues to be hectic, stressful, and busy, but it's a welcome change from life and work au village. Crazy to say, but it feels refreshing to once again experience "American work culture" and to have a sense of accomplishment and productivity. Not that we don't get that (sometimes) with our development work at post, but it's not nearly on the same scale. Since Wednesday we've had meetings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by work on the computers and doing other random prep tasks. Then we worked through the weekend as well, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. yesterday and on our own much of today. Of course, it's not exactly Peace Corps that is pushing us. Naturally, some of the more perfection-oriented and driven volunteers are involved, so we put much of the work on ourselves. We just want this training to be amazing and to really prepare the incoming volunteers. Of course it can't be all work and no play! Yesterday we let off some steam at the Hilton happy hour where we sucked down margaritas and bloody marys, witnessed a rainbow then enjoyed the view of the city at night (quite beautiful), and used the marble-tiled bathroom, complete with a hand dryer from Illinois! Yes, it's the simple things in life. Then we moved on to a beautiful outdoor restaurant where we listened to live music, ate pizza with bleu cheese, and drank draught beer. After staying up all night to keep up with the game, we slept in until 10:30 a.m. then feasted on an incredible Chinese buffet while on a double date with the other married couple from our training group, Nate and Rebekah Eagle. They've actually decided to return home, so we're thrilled to have a few days to spend with them before their journey back to the grand 'ole U.S. of A. Tonight I believe we'll just be chilling at the Peace Corps house, relaxing, catching up on more work, and possibly watching "Angels in America." Hope all is well back home, and that those of you who partied for the game are well on your road to recovery now. Love you so!

Goooooooooo GATORS! So today is the big day, what many are calling a potentially defining moment in Meyer's career. "In a football sense, this is it. This is the game," Todd McCullough is quoted as saying on ESPN.com. AND WE'RE NOT THERE! Yep, you're all eating your fried chicken, chips and dips, and potato salad, drinking beer and gearing up for the big day, and we're just hoping to pick up coverage on Rock 104 via the internet. Of course, us living en Afrique and the game starting at 1 a.m. here might pose a bit of a problem. Even if all else fails, at least we did get in the mood with pizza and beer for dinner (gotta love "the high life" of the capital). Shockingly enough, this is Erin writing the post, so you know this must be a big game! As for my Memphis family (specifically Uncle Burt who loves to chastize me when, on occasion, the Gators have lost this game) I certainly hope the best team wins. Of course, that could only mean those Volunteers are going to drown in the Swamp tonight! 2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar, all for the Gators stand up and hollar! (Picture all of Cameroon on their feet and screaming now.)

First and foremost, we want to thank all of you who donated money to support our friend Adams going to university. We met with him last night and delivered the good news that we already have enough money for his first year (and then some), and he was thrilled! He’s now in Yaounde taking an entrance exam for the Communications Program for both the University of Yaounde and the University of Ngaoundere as he hopes to study to be a journalist. We will of course keep you all updated on the results. When we last left you with a real update we were stuck in the rain in Maroua, trying to make it home for a People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) group meeting (scheduled to occur at our house!). Well, unfortunately we didn’t make it home in time. We arrived about an hour and a half too late, so the next day we hunted down the group’s Secretary to apologize and make plans for another meeting. We met the following Saturday with nearly the entire group in attendance. There was a lot of discussion at this first meeting: us explaining our ideas and how we would like to help them and them telling us their ideas and what they’ve already accomplished. We’ll now join them at their meetings the 15th and 30th of every month, each one to be held at a different member’s home. We plan to provide an informational session on nutrition and exercise at the next meeting we attend. They are a dynamic group, complete with several husband and wife pairs. It’s refreshing to have a mixed gender group meet, especially since one of the wives is a rather feisty woman! They are relatively newly formed, but already have elected officers, rented an office near the market, and have some ideas on activities they would like to start. Their main focus is developing some money-making ventures so they can work together to help each other pay for rent, food, health care, and medicine each month. Another idea we discussed is starting a HIV/AIDS counseling program at Yagoua’s Provincial Hospital. The hospital currently has voluntary HIV testing, but no pre- and post-test counseling. We were impressed that the President and Secretary were motivated and ready to move on this, and the four of us went to the hospital that week to meet with someone about starting the program and being given a room in which to conduct the counseling. We’re eager to see if together we can make this happen. Life and work here continue to be exciting and ever-changing, and recently the pace has picked up a bit. After a year in-country and over nine months at post, we finally feel more integrated in the community, understanding of the culture and way to start work, and are seeing some of the results of our efforts. Of course, we still meet and struggle with many frustrations and failures, but it’s a relief to also experience success, no matter how small. There is more of a balance of the scales now, which we hope by the end of our service will tip more towards the side of accomplishment. After the successful completion of the Creative Arts Contest and accompanying concert and awards ceremony, Mike has worked with several local artists and musicians to establish bi-weekly “open mic nights.” Every other Friday afternoon from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. the Youth Center hosts local kids and artists as they perform their songs and dances, whether rehearsed or impromptu. The first wasn’t too well attended, but the privileged few who were there were treated to a rendition of “Swing Lo, Sweet Chariot” by Mike and Jeff (another volunteer who lives nearby). We’re positive word will spread as time passes and hope it will provide a lot of fun and an outlet for the creativity of Yagoua’s youth. Along those same lines we’re creating a Creative Arts Peer Educator group at the end of September. We’re currently advertising and will hold an informational meeting on the 28th, during which interested high school students can apply. We hope to choose about 15 motivated individuals to participate in the 10 week training program (with meetings every Sunday) that will teach them how to write and illustrate songs to teach about various health issues such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, hygiene, etc. We’re working with our friend Kris who will assist the group on the musical aspect, and we hope to find someone else to assist with the art and drawing portion, then we’ll teach the health-related information. On Saturday, August 27th we hosted the Extreme North provincial meeting at our house. Nervousness pervaded in the days leading up to the meeting as water was cut the Sunday before, only coming on for a few hours during the middle of the night. Apparently they were cleaning the water tower and we weren’t sure if they would finish before people arrived. Fortunately Thursday morning water returned, and just in time since we had to clean the house and do about four weeks worth of laundry before people came on Friday! A wonderful time was had by all (we think) and it was fun to show people around Yagoua. We held the meeting, socialized, played games, listened to music, ate lots of delicious food (steaks, hamburgers, salad, baked beans, and French fries), had a chance to catch up on the lives and work of our province mates, and once again enjoyed a sense of community. We all exchanged a lot of ideas, found potential collaborations, and started planning an Extreme North bike tour for February. Having 12 people in your house can be a little stressful (especially for Erin), but we handled it well, our friends were great guests, and the house was clean and back in order by Sunday night. That Monday morning we left for Maroua to organize and run a camp for AIDS orphans with Nicole. Only in Cameroon (okay, maybe in other countries as well, but not in America) can you travel to the provincial capital, on public transportation, accompanied by a prisoner. That’s right, on the way out of Yagoua we stopped at the prison, a man approached the inner prison gate, was handcuffed, and then led out and put on our bus! Mike, Nicole, and I were shocked and couldn’t stop laughing (what else can you do in that situation?). He behaved himself, never tried to flee, and in fact sat quietly reading a religious brochure for most of the trip. Upon entering Maroua we stopped at a gas station and the prisoner and his companion (a prison official?) got off the bus. Craziness! On Tuesday we awoke, made a list of what needed to be done in preparation for the camp, and set about our assigned tasks. Only one problem…the heavens opened as we bought our breakfast! Luckily, we found motos and made it to the internet café where we became captives until the rain let up. That gave us time to eat breakfast and verify that we indeed had funding to run the camp. Fortunately, we accomplished everything that day and come 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday the 31st we were ready and waiting for the orphans. Unfortunately, only four kids showed by 9:30 a.m. (an hour and a half late) and at 11 a.m. the last of the kids arrived, giving us a total of 13. We organized a two-day camp for 20 orphans, aged 14-17, with activities that focused on HIV/AIDS and life skills. Many of the kids that came were too young for the games and lessons we’d planned and often times they didn’t seem to be interested or following us, therefore we were forced to rearrange the schedule. We were all a bit discouraged. Even after being here so long (us a year, and Nicole two years) we often still approach work as if we’re in America. We expected things to run smoothly, that the children we requested would arrive, and that their behavior would be more like what we’re used to dealing with in kids in the States. We are continually faced with the fact that culture, the way people are taught in school, and how children are raised at home changes the way you should approach working with them; and that no amount of planning can guarantee success. Eventually we decided to cut the second day of the camp after we finished all the activities we deemed appropriate for the group by the time lunch arrived. We all ate together, then finished the day with condom demonstrations and relays. Our spirits were lifted a bit when we gave out prizes for participation. All the kids lined up, shook each of our hands, took their prizes, said thank you, and then hung around not wanting to leave for awhile. It warmed our hearts to see them excited to read the magazines we gave them and seeming to not want the day to end. Hopefully at least one of them learned something, as we know we definitely did! After the Wednesday camp we traveled Friday to Garoua to visit our host family and give them the gifts we bought them in the States. We waited for 4 hours at the bus station before our names were called for a bus. When we finally arrived in Garoua our host brother met us at the station to take us to the house. Thrilled to see each other again after more than three months we all hugged and greeted each other. Then we told them about our trip and answered their inquiries about our family, gave them their gifts, and told them everyone sends their love from America. There wasn’t much time to visit, however, as Mike awoke early the next morning to catch a bus to Ngaoundere, where he then caught the train to Yaounde to attend last week’s Culture Complémentaire Committee meeting. Meanwhile, Erin returned to Yagoua for a week to make preparations for the peer educator group and to do some other work related tasks before she too packed up and headed down to Yaounde on Saturday. Now we’re both in Yaounde, chillin’ at the Peace Corps office. As we mentioned in the last blog post, we are both involved in training for the new group of health and agroforestry volunteers who arrive in October, Erin as a health trainer and Mike as the representative of the Culture Complémentaire Committee. It’s crazy to think that we were the “newbies” just one year ago! In the next week and a half we’ll prepare for training with Peace Corps administration and the other selected volunteers. This week we have the training design workshop, followed next week by the training the trainer sessions. We will be leaving next Tuesday or Wednesday, after the meetings and squeezing in some leisure time at the Hilton pool and happy hour and hitting up the Chinese restaurant’s buffet and an amazing local bakery. Hey, it can’t be all work, right?! A few more words regarding mail… Yes, we’re still searching for the best way to send packages so we actually receive them, and therefore we’ll take any advice we can get and pass it on to you. First, we’ve been told that all packages (and letters?) being sent should be addressed to us with the title “Peace Corps Volunteers” included. This identifies us as volunteers so we aren’t charged fees by the post office. Second, when sending boxes or bubble envelopes try to make them as hard to open as possible, even if it means covering that sucker in duct or packaging tape. We don’t care, we’ll figure out how to open it once we get it home. Finally, one volunteer’s sister always lines the boxes she sends with newspaper and wraps all the items in newspaper as well so that everything is a non-descript wad of paper. So those are the latest ideas, we’ll see if they work! We hope that now you all feel up to date on the happenings here, our work, and continued struggle to adapt and make a small difference in Cameroon. We’ve had an exciting past few months and the next few promise to be more of the same, so we’re enjoying the ride. Know we love and miss you, and as always thank you for your support and interest in our adventure!

I just ran into an internet cafe for 30 minutes while waiting for a bus to Garoua to visit our host family. I decided to check out CNN.com for any news or photos of Hurricane Katrina since news is scarce and hard to come by here. I'm overwhelmed and extremely devastated by the footage I saw. I'm trying to control my tears as I sit among Cameroonians using their computers. Jocelyn told me that it looks like a third world country in parts of the South now, and I couldn't agree more. Mike and I will be praying for all of those affected by the storm, and we hope you are all safe and that your families and friends are out of harm's way. Mike will be travelling down to Yaounde tomorrow and I will follow him next weekend after a week spent alone in Yagoua. There is lots to do for the peer educator group we hope to start in October so I should be busy. We have both been selected to help with training the new group of volunteers who arrive October 1st, so we're thrilled with this opportunity! We will keep you posted. Know we love and miss you all!

We're hearing some scary reports about Hurricane Katrina, and hope that all of you are doing well and are out of harm's way. We'll be keeping all our friends and family down in hurricane country in our thoughts and prayers as we realize the season isn't over yet! We've run out of time at the internet cafe today, but will be posting more on our life and work right now within the next two weeks. Fortunately, there is much to report. Hope all is well with everyone!

Hello again! Aren't we on top of things...two posts in one week! We just returned from a weekend in Meri, and what a wonderful time we had! Not only was it fun to have some time with Nicole, but we loved the experience of being in a small village. Everyone knows her, greets each other, and were happy to see some new faces. Plus it's nestled in between the mountains so the views as we walked around town were breathtaking! Such a different vibe than that of Yagoua, which is a large town and very flat. We also had a chance to do some work. We observed her peer educator group's meeting and planned a camp for some HIV/AIDS orphans which we will hold at the end of this month in Maroua. We head back to Yagoua in a matter of hours for our first meeting with the local group of people living with HIV/AIDS. We're hosting the meeting at our house so we're rushing through errands and battling the pouring rain in Maroua this morning to try to make it back in time. Keeping our fingers crossed! The one thing on our side is that meetings never start on time, so we figure we have about a 30 minute to one hour window of wiggle room. We're excited about this new collaboration and hope we're able to assist this group with organizing and getting some projects and activities underway. We have a very good friend in Yagoua named Adams who had to drop out of his university last year due to lack of money to fund his education and cover his living expenses. He currently works in Yagoua at Express Union, a company much like Western Union. We've recently developed the idea and desire to help him start his studies again. In talking with him we've struck a deal that if he can cover the cost of tuition we would seek assistance to cover his living expenses (housing, electricity, and food). It would be the equivalent of about $30 a month, and we would initially only cover this first year so that we can monitor the use of the money, as well as his grades and commitment. After the first year and before our return home we'll evaluate how it went and decide whether or not to continue this for the other two years (university is only 3 years here). If you are at all interested in contributing money (no matter how small) to help further the education and career of someone we think holds a lot of promise, both personally and for Cameroon, please email us at either erinnilon@hotmail.com or mnilonpccam@yahoo.com. There is one other project we're trying to coordinate that also needs donations. We would like to furnish the Youth Center in Yagoua with computers. There are currently two at the center, but they are old and fading fast. The director (Mike's counterpart) is interested in helping Yagoua's youth learn computer skills, and he is teaching himself and helping others learn as much as possible. While we were home, Mike spoke with Dan Johnson, the minister at Trinity UMC, and both his father and Erin's mom. If you are able and interested in donating either computer(s) and/or money to ship them here, please contact either Cathy Costello, Jim Nilon, or one of us. Thanks so much for your continued support! Know we couldn't do our job here without the knowledge that you're all backing us up over there.