Here I am at home! I got my hair cut! There was a lot to cut off. For now, I'm readjusting to technology (what is this YouTube?) & I bought a new cell phone, had my computer fixed, etc. I'm visiting family & friends. In the near future I'll begin the "job hunt."

This sign roughly translates to "Vandalism is an expression of stupidity. It has cost us 85,658 Euros in 5 years"

This is the cathedral in Auch. The wood carvings number about 180 & were completed over ~50 years.

D'Artagnan of Gascon.

Waiting for the riders.

Isn't Mom's free hat from Champion cool?

Here is the 12th century Templar Church in Luz Saint Sauveur. It was also the site of the town's Bastille Day festivities.

I think this photo speaks for itself. Or rather, the mustache does.

Monsieur le Maire reading his speech.

A Basque choir singing the national anthem.

The chorus:

Aux armes, citoyens !

To arms, citizens!

Formez vos bataillons !

Form your battalions!

Marchons, marchons !

Let's march, let's march!

Qu'un sang impur

May a tainted blood

Abreuve nos sillons !

Soak our furrows!

Aux armes, citoyens !

To arms, citizens!

Formons nos bataillons !

Let us form our battalions!

Marchons, marchons !

Let us march, let us march!

I don't think any PCV can have enough of this stuff!

It's a giraffe on a time trial bike!

Here's my view of the riders whizzing past on their race to the finish.

The TdF's heliocopters. They have 6 or 8 in all.

In case the riders get lost, there are plenty of signs to point the way.

The last stretch in Bagneres de Bagorre.

I got a free Bouygues Telephone tshirt on our third try. This is one of the floats in the Publicity Caravan. We all lost our dignity in the fight for free stuff.

Here are some shots from our first attempt to watch the Tour de France. We parked on a slight incline at km-marker 25 on the D21.

I tried to pee in the bushes because we had to wait a really long time for the riders. And I fell, and was attacked by a poisonous bush, lost feeling in my hands & had these crazy bumps for the next 12 hours. Luckily I found a leftover PC-issue itch reliever in my purse.

So the TdF is a lot like Cameroon. Here's my dad waiting by the side of the road.

Aha! The first riders pass us by in a blur, and it was over.

This is how I spent my first day in Paris. I'm at the Luxembourg Gardens enjoying the lovely flowers & fantastic weather in my Cameroonian sandals & pagne skirt.

The giant head is artwork.

Doesn't that look tasty? We bought this at a candy shop in Lourdes. Then we ate it.

I'm home! I'm sorry I haven't updated my blog in a very long time but we didn't have internet access the last two weeks in France. We had a very nice visit & saw quite a bit of countryside. Some was unintentional, but for the most part, with the map and our GPS system (her name is Emily & she cannot speak French), we got where we intended to be.

From Paris we drove to Toulouse & spent the night. Then we went to Lourdes, staying three nights in nearby Aspin en Lavedan. Then we went to watch the Tour de France in Mane & Bagneres de Bagorre. That night we sleptin Luz St Sauveur, spending Bastille Day there & watching the Tour go by again. From there we spent a night in Agen (it's a trashy town, never go there!) and Orleans before coming back to Paris.

Here are some photos:

This is Emily, installed in our Renault Modus.

And this is the price of diesel fuel, in Euros, per liter. You can do the conversion & discover it's about 9$/gal. So stop complaining about how much you paid to fill up.

The last few days, I've visited several museums, including

Institut du Monde Arabe, afterwards a walk to Berthillon for ice cream & Place de la Bastille for sightseeing

Cite nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

Bois de Vincennes

On Saturday I visited

Invalides and the Musee de l'Armee, with a completely renovated WWI & WWII section

Musee des Egouts, a fascinating look at sanitation & water treatment in Paris' sewers

Musee du Quai Branly, a museum of contemporary Oceanic, American, African & Asian art (complete with a necklace from Bafia! ha!)

My parents finally arrived in Paris yesterday morning. We walked to the Grand & Petit Palais, which have been closed for renovations for years. We tried to continue at the Orangerie (site of Monet's waterlillies) but it was first Sunday of the month free day & the line was long. So we wandered through the Tuilleries gardens & took a bus home for a rest. Today we're attempting the Orangerie again, and perhaps the Marais.

For those of you who thought my only sightseeing was the inside of a cabine d'essayage (fitting room), worry not! I have become a tourist. During the last few days I have visited:

Eglise St Germain des Pres

Eglise St Germain l'Auxerrois

Eglise St Eustache

Musee Carnavalet

Place des Vosges

Hotel Suboise (Archives Nationales)

Eglise St Paul St Louis

Les Catacombes

I have twice attempted to visit the Institut du Monde Arabe and twice been refused. Perhaps tomorrow I'll manage to get there during visiting hours.

I also ate a Nutella crepe.

After I got my SIM card I headed towards the Rue de Rennes for some shopping.

First, I was immediately tagged for a gullible American by a crazy British woman running one of those "I just need 6 euros to pay for my hotel, my French boyfriend left me, please help" scams. So much for attempting to look French.

Second, at Les Deux Magots, my salmon quiche went flying off the plate and into my lap. Graceful.

Third, moments later when heading for the toilettes to clean up, I fell down the stairs! Now I'm bleeding on one elbow & am bruised all over!

Fourth, Samaritaine and Berthillon are closed on Mondays.

At least I found a cute skirt, shoes, umbrella and sweater. And I had an egg, cheese, ham and mushroom gallette (that's a buckwheat crepe). After wandering for awhile I headed to my old stomping grounds around Boulevard St Michel & Boulevard St Germain.

Have also abandoned plan to go to London. Without paying 50Euros for a discount card the Eurostar is 187,50E at the cheapest times of day. Yikes! I'm saving my museum visits for tomorrow & Thursday. It's supposed to rain.

I am enjoying Wifi at the apartment. Am watching Blade Runner in French on France2. Several people have asked about the apartment, so here is a tour.

The building's entrance is on a small street just next to a Best Western. Once inside the passage, enter a second door code & take the elevator to the 3rd floor (which to Americans would be the 4th). The door opens to a relatively (for Paris) large living room, with a comfy couch, table & chairs, bookshelves. A shockingly large TV dominates. Turning left in the entryway, find the kitchen in front & a bathroom to the right. In the tiny kitchen is hidden an unused dishwasher & a nice fridge. The bathroom has a bathtub, sink, toilet, and washing machine. The bedroom is also small, furnished only with a bed & dresser. There are only 3 very small closets in the place but it's not cluttered. It's simply decorated. Most of the artwork is by the owner.

I met the owner today so she could pick up some of her things. She's nice, young and speaks good English. Apparently she did a year long exchange at Middlebury. There are plenty of restaurants, cafes, a few bakeries, butchershops & at least 2 large chain grocery stores within walking distance. I have yet to take the Metro (on Line 13, useless for traveling to tourist sites conveniently) or bus but have noticed the stops nearby . I strolled to Luxembourg Gardens today and it took about 45 minutes. Montparnasse train station is less than 10 minutes away, and I've already visted the Galleries Lafayettes.

Today I read in the park, ate a huge Salade Campagnard (toasted goat cheese, duck gizzards) and drank my first Orangina. After our meeting in the apartment I went shopping and on a whim saw a movie. It's the Fete du Cinema so for the next three days I can watch movies for 2Euros. And it's light here until past 10pm! I'm excited about tilting towards the sun and experiencing seasons change.

My feet are killing me, which means I need to stop wearing cheap Cameroonian leather sandals and buy some fancy Le Coq Sportif tennis shoes. Yes, indeed. Tomorrow I'm hitting the sales at Printemps & Samaritaine. I haven't even made it to the Seine or the Right Bank yet. Sightseeing is for tourists.

I have arrived in the fabulous land of France. After a tearful goodbye & a long wait at the Yaounde airport, I & 3 fellow COSers flew to Casablanca today. We said our goodbyes at the Mohammed IV airport, as they are spending 10 days in Morocco. I continued on to Paris. I splurged on a 50 Euro cab ride from CDG to the apartment because I had a lot of bags and I deserved it.

Then I took a much needed shower and nap. For dinner I wandered the neighborhood and discovered a tasty Tibetan restaurant. I had black mushroom & vermecelli soup, fried vegetable & cheese dumplings with red wine, and, for dessert, saffron rice and yak butter tea. The amount I spent on dinner would feed Bokito for a day, but I deserve it! (Although I support Tibetans' fight for independence from China, I must admit that the yak butter tea is rancid.)

Didn't manage to get a SIM card, so no phone number yet. I did have one meaningful conversation in Parisian, though!

Tomorrow's plans: croissants, long stroll.

Obviously packing skills are not herditary or otherwise I'd have no nervous anticipation of the enormous task before me. I have to pack the last two years of my life into a suitcase and a large backpack. I dumped all my stuff on the floor last Saturday when I arrived in Yaounde & it hasn't moved since. I'm discouraged just by looking at it. And the task isn't made easier by the fact that I'm still buying souvenirs & receiving "packages" to deliver to the US.

More later, my host sister is here...

My last (attempted) travel in Cameroon as a Peace Corps volunteer:

I wanted to visit my host family in Mbalmayo for the last time. I called my host sister Mimi and arranged to travel with her on Monday. I met her at Mvan (the neighborhood which houses the travel agencies to the South province) around 1pm, after a long taxi ride across town. We boarded a bus and left a few minutes later. After a short 15 minutes of driving we were stopped at a police roadblock and told to pull over into an empty field.

Four and a half hours later, she & I began the long walk back to Yaounde to catch a taxi home. I finally paid 600F to circle the outskirts of Yaounde and return to Omnisport. I walked into the PC Case at 7:15pm, down 2500F and with nothing to show for it but fatigue.

You may know that travel in Africa is difficult, but it is further complicated when 5 African presidents are arriving at the Yaounde-Nsimalen airport and roads are closed all over town. CEMAC (the economic union of central Africa including Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Gabon, CAR and Cameroon) was hosting its annual meeting in Yaounde.

The one highlight of my 7 hour ordeal: the president of Congo-Brazzaville's police escort got lost on the way from the airport to the Hilton. Rather than following the prescribed route he took a secondary road, forcing policemen & soldiers to run up and down the street wildly gesticulating and blowing whistles at drivers to pull over. I sat calmly in my taxi cab & waved to Nguesso as he drove past.

My PC service is complete.

I'll admit, up until a few weeks ago I was absolutely gleeful at the thought of leaving Cameroon. I was terribly bored in Bokito and couldn't wait to get out. Then, this past Friday, after showing me their report cards (all three passed!), my neighbor girls, Georgette, Charlie & Marie, told me they were leaving. Suddenly it hit me: I won't ever see them again. They've been constant nuisances & delights (alternately) the last two years, running errands for me, asking for salt or sugar, annoying me with their off key singing. I put old clothes & other stuff I planned to leave in package along with new pens & pencils for next school year. We took one last picture together and said goodbye. The next morning as I went for my run, they were waiting for a taxi by the roadside & we waved.

Since then my friend Carole's parents have come to say goodbye as well. They gave me a present & also one for Mom. Various students have stopped at the house to say goodbye and I try to come up with a "petit paquet" for all of them. I'm happy to give stuff away to friends, colleagues, and students who will appreciate it. It's annoying to be asked by strangers what I'm leaving to them, but I know it's expected in Cameroonian culture. I have been given presents, too, so it's not all one sided.

Here I am in Yaounde to drop off my bike...it needed air in the tires & some small repairs. I'm going to try to close my bank account, exchange CFA for Euros and do some souvenir shopping. Otherwise I'm ready to get back to Bokito & pack up my house. Most of my furniture has been bought. Saturday is my final APLYBOK (the teachers' association) meeting and I'm hosting it. Afterwards I'll give away the rest of my stuff, pack my bags and leave.

A colleague of Ashley's has generously offered to take us to Yaounde as long as we pay gas. I'm happy not to deal with Amigo Voyages, although the baggage handlers & ticket sellers have become friends of a sort after constant travels with them. Even my regular market mommies have been nice to me. All of them have contributed to my experience and I'll miss them.

Here's the address of my latest online photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2139635&l=68144&id=20601980

So our former Country Director, Robert Strauss, has been writing about Peace Corps since he left the position last February. The first link is to a NY Times op-ed piece and the second was in Foreign Policy magazine.

Too Many Innocents Abroad

Think Again: The Peace Corps

It seems everyone enjoyed the posts about Cameroonian magic, so I set about collecting some other tidbits & interesting superstitions. Here are a few:

-A pregnant woman mustn't eat cat or else the baby will purr

-Women should not eat snakes (pregnant or not) because she will give birth to snake babies

-The fur of a cat, if ingested, is a deadly poison

-Frogs should be chased from the compound because they listen to conversations and disclose secrets to your enemies

-People from the Mbam have an irrational fear of turtle shells and will not touch a tortoise shell nor enter a house with a turtle shell in view

-Hunters must be careful not to kill a shapeshifted person in his animal form. If a person comes to the house asking for a bit of the meat, he or she should be refused. The only way for a shapeshifter to regain their animal form once it's been killed is to ingest a piece of the body.

-Do not accept an open bottle offered to you by anyone. It may contain poison. Only drink from bottles you have opened. Some Cameroonians prefer to change their "gout" or prefered drink in order to thwart would-be poisoners

-A magical stick should be placed across the threshhold of a woman's room where she sleeps with her newborn baby. People with malice in their hearts will be unable to cross.

-The Bassa people believe that anyone who enters the sacred cave of Ngock Litouba without permission will disappear forever. A person cannot speak of what he saw inside the cave or he will die. An Italian priest once received permission to visit Ngock Litouba but he talked about it afterwards and died.

-The Yambassa say anyone hoping to climb their sacred mountain without the chief's permission will become lost and unable to find his way to the summit. (This actually happened to me, but I think we were lost because our guide lied when he said he knew the way. But who knows?)

I am finally at the end point in my Peace Corps service: Close of Service.

We held our COS Conference at the fabulous Mont Febe hotel with amazing views of Yaounde. And a pool. And three square meals a day. It was fabulous.

It was also discouraging. We had a panel of RPCVs currently working in Cameroon speak to us. Each and every one of the six people had Master's degrees (sometimes two). I am doomed. One reason I joined Peace Corps was that I had no idea what to do after college. I thought two years would be plenty of time to "figure it out". Here I am, two years later and still confused.

Cameroonians are asking as many questions about post-PC as anyone. I just shrug.

To any and all interested parties, I'm officially ending my service on June 27, 2008. I'll bum around in France for awhile then "readjust" to life in the US on my parents couch.

Bokito has been full of magical happenings in the past few months. Recent gossip indicated a certain successful store owner has been "buying" children to force their undead corpses to work for him.

Last Monday a student at the CETIC died of malaria ("il n'avait plus de sang dans le corps" according to Pascaline, meaning "he didn't have any blood left in his body") and on Tuesday his family buried him in a traditional tomb, without a coffin. Speculation immediately began that he had been "sold" and wasn't really, really dead. As he died his last word was the name of a prominent man in town. Was he accusing the sorcerer who bought him?

Sorcerers buy "undead" corpses to send them abroad to earn money, hence the need for the body to be buried without a coffin. To keep this from happening to your family members, remove their stomach after death and fill it with salt. That way, their new employers will recognize the body as a zombie and will have difficulty finding work. The sorcerer will eventually give up and bring them home to rest peacefully in their tomb.

Traditional tombs are dug out in the family's front yard or living room. A mansized hole is opened, then a catacomb is hollowed out underground. The body is passed through the hole and laid to rest in a room under the house.

As I left Bokito on Friday my quartier did not have power. We hadn't had power since Tuesday afternoon when a mysterious crow caused the power outage. The story, as reported to me:

All the crows of Bokito live in one baobob tree near the Sous-Prefecture, overlooking the transformer which provides power to the sous-prefet, lycee, mayor's office, gendarmerie, etc. On this particular day a magical crow landed on the transformer and electrocuted itself. It fell to the ground, dead, and a small fire began in the transformer. Since then the power's been out and AES-Sonel does not seem inclined to replace the faulty parts.

To say the crow is magical is to accuse a person, a sorcerer, of having sent the crow to blow up the transformer. This is because a few years ago the mayor's office sold Bokito's sacred forest (where the crows used to live) to a private enterpreneur, who cut down all the trees. Ever since the quartier has had numerous problems with the same transformer.

Just goes to show, don't sell off your sacred forest.