Welp, I didnt finish up my service very well re: blogging. My computer died last year around december and it made it much more difficult to do. Even emails I didnt do a great job with, same deal. I havent forgotten about anyone and I cant wait to see everyone when i get back to the states. Ill arrive June 9th but wont be around CT til the 15th (bonnaroooooo). When i get back ill have a phone and I will see everybody over the summer while im looking for jobs. that reminds me anyone who has a job, let me know ill send in my resume. ill do almost anything. see you all in a few weeks!

Hey guys...sorry for the long wait. I've been busy and since my computer has died I'm finding even harder than before to get updates up. Despite possible rumors I am in fact alive and well. I've had an interesting few months. First, as you've seen dad came in mid December to visit and stayed for Christmas. It was fun having him here, hearing his first impressions and showing him how I live here. We stayed a little poche for a bit in the tourist sites but then went to village. Even Cameroonians are surprised that my dad came out to post and took a 1.5 hr moto ride back to Dschang. I'm glad he came, its nice to be able to say names of towns and people and have him know what I'm talking about.

We had a meeting at my post a few weeks ago and went to a waterfall by my post, but since I'm running out of time and I'm lazy Ill refer you to my friends blog who went, he describe it pretty well: http://jimeroon.blogspot.com

Finally Ill tell you about one of the worst days I've had in country, and of course it involves travelling. I took a small car from Dschang to Bafoussam (1hr) to take a car from there to Yaounde (3-4 hrs) because its faster than going straight from Dschang. I was wearing mesh shorts because the previous day I'd walked from my post to Dschang (about 45km or 28 miles) and was sore as s***. Getting out of the car I paid the driver, then followed a friend I'd made in the car also going to Yaounde. Two guys bumped into me for an unusually long time, and i was suspicious and checked my bag but there were no hands there (turns out wallet was in my pocket). Only after I'd gotten on a car to Yaounde and police came to give our new driver crap for staying on the side of the road too long did I check to make sure I had my id and realized my wallet was missing. I shouted explitives and threw my bag against the window getting everyones attention. I explained what had happened and finally the people inside the car convinced one of the police officers to help me try to get my wallet. My friend took his wife and child off the bus and said he would help me. As we were walking back to the spot where it happened the police officer told us to walk seperately so they wouldnt know he was with us. I never saw him again. My friend talked to some people who had seen it happen (turns out there were about 10 witnesses) and there were some guys who offered to go get the wallet. 2 hrs later they came back with the wallet, missing the 50000cfa (about 100 dollars) that was inside. I was relieved to have my id and bank card and immediately went to the bank and refilled my wallet. The guy was so nice he paid the guys 5000 for finding the wallet for me and was going to pay for my transport to yaounde. I paid him back and have talked to him a few times since. Then i got in a bush taxi with a crazy driver who tried to blow through a police stop, they blew one of our tires, i jumped out the window when he stopped, it was scary. unfortunately im out of time. hope everyones good, see you in a few months

brad

This post is from Brad's father, Brad Melius, Sr. I spent 13 days with Brad around Christmas (December 15-27) traveling around Cameroon - Kribi, Limbe, Dschang and Brad's post in Menji. The trip was amazing, thought-provoking, humbling and altogether wonderful. Here are my observations:

I would describe Cameroonians as friendly, sometimes aggressive, extremely self-interested (though understandably so) and kind to others in need in a way you don't see any more in the US. The country is naturally beautiful, the infrastructure limited but improving, and the towns and villages very dirty by American or European standards. On the other hand, there is much, much less waste of resources than in developed Western countries. During my trip, I happened to be reading Tom Friedman's most recent book about climate change, and the contrast -between, for example, piling seven people into a Toyota Corolla taxi vs. Americans driving to work alone in SUVs - is quite obvious and stark. I also had the opportunity to meet several of Brad's fellow Peace Corps Volunteers during the trip. I found PCVs to be dedicated, hard working people who have adapted to a very different environment and culture more easily than they realize. I also found them to be sometimes frustrated by an inability to discern their palpable impact on a daily or even weekly or monthly basis. My advice to them, to use a sailing metaphor, would be as follows: If your goal is to change the wind, you may well be disappointed and frustrated. A more workable objective is to try to reposition your sail, and perhaps the sails of a few others along the way. Having said that, my admiration for PCVs is extreme. I certainly lack the combination of guts, perseverance, patience and sheer determination needed to be a volunteer, as I think do most people I know.

Christmas in Cameroon was delightfully subdued. Brad and I attended Mass at the Catholic church in Menji and stopped at his neighbor's house for lunch. Brad and Marcellius then prepared a feast that included both American and Cameroonian fare. The cornbread was particularly delicious. I saw no Christmas trees (save for the blow-up tree sent to Brad from the States), very few lights, no presents being exchanged. However, people gathered in the village on both Christmas Eve and Christmas night to celebrate the holiday, wishing each other a "Happy Christmas," or simply "Happy, happy." It reminded me of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas: "It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!"

The most obvious evidence of the holiday was how well dressed people were in the village, particularly at Mass. Most really took pride in their appearance, and seemed to enjoy wearing a nice suit or dress. This leads me to a Cameroon Christmas story. Marcellius, Brad's dear friend and a great guy with a ready smile and wonderful sense of humor, owns a small clothing shop in Menji. About 9 pm on Christmas Eve, as he sat down for a beer with Brad and me, Marcellius's cell phone rang. It was one of his customers, a young girl for whom he had set aside a dress on layaway. She wanted desperately to wear the dress for Christmas, and asked Marcellius if she could pick it up despite not having paid the full purchase price. After consulting Brad momentarily, Marcellius agreed to the arrangement, scratched out a formal IOU, and reopened his shop so the girl could pick up her dress before the big day.

Welcome, Christmas, where we stand

Heart to heart, ... and hand in hand.

I want to thank Brad for escorting me around an extremely foreign land and giving me a glimpse at his experience in Cameroon that I would never have gleaned from pictures, emails, phone calls or stories.

Above are a few pictures from the trip. One is taken from inside a bush taxi, others are mostly from Christmas day at Brad's house. Those in the group photo are (left to right) Marcellius, Brad, me, Marcellius's mom, and Bertrand. Plucking chicken feathers was a first for me. Introducing Cameroonian kids to baseball was one of many experiences I will never forget.

Happy New Year to all Brad Sr.

Hey everyone. There were two occasions in Cameroon I wanted to tell you about they were really cool. The first one was a cultural festival in Batibo in the northwest province. A few volunteers there put together a joint American/Cameroonian cultural festival. There were tables with themes like HIV/Aids, studying in the US, games for kids (I helped with that one), agricultural info, and Cameroonians set up tables for the different tribes, and various other things (I didn’t get around to a lot of them because I was working with the kids). Then they had a stage set up where Americans performed American songs and dance (hip hop dance was especially entertaining) and Cameroonian tribes did their traditional dances. After we ate a mix of Cameroonian and American food. There was supposed to be a concert that night but most people were too tired, me and about 7 other ppl made it to the place which was good because no one told the people there it was cancelled. We danced, one volunteer sang "no woman no cry" while we swayed and clapped in the background, it turned out alright. That was a long day.

The next weekend was Thanksgiving, and I decided to stay at post and invite some of my students to have a dinner at my house. We had 2 chickens (I killed my first chicken!), mashed potatoes, stove top, green beans and corn bread (corn bread was just ok but it all got eaten). We all said what we were thankful for, it was really nice. One student said he was happy that I wanted to share all this with "small people" because being a teacher I'm sort of a big man and big men usually hang with big men. One thing I'm trying to show them is that everyone is the same, so I was happy they noticed. Overall I've had some good cultural mixing lately.

I just had a friend visit who is leaving this week, it was really strange to talk to her. Whether its because 2 year sounded like such a long time or it was a defense mechanism, I never really imagined how it would be coming home. I thought about how nice it would be to see everyone and get a pizza delivered to my house, but not about actually living there all the time. It sounds pretty awesome. I've decided to come back to the US for at least a year, live in NYC hopefully and get a job or internship, then either go to grad school or something else in 2010. Ill be home in June or July of next year, and the time is flying. Ill see you all soon!

brad

Also I'm sorry I haven’t been returning emails lately…I haven’t forgotten about anyone its just been hard to keep up with it lately. I can't lie I don’t expect it to change but Ill be home soon!

Hey everyone! Great job electing Obama! I was lucky enough to be in the capital (Yaounde) for something else and got to witness the entire night on CNN with 20 other Americans. I celebrated by buying redbull knockoffs, fritos, beans and cheese. Yup, we found fritos! While we ate and drank we played trivial pursuit, talked about what we all had to do if McCain won (what I had to do is inappropriate for the blog, ill tell you if you ask and are not my parents or grandparents), and ran inside whenever cheers or boos erupted from the crowd watching tv (Obama or McCain respectively winning a state). When CNN finally called the election at about 3am (or was it 4? I don’t remember) dance parties began during commercial breaks, and we all hunkered down to listen to McCain and Obama's speeches. I dont know how people in the US were feeling but we were all inspired by Obama's speech. My eyes got a little watery..maybe some of it had to do with how tired I was. By the time it was over it was light outside and we went out for beans and beneits (not sure the spelling, but basically small oily doughnuts. you'd be surprised how good beans are for breakfast). People were on their way to work etc. and were all congratulating us on electing Obama. It was really nice to get OBAMA with a thumbs up rather than "le blanc" or any of the other names they have for us (the girls got Mdm. Obama which they much prefer to Mdm. Sarkozy). I have since returned to post and am in good spirits. I am almost at my six months left mark! The last six months have flown by I'm sure the next will do the same. There will be definite mixed feelings about leaving. Anyway hope everyones doing well, and again good job with the election.

Brad

Hello! Dear friends, family, strangers, all protocol respected…how are things (the usual Cameroonian introduction lists 5-10 special people who are in attendance before beginning). I shouldn’t even say it anymore but sorry for not writing enough, it's difficult to muster up the energy when I feel like I'm so far behind. It is 9p.m., my usual bedtime, and I am wired. I was expecting a call from the manager of a bike tour company in Paris, I am hoping to work there next summer (everyone should comment on how I would be a great tour guide in case he reads this). Alas, he was busy today and couldn’t call so I'm winding down the day with a blog and a lollipop. Time has started to fly and I'm worried it will be June before I know it. I'm not sure what I'm doing after Peace Corps. I know, Ill lay out my situation and you can all give me suggestions. Here is my deal: First, I know I don’t want to be a doctor or a lawyer. I know that whatever I want to do as a career will require more schooling but I'm not sure what that is and its difficult (but not impossible) to apply from here. I could choose something I might be interested in like International Relations but unlike the sciences (which I'm not so sure I'm meant for anymore) its not paid for which means more debt. My plan is to delay grad school at least another year so I can properly research programs. Meanwhile I'd like to travel more, preferably to France or China. I don’t know why China appeals to me, but I loved Paris when I was there and would like to improve my French. If anyone knows any way I can go there while not going into debt please let me know. As far as a career choice goes, I'd like to be able to travel and somewhat choose my own schedule. Being a consultant or working for a think tank both sound like things I would be interested in but I don’t know what exactly to do to get there. Any advice is appreciated. Anyway I still have 8 months to go, but since the only training group here longer than us is about to leave in December I'm feeling the pressure. I am very excited for the next few months. I am finally feeling at home so much here it doesn’t feel like im anywhere anymore, I'm just here. I am enjoying teaching my classes, hanging with friends and my alone time. Every once in a while I get frustrated with my situation or bored but far less frequently than last year and not as badly. I also have some guaranteed good times coming up. I am going to Yaoundé in November and will be there on election night on which I don’t plan on sleeping. You guys aren’t letting Obama lose right? I was serious about not coming back if he does. John McCain is alright (actually he's right-center...oh! I almost deleted this it's corny I no but better than no joke no?) I won't be too upset however it turns out. In December I have IST (a week on the beach with a bunch of volunteers) then my dads coming in December. Toss a few other small events in there (searching for elephants??) and time will continue to fly till I leave. I'm thinking about building a sty and raising a pig to eat at my send-off party in May. The only problem is it's expensive. I may get a goat and some chickens instead. Anyone reading this is invited it's gonna be the biggest party my town has ever seen. I am really struggling as far as blogging goes. I'm not sure what to write about anymore besides telling you guys I'm okay. If anyone wants to know anything, please leave it in a comment I will address it for sure. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, I had a good birthday and I'm sorry I didn’t respond to everyone but I appreciated the thoughts. I will try to get to everyone in time. If I have ignored an email of yours please its not on purpose and send me an email "beep" (just tell me to email you back and say whats up). I'm going to do better starting…now. Until next time… brad

I was just about to start typing a blog when the power went out. I thought for a second I just wasn’t meant to write yet but it came on a few minutes later. Sorry its been so long I know some of you have been waiting SINCE and some of you have probably given up on it and aren’t checking anymore. I had a busy summer where it was hard to get a computer and get to an internet café. I've also as always been in somewhat of a transition. At the beginning I could tell you about all the crazy and exciting things that were happening, as I was here longer those things still happened but I didn’t seem interesting enough to talk about, I wanted to talk more about more complex cultural issues and other things that would be difficult to appreciate were you not living here (I tried a bit). Now frankly theres nothing I really want to talk about, life has become pretty normal and it seems the purpose for the blog will just be to inform everyone how I'm doing and what I'm up to. Maybe itll be interesting anyhow. I'm gonna start way back when when I went on vacation in Europe. Thanks to everyone there, I had a really good time. I put on over 10 lbs. and had some much needed R&R. It wasn’t as strange as I thought it would be going to a developed country, after a few hours I felt right back at home. I'm glad I didn’t go back to the US or I might have felt too at home. I could have transitioned back but it might have been more difficult. I dreaded getting on the plane to come back, but as it turned out coming back wasn't all that difficult. I remember coming back I only had about 8000cfa (16 dollars) in cash and I had to give my taxi driver to the bus station a bottle of wine to cover some of the taxi fare. Gotta love that you can do that. It was almost a relief to return to the pace of life here…its very hard to be late for something. I remember being in Italy rushing a shower when I was dead tired and I'd just had my camera stolen and I thought: "If I wasn’t in Florence with an appointment to see the statue of David I could just take a nap like I want to". Sounds ridiculous but I hadn’t felt that rushed/tired/obligated since I'd gone to post. After Europe I had mid-service where they test you for every possible disease you may have picked up. I was hoping I'd get something exotic sounding and easily curable but unfortunately all my tests were negative. I went back to post for a week where I met my new postmate who lives about 30 minutes from me. She is also a teacher at a high school. It has been nice to have an American somewhat closer than before…I usually don’t go a week without seeing her at least once. I traveled back with her to the training site to help with model school. If you don’t remember model school is the name of the summer classes the Peace Corps runs to prepare new teachers to teach. It was fun to see how far I've come in being used to the culture and especially in teaching. I think students have a very precise confidence detector. I enjoyed watching them cause trouble for the new teachers while I watched from the back. One time I caught eye contact with some kids talking and gave them the finger to lips "shhh" and he got his friends attention and said "Mr. Bradford said to be quiet" and they were quiet for a few minutes at least. Felt good. I enjoyed relaxing with other Americans and seeing a lot of people from my training group that came out to help. I didn’t get to travel as much as I wanted but I'll get to before I leave. After training I relaxed a bit and got ready for the school year. This year will be much better than last year. For one I know what I'm doing, know most of the teacher and how the school works. Second I got most of the classes I wanted, I'm teaching Form 1 and Form 3 Physics (Form 2 had 250 students. I took them last year and refused to do so again this year). Because another physics teacher came this year I have only those two classes for physics and I took a Form 4 maths class. (Did you know they say "maths" in british English? I'm not sure if they actually pronounce the s in Britain like they do here). My schedule is a little lighter than last year and I have Wednesdays and Fridays off. Its gonna be rough getting back to the real world, I know. On my days off I do chores, cook elaborate meals, etc. I still get bored but it is not as bad as last year. We got a new principal this year (old one retired) which I was very happy about because he was keeping the students in class from 730 all the way till 3, but I just found out yesterday hes been changed. Not sure why I've only been hearing rumours but I hope the new ones just as good. I'm trying to get my basketball court proposal in but I have to wait to have this new principal sign off on it. Lately people have been asking when I'm leaving and I feel bad saying at the end of this year. It seems too soon. It happens less often but sometimes it doesn’t seem soon enough. After hanging out with the PCVs leaving in December I've decided its not going to be easy at all to go back to the states. Those thoughts will have to wait for another time. Sorry again the update took so long, I'm not going to promise to update soon but now that I'm at post its definitely easier. Hope everyones good. brad

August 10, 2008 - Sorry its been 2 months since my last entry, I havent had easy access to internet and I've been busy what with Europe and then helping with training. Im just letting everyone know I am still here and doing better than ever...when I get back to post in September Ill make sure to fill everyone in on how my summer has gone. Hope you all are having a good summer.

Brad

June 5, 2008 - Wow. It's been a long time. How have you been spending these few months? Greet everyone for me…might be what I would say here. Anyway it has been a while, I've been busy with things and like other volunteers told me it gets harder and harder to keep up a blog and generally keep in touch with people. I hope everyones well and all of that. We just closed the school Saturday so I'm officially done for a few months. I have a project I'm working on (when the proposal finally gets going Ill send an email asking for money) and I will be taking some well deserved vacation. If any family and friends are reading this and thinking "wow I wish I could visit Africa and look around a little"…you can! You have a free tour guide here who will take you into the jungle, visit pygmies, see the desert, climb the tallest mountain in west Africa, whatever you want to do. We will spend at least a few days relaxing on the black sand beaches of Limbe, having ice cold beers served to us and eating roasted fish coming straight out of the ocean. Remember, the weathers always nice here. You have to pay your flight (about 2000US) and take at least 2 weeks vacation, but once youre here the exchange rate is very nice. I've seen Europeans traveling here with their kids, I assure you its safe. My village would welcome you nicely...I guarentee it would be the most eye opening vacation you've ever taken and will change away you think about life. Anyway, something to think about.

I know I had a whole speech before about how I'd turned a new leaf and would start to blog more often about different topics and I still have the list, but honestly I've been traveling and doing school work and just haven’t had the motivation. Hopefully I'll have some over the summer, but again I will be busy. The new training group arrives Saturday. Yup, that means Ive been in Cameroon for 1 year. It went fast no? Ill be helping them with training in a few weeks when I get back from my mid-service vacation which also starts Saturday. Unfortunately Im flying out of the other city in Cameroon so I wont get to see the wide eyed newbies coming in. Im looking forward to going to Europe but Im a little frightened of being overwhelmed. When I went to Yaounde for a conference the traffic itself threw me a little, especially when I saw it from the top of the Hilton. I cant imagine Paris. Anyway Ill let you guys know how it goes.

Let me give you one cultural tidbit that is annoying me at the moment. Everyone, mostly those who have never met another American, asks you to bring them things when you travel. Just now when I was going to the market a girl in my class said "what are you going to keep for me at the market?" I said "I don’t know Ill see whats there.."(I usually try not to commit to anything) What I want to say is "I don’t even know your name, what am I supposed to buy something for every kid in the neighborhood every time I go to get some pineapples?" I restrain myself of course and its usually alright if I don’t get anything, but its even worse when you tell people youre going to Europe. People have asked for computers, dvd players, cell phones... Im going to have to get some small things I think but it’s a lot of pressure. I have to remember probably 15 people, Im supposed to be on vacation! Now these people are not trying to take advantage of me, its just part of the culture that if you're traveling you bring back something, I think its usually to show that you thought about them. Just shows you that even after a year there are things that youll never understand.

Okay now a more positive story about the culture…I've discovered a strength I have in the Cameroonian culture that I didn’t know was there: my dancing. Now all my college friends who are reading this are snickering a little and thinking of how they so often imitated my dancing by rolling their shoulders and bobbing their heads. Cameroon has changed me and it comes down to two things: the freedom to express yourself and mirror dancing. First, the freedom. You can do ANYTHING here and people will accept it as long as you move with the music. My favorite game is choosing the most ridiculous dancer on the floor and imitating them, preferably if your partner is doing it too. Lots of fun. Also its not strange for 2 or 3 men to dance together, in fact they dance more exuberantly if its all men. Freaked me out the first time a guy came over to dance with me but now I'm used to it, its fun. So now to mirror dancing. In most of the night clubs here they have mirrors lining all the walls so that you can watch yourself or your partner dance. I don’t know how strange it sounds anymore because its pretty standard here and Im gonna miss it. If a person doesn’t have a partner he (usually the girls wont dance without a partner or will be picked up quickly) will just stand about 4 ft from the mirror and dance, watching nothing but himself. It takes maybe 5 minutes to get used to seeing yourself, but after 10 you get really into it. I hope it starts in the US. Anyway these 2 things have given me the confidence to be a little more creative when I dance. When my school colleagues saw me dance at the school closing I got tons of compliments, even won a free beer from the social committee. We had another occasion Saturday night called a burn house, which is a first year birthday party for a child. I was asked to open the dance with a few others…was a lot of fun. Im worried Ill go back to the US and look ridiculous, but Ill deal with that when the time comes. Hope everyone has a good summer, Ill update hopefully sometime in July.

I wrote as the blog was happening, more for my benifit than yours, but here you go:

26/02/08 4:00pm - So, my last blog was about safety in Cameroon. This blog will be about the riots that have broken out in some of the major cities over the raised gas prices. Since the new year, gas and consequently almost every basic product…vegetables, rice, drinks, etc. have risen, totaling in my estimation about a 5% raise. Monday morning, taxi drivers in Douala (called the "financial capital" of Cameroon as opposed to the real capital, Yaounde) started protesting. Not unreasonable, but the protest involves throwing rocks at any cars carrying passengers for money. That turned into riots and looting, and pretty soon all transportation at least in the central area of the country stopped. Other cities followed, and at the moment several cities are still in the midst of the riots. I have been talking to volunteers in a few cities and Cameroonians around my town, and this is what Ive gathered so far: The worst city right now is Douala…there have been burned cars, a burned gas station, and several deaths. Almost every other city in the W, NW, SW, Littoral, and Center provinces has incidents of rioting and most shops are closed. Dschang which is close to me has had trouble at least 2 places that I frequent regularly in town, and 1 person has died. As for me, my town is business as usual. There was school today, there will be tomorrow, people are in the market, drinking beers, eating fish. No one is worried because rioting couldn’t really happen in our town everyone knows everyone else. Still if this were America people would be glued to the tv screen, here people tell me theyre not worried because it happens every once in a while and it will be over soon. Im hoping so because its been 2 days and as one Cameroonian told me "people have to eat". That’s when normal people (nonrioters) will be out during the violence and bad things could happen. Ill be hanging out here. Im really not worried except if it were to turn worse and I was to be evacuated, I don’t know how I would do it with all the vehicles not running. 26/02/08 9:00pm - I have just gotten back from town and it was interesting. I watched the 730 news while eating poisson brase, baton de manioc and drinking a beer and the first story wasn’t even about the riots, it was about the Saudi Arabians meeting with Paul Biya….maybe important but not as important as the riots. The story about the riots told of few casualties, some burning cars. My friend next to me then told me that in the town they covered several gvt. buildings were burned and the brasseries (beer factories) were also burned. I don’t know how much of that is true because most of the buildings in the country are made of stone, but I think there was more to the story than they portrayed. At the very least all the Cameroonians were suspicious of the report which shows me the distrust they have for things run by the government. A report "just in" later in the broadcast showed clips from at least hours ago (it was still light outside) saying that the official strike would be ended tomorrow, but the Cameroonians around me said they thought the strike would go on longer, until the prices were lowered. We will have to see what happens tomorrow. Unfortunately for me although my mind is elsewhere I have classes tomorrow, and plan on going in without a lesson plan because I don’t have the patience to make one right now knowing I might be going home. 28/02/08 – 12:20am – I didn’t end up going into school at all yesterday, I really just couldn’t concentrate on teaching with so much going on. Today they were a little bit more serious than yesterday, but Im getting ahead of myself. The 27th was supposed to be the breaking point, where it would either die down or get worse. In the morning I was hearing that there were a few cars traveling, and it sounded like it was getting better. Then I talked to a volunteer in Dschang who said it was a lot worse than yesterday, police were throwing tear gas and shooting rubber bullets and someone was killed. The bakery that I buy yogurt at when Im in town was torn apart, and the bar which I usually go to may or may not have been burned down. I heard similar stories from other places and I sent some phone credit to a few friends who couldn’t leave their houses to buy it. I took a nap in the afternoon and when I woke up heard Paul Biya was going to address the nation. My friend brought some of his friends over and we played ping pong, I cut a Romeo and Juileta in half and we smoked it…a nice way to forget about what was going on. I went to the internet to watch the president's speech. The Cameroonians laughed most of the time, and though I didn’t get most of the French it was translated in English (Everyone here is bilingual or trilingual, most are quadralingual) and said the translation was very bad). Basically he blamed people for playing politics and generally it seemed threatened the people more than anything. It was definitely a Tipping Point (I just read the new book titled that I should be an expert). The Cameroonians at the internet and at the bar where I enjoyed poisson brase for the 2nd night in a row were immediately saying it wasn’t a good speech, and the next morning a few teachers confirmed. People didn’t like the presidents reaction to the riots, and if people who weren’t involved at all in the riots were thinking he was wrong to address it like that, I didn’t think the protesters would either. I didn’t hear as many bad stories today (one story about 2000 children being held hostage apparently made it on BBC) but mostly it was the tone that I was surprised at. The bars in town were unprecedently(word says its not a word but I disagree) empty tonight. No one was talking about anything other than the riots, some were saying its war, and no one was saying it should be over soon. I am now facing a real possibility of evacuation, in fact with the difficulty they would have evacuating us when there is no public transport I don’t see how they can risk stranding us out here if this gets better only to have another incident happen in a few months. Tomorrow or maybe after I finish this Im going to start seriously packing and choosing what to take and leave. It sucks that its so sudden, Im holding onto hope that I don’t have to leave but I don’t see another option. Im taking my camera into school tomorrow to take pictures with my students. I am just starting to get used to life here, Im either going to change programs entirely or go home, both of which will take serious adjustment I am not prepared for. More pressing, how am I going to get out of here? People are throwing rocks at all the cars passing and both towns with an airport are the worst to be in right now. Now that I face the prospect of leaving I feel like I haven’t been useful and I'm wishing I had started more things than I have, I'm not sure I've accomplished anything meaningful (not that I necessarily would have accomplished much but I haven’t even finished teaching a full year…). a week or so later….That was the worst day. The day after I wrote that things calmed and cars were able to pass in most cities. There were rumors that the strikes would start again on Monday, so all the volunteers stayed in consolidation but it turned out that things were peaceful and everything went back to normal in the next few days. There are still rumors that the strike may start again but at least for now its fine. My feelings on the strikes are: - Im very very glad its over, it was even exciting at first but then brought only stress - I fear they will come back, since not much has changed as far as prices go - I think most of the rioting was actually caused by people taking advantage of the situation, not the protestors themselves - I feel safe here, I have heard that no matter how awful the protests get they take the weekends off to give people a chance to move, to buy rice and those things and get ready for the next week of staying inside. At least I will be able to stay in village until a weekend and then be evacuated. 18 March 2008 - Welp, that was fun, but as I said the riots are over and theres no looking like theyre coming back soon, but we don’t know. Life is usual, Im getting ready for summer break (theres not summer here, they just call it third term break). I found out a few days ago that Ill be helping with training, which is a relief because itll give me something to do for our 3 months off (besides travel around Europe which im also excited for…Ill be there in 3 months, it feels like no time). Right now time is flying. It seems like every day is two weeks later on the calendar than it should be. I've officially been in Cameroon 9 months now. Looking back on it it does seem like a long time that I've been here, but training was the longest I think. Post is flying by. The head of the focalari movement (Catholic mission in my town) died today. I really respect those people who came here when it was just starting out, deep into the bush without water, electricity, a mailing system. I feel like Im cheating when I hear people describe it. I said this before but they saved this village, the infant mortality rate was something ridiculous, over 90%. Most of the people in this tribe are alive because of the focalaris (I don’t know how to spell it Im sorry). Getting ready to submit my basketball court proposal, everyone get your checkbooks ready! Brad

Hey everyone,

There have been some strikes in Cameroon and the country got a little crazy, Ive written about it but wasnt able to post it today. Ill do that later in the week, just know that Im staying, and Im ok.

Brad

...Which they do celebrate here surprisingly. Nothing too fancy like giving a valentine to everyone in your class, but people made them for people they had crushes on (I didnt get any). And now to my pretyped entry:

Howdy folks... oh I heard the first slang that was started since I've left, but I forget what it was…it was a version of "how you doing" but I didn’t understand it at all. Very strange. Also that computer world still going on? 2nd life? I read about it in newsweek and it seemed like it was getting big but I couldn’t really tell. If anyone has any epiphanies about things that would be new to me that I might not read in Newsweek or about the elections (the elections are really all I read about online, takes too much time to surf) send me an email (or an old fashioned letter). My addresses again:

bradford.melius@gmail.com for packages:

Bradford Melius, PCV

B.P. 215

Yaounde, Cameroon

Africa for letters:

Bradford Melius, PCV

B.P. 217

Dschang, Cameroon

AfricaNOTE: do NOT send packages to the Dschang address, unless you want me to have to pay a rediculous amount of money to get it and risk having it already opened and searched through.

Also anyone who wants an email penpal here I have hundreds of students who would want one. Again, there would be no pressure you could write about anything and they would be interested to hear it, and would respond. Just send me your email address and Ill give it to one of my students. So, I said I would give a talk a little more about life here. Let me start with safety in Cameroon, because right now I have a friend who wants to visit, but his parents think Cameroon is too dangerous. Is Cameroon dangerous…yes and no. There are definitely places in the country where if you walk alone at night, you are likely be robbed. That being said those places exist in the US too, and we avoid those places just like we do in the US. There have been many cases of volunteers being mugged (and this is mostly at night in cities), but I haven’t heard a story about volunteers getting hurt in any way. A lot of the time volunteers are pick pocketed and don’t even realize they don’t have their phone, wallet, until later. If you stay in populated areas, don’t put anything in your back pocket, watch your bags and don’t go out at night, there is very little that can happen as far as burglary. The thing that I fear most is traveling. I talked about my traveling experience once but in case you forgot or missed it, they cram people in cars. It makes perfect sense to me now, because the people here would much rather fit 8 people (not including small children who sit on laps) into a small car than pay 25% more to travel. They always fit as many people who can squeeze in, which in cars usually means putting someone in the drivers seat with the driver. The cars are also not too well kept. You are lucky if you get in a car that has all its mirrors. All this being said the drivers are used to having another in the seat with them, not having mirrors, etc. and tend to drive very well considering. Also in some areas the roads are so bad that the car cannot go more than 15 mph, meaning even if there were an accident it wouldn’t be too bad. I estimate that my chances of an accident are 2 to 3 times more likely here than in the US, but since I take a car much less and I haven’t gotten in an accident in the past 6 years, so hopefully Ill be ok here. Also, not that I deserve it but I know that if something were to happen I would be the first to be taken care of. Whenever a car breaks down I am the first one the drivers find another car for. They may try to charge me more because I'm white, but I get service too. As far as people breaking into my home, I have almost no fear of it. I lock my doors of course when I leave and at night, but my village is not too big and people just couldn’t get away with breaking in here. Very few people (especially those who don’t own the house) have their own room. If they show up with a camera or a computer or a lot of cash, people will know where it came from because news of the white man getting robbed would travel faster than a PK taken by eto'o (our star player. Not sure if you would have seen it because I don’t remember it, but the Africa Nations Cup was in Jan. Cameroon lost in the finals, very upsetting). I have a friend in a smaller village than mine and his house was broken into twice. They found the kids both times, and he got all of his things back. Im sure the kid was punished beyond what we want to know. The final thing that reassures me is that people here are so nice. Most know that if an American is here its to help them, and they treat us with respect and kindness (they do try and charge us more, but that’s because they think we have the money…they have relatives in the US who send back money…but they don’t realize I have school loans and am on a Cameroon-set stipend. That being said I still do have enough money to pay a little more here and there, I argue mostly for entertainment. Shopping when you don’t really need something is the best, you can get very good prices. All in all, I worry about transportation the most, but I travel maybe 2x a month maximum, and its not too bad. In other words you don’t need to worry about me, and if you want to come and visit (everyone should) youll be ok. If youre really worried about transportation we can depot buy the seat next to the driver or the whole car if you prefer, wouldn’t cost too much on an American salary. If anyone wants to know anything specific, add a comment or send me and email and Ill write about it…remember things got less weird to me so I might not realize a certain topic would be interesting. Whutoh (means bye around here, sounds a little like ut-oh, somethings wrong) Pictures from the waterfall, about 2 hrs away from my house. Its a bitch to get there, but so worth it.

Joefred about to jump into the water, I have a video too but its too big.

It was the right time to smoke a cigar sent from the states.

The waterfall is huge, couldnt get the whole thing in a picture. Rediculous.

February 9, 2007 - This was going to be my best entry to date; but alas i have to put in and take out my usb every time i want to insert a picture and Im not up for it; sorry. I think its still a good story Ill add the pics later:

Hello everyone, I've decided it will be too much of a pain right now to change sites, so well see how it goes slightly editing myself. Right now I'm a little upset because the fridge I bought on a whim isn’t working because of low voltage, which happens almost every night. Hopefully it will keep cold enough even if it goes off for 2-3 hrs a day? I don’t know maybe I can have an electrician come. Anyway I also bought a ping pong table which I'm more excited about, although it’s a little smaller than an official table it works just fine. Tomorrow (meaning today if I get to the internet after) I'm going to sand it and paint it with my friend and reinforce it early next week. He is down right now because his girlfriend got a few gifts from a wealthy gentleman around here which suggests they weren’t just friends. Hes not talking to her but hes having a rough time..he says table tennis should take his mind off her..well see. Anyway after we paint it I'm going to go to the internet and do a few chores and then go to Dschang, the city near me, for banking and to watch Cameroon in the semifinals in the Africa Nations Cup. We're playing Ghana, the home team and we haven’t played great in the tournament so we'll see. Would be great to move to the finals. Its on Thursday, Feb. 7th at 7 or 930 here (so 1 or 330 eastern). Look for it on ESPN2 if you don’t have a job.

**There is also the loudest bug Ive ever heard outside right now, I don’t want to open the door for fear its big and will get inside so I have to kill it. Im also in the middle of a minor cockroach problem and am feeling a little sick, hopefully a good nights rest and dousing the house with insecticide will make me good to go tomorrow. The fridge just came on for a sec and then off again…life must sound bad but it really isn’t right now.**

Last weekend I have a trip to tell you about:Lucky for you I wasn’t lazy and took my camera. My only regret is that I didn’t get a picture with the "father of jesus" but we'll get to that. The night before we were to leave, Marcellus (a friend I went with) went to talk to a guy who was going to show us to "elephant rock" a huge rock you can see in the distance from my post where supposedly elephants used to come and sun bathe. His motivation was that he was going to hunt for animals while we were there. He set a time for 800 when we would leave(gave him 500 francs for something, Marcel couldn’t say no he was doing us a favor), and then we bought food, fishing hooks to go with the line I had bought, and bait. We packed most of it that night. Marcellus and I woke up around 630, he was at my house at 7 we finished packing and cooked some eggs (for the guide too), ate some peanuts on our way to the guys house. We showed up at 5 to 8, and the guy wasn’t there. The kids wouldn’t even go look for him!(VERY rude to say no to anything an adult tells you) Here are the kids:

Anyway we wait around, and by 815 Marcellus is angry. Im used to having to wait for Cameroonians so I just sit, eat more, snap photos of the kids, and wait. The guy shows up around 830, apologizing profusely and says he will go get ready to go. We wait outside until about 845 and go in to see what the problem is. He says now that he cant leave until his wife gets back from wherever she was…Marcellus talks to him and the guy says ok its not far, 20 minutes, and we'll leave at 10 no matter if the wife is back yet (the neighbors would watch the kids, its what you do in Cameroon (I don’t watch any kids)).

We leave our bags at the house and go into town and get a drink (just juice, I thought about a beer though its not out of the ordinary here) and when I went to get some chocolate a guy who sort of looks like the guy says "are you ready?, lets go". Its only 945 so Im excited, were doing better then he promised. I thought it was him but it turned out it was his brother who looked like him. He was finishing a beer(see?) so we said we would meet him after he finished at the house. On our way back we see the guide on a moto towards town! He shouts "I am coming". We had nothing to do but wait at that point. At about 11 we finally got one of the kids to go look for him (we would have just left then but our bags were locked up). He comes back and says his father went to visit someone in the hospital, and we'll go tomorrow. This didn’t work for me, I had to teach the next day so we were out of luck.

Marcel was more pissed than I was, but his complaints which I generally agree with were:

1) we talked to him about this day about a month in advance

2) Marcel went by his house the night before to make sure

3) he still said we were going that morning, 45 mins after we decided to meet

4) the least he could have done was say we weren’t going or we might not go

Im not sure if he wanted to get as much out of us as he could and then not go or if there was an actual reason he had to go to the hospital then, but in any case he left us with our bags fully packed including some already prepared food, looking at hiking during the hottest part of the day if we wanted to still go.

On my our way back with our bags we go about 100 yds and see a man in a bubu (a formal dress around here) walking in the other direction. Marcel seems to know him and tells him the story about what happened. After about 30 seconds, the man shakes his head and says "No, come". We start to follow. This shows very well the two contrasts in Cameroon. Some people are always late, want to take advantage of everyone(This is going to be a long parentheses I have another story I probably wont tell unless I put it here..just know now that the guy in the bubu decided to take us, in contrast to the first guy and the guy Im about to tell you about. There was a teacher at the beginning of the year who was a pretty cool guy. He came over a few times and we talked about Cameroon, the government, philosophy of life, he seemed very intelligent and we had some very interesting talks. I was only about 1 month at post and he was probably my best friend at the time. One night he says hes thinking about starting a call box at the school(a call box is basically a pay phone except people sit with cell phones and you can call for cheaper because they buy in bulk, and you can also buy credit from them). It sounded like a good idea maybe students would use it to call their parents, etc. Anyway he wanted 20000fcfa (about 45 dollars) for help with the credit. I told him I didn’t have enough Id have to go to the bank, and he said that whatever I could give him by that weekend he would appreciate because he was going that weekend to buy the credit in the city. I decided to give him 10000, and before he took it I told him of what Peace Corps told us about Cameroonians trying to scam us. He said "in wine, there is truth" in the latin but I forget it (good thing Mrs. Griffin doesn’t know about the blog). I make him sign a receipt saying hes gonna pay it back by a certain time(what I was most worried about) and he said no problem. A few weeks later I realize I haven’t seen him since that weekend, and ask a colleague what happened. Apparently he didn’t tell anyone he was leaving, packed up all his things and moved out of town to take another job. He was completely lying the entire time. I was very surprised, and it was a good lesson to learn for only 10000 fcfa. Later while reading notes the last PCV (peace corps volunteer) left me it said "don’t trust _______ hes a mooch". Teaches me to read help that’s given too. I also discovered a white man store that apparently sometimes (not since Ive been here) has cheese and yogurt. If I get the fridge to work Ill go there more. Back to the story) and some people are the most welcoming people you could imagine. This guy had a plan of going into the field, working all day and meeting his wife in the evening, and decided to help us out instead (might sound nice to skip a day of work to hike around but hiking isn’t easy and farming is his only source of income).

We go to his house, he gives us some food, changes, and we head off around 1 oclock (the sun is sooo hot at this time). Heres a picture of the farmer's (Ernest, our new guide) view from his house). We start hiking, it takes about 1 hr and a half to make it to one of the rivers that surrounds the rock. I am told that the rock around it is part of the large rock, exposed here, covered by bush on the way and uncovered when we reach the place. This is where I take my favorite picture…Marcellus jumping to rock he was afraid to jump (all Cameroonians are better at hiking/rock jumping than me) but something must have rubbed off on me because I made it easily. I was practicing jumping on the side before I went an Marcellus was laughing hard, he said "if you don’t make it youll still have your life". That’s what I was thinking about when I jumped, in the picture I'm thinking "thank god I made it":

We look around, they think about swimming but the water is too rough and Marcellus insists theres a lot of magic around that place, and he wont go in. We start hiking to the rock, Marcellus realizes he forgot his machete and goes back to get it, Ernest and I continue on and make it to the rock.

Ernest:

Me on the rock:

The rock was like this all around, pretty cool not sure how it was made (any real geologists reading? Kaplan at least?)

We decided to eat the eggs we prepared there…the bread was too dry but eggs were good.

Here you can see where we left, my town in the distance. As we were leaving we saw a trap left. They had me pose getting caught in it(hurt more than I thought and almost whacked me in the eye) but the picture of Ernest resetting it was better:

This is where the trip started to suuuuck. We turned out to be going to Ernest's part of the other river, and there was no path. The machetes came in handy but still being 6'4" and going over and under brush is not fun, especially under the equatorial African sun in pants. Ok ill stop complaining for now, we made it to the open area and they decided to swim this time. I REALLY wanted to swim, but the peace corps says we cant because we can get schisto, a disease which is completely testable and curable (you do get worms in your eyes if untreated) but still, got to avoid it by sitting in the sun while they dip in the cool, brisk water. Batteries were low I think that’s why its blurry:

**I just took a break to talk on the phone to another volunteer for a little…if you call after 11 its almost free for however long you talk, really nice considering a 10 minute call is about 1 days salary normally. Anyway we got in an argument about whether a push cart is better called a trolley or a pulley. Im right saying it’s a trolley, right? You start to forget some of the vocab you don’t use here. Sometimes I say something like cake (they call the few cakes here gateaus which is French) and think about how long its been since Ive said that word.**

This is the time when they tell me that to get back to my village; we'd have to hike in the dark. The other option is to meet Ernest's wife in another village and spend the night there. By this time we were so far out our cell phones were out and I couldn’t inform Peace Corps, but I figured it would be safer to go to that village than to hike during the night. We made it there about 530, bathed in a nearby river they said was drinking water right before the spot we were at so I figured it would be safe (sorry ladies no pictures of that) and I took the two of them out for a drink while the wife stayed home and cooked the food we had on us (at least Ernest took the baby to the bar…right?).

The drinks were a little expensive but I was out of potable water and wanted a juice really bad, plus they had both helped me out immensely. It was the only bar in town, and on a Saturday night had 4 people in it when we arrived. There's no electricity in that village so we drank by lantern. We met some interesting people, a farmer there said his daughter was in my class…she came in and introduced herself and I didn’t recognize her. I asked if she was in my class and she said yes she was in Lower6th and took physics. I know both girls in that class by name, and she wasn’t one of them. She's never been to the 2 hrs a week that I teach of that class (many of them don’t come because the 2 hrs before and 1 hr after the teachers don’t come to class). I pretended it was my fault so she wouldn’t get in trouble and a little while she brought food for us to eat…very nice of her but I was so exhausted I wasn’t that hungry and I knew we were going home to food. I ate it all and hoped I wouldn’t have to eat that much at Ernest's house. I talked to the father a bit he was an interesting guy. The most interesting things he said:

1) He said he knows a place about 1 day out in the bush where hes seen elephants and chimpanzees. I would love to see them, and I'm planning on going with him…even if there are no animals it will be nice to make it far out and see what its like. Simon, you up for going out there? BUY YOUR TICKET.

2) He told a story about the only other white man to visit the village before me. He went to meet the chief, and while they were together the he kept "blowing gas"(Marcellus' words after he translated the story later). The Cameroonians near him asked the chief why he wasn’t upset, because if a Cameroonian did that in front of the chief he would be beaten at the least. The chief said the gas was not smelling so it was okay. The Cameroonians in the bar laughed hysterically at this story…apparently comedy translates across cultures(not sure if I'm sarcastic about that, depending on the telling it could have been funny).

3) He told me in English that the man across the bar (who later self proclaimed himself "the father of jesus" to the delight of the bar) used to be a spiritual doctor who could swallow a 22 oz glass bottle, or throw a bottle cap at the wall making it stick. In the end he didn’t keep up the requirements and lost his powers so he couldn’t show us, but he could do it before. The father of Jesus was drunk and spoke very broken English, I couldn’t understand most of what he said but he stared at me a lot, hope he was blessing me.

We left the bar, me regretting I didn’t bring my camera to get pictures of the folks inside, and headed back to the house. The stars were amazing…Im sure theres a limit to how good they can be but there were no lights around except candles and you could see a shitton of stars (sorry about the swearing but its necessary to get the feeling across). Inside Ernest's wife had prepared rice and fish that we had brought (she gave me the ziplock that held the rice back full of garri (yellowish ground…plant I think?)...I don’t like it much and don’t know how to prepare it so I gave it to Marcellus, but my point is they are poor and have a 7 month old baby and are still very generous to guests.

After the meal we played cards (something like UNO) which was a lot of fun, they all trashed talked in English. I have to admit I was a little uncomfortable when Ernest's wife started breast feeding in the middle of the game, Im trying to get used to it but women are not shy here. They also brought me a beer, again very generous.

**MY FRIDGE IS WORKING!! It was out for about 4 hrs…what do you guys think will it keep things cold? Maybe Ill have to move it onto a different plug but that would mean it would be in the bedroom, not convenient.**

By the time we decide to go to bed I am exhausted and ready to pass out. Good thing because turns out Im sharing a bed with Marcellus and Ernest. Im sure it was the only bed in the house, but Cameroonians give the guests nothing but the best. I slept pretty well, woke up around 7 and we ate leftover rice and after giving Ernest some money for helping us out (not sure if it was right to do but he accepted), headed out about 8. I realized that we walked almost all downhill on the way there and it would be uphill most of the way. I wasn’t disappointed. After climbing for about an hour I reached a point where I knew where I was, and about 10 oclock we reached the house. Us in front of my house:

It was a great hike, although I was exhausted and pretty sure I picked something up from one of the many cuts on my hands and arms (I took a Benadryl just in case and passed out after a while). Definitely going to keep exploring the area around me (I told some of you about the waterfall I went to…that was closer and more beautiful than this, if anyone visits we'll definitely go there). Its 1245 (only time Ive stayed up this late was 4am to watch the pats lose in the final seconds last Sunday). Cant say I was too disappointed, it was time for them to lose a superb owl (typed it right but word said it was wrong and suggested this, never realized superbowl=superb owl) and I like the giants. Anyway as usual hope you guys are great, Im doing alright here, keep in touch. Don’t expect such detailed blogs in the future but Ill do my best.

Brad

January 31, 2008 - So, Ill start with my usual apology for going so long without writing. Sorry. Ive been getting into writing emails to people, its hard to keep writing to a wall and to not get any feedback. My new strategy is to start inserting sections of emails into my blogs. I'm going to change the blog though, for a few reasons. First I am going to be more organized. Now that Ive been here for a while I have somewhat of an outline of things I can tell you my general feelings about things. I am thinking about changing sites, because this site wont allow me to put a password...I can make it private but then everyone needs their own password to get in...if some google person reads this, this is why Id leave. Im going to see how it turns out and decide then, but ill make sure to post the new site and email the new password to everyone. Its not that I think a reasonable peace corps staff member (they do read our blogs) or future employer would judge me on what Ill say, but its like writing a diary entry knowing someone might read it…I want it to be what I really think. Im doing well. I think changing my malaria medication was a good idea, I've been much more productive in school and I'm feeling better all the time. I still dream about the states (less about food also and more about company….I would love to be home for the super bowl). I'm going to try to be with Americans that night but might not be able to and might end up not watching it…If I do end up watching it itll be live, ill put it on my blog that ill be on so if you want to call and say hi you can. I am working on a proposal to get a basketball/volleyball court built at the school. They have a foundation but no money to finish it, put up hoops, etc. Ill be posting that on the peace corps website this week, and putting a link on this blog. Help me out people. Id like to give a shout out to the Mahars, thanks for reading the blog and getting something to my mom to send. I ate all the sour patch kids in 24 hrs, the Swedish fish the 2 days after. They were delicious. Let it be known if you give my mom something to send to me she'll get it here. I bought a guitar right after Christmas, its been really nice to have…between things I need to do I practice…Im planning to be pretty ridiculous when I get home, or at least be able to play free bird and deuling banjos. Heard its looking good for a democrat but we're not sure which one, I'm a little out of touch but just to let you guys know, if you want to see me in the next 5 years vote democrat, if a republican gets elected I may just wait it out. That’s all I got right now, Im going to try and figure out the password thing and then you should get an email…again if not email me. Everybody take it easy. brad

My school from above. There are 1077 students.

Swearing in day...we all wore the same pattern. What Im wearings called a bubu, I havent worn it since.

Attacked by creachies! Nasty little buggers secret a poisonous juice, I have another rash on my shoulder now.

The fonts palace. The font is the head chief, pretty big dude. He wasnt there so I didnt get to meet him.

Ants eating a cockroach...I think its a cool picture.

Now that I can bring my computer to the cafe its much easier to upload pictures, and I like it more so Ill be on gmail more often (if you want to chat, If im on its usually around 10am-2pm Eastern time.) Here ya go:

My kitchen counter in my kitchen/living room.

My bookshelf/hallway to the bedroom.

Me and my view from my front lawn. Its better when its not cloudy (or more cloudy).

Me in front of my house. Nicer then you expected?

My Cameroonian host family. Really nice people I need to talk to them more.

We had an awesome thanksgiving dinner.

Sometimes in peace corps you have youre head over the toilet wondering why you ever decided to do this. Sometimes youre on a nearly deserted black sand beach in November with cold beer delivered to you for a dollar.

I made them RedSox fans. (the tatoos they have are redsox)

My favorite bridge in my town. Come visit well go over it its fun.

The first game of Suggestions. I might try and bring it back to the US.

Hope this satisfied some of the craving, let me know if you have any other specific picture requests.

January 4, 2008 - Just started my only full year in Cameroon, and for those of you that miss me (hopefully theres a few) Ill be home next year. I didnt do much for the New years just hung out and drank some wine and whiskey and watched arrested development. All of us had different times on our phones so we settled to count down according to the middle one. The people here celebrate New Years Day more than New years eve, and we went to a family gathering and ate and drank. There was an American visiting a friend there it was very interesting to talk to her and hear her views on Cameroon after 1 week, and it was fun feeling a little like we knew a lot more than her. I have a lot to do online so Ill leave you with that, a few older updates I never posted, and the picutre of one of my most relaxing times in Cameroon:

Sometime in November - Last night I was looking forward to getting to sleep early and having a nice rest after a long day, but then was reminded to take my malaria medication which I usually don’t take at night because it disturbs my sleep. Ended up having a terrible sleep because of that and a mouse that I could hear going through my spaghetti (wasn’t about to try and kill it I would have been up all night from the adrenaline, that light is out). Anyway I ended up sleeping in (til about 730) and didn’t feel rested when I heard a knock on my door, I had thought my friend who I was going to hike with would come late. I get my camelback together take some peanuts and my camera, and we go. First we climbed up to the cell phone towers that overlook the town it was a great view. On the way up we met a chief, then had some bananas at another chiefs palace. After about an hour and a half we reached the top and visited the chief we mets palace, but had been on his way to the funeral of a woman who died in a motorcycle accident. We (my friend) talked to his wife for a while (I really need to learn the local dialect). While I watched the kids. Kids here are amazing, they grow up really quickly. There are good and bad parts to this. They need to grow up quickly because there are so many of them and the parents are so busy they don’t have time to watch them all the time. Usually you will see kids watching their younger siblings. When I say kids I mean young kids…. the 6 yr old is in charge, the 4 year old will hold the 1 year old, etc. So the good parts is these kids wont play with knives or matches (more accurately they are careful with those things, one of the girls was playing with a razor blade while I was watching but no one was worried shed cut herself). Accidents certainly do happen, I once saw a boy who was hit with a moto and died…at first when I heard the crowd from 100yds away I thought they were cheering for something…but they were weeping, it was really sad (Im learning motos aren’t very safe but its they only way to travel sometimes). Anyway back to my day, we left that chiefs place and saw the cell towers, talked to the guy who cares for it. We went down a little bit to visit my friends grandmother but she wasn’t in. When we made it back to the main road we decided to go to Azi and visit the Font (the head chief of the area). We trekked about 30 or 40 mins there, ate some bush plums, (never had them before, kinduv like olives) and went to the palace. Turned out he wasn’t in either so we'd come for nothing, but on the way back through the market I saw a pineapple and decided we should buy it and relax a little bit. –my neighbor just dropped off some water fufu and fish sauce, mmmm-- I thought we were going to stay for 15 mins but we ended up hanging out, talking to people, talking about Cameroon and the US and differences, etc. for a good 2.5 hours. I realized I wasn’t acculturated when after about an hour I started getting ancy to leave, even though I had no where to go. When I relaxed it was one of the best feelings in the world, sitting talking with a 1.5 hour hike before I could get back to my cell phone in the event there was an emergency. The best part of our talk was when this guy came over to talk to us, but he couldn’t speak. He spoke in sounds and hand motions which my friend couldn’t understand, so a woman was translating to him in the local dialect, which he then translated to English for me. Very strange. Turns out he was inviting us to a party where there would be "beaucoup" drinks and food. It wasn’t his party I don’t think, because a little while later he asked me for 100 francs for food. He was a nice guy, but it always ruins it a little when they ask for money. Anway after a while we headed home, I barely made it at that the rest and the Guinness made my legs not want to work anymore. I bought some ground nuts and ground them (it makes sense) for peanut butter, and had a nice banana, pb and jelly snack and this fufu came just in time. Tomorrow Ive decided to go to church for the first time, its Thanksgiving mass I guess there's dances and singing planned. Maybe Ill write about it. Guess Im writing about it. Just got back to mass, really glad I went. I think I'm going to try to be more involved in the community more, they are really accepting and grateful for just my participation in things, while at school I feel like they just expect things from me. Mass is nice here, there is lots of singing and dancing, but its loooooong. It starts about 945 and goes until 1130 or 12 usually, almost 1 today because it was Thangsgiving mass (not sure if it has anything to do with the American holiday, awfully coincidental since Thanksgiving is Thursday. I took a break and took a nap, read, talked to my neighbors about church, some students came by for help, and I was just about to cook myself dinner and work a little and…my gas ran out. About 5 minutes of thinking I couldn’t think of anything I could eat without a stove except for this coconut I bought, the problem is I bought one before and someone opened it for me and told me it was bad. I opened this one myself but I cant tell if its bad or not but its really tough and hard to eat. Basically every mother telling their kids that there are starving kids in Africa tonight are right. I don’t know if Ive told you guys about it but I have this lizard that comes into my window every night like clockwork. one night I didn’t close the window he came in, but since then if I forget he waits til I close it then comes in 10 minutes later. Ive named him Lou. I think I need to write my entries a little differently. I was inspired by a Vanity Fair article I just read (theres a whole issue on Africa it was really good). It said how Africa is the “bad news continent” and its completely true. I’m sure if you search an internet news site the only articles you will get are about something sad, tragic, or about aid. I remember the Peace Corps telling me they would send me to Africa (this was back when I wasn’t really sold on the idea). I really had no idea where I was going. I knew they wouldn’t be sending me into a war zone, but that was the only picture I had of Africa. Since I’m here and some of you have fought through my lack of updating to be reading this now, I will try to paint a picture for you, maybe some day people will have a clear idea (and of course if anyone wants to visit and get the real deal, you are welcome (how they say it here)). Bringing African culture to America is actually one of the goals of the Peace Corps, so I’m just doing my job. First I have to warn you that I only know Cameroon. That being said, they call Cameroon miniAfrica, both because it has almost all the different climates of Africa and because it is so culturally diverse. It is amazing how culturally diverse it is. The cities are a hodgepodge of people from every place in every province, but when you go to the small provinces everyone has their own dialect (Im going to try to learn some of mine eventually, all I know now is good morning and good afternoon). If you travel about 40km you will find another dialect. They also have traditional leaders who are gradually being phased out I believe but they still have a lot of power in some communities. I’ve met two, and it was interesting both times. They have guards who go in before and make sure everyone knows the protocol…you have to stand, bow, bring gifts and other things. They seem to be pretty down to earth when you start to talk to them though. In the culture tradition and titles are very important. For every event there is a hierarchy of who shows up when. The smallest people will show up on time to half an hr later, then the important ppl will show up until the most important person shows up 1.5 to 2.5 hours late and the even can begin. Its really annoying I've started going very late to things sometimes after they’ve started, Im not good at small talk in the states Im not going to do it here for 2 hrs when I could be doing something else. The good thing I can say about the conferences is that they happen and important things are done. Sometimes I am annoyed at the slow progress or the repetition, but most of the time what is said eventually comes to a conclusion and it is recorded and saved for a meeting of higher ranked people. My favorite part about the meeting is item 11, the food at the end. They are always the best meals because they are free (usually come with a beer or two) and you are starving from not eating for about 6 hrs or so. I used to not like the traditional food they serve but its really good now. By the way Im going to return to the states a master cook. I never realized how easy it is to make things. Do you realize bisquick is just flour, baking soda and salt mixed together? Those guys are geniuses. Anyway Ive learned to make bread, tortillas, rice and beans, enchiladas, deep fried stuff, sauces for pasta and rice, peanut butter, other things I cant think of. Anyway it’s a good way to pass time here and then at the end its delicious. I complain about food a lot here but I eat really well, you never appreciate an enchilada until you go 4 months without it then shop and work for a few hours to make them. O yea Im killing a chicken this weekend and making sweet and sour chicken, I'm psyched. I meant to make this longer but Im tired and I still have work to do. A little after thanksgiving - I have had a great past week or so. Its test time which is always a stressful time, but after giving all my tests I traveled down to Tico. There is an over 50 couple posted there (Peace corps is recruiting over 50 if you're over 50 and interested). They have a nice house, 2 extra bedrooms, 1 with a bed and the other with 2 extra mattresses. Their room just got air conditioning which is amazing but necessary there it is very hot and humid. The fridge was stocked with cold water and juice, and they had gotten 5 chickens, stuffing, had potatoes peeled for mashing, 3 cans of olives, 2 cans of cranberry sauce, and they made gravy and another volunteer brought pumpkin pie mix. 1 can of cranberry, 2 boxes of stuffing and brownie mix are waiting for Christmas (I think were doing Christmas on the beach too). O yea the beach. We arrived Saturday, went to a nice restaurant and went to bed early, got up around 730 or so, ate bfast (they had saved peanut butter from a care package), and went fo beach. We checked out a craft store and got draft beer before we went to the actual beach (this was about 11) and then headed to a secluded Peace corps hang out. The beach was awesome, its all black sand and nearly deserted, a few surfers, some people carrying things but we were mostly by ourselves. The waves were huge by the end, bigger then any id seen in the US, and we spent the entire afternoon drinking, swimming, playing Frisbee, and just lounging. Rediculous change from 2 days before when I was au village giving an exam to 80 students at a time. We left the beach and went to go get hamburgers, unfortunately the waitress informed us after 15 mins that they have the burgers but the ham was finished…so we got 6 plates of fries and got out of there. We ate the chicken, potatoes, stuffing, and cran sauce and drank wine (white wine even) and talked about how nice it was to have a holiday without all the advertisements, etc. Christmas is certainly going to be weird. I bet you all are starting to see television ads, billboards, my mom is certainly playing Christmas music by now, and we wont get any exposure to Christmas besides talking about what were going to do with other Americans (and about how weird it is that we don’t see ads). My new plan is to send my pictures home with a volunteer for Christmas, and have her mail them to my parents who Ill have buy the converter and send it back to me. Should be about 2 more weeks, but then youll have all the pictures I have. Its really hard to come back to post, but in 2 weeks Ill be back at the beach for training, where Ill get to see all the volunteers from all around the country…really looking forward to it. Apparently my address has disappeared from my blog, so if you want to send me something send me an email first Ill send you my addresses (ones faster and riskier ones slower and pretty safe). If you’ve sent me a package I haven’t gotten it yet, but Ill get it when we all meet in 2 weeks. Ill send texts to you that I got them (esp Kevin I know he thinks his is lost but I don’t think it is). Hope you all had a happy thanksgiving, and don’t worry about me I certainly did. Be Well.

Brad

Dec. 28, 2007 - I hope everyone had a good Christmas and will have a good new years. We made a fantastic dinner, chicken, mashed potatoes (cheesy garlic), stuffing (real stove top), gravy and apple pie for dessert. I made the apple pie myself, and I have to say it was delicious. I tried to kill the chicken, the kid who was helping kept saying cut until it was bleeding all over and the head was limp and he said it was dead, but when i let go it sprang to life and started squaking, so he swung it around a little and eventually cut the head better....ill get it next time. I have been on vacation forever, we just got back from training in Kribi (beach town) and it was almost the 2 week xmas break. Ill write about Kribi, but for now heres a picture of me enjoying the only waterfall to fall directly into the ocean (or thats what the guys who had the boat said). Ok email me if you want the picture its not working. Merry Xmas.

Brad

December 20, 2007 - As usual I have updates I have written and the wont load onto the computer. Maybe sometime in the next week. Anyway Ive been getting seriously homesick for the first time, both with it being Christmas time and with the death of my grandfather (Grandpa, my dads dad to those who knew him). To my family, I wish I could have come back for the wake and funeral, but it would have been too difficult. I had people here to talk about it with, but I still think it doesnt feel real yet, not sure when it will hit me. I heard the cerimony was nice. Even though its sunny and warm everyday and I was at the beach all week, I miss the cold (or maybe the shelter from the cold) and the whole Christmas time. Im not sure what Im doing yet for Christmas, was thinking of travelling but kinduv miss my post. Ill try and get another update up soon, I promise no more than a week.

Brad

December 1, 2007 - Wow I didnt realize it was December until I looked at it on the computer. Time is going fast and slow at the same time, its a strange thing. I have a bunch of updates to put up but as usual my usb isnt getting along with the computer. I found out I can bring my laptop to the center and hook it up so Ill do that assuming theres lights and internet. I didnt have electricity for the past 2 days or so it was rough, read a lot but was very happy to get music back. I went to a crusade last night which is a traveling preacher who comes and they have a band, singers, and the preachers and singers lead the group in song and prayer, it was cool to see everyone together, and of course everyone was glad to see me there. Besides Thanksgiving I've just been hanging at post still getting used to teaching and life out there. Thanksgiving was amazing I went to a beach town and it was so close to an American Thanksgiving it was amazing...but I have already written about that so youll have to wait. Hope the US is still well and gas isnt 5 dollars/gallon. Ill post again soon.

brad

November 13, 2007 - Things are going well...but a couple of nights ago I had the worst experience of my trip so far. The day started out well I went on a hike/run to the top of a mountain that overlooks my town, didnt make it to where I wanted to go but Im going to have a guide next time. Got back to town, bought a big pot at the market for baking, and made a really good dinner and chocolate cake for dessert. Went to bed happy. A few hours later (no idea what time because when I tried to look at my phone it was finally fully broken, wouldnt even turn on) I started feeling crappy in my dream and my pillow was made of chocolate cake so I was turning so I couldnt smell it, etc. but eventually I woke up and couldnt go back to sleep because my stomach felt so bad. The next 5 hours consisted of me going to the bathroom every 15 mins and having terrible diahrea, forcing water down after even though I usually puked it up soon after. I didnt fall asleep, just laid in bed listening to what I knew couldnt be mice because I hadnt had them in my house before (but no, Id left my door, with the key in it, wide open). Laying sick in Africa with no phone and my door wide open will be hard to beat in terms of vulnerability (dont worry I always lock my door especially now...and my town is very friendly...not that people wouldnt steal). I got one mouse out a few days ago but I know theres another because it broke into my pasta last night. O yea for those of you who know about "the club" or might be able to guess what it is I joined it that night. Twice. The laundrys still soaking. I have other updates but my it wont let me use my usb. Ill figure it out soonish or come back and update.

August 28, 2007

I’ve arrived in my village. It is small, and now that I’ve finished Harry Potter this morning, Im not sure what Im gonna do for the next few weeks. I got my class schedule finished, Ill be teaching Forms I-III (the smaller kids, the most work) but it shouldn’t be too bad. Ill also be giving some staff computer classes and looks like I might be the head of sports. The good news is I made my own schedule so I don’t teach Fridays, and I don’t teach Mondays until 1030 so I can travel on the weekends. Its been interesting having the community get used to me, but word travels FAST here. The first day I was hear I got a lot of "Hello white man" and strange looks, but after about 4 days people are already ignoring me (or not openly staring and gaping). I am not the only white man in my village, theres a woman finishing her masters from Oxford (American from the Midwest). When I was running by she yelled "WHITE MAN" and I thought it was just another call so I didn’t stop, when I ran by her a second time she was taking a picture of me. I stopped and said hello, it was nice to talk American English. By the way I said my English would suffer living in Francophone, its only going to get worse here in Anglophone. They speak their local language as their first language, and it comes through in the English. I have to find a Pidgin and French tutor, which shouldn’t be hard here because everyone the local language, Pidgin, French, and English almost fluently.

After finishing making the schedule today my VP took us our for a drink (1pm). I was a little skeptical but all the teachers were going I wasn’t sure if they meant a beer, and Id been up for 6 hrs, why not. I wish the others had ordered first because after the VP ordered a beer I did, and then everyone else got juice, guess drinking at 1 isnt very culturally acceptable here either. When I came back to my house my landlady came to say hi to me, we talked about rent, she has 3 daughters away at school, howd shed been to the US once, and then after she said goodbye she turned and said "are you married". I was flustered so responded no…I wish Id said yes or at least that I have a girlfriend, not that that means much to them. Hm so my house, its 1 living room, 1 bedroom, and a bathroom. The kitchen is basically half in the living room half in the hallway. The light in the bedroom doesn’t work, the toilet is broken, I don’t have a sink, and I find about a cockroach per day, but Im really happy with it. The last volunteer left all her stuff so I came with a stove, tables, chairs, bed, and most awesomely all her class notes and books. Cooking has been interesting. I think she had someone cook for her and Im starting to see why. There is absolutely nothing that you can buy in the market or grocery store that you don’t have to cook besides fried dough, cookies and chocolate. Ive been eating a lot of those but it cant be a meal (at least not all the time). Thank god for parmesan cheese. A lot of pasta, eggs, beans, and potato fries have gotten me through. Im gonna have to start branching out though because that’s about all I know how to make. Oh the prunes here which aren’t really prunes are good too. Funny thought from yesterday when I opened a can(with a hammer and a knife). Never did I ever think I would open up a can of what I thought was just tomato sauce and be glad that there were sardine chunks in it. It was delicious. Also popcorn with Maggi ™ and parm cheese is very good.

September 19, 2007 – It has been a looooong time since Ive updated, and I’m sorry. There is no internet in my town and my usb has been acting up, and the internet is so slow I only have time to type a few emails and see how the red sox are doing and I have to go…those are all my excuses, I’m lazy too. It’s been almost a month at post now. Time is going to fly. Here’s what life is like most of the time. I wake up, brush my teeth, make some coffee with ovaltine, and either just relax or plan lessons. I go to school whenever I have class, some days I can come home for lunch sometimes I eat there (made the mistake of drinking the spring water they have there, payed for that for a few days). On Tuesdays and Thursdays I play soccer, and on Wednesday afternoons they "do sport" after school. Today we played volleyball I think its soccer next week. Volleyball was fun, it was students vs. teachers. The teachers take a little bit of an advantage but its all in good fun, they just don’t want to lose. Other then that I read, cook, do laundry, dishes, clean my house, study French, plan lessons, watch the 6 arrested developments I have on my computer for the nth time, and visit with neighbors. I teach forms I, II, IV and lower VI, roughly equivalent to 7-8th grade, sophomores, and seniors. It is in no way like a school in the US. Lets start with the ways its better. My school is at the bottom of a valley, in every direction there are mountains and it’s without exaggerating its one of the prettiest place I’ve been and definitely the prettiest place I’ve lived (sorry Hamilton). Also teachers are always right and you can make your students kneel on the ground if they derange(gonna try and stay away from that). The classrooms are in individual buildings, with no glass windows…its not uncommon for birds to fly in and somewhat more rarely a chicken will wander in. The classes are big, anywhere from 60 to 80 students in each class. Makes it difficult to teach when they talk, but I’m lucky because they all want to learn from me so they are pretty good most of the time. School starts a little differently too, most of the teachers don’t show up until the 2nd week and some haven’t come yet, it’s the middle of the 3rd week. I teach 16 hours a week which might not sound like a lot but it is tough, especially because it’s mostly concentrated Tue-Thu. I have Fridays off which is nice for traveling. On my days off, I try to get things done like laundry, stocking up on water, cooking good meals, running, going to the tailor whatever random things come up. Every 4 days is market day so I buy my rice and veggies there. The food here is pretty good they have a lot of variety, I’ve had fun experimenting, although I’ve bought ginger by accident and haven’t figured out how to use it yet. Oh about the jogging there are amazing trails. Unfortunately there aren’t 2 roads to many places, so you usually have to just turn around and come back at some point. The only down side is it makes for a lot of laundry. I think I’m going to get some help with laundry and keeping the house clean. Hm I cant think of anything else, I’m enjoying it here, still miss everyone. Send me some emails.

NB: I wrote the second entry without remembering what I wrote in the first one, so you can see how I changed a little.

October 5, 2007- I am exhausted from grading, I accidentally assigned homework at the same time I had to give a test so now I have 2 papers from each of my 500+ students. Im through about half of it and its tiring, but its good to be busy. I don’t have any great stories at the moment…but pictures are coming! Im going to mail a memory card to Simon (Simon if I forgot to tell you this sorry but you offered to do something like it so I’m taking you up). So anyway the pics should be online somewhere in 3-6 weeks plus however long it takes Simon to get it together. I’ve been learning how to cook, slowly expanding my "things I can cook" list (theres actually a list on my wall so I remember things if I feel like changing it up). Think Im gonna make some fried vegetables and couscous when Im done typing this. I have 1.5 months down now and am really looking forward to the 3 month mark when PC will let us travel again. There are plans in the works to climb a mountain on thanksgiving and come back and feast. It might not be too late to fit in a package with some good food…After Thanksgiving we have IST (in service training) where all the people from my training get together and have some more training sessions and hang out in Limbe(really nice beaches). It’ll be good to see everyone as Ive barely seen any of them since August 23rd.

August 21, 2007 - After 2.5 months of language technical and cultural training I get offcially sworn in tomorrow as a volunteer. It is very much time to leave, Im going stir crazy here and ready to start workin g at my post. Im excited that i have a have almost a fully stocked house, I need to get a matress but that just means I have to stay a night in a bigger city with some voluneers to buy it. Sorry I cant update you guys more but after about a week of settling in I imagine Im going to have a lot of time to write emails.

My students that is. I cant go by Mr. Melius yet. Their exam is Friday and I know half of them will fail because thats the way its supposed to be here, and failing is 10/20. Im liking the teaching its getting easier every day. I also like my club, I played basketball in the rain today...stopping in the middle of the game to explain how he would be percieved in the US if he cherrypicked like he was doing. Tonight theres a soiree im invited to, I think its kinduv a big deal should be fun being one of two white people there. Hopefully better then the last party where they sat in a circle deciding whether I or another Cameroonian was fatter. On that subject I think Ive lost about 15 lbs, Ive heard most people gain it back when they get to post and can eat what they want again (sort of). Sorry about the lack of pictures, it just takes way too long. Ill be sure to get one of me infront of my house up when I get to post because its beautiful. To all those in Cheshire my condolances, I cant imagine what its like there.

Old Posts:

July 5, 2007 Ive never appreciated the fourth of July as much as I did yesterday. It was our first holiday in country and the only one we have during stage, and it we made the most of it. In the morning me and another volunteer volunteered to buy the food for the party so we went to the market. Buying meat works a little differently here than in the states. It arrived at 8 very fresh (parts were still pulsating) and we walked through a hall of carcasses looking for good meat at a good price. After we had to wait for it to be ground which took forever and we were very late for class. We payed the "le blanc" price but it wasnt that expensive especially for the amount of enjoyment it would bring. We had several swinging meat and blood spirting incidents and had to occasionally escape the smell by going to hang out by the eye socket outside. It definitaly made me appreciate what happens before I go to the supermarket and pick up a nicely wrapped pound of ground meat. We bought potatoes for fries and avacados for goacamole (if you havent realized yet my ability to write coherent sentences and spell in english is falling drastically, lets hope its getting replaced by some french). We spent the afternoon slicing potatoes and making burgers, and I let some others cook while I stepped out to the bar. I came back to a mountain of burgers and fries which were all delicious. It was rough going back to white rice and fish again today but as they say here: On va faire comment? (Whadya gonna do?) There was some dancing but generally just hanging and talking about how lucky we were to be in Africa eating cheeseburgers with Uncle Sam picking up the tab. Thanks taxpayers. I picked up my first African clothes today, 2 shirts and a pair of pants. The pants look kind of rediculous but I think I can pull them off here. Tomorrow I find out my post, which will decide which volunteers I am going to see frequently for the next two years so its exciting. Im not making it to the cafe tomorrow, so you dont have to wait. Im going to.... July 6, 2007 I honestly cant remember the town right now. Since Ill know tomorrow Ill put it in here ___actually i decided to leave it out__. I dont really know anything about it buts its a smallish town about 1 hr from the big city. That 1 hour is only about 10 miles and I think it would be a good goal to be able to run it in a few months, well see. Apparently its in the mountains and its cold there (not sure what that means because only Cameroonians have told me this and its pretty hot as a rule here, and they dont have words (at least that I know of) besides cold and hot. Im near some people and not others, its weird knowing that some people youve gotten to know you probably will only see a handful of times since theyre on the other side of the country. Ill let you know more about my post when I visit Tuesday. Its been a month officially since I got on the plane at Bradley, its weird. I feel as into it as ever, every day it gets easier. I have my 2nd language test tomorrow which Im ready for because I know Ill do better then novice low. Im tired (its 930) Im going to bed. July 8, 2007 First baddish day in a while...but it wasnt all bad. I slept for 10 or so hours but not well, I could hear a cockroach or a mouse scurrying around all night and there was a rooster right outside this morning. I played basketball which was fun, PC vs. Cameroonians. We destroyed them the first game and the second and third games were very frustrating. We have rule issues. We ended up winning the first two and losing the third and overall a lot of fun, looking forward to next week were going to wake up early and make popsicles in someones freezer Im already excited. After basketball I came back to the house and washed my shoes and did some ironing, then went to the bar. When I came back a combination of a little buzz, language frustration and loneliness hit me, but a half an hour later Anne made the kids dance to music on TV and all was right again. We watched The Parent Trap in french and here I am, writing now. Tomorrow Im meeting my counterpart and were having a workshop, after Im hoping to make it to the internet cafe. Thisll be my last update for a wile since Im going to check out my post for a few days. July 18, 2007 So its been a long time since Ive updated...sorry about that. Turns out its going to be hard to update at post too so after training itll be probably every 2 weeks or so. Since I got back from site visit its been lonely around here with half the other trainees on their site visits. Were starting "model school" where we teach for four weeks, have exams, give out certificates, etc...basically summer school. Im psyched to start teaching my first class is Friday. Ill be teaching physics to 10-14 year olds...not gonna be too interesting but its good ill start out slow. Got my first mail a few days ago, that person should be getting a response in 4-5 weeks...remember the address is below and the first 8 ppl to send me a care package get an AWESOME thank you note. Im running out of things to say Im so used to whats going on here it doesnt seem interesting anymore. Anyone have questions? July 20, 2007 First class was just okay, I have to learn to speak slower especially to the younger kids, I dont know how much they understood me. Im planning on improving quickly and I think itll be fun eventually, right now its just stressful. We played soccer today, I scored my first goal (second lifetime). It happened that the 12 yr old goalie had a hand on the ball and I kicked it out from under his hand but it was acceptable with the Cameroonians so its acceptable for me, gotta adapt to the culture. I had a talk with my Cameroonian mom about polygamy(happy Im able to talk/understand enough for that to happen), turns out her dad had 2 wives and she thinks its a bad thing. Straight from the horses mouth, dont let Big Love fool you. Tomorrow after language were playing basketball, then hopefully a fete. Sorry my posts have been short, but like I said its getting less strange to me and harder to write about without specific questions etc. I could write a novel about today alone but I dont know where to start, help me out.Mr. Bradford

July 15, 2007 - I visited my town for the first time Tuesday. Its a beautiful little town in the southwest province of the country. Its in a valley surrounded by mountains, the only problem is there are no decent roads one can take to get to it. I met my principal and my counterpart (collegue I can rely on for help) and they both seem pretty cool. They took us out for couscous and bushmeat, it was pretty good I didnt end up regretting it. The way back we took motos which was more expensive but awesome. Im in Bafusam now headed back to town tomorrow. I have updates from the 4th of july etc but my usb isnt working right now. Im hangin in there...talk to yall soon.

July 2nd, 2007

I realized yesterday that it had been almost 4 weeks since id seen anyone I hadnt met in the last 4 weeks, kinduv blew my mind because I already know some people very well. Im already frustrated with the keyboard so well just go with what Ive already typed. Hope everyones well. June 30th, 2007

After walking with Anne (mere) to pick up some tomatoes (we had a good laugh when a rooster had explosive diahrea right next to us), I made some omlettes and ran to play basketball. Ive never been such a force on a court full of black guys in my life. Theyre not bad but it was nice to be able to take a little pride back after the beating we get in soccer every Thursday. Because it was cloudy and threatening rain I didnt think about the sun, but apparently you can get a pretty bad sunburn on a cloudy day because I did. After showering and a little nap I went to the bar to study and stayed there for a while (we seriously studied for half of it). Some family friends came over and we had a good talk, I can get some ideas across finally which is nice. They thought the picture of me with long hair was hilarious because I look like a girl, but it was even more hilarious how fat I was. The must have said "Tu manges beaucoup no" a dozen times, but its not an insult here like it is in the states. June 29, 2007

Man what a day. It started well right off the bat. I went running in the morning, we took some random roads and saw a bunch of the town. When I got back to eat breakfast there was an omlette waiting for me and ma mere (yes I call her that dont get jealous mom) told me to get all my laundry together and her and my sisters would do it, sheets and all. While changing for school I saw some dead spiders and thought, sweet Ill have a picture of some huge spiders for my blog. Not shown, Im workin on it.

For our language class we went to the market to try to bargain. I wanted shampoo and after being offered 650 and 500 I got it down to 400 francs which was probably too much because the guy seemed to happy but whatever I didnt pay full price. I bought a pagne (fabric to get made into clothes) at the marche, tried to bargain down and there was a fiasco where wed agreed on a price and he went back on it, but the girl I was with really wanted hers so we rolled with it. When we got back for our cross culture class we had some real cross culture experience when a drunk woman came into the building and started saying that she wanted to learn english and called one of the voluteers mon cheri and said she would cook him liver. After that I grabbed a bread with egg and avocado at the small shop across the street and went home.

Ma mere wanted to go to Bafusan so we took a cab. Let me tell you that this was not a normal cab, but I can paint you a picture. Imagine my car (some know it as the Ferdrod) plus 5 years and 100000 miles, with 8 people in the car, 4 in front 4 in back. The other guy sitting in the drivers seat is known as the "petite chauffer". Did I mention it was a stick shift? Despite how it sounds I actually felt pretty safe, the petite chauffer kept the stick available and the driver was used to it. I can say that I was very happy to arrive in Bafusan. When we got there we went around the market, looked at pagnes (I got another one, gonna go to the tailor in the next couple days), and the supermarche. I saw some other volunteers quite randomly (Its a pretty huge town) first at the boutiques and then at the supermarche. They bought cheese and ketchup for the burgers on the 4th of July which Im really excited for. I bought shaving cream, the food was really expensive and the only American thing was Pringles. Anyway me and Anne got into another cab for the ride home (10 total this time, 2 babies on laps) and arrived back in Bagante just before dark. We went to get a beer, and who do we run into at the bar but the volunteers I saw in Bafusan and the drunk woman who was hitting on the volunteer earlier that day. She talked quickly and I could understand almost nothing of what she said but it made everyone uncomfortable. Eventually she left and we left and went back to the house, where I had a good meal, watched Heroes in French, and talked with the fam. June 26, 2007

I had a pretty good weekend, nothing crazy but relaxing. Washing clothes here is hard. First you have to pound a few soapy pieces into the ground for a while, then scrub the important parts of whatever youre washing (particularly smelly or dirty parts). Rinse twice and hang up, and then you have to iron everything because 1) its important to have ironed clothes here and 2) if you dont you can get mango fly eggs in your skin which will turn into a pimple that a fly comes out of. When I get to post I can pay someone to do it for me but til then Im on my own (ish my family helps out a little).

On Sunday another trainee and I made dinner for our families. It was supposed to be speghetti and meatballs but it turned into speghetti with tomato soup and chunks of meat (we couldnt get it ground). The garlic bread was a big hit, the pasta wasnt very good. I had a debacle when after slicing up one of these small extremely spicy peppers they have here (pienot maybe) I rubbed my eye. Ive never been pepper sprayed but it must have been close I couldnt open my eye for a half and hour. That want the end of the pain, let just say I wish I washed my hands before I went to the bathroom. The actual dinner started off a little badly because we didnt have it ready when they arrived which is apparently bad because they left to come back later. Once some wine got drunk it got better, and I would say it was an overall success. Sidenote my friend got some cheese from the market in Bafusan it was delicious, first real cheese Id had in almost 3 weeks.

I gave a 25 minute presentation on momentum on Monday, it went swimmingly. In 3 weeks we start model school and I have to actually teach so it was good practice. For those who dont know come September Ill be a Physics teacher with 100 students in each lecture. Yay. I know that Ill be in an Anglophone province teaching in English so at least I wont have that obstacle. My new language class is good but tres dificil, its all in French. Im struggling but I think itll be good in the end. I've lost a little motivation knowing I wont need to speak French at post, but I get to learn Pidgen whichll be fun. Were in the midst of planning a 4th of July bbq with cheeseburgers and fries, I'm excited. Next time youre eating a burger think of the fact that if I were there and you werent going to give me your burger, I would probably punch you in the face, take your sandwich, run, and not feel sorry.

I was going to go to the internet cafe yesterday but a friend had the ingenious idea to type my blog first on my computer and just transfer it onto the net, saving money and sanity from trying to type on a french keyboard. After recovering from a minor illness (thank you immodium) I've been doing really well. A lot has happened and I cant possibly recount it all but here are the highlights:

I met my host family for the first time Thursday night (I actually had to think if it had been 4 days or 11 here in Begante. They are great, they cook for me and help me clean my clothes and shoes (clean shoes are very important here). Thanks to them and my teacher Arlette my French has gotten a million times better. The family is huge, which I didnt realize until Sunday when 3 more girls came back to the house from staying with relatives, bringing the sibling numbers to 5 girls and 2 boys. A few of the girls think its fun to watch me do things like wash my clothes which I'm not good at and help prepare dinner which is usually something only women do, but when I want to relax I can always go in my room (like now).

Some of you probably are wondering what the worst part of being in Africa is. No, its not missing your family and friends, its the bugs. Huge. Cockroaches. Everywhere. Even if you dont see one for a day you spend the day thinking there will be one under the box you pick up or that one is going to fly into you while your on your way to the bathroom. Last night I thought I saw one on my chest and freaked out and went into the living room to be laughed at by my family only to later realize it was mostly likely a Larium hallucination. I suppose its better then getting Malaria.

To let you in on my daily routine: I wake up around 6 (tomorrow Im planning on going for a run, and I must have because otherwise I would have deleted this parentheses before I uploaded it) and study French, eat breakfast (omlette, pain avec chocolat et pain) and go to school around 8. Schools been mostly language with some education classes and meetings thrown in. I have rice and beans for lunch at the SED house (where we all meet), hang out or study, and then go back to school until 420. At 420 I take what I can get and go get a beer with the other volunteers (1 22ozer max) and go home for dinner. After dinner I watch some French tv with the fam and go into my room around 9, I read or study for a little bit and go to sleep.

Our only day off is Sunday, and last Sunday I went to church which was really interesting but almost 2 hrs long and then met with the Peace Corps Director for all of Peace Corps, the Director for Africa, and the Director for Cameroon which was a good time but not restful. I'm looking forward to next Sunday. I'm also looking forward to the Peace Corps soccer game on Thursday, ready to break out the sambas and obviously the skills. Im just glad we play each other and not Cameroonians, theyre as good as you think they would be.

I know theres stuff I'm leaving out I'll try and keep better track of my stories and update again soon, especially since I don't have to type it all out on the French keyboard. A bientot.

I wrote that on Monday night, a lot has happened since then. I had a great day on Thursday. After class I worked out some stuff with my teacher and Ill be switching classes on Monday. We played soccer after class and it turned out we play with the Cameroonian trainers who are very good but arent always team players (not that I blame them). The best parts were when I would get really into the game and then suddenly realize where I was and how rediculous it was. After the game I broke out the light up frisbee and my little host siblings couldnt get enough of it.

Last night was another adventure. Since Ive been going to bed by 10 every night and I had class at 8 today I was only a little excited to go to end of semester (my host fathers a teacher) soiree that started at 8. I was less excited when we didnt leave til 930 and we were some of the first people there. I was relieved to see some fellow trainees there which made it more enjoyable since I couldnt understand the comedians or anyone else who talked. The food was worth waiting for (I drank Castal in the meantime). Chili, spegetti, and a really good roll were the highlights. The DJ played Imagine by John Lennon in french and some Tracy Chapman and Celin Dion (both big here) during dinner. After dinner (at this point 2am) we danced for a couple songs which was really fun but we had to head home. I woke up at 745 for my class.

Our class today consisted of me and another trainee going to the market and bargaining down for 3 things we needed. After our alloted half hour, all we managed was some overpriced garlic. Heres how it played out. We went up to the table and said How much for the garlic? She responded cinqante (50) francs; but we heard cinq cent (500), so my friend immediately said Thats too expensive, 100 francs. She said No, 50 (to us 500) francs. I didnt need the whole bunch so I then offered 200 francs for about half the bunch, looking for a deal. We ended up leaving with half the bunch for 50. Hopefully I can do better next time.

Im having trouble uploading pictures so it might be a while before that happens but Ill try again next time.

Yaounde, Cameroon - The last couple days have been mostly medical and cultural training, with good meals and beers in the evening. My language test went okay, my watched stopped before it so I told him it was 515 when it was 730 but he didnt correct me, part of the reason I'm novice-low (or novel's as were dubbed). We have to get to intermediate-mid in the next 8 weeks. The medication I'm taking is messing with my sleep but other then that cant complain. I have a cell phone now, the number is 94187793, which means you call 011-237-94187793. (I can also get texts(Also remember Im 5 hrs ahead)). Incoming calls are free for me so dont worry about it. Tomorrow were going to Buhhsomething where our training and host familys are. I dont have much time again because theres 3 computers for 39 of us but Sunday hopefully Ill find an internet cafe. Oh it was exciting I saw a white civic hatchback yesterday on the street, it had a sunroof but otherwise identical to the ferdrod. Anyway hopefully Ill have a picture of my host family and other things soon. Au revoir, Brad

Yaonde, Cameroon - I have arrived and everything is going well. In 4 days we are going to another city and meeting our host family. Until then were doing various safety training, etc. Thisll be it because Im running out of time and theres not much to tell, but Im here and safe.