On June 3, 2010, I finished my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and was "gonged out" by the PC admin at the Yaounde office. It was nice to hear the words of thanks, inspiration, and reassurance that we had actually made a difference in Cameroon. Although, I'm still on the fence on whether or not any difference was made with my presence, I guess I'll never really know. As my program director said, "Being a teacher isn't as clear cut as being an agro volunteer, you don't plant trees and see them grow....who knows, maybe one day some one will come and cut them down (lol), but in teaching, your students remember you and the things you have taught them for years to come", so let's hope that I taught them some things worth remembering.

Unfortunately, my last month in Cameroon was a difficult one. Saying goodbye to friends that I might not see again was difficult. You feel bad that you are leaving and going back to a better place and leaving them to stay in that dusty, malfunctioning world where standing in line is a revolutionary concept that most people aren't willing to accept. Honey's passing made the last 3 weeks worse and I may have, probably for sure, left Cameroon a little (very) bitter. We both loved Honey a lot and it kills me that we got so close to bringing her home and we couldn't. I think of her often and see her in Cricket believe it or not, so I take joy in that and try to remember Cameroon with out that part of my service.

Getting Buddy and Cricket home turned out to be a lot easier than I had thought, the worst part was dealing with the baggage handlers at the airport in Cameroon, each one of them wanted me to give them "motivation" for putting Buddy on the plane....in other words, they wanted me to give them money to do their job. I didn't give them anything and had the flight attendants tell me when he was loaded on the plane and he made it without delay.

I'd just like to say to my fellow volunteers of the 08' SED/Ed Stage and my 2 post mates, that it was a privilege and an honor to serve with you all. I'm lucky to have spent 2 years with you in Cameroon and hope to see you in the near future, and as Bill Murray once said, "Buddies for life I think".

Fare well.

Here is an entry from my Aunt Linda who came and visited me in Cameroon.    The hotel's hot shower and comfortable bed were amazing -- especially after arriving in Cameroon, with the long flights from Cleveland to Washington, D.C. (where I first met Carol's mom, Ruth), to Brussels and finally to Yaoundé. That first night of exhaustion flew by and morning arrived.  I wondered what would be for breakfast.  Allen asked if we would be interested in "spaghetti omelettes."  This was something new to me and a cup of strong coffee was my first priority.  Ruth and I had agreed that we would be open to most things on this trip.  We didn't really know what to expect.  Having never had a "spaghetti omelette," I decided to give it a try!  The spaghetti was boiled and then added to the middle of three eggs which were cooked until set.  This omelette was a lot of food and the coffee was, in fact, strong!  That was the beginning of the adventure.    Now that I look back and have had a chance to process some of what occurred on this trip to visit Allen and to meet Carol, it did remind me a bit of a spaghetti western.  Spaghetti westerns were a group of films from the mid-1960's that were mostly produced and directed by Italians.  They were about cowboy adventures and the border conflicts between the U.S. and Mexico.  They included some famous American personalities as well as European actors.  Most were produced in Italian, filmed in Europe and had low budgets.  The stories were epic.    How does this compare to visiting two Peace Corps volunteers in Cameroon, you ask?  There were the four main characters (Allen, Carol, Ruth and me).  The language spoken by the locals was not our native language (mostly French).  We traveled through the "old west" of Africa on trains, a bush taxi, motos (on unpaved roads), and with crazy taxi drivers.  We experienced hot days, bright sunshine, starry nights and a lot of dust. We did see men on horseback as they were riding right through the middle of town.  Also, we had a relatively low budget and not much in the way of tourist amenities available.  We often slept rather soundly on the floor; lacked for hot, running water; and ate what was available locally.  We climbed a mountain (Mount Ngaoundere).  We were accosted by critters (lizards, mosquitoes, large spiders, crickets, cockroaches, chickens, goats, etc.).  We saw a lot of cattle at the ancien marché du boeuf that was very close to Carol's house, and cattle were often just grazing or walking along the road elsewhere.  We saw wild animals (mostly in the zoo in Yaoundé) and dwelled with the domesticated (Buddy and Honey).  We had heart-warming experiences with Cameroonians and those of other nationalities as well.  We accommodated each other's foibles and enjoyed each other's company.  We encountered some mean hombres who tried to overcharge us for our moto and taxi rides, and some who insisted that they had the right to carry our bags for a fee.  We were a team, against all odds.  And in the end, Ruth and I rode off into the sunset.   It was a trip that I will never forget.  Thank you Allen, Carol and Ruth, for the experience of a lifetime!    Hasta la vista and happy trails to you…jusqu'à ce que nous nous rencontrions de nouveau (until we meet again).

A very happy Honey with Cricket

Here is Cricket! Born on May 15, 2010. She is the sole heir to the Honey Elizabeth Iversen crown. She is about 5 days old and seems to be doing well. We've been feeding her a homemade puppy formula through a baby bottle. She sleeps a lot and her eyes aren't yet open, but she still manages to wake us up a few times at night to feed her. We are planning to bring her home with us along with Buddy.

Sadly, Honey became badly infected from the tear in her vulva from the 3rd puppy and passed on to a better place on May 18, 2010. She was a beautiful dog, a great friend, and wonderful to have around. Carol and I truly miss her, the words I have written here cannot express what she meant to us and I'm extremely sorry she's not here with us now. She will be in our thoughts and memories daily.

Here's a slide show of some of our favorite pics.

Here I am again, and as I predicted more than 2 months have passed since my last post. During that time some monumental events have taken place in my Peace Corps world. The first of which is I had a visitor, my Aunt Linda. Secondly, I attended my Close of Service Conference or for some others in my group Continuation of Service, either way COS Conference.

From March 9 through 26, 2010, Linda and Ruth (Carol's mom) had a desire to see exotic Africa, so they came to visit us. For a long time now I've seen it as dusty, nothing really works and when it does it breaks Africa, so it was good to see Cameroon through fresh eyes. I guess you don't realize how much you adapt to living in a place until you're around someone who hasn't seen this stuff. So when someone points out the bugs in the train, the goats that are everywhere, and the babies getting mashed up against the back of their mothers while everyone storms into the train station, you just say, "yep, that's what they do". And you don't really know what else to say. All in all I think they both had a great time and did very well with the conditions they were given. At the particular time we were at my house the electricity and the water were cut for 3 or 4 days...so that was fun. But they survived and it was a lot of fun having them. I could tell you more about their trip but I really feel like Aunt Linda should write something up to tell you, because if I tell it, it's not going to have that fresh, new foreigner to Cameroon feel to it.

The COS Conference was a nice time. It was only the second time in my service when all the people I came in with in June 2008 were all together again. The hotel Peace Corps put us up in was pretty nice, although I imagine it was really nice about 5 or 10 years ago. We didn't have great swimming weather though, and that was a little disappointing because when was the last time I swam in a pool? The food at the hotel was pretty good, I'd say it might even be the best I've had in Cameroon. Although the breakfast was pretty weak, they need to step that up.

But it was a weird time, there are 35 people there and they all feel like family even though I haven't seen them since December 2008, and now is possibly one of the last times I will see them for years to come. I remember leaving home was pretty hard to do, but at least when I did that I knew that I'll see them when I get back. But this is different because you don't really know when you'll see them again. I guess the important thing is to not lose touch with them. One thing I've learned here is that being far away shouldn't be an obstacle in keeping up a friendship.

I'm at post now, waiting to finish up the school year, pack up my belongings, and make the trek home on June 4, 2010. America is on the horizon.

Some how or another, I've managed to stay away from blogging for the better part of two months. I can't believe the last time I wrote anything was on Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

It's hard to believe that it's 2010. A year and a half ago that seemed like such a long time away, and now I've got 4 months left to live and work in Cameroon. If you would ask me today if I will miss living here, I would probably say no. Until right now, I don't believe I would miss anything, but I imagine that I will one day, sooner than I think. I'll miss how easy going life is here and the extended family of volunteers that I've become a part of.

But, all good things must come to an end and I've started to look ahead. I've started to apply to graduate school, specifically George Mason University in Northern Virginia. They have a Peace Corps Fellows program there for ESOL licensure and a Masters in Education: Curriculum and Instruction. I feel like it will make it easier to find a job and will help with my teaching abilities.

The rest of my time here is pretty well planned out and should pass fairly quickly even though the day to days will pass excruciatingly slow.

The dog, the dog, the dog......has turned into somewhat of an obedient K-9 but has his relapses from time to time. His worst problem is one of two things, 1. he keeps getting parasites that enter into his body through his paws (as the vetafric tells me), or 2. he's allergic to something and I have no idea what it is. The reaction to either of these is for him to continually lick the back of his left leg so much that he has no fur there, and he'll choose other spots on his body to do the same. Currently he's chosen his left front paw nail to lick raw. I've got it bandaged and covered and beginning today I'm starting to wash his paws off with flea/tick/parasite treatment in the morning and before bed. If this doesn't help him then there is nothing I can do for him here. He'll have to wait for America to be fixed up.

I wouldn't hope for too many more posts on here, at the current rate I've only got about 2 posts left and I can't imagine that they'll be much different than what I'm writing today. Unless you would like to send writing topics or questions you want me to specifically blog on, I'd be more than willing to do such a thing. Nearing the end of my stay here, I'll stop fearing accusations of being a tourist and make myself a target for theft by getting my camera out for photo's and video ops throughout the town.

Believe it or not, I'll see you soon!

Thanksgiving is upon us, even here in Cameroon. When I sit down and think about it, I imagine that most Americans spend major holidays with their family. Everyone gathers at a relatives house to share a meal. Togetherness and eating, they go hand and hand. There's a lot of build up to a day like Thanksgiving. There are decorations of turkeys, pilgrim hats, and indian headresses. Grocery stores start to stock 25lbs turkeys and cool whip goes on sale. You have to figure out when and where dinner will be, although most have traditions so the when and where may not change often. You get time off of work or school.

Side note: As a Peace Corps Volunteer, we dont' get any U.S. holiday off, just the Cameroonian ones. Thus, tomorrow really is just Thursday to me. Christmas and New Years are the same of course, so we get those off. However, PC admin in Yaounde get both, U.S. and Cameroonian holidays off and paid for. Someone tell me how that works.

While America gets ready for Thanksgiving, Cameroon is getting ready for the Fete de Mouton. This is celebrated 30 days after the Fete de Ramadan. So I have Friday off of work along with the rest of the country. There will be a lot people marching, wearing fancy new clothes, eating sheep or goats, and having a good time in general. The downside is, this means parties, and with a party you have to follow party protocol. The horror of which cannot be expressed in words completely. Nothing starts on time, you wait forever for all the guests to show, but the host is expected to have everything prepared at the announced time, then when people do show up, you can't eat right away, it's a whole ordeal that is so completely different from an American party it takes a long time to understand, even then you can never appreciate it. Hopefully you make the most of it, have a good time, and go home.

Ramblings:

I don't know who made the first NFL schedule where there was football on Thanksgiving, but God bless that man, otherwise who knows what type of horrible things we would be forced to watch.

I think Thanksgiving dinner would be best served with (Barberton) fried chicken. Turkey....to me, is overrated.

That's all, have a great holiday!!!

As many of you know, I have a dog here in Cameroon (Buddy Reperton is his name). I've had him since he was a pup and really he still is, I don't even think he's a year old yet, but he should be close to that. Recently, he has gone through some problems. Carol and I noticed that he lost a lot of the fur on his hind leg, so we took some photos and showed them to the vets here. They came over to my house, yep vets do house calls here, and they both agreed that it was a parasite and that the treatment was 3 days worth of shots. I'm pretty sure they gave him amoxyciline along with something else but I forget the name. That worked out well, his fur is growing back and his skin isn't flaky.

Unfortunatly, hours after the third and final shot he got bitten by a spider. What kind of spider? I have no idea what to call it, but they are usually about a little smaller than the size of my palm and really flat. I've seen these on walls everywhere since I've been in country and really have never had a problem with one other than it creeping me out. They have uncanny speed and are hard to kill. What had happened was Buddy and Honey were chasing each other around and he ran towards the wall and that's when I saw the spider run up the wall but I didn't think anything of it. With in seconds he started getting bumps on his face and all over, after a few minutes his face had swollen up and his body covered in bumps. So I called the vet, he came back to my house and gave him another shot and after a few hours his face was back to normal. It took about a day and a half for him to be completely bump free. (Spider bite pictures below)

Now, today another problem arises, he has some other spots where the fur is gone. The vet told me to put some Ektocip (flea and tick treatment) on a rag and wipe the spots on his legs. After I did that, he felt the need to clean his legs off and ingested some of the flea killer. I found where he had thrown up 2 times out back and he wouldn't stop salivating. So I was worried and called the vet and what's his answer to this problem? Another shot!!! He didn't like getting that one.

I'm not sure if all these shots they give him are totally necessary. One time they gave him some shots and he got sore that night from it and I wasn't sure what was wrong with him. I called the vet to ask what was going on because he wouldn't eat, he wouldn't move, if I picked him up he'd cry. Then he came over and said he was stressed because of the shots and then proceeded to give him another....what??? lol. After, I just decided it was like when a person gets a tetnus shot and is sore for a few days. They are a bit shot happy with dogs in Cameroon. I hope that we can go the rest of the time here without having another shot until March when his rabies vaccination is due. I've heard that people gossip about me and the dog. Some think I brought it from America, some think I paid 5,000 or 8,000fcfa for him...which is actually lower than what I actually paid after the theft fiasco earlier this year. My landlord thinks I'm insane because I sent money to Yaounde and had 5 bags of dog food sent to my house. Having a dog here really attracts a lot of attention, especially if you treat it properly, you know the normal things like feeding it, bathing it, vaccinating it, etc... My neighbor asked me if I was a veteranarian because Buddy looked so healthy.

Work wise, school is in full swing here now and the library is up and running. The good news about the library is that this year I have student who I can trust and another teacher who have been running the library when I'm not there. So that is becoming sustainable with out me, although no one has an idea of how to put books back or they are just lazy. I have to give the second sequence test next week. Pretty soon it will be Christmas break and the school year is half over.

The end of my service will soon be at an end, then it will be off into the real world where I'll have to make a living. I am looking forward to something new again. More importantly, I'm looking forward to having what I left behind, friends and family, at a more comforting distance than across an ocean.

I would like to take a moment to remember my grandmother, Billie R. Buccigrossi. She passed away October 14, 2009. I know that she is happy with the life she was given. She lived happily with my grandfather, Frank, and her children, grand children, and great grand children. She lived a good life and always wanted the best for everyone. She loves her family unconditionally and put their health and happiness first.

I have a lot of good memories with my grandma, she'd always make the best apple crisp and no-bake cookies (and not just for anyone...sorry Val, lol), she drove on so many of my class field trips in school. During summer vacations, she'd have to deal with me and Samantha and all the trouble we'd get into, but she was never mad for long (even if we did throw rocks at cars or spray strangers with the water hose and run). She'd give us a dollar to spend at Ritzman's pharmacy, looking back it seems like that dollar bought us a months worth of candy. I think I'll always remember her as my redheaded grandma who we loved to visit.

I can't help but feel that she's gone too soon, too suddenly, and with that the world seems emptier. She'll be missed and will remain in our thoughts everyday. We love you grandma!

A long time has passed since I've written a post, almost 4 months. For the first month of this break I was back in the first world. I had a good time there, I didn't have a big culture shock or readjustment trouble. In fact, I fit right back in like I never left. I had built up America so much in my year away that when I finally got there I remembered, "oh ya, this is the way I lived before." then I simply got on with my vacation and had a many good times. Then I came back to Cameroon and it wasn't too difficult to readjust here either.

I think it would be best to just call the other months I didn't post "the mysterious summer of 09'". I say that because, truly, it was an uneventful period of time and I would like you to think something important was accompolished. Now, I have one week before school starts back up. I'll be teaching some classes at the high school and then some others at the school that trains future primary school teachers (L'eniege in French, there's no easy word that translates directly to English...or I'm just not aware of it).

I'm looking forward to starting back to work. I think the Eniege is going to be a better place to work (even though it still puts on an air of a one way street admin). I'll still have to put up with the kids this year too, but I feel better equipped to handle them. I'll be working this week to prepare for the school year. Preparing is a priority this year, let's hope it stays that way.

The dog is doing well, although he misses his friend Honey. He's grown a lot, I don't think he's full grown yet, but pretty close. I think he weighs somewhere between 35 to 40lbs, could be more though. He was so excited to see me after a month that he couldn't help but pee on my leg a little when I got back.

I know that this isn't the most informative or well written post, but it was just hard to figure out where to start. I shouldn't have taken such a long hiatus. With 9 months left to go, I don't think I'll be taking too much time off the blog work. Also, if there is anyone with thoughts to come to Cameroon and hang out with me, I'd recommend getting in contact with me asap. However, I'll understand if you had thoughts about coming and then didn't act on them, this is not the ideal vaca spot.

All the best!

Last week was it, I gave my last test, graded them, filled out report cards, and gave the tests back to the students today. As always, I was bombarded with students saying "Sir, please sir..". Most of the time it is because they do not understand how they got their grade or they have changed their answer and expect me to change their grade. I imagine that some of them are being truthful about the answer and I look at the test, but after so many I get annoyed and ask them if they would prefer to have a zero instead of the 15/20 they recieved. For the most part, that doesn't clear them out until I get out my grade book and start acting like I'm changing grades. It seems cruel I know, but I think cruelty is allowed on my part. My cruelty is minor compared to what I went through the entire year.

As I think about the past year, I can only seem to remember the classes where I never got anything accomplished. Most of the year was trying to keep order in the classroom, I'm not sure that was ever accomplished. When I had site visits from Peace Corps Admin there was order, mainly because I told the students that if they misbehave I will be sent to another town and they will have no English teacher. Ha ha...little two faced punks. I call them two faced because, well, they are. In larges groups they don't listen, don't understand, talk to each other, hit each other, who knows what else. In smaller groups or when another teacher/admin enters their presence, halos are visible over their heads and you can hear a pin drop in the silence of the overcroweded classroom. As the new teacher, I was subject to more of their uhm...let's say unangelic side.

From January until the end of March, the library was in use daily. It was somewhat organized and made sense, students were borrowing books and bringing them back. However, with the advice of the vice principal I stopped loaning books before spring break. Why you ask? Mainly because it is too close to the end of the year and students would keep the books for themselves and they would never be seen again. At least that was the VP's reasoning. Now, the library is still somewhat organized, there are now a couple of computers that the admin was hiding somewhere. I suppose it's a good starting point for next year. I am trying to write a Peace Corps Partnership to get some money to buy books, chairs, tables, shelves, paint, more light fixtures, and computer desks.

The one thing I don't want to be is a babysitter for the library or a discipline agent for the classroom. I think that is one reason why this proposal writing has been delayed so much (by me). The other reason is probably as simple as I wanted to do something else. It's a lame reason, but it's the truth. I had 4 jobs in the states before I came here, and I feel like I do more here than I was doing then (and I don't do much here, lol. I'm not sure what that says about those jobs or this one, but I'm just keepin it real).

I plan on working less teaching hours at the lycee next year because I would like to teach at the teachers training school and perhaps work with some other NGO's teaching an English class. It's possible that I could have the same results this time next year or I could be successful. It all falls on my shoulders really. I think the one thing I need to start doing more of is planning, I've pretty much flown by the seat of my pants since I started teaching (sorry Dylanna, lol). I think maybe I've lived a little too long with the "whatever happens, happens" attitude and maybe it's time to change that. Should I set goals and try to reach them? It seemed to have worked out the other times I've done that, making the Dean's list every semester for two and half years, finishing my last semester in college with a 3.9gpa, and raising my cumulative gpa out of the gutter.

I've practically started my summer vacation already. It will be a fun time I'm sure. I honestly feel like my time here is almost up, even though I still have a year to go. I suppose I have some time to figure things out now that all the disorder is over.

(Check the photo page for some pics of the library and lycee)

Now that spring break is over, I am on the last leg of teaching. The school system here is seperated into trimesters and those are then seperated into sequences that are 6 weeks long. But, in reality, they are not 6 weeks long. The vacations and holidays take away most of the time and let's not forget the inefficency of the system itself. The sixth sequence for me is actually only 3 weeks long, 2 weeks of review and then a test the following week.

However, for me, 3 weeks is too long. I'm looking forward to the U.S., I can't believe it's almost been a year already.

I really don't have too much to write about...I think the dog is pretty much house trained now (at least at my house he is) and I've been able to make my house look like someone lives here and is comfortable. Recently we've discovered a restraunt that makes pizza (and it's good but expensive).

The rainy season finally started, which was great for a day when all the dust changed to mud. Now, when it rains you are pretty much trapped where ever you may be when it starts. That's mostly been at my own home, but i'm sure it there will be other places. When a big storm comes in they usually cut the power, and that happens just about everyday. I can travel now and my skin won't turn orange, but the road can be treacherous at points and you think you are going to die. They stack things so high on the bush taxi's you think you're going to tip over. They already have a high center of gravity, but all you can do is laugh about it, otherwise you probably shouldn't be here.

I'll write again soon, maybe with something a little less boring.

Wow, what a night after a day of uneventfullness. After dinner I came home and went on a walk with Buddy like I've been doing when the sun sets because it's not very hot and he can make it through with out stopping. So we went down into the quartier and crossed over the river and went back up into a different quartier. It was in this place that I had originally seen Buddy and had asked if he was for sale, he was not at the time, so I went on with my life. Then a couple of weeks later the creepy guy was standing at my door to sell me this dog.

As we started on the last leg home, a guy comes up and asks me where I got this dog. So I told him the same story I've told you and he, some of his family, and a small crowd gathered around us (not like for a fight but just to watch). The man said that that is his dog and he wants it back, then tomorrow I will have to go and find the guy who sold him to me and we will go to the police station. I said I have no idea where to find that guy, and I told him that I will gladly go to the police station with him in the morning with Buddy, but I will keep him until then. He didn't want to do that and after a few minutes of arguing, I started to walk off and they grabbed Buddy's leash and wouldn't let go. So to avoid any type of physical confrontation, I went with them to their house and left the dog until tomorrow. Now, this is something that did not sit well with me for more than 2 seconds. So instead of waiting until the morning, I jumped on a moto and went to the police station immediatly.

The Police Commissioner was there as I pulled up and since he is such an awesome guy, I got to explain what happened in English! English! It made things a lot easier. After that, we got in his car and went to the guys house. One thing I noticed is how much respect the people here give the commissioner. Even the angry guy who was a confident asshole and took my dog was a completely different person in his presence. He's definetly deserving of it though, he handled the situation well, listened to both sides of the story, and he never seemed to give off the idea that he had more power than anyone else. Also, he is my neighbor, lives just a few houses down, awesome. Anyways, the Commish decided he didn't like discusssing things at this man's house, it was dark and there were some fools around (crazies), so we went back to the police station.

At the police station, we sat and talked with the original owner who wanted to keep his property. It was a difficult situation, I'm pretty sure buddy was his dog and most likely someone did steal him and sell him to me. However, I've had buddy for a month or so now, cleaned up and made him healthy, he's definitly made life better for me here, so I don't want to give him up. I offered to pay them what they gave for Buddy and then once they found another dog I would pay for that one too, but they didn't want that. Then, they finally said that if I give them 10,000cfa they'd let me keep the dog (equivelant to 20.00USD).

What could have been the case: It could have been that it was a conspiracy to get more money out of me. They told someone to take the dog and sell it to me. Then at a later time they would do exactly what they did tonight and try to take the dog back knowing I would want to keep it and give them more money...so if that was the case then it worked well.

Now, Buddy is asleep on the floor next to the bed as I write this, I don't think I'll have to worry about those guys trying to take the dog or rob me(I mean the Police Commissioner is only 2 houses down), we shook hands when they left the station. They may be a little bitter though and I'll avoid walking past that way for awhile.

The king's a beggar, now the play is done:

All is well ended, if this suit be won,

That you express content; which we will pay,

With strife to please you, day exceeding day:

Ours be your patients then, and yours our parts;

Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.

Buddy Reperton is his name. If some of you don't get the reference, then you"ll need to watch Christine. I will tell you that Buddy Reperton was a bully in the movie, but that dog doesn't look like a bully, well he's tough. Plus, Carol and I just started calling him Buddy because he didn't have a name and in the sense of intuition, Buddy Reperton is his formal name.

How did I come across this animal? It was about 7 a.m. and his owner was creepily standing outside my front gate saying, "knock, knock" while holding this dog. What the hell? It's 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning and this guy is just standing there, who knows how long he was there before that.

So, I had seen this dog before but he wasn't forsale, so I just didn't have a dog. But, something changed and that family didn't want the dog anymore and here we are. When I saw him before, he was pretty nonchalant and he still is, you could pick him up and carry him anywhere and he wouldn't make a sound, he'd do nothing except look at you. Now that I've been around him for a minute, he's actually a pretty lively pup....peeing, pooping, tearing things up, the usual puppy things. I've decided to put up my big rug until he's better trained, he's got a small small bladder apparently.

He had never had a bath until yesterday and had a terrible case of fleas and ticks, I mean terrible...yuck. So, we went to the VetAfric and he got a shot for worms, another shot for vitamins, and I bought some flea bath. I acutally had to give him two baths because the one didn't get rid of all the fleas and dirt. He seems to be doing really well though, there are only one or two ticks that are hiding in his ear that I may have the vet get out.

I think that Buddy's around 6 to 8 weeks old, and I'm sure that his entire life was spent fighting for food, because when we gave Buddy and Honey their dinner, soya and potat (basically beef skewers and a type of sugary potatoe), he ate the potat calmly but when the soya was put in his bowl he basically did a head dive into the bowl. Then, Honey finished her meat quickly and went to check out Buddy's bowl, he went nuts growling, barking, biting, basically fighting like he was 8 weeks old and never eaten a meal. After he eats, his stomach gets really big and gets wide. He looks like the pregnant goats I see here. This probably means that he has some sort of worm growing inside (not uncommon here), so I'll have to take him to the vet and see what needs to be done. His time with me has been pretty short, I only got him yesterday but it seems like a lot longer. His presence will obviously complicate my life much more now, I have to feed it, let it outside, and feed it...I think he'll be worth the trouble though. School will be over soon, at the end of this month we have 2 weeks off then I think the middle of May is end of my classes, which will be wonderful!

Side Note: If anyone can send a few tennis balls or dog toys this way I would much appreciate it, I'm already tired him trying to chew on the curtains, rug, my shoes, and anything else he thinks might be fun....however, I'm sure he's getting tired of me hitting his nose for that stuff, lol. Jon, send a shock collar!! His true nature is shown below, lol.

Other pics can be seen at the photo link on the left in the "dogs" folder.

Buddy Reperton is his name. If some of you don't get the reference, then you"ll need to watch Christine. I will tell you that Buddy Reperton was a bully in the movie, but that dog doesn't look like a bully, well he's tough. Plus, Carol and I just started calling him Buddy because he didn't have a name and in the sense of intuition, Buddy Reperton is his formal name.

How did I come across this animal? It was about 7 a.m. and his owner was creepily standing outside my front gate saying, "knock, knock" while holding this dog. What the hell? It's 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning and this guy is just standing there, who knows how long he was there before that.

So, I had seen this dog before but he wasn't forsale, so I just didn't have a dog. But, something changed and that family didn't want the dog anymore and here we are. When I saw him before, he was pretty nonchalant and he still is, you could pick him up and carry him anywhere and he wouldn't make a sound, he'd do nothing except look at you. Now that I've been around him for a minute, he's actually a pretty lively pup....peeing, pooping, tearing things up, the usual puppy things. I've decided to put up my big rug until he's better trained, he's got a small small bladder apparently.

He had never had a bath until yesterday and had a terrible case of fleas and ticks, I mean terrible...yuck. So, we went to the VetAfric and he got a shot for worms, another shot for vitamins, and I bought some flea bath. I acutally had to give him two baths because the one didn't get rid of all the fleas and dirt. He seems to be doing really well though, there are only one or two ticks that are hiding in his ear that I may have the vet get out.

I think that Buddy's around 6 to 8 weeks old, and I'm sure that his entire life was spent fighting for food, because when we gave Buddy and Honey their dinner, soya and potat (basically beef skewers and a type of sugary potatoe), he ate the potat calmly but when the soya was put in his bowl he basically did a head dive into the bowl. Then, Honey finished her meat quickly and went to check out Buddy's bowl, he went nuts growling, barking, biting, basically fighting like he was 8 weeks old and never eaten a meal. After he eats, his stomach gets really big and gets wide. He looks like the pregnant goats I see here. This probably means that he has some sort of worm growing inside (not uncommon here), so I'll have to take him to the vet and see what needs to be done.

His time with me has been pretty short, I only got him yesterday but it seems like a lot longer. His presence will obviously complicate my life much more now, I have to feed it, let it outside, and feed it...I think he'll be worth the trouble though.

School will be over soon, at the end of this month we have 2 weeks off then I think the middle of May is end of my classes, which will be wonderful!

Side Note: If anyone can send a few tennis balls or dog toys this way I would much appreciate it, I'm already tired him trying to chew on the curtains, rug, my shoes, and anything else he thinks might be fun....however, I'm sure he's getting tired of me hitting his nose for that stuff, lol. Jon, send a shock collar!!

If you recall, I told a story on how after I came back from a meeting the library was a train wreck and that also, a bird had gotten in and exploded all over the place (if you know what I mean). To continue on that part of the story, lately everytime I've walked into that place there is more and more bird shit, it's not just little stuff from sparrows or whatever those little blue and red birds are, it's alot. lol. As I was sitting in the library today grading papers, there were two students reading and an inspector from the Ministry of Education working. Out from one of the missing ceiling panels comes this giant wingspan and this bird flies over the one students head. Then, it lands on the bookshelf and I see that this bird is an owl, Tyto Alba Affinis or the African Barn Owl.

This is not the actual bird, if it comes back I will try to get some photos of it.

Anyways, it started to fly back and forth from the bookshelf to the window. The window is screened in so it grabbed ahold of it and was trying to rip the screen off. It was succeeding too, but I think it had been working on it for a few days because it was already ripped. The two students didn't seem to mind the owl so much, they just kept watching me to see what I would do. I really had no idea of what to do, I mean what am I a bird catcher? So, I just opened the other door, I whistled at the owl, who was once again tearing at the screen, it looked at me and then out the door and it seemed to have this look on it's face like, "oh, I can get out that way". Then, it just flew over the students and right in front of me, then out the door. It was a really cool thing to see.

Now, the funny thing about this was the inspector never looked up once during all of this and this was a big freakin bird!!! The students at least acknowledged the thing and ducked to avoid its razor sharp talons, lol. Him not reacting to anything, is almost as amazing as seeing the bird itself. Imagine that guy on a safari....yikes.

I recently recieved some information about a summer camp program and was asked to post the information here. After reviewing the program and what they are doing, I've agreed to do so. The name of the program is The Fresh Air Fund.

What they do is this: "Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund, a not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities. Each year, thousands of children visit volunteer host families in 13 states and Canada through the Friendly Town Program or attend one of five Fresh Air Fund camps."

They provide a lot of oppurtunities in a variety of fields that you might be able to help out with, currently they are looking for college aged men and women who love to work with children. There is a lot of good that comes from programs like these and if you are interested in learning more, please visit these websites:

http://freshairfundcounselors.smnr.us/

http://www.freshair.org/

Thank you.

Well, I don't want to leave everyone hanging for another 2 months, and I think this may be of interest to some people. I feel like I've been writing the same story just with some variations, however, the past month has been a little different.

As I have said, I was put in charge of the library at my school ( a bit unwillingly). I was recently in Yaounde and visited the library at the American Embassy and talked with the director of the resource center there. He is a very nice man and was happy to see that someone was doing somework out in the middle of nowhere. He is currently looking for some things to possibly donate to me and he put me in contact with a publisher and set me up with a meeting that same day. Wonderful. I met with the man and he said he could cut the price of all books in half and then he would donate half the amount of books I ordered. So, if I order 50, he'll donate 25 and we still get the discount.

Obviously, I can't do anything because I don't have the funding at the moment. However, I returned to the school and told the principal of my goings on and what type of deal we could get. He seemed unsure of how we could accomplish such a thing, because there is no money (even though he said there was at the beginning) and they are relying on me to raise it. Which is kind of understandable I suppose, me being a PCV and all, but I still feel like he should take some more initiative and see what he can do...I mean I'm not here forever.

During all this, I got to hear him tell me about a PCV he had a few years back in another town, someone I like to call Super Volunteer. They did sooo much, organized this, and raised funds for that, etc.... Well I'm that guy. I've slowely realized that I don't think I came here for "developement work", I simply came to teach English and got this shit thrown on me.

And yes, it is shit (pardon my French). When I left for the committee meeting, I had the library set up, organized, and functioning. I left the president of the lecture/library club with a key so that students can still use it while I was away (no other teachers will come and work there or learn anything about it, so I use students). A teacher went up to the president and told her a lie that the principal said it was ok for him to use the library for his "dance club" and to give him the key. The trusting girl she is, she did. I, of course, found this out after I open the doors last Monday and find the place a total train wreck. (Also a bird got in and had target practice over everything) This man (and bird) has proven to be...uhm...how do I put this....an asshole (again with my French...) and I put no blame on my student who has proven to be trustworthy.

When I confronted said teacher, he claimed that he was in the process of gathering students to clean it and put the shelves and tables back where they belong. Alas, days pass and nothing changes (not a real surprise here). This morning, I took it upon myself to clean up his mess, but I will never do that again. I can walk away from that library easily if pushed, remember, I came to teach and get some experience that's all. I just think his actions were pretty rude and it really got to me. Apparently he isn't aware of the idea of what a library is.

Also, I've decided that remaining composed and speaking angerly at someone in French just isn't going to cut it anymore. I figure a raw uncut thrashing in my own native tongue will get the point across just as well, in fact I know it will. I'm kind of excited for that moment to tell you the truth, I'll post it when I do.

On a better note, I was approached by a man who wants me to give English lessons at the teacher training college nearby. That sounds likes something that I am more willing to do. My experience with adults was much better than with middle school aged children.

Until next time...

If you've seen Rocky 2 then you can probably guess what this post is about from the title, I caught a chicken!!! Ha! I was washing dishes in my backyard the other day and I kept hearing a chicken and it sounded super close, so I turned around and behold, a small chicken. It had entered into my enclosed backyard through a hole at the bottom of the wall. Now, this has happened once before, but the last time it was smaller and I just told my neighbors to come and get their chicken. This time, there was no one to be found. I figured what the hell, and started after it; we played a little game of chase around my papaya tree when it took a bold move into my kitchen. Not long after this, the chase came to an abrupt end and I returned the chicken home. I will probably see it back there again another day....well, until it gets big enough and can't fit through the hole or they eat it.

In other animal news, mice have found their way into my house too. I saw one scurry across my living room floor one night only to disappear. Then the next afternoon I kept hearing a noise in a box in my kitchen. Turned out Mickey found his way in but couldn't get out. So, I set up an appointment for him with me and a broken broomstick. It didn't end well for him. Then, one night I was sitting on my bed and I saw something shoot under my bathroom door. At first, I thought I was seeing things, but upon opening the bathroom door I spooked the tiny rodent and I heard it run into a bucket. Confused from his run in with the bucket, he ran into the corner and then tried to hide under some toiletries. I drove him out of hiding with the squeejee and in one quick movement I had him pinned against the wall. He is now with his buddy eating a from a giant piece of cheese, at least that's what I like to think.

I had thought about getting a cat before the second mouse came, but after my efficiency with killing the mice and catching the chicken, I'm thinking maybe I don't need any animals to do the killing.

Once again, it has been uneventful goings on here. I think I am starting to do some good things in the library at the lycee. I'm going to start training a Terminale student to work in there and a few other teachers beginning next week. Trust is a big issue here, everyday I hear the phrase, "We are together", and yet the admin at the lycee is worried that students and teachers will steal all the books in the library. Truly, if "we are together" then we shouldn't have to worry about theft. Let's hope that all goes well. Also, I'm going to be sending as many letters to organizations for book donations. Wish me luck.

Where do I begin? All of you are obviously aware that I haven't taken the time to write on this blog for the better part of 2 months. Why?? I've thought about it and I can't really say, I think that sometimes when living in a new culture you just need some time to process your surroundings. So during that time I had no idea what to write about because I had no clue as to what the hell was going on (probably not that much different from my life back home...but hey). Anyways, after awhile things aren't so bad here, meaning that I've started to adapt to living here....a little.....I think....

Time away from post was amazing. There was an in service training that everyone in the group I came in with had to go to. We were lucky enough to get to go to Kribi, one of Cameroons biggest tourist attractions. It's located in the Southern Region on the coast. Now, I've been to the beach before, some beautiful ones at that, but never in my life was I so happy to go swimming in the Atlantic. When I've been on vacations before, I've never really felt any relief or relaxation. So it was a really the first vacation that I truly did, even though I still had to attend IST sessions during the day.

So after that, I went and celebrated Christmas and New Years with some other volunteers. I saw some exotic animals running wild during this time, such as a pulchritude of peacocks and a baboon. Exciting right?

Believe it or not, but that pretty much sums up the last few months. Short and simple. I don't really have any funny stories from what is going on here. The travel here has gotten to be more and more dreadful every time I get on a bush taxi. At least on the train I can sleep through the delays. However, I did see someone throw a banana peel out of car and someone stepped on it as it landed, but they did not slip and fall comically as one would expect, so that was a disappointment.

I hope to write more frequently and not go so long between posts. If that's the case then you know my life isn't exciting enough to write about it. Apres.

Happy holidays to all! I'm going to keep this one short and I'll write more very soon....hopefully.

I just want to say thanks to Jim's mom, Dawn, who sent me the monday night Browns v. Giants game! It was probably the only Browns game that was worth watching this season, lol.

More to come...

After a rough week, I decided to visit NFL.com. It's the little things that make life easier, lol. Doing so made me realize just how much I miss football. The real football, not soccer. Now, it took 20 minutes to download a video clip of the Texans 2 minute come back against The Dolphins, so imagine how long it would take to get an entire game....a very long time. So hear is what I ask of you, my family, friends, and loyal readers all across the country, if you could please record any NFL games for my viewing pleasure and send them to me here in Cameroon it would be much appreciated. I feel that this would even help with Peace Corps goal number 2, to help the host country nationals better understand Americans. What better way then through football? Sure they love American politics, but only because that is what the news shows them.

Favorite teams: Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks, Washington Redskins

Of course, when playoffs start, record and send all no matter who plays.

Also, The Ohio State vs. Michigan game would be welcome, along with any good college bowl game.

These can be sent on VHS and I will find a TV and VCR to watch them on. That would actually be the easy part.

And maple syrup....I'll post another list of items that would be useful here later... once I write one

Thanks!

I would like to take a moment out of my day, and of yours, to remember my grandfather, John E. Mazan. He passed away October 15, 2008. He is 88 years old. He loves his family. He is a good man who wishes the best for everyone. He told me many times, and just recently, that he lived a long and happy life with my grandmother, Ruth. They have been married 61 years. I was lucky enough to be part of his life and will miss him very much. It is difficult to be away from home at this moment, however, I know he wouldn't have it any other way.

As many of you know, he loved to send jokes via email, I think it is only right to post what I think is one of his favorites:

There was a man and his wife working in their garden. The wife was in front of her husband...leaning over. He said to her, "Honey, your rear is wider than our barbeque." She said nothing. The man got up,went into the house and came out with a tape measure. He proceeded to measure her across the back side then the barbeque. He said,"See...you are two inches wider." She said nothing. That night they went to bed and the man started to get ornery...she pushed him away. "What is wrong?" he asked..."Well," she said..."You don't think that I'm going to heat up this big fat barbeque for one little weenie, do you?"

I have been in Cameroon for only 4 and a half months, 11 weeks of which was training. The thought of returning home and ending my service had run through my mind once or twice before, usually that happens every time someone decides to leave. However, my post mate asked me, "If you go home, are you going to come back?" I said, "Well, yes, why wouldn't I?" So I went to bed with that question lingering in my head. Then, I was awoken at 4 a.m. for the call to prayers from all directions, every mosque in my neighborhood had turned their loud speakers past 10 to 11, so it seemed. Then after that stopped, the roosters started to make their own call to prayer. One rooster would crow as loud as it could a minimum of 10 times with a pause of one and a half measures between each crow, and just like the mosques, all the roosters in the surrounding neighborhood followed suit. I am therefore led to wonder what came first, the chicken or the mosque. This is still going on actually, neither group will end their public announcements, and I am still awake because of it. Which led me to reflect on the question my post mate asked me. At first I had thought just as before, go and come back, no big deal. Then I started to ask myself, what if I didn't come back? Would I miss cold showers, limited variety of food (not really that good either), dust, rain, difficult travel, crowded bush taxis, train rides. Would slipping back into anonymousness be a bad thing? Then I began to think of what I have been doing here thus far. I have been teaching 12 hours a week and have started a library project for the school. When I say started, I really mean I have thought about it, written a proposal for the principal, and that's about it. The rest of the time I spend in my house either asleep, cleaning and doing laundry, or wasting time by watching movies. They say the first 3 months are the hardest and I believe it. I've been trying to adjust to and understand the school system here. I'm frustrated and do not understand how anyone can expect someone learn a language if there are 100 students in every class. Perhaps 10 percent of the students actually have the text book, which isn't really a practical text book for learning English in my opinion. I joined Peace Corps because I thought it would be good for my career. I'm sure that if I finish my service it will be. However, is it good for me? I can now remove my jeans simply by unbuckling my belt, I guess if you can't lose weight by dieting then you should join the Peace Corps or come to Africa. Are there other roads I can take to achieve the same thing? Perhaps. Although, life may be easier if I had a clear idea of what I want to achieve. Now, it's later on in the evening, the loud speakers have started once again. Seems fitting though, that they are going on when I am writing this like I was this morning. I think the rain will hinder the roosters from starting competition this time. This morning I think I was pretty close to going home and staying. If I go back to the U.S. right now, I don't think I would come back. Not after having lived here for this short time. Before it was a mystery, now it no longer is. I expect setbacks and frustrating circumstances, what sane person would come back to this when they could live somewhere else? Yet, there are times when it's easy and fun to be here. I named this blog Brilliance or Madness; there is definitely an unclear border between the two, just like there is an unclear border that separates the parts of me that want to stay from the parts that want to leave. I've decided to stay here though and see what unfolds next.

Now, A good friend of mine came across the web page of the Relevant Gentlemen's Society and browsing their site came across their creed. Seeing that I am the winner of best and worst moustache of the June 2008 Ed/SED Stage, I feel it is my duty to report this to all. Although it may seem irrelevant to anything what so ever, is still very very entertaining. These are rules for any man with a moustache to live by. Provided by http://www.relevantgentlemanssociety.com/?page_id=2 (I promise next post may hold some relevant information...actually on second thought, I shouldn't promise that.)

Creed

As a member of the RELEVANT Gentleman’s Society, I dedicate my knowledge and skills to the advancement and betterment of mustache acceptance and human welfare.

I pledge:

To give my utmost to advancing mustache style, dignity and performance;

To participate in none but honest mustache enterprise;

To live and work according to the highest standards of mustache conduct;

To place service before profit, honor and standing of the mustache before personal advantage, and the public welfare of the mustache above all other considerations;

In humility and with need for Divine and Mustache Guidance, I make this pledge.

Canon 1.

A mustache wearer should refrain from conduct that is detrimental to the public.

Canon 2.

A mustache wearer should hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of his mustache.

Canon 3.

A mustache wearer’s primary responsibility is to 1) God and 2) his mustache.

Canon 4.

A mustache wearer should promote the general welfare of all mustachekind.

Canon 5.

A mustache wearer should maintain the confidential nature of the mustache/wearer relationship.

Canon 6.

A mustache wearer should use care to avoid advertising or solicitation that is misleading or otherwise contrary to the public interest of mustaches.

Canon 7.

A mustache wearer should maintain professional integrity, fairness, and dignity when dealing with members of other facial hair choices.

Last week, I had gone to the market to buy some food. I went into one of the shops that I normally go to and was making my way around the small aisle way when I came upon the canned food shelf. I took a quick glance and something caught my eye, I immediatly thought, "Nah, it can't be". But indeed it was a can of Del Monte corn!!! Apparently straight out of San Francisco! Of course I bought it, although I haven't eaten it yet...not real sure when that will happen, but the fact of the matter is I can eat corn...sweet corn at that! I do have a theory of how it got here, you wanna hear it? Of course you do. I think, that maybe, someone sent a volunteer a package with a bunch of goods in it and that package never made it to said volunteer. Instead, the contents of the box were sold and the can of Del Monte Sweet Corn found its way here, ironically into the hands of another volunteer. So, if this theory is correct, at least it found its way to another PCV. lol. There is corn here, but I have only had one ear of corn that was sweet (sans butter). I'm not sure how that actually happened, but it was good. The rest of it seems like feed corn or something, it's not that good but on occasion when it has been grilled correctly. I don't really have much else to say at the moment...kinda sad when the highlight of the last two weeks has been the purchase of a can of corn, lol.

Teaching began about 4 weeks ago. That time has gone by very quickly; tests are scheduled for the week of October 6. It still feels like my first week teaching. And then I realized that what my professor in college told me was right, you come here with hopes and ideas of how this is going to work, and then you fail miserably. Lol. It actually made me feel better to remember what he said, "Oh ya, this is supposed to happen". So I emailed him to say that he was right (he has a doctorate for a reason). He quickly replied to me and reminded me of the second part of what he said, that after you fail, you change a few things and yourself, and start to make a difference. I'm not sure what part I'm at now, I know that I have failed thus far, but I have started to make some changes and I believe things will be getting better.

Part of me has fallen back into the stage where I am constantly thinking about American food, man that sounds good. A good beer would be nice too, although that will be strange too, because the beers here are a little bigger than half a liter. Someone's gonna hand me a 12oz beer and I'm going to be like, "What is that? Your sister's beer?" lol. I imagine that will soon pass again, most likely because there were some lovely people at home who have sent me some packages!!! Thank you, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. Another thing that keeps happening to me is that I temporarily forget how old I am and have to ask myself, "am I 25?" Then, I realize that I'll be 27 and I think, "Holy crap, when did that happen?” I've done this like 3 or 4 times.

Life is certainly slow here, but the days go quickly, especially the days I teach. I've taught some of the kids in my neighborhood to say my name instead of nassara. I asked them what their names where but I don't think they understood me. It's funny because they are actually pretty young kids that are just outside unsupervised, hanging out like it's no big deal, some sell food. I guess it isn't really a big deal here though, it's normal life.

I've also found that after a long day at school, it really makes me happy to "hey" the students. For those of you who do not understand what "heying" is, it is when someone is walking by or walking away, you simply yell, "hey" like you are talking to them and turn like you said nothing. I learned this trick from a previous job at a car dealer (thanks bill) and have found that it is universally funny. At least to me it is. It works because "hey" is still understood in French as an attention getter. But the main attention getter here is the "hiss" sound. It sounds the same as letting air out of a tire. That sound can call a taxi from at least a block away and/or street vendors selling anything. So that's fun to do too. It's the simple things that keep me entertained.

As most of you know, I am finally on my own at post. I have been for the past few weeks. The weather here is much better than the training village, although I allergies have been killing me here, it's probably the dust or pollen or somehthing. Who nows? If it rains here it doesn't last long and then the sun comes out. It's less hilly then I remember it being at site visit, although certain parts of the town are higher up than the others which makes for a spectacular view.

My house is a decent size for one person to live in. The living room is pretty big (especially because there is nothing in it), there is a kitchen that is a decent sized rectangular room, however there is no countertops, sink, or running water. I did have a table/counter made for my range and it turned out nicely. There are two bedrooms, one of which has it's own door that is outside the main door of the house. I'd like to try to make that the hammock room (when I get one). I do have a modern bathroom with a toilet (sans seat), shower, and sink. So that makes life nice, but ya know what will make it nicer? A hot water heater, They are about 85,000 cfa, which is kind of a lot, but not bad. I bought this thing that I call a "magic wand", you fill a bucket with water and then put the wand in it and plug it in to the wall and in a few minutes your water is hot. It is a nice thing to have. It is a pretty private house once you get off the street, no one can see me in the back yard, well it's not really a yard as much as it is an area. there is another small house behind mine that someone else could live in, but I'm pretty sure that my landlord said that no one will be living there...which is good...I just hope I understood what the hell he said. There is a tomato plant growing in the one spot where there is dirt. There is a water faucet out back where I get water to cook, drink, and wash clothes. It's really a pretty convienant place. The only bad part is that I don't think we get enough money for move in allowance, mine is gone and I don't really have much to show for it. Others are lucky enough to get things left behind but I came into a new place so I have nothing. Bummer.

The thing that is kinda funny, and irritating at the same time, is that there are a ton of little kids around and I think they just wait for me to leave or come home to say, "Bonjour nassara" or "Bonsoir nassara". Nassara is a Fulfude word for le blanc, which is white or white man or white woman or white person if you want to be pc about it. It's been kind of funny really, if you knew the sound of their voice and could hear the repition of other children after one starts the bombardment of hellos. Sometimes I can't even see them but I can hear them and I try not to make it obvious that I am trying to figure out where in the hell they are, but it doesn't work. I think they are hiding in the trees. Depending on the time of day and how many are in their numbers I return the hello and they are happy. Sometimes I think I hear them say, "Papa nassara" but again, I'm not really sure.

There is a new album with more pictures, just click http://picasaweb.google.com/awm440.

I was able to add a few links and upload some photos for your enjoyment, as well as my own. They are good additions and there will be more as time passes.

We are all officially Peace Corps Volunteers as August 22, 2008! Two years to go, well actually, 21 months for Ed Volunteers. There was a large ceremony with ambassadors, mayors, country directors, village chiefs, and a hell of a lot more. Dinner with the host family after that. It was a good home stay all in all, but I am glad it's over and I can be on my own again. Ah freedom!

After swearing in on Friday, I was interviewed by a Cameroonian TV station and was probably broadcasted nationally. More importantly, my mustache was broadcasted nationally. However, to some peoples disappointed, and others relief, I am once again sans mustache. It's kind of sad, but there is good news! Anytime our stage reconvenes we will sport a mustache, and also anytime between the middle of July and the middle of August for the rest of life.

We have all headed to our posts and are either there or in transit to go there. I should arrive at mine in about 2 more days, maybe.

Sometime in the later part of July, we decided that it would be fun to stop shaving until the week of swearing in as an official volunteer. It wasn't too bad during the first week or two, but once we hit the three week mark there were a lot of patchy beards around and mine was especially. It came in strong as a goatee and on the neck, but not a lot on the cheek bones. Luckily, it was decided that we could clean up the neck, you know, so we looked professional…well, as professional as you can look with patchiness. On top of that, my hair had not been cut since before I left in May, so I was scruffy and shaggy; I pulled it off for awhile. This Saturday, I finally got to shave but I had to leave the moustache and it turns out I won the competition. That's right; I have the best moustache of all for the 08' Ed/SED Stage and I don't know if I can be over taken by anyone from a previous stage or any stages forth coming. It resembles seeing the full wing span of bald eagle sitting on my upper lip. Now, this might not be the most glamorous award to win, matter of fact it's pretty useless, but what the hell it's mine. I guess I'd like to thank my dad for this award; he has had a moustache ever since I can remember and I have never seen him without one. Really, if you've met my dad then you don't need to see the picture of me, because it looks exactly the same. So it gets more ridiculous, I cut my hair with the help of some other stagaires and after the second attempt to get the top shorter, we decided to just buzz it…and now I look like the guy from Major Dad, someone from Super Troopers, or Reno 911. I look especially like a cop with aviators on. But, once the moustache comes off I think it won't be half bad. Well, I'm sure I've bored you enough those three paragraphs on facial hair, so maybe now I'll move on to something else (even though all of our conversations for the past month have been about moustaches). Training is coming to a close, model school is finished, all of us have reached our target level in French, and we are all pretty tired of the curfew. It will be nice to regain a feeling of independence and be able to walk through a house you can call your own, and possibly not wake up to extremely loud singing, talking, or dishes clattering (yes Jon, just like Myrtle Beach; it was 6 in the bloody morning, why were you up?). I'm not sure how many more hoops I'll have to jump through or if it will ever stop. A part of me just wants to say, "No, I'm not going to do that." and then asks if the school will be mad that they aren't going to get a teacher this year. They have my transcripts, they know I have a degree, and I have experience, what more do you want? Then the other part of me thinks that life is like this until the end, and as they say here, "on va faire comment?" in English it means "what is one going to do?" Not a direct translation, but it's similar to the infamous "such is life" quote that has been spreading throughout the Midwest of the U.S.A. since the early 2000's. With things coming to an end here, I've realized that there are going to be new things to deal with. There will not be 36 other Americans around to go and hang out with, or work side by side with. I will have a post mate but only for a few months and I'm not sure if a replacement will be sent. It's amazing how quickly everyone became friends; it began in Philadelphia during our first night. Now, for the next two years, maybe life, we are each other's crutches and I'm thankful for that. I couldn't imagine a better group of people to have done this with. The first 3 months will be over this Friday, and the next 3 should prove to be just as interesting.

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure. This first one is of the school we have been teaching at, it looks abandoned but it is actually used everyday. This is a view of Yaounde from the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived.

How many people can you fit in a red mini bus? A few more actually.

These last two are pictures of the road outside my homestay house. I was on my to school, luckily it had stopped raining. The water can actually get higher than that. Thewater is fine, it's the mud I don't like.

I'll try to post more photos soon!

This place has been getting colder every day, and I have no idea why. I thought I was coming to Africa; we are 4 degrees from the equator!!! It's been more like Ohio this past week than I care for. It's been grey, cloudy, and rainy. Today it rained so hard that I cratered in the mud and after all that, the water that was running down my rain coat soaked my pants, socks, and shoes. It was like I went swimming with my pants on. Although no one thought it was that bad until I unzipped my coat and they saw the dry part of my pants where the rain coat had covered me. It was a long day to say the least. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as the IT lab is up and running at the model school, but, no guarantees of course. Lol, they will come eventually, it's just that you can't really rely on the internet connection, speed, or if the electricity will be working or not. Ok, that's all for now, sorry for the delays in posts but by the end of the day I don't feel like walking into town and would rather sit and have a beer. Drink something good for me at home!

I will begin by telling you that this story is real, it did happen, and it is not in any way shape or form, fiction. For weeks I and the other trainees patiently awaited our post assignments. When that day finally arrived, everyone opened their envelope with so much excitement…. Then, once the actual words of their town came out of their mouth, that level of excitement came to a screeching halt. At that moment we realized that we didn't know a damn thing about this place, other than we will be living there for the next two years. The trainers could say a little bit about a few of the towns, some of them had grown up and attended the schools that we will be working at and some of the current volunteers may or may not know someone who lives in a particular town. To put it simply, we thought we knew but we had no idea, so of course rumors were all around about post sites. However, the good news was that in three days later we had a "counterpart" work shop. A counterpart is the Cameroonian who we will be working with to help us understand the school, the culture, and they may help with secondary projects. Now, before these three days, everyone lived off the rumors and seemed to be pretty happy and somewhat uncertain about the days ahead of them. The fun part for me began when my counterpart failed to show up at the seminar…supposedly he got the information too late. I still had wondered now what do I do? The 2 day seminar really told us nothing about our community, it was more or less to introduce the counterparts to what the Peace Corps is….which they should probably be doing from the start but for some reason they're not doing that. All the info that the others got became my duty to tell my counterpart, so I let most of it be until I actually start. I figure I'm the 3rd volunteer there so they should know how it works…should being the operative word. Last Wednesday, I departed my host stay family with the other trainees that were headed north. Because my counterpart did not show, I had to go with another trainee to her town and then the next day we would visit mine. This didn't really make sense to me, because that town is in the opposite direction of mine. Before we left on the train that night we had time to get lunch. About 10 of us went to a restaurant and 3 different groups of us ordered a number of pizzas. My groups pizza came out first, we were all starving. I figure that in our minds eye, we were eating the pizza very calmly and very proper, "hmm, indeed, this pizza is of the best quality, don't you agree?" In reality, it was 4 people demolishing a pizza in about 3 minutes. We must have looked like wild animals that haven't had a kill in weeks. Lol. Then the next pizza that came out was our second one, so the others had to watch us eat again, not fun for them. Good for me though! The train left at 6:30 that Wednesday, when we went to board it, we were told that our car had left the day before…sigh, ok, now what? Somehow, they got us tickets for another car and it was no big deal (turns out trains here are always a 50/50 situation). The train finally turned up at the stop around 5 a.m., and we jumped in a bush taxi for the second time. It was very dark and the road was pretty rough. There are some roads that are well paved and others that are only paved down the middle, but even the ones with little paving have massive pot holes in them that you don't want to drive over. Plus, there are cattle that have decided the road is a better place for them to be then in the field. Good news was we made it! Got a hotel room in the other trainees tiny town, met a lot of people there, and ate a lot of good fish (still not scaled or beheaded though, but very good). The voyage to my town began at 6 a.m. the next morning. However, by the time we left the "bus station" it was 7:30. This bush taxi was not full with people to begin, so it was a little roomy and nice, but that would not last. Let me describe a bush taxi so you have an idea of what it is. It is not the size of a metro bus or tour bus; it's smaller, but bigger than large van. I would say it is the size of a 25-27 foot camper. It usually has about 6 rows that can fit 4 people comfortably plus two people can sit up front; so 24 people can get about no problem. But, this is Africa, and they usually (by usually I mean all the time) fit as many people as they can in a row. Instead of the 4 in a row it can be 6 or 7 if there are children who get on. It gets very uncomfortable. Every time 2 people get off 5 get on, it's ridiculous. People do this to make more money on the side, we even stopped to take giant rolls of fence to another town…we didn't even pick up a person. So if you can picture a camper that is overcapacity that is one thing, but unless you've lived it, you can't imagine the smell, lol. Anyways, as we went we picked up as many people as we could, some people got off and others got on. We made until about 11 a.m. before I ran into trouble the first time. We had stopped for lunch and gas. I ate some macaroni noodles and beef at a restaurant and then while looking for a bathroom, I was called over by a man who spoke to me in decent, but really pretty bad English, and said, "Monsieur, come here." So I thought to myself, "How does he know I'm looking for a bathroom?" Then he said, "Do you know where you are? This is the police station. Special police." Now, none of the people that were sitting outside this building had a uniform on, including this man, but it looked identical to the police station in the capitol city so I knew he wasn't lying. He asked me if I spoke French and I said a little, and then he called in a man who spoke better English. So, he then proceeded to treat me and the other trainee as criminals and began to ask us questions, who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here? We showed him our identity cards and told him we are working for Peace Corps, the man who spoke

English fluently understood this much better than the man who did not…even though we said most everything in French…lol. The angry fellow seemed a bit upset because no one called him to tell him we were coming…we didn't even know so how could we call him to tell him? We decided that he must have thought that our post was in that town and that we would be staying. After he got done copying our i.d. cards word for word we were allowed to leave, no problem. After seeing us, les blancs, he must have thought we were an easy target to hit up for some money, but Peace Corps does not pay bribes. When we started the 2nd half of our journey, we began to get stopped by the police whenever the bush taxi entered a new city, sometimes we got lucky and there was not police or gendarme to stop us and we could go straight through. Some of them didn't ask for our id's though, but they would ask other Cameroonians who may or may not have had theirs. Now, they would have to pay bribes. At about 2:30, we stopped to pick someone up and found that one of the tires was flat. It didn't really look flat, but it can be hard to tell with a dually. The tire they put on was bald and didn't look good at all. The kid that put the tire on was maybe 16, he did it in about 20 minutes, which is pretty impressive, but he didn't tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern…yikes. But the wheel didn't fall off while I was in it. All day I had noticed that turning the starter with the key would not start the engine and they had to pop the clutch to get it to run. I had thought to myself, well this can't be good. Well, about a half hour after the flat tire and 9 miles outside of my town, they shut the bus off and it didn't start again. No matter how many times we pushed it up and down the street nothing would happen. I saw that they replaced some wire, I asked if they knew what the problem was but they must have thought that white people didn't know anything about vehicles. They never did get it fixed, luckily another, smaller van came and took some of us to my town, and the others had to ride on motos. Our trip that was supposed to end at 1:30, didn't end until 5:00 that evening…not a fun day. I finally got to meet the principal and vice principal of my school. They seem pretty nice. I found out that I will teach English and IT, and that I get to finish the previous volunteer's work which was getting books for the library. If you can find some books or programs for getting them, let me know! The time in my town was very short; as we arrived at 5 p.m. we left at 5 a.m. I don't have a house there yet, apparently it was too far from the school. The principal and the vice principal showed me a place where I could live, however, it resembled solitary confinement and I passed. I think it may have been smaller than my studio apartment. It had one room for a kitchen/living room/dining room, another for a small bed, and a bathroom. Worse comes to worse, I'll have to stay with the volunteer that is there now until I can find my own place. The town itself didn't look bad; it had a few more hills than I would care to walk up and down. Also, most of the roads are dirt and therefore will become mud in the rainy season, not something I look forward to. We stayed at the Peace Corps house in the capitol of Adamowa, it turned out to be the most favorable trip because it only took about two and half to three hours to get there. I was told that there was hot water there. At this point, a hot shower would be amazing, so I went into the bathroom and turned on the hot water and nothing happened….sigh…damn. I thought, "well maybe it will get hot while I am taking the shower."…sigh…no. So, the cold shower wasn't too bad, I guess I would say it was cool, not so much cold. The bad part was, when I got out I was told that, "that bathroom doesn't have hot water"….I replied"really…ya, don't say…" "The hot water is in the other bathroom" I was told. I asked, "where is the other bathroom? You couldn't have told me this before I took the shower?" lol.

It was all pretty funny and that not big of a deal…but I would have streaked across the house and would not have cared to get a hot shower. I did take one later on though; of course the light wouldn't stay on so it was by flashlight…still nice though. It was a really nice time in the capital; I got to stay there that night and did not have to travel until the next evening. The next adventure started at 8 a.m. the next day when we went to get our train tickets. Another trainee and her counterpart had reserved the tickets on Friday and we were the second people in line to buy the tickets on Sunday, so it should be no big deal right? Wrong. Wrong. We sat there until 10:30 when the ticket booth finally opened (I felt like I was waiting for really cool concert tickets). Now, the problem is that corruption is everywhere, including the train station. Somewhere between Friday and Sunday someone either changed our reservations for Monday, or someone paid them to change them so they could get our beds. It is a 17 hour train ride from Ngaoundere to Yaounde and you really want the cars with the beds. Luckily, while we were waiting for to buy our tickets we met a young man who knew a lot of other volunteers and had helped them, he came in very handy when our ticket buying mess went wrong. He works for the tourism office and knew what we had to do. But, after 2 hours of talking with and searching for people we had to buy first class tickets. I know what you're thinking…first class…go ahead and cry about it. No, it's bad. Instead of having a roomy bed car with 4 other people, we were in a car with a bunch of other people that found places to sit and sleep on the floor. A gendarme brought a little stool and sat down next to another stagiere and basically fell asleep with his head in her lap, it was not fun. We ran a greater risk of something getting stolen in this car. And the worst part of it was that there was a bathroom in our car and it stunk the whole place up pretty much all the time. I've spent 3 days on a train before and I thought that was bad…this was 10 times worse. Throughout the night we stopped at various places and awoke to the calls of vendors yelling "l'eau, l'eau, l'eau" or "anana, anana, anana", in English it is "water, water, water" or "pineapple, pineapple, pineapple". Most of these vendors were little kids too, probably anywhere from 7 years old and up…if not younger. At one point the train just stopped and sat on the tracks for about an hour and half. Eventually we made it to Yaoundé and finally made it back to the training site that same day. It really felt like Ohio when I got back here because it was cold, grey, and raining; the other Ohioans agreed. The Peace Corps Model School opened today and they had us sing The Star Spangled Banner. Now, you would think that in a group of 23 Americans, someone would know the words to the national anthem…nope. The good part was that we all sang it as a group, horribly, but as a group. There was a lot of laughter mixed in to our version. We heard that it may be on the national news tonight, not our proudest Peace Corps moment to broadcast. I know this was a long post, but thanks for taking the time to read it. I hope it was entertaining. I'm sure I've left some things out because I can't remember them at the moment, but the major events are there. Miss you all and talk to you soon. Melissa, if you read this, know that you are missed by all!!!

July 4, 2008

I tried to post this yesterday, but the power was out pretty much all day.

Independence Day and I am not in the U.S.A. Actually, being outside

the country makes this day even better because there is an

understanding with other Americans that is unexplainable. We were all

very patriotic today, lol. Really, this entire experience is

unexplainable, what I tell you is not anywhere close to the reality of

what I, and other stagaires, are going through. Seems like last

year's 4th was just here, I remember lighting fireworks off in

Goodyear Heights like it was yesterday. We made cheeseburgers today

and they were sooo good! At home they would have been the worst

burgers I've ever eaten….but here they were the best thing I've eaten

thus far…well, with the exception of the so called "street meat". No

one is quite sure what kind of meat it really is, maybe cat, rat, cow,

only the Cameroonians really know and my French isn't good enough to

ask them, plus I don't think I want to know. The good news is that it

hasn't made me sick (yet). Another stagaire has been diagnosed with

malaria and typhoid fever at the same time, however the proper

medication has quickly improved their situation and everyone is happy

for that.

Time has flown by, I'm already a month in! It seems like it's been

longer than that, but I know the next 26 months will fly by. I know

where my post will be; I go there to check it out next week! Should

be interesting to say the least.

I'm sorry I haven't responded to everyone's comments or emails very

quickly but there is hardly any time after a full day of training.

For some reason, I've gotten used to waking up at 6 a.m., not taking a

nap AT ALL during the day (most of you should realize that I always

sleep at some point during the day), but I do go to bed around 9 or 10

at the latest….a total change in life style. Maybe I can pick the

naps back up at post…but I doubt it because the sun sets at 7 p.m.

here every day and doesn't change, and once it gets dark it is hard to

walk around because there are no street lights, its muddy (and

therefore slippery), and there are giant holes in the street where the

water has washed away the earth. Some of these holes are pretty deep

and, consequently, have become a trash dump. However, the roaming

dogs and chickens seem to be pretty happy about this because that is

where they get their food. Some families do feed their chickens, but

they still roam about and join in our classes at the lycee or wander

into the bar. Both occasions tend to be hilarious. Speaking of

chickens, I came home last Sunday and went to remove my clothes from

the line and just as I got there a chicken decided it wanted to jump

on top of my clothes and sit on the line. As I tried to scare it off,

it knocked my clothes on the ground while it jumped from one line to

the next! Bastard chicken! This was a bonus to having my clothes out

all day in the nice weather drying, but, about an hour before I went

home it rained and no one took my clothes in. Not cool.

Anyways, be happy you have lawn mowers, because they just use machetes

here…seems like a total back breaker and I don't really get it, but I

guess they don't put a lot of importance on lawn maintenance here,

lol. It's taken a week to cut down two blots of tall grass at the

lycee and I bet they are only about 20 X 30. Maybe I can help change

that while I'm here, although I'm sure someone has tried, at least I

hope so.

Some nights there are so many stars it's unreal, tonight was really

nice. Other nights it rains so hard, and the roofs are made of tin so

it gets extremely loud, however I usually sleep well when it rains

like that, I just don't like it during the day when I have to go out

and walk in the mud. Ah well.

I'll post again soon!

by the way, what a bad connection to the internet today!

It feels like forever since I've been able to post anything that I've been able to think about. I've only been in Cameroon for what? A week and a half, wow. Peace Corps does a good job of keeping us busy though, seems like I've filled out tons of paperwork, received fifty manuals about jobs, health, safety, PC staff, and once we finished that they gave it to us again just to be sure. We spent a week in Yaoundé at a hotel. I ended up getting a single room with a full or queen size bed, a refrigerator, full bath tub, shower, toilet, the works. A lot of trainees were not as lucky. They gave us a quick tour of the city one day. We also had dinner at the Country Directors house our first Sunday in. It was a very nice place. As we walked into the backyard, you could hear and see hundreds of huge bats flying around and making noise. I was a little happy they were there, they lessoned my chances of getting bitten by a mosquito and therefore, lessoned my chances of getting malaria. Lol. Bangante is not as big and it is very muddy. Red mud too, not just the "oh it will come right off" mud, oh no, you have to work to get rid of this stuff. Not fun. I'm living with a host family now, as are the other trainees. My situation is not too different from Yaoundé; I have a room with my own bed, shower, and toilet. The only difference is I have people trying to make me eat things all the time. We have a lot more freedom here, but we still have a 7:00 curfew, thanks to previous trainees. Once we become volunteers, we won't have any restrictions on curfew but it gets dark around that time anyway, so you might as well be at home. It's strange to me; I'm used to daylight in the summer time until 9. I did get sick for the first time about two nights ago. My host family made some French fries and I'm pretty sure they cooked them in palm oil, which apparently does not go well with American stomachs, i.e. mine. So I skipped the second half of language training yesterday to go home and go to bed. I'm better today, but still have some stomach cramps and what not…but that might just be normal for the next two years… L enough about maladies though, I've learned a lot about what we can get and I don't want to think about it anymore today. A lot of you have been asking what I've been eating. Well, you may know me as a picky eater, lol. But here, I have to give some of that up. The hotel in Yaoundé served pretty good food, usually bread or a croissant for breakfast with coffee or tea, a salad (sliced carrots, onions, some sort of dressing, no lettuce, nothing really green at all, except sometimes it was avocadoes with onions), then rice with either fish or chicken, one day there was beef and noodles, then they would bring out some fresh fruit to finish us off, papaya with limes, pineapple, and mango. Dinner was pretty much the same as lunch. The food at home stay is a bit different…the first night they made rice, spaghetti, and chicken in a sauce. It turned out that the sauce was basically liquid fire. It was spicy, and what surprised me the most was that I didn't get heartburn from it…I couldn't eat a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich without getting heartburn at home!! The other interesting thing was the fish that was not gutted or scaled, just cooked and cut in half and put on the plate, head and all. It's not all bad though, you can get plenty of your favorites (or knockoffs) at the super marche (mar shay), you have to pay a little more, but they are available. There is still a long road ahead of me, a challenging road. The language barrier is a hard one to cross. I know it can be done, but it takes a minute. As I sit in language class, I have to laugh because I'm used to being the teacher and not the student. Our language teacher uses the same techniques that I have been using, so I guess I must have been doing a decent job. I hope this was interesting for you, I'll try and post again sooner!

From no entries in two weeks, to two at once, how fun is that? As you can see, I don't have a lot of time to go into town to use the slow internet. I'm actually lucky if it's slow because at least it is working then but there is always the chance that the power may go out. Power outage is an everyday occurrence here. And actually, the water was shut off for almost 2 days too, luckily I had some on reserve so I could still shower and flush the toilet. It's the end of week two, we're all still here. None of us are really supersick, which is great actually. I had a dream that some little girl told me I had the avian flu though…yikes. Of course that was the same night my host sister saw me coughing and told me that I've got malaria, I said, "Nah, not yet"…lol. The malaria prophylaxes I'm on has the wonderful side effect of giving lucid dreams, although I have not experienced any yet, I think a few others have. It might be like eating ice cream before bed, right dad? LOL. I was talking with some others today, we're wondering who will be the first to E.T. (early terminate). I really don't want to see anyone go, in fact we're hoping for the perfect stage where we all make it to the end. I think that would be a first in Peace Corps history, but I'm not too sure about that. To be honest the thought has crossed my mind, but then I think I would be letting myself down tremendously. Matter of fact, I know leaving would be complete defeat. I would have to start from scratch. Right now is the hardest part of the training and possibly the best. Everything is brand new; the language, the food, the routines, the people. Plus there is risky business with diseases, worms, parasites, bugs, cock roaches, it's sooo much all at once that any one person alone would not survive. Luckily, I am not alone. There are 38 others here, and their stories are often worse than mine. I've heard of cowskin for dinner…it still had hair on it…..goats on top of bush taxi's that pee and it comes in the window right on your face. Little kids not washing their hands and eating giant clumps of margarine out of the tub. Later, said child was found to be sitting on the bed with bare ass touching every square inch. You think I'm making this up? No, no way. You can't make stuff this good up. So we all share our stories and laugh like hell, then wait to see what happens next.

I'm going to try to keep this one short, as there are others waiting for the computer. I, along with 37 other trainees arrived in Cameroon on Saturday night. We went through with out losing any baggage and had no customs problems thanks to being under the Peace Corps wing.

Our group of trainees are quickly becoming close friends, which makes all these changes so much easier. I can't imagine coming here without them.

Training started today about health and we had our language assesments. We also began our shot series that we have to get for the next 3 days, Typhoid, Hep A, ....plus some more. They have really kept us all very, very busy and will continue to do so for the next 9 to 11 weeks. It is going to be very intense and tres difficile.

more later

It is almost 2 in the morning, I'm tired...but I feel like doing this right now. For those of you that weren't there, I had a farewell/good luck party today, there was family, close friends, food, beer, and kids running around like crazy. Surprisingly, I think the last part was one of the best, ha ha. If you weren't here, you should have been!

Everyone really showed me that they are giving me their support to do this, and from the bottom of my heart I thank you for it!! I'm definetly going to need it, so don't be afraid to send a letter, email, or to pick up the phone and call...I figure a phone call to Cameroon will be less than a gallon of gas will be by mid-summer.

I named this blog, Brilliance or Madness, for two reasons: the first one being that most people either think this is either a great idea or a crazy one. The second reason is because I think this is either a great idea or a crazy one. As June 4th gets closer and closer I find that it is a question I keep asking myself. Since I'm still unsure of the answer, I have to test the water. Everyone has mixed emotions about this, but I just want to show you that I do too. It is not easy for me to leave, this is harder than it was when I left for Oz. I had similar doubts for that trip....and it was Australia for crying out loud! I'm looking forward to the pre-staging event in Philadelphia to help put a stop to these feelings of uncertainty, for me and for you, however I don't think they are going to disappear until months ahead. But at least it will start, and hopefully the unknown won't look so scary.

I think I'll try to make it back here around this time next year, you know just to keep everyone in check!!

Goodnight.

As yesterday was the one month marker, I thought I should write again. Wow...it's hard to believe that in one month I will not be here to enjoy the summer with everyone. You really have no idea what kind of roller coaster ride this is, unless of course you're also joining the Peace Corps or have already served. It is wanting to leave so badly that you wish you could grab old man time, knock him on the head, and push the clock forward so you can start the next chapter of your life. Or it's coming to the realization that your family and friends won't be 10 minutes away anymore, and that you're going to miss them more than you can ever imagine. No more fun rides in the Dune buggy (just sitting in that is a pleasure that no one else enjoys more than myself). You begin to realize that the next two years are not going to be easy. But, no matter how intimidating it is I will not back away, I cannot back away.

Change is always a scary thing in life. The unknown...no one likes it really, however, the times you walk into the unknown are the times you never forget. The feeling of triumph can lead you out into the world fearing nothing, and defeat will remind you of its triumphs over you for the rest of your life. I believe that if you face change full on, then you'll have a greater chance of triumph than those who run away. With a year left of college, I knew my life had to change eventually, hell, I wanted it to change. So, I did my best to make it happen and so far I've succeeded rather well. I cannot promise these results for the future though, lol.

It's been a wonderful spring so far, I'm glad I'm here to see it. The grass is green, leaves have engulfed the bare branches, that we in Ohio see far to much of, and I'm just glad the winter's gone. Set some time apart to hang out with me while I'm here, call me, text me, email me, however you want to get ahold of me, I'll answer.

Remember, my days are numbered.

As the 6 week countdown begins, the thought of leaving for Africa bounces between reality and unreality. Getting ready for this is pretty complicated. What is necessary for life in Cameroon? I have no idea. Lol. Sometimes it hurts to even think about it. I've already had dreams where I have fallen asleep and almost missed my flight, then once in Africa I realized that I only grabbed what I packed, and that turned out to be nothing but a weeks worth of clothing...Luckily a friend I worked with was there to lend me the use of his cell phone to call home and have somethings sent; like I said it was dream, lol. Well, regardless of what I take, should take, don't take, or forget to take will be completely irrelevant within the next few months. However, if you really want to sneak around in my suitcase, as soon as I create the list, I will post it.

At this point in my life, living in one place and experiencing nothing else the world has to offer would be a crime. There are cultures and people that have so much, when in reality they have so little. Believe it or not, their history is part of the building blocks of this country. Few Americans realize this, or simply state the common sentence, "All Americans are immigrants", but think little of it seconds after the words leave their tongue.

I'm not sure when in my life I developed a want to venture over the boarder lines of this great country, however, I am certain it is the best decision I've made. I can remember a time when this wasn't the case; I was taking Humanities in the Western Tradition and our T.A. was an older guy that had been a principal and was retired. He and his wife had lived abroad and traveled extensively. He told the class that, "Whatever we do in life, go out and live somewhere else". My thoughts at the time, "What is this old man talking about...live in another country, ya right". After few more semesters, I remembered his advice and found myself believing he was right and he wasn't such a goofy old man. Thus, Australia was the door opener. Returning to college after that trip only strengthened my want to go abroad and also narrowed down the options for a career; Teaching English as a Second Language.

I've accomplished my goal of getting a B.A. (my only regret being that I didn't take it so seriously early on). Now, I'm on the verge of beginning the second goal, living and teaching abroad. Of course, it is going to be hard being away from family, friends, and familiar places, but that is part of it unfortunately. This blog will give me, and you, the opportunity to remove some of the distance between us, literally and figuratively.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

Henry D. Thoreau