I decided that for my last month in Cameroon I would work at Mefou Wildlife Sanctuary (Cameroon Wildlife Aid Fund) just outside Yaounde. I came here to visit during COS Conference, and it was really cool. It is a primate center, filled with mostly chimpanzees and gorillas, but also different kinds of monkeys, baboons, and guenons. Its located in the bush, outside Yaoundé. To get there, it is about a 30 min drive on paved roads, then about another 30 min on a one lane dirt road. The road is pretty rough, but not as bad as mamfe. It is also far enough away from the capital that there is no electricity or phone network.

I left mamfe after saying my goodbyes, and came directly here. I didn’t really know what to expect when I came, but since all of the animals are rescued in some way, I knew I was working for a good cause. After taking a tour, and learning my way around, I started work with the other 5 volunteers, from all over the world. The vet is from Israel, and other volunteers are from Belgium, Germany, Mexico, and the UK. Since then, we have had another volunteer arrive from Denmark and 2 from Australia. My first main job was to get to know the chimpanzee babies. There are 4 babies, under 1 ½ years that were rescued recently. Song (m.) lived at a construction site, where he was attacked by dogs and cats and never fed. The vet said he would have only lived for another week, if he had not come. Kazi (m.) was kept as a pet, and had a metal chain tied around his waist. Now and then the owners would feed him. As he grew, the chain did not, so it grew into his body. He had to have surgery when he first arrived. Mboke (f.) arrived in a cardboard box, malnourished and suffering. Bubbaleh (f.) was born on the reserve, but her mother was too young to care for her, and dragged her around by one leg. I became mother to Song and Kazi. The babies need full time care, including formula every 3 hours during the night. When I became a mother, the two moved in with me, and slept in baskets on the floor next to my bed. I took them everywhere with me (even the bathroom), and fed them throughout. They are so cute, I can understand why people want chimps as pets, but they are a lot of work. It’s very similar to being a real mother. I would wake up at 3am to babies crying and I would have to give them milk, and hold them until they fell asleep. The difference is that the chimps are much more active. its like having a baby and a toddler, all in one. it was a great experience though, and a lot of fun.

My next job was to work in the forest, with the older set of chimpanzee babies. These ones were between 1 ½ and 3 years. They are a lot bigger, a lot rougher, and a lot more active. They slept at night in a satellite cage (in case of a soldier ant attack), but during the day we played in the forest. it was really fun watching these babies climb trees and play together. it was not as fun, when they jumped from the trees onto my head, or pulled my hair. I have quite a few bites and scratches, and I’ve lost a significant amount of hair, but I would laugh at their antics. I worked with a Chadian man, Sanda, and we watched the babies and discussed many different things, all in French. I have lots of pictures of the babies playing. The best part was what we called the “chimp train” or “chimp chain”. (I still cant decide which I prefer). the babies form a little congo line and walk together. In nature, this signifies an attack, but in the baby chimps, its adorable to watch.

I have since left the reserve, and I’m on my way back to Mamfe, to visit one last time. I will be sure to show pictures when I get home!

For more information about the reserve, go to apeactionafrica.comThis blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

On Wednesday May 26, 2010. there was a send-off for me in Afab. The school planned for it, since they were so happy that I brought water to the school. I arrived in Afab on that Tuesday night, to write out report cards, that I hadn’t yet finished. When I was done, I went to school to see my pipeline.. it was going so well! In just over 1 week, the pipeline was finished, and the bricklayer was working with cletus (my plumber) to finish the taps. There was a special church service for the students to go to, but I skipped it, so I could finish my work. Just when I had finished, Jessica and Gloria arrived. They came for the send off and the next day we were traveling to Buea

The send off was to begin at 12, which obviously didn’t happen. By 1pm we entered, but no one was there. We started around 1:30pm, to a very sparse crowd. People spoke about me, and thanked me for the water system at the school and for coming to teach. Quite a few people spoke, even a few that I didn’t know, but when I asked Bertha (my good teacher friend) to speak, she refused. She later told me that if she spoke, she would have cried. After the speakers, I became a village woman. The school bought me a traditional outfit, with lace blouse and a double wrapper. They even bought a canopy, which is a folded paper hat that looks kind of like a crown. Then I had to dance into the hall, to show everyone. At that point, I received certificates, like for my Ejagham language skills. I also had to count to everyone to show them that I know some of the language. My last certificate was for Mmon Nkim. This is an exclusive women’s dance group. In the old days, when women were circumsized, they would be kept secluded in the house for many weeks. During that time, some of the women were invited to become part of this group, so during their seclusion, they were given dance lessons. The dance tradition continues, but not the circumcision. Mmon Nkim literally means “child of circumcision.” Anyway, I was invited to be a part of it. I already knew, and had 2 previous lessons. I got dressed up in the traditional outfit (yellow/green shorts, red shirt, lots of cloth tied around me, bare feet), and danced in with two of my students that know how to dance that way. We did a few dances, and everyone got a kick out of it. Other students did the drumming for us.Gloria and Jessica took lots of pictures and videos, for everyone at home to see. When I was asked to join the group, I actually received a title. You can now refer to me as Mmon Nkim Melissa.

After the traditional dances, the big men and the principal left, and the DJ played some popular songs. The students were having so much fun dancing that I decided to join them. So did Jessica and Gloria. It felt like we were at a high school dance, but it was really fun. Eventually the students were sent home, and we went to Bertha’s to eat and hang out. To complete the night of tradition, we ate Afab’s traditional dish, eru and garri.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

My Mamfe send – off party was planned for May 22, 2010. There was a lot of preparation involved, since there electricity has been terrible for a long time, and we are in the beginning of rainy season. A few weeks before the event, I made invitations and Jessica (my roommate) helped me disburse them. We also decided to get ashwabi (matching fabric to make clothing). This was not my idea, but I was all for it. For major occasions here, they usually wear matching outfits, so they look like a family. We decided on a fabric, which looked strangely Hawaiian. We also decided to have a pig roast, the same thing we did for Lauren’s send off back in December. It was such a hit with everyone, that we thought it would be a good idea. The few days before the send off were extremely busy, as I was just finishing up school, and trying to do everything myself. As the party approached, I had to delegate, big time.

The party was at Stanson’s house, as he has a huge veranda and a huge yard. My house was going to be a little too small for the 100+ guests invited. My neighbors were extremely helpful, and offered to do the cooking. The menu included pepe soup chicken, fufu corn and vegetable, dodo (fried plantains), geloff rice, and the pork meat. It was a very Cameroonian medley, but most of them don’t like American food anyway. We rented a canopy, in case of rain, and chairs. My friend George also helped a lot, and he arranged for a DJ to come. It was turning into a raging party, and every few minutes extra people asked if they could also come.

The day of the send-off, I had arranged for everything. I just had to do some last minute shopping. I was excited bc I thought I would have time to rest that day. I was definitely wrong. I ended up having to cook the rice, pick up extra plates for the party, pick up my dress, etc. I definitely did not have time to rest. All of the volunteers in the area came for the party, and we decided to get ridiculously African outfits made. Mine looked ore flamenco than anything, and I added satin. It was classy. Jessicas looked like an 80s prom dress, and Stanson had an up and down made (button down shirt and trouser). We looked awesome, and arrived at the party.

Unfortunately, there was no light in town, and there was a big football match. Eto’o Fils, the Cameroonian football player, plays on a European team, the same team that was playing the night of my send off. Many, many people came to the party, but since we didn’t have a generator, many of them left to watch the match. That was depressing. Soon after, I arranged for a generator, so we could have light. The food came out really well, and there was a lot of it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t roast the pig, as the head broke off, but we grilled it, and it was delicious. The party wasn’t bad. I didn’t have any time to sit down, as I was arranging things, and helping, so it was tiring, but good. Speeches were made, and I tried not to cry, and gave my own short speech. I basically thanked people for coming and for the great memories.

After the party, a group of us went to Peroza, the nightclub in Mamfe. We went with the owner, so he bought 2 bottles of whiskey for us, and told us that we could play some American music. We expected this, so we made a CD in advance. The club was really fun. We danced like crazy, and they let us in for free. We all wore our ashwabi, and we danced up a storm. We finally went home around 3am. Overall, the party was a success. I received gifts, and opened them the next morning. I received some clothing (mostly cabas – muumuu like dresses), some jewelry, and 2 ebony canes. The canes were a little random. Anyway, it was fun.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

Due to difficulties posting blogs, all of the next blogs will be out of order. I apologize for any confusion.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

so, my last blog was a little bit silly. i know i dont actually live in the depression, but sometimes it feels like it.. things can be difficult, and i stretch my money as far as it will go. there are days that i feel like i live in another world, or at least another century.

i thought of a few other things i do here, that will make me sound crazy though. i should add these to the list.

- if i have moldy bread, i cut off the mold and eat the rest

- if we go to the farm, usually we end up wearing long dresses and goign barefoot

- people wear things until you cant wear them any more. i.e. flip flops . after the straps break, people still shuffle around on the plastic part, until there are holes and the flip flop is about half the size it was to begin with

ill keep adding to the list. hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving, and an enjoyable mall-filled black friday!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

Sometimes, when i talk to people at home, i joke that i'm living like people did during the depression. yes, sometimes im exaggerating, but let me explain why i say this.

- if we have rotten food, we cut out the bad parts, but eat the rest

- i wash out plastic bags and reuse them

- i use every little tiny bit of soap, instead of buying a new block of it

- i rinse out shampoo bottles, then use the soapy water to wash my hair

- if i find a button or something that looks useful on the street, i will pick it up and keep it

- i have a lot of broken things in the house.. i just keep them because i know they will be useful some day

- i keep old papers, so i can use the back of it for scrap.. i have thousands of pieces at this point

- i keep bits of scrap fabric, in case i need it someday

- i eat expired food - case in point: over the summer i bought a bottle of ketchup (expired already). i ate it then, did not refrigerate it, and now months later, ate some again. will it make me sick?? we will see.

anyway, this blog is ridiculous, but now you can see what i am talking about. either i live like someone during the depression, or like a crazy old cat lady. you decide.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

The month of November has been a strange month. I have had many different activities, and ive been really really busy. It all started when I ran into the germans. There are a bunch of german volunteers here in mamfe. They aren’t very friendly, so I don’t know them well. I was headed to afab on a Saturday, thinking about how I didn’t want to go. I had my backpack and was just waiting for a moto to take me to the motorpark. As I slowly crossed the street, one of the germans called me over and invited me to a party. I accepted to go that night and went back to the house. The party’s main event was a pig roast. They put the pig on a spit, and roasted it over a bonfire. The rest of the party was pretty lame, but it gave me an idea….

Lauren (my postmate) is preparing to go back to the US. Her two years are finished in December, so we wanted to give her a nice send off here in mamfe. She lives in a small village outside mamfe, but she is always doing work and visiting here. I decided that the main event should be a pig roast. It was a lot of work to plan everything.. I know a man that owns a piggerie (pig farm) in afab, so I bought the pig from him. He agreed to kill, clean and gut the pig, and to send it in a vehicle to mamfe. I picked up the pig from the motorpark, and carried it on a moto to my friend george’s house. We marinated it and carried it again on a bike to a cold store (frozen fish store) where my friend agreed to store it for the next day. The party was on a Friday, so Lauren, Felicia and I spent the morning cooking fufu and eru. George was preparing fried rice and eggrolls, and we would serve the pig. I raced off to go to school, where I collected a bagful of cockroaches as an extra credit project (I later released them into the wild). I hate cockroaches. From school, I raced into town to pick up last minute things, and raced to stanson’s house, where we were holding the party. I helped to spear the pig (it was not pretty shoving a metal rod up that pigs you know what), which was gross, and we started to cook it. I helped clear the grass in the yard and start the bonfire. We decided to make punch to drink, because there are no drinks in town. The roads are so bad here, that big trucks can not pass. That means, there is no beer in town, no soda, no flour, no cabbage, etc. we don’t have anything that is heavy, unless it was carried on a boat from Nigeria. Close to dark, Lauren and I decided to bathe and change clothes. Along the way, we also had to carry plastic chairs, and pick up the borrowed dishes. The party was a bit slow moving. There was no light, so we set up candles around the verandah. It was actually nice. I had battery operated speakers, so we had music, and there was lots of food. About 20 –25 people showed up to say goodbye to Lauren. We all went around and gave advice or said something nice about Lauren. It was my turn and halfway through talking I started to cry. It was super embarrassing (people here don’t ever cry, so don’t understand it if we do), so I cut my speech short. If I cried for Lauren, what will happen when I go?? I’ll cry every day. Anyway, her send-off party turned out really nice.

Pretty much every weekend this month, I have been working on my world map project. Lauren helped me to paint a world map on the side of my school. We are just finishing up, and it looks awesome. The students struggle, because there are few textbooks, and no maps. Some students draw them in their notebooks, but its not the same. This is an opportunity for them to learn where they are in the world, and to realize how much is out there that they could learn about it.

The rest of the month has been busy moving back and forth to afab. I have ejagham tutoring 2 or 3 days per week, plus lesson planning and teaching, and after that, im spent. The end of November will have our thanksgiving celebration, and Lauren leaving. For thanksgiving, we are having grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, garlic green beans, homemade stuffing, and im pretty sure george is bringing spaghetti and meatballs. That’s not quite a normal part of thanksgiving, but, the more the merrier. After dinner, ill head back to kembong with Lauren, to finish her packing, and then 1st of December, she is gone. Its an action packed month, just like December will be. I’m planning a trip to the extreme north, which should be fun.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

The southwest province provincial meeting was scheduled for late October. I was excited to go, and have a break. I haven’t traveled anywhere in a long time. The roads around mamfe are horrible from so much rain, so vehicles aren’t leaving from mamfe. I had to take a motorcycle. I woke up at 330am to leave around 4am on my bike. It was pitch black out when I left, which was strange. A dirt road in the dark is weird when it is dark. I literally couldn’t see anything. Luckily I had a really good rider. A while down the road, I met up with other volunteers, so we could convoy. Parts of the road were absolutely terrible. At one point, we had to get off the bikes and trek through the bush, so our bike men could carry the bikes above the chest high water. It was bad. I was soaking wet and muddy by the time we reached Nguti, the halfway point. From there, we wanted to take a vehicle, but the road was too bad, so I had to hire another bike. I rode on the first bike for about 7 hours, then the second for another 2 hours. My behind was killing me by the time we arrived in konye. From there, we could take a vehicle, but we had to wait over an hour. Finally we arrived in kumba, then took another vehicle to buea, our destination. I was staying at jessamyn’s house (another pcv). She was having a party, so I ate really great homemade Indian food, and crashed early – about 9pm.

The next day, I traveled to douala for a few hours. I went to the marche de fleur, an artisan market, which had some really great crafts. I bought a few things, but not too much. We had Mediterranean food for lunch (which was delicious) and headed back to buea. The other volunteers had arrived, so we had our meeting and had dinner.

Following this, I traveled to Limbe for the day. There is a tailor there that makes custom made suits, so I got one made. Im not a big suit-wearer, but im sure it will come in handy when I get home. Of course, I stopped in at the beach, ,and visited one that I have never been to before, Etisah. It was nice, but I prefer my usual beach. After, we all went to down beach for fresh calamari (its to die for, and at $1 a stick, you cant go wrong). This calamari is amazing. Instead of cutting it horizontally and making rings, like we do, the cut it vertically so you have strips. Then, the put the strips on a stick, like a shish kebab and grill it. Its the most amazing thing ive ever eaten. This was only an appetizer, and later we ate grilled fish.

I ended up going to limbe again. My body was tired from the moto trip, and I couldn’t bear to do it again so soon. I went to the old beach, which is really nice. It was a crappy day, and started raining, but the water was so warm. It was really fun, bc the waves were really choppy. Its fun to act like a kid and play in the waves. Sadly, I almost lost my glasses in the ocean (again). I ‘m lucky though, I haven’t lost them yet. After the beach, we ate a double cheeseburger dinner. I don’t really miss cheeseburgers, until I eat one from hot spot. Eating it, reminds me what im missing.

I made a major purchase in buea. There is this new thing out; a USB key that has wireless internet. Its brand new here, and expensive, but I was so tired of not being able to keep in touch with anyone. We rarely have internet in mamfe, so now its really nice for me to have in the house.

When I returned to mamfe, I had to take a bike again. It wasn’t quite as tiring this time, but it was muddier and we got rained on. It really sucked arriving wet, muddy, and not having any light or running water. This week marked the 3 week of no light/water in mamfe. Not cool. But anyway, I was glad to return home to mamfe and rest.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

October 5 is international teacher’s day. There is even fabric made, so you can get a special outfit made. Of course, I did, and now I have a cute dress. Last year I spent the day in mamfe, and marched past the grandstand with other teachers of GBHS Mamfe. This year, I decided to spend it in the village. The morning of, I traveled with other teachers from my school in Afab and some from the primary and nursery schools in afab, to Ossing, where they were holding the events. It was about an hour away. We arrived at the chief’s palace, and marched through town, singing songs about teachers. I had never heard any of the songs, so sadly, I couldn’t sing. We arrived at the main field in town to listen to speeches from principals and delegates of education, then watched sports. There was a tug of war between all of the area schools and then a football match (sorry, I mean soccer). It was entertaining (especially when players kicked off their shoes accidentally, or fell in the mud), but it was so hot outside that I started to get drowsy. When the match was finished, there was a break time, where we could all get a drink, then we went to the Ossing meeting hall to eat. Every teacher that went could eat and take a drink. The principals tried to invite me to the “high table” where they sit, but I refused. Sometimes, I would like to be treated like I’m not different than everyone else. Anyway, they ran out of food,, which was a bummer, so by the time I went to the table to take my own,, the portions were tiny. When everyone finished eating, we opened the dance floor, and then there was dancing. It had started to rain, so we decided to head back to afab before the roads were too bad. The day was very different from last year in mamfe, but it was nice to spend it with the village teachers.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

Late August and early September have been very busy. I received two new postmates, an education volunteer in Okoyong, Gloria, and a business volunteer here in mamfe, Stanson. Most of my days were filled with shopping, for mattresses, buckets, kitchen supplies, you name it. I don’t mind at all though. I am lucky to know places in town. Lauren did the same for me when I arrived.

Doesn’t it figure, that the week after Kevin left, my computer broke. I had to find a technician to fix it for me, and paid a lot of money. Luckily, I have it now.

Food has been scarce here in Mamfe. All of our vegetables come from Bamenda, and the roads are really bad now. We are having a terrible rainy season, so all of the roads have turned to mud. All of the large trucks that transport our food are unable to pass on the roads. Light has also been scarce, and with that, water. Its been a difficult month.

School began on September 7. My program for school changed this year. I am now working part time in a village, Afab, about an hour away, and part time here in mamfe. GSS Afab is a form 3 school, so they only have forms 1, 2, and 3, but they have 350 students. They were really struggling for teachers, because no one wants to work in the bush, so I wanted to help them. I am teaching form 1 computer, biology, and math, and form 2 computer. Needless to say, it keeps me busy. The other teachers are really nice, but I struggle with these students. They have had a sketchy school beginning, so their knowledge is all over the place. My form 2 computer class never took form 1 computer, so im starting from scratch. Out of all my computer students, only 1 has ever seen a computer. Its difficult to teach there. Also, there are not enough classrooms in the school. They have a wood partition down the center, so 2 classes share the room. You can hear everything in the other class, and it really disturbs. I have a room at the community hall in Afab, but that is a struggle bc there are no kitchen facilities, and the bathroom is down the hall. I’m taking it all in stride, and it doesn’t bother me too much. I try to spend most of my time with Cameroonians, and they are trying to teach me the dialect, Ejagham. It is nothing like any language I’ve ever learned, but I’m trying.

I am still teaching at GBHS Mamfe. I’m teaching form 2 biology again, and I love it. I really like the kids at this age, and it can be fun. Mostly I try to scare them with crazy facts, but it only works sometimes. They are active and they never shut up, but it makes the class a bit more fun. Coming back to mamfe after being in Afab is like a little taste of heaven, and mamfe finally feels like home. I cant imagine what it will feel like to go back to the US. Lauren is preparing for her departure in December, and I am the next one to leave. Soon, I’ll be returning to my real home, and missing all of these crazy things here.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

After returning from Egypt and Morocco, things were still busy. I had my mid-service training (complete with medical tests) in Yaounde, then training in Bangangte. I had extensive medical tests in yaounde, and all that is wrong with me is yeast in my intestines. Apparently that is very common, because we eat so little dairy. We had a nice time hanging out, and had some great group meals. We made pad thai one night, that was delicious. We also went to a place called Café Yaounde for dinner for a volunteers birthday, and it is my new favorite restaurant. It is Italian food, prepared by Italians, and it is amazing. Expensive, but amazing. One Saturday that I was in yaounde, a bunch of us went to a Rasta party. Late in the evening, a bunch of rastas, and other people meet to play drums. Its very tribal music, with only the drums, no other instruments. We all danced the night away, and it was really fun. Dancing was difficult, bc it was hard to find one beat, so I’m sure we all looked stupid, but it was great. We didn’t leave until about 4am.

I left for bangante a few days after that, to help with training for the new volunteers. Things were busy there, and then I traveled back to yaounde for the 3rd of july party at the US Embassy. It was my first visit there, so it was neat. The embassy prepared hamburgers, and the rest of the food was potluck. I never knew there were so many Americans in Cameroon. There were hundreds of people there. We hung out for a while and ate, and then visited the American marines that stay at the embassy. That night I left for Bamenda, so I could return to Mamfe, but when I arrived the next morning, I was too tired to travel. I instead celebrated 4th of july with a few volunteers.

I returned back to Mamfe just in time for the Ed volunteer’s site visit. I finally found out who my new postmate would be, so Lauren and I showed her around.

Later in the week, I headed to Buea/douala to pick up Kevin. I was nervous for his arrival, but everything worked out really well, and we had a great time. During his visit, we visited the beach in Limbe, training in Bangangte (for model school), Bazou to visit Brandi, Bamenda, the palace in Bafut, and all of the sights in Mamfe. The best times we had were just relaxing and hanging out. I forgot how nice it is to have him around all the time. We watched movies and met my Cameroonian friends, and cooked meals. Felicia taught Kevin how to kill a chicken, and we prepared a delicious meal. Edward really liked Kevin and bought him a chief’s necklace and bracelet. All of my friends wanted to meet him and spend time with him, so I think Kevin really enjoyed his visit. There are always the difficult things, like no light, no water, vehicles stuck in mud, waiting everywhere, things moving slowly, people being late, etc, but kev took it all in stride. He didn’t really complain, ever. One highlight of his visit was Lauren’s title ceremony. Lauren received a title from one village, Ogomoko. The country director, and Lauren’s APCD came and received their own titles. It was a cool ceremony, with monikin dancers, speeches in the dialect, Ejagham, and lots of food. Kevin got sick once, but only for a few days, so it wasn’t bad. I hated taking him back to the airport. It was so sad for me to see him go, knowing I wouldn’t see him for another year. He left, arrived home safely, and I started to prepare for school.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

DAY 1 (June 9, 2009) – We arrived in Casabanca about midday, and immediately took a train to Marrakesh. We were just passing through though, bc we then found a vehicle to Essaioura (Essa wera). We traveled the entire day, and didn’t arrive until after midnight. Then, we couldn’t find a hotel. It was horrible. We were so tired, and had to speak French. Luckily we made friends with one Moroccan man, who helped us. We ended up staying in a really expensive place though. The highlight of the day what learning that cherries are really common in morocco. I bought half a kilo.

DAY 2 – I woke up early in the morning and climbed to the rooftop terrace. The view was beautiful. You could see the ocean, the walls of the city, and all of the other rooftops. I stood there for over an hour, just looking. Kat and I shopped for most of the day, and we saw the beach. It was too cold to swim, but the area was beautiful. As we were just getting tired we heard a man playing guitar in one of the shops. We stopped in to listen, and made friends with him and his friend. Younes and Kareem were very friendly, and invited us to dinner that night. Before we met them, kat and I got henna. I got a temporary tattoo on my hand and one one my foot. Kat got two as well. I also bought a djallabah, a traditional robe. I started wearing it, and Moroccans loved it. They all treated me really well when I wore the dress and spoke a bit of Arabic. People really appreciate when you make an effort. We met the boys in the evening, for a traditional tajine. It is a sculpted clay pot, where all of the food is just thrown inside together and steamed. The spices make it taste a little smoky, a little spicy, but its delicious. While we ate, they played music. The boys are actually in a band. We heard their cd, and they are awesome. We searched for it, but couldn’t find a copy.

DAY 3 – We hung out with the boys in the morning while we waited for our late bus to Marrakesh. When we arrived, we had trouble finding a hotel, but people at a cyber were willing to help us, even carrying our stuff. People are so friendly in Morocco. There was a group of Peace Corps volunteers in Marrakesh for a training session, so we wanted to meet them in the evening. We didn’t know where we were going, so a retired policeman gave us a ride.. again, so friendly! It was really cool to meet the volunteers. They have different specialties than here in Cameroon, and a different training program, so it was interesting to compare. According to what they told me, most of them are pretty lucky, with nice houses, and internet. A lot of them work with kids at a youth program, which sounds like something I would like.

DAY 4 – We went to the main square in Marrakesh, Djemma el-Fna. I have been there before, but its still pretty cool. We saw snake charmers, and women doing henna, and a monkey jumped on my head. That was actually terrifying. I love monkeys, but this one was dirty and mangy. It probably gave me some disease when it tried to eat my hair. We drank fresh squeezed orange juice, and I ate a traditional chickpea soup. We also booked a tour for the next day, into the Sahara desert. (coincidently, the same tour group I took before)

DAY 5 – We left early with our tour group. We had a really interesting group, with everyone living in a different country than the one we were born in. We had a man from Sweden living in germany, a Moroccan living in the us, Canadians living in England, Cyprians living in England, and me and kat, Americans living in Cameroon. The first stop was Ait Ben-Haddou, a famous kasbah (clay village). This one had some parts shaped like castles, but they were made of mud. From there we drove to Oarzazate for lunch. There is a film studio there, where they actually filmed Gladiator. We passed through the Draa valley, and the winding Atlas Mountains, where I was very very carsick, and then to Zagora. It is the last city before you enter the desert. We were a bit delayed because of a sandstorm, but I guess it died down and we rode camels into the Sahara. Our plan was to stay with nomadic Berbers in the desert for the night. They construct huge tents on the sand, for people to stay. We arrived when it was still light, so we played in the sand dunes. We played just like children, jumping off and rolling in the sand, but it was really fun. After dark, we had dinner, a tajine of course, which was delicious, then drank tea and played music. They used empty water jugs for drums, and we all sang. It was really fun. At first I felt stupid, but I’m so glad that I joined in. it was fun, and completely worth anything thinking I looked stupid. We planned to sleep in the tent, but it was such a beautiful night that we dragged out mattresses and slept on the sand under the stars. It was beautiful.

DAY 6 – I woke up before sunrise, to flies buzzing around my head. Unfortunately, that is very common in the desert. I watched the sunrise, then we had a short camel ride back to our vehicle. I was carsick again, and I ate some melon for lunch. They have a honeydew type melon in morocco that is really good. Its yellow on the outside, and green on the inside. They don’t even have a name for it, but it is delicious. The driver dropped us at the bus station, and we bought tickets for an overnight bus to Fes. We planned to stay there with another Peace Corps volunteer, Duncan. There was a bit of difficulty with the bus, because the station closed before the bus left, but we made friends with one of the agents, so he helped us. We finally left, and the ride was uneventful.

DAY 7 – We arrived in Fes early in the day, so just relaxed in the medina (city center) while we waited for Duncan. I really wanted to go to a hammam, but I didn’t want to go by myself, so I missed out. A hammam is a single sex bathhouse, where someone scrubs you down with a rough sponge and then throws buckets of water at you. There is also a steam room, and it is supposed to be relaxing and invigorating. I’m still bummed that I missed out, but its designed as a social activity. When Duncan arrived, we visited a tannery. We went to a rooftop to see how they tan and prepare leather. It smelled a bit like sulfur, but it didn’t bother by chemist’s nose. I’ve seen pictures of these tanneries before, but its nothing like seeing it. They have different vats for every color, and men go into the vats to step on and move the leather around. Sadly, men that work at tanneries usually die earlier than other men because of all of the chemicals. In the U.S., when you buy a leather jacket, or a leather purse, you never realize how much work goes into preparing it. We had a guide that explained the process to us. First they put the skins in lye for 2 weeks, then into pigeon poop for another week, followed by water for 1 week, before color. He told us how they use all natural herbs for the dye. They use indigo for blue, saffron for yellow, henna for red, etc. the skins dry in the sun, and then tailors sew the leather items. From there, we visited a rug “factory”, where the men showed us how they make all of the rugs, and then to a place where they make argan oil. It is very famous there, and nice. They do all of the work by hand on a press. The oil looks like thin peanut butter, and tastes pretty good. We visited a beautiful mosque after, called Madrassa Bou Inania. It’s not a mosque anymore, but a training center of some kind. The inside is beautiful, filled with mosaic tile. We were tired then, so we traveled to Duncan’s village, Immouzer. It is not actually a village, but a beautiful mountain retreat, where spring water comes from. We visited the market in Immouzer, which is surprisingly similar to Cameroon. I learned however, that in morocco, zucchini is a very bad word. We prepared a tajine for dinner, so now I know how.

DAY 8 – We relaxed in the morning, and saw more of Immouzer. The country built these beautiful waterways to hold the spring water, and they look like canals. There are benches all around so you can sit and enjoy. We had a delicious chicken lunch, and there, I made my fateful mistake. I saw that ice cold water on the table and I drank it. All of the volunteers there drink tap water, so I thought I would be okay. Later, at the Fes market with Kat, I realized my mistake. I was very very sick. I will never drink tap water again. We did our last bit of shopping, and headed back to Duncan’s for the night.

DAY 9 – We were up early for a long day of traveling. We went first to Ifrane, to find a vehicle for Meknes, then a vehicle to Moulay Idriss, then another to Volubolis (also called Wilili). Volubolis used to be an entire town, but is now just ruins. No one knows what happened, or why, which makes it more interesting. You can walk through each of the buildings, and still see mosaic floors or structures of some type. The area was huge, and it was unbelievable to think that in a short period of time, all of the people disappeared. We even saw archaeologists while we were there. When we finished, we took that long journey back to Meknes, then Casablanca, then to the airport. We had a late flight back to Cameroon.

DAY 10 – Arrival in Cameroon.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

DAY 1 - On Friday May, 29, I had a 3am flight to Egypt. I was traveling with Kat, another volunteer here. We traveled to Douala, where another volunteer, Felipe was living. The evening before we left, we went to a party at his friend’s house. There are a lot of ex-patriots living in Douala, and Felipe is friends with many of them. There are also a lot of volunteers there from other countries. All of these foreigners somehow became friends, so I met a lot of them at the party. We hung out for a while, then Felipe helped us get to the airport. We checked in, and flew to Casablanca Morocco for our layover. Luckily, Royal Air Maroc is awesome. If you ask, they offer a guest house if you have a long layover. They gave us a shuttle to a really nice hotel, a free buffet lunch, and shuttle back to the airport. All of this was free, so kat and I enjoyed a nice nap, lounge by the pool, and a ton of food. We continued that evening to Cairo.

DAY 2 – We arrived late in the night, so went to a hotel, then back to the airport to meet kat’s parents. On the bus to the airport, we made a few Egyptian friends, and I started to learn Arabic. I don’t know why, but that language intrigues me. I guess I have too much experience with the romance languages and crave something different. We picked up her parents, and went to our hotel. We had a nice kebab dinner, and smoked some sheesha. Now, I don’t like cigarettes, in fact I think they are disgusting , but so many people in Egypt smoke sheesha that I wanted to see what it was all about. It is just flavoured tobacco that they smoke out of a hookah, but I think its all about the socializing. A group of people will sit around the hookah for hours, just talking and enjoying. I think it’s the same way that Cameroonians are with a bottle of beer. You don’t buy it because you love it. You buy it for the social aspect. Anyway, the sheesha wasn’t horrible, but it gave me a headache.

DAY 3 – The first real day of the tour began, with the Egyptian Museum. It was really cool. We saw old tombs and statues and carvings. We saw a copy of the Rosetta stone, originally found in Egypt, but now in the British museum in London. We even saw King Tut’s tomb, with a lot of the items that he was buried with. That was amazing. We saw his outer tomb (there were actually 3), but it was the best one. It was all gold (12 kg of it), with gem and paint inlay. There are scarab beetles on it for luck, and the cobra, for protection and royalty. We saw a ton of the jewelry he was buried with (for the afterlife), and most of it was solid gold, with gems and different stones. Sadly, I didn’t have a chance to see the Mummy room, but I heard it was spooky, seeing all the dead bodies. I saw pictures of some, and a few still have hair and fingernails. Gross. From there, we traveled to Giza, to see the pyramids and the Sphinx. There are 3 pyramids there, Cheops was buried inside the Great Pyramid, Kefrin in the Second pyramid, and the Third pyramid has Mykerenos. The pyramids are a lot larger than you could ever imagine, with each block almost as tall as me. Each pyramid has thousands upon thousands of blocks. Its amazing. We didn’t pay to go into the great pyramid, but we did to go in the Second pyramid. you climb down a small ramp into the center. The opening is barely large enough to fit through, and you much hunch over. There is a flat space in the middle, then the path climbs up again, and there is a large chamber. Along the way, you can see where they closed up the tomb. There was nothing in the pyramid anymore, but it was pretty neat to see. It was really really hot inside though, so I didn’t stay long. From there we saw the Sphinx, also larger than you would imagine. You can not get very close to it though. Two days later, Barack Obama walked through the same places that I did. He was on every news channel, and part of his tour in the pyramid was shown on CNN. We traveled to a papyrus school after and saw how Egyptians make papyrus. I was tempted to buy some, but I knew I had a lot of traveling ahead of me, so I didn’t. when people completed their purchases, we went to the train station to go to Aswan.

DAY 4 – We arrived in Aswan, which soon became my favorite place in Egypt. Everything in Egypt is along the Nile River, because it’s the only fertile land. Everything else is desert. Aswan is very relaxed and calm, almost like a beach town. There was an excursion, but I was running short of money, so I went into town to get more. I used my few Arabic words to bargain for a pair of sunglasses, so I was pretty proud of myself. After, I went to the Nubian museum with some other tourists in my group. That was really cool. The Nubians were another group of people living in the southern part of Egypt. Their history is a bit longer than the Egyptians. In the museum, every single thing was over 3000 years old. I saw a human fossil from 17.000 years ago, and pottery from 6000 years ago, still in good condition. It was amazing. Outside the museum, there were caves, and they put actual cave paintings in them. The history in this country is amazing. It really makes you think about all the things that have happened throughout history, before we came along. We took a taxi back to the hotel, and the driver wanted to buy me for his wife, in exchange for the taxi fare. In the evening, we took a motorboat across the Nile and rode camels. My camel’s name was Mohammed. Every time I wanted him to go, I was supposed to yell “Yalla” which means “lets go”. After our ride, we visited a Nubian village for a traditional meal – there was moussaka, tomatoes, cucumbers, pita bread, rice and a few other dishes I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t completely traditional bc they also had ziti and French fries. It was all delicious. After we ate, a few of us got henna tattoos, which was fun.

DAY 5 – We got up at 3am to travel to Abu Simbel. It is a really famous monument, near the border of the Sudan, and there are a lot of kidnappers and bandits, so everyone that wants to go, must travel with a tour group, and you must be in the convoy. It leaves every morning at 4am, and if you miss it, the road is closed and you can not pass. There is a checkpoint at the beginning of the road, with lots of guards and machine guns, a long road through the desert, and a checkpoint at the end, with more guards and machine guns. It was about a 3 hour journey. At Abu Simbel, there are two temples. Ramses II built one for himself, and one for his wife, Nefertari, which was unusual. A few years ago, the nile started to flood the temples, so UNESCO funded a project that cut each temple into cubes and shifted the millions of cubes back 300m. it took years to complete the project, and now, you would never be able to tell that it was taken apart and reassembled. The temple of Ramses is huge, many hundreds of feet high. Inside there are paintings and carvings, and both temples were really cool. I spent a few hours just staring at the paintings. We left around midday to get back, and had a traditional Egyptian lunch, called kochery. It’s a bowl of spaghetti, rice, elbows, chickpeas, crunchy lentils, and chickpeas. You then choose which sauces to add to it, like a spicy one, or garlic. It’s a strange meal, but not bad. I got an ice cream cone after lunch, then went for a swim in the pool. The pool was right next to the nile, and had an amazing view. In the evening we went for a group dinner then to the market. I bought a few things. Im really comfortable in the markets there – they are just like the ones in Cameroon. You have to bargain for everything. Since I was used to it, shopping was easy.

DAY 6 – In the morning, went to the market quickly with kat for a scarf. The Egyptian cotton is so nice, and there are so many nice scarves, that I ended up buying one also. We rushed back to begin our felucca (sailboat) ride down the nile to Luxor. The felucca was large, covered with mattresses and pillows so we could relax. It was really nice for a few hours, but then got a little boring. At lunchtime, we went for a swim in the nile. Its really not the safest thing, but I couldn’t resist. There are lots of crocodiles and schisto, but I took the risk. There were a few little kids up on the dunes, so I thought I would climb up with them. It took me a few tries, bc that sand was hot! We continued on down the nile, and for fun, we held on to ropes behind the boat and had it pull us. That boat was moving surprisingly fast. We stopped at an island for another swim, then a different island later to stop for dinner and the night. It is illegal to take a boat on the nile at night. There were a few other tour groups there, and one of them had a bonfire and singing, so a few of us checked it out. Throughout the day I became friends with one of the deckhand’s son, Abdu. I was practicing my Arabic with him, and he showed us the way to the bonfire. I learned the Arabic phrase “in your dreams” and I tried to practice it with Abdu. It was pretty fun.

DAY 7 – I did not sleep very well that night on the boat, bc it was surprisingly cold and noisy. I was up early enough to watch the sunrise, which was beautiful. After a short boat ride, we stopped and drove to the komombo temple. It’s a really interesting temple, bc its two in one. Half is dedicated to horus, the falcon god, and half to the crocodile god. It was really neat to see how the two were joined. From there, we saw the Edfu temple, the second largest in Egypt, and then traveled on to Luxor. Karnak temple is in the area, which is the largest temple in Egypt. I went with a few other people, and it was really cool. I read about it in the guidebook first, and the main point of interest is an area with 138 huge columns, designed to look like papyrus stalks with lotus flowers at the top. If the temple was ever flooded, you would see the tops of the papyrus, just like when it is growing. Anyway, they were huge and amazing. I walked through the area in awe. Each column is over 100ft high, and so wide that if I try to hug the column, I cant even reach halfway around. It was one of the best temples. In the evening, we were all temple-ed out, so I strolled through town with one of my friends. Luxor has its own temple in the center of town, so we just looked at the outside. Each night it was lit up and really pretty.

DAY 8 – We took a boat across the Nile for our donkey rides to the Valley of the Kings. My donkey’s name was Casablanca, and surprisingly comfortable. Much more comfortable than the camel. When we arrived in the valley, we saw 3 tombs: Thutmes, Septaken, and Ramses IV. They were really cool. They were all underground, with many chambers. There are fake chambers at the beginning, to throw off thieves and tomb robbers. Inside all of the chambers and halls are paintings. They are still in amazing condition. In fact, that is how these tombs were discovered. There was flooding in the valley of the kings, and someone passing through saw a river of blue water. They traced the source, and found the opening to a tomb.There were also stone caskets inside. Sadly, I didn’t see King Tut’s tomb. It was one of the most boring inside, with no paintings, but you could see his little tiny mummy. It is only about 4 feet long, but so fragile that they can not move it from the tomb. From there we got back on our donkeys and visited an alabaster factory. We had a chance to watch men carve the alabaster, and it was really neat. Then, to Hatchepsout’s temple. She was the only female pharaoh, and served for about 20 years. Hers was my favorite temple in Egypt. It was huge and beautiful. At the side there was a small temple dedicated to Amun-Ra. It was outside, but had paintings and carvings that were in great shape. Sadly, in the evening I was a typical tourist, and I ate at Mcdonald’s. I hate eating chain restaurant food when I travel, but it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. I had a mcchicken sandwich, fries, and a chocolate milkshake. Amazing.

DAY 9 – We flew from Luxor back to Cairo in the morning. Straight from the airport, I drove to Alexandria with Kat and her parents. We visited Pompey’s pillar, which is one single pillar. The area is a marriage between Roman and Egyptian architecture, which is interesting. There is a place to go underground, to see the Daughter Library. It was Cleopatra’s library, where she stored her correspondance with Mark Antony. We left there and went to see the Catacombs. It is basically an underground mausoleum. There is space to hold about 500 bodies, including children (which was sad – seeing mini tombs), and an altar to sacrifice horses. After, we saw the Biblioteca Alexandrina, the largest library in the world, before going to the Fish Market, a famous seafood restaurant, where we were taken advantage of because we were tourists.

DAY 10 – We relaxed in the morning and watched MTV Arabia. It was really interesting bc we watched American shows with English subtitles, and censoring. Anything that was even remotely scandalous was beeped out or covered with the black rectangle. Even the word “intimate” was beeped out, and girls in swimsuits were covered with the black square. It was ironic that they were showing a story about a gay man. In the afternoon we went to the Citadel. It is a huge walled compound, containing one of the oldest mosques in the world. It is now a military fort, and there are 3 different museums inside. We had a chance to enter the mosque, and I’m so glad I did. Usually if you are not muslim, you can not enter. I was just in time for the call to prayer, and it was amazing to see.

DAY 11 – Kat and I brought her parents to the airport, and did some things in Cairo. We mostly went shopping. We strolled to the market (which took a very very long time), but on the way drank mango juice. It was amazing, and really cheap at a vendor’s stall. For hours we shopped. We literally shopped til we dropped, but I found some great souvenirs to bring back, like leather and Egyptian cotton.

DAY 12 – Leave for Morocco.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

So May passed by in a flash. At the beginning of the month, I was finishing up school. Final exams went well, with little cheating thankfully, and I filled in report cards. All grades (called marks here) are filled by hand, so it takes forever. On my last day of school, a horrible thing happened. A was riding a bike (motorcycle taxi) to school, which I do every day. Near the primary school, there are quite a few speed bumps, to get people to slow down. Of course, this doesn’t really slow the bike men. They just speed up in between each one. My bike man wasn’t paying attention, and when a small child ran out into the road, the bike collided. The child flew off across the road, somehow losing both shoes, and we stopped to see if he was ok. Thankfully the child was only upset, not injured, but it was terrifying. These kind of accidents are commonplace here, but it doesn’t stop me from getting nervous everytime I travel.

At the end of May, I had to travel to Yaounde to help with the new SED/ED training program. I traveled with a friend to Bamenda first, before continuing on. I traveled by motorcycle to Bamenda, which was interesting. It took about 3 ½ hours on a rutted dirt road. My behind was very sore by the end. I stayed overnight with my Cameroonian friend, but we met a few volunteers in the area. We decided to go for roasted fish, and we were relaxing and enjoying ourselves. All of a sudden, a young man reached over and stole one girl’s purse. It took us a minute to understand what was happening, and finally one girl started yelling “thief! Thief!” Unfortunately we had decided to dine in an area filled with thieves, so when we yelled for help, everyone let the thief pass by. Our Cameroonian friends tried to follow the man, to no avail. It delayed our trip to Yaounde, because we had to wait for hours at the police station the next morning. Its horrible to be robbed here. My friend did not even lose anything worth money, but it feels like an invasion.

After the police station, we traveled to Yaounde and began training. The two weeks passed by really quickly, with planning during the day, and nice meals at night. A few of the girls are great at cooking in bulk, so we had great meals, like quiche, spinach ravioli, and chili with cornbread. I ate better in those two weeks, than I probably do in 6 months at post. May 20 was National Day, kind of like an independence day. We heard loud noises from outside, and we thought a storm was brewing. We went up to the 2nd floor balcony of the PC house, and could see fireworks in town. It was a long show, and really cool. We had one main event halfway through training, and it was the Peace Corps prom. No one could decide on a theme, so all of the potentials were melded into the “Post-apocolyptic winter wasteland”. People went to the fripperie (second-hand shop) to find outfits, and I tagged along. I didn’t buy anything, but I made a lot of Cameroonian friends. One of them even bought me a cup of fried termites. I had seen students collecting them at school (they arrive as soon as the first rains fall after dry season), but never an urge to try them until now. I was very nonchalant, saying sure I would eat them, and had one in my hand, but as it came closer to my mouth, my hand moved slower and slower. I had a really hard time putting it in my mouth, but I did it. It was surprisingly good, a bit crunchy with a touch of pepe. I ended up eating the whole cup. Anyway, when I arrived at the prom, I was not dressed up, so a few girls decided to help me. I ended up wearing a plastic market bag as a shirt, with my hair all crazy. Most people there looked like zombies, so it wasn’t a bad party. I had spent my free time cutting snowflakes, and people made a dance floor. Sadly the preparation made most of us so tired that we didn’t last too long in the evening.

The rest of training passed quickly, and then I was on my way to Douala for my holiday to Egypt.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

After easter break, things quieted down a little. Here are some highlights...

- I was very tough on my students. We had an exam in class and the students cheated horribly. At school i am only alotted 100 sheets of paper per sequence. I have 500 students, so I have to give them the paper exam, tell them not to write on it, and collect them for use in the other classes. Unfortunately, this time, students stole copies, and gave them to other students. I found out, so i cancelled the scores from the exam, and gave them a new harder exam on the blackboard. Most of the questions were the same as on the first exam, so i thought it was fair. If the students studied for the first exam, they should be prepared for the second. If they planned to cheat, they will fail. This was the first time that i was really really tough on the kids. Now i am prepared to be tougher for next year.

- I have a french tutor. One of my neighbors is a french teacher for anglophone students in primary school. I met him through another teacher, and we arranged to meet a few times per week for french lessons. He gave me a brief assessment, and I speak french at a Form 2 level (8th grade). Hopefully that will improve

- May 1 is Labor Day. Lauren came into town, so I spent time with her. This is the first time that I missed the march past at the grandstand, but it was ok. Later in the evening, we met Jimmy for grilled fish. There were huge crowds of people celebrating the holiday. I also met the mother of one of my students. That was nice.

-EYUMOJOCK

-I traveled to eyumojock with my staff social group. Earlier in the year, they came to visit us, so now it was our turn to visit them. We traveled in the back of a pickup truck , which was not very comfortable. Eyumojock is pretty close to Nigeria, and the road is terrible. Of course, i got carsick. We arrived at GBHS Eyumojock and the students greeted us with songs. It was nice. After lunch, we started the games portion of the day, with cards, ping pong, and checkers. I played cards, and came in second place. Around that time, the rain started, so the volleyball match, and soccer match were played in the pouring rain. We had some time to rest, then we prepared for the evening dinner. I got dressed up and ate dinner with the principal's family, then around 10pm (2 hours late - african time), we went to the hall. I was already tired, and after 2 hours of speeches, I lost all interest and took a brief nap. It was rude, but i was just so tired. Around 1am, we were served dinner. After dinner was dancing, but i left as soon as possible to go to bed.

-The next morning, i was up early, bc we were traveling to Lake Ejagham. Its a beautiful lake, with many stories of legend. For example if you are traveling near the lake and you have no food or water, you can pray to the ancestors (who live in the lake) to give you some. The food and water will then rise up out of the center of the lake, and you can swim or row out to get it. Also, in the middle of the night, you can hear drum beats coming from the center of the lake, from the ancestors. Anyway, after that, we went to lunch and headed back to Mamfe. I was really frustrated on the way back. the teachers were really making fun of me. they were asking me things in the dialect or in slang words that i obviously didnt understand and laughing at me. Most of the time i can laugh back, but sometimes its difficult.

-In other news, I got sick again. Bacterial dysentery this time, and that is not fun. Its a good experience bc now i understand it but i dont want it ever again.

-I was really busy with the last week of school. I gave my final exam, which went well. I had one of the discipline masters at school come to each class for collection. The school really worked to make sure that there was little or no cheating on the final exams. In my free time, when i wasnt marking exams, i helped the secretary at school type exams. She was given too much work to handle, and then the delegate at the ministry of secondary education gave her more work. i didnt mind helping though.

-YAOUNDE

-I missed some school to travel to yaounde to help plan training for the new sed/ed trainees. We worked for 2 weeks to plan everything, and had some group events in between. One pcv was leaving, so there was a ceremony for her. we cooked some group meals like homemade ravioli, chili/cornbread, and quiche. it was delicious. during the weekend, we decided to have a peace corps prom. there was a tie on the theme, so our new theme became 'post apocolyptic winter wasteland'. most everyone dressed like zombies, and we wore ridiculous clothes. i actually wore a plastic market bag . it was really fun though. At the end of the 2 weeks, i was preparing for vacation to egypt and morocco.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

After returning from mt. cameroon, I had some time to rest before my friend Ben, another pcv came to visit. We just hung out in mamfe, and one night we went to a born-house with Felicia. Here, instead of having a baby shower, they have a big party about a month after the baby is born. There is traditional singing and dancing, and they spread baby powder on everyone to wish them fertility. Then of course, there is always a big meal. Felicia’s sister had a baby so I was invited. We sat for a while until dinner, and just as we were about to eat, the power went out. I’m always surprised when the light goes out, and you would think by now I would be used to it. The only other big activity was that I took Ben to see our german bridge. it’s the only thing in the tour guides about mamfe, so I always take people to see it. The next day, we left for Bamenda. We went to visit a couple volunteers there. There are a ton of pcvs in the area. Also, I had one friend from the north that was traveling down, so I wanted to catch up with her. They have done a lot of work on the mamfe-bamenda road, so the journey wasn’t too bad. When we arrived we dropped our stuff at the transit house, and a group of us went out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. The next day, we went to doug’s house. He lives in this fancy compound in a village outside bamenda. We went into town to see the market, and had a nice salad lunch. Salad!! Made with lettuce!!! I havent seen lettuce in months. Probably almost a year. It was delicious. There is a health food store that prepares it. It was delicious. Then, we made cheeseburgers and fries for dinner. That was a good meal too.

The next day we went back to town to go shopping. I wanted to buy fabric to make some clothes. I have been saving money just for this purpose. I have also heard the fabric market in bamenda is great. We stopped for lunch first and had salad again, then went to buy things. Every store I went in, people were rude to me. They were unwilling to bargain, and it was not fun for me. Markets here are filled with negotiation. You can negotiate for anything. It becomes a game with the vendor. People in bamenda were unwilling to play the game, so I gave up and didn’t buy anything. It was very disappointing. In the evening, we all played cards and had a blast. I don’t know the last time I laughed that hard. It made up for my crappy shopping experience. In the morning, we went back to the transit house to meet my friend from the north, kate. We decided to cook French toast for everyone. I think we have been in cameroon too long, bc all of the women went straight to the kitchen, and then men to the parlor. Then, as food was finished we sent it out for them to eat. Once they were finished, the women ate. How funny. Anyway, from there, ben and I headed to his village, bangang. We pretty much hung out for the next few days. We went to the market each day, baked brownies twice, I checked email, and read books. One day we went to bafoussam . I tried shopping for fabric there, and it went much better than in bamenda. I bought a ton of stuff, and ben bought a pair of stereo speakers for his house. We went back and connected them, and had a dance party. Sounds silly, but it was so much fun to listen to 80s music and dance around.

After hanging out for a while in bangang, I wanted to head back to mamfe for easter. I took a bike (motorcycle) to dschang, then a car to fontem. On the way to fontem I had a woman with a rooster in her lap on one side, and a man with a small bird chirping in his hand on the other side. Neither of them wanted to let go of their birds. From fontem, took another bike to bachuo, then yet another bike to mamfe. I don’t mind taking a bike at all. Its usually comfortable and I feel safe wearing my helmet. Its usually a lot quicker too. The only time it was not comfortable or faster was from fontem to bachuo. There was supposed to be a car going, but the driver had an emergency and couldn’t go. All of the people going to mamfe were stranded, with their only choices to take a bike, or stay in fontem. One young guy decided to start trekking. I arranged my bike, and a few min after we left, we saw the man trekking. My driver wanted to help him, so offered him a space on my bike. He accepted, so we had the driver, then me, then the man, then my things tied to the back. The mans bag was in front of the driver. We were fully loaded up, and it was not safe and not comfortable. Luckily, it was less than 30 minutes like that. When I arrived home, I had a nice surprise. My neighbor cleaned my whole house, did my laundry, and made dinner for me. What a good girl.

On easter Sunday, I decided not to go to church. I thought about it for a long time, but it’s the day that they do all of the baptisms, communions, confirmations, and weddings. Mass is over 6 hours long. Instead, I rested in the morning, then went to a thanksgiving party. One of my neighbors was in a car accident a few months ago, and she was very lucky. She thought easter would be a good day to give thanks for her good fortune. That event was nice. There were a lot of teachers there from school, so I visited with them. From there, i headed down the street to another neighbor that got married the night before. I was only there for a short time before I came back home. I also talked to my mother. Holidays here are so depressing for me. I never appreciated it before, but I miss seeing my family at the holidays. I miss our usual traditions. Here, holidays aren’t as special to me as they are in the US. the next day lauren came over, and she brought my mail. That was a nice surprise! Thank you to everyone that sends me letters and packages. I have been eating american food almost every day now. I did stop eating for a while though - last week I was diagnosed with a case of bacterial dysentery. Its not fun, but im feeling much better now.

The only other exciting news, is that I went to a wedding. I have a friend that works in the market. She has been married to her husband for many years, but they never had their church wedding. I just went to that. I went to the church service first. As the bride walked down the aisle, her bridesmaids sprayed silly string and threw confetti. I havent seen silly string since the early 90s. After the typical church service (the only difference being that they say ‘I am’ and ‘I will’ instead of ‘I do’), I came home for a short rest, then went to the reception. They had a grand tiered cake, and the bride and groom fed each other. It was just like being at an american wedding. Then, there was the presentation of the gifts, where all of the gifts were given to the bride and groom. Then we had cake (before the dinner), then we ate. When everyone was finished eating, there was dancing, but I left before dancing began. It was a nice wedding though. Now, I just have a couple more weeks for school before I go on holiday.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

Just after the other volunteers visited, I headed to buea to climb mt. cameroon with a couple other volunteers. I was thinking that the mt climb wasn’t so bad, bc everyone climbs it, but just to be on the safe side, I wanted to climb with people that were at my level. Mt. Cameroon is actually an active volcano that last erupted in 2000, and before that 1999. It is the second largest mountain in Africa, behind mt Kilimanjaro. We were doing a 3 day trek up to the summit and over the other side of the mountain. I went with lauren and 2 volunteers from the NW province. We started our trek early in the morning, and the first few hours are through the jungle. It was hot and humid, so we took breaks every so often to drink water. We had a guide with us, and porters, so we didn’t have to worry about carrying our packs. We had to carry enough food and water for the next 3 days, so the bags were pretty heavy. We made it to Hut 1 before the rain hit. We hung out for a bit and finally the rain stopped so we could continue. After that point, things started to get a bit rockier. We left the jungle and started to climb up a rocky incline. As we continued there were more and more loose rocks that would shift as you stepped on them. By the time we reached Hut 1b, my hips were starting to hurt from the funny way we had to climb. Lauren was also struggling - she hurt her knee and wasn’t sure if she could continue. She decided to turn back before she got more hurt, so then we were down to 3. We continued climbing (slowly) and finally arrived at Hut 2 where we planned to stay the night. We paid our guide to cook for us, and right after a dinner of spaghetti, we went to bed. It was about 7:30 pm.

The next morning we got up at about 5 to start our climb to the summit. Since we were so slow, our guide didn’t think we could make it on the 3 day hike. He wanted us to go back the way we came. We really wanted to do the 3 days, ,and told the guide that we would push ourselves. His only condition was that we leave before sunrise the next day. So, we had a very early morning, and started our climb with flashlights. The night before, the cold wind came into the hut, and I woke with a cold. That made it even more difficult for me to climb. We watched the sunrise (kind of). We couldn’t see much because at this point we were above the clouds, but we just kept climbing. We each had a mantra that we were saying in our heads to keep going.. Mine was “just keep swimming”, just like dory in finding nemo. As we climbed, the weather got colder and colder. After a while, there were no rocks, and instead volcanic ash. It was just like climbing in sand. After that, there were more rocks up to the summit. I was cold, and the wind was practically blowing me over, but I finally made it to the summit at 4095m (13,000 feet). We snapped a quick photo, and headed back down the other side of the mountain. We were so happy to have our guide, as he gave us water as we were coming down the other side. Because of the dry season, the spring at hut 1 and 2 had been dried up, and we were running short of water. The way down was so much easier for me. One of the girls was really tough on the way up, but struggled on the way down. That made me feel a little better, since I struggled on the way up. As we passed through the ash again, it was fun. You could slide down it, just like on a sand dune. We then crossed grassy plains and then volcanic rocks. The rocks were hard on the feet. I heard it is the hardest rock in the world. The weather gradually warmed up and we took off layers. We stopped to see the craters from the 1999 eruption. They are still smoking, 10 years later. From there we continued to mann spring, our resting point for the night. We stayed in these grass hut kind of buldings, with no doors. I didn’t like the place, because there were bees everywhere. They would land on me and crawl all over. It was awful. Luckily though, there was water, so we could refill our supply. There was a spring, with not so clean water. Good thing pc provides me with aquatabs to clean water. Just before we went to bed all of the guides and porters danced. It was the initiation for the new porters. It was pretty entertaining.

On our last day, we started about 7am. We walked across the plains for a short time, until we entered the jungle again. It was warm, but it must have rained at some point, bc it was all mud. We were slipping and sliding. By now, our legs had turned to jello, so it was hard to climb anyway. My guide gave me a walking stick which helped. Around 11am we made it to town and completed our trek. I was so relieved to be finished. It was kind of fun, but I probably will not ever climb it again. I was happy though, that I could conquer the mountain. I definitely underestimated the mountain, but it was worth going. Every February, there is the mt cameroon race. People run up the mountain and back down. They do in 4 hours what I did in 3 days. Now that I know what they go through, I think their prizes should be larger. Anyway, as soon as we made it to town, I headed back to mamfe. Of course, when I arrived, light had just come and there was no running water. Figures.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

I keep saying I’ll update soon, but so many things happen to delay me. We just had a few weeks without light or water, so there is also no internet. I’ll start with the end of February.

After the Mt. Cameroon race, I returned to mamfe. I had school during the week, and each day was pretty busy, going out for lunch or meeting friends or other teachers in town. The first weekend I returned, I went to visit will in okoyong. His school (a private catholic all-girls school) is made up of 4 houses, just like Hogwarts. Once per year, each house has a feast, so I was invited to the Lourdes house feast. Each teacher received a drink and snack, and the students made announcements and had a fashion show. Each house chooses students that they think represent their house, and when called they show off their fancy outfits. The other students bring them flowers and spray perfume on them. It was very strange. After that, the girls from that house sang songs. Some of them were religious, but the younger girls sang ‘DO RE MI’ and ‘goodbye farewell’ from the sound of music. It was really cute. After that, all of the students came out in the center of the hall to dance to popular music. All of the teachers are invited out to dance for the first song, including me. Luckily, by the time I made it to the dance floor the song was ending. Soon after, Will and I left, but the event was relatively entertaining.

The next weekend was pretty exciting. Women’s Day was celebrated on march 8, so there were activities all weekend. First was a concert. There is a man called Awilo that sings controversial anti-government music here. He’s pretty popular, and his songs are interesting. They argue against corruption and power in government, and he sings in English, pidgin, French, and his dialect. I have a cd that you can all listen to when I get home. Anyway, I took my neighbor to go to the concert with me. We met Will and our friend George, and we were on the guest list, so we didn’t have to pay, and we got to skip the line. The concert was more like a talent show, with many different acts before awilo came on stage. There were comedians, dancers, and singers, and when awilo came on, he was pretty good. He played quite a few songs, and when he finished we all went home. It was a fun Saturday night though. I did not expect to see a concert while in cameroon. The next day was womens day, so in the morning I went to the grandstand. I wore my women’s day outfit (the fabric says womens day on it) and watched all of the women march past. My womens group did not register to march, so we didn’t, but it was still fun to watch. I’ve never seen so many women in one place. After the marchpast Will, Felicia and I went to Edwards house. I acted in a film back in December, and my film was released. The director was in town, so we watched my film debut. The film is called ‘Clash of Inheritance’, and its actually pretty good, all about tribalism. All of the movies here try to teach a lesson, so this one was anti-tribalism. I was horrible though. I should NOT quit my day job. My part was only about 2 min long though, so I guess it wasn’t too bad. Incidentally, the posters just came out, and I am on it for my tiny little part. I am huge and look very silly. I was told that I am on there for marketing, since i am the only white person in the film. I’ll be sure to bring home a copy of the dvd.

I had been feeling kind of run-down for a while, and that Thursday I went to my womens group, Hilltop Ladies. The whole meeting I felt really sick and thought I might pass out. I went to the hospital the next day, and found that I had malaria and strep throat. They loaded me up with medicine and then I rested for a couple days. I had so many visitors coming to the house that I couldn’t rest, so I went to visit lauren in kembong. The phone network was out, so I didn’t realize that I couldn’t receive calls. I found out later that my mom and Kevin called me many many many times freaking out about my malaria. I know that it is a serious thing, but its so common here that I wasn’t that worried. (it’ll never happen again mom). While I was visiting lauren, she took me to villages so I could see what she does for work. Basically she works for an NGO that donates farm supplies, cassava grinders, palm oil presses, and school books and uniforms. We traveled to 3 different villages for the ceremonies: okoroba to give school building materials, mbakang to donate farm tools, and kembong to give a cassava grinder. At each place there was singing and dancing. It was nice but exhausting. Later that night, one of the neighbors showed me a turtle that they found in the bush, then a bush baby. The bush baby was really cute. I feel so bad for animals here. Kids are really rough on animals. They dropped the turtle on the ground, breaking off a part of the shell. I’ve never seen a turtle bleed from the shell before. Then they were poking the bush baby and it bit one, so they threw it across the room. it’s the same with dogs and cats though. There is no respect for animals here.

The weekend after that, Brad and Kat came to visit. They trekked here from Fontem. It was nice to have my first visitors here. Basically, we just hung out and relaxed. They had trouble getting used to the heat here, and there was no light, so we couldn’t even turn on the fan. I showed them the town though, and our famous hanging bridge. I tried to show off mamfe a bit. It has a bad rap, since all of the roads to get here are terrible. I love it here though.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

The past few weeks have been pretty busy here. First was youth week. It is actually one day (February 11), that has turned into a week long celebration. First, there is preparation for youth week, so many classes were cancelled. Then came youth week, so again classes were cancelled. It is a really nice idea though. All of the schools in the area compete and have different activities for the students to participate in. The kickoff for youth week was bilingualism day on Feb 5. We had an assembly at school. First we had a speech from the vice principal, in english and in french. That was followed by songs and speeches by the students in both languages, and a debate about why we should be bilingual. The debate was funny. One reason against, was that learning more than one language is "prostituting that language". I guess its hard to find reasons against a good thing. In between all of those were traditional dances. I took a bunch of pictures and short videos. Most of the girls dancing were my students, so that made it even more interesting for me. They were really good too. At the end, there was one dance with a juju. One boy was wearing a dress and mask, dressed as the juju. Im not sure how to explain it, but its kind of like a spirit, and people are afraid of it. It was really funny. I guess if the juju bends down to you, you have to give money. Of course, it bent down to me. I didnt mind though, bc the boy was so entertaining. After he finished, all of the students followed him to find out who it was. It was funny. Following that day, there were boys and girls football (soccer) matches, handball, and a knowlege bowl. Sadly, my school did not make it to the football finals, held on youth day. On the actual day, we all went to the grandstand to watch the students march. The march started with the nursery schools, then primary, secondary, technical schools, nursing, and teacher training colleges. Each group wears a different uniform, so i took tons of pictures. My favorite was one primary school. Instead of wearing uniforms, each child was dressed in traditional clothes. The girls were dressed as married women, with head wrap, and wrapper tied around their waists. Then boys were dressed as elders, with traditional robes and caps. They were hilarious. They actually won at the march, so their school received money from the government. After the march, i met up with a few friends to relax and have lunch. The next day, it was back to school. Quite a few students tried to say that it was "resting day", but i knew better.

That saturday, i was invited to a wedding in Bakebe. The baliff (called Maitre here) was having his tradition wedding, even though he's been married for over 5 years. There are 3 weddings here. First is usually the traditional wedding, then court wedding, and church wedding. The traditional wedding is after the man has talked to the family of the woman, and they accept him. At the wedding, the man speaks with all members of the family and pays the bride price. The bride price is usually a sum of money (200,000fcfa) to the family of the bride, along with certain items, like machetes, hoes, cloth, a pig, goat, chickens, and whatever else the family wants. Then, all of the men in the family can ask the man for their share. They can request money for any amount, and the man will have to pay. He could end up paying millions for the bride price if he was asked. This is all done in private, so no one outside the family can see what is happening. When they are finished, before they come out, everyone eats kola with groundnut paste for luck (i guess). Then the family comes out, followed by bride and groom, and everyone feasts. The court wedding is obviously at the court. It is where they sign the marriage certificate. Usually family is present at the courthouse, and after there is a feast. Then there is the church wedding. They have the church portion, then go home for a feast. Sometimes they wear ashwabi (everyone wears the same cloth, so they all match). Anyway, I went to a traditional wedding. It was the same as I just mentioned, and there was a huge feast afterwards, with goat, pig, chicken, fish, and beef. Most was slaughtered that day, so it was fresh. After the feast came dancing. I didnt feel like dancing, since i was already getting harassed by the men there. If i tried to dance, it would have been worse. Around midnight, we drove back to mamfe.

My next event was the following weekend. I traveled to Buea for the Mt. Cameroon Race. Starting at about 6am, hundreds of people run up to the summit of the mountain, then run back down. It usually takes about 4 hours. I met a group of PCVs, and we had a tent there where we talked about HIV/AIDS. We had posters, and handouts, and the idea was to talk to people after the runners left, while waiting for their return. I was amazed at the turnout. With all of the volunteers, we must have spoken with hundreds of people, at every age. We tried to talk mainly of ways to protect yourself (not sharing blades, being cautious with blood, protected sex, getting tested, etc). We also wanted to explain that having HIV is not the end of the world, and you can still lead a happy, healthy life. I answered so many questions, and people were really open to learning more. During down time, i wandered around the area. There were companies there, giving out tea and hot chocolate, and there were traditional dancers and entertainers. I guess here, people dont understand why we have clowns. Here, they have men that dress as women and dance around. It was very strange. I definitely did not understand it. I guess thats a cultural thing. At the end of our time there, i started to talk with 2 secondary school kids. As we talked, more and more kids came up, until i was surrounded by about 25 kids. They were listening and asking questions, it was great. We decided to play an HIV learning game with them, then we played duck, duck, goose. It was a huge hit. For the first time since i've come here, i actually felt like i was doing something useful, something to benefit others. Our tent was definitely a success. The next day, we went to the beach in Limbe for a short time, then back to mamfe.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

Ever since the holidays, things have been pretty busy. School started up again… the students have been terrible. I’ve had to keep entire classes after school, taken marks from exams, and sent many students out of class. The kids stress me out, but some good things happen that make my job worth it. One day a student asked why I am a volunteer. A big group of students came over to hear the answer, and they were all amazed that someone would give up their time and money to help others. We have been talking about the US a lot, and students have been asking a lot of course related questions during class. That is really exciting here, bc most kids don’t ask questions. They aren’t raised to question things if they don’t understand, so I’m glad that they feel comfortable asking me.

I’ve finally started receiving bills at my house. I received a water bill for 14,000 cfa, which is out of control. Its only supposed to be about 1000. Of course, I had to pay first, dispute later. Many of my neighbors are also receiving really high bills, so we think that this is a common problem with everyone. Since that bill, I’ve had another that is lower, so I’m hoping it will stay that way. I also received my first electric bill. That wasn’t too high, but when I went to pay, I waited in line for over an hour, and it didn’t move at all. Then someone was so mean to me that I almost cried in the office. It was really embarrassing. Someone was talking about me in pidgin, and bc I’m white, apparently I can’t understand the language. I was just so frustrated that people think that I don’t understand anything. It happens all the time here. Looking back, I had no reason to get upset, but its too late now. I’ve had a lot of bills at my house too, bc my brand new house was built poorly. The plumber comes almost weekly, and the electrician a few times too. I love my house, but it’s a huge pain. My water is turned off more than it is on.

I’ve had many visitors at the house. I have a neighbor (her name is Othance) that comes over to spend time and helps me with some things, and quite a few of the neighbors come over to visit. There are a few younger kids next door, and their friends come over all the time. We look at science books, and maps, and they tell me what they are studying in school. Its kind of fun, and educational. I want kids here to learn that education can be fun. It sounds really cheesy, but they are raised that they must go to school and learn, but it doesn’t matter if they like it or not. Everything is memorization, and there is no application for knowledge. that’s why I want them to have fun when learning new things. Anyway, Othance was over at the house studying while I was out one night. I returned home, and she said that she had a surprise for me. I thought maybe she cleaned the floor or something. She brought me to my spare bedroom, and there were 3 small kids sleeping in the bed. She explained to me that the smallest one (who is about 5 years old) wet the bed. The father drove that child from the house and said he had to find another place to stay. He also told the extended family not to house them. Two of the older siblings (that visit me sometimes) left with the smallest and they decided to come here to sleep. Its obvious that I wouldn’t turn them away. Then Othance told me she had another surprise. The oldest two weren’t really sleeping - they wanted to play a joke on me. They got out of bed, and since the power was out, I made some popcorn, and we played cards by candlelight. It was kind of fun. The next morning, we all got up really early, to prepare food for the kids before they went to church. After church, they came back over, and helped me clear the yard. They are such good kids, I like when they visit.

We had a big even at school. The social group of teachers had a visit from another school, GHS Eyumojock, a school close to Nigeria About 20 teachers from their school came to visit our school for an overnight. In the morning, they hiked up to see the school, then saw our German hanging bridge (built in early 1900s). I missed that part of the morning, but I met up with the group at the Army Canteen. That was the site for the next group of activites: table tennis, cards, draughts (checkers), and a volleyball match. I played cards with the principal of Eyumojock, and I won two games. That was exciting. The volleyball match was such a close game that it was really entertaining. Next came a soccer match, but I skipped it bc I was tired and needed to rest. In the evening was dinner and dancing. There were so many speeches that we didn’t eat until almost midnight, then of course, I was chosen to lead the dancing. Who did I have to dance with? The principal of Eyumojock. Then I skipped out early to go to bed. Everyone else was up all night dancing.

The next week was Obama’s Inaguration. Everyone here loves Obama. They think that he will do a lot for Africa. I try to explain that Obama has lot of other things to do first. The inauguration was a pretty big deal here. I was invited to a party for it, but by the time I arrived, it was pretty low key. I went with a few friends to a bar here that has a TV outside so we could watch. Everyone there knew all of the political figures. People here are really interested in American politics. We watched Biden swear in, then Obama stepped up, and the power went out. Luckily, it came back on in a few minutes, so we were able to catch the tail end of Obama. It was really interesting to share the Inauguration of the American president with a group of Cameroonians.

That weekend, I traveled for a meeting in Fontem. I took a car, but I was amazed that it could travel on the terrible road. There were some parts of the road that were all mud, even though it hadn’t rained in weeks, and such huge dips in the road (they call the gallops here) that the car was almost sideways. It was kind of scary. In fontem, I met up with all of the volunteers in this province, for the Southwest Provincial mtg. The next day, we went on a hike through the bush to see some waterfalls. We were warned that it would be difficult, but I was not prepared. First there was a one hour hike, up and down hills to get to the bush. Then we hiked 2 hours straight down the side of a cliff. It was so steep that I crab walked in places to get down. I almost died a few times, when I slipped and almost fell. By the time I got to the bottom, I was exhausted. Then we had to hike over some huge rocks, to get to the falls, and then up another hill. The falls were beautiful though. There was about 5 different falls, each flowing into the next. There was a pool of water where some people swam, but it was too cold for me. Then came the trip back up over the rocks and up the cliff. I literally thought I might die at one point. It took me about 3 and ½ hours to get up the cliff. There were a few of us.. I referred to us as Team Slowpoke. The we had the hour hike back up and down hills to get to town. I was completely exhausted, and my whole body hurt. It was terrible. For the next few days I could barely walk. It was nice to see the falls, but I don’t know that I’ll make that trek again.

The next day, I went to Dschang to visit my friend Ben. He lives outside the city, up in the mountains. During the few days I was there, I had a few cooking lessons (since I can’t cook anything), I read my book, sat outside, and just relaxed. I haven’t had such a relaxing holiday ever. One day we traveled to Mbouda to visit some other volunteers. We took motos there, had some dinner and checked email, then left the next day. One day, Ben was sick, so we walked into the mountains to go to the health clinic. On the way, we stopped to see a medicinal garden, some pigs (I haven’t seen pigs here at all), and the Cameroon Tea Plantation. Apparently Cameroon makes tea and exports it. When we arrived at the clinic, I ran into a health volunteer that lives at the clinic. I hung out with him while I waited. A couple days later I returned to Mamfe. I got up early to take a moto to Dschang, then a car to Fontem, then I couldn’t find a car to Mamfe, so I took a moto. The bike ride was about 2 and ½ hours, and I was so glad to be off of that death trap. Thank goodness I was wearing my helmet. I thought we were going to go down a few times. My whole body was tired after that journey, and the driver wouldn’t take me the whole way to Mamfe, so then I had to take another car. The trip was exhausting. After that, it was back to school and my usual busy schedule. Next post, coming soon.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

So, I havent written in a long time but I wanted to catch you up on my christms vacation. Just before the holiday, I rushed and rushed to give an exam, to mark, and record all of my grades. I wanted to finish everything before leaving, and I almost did. All of the grades are recorded by hand in special books. Two of the books that I needed were missing, so I had to leave my marks with the vice principal. I found out later that there was an argument about it, because no one wanted to fill them for me. Anyway, I was filling early bc I had to miss one week of school for my In Service Training for Peace Corps. On that Saturday, I was up early to do some things in town before leaving. Close to midday, I left with my postmate Will and our counterparts to go to Buea. The journey wasn’t too bad, but it rained halfway through, so the road turned to mud. At one point, there was a huge truck carrying oranges that got stuck in the mud and blocked the road. We tried to help move the truck but it was too big, so we (about 25 cars) had to wait for another big truck. That truck came nose to nose with the other and pushed it backwards. It was kind of interesting to watch. At the halfway point, we stopped for food, and I ate chuku-chuku, aka porcupine. It was delicious. I was sitting in the middle of the front seats, and I was very very uncomfortable. When we finally arrived in Buea, it was after dark and I literally had a bruise on my butt. A friend was supposed to arrange for a hotel for us to stay the night, but of course, forgot. We took a taxi to find one and "rooms no dey." We went to another hotel, and what did we hear? Rooms no dey. A third? Rooms no dey. Come to find out, there was a convocation ceremony, so all of the hotels in town were booked. Seven hotels later, still nothing. I had to call another volunteer in the area to see if they knew of anything. We ended up with a sketchy half-built hotel, with no running water, where I had to share a bed with will’s counterpart. It was not the best nights sleep.

At 5am the next morning, we were up and on the road again. We stopped in the largest city in cameroon, Douala, which I do not like. Its like any big city. Too many people, too many cars, traffic jams, smog, and bugs. I’m a smaller town kind of girl. There was only one thing that I liked about Douala, and it was that our bus said it would leave at 9:30am, and it did! Most vehicles here wait until they are full to leave, and they never leave when they say they will. We continued on to Kribi for IST, and arrived in good time. We checked in and our hotel (Hstel Paradis) was right across the street from the beach. We met a few other volunteers and went out for lunch. This town in known for their fish, and the people we were with don’t like fish.. It was a little strange. I also learned that most of the volunteers here don’t like Cameroonian food. I don’t know if its bc they don’t try it or what, but I love it. I’m trying to think of ways to make it back in the US. Anyway, we got lunch, and sat at the beach, then had a big group dinner. It was nice to see people again, though I have kept in touch with the people that I am close with. Classes started the next day, where we talked about program planning and funding and similar topics. The worst was the funding session, bc it was all in French. Most of us picked up very little from that. I wasn’t happy bc the counterparts sat in with us on that session. At the end I could see dollar signs in my counterparts eyes. He wants me to build a road, dig a very deep well on the top of a hill, and build a computer lab. None of those things are in my job description. I don’t have that kind of money, and those ideas are unrealistic. We don’t even have electricity at my school - how will we have a computer lab? Anyway, every day at lunchtime, I went to sit by the beach and relax. After classes for the day, I did the same. I swam a few times, but there was a strong current so I got nervous. Kribi is beautiful though. I took pictures. The photos look like postcards.

At the end of IST, I stayed an extra day to see Les Chutes de la Lobe. They are one of the only waterfalls that flows directly into the ocean. We took a pirogue (carved out wooden canoe) around the bay. It wasn’t very steady, so I was afraid I would fall in. Then, our boat had a hole in it, so we started to take on water. Luckily, I have the thinking of Macgyver, and I plugged the hole with my finger. It did the trick. When we returned from the boat ride, we went for a swim. We decided to swim across the bay to a small beach. It was reasonably close, but the current was so strong that it took a long time to get there. I was exhausted when I reached it, then we had to turn around and swim back. The current was with me on the way back, so that was a lot quicker. Then, I decided to buy some artwork. If I had more money, I would have bought more, but I got some good deals on some paintings. I am very happy with my purchases.

From there, I headed to Yaounde. I had to get my eyes checked. Ive been seeing a lot of spots, and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t eye worms (that’s a real thing I could get here). My 5 minute appt told me very little though, but I’m pretty sure no worms. In Yaoundé, I did some fun stuff, like eat pizza and a salad, Chinese food, watch an american movie. There’s nothing like watching a movie where Martians kidnap Santa, while in Cameroon. From Yaoundé, I went to Tiko. I was intending to stop in Limbe (the beach), until I got a txt from Peace Corps saying not to go. Apparently, the Bakassi Freedom Fighters ( a Nigerian rebel group) threatened to invade, so it wasn’t safe to go. Last year, some oil rich land (bakassi) was awarded to cameroon and they want it back. They have kidnapped workers from oil rigs, and robbed some banks in their efforts. They never invaded, but Cameroon was prepared, with scores of military in the area. I stayed with some volunteers and had a quiet xmas. It really didn’t feel like the holidays to me, so I was planning on anti-Christmas, where I went to the beach, and didn’t give or receive any gifts. When I arrived in Tiko, all of the kids were so excited about the holiday, so we listened to xmas music, and danced around a small xmas tree, and we had some small gifts to open on xmas day. Xmas eve we had a big dinner and then a big breakfast xmas day. I was kind of bummed bc it seemed like xmas was over, but I heard from one of my Mamfe friends that was in the area, and he invited me to spend the day with his family. I went, and it was really nice. iThe whole family was there, so i met everyone, and his son was visiting from Sweden. He is a footballer (soccer player) there and he brought some of his footballer friends. That was interesting.

I left the next day for Mamfe. It is a tiring journey, but it was pretty short. I came home to no water bc the faucet had broken while I was gone, and the water had to be turned off. What a welcome. I relaxed for a few days, and helped one of my neighbors on the farm. I cleared weeds with a hoe, at 6am. I left with blisters on my hands, but it was an experience. On New Year’s Eve, I went to see the Chinese people here, and have dinner with them. Then I met the mayor and some friends out in town. It was fun, but I was so tired that I had a hard time staying awake. At one point, I gave a radio interview. That was weird. I hope no one was listening. Typical of Africa, everything ran late. We counted down the new year at 12:08am. Then it was home to bed. New Year’s Day, I was invited to the Palace at Besongabong to celebrate. We had lunch then drinks, and met many big men and chiefs from the area. In the evening, they all gave speeches. They didn’t want to tell me what it was about, but they were all members of a secret society called Ekpe, and they were saying their greetings. I have a few friends that tell me some things, so I’m not completely in the dark. I rested the next day, then visited Lauren (another volunteer) in Kembong. It was nice to have a mini holiday before going back to school. It was an action packed holiday, but nice. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays as well!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

This week has been very busy, as I have been preparing to go to Kribi for a Peace Corps meeting. I will see all of the other volunteers, and spend some time on the beach. that should be fun.

So, last week was relatively uneventful, just busy with school. sunday, divine (my counterpart) invited me to go to a village meeting with him and his wife. many people that live here in the southwest province, are actually from the northwest. they get together to share their culture. i went to the meeting, and everyone was drinking their specialty, corn beer. ive tried it before, but i cant drink it. the taste isnt too bad, but it smells like fermented corn. it kind of grosses me out. the meeting was all in limbum, their dialect, so i couldnt understand anything. i had to introduce myself, and people were very friendly. after the meeting portion, they played some music, then we ate. they made the typical northwest fare, fufu corn and njama-njama. its a play-doh like substance, that you eat with green leaves. you have to eat it with your hands, or it doesnt taste as good. then came the dancing. there was a youth dance, a mens dance and a womens dance. i was warned that i would have to dance with the women. when it was time, they tied a 'loin' on me (a long cloth that you tie as a skirt), and i had to dance. it was not pretty, but they were so happy that i tried. after, there was more dancing with everyone. it was fun to watch, but i did not participate. im not much of a dancer.

monday, i went to divine's farm, with him, his wife, and a teacher from school and his wife. i was told to wear flip flops and insect repellent. we walked to the bush (jungle) here , then into the bush. then we kept walking.. and walking. finally we arrived at the edge of a cliff. divine said the men would harvest there, and the women should go into the valley. i neared the edge of the cliff that i had to walk down, and as someone told me to be careful, i slipped and fell. right on my butt. i also scraped up my elbow pretty bad. that may be exaggerating. i got two small cuts, but they bled a lot. then i broke my flip flop. finally i made it to the valley to harvest cocoyams. they are these tubers that grow underground, and have a huge slimy stalk. once you pull it out of the ground, you have to break off all of the small yams from the big huge piece you pull out. i was covered in mud and insect bites in no time. it was kind of fun though. then i had to carry a really heavy bag back to divines house. his wife gave me a bag to bring home, and it was much heavier than the one i carried from the bush. i cooked some of the food... delicious!

tuesday was a big day for me. i can now say that i am an african film star. i had a role in a film that they are shooting here in mamfe. its all about tribalism. its called 'my tradition'. basically, the chiefs son wants to marry a girl from another province, and none of the parents want to allow it. i counsel the mother of the girl. its about a 2 min part, that took 2 hours to film - lets just say im not the best actress in the world. the movie should be out in april, and i hope to bring a copy home.. that is, if they do not cut my part. we'll see what happens.

the rest of the week has just been filled with marking papers and filling grades. everything is done by hand, so it takes forever. someday, the school will become computerized, and will save hours of work. this is the holiday season here, but its kind of depressing for me. xmas is for family, which i obviously dont have here. there are no carols, no decorations, and no snow.. what is xmas without those things? i guess my silver lining is that when i go home, i will enjoy it that much more. anyway, thinking of everyone at home.. i leave tomorrow morning for kribi, so happy holidays!!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

So its been a very long time since ive updated. I dont mean to delay. things have been very busy lately, and mostly when i go online, i check email then my internet time is finished. anyway.. heres whats new:

-I've gotten sick a few times. Mostly cata (cold) because the weather is changing. This season is called harmitan, when the rainy season changes to dry season. The mornings and evenings are very cool and very foggy. Then during the day, it is very very hot. It hasnt rained in almost 1 month now. I think im also getting a little sick bc of the heat. its exhausting. ive been better about sunscreen and using an umbrella as a parasol, but it still affects me. Ive also had a few stomach problems - I think worms once, but the school gave me anti worm meds. im teaching my classes about worms though, so it could have just been in my head. I got food poisoning twice, and now im sick every time i eat bitterleaf (one type of leafy green here). overall though, im ok.

-ive been to church quite a bit. every weekend, someone invites me to visit their church. somehow though, i still havent been to the catholic church here in mamfe. im sure ill be invited soon. i really like the singing at church. most churches have at least 2 choirs. one sings in english, the other in the dialect. sometimes there are also youth choirs, or french speaking choirs. they play different kinds of drums and sing. everyone in the crowd claps to the beat and dances. its really nice. i think that is what keeps me returning. i get tired of going though, bc sometimes mass will last for hours. i think the shortest one ive been to was 3 hours, but the longest was over 5 hours long. thats too much for me.

-classes have been cancelled a lot lately - we had guidance & counseling day, so no school. we had a visit from the delegate for the ministry of secondary education visit, so no school the day of the visit, or the day before. there is always an occasion. the spring term is worse, with very few full weeks of school.

-most weeks i go out for burning fish (roasted/grilled fish) at least once/week. i go with friends or other teachers, and its nice. will is usually there and we have a chance to catch up. i dont think ive eaten anything too strange this past month.. i ate cow intestine (not good), towel (i think the inside of a cows stomach, called towel bc it looks like a towel - not bad tasting), more bush meat (mostly antelope, and bush deer). i almost ate monkey once. someone dashed (gave as a gift) my friend felicia some meat. she made it and i was eating a dish of it, when she said it was monkey. we then pulled out the rest of the meat to look at the hands. luckily it was not monkey. its hands did not look human. it was a close call. i dont want to eat monkey here. too many of the monkeys are endangered, and i dont want to contribute to their extinction.

-ive started in a volleyball club. they play 6 days /week, which i am not up to, and i am really out of shape. their goal is fitness, so we have a full workout and run before we play. at first, it was really difficult, bc i didnt know how to play, and everyone speaks french. now it is a little better. people are nicer to me, and they attempt to speak english or pidgin. i also attempt to speak french, but it doesnt go over so well. i need more practice. i found a tutor, but we are trying to arrange times to meet. someday i will be able to communicate better with my team. there is also a tennis club starting right next to the volleyball court, so i might play that sometimes. i miss playing tennis.

- i saw one of my first traditional dances the other day. on friday, i went to the opening of a new bar/restaurant/hotel, called ottawa-cameroon. there was food and cake, singing and dancing. it was really nice. there was a juju there with his wife. it was a man all in costume, with long 'hair' to his waist, and shells at his ankles that make noise. the story is that if the juju comes to you, you must be his wife. luckily, he already had a masked wife that danced with him. we also saw 2 little girls in traditional costume that danced. they were adorable. the next night, i went to the Bafut tribe fundraiser. we ate and drank again, and there was a lot of singing and dancing. they had a really cool tradtional dance. all of the men wore these stockings over their faces, so you couldnt see who they were, and they had wooden animal heads as hats. they all danced around and the women of the tribe sang. they played instruments that ive never seen before. there was a long xylophone made out of longs and wood planks, and an oval enclosed drum, with 2 rectangular holes at the top. they make great noises. it was really fun to watch. i was invited to another traditional ceremony, but it is during my next training period, so i will not be able to go. i hear there are more coming soon, so thats exciting.

-ive gone visiting a few times. i have gone to okoyong to visit will, my closest postmate (at the girls boarding school), and also to see lauren in kembong (a health volunteer). its nice sometimes to see other places than mamfe. i also had a longer trip. i went to the southwest provincial meeting in tiko. all of the volunteers in this province met at a volunteers house to talk about how things were going, and to plan a project. im still a little confused about our project, but its giving some sort of info to people at the mt cameroon race. in february, people race to the top of the mountain. it takes like 2 days. its supposed to be pretty cool though. we had a nice time visiting with other pcvs, and even had some time to go to the beach. we went swimming at the black sand beach of madison park, and then went for fish at down beach. they have the freshest fish around. you walk around and choose the fish that you want cooked for yourself. i went a little crazy when i saw seafood, so i got a big fish, a stick of shrimp, a stick of calamari, and a small crab. it was amazing. i went back the next day to eat fish again.

-i also went to kembong for thanksgiving dinner. we didnt celebrate on thanksgiving day, but i did receive phone calls from home. it was so nice to hear from everyone at home! on sunday, we celebrated in kembong. the day before i bought groceries, and on sunday morning, lauren and i cooked. i had bought a live rooster, and one of my friends said they would kill it and cut it into pieces. i picked it up sunday, and it was killed and plucked, but still whole. lauren decided that i needed to learn how to cut up a chicken, so i did. it was not easy. i took pictures of me hacking at chicken legs to cut off the feet, and pulling some of the organs out of the body. it was not fun. touching the soft bloody neck of the chicken was gross. i successfully cut the chicken though, and we even cooked the feet (i had to cut off the toenails though). she was going to give the feet to the neighbor kids. anyway, we made ranch chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, garlic green beans, and a fruit tart. it came out really good, and was almost like thanksgiving at home. we forgot at the time, but after dinner we said what we are thankful for. mostly it was each other - having someone to be a friend and support each other, our families, and everyone that is thinking about us while we are away. lauren picked up my mail, and i was so happy that i recd things from home. there are people that really surprise me with their thoughtfulness. letters are especially nice to receive bc i read them again and again. of course, kitkat bars, aa batteries and anything in a packet are nice to have too :)

-in two weeks, i head out on my next trip. i have IST (in service training) in kribbe with peace corps. its at the beach, and its one week of catching up with everyone, going swimming and im sure there will be some training. its exciting though. as soon as that is over, its christmas time. im not sure of my plan yet, but i am definitely going to be back in mamfe for the new year. i hear it is fun to celebrate here, and it will be nice to have a few days to relax with no school. thats it for now, and ill try to update more often. i hope everyone has a nice holiday season!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

to continue a previous post...

-i have met lots of "big men" here in mamfe: the mayor, deputy mayor, numerous chiefs, and princes (eldest sons of chiefs). everywhere i go people greet me, which is nice. it makes me feel like im living in a community. i was recently invited to a palace. a friend of the deputy mayor, named prince charles invited me to his palace at besongabong. he is a character. he is a nigerian film star and producer that returned here after the death of his father. he always wears a straw hat. he is currently working on a film for american release, "voodoo assassins". if you see it, make sure to watch. anyway, he lives in a beautiful place. the inside reminds me of england, with cream walls and gold borders on everything, including the furniture. it definitely felt like a palace.

-we had the launching of the school year at my school. its a big event, hosted by a different school each year. all of the principals and vp, and government officials come. its like a big conference, with classes to go to and snack breaks and things. the students sang and had tradtional dances to entertain everyone. after, there was a big meal that i helped cook. all of the women know that i cant good traditional food, so invited me to watch them cook. all i really did was peel plantains and watch them prepare coki. after though, i got some to take home with me. that was a special treat.

-i have started teaching. i teach all of the form 2 biology classes (there are 5 different streams). each class has between 80 and 100 students. so far, its going ok. i try to speak slowly so they understand, and im trying to be strict. its difficult though, when classes are randomly cancelled, people come into classes to make announcements, or tell students to leave bc they havent paid school fees. there is always something to distract the students. i have my first test next week, so we will see if they are learning anything.

-this weekend we had teachers day. we all bought teachers day pagne (mine was blue and said teachers day all over it.. there are books and teachers on it too), so i could have an outfit made. my outfit had a matching top and bottom, and my hair was braided. everyone complimented me, that i looked like a true african! we all got together at the grandstand (a set of bleachers) and heard speeches from the big men. in between speeches, each school in the area sang or danced. when they were finished, we "marched". we all walked in a line past the grandstand. i thought it was going to be a parade through town, but no, it was about 20 seconds long. after, we met for food and drink.

-i had a true mamfe experience. as i was trying to post a while back, the power went out and i lost it. its not unusual for the power to go out, so i just left, thinking i would come back later. the power didnt come back that day, but we didnt think anything of it. we all thought it would be back the next day. nope. nor the next or the next. the water is actually connected to the power, so there was no water. i learned the hard way, to have a water storage container. over 1 week later, the power and water came back. that doesnt sound like very long, but when you dont have water stored, you depend on the rain to do dishes and flush the toilet. when there is no water, those things dont get done. also, showering with a cup of water (we call them bucket baths) do not make you feel clean. needless to say, the first thing i did when water returned was take a shower.

i spend most of my time here visiting. i have a lot of free time outside of school, so i visit friends in town, or in my neighborhood, and spend hours just sitting. the location changes, but its nice to relax and visit with friends. here, you dont even have to talk. sometimes you just sit in the company of someone else.

i also try to fix up the house. i have to clean almost everyday, but my neighbors say that i dont do it properly, so they always come to help me. the little kids can cook and clean better than i can!

my goal for myself is to learn how to cook. every week, one of the women teaches me a new food. maybe by the time i get home, ill be able to cook something nice. we'll see...This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

so im here in mamfe.. (and a little bummed. wrote a huge post, then the power went out)

lots of things have happened. ill try to catch up:

-gave my presentation in french. i gave traditional recipes and brought in spices to show the class. i got a 98.7%. very nice.

-went to yaounde for the weekend. we had to do banking, and had a few training classes. other than that, ate a ton.. had a cheeseburger, pizza, chinese food and 2 milkshakes. everything was so delicious, even though all of that milk made me very sick. i had not eaten cheese or had ice cream in 3 months, so i had to catch up. i also bought a really cool batik tapestry. next time i go back, i plan on buying more.

-had SWEARING IN! i am now an official volunteer. all of the important people from town were there.. the chief, mayor, the us ambassador, host families, etc. some women gave a traditional dance and music. the town also honored the director, and had him dress in traditional pagne, juju (beads), and gave him a throne, staff and some other accessories. it was really neat to see.

-went out dancing swearing in night. i had one last dinner with my host family, then went out. for the first time in 3 months, no curfew, so we all stayed out all night. we went dancing at cristal, for hours. it was really fun

-the next morning, left for mamfe. we took a bus to dschang, dropped off a few people, then continued to buea, where we had to switch vehicles. from there to kumba, where we met up with another volunteer and had a chicken dinner.

-discovered that my ipod was stolen. i think i know who took it, and im NOT happy. i had a lot of my photos saved on it, so they are all gone. im hoping it will turn up, but not holding my breath.

-the next day came to mamfe. found out that my house is still not finished and will not be for another month. i was living with another volunteer. sleeping on the couch for a month gets old, real quick. to break it up, spent a weekend in okoyong with will. he works at an all girls catholic boarding school. we ate all of our meals at the convent, but they were good meals. also spent a few days in kembong with lauren. she taught me how to cook 2 meals: geloff rice and porridge plantains. they were better when she made them, than when i make them.

-met my staff at school. they are all really friendly. through them joined the staff social (amicale), a womens group, and an njangi/tanteen (sort of a savings program). all of them meet monthly and have food and drinks. its nice.

-finally, i moved into my house. it was ready later than expected, and i slept on the floor for a few nights. that was no fun, but at least it was my own place! its beautiful. i have a tiled veranda, a large parlor with wood patterned ceiling, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a small back veranda. its a duplex, and they are still working on the other house, so i have to put up with construction, but thats ok. there is also a little bit of work in my own house, but thats ok too. i made friends with the man that is laying tile next door, and he is around to help with any problems i have.

-speaking of problems, i have had 2 slight mishaps:

1 - on my birthday, i thought i would treat myself to a nice long shower in my new house. after my nice long shower, i discovered that the drain doesnt work, and gallons and gallons of water leaked out of the bathroom and into my bedroom.. then that leaked into the hall. after my nice long shower, and to clean up all of the water, using just a towel. it was not fun.

2 - after the drain was fixed, i went into the bathroom one day and found water on the floor. i tried to find the leak.. i thought it was from the hose that led from the wall into the toilet. as i touched it to see, the hose fell off and started spraying water everywhere. i was soaking wet, and had to call over the tiler to turn off the water for me.

i guess its not a new house without mishaps.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

I had some free time and thought i would post; even though i havent done much lately. We are closing out model school, so in the past week I have written, proctored, and graded exams. Overall, the students did ok. I took pictures of my classes at the end, so when i figure out how to post them, you will all get to see my kids. Through most of training, we have had action packed schedules, and now we finally have free time. its kind of weird having absolutely nothing to do. I have a presentation to give (in french), a soiree culturel (where all of the clubs give a skit or something to show everyone what they have been working on), our model school closing ceremony, a trip to yaounde and then swearing in. it will go by quickly im sure.

so in the past week:

-we have played numerous scattergories games using scraps of paper, not an actual game

-we have searched for new bars to hang out at, bc pierres (the usual haunt) is getting really old

-i have played a lot of uno games with my host family. i learned that the pidgin word for shuffle is boxam

-i had two 13 year old girls cook dinner for the weekend. my mom went out of town, so the girls cooked. my meals involved lots of plain bread and boiled bananas. needless to say, ive had better

-we visited the chefferie superieur and met the chief of bangangte. we saw historical black and white photos of the previous chiefs, and saw an authentic zebra skin rug, complete with mane. it had a very nice end table on top of it. he served a huge lunch, with chicken, goat, fish, rice, fried plantains, greens and more. it was delicious... well, all except the chicken that tasted like rubber (the knife i had couldnt even cut it) and the goat. i found out later that when there are chickens that run around and eat out of the neighborhood garbage piles, the meat tastes a little rubbery. the goat wasnt bad except for the huge layer of fat around the meat. the meat was good though.

-i received letters and packages galore this week! 2 packages (both from mom), and 4 letters. it makes me so happy bc i know that people havent forgotten me. feel free to keep those coming. i think letters are almost nicer than packages bc i can re-read the letters. better yet, send letters with packages!

-i also received a message from a rpcv that served at my post in 1999. the experience sounds life changing, and he still references the pc experience. i hope to be like that when i finally return home in 2010. it sounds so far away, but 3 months have already passed by in a flash.

i cant wait to move to post.. im trying to buy a few things ahead of time, for my house that is still under construction. at some point, i would like to get a cat. it will be nice to have some company, and cats are good for eating bugs. by the way; my post is in the filaria capital of the world. if you are bored, look it up. its only the worst disease ever. anyway, back to peace corps life. hope all is well at home!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

working on changing my old pic website. new one will be called melissainafrica.shutterfly.com. at some point in the future, it will have new pics. thanks!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

That last post was so long, but i though i would say a little something about my house in mamfe. there are 4 new houses being built, and mine is sort of a duplex. there are 3 bedrooms, living rooM, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and im pretty sure i have both running water AND electricity! a lot of volunteers do not have that. i saw my house in progress while i was in mamfe, but i have since learned that it will not be completed in time for me to move in. that means, for a few months i will be living with another volunteer. supposedly i will have a fancy wood floor in my living room (most houses have cement). i will try to post pics once my house is completed.

also, i just finished my second day teaching here in model school. the first day went surprisingly well. i thought the kids would be bad (they were for their first teacher), but it was ok. i had 2 chemistry classes, then another 2 today. some of the kids love to give answers, but a lot of kids dont speak very much. im trying to draw out the girls, bc they never say anything. these classes are to prepare us for teaching at our sites, but my site will be very different. right now i have 14 kids in one class and 18 in the other. at site i will have about 70 per class. tomorrow i teach an it class, which is not that helpful for me, as my school does not have any computers.

its been cold and rainy here for the last few days, so i hope you are all enjoying the warm weather and sunshine at home!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

I know it has been a long time since i have written, but I haven’t had much access to the internet. Quite a few things have happened in the past couple weeks. We have had a lot of health and info sessions, and learned about many of the horrible diseases we can get living here, like worms and malaria, and learned a lot about hiv/aids. We actually had guest speakers come in to tell us about living here with hiv. The stories that we heard were terrible. Their families and neighbors stopped talking to them, and one mans story was in the newspaper. His town found out that he had hiv before he did; he was in the hospital at the time. It was an eye opening experience, to see how people can be treated here.

On a lighter note, I also found out my site. I will be posted in Mamfe, in the southwest province. It’s the hottest place in southern Cameroon; its located in a valley, as opposed to most cities that are in the mountains. I will be placed at a bilingual school, though I don’t know what ill be teaching yet.

I travelled to Mamfe last week with my counterpart (another teacher at the school). We caught a bus from here in Bangante with a few other trainees to Bafoussam. Then 4 of us continued in a car to Dschang. From there we took a short break, and I bought apples. They were the cheapest ive seen yet; so I had to buy them. I also went to a `traditional’ house, where I tried palm wine for the first time. It’s the strangest thing. When it first comes out of the tree, its this sweet soapy looking liquid. It is interesting. When you drink it, it tastes almost healthy. After about 2 days, it has fermented and tastes more alcoholic. I tried that too, but didn’t like it. After that I hopped back on a bus with my counterpart to go to Kumba. The driver was interesting, giving points of interest (which were then translated to me by my counterpart). What was more interesting; was that the vehicle did not have an emergency brake, so anytime the driver got out of the vehicle (which was often), I had to reach my leg around the stickshift to hold the brake so we didn’t roll away. Those passengers lives were in my hands, and they didn’t even realize it. We stayed in Kumba overnight, but not before I ate street meat (or soya as it is called here). The meat sits out all day, and cant be good for you, but tastes so delicious. The next day I got into a 4 x 4 to travel the horrible road that leads to Mamfe. The road is really torn up and obviously not paved. A lumber company along the way is slowly trying to repair it, so that they can travel the road; but it’s a slow process. Anyway, we loaded up the truck (we were transporting about 200 lbs of marble tile), 6 people in the cab, and another 4 people in the bed, sitting on top of everything loaded in the truck. We got stopped at the first gendarmes checkpoint, bc there are duties to pay on any supplies being brought in or out of certain areas. Our fees were so high, that the driver got into a fight with the gendarmes and we were told to pull over. After all the men in my vehicle hopped out to argue, we were on our way to Mamfe again. Not even half an hour later, our vehicle broke down. Again, all the men hopped out to see what the problem was. I could have sworn that they fixed it with glue, but in retrospect, it may have been oil. Then another hour later, car broke down again. Turns out, the problem was oil, bc most of the engine oil had leaked into a puddle at my feet in the cab. They added more oil and some tape (for the hole in the line), and we were off again. Next problem was that we got stuck in the mud. We were so heavy that we got stuck and couldn’t get out. We all had to get out of the vehicle and the men had to push. We got out, and not too much later we got stuck in a different spot. Same thing – got out, men pushed. Then we stopped for lunch, where I ate bush meat. Supposedly I ate antelope. It tastes like a mix between venison and pork chops. It was pretty good. My counterpart ate antelope and porcupine, which I hear is really good. A common bush meat here is monkey, but I didn’t see any of that. We continued on, and we were about 1 hour to Mamfe when the driver got into a fight with a passenger and refused to drive us anywhere. After a while, this young kid started driving. Im not sure he was even high school age, and he was NOT a good driver. He ran us into the tops of trees, and almost knocked off the guys in the back of the truck. As soon as he stopped to drop someone off, we got a new driver (our third of the day). This driver was the owner of the vehicle, and drove like a crazy person. Our first driver tried to avoid holes, but this guy did not. He just rammed through them, and I was thrown all over the cab. Of course, there are no seatbelts –only one for the driver. At this point, I was tempted to put on my helmet. After this; one of the guys in the bed dropped his cell phone on the road and wanted to stop to find it, so we stopped the vehicle. Then the road was washed out; so we all walked and the truck tried to take a motorcycle trail (successfully). Then we got a flat tire, so we had to stop, then the road was washed out again. This time we had to wade through the water to walk through it, so I probably have some sort of weird worm in my feet from being in the fresh water. After that we finally made it to Mamfe. The 4 hour drive took us almost 12 hours. The only thing that would have made my trip longer was if it rained, bc then we would have spent the night on the road until the water dried. Luckily; that did not happen. Once in mamfe, I stayed with a current volunteer. We spent the next few days seeing the town, meeting people and eating. I had a lot of local foods, the most popular of which is eru and fufu. Its sort of greens that you eat with this starchy food made from kasava. Its not bad; but very hard to describe. I had a very nice time there, and everyone was really friendly. I even went to a club one night. The heat will take some getting used to though. I sweated the whole time I was there; and I like the heat. Next time I write, ill give details about my house. Right now, its still under construction. After my visit; I had an uneventful trip back, and im currently in bangante. Please keep in touch, and letters are much appreciated!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

I havent been on in a while so i apologize. im trying to stay away from technology, and live like the hcns (host country nationals). some people here learned how to dial into the internet through our cell phones, and i will admit that i miss my computer, but im also a little bit happier this way. the culture here is not dependent on technology the way that americans are, and its kind of nice. i would love some mail though. i havent gotten any yet, and the mail system is now taking about 5 weeks to receive anything. phone calls would be great too. i heard there are a lot of inexpensive phone cards at justphonecards.com.

so things are going well here. every thursday the class has a big football (soccer) game, and a few teachers and hcns play. its a lot of fun, and ive been on winning teams both times. i play defense, and act as a 'human shield'. really, i just stand around until the ball comes my way, and let the ball hit me. i end up covered with red clay at the end of the game. yesterday i attempted to be goalie. i had a few saves and then one got past me. it was kind of a bummer.

last night we had a birthday party for 2 of the girls here celebrating bdays this weekend. after school we all went to the market then started cooking. the power was out, so we cooked by candlelight. my official job in africa is as designated potato peeler. my host mom told me the other day that im slow, but i dont waste much potato, so she will let me continue. anyway, we went with a mexican theme for the party, with enchiladas, spanish rice, and mashed potatoes and crepes which didnt really fit the theme. all of my classlates were there and it was really fun. at one point, we did pull out the rent soundtrack for some singing, which was not appreciated by all. we even got to stay out past our 7pm curfew, and i went home at about 11oclock.

this week should be interesting. immersion starts monday, so classes are in french only, and if we are hanging out at the school we must speak french. well see how that goes. thursday we find out our site placements, so i will know where i am moving in august. the next weekend i will visit my site so that should be interesting too. it will be nice to finally know.

i finally got sick here, and i thought it was dysentery, but i was told that it was only food poisoning. i was only sick for a short time though. i did get a bug bite that made me break out in hives (well; one hive), but that was kind of weird.

host family is going good. i had to babysit the kids for two days while the parents were out of town. i sort of learned how to light a lantern. well, i guess thats it for the moment, so everyone keep in touch! miss everyone tons, and hope all is well at home.

oh, and im having trouble uploading pics, so ill post when im able!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

So this will be short b/c i am not a fan of this french keyboard. before we left yaounde, went out dancing at a club: it was really fun: they first played american music, but then switched to african: i found ouit the hard way, to ask how much a drink is before i buy it: (dont remember if i already told that story):

i made it here in one piece, and the bus ride was only about 4 hours: i met my host family and they are awesome. my mother and father are both teachers, and there are 5 kids in the house: two nephews about 18; anais, 9; alexandra, 7; and andrew, 4. they are adorable. we speak constant french; so thats interesting: i have my own room and we have water and electricity, but the power goes out often. there is no hot water, so i have been taking ice cold showers: we have chickens and rabbits (apparently they will be for dinner) and the roosters wake me up every morning (and sometimes nights) with their cocorico noise: food here is good: my host mom is a great cook, and everything is super spicy; havent gotten sick yet:

this weekend we went to bafoussam to a school: we were guest presenters for the hundreds of prizes given out to good students: it was interesting, and the chief of the village was there: yesterday i got invited to a 12 year olds bday party: the food was good, and there was a dance contest: that was fun to watch:

thats it for now: please send text msgs, letters and packages! if you need my info; email me!

miss everyone at home, and i especially miss the internet connection. talk to you soon.This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

So I made it ok to Africa. The flights werent so bad. Philly to Paris, 2 hour layover, paris to douala cameroon, 1 hour layover, douala to yaounde. We left at 645pm friday, arrived to cameroon at 7pm saturday. It went by quick though, and not too much jet lag. There are 38 people in my program, from all over the country. We have a pretty good group - everyone is pretty laid back and fun. Since we have gotten here, we have eaten a lot. they have a salad (always different) for every meal, then rice, meat and veg, then fruit for dessert. im having a bit of trouble, since i dont like most of the fruit (pineapple, watermelon, other melons), but im trying a couple bites each time. We are still drinking bottled water though. tomorrow we learn to treat the water so we can use it from the tap.

We had a party last night at the country directors house, with a big buffet. I ate chicken, beef, 2 kinds of fish, little egg rolls, shrimp, fancy breads, and fruit. We also met the Ambassador. She was the US representative in cameroon. That was kind of cool. I also got my first mosquito bite. (i was wearing insect repellent too!)

The weather here has been cooler than i thought it would be. The nights are cool, where i need a sweater, with the same in the morning. All the days have started out about the same, and cloudy, then around 10 it gets a lot warmer and humid. Its nice though. Further north its much hotter, but wetter also. This is the rainy season.

Yesterday we had a chance to walk around town. A few of us headed toward town, close to wear the soccer stadium is. I guess in 2 years, the world cup is supposed to be there. Most of the roads are paved, but there are no sidewalks and no grass. There are a lot of vendors on the street, selling peanuts, grilled corn, grilled fish, watermelons, pineapples, and a lot of other goods. We are not allowed to eat any of them yet, or i probably would have bought something.

today was testing for french, as lessons begin tomorrow, and some more shots. i only have 6 left. we also got our med kits, and more anti malaria pills. I'm in yaounde for another few days, so ill try to post more. i also get a cell phone later, so i wont be out of touch. email if you get a chance!

a bientot!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

So here i am, at the hotel about to leave the country. i only have a minute for a quick post. we had our training here in philadelphia, which went by quick. there are 38 people in my group, from all over the country. we fly out tonight and arrive in cameroon on saturday night, just in time for dinner and bed. training was spent doing ice breakers and learning about culture shock, and of course, shopping. will send email or post once we arrive. bye!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

Well, its 5am on monday morning, and i leave wednesday for philadelphia for pc staging. I woke up, trying to figure out where my ipod charger is.. i actually tried to pack a little yesterday, and found out that i am missing quite a few things that i want to bring. i also realized how many things i still have to do, so i obviously can't sleep. since my last post, i have had 2 going away parties, and numerous going away lunches. kevins going away party was nice, and i saw a lot of people that i havent seen in a long time. saturday was my moms going away party, which was also nice. my family came, and i was surprised at a few of the people that showed up. im starting to realize that i have some really great friends, who have been there for me when ive started to freak out. those freak outs are happening a lot more, now that i am getting closer to leaving. on the one hand, i am excited for the program to start, but on the other, im finding it really hard to go. i have been preparing for months, and its no surprise to be leaving, but i wish i had more time here. there are still so many things to do, and so many people that i want to see. its going to be so hard to leave kevin and my mom. both of them are going to be so upset when i go.

so for right now, while kevin is sleeping, im trying to form a plan for the day. i have a lot of banking to do, and i have to pick up some last minute things. for anyone that i dont end up seeing, ill be thinking of you while im gone, and please write!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.

Well, as most of you know, I have been accepted into the Peace Corps and leave for Cameroon on June 4, 2008. I will be teaching secondary ed science and hiv/aids education. If the need arises, I may also have to teach computer literacy, but we'll see. At this point, I think my plate is full, as everything I teach will be done in French. I took french in high school, but my mind is like a sieve. I have a lot of refreshing to do. Luckily, PC set me up with Rosetta Stone language learning, and we learn French in training.

For now, I am working on paperwork. The whole PC process has been filled with paperwork, but hopefully its coming to an end. I'm also trying to pack, and getting nowhere. Most of the suggested packing lists state to bring "shirts" and "dress clothes". Not very specific or helpful. I also don't want to bring my favorite clothes that I will most likely ruin. Its hard packing for 2 years when I can only bring 2 suitcases. I have been told numerous times though, that in Cameroon you can have tailored outfits made for cheap. I will probably end up doing that.

I'm still home for 3 weeks though, so I would like to see as many people as possible. Kevin (the boyfriend) is throwing a party memorial day weekend for the holiday/my going away/2 graduations. It should be a good time. Then the weekend before I leave, my mom is also throwing a party. Not big on parties when I am the guest of honor, but it will be nice to have a chance to say goodbye to everyone. I guess that's it for my first post, but feel free to comment/email me!This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of The United States government or The Peace Corps.