We’re halfway there! Whoaaaaaa! (…think bon jovi tune) One year down, one to go.

I’ve spent a little over a year here in Cameroon and what a year that has been. I’ve had so many experiences that I can’t decide if it feels as though I arrived in country just last week or that I’ve already spent five years here. Somehow the two options exist simultaneously in this life we live as Peace Corps Volunteers. Living in a small village in Africa has taught me many skills, some of which I will never have need for again. I would like to share with you a few of the lessons I have picked up over the year.

• Cleanliness is just a difference of opinion. My neighbors think I am dirty because I don’t sweep the rocks in front of my house. I think they are dirty because they don’t wash their hands with soap. Just opinions.
• Having only an outdoor bucket bathing area is actually quite liberating and enjoyable. Except when the weather decides to be rainy, windy and/or cold. Then I decide that a shower is not necessary that day.
• My cooking has improved ridiculously. It’s amazing how creative one can be with the village staples of rice, onions, mangoes and Maggie cubes. One day I will post some of the recipes I cook.
• If a meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m., the meeting won’t start until 3 p.m. on a good day. And that pretty much goes for any event scheduled with a time.
• Nassara! Nassara! No, those people are not yelling my name with a little accent twist to it. It just means ‘white person’ in the local language. It is hard to be always reminded of your skin color when that is what we are taught to ignore in the states.
• Just because it is an American-based company, does not mean the people who work for it are competent. Case in point: Sonel (AES), the electric company.
• Duct tape is the best invention ever. Not only does it fix pretty much everything but can also be rolled up into a ball for a fun game for the classroom.
• I can make anyone smile here by breaking out in dance. My white girl dancing is amusing to all Cameroonians. Sometimes they smile approvingly and other times they are just straight out laughing at me.

That’s just a few of my observations from the year. And I’m eager for all of the lessons and surprises this next year in Cameroon will bring and I can continuing sharing with you all. Thanks for the support!

Koki and piment: a spicy mush that is most likely clogging my arteries as we speak…er as I write this.

So I just had my market – day usual: a delicious 100 cfa filling of koki and piment which amounts to about 20 cents. During my training in the south I tasted the koki and absolutely hated it. Couldn’t even imagine how people could stomach this oily mess. But since moving to the North and becoming more accustomed to the Cameroonian staples, my hatred has transformed from ‘I wouldn’t even feed that to my dog that I don’t have’ to ‘okay I can eat this occasionally’ and then to ‘I really enjoy this and will start buying it every market day.’ Now my likeness toward koki has blossomed to a full-blown love of it. I crave the spiciness and count the days down to the next market day where I can buy this orange blob again. I am just not sure if the koki and pimont ensemble share the same feelings.

To explain, the koki is made up of finely grounded white beans mixed with a whole lotta palm oil, which a red thick oil. Piment peppers, salt and other spices are added to the mix before boiling for a while. Then I eat it with piment – a very spicy, oily sauce. It doesn’t seem to have much nutritional value just the fact that it fills the belly up quickly and cheaply. I don’t want to have to judge my weekly serving but I can’t see how it could be beneficial for my heart arteries. So I might not have any more nutrients or vitamins in my system, but don’t worry mom and dad, I am keeping the weight on!

Bon appetit!

8 mars: bon fete! (march 8, happy women's day!)

Athough Women's Day is allotted on March 8, the activities began a full week before. I joined the women playing football a couple times in a tournament! It turned out to be really fun, tiring and amusing to see some of the older ladies kick a ball around. But there were a couple younger players who were pretty intense about the game and I kept up for the most part, but I found out later that they said not to push the 'white girl'. But it was a great bonding experience sweatin' it out with the ladies. There was also cultural soirees which are events held in the evening and the women dance or act out sketches. I didn't always understand the sketches when they spoke the native language of Moundong but they did speak of the rights and equalities of women in Cameroon which is great to at least start talking about it!

On the actual day of March 8, I 'marched' (yes, i said march) in a line in front of the important people of the community in my pagne (fabric) specially made for Women's Day 2010. Here are a couple photos of the defilé.



They stuck me right in front of the lines. Very Awkward.





I spent the rest of the day partying with the women and my Girl's Club. The evening was full of eating, drinking, socializing and cant forget about the dancing! And as for the whole production, I met some of the more influential and successful women which was great to see in my little village.

Quality Bilingualism for Quality Education; You can decipher what exactly that means...

I wanted to share some photos of Bilingualism Day so enjoy!


My 6eme class singing Row Row Row your Boat.


My 5eme class reading a Cameroonian poem in English.


My 4eme class singing the chorus of Lean on Me


A class singing and dancing to This Old Man.


And some students playing Simon Says.

Now that I know how this works I hope to add more photos in the future. Go English Day!

so...how about that weather?

I fully realize that in the states when we start talking about the weather it is because we have run out of things to say or the conversation is going nowhere. It is quite the opposite here. People like to do this thing called ‘state the obvious’ so the weather is discussed in almost every conversation. And its not even like the weather changes dramatically. I probably say ‘Yes, it is hot today’ about twenty-seven times a day. But I don’t mind. In a way it connects me with the people here. Now on to my real topic: I really am going to discuss the weather.

Dry season started in the middle of October when the rain officially stopped. But we could see the real change within the first weekend of December. Suddenly everything actually felt dry, the heat and air, and a light cloud of dust descended onto my village. It disappeared but the wind appeared in its place. During the months of December and January, every night the wind came, forcefully blowing its way around my house. Because my village is located right next to mountains, the wind is amazingly powerful. I would wake up several times a night from the noise of wind whipping past the windows. And it would be chilly in the morning! Too cool to bathe in the morning and I even wore a sweater on some days!

The combination of dry season and the wind increased the amount of dust in the air. My sinuses cannot seem to become accustomed to it because it has left me with a bloody or very runny nose. There is also this phenomenon called the harmattan winds that blow in from the Sahara and fill the air with dust. From what it sounded like it was not bad this year but there were some days were it was hard to see the mountains next to my house. Now the coolness has parted ways and it seems to be heating up very quickly. At midday the sun is already beating down with full force and it is stronger than any sun I felt in the states. And it will only get hotter in March…whew…so how about that snow in the states?

Bilingual? More like two hundred and fifty-six-something-lingual.

Although the official two languages of Cameroon are French and English, it is really quite different in the field. From my experience I would say majority of Cameroonians speak French (some speak French well, some speak a simplified version of French) and the majority of Cameroonians do not speak English. They might know a couple of words here and there and have the greetings memorized but actual conversations are not possible.

My village is pretty small and what we call “en brusse” so there is even less formal language and more of a mélange of tribal languages. The tribe in my village is the Moundong so they have their own langugage but the language of the Extreme North, Fulfolde, is from another tribe. The villagers have told me that by the end of two years I will speak fluent Moundong but I am finding it pretty difficult just to pick up this gibberish. Luckily, I have several students who find it very amusing to teach me the local langue. I have a couple of pages of translated phrases and the students will force me to practice with them. And I can always get a kick out of the older ladies of the village if I throw out some Moundong words.

But all these languages are getting hard to keep track of and sometimes speaking English has even become more difficult. In class, I speak a slower, simplified version of English. A couple of my colleagues practice their English with me but once again, I have to think of simplified phrases before I respond. It is an interesting blend of teaching English but speaking another language to communicate. So there’s a reason if you start noticing my blogs becoming more dull and simplified. Maybe I can just add some French and Moundong to spice it up.

And to those of you stateside, happy thanksgiving! Eat a cold turkey and mashed potato on wheat bread sandwich for me. Mmmm mmmm.

fulfilling (or lack thereof) my duties as a woman

For one, I am a terrible cook. At least in these conditions. I still have not been able to find a gas tank for my stove. I don’t understand how there are just not any bottles and an explanation has yet to be given so it remains a mystery why I cannot find one. So I cook over charbon (charcoal) and it is Difficult! There is a technique to lighting the charcoal that I cannot seem to master so that takes about an hour. Then actual cooking time takes about another one to two hours depending on how long it takes for the charcoal to really heat up. I have to plan my meals far in advance so usually I try to make as much food as possible that will keep without a fridge. So far I have made goopy pasta, runny oily eggs and metallic-tasting rice (that’s a whole other story that I will not get into here). None of it has actually tasted good but I guess it is edible because I haven’t gotten sick. I managed to eat most of the meals mostly because I was hungry but I had to throw some of it to the dogs. My lack of skill is embarrassing. It gets better every time so hopefully soon the food will be decent! Good thing for Maggie seasoning (MSG in a cube).

And second, I often surprise people when they ask me if I am married and have kids and I respond no to both questions. Sometimes for shock value I like to add that I don’t want this. I mean I am a lady of child-bearing age (if not too old), what else could I possible want? Then they start inquiring about if I would marry an African, specifically a Cameroonian. I have had some people, usually men, tell me as-a-matter-of-fact that I will get married and spend the rest of my life here. (They obviously don’t know me. Not that I am necessarily opposed to the idea but I am not really the type to sit in one spot.) Guys will ask to be my petit ami (boyfriend) the second time they see me. I feel as though they see me as a ticket out of here. The ‘unwanted attention’ does get tiring but it quickly makes you realize an aspect of life here: relationships of the genders.