Cameroonian weddings

So a few days ago I went to a Cameroonian wedding. It was a Catholic wedding and I went to it with another one of the volunteers here in country. It was her co-workers wedding. So, it was suppose to start at 3pm and we show up, dressed in our culturally appropriate pagne outfits and with our hair pulled back and sit down towards the middle /back of the church and just wait. Choir practice was still going on (things here rarely start on time). But by about 3:30 people were rolling in for this wedding and it began soon after. I had no idea what to expect from a Catholic Wedding in Cameroon but I was super excited to get to play "wing man" to my friend and come along. The mass/service (my Catholic terminology isn't great, sorry) was all in French and the music (which made up about 1/2 of the serivce) was in various ethinic languages of the area (like Fufulde). The singing was beautiful even though I understand none of the local dialects. I got about 1/2 the French. I was good about understanding the people who were talking when it wasn't reading from the Bible or directly part of the mass (like when the bride and groom spoke to each other or the congregation) but understanding the father who was given the mass was harder for me. People rolled into the church throughout the whole ceremony. The bride and groom walked down the aisle together followed by their parents. There was a little girl who was dressed in a white "flower girlish" dress and a little boy in a mini tux as well. The bride did wear a beautiful white wedding gown that looked like something right out of a western wedding and she wore a white hat with flowers and such on it. The dress had a train which a women carried for her and I believe there were 3 bridesmaids (well there were women in matching pagne who seemed to play some role in the wedding). The bride and groom exchanged rings and vows and kissed to seal the deal. I wasn't sure if they were going to (public affection is a big no no in Cameroon) but they did. Oh, at some point in the middle of the ceremony a crazy man wondered into the church and made a bee line for my friend and I. He then tried to talk to us in incomprehendable French and the whole time his penis was hanging out. We were trying hard not to create a scene in the middle of this wedding but a crazy man off the streets who was obviously unwell was getting angry at us in French that made no sense and his penis was hanging out in the middle of a wedding. After a few minutes (or what felt like a few minutes) a man from a few rows back came and helped him out of the church. I don't think we disturbed the church at all to be honest, phew. Oh, another funny thing, apparently the same Bible versus are popular in Cameroon. I heard the verse from 1 Cor about "love is patient, love is kind" at this wedding service. That cracked me up for some reason. About 1/2 of the congregation didn't go up to take communion so I didn't have to deal with the "do I go and take communion even though I am not Catholic" dilemma, which was nice. The church that this wedding was held in was beautiful and spottlessly clean. Honestly, I want to know how they got this giant church that clean and spider free. I surely cannot seem to accomplish that with my own house here which is much smaller. Oh, my other favorite part of the wedding was that after taking communion the bride and groom and wedding party walked out of the church from the side and then walked back down the aisle again this time carrying tons and tons of eggs. I have no idea what they were for, at first I was worried that might be their version of bird seed, but nothing came of the eggs - they just got walked down the aisle. After the bride and groom walked back down the aisle as husband and wife for the final time they took pictures together outside with the wedding party and families. I have no pictures of this wedding because while I had my camera I just didn't feel comfortable taking pictures like I was a tourist at their wedding or something. There was a photographer who was obviously the person taking pictures but other than that not many people were taking pictures so I would have felt odd doing so. After the wedding the wedding party did a tour of the city together and then we all met up at a reception at their new house. It was beautifully decorated and all took place in their outdoor porch and front yard area that was in their concession. Since it was a Catholic wedding, there was a wine bottle at each table but no plates so we were worried we wouldn't be getting dinner. But, we did get food - there was a buffet set up in their living room area. It was lovely Cameroonian food and I ate my fill. Did I mention yet that throughout this whole wedding reception there were Christmas lights in the trees behind me that played a high pitched rendition of jingle bells, we wish you a merry christmas and santa claus is coming to town over and over and over. I almost ripped them down and threw them over the fense. Luckly, they played other music about half the time and it drowned most of the obnoxious sound out. The best part of this reception was by far the gift giving. Everyone who brought a gift was instructed by the MC who narriated the whole wedding to line up single file started with the mothers of the bride and groom and a women who may have been the maid of honor. Then, the bridesmaids and bride and groom stood on the porch and while the mothers of the bride and groom brought up their gifts they danced up with their gifts (and I mean DANCED) and each of them got their own personal song chanted by the rest of us in the audience. Then, after these 2-3 special people gave their gifts and got their own personal song and dance time the audience sang one song while everyone else danced up their gifts and the people on stage started a veritible assembly line of gift passing. It was amazing to watch. Then, the bride and groom had their first dance together. It lasted literally 10 seconds. Not kidding. Then, the mother of the bride danced with the father of the groom (and vice versa) and each of those lasted another 10 seconds. After this - cake. That's right wedding cake. It had a similar frosting to the typical wedding cake in America and was fruity tasting. With cake they brought out bottles of champaigne with plastic corks for each table and we opened and drank that. There was no toasting to the bride and groom or anything like that but they did feed each other bites of cake with a fork before the cake was cut and given out to the guests. After cake, dancing began. This lasted for a while. At midnight (the reception began at 7ish) when everyone was still dancing (no I wasn't dancing but I was entertained by watching - Courtney I needed you there to make me dance!) they brought out a dead animal carcase and carved it up on the side of the dance floor and passed out trays of cut up meat to those on the dance floor and those other lame people like myself who weren't dancing. Soon after this I got taken home, thankfully (I was exhausted) and got to go right to bed. I get up really early here so that was super late for me! I am not sure that even with this long description you can understand how awesome this wedding was. Parts of it were so similar to America (they read the same typical Bible verses and feed each other cake) but other parts (like the gift exchange) were so abnormal. We even got party favors (gum wrapped in pink chafon) when we left the party! It was great fun!

Other things I have noticed here about the culture - while the country is very homophobic, men here hold hands all the time. It is really trippy because men and women don't hold hands, only men and men. Strange. Alright, well I think that is about all I have to say about the wedding and I am about to lose my internet so I will have to go for now! Keep posting comments people so I know you are all alive and doing well! Happy New Years!!

Ps... GO TROJANS in the Rose Bowl on Jan 1st against Penn State! Someone (Joey I am counting on you) please call me or text me the results of the game! Make sure I respond so you know it went through (my phone has been hating me)!!!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOO TROJANS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Eve and Christmas

Okay so while I posted yesterday, I just got to post something I had already written. I now have the time (and the working internet, fingers crossed) to tell you about Christmas here in Cameroon. First off, I spent Christmas Eve in Bibemi with Mike and Phil and the whole town. Then, early (and I mean early) Christmas morning the 3 of us left for Garoua to attend a holiday party hosted by the volunteers who lived in this provincial capital.

Christmas eve I spent making food. The health center was closed so there was no work I needed to do. Each person who was coming to the party was suppose to bring a gift for a white elephant gift exchange and a food to share. So, I was making 3 dishes (one for me to bring, one for Mike, one for Phil). We decided to bring desserts because I am the only volunteer I know of with a real oven (even if it does function about as well as an Easy Bake Oven). So, I made peppermint brownies (sacraficing all the peppermint hot chocolate I had brought from home) and spice cookies and a banana cream pie - all from scratch. The banana cream pie was the difficult one but we pulled it off. As I was making Christmas cookies my water boy came over to bring me water and I always give him a cookie or treat when he brings my water. Well, as I was out Cameroonian cookies you can buy at the boutiques I gave him a Christmas cookie I had made. Well, this 9 year old boy had never had chocolate or mint before - and certainly not an American style Christmas cookie in the shape of a star (yes, I brought cookie cutters). He came back to my house about 5 minutes later asking me if I had made the cookies. I said that I had and he then asked if he could have another. So, I gave him a few more. Well, he then brought me a bag of sugar and asked me if I could make him more cookies now so that he could sell them. I had to tell him that I couldn't today (I was out of all the things like butter and flour and honey) but that I would make him a batch when I got back to Bibemi with more supplies. It was adorable. I have a fan of my cooking in country now.

After making cookies, Mike, Phil and I had guca and chips (all homemade) for dinner and then went a few fetes in Bibemi for holiday season. It was great to make the rounds and see everyone in the town and yell the obligatory "Bon Fete" at people.

The next morning I got up at 5am and did all the dishes we had made yesterday. Then we left my house around 6:30 and went to the chef of the health centers house to say our Merry Christmas's and give them Christmas food. They gave us some Christmas food (popcorn and meat) in exchange. It was great. Meat! Then, we all went and caught a bush taxi to Adoumri and then from Adoumri to Garoua. Did I mention that at this point I was carrying a Banana Cream Pie? Yes, I carried it on two bush taxi and it surrived (barely). Then, we arrived in Garoua. Found a store open where we could find boose, bought credit for my phone and headed to the fete. It was fun. We took pictures. I couldn't talk to my family because my phone hated me. Got to breifly talk to Jensen, Aunt Sandy, mom, Court, Joey, and the Herrs. It was great but made me miss everyone. You would be proud of the food we made! It was great. Watched Christmas Vacation and Charlie Brown Christmas. It was awesome. But, Phil lost his wallet and now he won't stop talking about it. Mike and Phil are aruging, I have to go now. Love to everyone!!!

First few weeks in Bibemi

Fanta - my cat - outside on the newly covered cushions!


Me and Phil on Christmas


Me in the "Sand Pit" that is the river behind my house during the raining season



Me with a view of Bibemi behind me


The Health Center I work at


Cara, me, and Kauleen at Swearing In

Want to hear something weird, or at least funny to me? Here in Cameroon, people don’t call animals (like cows and pigs) by the correct words in French. Instead, they call them my the words for the meat that these animals produce. For instance, instead of calling cows “vache” which is the correct translation in French, they call them “boeufs” which means beef. The same is true for pigs which are not called “cochon” but rather they are called “porc” aka pork. I find this interesting but not surprising because in the opinion of the people here the only function of these animals is to become meat. I have checked my Fulfulde dictionary (this is the local language) and the word for pig and pork is both “gaduuru – gaduuji” (go ahead and try to think how to pronounce that) and the words for vache and cow I can only find one of in the dictionary. I will try to figure that out and get back to you.

Yesterday I took the blood pressure of about 50 women over the span of 3 hours. I showed up at the health center at 9 (when I the day begins for them) and waited while more and more pregnant women showed up for consultations. They chef had gone to find needles because we were out and we give the pregnant women tetanus shots and didn’t return til close to 11. Since last Monday had been the Fete de Muton (Festival of the Sheep) we had two weeks worth of pregnant women show up in one week and we were starting about 90 minutes later than normal. It was sheer chaos. But, I got really good at taking blood pressure. Also, felt good to do something and feel somewhat useful. Then, I went to the market with the chef of the health centers 13 year old daughter, whose everyone calls Marmee but that isn’t her real name. I was told to come at 15:00 and showed up at exactly that time and then they proceeded to make fun of me for being on time. I was told that, as I already knew, African time is super different. But, I try to set a good example and show up basically on time. But, since I was there early, I was told I had to wash my feet. Yes, she brought me a bowl of water and made me wash my feet on the side of the road where we sat selling beignets waiting for Marmee to be ready to go. The people here think we are always dirty because the dust here sticks to us as we sweat (which they don’t really compared to us) and on our light skin you can see this dust much easier. So, after being sufficiently embarrassed and basically called a silly, dirty white girl (in the nicest way possible) we got to leave and walk to the market. We went hoping to buy Hoola Halla (a type of leaf) but they didn’t have any so we bought Fullery and decided I would learn to make a Fullery sauce instead. It was fun going with a true local to the market – we demanded they include cadeaus (gifts) with all our purchases – which is common here but something nasaaras (white people) often miss out on because we don’t know to ask. Then, when Mike and I bought some Fullery to bring home to chez moi to prepare for ourselves that night they were all very concerned that we didn’t know what we were doing. I assured them that we knew a recipe and went home to prepare it. (Ps we do know a recipe and it is awesome – seriously really tasty!). After eating dinner and watching Die Hard 3 I called Melissa because I had been thinking about her a lot and spent all my phone credit talking to her (well worth it) because I hadn’t heard anything from her since I had been here – which was far to long to go without talking to her! That was great, but not nearly long enough and when I had to hang up because I ran out of credit I felt every one of the 1000s of kilometers between her and I. Sometimes it is hard to be so far away from people, not within easy communication of everyone you know and love back home, etc.

So today I woke up rather homesick. I don’t think this whole Christmas season thing makes it easier to adjust to life in a new country when I sort of just want to be home with my family. But, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and all that good stuff. Not that I am not happy here, I am, but it isn’t super easy to be away. Sam’s birthday was this week and they threw a big party and all that good stuff – made me really want to be in Germany. But, I am promised pictures. I am sort of just ignoring that it is Christmas. I mean it doesn’t feel like Christmas here – there is no Christmas music in village (there was in the provincial capital of Garoua) and it is still hot as hell during the day with a killer sun. I am refusing to play Christmas music or acknowledge that it is the holidays. I had put a Christmas picture as my computer screensaver but that didn’t last long (now I have settled on a nice winter scene of the Czech Republic). I am going to be dragged to a Christmas party and forced to listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies on actual Christmas but we shall see how that goes over with me. There will at least be alcohol and cell phone service so I can talk with people back home. Anyway, woke up homesick, and leave life to kick you when you’re down – my guard (who watches my house and stuff) stopped by at about 8am (which was before I was really wanting people to stop by chez moi) and to make a long story short asked me for 15,000 CFA (only like $30 but a shit ton of money here and more than I honestly have at my house) because his neighbor was sick and needed the money. Now, horrible story and situation right? It was really awkward and I said that I couldn’t loan him the money (not a great precedent to set week 2 in village) and he left. That didn’t help me feel any better for sure. But, children are awesome. I spent the morning at the chef of the health centers house having his wife teach me to make a local sauce. When I got there at 10:15 (15 minutes late from when she told me to be there but early on African time) she was basically preparing millet. Apparently the black part is no good and needs to be removed which involves a long difficult process that I observed. I watched this process sitting in the shade on a chair (I wasn’t allowed to help but I did try) with 3 local little girls congregated around me. I had my first successful “conversation” in Fulfulde and learned that their names were Natalie, Pia, and Sophie (thank goodness these kids had “Christian” names and were easy for me to pronounce). We then played clapping games and made faces at each other and I felt much better. They learned my name too and pronounced it in an adorable accent. After she finished preparing the millet it was about 11 and we started making the sauce. The process of making this sauce took about 30-40 minutes (which isn’t too bad for food here) and then the cous cous (which is nothing like cous cous in America) took another 20ish minutes (about an hour total for those of you who are math challenged). I made a wicked good sauce – I got complemented from Mike and the women who taught me and her sister. I am fairly happy that they don’t think I suck and hopefully now they will have a bit more faith in my cooking abilities. So, after lunch Mike and I got some bill bill (millet wine) and drank with the family we ate with. Then, I came home and hung out and then went for a walk later (still feeling a bit homesick now that I was back in my house and alone with my thoughts) and again, the city itself and the people in it picked me up. I made a new friend – my neighbor named something like Oneray (unlike the children this morning she had a hard to pronounce “local” name). I got greeted as Aubrey by a number of people and a group of children who greeted me as Sarah (the girl I am replacing in Bibemi who was another blonde girl) I greeted them but then told them I wasn’t Sarah, I was Aubrey and then looked at me for a second and then said “Bonsoir (which might mean good evening but people here use once it is past about noon) Aubrey” and proceeded to yell “Aubrey Aubrey Aubrey” down the street after me while I continued to turn and wave. Adorable. Then, I was wearing my hilarious tree/asparagus dress today and I got complemented on it. A group of people stopped me and told me that my dress was “tres jolie” (very pretty). I thanked them and did everything I could not to burst out laughing. If any of you saw me in this dress you would laugh hysterically but I got told here in Bibemi that it was beautiful! Came home and ate a super dinner of left over Fullery sauce I had made with potatoes that the chefs wife (whose name I think is Analise or something like that, but she refers to herself as Mike and I’s mother) gave me to go with my sauce and heated that up on my stove and made a lettuce, onion, banana, papaya salad – super duper I tell you.

Today, Saturday the 20th, has been great thus far. This week has been a little rough in the homesickness department but today was better. Not that I don’t always miss my friends and family, but you know. So I decided yesterday that my goal for today would be to see how to go about getting my cushions for the couch on my porch recovered. But, I did so much more than that. So I got out of bed around 7am and started cleaning. I ate breakfast quickly and while heating up leftovers on the stove became overwhelmed by how dirty the stove was. So, I got bleach, soap, water and a washcloth and this thing that can best be described as an SOS pad made of metal and scrubbed the stove as clean as a stove that old is getting. Victory (for those of you who know me well, yes, I did a personal victory lap). I got covered in black dirt during this process and decided I was just going to keep cleaning. Well, after doing my dishes in my outdoor sink and no running water I was even dirty. But, I really needed toilet paper. That doesn’t sound like it should be hard to find but since only “nasaraas” (aka foreigners) use this product I walked (dirty still) to every boutique in town before final finding one that had TP. On the way home I stopped at one of the roadside tailors (yes there is more than one in Bibemi) and asked him in broken French (I didn’t know all the words for things like cushion) if I brought him 9 “things like pillows” and 2 pagnes if he could cover them for me. He said yes but I needed to bring them soon because it would take awhile. Perfect. Went home and grabbed my 9 super dirty/dusty/pagne torn cushions and my new pagne and headed back. Now, yes at this point I am walking about ½ mile carrying 9 cushions. Cushions aren’t heavy until you carry 9 of them for ½ mile with two pagnes (picture 12 yards of fabric that is brightly colored). Many people gave me funny looks but the children (who are starting to know my name) called out Bonjour “Aubrey” (I put this is quotes because they are saying the closest things to Aubrey that they can pronounce) after me. So I gave these two men my cushions and pagne. They laughed at me and gave me strange looks but after studying them told me that they could be done in 5 hours and that each cushion would cost 250CFA (about 50 cents) to cover. Done. It felt so good to get that taken care of. (Well I got pick them up in about an hour so lets see how successful I really was). Then, I realized I couldn’t bring new cushions home to dirty furniture covered with spider webs, spiders, and various other dirty things. So, giant bucket of bleach, soap water and another washcloth and I got to work. I clean a wooden futon and chair from top to bottom. Also, cleaned off the coffee table and decided to rearrange some furniture in my living room/kitchen. Then, as I was about to sweep my porch off, a local kid asked me if he could do it for me (I give them candy when they do so they like to). I said sure and this kid was really cute and waited outside and asked me and he was like 5 years old so I said yes (plus, at this point I was damn tired). So as the 5 year old swept my yard I swept inside my house and drank a bottle of water. Then, I gave him a cookie and a sucker because he had done a really great job and moved the furniture to sweep around it and stuff. Then, I had been redecorating and put up some new posters and stuff so I had one of Sarah’s old posters hanging out and it was a soccer poster that was clothe and had 3 soccer players on it. So, I asked this little boy if he would like it and he said “yes yes yes” and was so excited. So, I gave it to him. He was so excited and he was going to show it off to his friends. Well I went back inside and was about to take a shower when I heard the little boy yell out and it sounded upset. I opened the door and asked him what the problem was (even though I knew at this point). The boy who brings my water (who is like 8-9) had taken his poster and was hiding from me. The little boy wasn’t crying but he was really disappointed and wasn’t sure what to do. I told him to wait and went inside and brought out my German cow pencil case and gave him 2 cool pen/pencils and told him I was sorry that had happened. I wasn’t sure what to do at this point. I was mad at the boy who took it (whose name is something like Non Kong – which sounds Asian not African to me) but should have known better. I also couldn’t really go down to his house and talk with his mother – this isn’t suburban America. I decided I would talk to him about it when he brought my water next and just tell him that was really not nice of him. It is hard though, Non Kong has nothing and I couldn’t really blame him. I pay him to do lots of things for me (basically as an excuse to give him money) like wash my dishes and clothes and bring my water on his cart. Well, after my shower (which doesn’t take long when you’re using buckets) I was sitting on my couch reading when I heard a commotion outside. Non Kong had come back to my house and thrown the poster over my wall and was hiding from me again because he knew I was angry with him. I went and picked up the poster and put it inside my house. A few minutes later, I heard kids outside again. Now, Non Kong and the little boy were talking about 50 feet from my house. Next thing I know the little boy is at my door and I ask him if he talked to Non Kong and he said yes and that Non Kong told him that he had thrown the poster over the wall (but of course it wasn’t on the ground now so he was confused). I told him yes he did and that I had it in my house. I went inside and got it and gave it back to him. Then, I go back to my bedroom and watch him walk off with it. About 50 feet down the tree lined path outside my house Non Kong comes out from behind a tree and talks to him again and they seem to have made amends (the little boy probably traded Non Kong the other things for the poster back). Then the little boy leaves Non Kong behind and he runs home using the poster (which is made of cloth) as a cape. It was adorable. I have to remember to give Non Kong a present for Christmas or something. Let him know I am not mad at him and that I appreciate him doing the right thing and giving it back. All in all, I got a lot more accomplished today then I could have imagined. Wish me luck getting the cushions back! Now, time to celebrate by making some guacamole, rice, beans and maybe tortilla chips (which Mike and I have made from scratch before!). Mmm, be jealous!


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!

End of PST and Moving to Bibemi!

Anna, me and Annie with our Rabies Shots


I rode my bike into a ditch full of schisto




Alright haven’t written a blog in a long time so this will be an entry that covers a long period of time! So, I believe I left off telling you all about the “final” language exam which yes, of course, Cara and I went last for. Well that was on a Saturday and after that beautiful exam I headed into Garoua with Cara and got a bit of internet but it was pretty pathetic internet that day so I didn’t stay on long. Sunday, Cara, Brad, Brianna and I climbed this mountain. Now, I am not quite sure how to describe this excursion best to you but it was something we had be aspiring to do since week one and so we did it. We biked to the base and then basically left our bikes locked together under a large, dead, tree and began climbing. I was not smart enough to wear pants (I was wearing capris) so immediately my legs began getting dirty and cut. Always wear pants when you want to hike a mountain. For some reason, I am assuming something agriculture related, “they” had burned the side of the mountain we were climbing so I immediately became covered in soot. It was a steep climb too. But, as we began making our way up the mountain we would periodically turn around and see an awesome view of Africa. I uploaded one of those pictures on Thanksgiving. It was fabulous. I think Cara and I stopped a bit from the top and Brad and Brianna went a bit further but once you get really close to the top it is a climb that would require more equipment than legs so we had to turn back. But, we got really close and it was super beautiful from the top! So, after the bike ride I got home and took my bucket bath. My family didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me and why I was covered in black and why I thought going for a 4 hour bike ride from 6-10 in the morning was a good idea but they didn’t do much other than give me even stranger looks. After I was clean, I started to feel really tired (I mean I had just climbed a mountain) so I took a short nap before getting up and heading to the market. I got to talk to Emily and mom that day! Woot! Well done folks! Keep the calls coming! But, in the afternoon I came down with a strange fever. Not sure what that was about. I was watching a movie at a friends house and just getting sicker by the hour. I hadn’t been hungry really all day so I hadn’t eaten and went home and told my family I was really tired and didn’t want dinner and went to bed. My temperature was only about 101.5 so nothing too bad and I slept for like 12 hours. Got up and my fever was down so I went to school. Well, my fever didn’t stay down. When I arrived at school after that 15 minute walk my fever was back and I was exhausted and pissed off and sick. I arrive only to learn that there are 5 of us who didn’t make our language level. I had tested at intermediate mid, not the intermediate high I needed. Yippy. So, there were 4 of us who were in that boat and one who had tested intermediate low. Because of this, the 4 of us had to have more than 20 hours of language (23.75 to be exact) between that day and the next “the real final” exam. Apparently you required 20 hours of language to move up a level and without 20 hours it was impossible to move up. The poor guy who got intermediate low needed 35+ hours and was going to have to wait in Garoua for a few extra days to get that. So, yes, that is right. Week 10 of training I had 21.15 hours of language and the following Monday I had another 1.5 hours and than I took my test again. How awful does 21.15 hours of language in one week sound? It sucks. Well, back to the Monday morning I was sick. So, I arrive, learn that I didn’t make my level yet and that I need 21.15 hours of language that week, get a new schedule that has my hours marked in it. At this point I realize I need to just go home. I am feeling pretty bad. So, I head home and sleep for about 7 hours. When I wake up this time, fever is gone and doesn’t come back. Still not sure what that was about but it wasn’t particularly fun.
So that was a great week. Language in that amount is never fun. But, perhaps it was necessary. I got a big surprise Tuesday morning when one of the girls whose host mother is a tailor that we all go to brought me what I thought was going to be my blanket but turned out to be a skirt. Long story. Okay so a while ago, the girl brought in a patch work pagne sample and said that her host mother would make these for anyone who wanted to buy them. They were really cute and I wanted to make one into a blanket. I thought this was clear and I went a bought the pagne for the back of the blanket in the measurements she gave me and gave it to her. Well, I got a double layered skirt. Now, it won’t be hard to make this into a blanket, but it was hilarious. Mom really enjoyed this story of how I wanted a blanket, but got a skirt. Sometimes communication breaks down even when you are using all the correct words and think you got your message across. Anyways, Wednesday, I was sitting in a session about the United Nations Development Program and there work in the North Province of Cameroon when my eye starts killing me. One more than the other but both are super angry. I head to the bathroom and they are really red. So, I ask around, find a contact case and take them out my contacts that I had been wearing. That doesn’t help. So, I put the contacts back in and since it is near the end of the day just wait and go immediately home and put on my glasses and flush out my eyes with the eye wash stuff PC gives us. Well that doesn’t help. They are infected. I have pink eye. So, I call mom and ask her if you have to go to the doctor for pink eye, if it will just go away, and if I need to go to the doctor sooner rather than later… she tells me I need to go to a doctor. Well, the next morning after I manage to get my eyes open, I text message the PC doctor and they tell me to go to the hospital. Did I mention this was thanksgiving day. That morning I had 5 hours of language but I only sat through about 3 hours of it before going to the hospital. I got driven to the hospital in Garoua and then the driver and I went in and he talked to the receptionist for me and I got given a number and told to go sit and wait. Well the next time the doctor emerged they ignored the number system and since I was white I went next. Not awkward at all. So, I went in and (keep in mind this is all in French and I at this point only speak “intermediate mid” French) the doctor asked me what was wrong and I said my eye hurts. He looked at my eyes and started writing on the PC form I had given him. I said “pink eye?” (which I do know the French work for thank you very much) and he said “yes”. Then he asked if I was allergic to any medications and I informed him that yes, penicillin. Then he handed me a prescription and said goodbye. It took about 3 minutes total. We didn’t go over how to use this medication. I then gave the prescription to the driver who dropped me off at the PC house and went to get my medications for me. I then washed my hands super well and started making thanksgiving foods with the other volunteers who had made there French levels and weren’t being forced into 21.15 hours of language in a week. We prepared thanksgiving diner at the PC office in Garoua and had invited the trainers to be our guests. They had thrown us a Ramadan party and so we were reciprocating by throwing them a thanksgiving party. We prepared cookies (my committee) that were no bake (we had no oven for any of this food but only a fire pit and a stove top), stuffing (which was made from scratch and I helped stale the bread for the night before), chickens (which we killed and prepared), garlic mashed potatoes, fried okra, pineapple and watermelon, guacamole with bean beignets, cooked squash, stuffed tomatoes. It was a very tasty meal if I can say so. Not awesome, but given the circumstances, pretty amazing. The trainers all tried the food and while they were a bit hesitant at first, they said later that they did like it.

The next week, the final week of training, started off with me getting to give my IEP (cross cultural presentation) on street food in our training city of Pitoa. Now, despite the fact that I spent week 10 with a few minor illnesses, I have been really healthy the whole time and I eat a lot of street food. So this was entertaining enough and easy enough for me to talk about food for 15 minutes straight in French. I had written it out and had to corrected ahead of time so it would be grammatically correct but of course I deviated from the paper a bit and I am sure screwed up my French grammar a bit in the process. But, it was a success and I got something like a 95 on it. All I needed was a passing grade. Done. Then, I got 7 packages in the mail. Before that I had gotten the post card mom sent before I left and a card from Courtney that had come a few days before. But, that’s right I got 7 large puffy envelopes all at once. Like I told people before I left, try to send me things in big puffy envelopes NOT boxes because they are much easier and I don’t have to pay to receive them. But, it was great and I shared food with my friends and shared my magazines with my friends and I loved getting the packages. Keep them coming. Still haven’t opened the one from my grandma with my Christmas present in it. But, it was hilarious watching me carry these packages home. I didn’t attract all sorts of attention or anything! Okay, so the next day I took my language test again. I believe Cara and I went last again - this time me after her. That same day we had our final evaluations of us at trainees and again Cara and I went last (again me the very last and her right before me). They had first listed us as going alphabetically but it quickly changed to Cara and Aubrey going last – they couldn’t break with tradition. My language test I think had been going for 4 minutes of the 30 when the guy listening to me wrote IH and a check mark next to my name. We all had the feeling this was going to be a joke and that since we had suffered through 23.75 hours of language we would all move up our level and we were right. Needless to say, I made my intermediate high level. Well done me. Then during my last assessment I had to fight down laughter because I heard things like “you’re a winner” and “you’re stubborn” all of which were funny because you could tell what they were trying to say was you don’t give up and you have done a good job but the translations were hilarious.

Wednesday was a pointless and hilarious day. Lots of protocol. In the afternoon, we got taken into Garoua and brought to the bank. Now the bank PC had wired all our money too was hilarious and not describable. There were no computers in this bank and they wrote everything by hand, counted the money by hand and the whole process moved very very slowly. Once I got handed my fist full of cash I had to decide what to do with it (we are talking about 1400 bucks in bills no larger than 20s – seriously a fist full). I decided I would open an account a slightly more modern bank (as in one with AC, people in suits, computers, and ATMs) that was down the road. Two other volunteers joined me in this adventure. We ran to the bank with our money hidden on us and sat down to open our accounts. Again, this is in French. The people at the bank spoke some English but it was easier if they stuck with French because you didn’t have to guess what they were trying to say and feel frustrated that it was English you weren’t understanding. I filled out all my paperwork which including listing my parents full names, my profession, my cell phone number, my post office box address, someone in country who knew me, and my favorite part was having to draw a map of my town with my house on it. Now, I need to elaborate a bit to explain this. So, the guy hands me a piece of blank computer paper and after a few seconds of trying to understand what he wants me to do I realize he wants me to draw a map of Bibemi and put my house on it. Since there are no street addresses in this country they have you hand draw a map of the city you live in and put that in your file. So, after having spent about 3 days in Bibemi my map had the following things (man I wish I could put a picture of this map on my blog for your guys): the river (aka mayo in Fufulde and French here), two roads, the Catholic Mission, two bars, the little outdoor daily market, a forest, and my house. Yea, it was beautiful. Good luck finding my house with that map, I doubt Sherlock Holmes could find it with that thing. But, it did make for a great phone call home to mom. After opening this account successfully and depositing my money (my ATM card won’t be ready for about 2 months) we headed back to the bank where everyone else still was and waited for about 30 more minutes. Then, we went to the PC office in Garoua and under the moonlight signed a number of very important papers like power of attorneys and swearing in oaths, no big deal. We had to report at 6am the next day for swearing in to help set up chairs.

When I got home that night after explaining to my family why I was 45 minutes past my curfew I ate dinner and then took my bucket bath with a kerosene lamp because there is no light in my pit latrine and the sun had long since set and the sun wouldn’t be up when I left at 5:45 in the morning so I might as well take one then. Then, I packed up my room as best I could, layed out my newly picked up swearing in dress that best resembled a muumuu (spelling?) and could have fit 2 of me in it – another language and cultural breakdown in communication had occurred with a tailor – and got into bed for about 4 hours. Woke up at 5am and went to put some chairs in place for the big ceremony. Came home and got dressed and went and got all sworn in as a PCV. It was magical. The ambassador arrived in her 10 hummer entourage and the CD and her spoke to us in English while the rest of the people spoke in French. It was magical and super hot and we were limited to 3 “family” members to the ceremony. Afterwards, we all walked to this local restaurant and had another fete. This fete was decorated like Christmas (complete with a tree) and had a live local band including but not limited to a very drunk Santa Claus like man. I got to drink fullere juice and citron juice and eat good food and talk with my host family a bit. But, at some point during the fete I got sick, again. Jesus this had been a rough week for me sick wise. My family went home and I sat there feeling sick. Went home, moved out, took a taxi to Garoua and met my friends. Pretended like I wasn’t sick and just kept the day going. We checked into the hotel and went to the pool and then to dinner. I couldn’t eat food without getting sick but I went alone and hung out with all my friends. The first restaurant we tried happened to be where the Country Director (CD) and all the staff where eating so we went with plan B. Me and another friend who was sick called it an early night but we got lots of hilarious stories from the others. Also, I got about 30 mosquito bites. Apparently this hotel is where all the mosquitoes hang out because wow, I got eaten alive. The next morning we all got together at a central location in Garoua and waited for our respective cars to leave for our new homes. I was going to be traveling with my post mate Mike and Phil who was placed about 15 kilometers from me. We loaded all our stuff into a van and then ourselves and took the 90 minute trek out to our respective houses. Phil, then Mike, then I got dropped off. Sarah met me at the house and I got the keys and a brief introduction and stuff and then I was left in Bibemi with my things and my French. Lovely. Moving in was awesome and still a work in progress to be honest. I have “moved in” but I am still making the house a home if you will. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will finish. Hard to get all that cleaning and organizing and homemaking done. Nesting if you will. I love it, but it is a long process. Mike and I have cooked most dinners together since arriving at post, not only is cooking for two easier but it is more economical and right now I have the only fridge so it is convenient. We have gotten progressively better and now have a new favorite meal – it is called Spinach delight and is basically our take on this recipe found in the Chadian cookbook. If you haven’t attempted it, I recommend it.

The local children are highly amused by my existence. They stand outside my poor excuse for a fence and watch me and laugh at me and whatnot. Everything I do is funny to them. Also, they dig through my trash (one’s mans trash here is literally another man’s treasure), ask for random things I have outside (like my PC bike or my washcloths), etc. It is hard to be annoyed because it is fairly cute but it does get old after a week. I got my locks changed (PC policy) and got a tree cut down in front of my house that was a security hazard (as in it was about to fall on my house) and now I have to get the fence issue resolved. Again, that will be easier once I get my French up to par but I don’t think I have much of a choice – I need a new fence.

Ahh, learned something important. For all your volunteers, if you are going to be selling bil bil (millet wine for you non-locals) you need to go around the day before and give kola nuts to everyone who you want to come buy your bil bil – otherwise no one will come. Sarah learned this the hard way and luckily I got to learn from this mistake. Giving out kola nuts the day before means successful day of bil bil the next day.

Monday I got to experience Bibemi’s “veggie market” (which is an expanded version of their daily market) with Mike and we bought a ton of food for about 4 dollars. It was just getting started when we arrived so we took a short bil bil break and made some new friends in town. But, it was this market that led us to the successful dinner cooking of the “spinach delight” which we made with the fullery we purchased. Honestly, we have made it twice now and it is awesome. I could eat it daily.

My first day of “work” was Tuesday and that involved me showing up at the health center in Bibemi and writing down the weights of the babies that were brought in. It was adorable and made me feel like I was at least doing something useful in town. Afterwards I went to lunch at the chef of the health centers house and his wife is going to help me learn to cook local food – cous cous (which is not what you Americans think of when you think cous cous) is super hard to made. Man you need some muscle to stir that stuff! But, she makes a wicked awesome hulla halla sauce with cous cous. Then, Wednesday I went en brousse (out into the surrounding villages) with the health center and learned to take blood pressure. It was just me and the chef and I took the pregnant women’s weights and blood pressures and gave them malaria pills and then the chef did the rest of the exam. Blood pressure isn’t that hard to measure once you get use to it. Also, I got to ride a motto through a river for the first time! I was also forced to call out the women’s names (which are all local names) and this was to the great amusement of all the local women – but apparently after two days of this I am getting better. Wish me luck – some of these names are seriously impossible. Well tomorrow I must head into Garoua and go to the bank because I need money to pay my electric bill – wish me luck finding the things I need for my new house! Keep the calls coming – the text messages only get to my some times so if I don’t reply it is because I didn’t receive the message not because I don’t love you! But, calls seems to work so keep them coming! Happy holidays everyone!!!

Pictures!!

Community group - note my beautiful pagne dress which matches my friend Anna's


Woman in Pitoa selling peanut butter and beignets


View from the top of the mountain


Drinking before the big football game!


Me half way up the moutain on our climb


Drinking Billy Billy (millet wine) at the Thursday market in Adoumori

PST Week 9

Old Car next to a mud hut with a kid playing the tire game - typical of my quartier in Pitoa (this is outside my homestay house)


Me with the cookstoves in my pagne dress



So I made a cook stove this week with mud. An improved cook stove to be more accurate. And, when I say that I made one, I mean that I attempted to make one, but I sucked pretty badly compared to the local women who showed us how to make one. She made a beautiful, perfect cook stove and made it look easy. Then, I made a mini version of something that a 10 year old would bring home from pottery class – but I got the basic idea down and I have 2 years to perfect it. I do have pictures of them that I will try to post. I feel I need to share this experience because it was very interesting, amusing, embarrassing, etc.

In French class this week we did riddles (enigmas in French) one day. Surprisingly many riddles do cross cultural barriers. For instance, the “what is black, white, and read (or red since they sound the same when you say them) all over” has a French counterpart. The answer is of course newspaper (or journal in French). As does “what first walks on 4 legs then 2 legs then 3 legs”. Kauleen and I introduced our French teacher to the “a child and father are in a car accident and get taken to separate hospitals, the doctor at the hospital with the child says that they cannot operate on the kid because it is their child – how is this possible?” She didn’t know and we had to tell her it was because the doctor was the mother! When I tried to play these enigmas with my host brother that night I got to the one about “what is black, white and read all over” he knew the answer was journal. I then tried to explain to him that in English the word for red and read sound the same and so in America many children answer “a sunburned zebra” to this riddle. He found this extremely amusing – which it is. Keep in mind that all of this is occurring in French and feel free to be impressed by how much French I have learned since being here – I am a bit impressed with myself to be honest. I have a huge test to see if I have reached my required “intermediate high” level in a few hours and so I have my fingers crossed. My host brother has wished me “bonne chance” (good luck) and so we shall see I suppose. I won’t know until Monday.

One night over dinner my host brother and I got to discussing recipes for the local food. He explained to me the dishes that he thought I would be able to figure out and when I asked about how to make these coconut balls they sell he told me it was too complicated for me. That made me laugh. He is probably right but I will try nonetheless. That is the things about Americans, we like to try and see for ourselves before we accept defeat. But, I know now how to make ham ham and fullery sauce and peanut sauce. That should hold me for awhile.

My trainer told me yesterday that he was impressed with me and my willingness to try all the different foods off the street or whatnot. He said he hadn’t ever seen a volunteer jump into the food like I have. I suppose that was a complement and took it as one. I figure, the sooner I figure out good food that is here and how to make it, the happier I will be. I told him about my love of piemont (peppers and spicy food) and he seemed fairly impressed with my stomachs ability to handle the spice and food. Apparently the majority of Americans that people here have come in contact with have weak stomachs and don’t enjoy food with copious amounts of piemont in it the way I do. I have started to be known in Pitoa for my stomach and experimentation with food. For instance, the women who sell ham ham get upset with me when I don’t have it for lunch. The children who sell the sesame seed balls know me and what I am buying and are ready for me. The children who sell the coconut balls sell them out of a closed pot you cannot see through – when I walked down the street they removed the lid to show me that they had them, knowing what I was looking for. The omelet man was shocked when he was being a jerk and took a huge scoop of piemont and was pretending to dump it on my food (after I asked for more piemont) and I told him to drop it and he did and then I ate it and he was shocked. It was hilarious to me.


This past weekend we all went to a huge soccer game in Garoua. It was the finals for this inter Africa cup. The two best regional teams in African were facing off and one of them happened to be from the province I will be living! The Coton Sport team from Garoua is one of the two best regional teams in Africa – pretty cool right? Well, the other team was from Egypt and they beat us. Egypt always beats us. But, the game itself was so entertaining. They gave all of us these awful marigold yellow tshirts that we had to wear. Then, two guard stood on either side of our section – real “immersion” type situation right? Well our group was quite the commotion. One of us (the boy who will later be my post mate) got the entire stadium to do the wave. Multiple times. It was so funny. It may have been televised so try to you tube that if you get bored. I would love to know how far this made it around the world. The final score of the game was something like 3-1 but it came down to this stupid penalty kick that gave them the lead and took the steam out of Coton Sport. Prior to the game I went to the market and attempted to find a jersey and realized this is a complicated process with many options, many different styles, many different qualities, etc. I have started the process of shopping around and I will eventually find one that fits all of my qualifications I am sure of it.

Found a store in Garoua that sells cheese and wine. Last weekend directly after finding this I ate a block of swiss cheese, a box of crackers made with olive oil and rosemary, and drank a bottle of South African Merlot. Be jealous. It was the best thing in the world and I ate it with my hands at a bar with two other volunteers. It is pretty much awesome and I know call it the magic store – a name I had previously conserved for a store here in Pitoa that sells vashe (the cheese that doesn’t need refrigeration).

So today we have our “final” language exam. Cara and I took bets yesterday that we would go last because this seems to be the general rule with language tests. Low and behold Cara and I arrive at 7:30 to find that our exams are the last and will occur at 12:30 and 12:00, respectively. You would think they would work on switching it up a bit. But, no, you would be wrong. Anyway, wish me luck – time to watch a movie and consume a lot of peanuts in preparation for my exam!

PST Week 8

Today I saw some truly bizarre things on a motto. I saw 6 – yes count them 6 – grown men on one motto. While that was truly amazing and highly entertaining, the most amazing thing I saw by far was a man driving a motto with a table overturned on the back and in the table was a live cow and on that cow was another man just sitting. Seriously – how did they get that cow into that table and onto that motto? I cannot picture that occurring.

Okay so some things appear to be universal. Sibling rivalry. I have seen a number of siblings here in Africa bicker the same way I do with my siblings and the same way I witness countless other people in the states bicker with theirs. Love of cold beer. That transcends all cultures I believe. Curiosity. I think all people are curious about things they don’t know much about or understand – like the children here with us.

So I have had some fun this week experimenting with random street food and the market. There seem to be many possibilities for food here if you are willing to put enough time and effort into the process of experimenting. Rice beignets could make an English muffin like base for a personal pizza. Parle G cookies could be crushed up to make a pie crust. These types of things. Also, I am super excited to have time to get to experiment with food soon. I have found some winning foods on the streets of Pitoa. The bakkaroo (crunchy sticks of peanut butter basically) are rather tasty. This beautiful ginger candy has appeared lately. Spaghetti omelets with beans. Fullery juice (which tastes like hibiscus) with a bit of ginger. Fresh peanut butter – which apparently I am suppose to boil before eating but haven’t yet done that. Rice beignets I am partial too. This street soup called Ham Ham that is basically fullery and peanuts (which are cooked to taste kind of like tofu) – this Italian wedding soup with peanut like tofu instead of meatballs. The food situation is getting better and will certainly get much better once I can cook for myself and control the amount of cotton oil and magi that is going into my food. Right now I cannot and so I have just given up being healthy.

So exciting news, most of the trainees are going to the final regional African soccer match on Sunday. Coton Sport (The best team in Cameroon which happens to hail from Garoua – my provincial capital) will be playing the other best regional team in African who happens to hail from Egypt. I am super excited and think I will celebrate by buying a jersey to wear to the game. Score and such to come.

Okay so Christmas presents, don’t expect them. I have yet to figure out the mail situation. I have been sending letters slowly but surely and don’t worry if you haven’t received one – I got more envelopes and plan to send more soon. I will send things to people as I find and buy them and once I figure out the mail system. Know that I love you all and am thinking about your potential birthday or Christmas presents. I will text you for sure!

Let’s see. Since site visit not much has happened. We are all pretty over the whole training situation and ready to get out there to our villages and start some projects. That being said, I think I for one am also equally terrified of being on my own in my village and having to speak French with everyone and terrified that I will suck at my job as a community health promoter, that no one will understand my French, etc. But, petite a petite as they say in French (little by little in English). I have my next French exam next Friday and while they claim it is our last we all know there is a secret one right before swearing in for all those of us who still need it. I am learning more and more French but it is still hard as hell to communicate health messages.

This week we got to go to a local school and first observe a health class and then teach a short health lesson. The health class we observed was super interesting. It was suppose to be about communicable disease with a focus on palu (malaria). The information they learned was learned verbatim from all the students who could tell you things like that you take quinine for malaria and that it is spread by the anopheles mosquito (things I doubt most health classes in college would expect all students to know in America). But, at the same time these students didn’t know much about malaria life cycle or how this knowledge they had applied to them or impacted their chances of acquiring the disease. School in Cameroon is extremely focused on memorization. When the teacher makes a note on the board under a certain heading all the students break out the notebooks and copy word for word the paragraph, then all the students memorize this exact paragraph and can spit it back at you. No critical thinking is done. The whole time we were at the school many students raised their hands to answer questions (verbatim stating things they had memorized previously) but not one question was asked by a student. I was pleased to see that both girls and boys seemed to contribute in school fairly equally. To be called on they raised their hands and snapped – it was bizarre. For our session we chose the message of hand-washing. Short and simple. We first did two skits (one with good sanitation practices and one with bad). Then we asked them about the two skits and to tell us the differences and what such. After analyzing these skits we taught them a song (Si tu veux le bon sante lave le mains – if you want good health wash your hands). It was entertaining beyond belief. Then, we played a good game of telephone (which we taught them) with health messages like “wash your hands after you go to the latrine”. It was certainly an interesting experience. Keep in mind we did all this in French and I understood it enough to at least write about it!

The other impressive French thing I did this week was during our community groups. We were doing an animation (which is the PC buzz word for presentation that is interactive) about the fecal oral route and diarrheal diseases. I was in charge of facilitating the discussion about which diseases were diarrheal diseases and whether they were viruses, bacteria, parasites, or worms. It was interesting. Then, I was also in charge of making the oral rehydration solution with them. I did manage to get both of these messages across in French. Quite a personal accomplishment might I add. Other than that we make a poster about the fecal-oral route and how each leg of it could be prevented. Then we talked about what type of diarrhea needs treatment. Super fun and lots of talk about poop and diarrhea – that seems to be a PC theme.

Still no packages. Apparently there have been problems with the embassy pouch and apparently the mail man who gets to mail from the embassy and brings it to PC has been sick. Anyway, I probably won’t get anything for at least 2 weeks since that is the next time I know of someone coming up here from the south. No one got anything this week and all of us were expecting something. We were fairly sad but I suppose that’s life here and we all are just trying to adjust our expectations with the mail system. But honestly, no one even got a letter. Bogus.

Alright well not much else to report here on the Africa front. Found a magazine that is published weekly here in French that talks about world affairs that I will be buying to practice French and try to stay connected to the world. Also, listen to BBC focus on Africa fairly regularly now. BBC here is hilarious and does things like holds English lessons. It does the job though – fills me with basic worldly information. Miss all of you and send me emails and blog comments! Two double fist pumps to Obama – which is all we seem to get here (with at least5 daily Obama shout outs). Bye for now!

Site Visit

Sunset on the road to Adoumori, with cows.



Me biking around Pitoa


Baby being weighted in Bibemi!



Site visit was this past week. This was the first time I got to spend the night in my new village, meet my future co-workers, go bar hoping in my new town, meet my new cat, meet my new neighbors, go to my new local market, actually help cook Cameroonian food, etc. All in all, a huge success I think. There are going to be 3 of us in the Bibemi district of Northern Cameroon – me, Mike, and Phil. Mike and I will be living in Bibemi and Phil in a neighboring town of Adoumori. Mike is an agro-forestry volunteer and Phil and I are both health. Alright so the 3 of us leave with the two volunteers who are currently living in the Bibemi district, Sarah and Andrew. Sarah is a health volunteer in Bibemi and Andrew is ag in Adoumori. We couldn’t procure a ride on a truck that was leaving anytime soon and rent a whole car was rather pricey sooooo we took mottos the whole way. Now this is only about 30 kms as the crow files but it took about 2 hours on mottos. In part it took this long because Sarah’s motto blew a tire, but mostly it took this long because you cannot go that fast on this dirt roads. But, it was a beautiful ride – it looks so very African in this part of the country. Honestly they could have filmed the Lion King on this route, if the Lion King was a filmed movie to begin with. Phil and Andrew left us in Adoumori and Phil would rejoin us in two days for the election and to do protocol. Mike, Sarah, and I arrived in Bibemi and ate some mac and cheese for dinner. Sarah was nice enough to share a package of her American sent mac and cheese cheese powder with us!

Monday was our first full day of site visit. Made an omelet on my stove (yes I have an oven, stove, and fridge) for breakfast that was fairly delicious. Then, Sarah took me to the health center I will be working at/with for the next two years and I got to observe and pseudo help with (as in write down the weight and blood pressure of the pregnant women when the nurse said them in French) prenatal consultations. I just helped with the in processing part. It was great to get to experience this with Sarah there to translate everything. My French is still far to poor to communicate much with people. Also, most women coming to these consultations don’t speak French (or much French) but rather they only speak Fulfulde. So, I need to get on learning that too! It was really interesting to get to observe that and got me excited for the next two years. After work (which is in the morning) we ate at the house of the head of the health center. His wife is a great cook and a super nice women who speaks French and made us chicken (which is very rare) and cous cous and it was delicious. I am very much looking forward to getting to know enough French to communicate with her and learn to cook some of her dishes. After lunch we headed back to Sarah’s house for some afternoon/heat of the day relaxing. We hit up the “veggie” market in Bibemi (a slightly expanded version of the daily market but smaller than the weekly Friday market). I got to try corn beignets there and we bought the stuff to make “stir fry”. We made a sauce/stir fry that consisted of hoola halla (that is terribly misspelled and probably not even the correct phonetic attempt but it is a double H word), aubergines (eggplant for you non-Francophones), okra, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, pimont (super spicy peppers that are ground into a powder most of the time) and rice. On the way back from the market we stopped at two bars to meet some of the people in the town and I was introduced to two gendarmes (one very large man and one Anglophone who I can speak English with), I met a number of very nice community members at these bars – beer makes people so open and friendly and gives you an automatic in. Plus, everyone was so excited about the upcoming election that we were invited to two different celebrations for the election day. After visiting two bars and leaving a beer on reserve for tomorrow that someone bought us that night, Sarah and I heading home to make our delicious stir fry. It was honestly amazing. Tasty beyond belief. Mostly, it had LOTS of flavor and spices which most Cameroonian food I have gotten doesn’t because I think they are scared American’s cannot handle spice and therefore give me bland food. We ground up ginger root in a mortar and pistol made of wood, added garlic and pimont to make a delicious spice mixture. Cooking the hoola halla was interesting. It looks slightly like spinach and is rather bitter tasting until you cook it enough. Then you have to strain it, add cool water to cool it, restrain it and squeeze all the extra water out and then put it into a frying pan with all the other veggies. It is a rather long process but well worth it in the end. Mmm, in Joey’s words “mega tasty”.

Day two aka election day. For breakfast (as I wanted to eat as much of the food in Bibemi as possible) we went to a place by my new house that sells beans in the morning that are already prepared so we bought some of those and ate leftovers from last night with beans. It was also amazing. Amazing food was a theme for me (even sans real cheese) and that makes me excited so stick with me. Today at the health center we childhood vaccinations. Now, they were out of regular needles. So, we could only do BCG (TB) vaccines (which use a needle similar to the one they use for the TB skin tests), oral polio, and baby weighing. I got to watch babies being weighted in this sling that was hung from a tree branch and attached to the bottom of a scale. I cannot properly describe how adorable this scene is so I will try to post one of the photos I took of it. Again, I just helped with in processing and it was very fun. Great to see how all that stuff actually works in a health center in semi rural Cameroon. I learned that for it to be economically, they can only do BCG vaccines on days when at least 10 children need them. Once they open the bottle of vaccine they must use it that day and each bottle will be enough for 20 vaccines and therefore they won’t open it if that day there aren’t at least 10 people who need them. Tuesday there were 13 so we could give them. The little babies screamed a cried at the vaccines but they were fine soon after. They seemed to take the whole being weighted thing very well. It was so adorable. Once again, after work we went to eat at the head of the health center’s house. This time his wife had made a green fullery type sauce (which is one of my favorites) and again I ate way to much lunch. Then, we went home to prepare for the election. Let me just point out that I wore an Obama shirt this day and I was very popular. Everyone was so thrilled for the election, asked me if I voted and if so who for – but only one answer was acceptable for them. Phil joined us this afternoon and then we set out for our fetes. Problem number one: the electricity went out around 3:30pm. Problem number two: the radio wasn’t working to pick up BBC. Problem number three: the brassiere (place that brings beer to all the rural areas) comes on Wednesday and maybe Saturday so Tuesday nights are always low on beer and EVERYONE was out celebrating the election. Word got around that one bar (that never had electricity and therefore only was able to offer warm beer) had alcohol and so everyone headed there. The whole evening was spent cheers “OBAMA” and learning a gendarme drinking command type game where the gendarmes would tell us to pick up our beer, drink our beer, and replace our beer. It was hilarious and all in French and I got maybe 1/3 of what was going on. We stayed out for awhile and then heading home for a late dinner. Despite the lack of electricity and the beer consumption we created a very tasty dinner of tomato sauce, pasta, and a peanut sauce. Literally the minute we were done cooking on the gas stove via light from a kerosene lamp, the electricity came back on. Of course, right.

Day three: protocol. This means that we spent the day going around to all the important figures in town (the majority of whom we had seen at the bar the night before and cheered Obama with). My sister (who rocks!) had been awesome enough to call the moment they declared the election (at 5:11am my time) and tell us that Obama had won. Apparently they waited til the polls closed in California, Oregon, and Washington and then called those states for Obama almost immediately and he won the election. I then got a text from Emily (thanks dear!) telling me Obama won. Everyone wanted to make sure I heard and I was glad. I swear Africa might have been happier than America. Kenya I heard declared a national holiday. There were literally Vive Obama signs that popped up in Bibemi. People were thrilled and everywhere we walked people yelled OBAMA at us. We yelled it back and it became quite and entertaining game. During protocol, we went to the house of the city chief. He is Muslim and the majority of the people are Christian. He lives in a Palace that has about 10 peacocks and a man follows him around and does things like hold his chair when he sits. It was incredibly odd but fascinating. Everyone was extremely welcoming to us and it was a great way to get a tour of the town as these buildings are all quite spread out. We stopped for a breakfast of spaghetti omelets (which are exactly what they sound like, eggs made into an omelet with spaghetti in the middle). It was much better than it originally sounded to me at least. Add some pimont and I enjoyed it. Throughout the day we would find radios playing excerpts of all the election night speeches and got to hear the most pro-American BBC broadcast I had ever heard. Everyone in Cameroon kept telling us that the election of Obama was going to save the world. The people hear were ecstatic to say the least. After all the protocol we returned back to Sarah’s house to make Mexican food. Yes, that’s right, Mexican. We made tortillas from scratch (quite an experience), guacamole that was sooooo amazing, used vache and velvetta to make quesadillas – it made me really want a Margarita. Then, seeing as we actually had the results of the election – we of course had to celebrate with the rest of Cameroon. More Obama cheering (this time with ice cold beers) and delicious food at Mike’s counterparts house. Then, we returned home to top off the beautiful day with a viewing of the Simpson’s Safari episode. It was as classy as it sounds.

Day Four: Went to the Catholic Mission to meet the nuns and check out the large pharmacy they have there. Apparently they are resource that I should tap into in the community and someone I can work with to do nutrition and cooking demonstrations and whatnot. They also have the best stocked pharmacy. Oh, did I mention they have running water when no one else does – another major benefit! Then we headed to the largest cattle market in the country and the region to be honest. It is in Adoumori. Got to see the cattle market, the regular market, and the Bil bil (home made local alcohol market). Want to guess which was most crowded? We caught a bush taxi (large van that is crammed with almost twice as many people as it should be) there and it was a pretty smooth 20 minute ride. But, I did get to see my first person riding “petite chauffeur”. This is when a person sits in the front seat straddling the gear shifter so that when the driver shifts gears he does so between that persons legs. It is as awkward as it sounds. The man next to me had that privilege. Lucky him. Then, the fun started as we caught a bush taxi home to Pitoa. We caught one no problem, put our bags on the roof and climbed into the 15 passenger van with 20 other people (totally 23 now with us). Two of these people brought chickens (live ones) with them that proceeded to head butt my legs throughout the ride. Two of the people brought giant AK 47 style guns in the bush taxi. 20 minutes into extremely bumpy ride we had to stop because our axle was shredded down to the point where the axle and wheel had no groves between them – raw metal on metal. The sounds this bush taxi was making are not describable and certainly not sounds a car should be making. We stopped on the side of the road for about 30 minutes while the took the whole tire apparatus off and did something and then put it back on. The car still sounded awful. About 15 minutes later we get stopped by the gendarmes who are planning to make everyone show there ids and give some unlucky passengers some trouble possibly. But, the three of us knew of the gendarmes. Sure enough, one of our new Pitoa friends! So, rather than being stopped and searched we stuck out heads of the window and told him we were heading home but would be back in a month – then we ended the conversation with a friendly round of OBAMA shouts and our bush taxi went on its marry way. I can only imagine the thoughts going through the minds of our fellow riders. Well, 20 minutes later, one of the metal bars that was helping hold the overweight ceiling up fell onto Phil’s lap. People then began helping to hold the ceiling of the van up as we went over large bumps. Then, we broke down again about 20 minutes outside of Pitoa. Another 20 minute stop and tire fix and we were back on our way. We did make it home successfully this time. What a beautiful site visit.

Some information about my house: It is near a river about ½ the year and near a giant sand bank the other half (there is only water in the river during and soon after the rainy season). It is basically in a eucalyptus forest and smells faintly of vicks outside (which I like). It has electricity (complete with oven, stove, and fridge) but no running water. There is a bucket toilet (which means it is a toilet but you flush it by pouring buckets of water on top of where you just went to the bathroom). At some point when an NGO was in my house it had running water and that is why there is a toilet, sink, and shower. None of them work currently (as in they lack running water) but I get to take a bucket shower in a shower stale and the drain works. The sink is currently clogged but that is getting worked on. There is a nearby pump and I pay to use this and then pay to have local children bring me water with their families cart. I have a cat that has kittens basically every 3 months like clockwork – she is black and white. My house is cool inside because it is shaded by the forest. I have a porch that is pretty sweet so that I don’t have to invite visitors into my house but can host them on the porch. The temperature at night is very tolerable and I even used my fleece blanket at night (keep in mind that what feels cool to me now would make all of you sweat still). I have a guardian at my house that lives nearby and looks out for me and the property. The bugs are minimal in the house and it is pretty well insulated. I have windows that provide light and can also be closed with metal doors to make it darker if I wanted to sleep in (not all the windows have this but the biggest two do). All my windows have screens and bars. I have a screen door (which is key to allowing cool night air in but keeping mosquitoes out). I have cement floors which help keep it cool. Hmm, I cannot think of anything else to tell you all about site visit or my house. Bibemi seems like it will be a great experience. Sarah has left big shoes for me to fill in the town but I feel I am up to the challenge. I am going into Garoua tomorrow to post this on the internet soooo hope everyone is doing super duper. Don’t forget I got a new number and it works much better so I expect to hear from all of you shortly!

PST Week 6

This is going to be short. I typed up some stuff but I am at the internet place with the viruses so I won't be using my flash drive!!

Basically my news is this: I got a new cell phone chip so check the number on my blog and update your phones accordingly. The service I had wasn't working and I couldn't ever talk to people and it is worse in the new town I am moving to so I changed numbers!

Second, I got my POST!! I will be working at the Health Center and Hospital in Bibemi! I am very excited and promise details and photos to come. I will be spending all next week there so I will learn all about it before I move there on December 5th.


Oh, my French moved up to level Intermediate Low! Woot! I got the "most improved" apparently! That basically means I sucked the most upon entry! But, at least I am improving!

I have found amazing avocados here now and I am living up the peanut butter and all the strange foods I don't have the time to describe. Just wanted to give everyone the new number, tell ya'll I got my post (it is in the North Provience about an hour, hour and a half outside of the provincial capital of Garoua).

I have learned to talk on my cell phone while riding on the back of a motto with my helmet on. Yes, feel free to laugh at that image. I talked with mom today in that way and my motto driver laughed. The helmet holds the phone jammed in place!

Oh, I also broke my big toe. Ha, yea, soccer games in Cameroon. I was playing and I broke it somehow. It is fine. No big deal but the big toe on my right foot is disgusting looking. Purple and huge and yea, but I am fine and taking advil and about to wrap it in tap! Lucky me right??

Promise details to come!!!! Thanks for all the comments! Miss Tammy your long one was awesome! Thanks for everyone who text me and for the packages that I will one day recieve!

GO VOTE FOR OBAMA ON THE 4th!!!

PST Week 5

Sunday Market in Pitoa


Drinking at our first bar on Ramadan with our "audience" - we have since found better bars!


Soccer Game - Best regional team in Cameroon versus best regional team in Zimbabwe (we won 4-0)


View of the countryside during my first 6:30am bike ride

Alright so this blog is the first one I will totally write at the internet cafe and not before hand. I have finally figured out how to change any keyboard over to American style (shift and alt simultaneously) but you have to type from memory since all the keys are labeled differently. That isn't a huge problem but sometimes get a bit old.

So this week, let's see. Oh, tomorrow I have my second French test. Lets hope I am making enough progress that I will reach my required intermediate high level in another month. Next week I find out my placement - woot! - and then week 7 is spent at site. Weeks 8, 9, and 10 are spent back here in Pitoa and then week 11 I swear in and move to my site.

Went on a bike ride to Nassaro (spelling) which is where the Agro volunteers live on Wednesday - a group of us decided to bike rather than take the car. It is about a 30 minute bike ride which was fine on the way home at 4:30 but a little rougher in the heat of the day at 1:30 when we were heading there. I survived though and my camelback sure helped with that water access while biking situation!

I found some great cookies - well not great but great comparatively. They are Indian apparently and the package is tan or off white. I cannot remember the name of them but needless to say they are fairly awesome. Also, I have taken to eating the cheese that doens't need refridgeration. A girl can only last so long without dairy. It isn't awful. Or perhaps it really is but I am just desperate. I think that once I get to cook for myself I may be able to make the non-refridgerated cheese work for me. It might do well in pasta with tomatoes or something. Who knows. In case it isn't obvious by my blogs, we talk and think alot about food here. Besides friends and family, food is easily the thing we miss most. So, all you people in America or Germany best embrase the food that you have while you have it. The fact that you can walk into a grocery store and get ANYTHING you want - yea embrase that. Selection is limited in the rest of the world to what is local and in season. Which means I get dried fish and rice and tomato sauce alot. Be jealous.

Let me just take a moment away from talking about my life here to point out that at this moment, I am sitting in a cyber cafe on a random Friday morning while the rest of my friends are taking language test (but me - lucky girl I am - don't have mine until tomorrow) and the man next to me is watching some episode of prison break I believe. I just heard, in English, the words - "last week on prison break" or something of the sorts. I am jealous! I cannot watch movies or tv shows! Now, this isn't normal. Plenty of houses have tvs - about half of the host families do (those with money) and half don't. Mine does not, at least not to the best of my knowledge. I hear that Desperate Housewives and Spanish soapopears are particularly popular here in Cameroon. Go figure? Guess trashy tv loving is a universial guilty pleasure.

I am going to the marche this weekend with another fellow trainee to try to find a halloween costume. We were thinking Rommie and Michelle aka trashy 80s but we shall have to see about availablility. Basically there is a section of the marche that is like a giant outdoor salvation army or goodwill and so we will have to weed through the piles of clothing to find something that will do for a costume. I am not yet creative enough to think of a costume with pagne.

So this week during our community group meeting I got to have my first real experience with power structures in groups of men in Cameroon. The president of the group, a very loud A type personality, who had been absent from the group meeting the week before (of which this weeks activity was a continuation of) had to answer every question, got extremely upset with us when we didn't just take his word as "the word" and tried to extract information from the other group members, would just shout over other people or demand that he be allowed to speak by continually interrupting them - it was interesting. When we asked what they could use our assistance with his replied that they need a megaphone and a car/bike/vehicle of sometype. One of my fellow trainees who was assigned to this group with me asked if they thought it might be possible to use the microphones that are already in place at the mosques. He replied that he was Christian and this wasn't possible. It was very interesting. Anyway, after redirecting the conversation back to each individual person we finally got out that they want to learn more about malaria (aka Palu in local French). Oh, did I not mention that ALL OF THIS WAS HAPPENING IN FRENCH. I got about 1/2 of it I suppose, which is a lot for me. So, we are currently planning an amination (the French and PC Cameroon word for presentation) to present to our group on malaria utilizing the non formal education techniques we are learning... haha.... don't you love my PC lingo usage.

Mail update: I haven't recieved anything but the postcard my mother sent me before I left, my absentee ballot (but I already voted) and a ballot to vote in a local election in Louisiana that took place Oct 4th and I recieved the ballot two days ago on the 22nd. So, mail is taking its time. I have heard from people that they have recived postcards. Many of you had postcards or letters sent and many of you will have one sent soon.

My host father has malaria and has been sick for a month. He went to the hosptial already once since I was there and is going back. Another member of my extended family (who doesn't live in my home) died this week. This is a similar experience for all of us - most trainees have lost family members and everyone has had someone sick (most all of us have had numerous people sick and at least one with malaria). Just wanted to give you an idea of what the health situation here was like. Oh, when asking my host brother about food last night I learned that women don't get fed the same food as men - they get less and poorer quality. Go figure. He did tell me that it is different for pregnant women but wasn't able to get me specifics - again all of this is occuring in French so bare with me, I am learning.

Alright, time to try to get some pictures up on the blog! (which I just did and I will have you know took over 20 minutes and only worked 4/6 times) Hope everyone is doing well and I love and miss you all - keep the comments coming, they greatly amuse me!