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!

Quick Note

So I finally found internet and that is beautiful. I am sitting here at a Catholic mission in garoua and the internet is working. It only let me put one picture up on the blog so that is going to get interesting. So to find this interent we convince a nun to open the missions computer lab - which is very much closed on sundays - and we figured out how to connect them all the the network. That isn't the funniest part of our internet journey though. so first, it took me 3 motto rides to get internet. came to one place and it was closed until 2pm. It was about 11:30 at this time. walked all the way back to the center of town to where I thought I would find some other friends (it was just me my friend Phil at this time) and we did find other people - 4 Nassaras to be exact. Together we all went to a place 3 of them had seen ont he way into the city. Well 3 of us got there (not me) and the other three of us were taken to the Peace Corps office. They just saw white people with helmets and i guess wanted to take us home. when we made it clear we didn't want to be there they took us directly to the UN human rights office. Lovely. All white people places. We finally just decided to go to the catholic mission and hope they were open. They weren't but they opened for us - the group of "nassaras".

This morning I went on another 6:30 am bike ride and this time I biked past the Chadian refugee camp that is down the road from us. strange that I am biking distance to a refugee camp. It is huge though. Tons of people living in tents and such. We have to do a cross culture presentation (30 minutes in French) at the end of the training and I am going to ask if I can do it about the refugee camp. We shall see!

So this weekend has been awesome. Saturday we got to go to a soccer game - that's right a soccer game. It was the best regional team in Cameroon against the best regional team in Zimbabwe. These teams had already met in Zimbabwe once and Cameroon had won. This Saturday Cameroon killed them 4-0. It was awesome. We bought the cheap seats and sat with all the locals, which was where the party was at but also where the sun beat down on you. We had to sit on things to keep our asses from burning - but it was beautiful and I loved each and every minute of it. Garoua scored in the first minute of the game and they took control from then on. It got me really excited for the World Cup in 2010!!! Prior to the soccer game I had another amazing experience - I found something in the super market that I had predicted I would find. Mom and Sam know and other people will at Christmas so I don't want to give anything away. But, I got to eat another delicious omlet with plantains and this time the omlet came with onions and tomatos too. Honestly fabuolus.

This weekend I have recieved text messages from Joey, Jensen, mom, Sam, and my grandmother. Courtney - I know you are in Pittsburg so you get a break and Sandy I only told Jensen to say hey to you so I suppose you get a break to. I do love hearing from people though :)

Today I greatly amused a group of children by taking the pate de arachide (home made peanut butter they sell here - go ahead and be jealous) and a banana and putting it on my baguet. The kids laughed and laughed and laughed. I was also eating yogurt witha straw and basically they thought that was the funniest thing they had ever seen. I was only too thrilled to amuse them.

Well aside from being insane hot - life is good! I will find out my placement on October 30th - then I have a halloween party with the other trainees the next day which is excited but my costume will be interesting with my lack of options but, you know, I will be as creative as possible. Then, November 1st I start my site visit to the place I will be living the next two years! Cannot wait! Lets hope my phone works better there and you can all talk to me while I am there!

Alright, time to post while the posting is good!!! Love and miss you all!!!

PST Week 4

These are the rain clouds descending on Yaounde (the capital of Cameroon)

Okay so week four is over! I cannot believe it but at the same time it is going by faster. First off, I am getting to know my fellow stagiaires (like trainees in French) very well and that is a good thing – I love all the health volunteers! Second, this week was a hot one. Seriously each day being hotter than the next. October is the mini hot season but wow, seriously, the use of the word “mini” to describe the heat the past week, well it frightens me to be honest.

So this week started off with last Sunday me and 3 friends going on a bike ride. Now, let me preface this by saying that we started this bike ride at 6:30am. Now, we didn’t chose this time because we are crazy, we are morning people, we love the challenge, or any of that crazy stuff – we chose it pure and simple because we are all awake at that time – thanks to the Peace Corps schedule – and it is not quite so miserably hot at that time of the morning. Needless to say, we began at 6:30 and returned at 9 and had a blast. I may or may not have contracted schisto through my forced entry into the standing water – but hey, all in good fun right? My legs are ridiculously bruised, I had cuts all down them (learned that despite the heat, off road bike trip require pants) and had an amazing time. Honestly it was beautiful and tons of fun. While I was taking my turn in front (we are a bunch of first borns who all have to take turns leading) we began riding along side a “stream” of standing rain water. Well, the ground next to it was not what one would call stable and so being in front I ate it into the “stream” once, and half another time. The girl behind me ate it with me that time. We learned though and soon were back to our normal functioning biking selves. I took a bucket shower and scrubbed off afterwards and almost a week later seem to be no worse for the ware.

A whole other set of injuries are coming from soccer. People here can PLAY soccer. And, being the overly aggressive small white girl I am – just doesn’t stop and runs right into people who get in the way of me and anything I want to do on the field. Now, this has resulted in many a collisions and my shins are taking the toll on that one. But, alls well that ends well and I am still walking, talking, and behaving just fine!

For those of you, cough mom cough, who are keeping track this is week 5 of me taking my malaria pills and as far as I can tell I am still sane. I have drank beer, been around people, and eaten lots of random foods all while on it and seem to be no worse for the wear – thank god. For anyone who saw me on the last malaria pills – cough friends and family in Germany cough – you know how insane I became. So, glad I am avoiding that with this new set of friends. A little early to introduce them to the insane side of me don’t you think.

Okay so Cameroon doesn’t do dairy really. So, I miss cheese. Stupid Wisconsin with there overly amazing cheeses – it isn’t fair. I miss them a lot. Rope chcese…. Mmmm… yea. Other than that, I have found most things here in various forms and for various prices. The candy here (or bonbons in French) are all hard candies and some not that great Cameroonian chocolate or very overpriced European selection that comes and goes – and all the hard candy come from Nigeria from a place called “old airport road”. There is one ingredient in the candy we cannot identify – we have stopped wondering what it is – cough jet fumes – cough.
So, some of the crazy things I have seen this week include, but are in no way limited to, a group of 12 goats waiting outside a mosque for their owners to be done praying, you can fit a very large number of “citrons” (think tiny oranges the size of limes) into a condom, two children chased me down the street this week jus to shake my hand, I finally worked up the nerve to purchase the local version of peanut butter from a lady (in French) and it turned out she only spoke Fulfulde and so a local schoolgirl had to help us out with the transaction. But, I did purchase said “pate de arachide” and it was awesome. It is like the ultimate natural peanut butter. Every morning I get bread for breakfast and with my new found “pate de arachide” and perhaps some bananas and honey – my mornings will be awesome.

My bike has now had two maiden voyages and tomorrow with my trip to Garoua I will be taking my first motto ride I believe. I am going to a soccer game of Garoua (who is suppose to be really great) against an unknown opponent. I am very excited. Got to love the African soccer! I do miss the tuk-tuks though. Man Asia was awesome. I hope Sarah is loving her time in Mozambique. I know that since I have been here Cameroon has played Mozambique in soccer and won. Woot – yea Cameroon! (Sorry Sarah)!

This week I received my last vaccine – Rabies number 3. Let me just say for all of you who haven’t known the joy of rabies shots – they aren’t the best. While they don’t hurt like typhoid of tetanus, the make me a bit dizzy and my arm would randomly hurt for a few minutes for days afterwards. Also, let me just say that taking a thick and thin smear of your own blood isn’t as easy as it sounds. We all had to practice yesterday and I sucked! I couldn’t get myself to bleed enough. Going in from the side did NOT help. I finally had to take the little metal cutter thing and stab myself deep into the finger and then blood came. Hey, at least now if I need to do a malaria smear when I am sick I have some practice! Oh, continuing with the medical theme, I got stung by a bee! A mean mean African bee! Went to move my towel away from the line of aunts that was near it and some bee flew right out and stung me! Jerk! Well, I killed it and of course my host brother witnessed all of this and laughed – but he has since asked me how I was. I am fine, by the way, just a bit angry with the now dead bee and the copious amounts of sunlight that the bite receives doesn’t help – in fact it angers it. But, thank god for benedryl cream and my remember to bring it!

In two weeks I will have my placement for the next two years! How strange is that you might ask – really freaking strange! I hesitate to get too strong an opinion now about the placement I want but I promise to update it with my placement as soon as possible.

Also, for those of you who aren’t texting me – that is just mean. It is free for me to receive them and even if I don’t respond I really love them. Especially the ones that say great comments that are pointless but really pick me up – or those with updates about the debates – or those with stupid shit that Palin or McCain say in debates – I love them and either keep them coming or start them up. I know its expensive but just like once a week – come on people. We will have to figure out the communication thing once I get to my site and see what all is available.

Oh, any creative friends who want to submit Halloween costume ideas to me please do so via text. I have just the clothes I brought – which is nothing to be excited about costume wise – and African pagne (material – which is pronounced pan-yea and the a in pan is like the ou in pound – wow I suck at explaining pronunciation almost as badly as I suck at actually pronouncing Cameroonian words) and the random clothes they sell at the goodwill like section of the local Sunday market. As of now I think I will be “summer” and be one of the four season but that was just something recently suggested to me. We shall see.

Alright, my first pagne is at the seamstress getting made into something I can wear as we speak and I promise pictures of that ASAP. But, I did buy a dress off my friend who received two dresses of the same material and well, it is entertaining. Think, African print with what might be trees and what might be asparagus on it. Yea, it’s pretty great. Her host sister forced us to purchase it in the market – apparently, with her host sister if you look at it, you buy it. And, if you touch it, that is like signing a blood contract (mom you would be in trouble like I was).

Okay well I must head to bed since I have class at 7:30 tomorrow! Miss and love all of you very much (well those of you whom I know)!

PST Week 3

I am hoping to get to post this tomorrow (Saturday October 11th) but we shall see. So, this week of training was particularly difficult. None of the sessions were of real interest to me, there was a lot lot of French, and yea, it dragged. However, the weather was a bit better (most days, with the heat of today being an exception). I also got to play some soccer so hey, not all is lost right?

Another person from our group of 30 left – this time it was an agro trainee. I don’t know if I mention before that one of us had left. A male health volunteer (who are already few and far between) left, or rather was asked to leave, because he broke protocol. There are apparently 5 rules in PC that you don’t break or you leave: always wear your helmet (both moto and bike), don’t do illegal drugs, don’t get pregnant, trainees cannot become involved with trainers, and I cannot remember any others. Anyway, this particular boy rode a moto without a helmet – on the very same day that we had the transportation training about how this was against protocol. He was honest about it and told one of the staff but regardless, he had to leave. It was rather sad. This week a female agro-forestry volunteer left. She just decided that the PC wasn’t for her – and it is not for everyone. Still, hard to be down to 28 people.

However, I have decided that it is nearly impossible to be upset during an African rain storm. They are too loud and demanding. I adore them. They make me super happy. Also, I have found a beer in Africa that isn’t too bad. It is called Turborg (or something similar) and it is much better than the 33 or Castle I have been drinking. It is a bit more expensive (like 100 CFA / 35 cents) and I am very willing to spend this money for the better beer. Still haven’t experimented with African hard liquor but I promise to soon enough and report back. PC has a one beer policy for us while we are in training so that has kept me rather subdued. Also, to be honest, it is too damn hot to drink much. You are dehydrated as is – no need to add beer to the mix.

Three weeks and very much counting until we find out our posts! We find out on a Thursday the 30th of October and then we have a workshop with our new counterparts on Friday and Saturday and then Sunday morning we leave to go to site visit. There is a PC Halloween party that Saturday the 1st in Garoua and the group of us still aren’t sure whether we are going, whether that is too complicated, etc. Regardless we shall be doing something I am sure so that is exciting – getting to plan something that isn’t training related. Anyway, the following week we get to spend the whole time at our new sites, checking things out and learning the ropes from any volunteers around. It will certainly be an interesting week of staging!

Next week I have volunteered to help led some of the training sessions. Thought that might make them go by faster. I will be helping with malaria next week and with M&E the following week (wouldn’t professor Keating be proud of those choices!). A number of us all decided to start helping with the sessions to try to make training a bit more involved and entertaining.

I still have the pagne (think brightly colored African style printed material) that I bought the first weekend at the market in Pitoa. I have a fellow trainee whose host family are all tailors (or many of them are) and so perhaps by the end of next week I shall have a pagne made into something wearable. Get excited for pictures as soon as that occurs.

Oh man, my Ipod shuffle feature just put on “I hate everyone” – Emily that totally brings me back to the road trip to Atlanta where this song became like our mantra. Love it. Miss it. Etc. Just had to share.

Speaking of which, people who are reading this – email me, comment on the blog, respond to me in some way. Hell, text me! I enjoy communication and I believe I remember from training that communication is a TWO WAY street sooooo feel free to do your part – clearly I am doing mine. Haha. No but seriously, call, write, email, hell send an owl to me Harry Potter style… something…. Also all of us here in Cameroon feel disconnected from the whole American political world so please send funny quotes, tid bits of information about debates/polls, etc. We really enjoy them.

So my eyes starting get sick here so I had to switch to the glasses. I am hoping that is because the contacts were old (like more than a month) and I think they might be but with all the airplanes I was on I kind of lost track. So, mom, prescription sunglasses might top the Christmas list. We shall see. Other than that, I am pretty healthy. Not sure how to be honest… I am eating a lot of dirt, some rocks, some unfiltered water, and many unknown dishes. They clean many of their dishes by scrubbing them on the dirt or with stones and well, sometimes those make it into the dishes. I have picked more rocks from my mouth and chewed more sand than I knew what to do with. But, hey all part of the experience. Tried some more interesting food – including maranga leaves, fullery, and some other green things. I am getting much more experimental with the food. I also tried some liver. Not that good to be honest. The most popular restaurant in Garoua ran out of food while we were there and we ended with liver, some seriously unknown meat, noodles, an odd chef Boyardee type sauce, and smoothies. The smoothies were extremely tasty mostly because they were so unusual compared to my current diet. Every day for lunch I eat the same thing. Don’t ask me to name it all – because about 1/3 of it is still a mystery to me. It is rather tasty though, at least for now while it is only week 3 of the food. Talk to me week 10 and see if I still find it tasty.

I have braved the bush taxi now once and I plan to brave the moto taxi tomorrow (with my cool space suit looking helmet). So far nothing too bad. Didn’t get stopped by the gendarmes for a prolonged time or anything yet. Haven’t been asked to bribe anyone. We shall see. It was only the first time, fate might have been being nice to me.

We went to a hospital in the town we are staging (Pitoa) today. That was an interesting experience. The staff was all very nice and the whole experience occurred in French with our trainer translating for us. Some interesting facts: abortions are illegal in Cameroon, it cost the same amount to birth a live baby as a stillborn, it is also the same price for a birth and for a miscarriage (I think), family planning is done only to women – not men, it cost 100 CFA for post pregnancy hospital stays regardless of whether you stay 3 days or 10, the family planning is shown to women who bring there kids in for vaccines and not when they come for prenatal care, there are 8 vaccines kids in Cameroon all receive – yellow fever, TB (which doesn’t prevent TB but just makes it harder to get), measles, hepatitis B, Tetanus/Diptheria/Pertussus, Vitamin A supplement, the oral polio vaccine… and that is all I can remember for now. Also, at the hospital, for a few things I got the feeling they are giving us the party line. Telling us things like some medications were free or very inexpensive, that TB patients stayed in the hospital for free, etc. Not sure if that is actually occurring or not, but it would be great if it was. The hospital was basically outdoor, in the same manner that a strip mall is – each individual building is indoor but to walk between them you must go outside. There was no morgue in the hospital – I found that interesting. Also, most children who come to the hospital come due to malaria – but none of the windows had screens and there were no mosquito nets – go figure!

Apparently there is no French translation for either country music or oldies. You have to say music from the 70s, etc – and my French teacher calls country “traditional American music” which I don’t know about, but it works for now. Also, the French have no verb “will” – they only have “must” – I find that interesting as well.

Alright, well Cameroon is hot, interesting, and unlike anything I can explain. The candy isn’t good – so if you are visiting bring some. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say it isn’t good, it is just really different and I don’t like it nearly as much as German/American candy. Apparently the cool weather is on its way, but it doesn’t stay long and then the unbearable hot comes. Think 140. Apparently though, you don’t sweat – it’s too hot that it evaporates immediately - you only know you are sweating because your skin is covered in salt. Yes, this is me being excited for that. OMG now the shuffle is playing Journey’s “Don’t stop believing” – Emily it must be missing you tonight! I can still see Laura doing the dance at Pat O’s on Mardi Gras. Ah, good times.

Well I shall sign off for now and not go into too many more details about my life here. I wake up at like 5:45am and go to bed by 11pm at the latest. No, I don’t get up that early because I am a freak, I get up that early because it starts to get warm then, the sun comes up, the roosters start making noise, and everyone else is awake at that time. I am mastering the art of using a very small amount of water during my bucket shower because apparently water will soon be very hard to come by so I might as well get use to it now. It isn’t so bad. It is rather refreshing in this heat. My hair feel different here though. Not sure what that is about. Perhaps it is just getting use to Africa as well. Still have yet to receive a package or letter from anyone but I promise to let everyone know when I receive one! Love and miss everyone! Please update me on life there! Also – Nicky, Melissa, and Emily – I have texted all of you but haven’t gotten any response – let me know if you are receiving them! Nicky I got the email just now so I know you are getting them! Signing off!

PST Weeks One and Two

These are the mud huts on the way to my house in Pitoa...

I am sitting here writing this blog entry on my laptop in my new bedroom. My family lives in a compound of many building and I have a whole one to myself. It is about 20ft by 10ft and made of concrete and has a tin roof. I have two small window both of which have bars on them and netting to keep the bugs to a minimum. I have a double sized bed that is covered with a mosquito net and is rather comfy. I have a water filter, a tiny table, a chair, and a “desk”, a trunk, a bike, and one shelf. All in all – it is good. While I am typing I can here a parade of village children playing local instruments and singing – literally like something straight out of a movie. I am surround by mud huts with thatched roofs – no Courtney I am not kidding. Yes, I have a cell phone but to make it work for phone calls (not text messages which work more places – like under my desk in my room!) I have to leave my family’s compound and go stand next to the tree that is between the two mud hut compounds. It is fairly entertaining. I live on the outskirts of Pitoa – a city whose population I do not know because when I ask my host brother Daniel he simple replies “Pitoa a grand ville”. I suppose they don’t feel the need to do a census here in Pitoa. I doubt anyone knows the exact population. I would guess about 5,000 – but I hear it is more like 15,000 but I would have never guessed so. Problem is all the people live in tiny crammed houses so it is hard to tell. There are two paved roads. I live near one. Other than that – its dirt roads all the way. There is not a restaurant in the town and the Peace Corps has arranged for a local women who is known to be a good cook to make our lunch each day and we pay her 700 CFA (pronounced say-fa) to do this. That is about $1.50.

So some Cameroonian things I have tried thus far include: goat, Kola nuts (a nut/seed that grows here that is bitter and is a natural amphetamine), roasted peanuts, unroasted peanuts, tomatoes, tiny bananas, noodle/rice combo, papaya, guava, pineapple, beef, chicken, fish (no idea what kind), tomato sauce, there spicy picanta sauce which makes Tabasco seem like ketchup, cous cous (which is nothing like our cous cous and basically like really really thick grits or maybe like super sticky oatmeal minus the oats part) and many many more dishes I have no idea how to describe because I literally have no idea what was in them. While I haven’t loved everything thus far, none of it has been awful. I don’t ask (partly because my French is still poor and partly because I don’t know if I want to know) what I am eating most of the time.

Bug bites cover my legs from the mid calf down. Same thing happened in Asia – why do bugs like that part of my body? I also have one new one on my waste line that is rather annoying and two on my stomach. Silly bugs. I don’t know what type of bite they are but they burn. Knock on the biggest piece of wood I can find…. I haven’t gotten sick yet. I haven’t done anything too stupid yet – like eat raw fruit or chug a bottle of tap water – but I haven’t been unadventurous. I brushed my teeth twice with tap water and have eaten tomatoes after I washed them and soaked them for 10 minutes in bleach water and I eat tons of bananas and oranges and peanuts (which they call ground nuts or arachide in French). Also, I only boiled my water before I filtered it for two of the times – it is too much work for my host family to boil all that water and then I have to wait for it to cool…. so I just drink filtered water. I have been told that since my water comes from a pump and not a well that this is okay. Although I must admit I haven’t actually seen this pump.

Oh, my name apparently is no longer Aubrey. It is “Nassara” or occasionally “le blanc”. Nassara means foreigner or white person in the local language – Fulfulde and of course “le blanc” means white in French. Literally I think I get pointed at and called that about 1000 times a day. It doesn’t bother me though, the children who do it are adorable and the other people are just happy to see me and they are being friendly when they say it. It is not a demeaning word or anything. Also, today (4 October 2008) I walked past a group of Cameroonian children with my new bike, bike helmet, and motto helmet. These children were playing some type of stick ball and appeared very interested in my new items. They screamed “NASSARA” at the top of their lungs and waved. About 15 minutes later I passed them again, this time sans stuff, and they screamed BONJOUR NASSARA (now this is at about 4pm so it is time to say Bonsoir not Bonjour at this point in the day) and one of the oldest kids (circa 10 years old) ran towards me with his hand out. I shook his hand and said Bonsoir. All the other children (about 8 of them) bust out laughing hysterically. Then, in turn, each one as they get brave run up to me and shake my hand. It was adorable.

So far I have gotten 5 shots and I have another to come in a few Wednesdays. I have yellow fever, typhoid (PC won’t pay to give us the oral vaccine so I had to have another shot and that shot sucks a lot), rabies #1 and #2 (there are 3 total), and meningitis. All I have left is rabies #3. I had many of them before hand – hepatitis A and B and tetanus and such. The rabies vaccines made me slighty dizzy – boo to that – and typhoid makes your arm very sore – but so be it.

We got to watch some very upbeat videos from the PC about volunteer who got AIDS and then we got a talk about how we shouldn’t have unprotected sex or get pregnant – really? Thanks PC! Haha. The training thus far has been informative I suppose – I have an awesome med kit with everything from Band-Aids to a syringe to malaria pills to a blood smear kit in it. I am basically set.

In Yaounde I bought a giant Johnny Walker Red bottle full of roasted peanuts – hey now that is recycling if I ever heard of it. In Cameroon – like most developing countries – recycling is scarce so I am impressed by any show if it I see. Oh, and apparently all the children want your empty Tangi (the local brand of water) bottles so I have started saving them. As we drove through the villages to get to Pitoa the children would run up to our bus asking for them. Who knew?

So far I have found Toblerone, Bounty, Snickers, Mars, and Perrier here (and of course coke, sprite, and fanta). All of this is only in the biggest of cities I haven’t had Snickers or Mars yet but the Bounty was delicious and the Toblerone was also. The Perrier however sucked. I haven’t had Perrier in America in awhile and I wonder if it is awful everywhere or just here. But here, honestly, it tasted disgusting. I don’t know what was wrong with it. But, I had it about 10 days ago so I know it didn’t make me sick!

From Yaounde we took a night train up to a city in the mountains that I cannot pronouce (N’Gaoundere – and those e’s have French accent marks) which is where the train ends. That train ride took 16 hours. Then we got on a 5.5 hour bus ride from N’Gaourndere to Pitoa. Pitoa is in the Northern province of Cameroon about 15km north of Garoua which is the 3rd largest city and may be on some maps you find. Garoua has internet and a market that people assure me is large but would make your average 711 look great. I have no idea when I will find internet so I am just typing this now and I will carry it around with me in the hopes I get to a cyber café tomorrow.

Oh, in case y’all couldn’t guess – it is hot here. It is about 100 degrees most days. I hear that in March and April your thermometers black out at 140 so hey – something to look forward to. Right now it is still a little humid and by then it will be super dry so we shall see how bad this 140 is. I am not really looking forward to it. But, I hear that by that point I am somewhat acclimated to the temperature and is doesn’t bother me like it sounds like it would. Already I am sweating less, but that is not to say that I am not sweating all day everyday.

Also, when it rains, it RAINS. Jesus. Out of no where comes there clouds – then the sky turns colors and the clouds rush up on the town and then seriously the skies open up and torrential rain follows. It is amazing to watch. Also, rain makes it cooler outside so much to my host family’s amusement - I leave my door open in the rain. Basically they think this makes me am alien and they come by continually and ask me if I want help closing my door. I saw no, I like the breeze (and I say this in French) and they give me an odd look and walk away.

I have braved doing my laundry only once yet but I have helped my friend Anna do hers twice. The problem is after I finally figure out how to communicate to my family that I want to do my laundry, I do my laundry, I hang it outside to dry – I have to let it sit outside in the sun for 3 days (taking it in at night and when it rains) because if it doesn’t sit outside in the sun 3 days then it will be infested with “mango flys” which are worms that will burrow into my skin when I wear the clothes – lovely thought right? Never have I ever appreciated a washer and dryer so much and it is only the start of week 2 in country.

My homestay family is awesome. They are really nice. My dad is a retired police officer. I have one light and one outlet in my room and electricity fairly regularly. I barely speak to my host mom and dad but my host brothers Leopold and Daniel are great – Daniel especially. They sit and help me speak in French every night and are very helpful. Daniel gave me a Lonely Planet for Central Africa – it might be from 1994 but it still has lots of useful information I think. I live on the outskirts of town about a 20 minute walk to the Peace Corps training center every morning but it isn’t so bad.

My friends host mother had a baby the day we arrived. It was alive for one week before it was allowed to be named in a naming ceremony. I know the baby’s name but have sense forgot – something cute but foreign. They try to make me hold it when I go over and I have once but it makes me rather nervous. It is adorable though and the mother and her female relative who is 15 and basically in charge of the household while the mother is still recovering parade it around proudly.

We were told in training that women in Cameroon – at least in this part of the North – weren’t suppose to go to bars alone. If you did, you were looked at as a prostitute. Well two other girls and myself finally braved the bar scene in town today with a male colleague and there were other women in the bar so that was good. We shall see how that whole things pans out. In training we are only allowed one large, or two small, beers a day. That was the first I had in Pitoa so I don’t foresee that being a problem. But, beers are tasty when it is hot and it was nice to sit with locals, speaking English with my friends drinking a cold drink. I have since braved the bar many more times and we found a bar in town with a back area so that we aren’t stared at constantly while we drink like we were the first time. They often run out of cold beers though so that sucks. Luke warm beer – especially Cameroonian beer – isn’t worth it.

Bucket showers – I have gotten more use to them. I am taking my in the pit latrine like I was instructed to do and that is interesting but it is so hot that throwing a cold bucket (which is really a bowl) of water over my head isn’t so bad. I don’t wash my hair often because it seems useless since 20 minutes after I get out of the shower I am soaked in sweat already. Haha. At least in the South (of America) when you go inside there is Air Conditioning – not here!

We met the US Ambassador to Cameroon – she seemed nice and very complementary of PCVs. They encouraged all of us to take the foreign service exam – which they offer at the Embassy in Yaounde so perhaps I will consider doing that. It was a big media to do because she met us up here in the North at our training site and not at the headquarters in Yaounde which is normal. It was lots of photos and journalists and such.

Well Monday (the 6th of October) starts week three of PST. 8 weeks to go! I am very anxious to get through this and move into my permanent community – not because I don’t love my host family because they are great but because I am anxious to be doing things on my own and feel useful here in Cameroon and not just be here struggling with French and learning about the culture – I am ready to speak French and know about the culture – guess I am just being impatient. But, it has been a hell of an adjustment and things are so different and I think if I could walk into a grocery store I might kiss it because I really want fresh juice and salad that I know won’t potentially make me very ill. It is all just new and overwhelming but also exciting and I am sure once the adjustment takes place I won’t crave all those things I cannot have all the time.

Pitoa is known for there giant market. Last weekend I got to experience this. I bought a pagne of fabric that is crazy printed and I am scoping out tailors to have a shirt and skirt made. Send me measurements if you want something but be aware that it will be in noisy African style fabric and prints and that it won’t be plain – they don’t do plain here. Feel free to wait for pictures of what I end up with and decide then. I also got some fruits, some strange squash looking thing, a bucket to soak my fruits/veggies in, the bleach to soak them in, and I think that might be it. All in all though I spent about 6 dollars but had a blast be dragged around the market by a fast paced local women who is Anna’s host sister. I know we got the “blanc/ nassara” price for many things but I watched and we didn’t pay much for then Anna’s host sister did. Her host sister was tough though – if we looked at something or God forbid touched one of the fabrics – basically we were suppose to buy it. Mom, you would be in trouble here. Haha. You learn quickly though and they learned that nassaras are just strange and do things like that.

Got to talk to Courtney and my grandma recently and that was great. Talked to mom only briefly. To talk to Courtney I had to stand by the tree though and the sun set while this happened and my host brother Daniel sat and watched me while I talked. Got the same text message from my grandmother about 20 times total – but I got it. That made me laugh. Everyone was just impressed that my grandmother sends texts though – most of them cannot get there parents to so congrats on being tech savvy there family! To talk to my grandma I had to stand by yet another tree and be watched by a group of 20 Cameroonian children and a herd of goats (Chev in French). If only the phone calls were video conferences my family would crack up watching me just TRY to talk to to them – searching about for signal – moving around, holding up the phone, kneeling down, roaming from tree to tree, being followed by a pack of children and goats…. Picture that!

Note about the cell phone – yes I have one. The number is on the blog. However, text, don’t bother trying to call unless I have texted you and told you to because I do not get enough signal in Pitoa 99% of the time to call. Testing works much better. There is a tree near my house that gets decent signal. Also the main road isn’t so bad. So, it is a work in progress this whole developing country cell phone thing. We all just have to be patient. So, if I don’t text you back right away or you cannot get a hold of me I am sorry and I know it is frustrating but I promise to text you back as soon as I can and hopefully my permanent city will get better reception….

Wish me luck – Love and miss you all!