Dir Sweet Dir

Dir Sweet Dir

We got our post announcements on Wednesday! It was a very exciting morning as all 22 health (sante) volunteers got handed on a small piece of paper our home for the next 2 years! Felt just like Christmas morning (except take away Snow and Santa's cookies and insert rainforest and bananas).

A word about Cameroon before I get started. Before coming here I had read in guide books that Cameroon is considered to be, "Africa in Miniature". It's so very true, and nationals take a lot of pride in the diversity that Cameroon embodies. There's a multitude of ethnic groups, local languages, geography, and wildlife.

Cameroon has 10 different regions, and within these regions there is great cultural and geographical variance. The Centre Region is currently where we are at right now for tranining. It houses the capitol, Yaounde, is Francophone, and is characterized by rainforest and equal parts rainy and dry season. Littoral is next to Centre and houses the economical capitol, Doula. Other than that I've decided not to familarize myself with the other 8 regions, so that I wouldn't have any bias before recieving post announcement. But here is a little of what I know:

The East and South are mostly rainforest and have long rainy seasions. The West and Northwest and very mountainous (and are home to Mount Cameroon, another landmark that nationals are very proud of). My host family has told me that in these two regions you can find a lot of tradition, including traditional chiefs! Adamouwa is the nation's transitional region, hleping connect the hub of Cameroon to the northern regions. Our technical trainer, Theo, has said that Adamouwa is like, "the melting pot of Cameroon". The North and Extreme North provinces are infamous for their hot climates (fortunately its dry heat instead of humid because its desert), their conservative culture (no knees or shoulders allowed) and strong Muslim presence.

As part of training, we have current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) come and give us technical sessions and share their experiences. This has been one of my favorite parts of training, as its really inspiring to hear their direct experiences. So far we have had 5 volunteers come to training and each one has sworn that "my region is the BEST one in Cameroon."

With that said, (drum rolll please!) I am posted in DIR, a small village in the Adamouwa region! Here is the information that I have thus far: Dir is a small village, about 6,000 peoeple. It it a Francophone post, although a lot of local languages are spoken. It is a pretty conservative village (so I'm gonna be putting away my knobby knees for 2 years! aaaannnnd...will probably have to cover my head! So happy that my headscarfs have translated over to the African continent = ) DIR has no running water or electricity and is divided inbetween a Muslim and a Christian population. I have a small enterprise development post mate in a close by village, and two other fellow health volunteers about an hour away by bush taxi! There are 4 NGOs currently working in DIR and I will be working at a medical center with Dr. Gaya, as my supervisor! On a fun note (Alison, you will appreciate this) Adamouwa is a cattle breeding region so I will have plenty of milk! And also bountiful mangoes during rainy seaon = )

On Saturday, (Karen and Kelly, flashbacks to Europe?) I will be taking a night train with my community host, Norbert, to the regional capitol of Adamowau. From there we will continue on bus, to Dir. I will be spending a few days meeting hte community and talking about both my expectations and theirs for 2 years of service. Then I'll head to the regional capitol with Samantha (another sante) and we will stay with a current volunteer and get a slice of what being a volunteer is all about!

Sending y'all love and will try to write soon about my time in my new home!