Un, Deux, Trois

1) As Peace Corps Volunteers two of our three goals involve cultural exchange. We are meant to learn about the life of people in other countries and hopefully share that knowledge with Americans back home throughout our service and beyond. We are also meant to share American culture with host country nationals. At times we are the only American people have ever/will ever come into contact with, and thus its a rare opportunity to share what Americans are truly like. This can be a frustrating and amusing task in a place where stereotypes and misconceptions of the United States are sometimes outlandish. People believe that my best friends must be Beyonce, Rihanna, and President Obama, that all Americans have servants, that when cars break down in America we just leave them in the middle of the street because we have enough money to buy new ones, etc...

**Sidenote: Even though sometimes I laugh at the craziness of the stereotypes people hold, I try to remind myself to take a step back and remember how many stereotypes I had of Africa before coming here. How misconcieved I was to group all of Africa's countries into one culture, when truly one country is as different from its neighbor as the Mid West of the United States is different than New England. How scared I was to arrive here and how I had no idea what to expect, and if someone would have told me that I would be wearing a loin cloth and a bone in my head for two years....I would have believed them. But what I've discovered is that I didn't come to a different planet, I didn't come to a different world...I came to a different country, and there are more similarities than differences.**

The most frustrating stereotypes to try to break are truly those related to money. If you are American you must have LOADS of it, point blank, discussion closed. People are constantly telling me how people must be so much happier in America because they have so many more things. Its difficult to explain to people that materialism doesn't equate to happiness, and that there is so much beauty in the simple life that they live here. Its difficult to explain to people that even in the United States people have problems, that people suffer, and that (and this is difficult for them to get their heads around) there is also poverty in the United States. 

One of the most shocking concepts for people to understand is the phenomena of homelessness in the United States. I mentioned in my last blog post, that African hospitality is truly exceptional, and that no matter how many mouths there are to feed, or how many people are already sharing one bed at night, there is ALWAYS room for one more. So when I explain to people that there are people who are suffering in the United States, without a place to rest their head at night, or not having means to find their next meal, people simply do not understand it. They spout back questions like, "What do you MEAN they sleep on the streets? Where are their families? Why don't their neighbors feed them? How can the rich people in your country not give these people something?"

My senior year of college I worked my community nursing clinical at a homeless shelter, and those couple of months taught me that the answers to those questions and the reasons why people fall into homelessness are incredibly complex. However, I think that the simple logic of African hospitality could help answer those questions: someone is hungry, they are human, they are your brother, you give them to eat. End of story.

I recently read an essay by Barbara Kingsolver that struck a chord with me, and this passage explains what I want to say better than I ever could:

"Whatever else "home" might be called, it must surely be a fundamental human license. In every culture on earth, the right to live in a home is probably the first condition of citizenship and humanity. Homelessness is an aberration. It may happen anywhere from time to time, of course, but when I look hard at the world, I see very few places where there resides an entire, permanent class of people labeled "homeless". Not in the poorest places I've ever lived, not even in an African village where everyne I knew owned only one shirt (at best) and most had never touched an automobile. Because even there, as long as the social structure remains intact, people withut resources are taken in by their families. Even if someone should fall completely apart and have to go to the hospital, which means a trek on foot over dozens of miles or more, the whole family goes along to make sure the sick one is taken care of. "Home", in this case, becomes portable. I know this because I lived as a child in an African village that housed the region's small, concrete-block hospital. Whever I walked past the hospital's lively grounds never failed to impress me. It was just a bare-dirt plaza, maybe stretching among all its corners to the size of a city block, but it was always a busy place, where dozens of families camped out around their cooking fires while waiting for some relative to have an operation, have a baby, or die. Meanwhile they passed the time by singing, mourning, washing dishes, arguing, daydreaming, or fussing at toddlers who ran around wearing nothing but strings of beads around their bellies. In the rest of my life I have never witnessed another scene so solidly founded on both poverty and security. I don't wish to glorify the impoverished half of this equation; these children had swollen bellies from kwashikor, and they had parasites. But they also had families they could not forget under any circumstances, or ever abandon, or be abandoned by, however they might fall on madness or illness or hard times. I don't believe that the word homeless as it's used in our language could be translated there."
                                                                                                         
                                                                               -"Household Words" Small Wonder

2) On the topic of African hospitality, a couple of weeks ago I had one of my most powerful moments yet to date in country. Papa Iza and I had gone out en brusse to vaccinate DEM BABIES! We are now at the debut of rainy season (in Cameroon there are only two seasons: rainy and dry) and the expression, "When it rains it pours" has never made more sense to me. The rains here are truly impressive, and they arrive very quickly, with almost no warning. After a day of vaccinations, Papa Iza and I are on our way back to Dir and noticing that the skies are changing. Still 25 km away, there is no way we are going to make it back to Dir before the rains arrive. Fortunately, we came across a settlement of farmers living in straw huts within a few minutes, and pulled over. No questions asked, we walked into the community, we were welcomed, and we took shelter from the pouring rain for close to an hour and a half. Sitting on the floor of this hut, making conversation with this family of 5 cooking their dinner, I was overwhelmed with emotion at the beauty of how fluidly we had been accepted into their home and into their afternoon. We needed shelter, and we were given it, no questions asked.

3) Some of the advice that more senior volunteers have given me is to not rush into any projects, because what you decide to get involved in will be your life for the next two years. I'm taking that advice to heart on most projects, slowly deciding when to say yes and when I need to say no. However, because we are at the debut of rainy season, farming season is at its peak. The land needs to be tilled before the rains start, and seeds need to be planted a couple weeks after.  Norbert (my counterpart) and I had to make a quick decision as to whether we wanted to start a soy project. Soy is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and with its insane protein value, something that I really do think can make a difference in Dir. So! We have started a community soy field!

Norbert has a background in agriculture and he couldn't be happier to be helping me learn how to farm. His neighbor gifted us a terrain of land across from the hospital and over the past couple of weeks we have worked the land and its ready to be planted! 

We've had two community efforts at the soy field, both on Saturday mornings. These were my first attempts at trying to organize and motivate people in the community, and there were a lot of lessons learned from them. I had talked to maybe fifteen people who had given me a definite, "Yes! I will be there Saturday morning". Yet, come Saturday morning only about four of those people showed up. At first, I was pretty down by the outcomes and overwhelmed as to how we were going to convert this field into a farm, but slowly and surely it happened. Although the people I asked to come did not show up, people I have never met who were simply walking by came to help for twenty/thirty minutes and continued on their day. Once the kids got out of school (there is a halfday of school each Wednesday, so thus...school on Saturday mornings) they came and did so much good work! We drank honey wine, and were gifted some rice from neighbors, and when the morning of work was finished we sat around and shared a meal. The second community effort was entirely different, with mostly teenage boys and I working the field together. So I learned that I need to keep my expectations flexible, that simply because something doesn't go as I planned, it doesn't mean that it isn't working. And that when I decide to focus in on what ISN'T happening, I fail to notice the good that is.

A couple of mornings over these past couple of weeks, I have gone to the field by myself to get some work done. These mornings have been exhausting, my body and hands hurt afterwards, and there have been mornings where my body wakes up feeling 40 years older than it actually is. Yet, there is something incredibly rewarding about working the Earth, and realizing how much WORK goes into producing a crop of food. More than anything, these mornings have made me realize how hard people must work here to survive. People work the fields year in and year out in order to put food on the table. With the combination of physical labor and heavy sunshine I am starting to understand why the older generation here looks so much older than they actually are.

Wrapping this up now, with love = )

Glances Of Life

      Last week was our six month anniversary of arriving into country! As part of the Peace Corps timeline, last week, my fellow volunteers from my training class and I met up in Bamenda (the regional capitol of the Northwest region) for a seminar put on by the Peace Corps. During this seminar we were meant to reflect/present on the observations that we have made during our first three months at post. We also recieved much information on project planning and funding opportunities so we can have more direction on where we want our work to go over these next couple of years. I have a thousand ideas running through my head as to where I will want my work to go, but as my program manager told me "unless you focus in on one or two projects that you feel passionate about, your work will not be sustainable". So now the challenge will be returning to post and starting the conversations and work that will help me hone in on those projects and start them rolling. With that said, I can't believe how quickly the past three months in Dir have flown by, and I wanted to share some glances of them with you.

 The Adamoua Region is nicknamed the "Land of Milk and Honey", which is incredibly accurate as you can find cows and honey all over the place (even on the side of the street!). Cows are a huge part of the cutlure here, particularly  for the Mborro people, whose men inherit cows as part of their birthright (unfortunately, since most young boys have a herd of cattle to tend to they do not attend school---and when the Mborro boys do not attend school neither do girls).

      

Traveling in this country has taught me a lot, mostly how to find humor in the situation and learning how to be patient. The coasters here will take you almost anywhere, but they do not run on a schedule, so you simply have to wait for the car to fill up before the driver leaves. I have had some voyages go incredibly smoothly, where you arrive exactly at your destination time. And then, I have had some voyages that are extended six hours because the tire popped and we need to wait for the next coaster to show up to fix it! Something I do absolutely love about this country though is that whenever you voyage you really do become a community with the people on the coaster with you (and you kind of have to because you are practically sitting on top of each other--its crazy how many people the driver will load into the car!) 

       

   

A shot of the medical center in Dir! Behind the health center, there are fields that the doctor owns and that I am hopefully going to start a small soy farm on. With that I hope to integrate nutrition counseling for HIV + patients.

 

     

My house-- Cameroonians have about three or four colors that they use for painting here so voila, my house is painted pink! Most people in Dir live in mud brick houses, with straw roofs so I feel incredibly lucky to be living in such a modern/beautiful home (as another plus cemented houses are supposed to keep out scorpions!) 

       

My friend, Olivia, working the fields. This is a shot of the field, after it has been cleared of herbs and burned. Now she is starting to work the earth to prepare it for seeds. Agriculture is a huge part of the culture in Cameroon, and close to 70% of people work the fields/make a living off of the earth. Olivia is one of my true friends in village, and she is always teaching me things that she calls the "True African Experience" = ) You might not be able to see in this picture but note, how she is working barefoot and in a dress!

My neighbors sitting around a eating lunch. In Dir, the main food group is cassava (called manioc), and people eat it (in the form of cous cous) about three times a day! (Unfortunately, it is one of the only Cameroonian dishes I do not like = P ) Food is served on big plates and everyone gathers around to eat the manioc with their hands and dip it in traditional sauces. The diet here is a huge source of malnutrition in the community, as manioc has a lot of calories (and leaves people feeling full) but has almost no nutritional value. One of my favorite things about the culture here, is how generous people are with their food. No matter what, if someone shows up during eating time (and it could be a brother, or it could be a complete stranger) they are offered food as a means of welcoming them and helping them feel at home.

Nurse Eric and I working the vaccination table on market day. I am learning so much from Eric about health care in this country and vaccination days are some of my favorites. The Cameroonian government provides free vaccination for all infants 0-11 months and there is never a lack of women with their infants. Here you can see some of the traditional outfits women wear, and you can also see how comfortable women are with breastfeeding in public here (it is seen as natural so there is no shame in it).  Within the past months, I have started accompanying Eric and Papa Iza (the other nurse at the health center who works with vaccinations) into the bush to help with vaccinations. These days have really opened my eyes to the extreme conditions of poverty that these Cameroonian families are living in.

For Christmas this year, a fellow volunteer found me a kitten! If you would have told me seven months ago that I would be in love with a cat I would have told you "No way! I'm a dog person". But life here is full of suprises and sure enough I am head over heels for Pistache. She was tiny when I first got her so I carried her around with me almost everywhere and so now the people of Dir know her very well, and a normal salutation for me is "Amanda, ca va?" "Comment va Pistache?"  She is about 3 1/2 months old now, and here is a picture of her with her namesake (pumpkin seeds, which are used here to make sauces).

  

    

 

For Women's day (March 8th) I partook in a traditional dance, from the East region, with a couple of other village girls. Here we are interpreting a dance about fishing at the river. Sylvie (the girl in front) is wearing the traditional outfit (Fortunately she did not have two of them, as even though I'm feeling comfortable in Dir, I'm  not quite ready to wear coconut shells in front of the community!)

  

Interpreting another traditional dance!

  

Here I am with a group of women, getting ready to march in front of the community for Women's Day. Women's Day is a big event here, and the celebration started 4 days before March 8th. The women participated in sporting events (cross country races, soccer matches against a nearby village, and handball matches), prepared a culinary feast at a local bar, cleaned all the important building in Dir, and presented dances and sketches in front of the community. In the tradition of wearing a "uniform" the Cameroonian government issues a Women's Day tissue every year so that women can look "ensemble" for the big day!

     

Also, for Women's Day, there was a big dinner and dance party in the evening at the Mayor's house. Here I am with the nurses at the hospital taking a break from dancing = ) (I have grown to absolutely love Cameroonian music and dance moves!)

       

A picture with Norbert, my community host, his wife Djanabo, and their 4 month old daughter Angeline. Norbert was such a help during my first three months in Dir and he really watches out for me, often calling me his (ELEVENTH!) child. As part of the seminar that the Peace Corps had last week, they have asked us to identify a member of the community, that we feel we will be able to work with succesfully during the next two years. Norbert is the general secretary to the mayor of Dir and has a real sense of what development is. He also has a lot of experience in agriculture and working with HIV + populations, so I was more than happy to make him my counterpart and have him travel with me to Bamenda.

Months Past

I apologize in advance for the potentially sporadic nature of this entry as there is a lot to say. Of course a part of the reason why it has been so long since I have written is due to the lack of internet access in Dir (not completely saying that I mind though = ) but more importantly is because in the 2 months past there has been a lot to process and I've been wondering where and how to start an entry encompassing them.

So let me start off with saying, that all my fears in moving to post where (as many of you had told me prior) nothing to worry about. I was concerned about safety, and how I was going to do without electricity in the evenings, I was worried about how to move all my things into my house, or how I was going to figure out the little routines that make up our lives. But one of the beauties about living in a village is that you don't need to worry, things get taken care of by working with the people around you, and moving into Dir was a more seamless and welcoming processes than I could have imagined.

My house wasn't quite ready when I first got there so I spent the first couple of nights living with my community host, Norbert and his family. My first night in Dir was such a testimony of how training had prepared me to move to a village on my own. I showered outside in a bucket, slept in a room without a door or curtain, and woke up in the middle of the night to mice underneath my bed. And those three things (shocking to say) were no big deal, whereas if that would have been my first night in Cameroon I would have been RUNNING to the country director and asking for the first ticket home.

As for the little things I was worried about: I feel incredibly secure in Dir, and know that if there was ever an issue of my safety the officials would help me take care of it in a heartbeat. As for no electricity, there is something incredibly romantic about not having lights in your house at night (and even though I'm not sharing that romance with anyone and instead have the sleep schedule of an old lady) im enjoying peaceful evenings and early mornings. As far as little routines go, I'm starting to figure it out and I think the best example I can give as to how life goes in village is the process in which I go fetch water.

About every two weeks or so I go to one of the local pumps with empty bidongs and fill them up to store in my house. Although African women can EASILY carry a 25 L bidong on their head, I'm not quite at their level yet (although I am practicing, and one of my village friends' Olivia, constantly has me carrying buckets of water, wood for cooking, you-name-it on my head....at first I thought it was CRAZY to carry things on your head, but after a couple of months, now I'm wondering why we don't carry anything on our heads in the States! Not only do these people have absolutely stunning posture, but it truly does help balance the weight of the object you are carrying! Side note: you should see how funny people's reactions are to the concept that in America no one carries things on their head) So in order to fill up my bidongs I have to take a walk into town and ask around for who has a wheelbarrow that I can borrow. I then take it to the pump and wait around with the kids and women until its my turn to pump. Let me tell you, pumping water is an absolutely KILLER workout and fortunately the little kids usually take pity on me halfway through my bidongs and help me out. Further more, after I load the bidongs onto the wheelbarrow and just as I am starting to think to myself, "Amanda how the hell are you going to push this baby home?" little boys will appear out of nowhere to help me push it back home together.

That is something that I am really loving about village life, that people come together to help each other, often without realizing that they are doing it. There is an Cameroonian expression that goes, "Nous sommes ensemble" essentially translated to: "We're in this together" and its an expression that I coming to love, and hoping to define my two years of service with.

Essentially, the expression also encompasses the Peace Corps approach to development. For the first three months at post, our jobs as Peace Corps Volunteers are to integrate and observe. The Peace Corps believes that before you can really start any projects or start serving the community, you need to get to know the community, and in doing so, you will get to know what their needs are. I really appreciate this approach to development, as I think understanding and knowing a community is key to starting a chain of events that could potentially lead to sustainable change.

The tasks of observation and integration take a different role every single day. In order to give myself some structure I have been going to help at the hospital about 2-3 days a week. There is a lot of good work that is being done at the hospital, and more than anything the nurses and doctor work with the resources that they have. There's been some days at the hospital that have absolutely shocked me with the injustice of malnourished kids who look like their 6 months old, even though their almost reaching their 2nd birthday. Every Thursday, at prenatal consultations, I never fail to be shocked by how many women come to the hospital, how YOUNG most of them are, and how many children these tired women have.

But I have also been trying to get myself out into the community and understand what living life here is really all about. Some days that means I go and work the fields (which woooh let me tell you is ANOTHER killer workout, and also incredibly humbling as trees that take me close to 50 blows to knock down takes the grandma's maximum of 5!) other days that means I sit underneath a tree and learn how to braid my little neighbor's hair (she's the only one who will allow me to experiment on her!) and yet other days I spend the days at the stream washing my clothes. At first it was difficult for people to understand why I wasn't working at the hospital every single day, but slowly I was able to explain a couple of things. First off) I believe that partaking in the activities that make up daily life will help me to better understand and ultimately serve the community. Secondly) Another goal of the Peace Corps experience is for the volunteer to learn the life and culture of another country. Slowly and surely, I think people in Dir are starting to get a better feel as to what I am doing here and as their understanding that, I'm starting to feel like more a part of the community instead of the latest exhibition at the zoo (I don't think I have ever been gawked at, prodded, or examined more in my life than I was within my first few weeks at post. But understandly so, I'm sure that if I went to a school where everyone had orange hair and someone showed up with NEON green hair I would also be wondering "What are you DOING here???")

One of my favorite activities in trying to integrate into Dir has been going to the local high school's (lycee)dance practices for Youth Day (Feb. 11th). I went to introduce myself to the lycee because I hope to work with the schools in Dir to teach some health lessons and befriend the lycee students as they are making a lot of decisions that will affect the rest of their lives (particularly in a country where AIDS is rampant). When one of the teachers mentioned a dance team, I practically jumped out of my seat to ask if I could watch the practices. So for the past month, I have been going maybe once or twice a week to watch the high school students prepare for the Youth Day Celebrations. (Youth Day is definitely a bigger deal in Dir than Christmas was, as celebrations--in a combination of sporting events, dances, sketches, and parades--started on Wednesday and continued through Saturday!) In the midst of one of the practices I jumped in to join and thus last Friday, I performed a traditional Baya dance with some of the lycee girls in front of the whole village, including the traditional chief, which of course people were cracking up at!

There are some days that I struggle with what I am actually doing here. No matter what, I feel as if I am recieving so much more out of this experience than I could possibly give. I question what I can actually DO for these people, how I can create a project that will actually help and last within the community. But, then there are moments like dancing in front of the community and I am reassured that if all else fails during my time here at least I am providing Dir with a new source of entertainment = )

Show N' Tell

Well guess what folks...I did it! Officially finished training and took the step from being a trainee to a volunteer, as my Pops would say, "ay ay ay!" The ceremony was on Thursday and the new volunteers celebrated that evening by having a dance party at a nearby hotel in Bafia. Moving to Dir early next week and am currently in the regional capitol of the Adamoua. I know a few of you have been asking for photos so I figured I would take advantage of the good internet connection to share some snapshots of the past couple of months:





 
       A view of Bokito, note: the village boys playing soccer in the background & the girl carrying  
                                       things on her head like it was no big deal!




 
         My host family! The two older boys are missing from this snapshot, but essentially this was the gang that I hung out with for 3 months. In the green shirt eating is Nick (16), in the head
wrap is Fabiola (21), the blue traditional dress is Jordan (17), the one planting a smooch is Patrick
                              (14), and in her workout clothes is Merveille (20).

        Merveille in her typical position as she cooks a meal for the family over the open fire. Note

             her munching on some corn (during season its an easy appetizer for most any meal!)



           A favorite activity in the Bogo household, the kids teaching me their dance moves! In this
                                  shot, Nick is teaching me some hip-hop moves.


         Patrick fell in love with my bike (provided to me by the Peace Corps!) and he would take it for rides once I got home from school. Side note: pink bucket in the background is where I did my
            laundry and also took my baths (although I would move it inside for bathtime!)

A picture of the chicken comitee happily eating pre be-heading. If you look closely you can see in the second picture that the chickens have been defeathered and we're getting ready to gut them! Also note the crazy hair design that Jordan gave me for the big day!



Blessing, one of the many village tailors, who quickly became our favorite. Many morning breaks were spent sitting and visiting with her.



                     The Bogo's dog, Reigne, had puppies about two weeks before I left!


         Most of the Sante trainees celebrating Halloween (note pirate patch in the background) at
                                                      a local bar in Bokito.


My host mother, Mama Bogo Therese, and I on the day of swearing-in!



           Post taking the Peace Corps Oath: 22 new-fresh-off-the-grill Sante volunteers! (A tradition here is that for any big ceremony, i.e. marriages, funerals, graduations, reunions, people
                 buy matching fabric and make uniforms...thus the matching clothes!)


           A glimpse of the train up north. Every hour or so there is a stop and local villagers come
            running up to the train with all sorts of goodies on sale...the original drive through!

Saying YES!!!

I got a bit of an advice from my friend Anisha recently, where she told me one of the things that I should do in this year after college is to say yes to things. Sounds so incredibly simple but I do think its something I need to work on and thus, I have decided to challenge myself during my time here to say yes to things and opportunities when they come my way. So far this philosophy has brought some funny experiences my way: A few Sundays ago, my host sister, Jordan asked me if I would go to youth mass with her. I agreed, and off we went, me being completely unaware that Jordan was in church choir and that what she was really asking me was to sing in choir with her at youth mass! If you've heard me sing, you know this was bad news bears for all the youth in the congregation, and in the States I would have shield away and said no. But my options were to sit by myself or to sit next to Jordan and belt it oooutttt, so I said yes and crooned and clapped despite not really knowing the words = ).

Continuing on the performing arts scale, my seven host siblings love to dance and as soon as people are up in the morning (sometimes circa 5 am) Jennifer Lopez starts blaring from the TV or Radio (granted theres electricity). Weve spent several afternoons and evenings dancing together and teaching each other some dance moves. Many Cameroonians are shy at first and say they don't know how to dance but I have yet to meet one who actually can't! My host sister, Merveille, is also the president of the Health Club at the Highschool. About half of the health trainees have been working in unison with the Health Club for a couple of weeks to organize a celebration for World AIDS Day (which was this past Thursday). Working with this club was incredibly rejuvenating, we met once a week to do sensitizations on AIDS/how it is transmitted/and how to prevent it. They were really motivated and had a lot of ideas for how to raise awareness. We ended up working together to make some great posters to hang up at the school, show a couple of short films about how AIDS affects people in Sub Saharan Africa, and they had a Jeopardy Tournament throughout the whole school with questions specifically related to AIDS. On Thursday, the celebration included a couple of songs the kids created, a few theatrical sketches (Cameroonians are very talented at theatre and are incredibly animated individuals), and the final round of the Jeopardy tournament. A couple of days before the celebration Merveille asked me if I could perform a dance for the high school! I thought about it, and decided that I would take Anisha's advice and say yes, aikes a beee! I ended up extending the invitation to four of my other health trainees and together the 5 of us put together a little last minute routine (Fuegolians you will appreciate this) to Shakiras "Loca Loca Loca"! The High School LOVED it and it was such a high to be able to perform again! Definitely so happy that I said yes and confirmed that dance is something I want to incorporate as a side project once I move to post!

On a more gruesome note, the trainees decided to throw together a pot luck Thanksgiving celebration last Saturday. After seeing my family do it, I decided one of my goals during my time here was to kill a chicken, and when I saw there was a chicken committee on the Thanksgiving sign up list, I thought....why not?? The whole chicken experience deserves a blog post in and of its own. Finding the chicken was the first obstacle to tackle. The only chicken lady in Bokito told us that she couldn't sell us her chickens because they were too young. It was such an eye opening experience to think about the fact that food couldn't be ready immediately when we wanted it, and that these chickens werent being pumped with hormones so that they could be ready to eat in less time! Eddie and I (the chicken comitee) had to go door to door in Bafia, a bigger city nearby, to find some chickens and after about 5 houses we finally found three beautiful white chickens! We kept them at our training site in Bokito for a few days and then Saturday afternoon (the day of the festivities) got help from the man who owns the house and a couple of our language formateurs, and they talked us through how to kill, defeather, and clean out the chicken. It was grotesquely fascinating, especially the anatomy lesson that came with seeing all the insides. It was really neat to see the chicken through the whole process and I think its an experience that will forever make me appreciate meat when I eat it. And yes = ) I was able to feast on the chickens later on that evening and it waaas Deeelishous!

With all that said, training is quickly coming to a close and we are being officially sworn in as volunteers next Thursday! I can't believe how fast the month of November flew by, nor that it is already December. Things with my host family are going wonderful and some of my favorite memories from this month have been the celebration we threw together at the local bar for Merveille's birthday, or the nights when we go picking corn in the fields (its corn season now so the veggie is abundant!) and have teenager esque conversations about boys and girls while grilling it over the open fire, or the night my host mom invited me to a fancy party and decided to do my make up before we left the house (red eyeliner and metallic pink lipstick is a look I should have explored before coming here). I am going to miss them immensely and have a lot of nervousness as I move to Dir. I realize that a whole new set of challenges will come with the move and learning to live on my own in Cameroon, but I keep on reminding myself of how capable we are as human beings to adapt. And that even though I struggled in Bokito for the first few weeks, that with time I became comfortable here, and that with time the same will happen in Dir.

A month ago I wrote that I was going to spend a couple of days in Dir, I won't write too much about it now; but it was a wonderful visit and I feel really blessed to have been placed there. I am going to be collaborating with a doctor at the health center who has done a lot for the community and has a very real sense of what development is. Also, my community host Norbert, who is meant to help me integrate into the community, seems to know almost everybody (plus we have matching jean jackets which I think can only be a positive omen). I should officially have my own address soon, and when I do I will be sure to post it = ) In the meantime, Happy Holidays to everybody!

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!

Du Courage

Du Courage

The Cameroonians say this saying often as a form of saying, "keep on going/ have courage". Neighbors say it to me when they see me on my morning runs, as I'm sweaty and huffing and puffing up this village hills. My host sister, Jordan (17) is constantly saying it to me as I learn how to do everyday tasks in an African household. When I am washing my clothes by hand, or sweeping the floor, or peeling potatoes she comes to me and says, "Amanda...Du Courage". My language trainers say it to me when I fuddle up a French answer and I have to search for it somewhere inside my brain. My other host sister, Merveille (19) tells it to me when my eyes get teary after a phone conversation with my parents.

I hear it at least once a day and its a saying that I have really come to love. Volunteers say that the three months of training are some of the hardest during your months of service. A time when you are gonna ask yourself, "why in the world did I ever dream of doing this?" when you have to get used to making a new country your home, and all your routines are turned inside out. Its really hard to believe that tommorow we start our fifth week of training! A part of me feels as if I have been here for so much longer, and I have no doubt that if for some reason I were to come home tommorow my life would forever be impacted by these past four weeks. There have definitely been those moments when I question my sanity and wonder why exactly I did dream of doing this since I was 12 years old. Those are the moments when I have to tell myself "Du Courage" Then there are those moments when I find myself loving the simplicity that has become of my life these past couple of weeks, when I feel immensely happy to be here, and it all feels right.

Our training class is HUGE! We have 22 health volunteers, and 33 youth and agroforestry volunteers. Most of the trainees are straight out of college, although there are a handful of us who are graduate students or who have been out in the working world for a couple of years. The trainees are really well qualified and there is a lot of enthusiasm and support in the group. Due to the size of our group, Peace Corps Cameroon decided to split up our training class. The health volunteers are in a village and we get to travel to see the other volunteers about one to two times a week. The village we live in is called Bokito, and living here has definitely been an introduction to African life. There are no paved roads, and everybody in the village knows that there are "white people" in town. The little kids come running after you interchangedly saying "la blanc la blanc!" or "good morning!" Electricity is spotty, and some of my favorite moments here in village have been the nights when I come home after school and hang out with my host family via battery powered lamp on the porch.

Part of the Peace Corps training is that you live with a host family for three months. The purpose of this is to really immerse you in the culture and allow you to practice your French with a Cameroonian family. They are told that they are to prepare me for living in Africa by myself, which is something that they are taking in full stride. Merveille even had me clean a chicken for dinner the other night. Even though I begged her to let me just watch she said, "No you need to learn" and then (you guessed it) she followed it up with a "Du Courage". I wish I could capture in words how amused my host family was by my reactions to killing/cleaning the chicken. I had to explain to them that chicken comes already cut and in plastic bags in the state, which they got a wonderful laugh out of. When I asked Merveille how old she was when she killed her first chicken she said, "Eight! I do this all the time...and when Lolita (our pet goat) gets fat enough I'll kill her so we can eat!"

My host family is the family of Mama Bogo Therese. She's a single woman who works for the local government here in Bokito, and although she only has four biological children, there are seven kids that live in her house. Fabiola is 22, Patrick is 21, Merveille is 19, Juniour is 17, Jordan is 17, Nick is 16, and little Patrick is 14. The kids absolutely run the house and its amazing to see how much they respect and do as Mama Bogo says. Jordan prepares all our meals (over an open fire) and started learning how to cook when she was six years old! The kids also breathe a lot of life into the house, there is constantly music playing (I'm more up to date on MTV's top 20 hits than I was in the States!) and their constantly putting on little performances and dancing around. Some mornings they go running with me, but only if they wake up early enough to finish their daily chores as well.

I think something that I've realized is that people are insantly born with courage here. My host sisters are the most fearless young women I have ever met and they laugh at me constantly for the way I freak out at little insects/snails/frogs/or snakes in our courtyard. The day I found a huge spider in my room and went running to them to kill it they simply laughed at me and said, "but why?" Which is an absolutely wonderful question considering that there really is no point in killing them, and that you just have to learn to live with them. The animals everywhere is definitely one of the things that I initially was struggling with, but I'm taking baby steps and the other day I was able to share my bucket bath with a frog without running to get my sisters!

Without a doubt though the scariest thing I have done since coming to Africa is playing soccer with the village boys. Female roles are very different here and the village girls dont play soccer after school. So here I am, the WHITE FEMALE, asking to play soccer with these fellows. They were gracious enough to let me play, but I can't tell you how intimidated I was throughout the game. These village boys are crazy talented at the sport. I think I might have proved myself after taking a ball to the stomach and the other day a village boy asked me when I was coming back to play!

I have also been fortunate enough to find a Catholic church in Bokito, and its been uber comforting for me to go to church with my host mom. The services here are easily two or three times as long as in the States, but dont seem like it. The singing and the dancing is really uplifting. A couple of weeks ago we sang a song for FIFTEEN MINUTES, and when we finished the priest said, "Where was the dancing?" and we sang it all over again including dancing this time around! Today at church I was suprised to hear a chicken clucking throughout the service and even more suprised when during the offering of the gifts the chicken was placed on the altar (no worries it was not sacrificed on the altar!)

I am really loving village life, and pretty much every day I wake up at 6 am and report to school by 8 am. Training goes from Monday to Saturday, for about 8 hours a day (sans Saturday, where we only have a half day of school). Our training has been pretty language intensive so far, because Peace Corps believes that you need to be able to communicate with the community that you are serving. We have also recieved plenty of technical sessions about health issues that we will be dealing with and seeing in our communities. The first couple of weeks were very theoretical and lecture oriented, but this past week we have started integrating into Bokito. We have visited a local health center, and an AIDS clinic, we got to do a community assessment with the children in the community, and have also started a community group that we will work with for the upcoming four weeks. It feels good to have those sessions where you get to interact with locals. The part of training that I love the most is that current volunteers are some of our trainers. Its been really refreshing and inspiring to hear their stories and experiences in country, and I think it makes all of us trainees excited and reminds us of why we are here.

Speaking of which this upcoming Wednesday we get our post announcements! We've had a couple of interviews with our program manager as to where we envision ourselves doing our service (as to what region of Cameroon we would like to be in) and on Wednesday the health posts are announced! Following that, on Saturday we travel with our community host (an individual from our post who is in charge of helping us integrate into our community) and get to stay and live in our community for a week. This will be the first time since coming to Africa that I wont be with my fellow Americans! I'm a bit nervous about that, but really excited to see where I will be serving for the next two years! I'll be sure to write about it next time I blog, until then...Du Courage = )