Koki

So, last week my host mom decided to teach me the art of cooking koki, a dish that her village is known for. As soon as all the kids saw I was cooking, they demanded my camera so they could take pictures of me. (Yes, I know my outfit doesn't match at all, I wasn't planning on being photographed) They said it was so my family in America could see what I was doing, so here goes:

The first step is to grind up a ton of cow peas. Usually, you would use a grinder, but the electricity was out, so we did it the old fashioned way (on the grinding rock). About half way through, you grind some pimente (hot peppers). The cow peas are a pale tan, but as soon as my host mom added the peppers, you got an outstandingly brilliant red-orange color. I tried to get a photo, but she was too fast to get a good one it before it was all smashed together.


I am not very good at grinding, my host mom kept correcting my technique, as shown here.


You line the wine boxes with oil (to prevent sticking) and then fill it up part of the way with the Koki mixture. After that, you add it to a large pot with water in the bottom (this simulates an oven).


After we put the Koki on the fire, we had to peel unripe bananas. They then cook these to form a side dish of sorts. There is a special technique for peeling the bananas so that the peel comes off easily. This is harder than it seems when the bananas are unripe.


Finished with everything

Site Visit

Ok, it has been a few weeks since I actually went on site visit, but model school has kept me too busy to wait for photos to upload. However, model school is now finished! Now I just have to grade the exams of 50 students and calculate final grades.
My site, as I mentioned in a previous post, is Mbatu. It is 4km from Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest region, so I will basically have all the amenities that Cameroon has to offer. Also, I definitely do not have a hut in a desert. More like a mansion in a rain forest.

My house:

It is on the top of a hill, so it looks very imposing. There is good security with all those walls and gates though! The owner of the house lives in Germany, so they rent it out. So far, I am only the second person to have lived in it. The first was the Peace Corps volunteer that I am replacing.

It is actually a duplex, though no one lives in the other half. Either way, I have plenty of room, and definitely not what I was expecting.

The view from my front porch:



My school is about 1 mile up the road, an easy walk, but there is also a van that drives up and down the road picking up teachers.

I was not able to see my computer lab, because my Principal was on vacation, but I was told there are about 20 working computers. There are two other computer teachers, and they are hoping to get an additional one before school starts. However, I am told it is very hard to get teachers, so it isn't very likely.

Less than 2 weeks before I leave for post! It is bittersweet. It is exciting to finally get out on my own, and regain a measure of privacy, but I will not see many of my fellow stagiares for 3 more months. I think most people are more than ready to get out on their own though. Best of luck to all of us!

Blogging by Gaslamp

I went on site visit, it was fantastic, I don't even know how to start writing about it, so I am not yet.


Other random events from Africa:

Dish Washing:
I wash dishes with my family almost every day. It was more, but now I am using my mornings for last minute lesson planning, so I haven't been quite as useful. A few days ago I helped scrub all the big pots, and I wanted to share how it is done.

First, you get your pot wet. Then, you scrape the soap block (liquid soap is an unknown concept here) with the steel wool. Once you have your steel wool nice and soapy you pick up a bunch of sand with the steel wool and start scrubbing down the pot. This removes most of the black char marks. We want the pots shining like new, so the next step is to rinse off the sand, and get the steel wool soapy again. Then you scrub the pot down again. Then you switch to the finer grain steel wool and sand combination, which gets it still shinier. Then you use just the finer grain steel wool with soap. FINALLY you use a normal sponge and soap.

Oh, and we drew water from the well a few times to replace what we used.



Cows at School:
There are always beautiful/interesting photo ops whenever I don't have my camera with me.

There is a herd of cattle that is grazed (as far as I can tell) wherever there is grass. Property lines don't seem to matter much, though I was told that the cowherd probably has an arrangement with the people. So, every day a herd of cattle is walked down the main street in search of pasture. One of these pastures is the school where we teach and take french classes. So the other day when I was staring out the window (or wall?) I got to watch a bunch of bulls pick their way among school buildings, a man following them, and a group of cattle egrets following everything. The bulls and the cattle egrets are white, and the sun
reflected off of everything made it look surprisingly clean.

On one hand it seems like an efficient use of space.
On the other, we have to walk around cow poop when going to class.



Teaching Cards:
I have been teaching the kids in my family different card games for a few days (1 per night, we will see how long I can keep it up). They call me shuffling cards "White man magic" and I think they play cards with me just to see it. I am trying to teach the kids how to, which is difficult in any country, and they keep getting discouraged because they think they can't do it. (As a side note, no one sits indian style here, when I did they were amazed that I could bend that way and asked if I did yoga)

Some differences: Diamonds are Biscuit, Clubs are Groundnuts (what they call peanuts), Hearts are Macabo Rouge, and Spades are Macabo Noir. Just this is a good example of Cameroon's bilingualism.

I taught them poker (without betting) because they asked on the first night. I don't
understand how it is interesting sans chips, but they like it.

The second night I taught them Spoons. When I asked them to get me spoons to play a card game I had to repeat myself a few times because they thought I was messing up my French again.

Tonight I taught them Bullshit (though I called it "tu ment"). They actually are very quick at picking up games, which I appreciate, because it is hard to teach games in a foreign language.

They told me today that none of my American games use the jokers, and I am wasting the cards, so I will have to remember a game that uses them. I plan on teaching them blackjack tomorrow, and maybe Kent if I can remember the rules on the next day. Other games in the lineup are: gin rummy, solitaire, hearts, spades

Please suggest more! (preferably ones without rules that are very complicated or involve hitting)




On another side note, I just looked over my blog, and I don't feel like I have said anything of my experiences here. I may have only been here 6 weeks but so much has happened. I hope I don't forget the novelty of everything and forget to tell interesting stories!

Post!

I recieved my post! I will be going to Mbatu and teaching in a GBHS. Mbatu is in the Nord-Ouest, so it is an anglophone region, though I still need to improve my french before I reach the required level. Also, a GBHS is a Government Bilingual High School, and we have been told that IT teachers are often needed in both halves of Bilingual schools, so I may help out in French dispite being in an English speaking region. I am highly relieved that I will be able to teach in English at least part of the time. I feel like I will be much more effective in English than in my cobbled together French. (Though this does mean I might get to learn Pidgen).

We recently retested French levels, and I did improve, so I am not hopeless! According to the rubric I can now "generally be understood by sympathetic interlocutors used to dealing with non-natives"

I am told Mbatu is basically a suburb of Bamenda, which is the capital of the Nord-Ouest region, so I will have access to most of the luxeries Cameroon has to offer. (I will have electricity and running water!) It will be better than my flickering electricity and well water at the moment, though dealing without running water isn't actually that inconvenient. Electricity is much appreciated though. The fluctuating electricity at my house already destroyed my cell phone charger, so I have to go to market soon and get a replacement.

I am also told that mail is reliable in Bamenda, so as soon as I actually move there I will open a mailbox. Climate-wise it sounds perfect. The elevation is higher due to the mountains, so it can get as cool as 60 degrees. I might even need to purchase a second jacket!

Internet there is also comparatively reliable (from what I am told), so after site visit I will purchase internet.

Site visit is next week, I can't wait to see where I will be living for 2 years! I have been asking all the volunteers here questions, but there are a ton of specific questions they can't answer. (For example, what my computer school lab is like). I am taking over for a previous volunteer so things should be generally set up already. Hopefully I won't compare badly.

Food

Before coming to Cameroon I got a lot of questions regarding what Cameroonian food is like. The answer: starchy, but not bad.

Here are some typical foods:

Breakfast Foods
-Omelette (eggs with Pimente, tomato, onion, and some sort of green vegetable, sometimes they add spaghetti too)
-Avocado Salad (Avocados, Tomatoes, Onion, Mayo)
-Bread
-Baked Plums (a fruit they call a prune (plum) though it is not the same as our plums)

-Tizan (A tea that Cameroon used to export)
-Matinal (Hot Chocolate)
-Sweetened Condensed Milk (heated it is better than I was expecting)
-NesCafe



Lunch/Dinner Foods
-fish
-rice
-spaghetti
-baton de manioc
-manioc
-irish potatoes
-plantains (fried or boiled)
-other meat (so far my family hasn't given me bush meat that I know of, generally beef or goat, though fish is much more common)
-cabbage with other stuff in it
-various sauces on the stuff, often made with peanuts
-grilled corn
-beans
-Kokee (made up spelling) Which is a concoction made of cow peas. It is pretty good, I think my host mom is teaching me how to make it this Sunday.


I told my family I liked fruit so they give me fruit with every dinner too, usually pineapple because Bafia is known for them (They are very sweet, almost no citrus-y taste to them here) but I have also had mangos, oranges, bananas, grapefruit, and an apple once (though they are expensive here)

They also make popcorn, they add sugar so it tastes a bit like kettle corn.

Pictures of Homestay

As soon as my family found out I had a camera they went crazy with it. They love photos over here.

It takes too long to upload for me to show all, but hopefully these will give you an idea:

Homestay Family

Some quick highlights of my life

• My entire host family of 9 people standing up and clapping the first time I drew water from the well.
• My host brother doing a double take in the middle of a conversation about the Peace Corps and saying "President Kennedy is dead?" in an astonished voice. A few minutes later he retracted his comment saying "of course he is, he would be really old otherwise"
• Having discussions about the state of Africa and about different banking solutions with the same brother. He is much better informed of such things than I am. It often makes me feel useless, though I felt helpful when my 10 year old brother stopped typing his homework to ask me how to change font color. They are both very bilingual though make an effort to speak French so that I will learn.
• My host brother making fun of the way I hold my pencil. I know my hand looks funny and cramped, and yes, my teachers did teach me better than that, and no, I am not going to change.
• Crouching next to my host mom as she critiques my french assignments. She adds accents to everything I write. My littlest sister ran in in the middle of one of these, hugged me, and promptly fell asleep on top of me, I had to move her as soon as my legs fell asleep. (As a side note; I now get to be the oldest instead of the youngest; my host father told me I am his oldest child)
• Being introduced in a village meeting as the "daughter of the balangu" because I am white and the chief has a lot of albino children. My new Balangu name is Ceso Alissa, though I am making up the spelling. Allison roughly translates to Alissa and Ceso is "like sisters".
• Discussing Nietzche with a village chief/Presbytarian priest

Bienvenue Cameroon!

Two days in Cameroon! So far, everything has been fantastic. I have a ton of pictures on my camera, but I haven't had a chance to upload any yet. The internet is very slow, and I have to adjust to using this french keyboard. I am still in Yaounde, though Tuesday we go to Bafia where our three months of training are held. I am excited to meet my host family, though a bit nervous about living with people who I can only speak to in my (very limited) french. Undoubtably it will help me learn much faster though.

Dispite it being rainy season, I haven't seen any rain yet, though the sky has remained cloudy. The weather is also surprisingly mild.

Stage starts in earnest soon, and I've been told that it will keep me very busy, so don't expect many updates (though I imagine you all were much more realistic about update schedules than I was). There is just so much happening that it is hard to write any sort of concise post.

My training group is 43 people, all education and business volunteers. They are expanding the Cameroon program so some of us will be opening new posts. I should find out where my destination is in 4 weeks. Wait and see!

Last Night In Cincinnati

I am continuing my (unhealthy) trend of staying up late before a trip. Mainly just triple checking to make sure I have everything, a little bit last minute goodbyes. I stacked up everything I am bringing, and it doesn't seem like much, though in this picture it does.

I know everyone in PC has been saying not to worry too much about packing, but as it is the only thing I have control over at the moment everything will be perfect.

Somewhat surprisingly, I can carry everything pictured there, though I look a bit like a pack mule when doing so.

To my siblings, who tried to make me feel better by saying I wouldn't go over weight limit: the two green bags are pushing it. I guess that is what happens when you shove everything as small as you can get it (and then add books).


Tomorrow: Philadelphia
Friday: Cameroon!


PS: My cell phone is turned off, so if you want to reach me, try my email address or the comments below.

Before I Leave

I haven't even left the country yet, so I really have no excuse for not blogging, sorry! For those of you who don't know yet, I am going to Cameroon. Cameroon is also called "Africa in Miniature" for its cultural and environmental diversity.

My staging (2 day orientation in the States) starts on June 2. My leave date was moved forward, but this way I should be able to complete training before school starts in the fall. While there (2 years, 3 months if nothing goes wrong), I will be teaching computer literacy. The schools may or may not have computers, so I will have to be creative!

I have been frantically trying to get myself ready, by doing a variety of things from very important (getting a visa) to not so important (getting a haircut). The second was actually partially a result of the first. After getting pictures for the visa application, I looked at my passport from 6 years ago, and realized I look exactly the same! So I decided to cut off my hair. It should be much easier to deal with in Africa though.

Much of my time is spent trying to relearn French, from my minimal experience in High School. Peace Corps supplied a bunch of audio clips that I have been listening to that are recorded with Cameroonian French speakers. Every time I complete a lesson, Pearl Jam's Evenflow plays since "Pearl Jam" is alphabetically following "Peace Corps Cameroon" in my iTunes. The first time this happened I thought "what a strange choice for exit music" but now it almost feels like the achievement music that plays in video games after an objective is completed.

I hope everyone keeps in touch, even/especially to remind me of everyday life in the United States!

The Waiting Game

Whenever I tell people I will start a blog I get the inevitable "Oh, I (or someone I know) tried that once but I stopped after awhile." I have no doubt that would be the case with me, as there are always things to do that seem more important than telling people about what you are doing. However, as joining Peace Corps is a big adventure, and people are constantly asking me where I am/what I am doing/etc, I figured a blog was the ideal place to talk about it. So here goes:

Currently, I am living in the exotic location of Cincinnati, Ohio! I haven't gone anywhere yet, sorry guys, things should be more interesting when I do.

I am still in the application phase, though I have gone through most of it, and only the final step remains: waiting for an invitation. My nomination is for Sub-Saharan Africa with a departure date between July and September. If you want, you can check out all the places that Peace Corps sends people in Africa.