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.