9.4.11

9.4.10

Today is Sunday, the second of our language immersion.  It feels like I have been here much longer than two weeks.  Starting Monday none of us will be allowed to speak english during the hours of language class. So from 8 to 5, not even our breaks.  Lunch is ok because we have to go into town for that.  We used to have a lady come to our crib with some pretty bon food, but she quit last week when only 3 people showed up for  lunch one day.  I was one of those humans.  Everyone else went out for one reason or another (sick/wanted something different/not hungry).  Her food was good and only cost 1.000 franc for a plate.  ~$2.  Whatevz.  Now we get to interact and check out different places in town.  Its a little more expensive for not the same variety of food on each plate.  School starts tomorrow here.  The market has been pretty wild this past week.  Ive seen over a dozen new stands pop up selling specifically school supplies.  Clothes and backpacks have also been popular. 

The week has been pretty routine being occupied with language classes and getting food.  I got my second rabies shot and hepatitis b shot.  You know the Peace Corps will pay for a volunteers doctor bills if she has a baby during service?  They pay for everything except for additional work due to complications.  When we got our shots we had a medical session.  We’ll get many more of those when we join the other group in september.  We only get like 3 this whole month because this immersion program is specifically for language training.  Malaria is crazy.  You could have the parasites in your liver lay dormant for years and then pop out at a moment.  We also learned about Shisto and Dungae fever.  Ill fastforward to Friday.  Friday is nice because we have an unplanned weekend to look forward to.  We are kind of kept in a bubble for our safety, but getting somewhat of a break from french se bon.  We got to meet Tiki Friday.  Thats the director of the agroforestry program.  He will have an ultimate say in where we get placed for post after PST.  That is one down ass human.  He took us out just to socialize and get to know who we are.  He brough a bag of chocolate, chips, and corn cookies.  The corn cookies sucked, but food is fuel.  I gave my chips to a human who would appreciate it much more, and had my chocolate the next morning for breakfast.  Not only did he give us snack, but bought our drinks for the night.  We went to a bar called “Play Boy”.  Bars here are nothing fancy.  Its just a designated place to drink, tables and chairs.  Nothing like bars in America.  Some have tvs.  There were ads on the wall for “Dallas” cigarettes.  They will make you fancy.  Tiki broke down his history of life, school, and travels.  He has been to Texas and it was interesting to hear his foreign interpretation of the state.  Out of all the places he’s gotten the opportunity to go to, one place was College Station to visit A&M.  He said he stopped liking country music after that.  That man has great energy.  We stayed out until about 7:30, past are curfew.  It was a new experience being somewhere else besides our house after dark.  I don’t know if I’ve already said this, but Cameroonian don’t sleep that much.  5 hours a night max, and they like to sleep with the lights on.  I forget what I write in letters and this blog.  I actually type in a word document and just copy and paste once I get into the internet cafe.  I’m hoping to get placed in the Northwest or Southwest region.  That would mean I would have to learn some pidgin on top of French, but its mountainous and has more rainforest.

Saturday started out with independent study at the linguistic center.  Thats where Cameroonians go to learn English and French.  I found a middle school french book thats pretty kick ass.  That went by and then we had our close of week review.  Thats where we share what we learned that week and what we will work on the upcoming week, in french.  We also divided into new classes with new teachers.  I’m with two other humans and one teacher.  Everyone gets their printed report card in french to use for improvements the next week.  After that everyone just went and did their own thing until the weekend.  I got to talk with ma future femme via skype: )  Thats when I loaded up my pictures and first blog post.  I found out I got to use the internet for free if I brought in my laptop.  Or maybe the dude was just confused, he only spoke french.  I’ll find out if it works next week.  That night we had our first house shin dig.  I went to bed early like I do every night.  I woke up at 2 am because of some wedding party jamming out and couldn't go back to sleep.  Even with ear plugs.  I would take like 3 30 min naps but always wake up.  They jammed out until 7 in the morning.  I have a feeling a party or wedding goes down in a building close to our house every saturday.  I was hoping the electricity would cut off earlier Sunday so I could sleep.

So I started today easy.  I grubbed out on mandarins.  The beignet lady wasnt out this morning so I didn’t get my bean and bread sandwhich.  Which by the way taste awesome with tomatoes and avocado in it.  Eating that not only taste good, but its a good way to block up my bowls when they get loose.  Today we had a brunch at Lauren’s, current PCV, post.  It was solid to finally get to see a PCV post.  During PST we will get to visit our selected post and stay there a week with the current PCV who holds it.  The menu at Lauren’s was banana and choco chip pancakes with eggs and pineapple pieces.  It was a pretty fantastic meal.  One of Laurens fellow PCV hommies was there visiting for her b day.  Her name is Andrea.  She lives 4 hours SW from Ebolowa in a pretty rural village.  I do not recall the name.  We just congregated and heard stories followed by questions.  We got to meet L’s African dog.  Super energetic.  I found out if you leave your dog outdoors here flies will eat their skin.  Like eat the fur, get through the skin, and then flesh.  Her neighbors ask her how her dog still has ears, and its because she keeps him indoors.  His name is peanut and she’s had him since he was a puppy.  She also got ringworm from him when he was a month old.  After food and the rain we went out for a walk in the village.  Her village is small compared to where we’re at.  We got to see where the “Comice” was held.  This was a huge agro carnival/festival.  It was the event of the decade here.  We missed it by a month.  Apparently it was planned for years in advance, but was pretty much thrown together at the last minute.  The show displayed all the technological farming capabilities available in Cameroon.  Along with different house structures, food.  Its kinda like a county fair.  When we saw the spot there wasn't much left.  There were some shipping containers holding tractors that were made by a nearby tractor factory.  There were some house structures left that are used in the north and some cattle roaming.  L said a lot of people just stole stuff from the show once it finished.  It was a week long.  Her neighbors stole two kiosks from the show.  We continued to walk down the main road to two lakes.  There was a demonstration at on of the lakes.  Something about a pig fish culture farm?  Thats another thing that was thrown together.  Rather than actually raising fish and utilizing what the demonstration was for the just ordered in full grown fish to show what it would be like.  But it was a manmade lake with a house/dock with 10 individual pig pens.  Each pig chills in their pen and poops, and their poop drops into the lake.  That was supposed to be food for the fish?  Or help algae grow and then the fish eat that?  The other lake was black like darkness and you could see bubbles coming up from the bottom.  Not from anything living of course.  There were 3 dudes washing there motos there.  We walked down a path along the lake to a swimming spot for the local kids.  They were swimming in the black water, all naked.  Swimming in any freshwater here can almost guarantee you shisto.  Google that.  They were having a grand ol time.  It probably tripped them out seeing the most white people they have ever seen in their life this Sunday.  They had some cool paddle boat thing.  Like Float ATX or Paddle ATX.  A hood version.  Logs nailed together.  We stayed there a bit to let her dog run around and get burned out.  Lush vegetation everywhere.  We walked in the forest a big and found a tree that was cut down whose diameter was around 6 feet.  After that we started to head back to her crib because the walk took a while and our driver was going to pick us up at 2.  He was also going to take L’s hommie to the bus stop in Ebolowa.  

When we got back to the house I was pretty hungry so I went and got a full fish with manioc.  The lady was nice and let me take her plate because I had to meet the tailer back at the house.  I got my first two tissue outfits.  A boobu outfit and then 2 shirts and pants.  That cost 19.000.  His work was good, but we could bargain down.  2 other dudes got there ensembles delivered today as well.  I only want these kind of outfits.  I plan on getting two more made before we go back to Yaounde.  Its cultural, colorful, and simple.  The simplicity helps me during laundry and ironing during the week.  I also got a hat with my boobu outfit.  That was a surprise because I didn’t ask for one.  Once that business was taken care of I went to town in my new outfit was Asa, the house guard.  I had to return the plate and then had a drink with him.  He is my new brother from another mother.  I came home, ironed clothes, and now I am writing.  I’m about to give my computer so the group can watch a disney movie.  I’ll be doing french work.  du courage mes amie!  Be so thankful for what you have in America.  I have Cameroonians tell me all the time how they want to come to America.  Just to have a chance.  Asa tells me pretty frequently like I forget.  That is another very solid human.