29.09.2011
Howdy! I am NOW in the house of my home-stay family. More specifically I am sitting at my desk in my room. It is almost 10 pm, I am fresh and clean, and have a full tummy of delicious food. I am very blessed with the family I received for the home-stay. We are allowed some input for preferences (smoking / animals / children) But for the most part one human decides where we will be for the next 3 months and I got lucky with this loving family. I feel even more blessed after hearing some of the input from other stagiers and their families. Ill describe the humans I habitate with in a minute.
So there is the NEW youth development program and agroforestry living in Bafia, Cameroon. The health program trainees are residing in Bokito, Cameroon. A much smaller village 20 km away from Bafia. That is where most of the new families are. New, as in have no hosted a PC trainee before. Last Wednesday when we arrived in Bafia we unloaded all of our stuff in front of the “school house” where we will spend our days during the week. At that point all of us started to get matched up one by one with our families. On one side were the stagiers and on the others the new families. It was an interesting feelings. Starting at the natives of Bafia wondering who I was going to live with for the next 3 months. I was one of the last called, so I got to see humans combine and keep guessing who I would get. I was hoping I got this papa who was wearing some fly panya, and ultimately I did. Across the street from my new house is Molly’s home-stay. I am lucky she speaks more french than me because I messed up something right off the bat. We got in the car and I tried to tell my papa and new brother I am funny and ended up saying I was a muslim because my pronunciation sucked. I found out at dinner what I said because I was offered meat and my brother said “No, Sampson cannot eat that because he is a Muslim.” I also got my family to call me Sampson. That was another request you could put on the paper. I use the name Sampson to order pizza in the states as a homage to Half Baked. I just wanted to hear Sampson with a french accent for the next 3 months. My papa said that would be ok, but I had to call him “papa pimont” and call my mama “mama pimont”. Pronounced /Pee-mont/. OH, there were quite a few parents who said they saw us dancing on the Monday Night Show.
The Monday before arriving in Bafia we got the opportunity to be on the “Monday Night Show”. That is a show we watched quite a bit in Ebowlowa. It plays on the National Station CRTV. Its in English and is an hour variety show displaying anything and everything. Apparently all a person has to do is e-mail the TV stations Yahoo account with and idea. They explicitly said “no bible verses, no facebook attachments, and no soliciting”. PC Trainees got the opportunity to appear on the show because David set an appointment. A lot is going on in Cameroon. The election is 9th of October. The 50 year anniversary of independence is coming up. 50 years of PC in Cameroon is this year. There is a new PC program debuting this year: Youth Development. We have the largest group of trainees EVER to come through. So David and another volunteer were being interviewed about what the PC is and why the do what they do. The host was practicing before taping and said “You people make me nervous, so many white faces.” Aside from the PC bit there was a representative from the UN. A reggae music group, a traditional african music group from Cameroon, and a complete breakdown of Cameroons history after independence. At the very end we all got to get up and dance! I have a short clip on my FB page. We had to pay 2.000 franc to get a copy of that episode. It will probably take a month to get it, then I’ll figure out if I can load it up online. That was a really solid experience. That is also a brand new experience for PC Cameroon. David has done interviews about the PC, but never has a whole stage group been part of the filming. At the end I was shaking the hands of all the guest to thank them for their new music and dance moves and one dude, dressed in a cheetah print golf hat and dress shirt, gave me his bone necklace. It was plastic, but I felt special. I was wearing that with my panya when I met my papa au Cameroon and he said “You look Afrique, but you are the blanch?”
Back to my new family. I am blessed with a loving and wonderful family in the states, and I luckily received the same thing here. The father is a surgeon at the local hospital, the mother is a nurse at the same hospital and works with HIV patients. The son is a student at the University in Yaounde studying Biology. I believe he wants to be a Dr. as well. Ma grand seour is 14 and goes to school. Ma petit seour is 8 goes to school. My brother leaves to start the semester 19th October. OH! Just today my mom bought and gave me slippers for the shower. I offered to pay for them but she insisted I do not. I’m gonna buy some Nutella for the crib. I bought some in Yaounde before we left to save for a rainy day, but after I felt SO welcomed by this family I have it to them. Specifically for the girls so they can put it on their bread for breakfast. I am fed so very well here. On top of that ma mama is teaching me how to cook Cameroonian food. Shes pretty much showing me how to do everything around the house. I have actually gained weight here at this present moment. Most dudes loose weight because of the lack of a steady protein source. Girls usually gain weight here. I eat tout le jours. I eat everyones left overs at lunch and also get a meal for breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is nice. Egg and spaghetti omelet with onions, tomatoes, green onions, fresh basil, and garlic. I put all that in a french baguette so I can eat it to school. I also get cafe avec le lait. Powdered of course. They also have this chocolate mixture. I used to not have any of the powder but use them both in my coffee because of the added nutrients. We have lunch brought to us at the school because its convenient. Actually one of the girls moms cooks the food. It is delicious. Great mixture of carbs, protein, and veggies. My mama au Cameroon is hood. She works all day, comes home in her fly panya, changes into shorts and a tank top and gets to work on making an amazing dinner. Then cleans, sleeps and does it again. Shes also a big mama. Thats also how my papa described her when we both me. I help her with the cleaning after dinz because she cooks. She wont let me do it all by myself, but I think she said that will be later after I watch her do it a bunch. The brother is awesome. He helps cook and helps his sisters with their homework. Oh Awkward moment for the day. When I finished doing wash and getting water I was watching music videos with the girls. I don’t know what artist came one, but that video was all dancing. Girls dancing with a lot of rump shaking. A lot of promiscuous rump shaking. After that they put on theses music video DVDs? A compilation of random music videos, like Michael Jacksons - Tiger.
I have no complaints about my awesome family here. I feel I will have french down pretty good in a month since I have to utilize it every morning and night outside of class. The youngest daughter creeps on me a lot. Not in a bad way. I would do the same. She will just stand at the door and stare at me when I’m doing something like reading or organizing. Ill try to talk and its 50/50 if she decides to respond or just look at me like a diva. This family is also well off because of the parents professions. They have fridge/freezer/stove with oven/tile/a moto/ shower/and a well. EVen though they have all of this they don’t utilize it. The fridge just holds some fruits and vegetables and water the collect from the pump. I don't know whats in the freezer yet. I usually have a very noisy characteristic when it comes to peoples homes. They sometimes cook on the stove, but also have a smoke house outside with a wood stove. There is a sink with running water, but we clean the dishes in buckets outside. They have the shower head with running water but all take bucket baths. The moto is parked in the living room but it has yet to be utilized. The toilets are different in Bafia. They use a system called the bucket flush. After you make potty, you fill up a bucket and then pour it quickly into the toilet. That is the flush. 2 buckets if you made big potty. No flushing for number 1.
There is a whole lot more I could write about the program and how training is going but I’m tired and have another day of class demain. Our “school house” Looks like a mansion that was never finished being built. Its cool. Getting to come to school to learn all the technical stuff on top of the lang, but also hear funny stories from everyone about home stay. I’ve gotta go nappy bed now. Until soon. A Plus.
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