5.12.2011

5.12.2011

Today is awesome!  I am high on el eye eff eye.  It is a Monday afternoon at the training house and I am relaxing in the main chambre listening to De La Soul.  Its a very laid back day today because we swear in on Thursday and peace out to our post on Friday.  I’ll probably get to Batouri around Tuesday because I have to do banking in the regional capital on monday.  Agros have a presentation to give tomorrow about something you would possible present at post.  I’m sharing the benefits of improved cook stoves.  We only have one language class today and the rest of day is preparation for the presentation tomorrow.  Thats the final thing  Its wild to know we are gonna peace out at the end of the week.  I will miss the freedom of getting to see all these people that I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet.  We would have never met under any other circumstance.  Maybe two of these human who were from Texas.  This stage group is a solid bunch of humans.  It sucks that the Agros and YDs were kind of separated from the Sante volunteers, but theres 2 years of possible visits.  There have been quite a few dance parties in the recent past since we are all leaving.  We are also going to have a grande party the night of swearing in.  There were multiple times where I just sat and watched everyone interact.  I did the same thing because I said peace out in the US and got to hang out with some people.  It can seem pretty creepy from an observer, but we wont have that at all in a bit.  Soon we will all be alone at our post building our own schedules and trying to communicate with the local languages.  Some people have other Americans as post mates, but some are au village.  There are big clusters of volunteers in the Western part of the country.  I have 3 other volunteers in my town.  I’m ready for the next change.  I’m ready to get to my crib and interacting like an amebia in a foreign solution.  Making new friends.  Filtering through the snakes.  But you can’t blame the people for looking at Americans, or people of different colors, as a hand out.  More often than not they recieve hand outs and have come to expect it because they don’t necessarily differentiate between all the organizations here.

I’ve got a lot of plans for my crib.  Many are probably not feasible, but time is something PCVs have.  I wanna make a shawshank redemption hole.  That wont work because it would fill up and be destroyed during the rainy season.  I plan on making all my furniture out of bamboo.  Theres a lot of that for free in the east.  I want to make a structure to hang my bed from so it dangles like a swing.  I’m gonna see a fence of moringa.  Moringa doesnt grow freely in America, but it is an amazing tree.  Google it.  I wanna get some chickens and goats, once I’m sure they won‘t get stolen from my crib.  I want to paint murals on my walls, but I think coming across quality paint would be difficult.  There is a PC project called the World Map project.  You basically break down a world map into tiny squares to make it easier to draw with accuracy.  Speaking of painting, there is a dude here in Bafia who does these amazing oil paintings from photos.  You just bring in a photo and he turns it into amazing artwork.  I dunno how much it cost but I really want a ridiculous picture made.  Like me riding a polar bear on Mount Cameroon with a bunch of plantains on my back.  I also wanna get a painted picture of my host family and me.  I’m sure we will get a nice one on the day of swearing in.  

I’m also sweating happiness because I got mail today!  I got 2 packages and 3 letters.  Magical.  One package was from my awesome human in Carrollton named KIM!    No last names because theres a lot of creepers. If you know a solid human in your life write them today.  There is a good chance you have more than one, but just take the time to write one.  It really illustrates the message if you take them time to do it, je ponse.  Boucoup de hygiene products and some books.  My grandmother wrote me too!    I also recieved letters and a packaged from my el aye dee why in Colorado : )  I’ve gotta get down on some letters ASAP.  Since I’m going to post I would love picture of humans from back home.  Cameroonian love pictures of the people American’s know.  It blows the minds of certain people when they see that there are blacks, asians, and anyone whose not white in America.  They also are just curious as humans are.           Anyone whose got the time it would make my month.  Address be:

Mike Burbidge

Corp de la Paix

B.P. 215 

Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa

C/O U.S. Embassy Cameroon

My address isn't going to change once I go to the East because I’m not going to trust the post to the East.  If it makes it to Yaounde no problems I’ll trust it with PC.  Volunteers traveling back and forth to Yaounde pick up each others stuff for the East.

I wonder what little kids think when they see me.  I’ll be getting water at the well or forage and little kids just stare.  I can stare back and it doesn't phase them, but when I speak to them in French most don't respond and look away.  But whats going on in their head.  How do they precieve white people.  For some people au village a PC volunteer is the only American they will probably ever see.  Its also interesting to observe the expression of really old people au village who see Americans.  Some are amazed because they’ve gone that long in their life and finally see one.  I don’t think its that frequently since the PC has been in Cameroon for 50 years.  

Side story.  I got home last night and drank palm wine with my dad and his friend.  Then they whipped out some i dunno what from village.  I think it was bark.  But they rubbed it up in their hands and then licked it off, or put it in the palm wine.  I dunno what its supposed to do.  I thought I was going to hallucinate for a bit, but I think it was just a spice that compliments palm wine?  Palm wine is alright.  Then my dad started saying how he was going to hook me up with a Cameroonian.  He went into detail but I didn’t pick a lot of it up.  Then I got to meet the sister of my mom whose married to a chief of a village.  Apparently if my mom here dies, my dad gets to have her little sister as his new wife.  I dunno how that works out of she's already got a husband?  I finally comprehended why my family is getting a second house built here.  They are building a second house for their family.  They have a bunch of extended family in Bafia or close by and they just wanted to have a house built so they could all live together.  I still havent seen it.  I probably will when I come back to visit.  

I shaved myself except for a mustache today.  For those who have seen me with a mustache know how giggly it is.  I think its gonna trip out my family when I go back home tonight.  They already told me they are going to get me pimont and a gourd to drink out of.  My hommie, the first hommie I encountered on this journey, is going to be giving a speech at swearing in au francais.  There will also be a speech in Fulfulda and Pidgin.  If you don’t know anything about Pidgin google it.  Its hilarious.  Oh, there is also going to be a “trainee of stage”.  Stage is what training is called here.  I think I mentioned it earlier, but I see how it might be confused as reading it in the english context.  No voting by the trainees, just a choice from the teachers based mostly on integration.  I found out a dude who is in Bokito started up a boys and girls club during PST.  Wild.  Boucoup kudos to him.  I think its a Sante named Amanda.  I think they’re going to announce it at swearing in.  I wish Paul Biya and his wife would come to swearing in.  That would be mind boggling.  I’m gonna miss these human.  Miss the frequency of seeing their faces and interaction.  But it will also be good to have the rare experience of seeing them months after this to see how different or not different they will be.

I wanna give a verbal salutation to the superbe parents of Lauren Ayers : )  I got to very briefly meet these humans through a computer from the catalyst called Skype.  But I have heard multiple stories about how amazing these two people are.  I’m shoutin out because I know its going to get read : )  I wan’t you to know I’m very protective of the females in my life and Lauren is one of those females now. 

I don’t know if I’ve said this yet.  90s music is awesome in Africa.  Awesome for me.  I liked 90s music in the states, but it feel fantastic getting down on a decade old music with Africa in the background.  I dunno how the gens au Cameroon like it, but I bet it would be popular in the club.  Speaking of which I love the clubs here, or the one I have gotten to visit in Bafia.  Something you wont find in America, a hard boiled egg sales man outside the club door.  Why is he there?  Because Cameroonians get ripped when they dance and need the protein.  I love mirror dancing.  I love dancing in Cameroon in general.  There is no judgement.  You do something weird and the usual reaction is “wow, creative dance move”.  Or they just find it funny to see Americans dance.  I wish I knew how to pop and lock.  That would blow le gens away.  They like the bernie dance.  Don't know what that is.  Google it.  An homage to the classic 80s film.  I’m gonna go play volley ball matena.  A brain break before I run over my presentation.  We just have presentations and a bridge to post session tomorrow.  I think we also get to learn about what makes a lock good here.  How to tell the difference in quality and what things should cost.  Tres important.  Dude, 2012 is less than a month away.  No one forgot the world is going to end in a year right.  A day after my birthday.  Better make this year of the chain.  If the world doesn’t blow up you can always count on the stability of governments and economies today. Je bloge, about the world blowing up.