I know! It's been a while since I've posted a new update. I thought it had been forever, but in reality, it's only been a week and half! Time is strange here, It's been three weeks, but seems like it's been three months! But at the same time, I canÕt believe three weeks of training has already come and gone. The Peace Corps has been keeping me super busy. Training has been an intense experience so far. We have four sessions a day that consist of language training, cross-culture information, medical training and information, and technological training. Technological training deals gives us information on how we are supposed to teach in our respective schools in September. We have to follow the Cameroonian francophone school system, syllabus, and requirements very closely. I will be teaching in the francophone part of the country, and their school system closely resembles the French school system (in the Anglophone part of the country, they closely the British system). Students have to take three exams over the course of lycée (high school) which is seven years for Cameroonians. I am responsible for teaching them all of the English grammar, vocabulary, writing, reading comprehension, etc. they will be tested on during these exams. So to practice, IÕve been honing my English grammar skills (and in many cases re-teaching myself!), creating lesson plans, and practice teaching classes to other volunteers (it's been interesting to teach English grammar to native speakers). Next week, on July 6th, the model school that the Peace Corps has set up, will begin in out training town in Bafia. It will last for about six weeks, and children and adults from the surrounding area can come take classes in English, Science, Computers, or Business. It should be great practice for us, I can't wait!
But before that starts, I will be going on a Site Visit. This means that I will go to my post, where I will be living for the next two years, where I will hopefully get to see my village and what's available there, make some initial contacts in the community, and visit my school to find out if they computers, what textbooks they use, if the have lesson plans in place already, if there is a head of the English department, what other resources they have, etc. I will be posted in the Extreme North region of Cameroon. This is obviously the northernmost region of the country, which juts in between Chad and Nigeria. My village is called Hina (it is very small, I canÕt even find it on the map!). It is very close to the Nigerian border, and I think it's less than two hours from Mokolo, which is a slightly bigger village that is the department capital. I think I will be about 3 hours from Maroua (the regional capital) depending on roads. The Extreme North is officially francophone, so I should be able to speak French at school and with people of the community, but many of the people who live there speak Fulfuldé or another tribal language. So before leaving for post, I'll start learning Fulfuldé. It is a common language spoken in many Western African countries, and is actually considered a critical needs language by the State Department (i.e., definitely a good skill to have!). It is hotter and drier in the North than the South, but from all accounts from other volunteers who live up there, it is breathtakingly beautiful. I should know more next week, after the three day journey it takes to get there from Yaoundé (the capital) by overnight train and multiple bush taxis. So more to come on that!
In other news, life in Bafia is great! I'm still loving my host family, and I hang out with my 19 year old host brother, Ariel (yes, like The Little Mermaid!!) a lot. He's a surrogate little brother, and I'm shameless using him as a substitute for my real one who I miss so much I needed to seek out a Cameroonian counterpart to fill that role in my life. There are tons of bananas and avocados and pineapples and this fruit they call prunes but is NOT a prune and tastes like nothing I've ever eaten before (but they're super tasty!). The rains finally started coming, but they still only last for about an hour, tops, at random parts of the day. But the thunderstorms are amazing! The thunder and lightning happen at the same time, the storms are so close! It absolutely torrentially downpours, and then as quickly as they came, the rains stop, and the sun comes out and dries everything out. Also, I think I may start keeping a tally of the marriage proposals I receive. At this point, I'd say it has to be around the 35-40 mark. Apparently, many Cameroonians believe that America is the definition of the land of milk and honey, and marriage to an American girl is the easiest way to gain entry to such a haven. But they hilarious part is, while many of these proposals are from men of all ages, I also get them from older women asking me to marry their sons, children asking me to marry their older brother/cousin/uncle, fathers asking me to marry their sons, teenage girls asking me to marry their male friends/brothers/cousins, etc. It's rather comical, and I've tried explaining to many Cameroonians that America has its problems as well, and that the majority of Americans are not living the idealized American Dream. Maybe it's my French, but they simply aren't buying it!
So I've got to get this posted before the electricity cuts out again, so let me just say that I love and miss and am thinking of everybody. Hope everyone is doing fantastically at home and more news/updates to come asap!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Finally!
Bonjour Tout le Monde!
Alright, so I must first apologize for the delay in this blog post. I have now been in Cameroon for nine whole days! It those nine days have felt like AT LEAST four months! Turns out internet access is slightly difficult to come by on this continent… surprise! But I have finally located a “cyber café,” as they are called, and if the electricity will stay on, I will try my best to update on the many, many happenings since I’ve been in country.
So my last post was when we were still in Yaoundé. That is the capital of Cameroon, and it is the city that I, and the 42 other volunteers that are in my training class, flew into. We spent a few days there doing some initial orientations, including initial language proficiency tests, medical sessions (completely with immunizations, my favorite!), food and water preparation training, etc. We also took care of a ton of paperwork, completed some immigration processing, bought cell phones and regulators, and other miscellaneous mundane errands. But we did some super fun stuff too, like the tribal dance festival, and we had a super fancy welcome dinner at the Country Director’s house where we met all of the Peace Corps staff.
After being in Yaoundé for four days, we drove to Bafia, which is still in the center of the country, only about two hours from Yaoundé. It’s a much smaller town than Yaoundé, but its not a village. There are probably about 50-60 thousand people living in and around Bafia. So I’m living with a host family, and they are super great! My father, Guy, is in agriculture (we have tons of fruit trees in our yard, including palm trees, mango trees, and guava trees!). My mother, Beatrice, is a primary school teacher, but school is finished for the summer now. The have a daughter, Vanessa, who goes to university in Yaoundé, a son Ariel who is 19, Fabiola who is 14, Brando (or Bato for short) who is 12, and Charles-Anette who is 5. So the house is always crazy and loud and exciting! The mother is actually from the Anglophone part of Cameroon, but she speaks French to me (I need the practice!). My host parents are incredibly intelligent, insightful, and opinionated people. They love to have conversations with me about politics and globalization and imperialism and Africa’s role on the international stage. They are well aware of how the majority of the rest of the world views their continent, and the stereotypes that surround it. They, and the rest of the town of Bafia, are so grateful that we are here, they can’t stop thanking us! As they explained to me, that are just happy that we are here to see how they live and experience their culture and realize that while it is true that Africa has a reputation for corruption and disease and poverty, there are people here that work hard to make a living and succeed at doing so. They have electricity, and a television, and a computer! All of which surprised me. As for food, to anyone who is wondering, I have not eaten meat yet! They eat a lot, a lot, a lot of fish. Also a lot of rice, plantains, potatoes, and manioc (I don’t know what the English word for this is, but they eat every part of this plant, the stem, the leaves, the root). Yes, there’s a theme, and its heavy on the carbs. One night we had spaghetti AND rice with tomato sauce!
Besides hanging out with my host family, all of our time is consumed by an intense training program. I’m in a French class with only two other volunteers, and its really nice to work in that small of groups. We’ve been having technical sessions on what exactly we will be teaching (the Cameroonian schools have strict lesson plans that we must stick to). We will be starting a model school in Bafia on the 1st of July, where we’ll offer summer school classes to kids aged 10 and up in the mornings, and classes to adults in the afternoons for subjects like English, business, and computers. I’m pretty psyched about it! I think it will be a great way for us to practice and get feedback before we leave for our post (the place we will be assigned to for the two years of service) while simultaneously helping out the community a bit.
I get quite a bit of attention when I walk around Bafia, and so do all the volunteers. My favorite is they like to call out “La Blanche, La Blanche!” which literally means “the white female.” And apparently, it is every Cameroonian’s dream (especially the youth) to go to the United States. So marriage proposals from young Cameroonian men, hopeful that they’ll find an American sugar mama who will provide them with a green card and the American Dream, are quite prevalent!
The World Cup is all anyone can talk about since got here, and I must say, it is pretty exciting! Africans in general are so proud to have a World Cup hosted on their continent, and the Cameroonians are simply ecstatic for their team to be in it! Unfortunately, they did loose today to Japan. It was a heartbreaker, they had so many chances to score they just barely missed. Definitely some heavy hearts here in Bafia (the town pretty much shut down to watch the match!).
So there are a few updates from Cameroon, I’ll try to post more frequently with more stories (there are too many!) now that I’ve found an internet source! Loving and missing everyone dearly…
Alright, so I must first apologize for the delay in this blog post. I have now been in Cameroon for nine whole days! It those nine days have felt like AT LEAST four months! Turns out internet access is slightly difficult to come by on this continent… surprise! But I have finally located a “cyber café,” as they are called, and if the electricity will stay on, I will try my best to update on the many, many happenings since I’ve been in country.
So my last post was when we were still in Yaoundé. That is the capital of Cameroon, and it is the city that I, and the 42 other volunteers that are in my training class, flew into. We spent a few days there doing some initial orientations, including initial language proficiency tests, medical sessions (completely with immunizations, my favorite!), food and water preparation training, etc. We also took care of a ton of paperwork, completed some immigration processing, bought cell phones and regulators, and other miscellaneous mundane errands. But we did some super fun stuff too, like the tribal dance festival, and we had a super fancy welcome dinner at the Country Director’s house where we met all of the Peace Corps staff.
After being in Yaoundé for four days, we drove to Bafia, which is still in the center of the country, only about two hours from Yaoundé. It’s a much smaller town than Yaoundé, but its not a village. There are probably about 50-60 thousand people living in and around Bafia. So I’m living with a host family, and they are super great! My father, Guy, is in agriculture (we have tons of fruit trees in our yard, including palm trees, mango trees, and guava trees!). My mother, Beatrice, is a primary school teacher, but school is finished for the summer now. The have a daughter, Vanessa, who goes to university in Yaoundé, a son Ariel who is 19, Fabiola who is 14, Brando (or Bato for short) who is 12, and Charles-Anette who is 5. So the house is always crazy and loud and exciting! The mother is actually from the Anglophone part of Cameroon, but she speaks French to me (I need the practice!). My host parents are incredibly intelligent, insightful, and opinionated people. They love to have conversations with me about politics and globalization and imperialism and Africa’s role on the international stage. They are well aware of how the majority of the rest of the world views their continent, and the stereotypes that surround it. They, and the rest of the town of Bafia, are so grateful that we are here, they can’t stop thanking us! As they explained to me, that are just happy that we are here to see how they live and experience their culture and realize that while it is true that Africa has a reputation for corruption and disease and poverty, there are people here that work hard to make a living and succeed at doing so. They have electricity, and a television, and a computer! All of which surprised me. As for food, to anyone who is wondering, I have not eaten meat yet! They eat a lot, a lot, a lot of fish. Also a lot of rice, plantains, potatoes, and manioc (I don’t know what the English word for this is, but they eat every part of this plant, the stem, the leaves, the root). Yes, there’s a theme, and its heavy on the carbs. One night we had spaghetti AND rice with tomato sauce!
Besides hanging out with my host family, all of our time is consumed by an intense training program. I’m in a French class with only two other volunteers, and its really nice to work in that small of groups. We’ve been having technical sessions on what exactly we will be teaching (the Cameroonian schools have strict lesson plans that we must stick to). We will be starting a model school in Bafia on the 1st of July, where we’ll offer summer school classes to kids aged 10 and up in the mornings, and classes to adults in the afternoons for subjects like English, business, and computers. I’m pretty psyched about it! I think it will be a great way for us to practice and get feedback before we leave for our post (the place we will be assigned to for the two years of service) while simultaneously helping out the community a bit.
I get quite a bit of attention when I walk around Bafia, and so do all the volunteers. My favorite is they like to call out “La Blanche, La Blanche!” which literally means “the white female.” And apparently, it is every Cameroonian’s dream (especially the youth) to go to the United States. So marriage proposals from young Cameroonian men, hopeful that they’ll find an American sugar mama who will provide them with a green card and the American Dream, are quite prevalent!
The World Cup is all anyone can talk about since got here, and I must say, it is pretty exciting! Africans in general are so proud to have a World Cup hosted on their continent, and the Cameroonians are simply ecstatic for their team to be in it! Unfortunately, they did loose today to Japan. It was a heartbreaker, they had so many chances to score they just barely missed. Definitely some heavy hearts here in Bafia (the town pretty much shut down to watch the match!).
So there are a few updates from Cameroon, I’ll try to post more frequently with more stories (there are too many!) now that I’ve found an internet source! Loving and missing everyone dearly…
Finally!
Bonjour Tout le Monde!
Alright, so I must first apologize for the delay in this blog post. I have now been in Cameroon for nine whole days! It those nine days have felt like AT LEAST four months! Turns out internet access is slightly difficult to come by on this continent… surprise! But I have finally located a “cyber café,” as they are called, and if the electricity will stay on, I will try my best to update on the many, many happenings since I’ve been in country.
So my last post was when we were still in Yaoundé. That is the capital of Cameroon, and it is the city that I, and the 42 other volunteers that are in my training class, flew into. We spent a few days there doing some initial orientations, including initial language proficiency tests, medical sessions (completely with immunizations, my favorite!), food and water preparation training, etc. We also took care of a ton of paperwork, completed some immigration processing, bought cell phones and regulators, and other miscellaneous mundane errands. But we did some super fun stuff too, like the tribal dance festival, and we had a super fancy welcome dinner at the Country Director’s house where we met all of the Peace Corps staff.
After being in Yaoundé for four days, we drove to Bafia, which is still in the center of the country, only about two hours from Yaoundé. It’s a much smaller town than Yaoundé, but its not a village. There are probably about 50-60 thousand people living in and around Bafia. So I’m living with a host family, and they are super great! My father, Guy, is in agriculture (we have tons of fruit trees in our yard, including palm trees, mango trees, and guava trees!). My mother, Beatrice, is a primary school teacher, but school is finished for the summer now. The have a daughter, Vanessa, who goes to university in Yaoundé, a son Ariel who is 19, Fabiola who is 14, Brando (or Bato for short) who is 12, and Charles-Anette who is 5. So the house is always crazy and loud and exciting! The mother is actually from the Anglophone part of Cameroon, but she speaks French to me (I need the practice!). My host parents are incredibly intelligent, insightful, and opinionated people. They love to have conversations with me about politics and globalization and imperialism and Africa’s role on the international stage. They are well aware of how the majority of the rest of the world views their continent, and the stereotypes that surround it. They, and the rest of the town of Bafia, are so grateful that we are here, they can’t stop thanking us! As they explained to me, that are just happy that we are here to see how they live and experience their culture and realize that while it is true that Africa has a reputation for corruption and disease and poverty, there are people here that work hard to make a living and succeed at doing so. They have electricity, and a television, and a computer! All of which surprised me. As for food, to anyone who is wondering, I have not eaten meat yet! They eat a lot, a lot, a lot of fish. Also a lot of rice, plantains, potatoes, and manioc (I don’t know what the English word for this is, but they eat every part of this plant, the stem, the leaves, the root). Yes, there’s a theme, and its heavy on the carbs. One night we had spaghetti AND rice with tomato sauce!
Besides hanging out with my host family, all of our time is consumed by an intense training program. I’m in a French class with only two other volunteers, and its really nice to work in that small of groups. We’ve been having technical sessions on what exactly we will be teaching (the Cameroonian schools have strict lesson plans that we must stick to). We will be starting a model school in Bafia on the 1st of July, where we’ll offer summer school classes to kids aged 10 and up in the mornings, and classes to adults in the afternoons for subjects like English, business, and computers. I’m pretty psyched about it! I think it will be a great way for us to practice and get feedback before we leave for our post (the place we will be assigned to for the two years of service) while simultaneously helping out the community a bit.
I get quite a bit of attention when I walk around Bafia, and so do all the volunteers. My favorite is they like to call out “La Blanche, La Blanche!” which literally means “the white female.” And apparently, it is every Cameroonian’s dream (especially the youth) to go to the United States. So marriage proposals from young Cameroonian men, hopeful that they’ll find an American sugar mama who will provide them with a green card and the American Dream, are quite prevalent!
The World Cup is all anyone can talk about since got here, and I must say, it is pretty exciting! Africans in general are so proud to have a World Cup hosted on their continent, and the Cameroonians are simply ecstatic for their team to be in it! Unfortunately, they did loose today to Japan. It was a heartbreaker, they had so many chances to score they just barely missed. Definitely some heavy hearts here in Bafia (the town pretty much shut down to watch the match!).
So there are a few updates from Cameroon, I’ll try to post more frequently with more stories (there are too many!) now that I’ve found an internet source! Loving and missing everyone dearly…
Alright, so I must first apologize for the delay in this blog post. I have now been in Cameroon for nine whole days! It those nine days have felt like AT LEAST four months! Turns out internet access is slightly difficult to come by on this continent… surprise! But I have finally located a “cyber café,” as they are called, and if the electricity will stay on, I will try my best to update on the many, many happenings since I’ve been in country.
So my last post was when we were still in Yaoundé. That is the capital of Cameroon, and it is the city that I, and the 42 other volunteers that are in my training class, flew into. We spent a few days there doing some initial orientations, including initial language proficiency tests, medical sessions (completely with immunizations, my favorite!), food and water preparation training, etc. We also took care of a ton of paperwork, completed some immigration processing, bought cell phones and regulators, and other miscellaneous mundane errands. But we did some super fun stuff too, like the tribal dance festival, and we had a super fancy welcome dinner at the Country Director’s house where we met all of the Peace Corps staff.
After being in Yaoundé for four days, we drove to Bafia, which is still in the center of the country, only about two hours from Yaoundé. It’s a much smaller town than Yaoundé, but its not a village. There are probably about 50-60 thousand people living in and around Bafia. So I’m living with a host family, and they are super great! My father, Guy, is in agriculture (we have tons of fruit trees in our yard, including palm trees, mango trees, and guava trees!). My mother, Beatrice, is a primary school teacher, but school is finished for the summer now. The have a daughter, Vanessa, who goes to university in Yaoundé, a son Ariel who is 19, Fabiola who is 14, Brando (or Bato for short) who is 12, and Charles-Anette who is 5. So the house is always crazy and loud and exciting! The mother is actually from the Anglophone part of Cameroon, but she speaks French to me (I need the practice!). My host parents are incredibly intelligent, insightful, and opinionated people. They love to have conversations with me about politics and globalization and imperialism and Africa’s role on the international stage. They are well aware of how the majority of the rest of the world views their continent, and the stereotypes that surround it. They, and the rest of the town of Bafia, are so grateful that we are here, they can’t stop thanking us! As they explained to me, that are just happy that we are here to see how they live and experience their culture and realize that while it is true that Africa has a reputation for corruption and disease and poverty, there are people here that work hard to make a living and succeed at doing so. They have electricity, and a television, and a computer! All of which surprised me. As for food, to anyone who is wondering, I have not eaten meat yet! They eat a lot, a lot, a lot of fish. Also a lot of rice, plantains, potatoes, and manioc (I don’t know what the English word for this is, but they eat every part of this plant, the stem, the leaves, the root). Yes, there’s a theme, and its heavy on the carbs. One night we had spaghetti AND rice with tomato sauce!
Besides hanging out with my host family, all of our time is consumed by an intense training program. I’m in a French class with only two other volunteers, and its really nice to work in that small of groups. We’ve been having technical sessions on what exactly we will be teaching (the Cameroonian schools have strict lesson plans that we must stick to). We will be starting a model school in Bafia on the 1st of July, where we’ll offer summer school classes to kids aged 10 and up in the mornings, and classes to adults in the afternoons for subjects like English, business, and computers. I’m pretty psyched about it! I think it will be a great way for us to practice and get feedback before we leave for our post (the place we will be assigned to for the two years of service) while simultaneously helping out the community a bit.
I get quite a bit of attention when I walk around Bafia, and so do all the volunteers. My favorite is they like to call out “La Blanche, La Blanche!” which literally means “the white female.” And apparently, it is every Cameroonian’s dream (especially the youth) to go to the United States. So marriage proposals from young Cameroonian men, hopeful that they’ll find an American sugar mama who will provide them with a green card and the American Dream, are quite prevalent!
The World Cup is all anyone can talk about since got here, and I must say, it is pretty exciting! Africans in general are so proud to have a World Cup hosted on their continent, and the Cameroonians are simply ecstatic for their team to be in it! Unfortunately, they did loose today to Japan. It was a heartbreaker, they had so many chances to score they just barely missed. Definitely some heavy hearts here in Bafia (the town pretty much shut down to watch the match!).
So there are a few updates from Cameroon, I’ll try to post more frequently with more stories (there are too many!) now that I’ve found an internet source! Loving and missing everyone dearly…
Sunday, June 6, 2010
I'm Here!
Salut tout le monde!
So I am in fact here, in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon!!! My other trainees and I have been living in a bit of a Peace Corps bubble, going only between a hotel and the Peace Corps Office, in Peace Corps vehicles, taking language proficiency tests, filling out paperwork, and attending seminars on safety/security and such. But last night we went to a tribal dance ceremony (in a gym!) and was so aaaamazing. their costumes were beautiful and the dances we're fantastic. they did this sweet move where they convulsively shook just thier torso. I tried to replicate (they called all the observers on stage to join). I failed. pretty miserably. but it was super fun!
Don't have much internet now, hoping to have more when we settled into our training village of Bafia on Tuesday. So more to come then, but in the meantime, just wanted to let you all know that I'm alive, here safe, and missing you!
Love from Cameroon!
So I am in fact here, in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon!!! My other trainees and I have been living in a bit of a Peace Corps bubble, going only between a hotel and the Peace Corps Office, in Peace Corps vehicles, taking language proficiency tests, filling out paperwork, and attending seminars on safety/security and such. But last night we went to a tribal dance ceremony (in a gym!) and was so aaaamazing. their costumes were beautiful and the dances we're fantastic. they did this sweet move where they convulsively shook just thier torso. I tried to replicate (they called all the observers on stage to join). I failed. pretty miserably. but it was super fun!
Don't have much internet now, hoping to have more when we settled into our training village of Bafia on Tuesday. So more to come then, but in the meantime, just wanted to let you all know that I'm alive, here safe, and missing you!
Love from Cameroon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
