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!