post site visit!

So we are now in Week Five of Training and our Model School has officially began! In fact, it was supposed to be ushered into being with the pomp and circumstance of a super fancy opening ceremony on Tuesday morning. It was scheduled to begin at 8am. So all the volunteers were there. All the Cameroonian teachers who are also teaching at the model school were there. And the Peace Corps administration were there. All the students who will be attending model school were there (in lines, in a field, in direct sunlight). But the actual ceremony did not start until after 11:00. We had to wait for the Prefet and the Sous-Prefet to show up. These are appointed officials of every town in Cameroon- a direct translation would be a Senior Divisional Officer and a Sub-Divisional Officer. They operate on their own “African Time.” And you do not question their warped sense of time. So we waited. For three hours. But they finally did show up and the Cameroonian students raised their flag and sang their national anthem. And us trainees were forced to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Let’s just say it’s probably a good thing none of us our here to give singing lessons. Except maybe Liz, who hit the soprano note in “o’er the land of the freeeeeeeee.” It was pretty much awesome. So model school has commenced! We are all observing the Cameroonian teachers, and some Peace Corps Volunteers who have been here for a year already, this week, and I’ll start teaching English next week (eight hours to be exact). AND I started learning Fufuldé today! I forgot how absolutely infantile one feels when they start learning a new language. But I’m super jazzed about it! It’s quite an experience to learn a new language by a teacher explaining said language in another language that is not your mother tongue. Ok, that was slightly convoluted; I’m trying to say Aicha, the woman who is teaching us Fufuldé, speaks only French and Fufuldé to us, so she explains grammar points and vocabulary of Fufuldé, in French. It turns out to be awesome, because this way I can learn Fufuldé AND improve my French! Win-Win! Also, since I am at an “advanced” (notice quotation marks) level of French, we are supposed to be writing a weekly newsletter for all the trainees and instructors. We had one issue already and are about to start working on the next one. Needless to say, we got a lot going on! But it’s good to be busy and I know all this information is going to be indispensable when I get to post.
Speaking of post…. I’ve jumped ahead of myself and described what’s going on right now, but I haven’t forgot I need to detail the events of last week. They are vital to my Cameroonian life! Last week, I went on site visit. I will by teaching at the Lycée Gouvermental du Hina, and my censeur (the vice principal), named Gabriel Nono, came to meet me in Bafia last Monday. We had a workshop in Bafia on Monday and Tuesday morning, and then we departed for a VERY long journey to the Extreme North Region of Cameroon on Tuesday, around 1pm.
So, the Grand North of Cameroon consists of three regions: Adamawa, North, and Extreme North. In my stage (the name we call our training group) there will be two Education (ED) and two Small Enterprise Development (SED) volunteers in Adamawa, no new volunteers posted in the North, and five ED and three SED volunteers posted in the Extreme North. All of the ED volunteers had there site visits at the same time, so all seven of us going to the Grand North (and our counterparts who came to meet us in Bafia) took a bus from Bafia to Yaoundé to start our journey. This is only supposed to take about 2 hours, but some traffic issues made it take more like 3 ½. Oh, yes, and by bus I mean one of those white passenger vans where, in America, three people would sit to a seat. In Cameroon, at least five people sit to seat, and children don’t count as people, so they are just laid across laps. Luggage is put on top of the van and tied down with a tarp (and by luggage I mean anything from produce to furniture to goats. Yes, live goats.) So we get to Yaoundé Tuesday night, grab a taxi, navigate to the train station, and get on the train with just a little time to spare. The train is an overnight journey that takes about 14-16 hours (although I’ve heard that number can be elevated to near 30) to Ngaoundere in the Adamawa region (if you look at a map, it’s about the halfway mark of the country). The train was SWEET. It was probably the best part of the traveling, since we had couchettes! Couchettes= bunk beds, 4 in your own little room on the train. It was pretty awesome to be able to move around and to SLEEP! So we arrived on Wednesday morning in Ngaoundere. Andrew and Andrea parted ways with us there to find there posts, as they will be in the Adamawa region. Liz, Rose, Emily, and Claire (yes! there is another Claire, her last name is Kelly so we’re also both CK!, and we are both going to be living in the Extreme North, and she’s super cool and we’re friends, and we’ve bonded over our Claire-ness and we referred to as the “Claires” a lot and shout out to Claire’s Jersey friends who have read my blog since she hasn’t updated hers, and I’m finished with my Claire tangent ☺) continued on with our counterparts by hoping on a 7 hour bus ride to Maroua, the regional capital of the Extreme North. This bus was more spacious, more like a Greyhound bus. Just a very long ride (7 hours usually turns into more like 9) and hot. So we arrived in Maroua on Wednesday night and we stayed in the Peace Corps house there. We met some of the volunteers there, and one of them, Stephen (i.e. our savior), showed us around Maroua, took us to restaurant that had CHEESE (almost non-existent in Cameroon), and helped us open bank accounts the next morning. We would have completely floundered without him! Honestly, the volunteers in country were the reason any of us survived this trip. They took care of us and showed us the ropes despite being warned of our imminent arrival only hours before in some cases. They were GREAT and we couldn’t thank them enough. Anyways, back to Thursday, Gabriel (my censeur) met me at the Peace Corps house, and we took a 3 hour moto ride to Hina. On unpaved roads. What is a moto some of you may be asking? Well, I think the best equivalent at home I can describe it as is a moped. They are absolutely everywhere here. Guys drive them around, and you just flag on down and jump on the back to get around any town or village. It is the standard way to travel. And to transport anything. I mean anything. They transport live animals, furniture, produce, suitcases, bikes, other motos, etc. on motos. So we get to Hina as the sun is setting on Thursday. This time is important since there is no electricity in Hina…
Once in Hina, I went to Brad’s house. Brad was a Health volunteer who was posted in Hina. He was supposed to be there until December, but he left earlier because he got an awesome scholarship and is going to start grad school in August… NOT because he didn’t like Hina (a relief to hear, I must admit). His house is said to be in a secure part of Hina, it’s walled in, has a pit latrine, a bedroom, a sitting room, a space to shower (a room with a drain), and a kitchen that is detached from the house. I met the dog Brad left behind (still not sure of his name) and Djulde, the guy who guards the house when no one is there. Then Gabriel came over and we had some dinner and talked a while before much needed sleep. Friday Gabriel and I were up and ready to go at 6:30. We comissioned two motos to take us around Hina to see the Lycée (which is situated on a HUGE expanse of land), meet the lamidou (an important chief of the village who only speaks Fufuldé and gave me cake!), the mayor (who gave me a juice box of Sangria at 7 in the morning!), the chief of police, the chief of the gendarmarie (another division of security), a head of an agricultural committee, and I got to meet my provisieur (prinicipal) which was lucky because he was supposed to be in Maroua. It was a whirlwind tour, and I wish I would have been able to spend more time in Hina and been able to explore a bit more, but I had to catch a truck to Mokolo. Mokolo is a much bigger town then Hina and about 2 hours away. There is a big market in Hina on Friday, and sellers from Mokolo come in to sell there goods. Gabriel and I hitched a ride back to Mokolo with them (they were supposed to leave at 10, but didn’t actually leave until 12:30). Once in Mokolo, we ran into Emily’s provisieur who insisted that I stay in Mokolo that night and travel back to Maroua the next morning. So he took me to a bar and ordered me some meat dish that I think was goat. I ATE IT. All of it! (attn: Cluck and/or Jason if you are reading this). It was gross. I’m not even going to sugar coat it. Then Emily (the volunteer from my stage who will be posted in Mokolo) and Fleurange (the SED volunteer who has been in Mokolo for two years and is leaving in less than two weeks) met us at the bar. Fleurange offered to let me stay at her house because she’s amazing, and so I spent the rest of the day in Mokolo. We saw Emily’s house, visited another volunteer in Mokolo, ate tofu (YES! They have tofu in Mokolo!), and explored Mokolo a bit. Then Friday we woke up super early and caught a bus to Maroua. We got there and rendez-vous –ed with Rose, Liz, and Claire who had been in Mora (another bigger town in the Extreme North). We bought tickets for a bus back to Ngaoundere, but waited for 2 ½ hours before it actually left. This bus to not get to Ngaoundere until after 9pm. It was pretty miserable. We all were having some intense stomach issues. I don’t want to be too graphic, but I think it necessary to share this detail- I felt nauseous almost the entire ride, but I only threw up once on the bus. Luckily I had a plastic bag with me, and after I had filled it just tossed it out the window. It’s actually a hilarious visual to me, now that I am feeling much better and off that darn bus! We were all super dehydrated and I also had stuffed up nose/sore throat/headache combo going on. Evidently, when we got to the Peace Corps house in Ngaoundere we were extremely relieved. The next day we finally had a bit of down time, so we just sat around mostly as ALL our energy had been pretty much spent. But it was the Fourth of July, and the super generous and fantastic volunteers at the cas (peace corps house) in ngaoundere shared a sweet barbeque with us, complete with hamburgers, potato salad, and fruit salad. Then we had to catch the overnight train back to Yaoundé that night. We got to Yaoundé Monday morning and took a bus back to Bafia, finally getting back to Bafia in the early afternoon. Whew! I’m sure I forgot some details, but that is the general outline of the crazy adventure of traveling almost the entire span of the country in six days. It was definitely worth it to be able to see Hina and experience the trip up there for myself, it just would have been nice if the logistics were slightly better planned. I’m excited to go to post, but I’m really happy to be back in Bafia. I’m looking forward to spending the next several weeks with my host family, practicing at the model school, hanging out with the other trainees, and just passing time in Bafia. So I think I’ve babbled on long enough, I’ll stop there, and more updates to come soon!