I am officially a volunteer!! Yay! So actually, I have been a volunteer for about 10 days, but my internet access has been non-existent since before the end of training. My apologies… but I’m here now with some updates.

I swore with the rest of my training class on August 18^th in Bafia. We all had outfits made from the same matching pagne (material)! We had a ceremony with a bunch of Cameroonian and Peace Corps “grands” (i.e. important people) and then we had an awesome lunch to thank our host families. I said goodbye to my host family that night :( it was sad, but I knew I’ll see them again soon. So we new volunteers had a bit of bash at a local hotel in Bafia, and set out to leave for post the next morning.

All of us volunteers heading up to the north of the country (12 of us) headed towards Yaoundé and then got the train up to Ngaoundere on Thursday night. We got into Ngaoundere early Friday morning where us Extreme North kids (8 of us) depot-ed a car just for us and all of our stuff (A TON of things, like a bike, a moto helmet, a bike helmet, a water filter, a giant trunk, a mammoth suitcase, a colossal hiker’s back-pack, and countless other odds and ends- and that was just MY stuff!!!) to Maroua. We got into Maroua, the regional capital of the Extreme North, and were able to relax for a little while. On Saturday, we attempted to do some shopping for groceries, furnishings for our houses, etc. It proved to be mildly fruitful. Maroua has an amazzzzzing market full of color and culture and almost anything your heart desires. Except for a gas tank. I was told it is impossible to find one of these treasures in all of Cameroon. I know for a fact this is a bold face lie. Why it is so necessary to my life to have a gas tank: I bought a stove, and by stove I mean one of those kind of collapsible things with two burners that you take camping and hook up a gas tank to it to cook. Obviously, the stove does not work without a gas tank. It is very difficult to cook without said gas, and right now, it is pretty necessary to be able to cook/boil water since there has been a Cholera outbreak in the Extreme North of Cameroon… No one panic! Cholera is easily avoidable if you wash your hands, bleach your vegetables, boil your water, etc. In fact, even if you do get it, it’s easily treatable with anti-biotics and re-hydration with NON-contaminated water. So I’ve been cooking over a wood fire until I can maybe, perhaps, hopefully, fingers crossed, find someone who will sell me a gas tank. Now, as some of you know, I looooove making fires. Fire building is one of my favorite pastimes, and I’ve been quite offended, in the past, by those who have suggested that I lacked the ability to produce this element. But I must admit, it is quite time and energy consuming to start and maintain a fire every time I want to boil some water. I have the time to do it now, but once school starts (September 6!!!), I’m not so sure I’ll have as much time to throw around. So here’s hoping (and praying and wishing and lobbying Paul Biya) that gas tank finds it’s way to me sooner rather than later.

Whew! That was a tangent! Ok, back to actually getting to Hina… So Sunday, Emily, Zach, two volunteers who are posted in Mokolo (a town about 50 kilometers north of me), and I depot-ed a car from Maroua to Mokolo. We dropped them off and then our driver, Alim, and I continued on to Hina. And we got there- alive, safe, and sound. But during the trip, there were definitely some instances were I doubted that would be the outcome! The problem is, there are no paved roads leading to Hina. This apparently is really not that big of a deal during the dry season, the roads are supposed to be pretty good and easily passable. But as soon as the rainy season rears its ugly head, the roads turn to mud, parts of them get completely washed out, and one begins to fear that their four-wheel-drive vehicle will get stuck in the mud/overturned in rushing water. But alas, I finally made it to Hina, unscathed, and moved all of my things in.

My house is pretty much cleaned, and I’m all the way unpacked! I’m trying to get my bearings and figure out how village life works. I’m pretty much waiting around for school to start, and I’m not quite sure what to do with myself, since all of the school administration is still on vacation and won’t be back until probably a day or two until school starts. But I think this is a good thing, it will give me some time to explore and discover Hina before jumping into the scholastic side of things.

Some tidbits:

-I have a dog! His name is Zeus. I really have no idea what kind of dog he is, I’m sure a mutt of many different combination. But he is short haired, smaller than a lab but bigger than a terrier, and black with white legs with black spots. He likes to whine a lot :) but he is good for the most part and doesn’t bite and let’s me know when there is someone at my door!

- I’ve been attempting to speak Fufuldé with Hina locals… mainly it’s them saying something wayyyyy too fast, me smiling and nodding, then rambling off the ten words I know in the language, and the receiver feigning to be impressed by my butchering of their mother tongue. It’s great! As the Cameroonians say, petit à petit (little by little) it will come. And once I’ve mastered Fufuldé, I can move on to the other, smaller, language of Hinarre, that is only spoken in Hina by about 30,000 people in total (I think…)

-I negotiated my rent agreement and lease contract in a Fufuldé-French combination. I was a little too pleased with myself. :)

-I have three fig trees in my yard. They are blooming and soooooo good!

- up north, I have a new name. remember, in the south, we were called “les blanches?” here, it’s “nassara”- literally white person in fufuldé!

-Hina is in a valley that is surrounded by jagged mountains that look like mounds of boulders that have been glued together. since we are in the three seasons that constitute the rainy season (july, august, september), everything is vibrantly green. It is breathtaking. I’ll try to get some pictures up asap.

I know there is much more I’m forgetting but it will have to come in my next post. I’m hoping to get back to Maroua this weekend to search for that darned gas tank, and with any luck I’ll post this if I can find some internet there. Love everybody, miss everybody, and thinking about everyone allllll the time!!!