I've accepted the fact that possibly all of the blog posts I post from here on out will begin with an apology for not having posted in so long. Apologies! It's been a while -- April to July! Shameful. I think -- I hope -- that this will be the most egregious offense, and I do promise to try to be more diligent in updating my blog in the future.
At any rate, the summer holidays have officially begun! I was expecting summertime to be a bit lazy, a bit boring -- I expected to have a lot of time to lounge around the house, catch up on some reading, visit my neighbours, write a few blog posts, and generally just chill. That...hasn't really been the case! The summer started out with a bang when my parents arrived in Cameroon. It was really lovely having them here! People have asked me if they enjoyed their visit and, this being Cameroon, I am not sure if "enjoyed" is necessarily the right word -- I suppose they enjoyed it as much as one can enjoy hard beds and no air conditioning, crowded transportation, bumpy dirt roads, and visits to the Ngaoundere hospital. But I truly enjoyed having them here, showing them around and spending time together; and even if Cameroon itself isn't necessarily a vacation destination, I think they were still happy to see me all in one piece (well. with the glaring exception of my falling ill with malaria during their visit).
Here's where I need a handy montage scene, where we reveal what I've been up to the past few months in a couple of quick, convenient clips and then move on to the real story. After dropping my parents off at the Douala airport, I jumped on a bus to the Northwest region of Cameroon (now just imagine zooming out to see a map of Cameroon with a dotted red line tracking my movements from Douala to Bamenda, which conveniently takes about five seconds as opposed to two days). I spent a few days helping to train the incoming education volunteers (envision scenes of me confidently sharing my experiences with literacy and gender equitable teaching and giving sage advice for integration, and definitely not convincing the trainees to grab drinks with us or setting up a chart so the trainees could place bets on their post assignments).
From there, I trekked south to visit my friend Daniel in the Southwest region (cue that map again, with the dotted red line weaving its way south). I was able to visit Daniel in Ebonji and Sarah in Nyasoso -- I hadn't yet spent much time in the Southwest, so it was fun spending time with them in their respective villages, and being able to experience a bit of Cameroon's famed geographical and cultural diversity (montage cuts to: rainforests and mist-shrouded mountains, rut-filled dirt roads, Daniel and I serenading our amused and/or confused moto drivers with songs from the Hamilton soundtrack). After a few days there, Daniel and I made our way to Yaounde (cue more motos, more buses, and more serenading), where we met up with Candice (cut to a joyous reunion with some squealing and lots of hugging) and caught the train back to the Adamaoua (cue the convenient red travel lines).
Yeah, I know. Busy, busy, and we're not even halfway through June!
Towards the end of June, some of the trainees came to visit us in the Adamaoua. The object of site visits is for trainees to visit experienced volunteers and see their villages and workplaces, to get a rough idea of what the next two years will look like. Unfortunately, the trainees arrived rather later than expected (montage cuts to the trainees being stuck in a non-air conditioned train car for 6 hours longer than the typical 14 hours), and then Candice and I were obligated to duck out early in order to take the train down south in order to help out with training for a second time (well, second time for me). But we still spent an enjoyable day with the new volunteers in Ngaoundere all the same.
For those of you keeping track, we are now entering July. Time sure passes by quickly when you can squish two months into a five minute montage!
I spent about week training in Babadjou at model school (cut to me teaching English to an upper level class and completely ruining model school for every other teacher after me by giving my students candy every day), and then got stuck in Yaounde for a few days while I waited for an available spot on the train back to the Adamaoua. That meant, however, that I was in Yaounde for the 4th of July (cut to scenes of eating pizza, drinking cocktails, and rounding off the evening by watching Game of Thrones instead of fireworks). I finally made it back to my village after having been gone for the better part of a month and a half (enter my neighbours, who tell me they thought I had gone back to the States. Nope -- you can't get rid of me that easily!). I spent a relaxing week at post (scenes of me reading, playing ukulele, tormenting my cats, chatting with neighbours, eating too much popcorn) before -- surprise, surprise! - hopping BACK onto the train to Yaounde for the medical portion of MST (mid-service training).
That brings us about up to date! I've spent the last week pooping in cups, responding to chicken noises ("B-CAAAWW!"), running to and from the lab, and playing an ungodly amount of Settlers of Catan (though, not all at the same time). I had intended to write a thoughtful and expressive blog post about having helped out at training and then turned around and attended a ngonging out (the ceremony for COSing volunteers) -- but I might just cut it off here and save that for next week. This was just a quick post to say hello, and let you all know I'm still alive! We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming next week. In the meantime -- I've got a game of Catan to win.
