Got French?

I've been meaning to post this for a while -- towards the end of training, we had a day called Diversity Day where the trainers and trainees shared their talents and culture. A few of our number put together a skit about some of our experiences learning French. If you've never learned a foreign language before, here's an idea of what it's like.

Le Monde According to Paul

Good Housekeeping

I’m here today to discuss everyone’s favourite dinner table topic — the toilet! Yes, here in Cameroon we have several lovely toilet options, for both in- and outdoors. 

First up, we have: 

• The Flush Toilet. Whoa there, Posh Corps. Let’s be real, nobody has a flush toilet in their homes. But be sure to enjoy this amenity when visiting the Peace Corps case in the regional capitol. For additional luxury amenities found in the Ngaoundere case, see: running water; electricity; wifi; refrigerator/freezer; printer; and beds with real sheets. 

Next, we have the ever popular: 

• Bucket Flush Toilet. Found in some of our up-and-coming PCV homes; or, occasionally, in the Ngaoundere case when the power is out. With the bucket flush toilet you have the convenience of having an actual toilet to sit on (as opposed to the latrine — see below); however, you are responsible for procuring your own water to flush with. What, did you think the toilet was just going to flush itself? This may not seem like much, but those 1-2 buckets of water could be a week’s worth of laundry, 2-4 bucket baths, or 2 days of dishwashing water, so choose carefully. This can be tough when the nearest water pump is a half mile away (or, let’s be real, even if it’s 100 meters away); but what are neighbourhood children for if not for fetching water for you? This can add up over time, but if you’re thrifty and don’t mind the smell, flushing once a day is a more than satisfactory way to conserve water, CFA, and/or manual labour. 

And now we arrive at our final option,

• The latrine. By far the easiest to maintain, the latrine doesn’t require any water at all (if you’ve got decent aim) — just don’t think too hard about what happens if it fills up. Start working on your squats now — you’ll appreciate the conditioning then next time you spend some quality time hovering over your latrine hole. Your latrine, whether it’s an indoor or outdoor latrine, is almost guaranteed to have something living in it, so you can make some new friends while you’re taking care of business! If you have an indoor latrine, that something is most likely to be roaches. Whatever you do, do NOT spray Raid down your latrine in an attempt to chase out these persistent free-loaders — it will successfully clear them out of your latrine, but they will take it as an invitation to occupy the rest of your house. If that was not, in fact, your original intent in spraying your latrine, then you’ll spend the rest of your evening chasing down the roaches that are making themselves at home in your kitchen, living room, and bedroom. If you’re not careful, they’ll be helping themselves to a cup of tea, hogging the good spots on the couch, and criticising your decorating. This entire situation is entirely hypothetical, of course, but if you were to hypothetically find yourself overrun by roaches who won’t stop commenting on your dusting, then you might find a small bowl that conveniently stops up your latrine hole, fill it with water to give it some weight, and then spray the doorways with some more Raid just for good measure. Hypothetically. 

I hope this has satisfied the curiosity I know you all had had about your options in terms of relieving yourselves in Cameroon. 

________________________________________________________________

As an update — as you may be able to tell, I’m now officially at post! I’ll be spending the next two years working in Lokoti, in the Adamoua region of Cameroon. I’ve already met some colleagues and other community members, and I’m slowly but surely puling my house together. I’ve been continuing to practice French, but I’m in the process of looking for a Fulfulde tutor, since a significant portion of the population speaks Fulfulde or Baya, the local patois, not French. Lokoti theoretically has electricity, but in the 2 1/2 weeks I’ve been here, I’ve had power for all of one night; so for now, I’ll be stocking up on candles and charging my computer every few weeks in Ngaoundere, or coughing up the 200CFA to charge it up in village via generator. Basically what I’m saying is, I’ll post/email/Skype/Facebook message/other as often as I can, but I can’t make any promises about consistency! And, of course, my address is still posted for those of you who enjoy good old-fashioned snail mail. School begins on September 7th, so coming up soon I’ll have some teaching stories to share with you! Until then — sey yeso! 

Transportation Safety

Good morning, and thank you for traveling with Peace Corps Cameroon. Before we take off, we appreciate you paying attention to the following safety information.

First, if you are travelling by moto: congratulations! Cameroon is one of only two Peace Corps countries that still allows its volunteers to travel by motorbike. But remember to always wear your helmet, or you’ll be sent home immediately with arguably the lamest excuse for getting kicked out of the Peace Corps. Before you get on a moto, make sure you negotiate your destination and the price beforehand; otherwise, plan on spending a solid 5 minutes arguing that it does not, in fact, cost 400CFA to carry two people from the Lycée Bilangue to the training center. Alternatively, they might stop the moto before you get to your destination, and inform you that this is as far as 100CFA will get you. It happens; best not to argue, unless the moto stops because it’s physically broken down. Then you might negotiate. If you’re the only passenger, sit back and relax! You may as well be riding in a limousine. You may be one of 3 people on the moto, or even, theoretically, one of 5 (although we have yet to receive photographic evidence of this). Expect to get up close and personal with other people’s butts. Really up close and personal. You will basically be sitting on other people. Although on a moto you risk falling off, losing personal items, getting into a crash, running over a dog, running into a cow, and in general life and limb, motos are the cheapest, the most convenient, and the most easily accessible method of transportation in Cameroon. Get used to them, because you’ll use them a lot. And over time, you’ll learn to love them. 

If you are travelling by car: well, all right! Travelling by car, or bush taxi, is only the second most uncomfortable way to travel. If you can manage it, try to squeeze into the back seat — believe it or not, it’s more comfortable to fit five people across the back than it is to squish four across the front. Avoid being the petit chauffer, if you can — as much fun as it is to share the driver’s seat, it really isn’t any fun at all. Regardless of where you sit, you’ll get up close and personal with everyone else’s body odours. Please keep all arms, shoulders, and, if you can manage it, heads outside the vehicle, as you’ll be much cooler and you’ll give the other passengers some much needed shoulder room. You can expect your legs to go numb — it’s ok, you won’t need them for a while. Besides, the more numb your butt is, the less you’ll feel the potholes as you drive over them at 100 km/hr! Be prepared to stop and unload if there’s a gendarme who wants to personally greet les blancs. 

If you are travelling by bus: well, it’s better than hitching a ride on a passing peanut truck (though, that can happen). Travelling by bus is the best (read: cheapest) way to make those several-hour trips to your regional capitol, or even across the country. First, make sure you’ve brought a book, or ten. You can expect your 12:00 bus to leave around 1:30 or 2:00, if it hasn’t already left by the time you get there. Once you’re on the bus, pick your seat carefully — if you’re at the window, you have the advantage of fresh air, but with the window open, you’re also the target of all of the derange-y men in the station, and they will ask you if you will date, marry, have sex with, or go back to the United States with them. The middle seat guarantees that you will not be able to feel your butt within the first ten minutes, and you’ll be asked to move every time someone needs to get off the bus to pee, pray, buy food, throw up, or bribe the gendarmes. However, around hour 2 you may be feeling inclined to get up and move about, and don’t worry about not being able to feel your butt; you’re just getting a jump on it, since no matter where you’re sitting, the longer you ride the bus, the more likely it is that you won’t be able to feel any of your extremities by the time you reach your destination. 

If you are travelling by train: congratulations! You’ve hit the jackpot of Cameroonian travel — that is, if you’re willing to pay for it. The train runs from Yaounde, the capitol of Cameroon, to Ngaoundere, the regional capitol of the Adamaoua. Your travel options range from standing room only, to seats, to a compartment complete with bunk beds, air conditioning, and an outlet. It’s an approximately 16 hour train ride, so choose carefully. This is assuming, of course, that the train doesn’t break down or derail, which could up your time to 30-48 hours. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how many movies you have on your computer and how many snacks you brought with you. On the plus side, you can buy food! On the down side, the food will be one of the more expensive meals you’ll buy in Cameroon. Better to load up at the boulangerie beforehand. 

We’d like to thank you again for travelling with Peace Corps Cameroon. Bon voyage! 

A Day in the Life

My folks told me that apparently everyone is interested in my day-to-day life. I’m telling you now, it’s pretty boring. I usually prefer to pick and choose anecdotes, because they’re more fun for you to read and more fun for me to write, but it was requested, and so I’ve delivered! Last chance to back out. If you’re really, really interested in what an average day is like for me in Cameroon, here is a blow-by-blow retelling of Monday, June 22nd. 

My alarm goes off at 6:00am. I’m already awake, but I hit snooze until 6:15 anyway. It’s a mistake, because now I really have to pee, and there’s someone using the bathroom. I postpone and bring my bright green bucket out to the well to puise water for my bucket bath. I’m really fortunate — there’s a well at my house, which isn’t all that common. It means I can get water without having to change my shirt. 

I bring the water into the bathroom, which is now mercifully empty. After bathing, which I’m not going to publicly describe on the internet, I get all of my stuff ready for school. I’ve forgotten to tell my sister that I’m going in early today, so she’s started to make me breakfast. I ask, haltingly, if I can take it to go. My sentence doesn’t make sense, but the end result is still an omelette in a baguette, wrapped in paper for the road. It’s 7:00. 

I meet my teacher, Marie, at the tin-roofed hut that is our classroom. I drop off my bags and fetch chairs from the training center — one for me, and one for my classmate, Abby. She already told me she was going to be late, which I relay to Marie. Not a problem, says Marie. That gives you time to finish your breakfast. 

The sun is rising. It’s misty, or perhaps just smoky. It’s hard to tell. The sun is pretty, I say to Marie. It’s actually beautiful, but in French, pretty is the best I can do. She agrees with me. It’s going to be hot in the East today, she says.

Tutoring begins when Abby arrives. It’s a compounded review, mostly. We play a game where we each think of a celebrity, and the other has to ask questions to guess who it is. I chose Scarlett Johansson; Abby responds with Chris Evans. There’s some confusion, as per the norm. It turns out that Chris Evans is not, in fact, black, as Abby led me to believe. Who’d have thought? 

Sessions start officially at 8:00. We run a little late when I stump Abby with Quvenzhané Wallis. We walk into a session about transportation safety in Cameroon. The trainers put together  skit, from which we discern that on any given bus, we may be pick-pocketed, thrown up on, asked to hold babies, crowded, stopped by the police, stopped so someone can pray and/or pee, sold medicines that can supposedly cure AIDS, and/or generally harassed, among other things. To be honest, the bus systems here don’t seem all that different than the busses in Chile — the main difference being, I’m a lot more comfortable in Spanish than I am in French. (Edit: having now taken a number of buses in Cameroon, I can confirm that almost all of these things actually happened. I wasn't pick-pocketed, and the woman next to me threw up in a bag instead of on me, but other than that...)

There’s a 20 minute break between classes, from 10:00 to 10:20. Today marks the beginning of immersion, where we’re (theoretically) supposed to speak in only French, Pigin, or Fulfulde from 8:00 to 1:00. What it actually means is those of us who speak French do so, and those of us who don’t either stay quiet, or speak quietly in Frenglish. KC and I started a Marvel/stagiaires comparison last night. His French is excellent, and my French is terrible, so he talks to me and I either nod, shake my head, or look at him blankly. I left a sort of Nutella spread at the training center on Saturday — I steal Sprice’s spoon to scrape the rest of it onto a banana. 

Our second session is one of those sessions that feels like it could be finished in 15 minutes, and is dragged out for 2 hours. We’re split into four groups. My group quickly loses focus and subsequently quickly loses track of the lesson. It’s about management, maybe. Or possibly evaluation. We’re supposed to be filling in a worksheet — we fill it in with puns instead. I’ve got a new business! What is it? I’m making submarines. Are you drowning in invoices? Yeah, bro. That’s probably why business is going under. It’s that flood of paperwork. It’s a lot of pressure. Sink or swim kind of life. Yup. But you've gotta keep the business afloat. We fill in the entire page. 

It’s 12:20 — lunch time. Candice and I count down the minutes until 1:00, when we can speak English again. Lunch is rice and beans, as it is every day. Today there’s pineapple, too, which is the best. Sometimes it’s papaya, which is also the best. It’s never mango, which is the other best. Occasionally it’s bananas, which are not the best. But still pretty good. 

It’s 1:30 — time for the third session of the day. Security #6 — bystander intervention. We pay attention. 

Nobody really knows what time the last session of the day starts. Maybe 3:30. Maybe 3:20, or 3:15. The last class of the day today is language — French. People begin to leave in a trickle, with one or two people leaving for class, and end as a flood. In class, we continue with descriptions — Marie tells us to describe an alien. I describe Stitch. Abby describes the aliens from Toy Story. Class discussion wanders from cultural notes (in Cameroon, it’s not polite to talk about one’s ass in public) to a comparison of mental health and homelessness in Cameroon and the US. We have a range of interests. 

Sessions end at 4:30, but today we’ve set up a meeting amongst ourselves, to talk about a variety of concerns. It’s rare that we’re able to get everyone together at the same time and place outside of class. It’s nice — we should do it more often. That is, in fact, a subject of discussion at the meeting, which is fitting. 

It’s 5:30. One of the volunteers is passing out free hugs. A few of us have been trying to start a hug movement — I think it’s starting to succeed. If it were any other day, we’d go to a bar to “juice”, but after the meeting, there’s not much time today. I sit with Gina and Tressa, who are practicing a poem they’ve memorized. It’s beautiful. Tressa offers to lend me her book after site visits -- I accept. 

Curfew is at 7:00 every night. Usually I’m walking in at 6:58, but tonight I’m early, because I need to pack for my site visit in Dir tomorrow. I usually keep my bedroom door open, but tonight it’s closed to keep out Victoire, the baby. She’s sweet, but she likes to come in and mess with my things, and tonight my things will be everywhere, due to a significant lack of surface areas. 

It’s 7:30. The power’s out, but I’m nearly done packing anyway. Dinner is ready — rice and fish with a spicy peanut sauce. I love it; I think my Dad would hate it. I can get through about half of it before I’m full. The power is back on, and so is the TV. In general, the TV is always on. I watch children’s shows and wryly reflect that, for all its simplicity, I understand less of it than the actual children do. 

At 9:00, it’s bedtime. Or rather, it’s go-to-my-room time. I take the next hour or so to do my own thing — finish up homework, write, read, generally relax and unwind. I go to bed before my host siblings do — I tried to outlast them my very first week, but quickly decided it’s not worth it. In the end, we probably go to bed around the same time, I just choose to read or write rather than finish the day in front of the television. Tonight I finalize my bags and set out clothes for tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day, and it’ll be here before I know it. 

Welcome to Cameroon

Bienvenue au Cameroon!

I was going to start this post by telling you how long I’ve actually been in Cameroon, but I realized I’m not actually entirely certain, and I don’t feel like counting backwards, so let’s suffice to say that it feels both as if I arrived yesterday, and as if I’ve been here for months already.

I arrived safe and sound in Yaounde, where we spent a day generally orientating ourselves to life in Cameroon before being shipped to Ebolowa for PST. We got a crash course in Cameroonian culture and ran through medical and security briefings that left us convinced that we were going to get into a motorcycle accident, be robbed, get malaria and also have diarrhea, all at the same time. We’ve since come to the conclusion that Peace Corps training is meant to instill us with a healthy sense of paranoia, so that when we rebound in the opposite direction, we land at an almost reasonable sense of caution.

I moved in with my host family last Saturday. My family consists of 12 people — 9 children, two parents, and who I believe to be an aunt, but my French skills aren’t solid enough for me to actually clarify her relationship. Possibly she’s just some lady who walks in and out when she feels like it. The world may never know. It has been a lot of fun, though. I really enjoy spending time with my (numerous) host siblings. It’s been difficult at times, since I speak barely 5 words of French, but I like to think I’m getting better, and they’ve been very patient. I went from being “la bebe” to being “la blanche,” so I’m going to take what I can get.

Training in Ebolowa has been fun and exhausting. There are 21 stagiaires in the group (down from 22 in Philadelphia). We’ve been covering topics including safety and security, medical, the role of Peace Corps in development, teaching methods, and, of course, French. I was placed in the novice level, the lowest category of language ability. Classes are small, only 2 or 3 students in the class. I’m in a class with Paul, my fellow PC trainee, and we are among the group that has taken to calling ourselves the Remedial Club (the Remedials for short). As a group, we slingshot between being excited about all of the French we’re learning, and panicking because we worry that we aren’t learning it quickly enough. Because what would life in the Peace Corps be if we were capable of settling at a happy medium?

I’ve been trying my hardest to take pictures as often as I can — I’ve made a deal with myself to take at least one picture every day. Most often, that turns into me taking a last minute picture of my room somewhere around 10:00 in the evening, but still, I try.

We do have WiFi at the school, but it’s not stellar, so I don’t use it very often (and besides, I’ve got a lot to study in my free time!). Regardless, I’ll post and email as often as I can while I’ve got semi-regular access to the internet. I was going to leave you with a few pictures, but the WiFi is taking far too long, and I need to get this posted before lunch ends. So you'll just have to wait until next time!

Who'd have thought you could fit two years of stuff onto one bed?

Getting Started

With t-minus 6 days to departure, I figured it was about time to get this blog up and running! Since I've still got some packing to do, I figured I'd keep this first post short and sweet. And when I say short and sweet I mean it's short and sweet for me to write, since my plan is to more or less just copy and paste the letter that the Peace Corps sent me to distribute to family and friends. Well, consider this my distribution! I promise (I hope) the posts will get more interesting as time goes on; but in the meantime, feel free to read up on how to contact me while I'm in Cameroon! 

General Communication Tips
The mail service in Cameroon is not as efficient as the U.S. Postal Service. Thus, it is important to be patient. It can take from three to four weeks for mail coming from Cameroon to arrive in the United States via the Cameroonian mail system. From a Volunteer’s community, mail might take up to one to two months to reach the United States depending upon how far the Volunteer is from the capital city, Yaoundé.
We suggest that in your first letters, you ask your Volunteer to give an estimate of how long it takes for him or her to receive your letters and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often you will write to each other. Also try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if he or she missed one. Postcards should be sent in envelopes.
Volunteers often enjoy telling their “war” stories when they write home. Letters might describe recent illnesses, lack of good food, isolation, etc. While the subject matter is often good reading material, it can often be misinterpreted on by family and friends. Please do not assume that if your loved one gets sick that he or she has not been attended to. The city of Yaoundé has medical and dental facilities, and there are Peace Corps Medical Officers there as well. Most Volunteers can reach the office in less than one day’s time. Volunteers also have cell phones so that they can call our medical office. In the event of a serious illness the Volunteer is sent to Yaoundé and is cared for by our Medical Unit. If the Volunteer requires medical care that is not available in Cameroon, he/she will be medically evacuated to a location that does. Fortunately, such circumstances are very rare.

Tl;dr: Expect the mail service to be slow and unreliable. Number your letters and indicate when the letter was sent in order to get a rough estimate of how long mail takes to get to me. Don't assume the worst if you don't hear from me, or if you hear terrible stories. No news is good news. 

Telephone calls

The telephone system in Cameroon has fairly reliable service to the United States. In the interior of the country, where most of our Volunteers are located, the network can be less reliable.
When dialing direct to Cameroon from the U.S., dial 011 (the international access code) + 237 (the country code) + the number. Volunteers generally set up phone calls with people in the U.S. in advance, and have the distant party call them, which is less expensive than calling the U.S. from Cameroon. Almost all volunteers purchase cell phones once they arrive in Cameroon, but they may not always have regular reception at their site. You should communicate with your friend/family member to set up a calling schedule.

Tl;dr: Download Skype. 

Sending packages

Parents and Volunteers like to send and receive care packages through the mail. Unfortunately, sending packages can be a frustrating experience for all involved due the high incidence of theft and heavy customs taxes. You may want to send inexpensive items through the mail, but there is no guarantee that these items will arrive. We do not recommend, however, that costly items be sent through the mail. During training (first ten weeks in Cameroon) you may use the following address to send letters and/or packages to your family member:

Becca Wood
Corps de la Paix 
B.P. 215 
Yaoundé 
Cameroon

It is recommended that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as Volunteers are asked to pay taxes on large packages they receive and boxes are taxed more frequently (typically between $2-$8). That being said, many people find the flat rate boxes the most cost efficient to send from the US (a current Volunteer said it costs around $50 per package from the US). Once your Volunteer moves to his or her permanent site, he/she will send you their new address. 

Tl;dr: Don't send expensive things through the mail. Boxed packages cost more money for me to receive, but less money for you to send. Send letters and packages to the address above only for the first ten weeks -- I will post my new address once I know it. Write Bible or Quran quotes or symbols on your letters and packages. 

Traveling to Cameroon

It is becoming more and more common for family members to travel to Cameroon to visit. If you are considering this, please visit the PC/Cameroon website for more information that is directed to you for this purpose. For planning purposes, please make sure that the timing of your visit is convenient for the Volunteer you are visiting; A Volunteer’s primary obligation is to his/her job assignment, so be sure that your visit will not disrupt any work plans. We recommend visits at some point during the second year of the Volunteer’s service, keeping in mind that a Volunteer is not allowed to take vacation during the first six months in country as well as the last three. 

Tl;dr: If you're planning on visiting me, don't do it within the first six months or the last three. Let me know well in advance if you are planning on visiting me, so that I can adjust my schedule and vacation days accordingly. Don't try to surprise me by visiting unless you want to spend a lot of time doing your own thing in Cameroon while I'm at work. 

Other Connections

PC Web Site Family & Friends: http://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/faf/
PC Family & Friends Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/509963132481253/
PC/Cameroon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cameroon.PeaceCorps
PC/Cameroon Web Site: http://cameroon.peacecorps.gov/ 

Tl;dr: Look, if a list of websites is too long for you to read through, then there's really nothing I can do for you. 

A final note from me: if you would like me to send you letters, send me an email with your address (or post it in the comments, if you're in the mood to get some creepy visitors). If you're not sure if I have your address or not, send it anyway, because I have this horrible tendency to delete information that I later find I need or want. If you need my email, shoot me a text before May 25th, ask my parents, or send me a Facebook message and know it may take me a while to get back to you.