TLS and a Hold Up

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 30-31, 2012 – TLS and a Hold Up

Today my group did our Trainee Led Session (TLS) for our Tech class.  We have to do one for the class, then another in a school later on for Cameroonian students.  It probably would have been smart if we had done ours in French so we could practice once, but we never got around to it; it seemed to come up very quickly.  We started off talking about the Nacerima for our motivation – something that I used to do for my global history classes.  It basically describes American (western) practices from an outsider’s point of view, describing them as self-conscience, magical ones.  The idea is to make people realize that all cultures probably look strange to people who haven’t grown up in them.  We followed it up with activities surrounding role models: what qualities a positive role model has, what makes them someone you want to emulate, etc.  It went really well, but I’m nervous about having to do it in French with kids. 

I really hate going to the bathroom at night.  Every time that I turn the light on (or walk in with a flashlight if it’s not working, which is the majority of the time), dozens of cock roaches, along with centipedes, spiders, and other bugs start scurrying around.  Some of them are literally 3 or 4 inches long.  I’m usually not scared of spiders, but when they get that big and have that many colors, it changes things.  Plus I have no idea what kind they are or if they are poisonous or not.  Unfortunately, they aren’t just in the bathroom, I literally just tried to squash a huge one by my foot under my desk, so I’m constantly looking around my room. 

A couple of friends of mine got held up the other day.  A moto drove up and a guy jumped off the back with a machete.  He took the money and telephone of one guy.  The girl was black so I guess they thought she looked Cameroonian and didn’t take anything from her.  It probably helped that the guy stepped between them too.  Luckily no one was hurt.  Peace Corps only keeps training in one town for three years in Cameroon, and this is the third year for Bafia.  A few people think that there are some who are trying to take advantage while we are here.  That may be true, but I don’t really know.  I figure that as long as we walk home in groups at night and follow the curfew as much as possible, we’ll probably be fine. 

For those of you back in the States who are freaking out right now, don’t.  The Peace Corps is all about safety right now.  After another volunteer was attacked in Bokito (she is perfectly fine too), the chief of police, chief of the gendarmes, and the prefect came to talk to us and tell us how sorry they were and how important our safety is (and how they were working hard to protect it).  After this last incident, the Peace Corps talked to us again about how to stay safe.  Plus you’ve got to remember that every community that we will be going to has asked for a PCV, same with the country.  I do think that some self-defense classes may be in order for when all else fails though. 

Wednesday

Happy Halloween everyone!  It’s weird to think that in three weeks I will be leaving all of the good friends that I met here and heading to post.  I find out a week from today (or tomorrow) where exactly that will be.  To celebrate today, we are going to watch Planet Terror, or at least start it, at lunch today.  We are actually going to have a party at someone’s house on Saturday, and curfew has been extended until 10 PM with Peace Corps driving each of us home.  Bokito people will even be here staying at our houses.  The mom who owns the house that we will be staying with even sells beer, so it should be a good time. 

Oh yeah, and my stomach is finally back to normal, only took about a week.  The antibiotics that I got on Monday started working pretty quickly.  It’s nice to be feeling normal again, and be able to eat normally again.  

Bafoussam as seen from our hotel porch

The bus ride from Bafoussam

On the walk home we had a beautiful sunset.  I really wish that my phone took better pictures -
and yes mom, I did try to change the settings.  

A friend giving an epic Franglais description of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Field Trip

Saturday-Sunday, October 27-28, 2012 – Field Trip

We just got back from our fieldtrip to the West Region – it was a lot of fun.  We stayed in the regional capital, Bafoussam, for the night.  Of course that means we did some drinking too, something that I probably took a little too far.  I definitely had a hangover all day, which wasn’t helped by the fact that my stomach is still not doing great.  I broke into my oral rehydration salts when I got home, but my body doesn’t want to accept water or food right now.  They taste like crap too.  The good thing is that my best friend sent me Crystal Light packets that are really helping to get it down.  I’ve also got some great friends here who babied me all day, so that made things better.  I talked to the nurse too; she said to eat bananas and starchy food. 

We went to an orphanage while we were out there, which was great/depressing.  The kids were adorable and really excited that we were there.  There were 27 kids in total and only 2 rooms with 3 beds each, one for the girls, one for the boys.  A few of them were also HIV+, which is just so unfair.  Not only are they living in an underfunded orphanage, but they were born with this disease, and they didn’t get it from decisions that they made.  There was even a little baby there – the woman in charge was telling us how expensive it is to buy food for him.  I’m not sure where their funding was coming from, but it didn’t seem like they had a lot of it. 

The orphanage also sold necklaces, earrings, and honey to help supplement their funding, so I bought myself a necklace.  I wanted to get honey too, but I didn’t bring enough money. 

Afterwards we went to a museum.  It was pretty interesting, but I went through it pretty fast, we all did.  I think we all just wanted to go outside an enjoy the good weather. 

For dinner on Friday night and lunch on Saturday I got shwarma from this place in Bafoussam, it was really tasty.  At least it was really nice to eat something a little different than normal.  I really wish I could be placed in a big city where I could have regular access to food like that, but I don’t think it is going to happen. 

I had my placement interview last week too.  I basically asked for three main things:

      1)   To be placed in a French-speaking area.  Not just a Francophone region, but a French-speaking village.  I don’t want to get some place and have to learn a local language that only a few thousand people know. 

      2)   To be placed in a position that is more large-scale than small-scale.  I would like to work on designing and developing programs and curricula rather than just teaching kids directly about making good life decisions and sexual reproductive health.  If I could work with an NGO or government organization, that would be great. 

      3)   To be placed in a big city with amenities.  I’ve always liked living in cities, so the bigger, the better.  I also need access to the Internet and electricity so I can keep in contact with my University and write my Significant Research Paper for my Master’s International program.  I also mentioned that I am more interested in a cooler climate, like Adamaoua, but we’ll see how that works out. 

I really want to hear where my post is, but that won’t happen for another couple of weeks.  I’m nervous about it, but there’s not much that I can do about it – I have to go wherever they send me.  I just don’t want to be sent to a really small, really conservative village in the middle of a desert.  Apparently it is really hard to get any sort of variety of food in the Grand North for most of the year, which is what I’m worried about the most.  

Playing Never Have I Ever

Chilling in the orphange

A friend with the baby

Me with the baby.  I didn't notice that hand until right now.  

A buddy playing the drums on the table with the kids.

HIV/AIDS Misconception

Wednesday-Friday, October 24-26, 2012 – HIV/AIDS Misconceptions

For the second half of training today we did a scavenger hunt.  Basically, it was a bunch of questions about Cameroonian culture, history, and languages.  We didn’t go anywhere, but were able to answer them all by talking to our language teachers and the other Cameroonian staff.  It was pretty interesting. 

After school I went home and interviewed my little brother on his AIDS/HIV knowledge.  It’s amazing how little he knows at 14 in a country with such a high percentage of the population infected – or at least the misconceptions he has.  He literally thinks that you can get it from saliva, that a doctor can tell if you have it with a stethoscope, and that Chinese condoms have AIDS inside them already.   He doesn’t even know how condoms work.  Of course he’s not allowed to talk to his parents about it, it’s taboo.  I think I’m going to talk to them and see if they will let me talk to him, teach him some of the real facts, at least how to put a condom on.  Not everything he said was wrong, but it gave me a clearer picture of the challenges I will be facing then just hearing them in class.  It sounds like other people that I talked to didn’t talk to people with the same misconceptions. 

The girl from the second season of Breaking Bad is really hot.  Nothing else on that front, just saying. 

Friday

We did our first presentations in French yesterday; I did mine on how to make a Juicy Lucy.  It went well, but now I really want a hamburger.  I definitely need to get some more practice in French in though, and probably should have made some visuals. 

My stomach has been killing me the last couple of days, I really hope it starts feeling better because we are going on our one-day field trip today.  This will be the only time that YD will get to be in a hotel together, and I want to drink and have fun with everyone.  I’ve been taking this prescription that my buddy’s dad got me before our trip to Timor-Leste, so hopefully those start helping.

For our trip we are going to the capital of the West Region, Bafoussam, and another town that I can’t remember the name of.  We will be visiting an orphanage and a museum.  Basically Peace Corps isn’t sure what to do with YD, because it sounded like the stuff Health was doing on their field trip would be really good for our sector too.  I’m a little upset that Health and Environment both get 3-5 days for their field trip and we only get one, but I guess we’re a new program, so what are you going to do.   

I can’t remember if I said this, but a girl here gave me her extra Nook cord and now it works!  I was able to load all of the books I got from other people onto it, which is really exciting.  Unfortunately I forgot to charge it last night or bring the new cord, so hopefully it keeps its charge during this trip.  I’m reading The Wastelands right now, the third in the Dark Tower series, which is pretty much my favorite series.  I wanted to re-read it because Stephen King came out with a new installment in it (which I’ve heard isn’t very good), but it really just gave me an excuse to read it all again.  I’m not sure what to read next, I was thinking Necromancer by William Gibson.  We’ll see.

My new language class, we meet in a tin shack behind the training center.  

Adama practicing her karate.  

The view of the bar and the Bokito people getting in their van from my house during a rain storm

When it rains, it's really not messing around

My yard flooding from the rain

Damn Pebbles

Monday – Tuesday, October 22 – 23, 2012 – Damn Pebbles

I feel like a hot mess right now.  The rash that was just on my left arm is now on the right one too.  I still think it was the bleach; maybe it just took longer for it to set in.  I think the hydrocortisone cream that I’ve been putting on has helped a bit; hopefully it will get better tomorrow.  I haven’t gotten over my illness fully yet either, I’ve still got a cough and runny nose, but it’s not too bad.  The worst thing is that when I was eating my sandwich today, there was a little pebble in it.  I ended up breaking a tooth on it – not too bad, it doesn’t hurt, but I’m not exactly happy about it either.  I texted the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) about it and they said to talk to the nurse when she comes in tomorrow.  Apparently next time I am in Yaoundé (whenever that is) I can go to the dentist, so I’m supposed to get details from her.  I’ll probably talk to her about the rash and all that too.  She wasn’t there today, I guess I’ll have to talk to her tomorrow. 

At least it’s not a front tooth or something.  It’s one of the molars.  I can’t keep myself from tonguing the sharp edge though.  That damn pebble looked exactly like one of the beans I was eating.  I should have been more careful eating – this is almost the same thing that happened to PVA when we were in Timor-Leste.  In developing countries it’s hard to keep little rocks out of stuff like beans and rice.  The funny thing is that last night I helped my host-brother go through our rice for little rocks. 

We’ve been learning Cameroonian slang, which is pretty interesting.  I’ve been trying to use it more often.  Here are some examples:

On dou how? – what’s up?

C’est how? – how are you? 

Je suis foiré or être nguémé or être pommer – I’m broke

Je wanda – I’m surprised

Dépose-moi!  Or Mets moi par terre – Leave me alone

J’ai les nerfs – I’m angry

Faroter – to make it rain

Le faroteur – person who makes it rain

Have sex – pistacher or finir or écraser le pistache or faire l’amour or la combo

Big breasts – les lolos or les seins

Le way – vagina

Libérer le way – open your legs

La mop – French kiss

Il faut se chausser avant d’écraser le pistache – put on a condom before sex

Être stylé or être nianga or être frais or être sapé – sexy dresser

La ngâ or la petite or la ngo or la chaude – girlfriend

Le djoh or le man or le gars – boyfriend

Fait quoi fait quoi – whatever happens, happens

Le do (dough) or les fafiots or les ronds – money

Waka – to walk

La tchop or la niama or la bouffe – food

My favorite is On ne suce pas le bonbon emballé (you wouldn’t eat candy without a wrapper) or on ne mange pas une banana sans l’éplucher (you wouldn’t eat a banana with the peel on) – it’s something Cameroonians like to say to avoid using condoms. 

Also, don’t judge me that so many of these had to do with sex, that’s pretty much all we talk about in YD (sexual reproductive health of course).  It probably doesn’t help that I’ve been… alone… for a month though. 

Tomorrow Environment is going on a 4-5 day field trip.  Health gets a 3-4 day one too.  YD only gets a one-day field trip.  I know we’re a new program, but come on!  I want to see more of the country on Peace Corps’ dime and training time!  And while I’m complaining, Environment gets machetes and hoes and papaya and sugar cane, can YD not get NERF guns or something?  

On the path from my house to a friend's down the road

Other side of that path, their place is on the right

Playing a game called Lions vs. Elephants to show how AIDS affects you.  These are the lions getting ready. 

At first it appeared that the Elephants had the upper hand, this did not last.