My First Full Week in Cameroon!

My First Week in Cameroon! – Wednesday, September 26, 2012

This first week has been a whirlwind.  My sister and I parted ways in August when she had to go back to school in Virginia, my dad and I on the night of Tuesday the 17^th, then my mom brought me to the airport the next morning.  Luckily, Joann was able to come with me to Philadelphia where I had my staging.  Finally, on Friday it was time to leave for Cameroon, with Joann taking the shuttle to the airport that morning.  I’m not going to lie, more than a few tears came from all of those goodbyes. 

A bus to JFK, a flight to Brussels, another to Yaoundé that stopped first in Douala, and more than a full day of travel later we were in Cameroon.  Yaoundé is the capital city, while Doula is bigger and the commercial center – kind of like Washington DC and New York.  Getting 55 Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) with a few bags each through a couple security lines and customs, then over to the hotel took quite a while.  I finally got to bed around 11, exhausted (for some reason I can never sleep on planes).  Side note: both American Airlines and Brussels Airlines gave me the exit row for free, suck it United. 

Peace Corps Cameroon is a great thing to be a part of.  It is the longest continuous-running Peace Corps program in the world, with our group of PCTs happening to arrive just in time for the 50^th anniversary, which is pretty cool.  I think our swearing-in (the day before Thanksgiving) will be quite the celebration.  There is also currently 178 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) plus us 55 PCTs, which means there is a wealth of experience to learn from.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to explore the city at all.  They didn’t let us leave the hotel unless we were doing PC business (which of course was with drivers and escorts), and there were always 2 gendarmes with AK47s guarding (protecting?) us. 

We’ve spent the past few days in Hotel Felydac in Yaoundé.  Most of our time has been spent getting shots and having trainings on diversity and culture, safety and security, medical, and language.  Evenings have been spent sitting around, talking, and getting drinks from the hotel bar.  Several kinds of 22 oz. beers could be bought for only 800 CFA (pronounced safa), or with 500 CFA equaling a dollar, about $1.60 USD.  Unfortunately, when you had to be at breakfast by 6:30 in the morning if you wanted to eat, these late nights started to really catch up.  I definitely got about 2.5 hours of sleep the last night we were there and have been struggling all day.  There is also a Guinness factory in Cameroon, though it is literally the worst tasting beer I have ever had.  I don’t know how the recipe is different, but it is. 

A surprising amount of these trainings have been pretty much the same training that we did in TFA, which is pretty annoying.  Oh well, pretty much what I expected.  What is surprising is how many people here I actually like.  There are of course a couple of them who are annoying as hell, including a know-it-all and someone who just keeps yelling at everyone to shut up, but that is to be expected.  Can’t get along with everyone (or at least I certainly can’t).  I was also surprised that I am one of the oldest people here, a nice change of pace.  There are three sectors in this particular training group.  Mine, which is Youth Development (YD), then there is Environment, and Health.  YD is the smallest out of three, but so far we have been training with everyone together.  Trainings will start getting more specific soon. 

Today we left the capital and went to our training towns.  Unfortunately, YD and Environment are in Bafia while Health is in Bokito nearby.  It bums me out; some of my favorite people are in the Health sector, but they will still be coming to Bafia for training, so we will still get to see them.  We also got our host families today, and I couldn’t be happier.  I have spoken more French today then I have in years, and have felt more and more confident doing it too. 

This is really good news, I tested in at Novice-High – 3^rd from the bottom in a list that includes low, medium, and high for Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced, with Superior (or fluent) rounding out the levels.  In order to be placed in a Francophone area, something that I 100% want, I have to raise myself to Intermediate High in the next two months of training.  Fortunately, I have been told that this is definitely doable with more than 100 hours of language lessons, and I am already speaking at least twice as well as I did in my interview. 

My host family is really nice, the dad is a headmaster at an elementary school and the mom is a teacher at the same school.  Their house is also nicer than I expected, and they gave me fish with plantains for dinner – delicious.  I gave them some presents and showed them pictures of my family while they showed me pictures of theirs.  Then I played Street Fighter and Grand Theft Auto 3 on their computer with the son.  They even speak pretty good English, so they can help me learn the words that I don’t know.  Don’t worry, 90% of what we say is still in French.  The only downside is that they called me fat a couple of times – maybe that is a translation thing? 

When you do something like Peace Corps or TFA they always talk about the W curve, how there will be times when you feel absolutely great and others when you’re depressed as hell.  Right now I am definitely on a peak, and it makes it even better that I recognize it.  My French is far better than I thought it would be, my host family loves me (the feeling is mutual), and so far I am having a great time with the other people here.  I am definitely missing my family and friends, but things are going great so far.  I just hope I can get more access to the Internet soon or maybe a call on my new cell phone from the people back home.  Remember people, I can receive calls and texts for free: country code 237, 70-18-53-34.  I’ll try to keep these updates more regular, but I don’t even know when I’ll be able to post this one. 

P.S. We had a dinner at the Country Director’s house (compound) and met PC staff and NGO people and even the ambassador the other night!  I have a bunch more I want to talk about, but this is a little long already.  Plus it’s time to crawl under my mosquito net and go to bed to the sounds of rain pounding on the tin roof. 

P.P.S. I forgot to say, there are three 1-month old puppies at my house.  

P.P.P.S. I'll try to do pictures later

A cultural concert and dance in Yaounde

Former President Andrew Jackson chillin' on my hotel porch in Yaounde 

Laura Kay Pearson, one of the Charlie's Angels trainers, showing us how to squat over a latrine.  Chris  Tebowing in background.