Let me check your homework

Let me check your homework – Tuesday, October 2, 2012

I got a bunch of music that I was missing from someone in my training group, which is kind of a double-edged sword.  It’s great to get the music, but then I have to spend hours figuring out what to take off my IPod to fit it.  I just got to school and my IPod update is going to take two days; hopefully it speeds up while we are in class. 

Yesterday I heard another asinine rule from the Peace Corps.  I asked if we could use one of the multiple projectors that they have after training to watch a movie with some people.  Apparently, the Peace Corps forbids this simple request – you can’t use them for personal reasons.  I can understand if someone wanted to take it home to watch porn or something, but honestly, several trainees wanting to watch a movie together?  Curfew is 7 PM and we never get out of training before 4:30, so it’s not like we have a lot of time together.  Sometimes we just want to hang out without our host families around, and there aren’t a lot of things to do in Bafia.  It’s either watch movies, or go to the bar – which would you prefer Peace Corps?  I’ll chip in for a lamp replacement. 

My French homework has been fairly easy so far and hasn’t taken too long.  Luckily, my host mother makes sure that I do it.  After a while she comes into my room to check if I did everything right while Willy stands behind her making weird faces at me.  I had a couple of spelling errors last night, but all in all she was very pleased. 

There are a few really frustrating things about not being in The States right now.  First of all, the year I go to Africa happens to be the year that the Broncos get Peyton Manning.  I’ve had to content myself with reading recaps of the games.  Sounds like he looked stellar against the Raiders, but if people want to give me more details in the future that would be great.  Secondly, the place where I went to grad school for the past year, the University of Denver, is hosting the first presidential debate tomorrow.  Could someone please tell me how that goes too?  I may not have been able to go if I was still there, but at least I had a chance.  Thirdly, a remake of Judge Dredd just came out.  I know it won’t hold a candle to the classic Sly Stallone movie, but I still wanted to see it. 

Oh yeah, plus the whole missing my family and friends thing. 

My buddy just got a package from The States – it was sent August 22, so I guess about 1.5 months is standard for mail to get here.  Plus it will cost me 2,000 CFA (or about $4) to get it because of customs, so just keep those things in mind if you ship something folks.  Also, apparently it is a good idea to get it insured; otherwise it may just not arrive.  Sorry for those of you who have already sent something, I’m sure that it will get here. 

The good news is that I was able to vote today!  I filled out my ballot, printed it online, scanned it, and then emailed it.  I’m going to check tomorrow to see if it got there.  I’m glad voting has become so easy to do from overseas, thanks Colorado!  It’s especially important that it’s a swing state.  I like making fun of people from places that are definitely blue or red; it’s nice having a vote that counts.  We should probably just get rid of the Electoral College.  Made sense a couple hundred years ago, but it doesn’t anymore. 

After school today we are going to finish watching Army of Darkness.  The center where we have our training done closed before we could much further than halfway.  Either way, it’s a classic, so I can’t wait to finish it. 

Today we have six full hours of language training.  I think it would probably be a lot more helpful if we didn’t get stuck on stupid subjects so often.  Today we spent about an hour talking about the difference between a hippy and a hipster.  By we I don’t mean me; I pretty much sat there looking up words in the dictionary that I wanted to know and interrupting with random questions every once in a while.  After that we got onto polygamy.  Another fun topic.  Maybe this afternoon we can talk about abortion?  That’s probably a good convo for a language class, right?  Words will use all the time? 

Don’t worry, my IPod update only has 30 hours left – weird considering it started at 14.  …I don’t think it’s going to finish.  

Here are some older pictures, but I haven't taken any new ones lately.  Kind of hard when you are in the same mile-stretch of area all of the time.  

A Cameroonian sunset in Yaounde

My training group doing some dancing at the concert.  Shortly after they were told to sit down so the main person could come out and be the center of attention.  

Soccer with the chitlins outside the hotel. 

Waiting at the police station to get our IDs processed.  There is a horrible smell in the upper left portion of this picture.