Over the Past Week – Started Friday, October 5, 2012
It looks like this post is going to cover a few days, since
I couldn’t post my other one today. I’m
starting it Friday, but it will be up Monday at the earliest, if the Internet
is back up. Obviously it wasn’t, so I’m going to post it about a week after it was
written.
We got our language report cards for the first two weeks;
mine was actually pretty good. Basically
it said overall that I took the initiative, spoke in paragraphs, was good at
speaking in the present and passé compose, and took a lot of notes. I have to work on my pronunciation, phrase
structure, enriching my vocabulary, and the difference between passé compose
and imparfait. Basically I just have to
keep practicing, studying, and speaking to people.
Today we also met a couple of PCVs who just finished their
first year. They are here to do our bike
training tomorrow, which I’m actually pretty excited about. I mean, I know how to ride a bike, but I’m
not exactly mechanically oriented.
Learning how to change the tires, put on the chain, and whatever other
basic stuff we’ll go over is going to be really helpful later on. The
bike training was actually good – probably our best training that we’ve had
outside of language. In just an hour
they told us some general bike rules of the road to follow (they’re aren’t
really any, basically watch out because cars and motorcycles will just hit
you), and taught us some mechanical stuff.
I now know how to change the tires and tubes, adjust the breaks, and fix
the chain.
One of the guys is an MI from Korbel too – I guess there are
now three of us in Cameroon. He and the
other guy added me on the FB a few months ago, but I only accepted yesterday
when I found out who they are. The more
current PCVs I meet outside of training the better, because I can get some real
information from them instead of the usual filtered stuff. One guy is from the North, where I’ll
probably be stationed, and made me a bit nervous by his talk of “130 degrees in
the shade really feels the same as 100 degrees, you’ll get used to it.” Plus I guess it is pretty conservative Muslim
in a lot of areas and women aren’t treated great, even PCVs, so that is going
to have to be something to get used to.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Quite a bit has happened over the past week, it was
frustrating without Internet, but not a big deal. Our new Youth Development (YD) trainers came,
a couple of girls from the Grand North, where I’ll probably be stationed. They seem like good people, and it’s nice to
get to hear a bit about the Grand North.
What I heard about the lack of fruits and vegetables up there sounds
true; apparently things are really seasonal.
December has a lot of stuff, but a lot of other times of the year there
is almost nothing outside of the regional capital.
I also went on my first school visit. Luckily, it happened to be at the only
Anglophone school in Bafia, so it was really easy to ask questions of the
teachers and the principal. The plusses
were that the students seemed really disciplined, motivated, and attendance was
high. The minuses were that there are
only 8 teachers for more than 400 students, which means 50-80 students per
class (or more), and only about 16-25 desks per class. (My host-dad is the principal at another
school that has only 6 teachers for 5-600 students. School is ‘free,’ but between mandatory PTA
fees, uniforms, and books, most people can’t afford the basics like the three
‘required’ books and school supplies.
When I was a teacher, I thought that having 34 students in a class was
hard, much less up to 150 students like in some Cameroonian schools. Combine all this with dilapidated
infrastructure and it makes it a pretty tough place to succeed.
I also got a new host-sister this week. My French isn’t exactly great, but from what
I understand she is here to get an education.
Apparently people in smaller villages will send their kids to family or
friends in larger towns and cities to get a better education. Her name is Adama, she is six, and
adorable. I have a hard enough time
understanding little kids in English, so I can understand hardly anything she
says. Basically we have a relationship like
the little girl and the blue monster on Monsters
Inc. She creeps as close as she can
to me until I chase her away, laughing and screaming. If I don’t pay attention to her long enough,
she runs up and hits me and then runs away.
In the mornings she likes to play telephone, though our conversations
usually consist of “Bonjour.” “Bonjour.”
“Ca va?” “Oui, ca va.” “Bye!”
We also finally got paid today, so I’m feeling good. I’ve got 41,000 CFA to last the next two
weeks, or about $82 – plenty. I’m trying
to decide if I want to have some shirts made like other people are, or just see
if I can save it for later. However,
saving it may be difficult; the bar is across the street and all.
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| Mon pere |
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| Ma mere |
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| Ma nouvelle petite soeur, Adama |
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| Ma grand-mere |
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| Mon frere, Willy (or Khalifa) |
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