Et Le Navire Va: 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.