Conges de Noel: A bush-taxi Ride

We left Ngaoundéré on December 11, riding the train overnight to Yaoundé. I needed some forms signed and turned in, so I spent Friday running around the administration office. Many of my stage-mates were already congregating in Yaoundé, and that was the beginning of our week long reunion. Michelle, Sebastian, Austin, Allen and I headed to the beach in the morning. The bush taxi ride was incredibly smooth, because the road between Kribi and Yaoundé is paved.

The bush taxi is an adventure in itself. They use any number of van types for public transit: ranging from small “prison buses,” a term invented and used by volunteers, to huge thirty passenger vans. By thirty passengers, I mean the bus has 30 seats. As a rule Cameroonians cram at least five people into the four person rows, so it’s more likely to be a thirty passenger van with forty-five passengers. Children get discounted rates, so they have to sit on relative’s lap. This means a row might approach nine occupants. Of course the luggage isn’t expected to fit in the car with all those passengers sardined together. Our backpacks, suitcases, disassembled beds, live goats and chickens, armoires, and mattresses stack up on top of the car, wrapped in a tarp and strapped down. Usually volunteers hope for a window seat, but that can backfire when the goat up top relieves himself. In the same spirit of taking everything in one trip, I believe a resourceful Cameroonian could transport an entire living room’s furniture in one motorcycle ride.

new format

Now that I have internet at home, I think I will be able to maintain a blog about my experiences here. So, I’ve posted my previous emails as the first blog entries, and will be updating periodically through this blog.

New house, Another school

21 November 2008

Well I moved at the beginning of November as planned, and Stacy left last Thursday. The case is a bit more comfortable with my furniture here, but a whole lot less fun without Stacy.

The new stage is currently in training in the north province. My stage was for the education and small business development programs, while this stage is for agro-forestry and health volunteers. They are being trained in the north, because all of the agros will be posted throughout the north and extreme north. I met the four newbies, all health, who will be coming to the Adamaoua. They passed through on site visit: Anna, Allison, and a married couple, Jessie and Brian. They all seemed chill and like great additions to our little provincial family.

Let me introduce you to our provincial family, which includes people from my stage: Gloria, Lindsey, Lee, Sebastian, Allen and I (educations) and Michelle (small enterprise). Our volunteers from the last health/agro stage just celebrated their first year in country: Sam, Bobby, Elena, Brandi (agros), and Ali (health). We’re about to lose four health volunteers, freeing their posts for the new kids I already mentioned: Kelly, Casey, Alana, and Nadia. Finishing your two year commitment to peace corps is called c.o.s-ing, short for "close of service."

Between volunteers traveling through to help with stage, others headed north on vacation, the steady trickle of c.o.s-ers, and my province-mates coming into the big city for banking/shopping/internet, my house has been very busy. This evening is the first night I’ve had it to myself. Next week being thanksgiving, it will be full again soon enough, but most likely it will just be Adamaoua people. I enjoy having my province- and stage-mates visit more than other random volunteers for two reasons. First, they are my friends. Second, they treat my house as if it's my house, while others tend treat it like a transit house. I don't mind that attitude in their bedrooms, but it's unpleasant in the kitchen. No one is inconsiderate on purpose, but I’m still adjusting to life as a bed and breakfast manager. One problem the plumber already fixed—the communal toilet was clogged, so everyone was helping themselves to my bathroom. Not that I begrudge them the need of a toilet, but I’m very glad to have some personal space back.

Dance class is growing on me. At first it wasn't very much fun, as I was uncomfortable and didn't know any dances. Now I’ve learned a bit, and I feel like the people are becoming my friends. It’s still hard to motivate myself to go to dance class, but once I get there I really enjoy it. We are preparing for our end of the year party/recital on December sixth. I also found out there's a dance club at the lycée, which I plan to check out. I’d like to meet the teacher who organizes it, since I still have no friends among my colleagues.

I am coordinator of the computer club au lycée, which has started slowly. I did not plan to have a club d'informatique, but students who were members last year approached me about it. I haven't been very enthusiastic about it, nor have I planned anything for them. But they have stepped up to the plate, and made a list of objectifs for the year. I was impressed with their list, and am starting to look forward to working with them.

I’ve started teaching an hour of informatique at another school on Wednesday. The girls at the centre de socio menager are around the ages of my lycée students, but their classes are on how to manage a home. Basically their core curriculum is home ec, as far as I can tell. I've taught two Wednesdays so far. Next Wednesday, I will start teaching them an hour-long English class after my info class. The good things at the centre are the drawbacks to working at the lycée, and vice versa. For instance, at the centre this past Wednesday, I helped six girls make calculations in excel (on the centre's two working computers). At the centre, my class size is manageable, and I can work on practical lessons. The opposite is true au lycée: huge classes, where we only talk about computer theory. However, the lycée students are smarter, in the sense of a formal education. There's a reason these girls are at home ec school—they either didn't do well at a "real" lycée, and/or their families place no value on the kind of female education that leads to university. The English class will be beginner conversations. I’ve had many children tell me "good morning, sir" at three o'clock in the afternoon. This will be my first lesson: "good afternoon, ma'am."

Speaking of female education, Michelle and I have officially taken over a scholarship project Stacy had been in charge of. The Adamaoua girl's scholarship project started at least a year ago. This year seventeen girls (selected by volunteers throughout the province) had their school tuition and national exam fees paid. They even got textbooks through the scholarship—a real rarity here. The volunteers held a seminar in September for the recipients, and there will be another seminar in December. Unfortunately, Michelle and I will not be here for the second conference, but we get to plan it with Ali's help.

We won't be in Ngaoundéré that week because we will be in Kribi—the beach resort in the south province. We have in-service-training there, but it's also an expense paid trip to the beach. It’s weird to think that at in-service-training, I’ll have already finished one of my four semesters. I do not feel at all experienced or comfortable teaching yet.

I’ve been neglecting biking lately, but I’ve climbed Mount Ngaoundéré twice: last Sunday and the Sunday before that. Not quite a mountain, it only takes around 45 minutes to climb, but it offers a great view of the city and the surrounding countryside.

developments at school and home

7 October 2008

I have plenty of news, and I think I’ll start with school, since I’ve neglected it thus far:

Our trainer from Peace Corps explained the computer education situation in Cameroon as follows: they told the government they needed computers in schools. The government did not provide computers. They waited a few years, and finally decided to have I.T. theory classes, in preparation of when computers become widely available. Most schools are still waiting. Sometimes outside organizations or benefactors provide small labs.

My school is one of the lucky ones: Lycée Classique et Moderne de Ngaoudéré received 60 computers, and all the accessories, of a modern lab.

But, the national syllabus is written for schools without labs. So the content I’m expected to cover is not applied in their lab time, and while it relates to computers, isn't what I would call the most useful information.

Now, Peace Corps offered me a position teaching computers because i know about using them. But I’m not teaching how to use them. My job is all theory, in the classroom, not the lab. I can request lab time, and if it fits the schedule, we can have a practical class. Otherwise the students get to use the lab every other week for two hours. There are lab monitors, who lead some activities; best I can tell they use a lot of Encarta encyclopedia.

So, I’m getting by, teaching the content straight from the book Peace Corps provided me with. But I’m unable to add anything from my own knowledge, since I learned everything I know about binary from said book. since I can't contribute, I feel pretty useless.

Ideally, I could switch to being a lab monitor, and I expect I would be much more effective. But, the school expected a theory teacher: I’ve already taught the first month of school. Part of having a national I.T. syllabus, is a national requirement to teach it. If I switched I would deprive my school of a teacher.

My counterpart (the Cameroonian Peace Corps first assigned me to work with) is the censeur at my school. So, he knows about the education system, but nothing of the I.T. content. When I explained my difficulty in teaching the theory content, he said that the theory leads to the practical, and I know the practical, so I can manage the theory. This is true, in theory. So, I’ll let you know what happens. Maybe I can switch jobs at the end of the year?

Moving on, to the fact that I’m moving: Stacy, the pcvl who lives at the case here in Ngaoudéré, is leaving in November. Pcvl is a third year extension position, and no one has extended from the current round of close-of-service-ers. Either Michelle or I have to move in, since it's against Peace Corps policy to pay rent on an uninhabited house. So I’ll be moving in November to a bigger house, in the more secure centre commercial, and I’ll have a water heater for showers! I expect to live there at least a year. If someone extends and takes the pcvl position next December, I would find another house. Once I decided to move, I started getting excited about the prospect of living in the house, and having people visit all the time. I won't have the other pcvl responsibilities, so I think I’m getting a pretty sweet deal.

I don't want to leave you thinking I’m not still enjoying myself. There’s still plenty of new things I’m discovering and I’m enjoying the challenge of living here.

two weeks of school down

18 September 2008

School is it's getting better, as I get more comfortable. The kids laugh at my accent, but its good practice for my French. My schedule is complicated. I teach eleven classes, with sixty to seventy students in each class. The lowest level I teach is 4eme; generally thirteen year olds I guess. The highest level is terminale, which is basically the freshman year of college. However the students could be older than I. Often they fail their exams. They have the same BAC system as the French. Sometimes they have to take a year or two off, to work and save enough to afford school. There are plenty of smart students. Some have computers at home, and others have never touched one. The discrepancy is a little daunting, but this way they are able to help each other. I teach each class once every two weeks, for an hour and forty minutes (meaning we will cover hardly anything). I teach afternoons Monday and Thursday, and mornings Tuesday and Wednesday. I have no classes Friday.

I do have fantastic water pressure. Felipe (the volunteer I replaced) said the water never cut out in the whole two years he lived there. I’m pretty lucky.
I still don't have electricity. The company needs a copy of the lease, and my landlord is out of town. His friend signed a temporary contract for me, but then I had to get it stamped at the finance building and the chief of police...the policeman had literally six stamps he used on it, and then signed. Very Cameroonian--they love ink stamps and making things look official. Then I took the paper to the electric co, SONEL, but there was a huge line. You have to pay your bill in person, and it must be due soon. So rather than wait in line, I’m going back another day. It’s not so inconvenient, since I’m able to charge my phone at Stacy’s house.

My postmates, Michelle and Stacy, and I joined a dance class. It’s two hours on Wednesday evening and four hours Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It’s a lot of dancing when you first start! But it's great exercise and stress relief, as well as an opportunity to meet Cameroonians. i don't have any Cameroonian friends yet, just coworkers and acquaintances.

Peace Corps provides us with bikes, which is also great exercise. I loved getting out of the city to ride through the green landscape. This weekend Michelle, Sam and I are planning to bike to a lake four miles from Sam’s village. I’ll try to take some pictures and send them.

I still mean to take pictures of my house so you guys can see that too.
Otherwise, I’ve been cooking and continuing to set up house. My favorite meal out is poisson braisé: they season and grill a whole fish, and you eat it with mayonnaise or spicy sauce with your fingers. Sometimes i splurge on french fries and make it Cameroonian fish and chips.

Today was a good day, and I’m happy here right now.

trip to post: a stop in yaounde

23 August 2008

Training is over--yesterday we swore in, and are now peace corps volunteers! Finally.

happy things:

*we get to start accomplishing things: both our primary projects (mine is teaching computers to high school-ers), and secondary projects (I’m trying to find something architecture related, like working with habitat for humanity int'l)

*we don't have a seven o'clock curfew anymore

*we get to move into our own houses, start cooking our own meals, cleaning our own dishes/clothes/vegetables/etc.

*I can set up a space in my house as a studio and get painting!

*make new friends, with my post mates and with Cameroonians like my fellow teachers, my neighbors, the ladies at the market when I try to speak Fulfulde, etc

the sad part:

*leaving my new best friends. I’ve become close to some of my fellow stagaires, and I like all 36 of them. It’s going to be hard to leave little America for real Cameroon.

*there are no other sad points

fears:

*what if I’m really bad at teaching? I don't actually know what I’m doing, teaching computers in French.

*other fears, much lighter on my mind like: catching malaria, having mice, other inconveniences

motivators:

*practice French

*practice Fulfulde

*get started teaching so i stop worrying about it, and start dealing with it

*secondary project: as soon as I realized the need for housing in Yaoundé, I felt like I might actually be able to contribute something. And that sort of project would be great on my resume for a future in architecture

*painting: space has been a limiting factor, and I would really like to be putting time and energy into my artwork soon

*become bien integrée

*exciting new things!

*setting up my own house

*getting a kitten or puppy: puppies are good for security because Cameroonians are afraid of dogs, but kitties eat cockroaches and mice. And they are so cute!

I haven't updated you guys much on stage happenings, par exemple our visit to the chief of Bangante one Sunday. I’ll have to pad further updates with those stories. For now, know that I am safe, healthy, and enthused for the move: for the real beginning of my service as a real volunteer.

midpoint of training: site visit

19 July 2008

I won't be sending as detailed updates as I had originally hoped in these first few months. Once I move to my post and can set up house, I’ll try to get internet and you will be sick of hearing from me. Until then, I’m at the cyber cafe, getting all sorts of weird maladies from the public keyboard. Actually, I’ve yet to get sick here.

I visited my post last week. I’m in Ngaoundéré, the provincial capitol of Adamaoua. I’ve already gotten some mail here (thanks Mom, and Mary) but I received some letters out of order. I was able to see my house on my visit. I have electricity and running water, albeit cold water. Since I’m in the capitol, I can basically get whatever food I want. Adamaoua is known for raising beef, and most of the fruits and veggies of southern Cameroon come up on the train. (I will leave the train story for another time, look forward to it). So as far as Peace Corps goes, I’m living in the lap of luxury. I have three postmates--Sam (she met me and showed me around on my visit). Stacy lives at the Peace Corps regional house, which is a five minute walk from my house. Michelle is a small enterprise development volunteer from my training class who will live in Ngaoundéré too. In addition to the volunteers already at post, there are also four other volunteers from my class and program in Adamaoua, and six more throughout the rest of the grand north. Hence, I don't expect to be lonely for Americans very often.

I’ve started learning Fulfulde, in addition to French. It makes me miss cognates, but its fun to play with. I won't have to speak it much because the education system is in French, but I would like to use it in the market and on the street. The first word I learned in Fulfulde was "nasara," which means "la blanche," or "white girl."

My school is a five minute walk from my house too. They have a lab of sixty computers, which is amazing. It’s the basic equivalent of high school, and I’ll be teaching computer literacy.

I’m having a pretty awesome time, despite a few bad days. I do lack news: both the newspaper kind, and updates on your lives. Don’t forget to tell me when you get a job, etc. Once I take some pictures, I’ll send the choice ones along to you guys. So far Cameroon is a beautiful place, though it's the rainy season, so the mud is a little overwhelming.

homestay in bangante

Monday, June 16, 2008

I wish I could stop being welcomed here. I would like to be here already. I would like to stop hearing about what I will experience, and start experiencing it. Our trainers keep saying that it's hard to be here, when it's anything but. Everyday is better than the one before, because I am more comfortable. French is absolutely exhausting, but successfully communicating is the ultimate prize. It makes me more determined to go to a francophone province. They flashed us a list of the possible sites today: I wish I had time to copy them down so I could ask my family about each place. I like Bangante: everything is green! It's reassuringly like home. The plants are tropical, but that just means delicious fruits: bananas, pineapples, papayas, and mangoes. I tried to tell my family that these are delicacies back home, in the hopes that fish heads will stop staring back at me from my dinner plate.

So far the fish are served with a tomato based sauce on white rice. We also made macaroni one day, which I liked better than the rice. They grow lots of corn in this city, and the neighboring city is a watermelon town. Adjacent to the corn they grow peanuts and green beans. My family has a very small garden where they grow leeks, and other things. I haven't figured out what else is in the garden. We have also eaten chicken once or twice, which someone told me today was a big deal. I feel bad that I don't really care for the meat here. I don't know how much anything costs them, so I don't know if I should be really thankful for something I only like so-so, like chicken. They don't let me get away with not taking any, because they wait for me to serve myself before they serve themselves. I like trying everything, but don't really care for a large helping of everything. Boiled plantains are growing on me, but I don't think they'll ever be my favorite. But the most striking thing about mealtime is not the food, but the family dynamics.

I live at Chez Omer Yonga. Omer is mon pere, and ma mere is Nicole. They have three sons and one adopted nephew: Ulrich (13?), Jean-Bertrande (8?), Charles (6?) and Christian (-2). In addition, two grown relatives live with us: Valerie and Fabrice (both male, even though one's named Valerie). I won't venture a guess at how old they are, but they are both set to take their graduation qualification exam this week. My parents are teachers at the highschool. The younger children finished the school year last week, and went to the capitol, Yaoundé, to stay with their grandma for two weeks. I fit in the equation as an honored guest so far. I eat with my parents, and the kids would serve themselves and eat at the other end of the table. Valerie and Fabrice eat standing up in the kitchen, even when there is room at the table. They also set and clear the table. Children have to do lots of chores here. The young boys have to wash the floors and sweep. They wash shoes and dishes, and watch le bebe.

My family is Catholic. They have a shelf with pictures of Pope Benedict, and we went to Mass on Sunday. They call Christ le Seigneur in many instances. Mass was long, an hour and a half. During the homily, the priest would preach for a while, and then sing the first line of a song. The congregation all seemed to know these songs, and joined in for a short while. Then, he would continue preaching until they all sang again. They probably broke into song three times in the one homily. They also collected money to build a new church. It reminded me of home, and made me want to pray the pray for our church construction project: Heavenly Father, as a sign of your steadfast love, in a world hardened by sin, help us prepare your holy dwelling place, where your growing Christian family…

The rainy season is beginning as we speak. I think the first word I learned in Bangante was mud (boue), and georgia clay wishes it was this red. It feels like I've been in Cameroon for a month, when in reality it's been a week. Best guess, I feel this way because everything is so new, but exactly the same. Time also seems slower here. Since I don't have to plan my days, they just happen and it's easy to lose track of how long I've been doing this.

first week: hotel in yaounde

Thursday, June 12, 2008

So, I'm finally here. Yaoundé, Cameroon is my first experience of Africa, and so far I'm pleased. We've stayed at a hotel (Hotel Jouvence 2000) here in the city, but this afternoon we are driving to the training site, to move in with our homestay families. I'm nervous about the meeting the family.

I'll live with my host family for ten weeks, during training in Bangante. Then we all move to our individual posts, which we will chose/be assigned to in the following weeks.

One afternoon we left the hotel in small groups to explore the city some. It's easy to become disoriented because the streets are not straight and there are no road signs, but we we're able to make a large loop. Since it was Sunday, the businesses were closed. There were still some street vendors selling mangoes, peanuts, bananas, western clothes, and electronics. I was worried we'd be approached too much, but most people let us be. Some people made sales attempts, but mostly we had a nice walk. There is flora aplenty, but not as many stray animals as I expected. There are many wild lizards.

Except the time we ate at the country directors, all our meals have been at the hotel. They make nice salads, but we've yet to have a green salad. They have been carrot or avocado based. They put sliced fresh onion on most things as a flavoring garnish. Our meals begin with the small salad. The main dish is a small potion of protein (fish, chicken, or beef ), a carbohydrate, and a veggie or fruit. Veggies might be carrots or bell peppers. Carbs might be pasta, but most often fluffy rice in huge portions. The people here seem to greatly dislike the starving Africa stereotype, so they will try to keep you well fed.

They have a few native beers. Beaufort, Trente-trois, Castel, and Guinness are available. They also sell sachets: little plastic bags of whiskey. I have not tried the whiskey.

Health-wise, the past two days have been a downward progression. Many of us have fallen prey to digestive illness. I have a very mild case, and I am not really bothered by it. I think we will have a more difficult time when we eat with the host families. I was not adjusting to the time change appropriately, so I have not been getting very much sleep: three to four hours a day since we got here. Since I've been sick, I've felt extremely fatigued, and was able to get more rest.

Our hotel has running water and heaters, though they give out sometime everyday it seems. We have a bucket in the bathroom full of water to flush when the water is cut off. It takes the whole bucket to flush, and then you hope the water comes on. We also have electricity, on a 240 current. We have some critter friends, even though the sign posted in the elevator says they fumigated last week. We have an air conditioner in the rooms, and some rooms have mini fridges (not mine).

The tap water is unsafe to drink untreated, but fine to bathe in. We have been drinking and brushing our teeth with bottled water, until we move to our homestays. There we will have to filter our water.

The people: There are 38 trainees. It is hard to consider who will be e.t.ing. Firstly, because no one seems to be hesitant. Secondly, because we have gotten to know each other well in this week we've been together and don't want to lose anyone.