Meet Honey

I got a puppy! Her name is Honey; her name fits her coloring, and is also a principal product of the Adamaoua. Allen found her in Meiganga for me. She had a bad case of fleas, and what I'm pretty sure is a tapeworm. She got a flea bath and a shot for the worm when she first arrived, but the tapeworm shows no signs of leaving (hence her nickname, Worm-butt). So I'm still in the process of getting her healthy.

When I first decided I wanted a dog, I figured I would have to cook for it. Stacy had a dog, and she would feed it leftovers from a restaurant around the corner. I bought a bag of dog food in Yaoundé, and Allen noticed one of the Ngaoundéré supermarchés selling it. So I decided I might have an easier time feeding her dog food: the long shelf life and nutritionally balanced meals appealed to me. The other day, her bag from Yaoundé was running low, so I went to buy some at the “secret oatmeal” supermarché. They were out, and said they weren’t sure when they’d get another shipment. I might have to wait a week, or two weeks, or longer: it just depends what comes in on the ships. So I’m left figuring out each meal for the dog. She loves eggs, and sometimes I buy her beans and beignets in the evenings.

I’m still house training her. It’s difficult, because I don’t want to be too mad at her for a natural thing like relieving herself. Also, her signal for “I need to go out” is indistinguishable from “Feed me,” and “Play with me!”

A puppy is a lot of work, and she has so much energy! But she’s cute and fun, and always happy to see me.

Conges de Noel: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I got to travel to Garoua, capitol of the north province, to celebrate Christmas with some fellow PCVs. We made some delicious food, and also enjoyed some treats that volunteers who recently traveled to the states brought back. We had the Christmas party at Stephanie’s house. Stephanie’s house is actually a room in the back of an école maternelle. So, we sat on preschooler-sized chairs to eat our sugary delights. Our Christmas tree was a brown paper cut out taped to the wall, with ornaments fashioned out of the same brown paper. They also had a white elephant gift exchange (yaannnkee swap!) but I didn’t participate. Some examples of things PC Cameroon volunteers give each other: whiskey sachets, soup packets, toothpaste, and flower pots. After Christmas, we got right back on the bush taxi and headed home to the Adamaoua. It made for a lot of traveling in a short time, and I was glad to finally be home.

For new years, we ate an American meal: cheeseburgers, beer batter onion rings, and green beans. Everything is a close approximation of what it should be. Baguettes stood in for cheeseburger buns. The beef here tastes different and cooks to a lighter shade. Processed cheese is the easiest cheese to find, so they look and taste like slices of Kraft American. The beers are not great, but made some delicious beer-batter onion rings. We had the green beans sautéed with garlic and onion. We could hear the band across the street at the Plaza restaurant, but decided to stay home and watch a movie. Midnight came, we heard some fireworks, and went to bed. Bonne et Heureuse 2009!

Conges de Noel: Chutes de Kribi

Most of us stayed on extra time, enjoying the beach. Since we had all of Friday to spend as we pleased, we slept in after breakfast. Allen and I headed to the waterfalls by taking a moto part way, then walking along the beach the rest. We stopped at a hotel we had heard of from other volunteers (Tara Plage) and ate lunch. A few more of our stage-mates met us there, and we kept walking along the beach to find the waterfalls. The Chute de Kribi falls directly into the ocean. They are not as tall as waterfalls I’m used to seeing in the gorge, but were beautiful nonetheless. I didn’t take my camera that day, to avoid losing it, but regret that decision now. I swam in the water past the falls, and didn’t realize the current’s strength until I tried to swim against it. I made no progress, so I swam into shore instead of trying to approach the falls by water. We didn’t actually spend much time at the falls, but started walking back towards our hotel. A man on the beach offered to make us dinner. He set up a table on the beach with fresh flowers, and made us grilled fish. Nick asked him about one of the trees nearby and its fruit. He called it a breadfruit, and offered to cook us some to go with the fish. Fried, it tasted just like French fries. We left Kribi at six the next morning, intending to visit the supermarkets in Yaoundé before boarding the night train north.

The train station “lost” a couple of our reservations for sleeping cars. I have taken five train rides, and on two trips we have had trouble with the reservations. I’ve started to think of them less as a reservation, and more of a statement of potential interest. The train is scheduled to leave at six thirty every evening. This trip we left three hours late.

Conges de Noel: In Service Training

The conference was hosted at our hotel, Hotel le Paradise. All of the volunteers from my training class were there, as well as the Cameroonians they invited as counterparts. I felt the conference was more useful for the counterparts, who only stayed two days. The next two days were more casual sessions for just us volunteers. We heard presentations about the various committees (diversity, environmental education, education/small enterprise steering committees, HIV/gender and youth development).

After the conference each day we would go jump in the waves, eat dinner, and hang out on the beach. Occasionally, young men approached us carrying artisan objects for sale. All the artisan’s throughout the country have the same wares. Whenever I’ve asked who made them, they claim authorship. I’ve yet to believe one of them. That Friday, we had breakfast and the conference was over.

Conges de Noel: Au Plage

On this trip to Kribi, we are five and therefore able to take the entire back row to ourselves. It’s more comfortable emotionally to be stuffed next to your friends, but physically, not much better. We are all a healthy weight, so it is better than being five to a row including two Mamas.

When we arrived at the hotel, we left our things in a room and headed straight to the water. We bobbed in the waves, giddy that we were on vacation. Eventually we walked down the shoreline, climbing the occasional rock grouping and watching the patterns the waves make on the sand.
Life here is so challenging, especially our experiences over the first semester at school. I felt I had earned this vacation, much more so than any other I’ve taken. Kribians are used to catering to foreign tourists.

Eating out in Kribi was like being back in America. I should qualify that statement by reminding you that I’ve not been to a developed place in six months. If I had visited Kribi fresh off the plane, it probably would not have dazzled me. However, the wait staff shows up to take your order immediately. They’ll probably even write it down. That means your pizza arrives without olives as requested. When we ordered pizza, it came after twenty five minutes! I’ve become so accustomed to patiently waiting. I usually have to start thinking about a meal long before I actually want to eat. But in Kribi, food came within an hour.

Here’s an example of a delicious meal in Kribi: fresh fish caught by men in dugout canoes on the ocean. We had grilled bass. The fish is served whole, with accompaniments such as mayonnaise, sliced raw onion, and spicy sauce. You pull off chunks of fish with your fingers. Cameroonians eat the whole thing: bones and eyeballs as well as the flesh. I eat the skin, but pick out the bones and leave the head intact. We had fried plantains and French fries as a side.