Day 61: Six Great Things About Africa

six great things about Africa:

1.  Gas station pagne-Buying fabric in Africa is a must. Most tailors are marginal at best but the ridiculous patterns make up for the less than stellar craftsmanship. Recently I spent 10,000 CFA on a pagne of gas station themed fabric. It is beautiful.

2. Fish Dinner-When we're allowed to stay out past curfew the fish mommies come out an make delicious grilled fish served with manioc or fried plantains. It is amazing. After eating the fish we burn the bones and eat them like potato chips only in Africa...

4.  Tie Dye- another great pagne. Emily (another stagiere's host mom) gave tie dying lessons last Sunday. Very soon I will be rocking tie dye.

5.  Model school is over-as part of our training the education volunteers have been teaching at summer school. It wasn't terrible but I don't think anyone will be sad to see it end.

6.  Less than two weeks til we go to post. I cannot wait to have my own space and to finally unpack.

Day 35 Back from site visit

Well I have made it back from site visit. Going to site was my first experience traveling in Cameroon and it was certainly a trip.

My site is in the Mamfe area in the Southwest, and although it looks easy to get to on a map it is quite a trek to get there. We left Bafia on a Wednesday and traveled by bus to Bamenda which is in the Northwest province, where we had to spend the night. I don't think I can do the trip justice so I am not going to try, but the ride from Baffousam to Bamenda was cramped to say the least. The next morning we left Bamenda and traveled to Mamfe by car. When they say the road is bad they aren't joking. We covered some terrain in our Toyota Tracel that I didn't think a 4x4 could handle. We made it though.

In Mamfe I stayed with volunteers from the region, my site is out there but there are a fair number of nearby volunteers which makes up for the remoteness.
The next day I finally made it to site. My village is small. My school has about 6 classrooms some of which are divided with plywood to make room for more classes. We hung around the village for a day saw the school and met the chief.

Sunday was the 4th of July we found ourselves in Bamenda to celebrate our country's birthday with other Americans. No fireworks but there were burgers, hot dogs and the like.
I now have access to regular internet through the end of PST so keep in touch once I get to my site I won't have network.  

Day 22: Week 3 of PST

PST is getting well underway, I am just wrapping up my third week in Cameroon. It amazing how slowly time can move but at the same time it seems to be flying by. I feel like everyday here takes about a week but at the end of each week it seems like it flew by. 

 

This week in training is immersion week. That means all french all the time (actually just on PC property); its a good idea but I will be spending my next two years speaking English so it seems a bit silly. I will know my particular site tomorrow, as of now I know that it is anglophone, so in the northwest or southwest regions. On Tuesday all of the education volunteers are leaving Bafia to visit our sites. On of the big questions everyone has is whether there will be Internet at site. Lots of volunteers have it, it is expensive, about 1/6th of my monthly income, but if it is available I will likely be buying it. Apparently it is slow but fast enough to skype. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

The presence of technology in Cameroon is a bit surprising. Nearly everyone has cell phones and internet is widespread and relatively inexpensive. If you use internet cafes it is less than one dollar per hour. True it is slow but it is available. TVs are also common and unlike Guinea there is more than one channel. The effect of western influences through media can be easily seen, from the way people dress to the music they listen to. Everyone knows Beyonce and other American artists. Surprisingly, I have not heard any Akon, that must just have been a Senegal/Guinea thing.

 

The big news in Cameroon is the world cup.Cameroon was supposed to do well; unfortunately they lost first to Japan and then to Denmark. I think there is one more game before they will be totally eliminated but as a whole I think the country was disappointed with their performance. My host mom blamed it on their youth and bad luck.

 

By the time I post again I will be able to write about my site. I should know what I will be teaching, I am hoping that it is not IT education. It is quite common for science teachers to be put in charge of computer labs...if that happens it could trigger an international incident. Not really, but I sat through an IT session last week once they started talking about changing the BIOS menu and replacing the RAM I realized I might be in need of some remedial courses. I will keep you updated on that front.