For those of you who don't believe you can gain weight while living in Africa, picture this: spaghetti sandwiches.

Also, I started learning an African language yesterday, fulfuldé, which is pretty much blowing my mind because not only is pretty much everything here new, but also because we're learning it from french to fufuldé, not english. I'm pretty sure that my head exploded like 4 times since then. Fufuldé is the language of the Grand North part of Cameroon. In my town they actually speak something different as well called mandara.

Here are the 2 articles I wrote for our training newsletter:

How To Kill A Cockroach

by Liz Adamo

I hit the pavement on Tuesday with one mission in mind: to discover the best way to kill a cockroach. Having never encountered one until I arrived in Bafia, I was unsure how to handle the disposal of these creatures that I like to refer to as “big beetles.” One day, one silly specimen, which was apparently living in my bedroom door, did not make it back to its home in time before I shut the door on half its body. Surprisingly, it was still alive, which I discovered when I pulled the other half of the body out of my door frame. A novice to the slaying of cockroaches, I smashed the little critter, only to discover that when you do so, a good amount of what can only be described as goo oozed out of the body. Not wanting to ever repeat this experience, I interviewed a few trainees to see if they had any ideas of their own. This is what they had to say:

Jeneca described three methods in detail. The Shoe Method, in which one whacks the cockroach with a shoe. The Bugspray method, which she says you can purchase at the supermarché. Finally, she mentioned The Starvation Method, in which one traps the roach under a glass and waits for it to starve to death.

Claire had another unique method. She said the best way to kill a cockroach would be to first flip it over. Then make a tissue sandwich with it so when you smash it the guts do not get all over.

Ben had some other ideas. He said smash its head, use insecticide, or eat it.

Allison described a method in which her host brother use a broom to flip the cockroach over. Then her siblings play with it and never really kill it at all.

Finally, Christina says you should just throw something at it.

It is up to you to decide which method works for your lifestyle. Good luck!

Les poules ne se perdent pas au Cameroun

La caractéristique qui me frappe la plus forte au Cameroun est que la vie me semble de passer lente. Aux états-unis, on dit que la journée n'a pas assez d'heures. Les américains ont tellement d'activités et choses matérielles pour occuper le temps. Mais il me semble que parfois, les américains ne prennent jamais le temps pour vivre, sans la télévision, l'ipod ou l'ordinateur. Mes voisins camerounais passent les jours assis sous un arbre à l'extérieur de leur maison. Ils y cuisine, se bavardent, et soignent leur petite bébé. Cela ne passent jamais aux états-unis. C'est vrai qu'on y connaît l'importance de la famille, mais on ne passe pas chaque jour dans cette manière.

Un jour, j'ai vu les poules de ma famille d'accueil pendant que je assoyais au porche avec ma mère. Je l'ai demandée, “Comment est-ce que les poules rentrent chaque nuit?” Et elle a répondu, “Les poules ne se perdre pas.” De même, aussitôt que les américains modernisent de plus en plus, et mettent tellement de l'importance sur les choses matérielles, leurs maisons deviennent de plus en plus obscures.

Translation:

Chickens Always Know Their Way Home in Cameroon

The most striking characteristic of Cameroon that I have noticed thus far is that life is lived slowly. In the United States, we say that there are not enough hours in a day. Americans have so many activities and material things to occupy their time. But it seems to me that sometimes they never take the time to just live, without TV, an ipod, or the computer. My Cameroonian neighbors spend each day sitting under a tree in their front yard. There they cook, chat and even care for their little baby. This situation would never be seen in the United States. I'm not saying that we don't know the value of family, but we also do not spend each day in this manner.

One day, I saw my host family's chickens while sitting with my host mom on the porch. I asked her, "How do the chickens get back to their house every night?" And she responded, "chickens always know their way home." In contrast, as americans become increasingly modernized, and place more and more emphasis on material goods, their homes are becoming increasingly obscure.