It is still really overwhelming here so I find that I am not able to write a coherent narrative. I will just continue giving you little tidbits of what training has been like.

Cooking lunch for my host family: First of all, on Friday I told my host family that I would cook something for them tomorrow since I didn't have class, and they say, “It's about time. We've been waiting for you to do that for so long.” They're pleasant. On Saturday I walked into town to get a couple things I needed and to buy ingredients to make lunch. I was going to make mac and cheese but they don't really eat cheese and the only cheese available in this town is Laughing Cow, which doesn't have to be refrigerated, alerting you to the quality. And they use powdered milk here, but I digress. So I decide to make a tomato sauce because they like tomatoes. So I put tomato paste, fresh tomatoes and basil, garlic onions and salt and hot pepper into the sauce. They love hot pepper and I myself enjoy a good arrabiata sauce. But then they also insisted I put sardines into the sauce, because that is what they're used to. I like sardines so I was like ok get sardines, they didn't make a big difference anyway. Then they told me to add water. They looooove their sauces watery as hell here so I was expecting that. Except I have to be really careful with the water here, so I added some at the beginning of cooking which would be fine. But at the end when the sauce actually had chunks in it and was not like water they kept trying to add more and I was like stop! I will get sick (because we weren't going to boil it anymore). Also, when I was making the garlic bread, the people that put piment on everything complained that garlic is spicy. Really? It just goes to show you different cultures tastes. To make the garlic bread, I slathered the butter flavored spread (that doesn't get refrigerated of course) on baguettes and put fresh garlic on them then toasted them in a frying pan because they don't have an oven. That was one of the best meals I've eaten since getting here, so I am really looking forward to cooking my own meals when I get to post (August 21st!!). My family said, “its good, after you add Maggi and hot pepper to it.” Maggi, oh maggi, don't get me started on maggi. My whole foodies will love this. Its basically MSG, which is sold in liquid or cube form here. They love it and put it on everything. Then my family proceeded to have a conversation about how white people don't like a lot of seasoning. Overall, a typical Saturday afternoon :)

So later that day I went to my first Cameroonian nightclub. And by later I guess that means Sunday morning, because the clubs don't get bumpin till 3 am here. But let me start by explaining that typically we have a 7pm curfew. Most Saturday nights we get that extended if we are together and tell our director. He gave us permission to go to the club, and told us it would be safer to stay all night like the Cameroonians do and walk home in the morning. So we had a sign up sheet and you had to write your name and then what time you were staying till. I signed up for “all night long.” Love it. So there's 43 of us in the group and the fantastic 4 of us actually made it to the club, along with some current volunteers. We danced the night away, including some salsa (thanks for those moves mar and meli) and it was actually funner than I thought. The club was really nice and the drinks were 3,500 cfa which is outrageous because they are 500 at the bars!!! There were 2 dance floors with mirrors of course and the Cameroonians loved dancing with their reflection in the mirror. One person said its because they don't really have mirrors in their houses, so its the only time they see themselves. I had one of my funnest moments here so far when we were all dancing and the Shakira world cup song came on. I don't know if you guys know it but it says this time's for africa, so when they played it, it was awesome dancing with cameroonians and singing “This time's for Africa” with them. It was great. Then I had this guy that kept coming over to dance, but then his girlfriend would come get him. I knew that was not going to end well. About 4 am we called it quits (it was still packed) and crashed at a friends house until sunrise. Of course I tried to take a shortcut in the morning and got lost. This is one of those things thats going to be hard to explain because its really so different. But I will try. Most of the roads here are packed dirt and full of potholes. A shortcut basically means walking through a path in the bushes, like nothing you would ever walk on in the US. Plant-life everywhere, its great. But hard to navigate. So I had to turn back and take the long way.

So one thing that I would have never thought of about being here is that there are no streetlights or anything. So when you walk around at night its pitch black and everyones just walking on their way. Even to go get water from the well at night, I can't see anything. I could take a flashlight but I want to get used to the Cameroonian way. I just never thought of this adjustment while I was in the states. So, this week has been hotter than hell but other than that the heat has really been the least of my worries and the easiest adjustment to make. However when I go to post that might change because it gets up to 140 degrees there...

So I'm leading Girls Club with 2 other people, and we have played soccer, volleyball, had a martial arts guy come to teach them self-defense, and did self-empowerment activities. Next week at the end of Model School all the clubs are performing, and we are going to sing Beautiful by Christina A.

I have gotten many outfits and dresses made and I am loving everyone of them, especially the one made out of specially made Peace Corps material. Its a keeper. I also got a purse made, its pretty great.

So Sunday night I got a horrible sore throat and lost my voice so teaching has been rough this week. I have to resort to a lot of hand gestures. Good thing its review this week.

Alright I think that's all my updates for now.

xoxox Liz