Teaching at the University

So I finally started teaching at the Teacher Training college, 6 weeks late. It was delayed because of the elections, nothing starts on time, etc. Then on the first day, I didn't know where to go, so I called another teacher to show me where the classroom is. So a half hour before class is about to start, I call him up. He comes over, but tells me the classroom is in use. Then he makes a bunch of calls and finally its decided that I will teach at 5 pm (6 hours late), just for that class. The other teacher told me he would call me later and tell me where to go. 5 o'clock rolled around and no call. Finally at 5:30 he calls me me and says take a moto to the Bilingual School! So of course I jump on a moto and roll up there. It didn't take long for my students to find me, I kinda stick out.
Then the next week, the class was supposed to start at the real time in the real classroom. But I couldn't get a hold of anyone to give me directions. All I had was a neighborhood name. No one was answering their phones. So I just hopped on a moto and told the driver the name I had. I got off the moto by some university students and asked them. They said oh its not too far, just make a right there and straight down-across from the Women's Center. So I just wandered around for a bit, asked someone where the Women's Center is, and finally reached a building, which sure enough was the classroom!
The class is going well so far, with all 150 students. It just goes to show you that this is a reversy land. Everything that is easy in the US is hard here, and everything that is easy here is hard in the US. C'est la vie I guess!

Real African Adventures- These ants are crazy!

Last night I made some popcorn in a disproportionately small pot because the rest of my dishes were dirty. Unsurprisingly, some popcorn popped right out of the pot onto the floor. I figured I would leave it there until I felt like sweeping it up. The next day, I saw a kernel in the hallway. Upon closer inspection, an army of ants was moving it from the kitchen to an unknown destination, probably their lair. I also saw 6 other pieces moving mysteriously. I didn't have the heart to kill them all. I wanted to see how far they got. At night, hours later, I went into my bedroom and found a pile of popcorn. Apparently they had gotten stuck on my fan cord. That is when I thought enough is enough and swept up the popcorn (and some ants) to throw out.

Tabaski November 6, 2011

We celebrated the feast of the ram or tabaski on Sunday. On saturday I got henna on my arms by one of my students and they fed me good beef jerky and cookies. On Sunday I went to watch the prayer around 8 am and then I walked back with my neighbor Amaya. Aie stayed at home because unfortunately her grandfather died so her grandmother is very sad. Well, we all are. So a little after we got back the iman and the macabo came to cut the throat of the ram. Well, something wasn't right. We gathered around the animal and we going to sit and pat it while it took its last breaths, but it wasn't right and it was thrashing and putting up a fight. The girls yelled for me to help them and we had to hold the poor guy down for like 15 minutes until it died. Then they cut it up while we just chatted. The girls did my hair and we took pictures. I also went to a co-workers house and Louise's neighbors house. The women spend all day cooking and preparing different dishes with the mutton. My neighbors gave me a big hunk again and I marinated it overnight with spices sent from the states and then slow cooked it for an hour an a hour. The day after Tabaski was Monday and school was cancelled. Everyone eats more mutton the day after, so I went to visit another friend and had some more. Its mutton breakfast, lunch and dinner for at least 3 days!

Slice of Life

Time for another slice of my African life, because I don't feel like anything too exciting has happened, but maybe you think an average week in Mora is more interesting than I do....

Sunday-Spent Saturday night at my friend Emily's village, Mokolo, for her birthday. Woke up late, 7:30 am and ate pancakes with guava jam for breakfast. Went to the bus stop to get a bus to Maroua. The place was a shit show because it was Sunday and they were filling up big buses not bush taxi vans so it took a while to fill them up. Waited about 2 hours or so. This involved one van backing in and out of the station for some reason. Got to Maroua just as the bus to Mora was filling up-got the last tickets so we left right away! Bought some beignets and hard boiled eggs from a child to eat on the way. Got to Mora and was exhausted from the weekend, so just layed around for the rest of the day. Made soup for dinner.

Monday- Washed a load of laundry (by hand of course) and did some dishes on my front porch. Went to lunch with some volunteers from here and some that were visiting to work with my postmate. Ate ignames and tomato sauce for lunch. igname is a big root vegetable, tastes like a potato. I was pissed off at lunch because on the way there I saw one of my students who told me the exams at school had been postponed AGAIN until Thursday. Usually I have 2 hours of class on Monday, but I didn't go because I thought they were taking exams. so annoying. They change just the time, don't tell anyone, postpone it 3 times, and now my students think I didn't come to class. To top of this day, I went to the market after lunch. It decided to rain while I was buying dried fish for my cat, so I was stuck at the horrendously smelling fish stall for an hour. It was a surprisingly strong storm for the end of rainy season. I was freezing, huddled with men, women and children. People tried to give me a dry place but the wind was too strong. I'm pretty sure they were laughing at me because I was freezing and they all had their head scarves which were coming in really handy. Finally the rain stopped and I caught a moto home. Relaxed the rest of the day. Had a meatball sandwich for dinner with meatballs and bread from the market, made in Mora. Delish. I also planned my lesson for the next day since we were teaching after all.

Tuesday- Class 9:30-11:45. Talked to the students in my clubs after about having a meeting before I leave for two weeks on Friday, but they were not motivated so I said I will see you for fete de mouton. Then I went to the tailor to drop off some fabric for a dress. I'm completely out of control with getting clothes made. Its where all my money goes. But I don't care-there are too many beautiful fabrics waiting to be made into custom fitted dresses. After that, my bestie postmate Louise came over and we made LOTS of tempura-fried green beans, eggplant and zuchinni (these are bought in Maroua-2 hours away. can't find these in Mora) and we made two sauces- ranch and mustard/mayo/soy sauce. It was fabulous. Then she left and my other postmate Jessice came over to talk about our security plan for when I travel and they announce the election results.

Wednesday-Woke up and washed some more laundry. Walked over with my neighbor to her mother's house because she just had a new baby. (My neighbor lives in the same concession as me, with her grandparents. Her name is Aie and she's 15) The baby was really cute of course. We also saw a tiny premature lamb which was really cute too. Then I went to the post office, where I got a wedding announcement from Emilie <3. I was on my way to girls club at a primary school, Group 1A. We played football oops I mean soccer and then talked about what the girls do everyday. They said they wake up at 5am, wash clothes, cook breakfast, sweep the house, and then come to school at 7:30am until 4:30 pm. Then they rest a little, then cook and study until bed around 10pm. One girl said she goes to bed at 11pm and wakes up at 3am everyday to help her mom make beignets. It's no wonder they don't stay in school or get good grades when they have all that work to do! I went to dinner at a place run by my friend Patricia and she made me delicious rice, tomato sauce and mackerel. I brought the head of the mackerel home for my cat ;) Then I went to my postmate Martin's house for a bonfire. I went home by moto around 9pm.

Thursday-Woke up and washed all my sheets and my mosquito net which took basically the whole morning. Then I dug a compost hole in my backyard, which I've been meaning to do for a while. After all that, I took a little nap, then hopped on a moto to go to another girls club at Mora Massif school. We played football with these girls too. Then I went to the market and home. I stopped at a neighbor's house to say hi then called it a night.

Summer Break!

This summer has gone by pretty much as fast as I thought it would, which is why I haven't had the chance to write. I'll go ahead and skip to the good part- backpacking West Africa. In three weeks, two other volunteers and I went to 4 countries: Mali, Burkino Faso, Togo and Benin. I won't bore you with the whole saga of our adventure, but these are the highlights (in no particular order):

-Being in Djenne, a city with a beautiful mosque for the first night of ramadan
-Having tea on the rooftop of a new friends house
-Two boys getting into a fight on said rooftop ending in one slathering himself and the roof in lighter fluid (we made a quick exit)
-Meeting a Malian who had been to the US and I quote “I took my tea at Times Square HAHAHAH” good old Ibrahim. He called himself a nomad but then we saw him giving a tour and put two and two together.
-Getting spit in the face by someone trying to swindle me (unsuccessfully)
-Getting giardia on the PLANE RIDE there. First I tried antibiotics, which controlled it but as soon as I stopped taking them, it came back full force. This ended with me taking a rickshaw motorcycle to a pharmacy, doubled over with stomach contractions (I think it was similar to labor) and the pharmacist was like what the heck did you eat? He gave me some magic pills that kill everything in your body, and I felt better within 5 minutes.
-Sleeping on rooftops while hiking in Dogon Country
-Fanmilk in Burkina- its a delicious milk treat
-Jewelry shopping in Burkina- best artisan market EVER
-Bush taxi accident- see pics on facebook
-Sleeping at the chief's house in a small village in Togo- that spicy sauce for breakfast was firey!
-Best moto ride ever- up the mountain in the rainforest to see the butterflies
-First skin infection since coming to Africa from a mosquito bite in the foot
-Hunting for a movie theater in Togo....we finally found a hotel/resto that projects movies onto a white wall while serving pizzas and popcorn...AMAZING
-Pizza, pasta, cheese, asian food and ice cream
-Couchsurfing for the 1st time!
-Hitchhiking from Burkina to Togo and the people in the car were so mad because we had to get visas at the border and they were waiting for so long
-My monkey friend at the hotel
-Dennis and Jessica, who drove me from Kpalime to Lome in their mercedes for no charge, while playing the complete Michael Bolton collection
-Meeting a real Togolese fashion designer and watching videos of her fashion shows
-The beach in Grand Popo, Benin
-Pissing off the taxi drivers in Grand Popo, who then attacked our new taxi driver and we had to lock ourselves in a car
-The prostitute who asked me if I was from Finland...really, is that your first guess?
The words to describe this trip would be crazy, amazing, beautiful, tiring.

When I got back from my trip, I delved into a Training Design Workshop for a new program coming to Cameroon, Youth Development. We spent a week developing the plan for training 13 volunteers in a completely new program. I'm going to be facillitating training sessions in Bafia, where I was trained, in late October/early November on some of the work that I've been doing in the field. I also found out I got into the first grad school program I applied for. In October, I am going to start teaching classes at the University of Maroua. Pretty much couldn't ask for more professionally at this point. Oh and did I mention I am coming home in 10 months?!

Taking a Taxi in Yaounde

In Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, there are 6 places for passengers in a tiny car. 2 in the passenger seat and 4 in the backseat. If you want to take a taxi, you stand on the street. Each time a taxi with an available seat comes by, you shout through the window where you want to go. If they are willing to take you, they honk the horn and you get in. If they are not already going in that direction (because of the other people) then they just keep going. So sometimes it takes 5 or 10 minutes shouting into taxis to find someone going in your direction. The driver, unless there is 6 people in the car besides him, is constantly driving on the side of the road looking for other passengers. You pay usually 200 francs (50 cents).

Kumbo

We went on an excursion to Kumbo for a pig roast. This involved a 14 hour train ride from Ngaoundere to Yaounde. We tried to reserve beds but surprisingly, the person that cleans the office in Ngaoundere did not get the tickets on time, so we were in seats for the ride. The train leaves at 6pm. There were very loud people in our car that were screaming until about midnight and they do not turn off the lights during the ride, so I brought a sleep mask. We got in around 8 am. Then we went to the Peace Corps office to brush our teeth, and immediately got onto another bus. First we waited in our seats on the bush for over 2 hours. It was a seven hour bus ride, but we were happy because there were many corn and pineapple sellers along the way to buy snacks through the bus window. We arrived in Bamenda at dusk and went to meet our friends directly at a bar. We ate some meat then went to a restaurant to eat delicious chicken and jamma jamma. The next day we went to the bus station to catch a car to Kumbo. Luckily there were many of us so we filled the car fast and left. The road was fine until the last part which was unpaved and mountainous and made our heads hit the roof of the van many times. It took about 4 hours. The first day in Kumbo we prepared the food and the second day we had a feast, including ribs, ham, pulled pork, and a bucket (literally) of potato salad. We ate lunch and dinner without moving from our chairs. It was definitely the best meal I've had in Cameroon. I have not had pork in SO long because I live in a muslim community.

So on the last day in Kumbo we went out to breakfast and of course it had rained the night before and the road with slippery and muddy and when I got off a moto I took a huge tumble in the middle of the street. I bruised my knee really badly, scraped the other and my elbow. All my friend Janelle said that was a very graceful fall. I said I was due for a serious injury, the last time was when I fell down the stairs in Union Station so badly people had to hand me my shoes back. My kind friend Claire cleaned the mud out of my wounds and I was good as new.

We took the car back to Bamenda and then we missed the last day bus, so we had to take the night bus to Yaounde because we had a meeting the next day at 8 am. The night bus is supposed to leave at 9 pm. We left at 10:30. The bus arrived at 4:30 am and we took an overpriced taxi to the office/house. I needed a shower very badly, as I had not showered in 5 days. This is the longest I have ever gone without at least rinsing, but it was SO cold in the Northwest so I could not stand a the water temperature. So I was really looking forward to a hot shower at the house. Unfortunately the hot water heater was not on, so I took a cold shower at 5 am and it was not fun. Then I threw some laundry into the machine (!!!!!!) and went back to sleep for an hour.

Views of Nature

Feeling very good the past couple days. I did a young girls camp for girls 10-14 (we had a few 5 year old straglers) for a week with some other volunteers. It went really well. We taught them about communication, decision making, health, careers, saving and income generating activities. Let's not forget another condom demonstration by yours truly. I planned the whole thing start to finish so it was really good to see it come to fruition.

Now I'm heading down to mid service, which is basically a series of medical examinations. We will need to provide at least 3 stool samples, so we were told to bring at least one with us. Nice. So on my way I stopped in another town called Kaele to check it out. First we ate some traditional southern vegetables. Then we went to a nearby lake to see the crocodiles. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We only drove about 7 km out of town, but it felt very isolated and remote. It was an old quarry so it was very deep with large ledges. There were mountains right next to the spot so standing up on the precipice with the wind blowing, I felt great. There was only one little grouping of huts at the foot of the mountain. That and the boys bathing in the lake when we first arrived were the only reminders of civilization. We saw the crocs pop their heads out of the water and float on the surface and then go down again. The most we saw at one time was 7.'

Then on the bus ride to Ngaoundere we passed the river in Garoua and saw a big pile of hippos. They were huge and just sitting in the water. One popped its head up as we passed.

After the 10 hour bus ride, we arrived and immediately went to our favorite restaurant Le Concorde, where I had delicious rotisserie chicken.

Today, after 3 hours of negotiations, we found a car to drive us to the waterfall at Tello. It was a little over an hour drive on an unpaved road. Now that it is rainy season, and we are in the Adamawa region, there is so much greenery and the earth is a dark red. Then we had to walk down a very long and steep flight of stairs made out of rocks until we reached the waterfall. The stairs led to a big cave, where the water was falling from the top of the cave, so we were essentially behind the waterfall. There was lots of moss and it was beautiful. Then we took another flight of stairs which led to the other side and took some great pictures. My camera is broken, but my friend has already tagged me in some photos on facebook.

This country really is beautiful and I cannot do it justice in my humble blog. I know that I will always want to continue to travel to new and majestic places like Cameroon.

A Glimpse into My African Life

What I like about living here is that you have time to decide things. A few minutes ago I was just lounging on my bed/couch and eating groundnuts, about 5 pm, just deciding what to do with the next couple hours. As I lay there in the heat with the fan gently blowing hot air at me (at least it dries your sweat), I decided to give you a little glimpse into my african life.
My week started on Monday at about 7:20 am. The vice principal of my school came to my door to give me some more tests to grade because I had come looking for him on Saturday, but he had just left (it was 9 am). Luckily I had woken up about 10 minutes before, so I didn't look like a complete bum with him waking me up 3 hours after everyone else starts their day around here. I graded these tests for a couple hours then went back to sleep. I was awoken by a call from my postmate to go to the market. Off I went. The good ole market. I bought some vegetable oil, which is a luxury here because most people use palm oil, made from palm trees. I don't like palm oil all that much because they put it in the same bottles as they do gasoline, so I always think the palm oil tastes like gasoline. I know its probably in my head but oh well. Then we bought some fresh squeezed mango juice and sat outside the shop to drink it. I saw some of my students out there and they were being wild and dancing like Michael Jackson, or at least trying to. After that, I took a moto taxi back to my house and graded more papers, while sitting on my porch. Then I did something I'm not proud of. I took the wrapping off my homemade tortillas and they had gone moldy. I didn't feel like making new ones, so I just scraped off the mold. I was a little nervous because I remember something about red and black mold being bad and green and blue being ok (hence blue cheese btw). This mold was black. A little later, my neighbors were eating lunch and of course they invited me over, so I had 2nd lunch. We eat under a mango tree in our yard. The food is on a big platter. It's a big mound of couscous with follere sauce on the side. The coucous here is just like putty because its made out of water and flour. So you grab a golfball size piece of couscous with your hand and then dip it into the sauce. My neighbors are pretty well off so the sauce it delicious (keep in mind I've been here a year). Its made with the traditional follere leaves and smoked fish. There's also probably garlic, salt, maggi (msg in a cube form) and okra. While we were eating my neighbors argued about when it was going to rain.
After 2 lunches and more grading, I went to my postmate's for dinner. She made dinner while I threw out/ took a lot of her stuff because she's going home for the summer (not a Peace Corp volunteer). I had so much stuff in the end that I had to call a moto taxi to pick me up and take me home.
On Tuesday, I got up and went right to school. I filled out 2 classes' report cards, which took 2 hours, not including the trips to another room to get the key to the room in which the report cards were kept, and a tea break. Somehow I was there from 8-1pm. I went home and had leftover pasta with tofu for lunch. I really needed to do my dishes, but I couldn't move in the heat. I read for a while, and then got hungry again so I made a boatload of zucchini tempura with mustard-soy sauce. Then I watched some TV on my hardrive and went to sleep.
Wednesday I woke up and went to school to do 2 more classes' report cards. Then I went to the tailor and the market to buy some more mango and some follere juice. The juice lady gave me a freebie because I am her best customer. I took a moto back to my house because by that time it was noon and really steaming. Then Claire and Mamdih stopped by because they had business at the prison (long story). We sat on my porch for a while and then they left. After that, I made myself an omelet with peas for lunch. Then I finally mustered up the energy to do my dishes because literally all of them were dirty and I had to use a dirty plate to eat my lunch on. After that I finished a book, watched one TV show, then started another book because my computer overheats. Tonight I'm going to go to dinner with the other volunteers in town because its my friend's last night here for a while.
So, this is a little taste of the exciting, action-packed, development-working life I lead here. Hopefully I change someone's life along the way.;)

HOT season

I was sad to hear that my last blog was depressing to some people. That's not good. Of course I'm homesick, it's not like I'm living in Paris or something, where it would just be a matter of missing friends and family. But I'm living in a completely different culture, and there are few things here that are like home, so I miss the environment of home as well as the people. It's not easy sticking out all the time, especially when you've been here a year and feel as though you should be able to blend in a bit (impossible).

So it's been hot season. It was incredible. The heat was incredible that is. It was regularly over 120 degrees (in the shade where my thermometer is). Oh and by thermometer I mean oven thermometer because that's all I had, and regular thermometers sent from home just break in this heat. In the sun it was about 140 degrees. The worst part is that it does not get cooler at night. It just stays the same. I couldn't even turn my computer on- it would be burning to the touch. Probably not a good sign. So what did I do? I would go into the shower with my clothes on then go to bed. Hopefully, if the power was working, I would have a fan. Between this and the soaking wet clothes, I would sleep for about 2 hours. Since its dry heat, it wasn't too sweaty, except for anything touching you. So when I would sit in a chair for instance, my entire back would be drenched in sweat. I got up to 3 showers a day. I drank over 7 liters of water a day. I would be consumed with thirst after only a half hour or so. Sometimes if I went a while without drinking, it became the only thing I could concentrate on until I got to somewhere with drinks. You get very irritable in this heat. I felt bad for my students sometimes, because I definitely had less patience in class. But pretty much everyone was snapping at each other. I think I did bargain for better prices at the market though, because I was just so irritable and wouldn't accept a high price. That's also how I ended up with 2 new dresses and a pair of custom made leather shoes with pointy toes. At night, I would be sweating while sleeping, and have to wake up to drink. Often, when I was very tired, I would start to dream about a cold, icy bucket of beverages. All different flavors, with the condensation trickling down the bottles. Then I would wake up and know I was dehydrated.

A couple days ago we had our first storm in 6 months. It started off with gray clouds overhead. It was very humid. Then it got very windy. The mountains looked majestic with the clouds surrounding them, making the peaks difficult to see, and the dust swirling all around the base. After a few minutes of a wind/ dust storm, it drizzled for about 10 minutes. But since then the heat has not come back (its staying around 90 or 100) and it is once again bearable.

Hey Guys, guess who's turning 26 in two days.....

Sorry I haven't written in awhile. It just gets to a point where there are no words. I just had a nice dinner with a retired dutch couple.
Right now I have never been so happy and unhappy at the same time. Basically I live my live with dualities right now. Foreigner/Resident, American/Cameroonian, Effective/Ineffective, Outrageously happy/want to crawl into a hole somewhere, Disgustingly dirty/ refreshingly clean (once a week), Fitting in by disregarding everything I knew up until 10 months ago/ sticking to my work ethic in order to facilitate change.
Homesickness. It's not like before where even watching a movie set in the US was saddening, but now its more like eveytime I am reminded of something from home, such as Amici deli, ice cubes, or dry erase boards, I feel a dull ache, similar to the empty hole that a loved one leaves in your heart when they die.
I just took a shower in the dark because the power went out in the middle of it. When the power goes out here, its pitch black. You cannot even see your hand if you put it up in front of your face. I didn't feel like leaving the shower, so I just finished up, which wasn't difficult. Then I stumbled around in the dark until I found my headlamp. Now I'm switching off between fanning myself manually with a piece of cardboard and typing this. Yes I work up a sweat by just sitting here.
It is hot season. By hot I mean 140 degrees. A typical day for me is waking up around 7 (I sleep in late, I know). I eat a breakfast consisting of water and bread with a little peanut butter or if I'm lucky, nutella on top. Hey, at least the water is icy because I put it in the freezer the night before. I put some sunblock on my face and a scarf on my head, and then walk to school. The sun is already blazing at about 100, but it feels cool compared to what's coming. I go to school, where I'm expected to say good morning to everyone and shake their hand. Then I go teach a couple classes. Horrendous is I good word to describe my classes. Everyone is hot, tired, thirsty, hungry, and god knows what else. Today I saw a student not writing so I said start writing, and he lifted his hand up from under the desk and it was swollen to 4 times its normal size. What do you do in that situation?
After class I do administrative tasks that come with being the head of the department. If I had a dime for everytime I found out about a meeting after it had happened.....I chat with a student or two,co-workers, and then head home around 2 or so. There is no one on the streets except for people that have passed out from sun stroke before they got to their house. It is a struggle to walk home. I honestly see mirages with blue raspberry slushies from the gas station. They do sell frozen juices here called follere or bilboa which are absolutely delicious and I take full advantage of these, even though I could get many different GI infections from it. By the time I get home, I feel dizzy and lethargic. I quickly chug a liter and a half of water (my second of the day) and heat up some food. Then I lay down (with my fan going full blast) until about 4. Finally it gets back down to about 100 again and I can be semi-productive, preparing lessons, washing dishes or clothes, sweeping my house. The dust. Don't even get me started on the dust I'm supposed to sweep everyday. For dinner I have pasta or rice. I really am having the time of my life!

Busiest Week Yet

There's nothing like putting on a moo moo after a long day of teaching and demonstrating how to use a condom. This week I helped train 30 preschool teachers in a 3-day seminar, taught classes, planned a AIDS panel, and did the panel. Although only 18 students showed up for the panel, it was really positive to see them and 4 other teachers contributing. I planned it with my girls club. I love this club. There are even boys in this club and they're a great group. They had a little pageant to pick a “Miss” and a “Master” and the Master was on the AIDS panel. Because I brought the demonstration condoms and male genitalia, somehow I ended being the person to demonstrate how to use a condom. Great. I had to ask my co-worker to help me explain because I don't know that vocabulary in french! But the talk was really open and honest so it went really well. We're going to do another in March and hopefully more students will come.

Hospital Trip #3

So I'm sitting here in my house on a random Wednesday evening, music blaring in the background from the wedding on Friday (its still going!!) and slightly nauseous from the 4 ½ pills i just took (i won't explain the whole sitch-its complicated). Today was my 3rd trip to the hospital. Don't worry, I'm fine. Its just that diarrhea has a way of lasting weeks here, so I thought I should get some medicine. (P.S. you can buy any pills imported from Nigeria on the street but I don't trust those). So on Monday I taught 2 classes and then realized my entire body hurt and I should probably go home. Couldn't get out of bed tuesday (don't worry-my postmates took care of me in the evening-before that I was living off peanuts, which is typical for me anyway). So even though I felt better this morning, I figured I should bring the stool sample in that I had prepared in advance (its hard to perform under pressure). I arrived at the hospital and after waiting for the doctor to arrive and 2 arguments about the order in which we were waiting, I saw the doc. I told him my symptoms, and he asked if I took malaria prophalaxis (legit) and if I had eaten anything with hot pepper in it (????? they put it on everything here!) Then he took my blood pressure (that's new) and weight, but not my temperature, even though I said I had had a fever. Then I go to the lab to get the tests done. They tell me to go buy a syringe (1 penny US) and the guy breaks off the needle in order to use it to prick my finger and make a malaria slide. Then they said there was no water so they couldn't test the stool until it came back on. When I came back later, it turned out I had parasites. I went back to see the doctor and he wasn't there, just two people sleeping, waiting for him. I didn't think that was a good sign. But I didn't wait too long. I was with my friend this time, not the weird school nurse who took my pills the last time. My friend said with a fresh coat of paint this room wouldn't look too bad. And I said, “and a new ceiling...”The good news is parasites are not as bad as dysentery! I only go to the bathroom after eating as opposed to after every sip of water with dysentery. So then I purchased the medicines (2 dollars each) and the consultation (1 dollar). Overall it was a successful day.

My job

At first glance the school looks like it could be in California. Because of the warm climate, the classrooms are open-air style. The buildings are small, containing one to three classrooms only. The buildings are made out of cement and are painted blue. The roofs are made out of tin. They glint silver in the sunlight and when it rains its difficult to hear anything but the sound of the raindrops. Some have pretty lattice cut style windows and others are just rectangular shaped holes with grey shutters. However when you step inside, you know you are not in the US. The walls are covered in graffiti. The desks are long benches that seat five of the younger children and three of the older ones at one time. They are simple benches made from light colored wood, and except for the new ones, they are also covered in scribbling. The floor is covered in dust, candy wrappers, dirty tissues, and broken pens. The students are assigned days that they are supposed to sweep in groups, but many times they do not do it. The brooms provided are traditional-dried palm leaves tied together with a piece of string. Many times there are critters in the room, like lizards or frogs. Sometimes a bird will fly in, maybe even intentionally fying right through the room. All the classrooms are fairly large because they need to seat up to 180 adults (since that's what many of the oldest students are). The blackboard is not in good condition. The surface is so old the chalk will not write on it. In fact, when you try to write on it, the chalk just turns black. Some parts of the blackboard might be separating from the wall. The room is often so large that even if you wrote very very large, the students in the back won't be able to see. Or there will be a glare from the sun blocking one side of the room from seeing, and in another section, its blocking the other side of the room. There is usually a group of at least 20 students who literally cannot see anything thats written on the board. When students say, “Madame, I can't see,” I often go right next to them and look, just to see from their perspective. The board will look like a bright light is shining on it and you can't even tell there's writing on it. The motivated students will go to the 2 foot space in the front of the room between the board and where the desks are and crouch down to copy what's written. Some people in the back stand up to be able to see. Others just copy from someone else that was able to see. All this shenanigans obviously takes a lot of time.

When I walk over to a classroom, the students see me if they are not already inside and they start going in. It takes a few minutes just for everyone to go in, find a seat, cram themselves into a desk. There's usually an argument or two about desks. My sixth grade class, which is known as glorified babysitting, is the worst and the fight usually gets physical. Often the last person to sit down pushes the person on the other end to fall over onto the floor humpty dumpty style. When I walk in I greet everyone good morning or afternoon. Walking in to a classroom of 150 adults stopped being intimidating after about 5 minutes, however its still very exhausting and mentally draining. The students are supposed to stand until the teacher tells them to sit down. Many times people in the middle or back are not standing up, so I specifically go over and say hi to them, and they snap right up. Again, in sixth grade, I spend about 10 minutes walking around the room getting everyone to sit down. There is never absolute silence in my class. I don't expect there to be-there's just too many people and I can't stare at them all at the same time. The first question I always ask is “what's the date today?” I've asked this question every day for 5 months and there's still people that don't know what I'm saying. Then I choose someone to write it in the corner of the board. Not a day goes by when someone writes it on the first try. It's not even that they make mistakes, which they often do, but its because if it is not absolutely perfect the first time, they have to erase the entire thing and start over. There is a large amount of heckling during the writing of the date. Everyone who didn't have the courage to volunteer to write it sits there and comments on every little thing the person is doing.

To start the lesson, I write the heading-English Language on the board. About 100 or so students feel the need to say “english language” everyday. At least they're practicing. Then I write the topic of the lesson. Reading comprehension lessons are the most difficult to do therefore I usually do grammar lessons. I am becoming pretty good at English grammar. Pretty good-not an expert. It's difficult when you know what the correct rule is but you have no idea why it's correct. Reading comprehension lessons are difficult because of course only about 5 or so students actually have a textbook. So you can pay to have photocopies made, write it on the board (which of course takes a long time because they also have to copy too), write it on paper beforehand (which costs money and time) or pay to have copies made. The other problem with photocopies is that they have to share (160 copies is too much money) and they go nuts when there's copies and try to hoard them, hiding them and asking for another. Fights have also broken out over photocopies. Horrifyingly, I think some of the teachers just read out loud passages to the students, who obviously will not understand anything. Except for my seniors, I usually just write a paragraph or two on brown paper for a reading passage because there's not enough time for much else.

Bucket Bath Update

Lovin these bucket baths but one night I came home after a god awful, long meeting at school (3pm-9pm. (it didnt actually start till 4)) so I have all the lights in my house going and I plug in my trusty water heater. A few second later the lights flicker and then I notice that the power strip that it was plugged into is no longer lit. Ok, I think, maybe its a fluke. So I move the bucket fill of water into the living room and plug it in there. Immediately all the lights in my entire house go out. I look next door to my neighbor's and their lights are out. Ok, I think, maybe its a fluke. So I went to bed dirty, cold, and feeling slightly guilty about my neighbor's.

The next morning everything was fine! But now I make sure not to have too many things plugged in at once. And I only take a bucket bath every other day.

Bits and pieces

I feel very integrated this week. I got excited about a bucket bath because it has been soooo cold here (in the 50s in the morning and up to the 80s or 90s in the afternoon) so I have not been liking cold showers at night. Basically I hadn't taken a full-on shower in a couple weeks. Then I remembered that the guy that lived here before me had left a water heater. I had been avoiding it because I didn't know what it was when I moved in and electricuted myself testing it out. 7 months later, I know what a water heater is and understand why it is needed in the middle of the savanah. So I cautiously tried it out last night and wow was that the best bucket bath I've ever had! I basically plugged it in and put it in the bucket of water for 15 minutes and voila! Warm water for my bath.

So today I went to the gas station to search for gas for my bottle again. No gas. We are waiting moment to moment for gas. There's probably not gas in Maroua either (I checked-there's not). So I got the gas station guy's number and I can call him to check instead of walking 2 miles. I might have to ask my neighbors how to cook over an open fire. That's what most people do here. They have an outdoor kitchen and have a fire going all day which they cook on. People sell wood for it in the street.

Then my friend's water went out and we wanted to boil potatoes so we went to the well and then we carried it back on our heads. She dripped it all over herself.

Happy New Year!

New years was amazing! A guy here organized a real fete with food, drinks (so many drinks) and a moto driver to drive anyone that needed a ride. It was the usual crazy new years madness, I won't go into detail except for one incident in which my dance moves went awry. It was about 3 am, and I went to dip my friend but she was very intoxicated and she face planted into the floor, breaking open her chin. It was bleeding pretty bad, so we took her to the bathroom, where we discovered that she was beligerent and I should not have been performing dangerous moves like that with her on the dance floor. This also reminds me of a similar time with Coll Will (You know what I'm talking about Coll.) So my friend (who shall remain nameless) decided it was a good idea to splash water on the cut, which just made a bloody mess all over the bathroom and her shirt. Right about this time, someone came to tell her that it was time to leave for the bus (they were catching the 4am bus because its an 8-10 hour ride). Timing couldn't be better. So it was time to pull ourselves together. We took her into the bedroom to change her shirt. She was so drunk we literally had to dress her. She also insisted on wearing her “travelling skirt,” so it was a full outfit change. The light in the bedroom was burned out so we were stumbling around in the dark and woke up the person sleeping in there, who was like “Wtf are you guys doing.” Then we sent her off on a motorcycle with her luggage and a fresh outfit, crossing our fingers that she made it to the bus.

So today I got home and there were a couple surprises waiting for me: a dead lizard in my sink, my fridge was completely covered in mold, and my cat was bigger! Also, right before I left, my gas tank (used for cooking) had run out (I was living off peanuts for a few days there) and there was no gas in town today, so still can't cook. Will try again tomorrow!

2011 is going to be great, at least that's what I keep telling myself ;)

Mission Failed

So on xmas eve we started climbing the mountain. I stopped having fun after about 2 minutes. It was so hard and steep and the guides didn't want us to stop because our muscles would cramp. We started around 8:30 am. I called it quits at 12:30. I made it up 2,000 meters to the end of the treeline. It took three hours to get down. I was disappointed not to reach the top but I felt like I accomplished something, since I've never been mountain climbing in my life and I did a full day.

So on the way down the mountain I called my friend who was at the beach. I didn't have any money or clothes except for a kaba (a moo moo) and a tracksuit, because I had planned on just climbing the mountain then returning to the city. My friend offered to borrow we money and clothes so I immediately set off for the beach, only a 30 minute bus ride away. I was amazed when we started driving without the bus being full, but somehow we were driving down the street and people were just hopping on as we went along. Then I spotted a child selling cotton candy, so of course I bought some out the window of the bus. About 2 km from our destination, the bus broke down. I was able to squeeze (literally-there were about 20 other people) into another bus that appeared on the side of the road. I also had to transfer my backpack from the top of one bus to the other. Finally I made it to Limbe. Then I spent about 10 minutes negotiating the price of a taxi. The driver ended up dropping me off outside the botanical gardens when the hotel was inside somewhere. So there I was walking around in my mountain climbing outfit, covered in brambles and dirt (from falling as I was going down-its steep!), sunburned, smelling to high heaven. I finally asked someone where the hotel was and he said I had passed it. So I backtracked and made it right at dusk. My friends were sitting in a little cabana right by the ocean and it was wonderful. I sat down for a bit and we had cotton candy, then they asked if I wanted to take a shower (I smelled REALLY bad). The next day, Christmas day, we went to the beach, which was glorious. I had the BEST fish for lunch. It did not even need any seasoning it was so good and fresh, huge too. They serve it whole and we eat it with our hands (its easier that way I swear).

In the morning, Claire had texted me that she was coming down the mountain as well. I told her to come to Limbe. She made it the next morning. Right when she got there, we realized we did not have much money between the two of us, so we went to the atm. Of course it wasn't working. So I borrowed money from Louise to pay for the hotel and then we headed to the beach. We pooled our money between us and figured out we had enough to get to Douala where there are more atms. So after a nice morning at the beach and a dip in the ocean, we headed to the biggest city in Cameroon. We took a bush taxi. This is a small car, about the size of a geo or a toyota tercel. There were 6 passengers, 4 in back and 2 in the passenger seat. They were all adults of course. Needless to say, it was a tight fit back there. The worst part about these situations is where to put your arms. It usually ends up with some people putting their arms around the person next to them, leaning forward and putting their arms on their knees, or some type of layering effect with the arms in which the person whose arms are in back has trouble moving them people the other persons arms are resting on top of theirs. At one point in our voyage, the lady next to Claire said, “Why are you breathing like that, are you asthmatic or something?” and Claire responded in her sweet little voice, “No. I'm just really squished.”

Kribi

So 3 days after arriving on the beach, I fell very ill. It started with explosive diarrhea and then the fever came. I tried to get out of bed, but I would get nauseous after being up for a few minutes. I went to the hospital with a couple other people that were also sick. That's always fun here. I can never perform under pressure (stool sample), but I was diagnosed with malaria and dysentary. It was awful. I couldn't get out of bed for 2 ½ days. My head felt like it was going to explode. I sh*t my brains out for 3 days.
There was a festival going on at the time, so when we left the hospital (a Peace Corps driver drove us thankfully), we drove into a parade of drunk people that were none too happy to have us driving the wrong direction into their parade. There were some angry people pounding on the car.
And then of course while half of us were sick in bed, the other half got robbed at gun and machete point. No one was hurt seriously. It could have happened at any popular tourist city (minus the machetes maybe).