Our Arrival

After a three hour bus ride, five hours in the airport, a seven hour plane ride, eight hour layover, and another eight hour plane ride, we finally made it to Cameroon – and everyone’s bags made it safely!

The trip went smoothly overall.  During those five hours stuck at JFK, we got a little excitement when people from the airlines informed us that each checked bag had to be less than 50 pounds (which we knew) but also that the sum total of our carry-on bags (bag + personal item) had to be less than 25 pounds.  Any violation of these guidelines would result in a fee of $150!! None of us was prepared for this, and many of us intentionally had put heavy items in the carry-ons to keep down the weight of checked bags.  After a huge flurry of weighing, re-arranging, re-weighing, and occasionally resorting to desperate measures (ie wearing my heavy hiking boots on the plane), my bags all ended up clocking in on-target or even slightly under.  And I was shocked to find out that my chubby carry on was indeed within the size limits!

I didn’t end up sleeping at all on the first flight, so by the time we arrived in Brussels for our layover I was feeling loopy and a little delirious.  We sat at the gate from early, before anyone else was in the airport, until it filled and emptied again and again for flights that weren’t ours.  We ended up meeting a current Peace Corps Cameroon volunteer who was serendipitously at our gate, returning from vacation!  He was very obliging as we bombarded him with questions and I was thrilled to learn that he actually has a full size refrigerator at post!  After what seemed like an eternity and no successful sleep at all, we finally boarded our flight to Yaoundé (which I slept through in its entirety, thanks to a sleeping pill).

We checked into our hotel around 1 am after a very long day of travel.  The Peace Corps staff had arranged for a dinner for us at the hotel, which we were all grateful for, even though it was so late.  The food was all really good and nothing too exotic – sliced tomatoes, shredded carrots, rice, chicken, fish, and delicious assorted vegetables in a sauce.  I think they are intentionally easing us in and not pulling out any crazy Cameroonian delicacies in our first few days.  But we were all happy to eat and I fell asleep as my head hit the pillow.

Our hotel is nice.  The standard I’m using for nice is that it has running water, lights, finished walls, enough beds for everyone, and WiFi on the main floor!  They have also been providing all of our meals so far.  Breakfast on Saturday was a croissant and a length of baguette with butter and marmalade, served with coffee and pineapple juice.  We spent the morning doing paper work, facilitated by three current volunteers who are running things while we’re in Yaoundé.  They are all really nice and wearing gorgeous clothes made from Cameroonian fabrics.  I think one of the most exciting days for me and most of the rest of the trainees will be when we get to go pick out our own fabrics!  In the morning we also saw some scary reactions to the malaria pills we’ve just been put on.  One girl was throwing up, and one collapsed dramatically during our paperwork.  I’ve been feeling a little lightheaded and nauseous but so far nothing too bad and I’m hoping it’s the kind of reaction that gets better instead of worse.

I did a language interview to determine my placement into French class.  It went pretty well!  I was afraid I would freeze up and forget how to make simple sentences, but I understood all of his questions and, although it was obvious that I couldn’t think of a lot of words and probably got a lot of grammar completely wrong, I could usually answer them. My goal is just to be placed out of the Novice levels (novice low, medium, and high) and slide my way into intermediate low.  Although I’m pretty sure that whatever level you start in, everyone makes huge strides during training and ends up pretty comfortable with the language.

In the evening, we went to this amazing Peace Corps -arranged cultural event.  It was great to leave the hotel, although I still feel like I haven’t seen what Yaoundé looks like during the day time.  As we walked into the venue, three African drummers were playing on stage, all wearing outfits from matching fabric.  As we had our first tastes of Cameroonian beer, the drumming continued and dancers entered the stage.  Pretty soon, trainees were dancing on the dance floor beneath the stage, and the dancers jumped down into the crowd and started getting into close and personal dance battles with American trainees, or just dancing together.  Some of my fellow trainees showed off some serious dancing skills!  And this dancing was intense – no simple hip swaying was enough, as the dancers moved their hips in ways I’m totally incapable of, and vibrated at speeds previously unseen.  All of us were crowded together, trying to figure out how to dance this new, Cameroonian way.  And man, was it a workout!  Some of the more committed trainees were soaked in sweat by the end.  For the grand finale, several Peace Corps volunteers and trainees were on stage with the dancers when I got pulled on by a burly man who worked there.  The on-stage group separated to the two sides of the stage and one by one people took their solos in the middle.  I, feeling profoundly embarrassed at my dismal dancing skills, looked sympathetically at these soloists, until one of the dancers took me by the wrist, nodded earnestly, and led me to the middle.  I think I can safely say this was my first time ever having a dance solo on stage in front of people.  When we had all taken our turns, we were led to the front of the stage to bow to the applauding crowds below.  All in all, it was an incredible night.  The performances and drumming and occasional bursts of singing were all great and so distinctly African.  Throughout the night I often felt little rushes of realization that, Wow, we really are in Africa.

After we got back to the hotel, a group of us sat outside talking until it was late.  It’s great how we can have conversations ranging from documentaries, literature, and psychology class, to how nervous we are at the very real possibility that we will poop our pants in the next two years.  I love the rest of the trainees.  I was nervous that they would all be too nice and altruistic and out to save the world, that I wouldn’t be able to relate to them.  But it’s not like that!  They are all very nice, of course, but they’re also sarcastic, and funny, and as scared of spider as I am, and it has become clear that there really is no typical volunteer.  But this is a really great group of people and I feel really relieved knowing them and knowing that we are all embarking on this crazy adventure together.

This morning a group of us went for a run!  I was horrified to find that Yaoundé has more hills than Houston does.  Being as out of shape as I currently am, I spent the run focused more on huffing and puffing than looking around and soaking in the city.  But it was clear that there were groups playing soccer on every corner, and we got a lot of attention from passers-by for being a group of Americans.  We picked up a few kids along the way – Cameroonian boys who decided to join us for our run and actually stuck with it for quite a while!  They were adorable.  When we got back, I, red-faced, went straight for the shower, and was saddened to find that the water had run out.  I stared up at the dry faucet for a while before resorting to the bucket of water that each bathroom has for such occasions.  I was able to wipe off and get my hair wet enough to drag a comb through, but I think the term “clean” would be a real stretch to describe the end result.  Unfortunately, I think this is something I’m going to need to get used to.

We had a meeting about safety and security, where we basically reviewed our upcoming agenda of safety and security meetings.  I’m glad to see how much time will obviously be spent on these issues – I’m sure it will become annoying at some point, but this issue has definitely been the source of some anxiety, so I’m glad to put the time in.  They also revealed that Cameroon is one of the top 3 or 4 countries for Peace Corps marriages – I wasn’t entirely clear if she meant between PCV and Cameroonians, or PCV-PCV, but in any case, everyone back home should probably prepare themselves for me to bring home a Cameroonian spouse.  I never knew that the Peace Corps doubles as a dating service!

In the afternoon, we got a chance to learn some basic Fulfulde, in case we get a placement in the north (where it is the predominant language).  It was fun!  Before that, I was opposed to the idea of scrapping everything learned in my French lessons just to learn an entirely different language, but after learning some basic phrases I started liking the idea of learning a more local African language.  At this point, I don’t know a whole lot about the different regions and I can’t decide where I would like to be placed.  We apparently get a reasonable amount of say in our placements, discussing what we want with Peace Corps staff and ranking our top and bottom three post choices.  Each region has factors that make it appealing and some that make it unappealing.  I love the idea of going to a region full of jungles, but they are also the hottest and most humid.  Development probably means more amenities (stores? Electricity? Cell phone service?) but also less wildlife.  In the south, Cameroonians are apparently much more wild and energetic and upfront about giving (perhaps unwanted) attention to white people, while in the north they are calmer and more conservative and male colleagues may be unwilling to shake a woman’s hand.  I hope to learn a little more about the different regions and continue figuring out what my own priorities are, but at this point it looks like any placement will have something counting for it and something counting against it.

Tomorrow we get to leave the hotel (freedom!) to go to the Peace Corps office for some vaccinations and meetings with staff.  I think tomorrow is also a celebratory Cameroonian banquet at the country director’s house to welcome us.  On Wednesday we go to Bafia to meet and start living with our host families!  We will also start language training at that time.  But so far my anxieties have been eased and I am feeling totally excited about everything ahead!  Sorry for the lack of pictures… I will start taking more and hopefully upload some soon!