I'll Be Home for Christmas...

I am kind of rushed as I’m writing this, so here’s a bit of what I’ve done for the past week and a half:

-          Last Friday I went to Bafoussam and had a sleepover at Danielle’s house with the other girls in the West from my stage.  It was great fun and we ate cheese and talked about all kinds of good stuff.  The next day we went to Dschang to go swimming for Erich’s birthday, but then the plan changed from swimming to paddle boats, but then the plan changed from paddle boats to sitting around and chatting all day.  Dschang seems like a really cool city, with cute cafés (which I miss so much about America) and a nice market and, I mean, come on, paddle boats!  We ended up crashing the night like hobos in a recently departed PCV’s empty house in Dschang, which was sketchy and mildly thrilling.  Then I made my way back navigating the Cameroonian public and private transportation systems. [Which brings me to my first cultural note of the entry: Hitchhiking.  It’s super common here and generally seen as the better method of travel, since buses will wait around, possibly for hours, until they fill up, and even after then they might stop along the road to pick up more passengers.  Private cars charge the same as the buses but take less time and are even considered safer by some.]

-          The next day, Leonard invited me to come to a meeting of teachers from his area in the North West.  It was a lot like the other meeting I went to, also with cous cous de mais and legumes served, but without the dancing and with a lot more financial dealings.  The group’s main function, I guess, is as an “njangi” – village savings and loans group.  People put money in each time they meet and then if someone has a project or whatever they can apply to withdraw a loan from the group.

-          Monday I went into my host organization, the Center for the Promotion of Women and Family (CPF).  I can’t remember how much I’ve said about it already, but it’s basically like if they had vocational school that was all home ec class.  There are three classes of girls, maybe about 50 in total, and they sew and cook and learn how to make tofu and cocoa butter.  On this day when I went in, my counterpart told me she hoped I could help the girls with English and yes, right now.  So that was the time I taught an impromptu English class to a group of Cameroonian girls.  I am kind of hoping that I don’t end up teaching English long-term, but we’ll see.  At least I hope that I get some advanced notice next time.  In the afternoon, I helped grade their final exams in cooking, which is to say, I was basically the guest judge on Iron Chef CPF.  I sat there with two of the women who work there as the girls served us meal after meal and we graded them on presentation, explanation, and taste.  It was, all in all, a good day’s work.

-          The next day was a big one.  I saw the new building where the CPF will be moving, and then my counterpart invited me over to her house to meet the chief.  We sat on the couch together watching TV and eating crepes and drinking Fanta and it was very surreal because he is the king of Bafang.  He’s also SUPER nice and speaks some English and was much more relaxed than I expected.  I’ve heard a ton about how you can’t greet the chief, you must just clap twice, and you can NEVER extend your hand for a handshake first.  So I was caught a little off guard when he approached me, smiling, hand extended, before I could even think to clap.  But he was super chill about it and basically we’re buddies now.  Then I went home and dug up those old tires full of dirt and planted some basil, cilantro, and rosemary seeds!  I am not optimistic about their chances of success but I’m happy to get my rubber tire urb garden up and running. 

-          I had been feeling like I’d been having a hard time meeting my neighbors, and that everyone said people would just come over to my house and introduce themselves but no one actually did that.  So that afternoon I swung both sides of my gate wide open and hung out in my porch hammock, messing around on Lee’s guitar.  Well, it worked like a charm!  It was a huge turning point in my integration because finally people approached me and we had conversations and some of the neighborhood kids came into my yard and hung out.  Friendships are happening and integration is happening, slowly but surely.

-          Wednesday I finally got some furniture for my big empty room!  My bamboo living room set of a couch, two chairs, and a table (plus a set of shelves for my kitchen which have made me SO HAPPY), cost 12000 CFA altogether – that’s, $24 USD.  Not bad!  In order to get the stuff from the market to my house, I paid one of these kids who pushes carts from the market.  His name was Boris and he turned out to be an absolute sweetheart.  He told me that when he grows up he hopes to go to America and become an FBI agent.  When I asked him why not join the police here, he explained that it was too corrupt.  How old is this kid, ten??  He was awesome.  He also told me that Cameroon is a dangerous place to live because of all the sorcery.  :-/  Sometimes living here is weird.  And then that night I got a beer with Ricky, and John, and Yvette, and Martin and my neighbors Geoffrey and Barbara, (all of whom, minus my postmate Ricky, are Anglophones from the South West) and I felt like maybe I do actually have friends here after all, and it was cool!  And John started crafting a plan for a group of us to the South West together and I don’t know how serious he was but I was just excited to have that as a thought!  Cameroonian friends!!

-          Thursday there was this big event at the chefferie to welcome the new Prefect.  I met him just after I arrived when I was doing protocol, and he’s really nice and friendly.  The event had all the public schools in Bafang represented, plus groups of drummers and dancers and singers, and all kinds of delegates and important people.  I managed to score an invite because of my sweet connection with the chef’s wife, and I was treated like her special guest.  It was pretty cool!  I was sitting up on stage with the VIPs, and when the Prefect arrived, Anne Marie had me come with her to line up to greet him.  One by one, everyone in line said their name and affiliation and he shook their hand.  When it came to me, he smiled and remembered me and said, “Antonia!  Comment ça va?” Oh did I blush.  Then there were speeches.  When the chef ended his speech by wishing us all a merry Christmas and happy 2014 I got a little choked up realizing that it was the first time I’d heard anyone say that all season.  Next, there was a feast, and I miraculously again was allowed to attend.  So that was pretty cool.

-          Friday I got a care package of Christmas presents!!! :D  :D  I also finally went to meet the Sous-Prefect.  When I originally was going around meeting hot shots, he wasn’t in the office, so I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself.  Then when he was at the event the day before, I started to feel self-conscious that maybe he was seeing me there, feeling offended and insulted that I hadn’t gone to introduce myself to him.  So when I did go in on Friday, I was trying to read if he seemed at all hostile.  After my introduction, I said to him, “Well, I hope we can have a good working relationship for the next two years,” (or something along those lines).  I waited.  He opened his mouth.  “No.”  Oh god.  Oh god.  I have to switch communities, I’ve already blown it in this one.  “No, no problem.”  That’s when I remembered cultural note #2: Cameroonians often begin affirmative statements with “no”.  It’s very confusing.  For example: “Did you have a good weekend?” “No, no, it was fine, thank you.”  Whose idea this was, I have no idea.  But anyway.  Pretty sure the Sous-Prefect and I are on good terms after all.

-          Saturday I had a list of things to do which all when to hell when I slashed my thumb open first thing in the morning.  I was trying to get a can open and was pulling on a piece of it.  I thought to myself, “You know, this is really stupid.  I am almost certainly going to hurt myself.”  Approximately  three seconds later, the thing I was pulling broke loose and I felt it cut my finger.  Of course.  And then I looked at it and it was WAY DEEPER than I expected and I FREAKED OUT because I was alone and what do I do and there are no paper towels so what towel do I use to control the bleeding or do I just bleed all over my house and who will find my dead body in however long if ever??  Anyway it’s fine now but it definitely freaked me out and my thumb has been out of commission for a few days.  That being said, it’s surprisingly not painful and not inconvenient.  I thought thumbs were all important and stuff but it has been pretty easy to keep out of the way.

-          Later I hung out with Alima – she showed me a little around the neighborhood, and answered some of my French questions, and then I went over to her house and played cards with her and her siblings.  They kind of remind me of my host family – there’s a boy around Fit’s age, and Alima is very reminiscent of Ericka, and I am also friends with their mom (and friendly with their dad).  They’re also like my host family because they’re the ones who wake me up at 6 am with noise that sounds, every time, like it’s actually inside my house.

-          Today I went to Saint Mary’s, an Anglophone Catholic school where there has been a significant PCV presence, to introduce myself.  Everyone was really nice and the kiddos are absolutely adorable.  Ricky and I went into every classroom from kindergarten to sixth grade, and each time the kids all stood up and greeted us in unison.  As the kids got older the greetings got longer.  It started with the five year olds: They stood, did a little bow/curtsey, and chanted in slow, drawn out melody, “Good moooorning”.  The 7-8 year olds got a little more complex; as Ricky walked in first, then me, they all chanted “Good moooorning sir.  Good moooorning madam.”  Finally, when we got to fifth and sixth grade, our entrance was met by, still painfully slow and drawn out, “Good mooorning sir.  May God bless you this day.  Good moooorning madam.  May God bless you this day.”  These students are so freaking cute and seem so well behaved and nothing like those scoundrels I taught to in Bafia.  Anyway, I am not sure yet to what extent I’ll be working with Saint Mary’s, but it seems like a great school and I hope to find something to do there.

Other little notes:

-          Is it possible to overdose on bananas?  I ask because I ate 14 bananas in 5 days.  When you’re living alone and you get a gift of a dozen bananas, most people would regift or let them go bad, right?  NOT THIS GIRL.  I AM WAY TOO CHEAP FOR THAT SHIT.  Plus with my newly-discovered blender, I can have banana milk for breakfast and pretend I’m back in Taiwan!

-          In case you are wondering what my typical morning looks like, this is an accurate portrayal:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx1MmY1Bb50

-          On white people in Africa: I can count on both hands the number of non-Peace Corps affiliated white people I’ve seen since getting here (other than that time at the missionary’s house, which was a Caucasian goldmine).  There was some stranger white guy in Bafang the other day.  I was on the street near the market and Boris, as he pushed my furniture, pointed and said, “look, your brother!” I figured it would be Ricky or Luca (since Lee is out of town) and was SHOCKED to find that it was some other white guy!  I didn’t get to talk to him but my point is just that this is very rare.  One time in Bafia, a big group of us were walking and we saw a group of white people across the street and we all freaked out.  I think people were getting a little competitive; I know I heard the phrase “but WE’RE the weird white people in town!!”.  They turned out to be French, visiting from Yaoundé.  And then there was this one other time there was a white person on the street and that’s about it.  I know some volunteers get offended when people on the street call to them “la blanche” but I, too, get excited and confused with every white person I see, so can I blame anyone else for doing the same?

-          On Christmas:  I had been feeling bummed about missing the Christmas season: carols playing in department stores, rosy red cheeks and noses, decorations and lights and Christmas parties and pumpkin spice whatever, and all that jazz.  The other day, though, it hit me for the first time that on Christmas morning itself, I’m going to have to wake up in my empty house in Cameroon and make my solitary breakfast and open my care package presents all alone and not be with my family for any of it.  So that sucks.

-          I’m getting a kitten!!   Alima’s family’s cat just gave birth this morning to three little orange furballs, one of whom has my name on it.  I knew I had dibsed one of her kittens but I had no idea it would be orange!  So excited to add my little ginger snap to the family! 

-          (In case you’re not already getting it, haha) So far the hardest part of my Peace Corps service has had nothing to do with being in Cameroon or working as a YD volunteer, but just living alone.  Cooking for myself and having an empty, echoey house, and most of all, not having anyone to talk to when random thoughts pop into my head or I need to bounce ideas off someone or I cut my finger and am bleeding out in the sink.  I mean, don’t get me wrong: I hate living with people.  I absolutely can’t stand roommates and all of the dishes they don’t clean and trash they don’t take out and belongings they put… places.  But that being said, I think this lonely environment may drive me insane.  And I mean that literally because I know it’s not healthy to talk to yourself this much.  So that cat will be much needed and much appreciated.  And I might get a dog too, just for good measure.  You know, so that we can have some diverse opinions represented in our conversations.

-          Internet has not been working with my key lately.  About 2/3 of the time, I plug it in and it claims a download speed of 0 and I can’t load a single page.  Half of the time it actually works, it’s excruciatingly slow, and the other half it’s alright.  Might get a different key with more reliable service, but I mean, I still have more internet than many PCVs so I’m not actually complaining or stressing.

-          I finally uploaded some photos to Facebook!  See here:

https://www.facebook.com/antonia.lloyddavies/media_set?set=a.2430530007046.1073741827.1365480179&type=1

-          I’ve been here now for over three months, but I still all the time have these moments of wow, here I am, Africa, I can’t believe this is really happening.  I wonder if that’s normal or if I’m supposed to be used to it by now.  I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it.

Okay until next time!