…And Some Good Things Have Happened!

Because life’s not all bad here in the ‘roon!  I figured I could either tell a long rambling chronological tale covering the past two months, or I could categorize every event as either “bragging” or “self-pitying”, because I know that’s what people love to read!  Enjoy!

·         I have now had two occasions to spend time in Yaounde (that’s the capital of Cameroon.  You guys know that right?) at the brand new case/transit house.  And let me tell you.  It’s pretty cool.  Being in Yaounde makes Cameroon feel a lot more livable – just knowing that there are places to go to get pizza, cocktails, hamburgers, hummus, spring rolls, buffalo wings, Turkish food, milkshakes, real cappuccinos… Bars and cafes with actual ambiance.  Supermarkets that sell cheese, salami, bacon, cereal, fig and berry preserves, and orange oranges.  This stuff might be OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE* but makes for a hell of a “treat yo’self” sojourn.  Plus, I get to spend all day surrounded by Americans who speak my English and laugh at my jokes and get my cultural references.  And there’s free wifi all the time and nothing to do except go to bars and watch movies and eat delicious, special, indulgent food.  Yaounde is cool. (For an accurate portrayal of life at the case, search youtube for “real world yaounde”.  I’d link it but I don’t have good enough internet to get there right now.)

·         At the beginning of April, I stopped by Bafia to visit my host family.  Although I was only able to spend a couple of hours with them, it was SO, so nice.  It actually felt like coming home.  When I knocked on the gate and said, “C’est Antonia,” I heard a squeal and pounding footsteps as Djibriel raced over to wrap his arms around my waist.  Ericka, meanwhile, tried to follow suit but was too excited and tripped and banged her knee (aisha).  Everyone was so welcoming and Michael, the three year old, didn’t forget me (which was my biggest fear).  We listened to High School Musical songs on youtube just like old times.  My host dad assured me that I’m always welcome, and that they are my family as long as I’m here in Cameroon.  And my mom cooked a special meal, reminding me what a great cook she is and how, back when I lived with them, I used to think I liked Cameroonian food.  They are all wonderful and it made me really happy to see them all again.

·         One time, Allison came to my post and we ate hot dogs and mangoes and camembert and wine and American chocolate and whiskey.  Also, Alizabeth came to my post way from the grand north, so it was great to see her and give the full town tour, complete with hiking, waterfalls, meeting friends, helping dig a gutter as part of neighborhood work day, and enjoying Kadji, the best beer in Cameroon, among other things.  Frenz are fun.

·         I travelled en brousse and went to a traditional wedding in the northwest!  See accompanying entry.

·         I successfully completed a project, making me feel just a little productive and useful.  April was World Malaria Month, culminating in World Malaria Day on the 25^th.  I organized an anti-malaria campaign in Bafang.  First, I did a door-to-door sensitization/net hanging campaign.  A handful of exceptional volunteers and friends came down on Thursday and Friday to help cover as much ground as possible (shout out to Lee, Liz, Allison, Anna, Ben, Justin, Nate, and Debbie!).  We basically went door-to-door promoting the use of mosquito nets, emphasizing how bad malaria is (because it really is** – it’s the #1 killer of children in Africa!), sharing alternative prevention methods, and whatnot.  There are also people who received free mosquito nets in a country-wide distribution in 2011 but who never got around to hanging them, so we brought hammers and nails and hung up a few dormant nets.  It was also kind of fun and I got to meet a ton of new people and see a whole new side of Bafang.  I guess the folks I typically interact with are a self-selecting population, and so I didn’t even realize that there are people living right in the city who don’t understand any French, only the local language.  It was like a different world!  And it was cool!  We hit up around 150 houses total and essentially eradicated malaria in Bafang.

Then, on Saturday (April 26), I teamed up with a couple of guys from the district health office and a nurse from a local hospital and we set up a booth in the market to talk to people about malaria.  This ended up feeling hugely rewarding, not so much because the passers-by were so wowed and enlightened (although they surely were) but because the collaboration with my team felt just perfect.  I thought I might have to kind of “train” these guys on what to say, but they just showed up (on time!) and immediately jumped in, and they were all awesome.  And they could speak to people in the local language or in actually correct French, and they weren’t as scary and white as I am.  They even dug up a megaphone from somewhere and started making loud announcements to the marketplace in French, Fefe, and English.  I did all the planning and organizing, so I still felt useful, but they were definitely way better at the presenting and interacting part.  And the best part was that it was completely mutually beneficial, because these guys were doing their job.  One of my great sources of stress with finding work here is that if I want to work with locals (which you need to, of course, for sustainability and community engagement and integration and whatnot), I’m generally asking them to volunteer their time and energy for no compensation.  Which makes me feel guilty and them less eager.  But these guys showed up, helped me with my project, and then got to submit a report to their boss about what they did for World Malaria Day.  So it was really win-win-win-lose (me – them – citizens of Bafang – malaria).

·         I’m part of the Diversity Committee for Peace Corps Cameroon.  We just finished putting on the first annual national diversity forum!  We had around 60 participants, both PCVs and Cameroonians.  It was two days of sessions and it was held in Limbe, right on a black sand beach.  Going into it, I really wasn’t sure what to expect – sure, we had planned some sessions, but I had no idea how it would be all put together.  Anyway, I may be biased, but I think it went really, really well.  Tears flowed (I think my total cry count was at 5, all from feeling touched and none from frustration!).  Minds were opened.  We had a panel of Cameroonians representing different diversity issues (HIV+, marginalized tribes, women’s rights, physical disability, vitiligo), and they all did an amazing job and touched us.  During the question and answer session afterward, instead of asking questions, all anyone wanted to say was Wow, and Thank You, and You are an inspiration.  And they all are!  (A funny moment: When John was discussing his vitiligo (that thing Michael Jackson had, that causes you to lose pigment in your skin), he spoke of his struggle because he has to use a special cream that you can’t find in Cameroon, so it has to come all the way from the United States.  He passed the bottle around for the audience to see.  Sure enough, it was sunscreen.) 

The next day, we had a panel that talked a lot about homosexuality, a highly taboo and highly illegal subject.  One of the guys on the panel started by standing up.  “How many of you in this room have never met a homosexual?”  He asked.  A good proportion of the Cameroonians in the room raised their hands.  “Well, take a good look, because now you have.”  A couple of the other panelists came out too, making them all my personal heroes as some of the most brave and inspirational people I’ve ever met.  We were all afraid that people would react very negatively to that panel, and say hateful things during the Q&A, but we were wrong.  One Cameroonian attendee stood up and said that being there changed his views on homosexuality.  Another said she would leave the forum a different person.  That session touched me in particular, because I think it introduced a conversation that many Cameroonians have never had.  And it got people talking, and it got them thinking, and it felt a lot like watching the seeds of change take root.

Oh and also I got to relax and spend wonderful time on the beach!  Limbe is beautiful!

·         I had a birthday!  And it was great!  I felt a little anxious about it beforehand because my schedule was all up in the air and changing and I wasn’t sure where I would be, or if I’d be alone or with friends, or spending all day on a bus, or what.  Well, I ended up spending it in Yaounde, with a pretty big group of really good people.  Everyone made me feel happy and special the whole day.  We went to Hilton Happy Hour, where you can get REAL cocktails at the price of two for one, all in a scenic top-floor bar of perhaps the swankiest hotel in the country.  Next we got dinner at this amazing Lebenese restaurant which also has cocktails and shisha.  Anyway, good people are good and it was a practically perfect birthday.  Plus, my wonderful and considerate family sent me birthday care packages, which made me feel the warmth of familial love from thousands of miles away, and made me feel full with delicious American snackz.

·         May 20 was la fête de unité nationale !  I think in Anglophone they just call it National Day.  It’s basically Cameroon’s 4^th of July.  We marched in the morning (obviously), and then proceeded to drink and dance.  I received an invitation to the Prefect’s gala to celebrate in the evening.  Afraid it would be formal and boring and I wouldn’t know anyone there (since Lee and Ricky were out of town), I begrudgingly dragged my butt off the bamboo couch to go.  Well, it ended up being a lot of fun, with familiar faces from around town in addition to my French, Japanese, and Italian expat friends.  The food was good, and then it was followed by dancing, but not just your typical “you can dance if you want to” kind – it was the forced, awkward, bar mitzvah-style kind.  The DJ called out 42 men’s names (for the 42 years of national unity), and they were all asked to find a dance partner.  I was chosen by a delegate (#VIP) and we had a horrendously awkward slow dance.  But overall, it was a lot of fun and made me feel important and integrated.

·         Bafang is developing!!!  We just recently got a SECOND bank, which is weird and unnecessary for a town of this size, and the supermarket is undergoing a huge expansion!  You might not realize that it’s already remarkable to have any supermarket, even if it was the size of a small convenience store.  But now they’re practically doubling the size, expanding the inventory (they have shampoo and conditioner and deodorant now!), replacing all the janky wooden shelves with modern metal ones, and repaneling the walls to give it a cozy ambiance.  I got ridiculously excited when I saw this happening because it really does feel like a huge sign of development.  Business investment and expansion, fixing things before they urgently need to be replaced, deodorant… Now that’s development.

·         I’m getting a roommate!  A human one!  Luca, one of the Italians, was looking for a new place to live.  I made a half-joke about having so many extra rooms, that he was welcome to move in with me.  What started as a half-joke became a full-reality and I couldn’t be more excited.  Although I have lived with roommates and generally… not liked it, the grass is looking pretty green from this lonely side of the fence.  I’m picturing him becoming basically my personal chef, maid, workout buddy, chauffeur, Italian teacher, guitar tutor, confidant, social-outing-motivator, masseuse, and generally bettering me in every other way possible.  Oh yeah and he’s bringing: a refrigerator, a car, wifi, and a washing machine.  I might be the only Peace Corps volunteer in history to have a washing machine as I officially enter my new standing as the queen of posh corps.  Just install a hot water heater and A/C and deliver me a pizza and I’ll think I woke up in America.  Oh, and he’s really cool and stuff and has a good personality [that’s my “not just using him for material goods” disclaimer].  Surely by my next entry I will have remembered all the things I hate about living with people and why I was so lucky to have the place to myself.  But not yet!

·         Oh and I’ve been practicing guitar and I’m getting super good. #toomuchtimeonmyhands

·         Let me redirect your attention to the part where I said I’m getting wifi in my house.  This is huge.  INTERNET ALL THE TIME!!!!!  

We’re 8 months in with only a year and a half left in service.  Suddenly this “long term commitment” is starting to feel like a short term commitment!  And I’ve been feeling pretty good about having some friends and having a place in my town.  A group of kids in the neighborhood only just learned my name, but now when I drive past them on my moto ride home, they cry excitedly, “Antonia!!  Antonia!!” which fills my heart with joy.  I also have had some conversations with Cameroonians where they fondly recall interactions – even minor, informal ones – with Peace Corps volunteers over the past 51 years since we came to Cameroon.  They always remember the volunteer’s name, and sometimes their state, and they wonder how they’re doing, even if they haven’t seen or heard from them in over 20 years.  And that makes me feel good.  Like maybe that guy who sells me beef will be wondering how I’m doing in another 20 years.  And if the only actual “good” I do this town is giving some people a memorable example of a young independent woman who didn’t need no husband and left her country to help their community, then that might be enough.  I mean, that, and eradicating malaria, might be enough.

*Pizza: $5.  Burger: $4-7. Three spring rolls: $2.  Six buffalo wings: $4.  Milkshake: $4. Cocktails: $5-8.  Okay, so actually all the prices are totally decent but still many times more than a typical dinner at post.

**  The top 5 causes of illness in Bafang in 2013, with number of cases:

5.  Skin diseases: 552

4.  Ulcers: 699

3.  Typhoid: 715

2.  Respiratory Infection: 803

1.  Malaria: 4532

Right??????????