Before anything else let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, wishing I could be there to bake you all cookies and decorate gaudily and wear Christmas socks and knit mittens…thinking of everyone, very often. Well…let me qualify this blog post by saying that I have had quite the streak of bad luck in the past two weeks and am a little bit…shall we say…displeased with all that has transpired. Christmas here is apparently one of the most dangerous times of year because all the kids are home from school with nothing to do, and lots of crimes take place. So I was told, and have begun to witness…
I think I complained enough about my house situation throughout the past few weeks, but I did get my keys today and am told I will possibly be able to move in tomorrow…however tomorrow being Christmas eve day it may be a little tricky. BUT my house is hopefully finished.
Secondly, 2 days ago my postmate, myself, and 2 Cameroonian friends were out for the night…we went to a bar, had one drink and went home around 10 pm. I went via motto with the Cameroonian girl but my postmate wasn't feeling well so decided to walk home with the guy, her neighbor and close friend. They got to the lake in town and were approached by 5 young guys with machetes and knives! The guy she was with tried to tell them to back down but they weren't leaving so he yelled for my postmate to run. She took off, but was wearing highheels and didn't get very far before they grabbed her shirt sleeve and demanded that they give them her cell phone, which was pretty much all she had with her. At this point the guy friend had reached the nearby town hall and was coming quickly back with a night guard…so my postmate yanked away and took off running again and by this point the guard was close enough, so the 5 guys took off the other direction. By the time she got home she was a little shaken up but the adrenaline was still pumping and since she was totally unharmed everything ended up well enough. They went back the next day and spoke with the police, and they found a knife down by the lake that the guys must have tried to stash… So a little scary, eh?
Thirdly, SIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK. And then this…last night after talking to my parents on the phone, my battery was dead so I plugged my phone in to charge in the front room. I went to bed and my postmate and her friend were in the living room. The light in the front room got left on until about 4 am, when my postmate went to bed…and sometime before then someone somehow from the street THROUGH the window (bars, screen, window panes and curtain) noticed my phone plugged into the wall, hooked it SOMEHOW and pulled it through and took off with it! I woke up this morning to see the charger still plugged into the wall, with the phone nowhere to be found. We attempted to call it, but the SIM card (all the info for the phone) had already been removed and the number was no longer in service. This is also after I JUST bought credit for my phone about 2 hours before I went to sleep. So (here's my list of negatives before I do the positive…bad news first because then only the good sticks in your mind)…due to the fact I'm trying to move, I have absolutely nothing for my house, I have no income, I'm not to keen on the idea of having to spend another 50 bucks I don't have to buy a new phone…this is a lot of money here. Add to the fact it's Christmas time and no stores are open to do this in the first place…But the thing that makes me the saddest of everything is that my family is suppose to call on Christmas eve, and I will most likely not have a phone or anyway to get in touch with them. I know this is long and rambling, and nothing but a list of my frustrations…but what a Christmas. :>( I know things will turn around…first you step in shit, then you fall, and roll around in it a bit before you're able to realize how dirty you are and get up and wash it all off. Moving to my FINISHED house will be a very positive thing and from that point on I'll be able to start getting my things in order and actually start to do some productive work, which I am very excited to do, I get my new camera soon, I have a cross stitch kit coming in the mail (what could be better, right?), and today I ate some M&Ms…so with the light at the end of the tunnel…bring it Cameroon. I'm not posting this till after Christmas…that way it's not TOO much of a downer and by that point everything will hopefully have changed!
Alright, I decided to just leave everything I wrote last time and add on, it's the day after Christmas now. Everything with my phone got straightened out, my postmate was in Yaounde, got me a new phone, lent me the money for now, and spent a lot of time to get me the same number and had her neighbor bring it back to me, and I even got it a few hours before the family phone call!!! So that went about as well as it could have, AND my phone is blue now woohoo The other volunteer who lives 45 min away came down and spent Christmas eve and Christmas day here with me, and she knit ME a pot holder…which was exciting. We made no-bake cookies (no oven required!) and watched movies on her laptop. My postmate's neighbor even brought us some of the Christmas dinner she had made. This morning we decided to go into town and get my mattress and a shelf for my clothes and then take all my stuff (trunk, backpack, and other small bags) out to my house. It's an interesting process hailing a taxi and trying to explain that you need to take this here, get this other stuff, then take all this stuff to the other side of the city…but we got this older guy who drove nice and slow and helped us carry everything…and I don't think ripped me off too bad. My house now has some glass in a few of the windows, the painting is finished and the floors were all done and cleaned, and the electricity worked! Which was a big surprise…but…I still can't live there because they aren't done with the septic tank yet…still just a big gapping hole in the back yard…and since there is no outdoor latrine (and I, being myself, could clearly not live sans toilette)…AHHHH! It was actually a major comfort though to go out to my house and talk a little with my neighbors, and just get the majority of my stuff there. One of my neighbors does almost all of the landscaping in Ebolowa and is excited to do my front porch area and take me on a tour of his work…which sounds wonderful to me! My supervisor, Hans, and another guy who's always with Hans, showed up at my house when we were there, so it's good to know they are checking on the progress of the work. I'm back at my postmate's house again, alone for tonight and then the 2 volunteers from Mvangan are coming tomorrow morning, then 3 more on Friday to spend the weekend and have a huge white people new year's party…what could be better? Everyone might be stuck here for a while, since rumor has it there is no gas available in the entirety of the South Province…!
Alright, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Passion Flower by Kate
African Passion Fruit FlowerPhoto by Kate
Alright, so a whole week has passed and I have really yet to feel like I've accomplished anything. I like to try to make this blog always pretty funny and positive, but to be honest…HOLY CRAP I AM BORED! Ok, that sounded a little funny anyway, I try to make you people laugh.
My house isn't done…big surprise there, I knew it wouldn't be from the moment I heard all those weeks ago that my house was in the process of being built. It's just a little frustrating that I am pretty much unable to do anything else until I am moved out to my house and that date doesn't seem to be getting any closer. It’s even hard to buy things right now FOR the house because I don't have the space (nor the burning desire to be extremely annoying) to store these things at my post mate's place. Additionally, I could probably finish the work on the house…what's left is the most basic of details (besides the digging of the septic bed…I'll leave that to the professionals) that they tell me must be done before move in. Lastly, it's Christmas in 9 days (but who’s counting?) and in Cameroon Christmas apparently lasts for about a month. I don't see any work being accomplished any time soon! I've been living out of a bag since I arrived in this country and I just can't wait to be done!!!! Ok, I'm sure that's enough to get my point across.
In a happier spirit…today is my first DAY ALONE!!! I have not been alone this long since September and I'm definitely relishing it. I decided to not leave the house all day (this sounds pretty boring) and read books and write down recipes, and I even made a paper crane mobile and some rice pudding. What am I talking about "getting nothing accomplished"…right… :>) The 2 girls who were staying with me at my post mate's left last night to take the rough trip to Mvangan, their post, and my post mate is in Yaounde, not to return till tomorrow. I made good use of her laptop to watch every movie on it (when we have electricity) and write to all of you!
Other random stories: in my last post I talked about how I waited for my counterpart on some ladies porch. So she asked me to come back and meet with her brother, I didn't initially understand for what but I was bored so I said OK. Turns out he's an artist, actually quite a good abstract-ish painter and he wants me to work with him (ie. Find him money, art shows, and supplies) and he gave me a whole bunch of little paintings FOR FREE!!!! This was exciting! The lady, his sister, is also bringing me back a "welcome package" of fish and shrimp from the beach town Kribi, where she was this weekend. I've never had shrimp before, we'll see how that goes! I also then ran into a random guy I recognized that I'd met on site visit (I've run into a few people that I know this way around town…small world biznaz) and he turned out to run the pharmacy downtown, and he told me I can call him with any health problems "in the middle of the night". So I'm in good hands, I hope.
Another volunteer (the girl my dad referred to as sharing an interest in needle crafts :>) came down and did some shopping with us on Wednesday, things like this become my weekly highlights. I've got some interesting new clothes due to lack of other entertainment than shopping, including one dress I was told made me look like a flying squirrel, you'll have to picture that. I also enjoy the neighbor kids of my post mate. They call me "the joker"…hmmm….I'm running out of fuel for this blog post, but thanks for reading! Send vibes of productivity my way!
My camera has now died for good, so no more pictures for at least a month until my post mate's boyfriend brings me my new one, Thanks Mom and Dad!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
More Photos from Kate
Kate & her Cameroonian Sisters
Kate & her Cameroonian brothers 
Kate & her PC Friend Jessica.And our Kate Offically a Peace Corp Volunteer! Yeah
The fabric for her outfit is of traditional Bamileke Tribal Design.
The Bamileke People make up most of Bangante's Population.
Monday, December 10, 2007
HELLLOOOOO
HELLLOOOOO
1) Sorry, I haven't written in what feels like a really, really long time.
2) Sorrier yet because I have A LOT to say now.
3) Not sorry at all that I get to use my post mate's computer and make this as long as I want to!
MWAHAHAHA
So…by this time I've left my family and already arrived in Ebolowa but we'll go back…
Training stories:
I gave my "cultural presentation" which consisted of me talking for 15 minutes about tourist sites in Cameroon and pointing at them on a map…talk about fun. I did however create a fabulous tourist bingo game and brought a bingo craze to my Cameroonian instructors. OK, not really…but my sister liked it.
Agro Forestry Trainees also took a trip to CIPCRE (an agro forestry organization) in the nearby big town of Baffousam, and instead of doing anything productive we went to the bakery, the grocery store, and the ice cream shop. I did however get a big branch of Rosemary (the herb, my fav) from a medicinal plant garden and I have subsequently dried it and am SO EXCITED to use it!
Lastly, we took a trip to Yaoundé for banking purposes. This consisted of groups of 20 Americans going into the bank and coming out dripping in all the money we will need for the next 3 months and then going to the bakery, the grocery store, and the pizza place, ahhh the things cities have. We had an exciting moment when a few of us got stranded a few miles from the PC house when President Biya (the Pres.of Cameroon) was in town, and then his convoy passed us and I SWEAR I saw him, ok maybe not. Do your research on this guy as I'm not allowed political statements (at least I don't think) but….wow interesting fellow (that's all you get). We also saw several white people in Yaoundé, and this is such a weird feeling, white people I don't know, walking around, doing things I don't know about…it just shouldn't happen. We have named them UIWP: Un-Identified White Person. All of the trainees got all excited every time we saw one and we felt we had a right to know what exactly he or she was doing in this country. We also had some hilarious cab rides where for example: we taught a cab driver the American expression "F*!$ the man" (don't blame me, I was not the one who brought this up. My French isn't good enough).
Family stories:
I grew green beans in our front yard for my training nursery and taught my sister how to eat them raw. She thought this was amazing and absolutely hated it at first, but kept at it and right before I left she told me they were really good. I thought it a little odd that they grow these beans all the time but have never eaten them raw?! My mother had her last meeting with my home stay coordinator and told her I was a "real woman" now…I'm not sure what this means…but eh, I'll take it. We had our family dinner for all the trainees and 3 members of each family. It was slightly awkward but our band played and I played with so much flair I banged a tambourine bruise onto each of my thighs that remains to this day.
I gave my family the gifts I had brought them from the states…and it was so nice, I have honestly never seen someone more excited over the things I gave them (even when I made all of you people in Madison a washcloth for Christmas last year…hahaha…right…:>). I gave them the most random, dollar store items (except for 2 of your CDs Uncle Steve which they really liked and listened to over and over again) and they were beyond thrilled, telling me how nice I was, hugging me, kissing me… over pencils, a bouncy ball, and some flimsy ol' calendars. My sisters then gave me 2 pairs of gaudy dangly earrings (they know me too well apparently), and a bracelet. And my brothers. Well…first we took pictures with the 3 of them and the neighbor boy carrying me around the house at the same time. Then my brother (the one who's in love with me) wrote me a song, he always wants me to sing after he heard me sing for the band that one time. It was about Bangangte and how I would miss my brothers. Then I left the room for a few minutes,…latter on in the day I open my book and out falls his song, upon which he wrote "I love you Kate Legner" and signed his name…(Love confirmed). THEN the shocker…my brother who I thought hated me gave me a red rose…awe :>). Later the next day as I was leaving I had(seriously) a ten minute conversation with the love brother about how much he would miss me, how nice I was, etc etc (self esteem booster, Iguess?!). Leaving the family was a little weird…exciting but slightly sad, and alot of the kids weren't around so I never really got to say goodbye.The night before I left my mother stood in my doorway repeating "this is not good Kate, this does not please me". She is currently saving her money to come to Ebolowa at the end of January for my birthday. I 'm sure I will see them many more times.We had our swearing in ceremony in the middle of town. We all dressed up in matching outfits we had made with the fabric of the BamilekePeople (the people who make up most of Bangangte's population), a lot of important people were there: Ambassadors to Japan, England, France,the US and one other I forgot. Then we took our official U.S. Government office oath and TA-DA we were volunteers.So as I write this now I have been a volunteer for 6 days and what have I done…NOTHING!!! Yeah.
All us "volunteers" stayed at a hotel in Bangangte, and (like always happened at the end of a college semester) my immune system went to hell and I started getting really sick…spare you the details I know…but MAN it was not a fun time. The next day we had to travel to Yaoundé and by the time I got there I felt like death…I went to the doctor, had a 103 fever, etc etc (all the things that go along with something like the stomach flu, extreme style) and had to go to a lab in the city to get tested for malaria (which I thankfully didn't have).The doctor stuck me wrong and I bled like a stuck pig for a bit. I ended up sleeping a really long time, and felt sort of better in the morning, so left for Ebolowa. I was apparently feeling well enough, since I had an hour long argument with some Cameroonian guys who decided to move our baggage without asking and demand to be paid for it. You know your truly integrated into Cameroonian culture when you argue for an hour about the amount of money equivalent to a US Dollar. As of now I've been in Ebolowa for 3 days, and it seems I may be living at my post mate’s indefinitely! I finally got a hold of my counterpart (he's appearing to be a little flaky…today we had a talk about the expression "j'arrive" which means "I'm coming" . He said this to me today and didn't appear until over an hour later, as I stood out on the street corner). Any who, he took me out to my house…and not a whole lot has changed since I saw it a month ago. No windows, the walls aren't finished, the septic tank isn't finished being dug, no water or electricity hooked up (which is fine, but they lied to me before LIARS!), etc. My counterpart tells me Saturday…thus I have a week of NOTHING to do, at all…which is interesting! With all those other considerations you wouldn't think my counterpart would care, but he brought up curtains and made me go around the house looking at all the window and doorframe sizes. I suggested bead curtains…just like the purple walls (they are lightgreen :>( ). Joke…I don't think he got it. Last story! I am becoming quite the bargainer (not that I wasn'tcheap in the states, ha-ha) but wow did I get a deal on some sheets. By the end of our good 15 minute bargaining session the sheet seller told me I was a very strong "tu es très forte" and asked if I would like to sell with him in the market. I kindly denied, but with a week of nothing to do, I may reconsider.
XXXXXOOOOO
Pick what you want!
LOVE YOU ALL
1) Sorry, I haven't written in what feels like a really, really long time.
2) Sorrier yet because I have A LOT to say now.
3) Not sorry at all that I get to use my post mate's computer and make this as long as I want to!
MWAHAHAHA
So…by this time I've left my family and already arrived in Ebolowa but we'll go back…
Training stories:
I gave my "cultural presentation" which consisted of me talking for 15 minutes about tourist sites in Cameroon and pointing at them on a map…talk about fun. I did however create a fabulous tourist bingo game and brought a bingo craze to my Cameroonian instructors. OK, not really…but my sister liked it.
Agro Forestry Trainees also took a trip to CIPCRE (an agro forestry organization) in the nearby big town of Baffousam, and instead of doing anything productive we went to the bakery, the grocery store, and the ice cream shop. I did however get a big branch of Rosemary (the herb, my fav) from a medicinal plant garden and I have subsequently dried it and am SO EXCITED to use it!
Lastly, we took a trip to Yaoundé for banking purposes. This consisted of groups of 20 Americans going into the bank and coming out dripping in all the money we will need for the next 3 months and then going to the bakery, the grocery store, and the pizza place, ahhh the things cities have. We had an exciting moment when a few of us got stranded a few miles from the PC house when President Biya (the Pres.of Cameroon) was in town, and then his convoy passed us and I SWEAR I saw him, ok maybe not. Do your research on this guy as I'm not allowed political statements (at least I don't think) but….wow interesting fellow (that's all you get). We also saw several white people in Yaoundé, and this is such a weird feeling, white people I don't know, walking around, doing things I don't know about…it just shouldn't happen. We have named them UIWP: Un-Identified White Person. All of the trainees got all excited every time we saw one and we felt we had a right to know what exactly he or she was doing in this country. We also had some hilarious cab rides where for example: we taught a cab driver the American expression "F*!$ the man" (don't blame me, I was not the one who brought this up. My French isn't good enough).
Family stories:
I grew green beans in our front yard for my training nursery and taught my sister how to eat them raw. She thought this was amazing and absolutely hated it at first, but kept at it and right before I left she told me they were really good. I thought it a little odd that they grow these beans all the time but have never eaten them raw?! My mother had her last meeting with my home stay coordinator and told her I was a "real woman" now…I'm not sure what this means…but eh, I'll take it. We had our family dinner for all the trainees and 3 members of each family. It was slightly awkward but our band played and I played with so much flair I banged a tambourine bruise onto each of my thighs that remains to this day.
I gave my family the gifts I had brought them from the states…and it was so nice, I have honestly never seen someone more excited over the things I gave them (even when I made all of you people in Madison a washcloth for Christmas last year…hahaha…right…:>). I gave them the most random, dollar store items (except for 2 of your CDs Uncle Steve which they really liked and listened to over and over again) and they were beyond thrilled, telling me how nice I was, hugging me, kissing me… over pencils, a bouncy ball, and some flimsy ol' calendars. My sisters then gave me 2 pairs of gaudy dangly earrings (they know me too well apparently), and a bracelet. And my brothers. Well…first we took pictures with the 3 of them and the neighbor boy carrying me around the house at the same time. Then my brother (the one who's in love with me) wrote me a song, he always wants me to sing after he heard me sing for the band that one time. It was about Bangangte and how I would miss my brothers. Then I left the room for a few minutes,…latter on in the day I open my book and out falls his song, upon which he wrote "I love you Kate Legner" and signed his name…(Love confirmed). THEN the shocker…my brother who I thought hated me gave me a red rose…awe :>). Later the next day as I was leaving I had(seriously) a ten minute conversation with the love brother about how much he would miss me, how nice I was, etc etc (self esteem booster, Iguess?!). Leaving the family was a little weird…exciting but slightly sad, and alot of the kids weren't around so I never really got to say goodbye.The night before I left my mother stood in my doorway repeating "this is not good Kate, this does not please me". She is currently saving her money to come to Ebolowa at the end of January for my birthday. I 'm sure I will see them many more times.We had our swearing in ceremony in the middle of town. We all dressed up in matching outfits we had made with the fabric of the BamilekePeople (the people who make up most of Bangangte's population), a lot of important people were there: Ambassadors to Japan, England, France,the US and one other I forgot. Then we took our official U.S. Government office oath and TA-DA we were volunteers.So as I write this now I have been a volunteer for 6 days and what have I done…NOTHING!!! Yeah.
All us "volunteers" stayed at a hotel in Bangangte, and (like always happened at the end of a college semester) my immune system went to hell and I started getting really sick…spare you the details I know…but MAN it was not a fun time. The next day we had to travel to Yaoundé and by the time I got there I felt like death…I went to the doctor, had a 103 fever, etc etc (all the things that go along with something like the stomach flu, extreme style) and had to go to a lab in the city to get tested for malaria (which I thankfully didn't have).The doctor stuck me wrong and I bled like a stuck pig for a bit. I ended up sleeping a really long time, and felt sort of better in the morning, so left for Ebolowa. I was apparently feeling well enough, since I had an hour long argument with some Cameroonian guys who decided to move our baggage without asking and demand to be paid for it. You know your truly integrated into Cameroonian culture when you argue for an hour about the amount of money equivalent to a US Dollar. As of now I've been in Ebolowa for 3 days, and it seems I may be living at my post mate’s indefinitely! I finally got a hold of my counterpart (he's appearing to be a little flaky…today we had a talk about the expression "j'arrive" which means "I'm coming" . He said this to me today and didn't appear until over an hour later, as I stood out on the street corner). Any who, he took me out to my house…and not a whole lot has changed since I saw it a month ago. No windows, the walls aren't finished, the septic tank isn't finished being dug, no water or electricity hooked up (which is fine, but they lied to me before LIARS!), etc. My counterpart tells me Saturday…thus I have a week of NOTHING to do, at all…which is interesting! With all those other considerations you wouldn't think my counterpart would care, but he brought up curtains and made me go around the house looking at all the window and doorframe sizes. I suggested bead curtains…just like the purple walls (they are lightgreen :>( ). Joke…I don't think he got it. Last story! I am becoming quite the bargainer (not that I wasn'tcheap in the states, ha-ha) but wow did I get a deal on some sheets. By the end of our good 15 minute bargaining session the sheet seller told me I was a very strong "tu es très forte" and asked if I would like to sell with him in the market. I kindly denied, but with a week of nothing to do, I may reconsider.
XXXXXOOOOO
Pick what you want!
LOVE YOU ALL
Monday, December 3, 2007
Some Photos from Cameroonian Kate
My favorite sister Sandrine and dad at the family dinner (11/29/2007).
Bameda Cemetery...waterfall in the background. Sure was a beautiful town.
Thanksgiving, Pumkin Pie!
Agro trainees hiking at Baham.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
My New Address
HI EVERYONE!!!
Hope you all are doing great! I am currently in Yaounde, the capital, for the end of my training...seems like time flew by really fast...and I'm definitely excited for the next part of my time here in Cameroon. If you need my new address please contact either kate.legner@gmail.com or legner@dwave.net .
Please send me letters, they make my day (and in Cameroon, they actually make my month most of the time)
Missing everyone! Let me know how you're doing!
Hope you all are doing great! I am currently in Yaounde, the capital, for the end of my training...seems like time flew by really fast...and I'm definitely excited for the next part of my time here in Cameroon. If you need my new address please contact either kate.legner@gmail.com or legner@dwave.net .
Please send me letters, they make my day (and in Cameroon, they actually make my month most of the time)
Missing everyone! Let me know how you're doing!
Monday, November 26, 2007
My first hot shower in Cameroon!!!
Hello! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving here was pretty amazing. We had a half day of trainingand then all of us spent the rest of the day making food for ourThanksgiving dinner. I made pies (imagine that) with 3 other girls.We made 2 pumpkin pies (with some sort of squash) and 1 apple pie (with the ONLY 5 apples in the entire city). All with no sharpknives; no pie tins, and no oven. I was impressed with our work andthey were extremely delicious! There was a TON of food...a group killed 10 chickens and we had everything from guacamole to bananacream pudding...it was wonderful. Our band had our first"performance" and that was amazing, I wore a black prom dress looking thing from the 80's that a fellow trainee’s Cameroonian mother gave her and played the tambourines like you’ve never heard them before. It was a great Thanksgiving and it will be a little sad not to be able to have the whole group together to have a repeat of it for Christmas.
Training is almost over...this is my LAST week. I can’t even fathom leaving everyone that I just met 10 weeks ago and I'm startingto get a bit nervous. Add to the fact that I don’t really think my house is finished being built in Ebolowa. I don’t have a key and I don’t know my landlord’s phone number...ha-ha...I’ll let you know. This weekend was the best weekend I’ve had in country so far.
All the agro trainees went with our program director to Riba, an agro forestry center in the Northwest Province. The drive there was another one of those intense travel experiences, and most everyone got very, very car sick, my favorite story (if that’s the rightway to describe someone being ill) was my friend sitting next to me who in the middle of a town we were driving through yells STOP in French; bolts out, vomits in front of a bunch of school children on the side of the road, jumps back in the van and off we go. There was a repeat of this same incident on the way back to Bangangte as well with the same girl. Roads and driving in this country I tell you! One of the PC vehicles also got hit by another car, but a PC Land Rover vs a small red Toyota. The Toyota got totaled and one of our trainers paid them 3000 CFA (about 6 bucks) and apparently that made everything OK and we were off again (everyone was fine; except clearly the Toyota). I took a few great pictures of some of the roads we traveled...I miss blacktop sometimes.
Riba was so far my favorite place in Cameroon. To get there you go through part of the Cameroonian grasslands, through a very mountainous region and much more dry areas than anywhere we have been so far.There were waterfalls everywhere...and it was much cooler and less humid...just all around perfect. We spent one full day at the agro forestry center hiking around and looking at all their different plots; nurseries; etc. We ended our day playing volleyball. You know you're in Africa when your volleyball net posts are made the minute before you use them by cutting down a Eucalyptus tree, chopping it in half and sticking it into the ground ;^). We stayed in a hotel for the 2 nights we spent in the Northwest and.......MY FIRST HOTSHOWER IN CAMEROON!!!! I almost passed out from happiness, I kid you not! We got to eat chicken both nights and FRENCH FRIES and ate tons of watermelon (which is very, very prevalent in the NW) and I just had an overall amazing time with everyone. A few interesting events: a few trainees had chicken eyeball and brain eating contests (I left the room for a bit here, ha-ha) and on the trip back I got to ride in the car with our program director (who is the cutest old man) and he taught us Cameroonian dances by the side of the road (in front of many many onlookers). I asked about cemeteries in Cameroon and he took us to a cemetery in Bamenda (on the trip back) and it was really, really neat (but I always think cemeteries are interesting), they build big tile boxes and have extravagant plantings, etc on them; lastly we got to go to a restaurant and eat salad. Food is always a highlight. The waitress attempted to rip us off by putting all the wrong prices on our bill. I argued with her for several minutes, told her all the right prices and she just kept laughing at me as I continued to tell her that I know we are white people but I can read and add all the same. She thought I was pretty funny and told me when we were leaving that we must not be tourists. I was proud of myself.
Alright, that’s all for now, this week is going to be very, very busy and I probably won’t be able to write for 2 weeks until after I am settled in my new house (hopefully). WISH ME LUCK!!!!
Training is almost over...this is my LAST week. I can’t even fathom leaving everyone that I just met 10 weeks ago and I'm startingto get a bit nervous. Add to the fact that I don’t really think my house is finished being built in Ebolowa. I don’t have a key and I don’t know my landlord’s phone number...ha-ha...I’ll let you know. This weekend was the best weekend I’ve had in country so far.
All the agro trainees went with our program director to Riba, an agro forestry center in the Northwest Province. The drive there was another one of those intense travel experiences, and most everyone got very, very car sick, my favorite story (if that’s the rightway to describe someone being ill) was my friend sitting next to me who in the middle of a town we were driving through yells STOP in French; bolts out, vomits in front of a bunch of school children on the side of the road, jumps back in the van and off we go. There was a repeat of this same incident on the way back to Bangangte as well with the same girl. Roads and driving in this country I tell you! One of the PC vehicles also got hit by another car, but a PC Land Rover vs a small red Toyota. The Toyota got totaled and one of our trainers paid them 3000 CFA (about 6 bucks) and apparently that made everything OK and we were off again (everyone was fine; except clearly the Toyota). I took a few great pictures of some of the roads we traveled...I miss blacktop sometimes.
Riba was so far my favorite place in Cameroon. To get there you go through part of the Cameroonian grasslands, through a very mountainous region and much more dry areas than anywhere we have been so far.There were waterfalls everywhere...and it was much cooler and less humid...just all around perfect. We spent one full day at the agro forestry center hiking around and looking at all their different plots; nurseries; etc. We ended our day playing volleyball. You know you're in Africa when your volleyball net posts are made the minute before you use them by cutting down a Eucalyptus tree, chopping it in half and sticking it into the ground ;^). We stayed in a hotel for the 2 nights we spent in the Northwest and.......MY FIRST HOTSHOWER IN CAMEROON!!!! I almost passed out from happiness, I kid you not! We got to eat chicken both nights and FRENCH FRIES and ate tons of watermelon (which is very, very prevalent in the NW) and I just had an overall amazing time with everyone. A few interesting events: a few trainees had chicken eyeball and brain eating contests (I left the room for a bit here, ha-ha) and on the trip back I got to ride in the car with our program director (who is the cutest old man) and he taught us Cameroonian dances by the side of the road (in front of many many onlookers). I asked about cemeteries in Cameroon and he took us to a cemetery in Bamenda (on the trip back) and it was really, really neat (but I always think cemeteries are interesting), they build big tile boxes and have extravagant plantings, etc on them; lastly we got to go to a restaurant and eat salad. Food is always a highlight. The waitress attempted to rip us off by putting all the wrong prices on our bill. I argued with her for several minutes, told her all the right prices and she just kept laughing at me as I continued to tell her that I know we are white people but I can read and add all the same. She thought I was pretty funny and told me when we were leaving that we must not be tourists. I was proud of myself.
Alright, that’s all for now, this week is going to be very, very busy and I probably won’t be able to write for 2 weeks until after I am settled in my new house (hopefully). WISH ME LUCK!!!!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!
My first real holiday in Cameroon...its very strange because it doesn’t feel like time passes with no seasonal change to demarcate it...no changing leaves, no cold temperatures (which I know thrills a lot of you...but I miss it!), no snow (I'm really going to miss snow). I'm thinking of all of you tomorrow for sure and all the wonderful Thanksgivings I've had in the past (last year I think of a lot...all of you family members and all you Wausau kids in Maggie’s van). Ah...have fun and eat some pie for me!
Everything here has been going a little slow lately. We’ve had a lot of sessions that have seemed a little redundant and since it’s getting so close to the end of training a lot of our patience is waning and it’s becoming a bit obvious. Most trainees have reached their language level so the majority of us don’t have language class any more and there is a lot of sitting around being bored and unproductive. In addition there has been 2 early terminations (2 heath trainees decided to go home), one girl got malaria (she’s much better now), and a few thefts and problems with people and their home stay families. Moral has taken a few blows and I think its a good thing we get to move on from training soon. For all of you who were interested, my hairy tongue that I ate was in fact pig skin. Yuck. I did my research and was a bit dismayed by the outcome...don’t eat pig skin! If that’s the one thing you learn from reading this blog I will be satisfied! :^)
My band has been practicing regularly and a few interesting incidents have occurred in the process: my sister brought us out a plate of fruit one day and slid on the muddy slope up to the stairs we were sitting on and fell HARD on her side. It shook me up a bit...made me realize that a close call here (she could have hit her head on the cement steps) is a much closer call than in the states. They probably wouldn’t do much at the hospital...which is kinda far away anyways; especially since there aren’t cars that come very close to the house...just a little scary. I made my brother go get some ice (I’m not sure from where since that was the first ice I’ve seen here) and I gave her an Advil and held her hand. That was about all there was to do and she was fine in the end. It was kinda funny because my family knows I have a PC medical kit and think it contains a magical cure for everything, the second she fell; literally, my mother asks me what medicine I have for it.
Second band practice of the week (we are in hardcore practice mode for our Thanksgiving CONCERT...yes, and I am singing!!!! this is a big deal). We were sitting on my back porch and all the sudden everyone starts running around crazily yelling things that we don’t understand and out of no where we are attacked by a HUGE swarm of very angry bees (in part from the neighbor kid who dressed up like a ninja and was chasing them around with a towel). All 7 of us practicing as well as about 12 people watching ran into the house, slammed the door and killed bees for several minutes. I didn’t get stung but the main singer got stung 6 times on the head and another guy right by his eye. I told the story to my mother, who hadn’t been there, that night and my family kept acting it out and I would play my role by running and yelling around the dining room, which they thought was clearly very hilarious. It was definitely one of the times when I’ve felt like I could finally talk to and participate in the family discussion (even if it was just by being the ridiculous white girl running from bees). I also had another moment one night where skin color got brought up. Here EVERYONE calls you la blanche; la blanche (which means white; white) constantly. My mother asked how I felt about it and I told her it didn’t bother me when strangers did it, but if people knew my name they should use it. She was SOOOO incredibly in accord with this she had a heated debate with the neighbor boy-(the aforementioned ninja) who always called me the American or the white and now he always calls me Miss Kate and hugs me and is buying me bonbons tonight..hahaha one point for the white girl.
Training, aside from sitting around, has had a few good moments, like when we learned Cameroonian dances, and yes; I got named best authentic African dancer (like any of you doubted this anyway) right?! We also have learned how to kill chickens and did so last week for our weekly trainee dinner and will this week as a turkey substitute. I got a little bit bothered by the feet just laying there with no body attached. I don’t know if I will every be able to actually do that by myself. We also went on a field trip to Baham, a nearby village, and did a really neat hike up into an area with huge boulders and caves. It was GORGEOUS, and I took a lot of pictures (when you’ll get to see these remains to be revealed). We were suppose to go to a chefferie (a local chief’s compound) and his museum, but he didn’t show...slightly disappointing but also kinda expected.
I got packages today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Mom and Dad and CC and Heather for the amazing letters and packages, you are wonderful. I haven’t felt the anticipation of those packages since I was about 6 years old on Christmas Eve.
Thinking of you all tomorrow, love from here as usual.
Everything here has been going a little slow lately. We’ve had a lot of sessions that have seemed a little redundant and since it’s getting so close to the end of training a lot of our patience is waning and it’s becoming a bit obvious. Most trainees have reached their language level so the majority of us don’t have language class any more and there is a lot of sitting around being bored and unproductive. In addition there has been 2 early terminations (2 heath trainees decided to go home), one girl got malaria (she’s much better now), and a few thefts and problems with people and their home stay families. Moral has taken a few blows and I think its a good thing we get to move on from training soon. For all of you who were interested, my hairy tongue that I ate was in fact pig skin. Yuck. I did my research and was a bit dismayed by the outcome...don’t eat pig skin! If that’s the one thing you learn from reading this blog I will be satisfied! :^)
My band has been practicing regularly and a few interesting incidents have occurred in the process: my sister brought us out a plate of fruit one day and slid on the muddy slope up to the stairs we were sitting on and fell HARD on her side. It shook me up a bit...made me realize that a close call here (she could have hit her head on the cement steps) is a much closer call than in the states. They probably wouldn’t do much at the hospital...which is kinda far away anyways; especially since there aren’t cars that come very close to the house...just a little scary. I made my brother go get some ice (I’m not sure from where since that was the first ice I’ve seen here) and I gave her an Advil and held her hand. That was about all there was to do and she was fine in the end. It was kinda funny because my family knows I have a PC medical kit and think it contains a magical cure for everything, the second she fell; literally, my mother asks me what medicine I have for it.
Second band practice of the week (we are in hardcore practice mode for our Thanksgiving CONCERT...yes, and I am singing!!!! this is a big deal). We were sitting on my back porch and all the sudden everyone starts running around crazily yelling things that we don’t understand and out of no where we are attacked by a HUGE swarm of very angry bees (in part from the neighbor kid who dressed up like a ninja and was chasing them around with a towel). All 7 of us practicing as well as about 12 people watching ran into the house, slammed the door and killed bees for several minutes. I didn’t get stung but the main singer got stung 6 times on the head and another guy right by his eye. I told the story to my mother, who hadn’t been there, that night and my family kept acting it out and I would play my role by running and yelling around the dining room, which they thought was clearly very hilarious. It was definitely one of the times when I’ve felt like I could finally talk to and participate in the family discussion (even if it was just by being the ridiculous white girl running from bees). I also had another moment one night where skin color got brought up. Here EVERYONE calls you la blanche; la blanche (which means white; white) constantly. My mother asked how I felt about it and I told her it didn’t bother me when strangers did it, but if people knew my name they should use it. She was SOOOO incredibly in accord with this she had a heated debate with the neighbor boy-(the aforementioned ninja) who always called me the American or the white and now he always calls me Miss Kate and hugs me and is buying me bonbons tonight..hahaha one point for the white girl.
Training, aside from sitting around, has had a few good moments, like when we learned Cameroonian dances, and yes; I got named best authentic African dancer (like any of you doubted this anyway) right?! We also have learned how to kill chickens and did so last week for our weekly trainee dinner and will this week as a turkey substitute. I got a little bit bothered by the feet just laying there with no body attached. I don’t know if I will every be able to actually do that by myself. We also went on a field trip to Baham, a nearby village, and did a really neat hike up into an area with huge boulders and caves. It was GORGEOUS, and I took a lot of pictures (when you’ll get to see these remains to be revealed). We were suppose to go to a chefferie (a local chief’s compound) and his museum, but he didn’t show...slightly disappointing but also kinda expected.
I got packages today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Mom and Dad and CC and Heather for the amazing letters and packages, you are wonderful. I haven’t felt the anticipation of those packages since I was about 6 years old on Christmas Eve.
Thinking of you all tomorrow, love from here as usual.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Teasing the MEAN monkey!
Hello all!
I am currently writing this on a friend's computer, and I am extremely excited about the English keyboard and my ability to take my time typing and making sure I get to say all that I want to say! Where to start…SOOOO much happened in the past week, it feels like an eternity has gone by since I last posted here! I started out the week leaving Bangante on Sunday with my counterpart and a group of other volunteers who were all headed to either the South or the East provinces (not many of us in actuality). I take a pretty crowded van down to Yaounde and then a REALLY NICE bus (actually seats and only one person per seat) to Ebolowa…and the roads are paved…and super nice, so that's excellent! From Ebolowa to my house (and the beginning of my village) it's only a ten minute motto ride…and it's beautiful! To get to my house you head out between two steep hills on either side of the road covered in trees…it's definitely jungle. My house is one in a group of three apartments right at a fork in the road, I don't really have many neighbors, but I am right next to my landlord’s house (he pretty much built these apartments in his yard…thus I'm sad because I don't have a yard of my own, but I'm going to do some bribing via fresh produce and get him to let me make a garden in his yard). My landlord is a retired military official, AND I am directly…and I mean, directly, across the street from a Gendarmerie (a police station), thus don't be too concerned about my safety! And if that's not enough for you…I have a pretty fierce monkey in a cage in my front yard as well…which my counterpart enjoys taunting, this is interesting.
I spent my week driving around on the back of my counterpart's motto being introduced to absolutely anyone and everyone in the village, to sum it up I met: police, the mayor/school principle, hospital staff, nursery (plant nursery that is) employees, many Ministry of Agriculture employees, village farmers, a woman who makes chocolate (who I want to work with…for obvious reasons), gendarmes, my supervisor Hans (who is a the Ministry of Agriculture delegate for rural and community development, which sounds pretty important), among other random people. I also went to see a water project that had been completed in a neighboring village and got to hike out to a GORGEOUS area in the middle of the rainforest with waterfalls, and oh my god I wanted to swim so badly I nearly subjected myself to whatever parasites I would supposedly get just to do so. I also attended a meeting with an organization from Yaounde, ANAFOR, which is an Agro Forestry NGO and I had dinner with a lot of different people: my supervisor, some neighbors of the volunteer I was staying with, some French missionaries, a women’s HIV/AIDS group, etc… My counterpart (Oscar Obam) has told people I am his child "Kate Obam"...so just call me that from this point on
For the first 4 nights at my site I stayed with the current health volunteer in Ebolowa, Lindsey. We got along excellently and she was SOOO knowledgeable about pretty much everything in town. She was finishing her service the week I was there, so I helped her pack up her house and she moved out on Thursday. We took all her stuff to our Post mate’s house (the education volunteer who also lives in Ebolowa) Rachel, and stayed there for another night. On Friday a health volunteer in my training group, Kim (who lives about 45 minutes from me to the north) came down and met up with us. Rachel, Lindsey, Kim and I all got in a car to head out en Brousse (into the bush) to go to meet up with a health volunteer and 2 trainees in my training group in Mvanga (which is only about 30 some miles from the border of Gabon). This car ride was, to say the least, interesting…14 plus a baby in a car, 7 in the back seat where I got stuck…3 hours…incredibly bad dirt roads…I think I stopped feeling every part of my body. Wow. I choose to forget about this experience!
Upon arrival in Mvanga we spent Saturday at a wedding. This wedding was also the traditional ceremony but very unlike the one I went to previously, a lot more dancing and I wasn't forced to sit in the 2 nd row again (however they did bring us a couch OUTSIDE so that we were more comfortable...they are very concerned about uncomfortable white people). I ended up getting sick this day, so I ended up hanging out at the volunteer's house the rest of the night and running back and forth to the pit latrine in the middle of the night...ha-ha...its actually kind of funny because the malaria medication I am on makes me slightly paranoid and I spend a lot of time thinking little noises are actually things like wild boars and getting very worked up about it(which by the way I don’t think even exist here)...and this happened to me many times in the pit latrine. This isn’t as bad as some other trainees stories of anti-malaria paranoia however...there are some good ones!
I also had a lot of bad luck...my permanent retainer broke off of one side of my teeth stabbed me in the tongue for a week until I ripped it out (I am very strong) and then I chipped my molar while eating some delicious caramel peanuts (don’t worry mom or dentist-to-be Brad because it was just a little bit and it just felt weird for a while and I’m getting it checked out); and THEN my camera broke...it just beeped and froze and the screen turned white...and I think I fixed it temporarily...but well see...that was the most depressing thing for me :^( our trip back from Mvanga began at 2 am (the only time a vehicle leaves from this town) and we packed over 26 people into a van and did not arrive back in Ebolowa until 9 am...this is also a period of time I would like to never repeat. I have one word for the entire weekend OWWW! Upon return to Ebolowa I made it up to Yaounde by 4 pm but was SO incredibly dead I decided to stay there in the CASE, which is like a peace corps hostel...and REALLY nice, but clearly the electricity was out when we arrived...so no hot shower yet...but really clean sheets and we ate pizza and ice cream and Twix bars, definitely an even trade.
I brought back gifts for my family...a wooden carving for my mother ( a little statue of a woman) and she has carried it around with her for the past 3 days talking about how beautiful it is constantly and kissing me EVERY time I come home...apparently it was a good gift idea!? Ha-ha... I also received "beeps" (which is when someone calls your cell phone and hangs up really fast so it just rings once) from my mother or one of my sisters every day that I was away! Lastly; my mother is making grandiose plans of visiting me in Ebolowa because she is very concerned with my ability to cook for myself...she plans to come for 2 days "do nothing but cook" and then leave...ha-ha we'll see about that.
And last, but obviously not least, I have eaten so much meat a lot of you in the states won’t even believe me! Beef and chicken and then last night my mother tried to slip in some "pork" which tasted like a hairy tongue and I don’t think it was actual pork at all...that was the first time I couldn’t finish something...it’s like fear factor every day :^)
Alright...once again MISS YOU ALL
I am currently writing this on a friend's computer, and I am extremely excited about the English keyboard and my ability to take my time typing and making sure I get to say all that I want to say! Where to start…SOOOO much happened in the past week, it feels like an eternity has gone by since I last posted here! I started out the week leaving Bangante on Sunday with my counterpart and a group of other volunteers who were all headed to either the South or the East provinces (not many of us in actuality). I take a pretty crowded van down to Yaounde and then a REALLY NICE bus (actually seats and only one person per seat) to Ebolowa…and the roads are paved…and super nice, so that's excellent! From Ebolowa to my house (and the beginning of my village) it's only a ten minute motto ride…and it's beautiful! To get to my house you head out between two steep hills on either side of the road covered in trees…it's definitely jungle. My house is one in a group of three apartments right at a fork in the road, I don't really have many neighbors, but I am right next to my landlord’s house (he pretty much built these apartments in his yard…thus I'm sad because I don't have a yard of my own, but I'm going to do some bribing via fresh produce and get him to let me make a garden in his yard). My landlord is a retired military official, AND I am directly…and I mean, directly, across the street from a Gendarmerie (a police station), thus don't be too concerned about my safety! And if that's not enough for you…I have a pretty fierce monkey in a cage in my front yard as well…which my counterpart enjoys taunting, this is interesting.
I spent my week driving around on the back of my counterpart's motto being introduced to absolutely anyone and everyone in the village, to sum it up I met: police, the mayor/school principle, hospital staff, nursery (plant nursery that is) employees, many Ministry of Agriculture employees, village farmers, a woman who makes chocolate (who I want to work with…for obvious reasons), gendarmes, my supervisor Hans (who is a the Ministry of Agriculture delegate for rural and community development, which sounds pretty important), among other random people. I also went to see a water project that had been completed in a neighboring village and got to hike out to a GORGEOUS area in the middle of the rainforest with waterfalls, and oh my god I wanted to swim so badly I nearly subjected myself to whatever parasites I would supposedly get just to do so. I also attended a meeting with an organization from Yaounde, ANAFOR, which is an Agro Forestry NGO and I had dinner with a lot of different people: my supervisor, some neighbors of the volunteer I was staying with, some French missionaries, a women’s HIV/AIDS group, etc… My counterpart (Oscar Obam) has told people I am his child "Kate Obam"...so just call me that from this point on
For the first 4 nights at my site I stayed with the current health volunteer in Ebolowa, Lindsey. We got along excellently and she was SOOO knowledgeable about pretty much everything in town. She was finishing her service the week I was there, so I helped her pack up her house and she moved out on Thursday. We took all her stuff to our Post mate’s house (the education volunteer who also lives in Ebolowa) Rachel, and stayed there for another night. On Friday a health volunteer in my training group, Kim (who lives about 45 minutes from me to the north) came down and met up with us. Rachel, Lindsey, Kim and I all got in a car to head out en Brousse (into the bush) to go to meet up with a health volunteer and 2 trainees in my training group in Mvanga (which is only about 30 some miles from the border of Gabon). This car ride was, to say the least, interesting…14 plus a baby in a car, 7 in the back seat where I got stuck…3 hours…incredibly bad dirt roads…I think I stopped feeling every part of my body. Wow. I choose to forget about this experience!
Upon arrival in Mvanga we spent Saturday at a wedding. This wedding was also the traditional ceremony but very unlike the one I went to previously, a lot more dancing and I wasn't forced to sit in the 2 nd row again (however they did bring us a couch OUTSIDE so that we were more comfortable...they are very concerned about uncomfortable white people). I ended up getting sick this day, so I ended up hanging out at the volunteer's house the rest of the night and running back and forth to the pit latrine in the middle of the night...ha-ha...its actually kind of funny because the malaria medication I am on makes me slightly paranoid and I spend a lot of time thinking little noises are actually things like wild boars and getting very worked up about it(which by the way I don’t think even exist here)...and this happened to me many times in the pit latrine. This isn’t as bad as some other trainees stories of anti-malaria paranoia however...there are some good ones!
I also had a lot of bad luck...my permanent retainer broke off of one side of my teeth stabbed me in the tongue for a week until I ripped it out (I am very strong) and then I chipped my molar while eating some delicious caramel peanuts (don’t worry mom or dentist-to-be Brad because it was just a little bit and it just felt weird for a while and I’m getting it checked out); and THEN my camera broke...it just beeped and froze and the screen turned white...and I think I fixed it temporarily...but well see...that was the most depressing thing for me :^( our trip back from Mvanga began at 2 am (the only time a vehicle leaves from this town) and we packed over 26 people into a van and did not arrive back in Ebolowa until 9 am...this is also a period of time I would like to never repeat. I have one word for the entire weekend OWWW! Upon return to Ebolowa I made it up to Yaounde by 4 pm but was SO incredibly dead I decided to stay there in the CASE, which is like a peace corps hostel...and REALLY nice, but clearly the electricity was out when we arrived...so no hot shower yet...but really clean sheets and we ate pizza and ice cream and Twix bars, definitely an even trade.
I brought back gifts for my family...a wooden carving for my mother ( a little statue of a woman) and she has carried it around with her for the past 3 days talking about how beautiful it is constantly and kissing me EVERY time I come home...apparently it was a good gift idea!? Ha-ha... I also received "beeps" (which is when someone calls your cell phone and hangs up really fast so it just rings once) from my mother or one of my sisters every day that I was away! Lastly; my mother is making grandiose plans of visiting me in Ebolowa because she is very concerned with my ability to cook for myself...she plans to come for 2 days "do nothing but cook" and then leave...ha-ha we'll see about that.
And last, but obviously not least, I have eaten so much meat a lot of you in the states won’t even believe me! Beef and chicken and then last night my mother tried to slip in some "pork" which tasted like a hairy tongue and I don’t think it was actual pork at all...that was the first time I couldn’t finish something...it’s like fear factor every day :^)
Alright...once again MISS YOU ALL
Monday, November 5, 2007
Kates' PC Posting
Alright, just to quickly let everyone know so you can do my research for me on my new home for the next two years. I'm in Ebolowa in the South Province. I am EXTREMELY excited about this job. I’m working with a GIC (a small organization) and it sounds like I’ll be focusing on stopping the spread of slash and burn agriculture and medicinal plants. The South Province is one of the most "undeveloped" areas in the country...as a volunteer described to me. My house (which is BRAND new apparently) is at the end of the road where the village ends and the jungle begins. So I'm pretty much placed exactly where I envisioned and doing something that I am very, very interested in. A lot of other posts are very focused on agriculture; and I’m excited because mine seems a lot more natural resource conservation oriented IE: right up my alley. I met my counterpart yesterday and yesterday and today we are having a workshop with all the Ag volunteers and counterparts. He’s very nice so far...kind of quiet and when I try to make jokes they seem to get lost in translation a lot (as usual) but we’ve been working well together thus far. I was lucky because there is a health volunteer currently in my town and she happened to be in Bangangte at our training for the past week so she gave me lots of details and I will get to stay with her while on site visit, which makes it a bit easier for me. However, I am opening my post...meaning I am the first Ag volunteer there...this should be a bit challenging; and since the south a about 50 years (or so they say) behind in "development" introducing some of these new techniques may be a tad difficult. I am also located about 2 hours (only during the dry season however, when the road is open) from Kribi which I a touristy beach town...I’m going to go for Christmas ;^) and 2 hours from Yaoundé (where the PC headquarters is and the airport) very convenient. Plus I’m at the edge of the provincial capital of the south...so the best of all worlds in my eyes! Alright, tis all for now! Wish me luck!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Kate's Posting
Note from Dad:
Sue and I talked to Kate on Saturday, 11-3-2007. She left for her posting the next day and maybe unavailable for the week that follows as she visits there, so I am posting for her. Kate is excited about her posting; she will be living in a small village called Ngalane. This village is right outside the South Provincial Capital of Ebolowa. Ebolowa is a town of about 50,000 (Kate is skeptical about their population estimates) people made up of the Bulu people. It is located in a lush green valley on an artificial lake. Kate’s posting consists of working with the local people on slash & burn sites and none timber forest products. This is a new posting as the Peace Corp is expanding into southern Cameroon and has not had an individual posted there before, so it will be challenging. Her house is brand new and is at the end of the road and the start of the deep dark jungle.
This area is the ancestral home of the “pygmys’ who still have forest encampments in the area. Ebolowa is about a two hour drive south of the Capital Yaounde and a few hours drive from the Atlantic Coastal town of Kribi and is accessible to visit. Kribi evidently is a beautiful town with white sandy beaches & palm trees. Between Ebolowa and Kribi is a the National Park Camp Ma ‘an. This is a wild park with gorilla, forest elephants, lions, leopards and all the other fun African Wildlife. East of this town at some distance is a World Heritage Site call Die Reserve (believe it is a forest reserve). I believe Kate’s nearest PCVolunteer will be posted about 30 miles away. She is friendly with this girl and shares a passion for needle crafts. This is about as much as I know about her posting. We look forward to hearing from Kate about it after her week stay there.
Sue and I talked to Kate on Saturday, 11-3-2007. She left for her posting the next day and maybe unavailable for the week that follows as she visits there, so I am posting for her. Kate is excited about her posting; she will be living in a small village called Ngalane. This village is right outside the South Provincial Capital of Ebolowa. Ebolowa is a town of about 50,000 (Kate is skeptical about their population estimates) people made up of the Bulu people. It is located in a lush green valley on an artificial lake. Kate’s posting consists of working with the local people on slash & burn sites and none timber forest products. This is a new posting as the Peace Corp is expanding into southern Cameroon and has not had an individual posted there before, so it will be challenging. Her house is brand new and is at the end of the road and the start of the deep dark jungle.
This area is the ancestral home of the “pygmys’ who still have forest encampments in the area. Ebolowa is about a two hour drive south of the Capital Yaounde and a few hours drive from the Atlantic Coastal town of Kribi and is accessible to visit. Kribi evidently is a beautiful town with white sandy beaches & palm trees. Between Ebolowa and Kribi is a the National Park Camp Ma ‘an. This is a wild park with gorilla, forest elephants, lions, leopards and all the other fun African Wildlife. East of this town at some distance is a World Heritage Site call Die Reserve (believe it is a forest reserve). I believe Kate’s nearest PCVolunteer will be posted about 30 miles away. She is friendly with this girl and shares a passion for needle crafts. This is about as much as I know about her posting. We look forward to hearing from Kate about it after her week stay there.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Bonjour tout le monde!!!
Bonjour tout le monde!!!
I hope all is well with everyone; thanks for all your comments...I laugh at everything everyone write to me, or smile, or get close to tears and try to share everything you say with the people around me (the weird looks continue). I haven’t gotten any letters anyone has mentioned sending yet. It looks like the mail is just as slow as anticipated. But I anxiously await them and will let you know when they do arrive.
So, on to the updates:
The Peace Corps has established a lot of new rules...none of which any of us are too pleased about. For example: we can only be out after 6 pm on Wed (when we have a trainee dinner party every week AT school) and on Saturday and Sunday. We must inform the training director a day in advance of what exactly we will be doing and get him to OK our plans, this includes family outings (which if you have been reading this you will notice severely interferes with my mother’s plans for my social life). Only 2 people per weekend can leave town to travel, and this must be okayed 3 days in advance...very tricky considering there are 5 weekends left and 42 people all of whom want to travel. Also, we can only drink one alcoholic beverage on any given day (now...this isn’t hard for me, I hate the beer anyway...but I'm not with the man on this either). So in general not too many people are happy about the rules and such...oh well...so little time left here in actuality! Training has been a little bizarre without any set French Class; I ended up doing a lot of "putting myself out into the community to enrich my language skills" aka: taking walks; with other Americans while speaking English and eating chocolate. :) I do however get to write for "Dix Huit Heures" which is our trainee newsletter. I did a numerology article and a report on the number of mosquito bites we have all received (riveting). We received our moped helmets (brand new; thank you US government) and our bikes. We had a 6 hour training session on bike maintenance (dad you would have appreciated this ) and I realized just how much I should have known while using a bike so often throughout my college career (aka how many things I should have DONE to not get myself killed). I also was seeking out this bike I saw with a purple bell...sorry to say the bike itself was a tad too large. BUT I did get a purple lock (when I shared this with my brother he ignored me...apparently it really isn’t important) Ha-Ha. I'm getting into the ( ) here, so I apologize for all the tangents! We also had a few interesting lectures: on corruption in Cameroon (bad news), medicinal plants, guest speakers from a variety of organizations doing nonprofit work in Cameroon, and then we had to give another presentation. This time it was in French. They didn’t tell us that until 2 people had already done theirs in English; and we had all prepared in English. I sucked it up and went anyway...slightly flying by the seat of my pants; and although I'm sure I had a horrible red face and was sweating buckets I think I did well enough.
Family related news:
Now my grandmother’s sister is staying with us and I have gained a new bother. I'm not sure where he came from or how he’s related but he’s definitely living with us! The family thing here boggles my mind. My mothers "cousin" (thus really anyone she knew) died last Thursday. So I didn’t see my mother at home for 4 days straight and there was a HUGE funeral in town, which lasted for this entire time. I didn’t see much, I think I went to the mourning session or something?! It consisted of a room full of old women singing and crying in tune with the music. My mother had me go around and greet each crying women individually and I just felt horrible! Then I sat with them for a few minutes (thankfully only a few) and almost started crying myself. It was pretty intense. I luckily got to leave because it was getting dark, so my sister took me to talk to my dad, then to look at skirts at the seamstress's house, and then home. My family still enjoys showing me off it seems and then my mother asked me if I would like to go see the body THIS Friday...a week and a half after!? I’m not sure about that! I helped my youngest sister with her English homework again (not to be a bad family member and pick favorites, but she is definitely it). I mean we had a discussion about knitting. To define tragedy her teacher told her "a bad situation caused by magical witchcraft". I actually quite like this definition and will now be using it in everyday exchanges. I also decided it would be a good idea to have me brothers have a pushup contest with me sitting on their back...none of them could do it, but they told me it was because I was too heavy!
In town lately there have been a series of bad moto/car accidents....3 in the past week and I think a total of 15 people from the area have died. This is pretty scary. Just imagine what people would think of that number dead from traffic accidents in the US. Apparently one of the trainees saw it on the news and they showed dismembered bodies, etc...I'm just glad I wasn’t watching at that point in time.
Another topic of interest: Food. I have recently become obsessed with the prunes here. They are not AT ALL like prunes in the US. They are purple on the outside with this thin layer of green fruit inside, they are bitter and sweet and salty and amazing all at once. When I first tried them I hated them but now I can’t get enough! I also enjoy a good spaghetti omelet from time to time (that’s right...spaghetti and eggs) but I have yet to try the spaghetti omelet sandwich (add in the bread). There are also these peanuts that are covered in sugar. I eat about 3 packs a day...oh delicious!
To end with the cockroach story you all wait for: cockroaches enjoy dark places - oui? Well...little did I expect them to like my bathroom sink drain. Yes, they have taken up shop there and each time I turn on the water the sink backs up and out come, swimming like champions, the cockroaches! My goal is usually to drown them, so I splash them with water until they stop moving and slide back into the drain. Do not knock how I find entertainment here! So, I think that's about it! I have a meeting with my project coordinator tomorrow during which (I think) I find out my post! AKA: where I will be working for the next 2 years! I can't wait to just know finally. Then on Friday I meet my counterpart, the person I will be working with the entire time at post. On Sunday I leave with this person to spend an entire week at me post! It’s happening so fast!!!
Happy Halloween everyone!!! Never underestimate my costume making abilities...I am a mosquito with only a black marker, an empty toilet paper roll and a sheet of paper :^).
I hope all is well with everyone; thanks for all your comments...I laugh at everything everyone write to me, or smile, or get close to tears and try to share everything you say with the people around me (the weird looks continue). I haven’t gotten any letters anyone has mentioned sending yet. It looks like the mail is just as slow as anticipated. But I anxiously await them and will let you know when they do arrive.
So, on to the updates:
The Peace Corps has established a lot of new rules...none of which any of us are too pleased about. For example: we can only be out after 6 pm on Wed (when we have a trainee dinner party every week AT school) and on Saturday and Sunday. We must inform the training director a day in advance of what exactly we will be doing and get him to OK our plans, this includes family outings (which if you have been reading this you will notice severely interferes with my mother’s plans for my social life). Only 2 people per weekend can leave town to travel, and this must be okayed 3 days in advance...very tricky considering there are 5 weekends left and 42 people all of whom want to travel. Also, we can only drink one alcoholic beverage on any given day (now...this isn’t hard for me, I hate the beer anyway...but I'm not with the man on this either). So in general not too many people are happy about the rules and such...oh well...so little time left here in actuality! Training has been a little bizarre without any set French Class; I ended up doing a lot of "putting myself out into the community to enrich my language skills" aka: taking walks; with other Americans while speaking English and eating chocolate. :) I do however get to write for "Dix Huit Heures" which is our trainee newsletter. I did a numerology article and a report on the number of mosquito bites we have all received (riveting). We received our moped helmets (brand new; thank you US government) and our bikes. We had a 6 hour training session on bike maintenance (dad you would have appreciated this ) and I realized just how much I should have known while using a bike so often throughout my college career (aka how many things I should have DONE to not get myself killed). I also was seeking out this bike I saw with a purple bell...sorry to say the bike itself was a tad too large. BUT I did get a purple lock (when I shared this with my brother he ignored me...apparently it really isn’t important) Ha-Ha. I'm getting into the ( ) here, so I apologize for all the tangents! We also had a few interesting lectures: on corruption in Cameroon (bad news), medicinal plants, guest speakers from a variety of organizations doing nonprofit work in Cameroon, and then we had to give another presentation. This time it was in French. They didn’t tell us that until 2 people had already done theirs in English; and we had all prepared in English. I sucked it up and went anyway...slightly flying by the seat of my pants; and although I'm sure I had a horrible red face and was sweating buckets I think I did well enough.
Family related news:
Now my grandmother’s sister is staying with us and I have gained a new bother. I'm not sure where he came from or how he’s related but he’s definitely living with us! The family thing here boggles my mind. My mothers "cousin" (thus really anyone she knew) died last Thursday. So I didn’t see my mother at home for 4 days straight and there was a HUGE funeral in town, which lasted for this entire time. I didn’t see much, I think I went to the mourning session or something?! It consisted of a room full of old women singing and crying in tune with the music. My mother had me go around and greet each crying women individually and I just felt horrible! Then I sat with them for a few minutes (thankfully only a few) and almost started crying myself. It was pretty intense. I luckily got to leave because it was getting dark, so my sister took me to talk to my dad, then to look at skirts at the seamstress's house, and then home. My family still enjoys showing me off it seems and then my mother asked me if I would like to go see the body THIS Friday...a week and a half after!? I’m not sure about that! I helped my youngest sister with her English homework again (not to be a bad family member and pick favorites, but she is definitely it). I mean we had a discussion about knitting. To define tragedy her teacher told her "a bad situation caused by magical witchcraft". I actually quite like this definition and will now be using it in everyday exchanges. I also decided it would be a good idea to have me brothers have a pushup contest with me sitting on their back...none of them could do it, but they told me it was because I was too heavy!
In town lately there have been a series of bad moto/car accidents....3 in the past week and I think a total of 15 people from the area have died. This is pretty scary. Just imagine what people would think of that number dead from traffic accidents in the US. Apparently one of the trainees saw it on the news and they showed dismembered bodies, etc...I'm just glad I wasn’t watching at that point in time.
Another topic of interest: Food. I have recently become obsessed with the prunes here. They are not AT ALL like prunes in the US. They are purple on the outside with this thin layer of green fruit inside, they are bitter and sweet and salty and amazing all at once. When I first tried them I hated them but now I can’t get enough! I also enjoy a good spaghetti omelet from time to time (that’s right...spaghetti and eggs) but I have yet to try the spaghetti omelet sandwich (add in the bread). There are also these peanuts that are covered in sugar. I eat about 3 packs a day...oh delicious!
To end with the cockroach story you all wait for: cockroaches enjoy dark places - oui? Well...little did I expect them to like my bathroom sink drain. Yes, they have taken up shop there and each time I turn on the water the sink backs up and out come, swimming like champions, the cockroaches! My goal is usually to drown them, so I splash them with water until they stop moving and slide back into the drain. Do not knock how I find entertainment here! So, I think that's about it! I have a meeting with my project coordinator tomorrow during which (I think) I find out my post! AKA: where I will be working for the next 2 years! I can't wait to just know finally. Then on Friday I meet my counterpart, the person I will be working with the entire time at post. On Sunday I leave with this person to spend an entire week at me post! It’s happening so fast!!!
Happy Halloween everyone!!! Never underestimate my costume making abilities...I am a mosquito with only a black marker, an empty toilet paper roll and a sheet of paper :^).
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
A Cameroonian Wedding - Buying the Bride!
Another week...Its true what they told us in training weeks go extremely quickly and days go by slow...I’m done with week 4 already! I forgot to mention in my last post that I attended a Cameroonian wedding 2 weekends ago. It was the traditional wedding, apparently each couple has 3 separate weddings here: traditional, church; and then some other one I cannot quite recall, I think legal. Of course, being the white people; we sat in the living room of the house where the wedding was held with the parents and closest family members; while all the other relatives and friends had to sit outside (where you couldn’t see a thing that was taking place) there were 4 of us and 2 ended up coming later...we all felt really bad because we took up these important seats. The wedding consists of a really long drawn out skit in which the bride and the grooms families argue over how much money the grooms will give to the bride; and then the brides family proceeds to "trick" the groom by bringing out false brides (other women) hidden under a piece of cloth. This took a good hour and a half. When they finally paid the right price they brought out the correct bride; there was a lot of singing and clapping and then they took the groom away for an hour of questioning while we all sat there listening to blasting Cameroonian pop music from the HUGE rented stereo system. There was also a hired man recording everything...he had a spot light which he would point directly at you when he chose to tape you and us, once again; being the white people, where featured far too often in the film. Finally the ceremony took place; we all ate the traditional Kola Nut (I think it symbolizes health) and then ate from the ENORMOUS buffet table, which featured off all things...3 goats; entire goats cooked up eyeball-filled heads and all; each in their own shiny silver catering bin. The wedding took 4 hours up to this point and we left; but I assume there was a dance late into the night...it was interesting; but actually quite exhausting!
In other news: I had my language test and my performance evaluation this past week. Apparently, and I find this to be completely inaccurate, I am now "advanced low" in French, which means I moved up from a 3 out of 10 to a 7 out of 10 and am now in the independent learning class, so I don’t have a teacher nor any set hours and I am completely responsible for learning French on my own. I don’t think this is good! I need to talk and have other people talk to me...we'll see how this goes...but due to the fact I still can’t get past the most basic of conversations with...nor understand hardly anything my family says...I’m thinking I need a teacher :^). My evaluation went very well. My home stay intermediary (the person who takes care of all issues between my family and me) told me that my mother loves me and constantly says she's so lucky she got me (and I feel the same way about them...so that’s excellent) and my technical trainer said "the Kate you are now is the Kate you should be at post"...so that was wonderful to hear too...and I got an overall score of 98%...not bad eh!? Considering I still feel lost a lot in general... I also had to give a presentation...which if you know me well you know makes me more nervous than most anything else...mine was on seed harvest and storage and I think it went just fine and everyone told me it was the most useful one that had been given which made me a little more confident in my presentation abilities...but not much...I HATE talking in front of people. We have another one coming up a bit later about culture and I’m definitely more excited since I’m going to do "material culture: basket weaving, pottery, and clothing" ha-ha....sounds great eh?
I had another interesting night with my mother on Friday...we walked over a few streets and a moto pulled up (I never know where I'm going or what I'm doing before the exact instant I do it) and she told me to get on...now, I cant ride a moto without a helmet...she knows this...so I tried to blurt it out in my moment of panic at being found out by PC for disobeying rules and it came out something like "I have need for my helmet; I lost my job" but it got the point across and the moto driver gave me his and then drove very "responsibly" (and kept telling me so) the entire way to a bar; where we met my mother’s "brother" who really couldn’t have been her brother at all because he didn’t even know where she lived: he told me "you are not shy"...I took it as a compliment. Then I made us walk home in a light rain the whole way because of the helmet thing and I ended up falling off of the road, blame it on the uneven pavement, and hurting my foot...not bad, but to the extent where it hurt to walk for 3 days, its better now though!!!! I walked here :^) then we continued on to some rich guys house, he’s a "deputy" and my mother is helping to run his campaign (I think, nothings ever very clear here) and I ate dinner with all these expensive looking men who openly talked about me in front of me...I heard "she's young" and "pretty, she resembles her mother"
My grandmother is still visiting us...we played cards and made fried plantains together (which taste almost like McDonalds French Fries) and she made me eat FAR too many, I think I may die from purely the amount of palm oil I consume in this country. My sisters are doing well...continuing to paint my nails in all the colors under the sun and spray me with perfume. I helped my sister draw pictures for some engineering-like class yesterday, and I cut off a fish’s gills and skin with her (this was kind of major for me as I'm sure you can all understand; but she said I did a good job). My brothers are the same as always...they caught another rat...I was disappointed it wasn’t as large as the first. and to end with the continuing cockroach story of the week: I got to school yesterday; opened my backpack during our coffee break...only to have a cockroach sprint out and run across the veranda...they're trying to infiltrate every aspect of my existence!!!!
Thanks again for the calls/emails/thoughts (you better at least have given me a thought) :^) Love from here. Kate
ps. sorry this was so incredibly long!!!
In other news: I had my language test and my performance evaluation this past week. Apparently, and I find this to be completely inaccurate, I am now "advanced low" in French, which means I moved up from a 3 out of 10 to a 7 out of 10 and am now in the independent learning class, so I don’t have a teacher nor any set hours and I am completely responsible for learning French on my own. I don’t think this is good! I need to talk and have other people talk to me...we'll see how this goes...but due to the fact I still can’t get past the most basic of conversations with...nor understand hardly anything my family says...I’m thinking I need a teacher :^). My evaluation went very well. My home stay intermediary (the person who takes care of all issues between my family and me) told me that my mother loves me and constantly says she's so lucky she got me (and I feel the same way about them...so that’s excellent) and my technical trainer said "the Kate you are now is the Kate you should be at post"...so that was wonderful to hear too...and I got an overall score of 98%...not bad eh!? Considering I still feel lost a lot in general... I also had to give a presentation...which if you know me well you know makes me more nervous than most anything else...mine was on seed harvest and storage and I think it went just fine and everyone told me it was the most useful one that had been given which made me a little more confident in my presentation abilities...but not much...I HATE talking in front of people. We have another one coming up a bit later about culture and I’m definitely more excited since I’m going to do "material culture: basket weaving, pottery, and clothing" ha-ha....sounds great eh?
I had another interesting night with my mother on Friday...we walked over a few streets and a moto pulled up (I never know where I'm going or what I'm doing before the exact instant I do it) and she told me to get on...now, I cant ride a moto without a helmet...she knows this...so I tried to blurt it out in my moment of panic at being found out by PC for disobeying rules and it came out something like "I have need for my helmet; I lost my job" but it got the point across and the moto driver gave me his and then drove very "responsibly" (and kept telling me so) the entire way to a bar; where we met my mother’s "brother" who really couldn’t have been her brother at all because he didn’t even know where she lived: he told me "you are not shy"...I took it as a compliment. Then I made us walk home in a light rain the whole way because of the helmet thing and I ended up falling off of the road, blame it on the uneven pavement, and hurting my foot...not bad, but to the extent where it hurt to walk for 3 days, its better now though!!!! I walked here :^) then we continued on to some rich guys house, he’s a "deputy" and my mother is helping to run his campaign (I think, nothings ever very clear here) and I ate dinner with all these expensive looking men who openly talked about me in front of me...I heard "she's young" and "pretty, she resembles her mother"
My grandmother is still visiting us...we played cards and made fried plantains together (which taste almost like McDonalds French Fries) and she made me eat FAR too many, I think I may die from purely the amount of palm oil I consume in this country. My sisters are doing well...continuing to paint my nails in all the colors under the sun and spray me with perfume. I helped my sister draw pictures for some engineering-like class yesterday, and I cut off a fish’s gills and skin with her (this was kind of major for me as I'm sure you can all understand; but she said I did a good job). My brothers are the same as always...they caught another rat...I was disappointed it wasn’t as large as the first. and to end with the continuing cockroach story of the week: I got to school yesterday; opened my backpack during our coffee break...only to have a cockroach sprint out and run across the veranda...they're trying to infiltrate every aspect of my existence!!!!
Thanks again for the calls/emails/thoughts (you better at least have given me a thought) :^) Love from here. Kate
ps. sorry this was so incredibly long!!!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
They're eating my furniture!!!
HI ALL
So much happens in a week i have to keep a record of everything in a little notebook and bring it with me to the internet cafe...training is still going well, id say better; i got moved up in my french class because i told the language placement person i was not being challenged and apparently my teacher agreed, so now im in the intermediate class and its much better but not too challenging, thus...perfect! our 4th week is the beginning of immersion week, thus we can only speak french to our trainers and classmates outside of technical sessions in most areas of the building. if we speak english we get extra homework, its like being in 1st grade all over again. tech sessions are interesting; we learned about tree grafting and marcotting, basically cloning, and got to practice it. i was pretty fascinated by this, and since we have to do a presentation on something agroforestry related, im thinking this will be mine. we also build mproved cookstoves in a few traditional kitchens in the community and my familys home was chosen. thus, all the volunteers came to my house and i learned 1; my mother is the most beautiful mother 2; my sister is the prettiest of everyones sisters 3;my house is way nicer than everyone elses...so hey, im not complaining. i also found out this past week that my mother is a princess in the town...now im not sure what this means but i think shes the cheifs daughter, not sure... however, there are a lot of other albinos in town and the fact that 2 of my siblings are makes me think that its a recessive trait in the chiefs family..lots of kids, high percentage of albinos!? i also met my grandmother last night because she wanted to meet an american...she speaks no french; so we shared a lovely plate of eggs which she ate without teeth and i left for school. lovely morning. my oldest sister left this week for the university so i wont be seeing her again but my mother keeps telling me to call her...speaking on the phone when i can hardly understand french in person is not my idea of a good time, so im trying to avoid this. my 2nd oldest sister and i have started reading some old magazines in french together and i learn my french while she learns her english...i think this will be really helpful. my youngest sister cleaned my feet the other day and even picked my toenails clean with a stick from the broom...this was slightly awkward: i have also done a lot more baby holding and being spit on by my cousins son...no more pee thankfully i have joined a writing group with a few PC people and we had our first meeting on sunday; it was really really interesting and nice to be forced to sit down and write about our experiences; etc...perhaps i;ll write a book and force you all to read it. i have also created a band , yes i am in a band, with 5 guys who can actually play instruments. i play these plastic tambourines that my real mom, USA mom (thanks mom) gave me to give to cameroonian children as a gift. we had practice at my house the other day and my brothers requested bob marley, were overly excited and sang bob marley all night afterwards, and then the brother that i think hates me was really nice to me for 3, count em, 3 whole days!!! i told the band we are practicing at my house every week. cockroaches...should have learned from the basement of soil science that where there is one there will be others. i have killed 5, and the worst was when i, idiotically, hung a wet shirt partially in my closet to dry...took it out the next day to have 3 AHHH cockroaches run down my arm while i danced around shaking them to the floor and then smashing them t death. add to this the fact that some termite like things, which my sister called petits fourmis, little ants, are feasting on my desk and quickly turning it to sawdust. these dudes are little but wow are they making quick work of my desk, i am very sad to lose my desk, because then i will have naught but a bed...oh well im keeping the thing till it disappears into a pile of dust. ummm thats pretty much it! we are having a speghetti dinner tonight and im on the garlic bread comittee; so i hqve to go figure out how to build a stove outside to make garlic bread for 42...problem solving skills have never been put to bettter use! thinking of madison as it gets closer to halloween, and pumpkin patches...aw im jealous, Kate
So much happens in a week i have to keep a record of everything in a little notebook and bring it with me to the internet cafe...training is still going well, id say better; i got moved up in my french class because i told the language placement person i was not being challenged and apparently my teacher agreed, so now im in the intermediate class and its much better but not too challenging, thus...perfect! our 4th week is the beginning of immersion week, thus we can only speak french to our trainers and classmates outside of technical sessions in most areas of the building. if we speak english we get extra homework, its like being in 1st grade all over again. tech sessions are interesting; we learned about tree grafting and marcotting, basically cloning, and got to practice it. i was pretty fascinated by this, and since we have to do a presentation on something agroforestry related, im thinking this will be mine. we also build mproved cookstoves in a few traditional kitchens in the community and my familys home was chosen. thus, all the volunteers came to my house and i learned 1; my mother is the most beautiful mother 2; my sister is the prettiest of everyones sisters 3;my house is way nicer than everyone elses...so hey, im not complaining. i also found out this past week that my mother is a princess in the town...now im not sure what this means but i think shes the cheifs daughter, not sure... however, there are a lot of other albinos in town and the fact that 2 of my siblings are makes me think that its a recessive trait in the chiefs family..lots of kids, high percentage of albinos!? i also met my grandmother last night because she wanted to meet an american...she speaks no french; so we shared a lovely plate of eggs which she ate without teeth and i left for school. lovely morning. my oldest sister left this week for the university so i wont be seeing her again but my mother keeps telling me to call her...speaking on the phone when i can hardly understand french in person is not my idea of a good time, so im trying to avoid this. my 2nd oldest sister and i have started reading some old magazines in french together and i learn my french while she learns her english...i think this will be really helpful. my youngest sister cleaned my feet the other day and even picked my toenails clean with a stick from the broom...this was slightly awkward: i have also done a lot more baby holding and being spit on by my cousins son...no more pee thankfully i have joined a writing group with a few PC people and we had our first meeting on sunday; it was really really interesting and nice to be forced to sit down and write about our experiences; etc...perhaps i;ll write a book and force you all to read it. i have also created a band , yes i am in a band, with 5 guys who can actually play instruments. i play these plastic tambourines that my real mom, USA mom (thanks mom) gave me to give to cameroonian children as a gift. we had practice at my house the other day and my brothers requested bob marley, were overly excited and sang bob marley all night afterwards, and then the brother that i think hates me was really nice to me for 3, count em, 3 whole days!!! i told the band we are practicing at my house every week. cockroaches...should have learned from the basement of soil science that where there is one there will be others. i have killed 5, and the worst was when i, idiotically, hung a wet shirt partially in my closet to dry...took it out the next day to have 3 AHHH cockroaches run down my arm while i danced around shaking them to the floor and then smashing them t death. add to this the fact that some termite like things, which my sister called petits fourmis, little ants, are feasting on my desk and quickly turning it to sawdust. these dudes are little but wow are they making quick work of my desk, i am very sad to lose my desk, because then i will have naught but a bed...oh well im keeping the thing till it disappears into a pile of dust. ummm thats pretty much it! we are having a speghetti dinner tonight and im on the garlic bread comittee; so i hqve to go figure out how to build a stove outside to make garlic bread for 42...problem solving skills have never been put to bettter use! thinking of madison as it gets closer to halloween, and pumpkin patches...aw im jealous, Kate
Thursday, October 11, 2007
A Post From Kate!
soooo...to start this post, list of things that WOW are interesting to get used to, but are going just fine: roosters calling at ALL hours, nope, not limited to the morning, i often get woken up at 1 or 3 by roosters, and i swear there is a dog that immitates a rooster outside my window at all hours of the night 2) taking cold ICE cold showers at 6 in the morning...this is of course when we HAVE water, which as of now, it's been 4 days without, and i'm starting to not smell that great, hahaha, be glad you aren't here to smell me 3) getting caught in the rain constantly and having your clothes NEVER ever dry, but not having water to wash your hands or drink and thus getting ill every few days! not as bad as some people: one girl has been in the hospital here for over a week, and there are a few other interesting stories of people getting sick...
i've done my laundry twice now and often have a large crowd watch me until they realize how horrible i am at it and someone pitches in to help. they think i am completely helpless and ask me is in america there is a machine for everything they teach me to do. they were incredibly amazed that YES in fact i could whip egg whites with a fork (thank you baking experience) and i am an excellent ironer, and the most exciting thing for them yet was that i can shuffle cards...no one here can do it and i had a crowd of over 15 people making me shuffle cards over and over for them.
we have gotten our tools, as my dad said, and i have planted a nursery at the school i go to and at my house. to plant at my house i had to go to the village garbage pile with my brothers and dig into it with my hands to retreive "le fumier" aka: the manure. yeah, it was ok until i dug up a big chunk of human hair...i wanted to pass out. then i went back to my house with my entourage of people and they did my entire nursery for me after watching me for a few seconds, taking a video of me on my brother's phone (like they enjoy doing when i do anything they deem to be impossible for me) and then deciding i just wasn't good at it.
i have gone to bandefam and baffousam, which are two "neighbooring" towns and enjoyed both, as my dad also wrote about. we went to a "discoteque" here at 4 pm, and danced and i drank 1/2 a bottle of beer (for me this was quite the accomplishment).
training is going to get more interesting next week when we are going into the "immersion" phase, this means speaking nothing but french in and around our school building. my french class got switched and now it's too easy in a way, i always answer every question first and seem to be the only one who is understanding what my teacher says...which is kinda nice, but getting old and i spoke to the language coordinator today about being moved up. i still can't understand a whole lot of what my family says...but they're still puting up with me! my technical training is still very easy for me...we had a soils training class the other day...i pretty much taught it :>)
i miss everyone, and was EXTREMELY happy to get emails today when i finally got to the internet, after 3 days of attempts. thank you so much for the emails!
we had to discuss our "mental health" yesterday by writing about 3 things we were the most bothered by...mine were: missing people from home, being frustrated by the language and missing running. i have not ran or done anything other than walk for 3 weeks now, and i'm feeling very cooped up!
among the volunteers we are planning a lot of events, and had a mexican dinner night last night...which was INCREDIBLE!!! no more plantains or potatoes...wow...i miss salad and tofu and oatmeal (you don't understand) i am enjoying everything as much as i can...and yesterday i finally caught the cockroach in my closet, smashed it with my shoe and showed it to my brothers to prove that yes, even americans can kill bugs.
miss you all so very much...you're going to tire of hearing that
i have a lot of good ideas for gifts for a lot of you in the making...i need to figure out how to send packages now (apparently i have to do some bribing of postal workers)
hope your lives are going well, think of everyone all the time and want to know what you're doing! LOVE
i've done my laundry twice now and often have a large crowd watch me until they realize how horrible i am at it and someone pitches in to help. they think i am completely helpless and ask me is in america there is a machine for everything they teach me to do. they were incredibly amazed that YES in fact i could whip egg whites with a fork (thank you baking experience) and i am an excellent ironer, and the most exciting thing for them yet was that i can shuffle cards...no one here can do it and i had a crowd of over 15 people making me shuffle cards over and over for them.
we have gotten our tools, as my dad said, and i have planted a nursery at the school i go to and at my house. to plant at my house i had to go to the village garbage pile with my brothers and dig into it with my hands to retreive "le fumier" aka: the manure. yeah, it was ok until i dug up a big chunk of human hair...i wanted to pass out. then i went back to my house with my entourage of people and they did my entire nursery for me after watching me for a few seconds, taking a video of me on my brother's phone (like they enjoy doing when i do anything they deem to be impossible for me) and then deciding i just wasn't good at it.
i have gone to bandefam and baffousam, which are two "neighbooring" towns and enjoyed both, as my dad also wrote about. we went to a "discoteque" here at 4 pm, and danced and i drank 1/2 a bottle of beer (for me this was quite the accomplishment).
training is going to get more interesting next week when we are going into the "immersion" phase, this means speaking nothing but french in and around our school building. my french class got switched and now it's too easy in a way, i always answer every question first and seem to be the only one who is understanding what my teacher says...which is kinda nice, but getting old and i spoke to the language coordinator today about being moved up. i still can't understand a whole lot of what my family says...but they're still puting up with me! my technical training is still very easy for me...we had a soils training class the other day...i pretty much taught it :>)
i miss everyone, and was EXTREMELY happy to get emails today when i finally got to the internet, after 3 days of attempts. thank you so much for the emails!
we had to discuss our "mental health" yesterday by writing about 3 things we were the most bothered by...mine were: missing people from home, being frustrated by the language and missing running. i have not ran or done anything other than walk for 3 weeks now, and i'm feeling very cooped up!
among the volunteers we are planning a lot of events, and had a mexican dinner night last night...which was INCREDIBLE!!! no more plantains or potatoes...wow...i miss salad and tofu and oatmeal (you don't understand) i am enjoying everything as much as i can...and yesterday i finally caught the cockroach in my closet, smashed it with my shoe and showed it to my brothers to prove that yes, even americans can kill bugs.
miss you all so very much...you're going to tire of hearing that
i have a lot of good ideas for gifts for a lot of you in the making...i need to figure out how to send packages now (apparently i have to do some bribing of postal workers)
hope your lives are going well, think of everyone all the time and want to know what you're doing! LOVE
Monday, October 8, 2007
Kate's Magnificent Peace Corp Journey
After talking to Kate she asked me to post on her Blog as she is having difficulty posting to it.
Kate relates that training is going well, but is quite intense. Training is from 7:30 to 4:30 six days a week. She is studying French with a teacher who speaks perfect French very slowly, not at all like the locals. The Peace Corp has supplied her with a few tools including a machete, which is hand carved and not very sharp. Part of the training involves planting a garden and what I understand to be a fruit orchard.
Kate recently visited a bee farm where she had to extract honey. I should have asked her if the bees she dealt with were African Killer Bees, but they must have been as they’ve taken over all of Africa.
Her meals consist of fish and lots of vegetables, some being Kale, Plantains, potatoes and several varieties unknown to her.
A group of Peace Corp volunteers recently visited a larger town nearby. Kate relates that the roads are paved better than some in Madison, but transportation is unpredictable. Two hours waiting for a bus to get there and then taking a taxi van back. The taxi van had 19 people in it with everyone’s luggage strapped on top, but no goat up there yet. The larger town had a “white man’s store” (processed food) where not much was available. She also mistakenly accepted a marriage proposal from one of the men she encountered. But I don't think we'll hear wedding bells in the near future.
Evenings can be a bit cool and she wishes she had taken warm clothes. Of course they can be purchased there. But clothes tend to be discarded clothing from the US. Perhaps that is where the clothes you donated to Goodwill ended up.
She still enjoys the rain but it is difficult to not get muddy. One reason the floors are washed daily at her house. Kate says her family is a bit on the liberal side and does not try to control her as some of the other PC families do with their volunteer. She is grateful for that. She isn’t even required to go to church (thank heavens).
Kate would like to hear from you, either via email, snail mail, posting comments on her blog or even calling her. Any friend who has not received her address or phone number can contact me at legner@dwave.net. Kate's Dad
Kate relates that training is going well, but is quite intense. Training is from 7:30 to 4:30 six days a week. She is studying French with a teacher who speaks perfect French very slowly, not at all like the locals. The Peace Corp has supplied her with a few tools including a machete, which is hand carved and not very sharp. Part of the training involves planting a garden and what I understand to be a fruit orchard.
Kate recently visited a bee farm where she had to extract honey. I should have asked her if the bees she dealt with were African Killer Bees, but they must have been as they’ve taken over all of Africa.
Her meals consist of fish and lots of vegetables, some being Kale, Plantains, potatoes and several varieties unknown to her.
A group of Peace Corp volunteers recently visited a larger town nearby. Kate relates that the roads are paved better than some in Madison, but transportation is unpredictable. Two hours waiting for a bus to get there and then taking a taxi van back. The taxi van had 19 people in it with everyone’s luggage strapped on top, but no goat up there yet. The larger town had a “white man’s store” (processed food) where not much was available. She also mistakenly accepted a marriage proposal from one of the men she encountered. But I don't think we'll hear wedding bells in the near future.
Evenings can be a bit cool and she wishes she had taken warm clothes. Of course they can be purchased there. But clothes tend to be discarded clothing from the US. Perhaps that is where the clothes you donated to Goodwill ended up.
She still enjoys the rain but it is difficult to not get muddy. One reason the floors are washed daily at her house. Kate says her family is a bit on the liberal side and does not try to control her as some of the other PC families do with their volunteer. She is grateful for that. She isn’t even required to go to church (thank heavens).
Kate would like to hear from you, either via email, snail mail, posting comments on her blog or even calling her. Any friend who has not received her address or phone number can contact me at legner@dwave.net. Kate's Dad
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Hi from Bangante
WOW there is soooo much to write; and I have 1/2 hour and am on the most impossible keyboard in the world. I am in Bangangte and really really like it. It's an incredibly beautiful town in the mountains with little fields all over and chicken running around, which can be a curse as the roosters crow ALL night long. My family consists of 6 kids, but there are usually at LEAST 15 people all over the house. It took 2 whole days to figure out who anyone was. The kids are 16 to 24 years old and one of my brothers and one of my sisters are albino! Which is interesting. My mother is very very nice, she came to pick me up after our first day of school with an umbrella because it was raining, as it does here far more than in Yaound. I don't see my father hardly ever, I don't really think that he lives in the house??? But I don't know! So far My sisters have braided my hair in the "rasta" style, which looks incredibly ridiculous on me. I look bald and they have painted my finger and toenails which I haven't done for years and my cousin glued these fake diamonds to my moms and my teeth, my new nickname is Bling.
I have in the past few days (to give a brief summary) eaten the entire back end of a fish; seen a HUGE and I mean HUGE rat get caught while eating breakfast, I peeled potatoes with a dull knife which was challenging. I have held more babies than ever (everyone must assume they are at my language level) one of which peed all over my leg. I ate some goat meat, unintentionally insulted the chief, got stuck in a lot of mud (but have yet to fall), sat at a bar with old men playing cards, and went to a church where I had to sit through a very anti-american sermon during which everyone in the entire place glared at me. My brother is in love with me and does everything for me, walks me places and buys me cookies: UMMM!
It may be a LONG time before I post again as we have a 6 pm curfew so that leaves us 1 1/2 hours to do anything we need to do. It is kinda annoying. Training is going well, but language is intense. I understand very little of what my family says but my mother has gotten good at dumbing down her French and speaking very slowly. She's pretty much my translator. My room is very nice, lots of closets, a double bed, a desk and a chair and it's right next to the bath room, with a sometimes working toilet. The power is very iffy. I still like the rain and I like my family very much. My mother says to me everytime she sees me "ooooooh Kaaaate" and always greets me with a BIG smile. I MISS EVERYONE. I looked at pictures last night with my family and they all enjoyed seeing all my friends (they took the most interest in you Colin :P ) love to all; please sent me letters; and if you feel like it I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE dried fruit and nuts. Haha just had to throw that in ! Love Kate
I have in the past few days (to give a brief summary) eaten the entire back end of a fish; seen a HUGE and I mean HUGE rat get caught while eating breakfast, I peeled potatoes with a dull knife which was challenging. I have held more babies than ever (everyone must assume they are at my language level) one of which peed all over my leg. I ate some goat meat, unintentionally insulted the chief, got stuck in a lot of mud (but have yet to fall), sat at a bar with old men playing cards, and went to a church where I had to sit through a very anti-american sermon during which everyone in the entire place glared at me. My brother is in love with me and does everything for me, walks me places and buys me cookies: UMMM!
It may be a LONG time before I post again as we have a 6 pm curfew so that leaves us 1 1/2 hours to do anything we need to do. It is kinda annoying. Training is going well, but language is intense. I understand very little of what my family says but my mother has gotten good at dumbing down her French and speaking very slowly. She's pretty much my translator. My room is very nice, lots of closets, a double bed, a desk and a chair and it's right next to the bath room, with a sometimes working toilet. The power is very iffy. I still like the rain and I like my family very much. My mother says to me everytime she sees me "ooooooh Kaaaate" and always greets me with a BIG smile. I MISS EVERYONE. I looked at pictures last night with my family and they all enjoyed seeing all my friends (they took the most interest in you Colin :P ) love to all; please sent me letters; and if you feel like it I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE dried fruit and nuts. Haha just had to throw that in ! Love Kate
Thursday, September 27, 2007
off to bagnante
ok, this must be quick!!! this is the last of my few minutes in yaounde...in a few minutes i'm off to bagnante where i will be meeting my host family. as of yet, a lot of people have gotten sick and of course mine is starting to hit this morning...nothing major...just iffy stomach (which will be fun for a long bus ride) thank you for all your comments! i got a cell phone and will be sending the number out soon (i can't remember it right now) other news: we got to meet the US ambassador, and also an african drumming group...lots of fun experiences. i didn't get quite the french rating i thought i would, but oh well...room for improvement! alright, i'm off to find out my homestay family. more soon!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Le foudre violet
Bonjour! wow...the last few days have been a complete whirlwind. we travelled for 30 straight hours...i slept for um...3. it was very exhausting but everyone made it with all their luggage...my backpack cover ripped, :>( and my bag was actually wide open but everything was still inside!? we arrived in douala, cameroon and found out our plane had been hit by lightening in the sky, so we ended up sitting in the airplane for over 2 hrs with only a 30 minute flight ahead of us to the capital: yaounde. i sat next to a cameroonian woman on the plane and i ended up talking to her towards the end of the trip in my horrible french..but she put up with me and we sorta had a conversation about the most basic things, of course. she was very animated and kind and it was interesting, she pretty much ended up sleeping on my shoulder. the rest of the people on the plane for the most part did NOT like us (i guess a group of 42 twenty somethings has that effect)...the french especially the flight attendents were not very nice :>( Peace Corps sure took care of us though, they got all our luggage organized, moved, took us to the hotel, fed us...
when i woke up the next morning i looked out my window first thing, since we'd driven to the hotel in the dark the night before...it's beautiful here! so red and green...and i love the rain (as of now) we got to leave the hotel to buy laundry detergent only, but then the water in the hotel didn't work for a day and a half...so no laundry, nor shower has yet taken place!!! other than that we sat around the hotel ALL sunday playing cards, and it was incredibly fun...too many stories/details about people to tell!
food: lots of potatos and rice...i had my FIRST bite of fish in a long time. everyone keeps ripping on me for not liking beer, meat or cheese and being from WI, and i get made fun of for my accent (and the words bag and bagel ;>) ) constantly.
we had our first day of "training" today...lots of medical info. and our french interview...yeah, that didn't go so hot...i know all the things but i get so incredibly nervous my mind doesn't work...but i'm pretty sure i'll be in the intermediate class...better than novice after 5 yrs of french i guess. i am however about the 2nd most qualified person here for agroforestry..which made me happy! lots of people with no classes/experience in the area. our training for agro. sounds SOOOO interesting, and i'm sooooo excited for that to start.
other than that everything has been going very very well...i'm very happy about where i am!
i miss you all and please let me know how you all are!
when i woke up the next morning i looked out my window first thing, since we'd driven to the hotel in the dark the night before...it's beautiful here! so red and green...and i love the rain (as of now) we got to leave the hotel to buy laundry detergent only, but then the water in the hotel didn't work for a day and a half...so no laundry, nor shower has yet taken place!!! other than that we sat around the hotel ALL sunday playing cards, and it was incredibly fun...too many stories/details about people to tell!
food: lots of potatos and rice...i had my FIRST bite of fish in a long time. everyone keeps ripping on me for not liking beer, meat or cheese and being from WI, and i get made fun of for my accent (and the words bag and bagel ;>) ) constantly.
we had our first day of "training" today...lots of medical info. and our french interview...yeah, that didn't go so hot...i know all the things but i get so incredibly nervous my mind doesn't work...but i'm pretty sure i'll be in the intermediate class...better than novice after 5 yrs of french i guess. i am however about the 2nd most qualified person here for agroforestry..which made me happy! lots of people with no classes/experience in the area. our training for agro. sounds SOOOO interesting, and i'm sooooo excited for that to start.
other than that everything has been going very very well...i'm very happy about where i am!
i miss you all and please let me know how you all are!
Friday, September 21, 2007
leaving town again...a different one this time
alright, so i'm writing on here a lot when i can, so it looks like i actually kept up with this.
we got shots this morning, and i had to get all 3...a lot of people didn't, my arm is kinda sore, pity me! the lady at the clinic called me a "petite pretty darling" and made my day :>)
yesterday staging went well, we did a lot more interactive stuff: skits, songs, etc... and i think i have most everyone's name and hometown down...we are kinda forced to keep moving around and joining different groups, so that made it easy.
a group of us went out for indian food, i got my last good ice cream for a while (i'm assuming) and then we went to a bar for a drink...still got back to the hotel around 11 though, since we had a 6 am. wakeup this morning.
we leave at 11 am today, take a bus to JFK, takeoff from there at 7 pm and then go to Paris, then down to Cameroon. We arrive in Yaounde, the capital, at 6 pm their time (1 pm EST). We get all of Sunday free to sleep and whatnot...which will be needed after 26+ hours in transit. Sunday evening we have a semiformal dinner at the Cameroon PC director's home, so that will be something to look forward too. We'll see how long my vegetarianism lasts, i keep hearing in Cameroon it's pretty easy to maintain...who knows!
alright, my roommate and i are off to buy food for our long trip! can't wait, i'm definitely excited right now...we'll see how i feel after a few hours of driving/flying.
we got shots this morning, and i had to get all 3...a lot of people didn't, my arm is kinda sore, pity me! the lady at the clinic called me a "petite pretty darling" and made my day :>)
yesterday staging went well, we did a lot more interactive stuff: skits, songs, etc... and i think i have most everyone's name and hometown down...we are kinda forced to keep moving around and joining different groups, so that made it easy.
a group of us went out for indian food, i got my last good ice cream for a while (i'm assuming) and then we went to a bar for a drink...still got back to the hotel around 11 though, since we had a 6 am. wakeup this morning.
we leave at 11 am today, take a bus to JFK, takeoff from there at 7 pm and then go to Paris, then down to Cameroon. We arrive in Yaounde, the capital, at 6 pm their time (1 pm EST). We get all of Sunday free to sleep and whatnot...which will be needed after 26+ hours in transit. Sunday evening we have a semiformal dinner at the Cameroon PC director's home, so that will be something to look forward too. We'll see how long my vegetarianism lasts, i keep hearing in Cameroon it's pretty easy to maintain...who knows!
alright, my roommate and i are off to buy food for our long trip! can't wait, i'm definitely excited right now...we'll see how i feel after a few hours of driving/flying.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
phillie arrival
i arrived safely in philadelphia today and had a LOOONG day of training...after less than 4 hrs of sleep and flying, blah!
mrs. kurth (high school english teacher) ended up being on my flight out from wausau and that was wonderful (she was in the PC too a while ago) and it was so great to have her for reassurance at that really weird/tough momemt! THANKS MRS. KURTH!!! :>) :>)
everyone here is amazing...such nice nice smart fun interesting people, we just got back from having vietnamese food, i took my first picture...many more to come you can bet.
on the shuttle from the airport i met 2 people who came in at the same time and was with them until staging started, so this is the first time i haven't been talking nonstop all day...man. staging was nonstop grade school games and icebreakers all over again (not exactly my favorite part of the day)
soo...other news: the first duffel bag i bought broke the first time i tried to pack it. then this morning, RIGHT as i was trying to leave my new one (which was more expensive...thus better?!) ripped!!! i'm a little nervous about my flight to cameroon with this bag...oh well. miss you all already
mrs. kurth (high school english teacher) ended up being on my flight out from wausau and that was wonderful (she was in the PC too a while ago) and it was so great to have her for reassurance at that really weird/tough momemt! THANKS MRS. KURTH!!! :>) :>)
everyone here is amazing...such nice nice smart fun interesting people, we just got back from having vietnamese food, i took my first picture...many more to come you can bet.
on the shuttle from the airport i met 2 people who came in at the same time and was with them until staging started, so this is the first time i haven't been talking nonstop all day...man. staging was nonstop grade school games and icebreakers all over again (not exactly my favorite part of the day)
soo...other news: the first duffel bag i bought broke the first time i tried to pack it. then this morning, RIGHT as i was trying to leave my new one (which was more expensive...thus better?!) ripped!!! i'm a little nervous about my flight to cameroon with this bag...oh well. miss you all already
Monday, September 17, 2007
leaving town...
So...I'm leaving in under two days...weird!
I went to Madison this weekend and did nothing but see people and then cry because I had to leave them...it was fun and wonderful but also a horrible reminder of the time I'll have to go without everyone just down the street. Thanks to everyone who came to say goodbye :>) but :>(
I visited my grandparents today...which was also good but too sad...
this mix of emotions is not a combination I can grasp very well, veeeeerrrry confusing...I just want to leave, I think, and am more than ready to!
I decided that I'm going to get everything packed tonight so I can just get that over with! I actually have too much space, I'm working on trying to fill it up! My big backpack is about 1/3 full of books alone, I don't know what else to fill the space with (I didn't think that this would be a problem but apparently I'm cursed with the weird ability to always pack far too light) Tonight I'm visiting my swim coach at the pool during practice and having ice cream with a Wausau friend...then tomorrow I'm doing NOTHING since it will be the last time for a long time that this will be possible!
Also, I feel awkward writing on this Blog, I don't know what to say unless I have some exciting story to tell...I've never been very good at keeping a journal...I prefer pictures. I guess I'll have to figure out how to get pictures on here to tell my stories for me!
Anyway...GOODBYE WISCONSIN!!!
I went to Madison this weekend and did nothing but see people and then cry because I had to leave them...it was fun and wonderful but also a horrible reminder of the time I'll have to go without everyone just down the street. Thanks to everyone who came to say goodbye :>) but :>(
I visited my grandparents today...which was also good but too sad...
this mix of emotions is not a combination I can grasp very well, veeeeerrrry confusing...I just want to leave, I think, and am more than ready to!
I decided that I'm going to get everything packed tonight so I can just get that over with! I actually have too much space, I'm working on trying to fill it up! My big backpack is about 1/3 full of books alone, I don't know what else to fill the space with (I didn't think that this would be a problem but apparently I'm cursed with the weird ability to always pack far too light) Tonight I'm visiting my swim coach at the pool during practice and having ice cream with a Wausau friend...then tomorrow I'm doing NOTHING since it will be the last time for a long time that this will be possible!
Also, I feel awkward writing on this Blog, I don't know what to say unless I have some exciting story to tell...I've never been very good at keeping a journal...I prefer pictures. I guess I'll have to figure out how to get pictures on here to tell my stories for me!
Anyway...GOODBYE WISCONSIN!!!
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