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 :^).