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.