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!!!!