Christmas in Cameroon

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!!!

Passion Flower by Kate

African Passion Fruit Flower

Photo 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!

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.

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

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.

Me with my amazing outfit ..haha.

Me hiking with my counterpart Obam on a site visit.

Me cutting the skin off a fish.

Me with mom at a bar.

Me and my cousin's baby.

Sandrine and I eating gumbo (snot sauce).

Us drinking pal wine at a farm.



The band performing at the family dinner.

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!