boredom jabbers

Hi all. It seems like I've talked to a lot of you recently, so I'm sorry for any story repeats, but it's been good to catch up with people via email/messages/whatnot. I'm definitely in a "I'm missing people a lot" sort of mood lately, so it's always wonderful to know what everyone is up to and that you all still exist!
I'm currently in Yaounde, I came here to get a vaccination, and will be heading back south later today. It's been good to be here with 2 other volunteers from the south and just watch TV, eat pizza, and take hot showers (TWO!!!)...so yeah, not really roughing it right now (or ever for that fact) :>) The past week was the same old same old in Ebolowa...lots of time spent reading, hanging stuff on my walls (i've put up every single picture and old calender page i own now...so i started DRAWING artwork for my walls, i got so bored :>). I even started reading the French dictionary (i do not recommend this to anyone as a hobby) and let's see, I'm probably somewhere around what "armadillo-armistice" (ok, i made that up...but haven't made it past the a's, that's for sure)...i'll let you know how my progress on that keeps up. :>)
I went out to the field one day last week with Obam. We visited about 3 farms that were way out in the bush, so we did a lot of hiking. The guy that lead us around was very impressed that I could hike through the woods, he told me I must be very habituated to their way of life. It's always interesting how they think white people are the...weakest link... Obam always has to defend me, clearly by saying that "she does sports every morning, she is strong". Obam has also started telling everyone who wants to marry me that they are required to sign a contract for a limited term 2 year marriage and that marriage is conditional upon one's ability to speak fluent English (clever...) In order to get to one of the farms we visited we had to cross these 2 rivers...now one was ok, it was like 8 feet across and a log was laying directly on the water, and I had a walking stick. The next...oh man...it was a log just a bit wider than my foot, about 10 feet high, over at least 20 feet of rushing stream. Obam held my hand and we went step by step, but that was pretty intense (especially with my nice new non-water proof camera in my bag, obviously my thoughts at the time, along with, I think i'm going to die)...apparently next time i'm to do it with basket on my head and baby on my back like the women here...we'll build up to that intensity level. Speaking of Obam, I LOVE HIM. He is wonderful...really. (sorry if i already raved about him, but it'll continue) We get along fantastically and he's incredibly patient and generous with helping me constantly. He's also just hilarious, and it's great because i feel like i actually have a sense of humor in french when i try to joke with him (and that hasn't been easy to come by here). We also had a very "in depth" discussion about things like land tenure, slash and burn agriculture, and leguminous tree species. Interesting as all hell, I know. I was proud of myself.
My neighbors are still wonderful (with a few exceptions as I will explain...) My landscaping neighbor guy is keeping up with watering the plants he put for me on my porch, and even made me a gorgeous flower arrangement for my house randomly the other day (see pictures!!!) He's also helping another volunteer in the south look for a dog, which is nice of him. His 8 year old daughter, Michelle, is my water getting buddy...we walk about a quarter mile to get water from a spring and then carry it on our heads back. I've done this about 4 times now and the last time was the first my arms didn't completely fall asleep and feel like they were absolutely positively going to fall off. It's also fun because cars come flying around corners at you, and then get super stunned/excited to see "white girl carrying water" and start honking and waving and making like they are going to hit you, and you have to master the quick move off the street so as to not be run down but also not spill a drop of water (because then passerby will laugh at you and call you weak white girl, you spilled water) I pay back Michelle with things like scraps of bubble wrap (which i explained how to use by laying it on the ground and jumping off a step onto it) or little tacky plastic hair clips I brought from home. :>) My landlady came back from her place in Yaounde for the weekend and brought me this massive bag full of bread (which 5 days later I still have not been able to finish)...and then after she was all nicey nicey looking at my photo album with me she whips out all this Jehovah witness reading material and goes into a LOOOONG spiel about how to read it correctly. And (how thoughtful) she even brought me a bible in english. It's such an awkward situation...she's so nice to me and then she gives me stern talking tos because i'm not as religious as she wants me to be, and i can't be "culturally insensitive" (or downright rude like sometimes i just wish i could be)...so i have to listen to this...and don't know what to say to get out of it! AHHH...I just wish this would never come up here! She also (while looking at the photo albums) finds a picture of me, which I actually thought was just fine, and says "You used to be fat?"...THANKS... I tried explaining maybe it was just the clothes or whatever and she says "No, you used to be fat like this". I changed the subject. !
My house has been great, I really like it and I like my plants and the colors, it makes me happy every day. And I might get running water in the next few months, Obam said he saw the pipes somewhere (i'm not sure where, but i guess they are destined for me and he could tell) But...then things happen like...ANTS. I had 2 more invasions. One was fine, it was just outside again like the last time. But one morning I walk into my kitchen to find my sink FULL (i mean FULL) of ants. Ants in big lines/packs all up and down the counter top...everywhere. I, of course, first things first, ran to get my camera to take a picture of the sink (which Obam thinks is hilarious and mentions daily). I then took out my trusty bottle of petrol and threw it all over them and so began the 3 hour process of ant killing/ant cleaning mayhem (without paper towels or running water this can be a bit interesting...), pretty sure the kitchen will never smell the same again and that I lost a few hundred brain cells with all those gas fumes. I also got bites up and down my legs and back, even one in my armpit?! And those things can BITE, I killed one and examined it pinchers, ow, pain. I don't know what it was that I had eaten and (shoot me now) accidentally washed down my sink drain...but the ants were down the drain as far as I could see...attracted to something. Since this time I do not pour any food scraps or dishwater into my sink, I have no desire to wage the war again. I'm actually petrified that when I return after Yaounde my entire house will be full of ants. Which is quite likely... I do wake up every morning to even find my toothbrush covered in the little benign (that's debatable) ants. Maybe for my next blog post I will have compiled some anatomically correct drawings of the different ant and spider species in my house for your independent study?!
alright, that's it! you know i'm long winded when i can make my blog posts this long and i'm really doing a whole lot of nothing :>)
hope all going great for everyone everywhere