It's been a relatively busy past week and a half! At home I've spent a lot of time waiting around for the plumbers and watching them tear up several of my walls and floor (I really wanted to do this part, they just went nuts with a big hammer). Sadly I just got stuck doing the clean up after the plumbers stole my only cleaning rag! But… I do not yet have water because the pipe to the bathroom sink is just a gapping hole…so in theory I could open the main valve and sprint to my bathroom to catch the spray from the pipe in a bucket, then sprint outside and turn it off…I'm almost thinking I just prefer the walk to the source! My neighbor flowerman has been in top form lately, I had flowers in every room of the house: kitchen, living room, bedroom AND bathroom! He also added another plant to my porch and told me his idea is to fill the ENTIRE porch with plants…he's got one side of the house down, 2 to go! I do however feel a bit guilty since he makes my little neighbor girls carry the water for all of these plants… My landlady found mushrooms somewhere at the market, huge delicious ones and gave me a lot…the second time I've gotten to eat them here, and this time not out of a can! Very very exciting. Lastly, house wise, I had my first mouse/rat entry. Somewhere between the hours of 8:00-9:00pm on Wednesday, March 6, I set foot in my kitchen simply to brush my teeth, little did I know there would be an enormous mouse/small rat (I haven't decided yet but definitely bigger than a mouse) freaking out when it saw me. I almost had a heart attack because obviously it scared me as much as I scared it, but I watched it from the safety of the doorway to see where it would go. In it's insanity it ran into the wall at top speed and did a backflip, which lightened the mood a bit, and then squeezed out under the crack under my door. He has not been back!
In the neighborhood, I decided I wouldn't put up with the random guys around yelling things at me. So I started yelling things at them, including the harsh insults like "You are impolite!" Due to this I made friends with a neighbor woman who was happy I said it because "that guy bothers everyone". My one neighbor man has enlisted my help with the naming of the town soccer team, he told me it should be something from my home, so yep, Wisconsin Badgers…eh, what else!? :>) Lastly under this topic of discussion, I was sitting on the steps of the small deli in town waiting for my postmate and friend, and a little girl (7 or 8) came up and handed me a coin. Now, these steps are usually where the poor/homeless people in town come to beg because it's considered one of the "white mans stores" (aka expensive)…but what?! Never so far in my life in this country has someone given ME money because they thought I was poor! It was the cutest thing…but I returned the money to her with lots of "Mercis".
Travel wise, I got to go to Yaounde Thursday thru Sunday and saw a LOT of people from my training group that I haven't gotten to see in far too long. We did amazing things like going swimming at the Hilton pool (which was incredible…just swimming period, but the place was soo soo nice), getting drinks at the Hilton happy hour roof top bar on the company tab of an old volunteer who was in Yaounde for business, going to a Rasta drumming show where I used my tambourine skills…it was all around a very excellent and real vacation!
Work wise, I have started working with my supervisor's nephew, who lives in a village a 45 min walk from my house. We had a meeting this past Monday, attended by 15 people (this is a TON) and then this Wednesday I met them in the field to help clear the land after it'd been burned (moving burned up sticks and grass clumps from ground to large pile for 2 hrs). We are going to be planting soy beans next Wednesday…so if anyone has any information on this, send it my way. I have no clue! I have to do some research. I also, next Wednesday, have to give a small training session to these people on soy, nutrition, usage…etc…and although I spent way too much time being excited about Tofu (you who know me know this to sadly be true) and eating it in all forms in the States, I don't know many concrete, easy to explain things about the soy bean itself. SOOO…this will be interesting, but I am really really excited (along with nervous) to give a presentation and feel like I accomplished some tangible thing. I like the nephew a lot, he's worked with several Peace Corps Volunteers and gets it when I try to explain how I'm thinking/feeling about something. On of his neighbor girls who worked with us was friendly, and my age, which together hasn't been common…so she now has my phone number and we are apparently planning her a birthday party in…November…?!
Missing everyone!
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3 comments:
Happy St.Patrick's Day! Your vacation sounds nice and relaxing. Good luck with the soy presentation, you'll do awesome.
heyyYYYyyy
im jealous of the uniqueness of your days. Ive been so crazy busy with school I can't wait for spring break in about 2 weeks- im going to new york to visit a friend who moved out there. wooo.
are there a lot of sheep where you are staying. because today as a class we had to dissect sheep eyeballs. they still had eyelashes and everything. I could barely tell them how to dissect it cuz i was grossed it. by my last class i was all into. woo- that was my day today.
im going home to wausau for easter this weekend and i was thinking about that one easter where we took a bunch of pictures with antlers and trying to catch pretzels in our mouths. i miss those days. i think you should recreate the pictures in cameroon with other people and post them. it would be amazing.
sounds like everything is going well- MISS U
You are starting to sound more and more like David Sedaris, which I like. I had a sudden insight reading this that maybe you're going to marry the nephew. What do you think? Is he single and your age? Additionally, can you remind me how to say you are impolite en Francais? J'oublie. Zut.
Happy Easter, I am in Wausau and it bores me, but that's 'cause you're not here. Kimmy and I went out to bars in Marathon on Thursday and they were smoky, but it was a good time. I wish you could've come with!
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