HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LETS ALL WISH KATE A HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 IN CAMEROON!!!!! YEAHHHH!!!

MOM & DAD LEGNER

Seth's Cultural Event - Donate Please

From Kate,

Here is a link if you're interested in sending money to one of Kate's fellow PC Worker Seth's Cultural Event...Per Kate "its a bunch of us going up there and our band will be performing, as well as all of us presenting and having little booths with info for people to come visit and learn...Kim and I will be doing soy... so if you want to sum that up and post this on my blog it'd be great!i'll also be asking for money from people for the bike tour and for my water project in the future...so tell people not to go all out...like 5-10 bucks is cool if people want to donate

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=694-118
They can also search for it on the peace corps partnership website by country or project number: 694-118. The total amount we're asking for is under $900, so if everyone participating gets a few people in the states to give 10 or 20 bucks, it should be no problem. The money has to be in by the end of October, though, so kindly do your soliciting in a timely fashion."

Yes It's me!

I am fully aware that I haven't written to all of you for about 2 months…but I also realize that I am no longer ever in the mood to write for some reason…thus we have a conundrum! I hope everyone enjoyed my parents' blog entry and I think they definitely a great job of summing up what was one visit chock full of new experiences and strange/funny events for them. I was glad to have them here and I think I can say on everyone else's behalf, those who met them here, they were happy to have had the opportunity to meet them also. Upon my return to village after dropping my parents off at the airport I was asked "ou est ton papa" (where's your dad?) several thousand times by everyone and anyone I didn't even realize knew my parents had visited. I continue to remind them that my mother also visited and to us Americans we ask about both parents at once…and since I spent more time in my mother's body in the first place don't they think she's important as well (yes I actually tried to say that in French) Then I got shamed by several other people for not bringing my parents to visit them in specific, because they had prepared a meal/fruit/a gift/etc… to give to them. I think most endearing was Billy (as usual) who each and every time he came to my door during the past 3 weeks has asked me "has my brother called, how is he doing?" So, Dad AND Mom…you made an impression on everyone and I'm sure for the remainder of my stay here you will be a topic of conversation, in a good way, and help to humanize the odd white girl in town. As far as my immediate material benefit from the visit…it's been great living the high life, eating things that include peanut butter (in all forms and recipes I can think of), blueberry pancakes WITH maple syrup, starburst jellybeans, chocolate that doesn't taste like plastic, chemical powder lemonade mix…so so SO fabulous. When my mass stockpile of processed American food runs out it will a sad sad day. Kim and I often talk about how odd it is that we have these intense cravings for the most horrible of American food that we either never ate in the States, or know that we shouldn't… I wasn't even really raised eating much of the stuff, as far as Americans go I guess…but oh sugar, chemicals, and transfats…why do I crave thee.

I have been feeling a lot more normal lately, in the sense I'm finally feeling that I have friends I can act normal around, ie not constantly worry about all the issues race/money/perceptions of me influence all my interactions. A few weeks before my parents got here I gave my phone number out to a random guy after 5 minutes of conversation for the FIRST time. My reasons include 1) after finding out I was American he spoke in flawless American English, slang and all (I have heard probably one other Cameroonian capable of this) 2) after I said I was from Wisconsin he said "you must love cheese" and asked if I went to the UW 3) him and his friends are starting up a fair trade cocoa business in Ebolowa. I was astonished by 1 and 2, and 3 was just plain interesting…thus…phone number! :>) I ended up hanging out with him and meeting his other friends later that day…we went to some guys house to play some traditional game where you throw snail shells like tops at other snail shells (I wasn't very good). Turns out his IS an American…went to school at the University of Miami for 6 years, married to a woman there…etc…but wow it was fun to speak English with him. He's currently back in the states, but in the time since then I've hung out with his friends quite a few times, and although they don't speak English in the same way, I feel like I actually have friends, kinda my age, similar viewpoints (even on religion with 2 of them…NON EXISTENT here), etc etc etc... it's just GOOD, and rare to come by. Only one had been driving me crazy with incessant phone calls until I said STOP IT NOW, and he did. He's also the one that has a small sports car, a small fluffy dog, a diamond nose ring, and owns at least 2 hotels and night clubs. I keep telling everyone he is truly the "male Paris Hilton of Cameroon", if you can picture that…it's not far from the truth…interesting guy. I have been hanging out as much as usual with Hans and Serges, and they continue to always be there when I need them as well as always up for going to the bar for countless beers (I still can't keep up, not that I ever wanted to try). I spend so much time at the bar between these two groups of people and all their acquaintances, my entire college experience was the equivalent of a brief training session. Serges has pretty much become my new counterpart (Obam just hasn't been around and has been causing more headache than help when he does show up). Serges is excellent at organizing people, actually listening to other people's concerns and adjusting himself to them, and he works his butt off. Serges=sanity. :>) I've also spent some time with a female friend in HIV/AIDS group I attend meetings for…although there was a misunderstanding between us when she told me she was coming to my house to spend the entire weekend with me (including nights)…and I told her I thought she was joking…and she got angry…thus I funded beer and fish that night…buying people off… My neighbors are as interesting as ever. One guy, who's always full of promises (he promised my mom and dad a dance party or something of the like that never happened), came one day asking me if I would like to eat caterpillars he would collect for me, and what hair type and color of caterpillars I preferred (how does one answer such a question)…I told him: yes, I would try them, and to me the hair type and color are not a determining factor in my caterpillar culinary selections. Or, to not lie to you, reader, about my French abilities, I said "yes, I will taste, but not eat a plate, and it doesn't matter what their hairstyle is". He then proceeded to inform me that the last time he ate caterpillars he threw up all over the place…he definitely does not have a career as a caterpillar salesman, needless to say. He clearly forgot to bring me the caterpillars, but upon telling Hans and Serges that he had mentioned it, they forced me to buy some to taste in town…which I did…and I have to say they were the most difficult thing yet for me to eat here…the hair, the bulging eyes, the bajillion legs. Bleh.

WORK! Kim and I have been busy with soy formations…we are starting our rotation of formation (presentation), planting, cooking with a few new villages near me and near her and then a few small groups in both places…so it's been relatively busy with that, since we are once again at the beginning of the planting season here. I've also outplanted a few of my Moringa trees in one of the nurseries we had started, and everyone in the village was following us around begging for a tree for their yard/family. I had a meeting in Yaounde last week for the Environmental Education committee, and now I am apparently co president…pretty much because no once else offered…so me with another girl are in charge of organizing the committee and setting our goals, or whatnot. Our biggest thing will be the bike tour I mentioned in passing a while ago. I think it'll actually happen! We are in the beginning stages of organizing it and we're thinking the route will start in Ngoulemakong (Kim's town), go to Ebolowa, then to Lolodorf (another volunteer's town), then to Kribi (the beach!). Along the way (this isn't concrete AT ALL) we will teach a few brief courses on environmental topics to school kids and to teachers, with the goal in mind that they will continue something (like an environmental club or whatever) after we leave. Since we're estimating about 20 volunteers on the tour, it's going to be a major undertaking, planning wise. Kim and I just tried to complete our lodging/meals logistics and budget…this would be complicated in the states, here it's like 5x more complicated. BUT if we figure this out and pull it off we will all be very proud of ourselves. On the environmental education note, Kim and I are also planning and starting to organize classes we are going to try to teach, once a month, at a grade school in her town and a grade school in mine…which I'm excited about…I feel like I'm finally ready to step into a role as teacher (or even adult) in this culture. Lastly, of note (I don't think I mentioned this yet), my friend up in the NW province has organized a "cultural festival" for November at which the band will be playing. I have to practice up on the tambourine! A bunch of the volunteers from my training group will be there, and we're also all going to give presentations on various topics…clearly mine will be soy!
And for my last story…my house and it's continual water adventures. Someone decided to drive 2 enormous bulldozers down the strip of grass/hill behind my house to flatten it…and create a strip of muddy muddy garbage covered land with lots of stinkiness and flies. I'm not sure why this required TWO bulldozers since the area is about 100 feet long, and I'm not even sure where this machinery CAME from! But clearly it remained in this state, and then when the first big rain of the season came, the hill was moved even closer to my door…the water came down insanely fast, the soil was compacted and completely cleared of all vegetation…a virtual mudslide ensued INTO my kitchen…I do not joke when I say that the mud was ankle deep in my kitchen, and there I am trying to get the mud out of there so it can't spread to the rest of the house, while running outside to push the water RAPIDLY flooding onto my little porch and into the kitchen, while also trying to dig a trench with my hoe next to my porch, while also crying with rage at the stupid bulldozers. It was ridiculous…understatement of the year. The next morning my landlady sees the state of things and although I think she was trying to comfort me, telling me to "have patience" is not the correct word choice to console at a time like that. She fixed things up that day after I recounted the story. But the bulldozers are still there, broke down, and 3 dudes have been behind my house for 2 straight days revving the engine and sitting outside (and looking into) my bedroom windows. I guess they are putting houses in this narrow little strip of land…incase my house wasn't already the loudest/most public place on earth…I'm sure more stories will come from this!

ONE YEAR ON SEPTEMBER 22!!! Ayyyy

Cameroun ~ A Country of Contrast as told by Mom & Dad!

Cameroun ~ A Country of Contrasts as told by Mom & Dad!

Our title sounds like one taken from a geography book but contrasts is certainly what Cameroun (French spelling) is. From its spectacular scenic beauty to its horrendous slums, from opulent office buildings in its capital to its mud built farm buildings, from its honest and friendly people to the occasional shouted ethnic slur “La Blanche ….” ( means the white …. ), from simple Cameroonian food to American Pizza and milkshakes to name but a few of the contrasts this country holds.

But before we continue we want to say how proud we are of our daughter Kate. She came to this chaotic country, to a new posting, with a loosely defined project and is succeeding. She learned French as well as some of the local language BuLu, impressed those she works with and met, and became a part of an extended family. When we walked with her through the market, the vegetable lady to the police officer stopped and hugged her. Part of her project is to introduce Soy to the Southern Province. Soy not only provides much needed protein for people but also puts nitrates back into the slash & burned soil. Kate is also one tough bargainer (one of the best) when purchasing anything. In this country it is something that always has got to be done, almost the extreme. We are truly proud of our strong and independent daughter!!

But back to Cameroun.

Our first impression was the attractiveness of the people in the South Province. Nearly all people are fit, lots of muscles and few pot bellies, probably from all the walking and exercising in the farming they do. And what great tans they all have!! We were also surprised by the abundance of food in Cameroun. Cameroun has two growing seasons and nearly everyone has a small farm. The markets are full of tomatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, bananas, and plantains to name a few. This is definitely one African Country that feeds itself. A very impressive quality of the people was their honesty. One can leave a package in most places and when you return for it, it will be there. If you need change you can give a larger bill to one of the locals in the market, they’ll disappear and reappear a bit later with the correct change. These people can also balance anything on their heads, I saw one individual in the capital of Yaoundé who had 3, 5 gallon buckets balanced on his head, one on top of the other. Even small children can do this without spilling anything from the large plate they are balancing. Speaking of children, they are everywhere. Cameroon is a very young country full of kids. Even the smallest are self-reliant and often cared for by another child not that much older than themselves. The ones in Kate’s village really enjoyed the candy we brought to give them.

Another impression was the beauty of the rainforest that is the South Province, a forest so dense that one cannot walk through it. Wildflowers and birds were abundant, but because of the denseness of the forest few animals can be seen. Many of the house plants we grow are found in this forest. African Grey Parrots flew overhead while black & white crows cawed at you The temperatures were stifling for us a times, but rain did not interfere with any of ours plans as it was the dry season. We found it funny that this is considered their winter & we saw people with coats on and babies bundled in northern winter clothing even with temperatures nearing 90 degrees. I was usually the only man with shorts on as long pants were far too hot for me, but not for them.

But one thing that concerned me (dad) was the transportation. Moto Taxis (motor cycles) are everywhere. You pay a small fee, get on the back and hold on. Sometimes up to 4 people can be seen riding on them. I haven’t been on a motorcycle since I was a teenager and the speed concerned me as well as the weaving in and out of traffic that occurs. Yellow Toyota Taxis are also everywhere, no drivers training exists in Cameroon and it shows. Again 4 to 5 people can be squeezed in the back seat of these small vehicles with nearly as many in front. Few of them are in good condition, with many having no shock absorbers left and little suspension. Buses are the main transportation between cities. Again 4 people are squeezed in seats designed for 3 and traveling between the cities can take hours. One gets use to sweaty and sometimes smelly individuals. But the children will always sit quietly, which in America would never happen under these conditions. Most bus companies also will not leave until all the seats are sold (time is not a concern here) so you wait until that happens (although we did experience a bus leaving on us when we were in the toilet). Luckily Kate screamed at the bus driver until he stopped. The roads in the south are really nice but in other parts of the country they can be extremely pot holed. Holes big enough to swallow a taxi! Travel in these buses is also extended because of the practice of building speed bumps near every little village or town along the way. Of course this slowing brings out all the people trying to sell food and just about everything else to the passengers they can. I even saw an individual with toilet seats around his neck for sale! Of course toilets are few and far between in this country. Usually just a hole in the concrete, which you are expected to use without falling over. No roadside rest stops in his country. Hotels also vary greatly, but the price is always reasonable, except of course the Hilton in the Capital.

One irritant in this country is the near constant police stops to check IDs. I’m not sure what they are looking for. When we handed them our passports few officers checked the visas page we had, but seemed more interested in the other places we had visited as they paged through our passports skipping over the visa section. On another negative side we did have an officer propose marriage to Kate even with us in the car. This seems to happen to Kate a lot. I can understand why she feels this behavior offensive. We were glad she gave this officer a smart retort. I asked her supervisors “do all Cameroonian men propose to a woman the first time they meet her”? He replied she would be a status symbol, well our daughter won’t be a status symbol for any lowly police officer.

Television in this country is unique, especially the occasional English language station as most are French stations. In the north there was even subtitles in English on an English speaking station. The only reason I could conclude was because the local people spoke Pidgin English and maybe needed help understanding common English.

We were hosted for meals by Kate’s supervisor’s family, her host family and a local village. The food was Cameroonian food, which although good can be a bit bland. We balanced this with meals at Italian, Chinese and American restaurants. While we ate at the Chinese Restaurant we heard the constant sound of someone pounding metal. The waiter told us it was a bird whose name was spelled B A T. These bats were the large fruit eating variety known here as “Flying Foxes”. Their flight is quite impressive in the air.

One of the people we met was Kate’s friend Billy. He lives in Kate’s compound with his wife and family. He farms as well grows nursery plants. He presented us with the most magnificent arrangement of tropical flowers we’ve ever seen. Billy also assured us that Kate is safe where she lives and even brought the local police officers to introduce them. We’re glad of his concern for Kate as well as his quiet friendship with her. We also met many of Kate’s fellow Peace Corp Volunteers, who were all interesting and dedicated.

We traveled to the north and the west provinces and spend three relaxing days at the Atlantic Ocean Beach in Limbe. These beaches are made of black sand from nearby volcanoes. Being nearly on the equator the water is warm, unpolluted, does not smell fishy like other ocean water and seems less salty. I don’t usually like swimming in the ocean but this place was an exception. Earlier we traveled to the southern border of Cameroon, touched the border of Equatorial Guinea and had a drink in Gabon.

On the way back to the USA we were upgraded to Business Class from Economy Class on the first flight, from Yaoundé to Zurich on the Swiss Airline. Having never flown in this class we were surprised by the drinks and food offered as well as the concern for our comfort and the large reclining seats, of course all good things must end and on our last flight we were assigned to the middle of the airplane between two individuals. Somehow our window seats were changed to these seats. But the man who sat next to me proved interesting. He happened to be a young priest from Switzerland studying in Chicago for a year. You know me and my attitude about priests but I was cordial. During our conversation he mentioned that he had been in LA two years ago and a mutual friend had him meet Ashton Kutcher. Evidently Ashton took him around to his 4 clubs, a few parties and he stayed in his apartment. To return the favor he invited Ashton to his monastery near Zurich. Ashton spent two days in the monastery where few of the monks had ever heard of him. The priest told me Ashton had trouble with the silence & lack of recognition. While Ashton was at the monastery, Demi Moore (his wife) had a bit of plastic surgery in Austria, one of many according to the monk.

It was hard to say “Good-Bye” again to Kate for another year and we thank her for being able to cope with two parents who at times were infant like in their ability to communicate with the locals. We feel much better about her in Cameroon after meeting her friends and co-workers and experiencing Cameroon for ourselves. We are now considered part of her Cameroonian family. We fully support her in her role as a Peace Corp Volunteer and know it isn’t always easy. We also want to remind her that even small changes can have a lasting impact in many ways for years to come, some unknown at this time. Ahh Kates we are proud of you!!

Mom & Dad Legner

It's been too long...

Wow, it's been a long long LONG time since I've last written and for that I apologize! I have use of Kim's computer currently so that makes it a lot easier to type this up…but I'll try to be more on the ball…AFTER my parents trip here! It's really very soon, they'll be leaving the states in only a week and I will be meeting them at the airport in yaounde next Tuesday. Wow. I've made some plans for while they're here that I'm pretty excited about. My friend, Leo, who I work with at Mefoup actually has a car and has offered to drive us all down to the border of Cameroon and either gabon or equatorial guinea, where there is apparently a huge market and maybe we'll get to just step over the line and say we were there! While down in Mefoup they'll get to see us harvest my soy field there too. We'll also be spending a day or two with my homestay family, none of which I've seen since I left bangangte in the very beginning of December. My homestay mother is very very excited and told me we will all be staying at the house…we'll see how that all turns out. Then we'll be going to Bamenda (my favorite place in this country), possibly Foumban ("art capital of cameroon"), and Limbe (the beach). Around Ebolowa everyone is getting excited for their trip here as well, Billy is planning "a surprise" for my parents, we have lots of stuff being planned by Hans and Serges, and a couple of the other volunteers will hang out with us while we're near their posts. Needless to say I'm quite ready for them to be here!

Aside from that I'll start this blog post by sharing my two recent incidents of intense homesickness… Get the sad stuff out of the way :>) The first was this past Saturday when I went down to Mefoup. It ended up being a late day and Leo drove me back around 7:30 at night…so by this time it was already dark, the temperature was down to an astounding 68 degrees already (this is the coolest time of year), I was sitting BY MYSELF in the front seat of a nice car with a sunroof open, wearing a seatbelt too! Windows open…cool breeze…driving past people burning their fields next to the road reminded me of the smell of campfires…I almost felt for a second like I was in the states on a summer/fall night. I always love the smell of that time of year and just that feeling you get with the wind in your hair and the cool air all over the place! (I'm not too good with the description here, you know what I mean!)…It was all very sad in the end when we pulled up at the control gates to town and someone yelled "la blanche" in my face. Then the next incident was that Sunday. I was at home and Billy was talking about these "Wisconsin badger" jerseys we're still going to have made (by the way my team is apparently unstoppable…they've won every game they've played!). So he was talking about an example for what to model the jerseys after, and he showed up at my door with this dirty ripped up really old school letterman jacket, that sure enough, is red and white, big picture of bucky on the back, university of Wisconsin, badgers…everything. I almost burst out crying on the spot, which would have been hilarious and far too awkward all in one moment…so instead I tried to smile as big as possible and adequately express my amazement that this jacket somehow ended up in my village…in Cameroon, by way of Wisconsin. Just like myself I guess. Pretty crazy.

Let's see…I hate getting to this point where so much has happened between now and the time I've last written that this post will either get really long and detailed or just not say all I want it too, and neither option is suitable…I'll begin where I left off last time. It was a few weeks ago now that I was up in the West province for the environmental education camp. My friend Jessica was in charge or planning it and she did an excellent job of getting everything set up and inviting kids. We ended up having a relatively good attendance of between 7 and 18 kids everyday. We discussed the full range of environmental topics, which was clearly a test of our French ability, but ended up going pretty well. A few of the kids were those kids the teacher would probably write on their report card "a pleasure to have in class" if this were America…they showed up every day, participated, pretty much could finish our sentences for us…it was great to have them there and by the end of the camp we were having a lot of fun with them. Our last day we made jumpropes out of recycled plastic bags and then spent an hour, us 4 white girls, with about 8 highschool boys doing double dutch…which made for some good pictures! While up in the West I stayed with either one of my two friends Nura and Jessica. Compared to my house, which is only a 45 minute walk from Ebolowa on a nice paved road (I really got lucky with this), they are both between 2-4 hour walk from town on really crappy (read: MUDDY) roads from Baffousam. When I was up there is was the very start of the rainy season in the west…actually I'm pretty positive the rain came with me, since every day it just poured, what seemed like constantly…the roads were horrible! To get to Jessica's house mottos won't even brave the road when it's like this so we spent most of our time walking to and from the school where we had the camp, town, and her house. It's in interesting game of concentration, balance, and calf muscle endurance when walking in mud of this type…especially in flipflops. I completely destroyed my one pair that had been on their last leg. I bore holes all the way through the soles in several places due to the opposite forces of mud suction and my leg strength :>) We also got to spend a day in Foumban, an artisan city really close to Baffousam. A really fun group of us ended up going and we did a lot of shopping, my favorite purchase of which were these small bronze statues of pygmy witchdoctor looking man and woman…they make me laugh everytime I look at them…aka: good buy! We also went to the sultan's palace in Foumban. The sultan is just like the chiefs in other towns, but the Bamoun culture here places a lot of emphasis on him and he's overall just a really important guy (like my summaries of such things?!) There is a museum in the palace, which is incredibly well put together and the most actual museum like place I've been to in Cameroon, complete with a musical performance at the end! Nura's good friends with the chief of her village, who is apparently good friends with the sultan, so we had an "appointment" to meet him. This ended up falling through because at the moment we were there it was a big celebration for the graduation of a new Koran class. We didn't realize this until we were in the middle of it and the streets leading out of the palace were closed off by a mass of kids singing and chanting. So we were cornered, and ended up sitting in some apparently (but unknown to us) restricted area in front of the palace. We subsequently got scolded, asked to move, and then approached by the sultan's wife…who…ended up being from the US virgin islands (I think that's what it was) and speaking PERFECT American English! She was great and arranged for us to sit behind the sultan in his private quarters while we watched the graduation ceremony! What an experience, kinda unprecedented! Good day trip :>)

My trip home from Baffousam was also very interesting, and surprisingly full of good events…I decided to take a private car from Baffousam to Yaounde…in hopes it would take about 4 hours instead of the 7 or 8 buses sometimes take. To do so one stands by the side of the road out of town and gets these "chargers" (random guys) to flag down passenger cars going your way. I was getting really annoyed with these guys because they wouldn't let me flag down cars, and they were doing a really bad job at it…so I decided to work for myself, and sure enough, after about 10 minutes (versus an hour and a half with the guys) I chased down a car (literally) and got a spot in the backseat. Although I was between 2 big guys, one of which kept demanding I get a drink with him in Yaounde and putting his arm around me, the trip went quicker then in the bus and I got dropped off right in front of the peace corps office in Yaounde when we got there! Once in Yaounde I waited for a taxi to the depot area for the buses to the South. A man on the curb next to me was going to the same depot and ended up helping me find the taxi. The whole street of the depot area was closed off, for some reason I don't understand, requiring everyone to get out of the taxis and walk with huge loads of stuff to their agency of choice. For me this can be a very taxing experience, since harassment in the depot can get really really intense. It was exactly as I assumed, in the ¼ mile I had to walk I had all kinds of things yelled at me, all parts of me being grabbed, guys surrounding me…etc…so I decided to try something I hadn't yet used, and caught up to the man that had helped me and been in the taxi with me. I put my arm in his and asked if he would be my husband for 10 minutes. He was great, he just said sure, and then flung people dirty looks, and walked all the way to the depot with me…then just left me WITHOUT asking for my phone number! Fantastic! So once at my agency waiting area things went equally amazing. I made friends with the bathroom attendant, got to pee for free! Then all the workers kept calling me either "sister" or "madame" instead of the usual "baby", "white", or "my dear". THEN most exciting, I bought myself a roasted ear of corn some boy was selling, and turn around 5 minutes later to see him standing there offering me another. Some guy sent me an ear of corn, yes, in the same manner one would send someone a drink in a bar…but then he left me alone too! It was all very nice. When we finally all got on the bus and moving it turned out all the streets in and out of Yaounde were closed off too. My bus was abnormally organized and someone suggested that everyone put in an extra 100CFA for gas and we take some backroads to try to get out of the city. An hour and several rough roads later, we ended up JUST on the otherside of the blockade, and to our joy and the gawking of several groups of police and over 5 miles of backed up traffic, we ended up being the only bus on the road for several hours that was moving! So all these things that could have gone wrong, actually went right. I was very happy. The only bad thing was that someone decided to put their dog in the trunk of the bus, which was right behind my seat, and everytime we hit a bump or took a quick turn the poor thing wailed its heart out right in my ear…
That's the trip then!

On the homefront! A select few of my neighbors have been driving me crazy! A new man is living right next door. He started out blasting Celine Dion all day long, which was harmless enough, but now he has moved on to blasting Cameroonian pop music with VERY loud bass from 6:30 am to 11 pm…and is making my head explode…the cinder block walls don't do much in the way of holding in sound I guess. Then in the last few days people have started taking over the one private area I had…the back of my house. Call my feelings "American", but I like to be able to sit in my house with the curtains open and not expect someone to be directly at the window in every room. I have one lady doing her laundry outside my kitchen window, in the back of my house, the kids peeping in the 2 front windows, and then most recently 2 women will come take turns showering inches from my bedroom window at 10 pm! I looked out the first time I heard the water in the bucket to see what was going on, and sure enough! Naked woman on my porch…why?! On a positive note, I've gotten shelves built into a corner in my kitchen and a corner in my living room, and now I think I'm FINALLY done getting stuff to furnish my house and can spend my money on travel! The shelves look great though, and Kim, Hans, Serges and I celebrated them by bar hopping during the day, for 8 hours…full time job, drinking in this country. Sadly, my 2 favorite neighbor girls are gone for a period of time. I think one might be gone permanently to go to school, but her sister, my water getting buddy Michelle, will hopefully be back. I miss these 2 girls a lot, and I'm sad they left while I was up in the West and didn't get to say goodbye. They were sometimes the only people I would really have a conversation with for a full day! :>( Lastly in the village, there is a female police officer who always likes to talk to me about my running…she does a hilarious imitation of how I run, sidenote…but then one day I passed by her at the road barrier with Hans and she told me 1)that I have pretty feet and 2) that I should marry her husband too so that I can stay in Cameroon with them and we can run together…so, first FEMALE proposal?! It was odd.

Work related things have been slow as usual since we're now just starting the soy harvest. I met with a woman's HIV/AIDS support group the previous health volunteer had started in Ebolowa to discuss starting a soy project with them, and possibly starting an animal raising project too…the woman I'm in contact with from the group, Deboise, is this fantastic, kind and very intelligent person who I'm really excited to work with if anything gets off the ground. I brought my landlady back some information from Baffousam about animal raising as well, and she's already started building cages for rabbits. We started harvesting one of my soy fields at the village Lo'o…I really like harvesting, you just rip the entire plant out of the ground and put it in a basket…it's kinda like pulling weeds…but with nutritional benefits! ;>) We're going to try to organize a cooking with soy class there for when my parents are here. We've also been keeping tabs on the Moringa nurseries we started, and moved one of them that wasn't getting enough sun…Water project is going slow, rocks were collected a long time ago, and an area near the river was cleared for sand, but no work has been done since then. I think I need to step it up and start pushing things along. My other 2 soy fields will be ready to harvest within the next month, and then we'll have cooking classes for them too…and then after that it's time to start clearing land and planting again! At Mefoup there has been some bad luck…least seriously, we had planted a plot of beans and corn right next to the plot of soy. The beans were completely decimated by something, there is not one single plant left standing…so that was depressing…but at least it didn't affect my dear soy! But more seriously, there was a woman at Mefoup, Pauline, who was suppose to be my go to person, the woman in charge of mobilizing the other woman and organizing our work days…she was killed in a car crash a few weeks back…so the village was very affected by that…incredibly disheartening. Sad note to put at the end here. Obam, however, has fully recovered and returned to village last Monday, he can walk again and is almost as good as new! There's the work report in a nutshell, and I hope not too scattered.
SO! That should be about all! Hopefully summed up accurately and at a readable length for you! :>) Bon voyage to my mom and dad!

Salut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Salut! At some point I'm going to write an entire blog post in my really poor French just to drive everyone a little crazy…but I guess I'll be nice today…

I have much new and exciting house news! First and foremost of which is that I often have water…in increasing increments of time too! It started out being 2 or 3 times a week between the hours of 7 and 8 am, but recently has been pretty regularly on in the mornings. Granted only the pipes to the faucet in the kitchen have adequate water pressure, but it's SO incredibly nice to have enough water to flush the toilet daily if I need to, wash my clothes more often, etc…actually it's taken a lot of pressure off me, not having to analyze how much water I have/use every minute…I'm very very happy! In addition to this, the plumber came over and installed my bathroom sink, it's pretty much just a shelf because the drainpipe goes out onto the bathroom floor, but nonetheless I have a place to put my toothbrush and soap! The electric company also finally came out and fixed up whatever the problem was with my village's power lines…so we have electricity again after 3 weeks without! I went through a lot of candles and a lot of freaking out coming home after dark with the mouse/rat on the loose. Lastly inside the house I have ordered myself some fine wooden shelves for the kitchen and living room (a place for my million books, I've finished over 30 novels already in Cameroon…seriously…I have too much time), they've been a long time coming but hopefully will be installed soon! (these are the highlights of my home life :>) Neighborhood is the same old same old…I had my first theft: my porch lighbulb! (what?!) My landlady and I had an in depth conversation about my work here, etc… (I really like this woman…she's stopped pushing the religion stuff, and has been very helpful just listening to me and understanding) and she's really interested in starting some sort of animal raising project. I think we'll do cane rats (just big rats), rabbits, and chickens, and I'll apparently help clear the area, build cages and teach people how to care for them (aka: I have a lot of research to do). I've slowly been getting to know more and more of the village and getting increasingly comfortable being out and about, even though there are always the random men drinking palm wine and yelling things at me on the corner. My one neighbor man who is usually in the drunk crowd felt it his duty the other day to tell me "Kate, you have added the pounds" (literal translation for laughs) and walk towards me puffing out his cheeks, holding his arms out to the side, like an elephant or something. Always nice to hear, and fun to explain how that is the absolute LAST thing you should ever say to an American woman! Lastly "in the neighborhood" I had an interesting moment when I heard someone walking right behind my head out the window while lying in bed one morning. It's usually one of the kids just asking for me to yell at them to get out of my "espace privée" but they weren't being sneaky enough…so come to find out (by turning around) that some random man has chosen this spot to stand on my back veranda and pee into my "yard". Men here are ALWAYS doing their business along the side of the road, right infront of you, in the open…but seriously dude…my bedroom window?!

Random news: I cut off all my hair! Ok, not all…but a lot for me! It's just to my shoulders…thus A LOT cooler and less dirty constantly in this hot dirt/bug covered land! MUCH easier. I decided to do it one day after a bucket bath at Kim's house, when it made me so mad I decided to punish it with scissors. Between Kim and I and a dull scissors it actually came out looking pretty nice, I even put layers in myself! Also random: my postmate left about 2 weeks ago for the states…it's quite an exciting thing for all of us here…just to hear how her perceptions of things have changed, how life there feels after living here, etc…not to mention the fact she'll bring back things like peanut butter and maple syrup! She'll be there for a total of 4 weeks, so in reality she'll be back in not to long now. I'm a bit jealous…

Work has been touch and go recently. I think it's because it's between planting and harvesting, so it's felt kinda slow again (but then again, when doesn't it?!) I spend one day with Obam traveling ½ way down the road that goes from Ebolowa to Kribi, really really muddy (up to my shins at times) and scary on a motto, to see how one makes palm oil and to see the palm plantation he helped to start up there. The next day we were supposed to head out to the village Lo'o to check up on the soy fields…and Obam "forgot". I've been getting increasingly frustrated with him lately after a variety of happenings because he seems to lack follow through with projects and he has difficulty explaining things to people in a logical way, etc…and it's interfering in a big way with getting anything started…so this was kinda the final straw and I decided just to not try to get projects started with him anymore. And then…he got sick…I'm not sure what it going on now, since I'm out of town, but he has been pretty sick for over 2 weeks. By this I mean, he's been bedridden and now I think is hospitalized! I visited him a couple of times while he was still at his house but after that no one really knew which hospital he had gone to etc…I feel really horrible about everything, and since I don't know a whole lot of medical French words it's frustrating because I'm not really sure what's going on…but I'm clearly hoping that he pulls through it as soon as possible and that whatever treatment he's receiving is doing what it should. It's one of those times when the reality of illness and related problems in this country become so evident. My supervisor Hans has also has quite a streak of bad luck…stolen motto, phone, laptop (laptop this past week), and his wife had a motto accident about a week after having their new baby and dislocated her shoulder! Sometimes…

Otherwise, work…I had to attend the south province agriculture department meeting. This was kinda hilarious, but kinda absurd at the same time. I was in this "board room" with the 20 most important agriculture people in the province, all men, for 5 hours. Then after this I had to go to a party with the 20 men and drink and dance with them (I had to do the usual awkward first dance with Obam), and be asked how they could get "UNE volontaire" (a FEMALE volunteer) in their village…etc…I did however win over the delegate of agriculture for the entire province by jokingly counting the number of beers he drank (6 bottles of guiness in 2 hours)…so if that's anything?! ;>)

One relatively big work thing is that we've started the water project out at the village Lo'o. We had another meeting where we evaluated how to better the current water source while building the new one, and to make sure that everyone in the village was on the same page with how work was going to go. The week after that we started work…6 men in an assembly line of sorts, standing on the hill of a river bank passing enormous rocks up to collect in a pile. I'm pretty positive I'm going to use this project as one of my "Peace Corps Partnership" projects…this means I'm going to be asking all you for money to help support building this water source…wait for it!

Also, relatively big news…Kim and I just had another training for soy at a village, Oveng, near her town (17 kilometers on bad roads/motto again) and it went the best of all the ones we've done so far…we felt the least nervous/the most effective. We're looking forward to starting a community farm and several individual farms with this village in the big rainy season (starting end of August). Plus we got 3 pineapples, 2 huge regimes (stalks?) of plantains, and bushmeat as gifts… :>)

Lastly in the work category, I received some Moringa seeds (it's a tree) during my in service training in April. This tree is really popular in the North of Cameroon and Nigera, Senegal, etc… but is completely unknown here. It's called the miracle tree because it's leaves and seeds are INCREDIBLY nutritious, and commonly used in for many traditional medicines…so I thought it'd be a great time to try to grow it here. So with Hans and another CEAC (this is the organization that I work with, there are 5 separate offices in the South province) office are starting at least 3 nurseries and using (or attempting to use) different conditions (varying amounts of water, shade, whatnot)…science?! (I didn't think it existed here, but we're trying) I helped plant one nursery the other day, filling plastic sacks with dirt with 5 small children and a 70 year old man…so we at least have 51 potential trees! I'm crossing my fingers that these grow.
SOOOOOO that's about it for me! I apologize as usual for the amount of time between my posts…but motivation and no computer always let me down! I'm on my way to Baffousam tomorrow for a week long environmental education camp I'm helping another volunteer with…AND I'll get to swim in the pool there! Plus plus plus.
This upcoming weekend is my 9 month anniversary here…I'm 1/3 done! WHOA

Hello hello! Special treat for everyone after this blog entry…wait for it!

Hello hello! Special treat for everyone after this blog entry…wait for it!

Certainly been in and out a lot lately…feels like I'm never really home for more than a day at a time! I spent some time up in Kim's (I'm just going to use her name because I am with her too often to not!) town for the independence/unity celebration…I don't really know what it is about…I think Cameroon combined all their political holidays into this one week or something, at least that's what it seemed like!

Kim held a writing contest as part of the celebration. I helped. Haha…this included us getting omelet sandwiches, telling other people to get everything ready, and then showing up to hand kids paper and sit around and read for 4 hours while the kids wrote about their futures and the future of their country. It ended up going pretty well…but after the first 2 hours the 8 year olds started showing up, and since we didn't specify age from the get go, we ended up with about half of the papers full of drawings and phrases like "I want the president to be president forever". Also, only in Cameroon during an "official" contest like this are you disrupted by events such as the goats making too much noise outside and a crazy drunk women coming to the door at 8 am and yelling things at everyone inside. A few days after the contest we gave out prizes to the winners at the "soccer game for unity"…since everything was very unclear, we assumed that Kim would just stand up, say a few words, and hand out the bags of tee-shirts. However, this whole contest idea was rapidly taken over by the "officials" in the community, they gave a big speech, made the kids stand in line for applause, had random people including myself (without even informing me they just call my name into the microphone!), the mayor, the delegate of agriculture…etc…hand out the prizes and get photos taken with the winners…in front of the entire town…awkward times pretty much sums it up!

Another "event for unity" included a march. For this we showed up to the center of town at 6 am…they pack about ½ the population into one vehicle, we get on mottos, and drive 10 kilometers to the northern border of the south province. Once we get there all the women are told they need to have an obligatory medical exam. Of course, this means there is one man from the hospital with a blood pressure cuff and a stool. No one forms a line, but just a big pack and a few women get their blood pressure taken after some pushing and shoving. They never got around to us (or half the other women for that matter) so I guess it's a good thing I'm not afflicted with hypertension?! After this we do some stretching, which looked to me more like line dancing…I just took pictures…I guess it's also a good thing I'm not a sufferer of stiff joints. :>) Then we are distributed our free gift! Tee-shirts! We were so excited about the tee-shirts (I always am)…but we soon discover that they do not say anything exciting like "march for unity" but are instead plain grey XXL. Very sad. However we did get cloth, hand written numbers to pin on our backs! The march itself was just fine, but I have NEVER seen a cameroonian walk as fast as all these people did, either unity is a highly motivating purpose or there was a big cash prize for the winner! Our goal was to not be last so we wouldn't be deemed the weakest and further the stereotype of weak white people. However, somehow kim and I got stuck between the 2 big groups ahead and behind us…and thus were easy to pick out of the crowd. This clearly inspired 10 mottos to encircle us as we entered town at the end of the march and follow us into the gauntlet of waiting spectators screaming things at us and cheering. Once again, all I can say is…awkward!

We also attended the "unity parade"…which starts 2 hours late, and consists of all the school children from town and the surrounding areas wearing their uniforms and marching 200 meters across an open field in front of a stage where all the important people (and us) sit. I occupied myself by taking pictures of other unsuspecting spectators. Lastly, we had to go to the sous-prefet's party (a guy with a rank somewhere above mayor). Parties here are THE MOST awkward of all awkward situations. We enter the sous-prefet's living room as we are announced by a man on a microphone next to the door. We then take seats in chairs which line all the walls of the room. Music blasts, no one talks, everyone stares at each other and waits for the food. The food is served 2 ½ hours after the party has "started". We eat. They clear everything away. Then the awkward first dance takes place. They choose people at random (I swear sometimes they know who absolutely does not want to be called and then choose you) to dance the first dance in pairs they select. Of course Kim and I get called and have to dance with 60 year old men. The dance lasts for 30 seconds. Everyone laughs at us. We sit down and contemplate how soon we can successfully escape unnoticed. We stay 10 more minutes before deciding, the answer is NOW!

Aside from all the eventfulness due to unity…I've done a bit of work around my village. I had a meeting about a water project at the village Lo'o. Silly me assumed that when they asked me to come for the meeting, that I would be solely an observer! I got there, sat down, and everyone was just staring at me until someone told me to start. So…I guess I can say I winged it…because I have NO IDEA how one does water projects! But now I guess we are building a water pump. Haha… Other than that, Kim and I went to the village Mefoup to do a soy presentation and had record attendance of 43 people! Everyone seemed pretty into it and a lot of people requested recipes books a fellow volunteer made. Clearly however, after the meeting the first individual to come "ask a question" is a 50 year old man, who comes up to us and whispers in horrible English "I want a woman to marry"…seriously, if only I could be a man in this culture for 5 minutes!

Lastly, last thursday was my 8 month anniversary with Cameroon! Not like I'm counting or figuring this stuff out or anything, but in one more month I'll already be a third done with my service. Woah.

SPECIAL EDITION!!!
Pests and Food Products

I wanted to describe the ways in which the pests in my home affect EVERY SINGLE food product I own in order to gain your pity and make you oooh and aaaah at the tiny ecosystems I find in everything from my flour to my zesty blend spice container. We will start with everyone's favorite…ants. There are 3 main types of ants I have identified in my home. We have the large biting black/red ant, the small blank ant, and the tiny orange ant. Tiny orange ants are by far my largest frustration, and have been deemed to be worse in my house than any other volunteers in the South (this is the part where I garner your pity). Now, my prior knowledge of ants led me to believe they only liked sweet things: candy, pure sugar, syrup, etc…this is OH so wrong. Ants consume all food indiscriminately in my home! An onion slice falls on the ground, within 5 minutes…covered in small orange ants. Butter, keep it in it's covered plastic container in a Ziploc bag…2 days later when I use it again…boom full of ants (and often black fuzzy mold). Bread, eat ½ a baguette, but the rest in a Ziploc bag…next afternoon when I want to make a sandwich…wham ants…inside every crevice, those holes which normally make bread so airy and delightful are simply a labyrinth of fun for the ants. And on and on, even spices! They ate my rosemary. I wanted to cry. The little ants are handy in one respect though, they eat other dead bugs. I kill a cockroach, and throw it outside my door, within an hour the thing it entirely gone! The large biting black/red ants were the invaders of my sink during their migration past my house. Oddly enough they usually are only out and about now at night and have a very defined path along the edge of my back porch. Recently something has lured them into the kitchen at night (in far smaller amounts, thank god) and they have been doing evil things like eating my bananas THROUGH the peel. WHY?!?!

Next on the list we have mice. I only saw one in my house that one time (when it did a sweet back flip in my kitchen)…however they are known to be at large due to their lack of discretion in eating my food and pooping in a specific corner about once a week behind my bed in the middle of the night (sneaky little jerks). Mice enjoy chewing through plastic and eating labels off of containers. Ziploc bags left too long with something in them…corners chewed off by mice. Small spreadable cheese in wrapper, in box left too long…chewed through by mice. Cinnamon bottle with apparently delicious label (I bought it…I guess I found myself drawn to the container as well, but didn't think to taste the label)…chewed up by mice. Even the skin on onions get gnawed off by these guys! I repeat…jerks!

Moving on…we have other insects that like to lay eggs. I enjoy pasta so I bought a small bag. I ate some and put the rest in a Tupperware container to store for 2 weeks while I was gone. Who'd have thought this could be a bad idea?! When I opened it next, there were huge bugs who had burrowed inside of the pasta tubes and were living half imbedded in the pasta! So…you know what this means…bugs that size can't get into a Tupperware container in any other way than by eggs…thus every time I eat pasta I'm getting a good dose of bug protein in egg form! Other egg layers include the maggot like things in all flour. My flour is always in a Tupperware too…but that doesn't stop these guys from going about their business havin' babies by the second in my food. Before using flour here you have to put it all through a fine sieve to get out all the bugs, their larvae, end eggs. However, I'm pretty sure the sieve isn't small enough…oh well…it'll maybe stop me from eating raw cookie dough?! One cool thing about the flour larvae is that they make paths down the edges of the container in the flour…kinda like those ant house/maze things kids in the States have…and I like to observe them…and then eat their babies. Maggots also find themselves into almost any fruit that gets a little too ripe on my counter, and I've, on more than one occasion , forgotten to take a good look at my guava before biting in and have gotten a mouthful of fruit + little worms! Yum.
…are you grossed out yet?!...

Lastly we've got the mold. And since fungus is neither plant nor animal, I allow it to be called a pest! With no refrigeration you can imagine that food is quick to rot…but wow, I sometimes find myself pretty astounded at just how fast mold can take over a tomato that was good just the night before, or grow on my dishsponge if I don't bleach it every few day, or inside a container of spices I guess I must have stupidly stuck a contaminated utensil into?! On a sidenote, un-food related…mold has even grown on my pants folded up on my shelf! Humidity…I tell ya!

Alright! That's it! Enjoy your lunch ;>)