One Month Mark!

Wow. I cannot believe I have been with the Peace Corps for one whole month. There is beaucoup de chose to talk about and I apologize for not blogging sooner. As trainees, or stagaires, we live by this rigid schedule where we attend French language, business, cross-cultural, and health classes Monday to Saturday. Yes, that’s six days a week. We are free on Sundays, but that’s the day for church and washing my clothes (which consists of bleaching the well water in my bucket before actually washing – it takes hours). Donc, I am chronically exhausted (pardon the habitual francanglais I’m starting to utilize).

I don’t believe I have mentioned much about Bafia. It’s a village of approximately 70,000 people and 1.5 hours from the capital Yaounde. The people here are super friendly – lots and lots of “bonjour” and “bonsoir” and “wy-em-bae” (the local Bassa phrase equivalent of bonjour) when walking down the roads. Many garcons will try to hit on the female stagaires and me by calling us “la blanche” (white) or making hissing and/or kissing noises. As a female, you quickly adapt by completely ignoring them. Bafia is famous for its DELICIOUS pineapples (in French “anana”), watermelon, papaya, coconut, and this super yummy fruit “coeur de col” (sp?). It’s a large fruit that tastes somewhat like lychee. I am in fruit heaven. My room and bathroom consist of screens on the windows as well as a mosquito net around my bed (almost looks like a canopy). I am realizing just how girly I am because of all the bugs I am scared of. For example, the cockroaches here are humongous and gross. I have seen a mouse run around the living room and small frogs jumping around the backyard. I don’t know why I have this unexplainable fear of cafas (cockroaches) but they really freak me out. I really wish I had Raid. I’ve decided to buy a kitten once I get to post so it can eat all the potential cafas and mice in my apartment.

Speaking of post, I learned on Thursday that my Peace Corps post will be in Bamenda, the regional capital of the Northwest Anglophone province! I will be consulting microfinance NGOs, teaching business classes, working with women and youth, promoting HIV/AIDS awareness, etc. I will be replacing another volunteer who is finishing her service in a few weeks. I am actually going on a site visit tomorrow for a week to check out Bamenda. So far, I hear it is extremely pretty with lots of greenery, waterfalls, carved masks, fon society(chief), great weather, etc. I will have my own apartment with *fingers crossed* electricity, cable, internet, running water, etc. I am super excited. This post is in the minority Anglophone area, so I will learn Pidgin English. While I don’t anticipate speaking much French, I will continue to study the language to become fluent. I think my French is slowly progressing with all of our training.

Cameroon itself is the most diverse country in Africa. In fact, it is frequently called “Africa in Miniature.” There are mountains, volcano (Mt. Cameroon), the beach in the West, rainforest in the East, and desert in the Extreme North. I feel super lucky to be here and cannot wait to travel. I just bought a Samuel Eto’o jersey, so I’ll be sporting that around soon (Cameroonians love their football even though we're out now).

As I mentioned before, I have had a couple of “I’m in Africa” moments. While Cameroon is blessed with abundant food, beautiful landscapes, and relative peace compared to its African neighbors, the country is plagued by corruption and disease. The rates of HIV/AIDS are rocket high (60% are positive in some provinces like mine) and the majority affected are the youth, ages 20-30. Also, my host sister just contracted malaria. She has high fevers, bad headaches, and chills. When she told me last night, I had to go into my room and meditate. It is mind-blowing knowing that these diseases are preventable but people like my sister are still suffering in the year 2010. These are monumental problems that prevent poverty alleviation. It is hard for an aspiring entrepreneur to create income-generating projects when he or she has to spend money to take care of ailing family members from disease.

Corruption is apparently a huge problem here and it will be interesting to follow the presidential election results next year. These matters are a grave reminder of the work that needs to be done as future Peace Corps volunteers.

Anyway, congrats on my friends affiliated with Peace Corps - Monique already in Costa Rica, Camille going to St. Vincent/Grenadines, and Chris going to Mexico! Love you all and hope all is well!