Happy Thanksgiving!

Not to worry we will be celebrating Thanksgiving today.  We bought 11 chickens yesterday and killed them this morning to make up for our lack of turkey.  To Cameroonians it is a “feast of getting fat.”

I have returned from my site visit.  All went well.  I will write about it more when I actually get there.  We are back to training, which with less than three weeks remaining has become a lot of work.  In addition to my usually language and technical classes I have to prepare a cultural presentation in French, and work with my community group on a project for world AIDS day.  I am really excited to get to my post and have training be over.  But at the same time realize how lonely post will be. 

So much happens here I don’t know what to write about so I will answer some questions my parents sent me:

What is the economy of Bangante/Cameroon?

There are several schools in Bangante and a University on the outskirts.  So Bangante is a very educated village as compared to others and there are a lot of jobs with the schools.  I do not think there is any other special industry related to Bangante.  It is surprising that certain enterprises people have can be profitable.  For instance there are numerous little stores in my neighborhood alone.  I see that they sell a lot of bread and drinks but beyond that I do not know what they sell on a regular basis.  There is not much of a profit margin on these things.  Or there are numerous people in the center of town who sell phone credit.  I don’t see how they sell enough to be profitable but I guess they are if they still exist.  In terms of unemployment, I‘m sure there are a lot of people who do not have a constant place to work, but that is not as much as a problem as in the U.S.  Many people just hang around all day long, not doing much and it is not considered a problem. 

Do people go to food markets on a daily basis? Is there refrigeration?

 Yes people go to market daily.  In most houses there is no refrigeration but in stores there is.  But this refrigeration is used to keep beer and drinks cold more than anything else.  The market is always busy, and on Wednesday and Saturday there is a second market as well.  There are stores that sell basic non-perishable items.  The source of protein here is much more limited due to the lack of refrigeration.  There is a lot of fish, smoked or fresh.  Also if you want chicken you buy a whole chicken and kill it yourself.  And I have beef every once in a while.  Beyond that eggs and beans are big sources of protein here. 

In my house I have about five different meals I eat on a regular basis. 

Rice and beans

Rice and fish

Potatoes with a sauce, sometimes a beef sauce

Rice with a peanut and fish sauce, better than it sounds.

Pasta, with potatoes and some type of sauce.

But on any given day rice could be substituted for a potatoes, yam or plantains.  Now that I think about it I do get a lot of rice, and I have never actually had chicken at my house.  Also here in the West of Cameroon cooking with a lot of oil is the norm.  They put a lot of oil in everything.  It can be disgusting at times.  I just had a sauce for the first time that was just oil, tomatoes and sardines.  This was served over rice.  Not the best.

But the food has been not bad.  I think the food in Makak will be better, especially since my landlady cooks dinner for me.

What is the structure of society, are there tribal loyalties?

There are tribal loyalties, and the strength of these depends on the region, the geography, and the history and tradition of the people.  Where I live now is the home to the Bamileke.  The head of the tribe is the “Chef” and he has power but he is not as important as the local government officials.  In the Anglophone provinces, which are also mountainess, the head person is the “Fon” and he is very powerful.  Sometimes more so than the government officials.  In the South and the East, which are rainforest, the “Chef” is not powerful at all because there was never really a tradition of a powerful figure in the past.  The people of Makak are Bassa.  In Bangante and Makak tribal loyalties do not affect things much because both places are almost completely a single ethnic group.  But in other places where it is more mixed it matters a lot more.  But this is true of anyplace in the world.

What is the basic method of transportation in Cameroonian cities?

Walking.  Some people have cars but not too many.  There is one main paved road in Bangante and than several gravel roads off of this.  So driving becomes very difficult once you get of the main road, especially after it rains when the road becomes nothing but mud.  The other mode of transport is moto-taxis.  These are just guys who own motorcycles and will drive you around for a few hundred francs.  There is a Peace Corps regulation that when we use a moto-taxi we have to wear a motorcycle helmet.  Makes sense but it makes us Americans look even weirder.  I have ridden on a moto-taxi and they can be pretty scary, especially going on mud roads with large puddles.

That’s all I can think of for now.  I promise I will write more and put pictures up soon.

 

Le homme de Makak

I will be posted in Makak in the center province.  I will be working with a Youth Development Foundation.  I learned immediately that Makak is not pronounced with a khak sound like in khaki, but with a “cock” sound.  So the name of my village is extremely entertaining for us Americans but pretty normal for the Cameroonians.  As this is a family blog I will not get into any jokes but you can use your imagination.

 

When imagining my post before hand, I usually imagined a more difficult situation.  Than making my imaginary success, in an imaginary situation all the more satisfying.  This post definitely has some features that make it more convenient than others.  But I’m not going to complain about anything that makes my job and life easier.

 

I have a post mate, a small enterprise development volunteer, which is good with very little bad.  She can make the transition easier by showing me around and introducing me to the nice people she knows.  Also I will have another American around for close to the next two years.  But if I happen to not like her I can just choose not to see her.  I will be the forth health volunteer in my post.  Meaning the organization I’m going to work with has six years of experience with Peace Corps and numerous projects already formed.  Also I’m two hours from Yaounde, the main city.  Meaning other volunteers, super marches, American restaurants, and movie nights at the American embassy.  Also when I want to travel I can easily get pretty much anywhere from Yaounde.  One factor everyone looked at as soon as they learned their post was how close they were to Kribe or Limbe.  These are the two nice beach towns in Cameroon, where everyone goes to vacation.  I happen to be less than a day from Kribe.  C’est la vie. 

Now for the things that might not be so great about my post.  I am not near anyone from my training group.  There are only two people in the Central province and the other is so far north of me I am amazed that it is still considered the same province.  When looking at the map, it seems that two people in the South province are close to me.  But when I ask Cameroonians about the distance they say it is not close.  I think it is because the roads that connect our villages are not good, and in the raining season probably thick with mud and slow as molasses.  But these people can easily reach Yaounde or Kribe so with planning we are no more than a day away from each other.  The other thing I thought of is that I am replacing someone that is very similar to me.  There are very few males in health education here, so I was sort of expecting to replace a woman who dealt a lot with female issues, and than I could take the post in a new direction and work with youth sports and camps.  This would avoid the constant comparisons to the previous volunteer, and allow me a project I’m really passionate about and would work hard to start.  But I’m going to be replacing a guy from Syracuse, who was really active with sports and youth teams.  Oh well.  Now I can just step in and already be doing something I enjoy.  What are the odds though, that I would replace someone from Syracuse.  Out of all the Peace corps volunteers from Cameroon, I have only met one from New York state; I have the same interests as him; and I’m replacing him.

 

I got my desire for a Francophone province, which means I just have to work that much harder to get to the language level I need.  I will also learn some of the local tribal language which is Bassa.  Here is what I’ve learned so far.  “Me yega”= hello.              “Oh ye mbo’o”= How are you?  And in response: “my y he”=doing good.  Don’t quote me on this yet.  The last two phrases I learned today from a guy who was drinking beer with my host father and said he was from Makak.

Now that we know our post we are on the downward curve of training.  We meet our counterparts, and go on site visit.  Our counterparts are Cameroonians who work for the organization we will be working with and will be our first resource for integration into the community.   Everyone was overly excited to for post announcement and we spent a good hour and a half after the announcement just standing around looking at the map, figuring out where everyone is in the country.  Some people are much more isolated than others, so while there are no bad posts, there are some posts that hurt your social life with other Americans.  I think everyone that wanted to go to an Anglophone province got his or her wish, so I do not think there was any big issue over that.  Some people were definitely a little upset that they were placed away from all the people they bonded with during training.  But I think we all understood the possibility of that when we entered peace corps. 

 

Post announcement also occurred at 7:30 the morning after Halloween so we were all a little tired from our American holiday festivities.  It was fun.  But it was like any party back home.  Except we had to make our costumes out of the clothes we had, and butcher paper.  The best costume were two people that came as a mosquito and a mosquito net.  Only Americans in Africa.  I went as a nerd.  It is sad that I needed no additional clothing, just the right combination of my own clothes and some tape on my glasses.  It was interesting trying to explain my costume to Cameroonians.  A translation of my broken French: “A person who is very serious about studying, and is very weird, and is un-cool.  A character very popular in American films.  A person who loves computers.”  The caricature of a nerd must be a very American concept, because no Cameroonians really got it.  They just let me stop talking and than changed the subject. 

I can see why people from other cultures don’t exactly understand Halloween.  It was a bunch of Americans, with silly costumes on, dancing, drinking and eating popcorn.  With our limited resources our costumes weren’t even good.  Why would this be so big?  It seemed like a holiday for people with too much time and too much money.  But I told all the Cameroonians that for people my age and younger it is a very big holiday.  People go to great lengths to be creative, and really go all out to become a character for a night.  It is one of the biggest party nights of the year.  But it has no relation to its original reason for being, and is just a big opportunity for companies to sell stuff.  Maybe I don’t get it myself.

The morning of Halloween I came out and exchanged the usually “Bonjour, bien dormi?” with my brothers.  And than Georges said “Bon fete”.  And for a second I was taken a back.  What is he talking about?  What festival could I be celebrating?  Oh yeah he means Halloween.  That American holiday to imagination and debauchery.  It was pretty cute.  I usually think of “Bon fete” for Ramadan and Christmas but I can now add another to the list.

Some fun things with my brothers lately:

They get really excited to help with my homework.  They can sit there all night correcting my pronunciation and verb conjugations.  The other day Georges brought out some scrap paper and we discussed the answers to my homework.  He than had me write the answers out on the scrap paper, he corrected them, before he allowed me to write on the actual sheet.  This for homework that receives no grade.  They are nice to me.

I taught Charlie how to play computer solitaire.  I assumed solitaire was easy and self explanatory, but I have also been playing it when I’m bored for 12 years now.  I don’t think he has played much, and the directions probably aren’t in French.  So everything was new to him.  After directing him to make a few moves I tried to sit back and let him play.  But I couldn’t let that red eight go by with a black nine open, or just sit back while he doesn’t move the king to the open space.  We won once and I decided I had done enough.  He probably knows the basics enough now to get all the rules with enough practice.  If I do nothing else for my two years in Cameroon, Charlie can now play computer solitaire.

Last Friday I came home and Charlie asked if I had homework.  I wasn’t sure where he was going with the question, so I said a little.  He than was very excited to tell me he would teach me how to cook fish!  This actually is a big thing, no sarcasm.  Most other Americans aren’t really allowed in the kitchen so it is nice of him.  I got to take fish halves and throw the whole thing in a pan of hot oil.  And than a few minutes later flip them, and than put them in a tomato sauce for a few minutes.  I would have to say the fish was delicious.  Maybe next blog I’ll talk about the food I get at home.  I have a pretty good rotation and once I have something I get it for the next few days.

We have had our first person decide to ET-early terminate.  We all knew it was going to happen eventually but it was still sad to see when it did.