Two Weeks In Cameroon...

...and boy do I feel like it has been closer to two months (because I have already experienced so much and not because it has been going slowly or is dreadful). 

There is so much to write and I will attempt to paint you as much of a picture as is possible with a limited amount of internet time.  We have left Yaounde and the Agroforestry volunteers are in a medium sized town called Bangangte and we, Health volunteers, are in a SMALL village (and I mean that, though it turns out there are actually 10,000 people)!  We come and go between the two places both for training courses and personally for my own sanity and freedom.  Last Sunday, another health volunteer, Kim and I jumped in a "bush taxi" [a station wagon with 4 of us in the back and 2 in front next to the driver---imagine me leaning up against a grandma's breasts while she eats corn on the cob in my ear]and came to Bangangte to get our favorite food (omelette de spaghetti, which is 1 or 2 eggs mixed with spaghetti noodles and a tiny bit of tomato and onion and MAGGI [MSG] and piment, yummy spicy pepper sauce) and to cruise around the market and hang out with some of the Agro volunteers.

Let me tell you about my home stay family, which I will say is not an ideal family situation, but one that I can definitely cope with for the remaining 8.5 weeks.  I live with a grandmother and her two granddaughters who are 16 and 18, Sabine and Carole, respectively.  The "father" of the family lives in Yaounde and I haven't met him yet and probably won't, so it's just 4 of us women living ensemble!  Well, I take that back, because in Cameroon, many members of the village spend inordinate amounts of time at other people's houses passing time, helping to cook, clean and such.  There is a backyard with a smoke house (and I mean SMOKE from all of the cooking over a fire) and 2 other houses behind who seem to eat our food and use our latrine and water.  Yeah I said latrine and let me tell you that in addition to the other following "firsts" within my 1st 24 hours, I experienced extreme culture shock:

Diarrhea and peeing in a latrine [a small 3"x3" cutout in the ground...dribble dribble, but luckily my family has the custom of bringing in some water to wash off the area after use]
Cold Bucket Shower [quite exhilarating but I've definitely become accustomed to it]
Trying Rat [Eww...tasted gamey and was tough]
Being locked in my room [because my lock malfunctioned and I thought I'd have to escape out of my screened in window in order to get to training on time]
Living in very small quarters [I haven't taken pictures yet, but imagine a full sized bed with a mosquito net, the bed being unnecessarily big, a wood desk, a trunk and no other room to walk except in a straight line straight ahead after opening my door...but it works]
Not understanding the language and being stared at and laughed at often [since my host family typically speaks the local language, Bamena aka Pattois---when they speak French, it is with a STRONG Cameroonian accent and is very fast]

As I said above, for these reasons and probably more, the culture shock was extreme.  I thought that since I had visited and spent some extensive time in 3rd world countries, I would know what to expect...WRONG.  Staying in hotels with flush toilets, showers and English while walking through shanty towns and villages is NOT the same as living that life!  Being that it's been over a week as of now, it has all definitely become more customary and manageable, so have no fear, I'm surviving and obviously learning a lot about many, many things---that I can't possibly all write down here and now.

My host family is very forceful, telling me to shower 3x/day (I've told them I shower 1x/day and that will be what they should expect) and washing my feet frequently.  It's very ironic since handwashing for them (be it with soap or without) is not in their vocabulary and they clean their floors and dishes with dirt/food soiled rags and water, not thinking it necessary to change the water halfway through.  Oh well, I still walk on their floors [in my house they are tiled in the main area and cement in the bedrooms] and eat off of their plates.  They are also very focused on the notion that I am "RICH" and that they are "POOR" which makes it difficult to want to integrate into their lives and become more familial with them.  I'm enjoying speaking French with other volunteer's families and others in the village and finding ways to fill my time with the other volunteers, SPEAKING ENGLISH!  Don't get me wrong though, we're plenty busy with health technical training, 3.5 hours of French, and other projects in between. 

Great news to end this blog entry, today I was told that I have moved up from Intermediate Mid French to Intermediate High (the level necessary to swear in at the end of training) beginning on Monday!!

I don't know how frequently I'll be able to access the internet during the course of the next 8.5 weeks, so have patience for the next entry. 
In the meantime, here is my cell phone number: 01-237-7011-2714
You can call me from Skype by buying Skype Credit from the main website and can TEXT me for free (free for both you and me) from Skype.
And again, snail mail and packages are HIGHLY welcomed!!!  Please check the side of the blog for a wish list of food/snack items if your feeling generous.

A bientot!