This blog update is going to be more pictures and less words - a big change as compared with all of my past postings (sorry they're so wordy).
Firstly, I wanted to let you know that I have booked my trip home to the U.S. this summer and my itinerary is as follows:
July 30th - Leave Douala, Cameroon
July 31st - Arrive in Newark, New Jersey
August 7th - Drive to Pittsburgh
August 13th - Fly to San Francisco
August 20th - Fly back to Douala, Cameroon
I will be a part of two weddings, one in New Jersey and one in Pittsburgh :) and am looking forward to spending time with as many people as possible in my three destinations!
Secondly, I have created a website (thanks to my cousin Mitch) to announce the collection of school supplies for a high school in my area. I hope you will check it out and decide to participate! Please spread the word to your friends and family as well, the more people who can help, the better! After my trip to the US, I will be bringing the collected items back with me to Cameroon to be distributed at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year.
http://www.pencilsforpikins.com
Okay, onto the pictures so that you can more easily picture my life here!
Meet some of my neighbors, within the compound in which I live:
Niya and Petra were dancing to Christina Aguilera in my parlor. They're good hip shakers!
Joyce and Nine are busy making Chin Chin (fried semi-sweet dough), a process that I often help them with. The Chin Chin is sold all throughout Fundong-it's delicious!
My Fulani neighbors, Sadatu, Bassi, Mikailu, and Amena eating sugarcane as all the locals do so well!
My francophone neighbors who I share a common wall with: Francois and Peggy and their children Cabrille ("Cabi" - about the same age as Chasin) and Joeskin ("Joe")
My wonderful neighbors, Carine (French teacher at GHS Aduk) and Peter (Principal of GHS Aduk) on our 17 km trek to Aduk!
Simon (my counterpart), me, and Rose (Simon's wife) at Lake Nyos, on a weekend trip to Wum.
My dad's visit to Fundong was wonderful, even though there were not enough meals in a day with which to welcome him. These are the members of Better Family Foundation after a welcome dinner for my dad, at my house.
On another note, for your understanding with regards to work and projects here in the Peace Corps, when we replace volunteers it is our decision as to whether or not to continue the work they had been doing. I believe it is very important for volunteers to be working on sustainability of projects towards the end of their service since often times the next volunteer has other interests and does not end up continuing their efforts. I have included this side note because I have received questions from some of you about this notion and I wanted to (hopefully) clarify "how things work" in Peace Corps.
And lastly, I will leave you with this disturbing remark made by a Fundong community member. Recently I have been helping the members of Better Family Foundation (http://wwww.betterfamilyfoundation.org) to seek funding from elites, local community members and local organizations within Boyo Division. One of the individuals who was approached for support in cash or in kind retorted, "organizations like BFF are supposed to help the community and thus members of the community should not help these organizations." That was difficult to hear but then I found out what he was also pointing out was that a "white man" (since all "white people" are rich) was already helping BFF's cause so why would anyone locally see a reason to assist. Clearly he was showing his ignorance towards my reason for being here as well as towards helping out his own community!
At the same time, I found out that Tangui water bottles are referred to as the "White Man's Drink," meaning that "we" are too weak to drink local water and can only be served bottled water. Interesting perspectives...I will leave you with the following sunset when I was in training in Bamena.
The next post will have pictures of my house, inside and out as well as scenes around Fundong!
Take care until next time!
Stef
Hi Stefanie! I love your blog thanks so much for posting such great stuff! I'm off to Liberia in July, just a stone's throw from Cameroon, and trying to get a feel for what other volunteers are up to. I'm really interested in your plans for coming home this summer and how that all worked out. I have two really big and important weddings as well and the couples have been super depressed that I'll be missing them and I'm wondering how you were able to get the OK to come back...is it not as a big a deal as PC has made it out to be? As long as I can pay for it I'm wondering how difficult it would be to set up, if you have any advice or tips I'm all ears!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much and good luck with all your projects!!
Laura