Since I'm in Yaounde for a meeting, I figured I should greet you in French. It's been great over the past few days to be praciticing my French, full on.
I hope the 4th of July was great for all of you. Here in Yaounde we were invited to the US Embassy for an afternoon of "Americanness." The Embassy is equipped with a nice-sized pool (only for Embassy employees) and there's a golf course for the neighborhood, directly behind---a surreal neighborhood of WEALTH, only minutes away from the typical, somewhat downtrodden surroundings of this country. We sang the national anthem (interestingly a bit of nostalgia washed over me) and ate cheeseburgers, Doritos, and Oreos, OH MY!
Slowly but surely I'm trying to introduce you to my life in Fundong. You have seen pictures of people I live/work with, my house, and now some sights in Fundong town:
This is the center of town, hence the grandstand (painted in Cameroon's colors) on the left. On the right is the sculpture dedicated to the recent celebration of 50 years of independence.
Just wanted to add this in to show you the keen sense of income generation: many women selling the EXACT same items, side by side. Competition much?
Some more sights and stores in Fundong. I think I took this picture to help give a sense of the beautiful scenery that surrounds me on a daily basis.
The MC2 on the right is the Micro Credit Institution, but in the far distance is the Fundong District Hospital and this is the direction heading out of Fundong, towards Bamenda.
This is a crossroads in the center of Fundong. Up this road is my NGO and another village called Fujua. If you were to continue up this road and then turn right, you'd begin heading to my house.
Our Bread Store that doesn't really sell that nice of a variety of bread products. Baguette (mmm) is nonexistent in Fundong, it's only square white bread that's nothing to call home about.
"The Road" on Market Day. In my division, market days are every 8 days. Luckily though, in Fundong there is a nice variety of food stuffs everyday - market days just make for larger quantities of the same items and MASS CHAOS!
More of "the road". Slightly beyond here is called "the end of tar" - meaning that the paved road ends. Paved roads make for MUCH easier travel in this country.
Right behind the "benskin" (the local word for moto) is Simon's wife's blanket store. Usually she has many of them hanging out front on display, but since it was raining, she had previously brought them inside.
This is the road to Ngwainkuma, Simon's village. Three steep hills later, you arrive at his house.
I'm heading back to post tomorrow, after my meeting, and will be as productive as possible before LEAVING FOR THE UNITED STATES on July 30th!
Hope all is well with you and you're enjoying these summer months!
Until next time,
Stef
Thanks for the nice pictures of my beautiful home town. Those pictures fill me with a longing to tread those streets again. Home is home indeed. I like your objective non-judgmental comments, just simple and homely as I believe the people in Fundong are. Thanks for the work you are doing to support development there.
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