You just never know!

Current Mood: Uggghhaaahhh I am SO sick of begging for money.

My goal to fund Phase I of Books For Cameroon by the end of September is unlikely to happen, unless either an amazing, generous philanthropist decides to donate $3.5k in the next 24 hours, OR, if by some bizarre miracle, 700 people decide to donate their next $5 latte/beer in the next 24 hours.

I am somewhat disappointed; however, I suppose raising $5,000 within a month still wasn't too bad of an effort, considering it took 3 months to raise the first $3,000. At least, I have been learning a great deal and showing progress. That's the important thing, right? Or so I tell myself. Ça va aller.

Okay, now I got that out of my system, let's talk village life.

A journalist once asked me to describe my "typical day" as a Peace Corps volunteer. That, I have decided, is simply impossible to define. The constant surprises are both the beauty of life as a volunteer, yet also the source of many frustrations. Last Friday, I went into Bafoussam for banking and other various errands. The car ride from my village to Baf. is only 30 minutes. Yet, we stopped in Baham - a town near my village - to pick up more clients and we waited there for an hour. Unexpected frustration. I was once again reminded that time is not money here and the term "opportunity cost" means nothing for the most part.

Yet when there is bad, there is good. Yesterday, I had a pretty productive Sunday of studying for the GRE and getting work done. Late afternoon, I made my way into town. The weather was gorgeous, so I enjoyed the walk and took in the tranquility that Batié has to offer. While in town, I had a Schweppes Ginger while waiting for my grilled fish. Meanwhile, had some funny conversation with villagers. One guy was trying to give me a hard time about the fact I can't speak Batié even after a year. And everyone else in the bar defended for me saying I had to learn French, and what in the world would I do with Batié after I leave? Funny villagers.

I got home and just as I situated myself for a movie while eating my fish, Billy and Loïc came by. Apparently there was a big dance event at the rich neighbor's house that I had to go see. So I took my camera and off I went with the kids. There I saw the group of villagers dressed in traditional Bamiléké fabric and getting ready for a big dance. Turns out Le Grand had invited white people to come observe this village tradition, and that's why there were all the fuss.


Just about everyone from the quartier were there, and ALL the kids were around. They love getting their pictures taken and I created a bit of a chaos when I asked Billy & Loïc to take pictures of me and the little ones. There were ALL over me. You would've thought I was running a daycare in Africa or something. So funny.


I hung out with the kids for the most part; they are so much fun. The dances were going on with the traditional musick; not much different from the others I've seen, but extra special since it was in my village and people dancing were my friends. Later, I saw the "white people". They apparently were a group of priests from all over the world were in Yaoundé for a week, and they are friends with Le Grand's wife. I met them briefly. It was really weird, even for me, to see all these white people in Batié!

So that was an interesting turn of events to my quiet night with a movie. Today, while I was getting some work done, neighbor came to knock on the door and invited me over for lunch. You don't turn down food when offered here, so off I went! The group of missionaries was also there. Also, my amazing, non-corrupt mayor was also present. It was a mini-UN right there in the living room with English, French, German, Spanish being spoken, and people from France, Spain, Fiji, South Korea, and other exotic places. I chatted briefly with the missionaries about my work and they told me a bit about their stay. It was really cool to find such an international setting right in my village, and I got a real kick out of my mayor speaking German. And just like that, an unexpected Monday afternoon!

Since I've been utilizing the RPCV network to seek funding for my project, I've had the chance to read many profiles of RPCVs. The common theme that I've extracted is that Peace Corps is the best two years of their lives and they have very fond memories for years after. I don't doubt that to hold true for me as well, but I wonder if the experience must stop after these two years, or will I be able to continue create memories that will be just as good as these two years, if not better?

Sans Electricity? Sans Problem!

I cannot lament enough how wonderful technology is! This past week was long, and there were moments when I thought, "what in the world am I doing here?" "Why did I give up hot shower/microwave/all forms of modern conveniences to learn a 4th language and to live in this outrageous place?" This is a wild place and despite my lovely fellow trainees, I crave bits of familiarity in my life. Thankfully, Bluetooth gave me that. Today, I talked to Mom, Megan and Laura. These conversations filled the cravings and now I have the energy to go on facing another challenging week! While talking to Laura, both the power and water was out at the house. Yet, I was iChatting on my pre-charged MacBook and my mobile phone was charging via a pre-charged solar powered battery. Laura, who's been living in New York, said, "this is wonderful! It's like you never left!"

On Friday, we were given our assigned companies whom we will advise while in training. I met with my counterpart and visited the establishments. My entrepreneur is probably in his mid-30s and owns a dry cleaner and a small shop that sells random items from suitcase to DVD players to fake flowers. We chatted for a while, and tomorrow I will return for a formal meeting. I am amazed at how much French I can come up with. There are times when I can't describe a simple need to my host mom yet other times like conversing to this guy and finding out he studied mathematics in college, came from a town west of Baffousam, lived in lots of places in Cameroon, doesn't like the big cities, but sees potential in Bangangté. Also he doesn't have a formal system in what items he sells at the store and that he spends most of his time at the dry cleaner since there are more work to be done. Sometimes I get anxious thinking about getting my French up to par but then I remember there was a time when my English was worse than my cousin Karen's Chinese. Then I feel better.

Here in the Peace Corps, we certainly are not all work no play. For safety reasons, our curfew is 7pm. Okay, that sounds absurd, but when the roads aren't paved and it's literally pitch black outside, 7pm curfew prevents me from falling into death traps. We've had the curfew extended twice over the past two weekends. I have a feeling someone will find some reason to get it extended at least once per weekend. The first weekend, we partied for party's sake. But this past Friday, we had two birthdays to celebrate. Someone came up with this idea to make Enchiladas for 45 people. To spice things ups, power went out that night. The picture below doesn't justify the scene since my camera has a killer flash, but I think it portraits the creativity that is required to cook semi-familiar food in developing countries.

Using beer bottles as rolling pins

Drinking wine from tupperwear

Siobhan's banana pancakes & syrup from her Vermont hometown!

You got shots in the USA? We got sachés!

Pictures!

Here are a few pictures that illustrates my life here:

My host sister Babette & moi.

Our French Classroom - It's a legit shack.

We serving as guests of honor at an awards ceremony in Bafoussam.

This is what doing laundry in Cameroon looks like.