Peace Corps China?

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! I spent the day with my people celebrating the holiday. I am now officially more Chinese here in Cameroon than I ever was in the U.S. I don't remember the last time I celebrated this holiday. When it comes to celebrating, the Chinese loves to incorporate eating. The food (食) and drink (酒) cultures are deeply ingrained. Kate can vouch for that since her stomache has been benefited a great deal recently due to the culture exchanges. True to form, we had another feast. This time, the center of the meal is hot pot and the main ingredient is lamb. Now, not just some chunks of lamb that you get from the supermarhe, but a whole lamb - head and feet and all. The animal has been skinned and gutted, but it definitely stayed in its original lamb shape. I then see Mr. Z skillfully chopping it into pieces. If this didn't turn me into a vegetarian, I don't think anything else will. Feasting chez chinoise is always a multi-hour event. Today was even more so. We ate, we break, we drank and repeat. At around 1pm, the Chinese TV was broadcasting the celebration in China, but the power was out. Go figures. Thankfully, the power came back for us to catch the last hour of the programming. I became rather nostalgic watching this and the feeling worsened when the celebration beamed to Taipei and I saw scenes of old familiarity.

To prove that I am in the Peace Corps and exchanging cultures, this morning, I made French toast for the Chinese. They've never had it and loved it! Now they want to learn to make more "American food", so next time, I am teaching them spaghetti and pizza (very American, I know). Throughout the day, we had conversations about life in China, life in the U.S. and every now and then I throw the comparison with Taiwan in for kicks. Ah, to top it off, I attempted Chinese calligraphy for the first time in a decade. The first few tries were disasterous, but then it started coming back! Never thought I'd find my Chinese roots in Cameroon! I am learning a ton all the time! In this regard, I am more in Peace Corps China than I am in Peace Corps Cameroon.

Back to Peace Corps Cameroon, I am loving my town more and more with each passing day. This week, Billy, a 12-year old kid who stinks less than the others, has been showing up at my house a lot. His dad is a Peace Corps Driver, and also the chief of our cartier. He's really talkative and loves to fetch water for me! He's a breath of fresh air from the other kids who have been deranging a lot. Other than the kids, my house had a new improvement when I got a guy that came to reroute electricty. It's now twice as bright in my living room and I've officially transformed the house out of a brown dungeon!

The carrefour of my village

Where I spend most of my time at home

My "Kitchen"

My "Bathroom"

The other day, when I was waiting for someone at the carrefour, I chatted with the gendarms. They were all really nice and seem to have a good grasp of the Peace Corps. I should start hanging out at the omelet shack more. Lots happen there! On the topic of people, I discovered two French people who live in my village! The other day when I was walking to walk, I saw a white person. I got really excited and went up to her to see if she spoke English! And she did! She's French and is here with another guy working with the fish farm. They are staying with families, much like my homestay experience. I offered my house for western getaway! I think next week I'll invite them over for some yummy goodness. Hopefully, I can learn some proper Frenchy French from them. Other work related update: I am going to visit members of a GIC this week with my counterpart. He needs to check on their income generating activities before granting loans. I'm quite excited to see some real work in action. Sitting at the bank only gets me so far with limited French.

You run into herds of cows more frequently than white people.

Kate found an apartment! So I think this week some time, I will have to spend my first night alone. It's about time. We've been at post for nearly a month now! It's time for me to get some real work done and not sit around making food with Kate all day and watching the same episodes of Grey's Anatomy repeatedly. Okay, more updates to come! Stay tuned!

Au Village

Second week at post is coming to an end, and I am starting to feel more like a member of this community. My house is coming along nicely. The walls are painted baby blue and I've added a few personal touches to make it mine. As Kate puts it, I've turned the place into Pottery Barn (as much as possible for being in Africa). If I were in the States, this would be even more ridiculous. The other night, I had a dream that all of us went to IKEA to buy things we needed for the house. What I would do for a trip to Target/IKEA right now!

I still have yet spent a night alone since Kate is still chez moi! I am enjoying the company though. Throughout college, I've only really lived in a studio-esque space alone. Suddenly, I have this gigantic house all to myself. It can feel a little scary at night. The first few days at my house, I was extremely paranoid and quadruple-locking everything. The paranoia can partly be attributed to the malaria drugs; it's better now. Except, the paranoid feelings have turned into vivid dreams about going to IKEA and the like.

In other exciting news, last week, Kate and I hung out with the Chinese consulates. They were in the West province visiting government officials, and fellow Chinese people. By association, Kate and I were invited to the gathering. I have never been happier to be Chinese than I was last week! I talked Chinese with the consulates and they were impressed that I spoke as well as I did having only elementary level Chinese education. Besides the great food, I also tasted the best Chinese alcohol, one the Chinese government use to treat foreign governmental officials. On the bottle, it stated the alcohol came straight from the manufacture and is used for Chinese foreign diplomatic purposes only. So, diplomatic purpose it was, we talked Cameroon, USA, and Taiwan. First week of my volunteer career, and I was fulfilling goal II & III, exchanging cultures, like nobody's business!

Since getting to my village, life has slowed down a lot. I have a lot more free time than I ever did in my short 21 (almost 22) years of life. The other day, Kate and I were watching episodes of Grey's Anatomy and one of the character said, "I feel like I am on a train going 200 miles and hour, and I wish it would just stop at a platform." I said, "Join the Peace Corps." That is precisely how I feel. 3 months ago, back in May, when I was studying for exams, making financial models for StudioSTL, running reports for rich people in St. Louis, preparing for life in Africa and trying to spend time with family and friends all at once, I felt like I was on that train going far too fast. Suddenly, the train stopped and now I am not quite sure what to do with myself.

The pace of life is slow here, far slower than what I am used to. Getting accustomed to this lifestyle is an adjustment in and of itself. I still can't get away from my list-making habits, so everyday I write things on my list just to feel accomplished. Yesterday, my list consisted of the following, "go for a run, go buy food in town, wash floor, organize my room, nail artworks on wall, make lunch, shower, make dinner and get water." Surprisingly, those things took a while and nearly filled up my day.

My house is a 25 minute scenic walk from the "center of town", which is one road with some shops. If I am lucky, I can find essential food that I need. Yesterday, I wasn't so lucky. All I could find in town were bread, eggs, tomatoes, garlic and onion. I’ve wanted some potatoes to make fries and I couldn't find them for the life of me. Thankfully, Kate brought some back for us from Bafoussam. I cook a lot now. Before May, I was pretty much the worst cook you've ever met. Now, I think I do quite well. Cooking takes up a good chunk of my time; I often joke that I joined the Peace Corps to become a good wife. This past week, I made: pancakes, raisin scones, fried rice, cream of corn soup, crêpes, oatmeal raisin cookies, fries, rice soup, and of course, ramen (old habits die hard). Tonight, Kate and I will have a go at lentil taco!

Not sure if I've mentioned, but my house is without running water. I spend a good hour of my days "organizing" my water source. I have 20 water bottles and a few buckets that store water. Luckily, it's still the rainy season, so I can simply put the bucket out and catch water. Otherwise, the neighborhood kids like to visit me all day long and ask if I want water. These kids are funny and stinky. They like to come to my house and stand at the door just watch me do whatever I am doing. I would let them hang out more if they didn't stink up my house. Maybe next week I will start handing out bars of soap for them to shower before coming in!

People in this town are really kind and I don't get déranged much. People are getting pretty used to me and they are incredibly friendly. The guy in town that sells tools is really nice, after I showed him that he couldn't rip me off. He tried to sell a water jug to me for 2,000CFA, and I bought it for 1,000CFA. I've become pretty darn good at bargaining. It's a way of life here. I've been going to the bank (MC2, the microfinance institution in town) a few hours a day just observing and showing my face to the community. It's pretty interesting. This week, I made my first contribution by redesigning their sign for school loans. Changes start with the little things.

Phew! This entry turned long. I will try to be better about posting shorter entries and more frequently! I miss all of you and modern life in general. But things are well here, and I am very happy!

A Long Post

Hi Friends! Sorry I have been MIA for a while. These past week and a half has been a crazy whirlwind, and certainly been the best time since I arrived in country. I will do my best to recap and also section off this long entry for easy reading!

Yaounde

View of Yaounde from the top of Hilton

Right before all 36 of us go through the swearing-in ceremony to become real volunteers, we had to make a trip to Yaounde, the capital city, for some administrative businesses. After living in Bangante for months, going to Yaounde was a real treat! I for one, brought every single piece of clothing with me to throw in the one washer and dryer that exists in the volunteer house. The CASE(kaahze), volunteer transit house where we stayed is frat house meets summer camp! It's the first time we could all hang out 24 hours a day without having to go home for curfew. Other than washer and dryer, the CASE has other fabulous amenities such as hot shower, a ridiculous collection of DVDs and books. Yaounde, the capital city offers things like Sneakers/Twix bars, delicious Chinese food, milkshake, hamburgers, gigantic supermarkets and the like.

Girls just want to have fun!

One of my favorite days in Yaounde went like this: We got paid in the morning - three months salary + moving in allowance! Afterwards, David, Ehab and I went to a recommended Chinese restaurant and gorged ourselves in some insane amounts of food, including two desserts for me. The highlight of the meal was after I said, "omg, I really overdid this with two desserts, I can't eat anymore." and then I took another bite. Delicious food aside, the three of us had great conversations about everything. It's rare to hang out in small groups of three and I quite miss it. After the meal, we walked around town and found an Espresso House. We walked in and this place was more or less America, with posh seating and flat screen TVs. We had milkshakes (yes, after two desserts) and watched the Brazil-Argentina Olympic football match. The fabulous day continues when we got to this huge supermarket where I found an isle of Chinese food including Taiwanese ramen, soy sauce, sesame oil and the like!

Another day, a group of us went to the Hilton hotel for its two-for-one happy hour. We all had a bit of culture shock riding the posh elevator and using the bathroom that's completed with toilet paper, soap and paper towel! The boys rocked out there mustache and sunglasses look, and the girls indulge in martinis (not as good, but good enough!). There was a piano there, and after one martini, I was rocking out on the piano with Trevor. I play much better with a little alcohol in my system! It was a lot of fun, and I quite miss the piano!

Siobhan getting very excited about the posh elevator!

How we miss those martinis!

The three days in Yaounde was really good time and a last hurrah for us to all be together before parting our separate ways. For the past week and a half, I've more or less spent all day everyday with people, yet I am not craving alone time. I think all the alone time that is ahead of me makes me cherish time with others as much as possible!

Swearing-in Ceremony

Just two days after we got back from Yaounde, the ceremony took place where we became "real" volunteers! It's a tradition that everyone buys the same pagne and get outfits made out of them. We were all quite happy with the choice of pagne and I got a little Chinese dress made out of it! It looked great on me and is definitely my "skinny dress". I can hardly breathe in that thing, especially after I eat! We all look cute/kind of funny in matching outfits! The ceremony itself was kind of anticlimatic. The actual "swearing-in" part took 5 minutes, and the rest 3 hours and 55 minutes were people speaking and other traditional things. The event went very well overall, except when the power went out and the mic stopped working. The rain also started to fall half way through the ceremony - typical Bangangte in rainy season.

Matching Match!

Me being Chinese

We had a big lunch with our host families after the ceremony and that was the last of it. The rest of the afternoon, we hung out at the SED house per usual. Later in the evening, us free-no-curfew volunteers went into town for dinner and then stopped at a "dance club" in a hotel. That was really pretty hilarious and a good release for us all before we part the next day. That night, a group of us had a slumber party at the SED house. *sigh* good times.

Slumber Party!

Leaving for Post

After the slumber party, we woke up to the harsh reality that we all must part. I am staying here in the West province, so I was the last to go. It was quite emotional saying goodbye to all the wonderful friends I've made over these past few months. I am quite lucky since my good friend Kate is near me, but even then, it was hard to say goodbye to the others.

The journey to post started with the people heading to the West plus Lee, who is heading up North, but must come through Bafoussam. Kate's house isn't ready, so she stayed with me for a few days. Lee was going to stay in a hotel, so I told him to also come along. I am so glad those two were with me during our first few nights. I got to my house and it was a disaster. The walls were getting painted, and it was no where near done. Paint was everywhere and my house was an utter mess. Later in the afternoon, around 5pm, two guys showed up at my house to paint. But the electricity was out and it go dark relatively soon. Of course it would have made way too much sense for them to come earlier in the day to paint. Anyhow, it was the two of them painting under the candle light while the three of us sitting awkwardly in the chaotic living room!

This was the state of my living room

The good thing that came out of that day was that I called the Chinese guy I had met a month ago, Mr. Zhang. He was so excited to hear from me and invited us over for lunch the next day. I must say, that lunch was one of the best meals I've had in quite some time. We got to his place and hung out in his big living room. He invited over another Chinee couple who were closer to our age. I did some mad translating that day between the three Chinese people and two Americans. The lunch was phenomenal - Mr. Zhang had hand made these delicious dumplings. He's from the North of China, where that dish originates! In addition, there were ducks, soup, vegetables. I dare say that meal was far better than the Chinese restaurant where I gorged myself in Yaounde!

Mr. Zhang and the Chinese couple are extremely hospitable and excited to have me around. There are only 8 Chinese people in Bafoussam, so I am adding new blood into the mix! Already, I feel like an adopted daughter into this community. Mr. Zhang has been here for 9 years and knows all kinds of people. In these past few days, he's introduced me to some big shot in my village, got two gas stoves delivered from Yaounde for Kate and Lee, making plans to come inspect me and Kate's house and making more delicious food for us! I am very excited about this new suppor network, and already, this is making my life so much easier! (As we speak, I am using the couple's faster Internet to make this post!)

Other things about first week at post - I haven't been alone yet. Kate's house still isn't ready (no water and electricity), so she is staying with me until further notice. Our first three months at post are intended for us to become integrated into the community and setting up our house. I didn't understand how it's possible to take three months to set up our house and the like until yesterday, when it took us three hours to open a bank account. Yes, three hours. Everything here takes forever. It's near impossible to budget your time and expect to get things done in certain time frames. This should be an interesting next few months!