Hello all!
It's been 5 days since my last post and my life has been crazy busy! I'm just going to highlight a couple of things to keep it short:
1. Last time I mentioned we were going to watch a dance group performing some traditional Cameroonian dancing. Well, we saw them and they were spectacular! Apparently it is not very common to see performances of African dancing, especially in a large city like Yaounde. You may get luck in a village somewhere in the boonies, but other than that, they are rare. So anyway, we got the privaledge of watching them, and let me tell you, these people can seriously move. It's like watching girls dance in the club (the ones that are good), but BETTER lol! I definitely saw how African dance moves have tranfered over to the West and in to pop culture. Except these dances had symbolic and historical meaning, whereas dance moves in the club are used to attract the opposite sex...and I'm being totally serious. Also, the leader of the dance group is married to someone working with the PC in Cameroon AND this groups just happened to be one of the few performance in all of PC this year to celebrate its 50th anniversary!
**For those of you who don't know, this year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps. Next year marks the 50th Anniversary of the PC in Cameroon. I'm feeling pretty lucky and blessed to have been selected for service during these important years in Peace Corps history!
2. Monday night (Sept. 26), in leu of the 50th anniversary, we were invited to appear on a live Anglophone (American-French speaking) t.v show! Our Director of Training and one of our trainees were interviewed, while the cameras panned in and out of all of us in the crowd. I was sitting in the third row so I'm sure I made an appearance at some point, which wasn't exactly ideal because at that point all of us were exhausted from orientation that day, so let's just say the camera probably caught some people accidentally catching some z's! haha! I have never been on a tv set before, so it was very interesting being behind the scenes. Now, the technology was definitely lacking, most of the equipment and quality of the show was outdated, kind of like watching t.v in the 80s/90s. Overall, the experience was awesome and it was one of those moments that really emphasized the impact the PC has in Cameroon.
3. Yesterday we parted ways with Mary and Carlos in Yaounde to set off to our training city, Bafia. The PC has been training its volunteers for quit a few years in this city now, so the town is very familiar with seeing " les blancs" (the whites) in there presence. Here is where we are living with our host families for the next 10 weeks of PST (Pre-service training). The Community Health trainees are actually training in a nearby town called Bokina, about 15 minutes away from the main training site. Since their are 54 of us (one of the largest training classes they've ever had) there was not enough host families to go around for everyone, so they expanded their home stays and training area.
We arrived around 6pm and were greated by staff and families, eagerly waiting to meet their new PCT (PC trainee). They individually anounnced the home stay names and PCTs so we could see who everyone was living with. I was feeling pretty good at this point, my nerves were pretty calm since I was exhausted from traveling, but excited at the same time. Right before my name was called, Shonna was called to her family, and for some reason Charla (another PCT), thought she heard her name and ran to the family..while Shonna was running to the family at the same time...and then all three of them realized something was wrong..and everyone burst out laughing because Charla accidentally ran to the wrong family! I was so busy laughing that I didn't hear my name called. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and said "Shanna! That's you!". I was so caught off gaurd that my initial expression was confused rather than excited. I don't think it seemed to matter because the woman greeted me with open arms and a big smile.
My host mother's name is Rosalie Ngon. I haven't spent much time with her so far because she seems to be all over the place during the day, and gets home right before I head to bed. The woman who picked me up was her daughter, De' Ing, 26 (ok honestly I haven't asked her how to spell her name so this is just a guess). She has pretty much been taking care of me so far, showing me the way around the house, and feeding me. She is married to the pastor of the Protestant Church here in Bafia. Unfortunately I won't get the pleasure of meeting him because he is away teaching in the South Region of Cameroon and will not be back till December, after I leave for post. They have no children, however there are 4 kids living in the house with us, who are her nieces and nephews. Olivier (21), Beth (15), Janoux (14), and Pupette (8). So 7 of us total (Grandma, daughter, 4 kids and Moi)! This may seem large for a family, but large families are very common here (and in Africa in general), and 7 is small compared to how other PCTs are living (some are living in homes of 12).
Let me just say, God is just continuing to bless me each and every day, and he has definitely continued this by bringing me to this amazing family. Their accommodations for me are beyond my expectations, and I can guarantee you that I am being very well taken care of. This family seems to be pretty well off, their home is big (bigger than some I've seen in the area), they have a main house, and a separate "house" that holds more bedrooms. They have a large living room area, a dining room, kitchen, and out-house that holds the fire pit for cooking large amounts of food and storage space, their well (one of our sources of water), bathroom (separate shower room and toilet..that doesn't flush, but at least it's not a latrine!!), and then my bedroom looks like it could be the master.
Basically, I got lucky. I'm not the only one with a host family like mine, but I am one of the few. They are beautiful people who are kind and genuine. They are extremely patient (especially when it comes to communication) and they are more than willing to help me improve my French. I'll go into more detail about them when I get some pictures! But for now I wanted to give you an introduction!
Today was our official first day of language, cross cultural and technical training. I was particularly excited about the technical training because us YD (youth development) trainees have been in the dark in terms of what our program is about. YD is a brand new program in Cameroon, and I am one of 12 trainees jump starting the program. We are basically the PCs guinea pigs. No pressure or anything. I am beyond excited to start this program, since I know that working with youth is going to be an extremely gratifying experience.
Wooh, that was a lot of information. I'll try posting pictures next time so you can get more of an idea of what I'm talking about :) But, that's all for now!! <3
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Welcome to Cameroun!!!
HELLO!!! I'M ALIVE!
I surprisingly have wifi in the hotel I'm staying in (although it's not very reliable), so I thought I would send ya'll an email since I have some down time. We got into Yaounde safely with all baggage accounted for, contents and all. We were met at the airport by our country director, some program directors, and two volunteers that are facilitating our 5 days in Yaoude, Carlos and Mary (Mary is also my volunteer "mentor", she e-mailed me a couple of days before I left). The trip over wasn't too bad but the time change definitely got to me, not to mention I was already lacking sleep, but I'm recovering pretty well. We arrived around 6pm so it was still daylight out so we got to see what the city looked like driving through it. It is everything I expected...kind of reminds me of the Philippines but slightly more under developed. I saw people selling bbq meat on a stick on the side of the road and it made me feel right at home...it was weird haha. It's humid and hot. But our hotel room isn't so bad; we have a shower and toilet that flushes and a sink that runs, with hot water!! I guess this is considered 5 star quality??
There are now officially 54 volunteers in our group. The 9 that arrived earlier for a pilot French immersion program have joined us. There are 12 of us in my youth development group...and go figure both me and Shonna are in it. Craziest coincidence I've ever experienced!! Two "Shanna"s in Africa, in the same program...that's crazy..but seriously so cool. My roommate's name is Shannon (Shanna, Shonna, Shannon....go figure). She's one of the older volunteers with us,
but she is the COOLEST person ever. She's just really young spirited and has the funniest personality. She's an agro forestry trainee (we are called PCTs..Peace Corps Trainees, not Volunteers...because we're not yet..lot's of acronyms!), and she left her job as a farmer of 3 years to be here. Pretty cool!
Today we had our first French Placement Interview and Program Manager interview. The PM interview was with my "boss", who is basically in charge of Youth Development (YD). His name is Amadou (Ahma-doo). He's so nice, very soft spoken, and seems like he will be very easy to work with. He basically asked me about my previous experience with youth, what part of our job description I was interested in (1. Advancement of In-school girls and girls retention ratres, 2. Advancement of out of school girls, 3. Boy's engagement, 4. Mobilizing community leaders). After I read it I was immediately drawn to #2, and I think he liked that because he wrote a star next to his notes and was like "I need to remember this!". He asked about what type of community I would prefer living in: small village (>5,000 ppl), medium village (<5,000), large town/city, or a more secluded village. I chose small village since the sense of community might be stronger than bigger places. I told him I would prefer not to go to the Grand North; I don't see myself living in the desert and in extremely conservative social conditions, since it's all Muslim up there). Would I accept it and adapt, absolutely, but it's not my #1 choice. That was basically the meat of the conversation. Pretty simple!
The French Placement Interview...let's just say it wasn't pretty. I'm kicking myself for not studying more over the summer, because I was a deer in headlights. Not to mention I already get nervous when it comes to "tests"..and it was a test...so I blanked...a lot. The whole point of the "interview" was to see where my level of French speaking is, and considering I went up to Intermediate 2 in school, it didn't sound like it. I just never had experience speaking, but give me a paper with words on it or tell me to write something, I would have probably done a lot better. I was super nervous about it, but the lady was very nice, she spoke a little too fast, but I think I did alright. I'm shooting for Novie High-Intermediate low (speaking, not writing). Mary came in at the beginning of her service with no French AT ALL, only spanish, and left training at Advance Low. So I'm sure everything will come back to me and I will pick it up fairly easily.
And here I am now. We did a small ice breaker to introduce cultural interaction and now we have a 2 hour break. At 7pm we are watching a group of tradition Cameroonian dancers perform for us so I'm pretty excited for that. Then we'll have dinner and after I'm going to bed!!
I've been thinking of friends and my family constantly, but I'm too busy and tired to miss anyone yet! I'm taking this as a good thing...this experience would not be as pleasant if I weren't with these awesome people :)
That's all for now, I'll try to post before I head out to Bafia, our training city, where I'll move in with my home stay family. We leave Tuesday!
I surprisingly have wifi in the hotel I'm staying in (although it's not very reliable), so I thought I would send ya'll an email since I have some down time. We got into Yaounde safely with all baggage accounted for, contents and all. We were met at the airport by our country director, some program directors, and two volunteers that are facilitating our 5 days in Yaoude, Carlos and Mary (Mary is also my volunteer "mentor", she e-mailed me a couple of days before I left). The trip over wasn't too bad but the time change definitely got to me, not to mention I was already lacking sleep, but I'm recovering pretty well. We arrived around 6pm so it was still daylight out so we got to see what the city looked like driving through it. It is everything I expected...kind of reminds me of the Philippines but slightly more under developed. I saw people selling bbq meat on a stick on the side of the road and it made me feel right at home...it was weird haha. It's humid and hot. But our hotel room isn't so bad; we have a shower and toilet that flushes and a sink that runs, with hot water!! I guess this is considered 5 star quality??
There are now officially 54 volunteers in our group. The 9 that arrived earlier for a pilot French immersion program have joined us. There are 12 of us in my youth development group...and go figure both me and Shonna are in it. Craziest coincidence I've ever experienced!! Two "Shanna"s in Africa, in the same program...that's crazy..but seriously so cool. My roommate's name is Shannon (Shanna, Shonna, Shannon....go figure). She's one of the older volunteers with us,
but she is the COOLEST person ever. She's just really young spirited and has the funniest personality. She's an agro forestry trainee (we are called PCTs..Peace Corps Trainees, not Volunteers...because we're not yet..lot's of acronyms!), and she left her job as a farmer of 3 years to be here. Pretty cool!
Today we had our first French Placement Interview and Program Manager interview. The PM interview was with my "boss", who is basically in charge of Youth Development (YD). His name is Amadou (Ahma-doo). He's so nice, very soft spoken, and seems like he will be very easy to work with. He basically asked me about my previous experience with youth, what part of our job description I was interested in (1. Advancement of In-school girls and girls retention ratres, 2. Advancement of out of school girls, 3. Boy's engagement, 4. Mobilizing community leaders). After I read it I was immediately drawn to #2, and I think he liked that because he wrote a star next to his notes and was like "I need to remember this!". He asked about what type of community I would prefer living in: small village (>5,000 ppl), medium village (<5,000), large town/city, or a more secluded village. I chose small village since the sense of community might be stronger than bigger places. I told him I would prefer not to go to the Grand North; I don't see myself living in the desert and in extremely conservative social conditions, since it's all Muslim up there). Would I accept it and adapt, absolutely, but it's not my #1 choice. That was basically the meat of the conversation. Pretty simple!
The French Placement Interview...let's just say it wasn't pretty. I'm kicking myself for not studying more over the summer, because I was a deer in headlights. Not to mention I already get nervous when it comes to "tests"..and it was a test...so I blanked...a lot. The whole point of the "interview" was to see where my level of French speaking is, and considering I went up to Intermediate 2 in school, it didn't sound like it. I just never had experience speaking, but give me a paper with words on it or tell me to write something, I would have probably done a lot better. I was super nervous about it, but the lady was very nice, she spoke a little too fast, but I think I did alright. I'm shooting for Novie High-Intermediate low (speaking, not writing). Mary came in at the beginning of her service with no French AT ALL, only spanish, and left training at Advance Low. So I'm sure everything will come back to me and I will pick it up fairly easily.
And here I am now. We did a small ice breaker to introduce cultural interaction and now we have a 2 hour break. At 7pm we are watching a group of tradition Cameroonian dancers perform for us so I'm pretty excited for that. Then we'll have dinner and after I'm going to bed!!
I've been thinking of friends and my family constantly, but I'm too busy and tired to miss anyone yet! I'm taking this as a good thing...this experience would not be as pleasant if I weren't with these awesome people :)
That's all for now, I'll try to post before I head out to Bafia, our training city, where I'll move in with my home stay family. We leave Tuesday!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Un Semain (One Week)!
One more week till departure! This time today I will be on my way to JFK to fly out to Cameroon with the other volunteers in my training group (whom I can't wait to meet!). It's crazy how time flies.
Last weekend I took my final visit to Jacksonville to see my college friends. With the help of my besties, we threw a "see you later" party at Blackfinn American Grille. I think about 50 friends showed up to have a drink and say their goodbyes. It was a lot of fun and I really appreciated everyone taking the time out to come see me! It was definitely emotional and bittersweet (saying "goodbye" and alcohol aren't really the best combination). I seriously have the best friends in the world, and I'm going to miss terribly :(
Since then, I've been spending time with my family and friends back home. Organizing my room, getting started on packing, making sure I have all my paperwork done...the list goes on. I have 6 days left stateside and of course I waited till the last minute to practically do everything. Let me just say, procrastination is a really hard habit to break, even post-college. It's not an excuse. It's a fact (lol). Tomorrow the family and I head out to Pittsburgh for a mini family vaca. Then two days later I'm out!
My anxiety is out the roof, I'm dreading the goodbyes at the airport, however I'm jumping out of my seat with excitement to finally get this thing rolling. 6 days people!
Last weekend I took my final visit to Jacksonville to see my college friends. With the help of my besties, we threw a "see you later" party at Blackfinn American Grille. I think about 50 friends showed up to have a drink and say their goodbyes. It was a lot of fun and I really appreciated everyone taking the time out to come see me! It was definitely emotional and bittersweet (saying "goodbye" and alcohol aren't really the best combination). I seriously have the best friends in the world, and I'm going to miss terribly :(
Since then, I've been spending time with my family and friends back home. Organizing my room, getting started on packing, making sure I have all my paperwork done...the list goes on. I have 6 days left stateside and of course I waited till the last minute to practically do everything. Let me just say, procrastination is a really hard habit to break, even post-college. It's not an excuse. It's a fact (lol). Tomorrow the family and I head out to Pittsburgh for a mini family vaca. Then two days later I'm out!
My anxiety is out the roof, I'm dreading the goodbyes at the airport, however I'm jumping out of my seat with excitement to finally get this thing rolling. 6 days people!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Two weeks, ya'll!
Today marks exactly two weeks until my departure! Reality is sinking in, the tears are starting to flow, and my anxiety about packing is at its peak. Mom can't even talk about me leaving without getting teary...how am I supposed to hold myself together with that going on?!! Geesh.
I still have SO much to do and I'm running out of precious time (my procrastination has kicked in). However, in the midst of all this craziness, I can admit that I am ready to go. It's been a long wait since I received my invitation in April. Now that all my friends are back in school, carrying on with their busy schedules (having a life), I've been sitting and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely enjoying the relaxation, excessive eating and the time I've been spending with family and friends....but I'm getting antsy people!
Let me tell you, these next few weeks are going to FLY. Here's why:
-Today I'm running a ton of errands (I've been saying that for the past two weeks and am now realizing that I REALLY need to get on it)...but anyways...
-Thursday-Monday (Sept 8-12): I'll take my last visit to Jacksonville to see as many friends as possible and have my "See you later" party
-Monday-Thursday (Sept 12-15) Home
-Friday-Sunday (Sept 16-18) flying to PITTSBURGH for one last family hoorah...CAN'T WAIT!
-Monday-Tuesday (Sept 19-20) Home. Maybe squeeze in a small "See you later" party for family friends etc.
-Wednesday Sept 21 in the wee hours of the morning (6:15 am flight) I'M OUT! I'll be off to Philly for Staging (orientation)
-Thursday Sept 22...OFF TO CAMEROON!
I was typing this out and thought that I had forgot a weekend in there somewhere, but then had this sudden realization that I only have two weekends left...say whaaaat? Plus, somehow during all of this madness I have to pack, which will be an event in itself (I went to NYC for ONE WEEK and almost went over 50 lbs...I have to pack enough stuff to hold me over comfortably for the next 2 years...in 80 lbs..HELLO?!! Talk about sacrifice).
Well...here goes nothin :)
I still have SO much to do and I'm running out of precious time (my procrastination has kicked in). However, in the midst of all this craziness, I can admit that I am ready to go. It's been a long wait since I received my invitation in April. Now that all my friends are back in school, carrying on with their busy schedules (having a life), I've been sitting and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely enjoying the relaxation, excessive eating and the time I've been spending with family and friends....but I'm getting antsy people!
Let me tell you, these next few weeks are going to FLY. Here's why:
-Today I'm running a ton of errands (I've been saying that for the past two weeks and am now realizing that I REALLY need to get on it)...but anyways...
-Thursday-Monday (Sept 8-12): I'll take my last visit to Jacksonville to see as many friends as possible and have my "See you later" party
-Monday-Thursday (Sept 12-15) Home
-Friday-Sunday (Sept 16-18) flying to PITTSBURGH for one last family hoorah...CAN'T WAIT!
-Monday-Tuesday (Sept 19-20) Home. Maybe squeeze in a small "See you later" party for family friends etc.
-Wednesday Sept 21 in the wee hours of the morning (6:15 am flight) I'M OUT! I'll be off to Philly for Staging (orientation)
-Thursday Sept 22...OFF TO CAMEROON!
I was typing this out and thought that I had forgot a weekend in there somewhere, but then had this sudden realization that I only have two weekends left...say whaaaat? Plus, somehow during all of this madness I have to pack, which will be an event in itself (I went to NYC for ONE WEEK and almost went over 50 lbs...I have to pack enough stuff to hold me over comfortably for the next 2 years...in 80 lbs..HELLO?!! Talk about sacrifice).
Well...here goes nothin :)
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