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 Now, the technology was definitely lacking, most of the equipment and quality of the show was outdated, kind of like watching t.v in the 80s/90s.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
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