Site Visit!

Sorry for the late post everyone, I haven’t been able to get on the internet all last week! I’m now in week 9!! Crazyyy. I swear in on December 8^th (only about 2 weeks left!). Here’s my post about site visit. Enjoy!

11/13/11

Salut friends! Just finished week 7 of training which just happened to be SITE VISIT for the YD and Agroforestry volunteers (Health went the week before us)! I’ve been cooped up in Bafia since I’ve been in country, so it was great to finally get out and see what else Cameroon has to offer. Overall, my site visit was so much fun! I had some awesome cultural experiences while getting a feel of what my next two years would be like…and I’m in for an amazing time here. So the easiest way for me to describe my week is probably to break it down day by day…so bear with me J

Saturday, Nov 5: Everyone met up at the training site bright and early at 7:30am. Community hosts and volunteers packed into 3 buses for their specific destinations. We are all spread out throughout the country, so some buses were headed straight through the West, and some went to Yaounde to connect to other modes of transportation to either the East or the Grand North. The Grand North people (including me) have to take the train which leaves for Adamaou every night at 6:20pm. It’s supposed to be about a 13 hour journey, and I say “supposed to” because there is always the occasional break-down that can turn a 13 hour trip into a 24 hour trip. So we left for the train station around 4:30 to be safe, got some dinner while we waited to depart (freshly grilled fish and manioc…soooo good!), and at 6:20pm we were on our way! Since this was a PC paid trip, community hosts and PCTs were given the sleeper cars, so we got to sleep on a bed through the night rather than sit in a seat, which I’m sure made ALL the difference (it was a bumpy ride).

Sunday Nov 6: I arrived in Ngaoundéré (the final stop of the train in the Grand North) around 9:30am. The Extreme North PCTs (4) waited for their 9 hour bus ride to their posts while I was picked up by a PC driver who took two others and me to the Peace Corps “Case” or Safe House. One thing I can say is I am so grateful to have a fairly easy travel to post, whereas North and Extreme North people travel for almost 2 days just to get to their posts. So, every regional capital has a “case” for all the PCVs in Cameroon. This is where I stayed the majority of my site visit. Shortly after settling in I met one of two post mates, Krystina, who lives right next to the case. She is a Small Enterprise Development volunteer and has been in country for a little over a year. She took us out to lunch at a popular PCV spot and afterwards I met up with my community host.

**My community host’s name is Ismaila Abbo, I call him Abbo (because it sounds like Aboo from Aladin, and I thought it was his first name when I first met him). He is the vice president of the Youth Center that I will be working with when I get to post. He is also Muslim, which has an important correlation to the rest of my activities in the next couple of days.

Sunday was the “Fête de Mouton” for the Muslim culture, the Celebration of the Lamb. Abbo took Andy and I (he was staying in Ngaoundéré until Tuesday before going to his post, and he’s a good friend of mine) to introduce me to some family members and begin our “fête-ing” as we liked to call it. I will be living in the “cartier” (neighborhood) called Bumjéré, where Abbo and his family live as well, which is a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. We met only a small portion of his family, as well as a Chief of a nearby village (pretty cool), and I think we went to 5 houses total. Because of the Fête, it is custom to eat at every house you are invited to, and when you eat, you eat a full meal. At the Chiefs house, the three of us split half a ribcage of lamb, after already stuffing our faces at the first house (big mistake). It’s also culturally rude if you don’t finish your plate, so if you weren’t careful to pace yourself, like Andy and I did, well...it was a struggle to put it lightly. After our first day of Fête-ing, Andy and I went back to the Case to relax, digest, and mentally prepare ourselves for round two the next day.

Monday Nov 7: Day two of celebrating the Fête de Mouton, and my birthday! I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, a year ago I was in my last year of college, turning 21, and now I’m in Cameroon, Africa…crazy”!! So today was my most eventful day of the week by far. I started off by eating breakfast at Abbo’s Aunt’s house. Afterwards I met up with Krystina to get some “sipa” work done, which is the Cameroonian version of Henna tattooing for the Muslim women (it’s a black instead of brown). Abbo thought it would be a good idea to get it done in lieu of the Fête and my birthday. The lady who would do my sipa was busy at the time we arrived, so we went to Krystina community host’s house to eat lunch. Afterwards, there was a celebrating by the Lamido’s Palace, the King of the Muslim community in Adamaoua. I don’t really know how to describe the event, but there were a lot of men riding horses carrying spears, traditional dancing and music, and the Lamido was also on a horse. It was really cool to see, and I enjoyed viewing another interesting cultural aspect of Cameroon. After the celebration was over, I got my sipa done, which took a good 2-3 hours to get both my feet and hands done. The long hours definitely paid off because I received a lot of positive feedback on how beautiful the design was. I liked it because it was the closest thing I’ve gotten to a tattoo. The rest of the day Abbo, Andy, Krystina, and I continued fête-ing until we couldn’t eat anymore. Abbo invited us all out to a bar after a break to celebrate my birthday the “American” way. That was fun, but I was so full I could barely finish my beer (which happened to be a Guinness, which was the worst idea EVER). Most Muslims don’t drink alcohol, including Abbo, so it was really nice of him to pay for all our drinks and give me the chance to celebrate how I would in the states (except I’m sure I wouldn’t have eating a whole sheep before downing some booze if I were home). Overall, it was a perfect ending to an awesome 22^nd birthday J

Tuesday Nov 8-I opened my Peace Corps bank account so I can get paid during service. It was my first banking experience in Cameroon and to my surprise it went very smoothly. Afterwards, we continued to Fête some more at one more house for lunch, and for the rest of the day I relaxed. I ended up getting sick again, I’m thinking the travelling and change of climate got to me, plus I had contracted a sinus infection the week before I left and I don’t think I fully recovered from that either. I had to cancel a few activities that day so that I could rest up.

Wednesday Nov 9- The majority of the day I just hung out, rested, didn’t really do anything productive. Later in the afternoon I went to my other post mate’s village right outside of Ngaoundere, his name is Cyrus. He wanted to introduce me to his girls club that he inherited from his predecessor. The girls were great! They were really excited to meet me and since the club has been together for over a year, they seemed to be pretty comfortable with one another and have some sense of organization within the group. It was really great for me to see this in action because I would like to start a girls club in my cartier when I get to post, and I wouldn’t mind helping Cyrus out with his group as well. I think out of everything I did during site visit that really got me pumped for service was seeing this girls group and knowing that I could definitely put together a group of my own.

Thursday Nov 10-11-My two days of relaxation. I literally didn’t do anything but chill. It was fantastic.

Saturday Nov 12- Today was my last day at site. Before heading on the train to Yaounde, a group of us went to watch a youth dance group perform, the theme was Michael Jackson. It was awesome to see these youth groups in action. I was introduced to the group’s leader/organizer, which was great because hopefully I’ll be able to work with them in the future. After leaving the performance, we headed to the train station back to Yaounde and then catch a bus back to Bafia. I got back Sunday around 10am….and that was my trip!