Tu est la?

Tu est la? That means "you are here?". Yes, it's in a form of a question. Cameroonians like to ask you "you are here?" when you're standing right in front of them. The normal response would be "oui. je suis la"--yes, I'm here (obviously). But really, I'm here, at post!

Salut mes amis! So here’s what you missed since the last post:

Thursday, December 8, 2011: At approximately 11:30am, I took the Oath to become a Peace Corps volunteer at our swearing in ceremony in front of our host families, the Ambassador, PC Country Director, the Mayor of Bafia, various other political figures, and a crowd of curious Cameroonians. All 53 of us were together and dressed to the nines in our pagne. There were speeches by all of the Program Managers, Ambassador and Country Director. Three stage mates gave speeches in French, Pidgin, and Fufulde, which were pretty awesome!

Overall the ceremony went well. We started on time, even though half of the host families hadn’t shown up yet, mainly because things never start on time here. At the end of the ceremony, all host families were accounted for, pictures were taken, and we all headed back to the training center to have our host family appreciation luncheon. We ate well, took more pictures, and the Ambassador even gave some time to let families take pictures with him and their certificates of appreciation.

The celebration continued at Hotel New Palace that night. Everyone checked out of their host families and chipped in on hotel rooms to crash in after a long night of partying. It was a great time! : ) The next morning everyone headed back to the base, some of us struggling more than others, and we all said our goodbyes because we were all heading to post! It was definitely bitter sweet to say goodbye to our host families and our friends in stage. Most volunteers were heading to posts that are a couple of hours away from other volunteers, and after being together every day for the past three months, reality started sinking in. I was particularly sad to part ways with my YD friends. We have become so close during training, it felt weird having to leave all of them. There are 5 of us in the Grand North, so I’m definitely grateful for that and I’m sure I will be seeing them often!

So, I arrived at post on Saturday December 10 around 7:30am. As soon as I stepped off the train, one of my friends says “You’re home!” The thought of finally arriving to the place that I would call home for the next two years was…unreal. It felt like I was just going on another site visit and that I would be heading back to Bafia in a week. I don’t think it has really sunk it yet to this day.

I spent my first night in my apartment on Wednesday December 14. I waited to get my locks changed before I moved in and I also wanted to buy a new mattress. I stayed at the case the first couple of days with all my stage mates living in the Adamawa. Some of them are don’t have access to a lot of resources in their villages, such as beds, mattresses, gas tanks and stoves, buckets etc., so they did some shopping before heading to post. I figured since I lived in the city I would take my time, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I haven’t really bought much, just my stove, gas tank, 2 buckets, mattress, bed sheets, soap, detergent…and that’s about it. Nothing too cook with and no furniture. I have three months to settle in…why rush?

Oh yea, about that. PC encourages us new volunteers to hold off on starting work and beginning our own projects until after In-Service Training (IST) in March. They want us to use these first three months to acclimate to the new culture, integrate, make some Cameroonian friends, learn the local language and practice French, and assess the community’s needs. Since it’s the holiday season, I’ve decided to take it easy this first month since everyone is in “fête” mode and then start to fully immerse in the New Year.

Well, I’ve been an official Peace Corps volunteer for two weeks now (ok…three now that I’ve posted this), and I have to say it feels pretty surreal. Actually right now it feels like I’m on vacation since I haven’t been working or studying, which has actually been pretty nice. Also because a year ago I was finishing up finals for the fall semester and literally dreaming about what life would be like as a PC volunteer, and here I am living my dream (so cliché I know).

Talk to you all next year, I’ll be posting about Christmas and New Years! Happy Holidays everyone!

Some pictures!

The "Dazzling Dozen". This is the YD crew on Thankgiving! :)

Diversity Day: The trainers threw a Diversity Day for us so we could learn more about Cameroonian culture. I wore this dress I had made a while back. The Cameroonians wear bright colored and patterned fabric called "pagne", this is just one example! I aslo had my hair braided two nights before. I have purple weave in...you can't really see it but it's definitely purple. My hair was all the way down my back when I had it down. It feels like I had 10 lbs of extra hair on my head. I don't have it anymore, but I thought I'd share the picture with you :)

Here is a group of dancers performing a traditional Cameroonian tribal dance on Diversity Day.

The final stretch

Hello friends! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I have to say I got my first taste of homesickness being away from family during this first round of holidays that I’ll be missing, but thankfully I’ve been surrounded by an incredible support system, and people who are also missing home! I kept daydreaming of fried turkey, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. YUM! I’m drooling just typing about it. I actually had a pretty eventful Thanksgiving. Everyone decided to hold off on feasting until Saturday, so on Thanksgiving Day we had class for half the day and then had a Turkey Bowl football game with all the stageaires. YD won…of course. Actually…I have no idea who won, but I did catch an awesome interception. Saturday everyone got together to feast in Bokito, the nearby village where the Health trainees are training and living. I was pretty impressed with the turnout of dishes served considering our limited resources.

Entrees: We bought 6 chickens as our turkey replacement (chickens that a few trainees helped kill and prepare…I unfortunately was not one of them). Also, we had sweet potatoes (real sweet potatoes, not yams), enough mashed potatoes to feed a village, guacamole (yes weird for thanksgiving BUT Cameroon has the biggest and tastiest avocados I’ve ever seen, and they’re cheap =guacamole heaven), an awesome tofu dish for our vegetarians, STUFFING, red bean hummus, garlic bread, pasta salad, stir fried rice (sooo good), french fries…and I think that’s all. Lots of carbs…but can you really complain on Thanksgiving?!

Ok so now for the desert: PUMPKIN PIE…three of them…yes…I said it. One of the health volunteers received some pumpkin pie mix in a care package from her mother, so she graciously decided to share the love. In addition, lots of fruit salad, an amazing pineapple salad (I can’t even describe how good it tasted. Cameroon has some of the sweetest pineapples you will ever eat), BROWNIES, and cake (chocolate and marble…this is not publix cake by any means…I would say it’s almost better). Let’s just say I had a food baby by the end of the day. I haven’t eaten very big meals since I’ve been in country, and I have to say it was SO worth the additional poundage that I’m sure I gained. It was so nice to get a break from Cameroonian food and get a taste of some good American food!!

That night a bunch of us went to the club (my third time)! It was probably the best night I’ve had in a long time. You would think dancing on a full stomach would have been a problem (in addition to some alcohol consumption) but no, quite the contrary. It was EPIC! That’s all I’m going to say about that…

Training is wrapping up fairly quickly, so quickly that I swear in/graduate in A WEEK! I’ll be an official Peace Corps Volunteer in 7 days (December 8th)!! These past three months have FLOWN by, but as they say, time flies when you’re having fun! Even though training has been intense in some ways, it’s been a blast. I’ve gained so many new and genuine friendships, and I couldn’t be happier! So we have our Swearing-In ceremony on Thursday December 8 at 10:00am. We check out of our homestay families and we are leaving for post the following day. We are planning on having a big soiree the night of swearing to celebrate…so that should be fun :) I’ll keep you posted!