Swearing In Pictures!

Grandmere posing with the U.S Ambassador

Grandmere receiving her certificate of appreciation with PC Country Director, Lahoma!

The Adamawa Crew

Youth Development Volunteers and Amadou (the bossman)

Swearing In Day.

Bonne Année!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope that you celebrated the holidays and rang in the New Year surrounded by family, friends, good booze, and of course good food. I can definitely say that I did. Even though I wasn’t with my family in the States (who I missed terribly, especially since this is the first holiday we’ve spent apart), I celebrated with my new PC family who I would consider my new “home away from home”. Wouldn’t have done it any other way!

I decided not to spend Christmas and New Years at post. Since it was the “fête” and attempting to do anything work related would have been completely counterproductive, I decided to seize the opportunity to travel and see some more of Cameroon. I headed to Meidougou, a village about 4 hours from Ngaoundere in my region, and then Maroua for New Years, the regional capital of the Extreme North.

My journey to Meidougou started with a 4 hour bus ride to the small city of Meiganga. I was cramped in the back of a bus that was made for 20 people, but leave it to the Cameroonians to fill it with 40 grown men, women, and a few children. Thankfully half of the trip was on a paved road, but the other half was on a red clay dirt road. Doesn’t sound too bad, and it wasn’t, but since it’s dry season and hot and I was sitting next to the only window on the bus that they decided to open, I had a nice layer of red dust in my hair and on my face by the end of the ride. I looked like I had a stepped out of a spray tan gone wrong. If I had blonde hair it would have been orange. I spent Christmas Eve in Meiganga with my friend and fellow YD volunteer who is posted there. We spent the night catching up on life at post, drinking tea, and watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Since it’s been a family tradition every year for the past 10 years or so to watch this movie on Christmas Eve, I decided I didn’t want to break the tradition just because I was half away around the world.

The next day I traveled to Meidougu, which is about 30 minutes outside of Meiganga. The volunteer posted there graciously opened up his house to host the festivities (he was also one of our two volunteer greeters when we first arrived in Cameroon). We chipped in on buying 3 goats for us to slaughter and eat (yum!). So we ate goat, guacamole, homemade chips, and some bean dip for our Christmas day meal. Not a typical American Christmas feast, but it was delicious! I suggested instead of doing Secret Santa that we should try a White Elephant gift exchange, so everyone brought gifts that ranged from American candy, souvenirs from other regions in Cameroon, and local novelties from the markets. The game was a success and I ended up with a big bag of Skittles! We ended Christmas evening with some drinks and headed to the village’s local bar where we got a private concert from a famous Cameroonian pop star. Only in Cameroon.

My New Year’s trip consisted of: 18 hours of traveling on a Mercedes charter bus (the seats had Coach covers on them), seeing HIPPOS TWICE in their natural habitat (from the bus window, but that doesn’t matter because I still saw them!!), staying at an International 1 star hotel for two nights…which in Cameroon is the equivalent to 5 stars, shopping at the Artisanal market (the north is known for their leather and artisanal work for cheap—great for gifts!), dressing up for our party in my one-of-a-kind New Year’s pagne dress, attempting to DJ, starting the countdown at 10 seconds, and ringing in the New Year with new and old friends!

Since then, I have finally bought enough kitchen supplies to start cooking with. I’ve come to realization that I am basically re-living my college days as a freshman because my meals so far have consisted of ramen noodles and mac n cheese. It’s a little hard to cook more elaborate meals with my limited cooking space, but after going to the carpenter and dropping 70,000CFA on a kitchen counter with shelves and a table and stools, I won’t have any more excuses. The best way to furnish a house here is to have things made, and when you’re starting from scratch it’s definitely not cheap.

I also met the Governor of the Adamawa, who was eager to meet me after hearing that I would be working with youth. He showed a lot of interest in what I am going to be doing and told me that I have his support. Since he’s the highest government official I will probably come in contact with during my work, it’s good to know that he’s got my back! My meeting with him was a refreshing reminder of why I am here and how much potential there is in this city to do some awesome things.

I’ve made an effort to spend some more time with my neighbors by eating lunch and dinner with them throughout the week. I went to my post mate’s village (Cyrus) for one of his girl’s group meetings. They through a welcoming party for me and brought over salads, omelets, bread and drinks. We took pictures and Cyrus and Krystina led their meeting. We took pictures so I’ll put them up as soon as I get them! Next week both my post mates will be out of town, so I decided to lead the girl’s group meeting by myself. I’m a little nervous about that, but I think that it will be a good practice.

I received my first care package from home this week as well. It was filled with spices, mixes, home-made beef jerky, granola bars, trail mix, candy, and office supplies. I’ve particularly been enjoying the spices, candy, and jerky! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Other than that, I’m just taking things day by day. Half the battle is just getting out of my house and doing things on my own. I’m starting French and Fulfulde tutoring soon, after getting my kitchen set up my next home project is getting my walls painted in my living room, and then searching for a furry companion (a puppy).