They call me Mr. Bradford

My students that is. I cant go by Mr. Melius yet. Their exam is Friday and I know half of them will fail because thats the way its supposed to be here, and failing is 10/20. Im liking the teaching its getting easier every day. I also like my club, I played basketball in the rain today...stopping in the middle of the game to explain how he would be percieved in the US if he cherrypicked like he was doing. Tonight theres a soiree im invited to, I think its kinduv a big deal should be fun being one of two white people there. Hopefully better then the last party where they sat in a circle deciding whether I or another Cameroonian was fatter. On that subject I think Ive lost about 15 lbs, Ive heard most people gain it back when they get to post and can eat what they want again (sort of). Sorry about the lack of pictures, it just takes way too long. Ill be sure to get one of me infront of my house up when I get to post because its beautiful. To all those in Cheshire my condolances, I cant imagine what its like there.

Old Posts:

July 5, 2007

Ive never appreciated the fourth of July as much as I did yesterday. It was our first holiday in country and the only one we have during stage, and it we made the most of it. In the morning me and another volunteer volunteered to buy the food for the party so we went to the market. Buying meat works a little differently here than in the states. It arrived at 8 very fresh (parts were still pulsating) and we walked through a hall of carcasses looking for good meat at a good price. After we had to wait for it to be ground which took forever and we were very late for class. We payed the "le blanc" price but it wasnt that expensive especially for the amount of enjoyment it would bring. We had several swinging meat and blood spirting incidents and had to occasionally escape the smell by going to hang out by the eye socket outside. It definitaly made me appreciate what happens before I go to the supermarket and pick up a nicely wrapped pound of ground meat. We bought potatoes for fries and avacados for goacamole (if you havent realized yet my ability to write coherent sentences and spell in english is falling drastically, lets hope its getting replaced by some french). We spent the afternoon slicing potatoes and making burgers, and I let some others cook while I stepped out to the bar. I came back to a mountain of burgers and fries which were all delicious. It was rough going back to white rice and fish again today but as they say here: On va faire comment? (Whadya gonna do?) There was some dancing but generally just hanging and talking about how lucky we were to be in Africa eating cheeseburgers with Uncle Sam picking up the tab. Thanks taxpayers.

I picked up my first African clothes today, 2 shirts and a pair of pants. The pants look kind of rediculous but I think I can pull them off here. Tomorrow I find out my post, which will decide which volunteers I am going to see frequently for the next two years so its exciting. Im not making it to the cafe tomorrow, so you dont have to wait. Im going to....

July 6, 2007

I honestly cant remember the town right now. Since Ill know tomorrow Ill put it in here ___actually i decided to leave it out__. I dont really know anything about it buts its a smallish town about 1 hr from the big city. That 1 hour is only about 10 miles and I think it would be a good goal to be able to run it in a few months, well see. Apparently its in the mountains and its cold there (not sure what that means because only Cameroonians have told me this and its pretty hot as a rule here, and they dont have words (at least that I know of) besides cold and hot. Im near some people and not others, its weird knowing that some people youve gotten to know you probably will only see a handful of times since theyre on the other side of the country. Ill let you know more about my post when I visit Tuesday. Its been a month officially since I got on the plane at Bradley, its weird. I feel as into it as ever, every day it gets easier. I have my 2nd language test tomorrow which Im ready for because I know Ill do better then novice low. Im tired (its 930) Im going to bed.

July 8, 2007

First baddish day in a while...but it wasnt all bad. I slept for 10 or so hours but not well, I could hear a cockroach or a mouse scurrying around all night and there was a rooster right outside this morning. I played basketball which was fun, PC vs. Cameroonians. We destroyed them the first game and the second and third games were very frustrating. We have rule issues. We ended up winning the first two and losing the third and overall a lot of fun, looking forward to next week were going to wake up early and make popsicles in someones freezer Im already excited. After basketball I came back to the house and washed my shoes and did some ironing, then went to the bar. When I came back a combination of a little buzz, language frustration and loneliness hit me, but a half an hour later Anne made the kids dance to music on TV and all was right again. We watched The Parent Trap in french and here I am, writing now. Tomorrow Im meeting my counterpart and were having a workshop, after Im hoping to make it to the internet cafe. Thisll be my last update for a wile since Im going to check out my post for a few days.

July 18, 2007

So its been a long time since Ive updated...sorry about that. Turns out its going to be hard to update at post too so after training itll be probably every 2 weeks or so. Since I got back from site visit its been lonely around here with half the other trainees on their site visits. Were starting "model school" where we teach for four weeks, have exams, give out certificates, etc...basically summer school. Im psyched to start teaching my first class is Friday. Ill be teaching physics to 10-14 year olds...not gonna be too interesting but its good ill start out slow. Got my first mail a few days ago, that person should be getting a response in 4-5 weeks...remember the address is below and the first 8 ppl to send me a care package get an AWESOME thank you note. Im running out of things to say Im so used to whats going on here it doesnt seem interesting anymore. Anyone have questions?

July 20, 2007

First class was just okay, I have to learn to speak slower especially to the younger kids, I dont know how much they understood me. Im planning on improving quickly and I think itll be fun eventually, right now its just stressful. We played soccer today, I scored my first goal (second lifetime). It happened that the 12 yr old goalie had a hand on the ball and I kicked it out from under his hand but it was acceptable with the Cameroonians so its acceptable for me, gotta adapt to the culture. I had a talk with my Cameroonian mom about polygamy(happy Im able to talk/understand enough for that to happen), turns out her dad had 2 wives and she thinks its a bad thing. Straight from the horses mouth, dont let Big Love fool you. Tomorrow after language were playing basketball, then hopefully a fete. Sorry my posts have been short, but like I said its getting less strange to me and harder to write about without specific questions etc. I could write a novel about today alone but I dont know where to start, help me out.

Mr. Bradford