...and a Happy New Year

January 4, 2008 - Just started my only full year in Cameroon, and for those of you that miss me (hopefully theres a few) Ill be home next year. I didnt do much for the New years just hung out and drank some wine and whiskey and watched arrested development. All of us had different times on our phones so we settled to count down according to the middle one. The people here celebrate New Years Day more than New years eve, and we went to a family gathering and ate and drank. There was an American visiting a friend there it was very interesting to talk to her and hear her views on Cameroon after 1 week, and it was fun feeling a little like we knew a lot more than her. I have a lot to do online so Ill leave you with that, a few older updates I never posted, and the picutre of one of my most relaxing times in Cameroon:

Sometime in November - Last night I was looking forward to getting to sleep early and having a nice rest after a long day, but then was reminded to take my malaria medication which I usually don’t take at night because it disturbs my sleep. Ended up having a terrible sleep because of that and a mouse that I could hear going through my spaghetti (wasn’t about to try and kill it I would have been up all night from the adrenaline, that light is out). Anyway I ended up sleeping in (til about 730) and didn’t feel rested when I heard a knock on my door, I had thought my friend who I was going to hike with would come late. I get my camelback together take some peanuts and my camera, and we go. First we climbed up to the cell phone towers that overlook the town it was a great view. On the way up we met a chief, then had some bananas at another chiefs palace. After about an hour and a half we reached the top and visited the chief we mets palace, but had been on his way to the funeral of a woman who died in a motorcycle accident. We (my friend) talked to his wife for a while (I really need to learn the local dialect). While I watched the kids. Kids here are amazing, they grow up really quickly. There are good and bad parts to this. They need to grow up quickly because there are so many of them and the parents are so busy they don’t have time to watch them all the time. Usually you will see kids watching their younger siblings. When I say kids I mean young kids…. the 6 yr old is in charge, the 4 year old will hold the 1 year old, etc. So the good parts is these kids wont play with knives or matches (more accurately they are careful with those things, one of the girls was playing with a razor blade while I was watching but no one was worried shed cut herself). Accidents certainly do happen, I once saw a boy who was hit with a moto and died…at first when I heard the crowd from 100yds away I thought they were cheering for something…but they were weeping, it was really sad (Im learning motos aren’t very safe but its they only way to travel sometimes). Anyway back to my day, we left that chiefs place and saw the cell towers, talked to the guy who cares for it. We went down a little bit to visit my friends grandmother but she wasn’t in. When we made it back to the main road we decided to go to Azi and visit the Font (the head chief of the area). We trekked about 30 or 40 mins there, ate some bush plums, (never had them before, kinduv like olives) and went to the palace. Turned out he wasn’t in either so we'd come for nothing, but on the way back through the market I saw a pineapple and decided we should buy it and relax a little bit. –my neighbor just dropped off some water fufu and fish sauce, mmmm-- I thought we were going to stay for 15 mins but we ended up hanging out, talking to people, talking about Cameroon and the US and differences, etc. for a good 2.5 hours. I realized I wasn’t acculturated when after about an hour I started getting ancy to leave, even though I had no where to go. When I relaxed it was one of the best feelings in the world, sitting talking with a 1.5 hour hike before I could get back to my cell phone in the event there was an emergency. The best part of our talk was when this guy came over to talk to us, but he couldn’t speak. He spoke in sounds and hand motions which my friend couldn’t understand, so a woman was translating to him in the local dialect, which he then translated to English for me. Very strange. Turns out he was inviting us to a party where there would be "beaucoup" drinks and food. It wasn’t his party I don’t think, because a little while later he asked me for 100 francs for food. He was a nice guy, but it always ruins it a little when they ask for money. Anway after a while we headed home, I barely made it at that the rest and the Guinness made my legs not want to work anymore. I bought some ground nuts and ground them (it makes sense) for peanut butter, and had a nice banana, pb and jelly snack and this fufu came just in time. Tomorrow Ive decided to go to church for the first time, its Thanksgiving mass I guess there's dances and singing planned. Maybe Ill write about it.

Guess Im writing about it. Just got back to mass, really glad I went. I think I'm going to try to be more involved in the community more, they are really accepting and grateful for just my participation in things, while at school I feel like they just expect things from me. Mass is nice here, there is lots of singing and dancing, but its loooooong. It starts about 945 and goes until 1130 or 12 usually, almost 1 today because it was Thangsgiving mass (not sure if it has anything to do with the American holiday, awfully coincidental since Thanksgiving is Thursday. I took a break and took a nap, read, talked to my neighbors about church, some students came by for help, and I was just about to cook myself dinner and work a little and…my gas ran out. About 5 minutes of thinking I couldn’t think of anything I could eat without a stove except for this coconut I bought, the problem is I bought one before and someone opened it for me and told me it was bad. I opened this one myself but I cant tell if its bad or not but its really tough and hard to eat. Basically every mother telling their kids that there are starving kids in Africa tonight are right. I don’t know if Ive told you guys about it but I have this lizard that comes into my window every night like clockwork. one night I didn’t close the window he came in, but since then if I forget he waits til I close it then comes in 10 minutes later. Ive named him Lou.

I think I need to write my entries a little differently. I was inspired by a Vanity Fair article I just read (theres a whole issue on Africa it was really good). It said how Africa is the “bad news continent” and its completely true. I’m sure if you search an internet news site the only articles you will get are about something sad, tragic, or about aid. I remember the Peace Corps telling me they would send me to Africa (this was back when I wasn’t really sold on the idea). I really had no idea where I was going. I knew they wouldn’t be sending me into a war zone, but that was the only picture I had of Africa. Since I’m here and some of you have fought through my lack of updating to be reading this now, I will try to paint a picture for you, maybe some day people will have a clear idea (and of course if anyone wants to visit and get the real deal, you are welcome (how they say it here)). Bringing African culture to America is actually one of the goals of the Peace Corps, so I’m just doing my job. First I have to warn you that I only know Cameroon. That being said, they call Cameroon miniAfrica, both because it has almost all the different climates of Africa and because it is so culturally diverse. It is amazing how culturally diverse it is. The cities are a hodgepodge of people from every place in every province, but when you go to the small provinces everyone has their own dialect (Im going to try to learn some of mine eventually, all I know now is good morning and good afternoon). If you travel about 40km you will find another dialect. They also have traditional leaders who are gradually being phased out I believe but they still have a lot of power in some communities. I’ve met two, and it was interesting both times. They have guards who go in before and make sure everyone knows the protocol…you have to stand, bow, bring gifts and other things. They seem to be pretty down to earth when you start to talk to them though. In the culture tradition and titles are very important. For every event there is a hierarchy of who shows up when. The smallest people will show up on time to half an hr later, then the important ppl will show up until the most important person shows up 1.5 to 2.5 hours late and the even can begin. Its really annoying I've started going very late to things sometimes after they’ve started, Im not good at small talk in the states Im not going to do it here for 2 hrs when I could be doing something else. The good thing I can say about the conferences is that they happen and important things are done. Sometimes I am annoyed at the slow progress or the repetition, but most of the time what is said eventually comes to a conclusion and it is recorded and saved for a meeting of higher ranked people. My favorite part about the meeting is item 11, the food at the end. They are always the best meals because they are free (usually come with a beer or two) and you are starving from not eating for about 6 hrs or so. I used to not like the traditional food they serve but its really good now. By the way Im going to return to the states a master cook. I never realized how easy it is to make things. Do you realize bisquick is just flour, baking soda and salt mixed together? Those guys are geniuses. Anyway Ive learned to make bread, tortillas, rice and beans, enchiladas, deep fried stuff, sauces for pasta and rice, peanut butter, other things I cant think of. Anyway it’s a good way to pass time here and then at the end its delicious. I complain about food a lot here but I eat really well, you never appreciate an enchilada until you go 4 months without it then shop and work for a few hours to make them. O yea Im killing a chicken this weekend and making sweet and sour chicken, I'm psyched. I meant to make this longer but Im tired and I still have work to do.

A little after thanksgiving - I have had a great past week or so. Its test time which is always a stressful time, but after giving all my tests I traveled down to Tico. There is an over 50 couple posted there (Peace corps is recruiting over 50 if you're over 50 and interested). They have a nice house, 2 extra bedrooms, 1 with a bed and the other with 2 extra mattresses. Their room just got air conditioning which is amazing but necessary there it is very hot and humid. The fridge was stocked with cold water and juice, and they had gotten 5 chickens, stuffing, had potatoes peeled for mashing, 3 cans of olives, 2 cans of cranberry sauce, and they made gravy and another volunteer brought pumpkin pie mix. 1 can of cranberry, 2 boxes of stuffing and brownie mix are waiting for Christmas (I think were doing Christmas on the beach too). O yea the beach. We arrived Saturday, went to a nice restaurant and went to bed early, got up around 730 or so, ate bfast (they had saved peanut butter from a care package), and went fo beach. We checked out a craft store and got draft beer before we went to the actual beach (this was about 11) and then headed to a secluded Peace corps hang out. The beach was awesome, its all black sand and nearly deserted, a few surfers, some people carrying things but we were mostly by ourselves. The waves were huge by the end, bigger then any id seen in the US, and we spent the entire afternoon drinking, swimming, playing Frisbee, and just lounging. Rediculous change from 2 days before when I was au village giving an exam to 80 students at a time. We left the beach and went to go get hamburgers, unfortunately the waitress informed us after 15 mins that they have the burgers but the ham was finished…so we got 6 plates of fries and got out of there. We ate the chicken, potatoes, stuffing, and cran sauce and drank wine (white wine even) and talked about how nice it was to have a holiday without all the advertisements, etc. Christmas is certainly going to be weird. I bet you all are starting to see television ads, billboards, my mom is certainly playing Christmas music by now, and we wont get any exposure to Christmas besides talking about what were going to do with other Americans (and about how weird it is that we don’t see ads). My new plan is to send my pictures home with a volunteer for Christmas, and have her mail them to my parents who Ill have buy the converter and send it back to me. Should be about 2 more weeks, but then youll have all the pictures I have. Its really hard to come back to post, but in 2 weeks Ill be back at the beach for training, where Ill get to see all the volunteers from all around the country…really looking forward to it. Apparently my address has disappeared from my blog, so if you want to send me something send me an email first Ill send you my addresses (ones faster and riskier ones slower and pretty safe). If you’ve sent me a package I haven’t gotten it yet, but Ill get it when we all meet in 2 weeks. Ill send texts to you that I got them (esp Kevin I know he thinks his is lost but I don’t think it is). Hope you all had a happy thanksgiving, and don’t worry about me I certainly did.

Be Well.
Brad