Got an email from a friend and wanted to post the response in case it wasn’t explicit from my other posts. I am doing fine. I check the Internet every couple of days. Today I checked Twitter for the first time in two weeks and discovered something that I will have to check out when […]
I’m pretty tired and want to get to bed, plus not much has happened the last couple days, so I’m just going to hit the highlights: Trying to explain the short jokes we make about Jen. It doesn’t really even make sense in English: we’re just bad friends. Some things about Cameroonian French: "chez" is […]
It’s Sunday, which is our day of rest. (We have classes Saturday.) I got to sleep in — I thought I was going to have to go to church, like with other black families with whom I’ve stayed, but instead I slept until like 8. I needed that because I had been up late watching […]
Something happened between Claude, who is my host brother and homeboy, and the host family of Elizabeth G. I keep trying to figure it out but every time I ask Claude, he gets loquacious in French that I do not understand about how there are always people who do not like you, and so on. […]
It’s already 10 and I still want to try to shower tonight, so I’ll try to make this quick. Those of us in the Education program (this includes me) have language classes in a different building than the other program (which I will call Business [since the real name is too googleable]). Ours is in […]
By far the most interesting thing to happen today was hearing a lecture by the medical officers about "common medical problems". Worms were covered, about which the medical manual says only: "There are many different types and too numerous to go into here." Predictably, we lost our shit. I think I could kind of handle […]
Today I had my first bucket bath in Cameroon. I also learned how to do laundry and helped fetch water. This is all a big deal for me, because the rules for treatment and handling of water are pretty complicated. I thought my host family took all its water from the well, which means I […]
Nous sommes arrivés au stage (we have arrived at pre-service training). That means I have met my host family, from whose house I am typing this. I am staying with the Alemis, who are: Mr. Alemi, Mrs. Alemi, Hyacinthe (their son), Astride (their daughter), Vladimi (Astride’s one-and-a-half year old son), Nadege (their daughter), Claude (a […]
Today we got our phones. I’m debating whether or not to use the handset provided or just use the sim card in my "old" phone, which is significantly nicer. Reasons against: the battery life in my "real" phone is much better when it’s in offline mode and not great when it’s connected; if my phone […]
More hangouts, but today we got to walk around Yaoundé a bit in groups of 4. Saw a bunch of wildlife, including a lizard apparently indigenous to Cameroon. My group got hassled by some little girls looking for change, who enjoyed stroking my hair, and a gentleman who wanted to take our picture (and presumably […]