Some random things that you might be interested in: Ripe plantains can be eaten raw. They taste much like bananas. I was in a government building at Bafoussam and wandered into the "computer room". Three or four people were sitting at computers, all of which ran Ubuntu and OpenOffice. That was really nice. I can […]
OK, so since last we’ve spoken, I’ve started cooking. I bought a plaque à gaz ("portable stove"; wc?) pretty much the second day I was here — Ryan made fun of the packaging, which proudly proclaims the "world’s most number of automatic features" — and yesterday I finally got it hooked up to the tank […]
This just in: Blip Festival was moved from this December (which I had no chance of making) to next spring (which I could potentially make). Rock!
Went shopping again today. Made a friend in the car, named Kamgo Boris — he just started talking to me, I guess he was friends with some previous volunteers — and he looks halfway between Akeem, my old co-worker, and Jelani, friend from high school/college. He volunteered to help me haggle and go shopping, so […]
Some stuff to note after I got to my house: My bleach leaked onto some clothes in the same suitcase. Kind of annoying, but only one shirt I really liked got ruined. When I first got to my house, the bathroom smelled foul. I spent a bit of time last night scrubbing the toilet with […]
As Claire writes, it turns out that putting clumps of dirt/grass in the road is a signal to drive slowly here. I got to see it in action on the bus ride out of town when we drove past a few such clumps in the road, marking the site of a fascinating accident where two […]
Lots happened in the last few days, the conclusion of which is my installation here at my post. We’re all officially Volunteers (with a capital V). Let’s try to break it down a bit. One: the impending. Somehow, and I have no idea how really, I went from "fucking tired of these stagiaires" to "I […]
Getting ready to head out. Packing up everything. This reveals a certain amount of "What do I do with this?" — for example, house keys for back home. Bittersweet. Last Saturday wasn’t so bad. Allison’s birthday. I left before people went to the nightclub, figuring I didn’t have enough money to participate. Jenny reports that […]
Presentation went well. I could give you notes if you wanted, but they’re in French and they basically just boil down to "languages with tones" and "noun classes". Instead I want to talk about the "soirée culturelle", which is an event in which all the students show what they’ve been working on the entire "semester" […]
Spent a little time talking with my host family. Relaxed conversation. Christelle asked how I will feel after I leave next week. I said I’m ready to be independent, but a little scared, and a little sad to go. Vladimir is rambunctious as always. Today we started chastising him, and he responded by throwing a […]