There is no wikipedia in the village

"You Americans google everything. But there is no wikipedia in the village!"

This is what our training director told us on our first day of PST (Pre Service Training). Its true...there is no wikipedia in the village, which means that instead of looking things up ourselves, we have to ask someone else, almost always in another language. And there are a LOT of things we do not know.

Im in an internet cafe about two hours away from Yaounde in the medium sized city (pop. 70,000) where I will be living until mid August. Training is intense (I spoke French for four hours this morning), but my host family is wonderful, the scenery is beautiful, and every day is full of surprises. We have been here since Tuesday, and since then I have learned how to take a bucket bath, flush a "modern African toilet", eat a fish (like the whole thing. Cameroonians love eating fish eyeballs. I havent been that adventurous yet), buy things at the market despite a constant barrage of "La blanche la blanche!!" (which basically translates to "hey white lady!") etc. etc. I am tired all of the time, and happy and excited almost as often.

My language classes involve a group of four of us (plus the professor) sitting at desks outside the local school, speaking french for hours at a time. This is apparently very interesting and exciting for the students at this school (starting as young as 8 or 9) who flock around us, sticking their heads through the window of the classroom (about a foot from my face) to watch us. If they become too distracting, our prof will yell "Eloignez vous!" at them, at which point they disperse. Yesterday, however, after dispersing they all seemed to go off to brainstorm more ways to be distracting, because about twenty minutes later approximately two hundred kids came running down the hill at us, all shouting at the top of their lungs. It was a lot like the game "run and scream" that we play at camp, except all the kids had machetes (they were on their way to cut the grass on the school lawn).

Anyways, I am very happy, reasonably healthy, and having an excellent time here in Cameroon. I cannot say enough good things about my family, who are incredibly hospitable, patient, and unafraid to laugh at me when I do something ridiculous like stir a pot with my left hand. This weekend they claim they are going to teach me to carry water on my head...I think the only reason they brought this up is because they know how funny it will be.

Please keep emailing, texting, writing letters, etc. I cant always respond right away, but know that you are making my day!