Adaptation!

So it has been way too long since I have written. My bad. Sometimes when you try to go to the internet cafe in Cameroon, there is no electricity. And then you spend a solid week on a bus/train/bush taxi/moto traveling to the extreme north and back. And then you come back and the Peace Corps training house has wireless internet, but now all your classes are at the lycee (high school), and to get to the Peace Corps house from the lycee you have to walk by the bar, and somehow an absurdly long time goes by without updating your blog.

I got back about a week and a half ago from my site visit to the Extreme North, which was long and intense and excellent. I also had the opportunity to take every form of transportation available in Cameroon: buses (from the travel agency Super Amigo, no less) with rows built for three people and holding five (periodically during this part of the voyage, one of the community hosts we were traveling with would stand up, pat our shoulders, and shout "Adaptation!"), trains (the couchettes aren't bad, unless you are trapped in one with a crying baby for 15 hours), bush taxis (vans built for 12 and containing about 20, plus at least one chicken and maybe a goat), motos, etc. The Extreme North is truly wonderful, my village is small and friendly, my house is adorable. I will write more about all these things later. Suffice it to say that I cannot wait to move to site, and that travel in the US will never seem difficult or uncomfortable ever again.

Also, as of this morning I am officially a teacher...As in I taught a real class with real students (about 30 of them...which is probably the smallest I will ever have; approximately sophomores/juniors in high school). For two straight hours. The kids were pretty rowdy but it turns out I'm pretty good at laying down the law, and I managed to keep things under control, most kids at least reading/writing/speaking/paying attention most of the time, and I think a couple of them might even have a vague idea of how to form the present perfect, which they didn't when they woke up. Overall, I am left with the impression that I could eventually be very good at this. And I suspect that often it might even be really fun.

Okay, off to more cross-culture sessions, then Fulfulde. Yes, I am learning Fulfulde...from French. It makes me feel like my brain is going to explode, but also like maybe this is exactly what I have been wanting to do since I was about 13. So yes -- life is still always exhausting, usually surprising, and most of the time a whole lot of fun. Please keep writing to me -- I miss you all and want to know all about your lives. Much love!