Well, as of last Wednesday I am officially a Peace Corps volunteer. Left our training site Thursday morning, made it to Maroua last Saturday, then finally to post on Monday. Also have a new address...and you should probably send things to it:
Rose Edmonds
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 131
Maroua, Cameroon
My village is really wonderful -- about 7000 people, all of whom (well at least the ones that I have met) have been really friendly and welcoming...despite the fact that I do not speak Mandara or Fulfulde, and they do not speak French. My interactions with my neighbors take place pretty much entirely through smiling and hand gestures.
My house is also small but wonderful...the volunteer I am replacing left me a lot of furniture (couch, bed, bookcase, tables) and other household necessities (pots, pans, sheets, etc.) so that was a big relief. My compound is full of lizards during the day (big ones too -- like probably a foot long) and bats at night, but I have only had a couple of cockroach encounters, so I'm feeling pretty good about the whole pest situation. There is apparently a shortage of gas bottles in the Extreme North -- plenty of gas for cooking, but no extra bottles to put the gas in -- so my first couple of dinners at post involved me cooking ramen over a candle. It worked better than you might think. Then the principal of my school (who is really excellent) lent me an extra of his, so I have actually been able to cook myself real food...okay, I would have been able to cook myself real food, if I had had any. Mostly I eat a lot of beans. It's pretty okay.
My life continues to be very weird and surprising, and often also very fun. I spend a lot of time riding around on motos, catching rain in buckets to wash my dishes, and answering the incessant knocking on my door...which nine times out of ten turns out to be several small children from the neighborhood who shout "Bonjour!" at me (quite possibly the only French word they know), push their way into my yard, and then proceed to stand there and stare at me for several minutes. I think the novelty will eventually wear off.
School starts on the 6th, and as of right now I am still the only English teacher at my high school. Somehow I have managed to be at post for almost a week and accomplished nothing practical relating to my job, so I have no idea what grades I am teaching, how many hours, what my responsibilities are, etc...something to look into this week I guess.
I spent the weekend in Maroua picking up supplies and catching up with the other new PCVs, but am headed back to the village this afternoon. No internet there...or anywhere near there, so it's pretty likely that it could take me a couple...or a few weeks to answer e-mails. But I do have a phone, and you can call and text me on it through Skype, and I would really love to hear from you all...so if you do not know how to do that, you should probably talk to my parents or Kyle, who all have my phone number and know how it works to call me. Really -- I would love to hear from you.
Off to the market now, then back to post...hope all is well in the States! Please send me things (like text messages and hand sanitizer)!
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Lizards! Bats! What about Lions and Elephants?
ReplyDeleteDoes the school provide French as well as English lessons? Or are English lessons available only because of the presence of the Peace Corps? -- and isn't there a French branch of the Peace Corps? Just wondering, since you mention they don't speak French either, which sounds like it could come in handy for a French-speaking country.
ReplyDeleteSending happy thoughts from Madagascar!
French and English are the two official languages of Cameroon, but in practice English is only spoken in the two Anglophone regions whereas French is spoken in the other (Francophone) regions...however in the Grand North, Fulfulde is the real lingua franca, and especially in rural areas a lot of people (especially women) don't speak French. In school, English is obligatory (re: Cameroon's policy of bilingualism) although kids only really memorize enough to pass their exams (hopefully), and don't usually know how to speak it in the real world. The language of instruction in schools is French, so *most* of my students will know French (at least enough to get by), although their mothers probably will not.
ReplyDeletethank the foot long lizards for the lack of roaches! I'm actually a bit jealous, i am trying to culture cockroaches in my house to feed to cold-blooded creatures, this is seen as one of my main challenges. what is your secret? how do you maintain a healthy balance between your lizard and roach population? and do you have a pet bat yet?
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