Moving On, Moving In

So it happened. We swore in as official Peace Corps Volunteers and even managed to performed a rendition of Cat Stevens' Peace Train that wasn't completely embarrassing (thanks for that, guys). We wore matching pange outfits and collectively gave speeches in French, Fulfulde, and Pidgin. And then all the build-up was over and we were finally ready for what we came to do. But as excited as we all are to finally be finished with training and onto our posts, the day was certainly bittersweet. Saying good-bye to the people that have become my family here wasn't something that I was looking forward to, and it certainly wasn't easy. But of course, we didn't come half-way around the world to spend all our time with 53 other Americans and the time came to get on our buses and head to post. A huge shout out to my incredible, hilarious, insightful, and brave stage-mates as you all head to your respective posts and continue this adventure solo. I don't know what I would have done without you these past two months and missing you all already. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm stationed in the Northwest Region just outside the city of Bamenda. We spent the entire day after swearing-in traveling to Bamenda and my crew that's posted in the Northwest couldn't believe how lucky we are when we finally arrived. There was a "chill" in the air (meaning we all finally stopped sweating) and the landscape is hilly and lush.The city sits in a valley, and my village is just on the outer rim looking down on it. It's incredibly beautiful here, and I have both the conveniences that come with proximity to a large city and the feel of a more isolated village. Truthfully, I haven't explored the immediate vicinity much yet and have spent almost all my time down in town getting some immediate necessities. Today's project was to find a mattress, bed frame, and gas tank and I spent the better part of the afternoon doing so. Luckily, a couple of community members volunteered to help me get these things and the three of us searched, negotiated, and finally brought everything home in a single taxi. As for the taxi ride, all I can say is that I wish I had taken a picture of the amount of things that were crammed into (and hanging out of) the trunk. I just made my first dinner in my new apartment and while there will be many opportunities to eat Cameroonian cuisine during these two years, tonight was certainly not one of them. I'm sure none of you will be surprised to know that guacamole and ketchup both made it onto the menu, but I was surprised to learn that green beans could too. So here's to a meal without palm oil, couscous, or crying children (sometimes dinner at my host family got a little rough). As for my new apartment, let's just say that it's big and empty. My favorite part so far is the two balconies overlooking my neighborhood and the rest of the mountains surrounding Bamenda. Many thanks to RPCV Shane for outfitting my entire kitchen with what he left behind (and best of luck back home)! TL, DR: Training's over and my friends and I are finally flying solo. As strange as it is to be doing this alone, my post is incredible so far and I'm feeling really lucky to be here.

A Hand of Bananas

As I mentioned in my last post, PC Cameroon has just about 10 weeks of training before we swear in as official Volunteers. I'm sure the distinction may seem a little arbitrary to all of you back home, as I've already left the US to join the Peace Corps and will remain here through this transition. But please believe me when I tell you that the transition between Volunteers and Trainees is quite important and feels like a big step. As of next week, we will no longer be living with host families or reporting to the training center every day (there aren't really weekends of the traditional sort during training). Instead, our group of 54 will be dispersed across the country, with some of us more than a full day's travel from the others. It turns out that Cameroon is quite big, and the quality of the roads makes it feel even bigger. 

But as for life at the moment, it's beginning to feel like finals week. Last week brought our final cross-cultural presentations, all of which took place in French. My subject was elephants in Cameroon, but it quickly turned into a broader discussion of poaching and the relationship between the ivory trade and the Chinese economy. I had previously thought that we were past the point where ivory is still being created and that it is valued for its historical presence. As far as I understand it, this is not at all the case, and the growing middle class in China is now demanding ivory that they had previously been unable to afford. This has led to an increase in elephant poaching and often funds international terrorist groups such as the Janjaweed. My attempt to explain this situation in French wasn't the most polished presentation I've ever given, but the project gave me the opportunity to explore a situation that I'm interested in and boosted my confidence where French is concerned. 

On Sunday we celebrated Diversity Day, which consisted of an exchange of American and Cameroonian culture between the trainees and our trainers. Both groups brought favorite foods to share and performed songs, skits, and dances. I was recruited as one of the few Jews to make latkes, but after peeling a small mountain of potatoes we learned that the blender was woefully unequipped to handle the scale that we were working on. We then all admitted that none of us had ever been primarily responsible for latke creation in the past and decided to be flexible. And so we ended up making a small mountain of french fries, all of which were cut to different sizes. It wasn't our proudest moment, but the enthusiasm of Diversity Day was infectious and we forgot about the small setback. Some American highlights of the day included a group-wide "flashmob" to the Macarena (which I hope doesn't represent American culture…), my group of Environment trainees singing Wagon Wheel, and a small mountain of peanut butter and jelly. The Cameroonians of course put us all to shame with their own fashion show, dance party, and singing in both French and English. I ended the day much more excited about going to post and Cameroon in general. There are a lot of great parts of training, but it's easy to forget that there are many different aspects of Cameroon that we haven't even seen yet. Our exposure to Cameroon has been extremely limited, and we're very much living in sequestration. 

It's clear that we're being weaned out (or hardened off, as the LIFE sector likes to say) of life in Bafia, and the next stage of that came this week when we met our community hosts. I was a little unclear as of the role of community host prior to this week, but I learned that these are the people responsible for helping us transition to life at post and integrate into our communities. All of our community hosts live in our communities and will help us meet the appropriate people and adapt to cultural norms. Before the hosts arrived morning I had a flashback to meeting our host families, where we all stood awkwardly by one wall of the training center while they sat on the other. That day, my host family wasn't there to pick me up and I was left sitting in an empty room while the PC admin made some frantic phone calls on my behalf. But my worrying on Monday was unfounded, as my host saw my nametag quickly and wrapped me in a hug before she even told me her name. This was literally the opposite of how my introduction to my host family had gone, and I have a good feeling about how our relationship will proceed. 

My last point for today is about one of the sessions we had today, which was on international development and more specifically the book Two Ears of Corn. One of my good friends got her degree in international development and when I was talking to her yesterday I realized that I hadn't ever really thought about the need for development as one of the reasons that I joined the PC, at least not in such formal terms. I haven't taken any classes on the subject and know pretty much nothing other than the extreme basics that we talked about in a session a few weeks ago. Two Ears of Corn has made its way around the group of LIFE trainees, and when I started it yesterday I realized that there's a good reason for that. The book focuses on the need for community enthusiasm for a given project and the importance of remembering the social impacts of a given project. It also stresses the need for mutual respect between community members and outside development agents and encourages them to work with the poorest of the poor. There's much more that I'd love to put in here, but I think the takeaway is that I've been spending so much time and energy focusing on my own personal needs that it's easy to lose sight of the real reason that we're all here. Despite the fact that the majority of the conversations that my friends here and I have are about our adventures at our host families or our preparations for post, there are many people that have put a lot of thought into the ethics of development and if there's a right way to go about it. I really don't know enough about the subject to make any more of a claim, but I'm excited to continue this discussion and learn from my experiences. 

And to end on a lighter note, I learned last week that in Pidgin, a bunch of bananas are called a 'hand', and that a single banana is called a 'finger'. Brilliant. 

TL,DR: Training is almost over and although I'll be sad to leave Bafia and my friends from stage, I'm excited to learn more about Cameroonian culture and head to my post. When I get there I'll already have at least one friend and will know how to buy the right number of bananas at the market!