Settling in and Celebrating Thanksgiving!

It's officially the holiday season now, I guess. Thanksgiving is behind us (more on that later), and December has begun. If this had been anything like the past few years, I would be back home for winter break in Westchester bundled up in sweaters and cords, preparing to head to work at a local gift store and listen to Christmas music all day long. As much as I enjoyed that, I'm currently sitting on my balcony in shorts and a t-shirt listening to music of my own choosing (currently The Head and the Heart's new album-shout out to Teddy for sending that over). During college my school always gave us the entire month of December off, so I should be used to unstructured time this time of year. But my new life here takes unstructured time to a whole new level. The Peace Corps pretty much gives you the first three months at post to just get settled into your new communities and begin the long process of integrating. I've been living in my village for just over a week now and have been taking things pretty slowly. I've never lived alone before, and that itself is something of an adjustment, especially since I spent the past two months living with seven other people at my host family's house. Things are just so…quiet. And clean. I've never considered myself to be that much of a neat person, but (unless you're Laura) there's only so much mess that one person can make. My new apartment has two bedrooms, a big living room, a kitchen and two balconies. I'm currently sitting on the balcony that looks out over the mountainside surrounding Bamenda, which is my favorite place in the whole apartment. There are cows grazing in the distance and from right here, life is pretty great. Because of the timing of Thanksgiving and coming to post, I actually didn't spend that much time in my village in the past week. When you come to post, one of the ways that you're supposed to spend your first few weeks is doing "protocol", which consists of introducing yourself to the important people in the area. These people include potential work partners, the heads of government ministries, local safety/security authorities, and the traditional chief. So far I've only made a few introductions, but I made sure to go meet the local chief, who is called the fon. We had rehearsed meeting our chief at one point during training and I was expecting a lot of formality and ceremony. But in reality, my fon seemed very welcoming and casual. He gave me his approval, and then asked me if I would be able to recruit other Volunteers to work in the area, as there is a lot to be done here. I don't know if I'll be able to do that, but it was nice to have his support and hear his enthusiasm for the PC. Also, I got to take a motorcycle up to his palace, which is a sentence I never thought I would be able to say. The other event of this week was Thanksgiving and the preparation for it. Thanksgiving isn't a holiday that I get very excited for, but it came a week after we got to our posts and I didn't really have any plans for it for the first time in my life. Luckily, there are other Volunteers stationed in Bamenda that welcomed me to their dinner and told me that I could even come help make pumpkin pie. So I headed down late Wednesday morning, thinking I would make pie crust for a few hours and then come back up to my apartment for the night. I should state that I've never played an active role in Thanksgiving preparation before, but I have made my share of pumpkin pies. But for all of you that think that Thanksgiving is a lot of work in America, please come on over to Cameroon. Imagine trying to make the whole dinner with no real oven and just a Dutch oven that can only handle one dish at a time. Admittedly we had to substitute chicken for turkey, but other than that we had an authentic Thanksgiving experience. There was even Stovetop stuffing and jellied cranberries. We even managed to make pumpkin pies from scratch, using local squash that tasted remarkably similar. Bamenda is an incredible place. Some other highlights of my first week at post:
1. Made my first friend in village! I was out for a walk on my first morning here and I ran into this woman who proceeded to take me back to her house for breakfast and to meet her family. She's already planning to introduce me to all the local dishes-yesterday brought njama-njama, the first green mush of vegetables that I've enjoyed here so far. Today's introduction wasn't quite as appealing-fried grasshoppers. Not even joking. I couldn't even try them.
2. Celebrated TJ's birthday at PresCafe, my new favorite restaurant in Cameroon. It's kind of a little slice of America in Bamenda with a Cameroonian theme to it. They have smoothies and pizza. I might become a regular. And TJ turned 28!
3. Bought a water heating wand! In Bafia, I was taking cold bucket showers like a champ. Sometimes I even giggled to myself when my host family heated their water for bathing-it was so hot there the idea of voluntarily heating water seemed a little ridiculous. Well, the Northwest is another story entirely. I have running water and a real shower, but it's cold. Really cold. I took a shower the first few days but it was a trying experience, and ended with me shivering in my towel for a few minutes each time. So I bought a hot water coil. It was easily the best $3 I've ever spent. It is essentially just a metal coil that you stick into a bucket of water for a few minutes, and it heats the water pretty well. Let's just say it was a game-changer. I'll be clean in this country after all. And I've only electrocuted myself twice so far. Not even mad.
TL,DR: Survived my first week at post, celebrated Thanksgiving like a real American, and was told by one of my neighbors that she understands my French better than my English. Nothing in my life makes sense anymore.

The view from my rear (favorite) balcony.