Why? CASE.

As of my last writing, I thought that the majority of my medical care related to my accident was behind me. That was two weeks ago, and I've been in Yaounde on medical hold since then. PC Cameroon is in the process of moving offices but has already opened its new transit house, which is where I've been staying. It's a beautiful house-big and spacious with six bathrooms, four bedrooms, and more beds than I've bothered to count. It also has the most dangerous staircase that I've had the pleasure to climb, made even more challenging by my sprained ankle. Luckily, the PC admin has been more than accommodating to me and opened the medical hold room on the first floor after a few days of struggling.
I hadn't spent any significant time in Yaounde prior to this visit, and my time here has been quite different than I would have expected. Sure, I spent quite a bit of time reading, Facebooking, and Skyping with friends and family back home (I've never been so well caught up on everyone's lives!). But there have also been many more PCVs here than I would have expected and I've spent most of my time with "old" friends and making new ones. Everyone comes in Yaounde for different reasons and the emotions that come with being here are as varied as the volunteers themselves. When I first arrived there were members of my stage here that had just finished their beach trip to Kribi (the one I was supposed to go on...) They quickly left, and I prepared myself for a few days of solitude (I was consistently told that my stay here would be shorter than it was). But it was not to be. People have come through on their way to/from the airports, transit through Cameroon, and for medical/security reasons. My friend Anna found herself with a staph infection (apparently they're easy to pick up in the ocean) and has been here for over a week now. And although I always want my friends to be healthy and safe, it was nice to have a buddy to travel over to the medical office with. At one point there were four of us heading over to PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Office) each morning. They started sending a car.

I can't say that I have much faith in the Cameroonian medical system, so I was relieved and grateful for the care that I received from PCMO. Our physicians assistant made me come in each day to have my wound checked and cleaned and even got a consultation from both a surgeon and an orthopedist. Luckily I escaped any possible infections and have been recovering nicely. It's looking like I'm going to end up with a pretty sizable scar, but there could definitely be worse ailments with which to leave this country.

The night before swearing-in the members of my stage and I all spent the night at the homes of US embassy staff/ PC administrators. Many of our hosts told us to give them a call if we're ever back in town and have been extremely generous with their hospitality. So this week my friend Anna and I took our hosts up on their offers and had a little taste of life as a Foreign Service Officer. It turns out that living in Cameroon as a FSO is much more like living in America than it is like living in Cameroon as a PCV. We were definitely exposed to the finer parts of life here and the whole experience left me surprised and impressed. We went to the US embassy pool, met some Marines, ate some lasagna, and visited all the high-class Yaounde supermarkets. A big thank-you goes out to our embassy families for taking such good care of us.

So I'm heading back to Bamenda tomorrow and am looking forward to finally getting back to life at post. It's been kind of funny-I've spent the past two weeks living an American lifestyle of sorts, full of "high-speed" Wifi, American friends and modern conveniences. But I caught myself missing my little neighborhood and the friends and neighbors that I have there. In-Service-Training left me enthusiastic about getting work projects started and these past two weeks have given me ample time to reflect and plan.

TL,DR: Life in Yaounde is filled with other PCVs and (at least for me), daily trips to the medical office, and better food than I thought existed in Cameroon. I've consumed more liters of smoothie than can possibly be good for me.