Cameroonian Thanksgiving!

So after stressing a lot about Thanksgiving plans, including sending numerous emails and making phone calls to the Embassy, asking our US families for help, attempting adventures to scope of the Americans in Cameroon, and trying to get a hold of the Peace Corps...we finally decided to just man up and make a Thanksgiving feast for the six of us students who were in Yaounde. We were able to use the kitchen at the school office, which was great. Shopping for dinner was so funny. We went to the market first for all of the fruits and vegetables, and even bargained them down. Then we went to the new grocery store for the first of our supplies. We ended up making a delicious salad, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, and a homemade stuffing. We bought three rotisserie chickens and made gravy for the side. We also cut up fresh pineapple and papaya, as well as cheese and crackers. We had two types of wine and iced tea and water. We also had cake, a tart, and two types of ice cream. We set a table with a piece of left over pretty fabric someone had from making a dress, and with two candle holders we got at the artisan. We displayed the food really nicely, and it really looked like a Thanksgiving! It was crazy to think we pulled it off in Cameroon, where there happened to be no running water in the office, and a broken stove. Two girls really spear-headed the cooking process, which was great, and it was nice that everyone pitched in and helped. The staff member that was watching us for the night at the office attended our dinner, and we explained to him all about Thanksgiving and its meaning. We prayed and also said what we were thankful for. We even wrote our thanks on the table cloth, as that is a tradition one girl said she does every year with her family. It was difficult being away from home on the holiday, but this experience was really different and peaceful. Plus we got to eat outside for Thanksgiving, which was definitely a novel idea!

Other than that, I've just been working on my ISP. I think I'm more or less done with my surveys, interviews, and outside research. Now I'm finishing up transcribing my interviews (they take so long because the majority are well over an hour in French!) I also started the initial writing of my paper, and I need to have a good draft done for Tuesday to give my adviser to read/edit. I want to pick it up on Thursday before I head off to Mount Cameroon and Limbe for the weekend! I'm really excited to go with my friends and get away for our last weekend of ISP. I haven't traveled much here, except to the places with the program, and I think it will be a fun and rewarding adventure. Limbe is supposed to be gorgeous, with black sand beaches! It'll be funny getting a tan in December. I also can't wait to climb Mount Cameroon! I believe it's the tallest mountain in Western Africa. I'll definitely take lots of pictures.

After I turn in my paper on the 7th, I'll present on the 8th, have a couple of closing seminars, a language proficiency exam, and then the end of the semester party with the staff and our host families. I actually got volunteered to give a speech, in French, at the party about our experience in Cameroon this semester. I want to write a tearjerker! I can't believe I only have two and a half weeks left. The time has really started to fly. I'm going to make the most of every last day, because I'll be off to England and then home before I know it!

ISP Period

I have been crazy busy lately!!! ISP has commenced...It's weird being in Yaounde without all of the rest of the group. Actually, my few really good friends decided to stay in Yaounde as well. However, the other students are off in various places completing their research. I'm glad that I am in Yaounde, though, because all of the information I need is here. Yaounde is the capital of Cameroon, one of the biggest cities, and the central government is located here.

I'm researching taxi accidents and unsafe driving in Cameroon - but really doing a case study of Yaounde, I suppose. I never realized I had such an interest in safe driving and the causes of accidents before! I think just after being here for a couple of months and taking taxis daily, I'm so disturbed by the state of the drivers and the mentality around driving here. Seat belts and car seats are virtually nonexistent, and often taxi drivers squeeze in more than four passengers into their small cars. It kills me to see two or three people in the front seat, or babies and small children on their mother's laps. Imagine if the car got into an accident? I realize that this was often the case many years ago, but now there is knowledge of vehicle safety and people should not be as negligent. Anyways, I've been exploring the city - going around and introducing myself and meeting people who can help me. I've done some informal interviews, and have just begun the formal interview process. It's really motivating/surprising how much my French has improved! I never thought I'd see the day where I could carry on an hour interview in French.... It's not perfect, and I don't understand everything, but I record it on my recorder and transcribe it later. This is not to say that when there's an Anglophone in the crowd who's willing to talk to me that I'm not elated, haha.

I'm trying to plan what to do for Thanksgiving! We never anticipated that it would be so difficult to attend Thanksgiving at the US Embassy in Cameroon. I know in other countries the embassy is very willing and pleased to host Americans on American holidays. However, here they have not been receptive (not returning phone calls or emails) so we have yet to get an invitation. We've been exploring other options, like possibly going on adventures to different parts of the city to find the random Americans that exist, haha. I know there are some groups of Americans doing various things, so we may just go introduce ourselves and see what they're up to, haha. I just feel like if there's an option to be with other Americans during Thanksgiving we should. Plus there will be only be five of us, including me, in Yaounde during Thanksgiving. We are also thinking of going to Limbe for Thanksgiving day weekend. Limbe is similar to Kribi, as it is touristy and full of beaches, but the sand is black!! I guess there are a few nice hotels and fun things to do. There are some other neat places to visit, though, so we're unsure which trip we want to plan. We definitely want to do something because that's the last weekend of ISP and it will be a fun last excursion before we do hardcore writing for the last week. I can't believe the paper is 30-40 pages, plus appendices...

As a side note, the making dinner for my family was a huge hit! It was so delicious, and they loved it. I couldn't believe how much ketchup my mother used, haha. The ice cream was so good too. :) It actually had its benefits for me too, haha, as my mother bought hamburger meat the next week and fried it with onions and spices and it was so good!! One night she even cut up potatoes and fried them so they tasted like delicious, greasy, large french fries. Woo!

As another side note, I had a really fun sleepover with three of my friends last week. I felt like a little girl again, as we went out to dinner and thought we were so cool staying up until like 10 PM (we are really lame and always tired here...) But there is a set of bunk beds plus my own bed in my room, so it worked out. The restaurant we discovered was so delicious! It's in a ritzy part of town I suppose, at the top of my street, and had amazing Italian options and even a dessert menu. It was interesting to see that virtually everyone eating there was white and foreign. We rarely ever see white foreigners, and it's because we actually live in the culture and are essentially "Cameroonian." We walk around, buy food off the street, take the unsafe taxis, go to the market, etc. Most foreigners here only take their private cars and go to nice restaurants and stay at the Hilton. It was fun for a treat to eat at a nice place though, and my mouth watered at the taste of pizza!

I bought an internet key so if you are interested in Skyping, it's much more feasible now. :) A special shout out goes to my summer Onset loves, who graced me with their faces yesterday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Wish me luck on my project. <3

Beach Life!

Long time, no post! Sorry about that, but I was in Kribi for about a week and a half and there was no reliable internet there. We went to a cyber café, but it was so slow and it wouldn’t even support Outlook so I couldn’t check my email. That was frustrating with course selection, among other things. But all’s well that ends well, since I’m back in Yaoundé as of Sunday afternoon (with the most amazingly fast cyber café!) I’m staying in Yaoundé until I leave on December 14^th to go to England and then back home to the States. J I’m actually thinking of buying an internet key from one of the cell phone service providers here. There’s a promotion going on that when you pay for the key, you get unlimited internet access from anywhere you’re situated for a month. I think that would be perfect for the month of Independent Study Project (ISP). I’ll be able to do work and have online access from virtually anywhere, since we tried to negotiate a deal with the woman who works at the cyber café, but she was unhelpful, haha.

Anyways, I guess I’ll give some highlights of Kribi! I absolutely loved it there. It was like being on vacation, since it’s full of beaches. I guess it’s one of the touristiest places in Cameroon, although I actually didn’t outright see that many tourists. My home stay was great. I had a mom and three little sisters. Well, the mom was technically the grandmother of the two youngest girls and the oldest girl was a cousin. The mother of the two little girls also lived in the house, but she worked most of the time so I didn’t see her much. Interestingly enough, the family was Bamilike. It’s funny that I had a Bamilike family in Kribi because my family in Dschang was not, and that’s where the predominant Bamilike population resides. When I first arrived at the house I was kind of overwhelmed because I met my mom for all of two seconds but she had to run out the door for a reunion or something. So she just said, okay, have fun with the kids! Well, it would have been one thing if it was just my three sisters, but there were approximately 12 kids hanging in/around the house. The houses are pretty close together and there are a lot of neighborhood children. I was definitely intimidated, but they were interesting to watch. Anyways, after a couple of days all of the children loved me and it was a happy ending. My own little sisters were precious. The youngest one was especially attached to me, and she would often want to do my hair and teach me hand games, haha. They also had a fascination with my cell phone games, lol. I gave the girls lots of toys and gifts; they really lucked out because I had not had children at the last two home stays and I wanted to get rid of my gifts. The oldest girl wanted to braid my hair, but ended up realizing that my hair does not have the African texture she’s used to, haha. I gave her a purse I had brought along as a gift, and she absolutely loved it. I sometimes brought home bubble gum or lolli pops for my sisters and the neighborhood kids and they were all really appreciative. It was definitely a different experience having children in the house, but I wouldn’t trade it because it seemed more traditional and an example of a common family structure here. I also had a nice room and my own bathroom attached to it, so I can’t complain about the accommodations! When I left to get on the bus back to Yaoundé, my youngest sister was crying. I felt so bad! L

The curriculum themes in Kribi were prostitution, fishing, and tourism. I know, wicked random. But we definitely did some interesting things. The first Saturday we went to two pygmy villages. I thought they would be living in the forest, but I guess it’s the rainy season so they set up small, rural-like villages. They speak a native tongue, so the professor translated their words into French for us. We got to ask questions and learn about their culture/way of life. They also performed traditional dances/songs and we offered them some money and the school brought gifts. It was really neat to meet them, but I also felt kind of strange viewing humans as a tourist attraction. A lot of their land has been sacrificed and they are considered a minority that has been historically taken advantage of by the government and growing sense of modernity. It’s difficult to find a balance between tradition and progressive thoughts, but it’s certainly a topic of great interest to me as a Philosophy major.

We also visited a fishing marina one day. We learned all about the importance of fishing to society there, and its great connection to tourism. We got to tour the marina and saw all the different types of sea food available for sale. Believe it or not, Kribi also made me a believer of fish! I hated most sea food before I tried it in Kribi! Well, I think I really just dislike the smell of sea food. However, in Kribi it’s the freshest fish you’ll ever experience, and there’s virtually no odor. One day, my friend Katie and I went to lunch with her host mother at this outdoor place that she owns. They brought us this MASSIVE fish and we shared it, eating with our hands. I have never tasted something so glorious in my life. We also had the best fried plantains and French fries ever. God, I am going to miss Kribi fish!

A not so good aspect we unfortunately experienced was theft. The first afternoon the bus dropped us off at our new home stays. However, no one was home at my house yet, which was the same for another student. So we had to stay with our friend Olivia and her host mom because the mom was the home stay coordinator in Kribi. We had lunch and then decided to go swimming for the first time at the public beach. We stopped at Olivia’s new home so she could get changed into her swim suit. There’s a small boutique in front of her house where a lot of random people sit and you can buy snacks and phone credit. There was one young woman there who started talking to us as we were about to enter Olivia’s house. We all found her kind of annoying and loud, but she told she could accompany us to the beach and whatnot. We essentially told her no thanks, but she pointed out where the beach was. She started walking with us and pointed out her home and car, and told us she was police. We just found her really annoying, and she left us before we arrived at the beach. So we got to the beach and left our stuff in a pile in plain view and went into the water. A few minutes later, we saw our friend Katie heading to the beach walking with the woman we had met (whose name is Michelle, by the way). We were all like, ugh, her again, but we didn’t care too much. Michelle and our friend Katie came into the water with us and we all swam for a while. After a little bit, we saw Michelle get out of the water and walk to our stuff. She looked like she was picking up our clothes and shoes and moving them to higher ground so they wouldn’t get wet by the tide. However, Olivia and I explicitly saw Michelle open her blue, small wallet and take something out and put it into her swim suit. We ran as fast as we could out of the water and Olivia checked her wallet. She was missing two 10,000 CFA bills (which is about $40.00 American). However, the rest of the money was there. We confronted her about it, but she pretended to not know what we were talking about and acted really confused and hurt that we would accuse her of stealing. This process went on for a let’s just say, A LONG TIME. She then offered, because she’s police and all, if Olivia was missing money we could go to her house with her and she’ll give it to us, no problem. We thought it was weird, but finally agreed. We tried to get her to walk with us, but she would stop and talk to people, take phone calls, and sit and sulk. It was one of the strangest experiences that I’ve ever had. Eventually, Olivia and I left to go towards Olivia’s house because we had called one of our staff members. We saw the staff, who was on a moto taxi, and told her where Michelle was waiting with Katie and our other friend, Ben. Unfortunately, Michelle had taken off on a moto and said to our friends, what are you going to do about it? And evilly laughed…weird. However, Ben was smart because she took her phone and called his phone from it so he had her real number. Of course when the staff member tried to call her, she didn’t pick up. However, she actually called her back and made it clear that she was “dangerous.” We weren’t frightened, just kind of in awe at how surreal the situation was. Olivia had to go to the police several times, but it was good that we had her real phone number because all phones are registered in Cameroon so they could trace her. She actually did live in the house she pointed out, which was basically Olivia’s neighbor. Everyone in town knows her, and her mother is the mayor. She was an idiot! I went to the police one time and wrote a note as a witness. In the end, the police called Michelle in and then her mom had to come and just paid because it was an embarrassment to the family. It was the weirdest experience ever, but at least she got the money back.

That would have been a happy ending to the story, but unfortunately on the last night before we left Olivia was walking with her host brother to town. One the way, a moto taxi came up behind her without its lights on. The guy on the back grabbed her shoulder bag and they struggled for a minute, and then the bag ripped. It had her iPod, digital camera, her ID, and some money in it. I personally couldn’t believe they tried it even though her brother was there, but I guess you never know what’s going to happen, especially at night. It’s just a really awful situation, because even though she reported it there’s little to no chance the police could catch the thieves and she will get her stuff back.

One other neat thing we did in Kribi was go a meal prepared by a pastor’s family. One of the student’s, Helen, lived with a pastor’s family. Her father’s other pastor friend invited her and the other students to a dinner on the Friday night before we left. The family was really jolly and welcoming. They made this wonderful chicken, vegetable, and plantain dinner for us. They even bought us sodas and drinks, which was really sweet. It was funny, because we started taking all these pictures with the huge groups of family and friends, and we there for about four hours. People in Cameroon are generally very friendly, and they love entertaining groups, which is fine by us! That night, I also took my first moto taxi ride. It was pretty terrifying, but also wicked fun!

I can’t believe that it’s November and I have a TAN. How weird is that? Kribi was SO hot. It must have been 90+ most days. The walk to school was just under an hour, and we did a lot of other walking. It was good for exercise, but it was difficult to walk with the beating sun and humidity. I went to the beach a lot, and the water was so warm! It was beautiful; I almost felt like I was on vacation with a few twists. Now that I’m back in Yaoundé, it’s still more or less summer weather, but at least it’s a little more manageable.

As of now, courses are finished. We are now concentrating on ISP! I am really excited for my topic, and have already started visiting places and securing informants and information. I have found that although sometimes the information is not readily available, people are generally willing to go out of their way to help us. It’s a totally different experience doing research here than in the US, but I think it will be a great learning opportunity.

By the way, Ali and I made dinner for her family yesterday! We made an all-American meal – cheeseburgers, French fries, and soda floats. It was definitely a hit and oh so filling. We’re actually repeating the process tonight for my family, so I hope that they like it just as much!

<3 Brittany