Dear All,
So I am still in Bafia and things are going relatively well. Two weeks ago (my how the time flies!) I went to Mokolo to visit my post. It was a lot of traveling to cram into 6 days. We left at noon on Tuesday and took a bus to Yaounde. Then we took the night train between Yaounde and Ngoundere. We arrived in Ngoundere at about 10 in the morning on Wednesday. Right when we got to the train station we got our tickets for a bus to Maroua. We took the bus for 9 hours which got to be pretty brutal towards the end, but the scenery up north is gorgeous. There are a lot of mountains (which means a lot of switchback roads which were a little unsettling). The roads are really well maintained up north though. Seriously, better than some roads in Kansas and all the roads in Missouri.
When we got to Maroua, Steven a Peace Corps volunteer met us at the bus station, which we were all grateful for. He took us to the Peace Corps case in Maroua. The case is kind of like a little hostel specifically for peace corps, and it is fantastic.
Anyway, Steven took us to go eat at the only restaurant in the extreme north that has cheese. It was quite delicious. Then we all crashed pretty hard. The next day we opened our bank accounts in Maroua, then I spent a lot of the day waiting around for the Principal of my lycee (high school) to call, because he was going to drive me to Mokolo. (which is about an hour and a half from Maroua). I really like my Principal. He is incredibly intelligent and well educated. Before I set off for Mokolo we had a “counterpart workshop” where our Principal, vice principal, or someone else in our lycee came down to meet us, travel with us, etc. During the workshop we had to introduce ourselves and say what we thought the biggest challenges to the education system in Cameroon were and one value that we want to show. Evidently he and I said the exact same thing, only I spoke English and he spoke French.
On the drive to Mokolo things were a little awkward considering my limited French and his limited English. He had a book of political writings that he was reading in the front seat. It was a collection of famous works of political philosophy and so, clearly, I wanted to talk about our mutual interest, but mostly our conversation went like this: “I read books such the book in my hand you are have read today.” To which he replied something complicated in french. I couldn’t understand and eventually we summed up the conversation with “books are good” “yes, books are good.” But, still, I think things will work out well.
When I got to Mokolo Fleurang, (real, but that is hard to say here) the SED volunteer who is stationed there, met me and took me around to meet and see and do everything. Then I crashed out pretty hard. The next day started off with a delicious bowl of hoof soup made by Fleurange’s boss, then I went to the lycee, the prefecture (which is like the county official’s office) and met basically everyone important in Mokolo. I went by the woman’s center and the youth center, which both have a lot of possibilities for me to get involved with. I’m pretty excited about that.
Halfway through the day Claire Kihn (who will be posted in the next town over) came and we were both feeling pretty travel worn at that point. The next morning at 6 am we caught the bus back to Maroua and met up with the other 3 extreme north education volunteers in my stage (training class). We immediately hopped on the bus for Ngaoundere which was without a doubt the most miserable point of the trip. Because we had all been traveling pretty much constantly we all got carsick. (Luckily, I only threw up in the bushes when we were stopped for prayers.. the north is heavily muslim, so we stop for things like that).
We got to Ngaoundre and scampered to the Peace Corps case there. There were a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers all gathered to celebrate the fourth of July, so we got to meet a lot of people which was nice, and I’m sure we seemed like the lamest stage in the history of Peace Corps Cameroon because we all went to sleep pretty much immediately. The next day was the fourth of July and we hung around until around 5 pm. We ate burgers and potato salad and all sorts of other delicious American(ish) things and read the declaration of independence and the bill of rights. Well, mostly the old volunteers celebrated America while we sat around feeling queasy. Eventually we made it back to Bafia and things have been smooth sailing since then.
I’m a really big fan of Mokolo. I’m glad that I’m posted there. My house is huge, has electricity, and running water. It’s a little posh for my style, but I really can’t complain. I’ve also got two post mates. One of them is Zach who is the SED volunteer in my stage who is replacing Fleurange. He reminds me a lot of my cousin Zach, meaning he is kind of spazzy and full of a lot of fun, positive energy. Zach is from California and is pretty hilarious. I think at some point we will have to make “getting gnarly in the north” t-shirts. I think Zach will be a good person to have a 20 minute bike ride away. (Speaking of bikes, I GOT A BIKE! It is great! I love mountain biking! Who knew?) My other post mate will be a health volunteer and they will arrive in December. (The health volunteer posted in Mokolo now is Early Terminating her service so she can go back to grad school in the fall.. otherwise Thea would have been there until December. For now our health volunteer post is empty).
Anyway, life is good. Things are really busy. We’ve started model school which means I student teach two hours a day on top of all the other training stuff. Right now I’m teaching Premiere (which would be like a highschool Junior.. I guess.. but older) Most of my students are around 19-20. They’re all really well behaved and classes have gone ridiculously smoothly. I’m a little nervous that I won’t be prepared for a “real Cameroonian classroom.” My lycee has 2,800 students and three English teachers, so classes are really crowded. Right now I only have 25 students, and that is a super manageable number. I guess I’ll find out when I get to Mokolo.
I guess for now those are my updates. Oh! There is a cyber café in Mokolo, so I will be able to continue keeping in touch via the internet once a week or once every other week.
Until next time,
Emily
