Head to Toe in Dust

I'm back from site visit!!!!!
So it turns out that everyone gets really freaked out on site visit and doesnt know what to do! My site visit was horrendously memorable. Where to start... Well we left Bangangte on Wednesday and ended up staying in Yaounde on Wednesday night. The case (said like cause) is this frat-like house in Yaounde that has a kitchen and a punch of hostel type rooms with beds, adn the best part is that it has hot water for showers adn a washer and dryer! Who is jealous? So while we were there we ate pizza and I had a hamburger (no one is sure of the meat but it was delicious). We also ate lots of french frys. Then on Thursday we gotup crazy early and went to Bertoua (the provincial capital of the East) This trip was on a bus which should hold 18 people but held about 30 and it was horribly hot and with the delays adn the stoppign it took about 6 hours to go 250 KM (thankfully the road there is actually paved). Then we stayed in Bertoua with a local volunteer and had a coupel of drinks at the bar adn saw the bigger townt that will be about 5-10 hours away from us dependign on travel conditions. Then we got up super early again and took the car to Batouri the town which is pretty big where my friends Lisa and Trevor will be posted. We had lunch there (2 oefs for me and some fufu or cous cous for my counterpart- I was travleing with the Censeur or Vice Principal of my school).

After Batouri we finally left again at 3pm and a drive that is only 100KM that shoudl take no more than 2 hours took 7 hours because the roads were so bad and the car kept breaking down. You know its bad when people have to run behind a car to get it to start adn that when they lift the hood it billows smoke regularly. I'll never complain on car trips int eh States again!

Finally we got into Ndelele my new home for the next two years and let me just say I was a bit freaked out. There is one main road and 1 hotel, 1 radio station, adn about 50 houses. Its a town of 5000 adn looks liek a ghost town. I ended up meeting the Proviseur who many people tell me that he likes to abuse his position adn make the studetns sleep with him! Of course we are all disgusted but here that is pretty normal. So knowing that it was very odd to share a beer with the man. I think I already made some mistakes while at my post (even though I was there for only 14 hours) I told them I'm not a vegetarian and they got super excited which means I will be given creepy bush meat for the next couple of years.

Some good things about my post are that my house is very cute and slightly small but I'm in a very small compound with 3 neighbors who will evidentally take care of me. There is a local nurse who lives next to me and a primary school teacher. My kitchen is outside of my house which is sort of odd but I think because I have two bedrooms I might just make one into the kitchen seeing as how I have no running water so I'll just put a table in there and my gas powered two burner stove. Teh other good thing is that it comes with a kitchen table and chairs, a couch, a book shelf, and a bed! These are all great things because moving stuff in Cameroon as you can imagine will be insane.

So I'm happy about my house, I am totally freaked out about how small my town is thruogh. I asked what kind of foods are good there and evidentally Mangos during the season are everywhere adn you can always get fresh pineapple. Also you can get plaintains adn coco yams all the time but no pototatoes. It sounds like the soil is really furtile thought so I guess I'm trying my hand at a vegetable garden so I can get some good things in my diet. Anyway, I'm feeling better about my life and sorry to Dad who called me when I was staying in Ndelele when I was sort of freaked out. I'm better now and lookign to all the oppurtunities that the village has.

Lastly, After walking around Ndelele and seeing my house and my school- that is a whole nother description. I went to the gandarms (police barracade at the end of the village- a 3 minute walk) and waited to hitch a ride back to Batouri to spend the night at Matty's house- the heath volunteer who has been here for 8 months. I ended up getting a ride in a Semi Truck which was hauling huge trees that looked liek old red-woods. It was a very odd ride because we picked up a chicken on the way and I had to hold him between my feet! However, I foudn out that the ride in a semi took only 2 hours because it blasts through the horrible divits in the road with its huge engine, and it doesnt have to stop every other minute to let someone off or pick someoen up.

When I got to Batouri the volunteers talked me off my ledge and we made fetticini and drank wine and I stole all of Matty's music and put it on my ipod. After the power went out we sat around chattign for some time adn then we got up super early again and traveled for 12 hours today. I am not in Yaounde adn we leave tomorrow to go hoem to Bangangte~ Wow I didnt think I'd be so happy to go home, but I'm super tired adn want my own space for a while. The good thigns is that I"ll have clean clothes because I'm washing them now in the electric washer!!!

The last thing I want to recount is how we looked when we finally walked into the Case at 10pm tonight. First of all the roads from Batouri are nto paved adn we sat by the windows in the car so I had a layer of red dust all over me. It looked like we all had the worst tans every and had aged 4 years. It was so bad that when I touched my face my hand came away covered in dust. It took a good 15 minute shower to get it all off adn I am still discolored in places. Oh the East! This is going to be an adventure!