Saturday, February 14, 2009

I'm back!

Happy Single Awareness Day
All of you Cynics out there will be happy to know that Africa is not all crazy about Valentine’s day the way we are. There are on awkward greeting cards with glitter or fattening candy. Instead they use it as an excuse to bother all of the women they shouldn’t into asking who their valentine is and if you would be theirs. After you remind them that they have a wife, they seem to be surprised that you remember. Today I had a very lovely day, I stayed in all day reading and then went to a group that I am a member of where we sat around for 3 hours doing I don’t know what and then ate food. Then the electricity came on and I tried to leave early. I then practiced the skill that I feel I will never conquer, walking at the pace of Cameroonians. Not only am I a fast walker but I think I’m a bit of a show-off in the fast walking region. I think it all started when my long legged father and I used to walk quickly to the rides in Disneyland and make fun of my older brother for not keeping up. Ethan has the mentality to do the Cameroonian Amble because he likes to enjoy the moment and doesn’t rush through life. I just want to get home to the electricity and put these thoughts down on paper before I forget them.
So what has happened to me since I last wrote? I took a week long trip to Yaounde where I had a meeting for the Education Committee. I very much enjoyed the meeting where we discussed how to better the training process as well as the handbook we give to people, I felt I had a lot to say, but part of me felt a little silly because I am struggling in a lot of these areas and its easy to write down what new volunteers should do but I can attest to a lot of these things not really working. While I was in Yaounde I was a part of a beverage pong tournament (which I won one game not because I’m a good player but that my partner was a frat guy). I was also apart of the first annual Education Committee and Birthday celebration gala bash. My friends made a big quiche and a cake and gave out silly awards for everyone. The quiche was excellent and I’m going to have to finally side with Chad in saying its one of the superior foods in our world. I then got a lot of provisions so I could have a taste of the foods I love such as pretzels, crackers, roman, and canned raviolios. Then I was back on my way to Ndelele. After traveling from 5:00am to 2pm to Bertoua on my birthday I arrived feeling dirty and very smooched from the traveling. I took a long nap and woke up to a dinner of Falafal, pita, hummas, and roasted vegetable pasta salad. It was a fabulous meal and we ended by watching the movie Slumdog Millionaire which is fabulous and you should watch it.
I then woke up early the next morning and traveled to Batouri where my friends gave me some new pagne for my birthday (very pretty purple and yellow fabric) and then I finally got back to Ndelele. Let me tell you, after traveling for about a week straight in some of the most uncomfortable positions, I was not in the best mood when I got home. I also found out that our power was going to be out for quite a while and then I got here and there was no working telephone reception until today! Well it’s been fun reading and stuff and this has been a really exciting week because it was the Youth week where students have time off school and they do performances and dances and have a parade. I find myself having mixed feelings about the ceremonies. Like all meetings or ceremonies they have here they always start late and normally the children are the ones suffering in the sun or in this case rain. Also I thought some of the dances and performances were not suitable for young children to be performing. I will write more on this later when I’m not worried that the current will go out soon. One sad occurrence was that I was out at one of the activities for Youth Day which was supposed to start at 7pm but really started at 10 and lasted until 12:30am, and when I got home my cat must have snuck out the door as I was closing it and she disappeared. IT’s been about 4 days now and I’m pretty sure someone either ate her during the festivities or killed her somehow and didn’t want to tell me. I’m very sad and my house is terribly quiet now instead of a cat woman I’m a creepy woman who talks to herself. Anyway, I went for a long bike ride yesterday to raise my spirits and evidentally I was supposed to find the allusive Kaidie (totally not how you spell that) river and was again thwarted by the jungle and got a bit lost and a bit dirty because it had rained previously. So maybe oen day my long bike rides will end in success. I also prepared mashed potatoes, samosas, and macaroni salad for our meeting of the professors and people seemed to like that. So even with out reception or power it is possible to enjoy life., though sometimes it feels like I live in Brigadoon a comparison that I find really sums up the feeling of being so isolated and yet sort of enjoying it. But oh where is my Gene Kelly on this fine Valentine’s Day?
Love you all and miss you terribly,
Weece

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow! I didn't know this thing existed! I was looking at your myspace and saw a link to it. I miss you so so so much my dear! I thought of you plenty on your birthday but wasn't sure how to get ahold of you. How do I mail things to you?

Love,
Tara