In the Big CIty

So i'm sorry I haven't written in a bit but there is a lot to say.

1st I'm happy not to be in Village right now because it was a little tough before I left. We didnt have power (now for 4 months) and our phone service was going in and out. I also ran out of books which is not only inconvient but actually tragic when there is literally nothing else to do after about 6pm.


Some things I have been doing to stay sane and take advantage of Africa are the following.
1. Biking 12 K to the river and watching the hippos. There's a tower where you can sit and watch the river pass you by and the hippos swim around as well as the fisherman. I have learned though to wear pants when biking through the forest, otherwise you look like someone has taken a whip to your legs.

2. Hanging out with my neighbors. A couple of weeks ago I started taking my journal out into the courtyard and keeping my neighbor company when she cooks or washes clothing. She's a good companion that doesnt really bother me when I'm writing but shares bits of gossip. Her daughter does like to look over my shoulder and make comments like, "you write a lot" "you write fast"
"what are you writing" I am going to have to come up with better answers to these questions becaus I dont think I'm entertaining her.

3. I've been doing work for the conference that I am currently attending in Yaounde.

Now for my time in Yaounde! The Picture above is my friend Lisa and I at the observation deck of the Hilton hotel. We decided to get some mix drinks and hang out in a swanky joint. It costs a lot but its a alot of fun. If not just to ride the elevator

We also made Quiche and home fries and a salad. The market in Yaounde is amazing because you can buy all types of veggies and we found a beet! Here I am cutting the beet and looking like I'm bleeding.



















We also recently got wireless internet so we are very happy and I can upload pictures!
But its not all fun and great food here in Yaounde, we also are working really hard on planning the training for tne new volunteers. Again no volunteer is from Arizona so I stand alone representing our state in Cameroon, but I am excited about helping out and meeting the new people. I just want everyone to know that I'm doing great and that I'll be here until the 27th or so, alors if you want to talk to me you can get on AIM or Gmail Chat and we can chat it up, its pretty funny because the Case looks just like my dorm lounge looked like in college. Everyone is sitting aroudn with a computer on their lap looking very focused and happy!

Anyway, love you all and miss you! -elyse

Climb Every Mountain....ddahhaha the most boring Sound of Music song

It’s like taking me to the top of a mountain and showing me the world and saying, “that’s what you can’t have Bennie you fat article” – Circle of Friends

So that quote really doesn’t apply to my recent experience of climbing Mount Cameroon but I found that any mention of a mountain, climbing, or overcoming an obstacle seemed to be fair game when on my 3 day climbing trip. Last Monday I arrived in Buea which is a city on the coast of Cameroon about 30 minutes away from Limbe which is the area with black sand beaches. Buea sits in the south west of the Anglophone provinces of Cameroon and it very developed with paved roads, an actual tourism office with standards, and billboards with advertisements. Taking the agency from Yaoundé I found myself incredibly surprised to here Cameroonians speaking English. For a second I felt like everyone had been holding out on me and actually could speak English but were just saving it up until they crossed the border to the Anglophone region. One minute someone was yelling at the driver “J’ai besoin pisser” and then the next it was “I need to ease myself”. It was incredibly hard for me to switch over from speaking French to Cameroonians to speaking English. I asked a boy who was selling eggs if they were 75CFA and he looked at me like I was crazy, only until I heard a woman ask in English did I realize my mistake. I was also amazed to see how developed this province is in comparison to the East province. We were riding in the car and I actually saw a woman use bottles and not her breast to feed her baby, she also had a baby carrier that she strapped on as opposed to using a piece of cloth on her back. Everyone had a music player or a fancy phone and I actually saw one man reading on the bus! It’s amazing what I see as signs of development, but maybe they are just signs of western influence- for good or bad.

Okay now I must devote myself to explaining my climbing experience. First off, Mount Cameroon is the second largest mountain in Africa standing at about 4, 095M high (13,435 feet). We started at 1000M above sea level and climbed up about 2095 meters the first day, putting us at about 1000M from the top. Arriving in Buea I saw how green and hilly the countryside was and when I looked up into the sky, trying to figure out which mountain I would be climbing, I became a bit daunted. It turns out that Mt. Cameroon is so high that you can’t actually see the peak from the foot because the clouds are always covering the peak. After asking a local to point out which mountain was Mt. Cameroon I started to stare at what would be my challenge for the next three days. For the excursion I was teaming up with my trusty Eastern partner- Lisa and my friend Fleurange and her friend Shawn from the states. So here is a little background on our climbing family. First Fleurange is one of the most well rounded people I have ever met. She’s from Louisiana but has lived all over the world. She’s super athletic, tall, speaks spectacular French and is constantly smiling and contented. Before Peace Corps she went to Clemson and then worked for a development agency in DC then she took a job in Haiti working in development in a very dangerous region where she couldn’t go out at night, now she’s working in Northern Cameroon and honestly this woman is just awesome. Her friend Shawn goes to Cambridge and has an equally impressive resume as well as quite the experience in climbing mountains and participating in hiking type activities. Before they met us the two had been on a 4 day bike ride around the villages of the Northwest! So, needless to say, I was happy to be attempting this climb with such qualified people, if not a bit intimidated by their physical prowess. Then there was my sister in crime, Lisa. I know I’ve talked about here before because she’s my closest family in the far East. She’s from Seattle and her father’s family is from the Philippines. She loves to bike ride and exercise so she was up the hike as well.
So our little group (who would become crazy close during our 3 day challenge) went to the tourism office and paid our park fees and picked up the rest of our mountain family. Our guide’s name was Samuel, he was Anglophone and very nice, incredibly patient, and he made his living by climbing the mountain about once a week and was a personal driver for a local agency. We decided on two porters- Nikolas and Joseph, who we really didn’t see that often because they were either behind us or in front of us carrying our heavy bags. We started our hike at 7:30am where we walked through local farm land to the base of the rain forest. We passed the local prison as well as some very smelly cows that are pasteurized on the side of the hill. Next we came to the rain forest and started our incredibly steep ascent. Carrying two water bottles and three-days’ supply of food on my back didn’t seem like that much of a challenge until I began literally climbing (we are not talking about the kind of hiking that is really just walking in nature) over tree trunks, over rocks. After about an hour of going straight up and watching the town become covered with clouds, I started to feel the burn in my calves. Thankfully Samuel seemed to know that we needed frequent stops and was often stopping to point out local flora and fauna, one time he showed us a Camilion and he gave us history about the area, honestly I was more focused on drinking water and catching my breath than what he was saying, but I did my best to look interested and unphased.
DAY 1: The first day was a 7 hour day of climbing. We should have been to the camp site or Hut 3 by 3:00pm or maybe 4pm if we had a long lunch, but it was not to be. After climbing through the rain forest for 4 hours and stopping at Hut one to eat some peanuts, very smashed bananas, and avocados, we continued even higher and started to enter the savannah. It’s pretty amazing to see the distinction between the different areas of the mountain as you go higher. There is literally a line where the rain forest stops and then you see scattered trees that seemed to be as stubborn as I was because they weren’t saying anything about maybe biting off more than they could chew. The savanna is made up of large rocks and angry shrubs. Honestly I thought that it looked like an evil stair case leading up to the summit. We entered the Savannah and were told we were about an hour and a ½ away from the next hut where we could rest. Unfortuanetly, those clouds continued to eat up Buea and then the wind changed and I was suddenly drenched. I was smart enough to rent a huge yellow rain coat from the Agency so I hurried to put that on over my clothes. Now we had to climb for 1 hour with no possible shelter, in very wet clothes and heavy winds. This proved to be very difficult for me. Not only were my legs starting to do that shake thing where they are really tired and cold, but my bag and cloths were sticking to me and it just seemed to get more steep. Finally I did make it, with a lot of stops and finally just giving in to the reality that I was going to be soaked so why hurry.
We stayed at Hut 2 for about 3 hours. Now the huts really just look like places Dexter (the Showtime series) would take his victims to kill them. They are little wooden lean-to type houses with a lot of peoples signatures in black paint on the walls. From the doorway of our lean-to we saw something totally amazing. First, the storm passed for about 20 minutes and we could see as far as Guinea and Limbe the beach town over. Then we were able to see the storm gather again with angry thunder and lightning and then it unleashed it fury. It rained hard and long! It was really beautiful, be we began to be worried that we wouldn’t make it to the next hut- about 2 hours away. Secretly I was happy about the long break because I was amazed at how tired my legs felt, so we spent our time asking each other interesting questions and I decided to do something I’d never done before. I peed off the side of a cliff in a crazy rain storm- wow was my butt cold (don’t worry mom I was holding on to the hut, but all you could see was clouds below me). I wish you guys could see the pictures of us on the side of the cliff with the clouds all around us, they are pretty beautiful- if I ever get enough patience and a good connection I’ll put them on here.
So at around 4pm our guide told us that we would be leaving and continuing our journey. The next two hours would not have been possible without some people and I must thank them now. Thank you Queen, The Killers, ABBA, Journey, and Jaime Richardson’s Mix CDs! Without the encouragement of my ipod singing me to the top I would have never made it. It began to rain again and now I was tired, hungry, wet, and the mountain seemed to get steeper and steeper. One thing I remember very well is that we kept asking our guide if the far away speck we saw past the clouds was the summit of the mountain and he kept laughing and saying, “You can’t see it yet”. I felt like I was in my own nightmare where you are climbing up an endless staircase and never reach your destination. Finally, after struggling for 2 and half hours and as the last slivers of light began to be eaten by the night, we arrived.
Hut 3 was relatively nice and after taking a second to sit down and change shoes, I realized we were all in danger of getting pneumonia if we didn’t change our clothes. I had read about people climbing the mountain before and I knew two things- 1 put on every piece of clothing you own so that you can sleep because it’s extremely cold and night and 2-there are mice in the huts and they are determined so hide your food. So first I put on 2 pairs of socks, 3 shirts, and a pair of pants and then I gathered all the food and put it in a backpack to hang up on one of the nails on the wall. Then it was time for the tired troops to make dinner. Using an old beat up pot that only fit half of our pasta, we made a spaghetti dinner that tasted a bit like campfire smoke. At around 9pm we finally headed to bed and almost everyone fell right to sleep, not me however because I realized that our mice were very determined and making a hell of a noise. I realized that they were rummaging through the other bags that weren’t on the wall so I got up and found places to hang all the bags. After showing away some big guys I spent the next 30 minutes trying to go to sleep while a confused mouse ran circuits around my sleeping compadres. First he would run between our heads and the wall and then he’d run over our feet. It’s amazing what you can get used to when you are exhausted.
DAY 2: On day 2 we woke up and reheated our pasta eating an even smokier breakfast. We were told that day 2 was the hardest day because it was 10 hours of hiking. Testing out my limbs I saw that I was still very sore but I thought that the most strenuous of the hiking was over. I was very very wrong! The morning of Day two was the hardest I think I’ve ever physically worked, sorry dad- those basketball practices at the Boys and Girls Club were tough, but nothing compared to this. Not only was the hike steeper, but the elevation became a real problem. I was amazed to see how long it took me to get my breath and how much one 5 minute exertion would take out of me. Thank goodness for Lisa, because we seemed to be hurting about the same amount and you always feel better if you are not suffering alone. Another problem was the fact that we were actually climbing through the clouds so it was constantly wet and making my contacts blurry. After about 4 hours I felt like I was totally done. We still couldn’t see the summit and my whole body hurt. I felt like Frodo in Lord of the Rings, but with less gumpshon. At one point I actually looked at Lisa and told her I was happy at the height that we were at and I didn’t need to keep climbing. I haven’t ever really seen the point of climbing mountains, mostly because it doesn’t really serve a purpose other than to puff up your ego and to fulfill some sort of personal quest. I kept thinking about how I didn’t feel like I needed to prove anything, and I had already seen amazing views from the heights that we had already climbed, what’s another 200M higher. However, I did get up and continue to climb because as much as I don’t get it, I’m not a quitter.
The last half hour was the worst and I honestly couldn’t see anything because of the mist and the wind and I could barely breath because of the elevation and I only made it to the top because Samuel came down and climbed beside me giving me in minutes how long I would take to get to the top. 5 minutes, 2 minutes, you can see it now, 1 minute. When I got to the top I only had enough energy to sit down and try not to cry. I don’t know why I had that emotional reaction, I think I was just at the end of my rope but I sat there in complete exhaustion in the miserable cold and suddenly realized, “We don’t have to go up anymore- now we get to go down.” This idea made a lot of sense to me, finally we had a destination I could embrace- warmth, good food, no mice, no more climbing. Just a day and ½ more and back to Yaounde with hot showers. So I stood up, took some incredibly unflattering photos and we started down the mountain. We were only at the top for about 10 minutes ( I was only there for about 7 minutes) and then it was time to climb down the next side.
Now Mount Cameroon is a series of mountains with a bunch of Volcanos within the range. In 1999 about 12 volcanoes erupted with the kind of lava that is really slow so that everyone could be evacuated. But the eruptions from the past left the mountain black at the top with black rocks everywhere. We descended the mountain in 5 hours and went from about 4095, to about 2000M. It was incredibly fast and so much more enjoyable than the previous days had been. For the rest of the trip I was first in line after our guide and I stuck to him like glue. I had a goal now and I was not wussing out (I also think my calf muscles suck and my thigh and butt muscles rule). For me this section was also the most beautiful. We surfed down the mountain once we reached the black sad sections because it was less stress on the body to just let yourself slide. Then we hit the savannah again and it looked like Ireland or Africa where the cheetahs and lions hunt their prey. I once again want to thank some people for keeping me company: Billy Joel, John Mayer, the Beatles, really bad R and B- Boys to Men and Ne-Yo, and many others who helped create the adventurous ambiance. After climbing up a few volcanoes and realizing the group was next to dying, I had to speak up as group leader and tell our guide that as fascinating as the volcanoes were, we didn’t need to see all 12 personally and we were ready to get to the last hut.
Side Note- Why did Elyse became the group leader? In Cameroon they immediately decide that the man is incharge of all situations and so they often give information or ask information from the guy if he is in a group of women. Well when Samuel first started to explain the hike on the first day, he looked right at Shaun and started to explain. Being the feminist I am, I spoke up and said, “He’s not the leader, I am and you can just tell all of us the information we’ll understand.” I don’t know why it makes me so mad, but I hate when people just assume men are in charge!
So the last hour of the day was pretty difficult because of all the ground we had covered and because of the skimpy food supplies we were eating (our avocados and banana’s got smooched and we were eating wheat biscuits, carrots, and smashed produce for lunch). So I told myself that when we finally arrived I would just lay down on the floor and reward myself with 5 minutes of uninterrupted movement. So I do just that! I put my bag aside and lay down next to the hut and after about 10 seconds I realize, I am laying in a red ant pile! I end up having to strip off all of my clothes and try and rip them off of my shirt and out of my hair- they bite down and they are impossible to remove with out actually grabbing them off like ticks. This was my least happy moment of the day. I still have bites on my scalp from when they crawled into my hair.
The second night we ate spaghetti again and then went to bed at 7pm in a grass hut. These are the types of huts you see all over Africa made from palm fronds and with tarps to catch the rain. I twas very cozy in there and I was so tired I was out in about 10 minutes. The next day was the last leg of the trip, about 7 hours through the rain forest and then arriving in Buea where a taxi picked us up and we took a 6 hour ride to Yaounde. (I had to get back to post for school on Monday). The third day is memorable because both my friend Lisa and I twisted our knees and were in a bit of pain as we came down the mountain. This is also the day that my ipod finally died! So the last hour was pretty crappy because I was hurting with new blisters and now a twisted knee, and I had no music. I ended up talking to the guide a lot and he was a really nice guy- its amazing how much funnier I am in English as opposed to French. We finally reached the town at about 1:00pm and Lisa and I parted for Yaounde.
Overall I would say that I was incredibly glad I did the hike and I would probably do something like that in the future, but now that I know what a challenge it is, I would be better prepared. I also think its very interesting that as soon as I got down off the mountain I wanted to talk to everyone I love and see how they are and just get back to something I knew. A lot of new experiences and challenges at once make me want to go home and have breakfast with my family and then watch X-men cartoons with my dad. Anyway, I love you all and hope you are doing well. Happy Easter!

Elyse

Me and my market bag, going to the market today

Take a trip with me to the Bertoua market…
So when I was in America and I had a day off or some time to go shopping I actually really enjoyed going out and getting groceries and odds and ends for the house. I liked heading down to the store and walking through the aisles and pondering something new for dinner or what fruit was in season. I think it was the feeling after you get home where you have big bags of accomplishment. It was like a tangible plan for meals all week with a little bit of spontaneity mixed in, in the form of fruit snacks or jalapeño poppers. Going to the market or super marche’ (white man grocery store) here in Cameroon is quite a different experiences so I thought I’d give you a glimpse of shopping in one the provincial capital of Cameroon.
Today I needed to go to the market to buy vegetables and ingredients for making calzones with some friends that are in town. I jumped on a moto with my market bag headed to the market. I’m slightly startled by the change when going from the Cos of the East or as I call it, “Little America” to the actual outside world that is so much busier than Ndelele. In Little America we watch American shows and do work on our computers (Right now I’m editing the Education Training Manual- it’s currently 138 pages!). We also read trashy magazines from two years ago and come together to eat things we have had sent from home. Recent meals have included Funfetti Cake, stove top stuffing, Wild Mediterranean Rice, and cheesy instant mash potatoes. So you can imagine that after wrapping yourself in the semi illusion of little America, stepping out into the real world is a fun surprise. You never really forget you are here- no water pressure, often no water, people yelling in French next door, all channels on the tv have Cameroonian soap opera’s, no air conditioning. But, it’s easy to be lulled in a sense of displacement from the everyday villageois lifestyle. Anyways, I go step outside with my market bag and my shopping list and head in.
Bertoua really only has one paved road and a lot of really crowded, poorly planned off shoots. We take the main road watching the hustle and bustle of people going about their spring break lives and signal to turn onto a dirt road heading to the market (the signal is my moto driver raising his hand and then choosing when he’d like to turn). We pass the street where they do wood working, making retro 70’s type couches with crazy fabrics. Then we pass the frippery- the Goodwill of the market with clothes that look like they were rejected by many countries before coming here. You can get a dress or a pair of pants or a crazy hat for less than a dollar on a good bartering day. Next we pass by about a half dozen stalls that just sell onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Then my driver stops me at the beginning of the vegetable market. 100CFA to my chauffeur and a remove of my helmet later and I am browsing looking for the best produce. Most people have a Mamma who takes care of them and who they go to religiously at the market. However, this isn’t my town and I feel like spreading my patronage. I buy 200CFA worth of beautiful green peppers (which every time I eat them I think of crappy cardboard pizza with everything on it from Peter Pipper, as a kid I guess the taste of green peppers was really prevalent on that that pizza). I buy lettuce from a woman walking down the street with a big bucket on her head. She gives me a cadeau or a gift of a smaller head of lettuce because I bought so much. When I am in Lele I dream about eating green vegetables so I make sure to eat as much as possible when I’m in the big city working. Next I go and buy garlic, basil, and limes. The basil is fresh and fragrant and the garlic is everywhere here and the limes a bit expensive but well worth it when we make gin and tonics later! As I walk around the market looking for avocados I begin to be deranged. People are yelling at me from all sides, “La Blanche” and “Nasara” and often I get “Cherie” or “My sweet”. I decide to take the “Diagon Alley Market ways” there are a maze of streets all intertwined together where you walk down narrow alleyways and all different types of wares are being sold. We choose a particularly shaded walk way and begin to make the trek back out of the market. We pass stores that sell only colanders and then a story that sells sweat bands, whiskey sachets, cheap gold jewelry, and thread. We are being yelled at to “Vien ICI” and “I have the good things” and we are being grabbed and steered into dark shops lit by backlights that make the proprietors teeth gleam white, creating an afternoon rave for one. We continue down the street and people are squeezing by with fruit on their heads and some women are sitting in the middle of the road cutting a green grass type food they call koki. I’m nto sure why you would be shopping for hoochie jeans, whiskey sachets, fruit and koki all at the same time- but multitasking is an art here. As I exit the market I am once again on the main street with motos whizzing past and the hustle and bustle again making my little village life seem very quiet and a little drole. I walk over to where the motos are waiting to whisk me home back to Little America but I decide to endulge myself and get an ice cream. A small cart sells soft serve ‘vanilla’ and ‘banana’ ice cream and though it really just tastes like “cold” and not a flavor, it is amazing and just the thing for a hot day. For 100CFA you can get a cone and for 300CFA you can get a big cup. I look around the city eating my ice cream and finishing my market trip, ready to go home and cook for the big group of people who will be eating tonight. Just another day doing errands in Africa.

Searching for Tarzan

This past week 7 of my fellow Volunteers from the East headed into the rainforest to visit a married couple who volunteer with Peace Corps and World Wildlife Federation on the boarder of the CAR where there is a trio of national parks. This was a provincial project and almost all of the volunteers from the East participated with the exception of some of my friends in Batouri and Rachel because she was sick. The goal of the project was to give different informational seminars about health, business and English instruction to various groups that are very isolated or ‘en brousse’.

I left on Monday and took a Logging Truck to Yokoduma, this was pretty awesome because it was the first truck I’ve seen in Cameroon that wasn’t a private car that had a working gas gage and actually had windshield wiper fluid. We barreled through the forest and as we got closer I realized really how far out there we were going on our trip. I arrived in Yoko in pouring rain and walked through the town with my big bag looking for our hotel. I got there and waited for the rest of the East to arrive. As a group of the east boys arrived we decided to check on transport for the next day and then have dinner. We sat down at the bar and had a few beers and chatted. It was great to listen to the silly boy talk and to laugh really hard. We were then joined by a South African man in his mid forties who was wearing the shortest shorts in the world. Evidently, people had seen him in Bertoua and he was thrown out of a club because his shorts were so short. He ended up talking to the boys for a while and telling them that if they wanted to ride horses on his farm in the south they could, he was a very weird character and spoke no French. He was in Cameroon to find gold and diamonds.

We stayed in Yoko for a night in a moderately nice hotel room that seemed pretty spectacular to me. Yoko is a really weird city because it’s the main post for the logging activity coming from the Congo and from South East Cameroon so it attracts all types. It also has been compared to the Old West because of this speculating aspect. A lot of people are looking for gold and diamonds and come through the town. It was interested to feel like you were in the Old west, but with huge logging trucks coming through instead of trains, and young boys harassing you on motos and not horses.

In the morning we set out to Mambele in a WWF truck. This drive is about 5 hours and we were told that it could get pretty bumpy and some people get sick. Thinking that this hasn’t been a problem for me before I volunteer, (seeing as how I did it on family vacations) I decided to sit in the back trunk area that has two benches facing each other so that you are riding sideways. We squeeze into this area with four people and another six in the other seats of the car and we were on our way. We drove faster than I have driven in Cameroon and did not respect the various bumps in the road and quickly I started feeling very bad, (I’m assuming the beers the night before were also not the best idea) and my friend Joe had decided to by soya or street meat that they grill up sorta like Bangle Barbeque but a lot more sketchy meat. Anyway, he gets a huge bag ‘to share’ of this meat, but it’s about 9 in the morning and no one wants meat so he ends up eating most of this fatty stuff alone. Well after about an hour bouncing in the back of the car he starts to look pretty sweaty and white. So we open all the windows and attempt to do mind over matter. I will not lie the closer we got to the deep forest the more I thought I was going to puke. At one point my buddy Nik was talking about silly things he did when he was little and I was laughing so hard and feeling so sick and almost did throw up on him, but I held it together. Finally we arrived in Mambele which ended up being about two boutiques, an elementary school, and a road. The WWF is trying to get more tourism in the area, but it’s near impossible to do so because first you have to get out there and then after you have to stay in the middle of nowhere. Either way they had this campsite set up for us and it was pretty cool. The campsite had a center pagoda thing where there were couches and a table and then it had three houses with a little twin bed in each and three tents with two twin beds in each. I was feeling adventurous so I took a tent with my friend Ann-Marie, who is insanely awesome and is going home in June and it makes me incredibly sad.

So we go and make dinner at Sara’s (one of the volunteers who lives there) house and we open the back door and there in the trees are monkeys. They are calling out to each other and they are swinging from tree to tree in death defying jumps and it’s a gorgeous sunset. You can walk about five minutes down a path in their back yard where you can see a gorgeous waterfall. She told us a story that they say a huge snake in the waterfall not long ago and that you could actually see the snake eating fish! This was slightly terrifying and everyone kept reassuring us that there weren’t any snakes where we were (which is total crap) but we didn’t see any so that’s good. We ate dinner and then went back to the camp and had a little boxed wine for a night cap. At this point I was so tired I was practically falling asleep standing up so I went back to the tent first. I’ll tell you, as my father’s daughter I’ve never been too keen on the whole camping lifestyle, and this trip really didn’t change my mind. I went to the camp and proceeded to be terrified because some creature kept rubbing against the tent right by my head and scaring the crap out of me! It was making horrific noises and when Ann-Marie finally came back I was insanely tense but I was so tired I finally fell asleep so I guess you can will yourself to do anything.

The next couple of days were the business people’s days to do their seminaries with the local groups while we planned our seminars. On Thursday I went to the elementary schools with some teachers and taught the kids for about an hour. We played Red light Green light and a dancing game and sang songs and then Reid talked about health education. It was a great way to give an example of how we conduct class and to show that, even though the student’s level in English is very low, they can still be engaged in the lessons because of the student centered activities.

On Friday the education people finally gave their seminar. We started with a discussion of the problems the teacher’s faced in this incredibly remote and poor section of the East. Problems included: poverty, lack of materials, teachers not being given instruction on how to teach English, the students not having books, absenteeism, lack of motivation, parents not being involved, and lack of support. We were expecting these problems but I was not expecting the teachers to be so motivated and enthusiastic about our program. They wanted information and had extreme patience with our faltering French in order to get as much as possible from our presentations. They asked intelligent questions and had interesting discussions and were very excited about what we were presenting. It really made me feel that our project was not only well planned and timed but necessary for these brave teachers who accept positions in such a crazy remote area.

For my section I presented a pamphlet of activities that can be used to help students learn English. I gave examples of songs, games, and grammar activities that will motivate the students and get them excited about English. My French was pretty iffy at times but I could tell the teachers were with me and they supplied me with pronunciation or words I didn’t know so that they would all understand. They also responded to my enthusiasm and my willingness to act like an idiot for the sake of learning. I told them that we are all actors in front or an audience and our main goal is to keep them entertained and excited about learning. If this means that I must put aside my ‘dignity’ is the word I used, than in the classroom I am going to be a more affective teacher. It is all about not being embarrassed but being effective. After my presentation the teachers actually clapped and some came up to me and asked me how to sing certain songs and things. It’s interesting to field questions about how to sing Old Obama (my alternative to Old McDonald) but it was great to see their enthusiasm.

We continued to present information about how to teach lessons that will teach English as well as community skills by encouraging teachers to include health lessons, alcohol abuse, tribalism, women’s rights, and other things that are problems in the community. Two volunteers presented on prevention of diarrhea and sanitation of the water and though the teachers knew the basics, we showed them the economic gain of these practices and how to enforce these lessons in the classroom. The best part of this was to talk about how to teach HIV to smaller children. One man said that he doesn’t like to use bananas because it wasn’t enough like a penis. We all had no idea where he was going so we thought maybe he though a plantain (a larger banana) might work? I think the seminar was successful and everyone seemed to enjoy it so it was worth going down there.

On Saturday we went into the wildlife park where we would camp one night. We drove about 10 km into the park through a very overgrown dirt road. I felt like Indiana Jones tearing through the brush and bouncing around like no one’s business. At times one side of the truck felt almost vertical and the people opposite us tried to make little oreo cookies with our bags between us. It was a bit of a smush! We were even told to slide our windows closed because snakes could come in. We had 12 people total so when we got to the drop off point we split into two groups. Our group had five Americans one porter (literally a pigme guy carrying our heaviest bag who was about 5’ tall and was wearing flip flops into the jungle). We were lead by the ‘ecological protection officer”who wasn’t much of a guide. He walked at a clipped pace with galosh boots on a full army uniform with a baseball cap and he had a one shot riffle slung over his shoulder (it was held together by a rubber band). In one hand he held a single canister with one bullet. I hoped we only saw one scary animal or poacher because if not we were screwed. The forest was terribly impressive with crazy trees competing for sunlight and all kinds of plants and birds. We often had to jump over fallen trees and it was almost impossible to straddle some. We saw some trees whose trunks were as big as a house. We got through our 5k hike and we really didn’t see any animals but it was still pretty impressive. We arrived at the ‘tree house’ which looked like a prison watch tower in the middle of a large clearing in the forest. We tried to be a silent as possible because our group was so big and I guess the animals could sense our presence.

The tree house was two rooms and you could go inside and open the windows and look through the screen to try and see animals but they couldn’t see you. We waited around most of the afternoon with binoculars and bated breath. We did see a lot of different kinds of monkeys going from tree to tree and we saw a type of African deer come out and sort of prance around. Other than that it was just a long afternoon of squinting and being hot. We then decided to take a small group back to a camp site and cook dinner. The camp site was a bit away from the tree house so we walked for a while, finally happy that we didn’t have to stay so quiet. As we walked we suddenly heard a crazy Growl noise that made us all stop in our tracks and stare at our guide. He gave the sign to run to him so we did and my friend Sioban starts saying, “Gorillas don’t eat human’s right? They just attack us!” It was hilarious and we just continued walking. I guess it was just a warning growl or something because we never did see them. We ended up sleeping in the tree house and watching the sunrise around 5am still looking for animals but we didn’t really see anything.

The next morning my group switched with the other group and got the guide Petit Jean. Also a Pygmie, Jean knew all about living in the forest and spotting animals. He walked in front with his machete expertly chopping stray branches and keeping his eyes peeled. He showed us the bark of one tree that is called the onion of the forest and it smelled just like onion and the smell sorta followed us. He also showed us a vine you can cut and it will pour running water for about 5 minutes and it tasted really sweet. He showed us a tree whose bark you could use for soap. I was very impressed and we all talked about how the Baka (or pigmies) could probably live for a long time with out being effected by the world. Petit Jean continued leading us and at one point I looked down and saw he was wearing Gellies- literal sandal type shoes that were made of a gel plastic, and this was what he was traipsing through the forest in. We did end up seeing some monkeys up close as they jumped from tree to tree above us! It was pretty impressive and very Africa!

Sunday was our last day and we drove out of the forest to Yokoduma in the heavy rain. Thank goodness we had a good car because we passed tons of smaller cars that were stuck in the mud and at one point we had to change a tire and go around a huge truck that was stalled in the road. We did some intense off-roading but ended up getting there in one piece, if not a bit dirty in the process. I went back to Ndelele the next day (after we bought our driver a beer for getting us to Yoko safe!) and on the way to Lele our car was stopped because a huge tree fell down because of the wind. We all thought we weren’t going to be able to get through but the ingenious Africans made a whole new road through the lawn of one of the residents who lived along the road. In about 30 minutes they cut up the tree and shoveled dirt so all the cars could go around. It was pretty impressive.

All in the entire trip was a success and I will not forget it anytime soon. It made me feel adventurous and like I came to Africa for a reason. I love you all and miss you tons

elyse

Review of the Weekend

I have been thinking about what people’s reaction would be like if they came here and saw me, so I thought I would write this blog about how I’ve become accustomed to living here and certain things don’t phase me anymore.
So last weekend I had to travel because I needed to buy shirts for my girls group and I had to make copies of my Sequence 4 exam so that my students could actually have a decent test- taking experience. Traveling during the dry season is actually pretty terrible. I still can’t decide which is worse. If you travel during the rainy season you end up getting all wet because of the leaky cars and it often takes an hour or two longer to get anywhere because you have to keep getting off the car and walking while they try and push it through ditches filled with water. Then there’s the dry season where everything is covered with a thick redish brown dust that goes everywhere. Everyone is wearing Hospital type mouth coverings and some are wearing protective goggles like wood cutters use. Everyone also has long pants and jackets on in order to protect their clothes from the dust. I like to sit by the window (if there is actually plastic and the car has windows) because it can become so stifiling hot in there that I need the breeze even if it does kick up tons of dust. So after about two minutes I’m covered with dust and can see all of the little hairs on my arms perfectly because of how the dirt covers them. Sometimes you are lucky enough to sweat tons and then the dust becomes mud right on you. Everyone is in a foul mood because of the heat and when you finally get to your destination all you can think about is a shower. The dust is more prominent on us white people because we change such fabulous colors. The other crappy thing about traveling during the dry season is that my allergies become crazy and after I get home I feel horrible like I have a cold and I can’t breath because all of the dust I’ve inhaled. But the things is, I’ve only really thought about complaining about this now, because it’s the way thigns are here.
The best part about traveling is what I must look like when I’m on the bus. Friday I wore a red shirt that I bought at Target in the states. That was when my mom and I thought I had to buy huge clothes so the villagers wouldn’t make fun of me for being ‘sexy’. Well this shirt is at least two sizes too big and because of all the hand washing, actually goes down to about mid thigh just above the knee. I couple this with a peasant skirt my mom sent me that is a good design for Africa but has the colors of vomit, I love you mom but that skirt is real ugly, though it works well with the dirt. I think people believe there is a certain way you should look like a peace corps volunteer and sometimes I look exactly like that- like I don’t give a crap and I’m living in Africa. I then have my hair tucked into a grey conductor’s type hat and I’m wearing hideous 2 dollar fake ray band sunglasses that I bought here. Anyway, imagine that this is what people here think that Americans look like on a normal basis. Either way I looked at myself in the mirror when I arrived and I started laughing so hard it hurt, wow I guess you can get used to everything.
This weekend was good though, even if I did travel for two days and have one day at my destination. We made quiche and peaut butter cookies and it was awesome. I also bought good cheese and made an awesome cheese and bean sandwich. We also made a fire and roasted S’mores with peeps someone got for Christmas. It was really great sitting around the fire and just talking and having a good time. But my most favorite memory from this weekend was when all us girls, with a beer under our belts. Thought it would be awesome to have a Sound of Music Sing a long. We turned on my dvd and did the sing-a-long version and I swear my heart got all warm and gooey I was so happy!
Anyway, now I’m home and gearing up for the 8 Mars, which is Woman’s day. On Saturday is the Soiree Cultural where my girl’s group will do a dance and also show a game that talks about AIDS. We will be marching and wearing our women’s day pagne which I just commissioned my tailor to make me a new skirt and shirt. I also bought shirts for my girls club for Sunday but it turns out that the shop burned down the day after I put down money for them to print them for me. What kind of luck do I have. Either way I feel pretty silly and I hope thye’ll be able to get them to me before the weekend but who knows!
Anyway, I hope you are all well and I think of you all the time! How did it get to be March so quickly? Love you all!
elyse

AFRICA!

You know you are a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon Living in the Bush When…
My friend Sioban did one of these and I thought it was awesome so I thought I’d do one
• You haven’t looked in a mirror in a week
• You wake up to the sound of barn animals or people playing drums at 5 in the morning
• You can’t tell if your feet are tan or really dirty
• You change colors when you travel
• You respond to “WHITE” and “STRANGER”
• Your automatic response to “How are you” is “Fine thank you and you”
• You have a sheet covering your front door as a ‘screen’ for bugs
• You can tell how hot it is by how many times you have to fill your filter
• You stand by your light switch turning it on and off until that fabulous moment when it actually works
• You only own Blue and Red pens- and they are really crappy
• You live in flip flops and have a formal pair, a house pair, and an outside pair
• You call an omelet dinner
• You call an omelet respectable meat of a sandwich
• Your eggs come with feathers on them
• You can only choose between three types of beer
• You know the jingle to “BBC Africa”
• Your neighbor has a monkey
• You have swept what remains of a mouse out of your front door
• You clean with a squeegee
• You read books like they are going out of style
• Every time someone calls you they hang up after one ring
• You speak in Franglish to other volunteers
• You have cob webs in your house and they don’t bother you at all
• You shoo an animal away by yelling “shh” and waving your hand back and forth
• You wear mou mous
• You think cheese doesn’t need to be refrigerated
• Cold water is a luxery like fine wine or champagne
• You have vivid dreams about Taco Bell or shopping at Krogers
• You are given fruit as a present
• You gawk and stare when you see other white people
• Your ipod has become more dear to you than some family members
• Extravagant purchases include: canned soda, pizza, and cheese
• You have mosquito bites in unspeakable places
• Every time you get sick you assume its Malaria
• Everyone in village knows when you have bought toilet paper
• Your pack of gum becomes soggy and unchewable after one day
• You miss your family and friends so much you find yourself writing a blog!


I also promised to give you a break down of what our Soiree Cultural actually consisted of and so here we go. To begin we waited two and a half hours to start until it was dark and all the kids were almost sleeping. All of the functionaries of the village got to sit down while all the kids stood in a big square around the ‘stage’ which is sorta a glorified gazebo. Students are employed to keep the order and keep students behind invisible lines by using switches made of sticks. The performances begin by singing the national anthem, which I have come to really love and know the words to…well mostly. Then students start doing dances- some are just them standing in the same place for large amounts of time doing simultaneous hand movements while someone in the middle lip sings. They love to lip sing here! Then a group of small kids come out and dance with hoola hoops (which they only use as Fred Astaire used his cane and sometimes swing around their arms) very odd. Another performance was of a guy singing a love song to a girl and him eventually winning her over and then they began grinding on each other- not something a teacher wants to watch her young students doing. There were a few that were done by older students that were originally written comedy sketches which were actually really funny. One was about old men getting drunk and their wives beating them, one was about a guy trying to hit on a girl but she wouldn’t go for him until he brought a wad of money out, and one was about a guy trying to get up the courage to sit next to a girl on a bench and while he was turned away another guy arrives and goes to sit down next to her, and while both of them weren’t looking the girl leaves and then end up both turning to each other leaning in for a kiss and realize it was a guy. They loved this one! The ecole Bilingue did a song about Malaria where the words went like this: Malaria, Malaria, is a very bad sick. They pretty much just repeated this over and over again and then sang it in French so that everyone understood. Other highlights include the fact that students are wondering around selling whiskey sachets and bubble gum. Rachel has given the guy running the music American music and every time it comes on people look terribly confused. The backdrop to the ‘stage’ is three different sheets pinned on a rope, and one of the girls almost lost her skirt during her rhythmic but bouncing . So that was pretty much awesome and lasted until 12:30 at night.
This week has been really quiet, but good. The English inspector of the East came and watched me teach and had some really nice things to say and we had a really productive conversation. I have been rethinking the way I am teaching and have given two very good lessons that make me excited about teaching again. Still haven’t seen my cat, and running low on books but everything else is going great. Big Congratulations to my brother and I love you all!

elyse

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