Africa says Hi

Blog 13-8
So there is this game that the kids play in Bangangte, I’ve titled it le mot dernier I’ll leave you to translate that. Its where the kids says Bonjour and then you say Bonjour (or Bon soir if the kids is confused about the time) and the kid continues saying Bonjour as you reply. I, unlike most stagaires, am focused on winning and making sure these kids do not get le mot dernier. Yesterday I walked down a whole street exchanging greetings as the child ran after me. I was bested! Evidently, if you grew up in a town where le mot dernier is the only thing to do, then you have more practice than a stubborn white girl. Did I mention the kid that I was doing battle with was probably 3, does that say anything about me?
Other updates- model school is over and my club de danse performs today, I get to dance on the side in the front because our girls asked because they are scared they’ll mess up! Well who says I wont mess up- its also the first time the other stagaires will see me dance which is not exciting for me- especially because my sports bra is still drying (too much info?). I am all about performing but I’m not totally confident at this point so I’m a little worried, but its all in fun and the girls are around 9-11 years old so the bar isn’t too high. There is one super ridiculous thing that me and Connie the other stagaire that essentially fixed the dance and made most of it and taught most of it- while I supported her, anyway while we were choreographing I encouraged her to add a ‘drop it like its hot’ move. If you know what this is the thought of a bunch of pre-teen Africans doing it will probably make you laugh or disappointed in me- but let me tell you, these kids are dancing sexy at much younger ages here. I think that if we didn’t add some sexy moves they would be disappointed, It’s also true that half of them came to model school to get a husband so what can you do- just go with the flow, I’ll help them developmentally when I get to my post, during stage I’m just learning the way of the locals.
In an exciting tidbit- I received 3 packages from my mother recently and it was like Christmas. I’ve never been so happy to see Frosted Mini wheats, shock tarts, and mac and cheese. I almost cried it was so exciting, it was the best Swearing In present. I also received a post card from Staci- I hope she is reading my blog because it made me so happy and it was so unexpected! You rock!
In other news, evidently if you want to be a teacher here you have to be a math wizard because nothing is computerized. I have spent the week calculating averages and weighting grades and stamping papers so they look official. I’m glad I have the practice though because my papers look like the white out monster attacked them- wow deleting a document and adding new numbers is so much more efficient than making friends with white out. I’ll try not to complain about the computerized public school systems in the US ever again, I have no problem sitting in front of a computer and inputting grades- bring it on!
Last night I had the best meal I have had in Cameroon. Lets talk food- Normally because my mother here has recognized that I am turning veggie and I’m super scared of their fish, she gives me veggies or cous cous with crazy sauce. Well last night we had company and they made spaghetti with fried eggs and peimont (red peppery stuff) and it tasted like pad tai or asian noodles. I ate so much that I was up all night trying not to die. My stomache has shrank quite a bit and I ate 3 bowls of this stuff. My family kept commenting that they’d never seen me eat so much and all of these crazy things! I’m not sure how it rivals the awesome sandwiches I have been making but I’ll tell you what- I’ll be making this at post, and I might add a bit of peanut sauce!