On the Road Again

Greetings all!
I hope everyone is well and happy and not sweating too much with the summer hitting. Not to rub it in at all but it is amazing weather here and simply gorgeous where I currently am. I have just finished teaching in Bangangte and I am now touring the west because I have a week before I have to go back to Yaoundé for mid-service. Mid-service is the time in peace corps where you get to do all of your medical checkups- and let me tell you, pooping in a cup is not on my list of things I want to do.
Anyway, I wanted to talk about going back to Bangangte which was not only great but really eye opening. I arrived with my friends Jim and Mattie (Mattie is in my province in Batouri and Jim lives about 1h 30 min from Bangante in the west). When we arrived we were all hit with how odd it was to be back. It was like returning to your home town after you left as a young naïve teenager. Everything smelled the same, the mud was still atrocious and the rain was still persistant, but we were totally different people. Now I could understand French, and I was coming home as a trainer and not a trainee and I suddenly became an expert in all things Cameroon. We were the first volunteers to come to Bangangte and help the trainees settle in and they had so many questions I felt like I was on a game show for a week straight. I’m really glad I was there and could give encouragement and make people feel more comfortable, but mostly to assuage their fears. Some of the questions seemed really silly in retrospect because of how obvious the answers seem to me now, but the kids have only been in Cameroon for about 20 days so I had to give them a break. They seem like a really good group of volunteers and they are really serious and focused which is always good. We know that we are getting two new TEFL volunteers in the East and that they will both be girls (guess I’m not going to find my future husband in the PC). The girls we think are coming are really great and I’m super excited about so that’ll be fun come August.
However, the best part of being back in town was seeing my host family again. Not only was I prepared this time with a bag full of gifts but my family was crazy happy to see me. I arrived and hugged all 20 of them (remember how many people were living in that house with me?) and we talk until about 9 pm. I was able to understand them which was not only amazing but so rewarding to hear all they had to say. My mother also kept saying that I wasn’t the same person and asking who was I and what did I do with the shy girl that couldn’t speak French. It was crazy fun to share all of my stories and to hear what all the kids were up to. It’s amazing to me how quickly the kids grow up, little Piquita now looks so tall and skinny! Anyway, it was really great and I went back again last night and had delicious dinner with them and asked the mother her opinion about the problems I’m facing at post when dealing with trying to motivate women. I realized my mother is not only really committed to higher education, but also extremely developed in her belief about gender roles. She’s a strong woman who is an equal with her husband and she’s opinionated and not always in the kitchen, and it’s just amazing to see a woman here like that. I really wish they lived in my village, they are probably the best friends I have here and a lot closer to the American mentality than you will find in a village. I also realized while I was in Bangangte how developed it is and how nice I had it for stage. The city is almost all paved and they have a lot of restaurants, internet cafes, and night clubs. My house had running water, an American toilet, and was really clean compared to village standards. I can’t believe how much I complained when I was there and how much I changed my tune when I went back. One of the things they are always telling us in education is to make the learners reflect on their learning experience to see how they learn and recognize the process (metacognitive thinking). I feel like with the insane learning curve and all of the changes I’ve gone through in the last year, it’s pretty obvious the process I went through to be able to come home to Bangante and have such a different feeling.
Anyways, it is now 38 days until I will be back in America seeing my family and friends and I can’t wait. I love you all and hope things are going well.
Love you all,
Elyse`

Pictures from Africa!

This is from Peace Corps Prom: Post Apocolyptic Winter Wasteland. I made my outfit out of a swim suit and old fabric.











Below is a group of volunteers making family dinner
This is me after I rode my bike to the
hippo tower















This is one of my students preparing food for our end of the year party.




Below is a picture of my girls club meeting at my house.

One Year Anniversary

June 14^th (it should have been posted June 6^th)

I never got really into the New Year’s thing, with the resolutions and the reflecting and such. Maybe because it wasn’t really a stopping point since I was always in school and it was just a break. No real changes could be made because the bulk of my life would be the same after the New Year. Now, however, being a year in Africa I really feel I have something to reflect upon. How have I changed? What have I accomplished? Who have I met? What has happened? Do I look different? Am I wiser?

I decided to ask myself some of these questions and make some good lists to reflect on my PC experience thus far.

1^st Time Experiences I’ve had in the Last year

1. Seeing hippos up close in the wild

2. Living by a river/biking a lot

3. Being friends with a monkey

4. Petting a baby antelope

5. Eating tropical fruit daily

6. Mouse Capturing

7. Being away from family for 1 year

8. Cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner without family

9. Having a student make me cry

10. Defending my choice not to have children without a husband

11. Pooing in a hole

12. Peeing in an alley, 2 feet from my boss, off a mountain side, with tons of spiders watching, while a man hit on me as he was peeing on my foot.

13. Walking in mud up to my knees

14. Having a 2 hour conversation in another language

15. Seeing a windshield fall off a car and then fixing it, windows falling off, doors closed with elastic bands, children riding on the bumper

16. Riding a moto, riding a moto on Christmas singing Christmas carols

17. Getting water from a well

18. Having no electricity for months

19. Seeing whole exotic animals dead for sale to eat.

20. Wearing pagne, matching outfits with a large group when not performing a dance

21. Dancing with a Sous-Prefet (higher than the mayor)

22. Sat on an engine for 8 hours

Things I haven’t done in a year

1. Driven a car

2. Had really clean feet

3. Been without a sunburn or moderate white girl tan

4. Seen my family/friends back home

5. Seen the Daily Show and the Colbert Report

6. Been to a professional ball game

7. Eaten real pizza

How have I changed?

1. I’m more patient with my time, I’m more prepared to deal with other people’s sense of time

2. I’m more ‘go with the flow’

3. I can prepare an omelet

4. I eat onions on a regular basis (only if cooked)

5. I am more reflective about my moods- For instance, I know how much I can take when I am traveling and I make sure to make new playlists, bring snacks, or crosswords, or simply walk around if the car is broken down so that I don’t get restless or angry about the situation

6. I’m becoming an adult. I might actually be one very soon.

7. I’m a better cook

8. Not scared by new challenges or ways of doing things or new foods (though I have still yet to eat the grubs they fry here)

9. I do all the gross stuff myself-cleaning sinks, toilets, dead animals (I did all that in the states but it’s a lot grosser here)

Things that got me through the year

1. Packages

2. Boxed Wine

3. Foster’s Clark

4. Having 2 watches

5. Parent’s phone calls

6. Text Messages

7. PCV family

8. PCV staff/trainers

9. Rains Down in Africa

10. Promise of a hot shower when I travel to Yaounde

11. Ipod

12. computer

13. Movies/Media

14. Holidays and Provincial meetings

15. Ben’s pool

16. Lisa’s Understanding- and amazing cooking

17. Writing and Reading

18. Contemplation

19. Running/Biking

20. The kindness of Strangers

List of Wish I would haves…

1. Stuck more firmly to my exercise routine

2. Not eaten so much bread

3. Done more with the community and not just the schools

4. Not complained so much when I left Ndelele

Plans for the Next Year of Service

1. Have my girls group become peer educators for the elementary school in town

2. Help Rachel with World AIDS day and make this a very big occasion

3. Create another dance that all of the girls will participate in for Women’s Day

4. Make the English Club work and have regular meetings

5. Do a weekly/biweekly Women’s self defense/exercise class

6. do a workshop on Village Savings in Loan or Saving money in general for the community

7. Lose 10 pounds

Should you be proud of me?

Most PCVs like to step back and ask themselves if they have actually made a difference. The easiest way to make a difference is to change someone’s perspective about Americans, Women, or even the developed world. The next would be to affect others with your friendship and work. Next would be if you affect the community like bettering their health or quality of life. This is just my way to measure things. Its very easy to feel like you haven’t done anything sustainable or developmental for your village so it’s easier to break up your work into different categories. So first of all I think I’ve changed peoples minds or enlightened them more about America and the strength of women. Just running every week, carrying my own things, and living alone are examples of things I do daily that can help villagers see the stronger side of women. Next would be my friendships and my work. I definitely have introduced new ways of learning in the classroom that are more visual and interactive and I think these helped my students. Now will they in the long run be able to speak passable English or go on to University? I have no idea, but maybe for a couple of classes they actually thought school could be fun and that learning wasn’t a waste of time. As for my friendships, these are slowly becoming dearer and more like my friendships at home. It is certainly easier to be a good friend when you understand the other person (yeah my French is getting better!). Also, I feel that by being a leader of my girls group I have been able to be a supportive and a positive motivator of change with at least the 8 girls in my group. We recently had our end of the year party and the girls were very confidant and happy and proud to be a part of the club. Now as far as the betterment of people’s lives? I am not sure how much impact my lessons about English and Health really were. I’m not sure if my students are actually using the condoms that I give them for free. I’m not sure if anyone’s quality of life has changed but if anything, I try not to miss an opportunity to help if someone asks me, or to simply listen if they have a problem.

So is Elyse someone to be proud of? I think in subtle ways I am doing good here, but I don’t want you to think that I’m changing the world or that when I leave here I will have made a hefty contribution to change in Cameroon, I am doing what I can but I also spend a large about of time reading and cooking and doing menial teacher work that really isn’t that impressive or wondrous. So don’t think that I’m over here being all angelic- mostly I’m trying to be a good productive person, its just harder when you don’t have running water, power, or clean feet. I do want to say though, that I know how hard everyone works and how good and caring you all are and that you have made me the adult I am working to become and that your examples are really what should be celebrated.

So its been one year since I’ve seen you all, and I love you and I miss you and I will be in New York in 49 days! So fly over and let’s fete!

Love

Elyse

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