Le Depart

So I’m officially an RPCV !  Somehow Claire and I made it to Zanzibar and onto mainland Tanzania although it’s been quite a whirlwind of a last few weeks.  

I said goodbye to all my friends in Tokombéré at a goodbye party my last night.  It was really nice & I was so happy everyone came.   Arrived in Yaoundé and completed all the necessary medical exams and paperwork.  I don’t have Tuberculosis or a whole smattering of other diseases so that was a success.  I spent my last night in Yaoundé dancing till dawn at the club which was a lot of fun.  It did not benefit my packing though…

Jeneca, Claire, Boubakary and I took the VIP bus to Douala to catch our flights.  The main perk being the AC …which was too cold for Boubakary .  We arrived late and went out for poisson braise (grilled fish) at literally midnight, but the place was really hoping.  I think everybody’s eating schedules are all messed up because of Ramadan.  We dropped Jeneca straight at the airport cause her flight left real early in the morning and then Claire and I attempted to sleep a bit.  However two hours later it was time for pre-dawn prayer.  Boubakary tried hard to serve us couscous before 4am which we resisted.  I think it was all part of an elaborate plan for us to oversleep, arrive late at the airport and miss our flights out of Cameroon. 

We did make it to the airport just in time: Goodbyes were said, photos were taken, gifts were given and we were off!  Claire pointed out that our departure on 11 August – the Feast Day of St. Claire – couldn’t really have gone any other way but successfully.  Boubakary had made us giant omelette sandwiches which didn’t make it through security so we ate them at the gate while making last minute phone call goodbyes to friends from village. 

We had a surprise stop in Malaga.  Then continued on to Addis Abba where we needed to change planes.  It was about 10 degrees Celsius there…. Compared to 30/40 in Cameroon.  I was wearing a kaba, flip-flops and a tye-dye scarf…Consequences of the rushed packing.  I was also clutching my straw “auberger” hat and embroidered market bag… it was pretty sad.  It was the birthday of the lady in front of us so Claire and I also got served champagne and a whipped cream situation en route.  I think I might fly exclusively Ethiopian Airlines for the rest of my life.  (We already were thoroughly enjoying the plane food .)

Our plane got in about 3am and I realized that I had also left all my useful documents for getting the VISA in my checked bag (passport photos, WHO card, bank statement) but the customs guy didn’t ask for any of those things, just the cash monies!  Then the guest house was even waiting with a little sign for us which was the most welcome site ever.  Unfortunately there was a little mix up at the guest house and our room wasn’t actually going to be ready until 10am so we awkwardly slept on a mattress in their front office/lobby for a couple of hours. 

at post

Goodbye mango season... goodbye Liz :-(

Julia comes to visit!  "Hiking" down the hill. 

Eating some fullere.  Thank you Julia for taking such nice pictures :-) 

Mora Girls Camp

Girls bringing in the breakfast : hot tea and beignets!

Teambuilding activities

A panel of successful Cameroonian women came in to share their experiences and advice with the primary school campers.  The guests included women who had been university educated as well as women who took different routes.  But all the guests encouraged the students to stay in school and stay focused on their goals. 

Conga line break

American football!

Hungry hungry hippos

R

We were not in one of those dinky fishing boats.... or swimming in the water next to them. 

RRRrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaar

Stuck in the mud after a "pit-stop" 

Bike Ride

 

Claire and I rode our bikes out to visit Cay and do an environmental education camp in her village.  The road started out going up into the mountains.  We went by lots of traditional houses and rock wall irrigation systems.  It was really pretty. 

Then the road flattened out and we just had the occasional sheep or cow herd. 

I got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere but these guys helped me out.  They only had a motorcycle pump so they completely reconfigured my bicycle valve with random spare parts and a pair of scissors to accept the motorcycle pump.  And then we were back on our way!  In total the ride was about 80 km. 

March & April

March 8th: The girls and I in our matching women's day outfits. 

The Journey East: Liz and I in front of a "prison van" a very specific type of bush taxi, noted for the prison -like bars separating the driver from the rest of the passengers.  Luckily for us, Jannel knows the agence owner so we got to ride vip style in the cabin.  This made a HUGE difference.  We could not escape the red dust that blows through the windows and sticks to your sunscreened/sweaty body ... fortunately this picture is not close up enough to see our rather red skin and hair.   It was really cool to see the east, the entire landscape/vegetation is sooo different from the extreme north.  It felt like we were driving through a jungle at times.  We also got to check out the cool cities along the way and visit our friends who are posted out there.  It was a lot of fun! 

 

After a long but really fun trip through the east, we arrived in Yaounde just in time to celebrate Liz and I's birthdays.  Claire's mom and brother were still in town on their visit and got us this beautiful cake from the fancy Yaounde bakery. 

Then we celebrated Lindsey and Claude's wedding!  Lindsey and Claude met during our training and have been dating ever since.  Their wedding was really beautiful!  First was the official signing of documents in the mayor's office (pictured above).  Then there was an elaborate photo shoot in the park followed by a reception with lots of dancing, eating and drinking.  Lindsey looked so beautiful and everybody had a ton of fun. 

The main reason for coming south was for C.O.S. (close of service) conference.  This is supposed to help us figure out our transition back into the states.  Some former volunteers talked about how they "figured out their lives" etc. after getting back and they gave us some resume and job searching tips which were pretty helpful.  They also took us to the U.S. embassy when I decided that I definitely do NOT want to become a career diplomat (I'm so good at crossing things off of my list) but they did feed us delicious enchiladas, well worth the trip in itself.  The conference ended with a field trip to the primate center outside of Yaounde.  That is our group in front of a giant tree. 

This is me with some baboons. 

After the conference was over we went to the beach one last time!  Martine came with us... casually mentioning on the bus that she had never seen the ocean before!  So, it was very exciting to share her first trip to the seashore with her. 

We also ate a barracuda.  (Look closely at its face/teeth, pretty cool)  It was delicious. 

Ecole Normale Graduation

Martine and Maimouna just graduated from the teacher training college. They are both now officially French teachers. Unfortunately the organizational structure for teachers in this country is pretty messed up. First of all, their graduation ceremony was originally scheduled for December and only now took place in March with very little notice. In the meantime, all the candidates had prepared their documents for the December date. With such a huge delay, all of the stamps attached to the various documents expired and they ALL have to redo their entire folders.... annoying, but even more annoying is that each of the stamps required costs pretty much money and now everybody is getting stuck paying the cost again.

They also released their affectations. Despite Martine requesting to be placed in the extreme north, and the chronic shortage of teachers up here and the fact that basically no southerners want to be sent to the extreme north, she got affected down south. This means that she now has to go down to her new post asap to present herself. She'll then be expected to teach and live there where she doesn't know anybody and the government won't start paying her salary for another year or two. Pretty difficult.



Getting the weird affectation news put a bit of a damper on the festivities. However, in general the day was a ton of fun. I got my hair "tressed" - braided with the addition of fake blonde strands - for the occasion. Then we visited everybody's graduation party and ate lots of food. We finally ended up chilling out at a bar (pretty similar to American graduations I guess) and then this crazy guy walks in. This picture doesn't really do him justice because he also had his butt stuffed it was pretty histarical. But, turns out that he's actually one of my neighbors from Tok, which was pretty silly.