Mt Cameroon

Mount Cameroon was really beautiful, but definitely A LOT more difficult then I had been expecting. I guess I should have known that climbing the highest mountain in West/Central Africa would be more difficult than hiking the Adirondacks with my family, but the guidebook made it seem like anybody with a relative amount of fitness could handle it. We started off in the more jungley climate last Thursday morning. Then when we hit the treeline, it became really sparse and the hike all of a sudden became 100% vertical. It was difficult even to get your footing because the trail was really just following these volcanic rocks that kept slipping out from underneath your feet. Of course our Cameroonian guide and porters are all wearing jellies and running up and back down the mountain, while holding all our gear. Actually, my porter won the Race of Hope in the year 2000. That is an annual race up Mt. Cameroon which he completed in about 3 hours! (While we were scheduled to hike the same route and back down in 3 days, Pretty nuts.)

We spent the night at "hut 2" on the mountainside but really we brought tents and sleeping bags since the huts themselves are pretty dirty. My sleeping bag zippered down the middle of the front, and it was broken. This made for a very cold and miserable night sleeping on the mountain. When we woke up I had snuggled so close up to Janelle the two of us were in this one tiny corner of the tent. This was Christmas morning, and we were both like hmm this is not actually very much fun at all. So, we decided we'd start our return trip down instead of continuing upwards. Going down was probably worse than going up though, especially that steep part and our legs got sooo sore. But we listened to Christmas tunes the whole way down which boosted spirits a bit. Then we showed up on the doorstep of Janelle's family friends who were in Buea town working at the hospital. They graciously took us in for Christmas. They had a real house with a real Christmas tree and decorations and ornaments and peppermint bark and cheesy old Christmas movies and it was delightful!

I've spent the last 3 days in Yaounde... I was pretty bummed at first to be here instead of down south with the sea turtles. But, its actually pretty nice here so we've started referring to it as "vacation Yaounde".... there's hot showers, washing machines and good food, so really things aren't too bad. And I've gotten most of my stuff sorted out as well. We also went to happy hour at the Hilton... it was like walking into a different planet. The bar is on the 11th floor, definitely the highest building I've been in since coming here. Everything was decorated for Christmas and realllllllly nice.

I also randomly ran into my host dad from training right after getting my new cell phone. All of a sudden, i hear Claire, and its Francois! Their village is a couple hours outside of Yaounde, but he's a teacher, so he probably came in to get his paycheck. Still, it was a pretty weird coincidence to see him on the side of the road like that.

I'm leaving this morning for Buea, from there we'll start climbing Mt. Cameroon tomorrow morning! So we'll be on the mountain the 24th-26th. I'm hoping our trip to Buea today is rather uneventful. We had a terrible time traveling back from Kribi last Sunday. We had decided to spend the morning at the beach and come back to Yaounde in the afternoon since its supposed to be about a 3-4hr bus ride. But it took us 12 hours.... noon to midnight to get back, it was such a disaster... "A three hour tour," Gilligan's Island Style. The bus broke down on the side of the road. The company sent another bus after about 2 hours there, but it was only about half the size and everybody swarmed it when it arrived. So then it was a while longer before the next one came. Fortunately there were about 7 of us traveling together and we had a deck of cards and lots of American candy so it really wasn't too bad. We then convinced the bus driver that he needed to take us directly back to the Peace Corps house in Yaounde, which he did, so that was good. However, we're getting a much earlier start this morning hoping to avoid that situation.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
<3

Just returned from Kribi! We got there last Sunday and celebrated Claire Kihn's birthday a la plage. Then in-service-training lasted Monday thru Sat. Morning. We each invited our counterparts from our villages to come down with us. So, the principal of my school came down adn we had a bunch of workshops together for the first few days. Then all the counterparts left and we had more volunteer-related material.

The hotel was really pretty, right by the beach. We ate a ton of delicious fish, crabs, shrimps etc. all week which was a delicious change from the fare in the extreme north. There's this huge fish market right by the harbor where you can walk around and pick out all the fresh fish and then you bring it over to one of the mommies and then they grill it up in their special sauces. Then the whole fish... head, tail and all gets served on a platter to eat with your hands. We stayed over an extra day/night and visited some waterfalls that were just outside of the town. We took a dug-out canoe ride and went swimming.

...I'm back in Yaounde now, trying to get my self organized for Mt. Cameroon... more stories to come.

Hey everybody, its been a long time since my last blog update. I'm finished with classes until January and currently on route south for training to be followed by some traveling. This last week was a little stressful getting all my exams and trimester grades done in time since we actually had to miss the last week of school for the training. I also wasn't getting much sleep because of the puppy.... I got my puppy! Butternut! She's pretty cute... when she's not whining or having accidents in my house or climbing into my bed in the middle of the night. Turning out to be a lot more work that I had thought it would be. First of all, getting her back to post was a bit of an adventure. I had ridden my bike into Maroua for the day for Thanksgiving so clearly couldn't return with the bike and the puppy. So I sent my bike back on the car (where somehow it got returned to me the next day with the bike lock missing which makes zero sense). Then I took a 2 hour moto with the puppy in my lap.... and I got peed on. She was being so calm and then all of a sudden was trying to jump off of the moto and I was trying to hold on to her. Turns out that was why. But, worse things have happened babysitting....

Anyways, our training is in Kribi, on the beach! Its for about a week starting Sunday (which is also Claire Kihn's birthday so we'll get to start celebrating). After the trianing we're going to travel around the area and visit some other less touristy beaches. Apparently theres some sea turtles and a wildlife reserve. After that the plan is to climb Mt. Cameroon. It's the highest mountain in West Africa but apparently not a very strenuous climb. We're going to have a 3-day expedition with the hopes of being on the top on Christmas day!

I've got a new computer on the way (thank you mom :-)) so hopefully when I get back to post in January I'll be able to get on the internet more regularly. I also just got a new telephone since that broke too. I might be able to get online a few more times en route. But, if not, Merry Christmas everyone!!! I miss you all and can't wait to hear all about fun holiday things!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
I'm here in Maroua hoping to have a makeshift Thanksgiving with the other volunteers.... I'm making pumpkin pie!!

Unfortunatly my computer is broken! It survived flying out the trunk of a bushtaxi only to just spontaneously combust the other day while I was listening to music :-( Soooo in the meantime I'm borrowing my friend's here in Maroua but I can't access internet from my village. So there won't be many new blog posts for a while.

I'm hoping to talk to the Kellys tonight and my Summit girls pre-reuninon tomorrow... if the internet holds up!

Eat lots of turkey for me :-)

The pizza was not good.

I mean, I ate it… but it wasn’t everything that could have been hoped for. For starters the sauce/cheese ratio was all wrong, but I don’t think I’m ready to discuss the details yet, it will just make me upset. (Philly pizza, I miss you.)

In other things frustrating, I’ve discovered something common to both American and Cameroonian culture: volleyball ball-hogs. I played a game of volleyball with some teachers and students (all male). Turns out that men all over the world like to jump in front of girls every time the ball is coming toward them. They do this 95% of the time, and then duck out of the way at the last minute one random time when the ball comes and then they’re like why didn’t you get that? I was so annnnnnnnnoyed. I didn’t survive 4 years of what I won’t hesitate to call borderline Olympic-level volleyball competition in the SHS holiday volleyball tournament to get jumped in front of during a stupid match over a soccer goal. I’m not putting up with this. I got the girls club playing on Saturday (well 3 members + me and the gym teacher) but we were pretty good. My inner arms are really sore from all the bump-passes though. And everyone at the lycee has commented on me “faire-ing les sports” all weekend.

The home-owner’s (or rather renter’s) update: Moussa at the musinerie has bought my screening and once the wood-cutting machine starts to work again he can start replacing my broken window screens. A neighbor came over and started to take apart the overhead light in my bedroom. So, while I don’t have functional screens or a bedroom light yet, I’m hoping they will be fixed soon. There’s been no progress with the wall or water tank. I don’t think either endeavor is very promising since my landlord is avoiding me even after I tried to entice him with the idea of coming to pick up the rent.

Hmmm the updates about the house were supposed to end the blog on a positive note but now I’m just thinking about all the work that needs to get done in this house. This is positive, my friend Martine’s younger sister is coming tomorrow to help me with stuff around the house… aka cleaning. I’ve characteristically managed to spread my stuff out onto every available surface/the floor. I’ve managed to rally and straighten up a little but I have zero energy for sweeping, mopping, etc. You probably wouldn’t either after you did your laundry and dishes in buckets. I’ve convinced myself that I’m really not that bothered by the spider webs because they kill any mosquitoes that come in (through the broken screens) and therefore are practically malaria prevention. Anyway, my friend Rose popped by on Tuesday on route to the hospital. She admitted that the cobweb situation in my kitchen is “kind of gross” and then she left me a note which I didn’t unearth until Saturday afternoon. Basically it’s every reason why Maureen refused to go up to the third-floor back home.

I went on my first extreme north bike excursion on Thursday morning. I rode my bike to another nearby village, about 2 hours away, to observe another volunteer teach her English class. My friend in village went with me since I didn’t know the route, but you really just keep going straight. My village is sort of at the bottom of a bunch of mountains while Meri is up in them. So the way there was pretty difficult and we had to walk our bikes in several spots. The way back was quicker, but less enjoyable in the afternoon heat. I took some pictures I’ll be able to post in a week or two. It was cool to see another village and see Melanie’s school. I hurried back for an afternoon girls’ club meeting that only one girl ended up showing up for so that was pretty frustrating.

Friday night was my first “amicale” meeting. All the teachers got together for a dinner party type deal at someone’s house. I got there “early” aka right on time, so I helped get the food ready. Deep frying patates and plantains. Fortunately I had learned how to fry the plantains with my host mom during training so I sort of looked like I knew what I was doing. There was also chicken, but it’s pretty impossible to eat because I’m not sure that there is even actually any meat on the bones. Before dinner, everyone shared what was going on with their families. I have to say this was a little bit morbid because most of the news was regarding who was sick. I wasn’t really sure what to say when it was my turn, so I told them that my belle-soeur was expecting a baby and I hope that brightened the mood!

I ordered pizza for tonight, how crazy is that? Last week I ended up going to the bakery to see how the bread is made. They bake it in this huge oven, its super hot and super delicious. It had been difficult to actually buy the bread though because they don’t make it every day and it’s always at a different time. However, I think I’ve got the schedule down now. The boys (my students who make the bread) mentioned that on the days they make bread, their dad makes pizza in the evening. So, I put in an order and I’m trying it tonight, super excited! Additionally, the boys stopped by my house today on their way home from the bakery with bread for me which I thought was really sweet. I’m hoping the pizza will make my Saturday evening of grading quizzes by myself a little less depressing.