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.

Behaviour Change Communication Workshop

We had a workshop in Maroua about Behaviour Change Communication. Basically, how you can do your trainings in such a way that people will actually want to change what they're doing. This was our group, representing the Mayo Sava Region, so we called ourselves "Maya Sava Bien."
Additionally we got to eat delicious food at the hotel and go swimming! Here we are teaching Mambih how to swim... one thing in life which I'm actually qualified to do.

Projects at post

Fete de la Jeuneusse: Some elementary school students getting ready for the parade.

February: Bilingualism Day. The student of English club prepared a bunch of skits and performed for their classmates.

Making jewelry out of recycled paper at the Environmental Education Camp
January: Environmental Education Camp, all the kids in their team colors. Talking about money management and savings with local women beignet sellers.

December 1st: AIDS Day awareness. The girls club hosted a soiree to educate their classmates about AIDS. This was our round table featuring two female health workers talking about the increased susceptibility of girls to the disease being moderated by one of my terminalle students.
November: "Fete de la reculte" The harvest festival.

The Kellys Come to Cameroon

My mom, dad and Aunt Barbara came to visit me over Christmas! They met all my friends in village, saw the sights and travelled around the country a bit. Everybody was so excited to see them it was a really awesome visit.

My friend bought this pagne expressly for my father... so we got a matching ensemble made and wore it to a wedding that night.

Mom and dad drinking bilbil (millet beer) out of traditional kalabashes at Martine's house.
Bello and Daniel showing how its really done.


Hiking out to Mariam's village, the damn and the sorcerer.

Group visit to Waza National Park in our matching outfits. We saw lots of giraffes, warthogs, antelopes, ostriches, monkeys etc.


We stayed overnight in Waza, hoping to see some lions very early the next morning, which he unfortunatly didn't. But, it was pretty seeing the animals in the early morning.

We spent Christmas near Bamenda in the anglophone region with my friend Roger and his family. We went to a church and then had a big party at his house and climbed up an old volcano. It was great for my parents to actually be able to speak English themselves.


We went to visit Kumbo in the Northwest region where a big cultural festival happens every other year. All of the traditional "jujus" came out and paraded. Except, it wasn't just a parade where you would watch people walk by. If a juju came up to you, you had to bow down out of respect, and so that they wouldn't hit you with their sticks. Then you threw money at their feet. One came up to me and wouldn't stop waving his stick, even though I gave the money, and finally I realized that he wanted my beer & he chugged the whole thing!

Some jujus are more dangerous than others. For example, this one was the most dangerous of all. Those ropes attach him to handlers who can pull him in if he gets too agressive. They didn't do much to stop him from jumping onto Jake's friend's car and smashing the windshield.

I have a new postmate! Her name is Adele and she's from France. She just arrived while I was in Yaounde doing training for the new volunteers. She is at the Catholic Hospital being a midwife. Here, my neighbor Bridgitte is braiding her hair.


Making yogurt. Well, Dada already made the yogurt, I am just helping to put it into plastic bags the night before the market. The yogurt is really good and most importantly, cold.

Eating couscous and sauce.


Everybody decked out for Fete de Muton. This is the big Muslim celebration which occurs 40 days after the end of Ramadan. If people have enough money, they slaughter a sheep. And then you eat a lot of sheep.

Most akward photo ever. Mambih's "copine" (girlfriend) feeding him food while I totally lose it laughing while sitting between the two of the them. Did I really come all the way to Africa just to be the third wheel on people's dates... Any PDA is strictly taboo in this country... but this somehow is totally appropriate?