A Day in the Life

5-10-11

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! Hope you enjoyed the presents that I left for you at home and that you were surprised by the message on your voicemail J

So, it’s been a week since my last post. Similar to camp, time here seems to move in the weirdest ways—days seem so long but I feel so accomplished when I accomplish the smallest things (ex: buying phone credit.) There isn’t exactly an average day here, but there are definitely trends. Since I have you as a captive audience, here’s my approximate daily schedule:

--Wake up at 6:25. I eat a chunk of bread, fried egg with tomato and onion, and drink instant coffee. Supposedly, coffee here is strong—I beg to differ, it takes like water flavored with ginger and lemon. I usually add powdered milk to it to make it more palatable. Still, it’s awesome that my family feeds me legit food every morning.

--Walk to class and arrive around 7:30. Given that we’re ending rainy season here, I’m hopping about a million puddles along the way and usually by the time I get to class, my poor shoes are a muddy mess… and then the crazy heat starts and school is transpiration central. I try to arrive to class early enough to savor some English speaking and have enough time to hear everybody’s stories from the night before, sometimes hysterical (like the time I chipped my tooth on freakin’ couscous [no worries, it’s not noticeable unless you’re me, and it’s just another reason to hate couscous]) sometimes serious (someone talking about the beatings their host siblings get.) In another week and a half, we start Immersion, which means that outside of Tech classes, there is to be NO ENGLISH—even on our lunch break. Once Immersion starts, mornings’ll get a lot more rough.

--Language/Tech Classes/Cross-Culture/Safety/Health 8a-4:30p. Each day is a different combination of everything, some days it’s one session of each, other days, like today, each session is French. I recently moved down a language level because I felt like I was struggling so much, and I’m feeling so much better in the Intermediate-Mid Level. My class has 4 of us, and we work a lot with vocabulary. Tomorrow we’re going to the Grand Marché to get more confident on the vocab/grammar involved in purchasing stuff. Tech classes are the practical ones for Youth Development, and I love them. We use a lot of public speaking, discussion, and group work, so ultimately, not insanely different than Allegheny. Our homework for this week was to observe a teacher at a local primary school and write a report on it, and it was the BEST experience—the kids were ADORABLE. Sometimes we have guest speakers like current Peace Corps volunteers that do some kind of work with kids (rare) or government officials from the Ministry of Women and Family or the Ministry of Youth Development.

--FREE-TIME 4:30-7p. We’re free after class until curfew at 7p, so most of the time we go to the boutique down the street and get bread/cheese or bread/tartina (a Nutella-like substance but made with peanuts instead) and something to drink. Other times I go home early for some decompressing time with American music and books in English. I would like to be able to work out, but I’m not sure how to make that work yet. Plenty of time to figure it out, I guess, and I need to because all these starches aren’t health-friendly.

--Dinner Prep/Dinner 7:30p+. We eat so much freaking couscous. On good days, there’s papaya, plantains, fish, eggs, and delicious sauces. But, since my Mom works so much and is so active in the election that’s in a couple of days and Cameroonian culture is such that men don’t deign to cook, we eat a lot of things that don’t take effort—like left-over couscous and manioc (which is also pretty tasteless.)

--Post-Dinner. Sometimes I’ll watch TV with the fam, other times I’ll study in the living room while they watch TV. Some days we eat so late or I’m so French-ed out that I shower and go straight to bed. Literally, it’s not uncommon for me to be in bed before 9:30. I am lame-sauce here in Bafia, but it’s the only way I can deal with being up so early in the morning. What I wouldn’t give to be a morning person.

If you’re a rational person, you’re probably saying something to the effect of “Well, at least you have all weekend to recover and hang out!” Unfortunately, you, the rational person, are incorrect because I have class on Saturdays until 1p still. It’s not bad, though, they turn the internet on after class on Saturdays, which is fantastic. This weekend, I really want to go into town and buy fabric to get clothes made. It needs to happen—my clothes are just too long and too heavy for the heat we have here. Sundays are pretty much reserved for Mass (a 2-3 hour affair totally in French) with the family and doing laundry (another hour-long plus exploit.) I also study and do my homework on Sundays.

So, basically, that’s my life as of right now. I hope that gives you a better idea of what I’m up to/will be up to through the beginning of December.

In other news, I finally have a functioning phone! I don’t know the country code (you’ll need to look that up if you’re ever ambitious enough to call me,) but my number is 74 05 79 85. Please remember that I am 5 hours ahead of you and am an old person that goes to bed early.  Also, I would looooooooooooooove mail… just throwing that out there. Once I find Bafia’s post office on Saturday, I have some to send out, too J

Love you all!

PS. What’s happening in the US? I feel so disconnected—I haven’t heard ANY news about the US since arriving in Cameroon. (Edit: Except Steve Jobs’ death… that news hit us today [the 6^th])