Monday, January 23, 2012

Four Months In!

23/1/12

As of today, I’ve spent four full months in Cameroon, which is really exciting. So much has changed over the past four months, but I don’t really want to spend this entry being nostalgic about all of that—I think I’ve covered all that pretty well over the past couple of blog posts. Instead, I wanted to give you a better update as to what I’m up to work-wise here in Batouri now that I’ve actually started some semblance of work.

As a Youth Development Volunteer, I have a lot of freedom to decide what I want to do, with who, and when. Part of that is because the program is totally new (being in the founding class has its privileges for sure,) but a lot of that is that the program was designed to combine the successful aspects of each of the four pre-existing programs and tailor it to a specific demographic: youth and families. So, over the course of my service, I could choose to work with young mothers on childhood nutrition, secondary students on financial management and goal-setting, teachers on how to approach sexual health in classes, etc. The possibilities are endless, and that’s what I really enjoy about my program: I’m not constricted to any one subject. I also have an awesome opportunity to collaborate with the other sectors, which is great because in Batouri there are volunteers from the Education, Small Enterprise Development, and Agroforestry sectors. The only sector not represented here is Health, and that was a good chunk of my training, and there’s a Health volunteer posted only about three hours away.

Now that I’ve gotten more settled into my house (key word here being “more,” as I’ve still got a long way to go before being established,) I’ve been checking out a lot of the institutions and schools that are active here in the community. Historically, Peace Corps has been really active here in Batouri, but there are a number of other local, regional, and international organizations active here as well. My host institution, Centre Pour la Promotion de la Femme et la Famille, works with women and young mothers giving technical training and general education. It’s a small organization that lacks funding, so while they have a lot of big ideas of what they would like to do in the future, all ideas constantly need to be scaled down because there’s just no money for them to work with. I’ve had two meetings there so far to get to know the staff and become more familiar with their work there, I’m headed back tomorrow with my post-mate to talk more concretely about some possibilities regarding running a soy and nutrition formation there within the next few months.

I’ve also started running some needs assessment-type work at one of the local, public secondary schools. I’ve found a really dynamic Vice-Principal to work with there, and that’s been a huge gift because he’s passionate about many of the same issues I am and he’s not afraid to address these issues head-on. This past week, I had a meeting with about 40 girls to talk about their lives at home, in the community, and at the school. In a lot of ways, their complaints were the same as the ones I would have said at their age: cliques, superiority complexes, and gossip, but there were plenty of other things that they said that were really jarring for me (being scared to walk around campus because of the harassment of boys, teachers blackmailing girls for money and sex, being forced into prostitution to pay for school fees, and being scared of being married off before finishing education.) I hope to be able to talk to the boys within the next week, and with teachers if that’s possible. The next time that the PTA meets, I plan to attend so that I can get a better sense of parental involvement and what parents’ reactions to my plans are.

Last week, I went to visit an organization that’s associated with the Catholic Mission here, Esperance Sare Jeunes. Esperance is one of the most inspirational, well-organized places I’ve found in town. They work with youth whose families can’t afford to keep them at home or send them to school giving them a place to stay, technical training in agriculture, and paying for their school fees. Be on the look-out for photos on facebook from Esperance—they tell the story of that place much better than I do. I’m headed back tomorrow afternoon with my post-mate to meet with the kids there and hear their stories and get a better idea of what the kids think that the two of us can do to improve their situations.

I have a friend who teaches the local language, Kako, to students at a private primary school in town, and he took me to his class last week, which was a blast. Benjamen also teaches illiterate parents to read and write in a village about 10 kilometers from here, so I’m hoping to go to one of those sessions soon, mostly just because I think he’s such a powerful teacher and I want to see what a village out here looks like.

So, work-wise, as you can see, things are going really well! I’m definitely finding a lot of interesting potential projects out here but, more importantly, I’m finding people who genuinely care about the work I want to do and who are realistic about the things we can accomplish together. If this first month and a half of post is indicative of what I’m in for during the rest of my time here, I’m going to be busy but there’s a definite possibility of making a lasting difference in the community, which is encouraging and exciting. As for the being busy part, let’s be honest, you and I both know that I’m thrilled to finally have things to do here (besides just cook delicious things and fiddle around with house set-up, anyways.)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto

6-1-12



Okay, so we were never actually in Kansas and I’ve never set so much as a foot on Kansan ground, the title’s a stretch… I just wanted to sound witty and have a clever title. I also just finished reading Wicked, so the whole Wizard of Oz reference is just on the mind. Anyways, the point is that I’m out of Bafia, out of training, and definitely more on my own than I’ve ever been and with a language that isn’t my first. The end of training was long and dull, so I’m not going to bore you with any of those details (you can thank me later!) This post is exclusively about my new digs and the beginning of my life here in Batouri, which there’s definitely more than enough to talk about.


I’ve been in Batouri now since the 13th, and been out of Bafia since the 9th—it’s amazing how quickly this place is beginning to feel like home and how much I’ve already begun to adjust to life here. All things considered, I think Mike and I are doing an awesome job for ourselves—we’ve been braving the markets and stores together a lot of the time, and we have made of number of Cameroonian mutual friends. Jessica just returned from her wedding, so she and her husband have been introducing us to their friends and helping us out with random house repair stuff. It’s definitely nice not to be totally alone here—it’s definitely an overwhelming experience and having someone to rant to in American English is a glorious thing. I’m really excited for the next two years—all of my post-mates are fantastic people, and we’re definitely going to be able to serve as a strong support system for each other. The other two volunteers in my cluster (Geoff and Julia, their post is Kentzou, which is about 15km from the Central African Republic) are equally as wonderful—the “Extreme East” is where the party’s at!!



On the actual daily level of life here, I’ve been terrifically productive, probably more so than I’ve been since arriving in Cameroon. I don’t want to give you a dull laundry list of things I’ve accomplished, so you should probably just take that at face value. There’s definitely a lot more to explore and to do, though—Mike and I are have been doing the Peace Corps required “Protocol” (aka: introductions) with government officials and random other important people. The process has been a little slowed down between the holidays and travel to Bertoua for the New Year, which was excellent and much needed. My current project includes trying to legalize my water and gas, because apparently the people that lived in my house before me had an illegal connection. I’m terrified to see just how expensive all of this is about to be. Anyhow, Bertoua was great, and I came home with a propane tank in hand, so it’s nice to have cooking as stress relief again (plus, way cheaper than restaurant food.) I’ve discovered a love of peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwiches, as well, so basically, food and I are at a great place with one another again. Back on the point, it’s been a rough adjustment in general going from having all of my days planned to having no plans at all for the next three months, but I’m making do. Doing little things for myself like making drapes by hand and pasta sauce from scratch helps; yes, Stephanie Gasior is, in fact, your very own little Suzy Homemaker.



For the most part, I’ve been avoiding motos (except at night or when I’m returning from a shopping trip and am carrying a million things) and instead been walking everywhere. I think that’s been making a HUGE difference in making myself visible to my community—I’ve definitely been making an effort to greet every person I see on my walk, and I know that they’re starting to recognize me and, as a result, are willing to start conversations. Considering how short of a time period I’ve been here, I think that’s doing pretty well. I should mention that I make the walk from my house to Centre-Ville probably twice a day or more and it’s about a 20 minute walk and by the end of it, I’m covered in red dust. I think my feet may permanently look like I’ve gotten an exceptionally bad spray-on tan. Jersey Shore Cameroon has a future here in Batouri during dry season. Anyhow, since getting here, I’ve made a couple of Cameroonian friends (eg: my neighbor who’s a teacher at the Ecole Maternelle and another girl who’s my age and a student at the lycée) and that’s definitely helping me feel more welcomed here in town. Christmas Day was really sweet because they all called/texted to check in and send their best wishes, so clearly I’m doing something right so far J



I had a really productive meeting at the local high school this week, which I am amped about. It looks like there’s a lot that I can potentially do there in the future, and the administration is really supportive of PC involvement. I’m meeting with the students for a needs assessment this coming week.



All that said, it’s weird not having such a large, tight-knit community of Americans surrounding me anymore. It’s also weird not knowing automatically where to find meals, how much an item should cost, or where to find things. It’s all a very tiring experience, and that’s a super generalization. Tiring as it is, it’s fulfilling to know that I’m basically doing this all on my own. Looking back through this experience, I’m really proud of how well I’ve handled everything and how much I’ve been able to accomplish. I don’t know that I’d have anticipated that I’d be doing all this on my own if you would have asked me back in the States. Monthly banking is going to feel like a saving grace, I think, because all of the Easties from my Stage are in Bertoua at the same time for that.



Other difficult things about Batouri: SO MANY LANGUAGES. Why use just French in a sentence when you can throw in Kako, Fulfulde, and Cameroonian English, too? Also, it’s generally favorable to confuse the white girl by speaking a million words a minute. My French, though, has increased and improved a thousand-fold since being here—I can’t believe how much easier French has become just in moving here. I’ve picked up a phrase or two of Kako and Fulfulde, as well—not enough to actually communicate, but enough to elicit a smile or two. My Community Host is giving me some materials to study Fulfulde from, and I’ve been trying to get my landlords to teach me a little bit of Kako whenever I sit down with them. Harassment is also fun times here in Batouri, so little Miss Suzy Homemaker has been upping the sass level as necessary (turns out, in general, pretty high.)


Well, friends, that’s basically it—my life in a nutshell: simultaneously busy and chill, exciting and repetitive, tiring and energizing. Amazing how much of life is a contradiction, right?

I miss you all, love you all, and hope you’re having a safe holiday season with family and friends.

Love,
Steph



“You and I, we will live differently. With our hearts in our hands like loaded guns, we’re taking our chance, we’re the lucky ones. This moment is yours, this moment is mine, and we’re going to be fine.” Brendan James—The Lucky Ones