On va faire comment?

10 August 2013

There are so many things running through my mind right now, and so I'm not entirely sure what direction this blog post is going to go in. On va faire comment?

With electricity being out again (we've had a total of maybe 24 hours of light combined in the past 6 days,) I'm not entirely sure how long my computer battery is going to last. Supposedly by 2015 my whole region can expect to have electricity 24 hours a day, which'll definitely allow more room for stability, reliability, and development, but for me personally, I'm glad to have lived somewhere where part of the challenge of survival meant having to be adaptable. So, as we speak, I'm typing by the light of one single candle and weighing the benefits of washing my dishes tonight versus the morning (avoiding the ants and mice V. having dishes be clean because I'll be able to actually see them while I wash.) Luckily, this should hopefully not be a problem anymore since I think I've knicked my mouse problem thanks to the packets of scary Chinese rat poison, which was surprisingly difficult to find considering that the men that sell it are possibly the most obnoxious in town: they walk around the market with dead mice on strings, blowing whistles, and talking on megaphones.

The time remaining for me in Cameroon is winding down, but I am trying to refuse to talk about that. It's getting too hard to have the constant conversation of "don't leave, renew your contract, stay and marry a Cameroonian man, we'll miss you too much!" everyday. I am being pulled in two very separate directions, and even though I am positive that I'm leaving in November, it's still difficult to know that my choice means leaving the family and friends I've created for myself here. Beyond all odds, it means leaving the comfort I've come to find here in the unpredictability, the slow pace of life, and the rawness of the Cameroonian culture. I've started to sell off my goods, and I've started a pile of things in my spare room that are definitely returning to America with me. My job research has begun. In a week and a half, I'll have my official end of service date. It's the beginning of the end. Weird.

On a completely lighter note, Ramadan has finished! This past Thursday was the holiday marking the end, and I was lucky enough to have another PCV in town visiting, so it was interesting to get to see the whole Ramadan experience through the eyes of someone in a very, very Christian community. Ramadan is different from Christian holidays since the Islamic calendar is shorter and based on the moon. Whereas Christmas is ALWAYS December 25, Ramadan could fall in any month depending on the year. Likewise, the holiday could happen between 28-31 days after the fast began depending on what day the moon returns (the season starts and ends based on the new moon.) This time around the moon was sighted on the 7th at 9pm in Fouman, a town in the West region, but because my friend forgot to call and let me know, I woke up unsure whether or not to get ready for the celebration or not--definitely a huge difference from any holiday I'd grown up with. After texting around to figure out what was going on, I ended up getting dressed in the new clothes I got made for the celebration, went to the morning prayers, and then started the long day of 6 meals. Fete de Ramadan is a marathan, not a sprint; imagine Thanksgiving, but taking place in multiple different houses and over a 10 hour time period. Beef, rice, spagetti, chicken, eggs, cabbage dishes, beignets, soda, tea, etc. To borrow a Pidgin English phrase: my belly done flop.

I've written intermittently about the pisciculture project, and it's crazy that that's already coming to a close. We've gotten the ponds all built and the first two species of fish installed; the other two species should be installed next month. Things have gone super smoothly so far, minus a minor conflict with a police officer neighbor who raises ducks as poultry but refuses to keep them caged or "corraled" on his property since he doesn't believe that ducks eat fish. But, I think we've finally gotten that problem resolved by putting the children on fish guardian/duck scaring duty when they're not going around town searching for the types of refuse that fish love to eat (ask for more details if you'd like, but know that the answer isn't a pretty one.) Right now, we're working on planting a garden of Moringa, watermelon, squash, okra, basil, plantains, bananas, and manioc around the ponds so that we'll have more food to sell in the market and food available on premises to feed the fish with. Next month, we'll start teaching classes to the kids on HIV/AIDS, STDs, prevention methods, and "life skills," but in the moment we're just starting to figure out what exactly these lessons are going to entail.

The last big thing I've been working on is preparation for the HIV/AIDS education murals that we'll be painting at the end of the month. A big group of volunteers from the region are going to come out and help paint, so between COS conference the 3rd week of August and the mural the 4th week, these next few weeks of life are going to be Petite Amerique (Little America.)

On that note, take care everyone!