June 22nd, 2011

June 22, 2011

Yeah, that early morning run that was supposed to happen yesterday never took place. Well it did occur, I just didn’t join my comrades. I had also planned on getting up even earlier to try and get a load (and by load I mean soaking my clothes in well water and Cameroonian Snuggle while scrubbing stains with a bar/cube of soap in giant metal bowl) of laundry done. Well, neither of these things happened because I didn’t sleep very well and decided the extra hour and a half of sleep was the way to go. I’ve still got enough undies to last me til I do my next batch. It does need to be done ASAP frankly considering I will be going to Edea for a week this Saturday and need to have enough clean clothes so the current volunteer doesn’t kick me out for stinking up his place. I also heard today my post is one of the hottest places in Cameroon, downer, but that I will supposedly have electricity, Internet, a fairly decent crib, and an hour from the beach! I can roll with the heat if I get to spend my weekends at the beach. When I told my host dad where I was posted he said that I was going to get a girl. After our PC presentation on the rampant amount of HIV in Cameroon and Africa yesterday that proposition just didn’t seem too appealing.

Want to know something else I’m not good at? Ironing. I can already hear your head shaking. You’re thinking Max all you have to do is flatten the shirt out and run the iron over it. Well that is what you would do in America. In Cameroon, you have to keep fiddling with the damn knob because not only does the power in the entire house go in and out but the power in the actual iron decides to turn on and off. Regardless I had been having bad luck with the power going out while trying to iron so my clean clothes had been in a pile in a chair for a few days. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because if you don’t iron your clothes you are supposed to let them sit for three days after they dry because mango flies like to lay their larva in the damp clothes hanging up and the larva like to burrow into your skin. When you discover said mango fly invader you need to pop it out like a zit. No, I am not making this up. 

To remedy this power problem I decided to turn the iron up towards the higher setting. That way when the power did shut off, it would still stay fairly warm until it came back on. At least that’s what my plan was. What actually happened was that I burnt a quarter sized hole in my Mountain Hardwear Khaki safari-looking short sleeve button down. Looks like that Hardwear wasn’t so hard after all eh? I was bummed at first because it was a comfy shirt, but I’m not losing any sleep over it. The thing is I would still totally rock this shirt in the states. Over here though, even if you smell like ass, as soon as you get a little hole in your clothes or some mud on you the Cameroonians start losing respect for you. Cultural differences my friends. I wouldn’t have even ironed my shirt if my host father hadn’t suggested that I iron my wrinkly shirt before going out. I would much rather smell good and have a small then the opposite, but hey, that is one of the reasons I’m here to discover the way another culture lives. Can’t say I agree with everything over here, but I now at least see the reasoning behind most things. As Westerners we have a tendency to look at the way things are done and say this is wrong or this is weird, but it’s just different strokes for different folks. I’m starting to use clichés so I should end this blog before things get worse. 

Not taking my computer to Edea, but will try to either post from there on a random computer or try and put something up when I get back. Have another language proficiency test tomorrow so send good luck my way. I need to get to an Intermediate High Level, YIKES, to be sworn in as a Francophone Volunteer in August. You probably have no clue what an Intermediate High Level is so I will try and post the description sometime in the near future if I can still find my sheet. I am just starting to be able to understand my French teacher’s accent so hopefully I can figure out what the hell Joe, my language tester, is asking me tomorrow. Love from Cameroon.

MMM

P.S. Aunt Lori and Aunt Kathi I got your letters and picture of Hunter! Thank you so much for taking the time to write me, it was great to read your letters. Still haven't got the letter from Mom, but I'm sure it will make it in due time. I'm surprised how fast the letter from Aunt Kathi made it, it said it was mailed out June 13th. Thanks again and I'll try and write back when I get some downtime!