June 23, 2011

June 23, 2011

Greetings family, friends, and those of you that didn’t fit into the first two categories from my mosquito net fortress. It is kind of like a chair fort but way more malaria resistant.

So I think my French language proficiency test went pretty well. Could be that the guy was just nice and smiled and nodded a lot as he laughed in his head at my horrible attempt at French. I’m sure I used the wrong tense at times and conjugated some verbs incorrectly, but I just tried to keep talking so I will find out tomorrow whether I advanced to another level or not. As long as I advance from Novice Low, it is an improvement and that’s all you can ask for really. I still don’t see how I will be ready to teach teachers in French in two months, let alone the students I will be teaching in French in model school in two works. Burn that bridge when I come to it I guess.

Sorry if my blog posts have become rather mundane. I realize this is the third consecutive day I’ve written a blog post, but it is therapeutic to put the thoughts from my head to paper (or digital files. I mean it is 2011) and most of the family seems to enjoy hearing about my travels so I will try and update as much as possible, if electricity and Internet connectivity will allow of course. 

So today, after a few of us went to the training house to collect our bi-weekly paycheck (which translates to about $81 in case you were wondering. Before you cringe, realize that that is a pretty substantial amount of money over here and if you think I’m in it for the money you don’t know me too well and you don’t know how PC operates) we headed to the bar to join our colleagues for a round. As we were leaving the training house, we came across some cute little girls named Laticia and Patricia, presumably around the age of 6 or 7. We had seen them at the bar (1. This is an outdoor bar so kids walk up and chat with us all the time. 2. It is perfectly normal here to be walked to the bar by any host brother or sister over the age of 3) talking to other volunteers earlier so I thought they were probably another trainee’s host sisters. They instantly grabbed my hands and started walking along with us. Now, being the kind soul that I am, I couldn’t just shake them off and tell them to get lost. We kept walking along, sang some ABC’s (in French with the help of my fellow trainee Samantha), let them touch my hair (kids are amazed by the difference in textures I guess) and eventually made it to the bar. Of course, my buddy Matt had to take a picture of us approaching. I realize how creepy this would be in America, but if you haven’t discovered folks, this ain’t Amurrica. They finally released their kung-fu grip on my hands when we got to the bar and I started laughing and joking with the other trainees. To my surprise Danielle, another trainee that was walking with us, comes up to me and declares that Patricia (or maybe Laticia, hell if I know they both ended in –icia) just requested that we give her money for our walk to the bar.  This le blanc (white person) ain’t fallin for it sister! Granted, yes, she probably does need the money from my paycheck more than I do, but once you start giving out money word spreads and pretty soon all the Bafian children are asking you for money. It is heartbreaking to decline to kids that probably do need the money, but I also need to survive in this African country and I am sorry but I have to refuse. Luckily, they never came up and asked me, just Danielle. Besides, they would probably just run home with my money, show their parent(s), and the father would take it and go drink on my dime at the bar. Sad but true. Before you tell me how much of a monster I am, I did give a boy 50 CEFA the other day for carrying my giant bag of rice from the supermarche even though I didn’t ask him to carry it on the path to my house. 

Gonna try and get some reading done and crash so I can get up early and get a run in tomorrow. I am currently reading Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J. T. Stepanek and Heartsongs and Andy Christofferson’s The Peace Corpse: Misadventures in Africa (and some other things in the title I can’t remember).The first is a highly inspiring story about a little boy that struggled with medical problems practically his entire life but still strived to make the world a better place in his short time spent on Earth. The second is about a PCV in Tanzania, Africa and is hilarious so far. Highly recommended from the Cameroonian book club that I am the founder of and only current member so far. KENNY ALERT! (Only TCN will get that reference) It has some pretty raunchy language in it so Grandma Ellie is not allowed to read.

Speaking of which, shout out to Grandma Ellie. Glad Dad printed out my first two blogs so you could read a bit about my adventures. I miss you tremendously every day, but I am trying to do good every day like you instilled in me. I am making a lot of friends over here and can’t wait to make it back to the states and share my stories with you. Shout out to the rest of the fam as well, you guys are in my thoughts daily.

Music keeps me sane over here. With almost 18 GB of music, I can usually find something for me regardless of my mood.

I am going to start making a list of things I could use for those of you that have been asking about care packages. Good news too, I believe I will have a post office at my post, but I will know more about that after this week.

I challenge you all to try and do one good deed tomorrow. You may or may not have the opportunity, but if you do I encourage you to seize the moment. It doesn’t have to be a monumental deed. Just do what you can when you can for a fellow human being. We’re all in this crazy thing called life together people. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox.

Bonne nuit.

MMM

EDIT: Gonna try and get the Edea site visit blog typed up tonight if possible and post tomorrow. It's gonna be a long one so may not be possible since I have a 30 min presentation due Monday too but gonna try my best. If not look for it next weekend. Editor out.