hold your breath...

it's almost.... loaded... okay. Finding working Internet and constant power was an uphill battle the past few days. I was only able to upload one photo, so here it is! This was taken from the village of Sabga, 20 minutes away from Bambili further up the mountainside. Jacqueline and I took a hike one weekend and saw a 360 panoramic view of this. More pics later, when the internet is up to speed :)

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Jacqueline & I went hunting for waterfalls. This is one we found off the side of the road.

A closer look... the water seems to appear from nowhere.

Typical transportation around here = a moto. Peace Corps Volunteers are required to wear their helmet at all times, at risk of being sent home if caught without it. It goes to show how safe riding these things are... which is not very, as you can probably guess. I've seen motos carrying 3 grown men (and more if they're children), or curled up foam mattresses, baskets of chickens, stacks of eggs or luggage, zooming past taxis and swerving to avoid murky potholes. Women clutch their bags to their chests, tuck in their knees and hang on for dear life. These motos spurt uphill or coast downhill on winding roads, tooting their horns. vroom vroom.

gratitude

I've been in Bambili for a week and let me tell you, it's beautiful. Incredible. I really can't do the place justice with adjectives so I'll have to describe it. On the walk to school I see a waterfall. Around the campus there are rolling green hills and taller mountains here and there. On the road I see bright yellow birds, blue birds and gray birds with a twinge of red flitting back and forth among hibiscus flowers, mango trees and palms.

The next village up the road called Sabga has herders leading their cows to graze along the hills and 3 more waterfalls along the way. Women were washing clothes in the brook which flow from the waterfalls and I spotted houses, fields of crops and horses along the higher rims of the hills.

I walk uphill for 10 minutes from my house to ENS campus (Ecole Normale Superior) on a red earth road that has taxis and motos waiting at the intersection to take people upwards and inwards, leaving behind a black puffs of exhaust. (Breathing that, not so enjoyable but it all fades into the clear blue sky and cool mountain air.) People say here in Bambili, there will be "no problem" and that has been true. I am well taken care of, I feel accepted and people greet newcomers with a, " You're welcome."

It rains almost daily so people tend to carry umbrellas with them whever they go but dry season is approaching, which means the grasshoppers will also be arriving. It is very chilly in the morning and at night. I enjoy the rumble of thunder and the pounding of rain on tin roofs, so I like to sit outside a lot on the terrace. That's where I chill with my housemate, Jacqueline, who is a Peace Corps volunteer, 50+, a grandmother, and has an adventurous spirit yet pratical and down to earth. She's half French, half Cherokee Indian, and lives in Sweden. Truly, America is a melting pot shown by the mix of people here... and I have to explain sometimes that yes, "I am American and Chinese. I am both." Jacqueline teaches Chemistry at ENS and for her, and the million other ways she has made my transition here much eaiser, I am so grateful.

I am getting the hang of pidgin, actually more like learning the rhythms of it, trying to catch the English words I can understand and piecing conversations together. It is the language of the street, the market, of the home. It is not allowed at the university for obvious reasons and a big sign reminds students of it. The extent of my comprehension include: "Afternoon. How?" (Good afternoon, how are you?) "This expensive na." "Cheap-o." "Chop." (food) "Man hand side (right side) "woman hand side" (left side) and "plenty, plenty." I've a long way to go to learn the lingo but this is an Anglophone region, so people generally speak and understand English.

The rhythm of life here starts at the break of dawn (5:30am) when children get ready for school and people get ready for work. So my night ends early around 10:30pm and I go to bed. The rhythm of the university is a bit more uncertain. Some professors arrive an hour early to find no students, and some students arrive an hour early to find their professor has not come for the day. There are no assigned classrooms, which makes the first few weeks of school more difficult and definitely frustrating for first year students and new professors. Today I shadowed a 400-level English class and 4 students showed up out of 40. 10%! But this is how things roll at the start of the semester.

My first English discussion will be this Thursday, and students I've spoken to seem very interested. I hope it goes well! I can't believed things have turned out smoothly thus far and I feel incredibly blessed. Jacqueline said that there are some people you are bound to meet in an exact place that is just too perfect to be coincidence. Some people are just meant to cross your path. I say this because Jacqueline's friend Allison, another Peace Corps volunteer visited this past weekend. Turns out, she graduated from University of Illinois in 2009 and worked at the Career Center as well. I didn't knew her from before, but what a small world, to encounter someone in the middle of Bambili who went to the same school, worked for the same place and knew the same people. I knew she looked familiar... haha.

'Tis all for now. As they say here, "Shortly!"

living out of a suitcase

Ive been living out of my suitcase in a hotel for almost two weeks, and I cannot wait until I finally go to Bambili and settle in with my apartment mate from the Peace Corps. The joy of unpacking all my stuff will be sweet, I can feel it, like an unloading of stuff will also be an uplifting of my spirit. Jade just left this morning at 6:45 to fly to Maroua so I am the last of the ETAs to leave... now I am left toute seule. Kind of.

A lot of my time has been waiting around. Today I waited to get picked up for a ride to church with Gladys but the driver never came so after half an hour I decided to just walk around the neighborhood and stumbled upon a nice little cyber cafe that also happened to have a very slow connection. Not surprising haha. My hotel's wireless connection has taught me lots of patience by now.

Ive been waiting for this internet to load at the cyber for around an hour and by the time I got this window to open along with gmail, i have ten minutes left! So I better type fast.

This weekend I saw the following embassies: Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, China, Netherlands; Senegal, Egypt; Greece, Malta and more I cant remember. Embassy searching is pretty fun, especially since they're mostly in Bastos. Greece is the prettiest one in my opinion, with a huge yellow building on top of the mountain that all of Yaounde can see. Cacti lined the gate all around, but peeking past the iron bars it looked like a mansion in paradise, surrounded by bright flowers, palms and perfectly trimmed grass. Shiny cars were parked on the paved driveway in front of nice balconies and wide windows. It made the US embassy building look pale and confining in comparison. Though I guess Id say the US one is aestetically pleasing with the attitude of a modern art building, in a straight lines white marble, white walls kind of way.

Yesterday Jade and I walked up Mt Febe for the whole day, visited the arts museum next to the monastere, talked to Pere Joseph in his office and got his blessing for our trips. We also got sunburned in the face and chest very badly. It didn't hurt too much, but was probably a side effect of our malaria meds; sensitivity to sunlight.

The reason Im at this cyber typing on a French keyboard is because I think my laptop came down with a virus. Note to all: if you're bringing your laptop abroad make sure you have your antivirus programs downloaded; updated and running. I learned the hard way.

But all is well. Today is a fairly cool Sunday. Its 10/10/10. I ran into a guy at the embassy this morning, biking with his kids whom I also ran into last night during dinner with Jade at La Salsa. Im friends with the lady who works at the bar and also the lady at the front desk. Thus, even though now Im the last of the ETAs to be sent off to my destination and Im waiting waiting waiting in anticipation, little things have still made me feel like I'm surrounded by pieces of familiarity. Of course this will all change again when Im dropped to Bambili by car on Tuesday. But for now I must soit patience! My time is up. Until next time... Ill be in Bambili!

three days of orienting

Our group just finished our three-day orientation in Yaounde and we wrapped it up with a nice dinner with embassy staff. Meera leaves right away, heading to Bertoua in the East province bright & early tomorrow. To bid her farewell properly, we are attempting to wake up at the crack of dawn and have breakfast at a nice place in Bastos. I realized how much the ETA program has improved since last year in terms of training, preparation, materials and giving us a scope of the program. After all, last year Fulbright sent its first batch of guinea pigs to Cameroon. I feel much more confident now than when I first arrived, and a lot of the credit is owed to last year's ETAs who've forged the road and made the path easier for us.

Jen, our English teaching trainer has been wonderful in providing us with classroom activities and innovative ways to make the most of a resource-scarce classroom. We met with CAMELTA teachers (Cameroon English Language & Literaure Teachers Association) who offered advice about the challenges of a typical Cameroonian classroom and also had presentations on Cameroon culture and school systems. It's nice that we can slowly get acquainted with Cameroon and still have the support, logistics & answers from the embassy before we dive right in. Mignon, the Cultural Affairs Officer has been awesome about visas, cellphones, lost ATM cards etc. Looming questions I've had since forever are getting answered and the picture of Bambili is finally becoming more clear. On Tuesday we had conference call with our university sponsors and I got to put the pieces together of what I'll be doing, what subjects I'll co-teach, class size and living situation. Apparently I'll be sharing an apartment with a Peace Corps woman in her 50s! I will need to buy my own bed since it's unfurnished, but I'm excited to hear her story.

I'm over jet lag, but Cameroon is about 7 hours ahead of Chicago....so more later. Bon nuit.