Quote of the Week:
Nigerian Nurse Ann: Sooo… Bird Flu…

Swearing-In: After passing my Language Proficiency Exam, I was sworn in as an official full-fledged volunteer on December 13th. The ceremony was a big unnecessary to-do. The ambassador was there, as well as numerous other Embassy employees and every Cameroonian official in the North. It was kind of ridiculous. We all had to take an oath… something about protecting the USA from all domestic and foreign enemies… erm… sure?

Moving-In: Out of the 32 people originally in our group, there are now 29 (15 Health/14 Agro). Being the Sahel group, we are stationed in the 3 northern provinces of Cameroon: The Adamaoua, The North, and The Extreme North. 5 of us are in the Adamaoua (the most underdeveloped region and home of your’s truly), 11 in the North, and 13 in the Extreme North. So, we all went our separate ways on Thursday morning. Me and my Adamaoua girls loaded all our junk onto a bus at the crack of dawn… Everything… 5 bikes, 5 huge metal trunks, countless bags and boxes… on a bus full of a billion other people. It was pretty crazy, but this was the better part of our journey.

After the 4 hour bus ride to Ngaoundere (the provincial capital of the Adamaoua), we went our separate ways again; unloading all our junk from the bus and reloading it onto separate “bush” cars… which are smaller than the busses, but seem to have way more people… and goats… and chickens. We affectionately refer to them as “prison busses.” These things look like they are straight out of the movie Sarafina. I cannot even put into words what a nightmare it was. The Adamaoua is infamous for many things, among these things are orange/red dirt “roads” from hell and more dust than… um… hhmm… :::insert clever analogy here::: When I arrived at my village, my clothes and my skin were literally orange (minus the part of my face which my sunglasses were covering), I smelled like goat, and I could not feel my legs after having some squished in the same position for so many hours. I just wanted a shower and a nap. Then I remembered that I did not have running water, nor a bed. I entered my house and laid down on the floor. Other than having my house broken into and being robbed… not too much else happened that first day!

Moving On: As I mentioned in my last post, the majority of the people in my village are uneducated, so they do not speak French. So, I spent 3 months beating myself to learn French and it is now of very little use to me:D For the following 3 months, I will be beating myself to learn the native language, Fufulde. The town has taken to calling me “Madame Docteur.” I have tried to explain to them that I am not a Madame, and that I am certainly not a doctor… but the name seems to be sticking :/ C’est la vie.

Important Things: The girls and I met up in Ngaoundere for Christmas. It was obviously not the Christmas I am used to, but it was highly entertaining. We went to this club where Kelly made friends with the bartender, so we got free drinks all night :D Yah, Kelly! And we danced like there was no tomorrow… you kno I broke it down… that’s right. J Cameroonians girls kept asking us where we learned to dance and tried to copy our moves :] We met up again for my bday and New Year’s. We also ran into some volunteers from another staige, so they came out with us too. Good times. Thanks guys :] We miss all of u non-Adamaoua people! Did you get our letter? Happy New Year’s to all:D

posted by Me at 10:33 AM