July 5, 2009

I have officially been in Cameroon for exactly a month. There are some days when it seems like a year and then there are others where I feel that the plane just touched down in Yaoundé. I continue to struggle with French but keeping hoping and praying that my effort will pay off by the end of stâge. I have been having extra sessions every morning at 7 a.m. with Monique and I think it is helping. The SED volunteers had our LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) on Saturday morning. I don’t feel that I did that well but it had to be an improvement from when I first spoke with Gaston in Yaoundé. We will find out tomorrow what level we placed at, I began at Novice Low, and then continue classes from there. I am praying that I at least went up to Novice High. I have to obtain Intermediate Mid for Anglophone and Intermediate High for francophone.
We had a party at the SED house last night to celebrate the 4th of July. Throughout the day and into the night I kept looking at my watch thinking of what I would be doing if I was home (11 a.m. – put the boat in, 6 p.m. move the boat in front of Port Royal, etc.). I was okay with not being there because I know I have the rest of my life to enjoy 4th of July’s in the States or where ever I choose. It was just a little weird to be in a different country but to still be celebrating the United States’ Independence Day. All of the Ed volunteers are on site visit this week so they were not able to come to the party but we still managed to have a pretty good time. We cooked hamburgers (and thanks to Stanson and Oliver, we had cheese from Baffousam), got pommes frites and had some pretty good cake. Chez Emmanuel stayed open late for us (he made plenty of money off all the beers we bought).
Our Cameroonian trainers came and celebrated with us for a little while. It was nice to see them in a more relaxed atmosphere (most of them even danced). I have to say that although they relaxed enough to dance; they wouldn’t give up speaking French. It was extremely annoying to me! I was pumped to find out that Norm does the West Coast swing, for you that don’t know, it is very similar to the Carolina Shag. It was fun to get to show a little bit of South Carolina to some of the other volunteers. Norm is a SED volunteer who is COSing after our stage gets sworn in. He has been filling in for our APCD throughout training and has been a great resource for us newbie’s. Alec set up is tight rope and every one had a try, I now have a lovely bruise on the inside of my leg to show for my effort. I know no one is surprised by this bit of information.
Holy cow! I just finished eating my dinner and my mouth is on fire. Fair warning for anyone who wants to visit Cameroon, the food here is extremely spicy. Thank goodness it is something that I like and can tolerate because I think that a few other volunteers are having problems with it. The spaghetti, as they call it, is unbelievable. Of course it is nothing like the spaghetti we have in the states. It is more similar to Thai food but I am hoping that my sister will teach me how to make it before I leave for my post. Speaking of post, we find out on Thursday and I am extremely anxious. There are four Anglophone spots and I am praying that I get one. They all would be great but there is one that is practically at the beach – that would be incredible. I don’t think my luck is that good though!