Welcome to the land of Palm Oil and Carbohydrates

I promised my friend in stage that I would title my next blog that. It is the blatant truth and although the food is fabulous, it is heart stopping (literally). Cameroonians cook with an incredible amount of palm oil and the daily diet is loaded with carbohydrates. This includes but is not limited to, rice, potatoes, pasta and vegetables cooked in tons of palm oil which is ten times worse than regular vegetable oil. Needless to say I am looking forward to being at my own house and controlling my diet. The men volunteers tend to lose weight (with I have already witnessed with my own eyes) and the girl volunteers tend to gain weight. Jeez, I love the female body. While the guys have to poke extra holes in their belts to keep their pants up, we have to have dresses made that we can fit into!
Time is passing quickly and my next LPI (language proficiency test) is on Friday. I have changed language instructors again and now are back with Monique full time. I think that I have improved but some days I feel that I am back where I started. Being in Anglophone for a week really through me off and has also made me seriously question the need to continue with French. I know that I need the basis but it is extremely frustrating and I really want to begin learning Pidgin and the local patois of Bali. I am still working hard and will continue to do so until I have a good grasp on French. I have to keep reminding myself that this is only the seventh week that I have been learning it!
Stage is only three more weeks but it seems like a life time. I am finding it difficult to be on such a tight schedule with every minute of everyday planned for us. It is also interesting to live with a family again. It is also hard because I feel like an imposter most of the time. I try to balance it out by getting other trainees to come buy sheets and towels from my home stay mother! They are great and extremely patient with me but I hate not helping and it is almost impossible to do so. I feel like a boarder, which I guess in essence I am.
So, the dress didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. It is huge and the “pocket” is quite odd. I am going to take it to another seamstress and have it fixed. I definitely learned my lesson and will not be drawing any sketches but taking dresses or pictures out of magazines as examples. A lot of the girls have had good experiences and had some really cute things made. I am going to bow down to their wisdom and follow along their golden path that hopefully will lead to (if not Oz) a really great seamstress.