The world through my eyes: Happy New Year!

River near my house

It’s been a great start to the New year living here in Cameroon!

Since my last post I’ve been working hard to set up my house, it’s definitely not as easy as walking into Ikea or target and picking things up. For example I needed a gas bottle for my stove and had to travel 8 hours and wait 7 days, I had to walk a few miles to find lumber then wait 3 days for it to arrive and many other similar stories. So, as they say here in Cameroon- small small, we go catch monkey (slowly, things will work out-Pidgeon English)

The holiday season was ok here- in my village , there was no real celebration for Christmas so I spent the day building furniture and one of the orphans who lives at the hospital came over to help and then I made a fish dinner for us and we ate it in my nearly empty house haha. My landlord is a really great guy and he gave me a whole living room set of furniture that he made by hand- at first I was stubborn and said I wanted to build everything by hand- but then he brought it over and it was nice polished hardwood-so I happily accepted the chairs and coffee table!

Then for New Years there was a party with a few of the volunteers in Bertoua- East region. I first stopped in the capital, Yaounde, to pick up a package and ended up going to a baptism party and met so many Cameroonians and danced the night away… that night will go down as one of my favorites of 2011.. there was amazing food for everyone to eat that blew away any other food I have eaten in country so far, so many people to meet and music to last all night! The baptism was for the family of one of the volunteer’s families from Bokito so it was nice to see some familiar faces.

Getting down at the baptism party in Yaounde

Our New Year's Crew- Me, Laura, Andy ,Stephanie, Flora, Molly, Ryan, Geoff, Joe, Ryan and Shonna

Then I headed to Bertoua to celebrate the new year with my friends- it was great to meet up and share stories of how life is adjusting to living in new villages on our own. Everyone had interesting stories- you would never fully believe some of the things we all see on a day to day basis nor can I even begin to describe them all in detail- its what makes this experience so exciting. For example, a coyote (or wolf) entered my house the other night when I was cooking- I left my door open as I usually do so my neighbors can stop in and say hi but didn’t expect one of them to be a coyote! I mean, every other day I find a chicken walking through my house , but a coyote.. really?

Now I am headed back to village to continue getting settled and meeting people in my town. I’m going to the hospital on Monday to start observing the doctor and the nurse’s work. I have no clue what to expect. One of the other volunteers told me that he showed up at the hospital in his town and they told him there was an office set up for him- it was the surgery room.. and there was someone with appendicitis waiting to be treated. We are not doctors and are not allowed to perform surgery (even if we had knowledge of doing so). With that being said… um.. yeah I have no clue what to expect.

My little town is growing on me- Although I am not found of the copious amount of alcohol that people drink in my village, I really love my neighbors. They are a really loving family and randomly bring over a huge plate of delicious food! And, they love to make fun of me with everything I do.. fetching water from the well, washing cloths by hand, cooking, washing dishes in buckets.. it adds a lot of comedy to my life.

It was a great finish to a year full of changes and good vibes for the new year to come! Feelin’ good.