Saturday, October 8, 2011
A few pictures of Yaounde, Bafia and Bokito
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Made it to Cameroon! The beginning of my Peace Corps journey
It has been such a crazy week of new experiences, to think about my life one week ago to now is a complete opposite- so quick how things can change!
After saying a lot of hard goodbyes and trying to figure out what to pack for 27 months, I arrived in Philadelphia for the “staging event” or brief introduction to the Peace Corps. When I got off the plane there were two other girls from Cleveland joining too and turns out 5 of us are from the Cleveland area! There are 54 of us in our group that are split into 3 sectors; Agroforestry, Youth Development and Community Health- I will be in the Community Health sector. Everyone is really nice and come from a lot of different backgrounds.
The next day we all took a bus from Philadelphia to New York then a plane to Brussels then finally Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Arriving in Africa was so exciting- I really couldn’t believe that this was all happening! We all got onto a bus and drove to the hotel as the sun was setting and took in the views of the jungle that we landed into. Cameroon is so beautiful!
The first 5 days we were in the capitol at a hotel and were given many orientations to the culture and background of Peace Corps in Cameroon. We’ve had to do countless introductions to different officials and have had the opportunity to go to a cultural dance show, have dinner with the US Ambassador and be on a national television show!
On Tuesday we left the capital and headed 2 hours north to where we will begin our trainings and move in with a home stay family. It has been such a change going from the large capital to the small village of Bokito where I am living now. My host family consists of a grandmother, a mom and dad, and 5 boys aged 17, 12, 11, 2 and 1. The house I live in is a 25 minute walk through dirt paths to get to the training site- we are really in the jungle/forest! Everyday we have trainings from 8am to about 5 or 6pm. The days are long then we come home to the host families to practice speaking French (which for me is still pretty much a mix of Portuguese) and integrate ourselves into the family and culture.
I am really excited about being here and really impressed with the way the Peace Corps has set up the trainings and how they have such a strong presence here in Cameroon.. We are all being trained on medical procedures to keep ourselves safe and healthy- I am really surprised with how many materials the PC has provided us. We are definitely well taken care of and watched over if anything goes wrong.
I have so much more to share but it will have to wait for another post. Right now I only have access to Internet 2 days a week and it is pretty slow. I think that will change soon but for now if you contact me and it takes awhile to respond, bear with me! You can call me… I am most available on Sundays- 011 237 740 58 032!
After saying a lot of hard goodbyes and trying to figure out what to pack for 27 months, I arrived in Philadelphia for the “staging event” or brief introduction to the Peace Corps. When I got off the plane there were two other girls from Cleveland joining too and turns out 5 of us are from the Cleveland area! There are 54 of us in our group that are split into 3 sectors; Agroforestry, Youth Development and Community Health- I will be in the Community Health sector. Everyone is really nice and come from a lot of different backgrounds.
The next day we all took a bus from Philadelphia to New York then a plane to Brussels then finally Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Arriving in Africa was so exciting- I really couldn’t believe that this was all happening! We all got onto a bus and drove to the hotel as the sun was setting and took in the views of the jungle that we landed into. Cameroon is so beautiful!
The first 5 days we were in the capitol at a hotel and were given many orientations to the culture and background of Peace Corps in Cameroon. We’ve had to do countless introductions to different officials and have had the opportunity to go to a cultural dance show, have dinner with the US Ambassador and be on a national television show!
On Tuesday we left the capital and headed 2 hours north to where we will begin our trainings and move in with a home stay family. It has been such a change going from the large capital to the small village of Bokito where I am living now. My host family consists of a grandmother, a mom and dad, and 5 boys aged 17, 12, 11, 2 and 1. The house I live in is a 25 minute walk through dirt paths to get to the training site- we are really in the jungle/forest! Everyday we have trainings from 8am to about 5 or 6pm. The days are long then we come home to the host families to practice speaking French (which for me is still pretty much a mix of Portuguese) and integrate ourselves into the family and culture.
I am really excited about being here and really impressed with the way the Peace Corps has set up the trainings and how they have such a strong presence here in Cameroon.. We are all being trained on medical procedures to keep ourselves safe and healthy- I am really surprised with how many materials the PC has provided us. We are definitely well taken care of and watched over if anything goes wrong.
I have so much more to share but it will have to wait for another post. Right now I only have access to Internet 2 days a week and it is pretty slow. I think that will change soon but for now if you contact me and it takes awhile to respond, bear with me! You can call me… I am most available on Sundays- 011 237 740 58 032!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
One week countdown
My blog for Brazil never really took off- I could never get myself to write about life there without it sounding like some kind of "othering" process that I was studying at Berkeley. My time in Brazil was absolutely amazing and I plan to move back to Rio someday.
For now, my next trip is to Cameroon with the Peace Corps for the next 27 months! I will do my best to write straight-forward about my experiences without feeling like I am objectfying anyone or thing.
I received my invitation to join the Peace Corps one day when I returned to my apartment in Rio- the night guard told me a package had come for me and I knew exactly what it was..... I rushed upstairs to open the envelope that read, "Congratulations- Your Assignment: Community Health Educator Country: Cameroon Start Date= Sept 15, 2011 End Date Dec 3, 2013". It was so intense and I had 10 days to decide if I should try and stay in Brazil or accept the position. It was not an easy decision but I decided to go ahead with the Peace Corps. 27 months is a hard commitment to actualize and I am not sure if it has even sunk in yet.
I leave on Wednesday, September 21st from Cleveland to Philadelphia for a one-day staging event where I will meet the other volunteers. We will spend one day there then the next day we will be taking a bus to New York City to fly to Yaounde, Cameroon. There we will stay a few days in the capital for orientations and by Monday I will be moving in with my host family for my 3-month language and technical training in a city 2 hours north of Yaounde.
I will be studying French and learning different community based techniques for health interventions for the first three months. In November I will be assessed for my placement of where I will be living for the next two years.
One week left to say all my goodbyes, pack and try to prepare mentally for what is coming my way!
For now, my next trip is to Cameroon with the Peace Corps for the next 27 months! I will do my best to write straight-forward about my experiences without feeling like I am objectfying anyone or thing.
I received my invitation to join the Peace Corps one day when I returned to my apartment in Rio- the night guard told me a package had come for me and I knew exactly what it was..... I rushed upstairs to open the envelope that read, "Congratulations- Your Assignment: Community Health Educator Country: Cameroon Start Date= Sept 15, 2011 End Date Dec 3, 2013". It was so intense and I had 10 days to decide if I should try and stay in Brazil or accept the position. It was not an easy decision but I decided to go ahead with the Peace Corps. 27 months is a hard commitment to actualize and I am not sure if it has even sunk in yet.
I leave on Wednesday, September 21st from Cleveland to Philadelphia for a one-day staging event where I will meet the other volunteers. We will spend one day there then the next day we will be taking a bus to New York City to fly to Yaounde, Cameroon. There we will stay a few days in the capital for orientations and by Monday I will be moving in with my host family for my 3-month language and technical training in a city 2 hours north of Yaounde.
I will be studying French and learning different community based techniques for health interventions for the first three months. In November I will be assessed for my placement of where I will be living for the next two years.
One week left to say all my goodbyes, pack and try to prepare mentally for what is coming my way!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Getting settled
One week in Rio and I am starting to feel settled- I love it!
Looking for an apartment was harder than I expected... I guess I didn't quite take into account that it is the peak of summer and Carnaval is right around the corner so it is almost impossible to find a place. I was searching in newspapers and online rental ads for a place. Doing this forced me to learn many new works in Portuguese that I didn't know... haha I had to learn all the terms for renting, rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, monthly bills, total costs, shared spaces.... everything. Luckily my friend Gustavo helped to call many of the places ahead of time to explain my situation in Portuguese.
It was a challenge- some days I got really down asking myself what I was even doing here... especially after I went and visited one apartment. It was in an area that was hard to get to by public transportation and on the way I got a little lost. When I finally arrived I ended up in this run down part of town at a run down house. The maid opened the door to show me around the house. It was dirty, had broken windows, old pipes, next to no ventilation and the room she showed me was an addition to the house in which you had to climb a rusty staircase to enter. When she showed me the room I asked her if this was a safe place to live. She responded, “ Safe? Ha! I live in a favela and I would not even live here!” So that being said, I walked out of there.
My friend who used to live here gave me a contact of a guy who was opening up a language school for lower-income students in Rio. I contacted him and set up an interview for working together. We met and talked for a few hours- He is a really great guy. He introduced me to his mother who rents rooms in her house as part of a homestay option for foreigners. Because I will be working with her son, she gave me an extremely good deal on the room- it is way less than the crappy apartment I just wrote about and she cooks me breakfast everyday- and even gave me the first month free! The house is on the 15th floor of a secure building 3 blocks from the ocean in one of the richest neighborhoods of Rio. It has large windows that are always open to let in the ocean air- unreal!
I will be helping her son open the language school- I am excited to see what I can bring to the school and the organization of the classes. He told me he would be able to get me a work visa- my current tourist visa only allows me to stay 6 months out of the year but the work visa could change that.... will I stay longer? Time will tell. I came here to feel things out and see what I can make of myself- it great opportunities decide to come my way, I will take them!
All my plans for Rio literally fell into place..... Nothing was for certain and I definitely went out on a limb to make this all work out. There were some really rough moments of doubting my decision to return to Brazil... but now things are starting to work out as I wanted them to play out. Anyone who knew all the details of this process know that I never gave up- I was overly stubborn to make this work and now that it is I am feeling so alive and good about life! Thank you to everyone who encouraged me and kept my spirits high during this process! I am glad things worked out the way they did because through the countless hours of research and headache I put into this, I learned alot about how NGOs function and work and how to set up independent projects outside of the country to hopefully use for myself one day.
Vamos!
Looking for an apartment was harder than I expected... I guess I didn't quite take into account that it is the peak of summer and Carnaval is right around the corner so it is almost impossible to find a place. I was searching in newspapers and online rental ads for a place. Doing this forced me to learn many new works in Portuguese that I didn't know... haha I had to learn all the terms for renting, rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, monthly bills, total costs, shared spaces.... everything. Luckily my friend Gustavo helped to call many of the places ahead of time to explain my situation in Portuguese.
It was a challenge- some days I got really down asking myself what I was even doing here... especially after I went and visited one apartment. It was in an area that was hard to get to by public transportation and on the way I got a little lost. When I finally arrived I ended up in this run down part of town at a run down house. The maid opened the door to show me around the house. It was dirty, had broken windows, old pipes, next to no ventilation and the room she showed me was an addition to the house in which you had to climb a rusty staircase to enter. When she showed me the room I asked her if this was a safe place to live. She responded, “ Safe? Ha! I live in a favela and I would not even live here!” So that being said, I walked out of there.
My friend who used to live here gave me a contact of a guy who was opening up a language school for lower-income students in Rio. I contacted him and set up an interview for working together. We met and talked for a few hours- He is a really great guy. He introduced me to his mother who rents rooms in her house as part of a homestay option for foreigners. Because I will be working with her son, she gave me an extremely good deal on the room- it is way less than the crappy apartment I just wrote about and she cooks me breakfast everyday- and even gave me the first month free! The house is on the 15th floor of a secure building 3 blocks from the ocean in one of the richest neighborhoods of Rio. It has large windows that are always open to let in the ocean air- unreal!
I will be helping her son open the language school- I am excited to see what I can bring to the school and the organization of the classes. He told me he would be able to get me a work visa- my current tourist visa only allows me to stay 6 months out of the year but the work visa could change that.... will I stay longer? Time will tell. I came here to feel things out and see what I can make of myself- it great opportunities decide to come my way, I will take them!
All my plans for Rio literally fell into place..... Nothing was for certain and I definitely went out on a limb to make this all work out. There were some really rough moments of doubting my decision to return to Brazil... but now things are starting to work out as I wanted them to play out. Anyone who knew all the details of this process know that I never gave up- I was overly stubborn to make this work and now that it is I am feeling so alive and good about life! Thank you to everyone who encouraged me and kept my spirits high during this process! I am glad things worked out the way they did because through the countless hours of research and headache I put into this, I learned alot about how NGOs function and work and how to set up independent projects outside of the country to hopefully use for myself one day.
Vamos!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Eu cheguei ao Rio!
I made it back to Rio!
I arrived yesterday morning and it was about 95 degrees at the airport- It is the middle of summer here south of the equator. My friend Gustavo picked me up from the airport and it was almost like I have never left Brazil. I remembered all the places I have already been to and how to navigate the city. It feels so good to be back here!
I stopped by the language school I will be studying at for the next 3 months and was blown away- everyone was so nice and after I left I walked 2 and a half blocks and ended up on Ipanema Beach. I think I am going to like the next couple of months. A lot.
Now, I am looking for an apartment- and it is not all that easy. I was quickly reminded of my first week in Thailand and constantly being shut down to find a place. Something will work out soon.
I am happy to be back and practicing Portuguese again, although the way of speaking in Rio is way different than the Portuguese in Salvador. I am trying to learn the adjustment.
Class starts on Monday- I am excited to meet more people here and see what I just got myself into for the next few months.
Ate logo- I am off to a samba club in Lapa tonight with some people I just met on the beach. I love this place!
Friday, January 28, 2011
On my way back to Brasil
Yep, on my way back. I know I did not even post one blog the entire time I was in Brazil last time, but it was because for the first time ever I wanted to stop comparing and contrasting my culture to Brazil. I spent my time picking up Portuguese, meeting new people and learning to slow down after 2 crazy years at UC Berkeley where I was the king of multi-tasking.
When I got to Brazil in August I fell in love within the first week- the vibrancy of people's attitudes, music (or some kind of beat) lingering from every corner, tropical plants and beautiful ocean... and the acai. The study abroad program I took part in helped me to learn the language by taking classes and staying with a host family where we sat and ate meals 3 times a day together trying to communicate with each other. The culture class I took allowed me to view Brazil from a completely different lens then the image I had romanticized in my mind. I began to view racism/sexism/class-ism through a whole new way. I loved the way brazil had a hold on me and I wasn't ready to let that grasp go just yet. I put the my Peace Corps application on hold for a year and decided to set up an independent study abroad program in Rio de Janeiro.
I am on my way back, carrying a 10-year visa. I arrive in Rio tomorrow morning and start Portuguese class on Monday. I will be taking 3 months of classes at Casa do Caminho in Ipanema, 3 blocks from the beach! It took me a long time to set up this program and find a language school I felt like sponsoring, but Casa do Caminho, www.casadocaminho-languagecentre.org/, is an organization run by volunteers and all the money for the classes goes to support an orphanage outside of Rio. I tried to get an internship with them but they were full at this time. While I will study there I will be looking for another internship opportunities to take on for the next few months.
I am so excited to return to Rio. The first time I went there in October of last year my jaw literally dropped- it really is 'cidade maravilhousa' a marvelous city! I will be here for approximately 5 months... I am keeping that door open a little to see what kind of opportunities come my way. Until then I will be learning Portuguese, witnessing 'Carnaval' in a month, and exploring what the city has to offer.
Brasil, ate amanha!
Abracos!
When I got to Brazil in August I fell in love within the first week- the vibrancy of people's attitudes, music (or some kind of beat) lingering from every corner, tropical plants and beautiful ocean... and the acai. The study abroad program I took part in helped me to learn the language by taking classes and staying with a host family where we sat and ate meals 3 times a day together trying to communicate with each other. The culture class I took allowed me to view Brazil from a completely different lens then the image I had romanticized in my mind. I began to view racism/sexism/class-ism through a whole new way. I loved the way brazil had a hold on me and I wasn't ready to let that grasp go just yet. I put the my Peace Corps application on hold for a year and decided to set up an independent study abroad program in Rio de Janeiro.
I am on my way back, carrying a 10-year visa. I arrive in Rio tomorrow morning and start Portuguese class on Monday. I will be taking 3 months of classes at Casa do Caminho in Ipanema, 3 blocks from the beach! It took me a long time to set up this program and find a language school I felt like sponsoring, but Casa do Caminho, www.casadocaminho-languagecentre.org/, is an organization run by volunteers and all the money for the classes goes to support an orphanage outside of Rio. I tried to get an internship with them but they were full at this time. While I will study there I will be looking for another internship opportunities to take on for the next few months.
I am so excited to return to Rio. The first time I went there in October of last year my jaw literally dropped- it really is 'cidade maravilhousa' a marvelous city! I will be here for approximately 5 months... I am keeping that door open a little to see what kind of opportunities come my way. Until then I will be learning Portuguese, witnessing 'Carnaval' in a month, and exploring what the city has to offer.
Brasil, ate amanha!
Abracos!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Good places take time to get to...
Once again I am at the airport waiting... my flight from Medellin to Bogota was delayed which in turn made me miss my flight to Brazil. I was stuck in Bogota for the night and slapped with a hefty change flight fee (at least I was able to escape the change fee in Cleveland). I should be in Brazil tomorrow... hopefully. The scariest part of the situation was that I had to pay for my Brazil flight in cash... because my flight was delayed, that lead me to walk around Bogota with 2,500,000 Colombian Pesos. Yep. 2.5 million. Not the best place to have that much money on you. I was pretty much sweating all day thinking about it, even though it is much colder here as the elevation is greater than Medellin. Bogota ended up being an awesome city. Thankfully there was a guy who also missed the flight to Brazil who helped me figure out how to get around and figure out what to do about the ticket. We spent the day touring the city- I was glad I met him because he spoke English, Portuguese, and Spanish. I would not have been able to do it without him. Tomorrow I should arrive in Bahia, just in time for the program to start! Saturday I meet my host family- I am so excited.
The rest of my time in Colombia was amazing- Ursula taught me so much about horses and how to ride them- I got to see so much of Medellin, and even take a road trip through the country. It was such a great time. I am very happy for Ursula- she is moving on to start graduate school at Oxford! I am honored to be her friend :)
Sometimes traveling can get you down because of all the complications, the lines you have to wait in, the problems that arise, the uncertainties of not knowing what is going on.... but I have learned one thing about myself, I don't give up. When you get to see and take part in such different activities you never have been exposed to before... all of the sudden all those complications vanish.
The rest of my time in Colombia was amazing- Ursula taught me so much about horses and how to ride them- I got to see so much of Medellin, and even take a road trip through the country. It was such a great time. I am very happy for Ursula- she is moving on to start graduate school at Oxford! I am honored to be her friend :)
Sometimes traveling can get you down because of all the complications, the lines you have to wait in, the problems that arise, the uncertainties of not knowing what is going on.... but I have learned one thing about myself, I don't give up. When you get to see and take part in such different activities you never have been exposed to before... all of the sudden all those complications vanish.
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