Three weeks in Cameroon, and the Education trainees have learned where they will be posted – so, even though Kiyomi is a Small Enterprise Development trainee, WE know we’ll be living in the city of Bamenda!
Bamenda is in the Northwest region, it is the capital of the Anglophone part of the country, and it’s in the part of the country where most of the “traditional African” masks you may have seen in pictures or museums come from. Bamenda is at a higher elevation, so is somewhat cooler than it is here in Bafia (though with the rains this week, it’s been almost chilly here sometimes, and we haven’t had enough sun to assure our laundry will dry, so we had to wash some clothes in buckets in the bathroom this week – between our travel clothesline and a fan in our room, we managed to dry them). Jack and the ED trainees will be going on site-visit to the various posts (each to his or her own future home) next week (though our director is arranging for us to spend our anniversary together!), and then Kiyomi will be going the following week, when the rest of the SED trainees go on site-visit. Please keep us in prayer in the two weeks when we’ll be traveling (bush taxis will be an adventure!) and apart. No complaints, though! Two weeks apart is way better than three months!
We made baguette pizzas for our host family last night. They were a hit! We’re thinking Guinness stew next time, from Kiyomi’s family recipe. Highlights of the week: we’ve explored one of the markets, learned to insist on the real price, not the “white” price (our trainers, intending to reassure us, said that any kind of attention/harassment/annoyance we may run into is not because we’re Americans, but because we’re white – we didn’t try to explain the American phenomena of “multi-racial”), took a couple moto taxis into centreville and the supermarche, where we were able to find canned mushrooms and olive oil, taken beaucoup de bucket baths and spent a morning in the bathroom doing laundry in buckets! This week has also been better than last for “hitting walls” – we just may be acculturating! Doing battle with a few more African viruses this week, though just colds this time. We’ll try to get some pictures up at some point, but “highspeed” is relative here.
glad to hear you're acclimating to everything! and to hear you made a form of pizza. :) looking forward to the photos!
ReplyDeletemmm post the guiness stew recipe when you can it sounds divine! Glad to know your surviving and know where you will be staying!!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! That sounds pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteThings proceed apace here. My last day is tomorrow, then I um, go not nearly as off-the-grid as you guys while I travel to KS to visit friends and family and take a graduate class about SF literature for a few weeks, followed by a road trip through CO in August.
So I'll be returning for school at about the time you guys are settling into Bamenda. At that point, we're planning on sending you a package in dual-celebration. So, think of what you'll want/need, and then tell us where and how to send it.