Settling in

So, we’ve been in Cameroon for about five months now.  It feels both so much longer than that and like the time has flown by, and IST (In-Service Training) is just around the corner.  We’ve flown across the world, made it through three months of training, moved to the beautiful North West Region, triumphed in our struggle for housing, got a bed made, survived the election (a tense time for Peace Corps admin, but quiet for us volunteers), got a futon made, and co-hosted a dinner for the new training group (that’s right, we’re no longer the new kids!).  The house we fought for is starting to be a cozy retreat and welcoming place for us to come home to, a few plumbing issues aside (certain faucets don’t exactly turn off, unless you cut each room’s main valve outside and our landlord hasn’t seen it as a priority – we occasionally really miss our awesome landlord in Pittsburgh, but also really just have to laugh about it).

We’re learning who our favorite market mammas are to buy produce from, and our neighbors all know we belong in the neighborhood now.  At this point we can pretty well find our way around town and find the essentials, and - another thing no one tells you about Peace Corps – we recycle in ways that previously we would have thought extreme and absurd (cookie trays leftover from the Girl Scout Samoas box make excellent silverware holders).  At work, Jack has been teaching computer skills at the Delegation of Basic Education, and Kiyomi has been conducting an organizational assessment at her NGO.  It all moves at a slower pace here, which takes some getting used to, but believing that we’re contributing to the success of our community has a way of making any challenge seem lighter.  In the coming months, we’re looking forward to collaborating with another volunteer to teach basic literacy at a health clinic nearby, and are hoping in the next year to have the opportunity to start teaching civic responsibility and community building with some education materials developed by LAGA (The Last Great Ape Association) that Peace Corps Cameroon is interested in testing and adapting.

LAGA is amazing, and we are really excited about their vision.  The organization’s function is to preserve great apes, their habitat, and to prevent poaching; their purpose is to demonstrate a functional model of a new kind of NGO that, rather than just asking for money, trying to create new laws, and working within a defunct system, instead seeks to fight corruption, enforce laws already on the books, and create a better system.  We’re really excited about the collaboration with Peace Corps in seeking to teach civic responsibility with a community-based approach, and we’re more excited about the opportunity to take part in testing these materials.