10.21
I am sitting in a water sanitation class that’s in French while I’m writing this. I am hoping to be able to type it on a friends computer with an English keyboard!

I am closing in on three weeks in Africa and it feels like I’ve been here for years! My daily routine is getting pretty regular:
5:45: Roosters wake me up.
6:30: Actually get up after hating the rooster for 45 minutes.
7:00: After getting ready I boil water for my Nescafe and drink it outside looking around or watching it rain.
7:15: Eat half a bagette and watch the 6 kids fight over the biggest piece, usually finish my French homework.
7:30: Leave for school, get stared at the entire time by the kids who shout “Good Morning” (said more like “Goood Moouring!!).
8-5: School—which is now in almost all French to aid in our “immersion” but really it just makes me space out and write emails to my friends in America.
5:00: Play ultimate Frisbee or football (the rest of the world football, ie soccer) where we’re joined by tons of local kids who are now better than most of us. Or go to the bar and have petit cocas/beer and vent about the day.
6:30: the sun sets in about 10 minutes, part of being so near the equator I suppose.
7-8: Eat some dinner (usually rice, beans, plantains, potatos…startch).
8-9: “Shower” and finish my homework.
In bed by 10 (at the latest)!

It’s become pretty monotonous and I can’t wait to go to Post (December 15th). Although it will be hard without my friends, I am ready for my own space! Living with a family has been interesting, definitely a learning experience, quite different from growing up just Harry and me! We have kind of been working on a few projects in Bandjoun, a soccer tournament and with a girls group. The soccer thing was organized by PC but basically we have a soccer game once a week and at half time do a needs assessment/health intervention of some sort. It’s pretty fun but I have found that being a white girl playing with Cameroonian men is a bit difficult. The girls club is at the Catholic mission and we are trying to plan osme sort of empowerment/team building thing with them. We’ve only met with them once and once they opened up we had a great time. It’s hard though—not as easy as working with the American teenagers at 1st Pres :). I think it could be a great project though!

My biggest problem here has been French which I am understanding a little more but it’s very hard here because it’s often mixed with the local language and/or slang. Slowly I am getting better but it has been harder than I thought. At least once a day I have to remind myself that I live in Africa and why I am here. Luckily my friends are able to remind me of that also.

Some stuff we’ve been learning can be tedious because it’s a lot of groundwork and foundation for assessing communities, identifiying needs, etc and less of the health work I had in mind. That will come and I am thinking now that I may want my primary job to be more youth oriented than health center oriented. We’ll see! What we have learned so far is that the health problems range from eye infections to GI problems to AIDS and Malaria!

One cool thing, besides just ebing here, is watching food be prepared. I mean we’re talking “ground with a rock and cooked over the fire” cooking. Hopefully I can learn to do one or two things before I leave so I’m not having Nescafe for every meal at post!!

After reading over this I thought I’d elaborate slightly on the shower situation:
a)the shower room is connected to the latrine—period.
b)There are “shower flies” which are mini and literally just sit on the walls at all times—at least they’re not flying around or at you, but thye’re still there and there’s a lot them!
c) Freezing.
d) I am still unsure of how clean I’m actually getting.
e) I usually have to psych myself up for a few minutes before I turn on the water and jump in—which is usually for only the time needed to rinse.
f) The questionable electricity occasionally goes out mid-shower.
…I generally just laugh, that’s all there is to do many times!