Bafia, oh Bafia

          It’s been a week in a half since our group of 50 landed in Cameroon, but it definitely feels like we’ve been here for way longer. Our first two nights (spent in Douala and Yaoundé, respectively) were jam-packed—meeting people (always more than 5 at once), accumulating materials (malaria pills, yay!), absorbing information (how to use a modern African toilet), and basically just being shuttled around from place to place with little knowledge of where we were actually going and what we would be doing. Fast-forward to now…

            I have been living in Bafia for just over a week. Our group of 50 was divided by program, all the Agros stayed here in Bafia (the “semi-urban” town), and the health volunteers are scattered around 2 rural villages outside of Bafia—Lable and Nymsong. I will be living with my current host family until the last week in October, when I will be switching places with one of the health volunteers and moving in with a family in Lable.

            So here’s what I do all day: I wake up around 6am everyday to get ready for training (i.e. “school”). First thing I do every morning… BUCKET BATH. As some might know, (ehm, Pierce) I have some history with buckets and showering, but it’s a little different here. First of all, “shower” is no longer a word in my vocabulary. I take a bucket ¼ full with water, grab my cup, and basically make my own shower. It doesn’t sound too appealing, but I’ve been loving it (especially because it uses so little water!). I eat breakfast every morning with my youngest host brother, 8-year old Junior (not his real name, but the only thing he is called), which always makes for an interesting 15-30 minutes before I leave for training. From 7:30-4:30 I’m in training. This includes language/culture classes, technical training, and some medical info sessions here and there. I’ll try and get a post up soon with more about my living sitch/family and all about what were learning in tech training and the projects we’re working on, but I don’t have enough time/patience to fit it all in one post.

           I was hoping to post some pics but the internet is mega slow and it's getting late so I'll try again later this week.