IOU Pictures

Last time i posted I was hoping to get some pictures up, so here they are!

View from my hotel room in Yaounde.



 

Our training center in Bafia!



My host grand-mere in Lable gave me a cocoa "fruit" (half of it is in my left hand) and taught me some stuff about it. So the inside of the "fruit" is jam-packed with those white beans in my right hand, which can be sucked on for a sweet and tangy flavor. After than the white part is peeled off and those brown/black beans in my right hands are dried out and later crushed to make what we know as chocolate/cocoa in the raw. I took that hadfull of beans in the picture with the intent of drying them out, but due to the rain and my forgetfullness they've basically made themselves at home in my purse and will likely never evolve into their universally-loved chocolate form. Also, check out the right-hand corner of the picture, that's my peace corps issued machete!

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.

Missed Connections

I would love to tell you all about how awesome Cameroon is, buuuuut we missed our connection! Our flight was scheduled to leave JFK at 6:30pm, but due to lightning, rain, and runway traffic, we didn't takeoff until about 9pm. We got to Brussels at 10:10, right when boarding had ended, and the airline decided that they didn't have enough time to load all of our baggage onto the plane to Yaounde. After 3 hours all 50 of us finally had all of our baggage and we headed over to the hotel (arranged by American Airlines).

It's a bummer that we're not in Cameroon, but it is nice to have this break between flights, relax in a nice hotel, and even work out in a fitness room (likely for the last time for the next 2 years). Tomorrow we wake up bright and early to make our new flight, this time to Douala (east of Yaounde) at 10:30am. Since we still have serious PC business in Yaounde (i.e. pre-training and meeting the staff) we'll have to take and 8 hour bus ride from Douala to Yaounde, so it's going to be a loooooong day (of sitting on our butts).

 Hopefully the next time I post it will be from the planned location!

9 hours to takeoff

I'm hanging out and waiting to get on a bus to take us to JKF, so I figured I'd post a short update.

Yesterday we spent all day in what the Peace Corps calls "Staging", a day full of sessions, basically for us to talk about expectations and get to know each other. The group leaving for Cameroon tonight is a group of 50 PCTs (PCT = Peace Corps Trainee, our new official title as of yesterday), all diverse and interesting individuals that I have been getting to know and definitely look forward to spending more time with. Half of the group is agro (agriculture volunteers... that's me!) and the other half is health.

I would love to write more, but we're getting on the bus now. Before I sign off I do have to give some big love to Philly. I was able to spend a great last night in the states, exploring the city and whatnot, so cheers to that.

*I did edit my first post. I originally posted that I will be flying to Cameroon tomorrow (which is true in a way), but I am leaving NYC tonight, getting to Brussels around 8am (local time) and then finally arriving to Yaounde, Cameroon around 4pm (local time) on Fri. Sept. 17.

I'll keep my eyes open for an internet cafe in Yaounde and post about all the beautiful and interesting things I'll be seeing!! 

Nerves!?. (A tumble of emotions).

I'm new to the blogging world (or blogosphere, if you will), so let me start off with something easy. Here's my rough schedule for the next week:

Sat. Sept. 11 - Tues. Sept. 14 --> pack, panic, etc.

Wed. Sept. 15 --> 9am flight to Philadelphia. Spend the next day and a half taking in my last tastes of America, getting vaccinations, and beginning  life as a Peace Corps Trainee.

Thurs. Sept. 16 --> morning: continue to advance east, stopping in nyc to blow the day in jfk. evening: fly to Cameroon (no big deal).

Until the next time I feel inspired enough to share my thoughts on the interwebs, here are a few ways to contact me after I leave the U.S.:

email me - dbahir/gmail/com

skype me - (search my name)

send me facebook love - (also my name)

send me a letter/postcard/package/edible arrangement/candygram (just kidding about the last two):

*I've heard that it helps to write in red ink... up to you, just let me know if I should be expecting something in the mail.

Dori Bahir
Peace Corps Trainee
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 215
Yaoundé, Cameroon
AFRICA
Par Avion

Once I get in country, I'll probably get a local cell phone and learn all the other contact details worth sharing. (Oh and of course develop a nice, long list of things I desperately want sent to me).