December 1, 2013 My birthday is in 3 days. I’m going to Banyo – a bigger town than Mayo-Darlé – for the day to observe and participate in World Aids Day activities. I’m hoping I can get a cold drink since they have electricity. This morning I woke up feeling like I spent yesterday working out. I was extremely tired and sore. Yesterday was a busy day. I woke up, washed my dishes, got water for the bathroom, washed my clothes, and got water for the kitchen. That is a day worth of work since everything is done by hand. Life here is so different and a little hard at times. I told my neighbor girl I was tired and she asked what I had done to be so tired. I told her yesterday I worked a lot, but today I haven’t done anything. She laughed and said life is hard here. I couldn’t agree more. The same neighbor girl took me to a potential work partner’s house who speaks English. It was a nice little break from French/Fulfulde, although everyone in the house speaks French and Fulfulde and she talks to her kids in Fulfulde. She fed me, as all Cameroonians do to their guests, and it was delicious. I ate FOUR beignets, the fried dough balls, and they weren’t small ones by any means. She makes a mean beignet. I’ll be back for those. She also served me the usual chai tea. I think it is different than chai tea back home, but it is very tasty. I love it, which is good since it is widely available. You never know what you’ll wake up to here. So far, one week in, I’ve woken up to something crawling around in the ceiling above my head, to bugs I can’t identify in my latrine, or to horses outside my window. Sometimes it is kids banging on my door saying “Maureen” or sometimes it is the large birds on the tin roof. It is always a surprise, whatever it is. Sometimes I wake up thinking there are kids outside my bedroom window, however, it is just the goats coughing and bleating which sound like children. There was one day I woke up and went to make some Nescafe and saw there was some sort of mud nest/home made inside the tin foil roll. I still am unsure what lives in there, and afraid to find out, I just left it there. Right next to my food I eat.