Written 10.8.2013 but posted today.  More up to date post to come soon. 

Well, it’s 19.36 and I’m in bed.  I went to “school” from 8-1630 and then to the bar until 1820.  I walked home with my fellow “stagieres” and then ate fried plantains and sauce for dinner.  I took my usual bucket bath but because the power is out, and I broke my gas lamp, I was using a small “torch” (or flashlight) and noticed many small cockroaches out of the corner of my eye.  Thank goodness for the weaves and braids because my bath time is significantly shorter since I don’t have to wash my hair.  I have one day and then I leave for my site visit.  I am super excited to leave Bafia, have a little freedom, and see what a day in the life is like. 

Today we had new language teachers and our post preference interviews.  It is very difficult to pick my top three when I have never been to Cameroon and know very little about the location, work, etc.  I love my new language teacher even though my last one was pretty great as well.  I formed one small sentence and she praised me with a French “super!”  Pretty awesome for my French confidence. 

I had my usual fried eggs for breakfast (with a variation of fried plantains or bread).  Yes, I have fried plantains and fried eggs a lot – sometimes for breakfast and dinner – but I can’t complain because it’s not fish!  Then, at 10 we get café au lait and un beigne (fried dough with sugar), which is super, delicious.  At lunchtime, I usually pay for some fruit, rice, another beigne, and a coke or Fanta.  It’s super nutritious, obviously.  Today was special though because I also went and got a pain au chocolait avec les bananes from Mama Giselle’s.  It is definitely a comfort food; and while the chocolait is Tartina and not Nutella, it’s a decent substitute.  Then, at the bar, I have my one bierre glase (cold beer – if we are lucky) and eat my peanuts I’ve hoarded from lunch time as my “brewery snack.”  While it’s no popcorn and Lewis and Clark Miner’s Gold, it does the trick after 4 hours of language. 

For the first time away from home, I am going to try out my very precious stash of TV shows and one movie.  It is raining like crazy; with a tin roof and no insulation, it is very loud.  It is kind of comforting, and I wish I could’ve told my host Mama during dinner (by dinner I mean me eating and her watching) that my house back in the states leaked like crazy and if it rained like this in good ol’ Montana it was basically raining inside too.  Amazingly, there are no leaks I’ve noticed in the metal roof.  Although, just like at home, the magpies crawl around up they’re all the time and you can hear them!  The magpies make me think of Moka, our family dog, because they would bother her and try to steal her dog food.  She would bark, bite the chain-link fence and try to chase them away. 

On my way home from the bar, the lightning bugs were out.  I have yet to communicate how awesome they are and have someone agree with me or understand me.  I can’t tell if they are just so common it is not exciting or if my French is just that bad (a definite possibility).  Even my neighbor, another trainee, is said she has lightning bugs all over back home.  I’ve only seen them twice, the first time was at Potosi Hot Springs, which was amazing since we were relaxing in a natural hot springs, lit up by bugs!  The other time was on the farm my dad grew up on in North Dakota. 

There is no telling what the next week will bring since this past weekend was still filled with many firsts.  I got my hair braided African style with weaves and all.  It took a little over 4 hours, cost me 8000 CFA, or $16, and weighs a TON!  I ate a hamburger in Africa, no Dean or Wendy’s burger, but not bad with some kind of peanut sauce maybe.  I went to a “tiki bar” in Bafia.  Quite fun and it made me feel like I was at some resort.  Then, I showered with rainwater.  When I got home from a Saturday out with the other trainees, I was stuck in the rain and sopping wet by the time I made it home, not to mention fairly muddy since I fell in the street as well.  Since it was raining so hard, I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk back out to the well for some shower water, so I just put my bucket outside the kitchen door and in a few minutes it was full.  It was awfully cold, but felt fresh and looked amazingly clear, so it wasn’t a bad rainwater bucket shower. 

I’ve started to tuck in all sides of my mosquito net since my wonderful mouse roommate is still sharing my room.  Sadly, he has not passed away yet.  Also, there has been a 3” cockroach fairly consistently every night in my room.  I don’t know if you can imagine a cockroach so big it wakes you up in the middle of the night and sounds like a mouse.  Needless to say, it is not something I enjoy and now every time I kill one, I stash it in a water bottle like my sister used to stash bees from her room.  It is disgusting and I plug my nose every time I open it, but I don’t know what else to do with them so I don’t attract any other critters.  And every time I wake up to one, I gear myself up for smashing a mouse with my Teva, like my dad stomped a mouse back home.  I hate killing things but I definitely draw the line when creepy crawlies invade my personal space. 

I witnessed my host brother killing two chickens this weekend and then had chicken for dinner.  For those of you who know me, this was very disturbing and definitely a struggle.  At least by now they’ve understood I have a petite estomac and don’t eat much so they don’t overdo the meat.  I couldn’t be more grateful for that.  I try to eat what they give me, especially now that I don’t have to eat fish.  It is difficult to watch someone step on, slice the throat of the chicken, pluck it, rinse it in rain water, and then continue to flinch in the bucket I washed my clothes in this past weekend.  I never witnessed the meaning of “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” until this past weekend.  It is not something I want to experience again and will probably starve before I kill something to eat.  (Side note:  I am not a vegetarian and know my meat back home comes from chickens, cows, elk, deer, etc. I just don’t feel the need to talk about the animal, how it was killed, or where it came from because if I do, all I can think of is:  it must’ve had a baby, sister, mom, dad, or someone that is now looking for him/her.  It must’ve suffered when whoever killed it.  And I never want to take the life of anything intentionally – maybe except cockroaches, mice, or spiders in my room.  Anyways, while I don’t hunt/kill my food myself, I don’t judge those who do.  It is necessary but I don’t like to think about the reality of eating the chicken I was just hanging out with in the yard.)

Wish me luck as I go off to Bali, Cameroon for 5 days with a full fledged Peace Corps Volunteer.