Roads Traveled

Roads Traveled

I’ve been at post for three weeks now, and I’m slowly but surely settling in to my new village, and my new life. I recently realized that this is what I actually came here for and have been prepping for since last January. I didn’t really recognize during training that that wasn’t REALLY Peace Corps yet, and that instead it was just training. It seems obvious, but I guess now that I’m here I realize that now is when the real challenges start and when the work begins. And the work is the reason I came here in the first place.

So far everyone in village has been very friendly and welcoming, though often a bit confused on why there is a white guy wandering around the village… and why he’s still there three weeks later. But little by little I’ll get the word out on what I’m doing there, and they’ll figure it out hopefully before two years is up.

For Christmas I went to Garoua, which is the provincial capital, and met up with the other volunteers in the North province. We treated ourselves to a night in a nice hotel, and went out to dinner. Needless to say it was a very bizarre Christmas. Here they call it “Fete de Noel”, fete meaning holiday or party. And boy did they make it party. The hotel we were staying at hosted a huge party for Christmas Eve, and there were HUNDREDS of people there drinking and going crazy. They were partying until at least 5am (I didn’t make it past 1am).

I went back to visit my host family from training the night of Christmas, even though they’re Muslim, just to have something familiar to visit. It was really nice to see them and feel like I’ve got people in Cameroon that I feel close with and will open their house to me. But even more exciting was when I realized that I was ready to head back to my village. I think it’s a good sign that even after 11 days, I was already happy to be “back home” as we drove into the village.

And people in village were really bummed that I wasn’t around for Christmas, so they said that need to pass the New Year with them instead. Sounds great! They said that on Christmas Eve they were partying until 7am, and that it’s like that for New Year’s Eve as well. But in addition to New Year’s Eve partying, they also eat food all day on New Year’s Day, and then party all night again.

Unfortunately I got quite the stomachache and fever on New Year’s Eve, so I passed the evening in bed trying to get better so I could at least take part in the festivities the next day. I do wish I wasn’t so sick, because I otherwise would have really enjoyed hearing people playing drums and singing outside. And the next morning all of the children in the village were running through the streets yelling “Bonne Année! Bonne Année!”. People were dancing, singing, drinking, and playing drums all day for the new year, they really take the holiday to the max.

So now I’m going to pick up the momentum and get to work on my project: teaching people to plant trees on their farms. First I’m going to introduce them to the idea of Peace Corps in the first place, and then start talking about all of the benefits of trees (combating desertification, improved soil fertility and organic matter, prevent erosion). Off I go.