business matters

I've been bored lately with training, and spent half of yesterday making a map of my village on the computer. Check it out!Also, the next few days will be busy as stage is coming to a close, and everyone will be trying to go to the cybercafé, so I expect it to be difficult for me to access my email. Here is a schedule of events for the next few days. Don't worry, I'll be alive, just a little more MIA than usual.

Saturday Dec 1: Celebratory dinner with trainees, trainers, and homestay families
Sunday Dec 2: Trainees travel to Yaoundé, stay at the Peace Corps office for two nights while setting up banking and doing "bridge to post"
Tuesday Dec 4: Trainees return to Bangangté and homestay families
Wednesday Dec 5: Swearing-In Ceremony! Country Director, APCDs, and all of Bangangté will be there! woo hoo! By the end of the day, we will officially be Peace Corps Volunteers, no longer just measly Trainees.
Thursday Dec 6: Volunteers depart for their posts

My schedule after that is a bit hairy right now, as it appears to be quite the challenge to find a route to my post that doesn't involve me crossing rivers in very unstable canoes, only a problem when you consider that I will be traveling with the 80 lbs of stuff that I brought here plus the about 100 lbs of stuff that Peace Corps has given me (many books, an enormous trunk, a bike), plus whatever other items I will have purchased to set up my home (e.g. kitchen supplies, food, huge gas tank, a camping stove) so I may or may not be staying in Yaoundé, Bafia, and/or Bafoussam for a night or two before finally arriving at post. Suffice it to say that I should finally, somehow, get to post around Dec 8 or 9. Once there, I don't know how soon it will be before I can get to the internet.

Take home message: if you don't hear from me in about a month (or more), don't worry. That's normal. Hopefully, I'll talk to you... soon (but remember that soon is a relative term).