I have arrived

Today:

- introductions to everyone

- food and water safety lecture – probably good they gave us that on the first day since I think ability to concentrate will drop off significantly as training progresses.

- typhoid shot (vaccine #4 pour moi) – also Hep A and B for some

- medical intake interviews

- interview with Kim Ahanda, APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director) for the Health program – PC apparently has a lot of acronyms, so I’m going to try to keep them in order

- French assessment examen – could’ve gone better. I understood my language tester well, but had trouble putting sentences together in a fluid manner

- first internet in Cameroon at the PC office. Was good to re-connect with the world

- met Richard, the 70+ volunteer in the North who my mom wrote to before I left. Was very kind, expressed concern at my mother’s anxiousness. Commented that (and I am not joking) “she seemed especially anxious,” perhaps more than the average parent. I reassured him that that was just my mother.

- lunch was delicious – some sort of curry beef with rice and potatoes (and of course, bread), followed by a citrus-y yogurt that was more liquid-y than most yogurts I’ve encountered

- dinner was also a knockout – a spinach/fried fish combo with potatoes (cassava?) and plaintains

- did laundry for the first time with Brian and Ralph (laundry party!) on the third floor and soon realized that water pressure was better in my room, so relocated. Yay clean clothes!

- Sat around the training office WAITING. A wee taste of what’s to come, perhaps?

- came downstairs to find music and dancing. June (one of our PCVLs or Peace Corps Volunteer Leader) had invited a band to come and play. They were missing two bandmates but it was still fantastic. Had one of those moments where I thought: “This could not be more right. Cameroon is amazing.” Thunderstorm was brewing, hard rains pounded the patio, creating a 3 inch pool, lightning (beautiful and purple, lights up the sky), and some thunder. We were all outside, but under an overhang, and the lights went out. They played a very slow-paced, chilled-out song, in line with Bob Marley and the rasta vibe – I’ve already forgotten it, but it sounded at once familiar and foreign, fantastic. The entire moment, the scene felt like a microcosm of how I think Africans live. That is, Shit happens – the electricity goes out, the rain is falling falling falling and you’re trapped inside a hotel. But you know what? We got music and dancing (and alcohol) and one of the most beautiful settings in existence. We’re gonna keep on rockin. Really felt like a solidifying moment where pieces fell into place. I want a record of this feeling because I’m sure times will come when I’ll need a positive, reaffirming memory to fall back on

- Remarked to myself that the red earth is positively magnificent and will surely eat me up whole (or at least, my lightest clothes). The dust, the mud is incredible. I’ve never seen earth so fiery. It’s as if the sun were smothered by the dust and the dust remained as red as the coals that resulted.

- Some people are beginning to feel antsy about being let out into the city because being on lockdown in the hotel is not so fun. The PCVLs say its a bad idea and they’re probably right (just picture forty-two silly, ignorant Peace Corps trainees wandering around a very foreign city, and it surely doesn’t sound like the best idea), but it still feels like being cooped up, like we’re going stir crazy. June told me tonight that they might let us walk to the PC training office in a day or two, which is absolutely thrilling, but she also said that this is a BIG PC no-no, or at least, hold-your-breath type of activity.