Phew, it seems that as stage draws to a close, things are happening faster, and much more is happening everyday. It’s kind of like the entire Peace Corps experience in miniature – people always say that the first year is very slow, but the second year flies by. Stage passed quite slowly at first, but now I can’t believe it’s almost over (and I’m thrilled). Anyhow, yesterday was a day of many things, and today is Thanksgiving, so I’d like to share a bit about all of that, and how we stagiares are handling Tday.
So, yesterday, the health group went to a local high school and taught a workshop on HIV/AIDS. David and I (both trainees) and Stacy (a current PCV) all facilitated. The workshop was only about 45 minutes, and in French. Initially, I had thought that I would have no trouble – I’ve facilitated many workshops before, and getting up in front of people has never seemed difficult to me before. But as soon as we got to the classroom, I realized how in over my head I was. We had only planned the workshop a few hours before doing it, and hadn’t rehearsed it at all. As soon as we were up there, in front of about 40-50 students, plus all of the trainees, I just completely blanked – forgot everything we’d planned. The kids were fantastic, very well-behaved, and very participatory. I had some trouble understanding the students speaking in French, which made it very difficult to check whether they understood. Stacy, fortunately, was on top of it, and did an amazing job holding the workshop together. It was a good reality check for me, though, about how difficult it’s going to be to facilitate these workshops, and how much work I will need to put into doing them well, should I do them.
Immediately after that, my group of trainees had a meeting with our community group. One of the projects for the health program involves meeting roughly weekly with a community group (either of women, or a high school group, or with a group of people living with HIV/AIDS) and planning an activity that we are going to do at the end of stage to show what we’ve done. My group is the local PLWHA, and all along the meetings we’ve had with them have seemed to go nowhere. I’ve often thought – how is this ever going to culminate in anything? Next week is when we’re supposed to have our big culminating activity and be done with this project, so we finally needed to settle on something to do with the group. We’ve wanted the activity to be community-group-led, but it’s just been going too slow, and I think we finally realized that we just need to take charge and do some of the work in order to get it done. We kind of made decisions and just told the group what we’re going to do, and kind of hoped that they’d be on board. It’s really not ideal, but it was a good reality check for me in realizing just how long it might take to get things accomplished when at post and working with Cameroonian groups.
The things that have slowed the whole process: the American idea of meetings is very streamlined – people generally understand how things are run and can follow instructions easily. The idea of what one accomplishes in a meeting doesn’t really match up here; things are just slower. Also, Cameroonians often, just in conversation, repeat things a lot, so this can slow things down when you have to repeat yourself a lot. The language and cultural barrier also really slows things down. Even if I explain something in perfect French, I might be explaining it in terms that are really not comprehensible in a Cameroonian cultural context. For example, I had looked up the translation for the word, “banner,” but when I said this could be something we could make, one of the PLWHA group members asked what it was. I guess banners just aren’t a thing here. I think it’s especially tough to lead meetings as trainees when we don’t completely understand the purpose of what we’re doing with these groups. In any case, I think our project, whatever it is, will turn out kind of terribly, but it is at least good for me to think about how slowly projects may go during my service.
Phew, so continuing with the whirlwind day – we ended the day with a staff meeting, and afterward, we found out that one of our fellow stagiares has been kicked out of Peace Corps Cameroon. I don’t think my blog is really an appropriate forum to discuss the details of what happened or why she was kicked out, but suffice it to say that most people were very upset about it. It kind of threw me into a bit of shock and put a damper on my mood, especially right before Thanksgiving. I had been really excited about everyone’s ideas of what we’re going to make for Tday, and how everyone’s really pulling together to enjoy the day and have a huge feast (for 39 trainees and the trainers!). This event really just dampened my spirits and even made me question the operation of the Peace Corps.
But today is another day – Thanksgiving, no less! We had bought eleven chickens to prepare for Tday (turkey is not really available), and we had to begin our work with the chickens by killing them, de-feathering them, and then gutting them, removing all the icky organs and then finally peeling the skin and cleaning all the pieces of meat. It was a very intense process. A few of the trainees tried their hands at killing the chickens by cutting their throat, myself included.
Some of you might say that this is gruesome, but honestly, I think it’s a really good experience to go through if you eat meat. I’ve always thoughtlessly pulled chicken breasts off the grocery store shelves. Killing the chicken myself, and going through the entire process of preparing it to eat was eye-opening, and makes me appreciate the process of food production in a way that I didn’t even think I needed to appreciate it.
I also prepared banana bread last night – I made two loaves, one for my family, and one for the thanksgiving day fête. It was fun to show my family how to make it, and I think they really enjoyed the finished product – they ate the entire loaf in about 5 minutes without offering me a piece. The best part of it was that I cooked the banana bread on a wood-fire! My family doesn’t have a stove, but you can turn any old stove burner or fire into a stove using a large marmite (which is basically a huge saucepan with a lid), putting sand on the bottom and then putting the item you’re baking on the sand. It was dope, and I felt so accomplished.
So, anyhow, while I do miss family and friends in the states, and the traditional Thanksgiving day festivities, our celebration here is set to be really great. One of the perks of celebrating Thanksgiving in a foreign country is that it’s not a holiday here, it’s just another day. So if anyone forgot to buy some ingredients for something – no problem, all the stores are open, as usual. Everyone is contributing something different and I’m really excited for all of it – so far we’ve got a chocolate cake, a few banana breads, chocolate chip cookies, a pumpkin (or squash) pie, apple pie, pineapple pie, banana cream pudding, 11 marinated chickens, a squash puree potash-type soup, onion rings (made from scratch), deviled potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, sautéed squash, stuffing, and cabbage caraway soup. There’s probably more, but I don’t know what it is yet. We even got the afternoon off from training. It’s so great to spend the day with my fellow trainees, cooking, prepping food, baking, and then eating. One of the trainees is obsessed with Christmas, so he is working on making 18 Christmas stockings. Some of the trainees started a “five-piece Irish death-metal acoustic jam band” at the beginning of stage, and they’re set to perform five songs tonight, complete with dancers and a choreographed dance. We’re quite the motley crew. I love this day!
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