The Magical Realm of Hogwarts

There comes a time in every PCV's service that he or she reads, or in my case, rereads, Harry Potter. I'm a couple hundred pages deep into the fifth book right now, but I think the third and the fourth are my favorites. Other than wishing I could turn you into a turtle at will, I just got back from a trip up to the Extrem-Nord province to surprise our friends/go to a bike tour meeting. The bike tour is an Extreme North provincial project where PCVs ride their bikes to different PCV villages in the province and do AIDS presentations for a day, culminated by an actual testimonial from a PVVS (personne vivant avec le VIH/SIDA - This actually can be quite dangerous for the infected person because of taboos associated with HIV). It was a very successful program last year, and people from my training group are planning it again for this fall/when the rainy season is just about over.

While the Bike Tour is going to be a big hit this year, I'm probably not going to participate in it just because there are nearly 30 volunteers planning on taking part. That's a lot of folks when around 15 seemed to work last year just fine. Despite that, the weekend was fun, though the voyaging gets a little tiring. But hearing "The World's Greatest" by R. Kelly at a nightclub and a Cameroonian we were with singing along to the whole song is a delightful pick-me-up.

I also get to go to In-Service Training (IST), a mandatory week-long conference that all PCVs go to after their first 3-6 months at poast, in about 10 days or so. It's going to be informative, worthwhile, and at the friggin' beach all the way at the bottom of the country. IST is a major landmark for new volunteers because it'll be the first time we've all seen each other in one place over a long period of time since training in December. We also get 3000 cfa per diem, free hotel, and free breakfast and lunch. And it's at the friggin' beach! Your tax dollars at work.

Chez Moi!

Chez moi! Pretty nice, huh?

I saw something pretty interesting this last Thursday. CARE Lagdo unfurled the red carpet for two US Embassy people who were doing a tour of the Grand North, touring things that are grand, northern, and possibles places to invest US argent. The CARE projects in Lagdo are set to end in June, and they want to extend. There's an air of desperation, understandably, and this was really noticable when Rick and a woman who's name I forget from the Consul office rolled on through.

First, I was pretty pumped to see real live non-PC Americans. Second, they drive in a sweet Toyota SUV, and I got to ride around in it with them as I am American, semi-attached to the CARE project, and these CARE people really want to have a job come July so it was assumed I was going to put in a few good words. I tried, but I was mainly interested in the foreign service exam, so we talked about that. CARE took them on a tour of the Rural Development project, which was interesting for me as well as the other nassaras because I haven't seen the actual construction, because they built irrigation canals and other things you can actually see (CARE takes all the various officials on the same parade route). The embassy people took pictures, gave out a couple presents, kissed babies, spread goodwill, etc., basically taking advantage of the fact that Cameroonians are awed by lots of foreigners in one place at one time. The embassy people were pretty impressed with the CARE projects, and seemed pretty interested in the malaria project, too, so that's a good sign. On va voir when the decision is made to extend the projects...

Fulfulde Lesson of the Week

Dumbolo (dum-buh-low): booty, fat booty, nice booty, bootylicious; Kate's cat.

Example:

[Kate's cat Dumbolo pounces on my foot]

Me: Kate, why does Dumbolo keep attacking my feet??

Kate: She's a devil cat.

[I toss Dumbolo somewhere. She returns and pounces on my foot again.]

Me: Goddammit.

Pictures and Mixers

Photos! I finally got off my derriere and posted some. These are from training in Yaounde and Pitoa, specifically with my host family and during the swearing-in ceremony where we officially become PCVs. It was a big deal - the US ambassador and a bunch of local government officials came, and we wore some crazy bright pagne. I'll take some pictures soon of my lakeside retreat here in Lagdo when the weather clears up (it's not rainy - that doesn't start until May - but very dusty).

In other news, probably the most exciting thing to happen to me occured a couple weeks ago: I bought a blender. Yes, the gods blessed me with the magnificent contraption that turns big things into tiny little pieces. I've made beaucoup smoothies, salad dressings, salmorejo (spelling? spanish-style gazpacho), and hamburgers... grounded up slices of beef. Kinda gross, but it gets the job done. Other than the hamburgers, the best thing I've melanged has been a frappacino-like coffee drink. God bless CARE Cameroon for supplying me a frige with a freezer, and God bless America or something like that.

Meanwhile, things with CARE are improving... I think. I have a specific thing to do - basically organize this computer presentation of the whole project. It's not exactly what I want to do - there's isn't much "field work," but it's not exactly a time-consuming thing and I'll have more free time to read, do crossword puzzles, and wonder why the music Voice of America plays on the shortwave is so horrible (Answer: it's American music requested by non-Americans. That's how a back to back to back playing of Chumbawumba, Nsync, and John Michael Montgomery happens.).

Fulfulde lesson of the day
Yowwa! (yo-wah): an expression of thanks or really just an expression of anything.

Cameroonian: Here're your beignets.
Nassara: Yowwa! Je voudrais le pimont aussi.
[Cameroonian puts pimont in the sack of beignets]
Nassara: Yowwa! Hasta manana, beyotch.

Note: spelling in Fulfulde is always questionable, as is the use of "beyotch"