Irreplacable

I just put up a few pictures of Lagdo in the environs of the CARE office. I'll take some pictures of the dam, maybe even get a hippo in a few of them, soon ("soon" meaning soon in l'heure africaine).

Meanwhile, Beyonce, Akon, and the Pussycat Dolls are the only new American music I hear. Can someone rectify this situation?

Blog Links
Here are some links to blogs made by people in my stage:

Sarah L. - Health in Bibemi, North
Ryan W. - Agro in Bibemi, North (Sarah's postmate)
Brad and Leah - Agro and Health in Tourou, Extreme North
Katy - Health in Koza, Extreme North

Let me know if the links don't work. I'll try to find more blogs from my stage, I know they're out there somewhere.

La Mer

Our vacation - or In-Service Training - is over. So is the ocean, good food, and the ocean. IST was almost like a cruise ship: Everything you needed was really at the hotel (Hotel le Paradis) and they kept feeding you and feeding you and feeding you... (...man, M-e-t-h-o-d Man. Sorry, Wu-Tang reference. I'll never do that again, I promise). I've never eaten so many croissants in my life.

The actual conference was semi-helpful. It was nice hearing PCVs in their second year come and present some of the work they've done, especially considering that we'd never hear about any of the things they've done in person since we're so far away up in the north. IST got a little confusing, though, when our Cameroonian counterparts came, official PC-chosen Cameroonians that we're supposed to have at post to help us work (I didn't invite mine for a bunch of reasons I should probably explain here at some point to give you a better idea of what I've been doing and what I'm going to do). All the PCVs that presented all told us to take our time and not to jump into projects, and more importantly to do what we wanted to do, then once the counterparts got to Kribi, we immediately jump into needs-assessment and project-planning on subjects we might not really be interested in.

The best part of the IST was getting together with all of my stagemates and seeing another part of the country. And eating shrimp. Les crevettes etaient deliceux. The whole conference was a great way to recharge my batteries in order to deal with how I want to deal with CARE leaving (I should explain that later, too) and being able to prepare for wherever my work will go.

It's about time to hope on the train. Au revior, free Internet and Snickers bars at every boutique.

Yaounde, Part Deux

So, I'm down in Yaounde right now at the Peace Corps using free Internet for the volunteers (this awesome service has yet to make up to the North province, but there is talk to install it). The last time we ("we" being people from my training group) was almost exactly six months ago when we first landed in Cameroon. Two ridiculous things: How much the Grand North of Cameroon is different from the south, and How much we've changed since the end of September. This is actually really overwhelming being here again. The climate and the landscape are incredibly different: we left Garoua in the semi-arid, almost desert, then we got to Ngaoundere, where the train leaves to Yaounde, and it was atleast 25 degrees cooler. Now we woke up this morning in the jungle and in a huge city that has a restaurant that has cheeseburgers, milkshakes, and flat screen TVs (delicious). I think I've mentioned it before in here, and Brooke brought it up again at the restaurant: what happened to this country to make the Grand North so much poorer than the south of Cameroon.

Off to IST in Kribi tomorrow.