Post-Mid Service Work

(Part 2 of 2)

  

I've been back in Lagdo from my vacation and mid-service for over a month now, and work is starting to return to the same level as the end of last year.  I knew there would be some struggle to get back into a work groove, but the lack of activity has been frustrating enough to where I've watched both Knocked Up and Superbad with the audio commentary on within the last week.  (Both commentaries were equally funny.  I prefer Knocked Up's but Superbad's sees Judd Apatow get so pissed off at Jonah Hill that he left halfway through.  He had brought his kid to the recording session and didn't want Jonah to curse for the entire commentary, a nearly impossible and almost unfair feat since his career is based around indiscriminate f-bombs.  After a couple slips, Apatow was getting irked, and when Jonah mimicked the "fuck my life" line the liquor store worker said, Apatow walked out.)

 

The main reason for the delay of mon travail was Youth Day, la fête de la jeunesse, which is celebrated on February 11^th.  The main activity for Youth Day is the big parade in front of all the political officials and traditional chiefs and PCVs who sit in the VIP section even though they don't have invitations to do so.  Groups of students from nearly all the schools in the Lagdo arrondissement march in matching uniforms of each school's choice and have a little chant or song, usually along the lines of "It's Youth Day.  Paul Biya is great.  Hello, Sous-perfet of Lagdo.  Hello, Mayor of Lagdo.  It's Youth Day.  Paul Biya is great."  The parade is okay and all, a little long, but it makes working at any of the schools impossible for a guest speaker like I would be.  Maybe there's a schedule for parade marching practice during the build-up to the holiday, but no one seems to know it.  Also, the week leading up to February 11^th has a bunch of different activities during school hours, mainly soccer and team handball games, so I've been waiting for the holiday to pass. (Cameroonians commonly refer to their holidays by the date.  I don't have to say "la fête de la jeunesse" every time I want to say it, "onze février" suffices.)

 

I've continued to go to the nearby village of Bamé and do animations there at the health center on vaccination days.  In addition to going to the health center once a week, I'm going with the agro-forestry PCV in Bamé to a couple different wells per week to start a small sensibilisation on personal hygiene and how it relates to keeping wells and water clean.  We've just started, and I'm looking at it as a test run for recommending to my APCD (boss) that I be replaced in Bamé instead of in Lagdo, which, if it does happen, would mean that there would have to be agro/health collaborations in nearly all aspects of work in and around Bamé. 

 

Starting this coming week: a 4-part HIV/AIDS course with my postmate at the Lagdo lycée in a couple of the English classes she teaches.  (The HIV/AIDS lessons will be in French; the English would be too complicated.)