Kribi

This weekend we went to Kribi, a resort town in southern Cameroon, and honestly, it was paradise. Within five minutes of arriving we were all in the water and declaring how we were never leaving. You look out on the ocean and its perfect -- no motor boats or crowds of people, just the occasional fishing boat. It doesn’t hurt that a week ago, I was in Boston shoveling two feet of snow and suffering in single digit weather. 

While we have only been in Yaounde for four days, going to Kribi was so nice considering how overwhelming the past few days have been and gave us a chance to slow down. We left Yaounde at 10 am on Friday arriving at Kribi at 2 pm. It’s a long drive but interesting to leave the city and see the villages and rainforests (someone told me it’s the 2nd biggest rainforest in the world? though Im not100% sure of that).

Kribi isn’t the resort town the way it is in America, but it is certainly seen as such by Cameroonians. In the US though, you would describe Kribi as quaint and undeveloped. We spent Friday afternoon on the beach, swimming,  enjoying the sun, and getting beer and ice cream from the hotel bar (is there an un-obnoxious way to mention beer when you’re 21?). Every month we have a stipend from Dickinson that all students on Dickinson student abroad programs receive and while in other countries (ie: European) the stipend doesn’t go very far in Cameroon we have money to spare. So a bottle of beer is, at very most, 1000 francs which is only $2 though in the city it is usually 500 francs. For dinner, we ate at the hotel having what seems to be the ultimate in Cameroonian cuisine -- rice, chicken, fish, palatines, and fruit for dessert. The food is so fresh and tastes amazing, but I am getting tired of the rice/chicken/fish combo and the thought of five months of the same thing is a bit exhausting. That said, my diet is so much better here than at home and I never eat any processed food.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to Lobe falls. The waterfalls were beautiful and fell directly into the ocean and we took a short ride in a fishing boat around them. The ride was a bit terrifying since the boats are like leaky canoes (ie: a boy in the back was literally scooping out water). Afterwards, lunch on beach (shrimp, palatines, and beer) and then back to the hotel for more beach for the rest of the day. Next day, home to Yaoundé. 

One of the more memorable moments from the trip was early on Saturday as we watched the fishermen haul in their catch. At one point, I went a little closer and took a picture of the scene and when I walked back I looked up at our group and just had the feeling of knowing how weird we looked. We stick out horribly and that is a completely new feeling -- never before has my skin color brought me attention, but now our skin is so pale that we seem to glow. I'm not saying I haven't thought about how privileged I am being an white American, but rather that I just haven't had to experience it before (or had people touch my skin and shout out "la blanche!"). No one here assumes we are Americans (and if our nationality is brought up, they guess German or French) rather we are simply seen as Westerners which gives me a lot to think about. I always am aware of everyones eyes on me because being white here immediately says "foreigner" and there is no way around it. People are always telling us "Welcome to Cameroon," something you could never say to a stranger in the US.

Also, on Thursday before we left for Kribi I met my host mom! She is super nice and speaks both French and English. I'm living with her, her husband, their three children (ages 9, 15, 18), a poor girl she took in from the North-West region so she could attend school, and two students who are friends of the family who are attending university in Yaoundé. Oh, and the grandma. So including myself, it is ten people (!). The family speaks French, English, a language native to their village, and pidgin. Pidgin is really the coolest thing, to explain it quickly it is slang but in recent years it is honestly becoming its own language with its own syntax and is mixture of both French and English words. You wouldn't use it formally, but it is the language you hear on the street and used with friends.

For example:

How are you? --> How now?

I'm going to the store --> Id go store

I want to go --> Je veux go.

I move in tomorrow, so I hopefully I can describe the family/house in better detail then.

first impressions

Well, I'm here! And I don't really know where to begin. It has only been two days but I feel as if I could write a small novel on the whole experience. Everything is just so different and I am constantly overwhelmed with culture shock. The heat, the language, the people, the culture -- everything, it is just unbelievable.

I left on Sunday morning going from Boston to DC and then had four hours in DC before I took the plane to Paris with the other students on my program. I could probably dedicate this whole post just to Air France and how great the airplane food was or talk about my seatmate who was so cool. This guy worked for special ops force and later BRINKS security and just had all these fantastic stories to tell -- like how to transport diamonds "a man would carry $40,000 worth of diamonds and just be sitting next to you on the plane." Um, cool, seriously remind me to add this to my future spy novel. Anyways, from Paris we went to Cameroon landing at 5 pm local time. We were all exhausted by this point (it was 11 am at home and I had been traveling/awake for over 24 hrs) but landing at the airport certainly gave everyone much needed adderline. The airport was pretty normal, we weren't the only white people around and everything was similar to any other airport. From there, we got on a bus and drive an hour to Yaounde where our student apartment is. The ride over was unforgettable, I think we were all in shock like "woah, I'm in Africa" and then looking out the window only reaffirmed that.

The roads here are incredibly crowded and there isn't quite lanes of traffic, just two opposing directions, so anything goes. Unlike in other cities, in Yaounde there were people everywhere not rushing to go somewhere but standing and talking to one other or working the countless street stands that sell anything and everything --cell phones, pineapple, fish, phone minutes, clothing, hair products, candy, cigarettes etc. - you name it. At one point, our bus was side by side with a school bus of middle school students who couldn't stop staring at us - a bus of white kids, one boy even leaned out a window and mimicked "call me!" and waved his phone in the air. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bus, a man in a car took a picture of my friend while shouting out "la blanche!" (the white woman!). Anyways, I could write countless examples of the attention we get, but it is constant and usually well-intentioned and leads to very funny stories, it is ironic though considering we are by far the least attractive people here since the heat gets to us so terribly.
By 6:30 we were at the Dickinson Center where at the moment all ten of us live until we are paired up with our host families. Mr. Teku is our program director so he gave us a quick tour of the building and then we had dinner of rice, fish (which is cooked whole and then served as such), a salad of some kind (not sure of what), chicken wings, and tomato sauce. Afterwards, we had a sat through a short talk with the program director and a couple of other people who will be helping us transition. Mr. Teku though is the best, this man just truly can't stop smiling, I mean it, every word he says he mouth just ends up in a smile. I'm not really doing him justice, but let me say he is amazing and I loved it when he said, "There will be many problems and that is okay, just come to me and we will work on it. But remember, everything ends in a smile." Maybe it sounds cliche written here, but believe me, Mr. Teku is anything but.

The next day, we woke up late and by twelve had lunch at a cafe in a busy shopping area, then toured two popular grocery stores to get a feel for prices since after this week, we are dependent on ourselves for meals. Next,we took a bus tour of the city (do not imagine a tourist bus, it's a glorified van probably on par w the station wagon..). Then home at five where we fixed dinner for ourselves (spaghetti and fruit salad). At 7, we had orientation which was really just listening to the professors who will be teaching us and meeting a couple young women who went through the opposite experience of us -- Cameroonians who studied in the US. There is a lot more to say, but as far as activites go it was very low-key day since at this point walking down the block is an adventure for us

Finally, today we went to University with students who showed us around which is a whole another story, but first the heat. Oh man. I really haven't been bothered by the heat before, but here I am melting. As we walked around campus, we must have looked so out of place -- white students whose skin is literally reflecting sunlight we look so pale in comparison and dying of heat. We're all in shorts, tanks and still sweating buckets while everyone else is wearing what I would wear in a New England spring -- jeans, long sleeve shirts. Seriously, here I am one step away from heat exhaustion and everyone around me is apparently perfectly comfortable in like 80 degree weather (though I'm tempted to say it was hotter). I'm looking forward to the day when my body learns to handle the heat. Supposedly we do get somewhat use to it.

It's dinner now, but I'll write more about the students we meet, university, the apartment, language barriers etc. etc. so much to tell! whew.

Edit: there are countless errors here and I am embarrassed by how poor the writing is, but we only have one computer for the ten of us and the Internet works less than half the time, so apologies in advance!!

Cameroon, not Cancun.

With all my free time at home, I thought I'd explain why I choose Cameroon. And, as my sister initially thought, not Cancun.

Why Cameroon? At least that's what everyone asks me, which admittedly makes me feel pretty cool and affirms my own sense of adventure. But whenever I get asked this, I am always so self-conscious of boring people that usually give some short, two sentence response that never quite seems to do the question justice. Choosing Cameroon is, at least for me, a huge component of the whole experience and reflective of not just what I want out of my study abroad experience, but who I want to be (blah, blah, blah, cliche!).

Okay, well first off, Dickinson has a program in Cameroon. I did not just throw a dart at a map. But Dickinson has programs everywhere so I certainly was not limited to Cameroon through my school. I was really considering going to Italy or England -- Dickinson has a great political science program set up in Bologna -- and I know I would've loved traveling around Europe, not to mention the thought of shopping has me salivating. Oh, and my infamous scarf collection would finally get the appreciation it deserves. Really, I know I would've had an amazing time in Europe. I would also become very well-dressed & sophisticated. Nicee.

But, I (*cross fingers*) will hopefully make to Europe some other time and maybe even live there after college which would truly be fantastic. Cameroon though is off the beaten path. It is different, it is uncomfortable, it is exciting, it is terrifying and it is something I can only do now. And that is exactly what I want. I want to go somewhere that doesn't have tourism, that can't help but be chaotic and, for better or worse, authentic. Of course, that's a problematic statement since France is no less France for being a developed country, but I mean to say that I expect Cameroon to not have the advantage of hiding behind those human comforts that overwhelm so much my time here in the US. Going to Cameroon, which for obvious reasons is so unlike everything I have ever experienced, I feel cannot help but change me, throwing me off the normal trajectory that I have followed despite my conviction of my individuality. Of course, going to Cameroon is furthered by many other things too. I'm not sure if I would have the guts to go if the other people on the program weren't so great or if my friends who have been on the program before hadn't talked to me about it with such passion. I'm also excited to improve my french and the poli.sci nerd in me is curious to see how politics operate outside the Western world, but these are little reasons. And while I can't quite "sum up" my feelings on what made me choose Cameroon, a large part of my decision is because I really do not know what to expect. I love that idea of jumping off into the deep end of things and not quite being sure when my feet are going to touch bottom. 

1st post & packing.

So, first post and I'm definitely struggling here. I really have no idea on how to change the design on this thing ("this thing"...I sound old...). Okay, but despite some computer troubles, I am going to try to update regularly -- it would be a shame not to since Cameroon will certainly be one of the more memorable times of my life. I am both terrified & thrilled (maybe thrilled at the thought of being terrified? I'm not often scared of trying something new, but here I am, and I have some definite anxieties about the next five months).

It snowed all day today so I was stuck inside with only a slight venture out to clear the walk.  My virtual house arrest though helped me focus on packing which is so overwhelming that I have so far chosen to ignore it. I'm usually a pretty light packer and am a firm believer that with the exception of my glasses/contacts, I can usually just pick up anything I need there if I forget. Well, does the same go for Africa? Really no clue, which is of course part of the adventure, but I do wish I knew whether bringing 11 shirts was too much or too little or if I'm being too "American" (ie: high maintenance) for packing some nice shirts/sundresses. Of course, nice is relative, but nevertheless I am going abroad to immerse myself in another culture and want to shed the lifestyle that I've had for the past 21 years. Another issue is dressing modestly. The majority of the clothes I am bringing are just what I have in my closet from the summer and while I do not dress very revealing, I realize that in Cameroon I will stick out in my whiteness and likely have a million eyes upon me. And of course, I must take in account the heat. Cameroon is only 5 degrees north of the equator.

Cameroon in 10 days!

-Anne