A day in the life

Did I write about doing my laundry by hand? I feel like some of you would appreciate the image. We wash the laundry, and shoes and children, outside. Behind our concrete house is a sort of concrete platform with a sort of moat the water drains through. You take a bucket of water, put your clothes in, scrub them up with a bar of soap, maybe slap them against stone for awhile, then dunk them into a bucket of fresh water, ring, and hang out to try! This, I am not so good at. At least not as good as I am at washing dishes.

Michelle and Aisi (the older younger brother), had a great laugh at my expence when they found me trying to shoo a giant cockroache out of my room. Somehow I flipped it onto its back, and then couldn't figure out how to get it past the door frame! Michelle just took her flip flop and knocked it like a hockey puck down the hall and out the kitchen door.

Also, I have to warn everyone that I am probably going to come back about 20 pounds heavier. I told my host mother that I was going to get fat, and she just laughed at told me that yes, I was, hahaha. She said people in Cameroon love to share food, and that she wants all my friends and family in the US to know that she took really good care of me!

The most encouraging thing of every day will be when I get home from school around 3 and am bombarded by children who want to give me a hug to welcome me home. I never knew how wonderful that can be.

Here's a glimpse into a normal day for me:
Wake up around 630, get ready for school, eat a breakfast of bread and chocolate and tea, and then walk to class with Sheripha (her school is just a few blocks away from mine). School lasts until 3 but we have an hour and a half for lunch, and a bunch of breaks. After school I usually walk home, chat with the fam for a little, and then spend a few hours in the living room doing work. I always have plenty of company though, which is really wonderful. My parents always have papers to grade, and my brothers and sisters have homework too. All the kids are learning english in school (Michelle is learning german too!), so I sometimes help with their english, and they help with my french. I ususually eat around 7, and then get in bed around 9. The heat just tires me out here! It's been less hot as of late though.

I also think that I now have a better idea of what I want to do my research project on. I think that I want to research human rights laws in Cameroon, and NGOs that work to protect them. One of our professors is a student of human rights, so I am going to ask him for help. He also reminds me a lot of professors I have had at UO, but much more honest. He has a very open hatred of the WB and IMF and thinks that globalizations is really another word for capitalist totalitarianism. His lecture made me want to argue with him, made me want to think, which is awesome! I think I share a lot of his opinions, but with less passion, because then again, the system has obviously worked for me. In the US, I live in a relatively huge house, with a toilet that flushes, a refrigerator, and no cockroaches, amongst other things. Getting a visa to travel here was virtually painless, but getting a visa if you're cameroonian and want to go the US, can be virtually impossible.
Everything about this program is a huge learning experience. It is still often the hardest thing that I have ever done. It's hard always being so visible, hard not really being able to understand the language, hard with the climate and new food, but hey! That's travel for ya.
It's also hard to be here when my heart is with a certain someone back in Oregon. I feel like my heart split in two, and now there's another part growing here. That's a weird analogy, but I don't know how else to explain it. Actually, I just plain don't know how to explain it. I just hope that there are some hugs waiting for me when I get home today.

Ok, that's it for now! Bye guys! Love you all!