ca va aller

Hello all, sorry that I have not written for awhile. Time is flying here, and I just needed a break from so much internet.

Here's a picture of me trying to help my sister mop the floors. I thought mom would appreciate this, hah! So mopping the floors here is one of the most physically difficult jobs I've ever done. You take a bucket of water, and a rag, and after soaping up the rag you run it over the floor using your hands. Then you have to dunk the rag in the bucket and ring it out, and then go over the floor again. Then you have to ring out as much as the water as possible (which took me like a minute and Michelle like 15 seconds), and go over the floor again to dry it! I was sweating bullets after that. My family thought it was hilarious, which in their defence, it kind of was.

"Ca va aller" is my favorite cameroonisme so far, although it may be said in other french speaking countries, I don't know. I hear it here all the time though, and I just like what it means. Essentially, it's "don't worry, things'll be fine." It just reminds me so much of what my mom often says to me back home, that when I hear it here, I am instantly comforted.


We're in our third week back in Yaounde--on Saturday we go to Ngaoundere. We're taking the train, which I was very excited about before someone told me something about "de-railing" problems...but I'm sure we'll be fine. The train really can't be more dangerous than taking a cab here, or even just trying to cross the street. After two weeks in Ngaoundere we start our independent research which mean that I really gotta get my shit together! It's just so hard to choose a topic when there are so many interesting things happening here. Today I went talk to an ICRAF office here (forget what it stands for but it works with agroforesty internationally) about working with them for a month. As cool as that would be, it would probably be pretty expensive, and I don't know that I want to work with an international organization. I think I'd prefer to work with something that is more grassroots, but who knows. It looks like I'll probably end up in Dschang working with a GIC (groupement initiative commune) that works with men and women who practice agriculture in Foto, an arrondisement of Dschang. I would love to return to Dschang, and I'd like to do something with urban farming, but I'm just so indecisive!




Also, after visiting Kribi, I would really like to do something there. Specifically, I'd like to study the environemental impacts of the Chad-Cameroonian pipeline, or see if there's an NGO or ANYTHING that I can partner with there. It was just so beautiful to only spend a weekend there.




Ok, so Kribi is a small tourist town in the South region. The beautiful coastline is only marred be the oil tankards, and an oil drill with a flame that burns like the eye of sauron during the night!




We stayed in a hotel literally on the beach, and I would be lieing if I said that I even tried to explore the town.









Let's see, what else...




I want to explain my Yaounde family a bit. First of all, I finally figured out who's who in my family maybe a week ago. My parents got married a few years ago. The oldest daughter is the daughter of my father from a different woman. My 10 year old sister is actually an orphan whose father had been a friend of my father, so he took her in a few years ago. My 9 year old brother is also an orphan who is a cousin, and was also taken in a few years ago. My youngest brother is the son of my mother with a man who died. She has another son who lives in the village with her mother. See, I just had no idea about any of this until I finally just straight out asked my mother. Also, my mother is a primary school teacher, and she teaches one class of 66 8-9 year olds. 66! And she's the only teacher, all day. No wonder her voice is always so horse, I'm sure she's just constantly screaming at 66 energetic children.

My father is a highschool teacher and while he doesn't have to control 66 little kids, he has 4 classes, the smallest having abotu 50 students, and the biggest having more than 100. And he's the only grader. I have no idea how these people work like this, but I really admire it.

Alright, I should really go force myself to do some school work.
A tout à l'heure!