Apparently enough change accumulated in fountains across the country for me to get better and finally make my way to Cameroon. I have been in Bafia training with the other volunteers for nearly a week now. I am living with a host family and so far they have been super cool, today I purchased some fabric from my mom who sells it and a tailor is coming over to the house tomorrow to make some traditional African clothes for me and a couple of the other volunteers. My Dad takes me to his brothers bar quite often and a lot of my French is learned from hanging out with him.
The Peace Corps is a little strict while we are in training, they impose a 7pm curfew on us which has been a weird thing adjusting to. The worst part is that we dont get out of class until around pm anyway. Classes are from 8am to 5 pm... pretty nuts. We mostly are in French classes at this point but we do have some tech training, medical and cultural stuff too. For tech training we have been learning about Village Savings and Loan Associations and how to set these up and facilitate them - google it if interested, I am running out of time at the internet cafe. About the internet cafe by the way, the keyboards are set up for French so the keys are all out of order. Its terrible.
Today we recieved the names of the organizations we will be working with while training here, we will work with them for about two months. My organization is a hotel and bar, I should meet the people who run it next week. Overall I feel like I am adjusting well and the excitement of being in a new environment is far from wearing off. The heat is the only thing that is hard to deal with. I am used to living in hot climates but I am also used to AC, its a weird feeling to stay uncomfortably hot all day.
Anyway, I will try to write more and upload pictures when I have more time. I miss everyone and hope all are well.
Bon Soir,
Matt
