I’ve now been at post for about a month and a half and have gotten a pretty good feel for my community. Bangangte, which seemed so new and overwhelming just a few weeks ago, now feels like home. I have been relatively occupied trying to furnish my place and get comfortable for the next two years. I finally bought a bed, couch and a table and chairs. My most recent purchase was a rug, which I must say, really ties the room together. I’ll post pictures below.
My life has slowed down quite a bit since moving here, I rarely have overly scheduled jam-packed days like I did when I was in training. The biggest challenge so far has been staying busy. I typically go into my host institution about three times a week, there hasn’t been a whole lot for me to do yet besides observe and occasionally help with some computer stuff. I have also been trying to get exposed to some other people in the area I can work with. A near-by Peace Corps agro volunteer has introduced me to a couple local groups. One is a large group of tree farmers that have farms all over this region of the West; I attended their monthly meeting and exchanged contact information with them. They seemed very enthusiastic and I hope I can continue to stay connected with this group. The other organization he introduced me to is an agricultural NGO here in Bangangte that actually helps advise the tree group. The head of this NGO happens to sit on the board of the MC2 I work at and has reached out to me to help me find more ways to get involved. He told me that he has a number of agricultural related projects I could potentially begin to work on. The largest industry by far in Cameroon is agriculture so it seems that many SED volunteers like myself tend to concentrate on agricultural efforts. It will be interesting to see what my role will become over the next two years.
For anyone that doesn’t know (which is probably most of you), the Cameroonian presidential elections are coming up on October 9, this Sunday. Paul Biya, the current president since 1982 is running against something like 25 other candidates. There has been a small amount of tension leading up to the elections because there are some people that think it’s weird for a President to be in power for 30 years. Apparently there was a standoff in Douala, the financial capitol of Cameroon, between some police and some gunmen dressed in military garb. The gunmen blockaded a bridge going into the city and a shootout took place for several hours. All Peace Corps Volunteers are in a state of stand fast until the election results are made public which means we can’t travel or leave our posts. It is still pretty doubtful at this point that anything terribly drastic will happen, I would be surprised if there is a big backlash after the election.
On a brighter note, there was a North-West vs. West Frisbee match last weekend here in the West. Apparently this match has been anticipated for close to a year now but took awhile to actually put together. The North-West was favored for quite some time until the new influx of volunteers came raining down over the West, we ended up making quick work of the North-West squad. Afterwards it was nice to hangout with a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in a while and get to know some of the volunteers I hadn’t met yet.
So I couldn't actually upload pictures to blogger but for some reason I was able to upload them to facebook so if you want to see my house now that I have stuff look there.
As always I hope everyone is doing well and feel free to drop me an email any time.
-Matt
