Summer, thus far

I apologize for the scarcity of my blog posts.  As usual, a lot has happened since my last blog entry, which was several months ago.  Here is a little recap of the summer:

In Cameroon, particularly the West region, summer means the beginning of the rainy season.  We waited a long time to see our first rain of the season this year, I was told by locals that the extended dry season was due to climate change, normally, rainy season begins in April, this year it began in May. It was a relief to everyone to receive that first substantial rain, all the dirt and dust that covered the sky during the dry season was forced to the ground by the rain, slowly seasonal coughs went away and lushness was restored to the landscape. 

In addition to the rain, May also brought along my twenty-fifth birthday and the beginning of June marked the one-year anniversary of my arrival to Africa, both of which were large milestones and occasions to celebrate.  A new group of volunteers came into the country in June and I had the opportunity to help with their training.  I was given the immense responsibility to help out with “MBT” (Mountain Bike Training) which meant I gave a small presentation on bike safety and maintenance and then presented each volunteer with the bike they will be using over the next two years.  I also helped out with teaching a model business school and hosted the new group at my post for a one-day field trip.  Overall, it was a great opportunity to meet the group of volunteers that will soon be spread out all over the country and share with them whatever perspective I have formed on Peace Corps service up to this point. 

Summertime is often a slow period for Peace Corps volunteers here in Cameroon, education volunteers simply get three months off and us business volunteers try to correlate some of our time off as well.  A couple weekends ago nine other volunteers from all around the country came to my city for the second annual live fantasy football draft.  We spent one day doing various competitions to determine the draft order and the second day we drafted.  It was fun seeing some of the people I was in training with a year ago and it was the first time we had all been together since last December.  

More recently, I found out that weekly basketball games happen here in Bangangté every Wednesday and Friday, it took me an entire year to learn this.  I went and played yesterday for the first time and after we had played for a bit we broke up and played small games of one-on-one.  The basketball court is at a high school and even though its summer a lot of kids still hang out there playing sports and what not, while I was playing one-on-one a crowd of high school students gathered around to watch, probably the most people that have ever watched me play basketball.  I must have been the first white guy they had ever seen play the sport because the whole thing turned into a spectacle after a couple minutes.  I’m not sure if these kids just had a little Olympic fever or if they really felt hostility towards white folks but the entire crowd was relentlessly heckling me the entire time I was playing with things like “Les Blancs sont faible” (White people are weak) and “Les Camerounais sont plus solide que les blancs” (Cameroonians are stronger than white people) which may actually be true but that’s not for them judge… The heckling inspired me to play my hardest, I mean I absolutely left it all on the court.  I opened the game by going up 3-0 on my Cameroonian opponent, 2 straight drives to the hoop and one fluke jump shot.  The fourth shot, my overconfidence took over and I bricked it off the rim, with cheers from his fellow countrymen my competitor snagged the rebound and took the ball outside.  What happened next was unbelievable; this guy sank 5 straight jumpers in a row to win the quick match.  I never even got another chance with the ball.  Despite my loss, my competitor was a great sport and I'm sure I'll make a point of going back out there to play again.

I’m sure some of you have read through this blog hoping to hear about some of the projects that I am working on while here in Peace Corps, after all, your tax dollars don’t pay for me to play basketball and do fantasy football drafts.  This summer I finished up a 12 week business class at the local prison (I posted pictures on facebook a couple weeks ago) it was an excellent experience to share some of my knowledge with people that hopefully can really use it to better themselves when they get on the outside.  Of 11 people that started the course, five ended up receiving certificates.  Additionally, my primary project has evolved a bit, I am now spending most of my time working with a Women’s group that produces shea butter.  As a Community Economic Development Volunteer (business volunteer) I have seen a large opportunity for growth with this group.  The primary purpose of this Women’s group is to improve the quality of life for its members, allowing them to be financially independent and autonomous.  As a means to reach this end, they collect, process and sell shea products and other natural bath products.  In the coming months I hope to help them with a gps-mapping project of the naturally growing shea trees in the area as well as improving their production processes by acquiring some basic machinery to grind and mix the nuts.  The president of this group was awarded a ticket to travel to Washington DC during the month of August to be a part of a Women in Development conference.  An agricultural volunteer before me had applied for her and she was accepted, the returned volunteer, Richard, was there waiting for her at the airport.  It must have been an amazing moment to reconnect with someone he worked so closely with during his time here in Cameroon. 

Anyway, I hope that gives people a little window into what I’ve been up to over here recently.  Also, I’d like to say Congrats to my Cousin Mike and his new finacé, Kim, to my Cousin Marcie and her new husband, Derek and to my buddy Rishi for getting into grad school in St. Louis.  Way to make me feel like I’m missing out on everything guys…

-Matt