October 27, 2014
I can’t
believe it has been only a week and a half since I wrote my last entry because
it feels like it has been so much longer than that. We are well beyond the
halfway point of training and that creates a variety of emotions. On the one
hand, I’m going to miss my homestay family, especially my younger sister who
helps me with all things Cameroonian and of course my fellow trainees with whom
I’ve become quite close and are an amazing support system. Our greeters told us
as we got on the buses to come to training that our stage would be our biggest
support system. I don’t think I realized at the time just how true that would
be and I imagine it will only become an even more powerful truth over the next
two years.
On the other hand it is exhilarating
to think about how my daily life will change. I’ll be living independently, able
to cook for myself, and start integrating into my community. I am so excited
about learning about my community and what projects I might be able to work on.
My village has a refugee population of about 350 people from the Central
African Republic that I could see myself working on some projects with them as
a target population. There are many needs throughout my village and I hope it
will help keep me busy and make the two years pass quickly.
I must
admit last week was an emotional week, probably the most difficult since I’ve
arrived. Since having an episode in front of PCMO’s last week they are
questioning if I will be able to be safe at post. I needed to have my parents
submit all of my doctor’s office notes to the office in DC. I feel confident
that I can be relatively safe (at the very least no less safe than I would be
in the United States) and am obviously they will not decide to revoke my
medical clearance. Hopefully by the time I post this on Saturday I will have a
resolution from them. It was emotional to be told that they are questioning my
safety even though I received my medical clearance and brought up some
self-doubt. However a phone call from my parents helped put that in check.
These
final weeks of training are shaping up to be very busy. Tomorrow we go to the
Mengong Health Center to do a presentation (animation) to the pregnant women
and women with young children who show up for vaccinations on Tuesdays. Later
in the week we are also doing malnutrition screenings at the primary school and
another day we will be doing nutrition animations at the primary school. We
also have 15-30 minute presentations to be done entirely in French coming up at
the end of next week. I’m doing my presentation on cancer in Cameroon. So far I
have some interesting info and have more coming including some interviews I’m
planning on doing with my family and maybe some others. I would love to do a
secondary project on something having to do with self-screenings for cancer and
cancer prevention.
Our pagne (fabric) has been picked out for our swearing-in
Ceremony and in 24 days we move to our posts. It is tradition for PC Cameroon
to have clothing made all from the same fabric for our swearing-in ceremony.
Each sector picked two people to pick our pagne and I think the rest of us will
find out what it looks like on Saturday. You my friends, family, and internet
friends will have to wait until I post photos to see what it looks like.
(Speaking of which I apologize for not taking more photos and posting them. I
will take photos and post them both on here and facebook, I just haven’t gotten
around to it yet.)
Rainy season should be coming to an end soon and I’m pretty
excited for that (although I know it will make water more difficult to find).
Walking to the center of Mengong today was an adventure trying to step lightly
on mud that is quite thick and avoiding huge puddles while working around motos
and cars who were also trying to avoid the puddles/potholes. About the time I
arrive at post dry season will be starting and that means no mud! Those of you
who know how much I am not a fan of rain and mud will understand just how
excited I am to not be in rainy season anymore.
But now, I must sleep so I am well rested for my
presentation tomorrow.
Three Thoughts:
1.
All future PCVs should get copies of “The Blue
Day Book” and “The Meaning of Life” by Bradley Trevor Greive. They are great
for those days that try to pull you down.
2.
Especially for HE volunteers (I don’t know about
other sectors) bring many colors of sharpies for drawing posters for
animations.
3.
I really hope my absentee ballot makes it home
in time!
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