Sannu, blogsphere. I've missed you.
I have now officially been in country for 9 months. What the tits. That is crazy. 9 months in Africa and this is where I'm at. It's fine.
Since we last spoke, we have been deep in the throes of hot season here in the xtreme. And just listen to hear this: this place is NOT fucking around with its hot season. I believe that "hot season" has been sold short with its wildly modest misnomer, and would be better off going by "fire of a thousand suns season," "seventh circle of hell season," "heat-induced agony as you've never felt before season" or something of the like. In honor of surviving my first xtreme north hot season and to give you, faithful readers, a better idea of the gravity of the situation, I composed this ode to hot season. Enjoy.
Ode to hot season
To thee hot season!
Thou peerless, insufferable, remorseless temperatures,
Thou oppressive, obdurate, onerous heats,
Dictating the quotidian
We are enslaved to thee
Lulling thine subjects into listlessness and languor
Swindling even the prospect of productivity
As my daily siesta stretches into a full REM cycle
These verses for thee, eternal tyranny of thee, hot season.
Thou fitful nights of sleep!
Awaking hourly to my tongue plastered to the roof of my mouth
Desperately gulping water, wondering if my thirst will ever again be quenched
In a vain attempt to regulate temperature,
my body secretes a veritable pool of sweat
My mattress is defenseless against the inferno of thine nights
and surrenders to being soaked through once again
Only to desiccate within moments after my rising in the early morn'
These chants for thee, the eternal aridity of thee, hot season.
Thou dog days of dog days!
Thou torrid sands blistering my feet
Thou cumbersome sun reddening my skin
Deep jagged crevices unfurl across my heels
Patches of scales appear on my elbows and knees
A heat rash snakes across the entirety of my upper body
I seek to palliate the prickly heat with liberal amounts of Gold Bond
It mixes with the indomitable layer of sweat that coats my body
And turns to paste.
These recitations for thee, o hot season!
These recitations and all my blood, sweat and paste for thee.
Alas, hot season is finally coming to a close and we are segueing into rainy season seamlessly. Seamlessly as in you can't quite tell where hot season ends and rainy season begins- I'm still relentlessly sweating, but from time to time there are raging sandstorms followed by a darkening of the sky and a bout of rainfall, but then this past week my heat rash came back, but then again the flies have arrived en masse... I don't know. It's all very confusing. I'll keep you posted on the excitement that is xtreme north weather patterns.
In work-related news, we are still in the process of defining our goals and objectives and all that jazz for the Youth Development program in Cameroon. So, what that means is that I was trained for three months in a set of goals and objectives that, for the most part, are no longer entirely applicable to our program. Also that the work I started back in December when I first got to post may no longer be relevant to my job description. Coolio. The four goals we originally began with (Working with In-School Girls, Working with Out-of-School Girls, Boys' Engagement and Community Engagement) were apparently too broad, and we were asked by DC to narrow the scope of our work. So we hacked away at our giant umbrella of YD ambitions, and sent DC the fruits of our labor back in March, only to have them inform us shortly thereafter that all Peace Corps programs are undergoing a mass overhaul that goes by the name of "FITU: Focus In Train Up." Ergo, we had to revamp the entirety of our program framework once again in May during our Steering Committee meeting, and are waiting to hear back from DC to see if what we did will fly. I can only hope that we will get all of this figured out before the new group of YD trainees arrive in country at the end of September. Ca va aller. I mean, they did tell us in our invitations that we were going to be the guinea pigs, what with us being the first group of Youth Development volunteers in Cameroon. Plus it's pretty badass that I am getting to help develop the Youth Development program in Cameroon. My name will probably go down in history, and my birthday will probably go from a nationally-celebrated occasion to an international holiday, but hey I'm not in it for the fame and glory. In the great words of J.Lo, I'm still I'm still Jenny from the Block.
It's working out, though, because as we are having this giant upheaval of program modifications, the school year has come to a close and so all the projects I was doing at schools, with girls clubs etc. are on hold until school starts back up in September and I'm having to start different activities for the break, anyways. I am hoping to do most of my work during the break with out-of-school girls- starting to meet with them weekly in an informal girls club format and hopefully working with them on an income-generating activity. I am also trying to organize a door-to-door campaign to sensitize the parents of Meskine on the importance of sending their children to school and keeping them in school, especially girls. I am also on the planning committee for the first National Girls Forum, which is going to be a big country-wide girls' empowerment networking event in August. We are hoping to have 30 Peace Corps Volunteers from all 10 regions of Cameroon participate, and for each participating volunteer to bring two community members to the forum so that they can bring back the information they gleaned at the event back to their communities and regions. The fact that I don't think I have ever actually attended a networking event much less planned anything of this scale is completely irrelevant. #Qualified No but seriously it's going to be awesome. Anyone who is anyone will be there. Try not to be too jealous my little jelly beans.
This past week I trekked up to Mora for my friend Liz's Girl's Camp. It was awesome! Peace Corps and VSO (Volunteer Services International) combined their powers to create the ultimate girl's empowerment experience. More importantly, I got to hang out with Liz's British BFF Louise all week and giggle whenever she said things like "biatch" in her British accent and "Oh Mah Gahd" in an American accent. Most importantly, there is a gelato guy in Mora. He set up shop at the end of a dark alleyway near town center- apparently all good things in Mora are at the end of dark alleyways (Adamo wisdom of nugget #4343). But yeah this was legit gelato. Chocolate and strawberry and coconut gelato. We may or may not have noshed on that shiz every night we were there... and we may or may not have gotten seconds every time we went... Judge away haters. All I have to say to you is OM NOM NOM. No but seriously MOST importantly the camp was such a blast. The girls had such an amazing week, and it was a great experience for me as a YD volunteer to experience a project that I can repeat because it is so applicable to my work. There was a different theme for the first four days of the camp: Leadership, Health, Career and Communication, and then on the last day we invited all the parents and the girls all put on skits showing what they had learned over the course of the week. We did a lot of skits during the week as a monitoring and evaluation tool- to keep track of what the girls were and were not learning from the sessions. I was a team leader for the week, so basically just a camp counselor making sure my small group of girls were actively participating in all the activities, and that was nice because I got to be there all week and to observe all the sessions and activities and the flow of it all. I can't wait to do my own girl's camp! It was a really fun week filled with sweet girls, dance parties, giggles and arts and crafts. Um hi I was made for this job.
Also in Mora I had the ULTIMATE. CAMEROONIAN. CUISINE. EXPERIENCE. and it was called "Un peu de tous" (A little of everything). It was also located at the end of a dark alleyway. Appropriate. Picture this, people: a layer of rice, covered in a layer of oily pasta, covered in a layer of tomato sauce with chunks of beef, covered in a layer of fulere sauce (leafy green sauce made with lots of peanut butter and oil and Maggi- and it is effing delicious). YEAH. THAT HAPPENED. And it was magical. I got the sweats towards the end there though... Rewr. Call me maybe?
Okay all you party people that's all for now. Until next time.
peace love and un peu de tous sweats
xo princess
