the nature of the beast the whereabouts of a peace corps volunteer in the west region of Cameroon.

the nature of the beast
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candle stubs
candle stubs

christmas music started playing on my computer around august this year. I play it when I want to feel happy and am having a hard time feeling it on my own. Nothing makes me feel more at home more than the soothing, cheerful voices of Sufjan, Ella Fitzgerald and the Best of Bing. The pine […]

hiding

1/10/12 Some call it hiding. I’ve been staying a lot in my house lately watching movies, reading World Without End on my new kindle, doing workout videos and baking bread to balance out the exercise. My new hibernation is due in part by my readjustment back to village from big city life I got lo […]

bonne annee

Happy 2012 everyone! I’ve had a great last few weeks getting to hang out with my fellow volunteers for the holidays. We had a week-long seminar mid-December which was in a town called Limbe on the west coast of Cameroon. The beaches were black and we found a restaurant with pizza, smoothies and iced coffee. […]

stop being so wonderful bing crosby and ella fitzgerald

12/5/11 So IST is the next big even for us PCV’s. IST stands for In-Service Training. It will be the first time I will get to see everyone from my stage (first training group) and each of us volunteers are bringing a colleague to attend the seminars with. The IST location is in Limbé which […]

quick update

The last I wrote about was my terrible halloween eve. Which means it’s been about a month since and a million things have happened. I am finding it difficult to bring myself to write because I encounter so many wonderful, terrible, and just weird things everyday it’s proved to be overwhelming. I’ve thought about so […]

halloween

11/8/11 Wow a long time has passed since I’ve gotten back to the blog. Halloween was a lot of fun despite being the first time I had a freak out and cried infront of african mamas. I found a giant blonde braided weave and a sparkly pink dress to dress up as rapunzel. I was […]

my humble african abode
my humble african abode
teaching in cameroon

10/11/11 teaching in africa is nothing like I could have expected. When you come into a situation like mine, you bring all the experience you have and try to go from there. The only problem is is my experience as a student was close to a billion times different than the kids here will ever […]

c is for cameroon

10/5/11 I’m still working on getting internet at my post. Every week I make the journey to Bafoussam to find another missing part to the puzzle. So far it’s been 5 weeks of trying, but I think I’ve almost got it. I hope to do a lot more writing, too, when I can finally get […]

internet and thanks

I’m buying internet today in Bangangte hopefully. They don’t have the modems in the big city. Who knows how they do any business.. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all for reading and let you know how awesome it is to read your comments every weekend when I come to Bafoussam. It gives me […]

sleeping with the enemy

I spent 20 minutes that night stomping on giant ants. Hundreds of them crawling under my door, attracted to the light from the dark night outside. My cat is only good for moths and skeeter eaters is what we call them in texas so it was my job to do some pest control. I followed […]

rabbit food

9/8/11 My diet here, post moving to bandenkop, has turned very similar to how it was at home—lots of vegetables balanced out with baked goods and chocolate candies. Because of the cold and constant raining, soup has been my big experiment these first weeks. I’ve made a creamy potato veggie soup, and after having it […]

moon pies in africa

9/2/11 I’ve been in Bandenkop for 2 weeks now and still have yet to move into my house. My landlord, Sam, keeps telling me that the key is with his aunt (who lives in Doala) and that she’s coming. She was supposed to come last week. Then last weekend. Then this week. I went to […]

pidgin is a rediculous language

6/20/11 I’m starting to feel very at home here. When I come home I usually find mama lydie behind the house fixing dinner and i usually ask her if i can help. Today I cut the garlic while mama lydie and anne made gumbo soup called héro (like “arrow”) and cous cous de maize which […]

fathers day

6/19/11 It turns out rainy sundays are just as good in Cameroon as they are in the states. It rains so hard here sometimes, we have to run around closing all the windows. Today my desk got soaked. Other volunteers have said that when it rains they think their roof is going to cave in, […]

4 people on a moto

6/16/11 I’m over language classes. Today we had three language classes and one tech training. I like talking with my family to practice better than I like going to class, but all I ever do is wake up at 6:30, go to class and return home to do my homework at 7. I feel bad, […]

papa piment & tony tomato

6/15/11 I just got off the phone with my parents. I’ve honestly never felt so good after talking to them. It feels like I haven’t talked to them in years, and it was starting to feel like I never would. The computers at the SED house keep breaking—having connection problems with the internet, power surges […]

crimping cables

6/13/11 School is a lot more hectic here than I had imagined. This morning my family woke me up at 6 by turning up the stereo in their room really loud at 6 am and then knocking on my door 10 min later when it seemed their plan hadn’t worked. I made the mistake of […]

internet i missed you!!
internet i missed you!!

I came back early from site visit at Bandenkop to help put together the computer lab for model school. Another volunteer, Kalika, and I spent yesterday plugging everything in and taking things out of boxes and today I hooked up 10 computers to a network. Now I’m blogging to celebrate! Finally. The connection is super […]

black and yellow
black and yellow

I arrived in Philly, got to my hotel where all the other Peace Corps people would be trickling into during the evening and next morning. Sato forgot to book me a room since I had to fly in a day early, which kind of made me freak out, but actually ended up with me in […]

chapter one
chapter one

i’m back in the blogosphere! strangely, this even feels like my first post. I created this blog to write about my peace corps adventures, and here we are with my first actual peace corps news! A couple weeks ago I finally received my placement packet, telling me when I leave for staging and which country […]

untitled

i’ve stared at this blank text box for 20 min. i’m going to bed now. maybe i’ll have better luck putting my thoughts in order tomorrow..

etsy window shopping
etsy window shopping

here are some rings i’ve been oggling lately. one of them i dragged into my it-that-must-not-be-named (my pretty wedding things folder) over 3 years ago. I still love it. A lot of them are made by the same 2 guys of artisanImpact/SilverCrush. I love their metalwork.mm

new sharpies
new sharpies

drawing the view from my office while the superbowl plays above my quiet basement haven. I signed up for french classes which will start on tuesday. reason being I got a call from pc and according to maureen my placement will be mailed to me sometime this week. my official invitation! it’s a big week […]

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