Fancy Gas Station in Mbouda
December 17, 2009
To you, the above picture is just a normal gas station that you stop in all day long to pick up a soda, a cup of coffee, some snacks. For me, I almost fainted when I walked into this fancy gas station in the town of Mbouda. Mbouda is a town 30 minutes car ride from Bafoussam – the provincial…
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World AIDS Day
December 16, 2009
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, one of the global, cross-sector initiative is HIV/AIDS awareness and education. In honor of World AIDS Day, Kate organized a day-long seminar at her post at St. Augustine School in Foumbot and invited volunteers in the surrounding area to participate. Up until this event, I hadn’t done any AIDS or other health related activities. Partly…
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London? Paris?
December 15, 2009
In the end, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with fellow Peace Corps volunteers. And when I returned, I found my first graduate school acceptance in my inbox! After first deciding to return to grad school after my two years in Africa, I tweaked my decisions a bit and ended up applying to the following programs: London School of Economics (Dual…
Read MoreOn va faire comment?
December 3, 2009
A frustrating day with things that I would rather, and probably should not go into. But I wanted to share this passage from another PCV’s blog that spoke to me. She was describing a terrible day with many things going wrong. If you spend even a few weeks actually working in this country, you can relate perfectly with her sentiments.…
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Turkey Day!
December 2, 2009
Happy belated Thanksgiving to all! At the very last minute, a friend coaxed me into attending a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by other PCVs. If you didn’t know this about me, I am a very lazy person, socially. People like me in a crowd because I just follow whatever plans someone has made, no real objections, ever. I’m the dream of…
Read MoreHolidays Abroad
November 25, 2009
With Thanksgiving in just a few days, and no plans to celebrate, I realized that I have spent more Thanksgiving holidays away from the U.S. than actually being there engorge in delicious Thanksgiving meal and then past out in front of TV watching marathons of the latest popular series (I don’t care for football – the American kind). I think…
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Progress Report
November 24, 2009
For the past two weeks, I have been visiting schools and communities that I am responsible for between Batié, Bapa and Bandenkop, and checking up on there progress in library readiness. Much to my surprise, the schools were mostly very engaged and are making significant progress in getting things off the ground. Granted, there were definitely drama. One of the…
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Celebrating Old Age
November 24, 2009
This past weekend my rich neighbor had a BIG fête! My moto guy is a family member of this rich neighbor and they live in the same concession. He informed me of this rare event that occurs only once every 5 years or so – a fête to celebrate the elders in the family that reached 70 years old. For…
Read MoreGRE Blues
November 23, 2009
One month after taking the GRE in Cameroon, I was able to find out my scores today via the telephone. I really didn’t intend on re-taking this excruciating test, since the scores I had from the first try were respectable; not fantastic, no, but passable. I suppose I thought I would give it another shot to improve my score. What…
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Rolling Hills of Batié
November 23, 2009
Last week I visited the schools that I am working with for the Books For Cameroon project to check on their progress. On the way back, my moto guy, Emmanuel, took me on a different path home, and I saw a new side of Batié that I have not seen even after a year here. The day was gorgeous. The…
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