I got back from my trip aroun the Grand North this morning, and this will most likely be my last chance to post before I fly home on Friday. Here goes.
To finish off the semester, SIT went to Limbe for a few days. This is a really nice beach with beautiful black sand. It also has a lot of white people, whether tourists, volunteers, or expats I'm not sure. It was pretty strange getting to the beach on the first day and seeing more white people than black people, but then again maybe this was supposed to help us readjust to the US.
My friends and I who were staying in Cameroon for an extra two weeks intended to climb Mount Cameroon (West Africa's highest mountain) the day following the rest of the group's departure. Unfortunately a bunch of us (3 out of the 5 who were staying, 6 out of the 14 total), myself included, got sick the night before. We therefore scrapped the Mount Camerooin plan, stayed in Limbe for a day to recover, and then headed directly up to Maroua in the Extreme North.
When I say "directly," I really mean anything but. We took a 6-plus hour bus to Yaounde, then had to stay the night as delays had made us miss the night train. The next evening we boarded the train to Ngaoundéré. We had gotten the cheapest tickets we could, and as a result we were extremely cramped. A man actually slept under my seat for most of the ride! The train ended up lasting around 16 hours. After a short break to stretch our legs we got a 6 hour bus to Garoua, in the North province, followed by another 6 hour bus to Maroua. So two days after leaving Li,be, we were finally in the Extreme North! The first two nights there we stayed at a Peace Corps transit house that we were able to contact through other Peace Corps friends. The volunteer there bent the rules to let us stay, and it was really nice to recuperate from travel and to adjust to the heat (the first day in Maroua it was 110 degrees in the shade).
After spending a few days in Maroua, which is a really great town, we headed to Waza National Park. We did two days of safari, riding around the park in the back of a pickup truck. We were able to see lots of Giraffes, birds, warthogs, and antelope-like animals. We were really lucky on the first day, and we actually saw a lion! It roared at us and was a bit terrifying, but luckily we were all safe inside the car.
After that we headed back to Maroua for a few days before heading to Rhumsiki to do some hiking. This is a really pretty area with lots of rocky peaks and rural villages. To get there, we took an hour_long moto ride past beautiful scenery. Once in Rhumsiki we found a guide and headed out for a 3 day trek through the countryside that included a brief foray into Nigeria. It was tough but fun, and it was great to see villages that were so far from the roads. We didn't see a car during our entire hike, but we were able to find a donkey caravan bringing soda from Nigeria. Sprite tastes so much better when it's unexpectedly delivered by donkeys...Our guide was great, and each night he made us delicious, freshly-killed chicken in a peanut-tomato sauce. On the day we got back to the village we were able to see a bit of an initiation ceremony for young men and a wedding. We were really lucky.
We left Rhumsiki on Monday and Have been travelling since. Right now I'm back in Yaoundé, where I'll be staying until I go to the airport in Douala on Friday.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
ISP and End of the Semester
I realize that I haven't been posting as much as usual, since I've been really busy with ISP. However, IT'S FINISHED!! So here's what I've been up to:
I'll spare you a lot of details on ISP. I interviewed a bunch of twins, found out that we can have supernatural powers, and that we're basically awesome. Ask me when I get back and I'll tell you more.
Once I had finished my draft, my friend Kelly (who had been studying witchcraft in a small village) came to town for a few days. We went to the nearby city of Bafoussam to go a a traditional market, in the process squeezing 8 people and a baby into a small car for the hour-long drive. Gotta love the local transportation system. Another day we visited a waterfall, and a third day we made peanut butter. We roasted, skinned, and crushed a giant bag of peanuts, then mixed in some delicious market honey and peanut oil. It was delicious.
It was great getting back to Yauonde to see everyone, although I had some ISP troubles when I got back to the capital. First, my advisor was late giving me back my corrected draft (I had written my 40 page paper in French, so I needed him to correct my grammar). When I finally got it back, I had a mini crisis when I thought that he had rewritten my paper. Turns out that he only rewrote the first few sections, and I was able to fix everything while keeping the paper in my own words. I printed up my copies, gave my presentation, and now according to a friend here I'm a college senior.
Tonight is a party to thank all the host families. After that I have a day to pack before heading to Limbe, a beach where we'll spend the rest of the program. My friends and I who are travelling afterwards are staying in Limbe for a few days after everyone else leaves. Here's our tentative itinerary for the next 3 weeks:
-Climb Mount Cameroon (1.5 days up, 1.5 days down)
-Return to Yaounde to go to an apparently amazing club/bar/place that has drum circles every other Saturday
-Take the 12 hour train ride up to Ngaoundere, stop for smoothies and to say hello to our knife-making friend in the market
-Take the (8 hour?) bus to Maroua, capital of the Extreme North
-Spend a few days in Waza National Park. Hopefully we'll see elephants!
-Spend a few days hiking around Rhumsiki, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful spots in the world
-Travel back to Yaounde, spend a few days either there or in Douala before flying out of Douala on the 29th
-Arrive, exhausted, in the US on the 30th
I doubt I'll have internet access after I leave for Limbe, so if anything is really important call me at +237 77 49 46 79.
I'll spare you a lot of details on ISP. I interviewed a bunch of twins, found out that we can have supernatural powers, and that we're basically awesome. Ask me when I get back and I'll tell you more.
Once I had finished my draft, my friend Kelly (who had been studying witchcraft in a small village) came to town for a few days. We went to the nearby city of Bafoussam to go a a traditional market, in the process squeezing 8 people and a baby into a small car for the hour-long drive. Gotta love the local transportation system. Another day we visited a waterfall, and a third day we made peanut butter. We roasted, skinned, and crushed a giant bag of peanuts, then mixed in some delicious market honey and peanut oil. It was delicious.
It was great getting back to Yauonde to see everyone, although I had some ISP troubles when I got back to the capital. First, my advisor was late giving me back my corrected draft (I had written my 40 page paper in French, so I needed him to correct my grammar). When I finally got it back, I had a mini crisis when I thought that he had rewritten my paper. Turns out that he only rewrote the first few sections, and I was able to fix everything while keeping the paper in my own words. I printed up my copies, gave my presentation, and now according to a friend here I'm a college senior.
Tonight is a party to thank all the host families. After that I have a day to pack before heading to Limbe, a beach where we'll spend the rest of the program. My friends and I who are travelling afterwards are staying in Limbe for a few days after everyone else leaves. Here's our tentative itinerary for the next 3 weeks:
-Climb Mount Cameroon (1.5 days up, 1.5 days down)
-Return to Yaounde to go to an apparently amazing club/bar/place that has drum circles every other Saturday
-Take the 12 hour train ride up to Ngaoundere, stop for smoothies and to say hello to our knife-making friend in the market
-Take the (8 hour?) bus to Maroua, capital of the Extreme North
-Spend a few days in Waza National Park. Hopefully we'll see elephants!
-Spend a few days hiking around Rhumsiki, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful spots in the world
-Travel back to Yaounde, spend a few days either there or in Douala before flying out of Douala on the 29th
-Arrive, exhausted, in the US on the 30th
I doubt I'll have internet access after I leave for Limbe, so if anything is really important call me at +237 77 49 46 79.
Monday, April 20, 2009
A Belated Birthday Blog
I've been really busy with my ISP (Independent Study Project) lately, so I haven't been able to post as often as before. Making up for that, here's a rundown of how I spent my birthday:
My friend Kelly, who's working with traditional healers in a village around 2 hours away, came to visit and we went out "for a night on the town." Our first quest was to find a birthday cake. Unfortunately, none of the boulangerie's in Dschang sell cake, but we were able to improvise. We bought a "tortue," a big piece of sugar-coated bread in the shpa e of a turtle. We then cut it open and filled it with bits of chocolate. Finally, we found a meat stand (basically a big fire where vendors cook and sell beef or chicken) where the workers let us roast our creation. The result: warm, sugary bread filled with melted chocolate. It was DELICIOUS.
Our next task was to gather the proper ingredients for champagne mixed with pineapple juice. We got a nice 3000F (US 6 dollars) bottle, found some pineapple juice, and then located a nice bar where we could drink it. Our two missions being accomplished, we just hung out and enjoyed being in the company of English speakers for a change. Overall it was a very nice, relaxing birhtday.
My friend Kelly, who's working with traditional healers in a village around 2 hours away, came to visit and we went out "for a night on the town." Our first quest was to find a birthday cake. Unfortunately, none of the boulangerie's in Dschang sell cake, but we were able to improvise. We bought a "tortue," a big piece of sugar-coated bread in the shpa e of a turtle. We then cut it open and filled it with bits of chocolate. Finally, we found a meat stand (basically a big fire where vendors cook and sell beef or chicken) where the workers let us roast our creation. The result: warm, sugary bread filled with melted chocolate. It was DELICIOUS.
Our next task was to gather the proper ingredients for champagne mixed with pineapple juice. We got a nice 3000F (US 6 dollars) bottle, found some pineapple juice, and then located a nice bar where we could drink it. Our two missions being accomplished, we just hung out and enjoyed being in the company of English speakers for a change. Overall it was a very nice, relaxing birhtday.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Safari!
Yesterday the SIT students went to le Parc National de la Bénoué for a safari. While I'm currently in Adamawa province, the park is in the North, so now I've been to 7 out of 10 provinces!
We had to leave Ngaoundéré at 5:30 AM in order to arrive early enough to see animals. It felt just like a ski trip, and it was really cool to walk through the city to our meeting place while the call to prayer was going and people were making their way to the mosques.
Once we got to the park, we saw our first animals surprisingly quickly: giraffes! Later we saw antelopes, monkeys, some really pretty birds, and lots of hippos.
We also got to take turns riding on the roof of our van, with 5 to 6 people at a time enjoying the breeze, scanning for animals, and dodging tree branches. It was a lot of fun, especially because the road was bumpy. It could be very painful at times, though!
Everyone I've takled to about Northern Cameroon have stressed that it's really hot, and they were right. We were boiling in the van towards midday, and we probably could have made tea with our water. Luckily, an inpromptu water fight with my three youngest sisters later that day cooled me down.
Saturday was amazing as well. A Nigerian dignitary was visiting the lamidot (local chief), and there was a big celebration to welcome him. There was a lot of really great music with drums, balafons, long trumpets, and mandolin-like instruments. It was all very North African-sounding, and I couldn't help but be reminded of some Balkan Beat Box songs. There were also a lot of horses present, with beautiful decorations and riders is traditional costumes.
I've been trying to get pictures of my new hair, but it's been difficult. Here's a view from the back as well as all the hair that was cut off:
Also, my youngest host sister is officially the cutest girl ever. Here she made a traditional baby sling for her teddy bear and pretending that my water is another baby. To bad I can't figure out how to rotate it on this website:
And here's a picture of some friends making knives:
We had to leave Ngaoundéré at 5:30 AM in order to arrive early enough to see animals. It felt just like a ski trip, and it was really cool to walk through the city to our meeting place while the call to prayer was going and people were making their way to the mosques.
Once we got to the park, we saw our first animals surprisingly quickly: giraffes! Later we saw antelopes, monkeys, some really pretty birds, and lots of hippos.
We also got to take turns riding on the roof of our van, with 5 to 6 people at a time enjoying the breeze, scanning for animals, and dodging tree branches. It was a lot of fun, especially because the road was bumpy. It could be very painful at times, though!
Everyone I've takled to about Northern Cameroon have stressed that it's really hot, and they were right. We were boiling in the van towards midday, and we probably could have made tea with our water. Luckily, an inpromptu water fight with my three youngest sisters later that day cooled me down.
Saturday was amazing as well. A Nigerian dignitary was visiting the lamidot (local chief), and there was a big celebration to welcome him. There was a lot of really great music with drums, balafons, long trumpets, and mandolin-like instruments. It was all very North African-sounding, and I couldn't help but be reminded of some Balkan Beat Box songs. There were also a lot of horses present, with beautiful decorations and riders is traditional costumes.
I've been trying to get pictures of my new hair, but it's been difficult. Here's a view from the back as well as all the hair that was cut off:
Also, my youngest host sister is officially the cutest girl ever. Here she made a traditional baby sling for her teddy bear and pretending that my water is another baby. To bad I can't figure out how to rotate it on this website:
And here's a picture of some friends making knives:
Friday, March 27, 2009
Making Knives!
During our first day in Ngaoundéré, my friends and I met some really cool metal workers at the Grand Marchée. After talking with them for a bit, they told us that we could come back another time to help them make knives.
This morning, that's exactly what we did! My friend Steffan got to make his blade from scratch, heating it and pounding it into shape with a big mallet. I took turns working the hand bellows with a friend, after which I painted hilts, decorated, and polished hilts. It was a lot of fun, and we're going back Sunday to hopefully make more. It's great that the guys are so willing to explain things to us and to let us try firsthand. How many people can bring back souvenirs that they've made themselves?
This morning, that's exactly what we did! My friend Steffan got to make his blade from scratch, heating it and pounding it into shape with a big mallet. I took turns working the hand bellows with a friend, after which I painted hilts, decorated, and polished hilts. It was a lot of fun, and we're going back Sunday to hopefully make more. It's great that the guys are so willing to explain things to us and to let us try firsthand. How many people can bring back souvenirs that they've made themselves?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Train Rides and Haircuts
Today is my third day in Ngaoundéré, a northern city in which I'll be staying for the next two weeks. Getting here was a lot of fun: we took a 14 hour train ride from Yaoundé. This was my first time on a train, and it was great! THe journey started around 6:30, so I got to enjoy the scenery and the cool breezes as we went north. Once it got dark I hung out with friends and ate pineapple that we bought from vendors through the train windows. I had a nice sleep in my top bunk, then woke up a bit before we arrived.
The city here is inhabited by a lot of Muslims, and it definitely shows. Mosques are everywhere, and there's a definite sense of Arab culture here. I even had shawarma for lunch today, although it acn't compare to Israeli shawarma.
My family here is really nice: it consists of two parents ans 6 sisters. The youngest is 3, and speaks only Fulfulde (people here only laern French once they go to school). The oldest is 20.
On another note, I cut my hair! To be precise, I had 3 friends do it. I had decided in Kribi that I was sick of having long hair, so our first night in Ngaoundéré I let my friends go at it. It's now above my shoulder and slightly curlier than before. I really like it, and I'll try to put up pictures soon.
The city here is inhabited by a lot of Muslims, and it definitely shows. Mosques are everywhere, and there's a definite sense of Arab culture here. I even had shawarma for lunch today, although it acn't compare to Israeli shawarma.
My family here is really nice: it consists of two parents ans 6 sisters. The youngest is 3, and speaks only Fulfulde (people here only laern French once they go to school). The oldest is 20.
On another note, I cut my hair! To be precise, I had 3 friends do it. I had decided in Kribi that I was sick of having long hair, so our first night in Ngaoundéré I let my friends go at it. It's now above my shoulder and slightly curlier than before. I really like it, and I'll try to put up pictures soon.
Friday, March 20, 2009
It's a Small World
Earlier in the day when I was at the cyber cafe, a (white) woman noticed the Brandeis shirt that I was wearing and asked me if I went there. It turns out that she's from Reading, MA, and knows someone from Peabody who's currently volunteering at a hospital here in Yaounde. I love it when I meet people who have actually heard of where I'm from; it makes me feel as though I'm not totally disconnected from the world, after all.
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