A Travellerspoint blog

some snipets of life

14.02.2007

i wanted to give some snipets about life here to give some better idea about how it all is. also the basic updates.
the dust for me is better. i followed advice from a number of locals and drank lemon juice and honey. with tissane tea is even better. that has cured me, and will again. clothes and shoes staying clean is an issue though, always.
my new african outfit is totally sweet. i got a hooded long sleeve shirt and matching pants in a blue diamond covered fabric. i'd like to put a picture of it (and me) up, but we'll see how i manage that.
tv is big here. but hilariously dubbed and containing mostly bad shows. my family gets about 13 channels, almost all in french. some usual programs we watch are dubbed soap operas mainly from the US or mexico or brazil, but also including one cameroonian one which is severely lacking in production quality; i saw that they carry 24, season 4 on some channel, dubbed of course; i heard oprah is on here; then there are bad or old, often dubbed, movies and of course the news. the TV is on thoughout the entire day, and the one in my house is placed quite central to everything.
i did laundry by hand for the first time last sunday. it was tough and i had a lot. unfortunately, you have to leave clothes be for three days after they dry or iron the, or else you might well get worms under your skin. awesome, right? turns out quick dry was not the way to go, since those clothes tend to be unironable. however, they dont retain smell too much, which lets me wear them more often.
sunday was also the fete de la jeunesse, a huge holiday celebrating young people over here. huge parade went on for ever, including chilluns and university students. streets became crowded and as is more noral here, police had to beat back children onto the side of the road to let the parade pass. got to watch it all from our perch on the 3rd level at the SIT office.
also visited a village waterfall thing on sat, which was cool.
for now, must leave for more learning.

Posted by strandcam 7:30 AM

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question: does your family speak english or are you using just french now?

happy valentine's day btw <3 <3 <3

-Betsy

14.02.2007 by scacao

hello Chief, (as I don't know your name) stumbled across your blog as I was looking for information on Cameroon as my son is doing his Junior Yr abroad progam in Cameroon. He has been in Yaounde for about a month now staying with a host family. Everything you write, he has echoed in our phone calls with him. How he amused his host family when he went out to try and wash his own clothes, they kept yelling at him to bang them on the rocks harder. He has been playing soccer in a local league, and the dust on the field and in the city has turned his shoes red, but his home family mom will not leave him leave the house with dirty sneekers, and washes them a bright white every nite. Eating has been an adventue, snake one night and he dosent't know what else. He was in DSCHANG last weekend, for a "funeri" somthing like a funeral. He is going back to Dschang in two weeks, with a girl who is in his program. Maybe I could give you his phone number. He is from Macalester College in St Paul MN, studying with a group primerarly from Dickinson College in PA. Enjoy your adventure.

john

14.02.2007 by gilmartin

Nice to hear from another Cameroon study abroad parent! Nathan goes to Wesleyan University (CT) and is in Cameroon for only one semester, with the SIT program--which involves three different home stays and a month-long independent study project. Is your son there for the whole year?
We have had limited luck so far with telephoning--one good conversation, but since then I've had trouble getting through. Hoping to fix that soon. What an adventure, eh? [We're from the Washington D.C. area; how about you?]

Kerry

15.02.2007 by kerryj

We are from North Jersey, just outside NYC. Patrick will be there for just over 5 months. The program started in early Jan and ends June o2. My wife and I, along with the two younger siblings are hoping to be able to meet him in Kenya in June, depending on how the airfares work out. Sounds like we are having the opposite problem you guys are having. Patrick cannot find decent internet access, the one time he was able to get on line in an internet cafe, it took 30 minutes to open 4 emails. We have received only one email from him, this blog of Nates is great. Really gives you a feel for what things are like. On the other hand Our phone contact with patrick has been pretty good, We have spoken 4 or 5 times, we try to time it when he is back at his family. He talks about the exact same things Nate does, How early everybody goes to bed and how early everyone gets up. The power outages, The bathroom facilities, what new and interesting items they have had for dinner. Sounds like he has had similar experiences with his classes, intensive french, 3 or 4 kids in each class and a lot of individual attention. One kid in the program apparently had a bout with Maleria, which gave us a bit of a scare. Patrick said he looked like walking death, but is doing better now. OUr first question to him is always have you taken your Maleria pill. Well best of luck, we will keep reading Nate's blog.

john

15.02.2007 by gilmartin

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