Home Sweet Home

I’m Back! I know it’s been awhile since I had a chance to update you on all things Cameroon, but you’ll just have to blame that on a combination of power failures and official In Service Training. Also I have to apologize because I don’t have anything super exciting to update you on this week.
I guess I’ll start with in-service training. Commonly referred to as I.S.T. this is where I have been for the past 8 days. Basically it’s a week long seminar were volunteers get a chance to talk about what they’re doing at post, hear from 2nd year volunteers, learn how to plan and carry out big projects, and learn how to get funding for said projects. All interesting and important things to know, but that’s not really why most people start counting down the days till I.S.T. two months ahead a time. The real reason people get pumped is because the whole stage gets back together, kind of like a reunion of sorts. I know it seems silly, and you might be thinking, but Kate it’s only been 4 months since you saw these people, which is very true, but when you go from spending all day everyday with a group of people and then go cold turkey with your American interaction at post, 4 months can start to seem like a long time. Not that I’m complaining about post, but it’s nice to speak English and not feel limited by a five year old's vocabulary, drink a cold beer without being bothered to by the guy sitting at the next table, and just let your guard down, laugh with your friends, which is exactly what I did from 5:30 (when classes ended) till the wee hours every night. It was great to see everyone and I definitely had a good time, but by the end of day 8 I was ready to be heading home, and actually a pretty cool thing happened as I was rolling back into town… I felt like I was home ☺ I passed my house and waved out the window and a chorus of “Kate, Kate Kate” erupted from the kids. It was a warm and fuzzy moment for the books.
With that being said I’m back in town and back to the grindstone, feeling energized and ready to start some bigger projects. I still have a lot to think about before I jump into anything, but I have some ideas mulling around in the back of my head so I’m going to spend the next couple of weeks flushing them out with Bernadette and picking one to focus on this summer.

One final random note that I don’t know how to cleverly work into this post, but that I definitely want to mention…hopscotch. Yesterday afternoon I played the most competitive game of hopscotch the world has ever seen. Seriously if it were an Olympic sport Haua (age 17), Awa (age 16), and Ladee (age 15) would all be gold medalists. I had no idea there were so many rules and that such an innocent game could be so intense. But after an hour of throwing stones and jumping around like a one legged chicken, I had been “schooled” and my mind had been changed for good!