Salut tout le mondes!

I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the fall weather and all that, that entails (football, football, football, thanksgiving ,football, not that I miss it or anything ;) I’m having a great November, although I’m sure much different then most of yours (sweating bullets in November is something that’s going to take a little getting used to ☺). A lot has happened since I last got a chance to update this thing so forgive me if this post feels like it’s all over the place. Ok here we go!

Things on the home-stay front continue to be great. My family is wonderful and I’m going to be sad when I have to say goodbye in a few weeks. I definitely plan on stopping by for a visit whenever I’m in town.

Here are the highlights from the past month and a half:
1. I got locked in the bathroom at the training house for 30 minuets and had to end up being axed out by 3 Cameroonian men.
2. I attended a special ceremony in a neighboring village where a new chief was being crowned. It was by far one of the coolest things I’ve done in country thus far. There were easily 5 or 6 thousand people there and it was like a giant festival/party/parade thing! Also it was pretty cool cause we got the VIP treatment and were invited into the “royal compound” for a private party… BALLER ;)
3. I was sneezed on by a goat, that’s one of three currently living in our kitchen. It was gross and at the same time so funny that I actually laughed till I peed my pants a little. It’s moments like this, when you find yourself sitting in a wood fire, dirt floor kitchen, and your arm covered in goat snot, when you just have to laugh!
4. I got a chigger. It was really disgusting. I can happily say that now I am chigger free (YAY!) but digging a parasite out of my toe with a needle and a pair of tweezers, accidently popping the egg sack, and watching tons of little chigger egg-pus ooze out of my foot is definitely worth making note of ☺
5. I found out my post and attended a counterpart workshop, which was hot and long and a little boring but totally worth it, because one I got to meet my counterpart, and two I got to learn a little about my post in Bankim. My counterpart’s name is Bernadette and she is the senior nurse at the Lutheran Health Center in Bankim, which is the institution I’m partnered with. As far as I can tell she’s motivated, dedicated, and really excited to work with me. I don’t want to call it to soon, but I think we’re gonna work great together.

Site Visit Recap!!!
1. My post is in Bankim in the western part of the Adamoa. It takes 4 hours to get from Baffousam (the provincial capital of the West) to Bankim on mostly dirt roads in a bush taxi when the roads are fairly dry, and up to 9 hours at the height of the rainy season. It took me about 5 to get there and then 6 to get back at the end of the week, so not bad if I do say so myself.
2. Basic things you need to know are it’s a major truck stop so a pretty bustling medium sized town, there are no paved roads, even though main street is technically an international highway, the people are great, and there’s a huge amount of diversity in the town because Bankim finds itself an ethnic crossroad of sorts
3. People in Bankim speak French, Pidgion, Fulfulde, Tikar and what it’s commonly referred to as “special English.” I’m gonna need to make friends with some people willing to translate ASAP
4. There are easily 25-30 little villages “en brusse” surrounding Bankim, and I think I’ll be doing the bulk of my work as a PCV in these areas. We visited one of these little villages and I would say the population was probably less then 75 people. Not gonna lie it blew my mind a little!
5. I sat in and helped with a baby vaccination day. For those of you laughing hysterically right now let me just add some fuel to the fire. Picture me in a room with 50 Cameroonian babies all under a year old and their mothers for 5 hours. All I can say is someone out there has a great sense of humor. All jokes and soul sucking stares aside though, I really did have an awesome time helping out. Maybe babies aren’t so bad after all… maybe ;)
6. I took my first motorcycle taxi ride and… IT WAS AWESOME! Mom, if you’re reading this clam down I was wearing a helmet and I told the driver to be careful… breath. The driver took Ralph (the guy I’m replacing) and I all around Bankim so I could get a good feel for the landscape, which by the way is gorgeous. I’m right where the rainforest and the Sahara start to meet so there are tall grasses and beautiful tropical trees everywhere.
7. So Ralph… I think he’s kind of a legend within Peace Corps Cameroon. He’s a 65 year old retired Navy seal/ski patrolman/ Peace Corps volunteer who’s been working in Bankim for the past two years. He was great site visit host and it’s not going to be easy to fill his shoes. If you’re reading this Ralph, thanks again for showing me around Bankim. I had great time and can’t wait to get back and start working! One last note about Ralph and site visit; I can now officially say I’ve been in Africa and watched Mean Girls with a retired Navy seal… just you try and beat that one ;)
8. Overall I loved my site visit and I’m really excited to get back and settle into the community. I feel like there are a lot of places in Bankim where a PCV can be a community mobilizer, and I’m PUMPED!!!

I know I’m forgetting things like crazy but it’s hard to put this entire experience down into words. Final things I wanted to let people know are that I have a phone (you can get the number from mama millman), you can text for free from Skype, there’s internet in Bankim (KMillmavt09@gmail.com), I wrote some letters so be on the look out, and I miss all of you tons but I’m still having the time of my life here!

Peace!
Kate

P.S. Happy birthday Rose and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone else!!!

Hey Everyone!

So I've been in country for about 3 weeks now and everything is great! I live in this tennie-tiny little village in the western province of Cameroon called Bamena. I'm pretty sure you won't find it on a map. I think the closest mapable place is Bagante, which is where all the agro volunteers in my staging class live.

So there's so much i want to say, but i have to be quick, so i think the best way to explain my situation is to give you a day in the life of me.

I wake up at 5:30 every morning to the sound of my host father and host mother yelling at my host sister and host brother. Not in a bad way more in a "i just want to be extra sure you hear me kind of way" After that i go to the fire to warm up some water, wait pour it in a bucket and then head off to take a bucket bath. Side note, i brush my teeth in the backyard and when I look out i can see the entire valley below us. It's so beautiful, some days i can't even believe i'm really here.

After i get dressed and cleaned up i head up to the restraunt my family owns (the only one in the town) and grab a quick bite to eat. I make a little small talk in french ( literally a little) and then I go to school. I think the walk to school is one of my favorite parts of living in Bamena. Everybody says hello to each other and people actually stop to ask how you are and where you're going and how your family is. It's refreshing to meet busy people, who aren't to busy to say hello :)

Once I get to school, i spend from 7:30 till 4:30 going back and forth between french classes and technical classes. All my teacher's are awesome. Theo, the tecnical health trainer is great. He really knows his stuff and he's always up beat, and he has the best laugh ever. It's one of those laughs that makes you laugh even if you don't know what we're laughing about. My french teacher is equally awesome. Her name is Djanabo, and she's got to be one of most patient Camerounains i've met so far, which is good beacsue ome days my french is pretty rough but she is always encouraging and that is certainly making things easier.

After school is over all the trainees go to one of the local bars to hang out and unwind from the day. Normally we hangout playing cards until about 6 and then we disperse for home. When i get home I help my mom with dinner and then we all eat together on the front porch. I do have to say thought that I always eat dinner with my fork in one hand, my plate on my lap and my french dictionary in my other hand. It makes for pretty entertaing table talk ;)

After dinner I do home work for a little while, sometimes i write a letter (keep an eye out for them) and then go to sleep. It's a pretty simple life, but I love it :)

Peace,
Kate

Salut !!!

I can now officially call myself a world traveler! In the last three days I have flown alone for the first time, traveled into Europe for the first time (even though it was only 1 sort of stressful hour) and landed in Cameroon. There are 32 people in my group, and they're all awesome! We landed in the airport and it was a little chaotic but we all got through customs and made it to the hotel in Younde. I'm sharing a room for the next 5 days with a really nice girl named Liz and then from there we all head about 1/2 hour out of town to where our PST (pre-service training) will be. I'm sorry this is such a short message but my time on the computer is very limited, but all is well and i am confident that this will be an adventure of a life time :)

Peace,

Kate

Packing My Life Up

Step 1: lay everything out on the living room floor in a giant pile

Step 2: repackage everything in zip lock baggies, and yes I mean everything ;)

Step 3: cram it all into a duffel, a travel pack, and a back pack

Now the test will be tomorrow when I take it all to get weighed... something tells me a few things aren't going to make the cut

It's Crunch Time

So as of today I have 9 days until I depart for Peace Corps. I'm feeling really excited because I've been waiting so long for this to actually happen, but I'm also starting to get some of the pre-departure jitters. I'm thinking that this is normal and I mean who wouldn't feel a least a tiny bit anxious about leaving the country for 2 years. Lucky for me the excitement is heavily out weighing the nerves :)

Today I went shopping with my parents to get a few last min. items. I picked up some skirts and shirts and a planner. The whole leaving at the end of summer has actually worked out really well because everything is marked way down on the sale racks. I like to think of it as the silver lining to the previous trip being cancelled.

I other news I AM THE WORLDS WORST PROCRASTINATOR. I mean I've known this for a long time but every time i do it i just think, "why do I do this to myself?" I have 14 hours of French left to do and I'm trying to have it all done by Friday. I just keep telling myself I work better under a little bit of pressure.

Lastly tomorrow and Thursday are my last days at the Potter's House. I'm so glad that I decided to work there this summer, and I'm definitely going to miss all my new friends!

Bug Net

So I bought a free standing mosquito net a while back because it was one of the things that was on the packing list for Mauritania, and I just figured it would probably be a good thing to take to Cameroon too. Today I busted it out and set it up in the living room made sure everything was in order and then. about an hour later I read a post on Facebook from a current PCV in Cameroon saying not to bother with bringing things like bug nets. Now I'm not sure if I'm going to try and sell it or just go ahead and bring it with me. hmmmm.... any suggestions ???

The Man At The Bike Shop Sized Me Up

Ok so this really isn't that exciting but I got sized for a bike today. I got an email from Peace Corps Cameroon at the beginning of the week and one of the things I needed to do was go find out what size bike i ride. I called a couple places this morning and the first one wanted to charge me $30 bucks for one measurement. The second place wanted $95. Finally I found a place who said that they didn't really do bike measurements but once I told him what I needed it for he said to come on in and they would help me out free of charge. They were great. I'm not gonna lie though the guy asked me to get on a bike and ride it. I looked at him for a second and was like... where? He was like, oh just around the store. It was kind of awkward. I just took the bike around the store for a few laps while other costumers were shopping and checking out at the front. Didn't seem to phase anyone but me.