Week One

So our whole group made it to Cameroon. I had a chance to meet everyone in Philly, it seems like we've got a pretty cool team here. There's 37 of us, some in Youth Development and others in Education. And the ration isn't the worst I've seen either..ehhh....ehhh???? There was some initial excitement as we went from the airport to our bus. Some guy grabbed someone's bag and made a run for it. One of the locals that was helping us ran after him and tackled the guy, and then he was arrested. Welcome to Cameroon! Other than that, nothing too crazy, weather is pretty nice, humid, but I feel like Disney World gets worse. We're staying at a hotel in Yaounde for the first week, so we're not digging our own poop holes yet. The food has been pretty awesome so far, there's this red spicy stuff that I've been calling African sirache, it's been great on everything. Everyone is still getting to know each other, and we're all discovering how terrible we are at French, c'est la vie. I'm mostly looking forward to buying some rad animal print fabric and getting a tailor here. In a few weeks I'm gonna be decked out in African tribal gear, and I'll seamlessly assimilate into the culture, too easy.

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And yea, last night in the hotel, shit's about to get real. Say goodbye to AC and running water. I've had a bit of diarrhea, but it's not much different than when I eat Mexican food. So just trying to steer clear of the ole Malaria......and typhoid, and dysentery, and meningitis, and the hiv, and probably the bubonic plague. Other than that, super pumped to move into a home where I can't communicate at all. My french has only come so far.

In terms of getting used to the country, well, it's similar to Baja and Indo in a lot of ways. The power goes out a lot here though, they explained to us that Cameroon has "scheduled blackouts". I guess me and this country have a lot more in common than I thought. Btw, Cameroon just tied Germany in a friendly, which is awesome on both fronts. Good for Cameroon, but also good for the ole 'merica, who may now be able to identify the weaknesses of zee deutschland! And yea, probably gonna adopt a monkey, because I'm gonna need someone to take care of the puppy I just adopted.

Cheers!