Burgies avec fromage Américain

Success never tasted so good!

So my Cameroonian mama has been asking me to prepare an American dinner for awhile now. Initially my plan was something simple, pasta...with red sauce from a jar, and maybe some pieces of meat thrown in. But after seeing how hard Jacqi works on prepareing her own sauce for fish, chicken and everything else, I quickly realized my method would not be acceptable. After talking about my predicament with a friend I learned he had successfully made burgers for his entire family. I was under the impression that it would not be possible to acquire all the ingredients necessary in my small village. However, he assured me that it could be done. 

With a new found sense of determination I set off to market at dawn this past weekend. The main street was still very quiet, and only few shops and stands were open for business at this hour. I first went to the butchers and saw no meat. The man there told me they would be receiving their cow in thirty minutes. So I marched on to get the next necessary ingredients. On the way I stopped by a cart stand to purchase a spaghetti omelette sandwich. Yes, it was amazing. Onions, peppers, tomatoes, hot sauce, all mixed in with eggs and spaghetti, then put into a small baguette to create a breakfast on the go rivalled only by San Diego's early morning burritos. I paid the omelette man 300 Cameroonian francs ($0.60), and thought about what else I needed to buy while enjoying le petit dejeuner. I walked into the local supermarket (a one room store with a wall of goods) and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had ketchup! I had bought mayonnaise and mustard the other day but couldn't find ketchup so I was worried I was going to have to attempt to make my own. I know, disaster avoided, phew. I now went looking for hamburger buns. The bakery attached to the one aisle supermarket I was just in had none. Then it turned out the other main bakery had nothing as well. This wasn't looking good.

I still needed meat as well so I went back to the butchers. As I approached I saw a large pile of bloody skin covered in flies, excellent, the meat had arrived. In Colombian fashion, I explained that I needed two kilos of his finest product. He obliged, but mentioned that their meat grinder wasn't working so I would have to wait for someone to take it to another shop for grinding. As I was waiting the grinding seemed to be taking a long time. I began to wonder if my French had let me down and if I had completely miscommunicated what I needed. Thankfully after thirty minutes I had a plastic bag full off beef, dripping with blood on my lap. 

Still in need of hamburger buns I decided to go back to both bakeries to see if they had received any fresh goods. If not, I would have to settle for chopping up baguettes. The morning sun began climbing overhead and I knew I would need get back soon. As I was walking, I spotted a street stand that appeared to have hotdog buns. This might work. Wait, hamburger buns too! I immediately asked to buy all fifteen. Scratch that, fourteen, the last one was completely moldy and covered with ants. As I brushed the ants off of my newly purchased victory I thought about the remaining items I needed. 

Back to main street, which was now bustling at this point. I bought fresh avocados, tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and potatoes. Finally I purchased the finishing touch, sliced cheese. (I bought mozzarella and an labeled brand. The unlabelled brand turned out to taste just like American cheese so I ended up using that and gave the mozzarella to my host siblings in exchange for help while preparing dinner.)

Preparing this feast was quite interesting. I had a friend of mine come over to help. She cut potatoes into french fries and I seasoned the meat and made the patties. The whole time there were at least four other people in our tiny kitchen all watching what we were doing and not minding that they were completely in our way. After a little more than two hours, we had everything prepared. A golden mind of french fries, fourteen thick cheese burgers, and a bowl of egg salad. I also bought coke for everyone to make it the most typical American meal possible. Everyone loved the hamburgers and the fries were gone almost instantly. I couldn't believe how well the meat turned out, considering I've never seasoned meat before, but whatever I did worked.

As I sat back in my chair slowly digesting two delicious cheeseburgers I couldn't have felt more full. I was full of pride, delight, and satisfaction. We had truly done America justice, and I know that whenever my host family thinks of the US, that meal will be the first thing on their mind.

Model School of Hard Knocks

Dear diary, it's been two weeks since my last entry. Food supplies run thin and moral is at an all time low. The amount of excrement in this cave is unfathomable. Time is a meaningless notion here, days come and days go, but no one knows why or how. All we can do now is hope and pray for some semblance of the reality we once knew. If this becomes my last entry, someone.... please tell my story.

So yea, everyone is really anxious to get to post. Training has been great and we've learned a ton, but it's also been seemingly endless. It will be really nice when we are all somewhat in control of our own lives and schedules again. Although I will miss mama Jacqueline's cooking. Spaghetti omelettes are now a staple of my diet. Her fish and chicken are excellent as well. I particular like the head and brain of the chicken, although I enjoy other parts of the fish more than the fish head and eyes. But when you're hungry, really anything is edible. Also, killing the food makes eating it much more satisfying. I helped kill a chicken which was very interesting. My host brother chopped off it's head, threw the chicken in a bowl, and then had me hold a lid down over it. The feet were kicking and the wings were flapping for at least two minutes. Eventually the headless chicken lost the will to continue struggling, at which point we poured boiling water over it. This made the defeathering process quite simple. Now that I've seen it done I'm allowed to machete the head off of the next chicken, I'm excited.

What else has gone on? Seems like a ton. We started model school two weeks ago which has been awesome. I'm quickly learning how difficult teaching is. Fortunately I'm teaching in English, and the topic is magnetism which I enjoy. I'm giving my kids a test tomorrow and they're really smart so I expect most of them to do well. They start learning physics at a much younger age here and know much more than I ever did at their age. Right now there are only twelve kids in my class, but at post I'm expecting between 50 to 100 which will be really challenging to manage. Once I go to post I will also find out which specific subjects I will be teaching, I'm hoping for upper level math or physics.

French has been going well, although the accent is definitely difficult for me. I came in at the lowest level and moved up three levels after my first test so now I only have one more level to go to pass the language criteria. I've also started learning pidgin which I'll be using a lot at post. It's relatively easy to understand what people are saying but it's a lot harder to speak it. I think once I'm speaking it in my day to day life I'll pick it up quickly.

Other things...

Our training group all bought matching pagne (fabric with printed designs) to make clothing out of for our swearing-in ceremony. I just was at a tailor putting in my request. I'm getting a Bubu made, sorta a fancy long man dress with matching pants, can't wait! The tailoring doesn't come cheap though, 16 american dollars for the whole ensemble, geesh. When I'm near Bamenda I plan to start getting all my clothes tailored. I'm through with wearing garments that weren't made for my precise dimensions.

Last things, pretty sure I'm going to get a cat, to hunt and kill any and all mice at my soon to be new home. Convinced myself today that I'm going to get a baby goat as well, because they are SOOOOOO CUTEEEE! Still not sure about getting a puppy yet. I'd love to have one, but they do need a lot of attention, and when I leave, there's a 50 50 chance that whoever I leave it with will end up eating it. I won't mind if my cat or goat gets eaten, I might even eat them both myself. But I don't know if I could emotionally handle not knowing the fate of my little pup.

And oh yea, great job team USA. That final game vs Belgium was exciting. Glad to see we didn't pull a Brazil! Too soon? Feel free to ask questions about anything.

Cheers!

Posted

So site visit was incredible. We spent a few nights in Bamenda, the regional capital of the Northwest. It's one of the more modern places in Cameroon and is known as Bamerica among volunteers. I really liked the vibe, and it was cool hearing people speak English and pidgin. Whenever we rode in cars or cabs we would squeeze about the same number of people in as we would in highschool, so that's always comfy. We went to one bar called 'Facebook' and when I return I'll be headed to another one called 'Las Vegas'. (Michael/Jonny/others, it seems I'll never be free from Vegas' grasp).

I also stayed in a small village a few hours west of Bamenda. It was very rural and I really liked the area. Great food everywhere for really cheap. Everyone was friendly and seemed know each other well so I'm excited to be posted in a similar style village. My specific village is called Enyoh. This one isn't searchable either, but it's near a village called Batibo, for those interested in looking it up. I'm a big fan of the landscape; mountains, undulating hills, escarpments (that one's for Aussie Steve). Also, its much cooler, and there seem to be no mosquito's in existence there. Another thing, the volunteer I visited had electricity and running water, and the house was really big and nice. Almost too big for my standards though, I think I'd prefer something slightly smaller. I'm also going to be living relatively close to most of the other science teachers which is cool. I really like our group so it will be nice to be able to see everyone somewhat often.

I've also got some friends in youth development going all over Cameroon so it will be nice to visit them and see other parts of the country. Don't worry I'm not forgetting, Happy America day yesterday! I drank Jack of course for good measure and went out with some of the other trained for a few beers. We all have a French exam today though, so our official 4th of July celebration will take place this evening at a local hotel, here we go...

Kinda scatterbrained right now, but if anyone has any questions about other things going on here that I've omitted from the blog thus far drop a comment and let me know what you want to hear. In other news, team USA, good fight. Turned out to be quite an exciting game, and I'm proud of you.

Cheers!