From deep in the heart of Africa...

Hello my beautiful readers!

I am going to start by just answering my mom's massive list of questions, so here goes!:

What is the name of your host family?

My father's name is Hamidou Hamadou, my mother's name is Fanta, and the boys are Wassalahidini, Modi, Mikilalou, and Isaga, and the girls are Hawa, and Abeeba. My father also has a son in university and one daughter who is married off.

Have they ever housed a PCT before?

I am their first PCT! However they took their peace corps training very seriously and they are super respectful of my space.

What do you know about why they're doing it and how much they get paid?

My family was asked to host by a current volunteer who actually lives right across the street from me!! He asked them to host because they were super helpful when he was new in town and knew that they'd make a good host family. (obviously not as good as we were ;)) They get paid 40,000CFA a month...which is 80 US dollars. That's a HUGE number here.

What is their house and your room like?

"house" is a term that we use very loosely here. My family lives in a compound, which means there is a small plot of land surrounded by a concrete/rock wall...and the plot of land has several buildings on it...one concrete building is for storage of grain/where the kids sleep, another is the kitchen and where the girls sleep, there are two latrines, and then there is the building that is split in half in which I get half and my father gets the other...however my father usually sleeps outside in the yard because it is cooler. My room is a 'concrete sauna' (as we've lovingly dubbed them here) in which I have a door with a curtain over it (please tell Grandma that my door locks!), a window with a screen!, a bed, a desk with two chairs, and a locking trunk, my bike, my agro tools, and several flat spiders, and baby/mama tropical geckos! (I finally got to look them up in a book when we were in Mozogo this past weekend!!)

What is the compound--their yard or the space between houses?

The 'compound' is everything within the wall (every family has their own)

What is the value of their currency against the American dollar?

The exchange rate is roughly 500CFA to the dollar. The official rate is about 550, but we have to pay fees to exchange, so the 'effective' rate is about 500. I've only exchanged once, and some PCVs in Yaounde did it for me.

What is the average life expectancy for Cameroonians?

50 for a man, and 51 for a woman. Life here is hard.

How large is the village you are living in?

No idea, getting information around here is very hard. My village is small though...I know that much. We are small enough that we have no stores, no gas station, and no restaurants. The health group is in a village with all of those things. Weenies. :) We do have 2 primary schools, a health center, a high school, and lots of fields of rice/millet/sorhum/etc.

How long is your daily walk to your training site?

The training site is approximately 1K from my house. But remember that the walk is through sand (we don't have dirt roads, we have sand roads!) which is way hard. It's not a bad walk though and we do it as a group which is really nice. There are always lots of kids along the way who want to greet us...or chase us. Whichever.

Are you still walking, or are you riding your bike now?

I walk to the training center, but if I am going to Pitoa for the market or to hang out with people, I take my bike. Pitoa is 7K away, on a beeeeautiful road (ie paved)

How much do you have to pay for internet time?

At Paul Biya's internet cafe, I pay 300CFA for 1hr15min...so I get 2.5 hours for 600CFA, just over a dollar. Not a bad deal...definitely something I'm willing to pay for :)

Did your host family have many questions about the pictures you shared with them?

My family LOVED my pictures of home. They thought that everyone and everything was beautiful. They have trouble telling white people apart, so they kept asking if people were me :) It was amusing, and the whole family sat on the mat and looked at the pictures, it was awesome. A very good night.

Last Thursday we left for the extreme north to visit 2 volunteer posts...it was pretty sweet. It is amazingly beautiful up there. Wow. We visited Tourou and Mozogo...both of which may possibly be on your map (extreme north, above garoua, below Waza national park) Mozogo is the post that I want and it's pretty sweet. The park is about 174 hectacres and beautiful!!! It has savanna, dense forest, and a river/pond system. The last volunteer built a tree house/platform that we went up on...very exciting. Apparently the park had duikers, pythons, 14 ft spitting cobra, olive savanna babboons that steal peoples' goats, green monkeys, monitors, and more. I pretty much NEED this post :) The volunteer's house is directly across the road from the post and is pretty nice. It has a bedroom, salon, porch, a separate building with a huge kitchen, an outdoor latrine, and a separte open storage building. She has planted a lot of flowers and pretty things, and is leaving a lot of books/furniture/happy house things behind. I NEED IT!!! :) We find out on Thursday and head out to visit on Friday or Saturday. I'm very excited, but nervous as well because my counterpart will come up to meet me and he only speaks French. My French is a zillion times better, but it's far from amazing. However, once I get to post I'll have Alice to help me get around and to translate some :)

I hope everyone is healthy and that you don't have salmonella, malaria, amoebas, or anything else fun that we have here.

Love you :)