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 :)

So funny!!!

(ok ok I decided to just go ahead and post the long e-mail that I sent home…and geez it really really is long, I must find myself very very interesting) :)

Hello adoring Amber fans! Being the smart individual that I am, I bought 2 hours of internet this time and figured out how to change the french keyboard to the traditional english one...this way I am hopeful that you will actually get my e-mail this time!

FYI: the keyboard I'm using doesn't work well...keys stick and I can't look at my hands because the letters on the keys are different from what appears on the screen...thus if there are typos, it is clearly not my fault ;)

Right now I am in an internet cafe located in the building of Paul Biya's politcal party--the Cameroonian president...the computer here is cheeper and faster than the one I used last time.

Wow, so I had my birthday! I don't feel 22, I feel like I just had my 21st! 3 other staigiers had their birthday within a week of mine, so we had a big party on the saturday after mine. We all got together in the training house in Pitoa and drank Fanta and ate benyays. Good times!

ok...apparently I can't capitilize the o on this keyboard...whatever.

Anyway, I'm going to start typing up the letter that I've been writing...

Enjoy!

Dear Mom, Dad, Courtney, and anyone else reading this--

I hiked 10kilometers in 120 degree African heat down an unshaded highway 2 weekends ago to get to internet and then spent 50 minutes battling a French keyboard in order to send you a huge and terribly funny Amber update. As soon as I finished the e-mail, the internet crashed and my amazing e-mail was gone! I got really frustrated, but then my friend Ryan said that the same thing happened to him, so we ended up having a good laugh and used several of my favoite phrases: "Well, this is Africa." "So...this is Africa!" and "this is really happening!" -Courtney, the last one is terribly similar to the Grey's Anatomy's 'Seriousy, seriusly!' Yup...this is my life!

I am going to get all of my hard news out of the way before I tell you my funny stories, because I want to leave you with a happy feeling at the end :)

I texted Courtney this, but I now know that she is not getting my texts, so this should be new information...My APCD, George Yebit, was found dead in his hotel room a couple of weeks ago. Wow...it still blows my mind. He was up north setting up our sites when it happened, so we felt even worse about it. He was such an amazing guy--it was a huge blow to the program and to us personally. He and I had bonded on the first night over our passion against the bush meat trade. He was so excited to do our training, and he got us excited about it too. We just found out that it was a heart attack. Our poor training director had a hard time telling us about it, and our medical officer cried with us. For a group struggling with culture shock and homesickness, that was quite a blow to morale. However, I am so proud of how strong our group is and that we came together to support one another and that no one had ETed yet. APCD: Associate Peace Corps Director for Agro, ET: early terminate

Honestly, I don't think that I've ever had a week as hard as my first week here in Nassaraou. My first Sunday all I wanted to do was come home. I am currently in the beginning of stage 3 of culture shock, which is wonderful. Stage 1 was Yaounde, the honeymoon stage where everything is new and wonderful...stage 2 is horrid, it involves comparing everything to home and pointing out how hard everything is and doubting why you're here. Stage 3 is acceptance. I haven't had an emotionally hard day in a few weeks now, so that makes things here so much easier.

The homestay experience was quite a shock to my system...we'd been living together as a group the whole time and all of a sudden we were thrown into the craziness alone. The peace corps admits that it is much like throwing you into the deep end of the swimming pool with cement block tied to your feet and just wishing you luck. Hey, I made it!!!

Man we've done some crazy stuff here! For example: we had to draw our own blood to make malaria microscope slides, and we built our own mountain bikes, and I watched my host grandfather kill a viper!! We also got our motorcycle helmets which amuses me because mine is bright red, as if I don't stick out enough!!

Courtney--I have a library in my room! It's really just a metal trunk full of books, but the other volunteers can check them out from me, so basically I'm pretty cool :)

Also, I have a kitten!! Technically she belongs to my homestay family, but since she likes me so much, my family has asked me to take her with me when I leave. I gave her a bath last weekend, and she's getting a flea dip this weekend :) She doesn't mind because I’m doing it, and she thinks I’m great. Basically she likes me because I don't throw her across the compound like everyone else. of course they don't do that anymore because I made it clear that I wasn't comfortable with them abusing animals in my presence.

insert:
I guess me not approving of animal abuse didn't transfer to child abuse for them... The other night I was in my room studying and apparently 2 little boys were standing in my door watching me. I didn’t even notice them...but my hostfather caught them and trapped them in our compound and made me come out to see them. I didn't really understand what was going on, but tried to tell him that I didn’t care that they were watching me... Everyone laughed and then the father smacked both of the boys across the face. I gasped and was quite shocked because I know that child abuse is prevalent here, but I've never seen my dad hit his own kids. After that my dad released them and I ran back into my room and had trouble concentrating for the rest of the night. They were just curious about me!

ok...happy story time...actually, I'm quite famous for the following story now :)

After about 30 hours of traveling up from the south, we staigiers arrived in Pitoa--the town where the health staigiers train--where our homestay families were meeting us. Guess whose family didn’t show up!? oh yeah...mine. How sad, I was an orphan on my first night!! So one of the PC trainers-who didn’t speak english-took me to my house and dropped me off with my family who only speak French and Fulfulde--neither or which I speak, just for the record. The trainer left and my father sat me in the 'ceremonial chair' as I like to cal it, and sat and stared at me. After our bwee--drink used to break Ramadan each night--we had millet and viscous soup--affectionately known as snot soup because of its consistency. Then the neighbor kids came by to look at the nassara--'Whitey' in Fulfulde the local language...and then I was ushered off to 'bathe.' Washing oneself involved taking a bucket into the pit latrine and splashing oneself with water. By pit latrine, I mean open air concrete slab with a 3 inch hole in it. Now picture that with 20 21/2in. cockroaches running around whistling, and you know where I wash myself! obviously I finished quickly and went back to my room where I sweltered under my mosquito netting in my 110 degree concrete block room where I tried not to drown in my own pool of sweat. After laying there for a while, I realized that I needed to pee, so I got up and got completely dressed--because this is a muslim society and skin is never ok--I grabbed my headlamp, my toilet paper, and headed out into the African night...

And promptly locked myself in my latrine. let me restate that, I locked myself in as in I couldn't get back out. i.e. TRAPPED. I struggled with the lock for a while which made a lot of noise because the door is made of tin, so my entire family amassed outside the door to find out if I was ok. My 2 little brothers ended up crawling over the wall and when they couldn't get the door open with the pliers, they BIT the lock open. Yup...that's Africa for ya!!

Somedays I am absolutely amazed by the obsurdity of my life here. Just so you don’t worry, I wont be locking myself in again because when I woke up the next day, my family had changed the lock. Awesome...I would love to hear their version of that.

our group is bonding big time, and it makes a huge difference to have these amazing people here with me. My closest friend is actually a guy which poses some problems. Ex. this is a muslim society and so men and women are NEVER alone together. Whatever. Ryan has played a huge role in me staying sane here. He is my neighbor and we are the 2 furthest trainees from the school, so we always walk together and talk about our crazy lives. We have done a lot of talking about mental health and trying to find ways to stay positive during the tough times. The fact that he was able to admit that he was struggling with culture shock as well made a huge difference for me--just knowing that I wasn't the only one having those feelings was absolutely key.

-end of letter ... returning to current thoughts:

Thoughts on language...mine is improving like you wouldn't believe! last night my host father said "your french is so good now! I can understand you and you can understand me, I am very happy" That was pretty helpful because I have a shitty teacher right now who makes me want to tear my hair out because she is a butt and is totally unsupportive and unhelpful and basically yucky. I elected to take on tutoring 5 days a week, so i think that is helping me as well. We get tested again this Tuesday to see how well we're improving. I am hopeful that I will place novice high or intermediate low....to swear in as a volunteer I have to reach intermediate high by week 11...we are currently ending week 4. Week 4 meant the beginning of immersion. I.E. we're not allowed to speak english with trainers or with our friends at the training venue. That's massively hard and we cheat a lot :)

I've started to receive mail finally! It seriously felt like Christmas! I cried when they handed me all of the letters, it was so wonderful.

I made a list of all of the things I wanted to tell you in this e-mail, but this trip happened earlier than planned so I don't have the list with me! Gah!

ok...Courtney asked if I know where I'm going after training. This next week is week 5, and in week 6 they announce our posts. However...I have my heart absolutely dead set on Mozogo in the extreme north. on your map look up Maroua, and it is close to that. The reason I want it so bad is because it was designed for me....literally I was born to do this job. Mozogo is a national park and the community is interested in putting in an information/visitor center...ie interpretive center. I've never wanted something so badly. It's so me!!! I actually dreamt about it last night I want it so bad :) I've met the volunteer who is currently serving there and she is pushing to get me into the post....and I am the most qualified by FAR, so I have my fingers crossed big time. If you come to visit you can actually sleep in the park in a tree house that the current volunteer set up there...and then we can travel a little further up north to Waza national park which has elephants. But please keep in mind that if elephants charge us, you are supposed to hide behind a big tree. Do not forget that! one volunteers mother was gored to death in Waza a few years ago because she didn't understand the guide when he told her to hide behind a tree...because of the language barrier. I really want to show you this amazing country...but I don't think I could handle you dying. Ever. Don't forget that.

I have to laugh because of the amount of okra we eat here!!! Every single night I get millet and gumbo...Gumbo is the word for okra stew/sauce :) I don't love it yet! Especially since it is like snot and there are always fish bones in it. But I am eating well and am getting fruits and veggies and protein from beans and such. When grandma called I just flat out lied and told her that the food was great so she wouldn’t worry :)

I am doing well, I am in high spirits and really looking forward to our trip to Mozogo next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am healthy...relatively speaking. My only maladies are some weirdo heat rash--2 kinds!!!! and some heat headaches and heat-caused-nightmares. overall I feel very fortunate. We have one girl who was just diagnosed with malaria, the flu, and a lung infection while another girl has a fungus in her digestive track and another has amoebas. Don't worry, I am cleaning my water and taking my malaria prophylaxis religiously!!

I have an awesome Chaco tan line so far...everything else is pretty much covered all the time...but my hair is funny bleached out colors now too. Because my dirty blonde didn't stick out enough :)

love, Amber!!

Hello blog readers! 

 

our poor sweet darling Amber is currently in northern Cameroon where she drinks pool water and sweats more than should be humanly possible.

 

I would just like to point out that when people say that is hot in Africa, they're not kidding.  Seriously, it's hot.

 

Training here is hard...don't let the Peace Corps fool you!  You work your butt off...if not in actually classes then at night when you are trying to communicate with your homestay family in a language you can't speak.  But it's worth it...I can't wait to begin working and doing some of the awesome things we're learning about.

 

Next time I'll post more...or you should just ask around for the massive e-mail that I sent my parents.  If you didn't receive it, then it's possible that I don't have your e-mail address, or you haven't expressed an interest in receiving massive Amber updates.  In either case, send me an e-mail and tell me how your life is and I will add you to the list :)

 

Much love from Africa!!

 

:)

 

The joy of cheese

Due to lack of computer time…this blog is ripped from an e-mail that I wrote to my parents. I tried to change a few things so that they weren’t just addressing them!

In the US my family likes to count deer on walks in the local park…here in Africa I don’t count deer, but I could start counting the lizards and skinks. My groupmates have decided to nickname me Jane Goodall because I'm constantly pointing out animals. They've requested that I be their safari guide b/c I'm always finding stuff that no one else sees :)

Yesterday we met the head of the European Commission (European Union) it was a pretty big deal...we're really into meeting big important people here. He was telling us that the EU gives $50mil a year in aid, PC has $3mil here, France is going to start sending $110mil a year for 5 years, and the US embassy has $1mil here. Aid accounts for about 10% of the Cameroon budget. Corruption here is ridiculously awful, money just doesn't stay where it's supposed to be!

I got my information on my host family...10 people in the family, the father is a farmer, and the mother is a housewife. Sadly, that's all I know for now. I'm pretty crazy excited to meet them. We're all going to smell pretty bad by the time we meet our hostfamilies because we will have been on a non-air conditioned train for atleast 24 hours.

As for me beginning to eat meat....we got served fish heads 2 nights ago :) I tasted it, but that was enough for me. Yesterday we had fried fish with dinner and I ate most of it. I was very proud. I trust all of the fruits here, I actually chose to eat a banana yesterday! I don't eat as much bread anymore because all of the stuff they serve us is moldy. We definitely continue to eat it occasionally anyway.

Ooo...we have rats in the ceiling of our hotel room. No big deal really...they don't come into our room, so the room remains clean...we just hear them running around. Very exciting.

I got a hot pink shot yesterday, I thought that would excite Courtney :) It was the first in the rabies series. Good fun.

Well it's almost lunchtime here, and I can't walk back to the hotel alone, so I'll wrap this up. I tried to upload my pictures for you, but it's not working for anyone so far so it will have to wait. :( I've taken lots of pictures of food so far (avocadoes, fish heads, tomato salads...etc)

Anyway, I'm not sure when I'll have computer access again since we're heading north this afternoon, but keeping sending e-mails, I'm enjoying them!

P.S. I actually had cheese yesterday! It was a good day :)

Ashia!

Hello hello!

On Saturday we will finally be leaving for the North where we will be moving in with our host families!! We are taking a 30ish hour train ride to get up there…I’m super excited because it goes through the rainforest, but sadly it will be at night and we probably won’t see much.

We met the US Cameroonian ambassador 2 days ago, we got a picture...very nice guy.

I had my first Cameroonian adventure yesterday!! When I got kicked off the internet after sending my family a very short e-mail, it began to POUR. (welcome to the tropics) Anyway, it was the first time that we were walking the mile from PC to the hotel, and we did it in the mud, in the dowpour. I thought that it was great fun :) I got my first Ashia! Ashia means 'that's too bad, or I'm sorry." Most of the things we've heard from Cameroonians have just been harrassment. It's fascinating though...apparently we're good fun to stare at :)

OH!! I cut my hair. You know how I am, once I decide that my hair needs to be cut it has to be done right away...so we discussed haircuts yesterday and I went back to the hotel and I pulled out my scissors and just began to cut. It's probably the shortest it's ever been. I can't upload pictures yet, but as soon as I can I will send you one. It's about chin length with layers. It's super cute :)

Anyway, need to get back to learning about my future!

Please know that I feel very safe here (we even have our own armed guards at the hotel and at PC...though I don't feel like we really need them) as well as happy and in relatively good spirits. I'm very excited to get on the train Saturday and get this adventure truly started!

Afriiiiccaaaa!!!

Wow guys, I am in Africa. Africa!!!

So after more than 24 crazy hours of travel, I have safely made it to beautiful Yaounde, Cameroon. We flew Air France which was freakin' awesome. We all had our own TVs on which we could choose to start movies when we wanted, play video games, listen to music, and watch tv programs. It was all very fancy. I stayed awake during both 7 hour flights, but I was in the middle rows so I couldn't see out any of the windows. Bummer.

For those of you keeping track at home, today I got my typhoid and Hep A(1) shot. Yum yum.

Ooo...food adventures!!: I ate an avocado with a spoon yesterday. Just so you all know, they are slimy and taste kind of like squash--not my favorite food. We've also had scrawny chicken, fish (mmm...), paw paw, and other wonderfully random Cameroonian food. So far my stomach is handling the food change perfectly (knock on wood).

I'm getting my cellphone today, so e-mail me if you want the number!

Love ya guys :)

Philly!

Hello loyal blog readers, I have safely landed in Philly and have survived staging!

Holy cow I've already had adventures. Life is never boring with me, seriously...I'm getting a little tired of the karma monsters chasing me...seriously.

The night before my flight I discovered that my music wouldn't load onto my IPOD, so I have 36 songs total with me. It actually happened at 3 in the morning and I had to leave at 4:30, so I sat at the computer bawling for a little while and then decided to suck it up and move on. Man I was devastated though...I was soooo excited about the thing!!! I guess I just have to sing a lot of made up songs in Cameroon :)

Everyone in my group is amazing. I was so excited to meet so many wonderful people. I'm being totally cheesy, but I don't think I've ever been in a group of people that I liked/appreciated/could identify with as much as this group, it's awesome. Did I mention I like them?

I would just like to publicly point out how amazingly funny my friend Betsy is. When she came over to hang out on my last night she hid some rubber snakes in my carry-on. I discovered one in the middle of the night that last night and I actually found the other while I was on the plane. You did awesome buddy. (Just so you know, it's funny because she and I are totally crazy about the movie Snakes on a Plane)...pictures to follow of the rubber snakes attacking me on the plane :)

We got 3 shots this morning: Yellow Fever, MMR, and Polio. Oo..and we start our malaria pills today. In case anyone is interested in reading about the side effects of my pills, I am on Lariam. Craziness here I come!!

Man I'm totally pumped right now and I know there is more to say, but I will write you guys later, right now I need to go see the sites in Philly and hang out with my "homies."

Awesome.

It is time...

I apologize for not writing more lately, but holy cow getting ready to leave the country is a lot of work! It is 1:30 in the morning, and I’m supposed to be up in 2 hours to get ready to leave for the airport for staging. Aaaagh! If I get everything done and all of my stuff makes it on the plane, it will be a miracle :)

Thank you to everyone who called to wish me luck today and to remind me that I’m loved. This was a wonderful warm and fuzzy day. I love you guys!

Stay tuned to hear how my miniature flight to Philly went!!

Whoa...14 days!

Hello faithful Amber’s blog readers! (i.e. Aunt Mary) :)

Wow, so much has happened lately, I’m actually starting to feel ready for this adventure to begin! In exactly two weeks I fly out to Philadelphia for PC staging!!

Sadly, with my departure comes the end of celebrate Amber time!:Two weekends ago my family drove up to Minnesota and I did the extended family goodbyes. That was a lot of fun, but the goodbye part was hard. My uncle has 4 cats and 1 kitten right now, so I had a wonderful time ‘harassing’ them.

Last weekend our good family friends had us over for what I liked to call “Celebrate Amber dinner.” Saying goodbye to them was super hard, the kids are going to be huge when I get back!!

Sunday was my party with my friends, and it rocked hardcore. We went to Dave & Busters and shot dinosaurs and raced cars and laughed and laughed and laughed. I have some awesome pictures that I’ll be able to take with me. I’m going to miss you girls like crazy!

This Saturday, my parents, my sister, and I are getting on a plane to Yellowstone to celebrate our last week together. (Or, the final hurrah during ‘celebrate Amber time.’) I’m calling this plane trip my practice run for loading up all of my stuff for Philly.

Speaking of my trip to Philly, I looked up my flight/plane and oh my goodness…I am on a baby plane! There are 52 seats, and I am in the one marked red for “worst seat on the plane.” I thought that was pretty cool.

Great news: I sold my car!!!! And I sold it to a wonderful family who will treat it well and who are giving me full asking price. I pretty much love them. :)

Please check out my new sites on the right: 'Write to Amber!', and 'Amber's packing list.' Both are very educational and pretty. :)

T minus 1 month!

One month exactly!

I’m almost ready! I have almost all of my shopping done…I only need my rain jacket, some cotton slips, and my birthday presents!! …and I need to sell my car and have my will and power of attorney notarized. Let me tell you, I’m pretty thrilled about doing those things. Actually, the thought of selling my car makes me want to puke, but whatever. It’s crazy to think that in 3 weeks I won’t have a car anymore…hopefully :)

What's that smell?

Our overweight office kitty is sitting next to me right now, and when she purrs she kind of wheezes because of her weight…poor thing.

I was told recently that female stick deodorant is hard to find in Cameroon and that I should bring it with me. I got to talking with my family about trying to pack 2 years worth of deodorant, and it got pretty interesting…because really, how much deodorant actually equals 2 years worth? There isn't a little serving size label on each stick, so how does one go about figuring how much to bring? My dad and I assumed that it would be a huge amount and would weigh me down while my mom suggested sending me a "year's worth" as a Christmas present my second year there. I have a feeling that I'm going to get interesting care packages in Africa! Feel free to weigh in on the debate…how much deodorant equals a year's worth?

Speaking of care packages…wondering what address to write me at for my first 3 months in country? Here is my address:

Amber Schmitt, PCT
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 215
Yaoundé, Cameroon

Keep in mind that letters may take up to 3 months to get to me…and 3 months from today is October 21st. Hm…that's 4 days after my birthday! *nudge nudge* so you may want to get on top of that writing thing! :)

and the lessons continue...

UPS update:
Yesterday evening while I was out babysitting, a super nice random gentleman pulled up to my parents’ house and dropped off two packages for me that had been delivered to his house. Was his name Amber Schmitt? No. Does he live at my address? No. Uncool UPS, uncool. Luckily for me the dorkos delivered my packages to someone who was both honest and nice enough to drop the boxes off at my house. I love you random older package-dropper-offer guy!!

In related news: the new Teva Dozers (shoes) that came in one of the packages are amazing. I tormented myself over which size to get since I couldn’t try them on in a store, but luckily I eventually chose correctly :)

Also…I have just about finished my Peace Corps shopping. I have all of the clothes that I will be taking. Pheew…I got a little panicked when I realized that on the first day of summer stores started putting away their summer clothes (what the heck?).

The world is a strange strange place…but hey, I’ve learned a lot of things this summer (i.e. how to change a flat tire, what to do if your UPS packages never show up, how to say ‘cat and kitten’ in French, etc etc.)

UPS is harshing my mellow

Wow…what a rollercoaster of emotions this morning!

I came in to work today to pick up some overtime, and I was playing on the computer because Saturdays are slooooooow. I was checking the status on my order from Campmor, which was scheduled to arrive yesterday. Much to my surprise (and horror), the tracking site said that the package had arrived at my house yesterday at 9:07 PM. Shoot, I was getting ready for bed at that time! Everyone at my house was home, and no one heard a knock or the doorbell, and when I left for work this morning there was no package outside. Stupid freakin' UPS. Who leaves a package in plain sight of the road at night without knocking to see if the people are home?! ARGGGGHHHH!!!!

Of course I was trapped at work and couldn't leave to look for the package: torture!!! My mom and dad checked outside the front door and on the back porch (the site said it was delivered to the front door) and didn't find anything. I was pretty devastated at that point and took a few minutes to calm myself before I called Campmor to find out if they had insured the package. They didn't, but they're going to send the UPS driver out to check where he left the package…and Campmor is going to replace my order at no cost to me. I wanted to hug the guy on the other end of the phone when he told me that :) I had been sitting here thinking how expensive that stuff was going to be if I had to pay for it twice!

Well, now I've experienced my first Peace Corps related theft, cross your fingers for me that it will be my last!!

Moral of the day: UPS sucks, and Campmor rocks hardcore!

Bonjour!

It’s French day! Unfortunately, I haven’t had a ton of time to study lately because I’m busy receptioning (new word!)…also known as ‘sitting and waiting for the phone to ring so that I can push the little green button’…and making files so that I can then file them and cut my fingers on them. I keep telling me boss that all of the cuts on my hands make me eligible for workman’s comp, but she’s not really going for it. Whatever.

I was getting my hair cut the other day and the hairdresser told me that she thought that going to Africa was the worst idea she had ever heard. Mostly she thought it was awful because she was worried about my safety, but I was still amused that she just flat out told me that it was an awful idea. She and two other ladies then told me that I should run for president when I get back. I love that idea…I won’t be old enough, it won’t be election year, and I have no interest in being in politics! But at least I have 3 votes already :)

Yesterday they thwarted a terrorist attack in England. Yay for them! Boo for me! Now we’re not allowed to take liquids of any kind in our carry-ons. Ah!! I was planning to pack things like hand sanitizer, toner, and other heavy liquids in my carry-on in order to keep the weight down in my checked luggage…plus I want them on me in case my checked luggage gets lost. There goes that plan! At least they haven’t banned IPODs on planes in the US yet like they have in England. Man that would be an awful long flight to Paris without music!

thinking about goodbye...

I’m having one of those annoying days when leaving seems pretty terrible. It’s hard to imagine not being able to talk to my sister on the phone when the urge hits me…or have a movie night with Betsy…or IM with Jess till late in the night. I’m going to miss everyone a lot. I expect you to write tons and tons to make me feel better. D’accord? (ok?)

(Clarification: the ‘act’ of leaving…as in ‘leaving everyone behind’ is what sounds awful…not the going to Cameroon part!)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still so excited that I could explode at any second. The more that I talk with PCVs in Cameroon and the more research I do about Cameroon, the more excited I get. It’s going to be a pretty sweet adventure. (Tons of work…but still amazing)

But man…there is a lot to do still! As a crazy planner, I’ve had my packing list set for weeks, but I still need to finish buying a few things. You know...the hard to find things. Gah!

Also, I’ve been working on my will and power of attorneys. Oh yeah…the will is fun. My family was just thrilled to talk to me about that one. You should try it sometime; it’s a real mood lifter!

Every time that I think about having to leave my poor baby kitty behind I get all teary. That’s dumb, I hate crying…but she’s my baby! I wish that I could explain to her that I’m not abandoning her. Poor baby, I already miss her.

Speaking of crying…I have my French class again tomorrow. It’s going well, but I moved up to a harder level class and it scares the crap out of me. The whole class is conducted in French, and I don’t know if you guys know this or not…but I don’t speak French! (yet) :)

Captain Planet, he's our hero!

Holy cow, I'm moving to Africa next month! Africa... Wow. I've planned on this for a while now, but it's still amazing to think about! :)

I just started a new job as a receptionist this week, and today everyone in the office ate lunch together because it was one of our coordinator's birthday. Since I was the newbie, everyone was asking me questions such as how long I'd be working there, where I graduated college, what my plans were for after I left the company, etc. Of course once we got on the subject of Peace Corps, the questions exploded and everyone had something to ask. One woman asked "What would make someone want to go into the Peace Corps. Honestly, I wanted to say: "Why wouldn't you want to go into the Peace Corps!?"

Actually, it is hard for me to remember what originally got me interested in the Peace Corps. I don't know if it was the mother hen side of me that always wants to help people, the idea of an adventure, my love of environmental education, or the fact that I was brought up in a family that stressed the importance of helping others.

Ok, ok...the real reason I want to go into the Peace Corps is because I've always wanted to be Captain Planet. Seriously. I wrote that in my application essay. That's probably why my process was so complicated...they thought I was crazy :)

I am a bad bad person for not updating everyone on my recent super fantastic news!

Two Monday’s ago, I got a call from my actual Placement Officer. He wanted to know about my efforts to learn French, so I gave him a huge long list of everything I plan to do to become as fluent as possible before I leave. Apparently my plans were enough to satisfy him, because he immediately put my invitation in the mail!!

He told me to wait 5 days for the invitation to arrive. I have to say—those were the longest 5 days ever! I was determined that after I went out with friends on Saturday morning that I would come home to a big white PC packet. No such luck. However, at 5pm when I went outside to take out the trash, there was my packet sitting on top of the mailbox! I dropped everything and went sprinting across the yard and back into the house, while yelling “It’s here, it’s here!” Yeah, I was pretty excited.

Take a deep breath before you try to say any of this, because it’s a mouthful: I am going to Cameroon to serve as a Farming Extension Agent in the SAHEL Agro-Forestry and Permanent Farming Systems program. I leave September 26th! The more I research this placement and the assignment, the more excited I get because it all sounds so amazing!

Yesterday, Tuesday, I officially accepted my invitation. Now I have 10 days to send out my new resume and aspiration statement as my introduction to my country desk!

I’m an invitee!!! :) :) :)

Hope

Lately my free time (what free time?) has been taken over by the hunt for French classes. Unfortunately, all college courses began back in June and are either done now or are done in a few days. That doesn’t help me a whole lot.

Luckily, a different person from placement called me a couple days ago, and her supervisor said that it would be ok if I just got a tutor instead of enrolling in a class. So now I’m on the mad hunt for a tutor!

This last phone call was much more positive, and she sounded fairly sure that I would get this assignment. So the flame of hope is relit!!

Now I just need to crack down and get really really serious about this French stuff. Au revoir for now!

It was the best of times...it was the worst of times...

Today, on my 100th day of waiting, I got my medical clearance.

And today, on my first day of being medically cleared, I got a phone call telling me that it’s a restricted clearance and that they don’t know if they will be able to get me a placement or not.

Today was the best morning ever when I got the original clearance news, and a pretty hard afternoon after I got the second half of the news. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty devastated.

If I quick sign up for a college French course, I will still have a chance of getting an African September placement. Of course there is no guarantee that after I put down hundreds of dollars and tons of hours, that I’ll actually end up with a French speaking assignment.

Some of the people close to me who have watched me be tormented by the application process don’t understand how I can keep going when I keep meeting one setback after another. It’s very simple, this is important to me, and you don’t give up on a dream just because of a few hurdles.

I’m still super excited, and I still can’t wait to leave, I’m just a little sad right now while I wait for things to finally fall into place. It’s going to happen soon, I can feel it!

97 days and counting!

Once again, my loyal readers, I have an update. Of course, to follow suit with all of my other posts, it is a ‘still frozen in PC land’ update!

My best buddy Mr. Medical Screening Assistant has informed me that it will be another month before I hear anything about my file. He also said that the deadline to get my clearance is August 1st. In other words, if I’m not cleared by August, I don’t leave in September. Interestingly, he said not to call again till July 20th if I haven’t heard anything. At that point if I’m not cleared and they want anymore information for me, I don’t think that there is any possible way for me to get that taken care of before the Aug 1 deadline (due to my job).

In happier news, it is my (totally uneducated) opinion that since my clearance deadline is so late, my nomination must actually be for late September! Armed with this, and previous PC mumbo jumbo, it is my extremely well educated (but uninformed) opinion that the country I am nominated for is Benin. Don’t write that down yet, I’ll let you know in a month! :)

Lately I’ve gotten several encouraging e-mails from other PC nominees/invitees who have had problems with medical and have survived to tell the story. Knowing I’m not alone is a wonderful thing.