Visit from a Volunteer and Women's Day

After PST-Reconnect, I traveled with Angelique back to my site for Women’s Day on March 8^th. We arrived in my village the day before the holiday and I showed her my small but adorable little house. The next day we got dressed in our Women’s Day pagne, I had the pink version and Angelique had the yellow version, and we went to the field. We went to watch the ceremony, hear the speeches, and see the march-pass. I greeted everyone that I knew and introduced Angelique to them. I tried to find the women’s group that I had been working with but I could not find them in the crowds. There were many speeches given. I was surprised that only two speeches were given by women. I wondered if it was a planning oversight or if all of the other capable women’s leaders were too shy. I was also surprised at how much bigger Youth Day celebrations had been compared to Women’s Day. It seems as though they should be celebrated with equal enthusiasm. The ceremony followed the same pattern that all Cameroonian holiday ceremonies follow. Near the end Angelique and I left so that we could get supplies for dinner.

               During her visit Angelique gave me some tips on how to cook since I did not know how to prepare much and had been making myself sick due to poor food prep. She also got to meet my cat who she now calls “psycho-kitty”. I swear that my cat is not that poorly behaved…

               Anyway the visit went well and at some point I will go to Angelique’s site as well. I saw her house because we stopped there on our way to my village but we only stayed the night so I did not get to see where she works or much of her village.

This is me in my Women's Day pagne with Olive, a friend of mine who is from Menji but is currently going to school in Yaounde.

PST-Reconnect

     PST-Reconnect is Pre-Service Training Reconnect. My training group had PST-Reconnect in Bamenda, the capital of the North-West region of Cameroon.


Doesn't Cameroon look kind of like a chicken? Yeah, it does.

So, the training was in Bamenda. We got to stay at a very nice hotel with showers and hot, running water! It was pretty great!

Our PST was mainly focused on technical training for the different sectors: Agriculture, now AgriBusiness, Youth Development, now Youth Empowerment, and Health. Whereas our PST-Reconnect was more focused on project development and planning and how to design an activity to best reach the people that it is created for. The training made me feel much more prepared for the work that lay ahead of me back at my site.

               Our counterparts, or local work partners, also attended this training and many of the sessions allowed us to work together with our counterparts to plan our projects and work. It was very good in making sure that the volunteer and their counterpart were on the same page and each knowing what was to be done. Each volunteer, with their counterpart, was to give a presentation based on the community studies that they each conducted in their respective communities. I was very pleased when my program manager congratulated me on my presentation! He said that I had done a wonderful job and that it was exactly what the program managers were looking for with the presentations.

               During our PST-reconnect, it was announced that one of our PCMOs (Peace Corps Medical Officers) was going to be finishing her service and returning home to the United States. She would be replaced in mid-August as she would not be leaving Cameroon until mid-July. It was sad to hear that she was going to be leaving. She was always very nice to me and always willing to try her best to do what she could for me. I hope that she is doing well now and that her replacement does a good job as well. It was also announced that our new CD (Country Director) had arrived and would soon be starting his duties. Our previous CD had already left Cameroon, having finished her term at the end of January. Many volunteers were sad to see her go because she was the CD who was present when we arrived in Cameroon and who was present at our swearing in as Peace Corps Volunteers.

               The conference was not all business; we had time to hang-out with our fellow volunteers outside of sessions and time to explore a little bit of Bamenda. Bamenda is the third largest city in Cameroon. Douala being the largest followed by Yaoundé. Some volunteers call it “Bamerica” because you can find many things there, although some things are easier to find in slightly smaller cities that are closer to Yaoundé or Douala. It is a nice place though and there is much more there than in a small village. During PST-Reconnect my friend, Angelique, and I did some exploring, mostly finding the market, and decided that we would have to go back and visit some time, especially since there were places that had hot, running water!