Bafia - Homestay

This is my home stay in Bafia. This is where I lived for the two months of PST (pre-service training). The right half is where my host family and I lived and they rented out the other side. Even with renting out half of the house the living space in the right side included a large living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a hallway, two bathrooms and two bedrooms.

And these are my host parents Augustin and Patricia. They are great people and I was glad that I got to stay with them during PST. I also really liked living close to the training center, that was definitely a bonus.

Officially Half Way Through Training!

I am very excited to be half way through training! I am getting excited for my post and for my own house and my own decisions on what I do each day. I know that I will probably be lonely at my site at first but I think it will be more positive than negative! And I found out that one of the Youth Development trainees is going to the same village that I am so at the very least there will be someone there that I can talk to!

Officially Half Way Through Training!

I am very excited to be half way through training! I am getting excited for my post and for my own house and my own decisions on what I do each day. I know that I will probably be lonely at my site at first but I think it will be more positive than negative! And I found out that one of the Youth Development trainees is going to the same village that I am so at the very least there will be someone there that I can talk to!

Officially Half Way Through Training!

I am very excited to be half way through training! I am getting excited for my post and for my own house and my own decisions on what I do each day. I know that I will probably be lonely at my site at first but I think it will be more positive than negative! And I found out that one of the Youth Development trainees is going to the same village that I am so at the very least there will be someone there that I can talk to!

My Site-more info

My site is in very north of the South West region. This is an Anglophone region but I have heard the because the village is so close to the West region, which is Francophone, there are many people who speak French and there are also many people who speak English and then some people speak Pidgin. I will probably have to be able to at least hold basic conversations in all of these languages and be able to greet people in whatever the local language is. I won’t know for sure what the local language is until I get there. The South West is bordered by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the North West region of Cameroon, the West region of Cameroon, and the Littoral region of Cameroon. Bush meat and horse meat are commonly consumed along with more typical meats. !!!There is a special dance done when twins are born and this dance can only be led by twins! Monica, I know what we are going to do when you get here!!!! There is traditional chieftaincy there but there is also a lot of Christianity. And apparently there is quite a bit of Nigerian influence. Also, if a baby pees on you while you are holding it, it is considered a sign of good luck. These are just a few things about the region that could be very general or contain some stereotypes that are not quite true. This is information that was given to me by the trainers in order to prepare me for things that I might encounter.

Crows and Lizards

There are many crows here and probably twenty times the human population in lizards! The crows look kind of like the ones in the States but they have white chests and are bigger. They drop snails on the roofs to try to break their shells. They also run across roofs and when you are inside it almost sounds like a person is walking quickly across the roof, the crows sound heavy enough and have about that sort of stride! Now lizards, they are everywhere all the time! They are all over outside and inside. I have gotten used to them being around, I bar…it has just started raining, I need to get my clothes off the line…ok…I barely look up anymore when one runs past me on the wall. There is also an outrageous variety of lizards here. I have never seen so many different types of lizards! I am just glad it is lizards and not spiders or insects,eee.

Malaria

So, before coming here I really did not know anything about Malaria or that it was anything to worry about. We had a medical session on it though and I learned that it can be rather serious. We take Malaria prophylaxis though which they say will help the Malaria not be as bad if we do get it. Before the session I never really thought about using bug spray for any other reason apart from mosquito bites just itching a lot. Now I try to avoid bites as much as possible. That is difficult though being an environment and agriculture volunteer! I have already had to ask for a second bottle of bug repellent and very soon I will need another. I would rather use a lot of repellent than get Malaria, I suppose!