Menji and Dschang

Menji is the village where I am posted. It has a population of about 5,000 people and is spread out through a valley in the mountains, in an area known as the Lebialem Highlands, in the South West region of Cameroon. Lebialem is the Division, Fontem is the Subdivision, and Menji is the town. Menji is rather hilly. Although there are not too many hills that are very steep it still takes some leg strength to trek (or as we say, walk) around Menji. So, walking around Menji is sometimes difficult but it is getting easier and it makes for beautiful scenery. The village is surrounded by mountains to which clouds and fog usually cling in the mornings or on overcast days.

                Peace Corps gives us bicycles to take to post with us (although I believe that I was part of the last training group that will be given bicycles). I realized, once I arrived in Menji, that I will not be using my bicycle very often or possibly at all, especially since I live on one of the biggest, steepest hills in town. It would have been nice to know this before bringing my bicycle all the way to Menji because it added quite a large cost to my travel costs.  Such is life though, you never know until you get there, you just have to prepare as well as you can with the information you have.

                Dschang is my banking city. It is at a higher elevation than Menji, so it is usually colder. Even though it is cooler it can still get hot during the days in dry season, just like Menji. I travel to Dschang typically every other weekend in order to pick up my monthly living allowance or things that I need that I cannot get in Menji. Or I use to do this but now I usually only go to pick up my allowance or because I am traveling through to somewhere else. To travel one way between Menji and Dschang costs between 2,500 fcfa – 6,000fcfa depending on the season, time of day, mode of transportation, and road conditions. By the way, there are 500fcfa to 1 U.S. Dollar, in case I have not mentioned it before. Right now it is 2,500fcfa in a car and 3,000fcfa on a motorcycle as one of two riders and 5,000fcfa as a single rider, this is because it is dry season and the roads are in better condition than in the rainy season.

                Dschang is very dusty right now since it is dry season. Even though the dust can get so bad that you are red, from the red dust, when you get off the bike, I prefer it over the mud. When the roads are muddy I am nervous traveling between Menji and Dschang because the bike slips sometimes.

                Dschang is definitely a city compared to Menji, although I do not know the exact population. (Note: Douala is the largest city in Cameroon with a population of just over 2million people.) I can get most things that I need, as in necessities, in Dschang but definitely not everything I could want. There are some things that simply cannot be found in Cameroon, for those things I must ask that they be sent from the States. Dschang has several large markets, super markets, and of course my bank. And, by the way, those super markets are not what we think of as a super market in the States; those are only in Yaoundé and Douala. It is also in the West region of Cameroon, this means that it is a francophone region. So, in order to pick up my monthly living allowance I must navigate the bank and the city in French! If nothing else I will have French banking vocabulary by the end of my service. This will certainly keep me from losing my French completely. I like Dschang except for the cold and dust but I like my village a little bit more. I also like how there are French speakers in Menji as well. I like speaking with these people because then I also get to practice my French in my own village.

Hair Extensions

Hair extensions are very common here; almost all women have hair extensions. They keep their hair short and then they simply braid/weave in their different hair extensions or styles. These hair extensions are also often colored with colors like blond (the only natural color), red, blue, green, purple, yellow, orange, and pink. Women living in cities and villages alike use hair extensions almost all of the time. Just like women in the States change their hair style, women here change out their hair extensions. Many people ask me if I use hair extensions because I have long hair and when I tell them that I do not have them they suggest I try it. I have heard however that if you have long hair then it is expensive and takes a very long time to braid the styles in. I might try it at some point but I would probably but my hair a bit first. I had wanted to try to use this time to grow my hair out though. We’ll see.

My House

My house has four rooms: a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. The kitchen and the bathroom are the smallest rooms. They are each about 10ft by 6ft. Whereas the bedroom is about 12ft by 15ft and the living room is 14ft by 18ft. These are very rough estimates done by a not very spatially oriented/adept person.
     I like the size of my house though! I think it is perfect, close, but not quite, too big for just me. The size of my bathroom is one of my favorite things about the house. This is because I often must take bucket baths. My house has electricty but the water rarely runs. So,because the water rarely runs I must take bucket baths and the space is great! It is entirely possible to take bucket baths in a much smaller space; I am just saying that having the space is nice. It is nice because I can take a bath without getting the entire bathroom floor wet... just most of it.
    Like I said I have electricity but not running water. I actually have running water but it does not work often enough that I can truly say that I have running water. Whereas the electricity works most of the time so I can say with confidence that I do have electricity.
    When I moved in there was no furniture in the house, except for a wardrobe and a matress. So, I am slowly (very, very slowly) working on getting my house furnished. I am especially excited to get a work table in my kitchen becuase counter space is not a thing that is done in Cameroon. My sink, which is a typical size, one basin sink, is almost half of my counter. Then, since stoves are simply ranges that are set on the counter here, it reduces the work space down to almost nothing. I think it is not seen as important because people, usually the women, who cook, are very good at doing all of the vegetable cutting and other prep work right in their hands. this means that they need little to no counter space to prepare food. While I am much too clumsy and bad with a knife to dare to try to cut anything in my hand, so I will be needing some work space until I somehow become unclumsy. Ha. Anyway, in Menji, one cannot buy furniture that is premade. I am not sure that furniture that is premade can be bought anywhere except in large cities here. So, since furniture cannot be bought I must go to a carpenter to have my furniture made. I do not usually go myself but have a Cameroonian friend go for me so that I can get the Cameroonian price. So far I have had a dresser and a cabinet made but have not been able to get them to my house yet, even though they have been done for over a month now. Maybe I should get that done. They are really heavy because they are made of solid wood, I will need to find someone with a car to help me. These two pieces alone cost me about 150 U.S. Dollars. This is what is going to make furnishing my house a very slow process; it costs a lot of money.
   I actually wrote most of this post almost a month ago. I still have no furniture at all though in my house. I did however just get a desk to borrow from my landlord. It is great to have a place to sit and work that is not my bed, or mattress on the floor. I feel much happier just having this. I have made my desk sort of like my own little corner.

 

   By the way, that is my little cat on the chair to the left! Her name is Ygritte. There will be a post about her in the future.

Here are some pics of my house and scenery around Menji:

Scenery.

My house.

Scenery.

Time

Time here is used and thought of differently than in the States. This is especially true of start times for events. Whenever there is an event, a start time is assigned to it but this time does not mean that the event will begin at that time. An event here starts when all of the people or important attendees are there. This means that events almost always start late, usually by about two hours. If someone does not arrive "on time" that just means that the event has not started even if the "start time" has passed. This happens with informal and formal events. I am still getting used to this. I still try to arrive on time even though I know that the event will not start on time. I just always bring a book or something else to do until the event actually begins. So, time here is seen as when people are together and not what time the clock says.

Moving to Post

The day after swearing-in all of the new volunteers, including myself, loaded onto three buses and headed off to post. As the bus that I was on pulled away from the training center the luggage on top caught a power line and almost pulled the pole out of the ground. A Cameroonian who was walking down the street jumped on top of the bus and pulled the wire loose. I do not know if the wire was live but I do know that the Americans were much more afraid of the whole situation than the Cameroonians were. I guess that they knew something that we did not.
About four hours later my bus pulled into Bafoussam and my fellow trainee, new volunteer, and now post-mate Amy met our soon-to-be post-mate Jacob. Jacob has been in Menji, my post, for a year and a half now. He helped us get all of our things to Dschang, our banking city, and then to Menji. We stayed in Dschang for a day to open bank accounts and such and then the next day we went to post. It is a two hour ride on, what I consider to be, a pretty scary, bad, but scenic road. We arrived just after dark and the power was out. I think that is bad luck that follows me around, whenever I arrive in a new country or move to a new place the power is always out. It happened in China, when we arrived in Cameroon, and when I arrived in Menji.
The road I have heard is actually a pretty good road as far as roads go in Cameroon. It has gotten better with the dry season but I am scared to see it in the middle of the rainy season. I will try to film it or something so that you can see what I mean. Anyone who wants to come and visit my actual post will have to travel along this road. Anyone who is not comfortable, I can make arrangements and we can stay in Dschang or another city if you are ok with not seeing my actual house and just seeing Cameroon instead.

Swearing-in and Malaria Prophylaxis

So, swearing-in was on the 20th of November, just over a month ago now. It was a three and a half hour ceremony in which the actual swearing-in of the new volunteers took about five minutes. Ceremony and the way things are to be done are very important here. Each distinguished person gets a chance to speak. At the swearing-in ceremony there were at least ten people who gave speeches, some of these being new volunteers who gave their speeches in French, Pidjin, and Fufulde (the three languages trainees study in training here).
After the ceremony there was food. I, not thinking, took my Malaria prophylaxis twenty minutes before the end of the ceremony, without having eaten anything for at least seven hours. It only took ten minutes for the terrible stomach cramps and nausea to start. It is one of the worst feelings, I cannot stress enough-DO NOT TAKE YOUR MALARIA PROPHYLAXIS WITHOUT FOOD. I learned that the hard way. I had a little bit of bread and water and was able to avoid vomiting but I almost would have preferred to just get the medicine out of my stomach so that the pain would stop. I have been careful since then to always eat before taking my Malaria prophylaxis. I have realized though that it needs to be a very significant amount of food, small meals only help a little. Although a handful of Swedish Fish seem to work quite well, don't take this as fact, it just seems to be so. I will have to test it out more and let you know.

And sorry about the weird way the pictures in my last post are showing up.