A day in the life of a PCT....

Wednesday, October 15

5:00am: hear the family start their daily activities. what exactly they do at this hour is still a mystery. It sounds like they have lots of banging to do with loud objects. They also like to yell about things in the morning, perhaps to let others know that they are up and working. Some mornings, like Sundays, our brother likes to have mini dance parties with loud rap music. Basically, they are loud.

6:00 am: wake up. We no longer wake up wet with sweat because we bought a fan on Sunday, so the nights are much easier now (even thought the fan just blows hot are on us). Shower and gather our things for the day. we are usually gone for 10 or 12 hours at a time, so we need lots of random things. today i had crayons, french books, notebook, drawing paper, a book for leisure, camera, water, Cliff bar, phone, and more....

6:50am: leave for school with our bikes (and helmets!). Stop on the way to buy a loaf of bread for breakfast and snacking on during the morning. Our family doesn’t give us breakfast because we told them that we usually don’t eat it. also because the first few days they gave us hot water and powdered milk, so i think no breakfast is better than that. there’s always something to buy on the way to school in the market or at little shops. usually we get bread or beignets (fried dough/donuts).

7:30, but brian and i get tutored most mornings. some of us have requested/been asked to come in the morning or during lunch for extra french work. so far its pretty helpful.

7:30am: school starts. today we had french first. the session are different every day. two before lunch and two after. usually a language before and after with technical and medical sessions as well.

9:30am: second class of the day today was a medical session with the Nassarao people (Agro) and the PC medical officer. when we have joint sessions one of the groups are shuttled to the other village, approximately 7km away. today we went to Nassarao for a session on mental health.

11:45am: back to Pitoa for lunch at our ‘restaurant’. On the menu: Rice, Pasta, Beans, Peanut sauce, Spinach sauce, Fried potatoes, tomato and onion sauce. Thats lunch every day. the sauces are oily and the pasta is salty, but we eat lots and lots of it every day. because wednesdays are a bit different than other days, Brian and two other volunteers go to the local high school to meet with the Health Club. They dont get to eat much for lunch, but they do get more free time in the afternoon.

2:00pm: back to Nassarao for another joint session. usually we only have one a day or two in a row, but the scheduling was different (horrible) today. this session was on safety and security. Threats facing PCVs include: “theft, robbery, assault, snakes, crazy people, derailment, etc” those are just some of the things we'll face while we're here...

3:30pm: back once again to Pitoa for the rest of the community group meetings. there are four different groups we are working with. Brian is with the health club, I’m with the Girls Group. We’re supposed to talk about health issues with them and teach them things, but our girls don’t seem to want that. and we dont particularly want to force it on them. this was only our second meeting (every wednesday), and at the first one, they didnt really say much because they are young and shy. basically what they seem to want is to learn how to ‘lead good lives’. Today we tried to get them to be more engaged, so we started with the game where everyone puts their hands in the middle and grabs someone else’s hand. then we work together to get untangled. after some twisting and turning, we had everyone in a big circle. they seemed to open up a bit.

Then we had them talk a bit about themselves and draw self portraits. even the really shy ones shared their drawings. I think we all really enjoy ourselves. In the weeks to come, we’ll try to do some confidence building activities and some other things to get the girls thinking about their futures. its supposed to be health related, and in a way it is. Girls Empowerment=Community Health, or maybe Confidence=HIV/AIDS prevention. Meanwhile, Brian had free time (very valuable here) and went to Garoua to use the internet and eat ice cream.

5:15 pm: met everyone at the bar for some drinks and to talk about our community groups.

6:15 pm: home. seems to be hotter tonight than usual, and there are LOTS more bugs tonight. Our brother Achile says its because they are having babies (?).

6:45pm: dinner. potatos and a tomato sauce. not bad.

7:15 pm: showers-really bucket baths-and fetch water for tomorrow.

8:00pm: in bed writing this. very tired. brian is killing insects. really, there are tons tonight,

This is what most of our days look like. usually there is more language and less shuttling between Pitoa and Nassarao, and less bugs.