What Can Brown Do For You?

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone for the emails and comments I just read through. You really know how to make a girl in Africa feel special. I’ll try to answer all of the questions here. Eileen-you’re right, your brother makes me do all the blog work, but at the moment he’s sitting next to me talking up a storm….

Now the fun stuff.

Halloween party: I received lots of questions regarding the Halloween party and our costumes. The pink pagne was going to be our costume, but I was going to wear brian’s shirt with his Indiana Jones hat and he would wear my skirt and head wrap. However, I was sick that day (but only for the day, I was better by the next morning), so I only stayed at the bar for a little while. Since I left before the costumes and festivities started, I’ll leave it up to Brian to report on that. I heard there was lots of dancing and that Brian was voted “most likely to become a drug mule”.


Packages: Right before we left for site visit, we received our first package. Way to go mom and dad, I knew you’d beat everyone else. It took exactly four weeks to get here, and everything was intact. We especially liked the news paper and blow pops. Thanks!


Election: We were at post during the election, and were hoping to watch the results as they came in, but the electricity was out at night. We did get a call at 4am from my dad saying that Obama won Ohio and Penn. So we knew he pretty much had it in the bag. The next day we got lots of ‘congratulations’ and ‘OBAMA’ shouts as we walked around. Interesting note: Obama won Hamilton County, Ohio (remember, as a member of Peace Corps, I am politically neutral; see disclaimer below).


Babies: no, no adopted babies yet. I sat next to one for 4 hours yesterday on the bus. The most effective birth control to date.


Post Announcements and Site Visit: We found out our posts last week, and our new home for the next two years will be in the Adamawa province. Most people are up in the Extreme North or the North, but 4 of us (clearly the most qualified, adventurous, and coolest) are in the Adamawa. Our town is Tibati, described in the guide book as the ‘Wild West of Cameroon’. A pretty accurate description.

The town itself is 5-8 hours from the provincial capital on an unpaved road through the mountains. Its really a beautiful drive, but the road gets a bit rough at points. We saw two different kinds of monkeys on our way, broke an axel, and got one flat tire. I plan on doing a whole post on travel and roads sometime in the near future….

Once we got to Tibati, we found out that our house is actually in a village 7km from the town. We were worried at first, but as soon as we saw the house (see photos), we loved it. There are 450 people in the town, a church, bible school and a high school. We fit right in. It’s a quiet area and we’ll have lots of privacy at our house, which is completely different from our lives here in Pitoa.

The house is at the end of a road (a path really), has two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom with toilet, a living room, and a storage room, aka the bat cave. There electricity but no running water (bucket flush, bucket bath). One room, the bat cave, doesn’t have platforms so lots of bats get in. This will be our first order of business when we move in. The volunteer that is there now is leaving almost everything for us, so we already have two beds, a couch and a table and chairs. We’ll do some painting and redecorating, but mostly its ready for us.

As far as work goes, I'll be working with the District Health Center and Brian will be at the Ministry of Agriculture. We're both unsure what their specific needs are, but we've got lots of time to figure it out. I do know that i'll be traveling to outlying areas every Thursday with my counterpart to do vaccinations and visit other health centers. I'm hoping to do lots of work en brousse.

Because the Adamawa is mountainous, its MUCH cooler than the North and Extreme North. We used blankets at night, and wore sweatshirts in the evening. I even wore jeans one day. The transition back to Pitoa is difficult. We’ve tasted freedom and now we’re back here, hot and crowded with no freedom. Except for today, we’re heading to a hotel in Garoua where you can pay 2 dollars to swim for the day.

Speaking of the pool, I’m hot and sweaty, gotta run. Love you all and miss you lots. Thanks again for the emails. Till next week…….