We are now full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteers.  My speech went really well.  I’ll include pictures of our class in our pagne at swearing in when I get them.  Yes, I wore a dress….I’ve had a couple of dresses (actually matching skirts and tops) made for meeting officials and special ceremonies, otherwise I’m keeping to my casual style day to day.

 I’m in Batie now (my post) in the western region and have moved into my house.  I am the 3rd volunteer (I think) to stay in this house. It needs a SERIOUS cleaning and is full of spiders and I have a bad case of the heeby-jeebies. The furniture is old and stinky and gross.  I will probably get rid of it and try to find something I can sit on without getting the creeps.  It belongs to the landlord.  I don’t want to go to bed cause I feel like there are creepy crawlies in there, so have been staying up really late watching movies on my computer. (I downloaded a bunch of movies and tv shows before I left and also copied a bunch from fellow students, so I am set for a while).  Anyway, when I do eventually go to bed, I can’t sleep and so have been walking around here like a zombie.  Have been down to the Carrefour (area where the little shacks that sell stuff are, about a mile from my house) a couple of times to buy food and begin to connect with townsfolk. Some are friendly and happy to see me and others stare at me blankly. I don’t have any post mates and so am the only white face in town, but there are several volunteers in the western region and we run into each other in Bafoussam (the regional capital where I have to do most of my shopping and banking) and hang out which is really fun.  Bafoussam is only about 30 or 40 minutes from me.

My main job for the next couple of months is to settle into my house and get to know the town…..integrate and learn the culture. There is much to learn.  This culture is so rich and so very different from ours….very tribal and traditional and I don’t know what else.  At first I thought I was starting to understand Africa a little, and now I realize I don’t know anything.  Every area is so different.  There is a strong Animist (local tribal religion) culture here. Today I was out for a walk to get a little exercise and walked past a group of people (this is very much in the country….dirt road, lots of small fields of various crops) sitting in a circle in front of a house and they were chanting, maybe some sort of ancestral worship…..I have MUCH to learn. Christianity is also very strong here (the missionaries have done their job since the mid 1800’s and still going strong) but often the African Christians still practice Animism as well…..belief in superstition and sacrificial offerings, usually a goat, for the ancestors and probably a bunch of other stuff that I don’t understand yet.  Goat is delicious by the way, but often when they barbecue it for sale, the head and hooves are there on display, and then I lose my appetite… 

Out again today…met many locals.  Oh my, this is going to be so interesting…. House still creepy, gotta figure something to “homey” it up a bit. Have hired someone ( a “mama” …which is what they call the older women here many of whom (wo)man the shacks or work in the fields and most of whom have many kids) to help me to clean this house…i.e. wash the filthy cement floors and knock out some of the spider webs and help me do the laundry at which I totally suck). I am a “mama” also and am quite often greeted with “bonjour mama!”   It shows respect.  I’ll take it.  Here are some movies of my new village.....hope I can post them without too much trouble....A bientot! Oops, they posted right in the middle....oh well. Oops, they wouldn't upload.  I'll try next time. sorry.....P