Hotel Felydac

Today is my third day in Yaounde, Cameroon and I finally have the time and internet to write a blog post.  I haven’t seen much of the city yet because Peace Corps has mostly kept us at the hotel (Hotel Felydac).  This is for safety reasons since we don’t know the culture well yet and because we are in a bigger city.  Everyone is getting pretty antsy to explore, though.  Yesterday we were finally able to walk around the city with a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) and try some food on the street.  We tried one type of nut that has tons of caffeine, but is incredibly bitter.  We also tried some cassava prepared in a certain way which was actually pretty good!  So far we haven’t had much real Cameroonian food because we have been eating our meals at the hotel.  

Tonight we are going to a dinner at the country director’s house.  Apparently there will be representatives from many NGO’s, such as UNICEF there.  It’s a bit intimidating, but it will be very exciting!  Many of us will work with some of these organizations during our service.

Although I haven’t seen much of it yet, I am very excited to be here in Cameroon.  We have been reminded often that we represent the U.S. and the Peace Corps 24/7.  It is very strange to suddenly be a part of the organization I have been talking about for so long.  Although, right now we are PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainees).  At the end of our 10 weeks of training we will be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers.  They are also making a change this year in their system of placing people.  We will be given much more say in which region and what type of work we will be doing.  Unfortunately, we won’t find out for sure until the 5 week mark.

I have been getting some internet at the hotel here, but it is pretty spotty with all of us trying to use it.  It sounds like it will likely be even less common in Bokito where the health volunteers are training.  I am very excited to move to Bokito, though, which is a smaller and more rural community.  I will also get to meet my host family at this point, which will be very exciting!  I’m really hoping they have kids.  We also got to indicate our preference for this so I think the chances are pretty good. Soon I should have more to report after exploring Bokito a bit!