A number. One simple number. 307. That is the amount of days that it has been since I began this crazy, wild, incredible experience they call the Peace Corps. Most days fly by, other days it seems like the minutes have turned into hours and I can't seem to find anything to do to take up the time. Nonetheless, when I got on today to post and realized that I have been here a whopping 307 days already it was a real eye opener. Not only because it has been nearly a year, but the fact that I only have a little over a year left here. I'm nearly at that blessed yet horrifying half way mark. Blessed because it represents the growth that I have experienced over the last year and all of the wonderful friendships and relationships I have made with my Cameroonian friends, fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, and ex-pats alike. Yet horrifying as I come to the realization that ,although I have been here nearly a full year, it is difficult for me to really provide information on what I am doing here. Let me explain. My host organization is Cameroon Football Development Program. It's an awesome NGO that was created by an American named Justin Forzano who had visited Kumba with his university each summer during his university career. He grew incredibly fond of Kumba and of the people and culture he witnessed here. Because of his love of sports and Football (soccer) especially he formulated a plan to start his own NGO here in Cameroon that uses Football to convey important health and wellness information to local youth. Thus, CFDP was formed and has been run jointly in Kumba and Pittsburgh for the last 4 years. So where do I fit as the Peace Corps Volunteer attached to CFDP? Over the first 3 months of my time here in Kumba I worked together with the CFDP management team and with Justin during his 2 week visit over christmas break to find the projects and programs I could be working within over my 2 years here. The primary project that we came up with was a Peer Leaders Program that could be implemented in each of our CFDP communities and schools. Essentially we would teach selected youth in each group how to lead the group and go into more detail with them on certain issues and topics (reproduction, puberty, early pregnancy, drug use, HIV prevention, etc) and they in turn would be capable of running the CFDP activities in their groups in the event that their coach was not at the practice that day. Finding this opportunity and realizing everything that I could do with it was really exciting for me and I quickly started coming up with my own training program that we could use and a manual to give to each of the peer leaders as a resource for them to use. This was back in February right before In Service Training in Bamenda where we talk with our program managers and meet with all of our stage mates that we had trained with back in Bafia and Bokito. Now, nearly 5 months later the Peer Leaders program has still yet to fully lift off the ground. After IST I made some final revisions to the manual and translated it into french in the case that we may utilize francophone peer leaders as well and together with some of the CFDP management team made site visits and picked out potential peer leaders. This was followed by a couple weeks in which we worked to get the peer leaders together to sign permission forms and contracts and get some basic information on them. The program was all set to begin in early April, but then there was a soccer tournament going on that most of our peer leaders were participating in, followed by preparations for end of year exams, and the final exams (which seem to last nearly 2 months and makes me think we have it really easy in the states) and then into the summer holiday. Even with all of the time constraints and issues post poning the peer leader training we didn't lose our motivation to get this program started and planned for it to start last Tuesday (July 8). Now, I do not know how much you guys pay attention to Cameroonian weather patterns, but July and August happen to follow in the worst part of the rainy season, which essentially means that it is going to rain almost every day for at least 4 hours (sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, sometimes both). So July 8 roles around, I wake up and realize that it is pouring rain. In Cameroon it is very important that you present yourself in a good way and keep yourself as clean and tidy as possible, especially in Kumba and especially if you are going to a training event or any sort of important activity. Thus this means you wear your best clothes but do everything it takes to make sure you don't get wet or get any mud on your clothing or shoes. Cameroonians seem to be experts at this elusive art that I have yet to master. So, I show up to training wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt (prepared to lead soccer drills to relate topics to soccer) and some basic running shoes. A guess what I arrive to.... That's right, absolutely nothing. The school that our training was to be held at was securely locked by the gate that Pa Ben had not come to open, and no one was there. So here I am, looking a hot mess with my Georgia Southern umbrella that has taken some significant damages in the rough cameroonian rain storms, and sopping wet from my waist down. After this little bit of a let down I call my good friend and counterpart Carol and ask where she is and where all of the peer leaders are "It's raining, they will not come" is all she says. Wonderful. After this phone call the rain dies down a bit and starts to clear up and I get hopeful that maybe people will still come. Thankfully Carol brings one of our peer leaders from her neighborhood followed by Kama and Killian (two other Trainers). We wait another hour and a half and no one else comes. So immediately day 1 is considered a bust. That's okay, try for day 2. Day 2 goes considerably better. No rain, immediately winning. Our training event still did not get the amount of peer leaders we originally wanted but we did get 4 so that was a bit of a plus. So on what should have been day 2 of a 7 day training program we did the material for day 1 with 4 peer leaders. Fine no problem. So we discuss with the peer leaders that we will meet again on Tuesday (today) to do day 2 of the program. Well, I guess that Tuesdays are just my lucky day for getting things done. Haha, not. I wake up and guess what... that's right, raining cats and dogs. Thus, no training today! So I go to the office and discuss the situation with my four counterparts for this program and what we can do to make the program go better. The only real conclusion that we have come up with is post poning the program yet again, but this time to the end of September, which essentially means I won't be doing anything for another 2 months almost. So along with this little fiasco I was supposed to start working together with a Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Center that recently opened and had a new director. I've had multiple meetings with the director and it was determined that over the next 2 months I would teach 3 English lessons a week and then move to History and Geography when the school year started back. So I go to the youth center the day I am supposed to start teaching english and realize there is a bunch of construction going on and men painting all the walls and all sorts of other small improvements. "Hmm, that's interesting" I say to myself. I walk into the center and the director is nowhere to be found. I introduce myself to another man who ends up being someone important with the University of Buea and he explains the situation to me. Essentially, the government has decided that Kumba does not need a 2nd youth empowerment center and they decided to sell the building to the University of Buea to use as a the "Higher Technical Teacher Training Center". Okay, fine, no problem I can figure this out I just need to talk to the director. Well, guess who is still MIA and whose phone isn't working. Ding Ding Ding, you guessed correctly! Mr. Director. So, it's been a tough couple of weeks but all in all things are going well. It sucks that I really don't have much to back up my Peace Corps experience with just yet (work wise) but I'm sure I'll figure something out soon enough. More or less, both of these experiences are just pretty funny to me honestly. It shows just how different the culture I am living in is than what I am used to. If I were working at a youth center in the US that was to be converted into part of a University, I probably would have heard about it at least a month or two ahead of time. Not here, I find out the day it is no longer the youth center. I can't help but LOL sometimes and keep on swimming (thanks for that one Dori). In other more positive news. I recently took a trip to Portugal to see my mom, little brother, and aunt which was totally fantastic. The return trip, not so much. It was really hard leaving my family for a second time knowing that I was coming back to Cameroon for another year. The flights themselves were not bad but I had pretty long layovers in Lisbon and Casablanca but wasn't able to do much in the cities themselves and to top it all off my bag was lost on the way back and it took nearly 2 weeks to finally get to me in Kumba. Funny thing was, that it didn't even get lost in Cameroon, or Africa for that matter, it never left Lisbon. Funny stuff I swear. I also just got a puppy, which reminded me of how difficult and time consuming it was to have a puppy. But it's honestly a good thing. Instead of binging on Glee, The League, or Grey's Anatomy on days where I don't have much to do, I instead take my puppy outside to play or to go for a walk and play with some of the neighborhood kids. PSA: When trying to integrate with local youth in your neighborhood get a puppy PSA #2 make sure said youth understand it is still not okay to enter your home without permission. Alright, well I think the length of this post makes up for my absence so read and enjoy!
