Still Alive

37 notifications. 37. Are you people kidding me? That is out of control. That was my welcome back into the city this week from facebook.

I did my homestay this past week. Monday – Saturday. Not a full week, but the basic idea. I lived in a village named “Santa”.  I wasn’t too hot on it going into it, mostly because I was (am) super comfortable here, and didn’t want to rock the boat and cause homesickness.

I wont get into major details of the week, but basically the family was the absolute most kind. My lumberjack and fire building skills were useful again at home, I think my ability to chop wood as well as I could was surprising for everyone. I learned how to plant beans, harvest potatoes and corn. I also tried my hand at assisting in a couple of traditional meals, and I ate a lot of omelets.

Im glad I did the homestay, I learned a fair bit, and met some really cool people. It made me happy for my life in Bamenda, and happy for my life in St. John’s.

My first day there I asked a 4 year old girl at the house what she liked to do, thinking to myself we could do it together for fun. If someone asked me when I was 4 what I liked to do, I probably would have said something like ‘playing legos’, ‘doing crafts with my mom’ or if I was feeling particularly honest ‘getting my sister in trouble’. Her response was “washing plates”. Now, I grant you when it comes to washing dishes plates are the easiest and the most satisfying thing to wash, but it was an interesting way to set the tone for the week. There were such differences in family, and child rearing techniques. That was my biggest difference in this experience compared to my Costa Rican experience. Other than that, there were a lot of similarities, which was comfortable for me to enter into.

I was a little sick for a couple days, to the point where I casually vomited in the corn field, but I blamed my malaria medication so all was well.

I am happy to be back in the city, though I am sure I will be visiting my Santa family soon.

In other news, here are two interesting things that happened while on my homestay:

1)      Boosters. For those of you who I have not yet informed, a booster is a .5L bottle of whiskey cola mix. It is consistently my drink of choice, and has been for the past 2 months or so. While in Santa, I discovered that there is more than one booster flavor! I know right, mind blowing. So, in addition to the whiskey cola mix, there is also pina colada, gin and tonic, and vodka grapefruit. Needless to say I have a new mission to try all of the boosters so I can boost my life in new and invigorating ways.

2)      I started to go off the deep end and got a store that was playing music to transfer all of their music onto my usb. I now have 200+ songs, 99% of which are African jamz. (the other 1% being lil wayne, and rihanna mostly)

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I am alive, despite my disappearance this past week.

All my love,
Maura 

Life Thus Far...

Welcome friends, and cyber stalkers. I know you’re creeping me and not saying anything; but it’s ok, you can just buy me a drink the next time we run into each other. Besides, I'd love to catch up with you anyway.

Moving forward, no one knows what’s actually going on with me. So, here is a brief and fragmented summary of my life (my bad)….

So, I work at YOP (Youth Outreach Programme) at Mile One in Bamenda, Cameroon. I have a pretty sweet life here, get in between 8:30 and 9am most days, and leave late afternoon (time dependent on the amount of work). We work across from a junction (like a crossroads/culdasac with businesses in it. I feel like it is the Cameroonian version of a mini Churchill Square.) We spend some time there hanging out with friends, boosting our lives, and running basic errands. Our basic work week runs with us in the office eating omelets. I am currently undecided if I am never going to want to see another egg in my life, or if I am going to be craving them when I get home.

Weekends consist of Commercial Avenue for lunch and/or shopping, the food market for groceries, and hanging out with friends. I also insist on doing nothing on Sundays other than household chores and watching a movie. Sundays are a day of rest for a reason, people.

Garbage chickens still frighten me, as do newly discovered garbage dogs, and of course, rabid goats.

Handheld laundry is not an issue, I don’t mind it; though I am not entirely sure how clean my clothes are getting. I have worn though a shirt and a pair of socks already (whoops) so that leads me to believe that I am washing too aggressively, yet there always seems to be more dirt. (Dear Santa, for Christmas I would really love a new JCrew white vneck just like the one I have here that is now dead….)

People, it is not hot here, I live in the mountains. With the heat waves at home everyone is like “ohh 40*C, that must be nothing for you”. This week, the basic weather seems to be (thunderstorms, everyday) that the lowest low is 16, and the highest high is 27. But because it is raining there is no sun (usually) so it isn’t that warm! I am wearing a sweater right now and am quite chilly infact. Or maybe I am just used to it and will freeze to death when I get back to Canada in the winter.

No, I am not yet tanned; I don’t think I ever will be. But, I am also not yet sunburned, thanks to the rain.

I was able to download skype on my computer, which is such a miracle. After 2 months of trying, I am so so so thrilled about it. I am also starting to sync some of my music which is nice. I downloaded my entire Taylor Swift repertoire, which is certainly a major win in our sing-along life. It is slow and steady and sometimes I get none, but some days I am able to sync 3 or 4 songs, which is awesome.

I thought going into this, I thought that week’s 5-9 were going to be the hardest for me. That has since passed and I survived unscathed, which is sweet.  Hopefully I can keep riding this chill wave, since it is the end of week 10. 1/3^rd of the way through this journey, who woulda thunk it.

In other news, I finally got my guitar! It is a handmade guitar. Its name is Thunder, that’s because “Thunder” is engraved on it. Sweet eh? I think before I leave I am going to get my friends here to paint their names or pictures or whatever on it. What an awesome keepsake. How I am going to get it back to Canada is currently undetermined. There is a place that makes coffins next to my tailor’s house, so worst case sinerio I am sure they could build me a box of sorts….

This is Thunder.

Ah, speaking of my tailor, I had a sweet pair of pants made, or as they would say here ‘trousers’. Pants means underwear, so it makes for an awkward moment when you say to your friend “hey, I loved your little brother’s pants today!” even though all you wanted to do was to compliment the red skinny jeans he was wearing. They are based off my India pants, with a very bold pattern to say the least. I am a really big fan and am going to get more trousers like this made.

Mama booked her flights, which is so awesome. She is coming Oct. 5^th- 19^th, so that is something really cool to look forward too. I can’t wait to see her, and I know she is excited for an excuse to do some exploring (and of course see her darling daughter). She is going to bring me a box of Kraft Dinner, I am just going to publicly admit it right now.

My food cravings are out of control. It is to the point where I am just craving anything and everything (hence the Kraft Dinner). I am never hungry, there is plenty of food around, but I have a new found appreciation for the ‘Survivor Auctions’ where people pay like $200 for 5 chicken wings. (I spent the entire walk home yesterday thinking about my mom’s lemon squares. I was wondering how many I could eat over the duration of a game of Catan, without vomiting.) We made a schedule for the GAFC 2013 (Great Antigonish Food Crawl 2013) which is basically a 2 week challenge to see how much food we can physically eat in such a short period of time. The things I would do for a single slice of Kenny’s combo pizza right now and a glass of chocolate milk are absolutely unspeakable.

Blundstones are pretty much fireproof, but their soles are not. Just in case anyone was wondering.

I have upped my stalking game on that couple on youtube/tumblr. Things are getting out of control, but the first step is recognition. I also have a newfound appreciation for buzzfeed.

That is pretty much the main points in my life, as always feel free to fire of comments, concerns, or queries.

All my love,

Maura

Newest addition to our home.