A little while ago I met a fellow American, and fellow transplant Chicagoan named Jarred. He's here working for the Christian linguistics organization called SIL and he lives with some relatives of Jibo's family way out in the hills past my village. Apparently when he comes into Bamenda he stays with an American family also working with SIL. The Jacksons are an interesting bunch; Chris and his wife have 2 daughters, and adopted Cameroonian daughter, another girl from the States visiting, and a female tutor, so it's estrogen overload. Both Jarred and Chris seemed pretty happy to have me there to balance things out and it didn't hurt that I brought a bunch of my movies for them; a nice alternative to the constant stream of Gilmore Girls that's usually playing in the background. Their house is really nice and staying there was like taking a small step back toward the US. I had enchiladas and a bagel and a waffle in the morning. They even have a Wii! So needless to say I'll be returning whenever I need my American fix.
The rains still haven't come back after that brief appearance earlier this month and now the planting season's in limbo. People in village are confused and even getting a little worried. Normally we'd be well into the rainy season by now. I've been getting small tastes of how much work there is to come though. I broke ground on both the medicinal garden at the hospital (at 5:30 in the morning, ugh) and my vegetable garden in the backyard, but in both cases, I'm holding off on actually planting since I'd have to manually water everything.
IST (in-service training) is also coming up in a couple weeks. It'll be nice to see everyone again. Usually ISTs happen in Kribi, the beach destination in Cameroon, but since we're Agros, I guess we need to be somewhere where we can get hands on agricultural training which means we, and the health kids haha, have to go to land-locked Foumban in the West Region. Still it's supposed to be an interesting place with a lot of cultural sites, but it's hard not to feel jipped. Anyway, we'll probably head to Limbe, the other beach, after to celebrate.
Tonight is dinner at my place, assisted by all the great food my mom just sent, so I've got to get to the market and start prepping. I feel like I'm really doing this blog a disfavor since I've got so many good stories I haven't even shared yet, but like my mom said, I'm "doing" and not "reporting" so I guess you'll just have to deal with it :)
Small time
Hope the meal goes well and you make a dent in the rations. So I see you noticed I am a follower. Haha Thanks for understanding when I send you a package, I have to over-send to be sure I cover all possible situations, Glad you are "doing" and Doing so well. Take care + have a great time with friends, Love Mom
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