Tuesday, August 2, 2011

11 months later...

Well it has been approximately 11 months since I posted on my blog and I sincerely apologize. Haha. Things have been busy and some of the most emotionally taxing times in my entire life but also the most self discovery and growing towards God that I’ve ever experienced. I will now try to recap some of what I’ve been up to in the last long while.

So October and November of last year were a number of seminars including a medicinal plant seminar in Lolodorf and a soy seminar in Ebolowa. They were both super great successes! I also got to go out to Mvangan to teach little elementary children about very basic sex education things, don’t worry we mostly talked about the family structure and things like puppies cannot come from people etc. We had a great time and I really enjoyed exploring more of this beautiful country, though the ride was completely comfortable. ;) November was mostly just upkeep on already running projects and getting ready for my trip back home to the US!

I had a wonderful whirlwind trip back to the US for a month in which I got to see most of my friends and family, travel around NC and TN, see snow again, and get to go on a cruise! I had a great time however I had a bit of trouble in realizing that I have no stable place in the world anymore. My trip home was wonderful but also very trying as I realized that everyone had continued to move on with their lives and that though the things I’m doing are interesting and different, people have a short attention span. I came to the realization on returning to Cameroon that I had no concrete place in the world: everyone in the US had their own lives going on without me, and Cameroon is really only my temporary home. It was a very hard pill to swallow and made living hard as I felt that I was not really at home or at peace anywhere.

I came back to Cameroon just in time for Mid-Service, which is basically lots of medical exams to make sure we have nothing like TB developing unbeknownst to us. I then got to go on a wonderful week long trip to the North region of Cameroon with 4 of my best friends here in country! We had a FABULOUS time and I needed their support and love and adventure seeking spirits more than I could have known! We hiked mountains, explored new cities, visited fellow volunteers, ate new and different foods and LOTS of beef! We celebrated birthdays with a My Little Pony party and had a genuinely amazing trip that we were not ready to see end!

I then returned in Lolodorf to see what of my projects were still going strong after my almost 2 month absence. To my surprise most things were still working and at least somewhat successful. I also got to host 3 volutneers who had been evacuated from Niger after some issues there. We had a great 3-4 days together as they got a bit accustomed to their new country. However, I started developing some problems with a filling that had been done during mid-service right about that time. After about a month of dealing with it and taking about a trip a week up to the capital, the medical officers decided to medically evacuate me to Morocco (by the way this is around the beginning/middle of March in our timeline).

Another aside, I have purposefully omitted someone from this review of my life and that is my at the time boyfriend and fellow PC volunteer, Greg. We started dating in July of 2010 and had a fabulous relationship. He was there with me through most of my experiences, to hold me up in the hard times and laugh alongside me in the great times. He has since returned to the states and it is at this point in the story that he decided that we should break off our relationship. The stress and slight depression that I was feeling was not exactly lifted by this decision but I know that it is exactly what was supposed to happen, despite the pain and tears that it has and still sometimes does cause me.

So I was sent to Morocco where I was very well taken care of and got to eat AWESOME food! However, the dentist didn’t seem to think that I needed a root canal so they decided to remove the filling I already had and replace it with a new one with a bit of medication in it. He also found that my original cavity hadn’t been all the way removed. So I got 2 weeks in Morocco for them to decide that I actually didn’t even need a root canal. But I did meet some wonderful other PCVs and found that Morocco very well may be the most friendly country in the world, at least the most friendly of the ones I’ve been to! The PCVs there were so welcoming and took care of me and showed me around as if I were already one of their own. I even got to go to Yanyi’s village and visit Fez during a long weekend! We had a fabulous time and Yanyi was such a life saver as she helped me through the shock and pain of a breakup from another country.

So after my two week ‘vacation’ I went back to Cameroon and I was actually quite ready! I missed Lolodorf terribly and was so ready to be back in my house and near my village friends. I even got to come back to a visit from another PCV, KK, who is absolutely terrific! I think I started to realize at this point in my life how incredibly blessed I am to have friends and family who are there for me no matter what happens or what distance separates us! They were kind and supportive and the most amazing listeners with advice when needed or sometimes just a warm shoulder. So THANK YOU! All of you!

Anyway, I got to hang out in Lolodorf for about 2 weeks, and then…dun dun dun…my tooth started bothering me again. So I headed back to Yaounde to get it looked at. I saw the dentist who said that it was infected again and that I needed to start antibiotics again. I then went back to Lolodorf for another couple of weeks and dealt with the pain which wasn’t unbearable; rather it was more like a constant headache on the left side of my face. So I went back to Yaounde for Health Steering and had another check-up with the medical officers and we decided I’d just wait and get it looked at when I got back home at the end of the year since the pain was bearable. Then about 5 days later they called and told me I was going back to Morocco for a second time. This was a much shorter trip of only about 4 or 5 days in which it was decided that the tooth was not causing the pain and my sinuses etc. checked out. So they said, ‘ well we don’t know, I guess we’ll just send you home.’

I finally arrived in Lolodorf around the beginning of May. I had a nice couple of weeks of work and leisure in village before Lauren came to visit to do a soy formation! We had a blast and then headed up to Yaounde for my second trip up to the North of Cameroon; however this time I was going up to see my best friend in village, Halima, get married!

Adventure up North: Lauren and I decided to take the train and since we were both a bit short on money we decided to take second class… It was an adventure! We decided it was best likened to waiting for a bus to leave the agence…you sit on a plastic chair for 15 hours, overnight, with the lights on and people walking through selling things constantly. We were uncomfortable but we saw some of the oddest and most hilarious things we’ve seen in Cameroon…or maybe we were just that slap happy… So we arrived in Ngaoundere and took a bus immediately up to Maroua in the Extreme North. We arrived and hung out for a couple of days in Maroua and did sight seeing stuff, hiked Mt. Maroua and went to the artisanal market. We then headed out to Yagua, Halima’s village! The marriage ceremony was not at all what we were expecting: it was the giving of the dowry to the family and lots of eating and dancing afterwards! We had a great time and it was exciting to explore a corner of Cameroon we otherwise would probably never have seen. We then set off for Garoua to hang out with Lea, then Ngong to see Harley and Paul, and then Lagdos to visit with Mark. We then headed down to Ngaoundere to explore and catch the train back home.

I think the next exciting thing to happen was the end of June brought Barret, the new Education volunteer down to Lolodorf for his site visit! We had a great time and we’re pretty excited that in a couple of weeks we will be the grand number of 3 in the Lolodorf area!

So now you’re a bit caught up…I can talk in a bit more detail about the last couple of weeks of my life! So I spent a bit of time getting to explore parts of the South region on PC’s dollar since admin is too busy to do all of the site prospections (just visiting, talking with the community about what PC is and finding housing for a volunteer). So I went to Ambam which is pretty much a town about an hour from the Equatorial Guinea border and also pretty close to that of Gabon. The next day took me to a very small village, Biwong-Bulu which is about 45 minutes down a crappy road by moto. However, the people there are so excited to have a volunteer! They were so kind and welcoming and almost wouldn’t let me leave! Haha! Then I headed back to my neck of the woods for a couple of days before heading to Eseka, a village an hour towards Yaounde on our paved road (it was so comfortable in comparison ;) ). So even though my health post will be closed after me, there will hopefully be a few more in this general vicinity!

This past week we held our second follow-up Medicinal Plant seminar here in Lolodorf. We made the participants from the last seminar explain all the lessons that we had covered and asked them to prepare all the medicines that we had done the previous time. We also added around 50 new plants to our garden! Yay! All of the oldies did very well with the revision and we even had a ton of new people! More new people showed up each day, up until the very last minute! So, we have decided we’ll hold another mini-seminar to learn some new material and to give these new folks who want to learn, the opportunity to be with us and see what the group is all about. So, yay for a successful seminar and the last big thing that I have before I come back home!!!!

So on another note, I arrived here and was thinking I was going to go back to become a PA (physician’s assistant) but throughout my time here that plan changed and I was leaning more towards physical therapy. However, as God did with Peace Corps, he threw out little hints and people would say well have you thought about… This time it was speech therapy which I have always said is in the back of my mind but I’d never actually taken the time to look into it. So finally, my Dad asked my last week, “Well Amanda, what do you think about speech therapy? Have you looked into it at all?” Have you this is the 6th or 7th person in the last few months who has posed this question. But I said, “No, I think I wanna do physical therapy.” And then that night I laid awake thinking about it…haha. So the next day I looked into and instantly fell in love. I can start applying this month to start next fall rather than having to wait a year and a half and take 2 full semesters of pre-requisites. The program also allows me to work with children and children/adults with disabilities at that. As well as people who have had serious brain trauma and any number of other issues such as strokes etc. So needless to say I’m thrilled! I feel like this is a great fit…at least for the moment! ;)

And in other news, I have just about 3 months left here…I can’t believe how quickly it’s FLOWN by! I’ll know my exact date in 3 weeks! I’ve already started getting nostalgic. This is going to be 3 of the most bittersweet months of my life, I think. It’s hard to imagine that I’ll be leaving these people that have been my life and support for the last 2 years. They have become my family and knowing that at least it will be years before I’ll see their faces again breaks my heart. Please pray for me as I try to smile through the tears as I know I have fabulous memories and that I can always pick up the phone and call over here regardless of the miles.

I have finally come to the end of the longest blog post in history! Haha! I hope that you’re all doing well?! I’d love to hear from you and I can’t wait to see you again…VERY SOON! I love you all! Thank you for everything that you are and all your love and prayers through this long and hard but amazing adventure that I’m still going through! I’ll try to write at least one more time before I head back stateside!

<3 Amanda