Je suis tombée dans les pommes

            So here is my best effort to sandwich the last two weeks of my life into some form of a comprehensible post. I apologize right now for the jumbled mess of words/thoughts/happenings but please bear with me – if anything the aforementioned scatter is in accord with my experience so far.

We are assigned “community hosts” who are basically there to help us integrate into the community. They have nothing to do with our job but are purely there as a resource for really, anything. My community host is Salihou – and he is one of my heroes here. First off, he loves to laugh and joke and we all know how important laughter is for me to function. Traveling in Cameroon can be really stressful but he really made the trip enjoyable. But really I am grateful because I am comfortable around him and he is really excited to show me around Guider and to start teaching me Fulfulde (Our conversations are a mixture of French, English, and Fulfulde if you can even imagine this.) I probably will refer to him from now on as Silly Salihou.

            Overall, I’m really excited about Guider and the North in general. It is really another world from the rest of Cameroon. Some important differences I appreciate so far:

The environment is more relaxed. People are not so aggressive and I was not once referred to as “la blanche.” Not even nassara (don’t trust my spelling) which is “the white” in Fulfulde. The scenery is really beautiful. There are mountains everywhere along with big boulders and little streams that dot the countryside. Perhaps my favorite aspect is the warm people. I had the opportunity to visit many VSLAs (village savings and loan associations) and tontines that my predecessor worked with and we were always greeted with a short applause and at least 20 handshakes.

            Unfortunately I have suffered my first moto burn. Yes, I know to always mount a motorcycle from the left side. I was dropped off at the bus station in Guider but failed to see a moto pull up behind me and I pressed my leg against it while I was demounting my moto. I have also been sick for the past couple days and I went to the hospital. They took blood to do tests just to make sure it wasn’t Malaria which brings me to my second hero in Cameroon, Nurse Ann. When I told the doctor I was going to faint he disregarded my notion while Nurse Ann took one look at me and rectified my stance. Long story short, she saved me from a potentially long fall. After all that commotion it turned out to be some sort of throat infection. I don’t feel that this diagnosis does my condition justice; I actually slept in my sleeping bag with a fleece blanket inside, wearing my jacket - in Cameroon – and I was still shivering.

             Back in Bafia, I have started learning Fulfulde in French. I love the greetings. To say Hi is “Jam na?” Which literally translates to “Do you have peace?” And the typical response is, “Jam!” (Peace). Why don’t we say things like this? It’s so much better than “how’s it going,” “what’s up,” or “hi.”

            Do you have peace?