Bahouan Bound

Time is ticking on and on and it's unbelievable that we are already almost halfway through Pre-Service Training. Life is still wonderful and today was especially great. This morning I learned that despite what I thought was a horrible language aptitude test yesterday, I am now at the language level I needed to meet to swear in and don't have to worry about my classes too much anymore now except for my own improvement. Just before I came to get online all the Ed trainees learned their post assignments! I am very excited for my post in Bahouan. I haven't even so much as looked it up yet but it is in the Western province and I know there is a lot of good hiking nearby! There are also a lot of volunteers in the West and in the neighboring provinces and it won't take 3 days for me to travel to the capital. I also probably won't sweat my ass off the entire next two years.

Life is still pretty strict in terms of our day-to-day schedules. We have very little free time and are actually required to be home by 7pm unless we are given permission to stay out later. Since I really enjoy my homestay it hasn't been a huge problem for me. Last weekend, however, there was a bit of an incident with my host father taking me out to 'show me how the Cameroonians sortir (go out)' that led to him getting very drunk and my having to insist on going home earlier than he wanted to. The whole evening was one of my first major culture shocks here because of how misogynistic it all felt but I discussed the entire situation and why it could never happen again with him the next day and today with our host family coordinator.

It is difficult to be in an environment where women are valued so much differently. I have been surprised to learn that polygamy is not only present in Muslim families here but is simply an accepted cultural norm for all. It was a hard concept to grasp in Senegal but it was somewhat less commonplace and generally less widely accepted. I feel it's going to be a constant challenge in working and living here.

We have converted the bar near our classroom building into the Blanche bar and most of the group can be found having our one beer a day there every evening. Thursday is 'sports day' and I beat myself up playing a mean game of soccer yesterday. It was so much fun after so many years without kicking a ball around. In many ways the experience so far has just felt like being back in college or something and I constantly think of how much more amazing it is than sitting in my office everyday in Los Angeles!

This coming Tuesday all the Ed trainees will travel to post with our community host and get a better picture of where we'll all be living for the next couple years. I can't wait to write all the gory details of the exciting adventure that is traveling in Africa!