The Cast of Characters; The Main Players in My Cameroonian Life So Far

FAMILY:

• Gael- My 17 years old host sister who is in her second to last year of secondary school with whom I share both a bed and a room. Gael was adopted by my host mom from their former maid. This makes for an interesting dynamic in the family. As the only girl, and as the daughter of the former maid, she is expected to do more around the house than anyone else. “Adoption” is relatively common in Cameroonian society although it may not take an official form, many families and mothers who have the means take in children in need of a home. 

  

  A relatively low quality selfie of Glendon, Gael and I.

• Glendon- My 9 year old host brother. Glendon hates homework and loves watching TV, especially American and Japanese cartoons dubbed in French. Glendon is very clearly the baby of the family. Anytime he’s hungry other people get him something to eat, it is a struggle everyday to get him to take a shower, and if he whines enough, he can get a bowl of chocolate cereal with extra sugar added made for him anytime of day.

• Sony- My 19 year old host brother. Sony is the family’s go to for any technological questions or issues. He’s currently a university student and doesn’t live at home when school is in session. Sony is the only one in the family I’ve seen with a laptop, which he often has on his lap while watching TV in the living room. 

• Blakely- My 23 year old host brother who is also currently a university student. Along with Sony, he spends a lot of time playing soccer with friends when living at home. He also does not live at home when school it in session.

• Maman- My host mother works for the government in the Ministry of Sports. She spends extensive hours during the week working and always comes home in her heels and business formal wear extremely exhausted. On the weekend she loves working out at a local park/sports facility. There are also several pictures of her with the president and first lady hanging in our living room. 

* There is also a 21 year old sister who is currently in London getting her Masters in economics. She left Cameroon this past August to move to London. She attended unergrad in Paris.

SIT STAFF:

Nathalie at the Cameroon-Ivory Coast soccer match.
(Im my post about the match, I also posted a picture of Serge)

• Christiane- The Academic Director of SIT Cameroon and a previous employee of the Peace Corp, she also teaches our Research Methods and Development class. Christiane is the go-to for absolutely everything. She lives next to the SIT office with her American husband and their two adorable little boys.

• Nathalie- The SIT Homestay Coordinator, Nathalie knows everything and anything about our host families. She works very hard to make sure each student fits with their family and helps solve any issues.

• Serge- The Program Coordinator, organizes our extracurricular events and greeted us at the airport when we arrived. Serge also is the keeper of the keys to the SIT library- there is a collection of novels, academic books, and all previous ISPs (Independent Study Projects). 

• Kiki- Also an SIT employee, he works at the office opening the gate whenever someone arrives and rings the bell, runs errands, takes out the trash, cleans, and also helps out at Christiane’s house next door. I’m not sure how old Kiki is but I think he’s around our age. He’s been working for SIT since 2010. When Kiki isn’t working he spends a lot of time reading the office’s books, sitting in on our lectures, and joining in on group discussions. Kiki also hangs out with us when we have free time and sometimes joins the groups when we go on outings (like the soccer game or this past weekend).

• Thomas- My French teacher, he has been working with SIT since 1990! Thomas is an older man who all wears well coordinated suits that are just a little bit too big for him. He’s a great teacher and very patient. 

OTHER STUDENTS:

• Ariane- One of the Cameroonian students in the program. She’s small and energetic and always very carefully dressed. 

Arsen using one of the office computers.

• Arsen- Another one of the Cameroonian students in the program, he is very “cool.”  I put cool in quotations because he wears sunglasses indoors, wears a lot of baseball caps, pops his collar, and wears slightly saggy pants. Arsen gets very into class discussions and always has intelligent questions to ask. He is also always open to questions about Cameroonian culture and loves to give advice.

• Christelle- I’m doing the students in alphabetic order but Christelle just happens to be the third Cameroonian student in the program. Christelle is studying journalism and lives by herself in an apartment near the University of Youande. Christelle is probably the Cameroonian student with which I am closest.  

     Cora (and her cracker) on the front balcony of the SIT office

• Cora- From Bates College, she is majoring in Anthropology and French. Cora is originally from Massachusetts but now lives in New Hampshire (and loves Vermont). She runs insane amounts every single day to stay in shape for her lacrosse team at school. Cora is the only other student in my French class which makes for a very personal and fun class! We are also working on our first big project together, a research project in which we plan to focus on something pertaining to education. 

• Danny- From Brooklyn, he’s a student at Brown University. Danny loves music and dancing, he plans to research the rap culture in Cameroon. This past weekend, he also participated in a fairly free form rap show.

• Elias- Also from Massachusetts, he attends Yale University where he is studying Political Science. Elias took as gap year between high school and college during which we studied abroad in Senegal thus his conversational French is very good. 

Elias, Ariane, and Christelle talk while watching the
afternoon rain storm roll in.

• Elise- One of three student from Pomona, she is the only student in the program from the west coast. Elise hails from Oregon and is one of the most practical people I’ve ever met. Elise, absolutely loves to dance, as we found out during last Friday’s dance class. She also meditates every day. 

• Khalilah- A Weslyan student, she too loves to dance and is even in a West African dance group at school. Khalilah is researching Cameroon’s rap culture with Danny. Directly after the program she is flying to South Africa to visit her cousin. Khalilah’s father is Congolese (her parents met in the Peace Corps) and she has family all around the world.

• Marianna- The second Pomona student, Marianna is also probably closer to her host family than anyone else. Marianna is an avid ultimate frisbee player and her goal is to bring ultimate to Cameroon in some way. She is also from Massachusetts and spent the past summer working at a summer camp in Keene, New Hampshire.

• Monica- The other GW student in the program, Monica is also studying International Affairs. We have a lot of friends in common and I’m excited to have someone who shared my study abroad experience around to talk to when we get back. Monica started school in France, where her family was living at the time, putting her a step ahead as well. She’s lived several other places during her life both internationally and within the US but currently is living in Baltimore. She has also spent a good bit of time in India which is great to have someone who can relate to my experience there as well.

• Morgan- The third and final Pomona student, Morgan lives in Boston. This is her second time visiting Cameroon and third time in Africa. Morgan is very into African politics has taken a lot of classes on the topic previously. She is very into the classes we’re taking here.