- We had classes today, my host family couldn’t believe that I had school today, especially because we’re leaving for another 2 weeks tomorrow. My host mom wanted me to go to the sports center with her this morning to work out again.
- Our first class this morning was “Survival Pidgin” We learned the basics of Cameroon’s pidgin English dialect so that we have at least a jumping off point while we’re in the Anglophone area of Cameroon next week.
- After a quick break, we had our weekly discussion. Instead of recapping the week and checking in with how everyone is doing we talked about our upcoming trip to Bamenda and Batoufam.
- Bamenda is an 8 hour drive away. Bamenda is in the north-west anglophone region of Cameroon. While there we’ll get to meet the leader of Cameroon’s biggest opposition party, the party that is widely believed to have won an election in the 1990s but got cheated out of their win by Paul Biya. We’re also meeting with an illegal Anglophone succession group. We’ll be in Bamenda for two nights. Both Bamenda and Batoufam are considered “very cold” by the people I’ve talked to in Yaoundé and Kribi- it’ll be high 50s-mid 70s.
- Batoufam is considered a rural farming area and will probably be the hardest part of my stay in Cameroon. I’m not really sure what to expect even though we spent a long time talking about what is might be like. We’ll be living with families for the 11 or 12 days that we’re there. The families will most likely be polygamous with probably a minimum of 10 kids (that’s the average in the area). The chief in Batoufam is helping facilitate our stay, finding us host families, our lunch is being cooked in his house, and allowing us to hold classes in his home.
This is my last post for the next two weeks! I’m off to pack and prepare.
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