Chop Bushpussy: Finding Out My Site!

Yesterday I found out my post – yay! Weirdly enough, I had several dreams throughout last week that I would be placed in Kembong, my first choice apart from Pitoa. Over this past week, I had heard repeatedly from volunteers that the Northwest region was the best in all senses – climate, work, people, food, pretty much everything. The Southwest was a close second, only made so because of the weather – it’s more hot and humid in the Southwest. Additionally, I had heard that the post in Pitoa was not ideal due to the level of corruption and mismanagement present in the partner organizations, and that conducting work in Anglophone regions was significantly easier due to the fact that projects could often get off the ground faster without the language barrier for novice/intermediate speakers such as myself. All in all, I was super pleased when they announced that I would be in Kembong, in the Southwest, but very close (only a 2-hour drive) to the Northwest – yay!! Kembong has everything that I was looking for in a site: it’s a replacement site, but hasn’t had a health volunteer since the last one COS-ed (close of serviced) in 2011, so I have the advantage of being in a place where the community members are familiar with volunteers, but not expecting me to be exactly like the last volunteer, or continue with their projects (I hope…). Kembong is also a semi-urban site, meaning that the population is around 10,000, meaning that there will be a variety of stakeholders to work with (ideally). Kembong has also historically had a lot of NGO and other aid organization money being pumped into the community, due in part (I think) because the people are very willing to be invested in the projects, and are amenable to community input/ownership (at least according to the COS report that the previous volunteer wrote). It’s also closer to a large metropolitan area; 12 km away from the city of Mamfe, and only about two hours away from one of the quaintest cities in Cameroon, Bamenda. The SW region is also home to Mt. Cameroon, lots of waterfalls and forests, some of the best beaches in the country, lots of variety of food, and has a characteristically warm and open culture. Also, I have running water and electricity at my site, and reliable cell phone reception – huge win. Needless to say, I’m very pleased. I’m also very close to another health volunteer (Julia is 7 km away), and a CED (Community Economic Development) volunteer, who is actually in Kembong with me. The SW is interesting, too, in the fact that we have four seasons – two rainy and two dry. I’ll also be learning WAPE (West African Pidgin English) in addition to French, since the SW is Anglophone. The title ‘chop bushpussy’ is a nod to Pidgin, and means ‘I cook wild cats” - some people will occasionally cook wild cats (not like domesticated cats, like jungle wildcats cats) that they find – not often, I might add. Thought it was an interesting phrase, and made me excited to learn more Pidgin. For the most part, every health volunteer seems pleased with their site, and most got a post that was in their top three on the bidding sheet. Here’s hoping the next three ish weeks of training fly by so that I can finally head to Kembong and be a real PCV!

Also, I'm planning on posting lots of pictures from the waterfalls in Nkongsamba, my family's farm, and general life in Bokito, but will have to do it next week, since the power is out, and has been out since Tuesday, in Bokito and Bafia. Ashia (sorry), but they're coming!