Yay, finally...it's taken the cyber 23 minutes to pull up this page!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Although I didn't get to celebrate with turkey and pumpkin pie, I did have 'thanksgiving dinner' with a group of peace corps volunteers from the Adamaoua province. As an appatizer, we had melted velveta (from someone's care package from home...i forgot how delicious salt processed cheese food is!) and bread. And, for the main course, we had spaghetti while listening to Christmas music. Finally, (and i think better than any pumpkin or apple or pecan pie i've ever had) we had between 9 of us...and 8 inch circular brownie. It was chewy and gooey and chocolately, and pretty much the best thing ever!

And, on top of my fabulous thanksgiving celebration, I recieved some really good news on the actual day of thanksgiving. So good in fact, that I called my family waking them up at 5 am!
I found out from IES (the program that I will be studying in France with) that I am recieving the Cross Cultural scholarship for my time in France...for the amount of $3,000. (the people in the cyber must have thought i was crazy...sitting in front of my computer beaming and balling at the same time!) The scholarship really makes all the difference in the world for my next semester. What a blessing.

Also, I realized that I should update all of you on what I'm actually doing right now! It is the period (as i believe i said before) of the independent project. I am studying women's literacy in Ngaoundere. (hmmm, i feel like i've said this a million times and maybe i actually already have written it....so sorry if i'm repeating myself!). For religious, cultural, and even geographical reasons, women's literacy rates in the north are much much lower than in the rest of the country. And, as it is, only about 60% of Cameroonian women are literate. Anyways, I've been working with and organisation of women who come together 4 days a week to learn to read and write and speak french. They are strong, shy, beautiful, smart, and determined women. At their request, I begin the class each day with a 30 minute English lesson. (by they way, 'th' is absolutely impossible for anyone to pronounce...and it's in so many words!) Some days I feel incredibly busy, and other days it seems as if I do nothing. Some days I find all of the information I'm looking for, and other days I spend hours wait for people to show up. But, I love the freedom of my schedule. I get to spend lots of time with my family...and yesterday I finished Crime and Punishment (which I only started a week and a half ago!). It is really amazing that I only have 3 weeks left in Cameroon. (also rather bizarre that Christmas i a month from today and I have yet to see a single santa, or tree, or stocking...)

I've spent all day today writing a very detailed outline for my paper... which is why my writing has gone to mush and this is a very rambly post!

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing thanksgiving with friends and family.

bisous
brianne

Finally, internet that works and time to write a post. :)

Just because I know everyone must be curious, my chiquita banana costume was a hit...especially with the cameroonian passengers next door to whom I had to describe (in French with a bunch of 7 bananas tied to my head) the very obscure American holiday where people disguise themselves as other things so that, at each house door, other people may scare them and give them candy, but to get the candy one must say "trick or treat" which means, ummm, make me afraid or give me candy!! You see, I am the girl that sells bananas in advertisements in the United States and she, that one down there in the orange fabric with a green teeshirt tied to her head, she is a (at this point i realized that i didn't know the word for pumpkin), a melon...which is the national vegetable of the holiday. If you have ever read "me talk pretty one day", this experience was David Sedaris funny.

Anyways, I am sitting here in downtown Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon. A city of about 1.5 million people, it looks strangely like the love child of semi-rural Africa with 1970's Chicago. Like Chicago, the taxis are yellow...unlike Chicago, 5 is the normal number of passengers for the tiny back seat. If you have ever traveled anywhere outside of the US, you can probably understand the hilariously ridiculous state of traffic here. We were stopped up the other day by a herd of goats crossing the road downtown in front of the Hilton.

This is the end of my week in the capital. It has been busy and adventurous and fun. Of course you'll all be interested to know that Yaounde, although it does not have a McDonalds, does have nearly-French bakeries, fabulous gelatto, a fairly large community of random ex-pats, and a grocery store where you can buy coco crispies for 20 dollars. I won't bore you by recounting my week in food...but I am known by name by the bakery/gelatto security guards...in part because it's best to be as nice as possible when turning down mulitiple confessions of undying devotion!

On an actual academic note, my brief stay in Yaounde has been one of the most learning packed weeks of the semester. As a group we have gotten to meet and have conversations with the American ambassador to Cameroon, the head of the World Bank in Cameroon, the head of WWF (world wildlife fund) for Central Africa, the only woman Supreme Court justice, one of the heads of the Peace Corps Headquarters, and the heads of some national NGOs for protection of human rights, the environment, etc. For the most part, it has been just as fascinating as it sounds.

I'll end with a little anecdote that I at least find....adventurously amusing??
From all of my verbal frustration this summer, most of you probably know about my visa situation. I need a French visa to spend next semester in France, and it took me nearly 4 months this summer to finally determine that the only option was for me to get my French visa in Cameroon...not ideal, but better than shelling out for a second round trip plane ticket to Europe. The French Embassy is here in Yaounde, finally the time for all of my emails and photocopying and paperwork-organizing to hopefully work out. The adventure begins:
First, it takes a whole day of contacting people to actually find the Embassy's number.
Then I try to call from my cell phone and it doesn't work, so I take a taxi to the Embassy during lunch and of course the embassy (being FRENCH), is close for 2.5 hours every afternoon. I sweet talk the security guard into giving me a different phone number that might work with my cell phone. I actually get ahold of someone 3 hours later, who curtly informs me that she does not do visas and that I must call the visa section by a fixed line. "Fixed line??" This, I find out, does not mean land line, but is actually some sort of weird and very expensive exclusive phone service type thing. So, I finally (after asking a million people) find one of these fixed line's and call the embassy. 8 dollars, 5 minutes, and some slight confusion where I mixed up French numbers and told the lady i was born in 1996 later, I secured a visa appointment for Monday morning at the French Consulat. Monday morning I leave the hotel extra early to find that, unfortunately yet unsuprisingly, no one knows what or where the french consulat is. I ask 3 separate business looking men, and each points me in an entirely different direction. So, I decide my best option is just to go back to the French Embassy and ask there. Luckily (I do believe this was the only actually lucky part of the experience), the French Consulat is actually part of the Embassy! I am early for my appointment and marveling at my good luck. Explaining my situation is a bit tricky as it's not everyday and American student tries to get a French visa at the Embassy in Cameroon (shocking), but all goes well, I am approved for processing, and all I have to do is pay. I hand over the 100 euros, to which the French lady shakes her head and informs me that they only accept CFA. What!? So, I take a taxi back to down town to look for an ATM. Cameroonians don't use ATM, so no one knows where to find one. One man in the grocery store actually thought I was asking for a man named ATM, so he could give me some money! I chose the grocery store hoping to spot an ex-pat and voila! two young American guys in the candy aisle. I ask them, they give me directions that actually work, I get the money, take a taxi back to the Embassy, wait in line AGAIN, pay and find out that I have to come back Wednesday to pick it up. So, that's where I'm heading to now in about 15 minutes...we'll just see what happens!

as always, it is wonderfully renewing to hear from you all.

gros bisous
brianne