ma vie!

a little about moi-meme:
i live in a carrefour in the city of Yaounde called Tsinga. Two fridays ago, I met my host brother, Yannick, at my school. Yannick is a 27-yr old single guy who we (mes amies et moi) have named Kayne West. Kayne works at an expensive nightclub in a hotel in the centre ville from midnight to 5 in the morning. he gets one night off a week. Yannick lives with his grand-mere and cousin Canut in a house in a compound shared with Canut's father (Yannicks uncle) and his wife and her daughters. Interestingly, though Meme (my grandmere) had 6 children, only Canut's father is Muslim. Meme told me that he lived in Nigeria for 9 yrs and converted then. Since its Ramadan right now, Canut and his family fast during the day and eat at night. i can hear the prayers from the mosque at night AND at 5 in the morning. Meme and the others are Catholic. Yannick's mother died when the pipeline along the border of Nigeria exploded some years ago. What else about the fam...Since there are more than 250 ethnicities in Cameroon, often times there are people from several ethnicities and villages living in the same household. for example, Meme is Bamileke (which i will write about later after we spend some time in the west and visit traditional chiefdoms, etc) and Canut's step mother is from Mali and is Muslim. Oh, and I am learning Bamileke too.

Ashley, another american student, lives just down the road from me in Tsinga, and her family claims to be related to Yannick though I dont think they actually are. Families are huge here!! I spend much of my time with Ashley's family, as Kanye sleeps during the day and sometimes I feel like he doesnt know what to do with a 20 yr old american girl, besides show me off to his friends. Oh yea, we only communicate in French. Canut speaks a little english and is pretty good at explaining things slowly for me in french when i dont understand. i actually spent a lot of my first days at Ashleys house. The household, right now, consists of Maman and Papa (both teachers/papa is also minister of education at the university of Yaounde, which i learned today was the first university in Cameroon until the 90's, Vanessa and Leila, their 2 daughters. Vanessa is in her late 20s and is trying to learn english. Leila is 19?! i was expecting most ppl in Cameroon to be pretty conservative, based on what information i was given pre-depart, but chez Ashley is pretty westernized and progressive. Leila has a lot of piercings and loves to go to the nightclubs. In fact, most ppl here are dressed tres chic-ly. There is also Estel, a cousin or something, and her young daughter Denise and baby, Miela. Estel is hard of hearing, and it seems like the family has her do most domestic work, such as preparing the majority of meals and washing, etc. Leonce was kind of adopted by Maman, attends university in Ngaoundere, and is over most of the time. He lives in a neighborhood called Santa Barbara, and I have yet to visit him there. I have attended mass with ashleys family deux fois and eat meals at their house, blah blah blah.

Something exciting that i have done here was attend the national football game between Cameroon and Gabon. The winner of the game (Cameroon) now will compete in the final game against Togo to see who will make it to World Cup 2010 in South Africa. My Academic Director, Christiane, advised the class that it could be dangerous, but so many of us wanted to go that the program decided to buy a bunch of tickets. Our tickets, which are mid-expensive price were 5,000 CFA which equals 10 dolla. i invited Yannick to come with me (and when u invite people anywhere here, u are expected to pay..which is fine with me!) and Ashley invited Leonce. Leonce speaks english pretty well and LOVES soccer. Anway, there was pretty heavy security at the game (fights were expected to errupt after the game between Gabonese and Cameroonaise depending on the outcome), and I'm talking guards with huge guns. My AMERICAN friend velyn, who just happens to be black, was in line behind me, as we were escorted into the stadium by a guard with our tickets, and was pushed to the side by another guard because he didnt believe that she's american and with some of the other students and their guests. we've had many interesting discussions on the topic of race; i'm treated like royalty and have many guys telling me that they love me all the time, while velyn is expected to clean her cameroonian house and is harassed by men. on the other hand, JaCi, a girl here who is of mixed race, is considered white. People love dancing here, and there were beaucoup de personnes au match qui were playing drums and dancing.

I took djembe drum lessons last Friday and also a dance class with some other students. En plus, I was at an outdoors bar on Saturday night with Yannick, Leila, her friend, my best friend here (Celine) and Ashley, and Celines sisters, and was approached by a fly looking guy who offered me 10,000 CFA for myself. Yannick was pretty much my body guard that night.

Oh, I attend school in Bastos, which is supposedly the richest part of Yaounde. It's also the neighborhood of President Biya. Its about a 20 min walk, which i trek everyday with Celine, Ashley, and JaCi, as we all live in Tsinga. Classes are from 8h to 16h, except on friday, the day is supposed to end early. my french classes are everyday, usually for 4 hours. We were separated into french groups, and I only have 3 others in my french class, which is awesome! Also, there are 4 cameroonian students who attend classes with us. i have 2 big projects due this friday.

On saturday, we depart for Dschang in the west region. I'll be there for 2 weeks, staying with a different family. Apres ca, I'll return to Yannicks house for awhile before leaving again for Ngaoundere in the north. Learning A LOT!

a tout a l'heure