Filed under: Cameroon, Holidays, Peace Corps, Post, Travel | Tags: 4th of July, Achu, Achu Soup, Africa, Cameroon, Cameroun, Chop House, Culture, Excursions, Fourth of July, Holidays, Independence Day, Peace Corps, Pidgin English, Post, Travel, US 235th Anniversary, Volunteer, West Africa, World Travel
Landscape of the North West, Cameroon
Happy (belated) 4th from Cameroon! I’m sure everyone back home celebrated at a barbeque, parade or picnic, fireworks lighting up the sky at night and sparklers all around. I didn’t see any fireworks, but I did celebrate nonetheless. I gathered with a few other volunteers and Cameroonian friends in a small town in the hills north of Bamenda and we had chilli, coleslaw and french fries (or is it freedom fries?). A humble celebration, but it was nice to observe it in good company and share the tradition with non-Americans. And it was a beautiful setting in which to be together. This year makes it my fourth year celebrating the 4th of July away from home. But I have to say, I did celebrate a lot this year. After starting Wednesday night at the U.S. Embassy’s formal event, I concluded my stay in Yaoundé by returning to the Embassy Saturday for a good ol’ traditional pool party, complete with grilled hotdogs & cheeseburgers, and live Blues. It was a small slice of the world I’ll be coming back to in August—a stark contrast to say, yesterday, when I had Achu* for lunch in my favorite Chop House**.
*Achu—a traditional food of the North West Region of Cameroon consisting of 1) a paste made of cocoyams & plantains mashed into a bowl-like mound which holds 2) a yellow sauce or soup containing many spices and crushed limestone. You eat it with your index finger and dip the paste into the yellow sauce. Usually served with a cow product such as meat, skin, or towel/tripe (rubbery, inner lining of the stomach) and Njama Njama (fried vegetable greens). It’s an acquired taste but grows on you after a while. Here’s a photo from a great Eating Achu post on Life abroad: As Robert sees it:
Eating Achu: Photo courtesy of http://www.robrasa.com/hisblog
** Chop House—pretty self-explanatory; colloquial term for a small restaurant. Chop means to eat in Pidgin English. I guess you could say it’s Cameroon’s version of a diner. Always includes a jovial “mommy” serving the food and the menu is generally limited to a few specialty dishes.
Filed under: Cameroon, Holidays, Peace Corps, Travel | Tags: 3D Graphics, 4th of July, Africa, Associate Creative Director, Cameroon, Cameroun, Design, Fourth of July, Gabe Albin, Gabriel Albin, Holidays, ICT, Illustration, Independence Day, Information Technology, IT, Peace Corps, Peace Corps 50th Anniversary, Teacher Training, Travel, U.S. 235th Anniversary, US 235th Anniversary, US Ambassador to Cameroon, US Embassy, Volunteer, West Africa, World Travel
Yaounde, Cameroon
Hello! People from Cameroon would say the following after not hearing from me in a long time: “ça fait longtemps!” or “you have been missing!” (in both francophone and anglophone, respectively. And I do deserve it… it’s been a while. I’ve been preparing to come home, but also continuing to work here. So I’ve been quite busy. Sometimes the work feels like a lot, and I even feel discouraged from time to time. But when someone, a Cameroonian or American, thanks me for the volunteer work I’m doing it feels really good.
So I was overwhelmed with surprise and joy when a very important American–the U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon–thanked me personally during his remarks at an event in Yaoundé on Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy hosted a celebration in honor of Independence Day and Peace Corps’ 50th Anniversary. In order for us to be well represented, 50 Peace Corps volunteers including myself were invited to attend. The event was very nice and it was great to see my fellow volunteers from around country as well as various officials from the US and Cameroon. Standing alongside other PCVs felt really good as we were given praise. I’d like to thank Ambassador Jackson for his kind words in support of Peace Corps volunteers. You can check out the Ambassador’s Remarks to read what he said in full.
This trip to Yaoundé will be my second to last, seeing as the next time I’ll be here will be to COS or “Close of Service”–Peace Corps loves it’s acronyms.
Year 3 - Volunteering in Cameroon 