November 21, 2008

November 20, 2008

Bonjour tout le monde –hello everyone ! Hope you are all well. Another week of training is over. Only about 2 more weeks to go here before we are finished and sworn in as volunteers. We have been doing a lot of work here ! We have to do a 30 minute presentation on a cultural topic topic all en francais next week. I believe I am going to do mine on popular travel destinations in Cameroon-which is very beneficial for those who want to come visit while I am here ! So far I have learned that the beaches are great down south, Mt. Cameroon (the highest point in west Africa) is worth the trek, and there are some beautiful waterfalls in eastern Adamawa. There is also a good sized wildlife park called Waza in the Extreme North that if you go during the right season you can see elephants grazing at the water holes and other animals you might normally see on safari in eastern africa. I am very excited about the zoo in Yaounde that has been recently renovated with the help of an international wildlife organization. There you can see various monkeys and gorillas that are in rehabiliation. I really would like to go see mountain gorillas in the rainforest but I guess those places are hard to get to do to lack of infrastucture (which is probably good in the long term sustainabilitiy factor !)

We had quite an interesting day here yesterday. Our french class was on ¨field trip¨to meet with the director of the public pharmecutical center. We had a interesting meeting and then afterwards we learned that the director is also one of the mayors! Interesting.... he invited us to lunch and after touring some more of town he took all of us out at the francais resturant way on the other side of town and bought us like a three course meal complete with mousse for desert!!!! We all thought we had died and gone to heaven. We are trying very hard not to tell the others what they missed. We did not make it back until about 3 hours later. What an experience!

Other than that, not too much going on here.

I hope you all have great Thanksgivings . I miss you all ! Have some stuffing and pumpkin pie for me ! love Anna