Send me mail!

Start sending me letters!!  Everyone is starting to get letters, which is always exciting.  It feels a lot like summer camp because they pass out the letters to everyone.  If you send more than one letter, write what number the letter is in case it gets lost.  I'd love to have some pictures or cards to hang up on my wall!!

Here is my address:
Shannon Mentock
Corps de la Paix
BP 215
Yaounde, Cameroon
AFRICA

You can send packages to that address too if you'd like.  We have to pay a tax on packages that I think is by weight, so keep that in mind when deciding what to send.  I've been told it is best to write the addresses in red because of superstitions and to not send anything too valuable or to seperate things into multiple boxes because it might not make it.

ALSO, if you want me to write you letters email me or leave a comment with your address.  I have envelopes and free time and I know how to use it.

Thanks!!

Week two of training

Last night my host mother made me eat two bananas. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it was for me. I never, ever eat bananas at home or really even touch them because I’ve always thought they were really, really gross. I literally have no memory of eating any bananas at home that weren’t in a smoothie or banana bread. So far I’ve been able to avoid them, but (1) there’s a bunch of foods here I really would rather avoid than bananas, (2) it was the second time she had tried to get me to eat them, and (3) I feel really guilty because I can definitely tell that they make an effort to offer me special foods. My host mother already thinks I don’t eat because I can’t down an entire quart of rice in one sitting, so I had to give in and eat the banana. To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The texture is different, but the taste isn’t (still gross). I could see why they’d be good frozen and covered with chocolate, but I’m not going to be running out to the nearest grocery store to pick some up (which I couldn’t do anyway because they don’t exist here).


It was also the first time the whole family had sat outside at night since I’ve moved in, so it was the first time I really got to see the stars and how awesome they look out here. The power was out, so literally the only light pollution we had was from our kerosene lamp. Wish I could have taken a picture, but you know.

Yaounde and the environs

We only spent a short time in Yaounde (Cameroon’s capital) getting our ID cards and being introduced to PC Cameroon’s headquarters, but I shot a video out of the bus window to help everyone out there understand what it’s like. This is just a sample and there are larger buildings in town, but for the most part this is what I saw:

This part of Cameroon is so green and vegetated. There are a lot of hills too. Here is an attempt to show off the landscape right outside of Yaounde:

Seven days, seven beds

Thankfully, I finally have both power and internet at the same time so that I can finally post. I just moved into the homestay where I will be for the first 5 weeks of training in a tiny village (aka about 15 houses), but when I first arrived there was no power. Power is pretty erratic here and cuts on and off at any time. Besides the internet, the greatest gift power gives us is crazy African music videos. We just watched a whole bunch of them while I ate dinner and I hope this becomes America’s newest import.


Where I slept
Tuesday: My own bed in Durham, NC
Wednesday: Holiday Inn at Arch St. in Philadelphia, PA
Thursday: American Airlines
Friday: Novatel Hotel in Brussels
Saturday: Jet Hotel in Douala, Cameroon
Sunday: Hotel Jouvence 2000 (cool name?) in Yaounde, Cameroon
Monday: My mosquito-netted haven in Nyamsong, Cameroon

It was a crazy journey to get here to our training site. We all met in Philadelphia for a day to meet and orient before we left for Cameroon out of NYC. Right before we began boarding at JFK (after about 7 hours of waiting… thanks Peace Corps for making sure we got there with enough time to spare) there was a freak thunderstorm that came out of nowhere. It rained really hard for a while, so our flight was delayed. Then it was delayed a little more because the line for planes waiting to take off got so long. Eventually we got to Brussels, but the gate agents wouldn’t let us try to make our connecting flight to Cameroon even though boarding wasn’t supposed to start for 5 minutes. PC paid for us to spend the night in Brussels, although we weren’t allowed to leave the hotel so don’t ask me how Brussels is because I don’t know. We had to get a new flight the next day, but it flew into Douala instead of Yaounde so we ended up about 2 days or so behind on orientation and had to jam it all in to get to our homestays Monday night. It has been rough being so nomadic and it feels like I’ve been gone months already instead of barely a week.

The group in Douala

pre-Cameroon Activities

**

                  

Peace Corps in Cameroon

CAMEROON.PEACECORPS.GOV


History of the Peace Corps in Cameroon
The Peace Corps entered Cameroon in 1962 with 20 Volunteers who came as math/science teachers. Peace Corps Cameroon’s program grew and diversified to include inland fisheries, credit union/cooperatives education, English teaching, community forestry, health, and community development. Since then, approximately 4,000 Volunteers have served in Cameroon. Currently, there are four active projects in Cameroon: education, Community health, agroforestry, and small enterprise development. The common themes that run through all Peace Corps Cameroon projects are impact, focus, counterpart involvement, Volunteer competence, and organizational professionalism. Through collaboration and good teamwork, the Peace Corps has made a difference in many aspects of life in Cameroon, one community at a time.

Community Health Project
Having gone through numerous revisions and updates over the past 20 years to effectively meet Cameroon's continuously evolving needs, the community health project, returns in 2006 as a combined community health and community development project. As such, it supports the priorities of the Ministries of Public Health and MINADER, collaborating with health care and community development professionals, to empower communities to improve their quality of life by assessing their needs and resources and undertaking their own projects to strengthen local health and community conditions. Additionally, the project is designed to assist the government of Cameroon to extend preventive health care, self reliance, and health promotion to the community level.

Dear Family and Friends

This past May, I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degrees in Nutrition and French. For my next step in life, I am going to put what I've learned in school to use as a Public Health Coordinator in Cameroon with the Peace Corps. Cameroon is a very bountiful country in Western Africa, where one of the official languages is French but a number of local languages are also spoken.

My adventure lasts 27 months from September 15, 2010 to December 2012. The first three months in Cameroon I will receive language and skills training to help me do my job. During this time, I will live with a host family who will help me adjust to the culture and learn a new daily routine. After the training period is over, I will be placed somewhere in Cameroon and will start my assignment for the next two years, whatever that shall be. Health volunteers can work in a wide range of areas and capacities, such as in health clinics or with local NGOs. Peace Corps positions are kept very open initially so that volunteers can have freedom to pursue their own small projects.

Although I do not know for sure how accessible internet will be in Cameroon, I will try to update my blog as often as possible. One of the main goals of the Peace Corps is to educate other Americans about foreign cultures, so I hope my blog will help you better understand another part of the world.

Lots of love,
Shannon