Saturday - regional meeting. In true Cameroonian fashion, though it was only Americans, we got started 2 hours late. Then the meeting was only 15 minutes long. Ha! It was good to see everyone together though, got to see some friends who I haven't seen since Stage! Yay! After the meeting, we got lunch and went separate ways. Wendy bought the best pair of bird feet slipper boots ever. I went to the grocery and got delicious expired cheese and makins for pizza.

Sunday - cold pizza for breakfast, yum, it was pineapple. Met up with the engineers and learned more about the project and discussed more plans for this week and after they leave. I spent 2 hours walking back and forth between my house and the site... good exercise! It was even a little cloudy and cool... high 70s maybe? I met Olivia, the mayor's daughter, who went to school at Johns Hopkins and was the one who learned about the Engineers Without Borders program, prompting her father to write a grant for this water project. She is real nice and speaks like an American, it felt like a little piece of home in my ear. She will go back to JH for her master's. I also met a bunch of the local kids who were watching the whole process. We had some good discussions, by which I mean, I told them everyone's names and they told me theirs and we all laughed a lot. In the evening, I went back with the Engineers to the Mayor's house to meet the Mayor before he went back to Yaounde. He was very genial. I stayed for dinner and watched the first half of the Cote d'Ivoire/Algeria game.

Monday/Today - Woke up this AM at around 6:30, wrapped my towel around me to go bathe, and there was something in it and then a mouse fell down my leg. After it had already run across the room I screamed a little. Silly. Anyway. Anti-mouse efforts will commence. Ate delicious oatmeal, watered my pepiniere, got on the way to town center 45 minutes later than I planned. Ran into M. Etienne in town center, which was great because we are in the habit of missing each other. We talked for 45 minutes, or rather, he talked for 45 minutes. He is an amazing man. He puts all his time and money into making Bamendjou and Cameroon a better place. He prints a free newspaper about events around Cameroon, it was originally a blackboard in Bamendjou, then a paper in Bamendjou, now a paper in a lot of Cameroon. He also started a bilingual primary school with a volunteer who was here in the early 90s. He believes that it is necessary to start teaching french AND english when kids are young, and he believes in having well-educated teachers, not just anyone who wants a paycheck. Unfo, the school lacks money to pay teachers well enough to attract well-educated ones. I guess they also used to provide free school fees for AIDS orphans in town. He said that also he gets some flack in town for working with PC and white people, and his school struggles from that, too. So, good talk, but gosh this place is frustrating for everyone, n'est-ce pas? Tonight when I return to Bamendjou I will meet up with Etienne to see his compound and meet his mothers and children, etc.

Got into a car with 10 other people. It was hot. The road to Bafoussam is bumpy and dusty, have I mentioned? I'v been traveling it a lot lately. I think I block out the discomfort every time so I can do it again and again. I am always surprised by how long and bumpy the route is.

Had meeting with RIDEV, it was good. Things are progressing with Batir l'Avenir. We will get some applications this friday and some next friday, we will read them over and do interviezs the week after that and also make final decisions to announce the students doing the program this year. We will also have more meetings to discuss teh interview format and plan the sessions for this year: where they'll be, what we'll add, subtract, change... C'est beaucoup!

Next friday I am going to teach a high schooler how to use the internet, he has been asking me since I got here for a class in English or Computers. I don't know what level of English he wants to learn, but he knows some very basic computer basics. So I will teach him the internet. What to teach? It is all ingrained in me, I need to figure out how it all looks to someone who has never seen it.

Also have a women's meeting in two weeks to go to, make acquaintances, plan formations, and a meeting du quartier next wednesday.

So. There's all that!

Computer is still kaput, so, bummer. Maybe I will get it fixed next weekend, maybe next month.

Hope all is well with all of you. Much much love!

Oh yeah, and I got mail! Thanks Barby and Dave, and Gail and Grady, and Bristol, and Sean, and Mom and Dad, I've got up to letter 11, which came from SLO. Oh, and I finally got the smaller package of socks. It got to Cameroon Dec 7th.

Love.
Zara