Study-Abroad #3: Two Month Update in Cameroon- French Language Immersion

Hello, everyone and welcome back to my blog ! Today is a very special day, as it marks exactly two months since my group landed in Cameroon. Just as I did after our one-month mark, I thought that it would make sense to do the same one month later, except this time around, I have written more about what I have experienced in the past few weeks in French. After writing my thoughts out in French, I decided to also translate them into English, so that all of my friends, family, and loyal subscribers can get a better sense as to what my Cameroonian life is like in one of my native languages, as well as in the main language that is used in my everyday life.

Français : Je voulais écrire tout ce à quoi je pense. Malheureusement je ne peux pas dire beaucoup de choses pour des raisons personnelles, toutefois, ça m’arrive souvent de devoir m’excuser pour toutes les fois que j’ai raté avec mes amis et avec ma famille d’accueil. Ce que j’essaie de préciser c’est que j’oublie des choses facilement, mais ce n’est pas ma faute. C’est juste ma personnalité. J’en ai beaucoup d’amis qui ont besoin de se concentrer et de préciser des choses plusieurs fois avant de les bien faire. C’est exactement la même chose avec mon sens de l’orientation. À ma consternation, ça fait la vie un peu plus compliquer, mais ce n’est pas grave. Même quand je suis chez moi avec mes parents, il faut les demander comment faire quelque chose plusieurs fois et quand je me rappelle de comment le faire, je ne le rate plus.

Comme la plupart d’entre vous le savent déjà, c’est ma troisième fois d’étudier à l’étranger : j’ai étudié en Provence en France pour 6 semaines l’été dernier ou j’ai réalisé mon rêve de rêver en français, en Italie le semestre dernier et maintenant au Cameroun. Ça veut dire que c’est déjà ma troisième fois d’habiter avec des familles d’accueil, donc ce n’est pas ma première fois d’avoir choisi ce parcours au lieu d’habiter dans un appartement. De plus, j’ai dû complètement changé mon style de vie avec chaque nouvelle famille, en particulier ici.

Presque tout que je dois faire chez nous est nouveau. Par exemple, je n’ai jamais dû m’habituer à n’avoir pas de l’eau très souvent, de faire les lessives à main (car on a des machines) et de prendre beaucoup de temps pour préparer des repas. En tout cas, ça ne veut pas dire que je n’ai pas hâte de mieux comprendre la société camerounaise et comment les choses se passent ici. Par contre, je suis venue ici parce que je savais que je devrais changer toutes mes habitudes. J’aime bien relever des défis et de comparer comment j’ai grandi, ce que je fais chez moi et ce qu’on fait dans d’autres sociétés. Depuis que je suis petite, j’ai été toujours obéissante, patiente et gentille avec tout le monde, en particulier avec mes parents que j’aime bien. Je suis calme et je passe beaucoup de mon temps libre à entendre des gens. Cela me rend très heureuse.

Ici au Cameroun, tout le monde est toujours prêt à t’aider et à t’expliquer quoi faire si on ne comprend pas comment faire quelque chose. Un de mes objectifs d’ici est de vivre en paix et de respecter les uns aux autres mutuellement. J’ai décidé d’habiter avec une famille francophone pour que je puisse continuer à utiliser la langue française dans ma vie quotidienne pour apprendre du langage lexical camerounais et des mots qui sont moins utilisés par les jeunes. Moi, je préfère d’aider les uns aux autres et de causer avec tous les membres de ma famille chaque fois que je suis libre. En fait, ça c’est ma partie préférée de la journée.

Malgré toutes ces choses positives, je dois admettre que mon pays d’origine et ma famille me manquent beaucoup. Quand on parle avec des gens de ses expériences et de ses études à l’étranger, on parle souvent du fait que généralement qu’on a plusieurs semaines où on est tellement content d’être dans un nouvel endroit, mais on finira par être triste, confus ou même préoccupé sur ce que l’avenir nous réserve. Concernant qui tu es et avec qui tu vis, il y a aucun doute qu’il y aura des moments où tes proches te manqueront pendant ton séjour à l’étranger.

English : I wanted to write about everything that I am thinking. Unfortunately, I cannot say many things for personal reasons ; however, I often have to apologize for all of the times that I have made a mistake with my friends and with my host family. What I hope to make clear is that I easily forget things, but that is not my fault. It is simply my personality. I have many friends who have to focus and to clarify what they have to do several times before they do them well. That is exactly what also happens with my sense of direction. To my dismay, that makes life a little complicated, but it is not the end of the world. Even when I am at home with my parents, I have to ask them how to do something several times and when I remember how to do it, I no longer make the same mistake.

As most of you already know, it is already my third time studying abroad : last summer I studied in Provence in France for 6 weeks where my dream of dreaming in French became a reality, last semester in Italy, and now in Cameroon. That means that it is already my third time living with host families, so it is not the first time that I decided  to take this path instead of living at an apartment. Moreover, I have had to completely change my lifestyle with every family, especially here.

Almost everything that I have to do at my host family’s place is new. For example, I have never had to get used to not often having water, to having to wash my clothes by hand (since we have machines) and to having to take a long time to prepare meals. In any case, that does not mean that I do not want to better understand Cameroonian society and how everything happens here. On the contrary, I came here because I wanted to have to change all of my habits. I love facing challenges and comparing how I grew up, what I do at home, and what people do in other societies. Ever since I was little, I have always been obedient, patient, and kind with everyone, especially with my parents who I love very much. I am calm and I spend a lot of time listening to people. That makes me very happy.

Here in Cameroon, everyone is always ready to help you and to explain what you should do if you do not understand how to do something. One of my goals during my stay here is to live in peace and to mutually respect everyone. I decided to live with a francophone host family, so that I can continue to use French in my everyday life to learn local Cameroonian language and some of the most common words used by young people. I prefer helping everyone and talking with my family members whenever I am free. In fact, that is my favorite part of the day.

Despite these highlights, I have to admit that I really miss the United States and my family. When you talk to people about their experiences and their studies abroad, you often talk about how you generally have several weeks where you are really happy about being in a different place, but you are eventually sad, confused or even worried about what the future holds. Depending on who you are and with whom you grow, there is no doubt that you will miss at least one loved one at some point during your time abroad.

By writing this post, my hope is not to make people worry about me, or to make them think that I am not doing well, but rather to be as honest and transparent as I can possibly be. It is inevitable that you will experience many cultural misunderstandings and language barriers if you choose to study in a society that varies so much from your own, but as many people say, that can only make you stronger. What I have most learned throughout my stay here so far is that you should make a sincere effort to understand what is being said to you, meanwhile, you also have to set boundaries and explain why your behavior is the way it is (i.e. factors influenced by your upbringing and your cultural background(s) ) in order to avoid verbal conflict as much as possible. Asking questions is seen as culturally appropriate here, but you are also expected to be quick and diligent in most of what you do, so for people like me who are forgetful, it can be very hard to come to terms with that.

Not everything in life will go as planned, nor will everything be simple to do and follow, but it is possible to share your feelings with others through writing. That is when you know that you are not alone! Today marks exactly 2 months since being in this country and 3 months before going back home, so I am almost at the halfway point to seeing my sister, my grandmother, and my parents after being away for 5-8 months, which is one step closer to reuniting with them. I hope that you all have a wonderful day !

(Standing outside of my host brother's brother's balcony at night).

(My heart almost melted when I got to see a baby chimpanzee at the zoo!)

(A shawarma wrap that my host brother, Jude, and I ate at "Chips and Chicken".)

(Looking at out into the city: Yaoundé).

(The best raspberry and dark chocolate ice cream I have had so far in Cameroon at "Le Barron" found in a neighborhood called Bastos.)

Study-Abroad #3: Week 7 Update in Cameroon- French Language Immersion

Hello, everyone! Given how much you all liked my first post about how my semester abroad in Cameroon is going, I wanted to post another update about what the past three weeks have been like. As I am sure you can imagine, these past few weeks have been even busier than before, but have also been rewarding in more ways than I could have ever imagined.

(Pictured: Naji, Meaghan, and I on International Women's Day)

Since I last updated you, I have started and almost finished an intensive 24-hour anthropology course at l’Université d’Afrique Centrale with other francophone African students, Middlebury Students, and three of my Dickinson classmates. Due to the large size of Yaoundé, we all live on the opposite side of the city of where the university is located, so this past week was a huge awakening after having had the luxury of waking up at 7 am up until then. This past Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, I had to wake up at 5:45 am before everyone else was awake in my household. Twice this week, I had to take a taxi at 6:25 am, be driven by our program’s driver at 7 am, arrive early to campus, and then take a 4-hour long class from 8 am-noon with a very short 15-minute break in between. On our way back, we had to take two taxis to get to our Dickinson Center. Needless to say, it was mentally and physically exhausting.

Though it is typical for most professors to arrive late to class due to traffic jams and having a different conceptualization of time, having over three hours of class can still be brutal. No matter how interesting a course is, I find it hard to focus on the material for that amount of time. I decided to take this course, so that I could take a course in one of my many disciplines, anthropology, in a third-year undergraduate course taught in French. Despite the length of the course, I understand the material well, as I have 4 anthropology courses under my belt and am fluent in the language. That being said, we just finished the 12-hour theoretical part of the course and have this week off to work on our 4-hour-long presentations that count as the only grade for this course. My friends and I decided to focus on the impacts of colonization on Cameroonian society, primarily focusing on the educational system, language, and how women’s roles have changed since Cameroon’s colonial regimes. Unfortunately, there are only three university students in the course, so it has not been easy making local friends; however, all three of them are very kind and are easily approachable.

Aside from this course, most of our group has also taken dance lessons for over a month with two professional dance instructors in the center of town. One of them has won many international prizes as the best dancer within the francophone diaspora! I will admit that I was intimidated by him at first, but am starting to get used to his method of teaching and how he interacts with us. Though we are by no means professional dancers, I have enjoyed taking these lessons twice a week. We have been working on two separate traditional Cameroonian dances, on our flexibility, and especially on our agility. What makes African dancing so much fun and such a good work out is the fact that you have to use all parts of your body to make certain movements: everything from your head to your toes. My hands and arms are very weak, so I have been working on strengthening those areas. At the end of our semester, we will have a dance performance in which all of our host families and our program staff will come to watch us dance. Hopefully I will be more confident in the dances’ transitions and movements by the end of June!

Since we have stayed in Yaoundé for over a month, that has allowed me to spend quality time with my host mom, my two host sisters, and my host brother. Yesterday morning, I helped the la menagère (the cleaning lady) and my host sister prepare an elaborate meal for over three hours. What I have noticed is that meals take a much longer time to make here, not just because of their long preparation, but also since most families make everything by hand. For example, instead of cutting onions on a cutting board, they do so in thin air and are experts at being efficient and quick when doing meal preparations outside.

As is the case in most patriarchal societies, mainly women cook and do the household chores here. Unlike most mothers that I have met, women here are tough-skinned and have very agile and strong hands and arms, as they have use them for most tasks that they perform throughout the day. What most Americans would consider normal is considered a luxury here, so we do not wash our clothes using a washing and a drying machine at home. This task is also done by hand and is very time-consuming if you do not know how to do it well. You first have to fill up a large bucket with water, put in your laundry detergent, and then let your clothes soak for several hours, or even a day, depending on how much time you have to wash your clothes. Once they have been submerged well in water, you rinse them out, soap them all over, rinse them out again, and then place them in another bucket. The amount of times that you do these steps depends on how much soap needs to be rinsed out and how clean you want your clothes to be. Once you are done with that, you place each clothing item on a clothing rack and let your clothes dry out for about a day and voilà- elles sont prêtes!

The food here has exceeded my expectations. As a foodie, I had never tried Cameroonian food before coming here. Now that I have been here for almost two months, I can assure you that this cuisine is rich and diverse depending on the city, or region in which you are. Some typical dishes that I have tried and enjoyed so far are le Ndolé, le coq, les haricots, le poulet, les plantains frits, and pepper sauce. Most meat dishes at restaurants are served with rice and come with a green sauce a spicy hot red sauce, which is perfect to add some spice and flavor to any meal. During the duration of my stay, I hope to continue helping la menagère prepare dishes, so that I can attempt to replicate them when I come home later this summer. My favorite drinks so far have been l’Orangina, le jus de papaille and Top. I will admit that I miss eating at least one meal with meat and other ethnic cuisines. Luckily, I only have a few more months left before I can make some Colombian arepas and posta negra!

Perhaps the most challenging part of my stay here has not been any of the tasks that I have mentioned above. In fact, I am starting to get used to washing my clothes by hand and having to wake up early. My neighborhood and most of Yaoundé suffers from good water quality, which means that you have to buy and use bottled water to brush your teeth and drink. This leads to water being “cut” almost every day. We have already gone five days without water before, which makes it very difficult to take regular and long showers, as you have to be considerate about those around you who have to also shower. This led to my decision to cut my hair and to what I would call a haircut disaster.

When I went to the hair salon last Monday, all I asked for was for my longer hair and my shorter hairs in the front to be evened out. Instead, the hairdresser thought that it was a good idea to have my hair washed, dried, and then cut with what looked like a razor. My problem was not that he used a razor, but rather that he thought that he could cut off much more than I had asked for and that he cut it while it was dry. I am sure that other people who have curly hair know how uneven your hair can be cut if it is not cut when it is still soaked and looks straight. Bref, it is so hot here that I wear my hair up either way, so I hope that is grows out several inches before I leave on June 22^nd. I also think that my hair was not cut to my liking because the texture of women’s hair is very different to that of my own, so I am not sure how many blanches clients they get at that salon.

The most memorable day of my time here was on International Women’s Day, which is celebrated around the world on March 8^th. Due to having class really early then, my three friends and I were not able to participate in the big march in which thousands of men and women come together in solidarity to stand up for women’s rights and to celebrate women for what they do for their families and society. What makes this day so special here is that most people who can afford to do so go to the market, buy the annual women’s day fabric, go to a couturier, and have a dress, shirts and pants, a romper, or whatever they would like be tailored to their liking. This year’s fabrics were pink and orange.

All 10 of us got Women’s Day outfits and wore them to class. After spending some time at a restaurant for lunch, we all took pictures in our outfits. I ended the day by going to a snack (similar to a bar) with two of my host siblings. We ordered drinks and ate street meat kebabs, which were tender and juicy. Once we were done eating, we got up and started dancing to the selection of African hits that the DJ played. Most of the clients were women with their partners, or with their friends who were enjoying what could possibly be the only day of the year in which it is acceptable for them to stay up until 5 in the morning dancing and singing with their friends instead of being responsible for their households. It was a joy seeing everyone in their outfits and having a good time! I will insert a few pictures below of some of the highlights of these past three weeks.

Most of our group also attended l’Institut Français’ annual women’s battle in which some of the best young Cameroonian dancers are invited to compete against each other. It was interesting to see how international dancing is here, as most Cameroonians are well-informed about local, regional, continental, and international dances and music. Their dance combinations consisted of everything from hip hop to traditional dance moves. Our program director, Monsieur Teku, also invited us to our first soccer match, which was a fun way to bring our group together on a Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, our Dickinson group has gotten along better than any of us could have hoped for. As my friend Meaghan told us, we are no longer strangers, or simply friends. We are now a family who gets to share this once-in-a-lifetime journey by living in a country rich in history, music, food, and culture. I can see why so many people tell you that Cameroon is a mini version of Africa, as its people are warm and friendly and know how to live life to the fullest, even if they live simply and humbly. I am looking forward to the weeks to come!

(A memorable group meal: pasta with chicken and green sauce with a simple homemade sauce made with olive oil, garlic, and chopped tomatoes)

(With my host brother, Jude, celebrating Julien's 21st birthday at a woman's dance battle)

(One of the women's dance teams that participated in the women's dance battle)

(2/3 judges dancing)

(The dance battle's best woman dancer and the dancer who got 2nd place!)

 (Our group's first soccer match between Yaoundé and a team from the western region)

(Dickinson College Spring Semester 2018 students: (back): Naji, Karin, Amanda, Selena; (front): me, Janaiya, Shayna, Nathalie, Meaghan, and Julien)

(With my neighbor, Shayna, wearing our Women's Day dresses)


 (With my host siblings, Synthia and Jude, at a snack in the evening on International Women's Day)