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.)
No comments:
Post a Comment