Well, here I am in Yaounde. I have made it! I am now an officially sworn-in Peace Corps Volunteer. Up until this point, I was what's referred to as a "Peace Corps Trainee" or PCT. And thus continues the adventure...

But, let me back up a little and talk about the battle of the parties this week. There were three of us living in very close proximity in the quartier of Yom: Joe, Michelle and myself. All of our families know each other, but for whatever reason are not great friends (Michelle told me that her mom said my family was boring). Anyway, Tuesday night, Joe's family had their party. It was a nice, small family gathering with basically just the immediate members of our three families. We ate lots of greasy food that was mostly cold (thanks to my family being a half-hour late and Michelle's being an hour late and waiting for everyone to begin eating), but it was the fried cake that was the best- similar to doughnut holes.

The second party was at my house- Wednesday night. My father had told me the week before that he wanted to have a big party and invite the "grande famille". This immediately meant around 50 people, and I was encouraged to invite many of my Peace Corps friends. We started a bit late as well, but my Papa went all out and hired a DJ to play music all night long (with a microphone) and my other mom's sister came to help out with the cooking during the day. When it was in full swing, there were seven Americans and about 50 or so Cameroonians. My aunt and uncle came from Baffoussam and of course grandma and grandpa came (Mom's mom and Dad's dad). We had taken all of the big furniture out of the living/dining room and put it outside and had lined the room with smaller chairs and benches. We all assembled inside and sat down facing the large table in the middle with tons of food on it. My Papa then made a speech about how happy he was that I was with them, how proud he was of me for getting better in French and that the family was going to miss me when I was gone. It was really very nice. My Papa then asked me to get up in front of everyone and give a speech. So, totally unprepared, I gave about a two minute speech in French, a task that was completely unthinkable just 11 weeks ago. I said that I felt that I had two families now, one in the US and one here in Cameroon. I thanked my family for taking care of me and for treating me as one of their own children. Everyone seemed to enjoy my speech and clapped loudly. After that, Grandpa decided he would make a speech. He stood up with his friend, who is a village notable (a big deal in the quartier) and said in Guamala, the Bandjoun patois, that he was very proud to have me as part of his family. He also gave me some words of wisdom: "Try to avoid the obstacles in life that get in the way of achieving your goals, but if its not possible, then attack and overcome the obstacles." Of course, I had to wait until he had finished and his friend translated what he had said into french for me. I was very touched and thanked him for his words. Then we had the prayer. A family friend who I had not met was asked to give the prayer before eating. I really believe the woman should've been a priest because she not only prayed, but gave a whole ten minute sermon with all of us waiting to eat. The worst part was that it was in patois, so I didn't understand it, and the funny part was that towards the end even members of the family started talking during the prayer to try to get her to end it. My fellow Americans and I just kept looking at each other and laughing.

Dinner was good and then it was on to dancing. We cleared the table and food and the DJ broke out the dance toons. Papa asked all the Americans to get up first and each choose someone to do the first dance. Looking around the room, I made the obvious best choice, Grandma. And the family loved it! My friend, Marissa, choose Grandpa, Michelle took Dad and Jim took Mom. After that it was my parents' turn to choose someone. Mom choose me and Dad chose Michelle. I think my other mom chose Joe. We danced well into the evening, taking only a break to take some of the Americans back to their families who lived too far to walk. The party finally ended around 11:30pm. And when you're used to going to bed at 9:30, that's late.

Unfortunately, somewhere between the dancing and food and alcohol, I got really sick (probably food poisoning). I woke up at 2am and let me just tell you, its not pretty when it comes out both ends. As a result, Thursday was not a fun day. I came home for lunch and instead of eating, just took a nap and drank the gatorade that the doctor had given me to rehydrate (the Peace Corps doctor was in town).

Thursday night was Michelle's turn at a party. Michelle was convinced that her family spent the whole day scrambling to improve the size and quality of their party following my family's party the night before. The big coup they did score was David, the training director, who came to their party. My parents had apparently asked him to ours and he was not able to come. They also had a professional photographer, but no DJ. I ate very little, as I had all day.

Friday morning I felt good again. It was a good thing, since it was the day of our swearing-in ceremony. All of the business folks had gotten together and agreed on a fabric (tissue) for our outfits for the day. Its a really pretty light blue and white batik-esque print. The men mostly had short sleeve shirts made (Ted had a tie made out of it) and the women had different styles and combinations of blouses, dresses, two pieces, and headdresses made out of it. All of the other trainees dressed up in either something they brought with them or a traditional outfit if that had had one made.

The ceremony itself was really well done, and both the US Ambassador to Cameroon and the Cameroon Secretary of Education came to be a part of it. My new buddy, the Chef de Batie was there as well (the traditional chief who had hosted us weeks before). We were on every radio station and the national TV station. There were three of our group who made speeches too. Khalil, an African-American from Norfolk, came in country with zero French and made a speech in French. Mike who is going to be a Math teacher gave a speech in Pidgin and Heather who is going to teach English in the Muslim North gave a speech in Fulfulde, the local language there. I was thoroughly impressed by all of them.

Afterwords, there were two receptions. One for the families and one for the dignitaries. I was able to meet and have a really nice chat with the Ambassador and his wife (who is most obviously from Kentucky), and told him that I would likely be taking the foreign service exam in April- which he encouraged. I also had a brief talk with the Chef de Batie and he gave me his email address so I could send him copies of the photos we had taken together- how awesome is that??? I have the email address of a African tribal chief!!!

I made it back to finish packing before going out to the bar for one last goodbye to all of my new friends. Saturday morning, the Peace Corps truck picked me up at my house at 7am. We put all of my possessions inside and drove off to meet the bus that took us here to Yaounde.

Tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to do some exploring of Yaounde before helping Carolyn to her post in Akonolinga...