Swearing-In of new volunteers

In the weeks after my parents left, there was lots of travel. I'm not sure that I really got a chance just to lay down and sleep until this past weekend. I continue to have a great time though. It did take a toll on my reading though (see book report), which isn't so awful.

I went to Mbalmayo for the swearing-in ceremony of the new volunteers the first week of August. I had been there twice for training, and I wanted to be there to show support (and to hang out and get to know them better). I ended up going to Yaoundé a little early to get some other business taken care of (including working on some embassy funding for projects here in Edéa such as a chicken farm and a palm oil plantation). A group of us took a bus down early the morning of the ceremony just in time to have an early morning drink with the "hard-core" crew of new volunteers. One guy, a Quaker no less, was on his third large beer (.6 liters each) by the time we arrived (9:30am). It reminded me of college graduation, and frankly wasn't so far removed from that for many of them.

The ceremony went smoothly with speeches in english, french, and the local laguage of Mbalmayo (all by new volunteers). Afterwards, there was a reception with lots of food, which was a nice bonus for coming down. I took the opportunity to get all the business volunteers together for a presentation to our eldest volunteers, Fran and Ted, who were ending their service early because of family reasons. Fran and Ted had stepped in at the last minute to serve as technical trainers for the entire 9 week training program in Mbalmayo, abandoning their post and house in Baffoussam. Several other volunteers and I got tog?ther to write a?proclamation expressing our gratitude for going above and beyond the call of duty and our sadness at their early departure. They were very emotional as I read it in front of everyone, and then we took our last picture together as a big group. After that, most of the "older" volunteers returned to Yaoundé after some more post cermony drinking. I stuck around the "case de passage", our home in Yaoundé long enough to help a number of the new volunteers do some last minute shopping before getting a ride on one of the chartered buses which took them to their new homes.