To You It's Thanksgiving but to Me....It's Just Thursday

Thanksgiving is upon us, even here in Cameroon. When I sit down and think about it, I imagine that most Americans spend major holidays with their family. Everyone gathers at a relatives house to share a meal. Togetherness and eating, they go hand and hand. There's a lot of build up to a day like Thanksgiving. There are decorations of turkeys, pilgrim hats, and indian headresses. Grocery stores start to stock 25lbs turkeys and cool whip goes on sale. You have to figure out when and where dinner will be, although most have traditions so the when and where may not change often. You get time off of work or school.

Side note: As a Peace Corps Volunteer, we dont' get any U.S. holiday off, just the Cameroonian ones. Thus, tomorrow really is just Thursday to me. Christmas and New Years are the same of course, so we get those off. However, PC admin in Yaounde get both, U.S. and Cameroonian holidays off and paid for. Someone tell me how that works.

While America gets ready for Thanksgiving, Cameroon is getting ready for the Fete de Mouton. This is celebrated 30 days after the Fete de Ramadan. So I have Friday off of work along with the rest of the country. There will be a lot people marching, wearing fancy new clothes, eating sheep or goats, and having a good time in general. The downside is, this means parties, and with a party you have to follow party protocol. The horror of which cannot be expressed in words completely. Nothing starts on time, you wait forever for all the guests to show, but the host is expected to have everything prepared at the announced time, then when people do show up, you can't eat right away, it's a whole ordeal that is so completely different from an American party it takes a long time to understand, even then you can never appreciate it. Hopefully you make the most of it, have a good time, and go home.

Ramblings:

I don't know who made the first NFL schedule where there was football on Thanksgiving, but God bless that man, otherwise who knows what type of horrible things we would be forced to watch.

I think Thanksgiving dinner would be best served with (Barberton) fried chicken. Turkey....to me, is overrated.

That's all, have a great holiday!!!

Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Buddy and the Spider

As many of you know, I have a dog here in Cameroon (Buddy Reperton is his name). I've had him since he was a pup and really he still is, I don't even think he's a year old yet, but he should be close to that. Recently, he has gone through some problems. Carol and I noticed that he lost a lot of the fur on his hind leg, so we took some photos and showed them to the vets here. They came over to my house, yep vets do house calls here, and they both agreed that it was a parasite and that the treatment was 3 days worth of shots. I'm pretty sure they gave him amoxyciline along with something else but I forget the name. That worked out well, his fur is growing back and his skin isn't flaky.

Unfortunatly, hours after the third and final shot he got bitten by a spider. What kind of spider? I have no idea what to call it, but they are usually about a little smaller than the size of my palm and really flat. I've seen these on walls everywhere since I've been in country and really have never had a problem with one other than it creeping me out. They have uncanny speed and are hard to kill. What had happened was Buddy and Honey were chasing each other around and he ran towards the wall and that's when I saw the spider run up the wall but I didn't think anything of it. With in seconds he started getting bumps on his face and all over, after a few minutes his face had swollen up and his body covered in bumps. So I called the vet, he came back to my house and gave him another shot and after a few hours his face was back to normal. It took about a day and a half for him to be completely bump free. (Spider bite pictures below)

Now, today another problem arises, he has some other spots where the fur is gone. The vet told me to put some Ektocip (flea and tick treatment) on a rag and wipe the spots on his legs. After I did that, he felt the need to clean his legs off and ingested some of the flea killer. I found where he had thrown up 2 times out back and he wouldn't stop salivating. So I was worried and called the vet and what's his answer to this problem? Another shot!!! He didn't like getting that one.

I'm not sure if all these shots they give him are totally necessary. One time they gave him some shots and he got sore that night from it and I wasn't sure what was wrong with him. I called the vet to ask what was going on because he wouldn't eat, he wouldn't move, if I picked him up he'd cry. Then he came over and said he was stressed because of the shots and then proceeded to give him another....what??? lol. After, I just decided it was like when a person gets a tetnus shot and is sore for a few days. They are a bit shot happy with dogs in Cameroon. I hope that we can go the rest of the time here without having another shot until March when his rabies vaccination is due. I've heard that people gossip about me and the dog. Some think I brought it from America, some think I paid 5,000 or 8,000fcfa for him...which is actually lower than what I actually paid after the theft fiasco earlier this year. My landlord thinks I'm insane because I sent money to Yaounde and had 5 bags of dog food sent to my house. Having a dog here really attracts a lot of attention, especially if you treat it properly, you know the normal things like feeding it, bathing it, vaccinating it, etc... My neighbor asked me if I was a veteranarian because Buddy looked so healthy.

Work wise, school is in full swing here now and the library is up and running. The good news about the library is that this year I have student who I can trust and another teacher who have been running the library when I'm not there. So that is becoming sustainable with out me, although no one has an idea of how to put books back or they are just lazy. I have to give the second sequence test next week. Pretty soon it will be Christmas break and the school year is half over.

The end of my service will soon be at an end, then it will be off into the real world where I'll have to make a living. I am looking forward to something new again. More importantly, I'm looking forward to having what I left behind, friends and family, at a more comforting distance than across an ocean.

For Grandma

I would like to take a moment to remember my grandmother, Billie R. Buccigrossi. She passed away October 14, 2009. I know that she is happy with the life she was given. She lived happily with my grandfather, Frank, and her children, grand children, and great grand children. She lived a good life and always wanted the best for everyone. She loves her family unconditionally and put their health and happiness first.

I have a lot of good memories with my grandma, she'd always make the best apple crisp and no-bake cookies (and not just for anyone...sorry Val, lol), she drove on so many of my class field trips in school. During summer vacations, she'd have to deal with me and Samantha and all the trouble we'd get into, but she was never mad for long (even if we did throw rocks at cars or spray strangers with the water hose and run). She'd give us a dollar to spend at Ritzman's pharmacy, looking back it seems like that dollar bought us a months worth of candy. I think I'll always remember her as my redheaded grandma who we loved to visit.

I can't help but feel that she's gone too soon, too suddenly, and with that the world seems emptier. She'll be missed and will remain in our thoughts everyday. We love you grandma!

The Streets Don't Change, but Maybe the Name

A long time has passed since I've written a post, almost 4 months. For the first month of this break I was back in the first world. I had a good time there, I didn't have a big culture shock or readjustment trouble. In fact, I fit right back in like I never left. I had built up America so much in my year away that when I finally got there I remembered, "oh ya, this is the way I lived before." then I simply got on with my vacation and had a many good times. Then I came back to Cameroon and it wasn't too difficult to readjust here either.

I think it would be best to just call the other months I didn't post "the mysterious summer of 09'". I say that because, truly, it was an uneventful period of time and I would like you to think something important was accompolished. Now, I have one week before school starts back up. I'll be teaching some classes at the high school and then some others at the school that trains future primary school teachers (L'eniege in French, there's no easy word that translates directly to English...or I'm just not aware of it).

I'm looking forward to starting back to work. I think the Eniege is going to be a better place to work (even though it still puts on an air of a one way street admin). I'll still have to put up with the kids this year too, but I feel better equipped to handle them. I'll be working this week to prepare for the school year. Preparing is a priority this year, let's hope it stays that way.

The dog is doing well, although he misses his friend Honey. He's grown a lot, I don't think he's full grown yet, but pretty close. I think he weighs somewhere between 35 to 40lbs, could be more though. He was so excited to see me after a month that he couldn't help but pee on my leg a little when I got back.

I know that this isn't the most informative or well written post, but it was just hard to figure out where to start. I shouldn't have taken such a long hiatus. With 9 months left to go, I don't think I'll be taking too much time off the blog work. Also, if there is anyone with thoughts to come to Cameroon and hang out with me, I'd recommend getting in contact with me asap. However, I'll understand if you had thoughts about coming and then didn't act on them, this is not the ideal vaca spot.

All the best!