Settling in

 After a few weeks in Cameroon, things are starting to settle.  The first week or two was a huge physical shock with the heat, noise and intensity.  But we are starting to adjust and feel a little more at home here now. 

I have started teaching, and it is going pretty well so far.  My classes are even bigger than they were in Tanzania (over 100 students) so it is a challenge to create a lesson plan that works and keeps everyone engaged.  From my initial classes and exercises, I can already see that they have a much higher level of writing and reading than speaking and hearing.  (There is a culture of lectures and exams, but not much interaction).  I'm really hoping to work on that, but it is going to be quite a challenge with 100 students in a class! 

I also started my data science classes.  These are much smaller, which I appreciate, but there I have a new challenge: I teach in French! So this immersion thing is really happening!

Christophe is working more in admin and has been spending the first couple weeks connecting with everyone and getting priorities straight.  It has been very helpful for me that he has learned everyone's name already!  

We have also made a good friend here already.  The 1 year old son of the house manager was quite suspicious of us at the beginning, but has quickly discovered that white people make good toys.  Every time we enter or leave the building, there is a required play pause.  Christophe spent so long on this walking lesson that he was getting tired of walking!

Our biggest and scariest adventure so far was that we had a major fire just across the street from us.  We were so relieved that it didn't spread.  We got lucky that it was the night with the least wind so far.  I was thinking of all the people who are struggling in California right now and thinking how did we get ourselves into the same situation just after arriving.  Fortunately, it eventually died out on its own (the firemen did arrive, but they took almost an hour to get here and just ended up standing there watching it).  The next day we walked over to this area and realized that there was a block of homes burned completely to the ground.  The whole experience made me appreciate being from a country with public services.  In the US or Europe we expect someone to come deal with problems like this.  I'm not saying our services are perfect, but there is government support that we expect and rely on.  Here unfortunately it seems that people are on their own.  I can only hope that the residents from those homes weren't hurt and have the resources and support to come back from this devastation.

We still have plenty more settling in and adapting to do, but we have found our own personal "banana lady" so I think we are well on our way to becoming Cameroonians.