December 17, 2008

Dear all,
I realize I have not posted for so long, and if there’s one thing I’ve heard over and over for missionaries and those serving overseas, it’s that communication with loved ones back home is so vital. You must keep up correspondence with those at home, and not disappear off the face of the planet. However this becomes more and more difficult as life becomes more real here.
That being said, these past two weeks have been very busy! Swearing in was December 4th in Pitoa. Then moving to our posts the day after. I have spent the past few weeks here and there, trying to build a house from nothing, sleeping on various floors each night, as the construction continues on my house. It is about finished now, but not quite. Another round of paint and last touches on the inner wall, will make it a little more livable. And of course getting some furniture. Because I am opening a post, I have a brand new house, yet it is entirely empty of furniture, of pots and pans, of sheets, everything. It has been fun slowly gathering things, deciding what is absolutely crucial, what will come later. While I’m definitely used to roughing it and sleeping on the floor from time to time, camping and such, 7 days of sleeping on concrete floors in Mafa Kilda, Sanguere Paul (where Jessie is posted) and Garoua is starting to do a number on my neck and back, haha, which have been perpetually sore for the past days. I did finally get a cotton mattress, which helps a little. The bed may or may not come next week if I go back to the big Ngong market and find the guy I bargained with last week for a bed! It has been fun though, sometimes a joy, to hunt out every little thing—a ladle, two plates, silverware, cooking pots, commissioning carpenters to build furniture (and being able to design it yourself, as modest as it may be!), buying fabric to sew curtains, a canerie to hold water. This joy and fun is equally balanced by frustrating from time to time, a desire to just have everything done, and be comfortable in a home that is mine. To just have everything in place. It is hard to focus on meeting the community, learning things, going to meetings, studying language and agroforestry when you don’t have a homebase. However, it will come, and all that is necessary is patience, which I am happy to exercise.

While it is hard to feel ready to work when the house and life is so transitional, I have been able to explore my town and surrounding villages, attend meetings and introduce myself and get my face out there. That is certainly what this stage is about, and I do not plan on starting any actual projects with groups until at least February or March. This is highly recommended and I can’t even imagine jumping in to try to start something before you truly know the community, know needs and desires of the community, know who is good to work with, who is trustworthy and passionate about work, and have gained the trust of the community. More and more, since I have arrived in Mafa Kilda I am struck by how short 2 years is. (Especially setting up a house from nothing) It’s so little time, so little time. Only two growing seasons, you get to know the community, it becomes home, you start doing real work, and then 2 years is up.

I have been reading some masters thesis from a French school that has done research in Mafa Kilda, and thinking about how they were only here for 3 months and are attempting to explain the agriculture system of the North of Cameroon, and describing the social structure of the village, how can you possibly understand such things after only 3 months. It makes me think a little differently about such field research for graduate school too. Two years is too short itself.

But I apologize for not being up on correspondence during these past few weeks. And with that transistion, I realize I missed the window even for Christmas cards. It doesn’t help that it still feels like summer, and not at all like Christmas, and won’t feel like Christmas when it actually arrives! But I know I have also missed some birthdays of some very dear friends, and I was hoping to stay up on writing. Just didn’t happen with the moving. Aggh! But Cat, Natalia, Diana, happy birthday! I love you. Also have been very frustrated with the fact that there is no real reso for cell phones at my village, and I haven’t talked to my family for 2 weeks. It’s too long! But I love you all, and am still doing well, and will do better at the correspondence once settling in and routine arrives!