Pre-service Training: Weeks 1-5

Though it feels like it happened in a completely different lifetime, I realized a month after finishing that it would be a good idea to write about my experiences in Pre-Service Training (PST). PST is something every Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) has to successfully complete before officially swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV—I know, the acronyms are rough, but just bear with me). PST is an intensive, 10-week process designed to prepare you for your job as best as it can. With Peace Corps Cameroon, this meant classes 8:00am-4:30pm almost every day filled with language training, technical training, medical overviews, and cross-cultural education. We would often get Sundays off to rest, spend time with our host families, and complete other necessary chores, like attempting to wash our clothes in a bucket for the first time. Saturdays were occasionally half days, or would include a fun activity, like “Cooking Day.” In short, PST was intense and occasionally tiring. Between finding transportation to classes every morning, classes all day, homework, and attempting to integrate with our communities and our host families, finding time to relax was often difficult. However, I realize now how much what I gained in PST has helped me even just within this first month. In terms of language preparedness, my understanding of how to best get work done in a small community, and having a close group of friends from my training stage, PST has really prepared me—at least this far—for my life here.

            Though I could easily group all of PST into a single, short post—which would be representative of what a blur it really was—I’ve decided to detail each week of training in order to benefit future PCTs. One thing I knew nothing about before coming to Cameroon was what PST would be like. Now that I’ve gone through it, I hope that sharing my experiences with future PCTs will help them feel a bit more at ease than I did. I’ve also decided to split up the 10-week experience into two separate posts, for ease of reading. So, without further ado, here goes my attempt at describing weeks 0-5 of PST.

Week 0: September 06-11

All 38 (21 Health and 17 Agriculture Trainees) of our stage (pronounced “stahge”) arrived in Yaoundé on the evening of September 6, where we were greeted by PC staff who helped us quickly move through customs and into baggage claim. Once at baggage claim, we met our two PCV greeters—one current Health volunteer and Agriculture volunteer from the stage above ours—who helped us find our bags and board the bus. After an hour-long ride through busy streets and crowded markets, we arrived at our hotel, where we were fed our first real Cameroonian meal and given our first dosage of malaria prevention medication. Later that night, our greeters also bought those of us who wanted our first Cameroonian beers. Giant bottles of 33, Castel, and Mutzig were passed around as we excitedly listened to our greeters’ stories of their experiences at post. The next morning, we introduced ourselves to PC staff, received official welcomes, and discussed PST expectations. Following a short coffee break, we took turns going through stations for medical interviews, language placement interviews (LPIs), interviews with our Project Managers (PMs), and other administrative things. That afternoon, we received more information about what PST would be like, and had our first safety and security lesson. The next day, half of us went to the police station to apply for our Cameroonian ID cards. Like your average American DMV, there was a long line of people waiting to be helped, and the process took forever. After the first 4 hours when only 3 of our group members had been helped, the greeter who came with us called Peace Corps Headquarters to see if there was anything they could do to speed the process along. Luckily, there was, and I only had to spend 8 hours waiting at the station, instead of a likely 12 or more. When my group had finally finished, we went back to the hotel, and then left with the rest of our stage to have dinner at our Country Director’s House. Over an incredible Cameroonian meal, we got to chat with Peace Corps staff, as well as staff from the US Embassy. The next day consisted of medical overviews, assistance setting up our new Cameroonian phones, more safety and security trainings, and final preparations before leaving to our official training site. That night, we received our first experience of Cameroonian culture—a traditional dance group from the area came to perform for us. They performed dances, skits, and ceremonial songs, before inviting us to join them. We all got up and danced for hours, excited to be taking part in our first cross-cultural experience.

 

The traditional dance group performing a skit about a marriage proposal

The next morning, we received our language placement scores—I tested in at Advanced Low, meaning I was already at a high enough level to serve in a Francophone region. After final remarks from the staff and our greeters, we said our goodbyes—to the staff as well as one another, as this was where the Ag and Health groups slit up—and squeezed onto our buses between overstuffed suitcases. We than began our 4-hour bus ride to our training site, a small town in the West region about an hour outside of the regional capital of Bafoussam. The views from the bus were beautiful, as we passed through forests and over lakes and mountains. We finally arrived in our village in the late afternoon, and from there split up into our separate clusters—groups of 4-6 of us who were assigned to live in different quartiers with one another. My cluster then hopped in a car, which drove us 30 minutes to our new homes. I spent that night and the next day getting to know my new family and friends over glasses of palm wine. My new family consisted of my 73-year-old father, my 32-year-old mother, my mother’s 25-year-old cousin, and my 3 and 8-year-old little sisters. They all helped me move into my new room, which was a spacious little room in a separate building of the compound that I had all to myself. Along with my room, my new little house had electricity, a sitting room, and a bathroom with a bucket-flush toilet. These first two nights, I was so excited to be in my new home that I could barely sleep!

Our view of Yaoundé from the hotel

The original 38 volunteers in my stage--we've lost a few since, but our group is still just as enthusiastic as ever!

Week 1: September 12-18

Though this week was heavily focused around integrating into our villages and spending time with our host families, we still had training every day. As Monday the 12 was a holiday—Fête de Moutons (Celebration of the Sheep)—we stayed in our clusters, and began our language training, as well as introduced ourselves to local officials. The next day, we were introduced to our technical training schedule, and briefly discussed what training would be like. We also took a pretest to assess our level of knowledge on health topics such as gender inequities, breastfeeding, nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention, etc. Finally, we had our first official meeting with our two project managers. On Wednesday, we discussed the Peace Corps Approach to Development, and had sessions with our Medical and Safety and Security Managers. We also received more vaccinations. The next day, we started off in our clusters with language training, then hopped on the backs of motos—PC issued helmets safely placed on head, of course—for our usual 30-minute, hilly moto ride to class. That afternoon, we had our first tech training sessions, which consisted of general overviews of public health and global health challenges, as well as our roles as PCVs in addressing these challenges as they apply specifically to Cameroon. On Friday, we began discussing the Cameroonian health system, and our place and role within it. We then headed back to our cluster villages for language in the afternoon. On Saturday morning, we had language for 4 hours, and then had the rest of the day off. My cluster decided to take the hour-long stroll to the nearby village where the Agriculture group was stationed. We excitedly met up with our friends over lunch, then headed to a local bar for a few beers and to debrief our first week in homestays. Then, we trudged up a giant hill to a local football (aka soccer) field, where we divided into teams and began to play. A bunch of local kids quickly joined in, and pretty soon we were on the sidelines watching as tiny humans expertly dribbled past one another. As the sun readied to set, we headed home, happy that we had had the opportunity to meet back up with our friends. 

View from the football field

View from the fields that my host mom worked at

Another day, another moto ride

Week 2: September 19-25

Monday began with language classes in our clusters, before taking our usual moto ride to the training center. In the afternoon, we had our first cross-cultural session, in which we discussed behaviors, values, and practices, and how these might differ between our two cultures. For this activity, our language trainers listed behaviors of ours they didn’t understand, and we did the same. The funniest “odd American behavior,” was “smiling at people even when there is no reason.” We also discussed sex signals, and how those might differ between cultures but also between individuals within each culture. We ended the discussion by discussing that, like America, Cameroon is a diverse nation in which some practices and values are individual, some cultural, and some universal. During our break that day, my cluster mates remembered it was my birthday, and decided to play a trick on me. When I got back from break, I found two Smirnoff Ices in my backpack—I had been iced. For those of you who don’t know, “getting iced” happens when someone hides a Smirnoff ice in your belongings—when you find it, you have to get down on one knee and chug it. Though it was during class, everyone insisted I follow through with it—and, with permission from our trainers, I did. The look on our program trainers’ faces as I chugged two ices to the sounds of cheers was absolutely priceless. The next day, we were split into groups to visit local health centers and ask questions. My group was assigned the health center across the street from our training center. After a tour of the facility, we were taken into the office of the center chief, where we posed questions about facility operations, most commonly seen sicknesses, and problems the center faces on a daily basis. One challenge I found to be incredibly interesting was that if a sick patient came and couldn’t pay for services, the chief or another staff member would treat them anyways, and take the cost of treatment out of their own pockets. After our visits, we gathered back in the training center to debrief, and then receive our first individual homework assignments. Throughout PST, there were 4 of these assignments, called Trainee Directed Assignments (TDAs). The point of TDAs was to interview family and community members about health-related beliefs and practices, and write reactions and recommendations based on these interviews. Our first assignment was to ask our host family about malaria-related beliefs and practices—i.e., “How does one catch malaria,” and “how many family members slept under a bed net last night?” On Wednesday, we discussed monitoring and evaluation techniques, and had a medical session on mental health, stress, and nutrition. In the afternoon, we had safety and security sessions on coping with unwanted attention and bystander intervention. The next day was a highly anticipated one—the day our final site placements were announced! Though we hadn’t yet learned enough about the different regions to decide where we wanted placements to be, we were all so excited to find out where we would be posted for the next two years, as well as to learn more about these posts. That afternoon, when I finally opened the tiny slip of paper with my site information, I was ecstatic to learn I was being placed in a small village in the southern Adamawa region. I had heard from many current volunteers that the Adamawa was an incredible region. There is a large Fulbe population in this region, which means you can find beautiful mosques and practicing Muslims in many towns. It also meant that, along with French, we would begin learning another language that is commonly spoken in the region—Fulfulde, the mother language of the Fulani and Fulbe people. I had heard the people there were generally so warm and welcoming, and that the environment is very calm and laid back. Most of the Adamawa region is located along the Cameroonian Plateau, meaning the climate is hot but bearable due to the region’s elevation. One of the main agricultural staples in the region is beef, due to a large population of herdsmen, so I was told that I should prepare myself to eat tons of meat. In total, 3 health volunteers and 2 agriculture volunteers were being sent to the Adamawa, and I was so excited about the group of people going with me. In short, I was very satisfied with my post assignment.

Week 3: September 26—October 2

After having the weekend to calm our excitement over our assigned posts, we were ready for a week of work and learning about malaria. On Monday, along with language, we visited our health facilities in our clusters to meet the staff and ask them questions about malaria occurrence in our community.  The next day, we discussed data collection tools for our needs assessment as well as the occurrence and problems related to malaria in Cameroon. We then got together in our clusters for language classes (Fulfulde and French), as well as to work on a group project regarding bed net distribution campaigns in Cameroon. Throughout the rest of the week, we talked about malaria prevention and treatment in Cameroon, presented our individual group projects, and listened to two current PCVs describe their projects they had completed related to malaria. We were assigned our next TDA on Maternal and Child Health, which we had to complete by the following week. We also prepared and implemented a malaria survey in our individual communities. For cross-cultural training, we had a “language and cross-culture open doors,” in which we were given different scenarios related to experiences we might have while here, and were required to respond to these scenarios in French. For example, there was a scenario where we had to meet with a local chief and explain to him why we were there and a project idea we wanted to implement. Our language trainers acted in the scenarios, which made for a hilarious time. 

Me at the club with my host mom and a friend

Week 4: October 3-9

On Monday, we received training in leading a Grassroots Soccer (GRS) program on malaria prevention. Grassroots Soccer is a South African non-profit organization that uses soccer and games to educate youth on various preventable diseases and gender equality, and works to empower individuals to talk about health amongst themselves and with others. GRS works closely with Peace Corps, and many PCVs implement what they’ve learned at trainings in their own communities here. After debriefing our malaria surveys and taking a quiz on malaria, we moved on to discuss maternal and child health throughout the rest of the week. We also were trained in First Aid by the Peace Corps Medical Officers (PCMOs). For cross-cultural training, we discussed various family structures in Cameroon, as well as the history and geography of Cameroon. Towards the end of the week, we split up into groups based on the regions we were being sent to, and met with language trainers from those regions to learn more specific information about the regions we would be moving to. In preparation for site visits, we discussed safety and transportation, and how to adjust to differences in mechanisms and ease of transportation here. In our clusters, we continued with language lessons, and performed another survey in our communities about maternal and child health. We also had our second LPI, to determine our midpoint progress with language.

Eating tarot (a local meal) chez moi

Tuesday and I in our newly designed outfits with our language trainer François

Week 5: October 10-16

Week 5 marked the halfway point of PST, and served to be my favorite week yet. During this week, we were sent in groups to stay with volunteers currently serving in the regions we would soon be serving in. This was to give us an idea of what types of projects might work or not work in our communities, the best methods of transportation within our regions, and what the overall “vibe” of the regions might be. Again, like in every other country in the world, one village in a region is not exactly the same as the next—so we knew that, while this visit would be helpful in allowing us to imagine our lives as PCVs in village, it wouldn’t give us all of the information we truly needed. Though the village we stayed in was actually relatively far from where my site-visit mate Tuesday and I would both soon be serving, we loved our site visit and found it really helpful and informative. On Sunday morning, we took a PC bus down to Yaoundé, where we caught the 14-hour train from Yaoundé to Ngaounderé, the capital of the Adamawa region. Luckily, PC booked us tickets for train cars with beds (known as “Wagon Lit”), so we were able to sleep a bit, as the train ride lasted overnight. The 3 of us going up together kept joking that we felt like Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express. When we got up to Ngaoundere, we were greeted by two PC staff, who took us to the local transit house, where we met other volunteers before catching a car to meet our PCV host in her village. Throughout the week, we got to follow our host, Becky, around and see what kind of projects and activities she was able to implement in her community. We helped do GRS with her health club at the local high school, and played games related to reproductive anatomy with her girls’ group. We helped her teach an English class, and observed her assisting with Prenatal Consultations (“Consultations Prenatales,” or “PCNs” in French). We also got the chance to spend time with some of her closest friends in village, and got to experience the practice of going house to house to have tea and conversations with neighbors on our way to anywhere—a practice that she told us is common in the Adamawa. Her Fulfulde was incredible, so most of the time we couldn’t understand much of her conversations, but it was wonderful to listen to and every household was so hospitable to two new strangers. We also had the opportunity to talk with her about some of the biggest health issues she deals with at her site. She mentioned that in the Adamawa, most volunteers work with malnutrition, family planning, gender empowerment, and maternal and child health. On Friday, we headed back up to Ngaoundere, where we went out for dinner and then clubbing with Becky and her friend from village. On Saturday, as we waited for the 7pm train to take us back to Yaoundé, we ate hamburgers at a restaurant next to the train station. The restaurant was right next to a beautiful mosque, and we were fortunate enough to be serenaded by the 5:30pm Call to Prayer as we ate. That evening, we got on the train with mixed emotions—sadness at leaving our soon-to-be home, happiness at getting to see our fellow trainees and host families again, and readiness to move into our new homes in just 5 short weeks.

A beautiful goodbye to a beautiful city (for now)