Seeing the world in whole new light

By COREY BALLANTYNE
SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR
"Because it's an experimental time of life," said a fellow Peace Corps trainee in the first week as she joked about what new experiences many of us would find ourselves surprisingly open to.
In fact, these words can be prophetic, no joke. Free wine? Cool! I can indulge in a little of that and still wake myself up early with enough energy to do a million neat things tomorrow.
It's raining opportunities enough to make almost anyone feel young and alive again. Wouldn't it be interesting, I thought recently, to meet the U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon?
The free issues of Newsweek International and Worldview magazines provided by the Peace Corps teach me a lot about the world of humanitarian aid and international affairs.
And I may or may not like teaching, but I sure won't have to spend a lifetime wondering. Writing for The Vindicator isn't half bad. I hope reading my columns isn't half bad either; feedback is appreciated.
A new experience
Trying to be accurate, fair and at the same time entertaining is an interesting first for me. Later, when I have time, I can see about writing for The Laughing Cow. That's the Peace Corps Cameroon newsletter named after a cheese we make fun of; the only cheese available in most of Cameroon.
It wouldn't be inconceivable even to become editor. The Peace Corps is a good training ground for a lot of things. The Peace Corps' vision of us as "community development facilitators," which was explained to us in our last two days in the United States, left an impression on me.
It seemed like a tall order for a science nerd, but now that I'm here, it's intriguing to see how it is starting to come naturally.
When I'm not quite suitable to help some Cameroonian with a request -- Aminatou doesn't speak English well enough yet to practice well with me -- I suddenly know who would be perfect to help out.
Elaine is trained in Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. The inspiration then hits about how we could make it a grand collaboration -- not one but two community English clubs. Elaine would work with beginners and I with advanced learners.
Skills for a lifetime
I do believe I might be beginning to pick up skills that would come in handy elsewhere as well. (Though I do hope I don't have to hang out with this one important but obnoxious director lady too much longer in order to get her to cut to the chase about how I get started with the health classes she is having me teach at the women's center.)
The people who are in this with me are some high-quality folks. Peace Corps people are some of the funniest Americans in the world. You have to be to get over things like accidentally peeing on your shoes -- so you can move on and get something done.
Most volunteers are very dedicated to their work, and still I'm not sure I've ever had more fun with colleagues than in the Peace Corps.
One volunteer I met said he joined the Peace Corps because while he didn't know what he wanted to do, he knew the kind of people he wanted to do it with.
My math-science training mates are a family, puppies from the same litter.
My province mates are a family because we could probably count on our fingers the number of times we will see non-Africans from outside the province in the next two years.
My Cameroonian host family was pretty wonderful too if I can ever forget their cooking. Already, many of the great people that I have met, I will never see again. Three months, a week, even a day, and they're a part of you, and then they're gone.
New perspectives
Life in Cameroon gives perspective to many social issues. OK, so a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers are sitting in a bar, and this chicken wanders in. ... No, that's not the opening line of a joke. That's Cameroon.
You might think about vegetarianism a little differently where every chicken is a "free-range" chicken.
Visit a Third World highway or main city street to get a new look at air pollution; it can make you sick not in 10 years but in perhaps 10 minutes.
Trash looks different when you have to look at its final resting place, the neighborhood's trash pile just around the corner, every time you take the trash out. Why bag trash?
Economic conditions also contribute to things being used more thoroughly before retirement to the trash heap. When I bought my mattress, we rolled it tightly into a small bundle I carried home on my bike under one arm. The twine the roll was tied with is not trash yet. It is gradually becoming all the new straps on my old indoor sandals.
Peace Corps life makes the reality of a multinational world hit home. A conversation among people of mixed language origins and abilities is an example of cooperation and compromise.
Three Peace Corps volunteers recently had dinner with four volunteers from VSO, a European organization similar to the Peace Corps. The VSO volunteers all knew English very well, and we spoke in English. But at times they were more comfortable saying something in French, and sometimes the old cook/waitress/owner of the restaurant joined us, and then we all spoke in French.
Being the least skilled in French, I did my best to follow along, having people translate words here and there.
When my new Cameroonian friends Leonie and Amina and I get together to practice English, I learn some French and Amina learns some English as Leonie, who speaks both pretty well, helps us to understand each other.
Where to next?
Many Peace Corps volunteers in Cameroon see other parts of Africa (at their own expense) at the end of their service before using their free plane tickets home from Cameroon. I want to see it ALL! Except, of course, the unsafe areas.
I think I want to see that island off the coast of Senegal (on the west coast of Africa) that was an important transit point in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. I've got two years to find out details, like its name.
President Bush went there on his recent tour, so it must be a good idea. I wonder if I will notice an ethnic similarity between anyone in Senegal and black Americans, because many Cameroonian faces don't look like anyone I've seen in the States.
And hopefully I can make it to South Africa, though that's in the opposite direction, and just maybe I can see Nelson Mandela there.
Prior commitments prevented me from seeing him speak in New York this past winter.
From "dream deferred" to carpe diem. Here's to life.