December 19

White man! Auntie Kate! Sister Kate! These are just some common greetings I hear as I walk around my new village. Half the time I assume people just think I’m Kate R., the volunteer who I replaced. I gave up on the Katherine name change and have since embraced Kate. It works and half the time it’s a joke, this village is the place for Kates. It makes things easy and I feel awfully welcomed when people automatically know my name.

Overall the past few days have been good. Surprisingly busy but I welcome it. I find I am much happier when I am out doing things and meeting new people. For the first few days when I didn’t really know anyone or what to do I thought, “Oh sheesh, this is going to be a long 2 years”. Though I have already made some friends in village to pass the time with. Prescaline who is a member of the Compassion Campaign assisted me with greeting the Fon down in Bafut. This meant waiting for a good two hours in one of his wives homes and drinking palm wine, a rather strong drink around these parts. It’s seen as a cultural faux pau to refuse drinks and food. Needless to say by around 2 pm we used each other’s support to walk back to our part of village. She cracks me up, especially when we run out of things to talk about and she sighs out a long-winded “wow”.

Along with palm wine, religion plays a rather large role in the village. About 1.5 hours into mass I began to drift on Sunday. I blame this on trying to get used to the length of church around here and the fact mass is spoken in Pidgin, a language I am in the midst of learning. Though in the bit of Pidgin I hear Kate R.’s village name, Manika being said. Before I know it I’m being ushered up to the podium, where Father instructs me to tell everyone my name. As I step up and turn I look out on to the girls from the private boarding school, all dressed in beautiful white dresses. I then realize about 350 people are waiting me to say my name and introduce myself. “I am called Kate”, I say. Applause and smiles soon follow and I have never felt so welcomed before. After mass I stood outside and greeted most of the congregation. Even though going to church was not a large part of my life before coming here it definitely will be here. It really gives you the ability to connect with people and get your face out in the community. Will I have perfect attendance for 2.5 hour-long masses? I highly doubt it.

It seems I’m not the only one struggling with mice, just to keep you all updated. My friend Kim who is also in the NW province lost a decent loaf of bread to those pesky critters. Seth sent me some moral support last night via text: “Hope all your mice are dead. One just ran across my foot”. Mr. Jesiah my gracious counterpart came over earlier today to declare “Operation catch the mice”, though mice traps are a bit different here. They consist of super sticky glue on cardboard, which unfortunately have the ability to catch other things such as lizards. I guess will have to count those 2 as casualties, sorry guys.

As for work I have been quite busy. Met with school principles today to talk about my hopes to start a girls health club and introducing this strange sport called Frisbee. Went to a Compassion Campaign group meeting last week, which was pretty productive. Defining work in the first few months or sort of difficult but in time it will work itself out. As volunteers now our real job is to get situated into our new homes, make friends, and really figure out the needs and how to do our part. Though in the 2 short weeks I have been here things are starting to come together. I’m starting to find my way around and I have found this truly is the place for me.