I Finally Arrived!

Hello, world! I'm sitting in an Internet cafe in Yaounde, Cameroon, and it is quite hot. I arrived last night, after 17 hours of traveling, in a tiny airport called Nsimaleng. Immediately upon stepping off the plane, I felt like I had entered a jungle enclosure at the zoo - it was humid and smelled a little bit. While waiting for our bags, a little girl with cornrows ran up and hugged me, which was a bit of a surprise. I was also surprised to hear a big commotion coming from a group (which included all of the airport security) crowded around a small TV in the corner; apparently, the Cameroon national soccer team was playing Egypt. On the drive to our hostel, we passed group after group crowded into bars, watching the game (sadly, Cameroon lost). I also noted with alarm that it's common practice on 80 km/h roads in Yaounde to drive towards oncoming traffic when you want to pass cars, then veer suddenly back right when a car comes flying towards you. It was frightening.

So far, we've just been doing basic orientation stuff - getting to know each other, learning about the structure of the program, hearing talks about safety. I'm excited to go to my homestay family this Thursday; until then, we'll be staying in our youth hostel/monastery up in the hills (it has several flea-ridden but adorable dogs running around the grounds, as well as a flock of chickens and several loud goats). We just walked all the way down a mountain from the monastery to come into the city - it took about an hour, leaving me very sweaty. I'm not excited for the walk back up.

I wish I had pictures to post, but I found out during orientation that I should never bring my camera to public places and I should never take photos of official buildings. I'm not sure what I'm going to take pictures of, but if I do take any, I'll try to post them!

I'm about out of time on this computer, so I'll end this here. More soon!