3:32

Welcome to the next five minutes of my life. I am sitting in a classroom in the University of Dschang. Even though it is down pouring, the skies above are blindingly bright. I can feel the sun warming my skin (the UV index is absurd Grace…) I’ve put in the headphones, put my iTunes on shuffle, and am going attempt to zone out for the next few minutes and pretend I’m not in Central Africa (this is going to be more difficult than I thought… a gigantic cockroach just scrambled into my backpack. Lovely.)

The past few weeks have been ridiculous? Crazy? Life changing? Scary? Fun? Mind blowing? Absurd? I don’t know if there is a proper adjective to describe it. I don’t really think I had any idea of what I was signing up for pre-Cameroon… I guess you could say it has been the ultimate immersion experience. Living with families has been ____( fill in the adjective from the list above here). I can’t imagine not living with a family in a foreign country now… I have learned so much about the ins and outs of day to day life in Cameroon- there is a huge surprise in each day and I love it. From the most basic of things (getting drinking water) to extremely intense things (the reality of death here), I’ve been exposed to it all. It has been incredibly difficult to comprehend all of these things, and my brain is on cultural and information overload. Have I really only been here for 4 weeks? I can’t imagine being anywhere else in the world right now (except for in my bath in good old West Chester once and awhile…).

This Thursday is my 21st birthday. What does that mean? At home, it’s a time to celebrate being “legal”… the start of one’s “adult” life. Here, it’s the time when it is getting a little late for marriage. The respected women in the village have had children by now. If I was the average Cameroonian, 5 years from now would mark the half way point in my life. In 2 weeks I will be heading to the extreme North (near Chad) and most of our host stay mothers will be younger than we are.

I’ve encountered things here so opposite from everything I know, that it has become hard to separate reality in the States to pre-conceived notions of “Africa” to the reality that is “Cameroon.” It is incredibly difficult to articulate my emotions to myself, let alone on this blog (I’m trying my best!). All I can be sure of is that the last month has been more eye opening than I could have imagined coming into this experience. In the past, I’ve heard people talk about how life changing a trip to Africa is, and I’ve always rolled my eyes in a way. I think I’m beginning to understand now (I think…). It is a truly different world, while at the same time, the very same world, which makes things incredibly complex. Every day has called into question the “big” questions of life. And while I feel very cliché blogging things like this, it is the truth. Being in Cameroon has made me stop. And reflect. For once. Really seek to understand the world as it is today.

Back to the 5 minutes of Laura… I’m drinking out of a bottle of “Tangui.” I’ve been conducting a research project on the availability and accessibility of water in Cameroon (both in the capital of Yaounde and more rural Dshang) and the results have been shocking. Just to have fresh drinking water here is incredibly expensive.