Dimanche le 1 mai
Happy JPII beatification day!
Guess what. On our weekly DOVV supermarché visit post-mass, we bought ham. As in, the lunchmeat. It was a pretty big deal.
Several ISP milestones today: 1) Finished rough draft of my translation 2) Finished the most final of final version of my English version
I’m sorry that I’ll I do is talk about ISP. There’s good reason for it…
(it’s all I do.)
Lundi le 2 mai
Ellen and I went to print and bind 7 copies of our ISPs this morning!! I was prepared for the entire thing to be an expensive, long hassle, but I was rather delighted to find out it was rather simple and scam-free. We were really excited to hold them in our hands hot of the press; so excited, in fact, that we got our picture taken with the man who had put them together for us. Also, we went and got ice cream to reward ourselves.
…the work’s not quite done though. I met with my French professor today to discuss corrections to the first half of my translation.
Mardi le 3 mai
-Turned in my ISP! Ah! It seemed rather impossible just 5 weeks ago, and now, here we are…all done. My paper’s not perfect, but I worked really hard and learned a lot. [I know you all are DYING to read “HOLY COW! : Perceptions and Impact of Heifer’s ‘Pass on the Gift’ Policy”, so just shoot me an email (maria-copp@utulsa.edu) letting me know if you want to read it in French or in English, and I’ll get it to you right away.]
-Met with my French professor to finish translation corrections.
-Went souvie shopping with Ellen. We met a Cameroonian there that lives in Texas! He was really nice and very excited to see us—we got pics together.
-Bought mangos today. Correction: they are 20/$1. I’m so addicted.
-Ran into almost all of my SIT friends today at some point! Everyone’s “home”! It’s a crazy reminder though of how soon the semester will be over. All of our conversations these days turn into a group therapy session of sorts where we discuss how we’re feeling about going home…
Mercredi le 4 mai
I presented today! I think it went really well.
And just like that, ISP: DONE. Now serving as an excellent example of how those things that seem nearly impossible….aren’t.
ISP was one of the reasons I decided to study abroad, and I will say it was a really good process, just like I had hoped. I learned a lot about Heifer and about conducting research. I became more independent in Cameroon and more immersed in the community. And I worked very hard. My project’s not perfect, that’s for sure, but I definitely am proud of how hard I worked.
Anyhoo, I presented, and Rodrigue (the other Heifer intern/my friend) came to watch, which was super nice of him.
I’m too excited about my classmates’ research to not talk about their presentations, too, so bear with me and these short descriptions…
1. Araba: unrealized dream of Pan-Africanism
2. Afiwa: still existing tie between the CFA and the French Franc
3. Me!
4. Ellen: “land grab” and a local fair trade fruit project here in Cameroon and the link between the two topics
5. Sam: the culture exchange experience of a SIT Cameroonian student in a homestay
6. Nathaniel: The World Bank and their participatory approach/lack-there-of
7. Dillon: Solar energy in Cameroon (wow! This seems it has a lot of potential in developing countries!)
8. Haley: Cameroonian oral poetry
I went home and relaxed all evening. Partially because I wanted to, and partially because it stormed—which I’m quickly learning means “byebye power” (can’t really complain though, because I’m fortunate to have had power the whole semester). Anyway, OH MY did it storm. Let’s put it this way: at one point, Therese was literally freaking out that lightning was going to hit the apartment…I wouldn’t have been too surprised.
With the tv off for once, I got to have some good chat time with both the ‘rentals. Therese recounted how she met Magnus, and Magnus and I talked about my upcoming departure. He gave me a brief recap of how awesome Cameroon is and noted that I “will probably marry a Cameroonian. Or at least an African”. He gave me strict instructions to be a good ambassador of his country when I go home. I promised I would, and it’s true, I will…
Oh Cameroon, you fooled me! I thought we agreed that it would just be a summer fling. Fun, but no strings attached. Puppy love, that’s all. But now, as I constantly reflect on our break-up-to-be, I can’t help but think that you’ve stolen a little piece of my heart.
