Homeward Bound...for Vacation

As I’m getting ready to embark on my third, out of four, day travel back to the US for vacation, I am both; starting to reminisce about my 11 months here and also getting extremely excited to go home for a break. Although, the excitement about going home is currently trumping the reminiscing-leaving-village-feeling…for a break is needed.
It is a good time to take a congé. Firstly, it is the rainy season; therefore, meetings are routinely cancelled (since people do not like to go out in the rain) and scheduling activities is greatly hampered. In addition, is it quite hazardous to travel with the rains. For some reason Tourningal’s soil is not muddy; instead the ground is just slippery. It reminds me of WI winters and ice. There have been a few deaths in the area because of people falling into rivers due to the slippery conditions. My counterpart nearly broke his leg from falling on his moto with the slipperiness. Secondly, since it is summer vacation, most of the kids and teachers that I worked with during the school year are absent, leaving a bulk of the more animated-educated—french speaking community, not around.
Going home however, has already presented some problems in my community. I swear that every person I encountered asked me to bring them back something from the states. Perhaps if I had my own plane and an unlimited supply of money I could fulfill there exorbitant requests. Numerous laptops, radios, cell phones, jewelery, shoes, etc. etc. will simply be impossible to bring back. Most also were somewhat confused about whether or not I was going home permanently (it was probably my fufulde), so they will probably be surprised, enshallah, to see me again in a few weeks.
Although work has not been overwhelming these past weeks, my daily siestas have been greatly evolving and I have gotten some quality thinking time. One thing that I have been realizing in my village is the lack of any sort of community structure. My village makes me realize the importance of local government, for when there is none, like my case, nothing gets accomplished. There can be very little development for a village if there is no governing, centralized body to make decisions and bring together the community to work together. SO, due to this, I have been trying to mobilize the community to think about their future and what they need to develop. Sometimes I feel like my title should be a development consultant.
For instance, a few days ago I spent 2 days walking house to house informing the community about community-development meetings that would be taking place. Since the women and men cannot work together, two separate meetings had to be held, I was acting like the interlocutor between the two. The Men’s and women’s meetings were the first community meetings that had been held in months. At the meetings we discussed: hygiene and sanitation problems, water issues, how the community needs to have a budget to finance unforeseen problems, and what the community needs are. It was quite an elated feeling to mobilize the community members together. I hope that the meetings will serve as catalysts for future community action.
WELL, ca c’est ma vie. I hope this finds everyone in fine spirits. Cheer for the Cameroonian teams at the Olympics. Allah Hokku en Jam, Amina Pullo