September 15th, 2014 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps | No Comments »
Since the day after we first arrived in Cameroon, we have been busy listening to various lectures that focused primarily on health, safety and what to expect during the next 27 months. We met with the director of Peace Corps Cameroon, one of the medical officers, Director of Pre-Service training, current Peace Corps volunteers, host family coordinator and training manager. I want to share one thing I heard that hit close to home.
The director of pre-service training who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay shared a personal story that happened while she was a volunteer in Paraguay. She was meeting an uncle of her host family who was a mayor. As they were speaking to each other, she “hears” the mayor asking why some people are short and others are tall. She gave an explanation of why people are in different heights. The host sister then giggles a little and said, “He was asking how were you doing.” She said that she was embarrassed but soon realized that it was part of the experience in living an environment that is different from hers and speaking a second language. She asked all volunteers to be humble and be open to experiencing mistakes like her example. I laughed and could relate to her experience.
Even though I’ve misunderstood what I heard from time to time when communicating in French, I’ve also done it in English a number of times in my life because of my hearing loss. It’s very easy for people with hearing loss to give a wrong or odd response to what one person says because they mishear. So, this particular experience will not be a culture shock for me personally because I’m so used to dealing with the situation. I can’t tell you how many times in my life I have had to say, “Oh I’m sorry! I misunderstood you. I thought you said this…” However, for people with normal hearing, it’s almost like as if their tables will be turned around. They will get to experience not only what people experience when communicating in a second language, but also what people with hearing loss experience too when facing misunderstandings. It will be interesting to see how Peace Corps volunteers will face the situation.
We also had an interview in French to determine our placement level. My interview went OK. There were a couple words from there and there that I forgot and so, I had to quickly figure out how to say things differently to try to get around the words I forgot. For example, I was asked what was the weather, and I forgot the word for “cloudy” and so, I said, “There is not a lot of sun.” I’m not too worried about my current French skills because I am confident that once I’m totally back in the French speaking environment, I’ll quickly get back to where I was when I last spoke the language in 2009.
We also interviewed with the head of our sectors. So, I interviewed with the head of the health sector. The goal of the interview was to have the head of health sector get to know me better and give me the opportunity to share my goals and worries. I told her that while understand that one of Peace Corps’ policy is for the volunteers to be flexible and go where the volunteers are needed, I’d like to be placed where I can work with people with disabilities as a secondary project. All volunteers are required to do a secondary project, and it can be in any area of our choice.
I mentioned that I had been in touch with two Cameroonian women with disabilities who are presidents of disability organizations since shortly after receiving the invitation. One of them was featured on NPR recently, and the head of health sector already knew the woman well. In fact, Peace Corps volunteers have worked with her in the past. Both women with disabilities told me that they need a lot of help to improve the lives of people with disabilities, especially when it comes to equality and accommodations.
She then said, “About seven years ago, we had a volunteer who was totally blind and she did the most beautiful work.”
“I know the volunteer who you’re talking about. She’s the one who was in the Far North?” I said.
She said, “Yes, that’s her.”
It was really refreshing to hear that she already knows that people with disabilities can do good work, and I don’t have to worry about her doubting my ability to work. She was very open to my idea for secondary project and said she’d take my idea into consideration when deciding where to post me for two years.
On Friday night, all volunteers went to Peace Corps Cameroon Director’s home and the US ambassador to Cameroon was present. We were asked to wear formal clothing and be present before the ambassador arrived. When the ambassador arrived, we all stood up to greet him. He spoke for a few minutes. He emphasized that we, soon-to-be Peace Corps volunteers, are considered “ambassadors” too because one of our biggest responsibility is representing ourselves as Americans, teaching Cameroonians who are the Americans, and also teaching Americans who are the Cameroonians. One of our goals is build good relationships between Cameroon and the US.
