July 4th, 2015 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps, Second Goal | No Comments »
Because today is 4th of July, United States’ Independence Day, I decided to observe it in Cameroon by celebrating Peace Corps’ second goal which is to teach the host country nationals about the American culture. I invited my Cameroonian work partners and also a Peace Corps staff member who lives in Bamenda to my home to teach them about 4th of July. I made homemade cheeseburgers and mac and cheese, the two most popular American dishes that are not eaten regularly by Cameroonians. I also included chips, which are very hard to find in Cameroon as they are also not part of the Cameroonian culture. Because cheese is not part of the Cameroonian diet, it was the first time for a couple of them to eat cheese. Some said they did not like the Swiss cheese that was part of the hamburger when they first tried it but after a few bites, they enjoyed it more. However, they did love the mac and cheese which means they do really like the cheddar cheese. A couple enjoyed the hamburgers so much that they took a second one home with them to eat later.
As I didn’t want to teach the Cameroonians only about food, I shared facts with them about the United States. I created a poster with a list of facts about the US, and we had an interesting discussion. They were all very shocked to learn that there were only 2.5 million people when the US first became independent in 1776 and that Alaska was purchased from Russia.
