And I'm going to...

BANDREFAM!! In the beautiful West Region!

After much anticipation and general hooplah we recieved our post announcements last Thursday. I did not really have a specific place in mind, but in my interview with my health program director I told her that I would very much prefer to live in a village, would like to be in a Francophone area, don't want to be too far from another volunteer and I threw in the fact that I prefer cooler temperatures, but I get it- its Africa and I expect it to be hot. Et voila! C'est Bandrefam; really this place seems to have it all! So my village has about 4,00 people and I'll be paired with a health center but can also of course work with community groups, schools etc. I'll be about an hour, I think, from Bafoussam where I'll be doing my banking. There are other volunteers just a short moto ride away. Only percieved bummer is that biking will be difficult as its pretty hilly.

As it turns out we had a field trip scheduled for Tuesday to go visit the agro volunteer in Bandrefam. Thats right- I have a post mate! My village is about 2 hours from Bafia and its such a pretty drive up through the mountains. Everythings lush and green...I am so looking forward to living there for 2 years! I even got a sneak peak of my house; its little with a dirt floor kitchen, bedroom and cement floor livingroom. My landlord said that I could even add another window in my bedroom if I want! It seems like a huge undertaking to paint the cement brick walls, buy a bed, stove, pot, table and all the other things a little house needs. But I'm looking forward to it all (and my site mate said that she will help me find things) and I can't wait to have my own space! Next weekend we have our official site visits so I'll hopefully get more time to explore Bandrefam and should also be going to Bafoussam to set up my bank account.

On another note I have begun learning Fulfulde, but I'm still spending half of my language classes working on French. Its really cool to be learning a totally new language. Its espcially interesting learning from French to Fulfulde, no English. I won't really need Fulfulde in the West but it'll be great when I go up to the grand north.