weekend with my host family

i am now situated in dschang in the west province. my host family, the nountenijeus, live in tsinfeng neighborhood, about 10 minutes on foot from the SIT office and 20 minutes from the university of dschang, where classes are held. the nountenijeus are wonderful! charlotte and joseph are in their mid-thirties, i would guess. there are six children: rosine (18), fallone (14), mc pronounced mac (11), marion (9), nathalie (7), and baby suzie, who turned one yesterday. rosine and fallone are adopted. joseph works at the alliance francophone (the cultural center in dschang, which hosts cultural events, art, music, theatre, etc) as a specialist in french and cameroonian culture. charlotte used to work at the library until suzie was born. i seem to have really found a home here -- i feely very lucky! i'm also feeling lucky because they have two toilets and a real shower, even a bathroom sink. it is also very nice to have my own room with a lock (this is required by SIT).

since yesterday was suzie's birthday, charlotte killed one of the six chickens who live on the back balcony (we dont have a yard) so we had fresh spicy poulet and potatoes for lunch, YUM. i told them that in MN we eat potates plain or with just salt and pepper, and they thought that was pretty funny. its really nice to have a good french base, it has made it a lot easier to fit in...though everyone laughs when they hear my cameroonian accent. my family also didnt believe that my hair is so blonde, they thought i dyed it. the little girls wont stop touching it unless i really give them what for! they want to play all the time. they taught me a game yesterday which was fun, but they wear me out -- good thing my first gift was crayons, it keeps them busy.

in case you feel like sending aletter my way, i finally have my mailing address, the address of the SIT office:

Julia Schumacher
c/o SIT BP 441
Dschang, Cameroon, Central Africa

don't send anything of value (it wont get here) -- your words on paper are invaluable to me as it is!

à la prochaine (til next time),
julia