My Cameroonian friends can’t understand why we are so terrified of mice and cockroaches. I really can’t explain my fear. They constantly remind me that I am bigger than them and that they are more scared of me than I of them. Perhaps its because I am not used to dealing with these creatures in my house. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mouse in person or had to deal with that many cockroaches. Let me tell you, that last week I opened my dresser drawer and there was a mouse in my clothes staring back at me!! You know I freaked and ran from my room screaming. My roommate bought some things to make a mouse trap. Essentially it’s a very sticky glue that we put down on cardboard with cheese in the center. On the first night, we caught three baby mice!! It was absolutely disgusting, but we had to do something to get rid of them. Since then, we have not caught anymore mice. But, I’m quite sure the momma and poppa mice are making more babies.

On Saturday I went to the bustling market called Mokolo (not sure if I’m spelling it correctly). It was highly crowded and amazingly hot. We worked our way through a maze of items and people. It was just like an outdoor swap meet, except more compact. As we walked through, people grabbed at our arms asking us to come look at their things. A lot of folks called Izumi Chinese. I think it was too much for her, especially since she is Japanese and is not used to people making strange Asian-like (or at least they think) noises at her. One guy even called me lame (because I was walking with a limp). I had a good laugh at that comment. I didn’t buy anything, but it was nice to experience such a market. We didn’t even walk through half of the market. We walked only through part of the shoe section. You know I was hunting for pumas, but something about cleaned up used pumas doesn’t strike my fancy.

This week we have a conference with all of the West African International and American schools. There are a series of workshops we can attend. I’m always excited about workshops because I hope to gain information and ideas I can use in my classroom. I’m also excited about meeting people from these various schools. There is a lady from Mauritania here who I met back in Iowa. It was nice seeing her here at the conference. I will write more about the conference later. I’m actually in a rush because I need to head to my first workshop!

I hope you enjoy the picture of Izumi and I. We are both wearing our outfits that we had made out of fabric. For the conference, the people from our school had outfits made from similar fabric. They are beautiful. On Saturday Izumi and I went to the fabric store downtown , called Laking, and saw wonderful prints. We are excited to buy some and make lots more outfits.

Have a nice day.