October was a hectic month for me. Much of it was spent away from post due to security concerns during the presidential elections. My post is considered 'hot' politically, and there is a lot of resentment in the anglophone regions against the francophones who are in power. That is because Cameroon is regularly ranked as one of the more corrupt nations in the world and the francophones in power tend to marginalize the anglophones, or so they say. The current President Biya has been in power for over thirty years and most of the positions of political power are appointed. Thus the system is rigged. Anyways, I moved down to a cluster of volunteers south of my post for two weeks and did research related to my work. I was not stagnat; my time consildated allowed me to organize and prepare for the coming months of work. When I returned to my post I worked with my counterpart finishing up designing some projects and filling out applications for development grants. Then I had a regional meeting followed by a Halloween party. The following two weeks were spent at working on various projects and preparing for Thanksgiving which I am hosting at my house with a few other volunteers. Now I am in the capital Yaounde dropping off some project proposals to embassies to try and recieve funding and running various errands to further along some of my aspirations.
My biggest aspiration is to raise awareness about women's rights and hopefully change a policy of the National Federation of Sports regarding the marathon run each year up Mt. Camaroon.
