The home stretch

I feel as if things are winding down. The last weeks have been full, but I finished up some major projects on my mental “to-do” list (a completely Western idea, by the way):

-Finished reading 1,500 pages of “academic literature” about Cameroon and literacy.
-Wrote an annotated bibliography on abovementioned pages.
-“I don finish dem Pidgin English lessons.”
-Finished up my hours of ethnographic research by learning to cook a couple of traditional Cameroonian dishes (stay tuned for personal invitations to experience these vicariously at my new apartment in Shipshewana, Indiana) and visiting a fon’s palace (A fon is an official whose jurisdiction encompasses many of the traditional practices in a village. This particular fon has 8 wives and 40 children who are referred to as queens and princes/princesses respectively).
-Traveled to two different literacy classes in the village.
-Hiked to a waterfall in the village (okay, so this wasn’t formally on the to-do list but it was beautiful)
-Scared the bejeebers out of a couple of dozen village people by waking them up with screams in the middle of the night (Also not on the to-do list- it turns out that the medication that I am taking to prevent malaria causes “mental disturbances”; so last week I woke myself up from a dream where I was screaming for help and realized that I was really screaming at the top of my lungs. Ugh! The good news is I have been sleeping much better since this incident.)
-Shopped for gifts for family and friends (if you have specific requests, speak now!)
-Spent my last evening in Bamenda with my Cameroonian family during which they prepared a special meal of fish, plantains, vegetable, sodas and sweets. The “festivities” lasted throughout the night for me as the fish bones and head that I crunched did not sit well with my stomach.
-Traveled back to the capital city (complicated by abovementioned stomach issues)

Next week’s to-do list:
-Finish final paper
-Enjoy the beach! (I got to know this delightful British woman who is traveling with me. We leave on Saturday for several days of sunshine before I fly out.)