Tag: Development and Social Change

By mariacort3s

Hello hello! So this is my last blog! It's been an extraordinary journey being able to share my journey with you all. I hope you have all read it with hopes to study abroad soon. I am finally home and think about my experience nonstop. I haven't given myself the appropriate time to reflect about it all, I think it's because I know it’s a lot of stuff to get through such as information and emotions.

I'm going to be begin my reflection by typing out all my notes. During our courses, I would write my notes by hand so now I'm going to transfer them to my computer to remember what I learned and to have them somewhere where I can easily search for them when needed. I will also continue to be conscious about the conversations I have with people and what I am telling them about Cameroon and my experience in general. Many times people ask me how it was and while I know it is out of kindness and interest, it is mostly used as small talk and I cannot put my experience in a three minute conversation. I'm still trying to figure out what to tell people about my experience to keep the engage and to also transfer some lessons I learned.

Some of those lessons are to critically look at whatever we are learning and if it is biased or not. It is important to allow ourselves to shape our own opinions rather than it be influenced by media or individuals. I ,also, learned the importance of seeing the richness of life in other forms that aren't monetary or materialistic but rather in friendships, family, kindness, and love.

...continue reading "À Bientôt"

By mariacort3s

Well I have been done with my study abroad for a while but mentally I am not.

A quick recap on my last week: I was planning on leaving Cameroon on the 10th of December but my flight ended up getting cancelled so I left the 11th. I am downplaying the crazy drama that happened in those 24 hours because I finally got over what happened (Air France provided nothing for my two friends and I) and I cannot stress myself over it again. I was worried because on the 13th I was set to go to Rome so we had to leave the 11th. We did leave the 11th, with a delay, but it happened.

Once we got to Paris from Yaoundé, I had to rush to my connecting flight to Lisbon. If it wasn't for me asking people to let me skip them, I would have never made it. Thankfully, I did make it and was in Lisbon by 10 am, however, my bags did not. Yeah, it has been a very dramatic week for me.

Since I was leaving to Rome the next day, I immediately went to buy some underwear, pants, and socks with my aunt to have some clothing. I wasn't really mad at Air France at this point, I kind of just expected that would have happened. Anyways, the next day ten minutes before boarding for my flight to Rome, I realized I had lost my passport. Yeah, series of unfortunate events in reality. I went around the Lisbon airport searching for my passport with no luck and even if I had found it, the gate had already closed. Many tears later, security found my bag with my IDs, passport, and all my cards. I was grateful but a miserable mess.

...continue reading "to travel is to live"

By mariacort3s

Half is here, half is gone

I don't even eat McDondals right now but I could really go for ten chicken nuggets and a large fry.  Chick-fil-a too.. Ah some Chick-fil-a sauce.  My mom's cooking -- some Ajiaco, a Colombian soup, some of my feta, spinach omelets, just anything. My food cravings are so big right now, I want everything bad that I avoid when I am in the US.

I think about returning every day. Today my phone gave me the notification that in 8 days I'll be able to do early check in. Wow. I'm excited though because my journey doesn't end yet. I'm glad I have this in between week in Europe because it'll be used to  reflect. I don't think I could make the switch immediately from here to home.

But at home, I can already picture my bed. I can see my cat standing by door, curious on who has just arrived, I can see my parents, my mom and brother on the couch, my dad in the dining table working on something, I see traffic, high ways, Christmas decorations, it's so so crazy.

But at the same time, I know Cameroon will be in my mind for a while.  The life I have lived the last three months has been a rollercoaster and I would not change it for anything. I cannot talk enough about it.  It sucks that now I am finally getting used to Cameroon and it is when I'm leaving. But I swear I'll be back soon.  The people I've met, the education I have received, the streets I have walked, I can't thank life enough for this opportunity and to all the Cameroonians who opened their arms to me. Their hospitality and kindness transcends language barriers.

...continue reading "Half of my heart"

By mariacort3s

Welp! So exactly two weeks until I leave Cameroon. I won't be going back to the USA, rather I'll be going to Portugal where my aunt lives and then going to Italy for three days to meet up with my best friend Emilio who is studying there and my best friend Wendy who is coming from her program in Jordan and then I'll leave back to Portugal to make my way to  the United States.

Wow, it just feels weird to realize how quick these past few months have gone by. I've gotten used to be being on this side of the world as strange as that sounds. It feels surreal to have to go back. As exhausted as I am and as ready as I am to eat Colombian food and sleep in my own bed, I will miss Cameroon with all my heart. These past few days as I focus on finishing my final assignment, my head is also preparing to leave. How will I explain this experience to people? I am not sure.

Summer going to 11th grade, I spent six weeks in Portugal with my aunt and when I returned everyone was so excited to know how it was and even to that I couldn't respond with a simple answer, all I would say is that it was amazing and you should just experience it yourself. As for Cameroon, where I have been for more than three months and have made amazing relationships with people, I would need a moment of your life to explain.

I'm not sure if everyone experience in study abroad are all this life changing, but even despite all the bad, all the identity crises, all the sicknesses, the people I have met, the lives I got to experience, the knowledge I gained is are all unforgettable and has truly changed the way I see the world.

...continue reading "Wealth in being alive"

By mariacort3s

Hey everyone! I just got back from  Paris! I know, what?! But yes! We were there for the week studying the Cameroonian immigrants that live in the city. It was  a rough but fun week  in the City of Lights. Shout out to my best friend, Emilio, who is studying abroad in Italy for visiting me!

This week was important to me because being an immigrant myself, this was a topic dear to my heart and it was exciting for me to learn about it in another context. While coming to Paris was awesome, it was difficult at first to feel okay here knowing that this city was built out of the exploitation of the colonies and to this day still has some policies that take massive amount of money from its old colonies, such as Cameroon. It was a tough contradicting feeling (this goes out not just to France, but many European countries and the United States as well)  But after  having a course on immigration in France, visiting the families, and visiting the African market in Château Rouge, near Sacre Coeur, it was bitter-sweet. I realized though how critical it was for us to be there.

We had an amazing professor who blew my mind by some great things:

1. African migrants only account for 0.4% of all of migrants and that 66% of African migrants do not leave the continent, rather they move regions.
2. The concept of migration misery were migrants are represented as poor people from countries  and are told that they cannot be accepted by West countries because "they already have their own poor people."
3. That migration in the African context "translates as a form of popular response to the  crisis of neo-patrimonial state" (I never thought about migration as a form of protest which was an interested out look that migrants represent a group that are against the system)

...continue reading "Identity Crisis?!"

By mariacort3s

If my frenemy the souris knew what I just did he would have killed me before I killed him. It   all started when I walked into the kitchen of my homestay and saw there was a pot on the stove. I asked my host sister what it was and in French I heard, "Rah." Now if you know some French, you know the language is an expert at silencing the last letters of some words. So I was a bit confused on what "Rah" was. I asked if it was a cow or some sort of pig and she said no. When I went to the living room, I asked my host parents what animal was that. My dad couldn't really explain it to me so I ran to my room for my dictionary. I went back out and searched for what they spelled as "R-A-T" in a French accent. My brain had not yet processed what those three letters were saying until right there on the dictionary next to R-A-T French version, I saw that in English, it was: rat. So yeah that’s my story on how 10 minutes after that I tried rat meat, it was good, but all I thought about was the souris, haha.

On that same note, I'm pretty sure everyone of my fellow students saw a souris in their homestay this week. Kylie even said she saw one climb up her wall and into her ceiling. They now know how I feel in my Yaounde home when I see my frenemy skedaddling around like no big deal.

Anyhow let’s go into the juiciness of this trip. It was eye-opening because we visited the rural village of the Kingdom of Batoufam.  It was a time to reflect on modernization and tradition. We read such an important article that focused on chieftaincy in Africa (usage of chiefs), which used to be called Kings before colonialism but were renamed to chief to lower their status. While chiefs existed before colonialism, they were also created by the colonial powers (for their own benefit because they saw how well it worked in the African culture), and continued to exist after independence. Looking at chiefs was fascinating because it not only served the cultural aspect of ethnic groups but is also intertwined with the government so they have become figures in the modern system.

...continue reading "C’est la vie!"