THE BEST PART of our training program was when we met Cameroonians. One afternoon, our whole group was bused just like Cub Scouts down to the U.N., where we got to meet the Cameroonian ambassador and his staff. Their robes flowed, their black faces beamed, and we loved every one of them. We were told to call the diplomats “Honorable Mr. So-and-So,” but they all had robes and we couldn’t tell who were the secretaries and who were the diplomats. This sweet little Mormon girl with freckles asked one of them, “I’m sorry, are you honorable?” These Cameroonians sure knew how to laugh. After that, they kept asking us if we were honorable, too.
     Then, they got us a place on the floor in the General Assembly and we got to listen to a debate about a harbor in Ceylon. After the session we sat in the delegates’ chairs. I got to be France and I put on my little earphones at the horseshoe table. A comedian in our group finagled his way to the Russian seat. He stuck a big blob of gum on his cheek to resemble a Russian wart, took off his shoe, and began pounding the table, shouting, “We will bury you!"
We were all thrown out, but the two Cameroonian attaches in charge of us laughed all over themselves. They said, “Ah, you Peace Corpse! You bring the real U.S. to us. Very funny people, you U.S.”

Send your answer to “Which Peace Corps book begins . . .?” to John Coyne at jpcoyne@cnr.edu

And the answer to the previous “Which Peace Corps book begins . . .?”
Erin Person, a college student at Gettysbury College (where former Peace Corps Director and PCV Carol Bellamy went to college), emailed us that last issue’s book quote comes from “the introduction of Mike Tidwell’s The Ponds of Kalambayi. I just finished reading it for a Political Science class here at Gettysburg College, where I am a senior. I really enjoyed Tidwell’s book. I found great admiration for him and the work he did, as well as all Peace Corps volunteers.”

Thank you, Erin, and what are you doing after graduation? Would you like “the toughest job you’ll ever love”?
     Well, now we have a college student showing up RPCVs and getting the correct answer. Here’s another chance for all of you.