[island101]

About: Abigail, 23 years old from Provo, Utah. Joined the Peace Corp and is living in Cameroon.

Story:
If you live in a different culture long enough, every now and then you have an embarrassing moment. I’m going to tell you the story of my most embarrassing moment since I’ve been in Cameroon. It’s actually my most embarrassing moment ever.

I live in a small town in Cameroon with a host family. Father, mother and two young sons. I’ve become very close to them. They really are like family to me. The father is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met and the mother has a great sense of humor. The kids are very well behaved for 8 & 10 years old.

My host mother told me about a picnic they were planning with some of their extended family and friends. I haven’t met many of their family and friends, and agreed I’d go with them as they wanted me to meet them.

We got in the family vehicle (falling apart old truck) and drove to a somewhat remote area. It was very beautiful there, very lush and green. A wonderful place to have a picnic. It reminded me of picnics with my family in Utah.

After we were done eating I was sitting on the ground talking to one of the women. All of the sudden I felt a bite on my leg and then another on my stomach. I was wearing a long dress, so it wasn’t convenient to assess the situation. I stood up and that’s when I realized that I was sitting on an ant hill and the ants had traveled up the beautiful long dress I was wearing.

As I fought the ants I did my best to stay modest, but there were more ants under my dress than I originally thought. I must have been so focused on the conversation that I didn’t feel them. After more painful bites, I decided the hell with modesty and threw off the dress. This is when I saw I had a lot of ants on me and now a few other women noticed and came over to help with the ant removal. The bites were very painful and I could see through the tears in my eyes that everyone at the picnic had stopped what they were doing and were watching my situation with concern. At this point, there were about 20 sets of eyes on me.

I heard my host mother talking behind me and before I knew it she started to unsnap my bra. I reached back and asked her to leave it in place, but she smacked my hand like I was her child, unsnapped my bra and pulled it away. I was now bare breasted in front of all these people including my host father. There were ants in my bra and on my chest, so I guess I’m grateful they were being removed.

Then without warning my host mother whipped down my granny panties and starting smacking ants off my ass. Although embarrassing, for some reason this seemed somewhat comical to me. Being completely naked in front of a group of people while a Cameroonian woman smacks ants off my ass. It doesn’t get much more ridiculous than that. I wonder if those people were shocked that I shave off my pubic hair. I’m not sure about grooming habits here and if they consider it normal. I guess it’s all part of the exchange of cultures that I came here for (LOL).

Once all of the ants were removed they gave me back my bra and panties, so I could put them back on. I stood like that until they were finished removing the ants from my dress so I could put it back on.

I spent the rest of the picnic completely mortified about the spectacle my host family and their friends witnessed. It will be a while before I can look any of them in the eye. Yes, that was definitely my most embarrassing moment ever.