February 2009

Ever since the holidays, things have been pretty busy. School started up again… the students have been terrible. I’ve had to keep entire classes after school, taken marks from exams, and sent many students out of class. The kids stress me out, but some good things happen that make my job worth it. One day a student asked why I am a volunteer. A big group of students came over to hear the answer, and they were all amazed that someone would give up their time and money to help others. We have been talking about the US a lot, and students have been asking a lot of course related questions during class. That is really exciting here, bc most kids don’t ask questions. They aren’t raised to question things if they don’t understand, so I’m glad that they feel comfortable asking me.
I’ve finally started receiving bills at my house. I received a water bill for 14,000 cfa, which is out of control. Its only supposed to be about 1000. Of course, I had to pay first, dispute later. Many of my neighbors are also receiving really high bills, so we think that this is a common problem with everyone. Since that bill, I’ve had another that is lower, so I’m hoping it will stay that way. I also received my first electric bill. That wasn’t too high, but when I went to pay, I waited in line for over an hour, and it didn’t move at all. Then someone was so mean to me that I almost cried in the office. It was really embarrassing. Someone was talking about me in pidgin, and bc I’m white, apparently I can’t understand the language. I was just so frustrated that people think that I don’t understand anything. It happens all the time here. Looking back, I had no reason to get upset, but its too late now. I’ve had a lot of bills at my house too, bc my brand new house was built poorly. The plumber comes almost weekly, and the electrician a few times too. I love my house, but it’s a huge pain. My water is turned off more than it is on.
I’ve had many visitors at the house. I have a neighbor (her name is Othance) that comes over to spend time and helps me with some things, and quite a few of the neighbors come over to visit. There are a few younger kids next door, and their friends come over all the time. We look at science books, and maps, and they tell me what they are studying in school. Its kind of fun, and educational. I want kids here to learn that education can be fun. It sounds really cheesy, but they are raised that they must go to school and learn, but it doesn’t matter if they like it or not. Everything is memorization, and there is no application for knowledge. that’s why I want them to have fun when learning new things. Anyway, Othance was over at the house studying while I was out one night. I returned home, and she said that she had a surprise for me. I thought maybe she cleaned the floor or something. She brought me to my spare bedroom, and there were 3 small kids sleeping in the bed. She explained to me that the smallest one (who is about 5 years old) wet the bed. The father drove that child from the house and said he had to find another place to stay. He also told the extended family not to house them. Two of the older siblings (that visit me sometimes) left with the smallest and they decided to come here to sleep. Its obvious that I wouldn’t turn them away. Then Othance told me she had another surprise. The oldest two weren’t really sleeping - they wanted to play a joke on me. They got out of bed, and since the power was out, I made some popcorn, and we played cards by candlelight. It was kind of fun. The next morning, we all got up really early, to prepare food for the kids before they went to church. After church, they came back over, and helped me clear the yard. They are such good kids, I like when they visit.
We had a big even at school. The social group of teachers had a visit from another school, GHS Eyumojock, a school close to Nigeria About 20 teachers from their school came to visit our school for an overnight. In the morning, they hiked up to see the school, then saw our German hanging bridge (built in early 1900s). I missed that part of the morning, but I met up with the group at the Army Canteen. That was the site for the next group of activites: table tennis, cards, draughts (checkers), and a volleyball match. I played cards with the principal of Eyumojock, and I won two games. That was exciting. The volleyball match was such a close game that it was really entertaining. Next came a soccer match, but I skipped it bc I was tired and needed to rest. In the evening was dinner and dancing. There were so many speeches that we didn’t eat until almost midnight, then of course, I was chosen to lead the dancing. Who did I have to dance with? The principal of Eyumojock. Then I skipped out early to go to bed. Everyone else was up all night dancing.
The next week was Obama’s Inaguration. Everyone here loves Obama. They think that he will do a lot for Africa. I try to explain that Obama has lot of other things to do first. The inauguration was a pretty big deal here. I was invited to a party for it, but by the time I arrived, it was pretty low key. I went with a few friends to a bar here that has a TV outside so we could watch. Everyone there knew all of the political figures. People here are really interested in American politics. We watched Biden swear in, then Obama stepped up, and the power went out. Luckily, it came back on in a few minutes, so we were able to catch the tail end of Obama. It was really interesting to share the Inauguration of the American president with a group of Cameroonians.
That weekend, I traveled for a meeting in Fontem. I took a car, but I was amazed that it could travel on the terrible road. There were some parts of the road that were all mud, even though it hadn’t rained in weeks, and such huge dips in the road (they call the gallops here) that the car was almost sideways. It was kind of scary. In fontem, I met up with all of the volunteers in this province, for the Southwest Provincial mtg. The next day, we went on a hike through the bush to see some waterfalls. We were warned that it would be difficult, but I was not prepared. First there was a one hour hike, up and down hills to get to the bush. Then we hiked 2 hours straight down the side of a cliff. It was so steep that I crab walked in places to get down. I almost died a few times, when I slipped and almost fell. By the time I got to the bottom, I was exhausted. Then we had to hike over some huge rocks, to get to the falls, and then up another hill. The falls were beautiful though. There was about 5 different falls, each flowing into the next. There was a pool of water where some people swam, but it was too cold for me. Then came the trip back up over the rocks and up the cliff. I literally thought I might die at one point. It took me about 3 and ½ hours to get up the cliff. There were a few of us.. I referred to us as Team Slowpoke. The we had the hour hike back up and down hills to get to town. I was completely exhausted, and my whole body hurt. It was terrible. For the next few days I could barely walk. It was nice to see the falls, but I don’t know that I’ll make that trek again.
The next day, I went to Dschang to visit my friend Ben. He lives outside the city, up in the mountains. During the few days I was there, I had a few cooking lessons (since I can’t cook anything), I read my book, sat outside, and just relaxed. I haven’t had such a relaxing holiday ever. One day we traveled to Mbouda to visit some other volunteers. We took motos there, had some dinner and checked email, then left the next day. One day, Ben was sick, so we walked into the mountains to go to the health clinic. On the way, we stopped to see a medicinal garden, some pigs (I haven’t seen pigs here at all), and the Cameroon Tea Plantation. Apparently Cameroon makes tea and exports it. When we arrived at the clinic, I ran into a health volunteer that lives at the clinic. I hung out with him while I waited. A couple days later I returned to Mamfe. I got up early to take a moto to Dschang, then a car to Fontem, then I couldn’t find a car to Mamfe, so I took a moto. The bike ride was about 2 and ½ hours, and I was so glad to be off of that death trap. Thank goodness I was wearing my helmet. I thought we were going to go down a few times. My whole body was tired after that journey, and the driver wouldn’t take me the whole way to Mamfe, so then I had to take another car. The trip was exhausting. After that, it was back to school and my usual busy schedule. Next post, coming soon.