Biz Class Round III

Cameroonians LOVE their certificates!

Apologies for the lack of updates as of late. A lot seems to be going on lately, a lot, for Cameroonian standard. I attempt to think back to 3 weeks before I came to Cameroon, and wonder how I managed to sleep on average 4-6 hours a night, took 18 credit hours of courses, worked 20 hours a week, and volunteered 10 hours a week. I need to somehow try to find that side of me again, or graduate school will be brutal come September.

So, what exactly has been going on with me? I finished my third round of business classes in village, 4th round if you count the week-long seminar in Yaoundé. I visited Fondonera, one of the towns that's involved in my library project. Celebrated Chinese New Year with my Chinese family. Attempting to not pull my hair out or punch the wall when translating that 35+ page of library management training manual into French. And oh, 23,000 books are coming my way next week, and many things, true to Cameroonian form, are still up in the air. I am constantly taking deep breaths and trying not to flip out on someone.

Et voilà! That's what's been taking up my time, on top of the usual everyday stuff like dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, showering - all without running water. All those things still somehow have an amazing way of taking up my day.

Anyhoo, this latest round of business class was again a success. I had 32 students enrolled and 29 of them completed the course requirement and earned a certificate! More people have already asked me when the next round wil be... we shall see!

Since pictures worth a thousand words, below are some photos taken by Kristine - my temporary boss who came to visit me a few weeks ago. These are precious evidence that I actually do do some work and not just sleep a lot and hang out. :)

Look at my students getting thithinking caps on!

This day's lesson was budgeting.

See? I do work, sometime. :) So even though I haven't been writing in recent weeks, I've been storing up some good ideas while I've been running around. I'll post them in the coming days. Stayed tuned!

Senioritis: Peace Corps Edition

Today, at some point during my two-hour business class, the Peace Corps equivalent of senioritis hit me. It must have been the moment when I was teaching the importance of sharing knowledge they've acquired with others, since I won't always be here to teach the classes, and an annoying student who rarely shows up to class loudly shouted, "well you should just get married and stay here." I looked at him and said, "would you like to leave the classroom?" I don't care if he's 40. Don't be a jerk, or I will throw you out.

I've been getting back into my yoga practice. And this morning I did my one-hour session. But after the class tonight, I felt the need to roll out the mat again. If bucket-bathing in the latrine at night isn't such a pain the butt, I would have done another session of yoga to let it all go.

I am overwhelmed with the Books For Cameroon project. All along, I adopted the "one step at a time" approach, because if I try to think of everything at once, then there was no way the project would have progressed to where it is today. But now, almost a year later, there are still many more steps ahead, and I am exhausted.

I've begged for more money than I ever care to beg in a lifetime, not for me, but for the well-being of others. I've coordinated 10 schools within the 3 surrounding villages, on top of a few other far-reaching villages who all wanted to benefit from my project. My life would have been a lot easier if I just said no, but that's now what you do as a Peace Corps Volunteer, right? I've sent out a million emails to the team of volunteers whom, I'm sure by now, are so sick of my emails, in order to coordinate and ensure that 23,000 books get to the 35 libraries somehow.

When I met the fundraising goal of $11,500, people said to me, "well now you must be relieved, the work is done." Um, not quite, the work has just begun. I've ran around to all 10 schools to collect money, make sure they have shelves built for the libraries and that they are dedicated to the project. Then I realized I underestimated the cost of in-country transport, so now Théo and I are running around town trying to get big Cameroonian enterprises to sponsor our event. I think there is a big chance MTN Foundation will put up some money for our transportation cost. The last time I heard, the proposed figure is 1 million CFA ($2000). Crossing our fingers on that one!

Side note: Théo is the wonderful founder and manager of the local NGO RIDEV that many volunteers have worked with. I think he is the reason I have not gone insane yet with this project. The man is full of wonderful optimism and knows everyone, which makes life a lot easier. He also is aware of all the annoying protocol procedures that we volunteers hate. If it wasn't for him, I probably would've left this country with many libraries built, but also many important people offended. It was his proposal to organize a ceremony for the ministries and related officials to recognize the project. The ceremony itself does not do much for the project, but it gets in the good graces of Cameroonian officials, which is important for Peace Corps.

The books are estimated to reach the Douala port on February 22nd. So I'm working with Peace Corps and the Embassy to get this container cleared through customs with as little problem as possible. There is the logistics of how to get 20,000 books to where they need to be. Can you even imagine how many books that is?! I can't, but I suppose we'll soon find out. Who knew logistic management in developing country is a skill I'd acquire in Cameroon? Something more to go on the résumé, I suppose.

Logistics aside, the list of things to do and to think of goes on, and on. The library management training: besides writing the classes, I have to somehow organize all these schools and make sure they send the right people to come to the training. And after I train them, I have to run around and make sure they are implementing what they've learned. This is going to be a pure nightmare.

Let's not forget about the ceremony that I'm suppose to organize.... You see this is why I must go one step at a time? Thinking about it all is driving me into a freak-out moment.

Planning and organizing an event is difficult in the US, the country of efficiency. Imagine doing that in Cameroon - the country of... well, not efficiency. To be honest, I have been fairly lucky and have not ran into too many problems. But it's the sheer volume of things to think about that is becoming far too overwhelming. I suppose this offsets those first few months when I didn't do much... ça va aller...? on espère.

Jesus Party!

The one trait I've strengthened during my time in Peace Corps is to think VERY quickly on my feet to accommodate all sorts of unexpected situations.

Weeks ago, while preparing to begin my second round of business classes, I got approval from the Secretary General at the Mayor's Office to use the meeting space. I delivered a protocol letter with exact dates and time. The Mayor signed it. I got the OK.

Last Friday, Mr. SG told me I need to switch keys with him because there is a church event taking place this week and I would need to use the smaller room. Not a problem. I figured it's just a sort of meeting or another.

Yesterday afternoon, I arrived at the carrefour at 4pm and I found a band set up in front of the building entryway. They were prepared to blare some serious gospel music. I had 30 minutes until my class begin. Oh Crap. If you've ever been to any Cameroonian event, you know when it comes to music, it is about quantity (how loud can we blare it) and not quality. And if you've been into any kind of Cameroonian buildings, you know soundproof does not exist.

For 15 minutes, I walked up and down the carrefour feeling frustrated that no one informed me of the happening. I went into the bank, and my counterpart happens to be the one organizing this event. I asked him if the Mayor knew about this musical glory happening at the same time as my class. He said, "oh yeah". Then I looked at the flyer, and of course it was not clearly stated that there would be a sort of concert taking place at this time. I proceeded to give Mr. SG a call, and naturally, he had no idea of this. Great.

4:25pm. I walked into my class and explained the situation to my students. We decided to rough it out. By closing all the doors, we were able to keep the noise out somewhat, and I carried on teaching them basic accounting. Ironically, the last class was about goals and action plans. So I pointed out how this is a perfect example of poor planning, and they agreed.

I left my class feeling amused and somewhat entertained when I saw all the villagers dancing to the gospel. I am not sure how much gospel they really are absorbing, and how much they are just there for a good time. Either way, the ambiance was fun. And once again, only in Cameroon.

Business Class: Round II

Yesterday began the first session of the business classes in village. I had one heck of a time this time around recruiting students. Perhaps I became too confident and thought word of mouth would do and thus did not attend enough neighborhood meetings. Anyhow, I had only around 15 students during the first class, so I told them if they find someone to sign up for Thursday, I'd pay them 500cfa ($1). I am pretty sure I will be paying money out of my own pocket for this session of classes.

The reasons people give me for not able to attend are quite amusing. A lot say, "I don't have time." and it would be 10am and they are sitting at a bar drinking a beer. Really? Don't have time? Come on. A lot of people say, oh, it's vacation right now, so a lot of people aren't around. People who take vacations are students; ironically, 3/4 of my class right now are students. Even with just 15, the first class was already rewarding. People are often timid during the first session, so it's less fun to teach. I enjoy it far more when there are plenty of interaction among students. These exchanges are very valuable.

Having taught the condensed version with RELUFA in Yaoundé a few weeks ago spoiled me. The level of students are different and it was so much easier and the conversations were much more in depth. Also, it was so well organized for me that all I had to do was show up and teach. This is different. I have to do everything. After all, I am a volunteer for rural development. There is a reason why I've been placed here.

Here's hoping this next round of classes will be smooth and successful!

'c'est comme ça chez nous'

Two weeks ago, I taught a week-long business seminar in Yaoundé, in collaboration with RELUFA, a network aim to reduce poverty in Cameroon. The NGO organized a group of young students who are currently in either high school or university. The seminar is a part of the summer program organized for youth. I had a lot of fun teaching; being the same age as most of these students really help me connect with them.

For this seminar, I condensed the usual 12-session business class into 5 days. Since the students are still in school-mode, I didn't have too much difficulty covering the materials. The kids really got a kick out of the fact I live in a village. I used a lot of examples to illustrate that the mamas selling food on the side of the street also constitutes as an "enterprise". I find it very important to help people realize that businesses start from those small and seemingly insignificant activities.

The interaction in the classroom grew everyday. On day one, everyone was sort of timid, but by the end of the week, I had to interrupt the discussions because people were getting too wild. The reoccurring theme of the week is when I point out the inefficiencies that exist here in Cameroon and the students respond, "mais c'est comme ça chez nous" (that's how it is here). For example, I talk about the going to a restaurant and there is a big menu, but only 3 things on the menu are actually available. Compare to in the US where restaurants have menus thick like a book and 90% of the time, everything on that huge menu is available.

Students in Class

I attempted to help them think differently and change the apathetic attitude of "well, this is Africa." I really believe it's this sort of attitude that prevents countries in Africa from developing. It's a self-fulfilling prophecies of inferiority that must be changed. There are moments during the lecture where the room becomes very quiet, and you can tell the wheels are turning in the heads of these young minds and that I am imparting knowledge that may be changing their lives. Those are very rewarding and powerful moments.

On the last day, one of the students told the coordinator that he would like to make a presentation on a project for me and the class on the last day. So, the coordinator asked me to leave some time for this. But the time came, and there was no presentation at all! The students had organized themselves and bought me a small statue as a token of appreciation. The gesture was really heartwarming and later during feedback, the students said really positive things about the week but most wish the seminar lasted longer than a week.

Group Picture on the Last Day

Each time I teach these classes, I am amazed at what is common sense to most of us is such eye opening knowledge for people here. A large part of these students are in universities studying economics and whatnot, but they told me my classes were so much more practical and they learned more in a week than their entire time in university thus far. I suppose what's the point of learning economic theories if you didn't know keeping good accounting and inventory is important for the survival of a business?

Business Class Success!

My first series of business classes came and gone. Thus far, this marks the most concrete and rewarding project I have completed during my service. Since it was the first time for me, it was immensely helpful having Nura, who have taught the class many times, teaching it with me. She guided me through logistics and tips about managing the class.

I am very pleased with both the turnout of the students and the motivation demonstrated. We taught at the makeshift community center in town and students came from not only Batie, but also neighboring villages. Teaching the class has helped gaining confidence both in my French, and my ability to manage projects and working closely with villagers. Students are very patient with my French and would help me explain concepts or find the words I am searching for. After all, I am (supposedly) the expert in business knowledge, not French.

Through this class, I've also put on my business advising hat and giving some ideas about better improving business/projects, or even at the most basic level, determining whether an idea can work. I studied finance and economics in university, and when I left last May, I didn't think I would ever create financial models again on Excel for a very long time. But surprisingly, I found myself downloading the final exam from my financial modeling course and creating models for village entrepreneurs to determine their break-even points. Now, this may sound pretty simple, but quite the contrary. In school, no one taught me how to determine the expected growth rate or such other factors; they were always given! Also, MACRS depreciation schedule doesn't quite apply au village. Changes are thus adapted to these models. If nothing else, I am glad I am finding a way to apply knowledge from that very expensive and overpriced university education to help some villages in the middle of nowhere Africa.

Overall, quite the success with first series of business class and I look forward to hosting many more and seeking many more motivated individuals to work with!

PS-I shall post pictures in the near future on our "graduation". The students organize a little party with food and everything. Naturally, I had to get my picture taken with every single student and their certificates. They love those certificates!!