Progress Report

For the past two weeks, I have been visiting schools and communities that I am responsible for between Batié, Bapa and Bandenkop, and checking up on there progress in library readiness.

École Publique de Famgoum I - Batié

École Publique de Sim Tsela - Bandenkop

Much to my surprise, the schools were mostly very engaged and are making significant progress in getting things off the ground. Granted, there were definitely drama. One of the schools had absolutely nothing done even after I gave them a warning a month ago. The principal and the team of administrative were obviously corrupt. During the 5 minutes that I was in the office, they asked me about the computers 3 times. I yelled at them and said, "computers are secondary. This is a project about building libraries, not getting computers. You are off the project." and left.

They were feeding me ridiculous excuses about parents not cooperating, blah blah blah. Which I know is utter nonsense. Between the 10 schools that I am working with, no one has any problems getting the PTA to construct shelves and pay for the in-country transport. The schools are all in the same community, which means there must be an overlap of parents. To feed me that excuse was just stupid. Instead of arguing with the corrupt people, I saved my energy and accepted a wait-list school at the last minute.

If nothing else, executing projects in the Peace Corps definitely requires you to think VERY fast on your feet! All in all, the project is progressing. We submitted the order form for 19,000 books and 7 computers to Books For Africa last week. If all goes smoothly, we should receive the shipment at the end of January! For more pictures and updates, follow our Facebook Page!

This one is too cute! École Publique de Nso'o-Batié (preschoolers!)

Celebrating Old Age

This past weekend my rich neighbor had a BIG fête! My moto guy is a family member of this rich neighbor and they live in the same concession. He informed me of this rare event that occurs only once every 5 years or so - a fête to celebrate the elders in the family that reached 70 years old.

For weeks, the rich neighbor's house have had workers layering bricks on the cement barriers, and all sorts of other work. The event was a 3-day ordeal. Friday evening was the Bamiléké traditional dance where villagers not only got out their outfits, but also the animal skin, horns, the works! Most of the neighbors all gathered to see the event, especially the kids.


The next day, I was invited to the mass ceremony honoring the elders. When they told me mass, I thought they meant we'd all meet and then go to a church. But oh no, how wrong I was. They meant they'll bring the church to their gigantic courtyard - and they did. It was mighty impressive!

The makeshift church - pretty legit looking!

Church Choir was there - all pretty in... pink?

People like my neighbor makes me realize that people here have A LOT of money. However, the distribution of wealth is all off (kind of the case everywhere in the world, right?). My motor guy, Emmanuel, who is a part of the family, does not enjoy any of the wealth and he works all day on his moto and gain a measly pay.

Anyway, I attended the mass and then the big dinner afterward. It would have been fun to stay and dance with people, but with all the guests (more than 500), I was pretty lost among all the people I didn't know. So instead of sticking around, I retired to my house soon after dinner. This is when I really miss having a buffer. When Juliette was in village, we would go to things like this and hang out with each other while have a blast with villagers. Unfortunately without her, it's not quite the same, and doesn't feel as safe...

Rolling Hills of Batié

Last week I visited the schools that I am working with for the Books For Cameroon project to check on their progress. On the way back, my moto guy, Emmanuel, took me on a different path home, and I saw a new side of Batié that I have not seen even after a year here.


The day was gorgeous. The dry season has finally settled, but it's only the beginning, so not too hot. We rode through the rolling hills on his moto and the views are simply breathtaking. Photos absolutely do not do the view justice. I love and hate that because while I am so glad to be able to partake in this incredible nature, I hate not being able to share it in its entirety with others.


This past week, I was getting pretty fed up with life here. After 15 months, I've finally reached a point of "ugh this is enough". The novelty of living without running water and shotty electricity was fun and made good stories to tell - but after 15 months, enough is enough.

I am also tired of not having an active social life, and missing my material possessions, and well, just being with friends and loved ones who get me. Having the holiday season just around the corner certainly does not help. I am not unhappy, but something is certainly missing.

Chances are, this is simply my nomadic personality at work. I have very short attention span with anywhere that I live, so I could be living in London, New York, Paris, or Hong Kong, and I would probably be sick of where ever that I live. This is how I am, and while it's all too easy to blame it on Cameroon and its not-so-comfortable living standards, I must remember that I probably would have the same complaints elsewhere... je suis comme ça...

Being out and about and appreciating the nature certainly helps. I've taken up running in the past few months and I now really enjoy getting out there and take in the nature - likely the last time I will ever find myself living in such rustic beauty.

El Campero

One of my favorite pastime back in the "real world" is to sit at a café alone and people watch. Also the same reason why I love airports. Strangers I do not know are very interesting to watch. Each possesses their own aura and have their individual stories. I can sit for hours watching people and capture their own ordinary life in that moment in time.

Here in Cameroon, I don't have such luxury as Starbucks or other cutesy outdoor cafés. But when I do go into Bafoussam for various errands, I always stop by El Campero - white people's favorite bar in Akwa. When I'm alone, this becomes the closest equivalent to an outdoor café. I usually order some brochettes and friend plantain, then sit with my bottle of coke and watch people pass.

There are always people walking around with items on their heads that they are trying to sell. We call this activity, "bar shopping". You sit at a bar, and when people pass, you browse at their items to see if there are anything interesting to buy. It ranges from food (peanuts, prunes, fruits, etc) to handbags, shoes, pirated DVDs, magazines, electronics - you name it, and there are probably someone who sells it. Sometimes if you are really looking for something specific, you can tell one vendor, and he/she will pass the words on to whomever selling the item you are looking for. Definitely one of the more amusing and rare bar activities.

Ghilain & moi on my Birthday this year

When I'm alone at El Campero, I'm pretty at ease. One of the ladies at the bar, Ghilain, is a good friend to all of us white people. When she's working, we always hang out and have a good chat. Since El Campero is the bar of choice for us, I often run into others while sitting there - Americans, French, etc. We always order food from the vendors around - salad shack, grilled fish, brochettes, friend plantains, etc. and then gather here. El Campero is a fun place and many a fun gathering have occurred at this very bar.

Radio on TV!

Two weekends ago, the Cameroon's national football (soccer) team was playing the final qualifying match against Morocco for the World Cup. The number one national sport in this country is drinking beer, and the second is watching football, while drinking beer. Naturally, this was a big deal.

I headed to Dschang to hand out with Clotilde, a French girl I know. Dschang is a really fun university town about an hour or so from me. Somehow I managed to spend 15 months in the west region of Cameroon and never made it out there, so on this day, I decided to finally pay a visit.

I arrived just in time for the match to begin. We crowded in a typical Cameroonian bar ready to watch the match on TV. I've mentioned before that while I am not a fan of football, I am a fan of watching guys watching football. And Cameroonian football fans are quite entertaining in their own special ways.

The game began, yet all you see on TV was the words: Cameroun # Maroc. And the broadcaster was relating the game in gibberish that supposedly was French. After a bit of confusion, I understood that apparently the Cameroonian national television (CRTV) did not purchase the rights of image broadcasting.

Now, imagine that. I was impressed on how calm people were. While they were disappointed, their reaction was more of a "on va faire comment?" (well what are you gonna do?) Imagine Superbowl Sunday with no image broadcasting? Serious riots would go down. I did thoroughly enjoy the comments from the men, "well, it's like in the 1960's when we had to crowd around the radio and then translate to people who didn't speak French." or "welcome to Cameroon, we have Radio on TV!"