Fast Food

No McDonalds hasn’t made its way to Cameroon, at least not yet nor has any other fast food chain, American or even Cameroonian. But alas there is food available here on the go and ready to eat- hot, cold, and in between. Now you won’t see hamburgers and fries with a milkshake anytime soon (at least not unless you are in the capital city and willing to spend more than 3x what you usually do on a meal) but sometimes the ‘fast food’ can really hit the spot.

Fast food can be found in many different situations. My personal favorite is when you are travelling. Instead of you driving up to a drive thru window, the food here actually comes to your window. Yep. As you travel and stop at different towns/villages along the way or even toll stops, children, women, adults will run up to the vehicle shouting whatever food they are selling. You pass the money to them and they pass the food- although you do need to be quick sometimes as you may not actually stop all the long and then the vendor will be chasing after the vehicle. Food sold in this manner various depending on the season and the region/road you are traveling on. Where I travel most, right now you often see oranges, baton de manioc (cassava), peanuts and beignets. But other places, like when I travel to the capital, you can get pineapple, mandarins, coconut, even meat.

Now for when you are not traveling but just around in town, there are two kinds of fast food. There is food that for the most part is available during the day either being sold in a particular location- like a vendor near the market- or you can see a child selling food just walking down the street. These kinds of food include: beignets, ‘popsicles’, yogurt, peanuts, hardboiled eggs, baton, croquettes (like hard beignet-ish snack), oranges, beans, ‘street meat’ (soya- meat on a stick). Then if you want something more like a meal rather than a snack, if you wait till the evening, women come out and prepare food on the side of the street. Some popular dishes include omelets (particularly spaghetti omelets- delish), roasted fish and baton or plantains, and bouillie.

I would say other than the obvious difference (choice of food), another big difference is that this food isn’t available 24/7 like some places back home. It can be very hit or miss- you may be really craving a particular vendor’s beans and beignets but maybe that day they are not there or all of the food is already gone. Another hit or miss can be the quality/cleanliness of the food. I would say the best thing is to find a few vendors you like and you trust to best ensure you don’t get sick later. And even then, you can never tell so be careful what you eat, particularly when traveling and thus stuck in a car.

Trash Talk

So this is actually something I didn’t really even think about before coming but learned quickly about after arriving- trash disposal or more so lack thereof.

When we all first arrived back in June, our firstfew days were spent in Yaounde in a hotel and honestly it did not seem all too far removed from life in America. But soon we were all with our homestay families in Bafia. And I rememberafter our first night with our host families, we all came together to discuss how things had gone and thought training continued to share experiences about life with our families. One issue that quickly came up that many of us seemed to share concerns about was ‘what the heck do we do with our trash?’ It seemed as though trash cans did not exist. And I know personally in my home, there was not a single trash can. Now for food, okay I can understand throwing that in the yard particularly if you are cooking outside to begin with. But I had no clue what to do with paper or plastic items. During training, I think other people found ways to dispose of their own trash. For me- well rather than ask my host family, I realized that there were trash cans at our training building so about once a week Iwould take me trash there to throw away. Now that may seem ridiculous and it kind of was but really even now the question still remains- what do you do with trash?

A sign in Banyo saying not to dump trash....

... And this is the area directly behind the sign...in case you can't tell, there's lots of trash and it al goes right into a stream

Trash really is a big issue in my town although I’m sure if youasked someone in my community about it they may not have a clue. In Banyo, there is no organized trash collection or disposal system. People literally just throw trash anywhere and thus trash is everywhere. Part of the problem stems from the fact that people love littleplastic bags and literally every time they buy anything they get another plastic bag that they then have to get rid of. Therefore, plastic bags are all over Banyo. At home, I think most families just dump their trash if not in their yard then in some larger area that maybe many people throw trashin. And maybe they are trying- maybe thinking that they are disposing of it in a common area like everyone else. However, the biggest problem is that more often than not this ‘common dumping areas’ are right next to water sources such as small streams. Some of these areas are so full of trash that it is quite disgusting and smelly just to pass.

One of the worst smelliest places to pass in Banyo

Every now and then you do see burning the trash. However, walking around town and seeing huge trash piles burning can also be quite stinky and smoky. But really what is there to do? I know the past health volunteer here has tried to educate about the environment and trash disposal but it is difficult. I think the best solution I have heard and what I personally do is I have a hole in my yard that I throw my trash inand then every couple of weeks I burn the trash. But really, the potential to address the trash issue in Banyo is exponential. There is so much that could be done but at the same time it would be a huge project. But hopefully, crossing fingers, Banyo will have an agro volunteer who could possibly focus on environmental education and trash.

Some trash burning in between some houses

Burning trash in my yard

National Bilingualism Week 2011

Cameroon is one of a few countries in the world that is officially bilingual- English and French are the two official languages and as such Camerooniansare encouraged to be fluent in both languages. The country has 10 regions- 2 Anglophone regions (regions that were colonized by Britain) and 8 francophone. Therefore, there are Anglophones (English speakers) and Francophones (French speakers). Personally, I think that Anglophones are much more inclined to be fluent in both languages (since they are more so forced to be familiar with French because the majority of the population speaks French including the president). And for Francophones, there is this overwhelming thought that English is very difficult to learn and particularly with students, they fall back on the common saying ‘c’est dieu qui donne l’angais’ as an excuse for not trying in English class. To encourage and embrace both languages, Cameroon celebrates National BilingualismWeek and in fact we just celebrated this past week. For this week, there is a lot of emphasis to celebrate and put on all kinds of activities for this week particularly in schools since schools are where Cameroonians would be learning to speak either English or French. This year’s theme was ‘Quality bilingualism, a window to professionalism/Un biliguisme de qualite, une ouverture au professionalisme’

A poster made by a student with the week's theme

In Banyo, the first part of national bilingualism week was to encourage everyone at school to speak English all week long (our school being Francophone, we were to embrace the other language but for example, at the bilingual school, the Anglophone teachers and students were to speak French). Of course this isn’t really easy to carry out, so our school planned all kinds of other activities. We held different competitions for different grades levels. For example, sixieme students could write a poem (in English of course) entitles ‘Cameroon my beloved country’ or terminale students could write a newspaper article of their choice. We also had a poster competition for all students- the best poster to promote bilingualism. Wednesday there was a roundtable discussion held at the Bilingual lycee in which a panel of teachers and other professionals spoke about bilingualism and addressed the theme for the week. Students from all three lycees attended the event.

Roundtable discussion

Some of my students who attended

Then Thursday was the big final celebration at our school. Classes ended early and all students were invited to attend the bilingualism week party. Different students (particularly from English club) presented different things like poems, dances and songs to administration and students. Then at the end, we gave out awards to students and staff such as the ‘Most bilingual student’.

A group dancing for the celebration

I think the week was a bit of a success- at least I think students enjoyed getting out of school early but what student wouldn't enjoy that. There is a still a lot to be done to help people, especially students, speak both languages particularly English- guess that's part of why I'm here though right?

Amicale- The Trip

AMIPELB: Amicale Personnel Lycee de Banyo

(this is on the front of our matching tracksuits)

Ok I have been waiting to talk about Amicale for a while but after this weekend, I think it is a good time to write about it.

Now if you are familiar with French, then maybe when you hear ‘amicale’ you think of amitie or friendship which is where this word comes from. Amicale is in the simpliest way like a group or more so extended family for teachers. Most lycees in Cameroon have an Amicale group. The group at my school meets the first Friday evening of every month. The meeting agenda usually has 5-7 topics: welcome, review of last meeting’s minutes, finances, family updates, outside activities, word from the administration. Then after all the talking, there is food and a drink for everyone. Now this might seem all simple and straightforward and even I thought it was too in the beginning. But there is so much more to it.

In the beginning of the year, a listwas posted with all the Amicale members broken into groups (one group for each month). So one group of about 4 teachers ‘hosts’ the meeting (with one of those actually having the meeting in their house)- if youare male, hosting means you give money to purchase food but if you are a female, you give money but also cook all the food- as I discovered during the first meeting as I was in the first group to host. I had to go to the market and buy all the food and then help cook all of it which you start cooking in the morning maybe like 8 or 9 and continue through the meeting until it’s time to eat. For the first meeting, we started around 5pm and atearound 9pm.

Outside of the food, there is the actual meeting. So I have already mentioned some of the topics, but I’ll talk a little more about some of them. Finances- some of this is basic like you have to pay to go to the meeting (for the food anddrink) but then there are all kinds of other ‘accounts’ you could call them. Here’s a break down of them:

Tontine- this is like a rotating savings kind of. There are 3 different ones at my school (25,000CFA, 10,000, and 5,000). This group is optional. If you participate, then every month you give that amount and one person in the group gets all the money and obviously it changes every month. It’s a way for people toget large amounts of since most people at least in Banyo don’t have savings.

Secours- This is like an emergency account that youcan give money to if you choose to. The money that is collected is used to help other members- like if someone has a baby or maybe someone is sick or something of that nature.

Savings- There is another savings account that you can give to and I believe you earn interest. This is also optional. This money is also available for members to borrow money from and I think you pay back with interest (hence how those who give to itwould get extra money back in the end).

Now some of the other topics discussed at this meeting certainly involve issues going on at the school but also activities outside of school. For example, the first couple of meetings, there were long debates about track suits- yes matching track suits for the teachers- so we had to discuss color and style of course. And now you may wonder why would teachers need matching track suits- which brings me to the next part of Amicale- also the reason I finally decided to write about it- the trip.

Back of our matching outfits

So one thing Amicale groups do is pair up with other lycee’s Amicale groups. Well last year apparently my school hosted another school so this year it was our turn to visit their school. The trip would be for a weekend in January. And now you would think- okay a weekend trip obviously can’t be that long because school goesuntil the afternoon Friday and obviously starts back Monday morning so this school must be in a near by town. Oh no,not at all. Our Amicale group planned to go to Bafang- in a completely other region- the West. The trip was this past weekend, and now it was a lot of fun, but let me definitely tiring. We left Friday, got to Bafang at like 7am Saturday and went straight intoactivitiesuntil like 3am Sunday, then left Sunday late morning and got to back home extremely late. I think it would be like the equivalent of going from Virginia to Florida for lessthan 48 hours- yep. But so it works like this- we pay for our transportation (like rent cars for the weekend) and then the hosting school plans all the events and food and housing.

Friday we had a set time to leave and but of course left actually 3 hours later. I came on time (I don’t know why) and I think I finally knew what I had gotten into when the principal showed up with a whistle and another teacher came with a horn both of which could be heard the entire trip. But like I said, it was fun (except the traveling). Although I was exhausted even when we arrived, the other school welcomed us with songs and hugs in their matching track suits. They had planned a full day for us starting by visiting the prefet and sous-prefet of Bafang. Then we got to visit their lycee. After that we saw some more sites of Bafang- a waterfall and the chefferie- all of this before noon. In the afternoon, we finally got to shower and rest some. Another female teacher was my host, so I went with her and met her family and stayed in her home. After some rest, it was time for sport. We all came our own matching track suits and while the women didn’t actually play, we did support on the side. There was a handball match and then the big football match. After the games, my host came back to the field to pick me up (she had been cooking for the evening). When we arrived back at her house, I asked her how much time we had before dinner- the program had said 7pm- she responded ‘oh 8 or 9’- I was shocked – thinking that it was just so late and I was already tired but oh well. So I took a nap and didn’t actually even wakeup till after 8 (when she woke me up). But we got cleaned up and dressed and went to the hotel de villefor the ‘gala’. I think it was about 10 when we finally arrived. Dinner was served closer to 11 and then the party really got started. To open up dancing, there is always a first dance with all the important people and someone pairs up males and females. The dance is really awkward but only lasts about 30 seconds. After the opening dance with the principals and prefet and such, the floor was open for everyone and everyone was dancing all over the place. I think some even danced till morning- there were still a lot of people going when I left around 3am.

Line up before the football match Dancing, dancing

Me with the teacher who hosted me

The next morning, we were scheduled to leave at 7:30am but of course when you count African time in, it was more like 10am. We were so late getting back, I knew almost no one would be at school the next day and sure enough, maybe 4 or 5 teachers came (most of who were not on the trip and hence not tired). And now Tuesday, 2 days later, I think some teachers are still recovering but it certainly was a trip unlike any other I have or probably will take in Cameroon and I am already looking forward to the next Amicale trip.

School Part 2: Paperwork

OK so this entry may not be that appealing, but I thought I would write about all the paperwork that’s involved with being a teacher since it is a big part of what I do and takes quite some time. Now being a teacher even in America involves paperwork however, there are some differences. Like last year for instance around this time while practicum teaching, I would take attendance and record grades and although I would have hard paper copies of records, the primary way of tracking everything was electronic. As you can imagine, posting grades online so that students can check at home is not quite an option here. In fact, everything is paper-based and hand recorded. Now I know computers and internet have not always been around and that teachers in America usedto do everything paper-based but I don’t think that people would really comprehend until they actually had to do it. So I will give a general break down of some of the paper-work at school. And keep in mind that although this is all about school, just imagine how all kinds of other establishments keep records here without regular use of computers (there are computers here but not everywhere or as common as back home)

Daily Paperwork:

As a teacher on a daily basis there are two important books that must be completed: Cahier de texte (log book) and the registred’appel. The cahier de texte is one big book that every teacher is to write a summary of every lesson they do. Each class has their own cahier that stays in the classroom. As the teacher comes in, at the end they are to fill in the cahier in their section (it’s broken down by subjects) with the date, time, how many hours, what they taught and their signature. This book is important because wheninspectors come to the school, they look through the book to see what has been going on. And as I’ve heard before, if you don’t write it down, it’s like it never happened.

Cahier for the class I oversee- lovely pink

In addition to the cahier de texte, the registre d’appel is also to be completed every class and usually stays with the cahier (so again there is one for every class that is usually in the classroom). This book has a roster of all the students in the front with their numbers. Then all the pages have carbon copies. This book is how attendance is monitored. Every class period the teacher is supposed to call roll (usually you just call the numbers rather than names of students). If there is no teacher and aka no class, a student will usually call roll for that period. At the end of the day, the original is torn out and turned in to an administrator while the copy stays in the book. And for report card time (I don’t know for sure as I’ve never seen it) but I would imagine that someone has to go through by hand to calculate how many absents a student has.

Registre d'appel for my class

So in addition to these two books, there are report cards to fill. School here is broken down into 3 trimesters with 6 sequences (2 to a trimester). Usually around week four or five of a sequence, teachers start giving exams. Which that also involves lots of paperwork. And this I know teachers even in America have to deal with- grading or as they say here ‘marking’ exams. But something that does take more time is the actual administering of the exam- no photocopies here unless you want to pay for it yourself which with almost 200 students I don’t think you want to. So instead I write my exams on the blackboard. Then after all the marking and returning of exams, it’s time to fill report cards. There is a huge book- bulletin de notes- and again each class has one (if aclass is super small, maybe two classes will be in one book). These books are kept in the vice principal’s office. There are again original pages and then carbon copy pages. A teacher is in charge of every class and at the beginning of the year, that teacher must go through the bulletin de notes and write every students name in order along with their date and place of birth (I have a sixth grade class with 65 students- it was a lot of fun trying to ask them their birthdates and write everything in 5 times each). Then when it is around the end of the sequence, all the teachers who have taught that particular class will check the book out from the vice principal to begin filling grades. A teacher must write their name, the students’ grade, the coefficient (basically the weight or credit of the class), the coefficient times the grade, then comments and signs. Once all the teachers of various subjects have filled their grades, the teacher in charge of that class must do averages and rankings. So for example, once I see that all the teachers have written in grades for my sixth grade class, I take the book home and have to go through adding up every student’s grades, finding their average, ranking them, then writing comments and signing every report card- took about 3 hours the first time. Then I also have to hand back all the report cards and deal with any miscalculations or errors (which obviously do occur when you are trying to add and average so many different grades). The bulletins de notes are kept at the school all year long and throughout the years as obviously they are the only record of a student’s work.

You can't quite even tell how big this book is here but on the left you can see the a sample report card- notice to the far right it's filled out with lots of red- this student didn't do well

Well those are the biggest and most time consuming items to be filled, but there are still a few other forms that are filled out every time (such as how many hours you taught each class, how many students passed, failed, etc). Oh and did I forget to mention also that for all paperwork, certain colored pens are to be used- yes. Mostly blue for the cahier de texte and registre d’appel. For the report cards, you use blue if the student passed but red if the student failed. Just one more thing that makes filling out paperwork fun- having to switch back and forth between colored pens.

Christmas in Cameroon

So I am still here- things have been busy the last few weeks so in this post I will take some time to update on life here in Cameroon.

I am no longer the newest person in the area- my post mate finished her two years and now not only did I get a new post mate but 2 other volunteers opened 2 new posts in the area- all 3 are health volunteers but now the west Adamawa area is really growing- there are 6 of us- very exciting.

The new improved and enlarged West Adamawa group

School has been going well- we are into the 3 sequence (there are a total of 6). The younger classes are still somewhat challenging there being over 60 students in each one and of course12 year olds do enjoy chatting.We are obviously on break right now for the holidays- 2 weeks just like in the states. And actually I even missed the entire last week before break- not for vacation though- for IST.

Yes IST or in-service training. This is a weeklong training thatall volunteers do after being at post for 3 months- yep already been here in Banyo actuallyover 3 months so I had to go for IST and meet back up with the rest of my stage or group that I trained with in the summer. Our training was at Kribi- one of the better known beaches in Cameroon. And I must say although you would think a week at the beach sounds like fun it really wasn’t. I was gone for 11 days and of those 11, 6 were spent in vans and agencevehicles traveling. In fact it took just 3 days to get to the beach to begin with. And once I did make it to the beach, we all had training everyday until 5 so beach time was rather limited. But despite the traveling and long days, it was super nice to re-group with everyone and hear about everyone’s experiences so far. It was really a great time to share and be with other people who understand what life is like here.

Kribi

So after IST, I had some errands to run in the capital on my way back home to Banyo. Picked up lots of packages with Christmas and birthday gifts- thanks family! And even made a visit to my host family in Bafia- caught upwith them and even got some pineapple which Bafia is known for their pineapple so that was a nice treat. Then I finally made it back to Banyo after a 16 hour trip from Bafoussam (I swear every time I make the trip, somehow it takes longer and longer). But even though I was back, things didn’t slow down- there was Christmas!

For Christmas, I had lots of cooking and of course decorating and presents. I got to spend some time with other Americans like some of the volunteers in the area and even some of their families who came to visit and even went out to the missionaries for Christmas dinner. Overall Christmas was very enjoyable here but I did miss my family and “It’s a Wonderful Life” if anyone would care to send that for Christmas next year,it would be much appreciated.

My house decorated for Christmas-snowflakes, stockings, Christmas tree. Also the one time of year when the chimney is actually quite perfect.

So now I have one week left or a little less before school starts back up. And of course New Year’s is still coming up. I think I have gotten a few invites to events for New Year’s so hopefully that will also be a fun holiday celebration. In the meantime, I will be trying to catch up on pretty much everything and hopefully not only catch up but get something other things done in preparation for the coming weeks- I’ve got 2 trips to make to the capital in the next 2 months, lots of fetes and birthdays, the GRE and of yes of course work here. Busy busy but I am still really enjoying everything. Time is still flying- already over half a year in Cameroon- crazy.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Holidays!

Fete de Mouton

So another Muslim holiday has come- fete de mouton or "festival of sacrifice". This fete comes approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan. The big thing for this holiday is the killing or sacrificing of a sheep (in commemoration of Abraham's sacrifice of a ram for God). People have been preparing for this fete for a while- hence the sheep all over the place. And apparently most holidays for Muslims here (like Ramadan and this one) involve celebrating over three days although I'm not quite sure what exactly occurs during those days. I did though see festivities for 2 days this time.

Things started Wednesday. First and foremost- no school- yay! So instead of going to school, I went to see the prayer for fetede mouton. All Muslim men (boys) go out to this huge field outside of town to prayer (there is a particular prayer for the fete). Hundreds of men came out and my postmate and I were not only the only white people but the only women (when I asked I was told the women 'don't want to come'however I believe they are more so not allowed to come to the prayer because usually the women are separated from the men during prayer so that wouldn't be possible in the open field). But yes my postmate and I went and even got to sit on chairs under a tent with thebigwigs of the area (they also came to watch even though they are not muslim so it wasn't too weird to just watch everyone pray).

Poor little sheep waiting to be sacrificed right after the prayer

The prayer altogether lasted maybe 5 minutes. Then the first sheep sacrifice was given at the field although a bunch of kids and people stood around so I wasn't actually able to see that although I did see the poor sheep before he was gone. After the prayer, we went back into town and waited to be invited to some fetes.

Men praying on the left and then me with my friend right after the prayer

In the afternoon, some of our friends invited us out for a drink (soda- they don't drink alcohol) and to my surprise they showed up with an entire meal- they brought igname (kind of like potatoes but not- really almost no flavor), rice, tomato sauce, bread and of course- mouton (sheep). Then directly after eating with them, I came home and my neighbor was feting as well and invited me to eat more food and more sheep. They had killed their sheep earlier in the day so I was kind of glad I wasn't around for that - although I did see the blood still on the ground and the lovely skin of the animal hanging on the wall. Oh and my neighbor said she would show me the head...still waiting to see that...

Skin from the sheep my neighbors killed...still on the wall right now by the way

So Wednesday was prayer, sacrifice and lots of food. Then today there were more festivities- although not as extensive. And unfortunately there was school. But then this afternoon- surprise- there was fantasia again! Who knew! So I went out this afternoon and stood with everyone to see the horses and also try not get trampled when one goes loose. And this fantasia was even more fun than the one for Ramadan because I got to see a bunch of students and other people I knew.

Overall fete de mouton was a success and I can't wait for Ramadan and fete de mouton to come again next year. I already know I will miss these holidays when I get back home-nothing like them there.

Yay- Fantasia again!