Principal Madame Lois looked into the crowd of students (light blue shirts, dark blue shorts or skirts) packed into the cavernous auditorium, waited a moment for semi-silence, and addressed her school through a buzzing microphone.  She explained that clubs are just as important as the classes in maths, chemistry, civics, history, Spanish, French, and English.  Clubs give us the opportunity to develop skills we will use later in life and that allow us to be good ambassadors...

Now hop forward!  Backwards! Forward!  One, two, three, four...twenty!  Good!  Are you with me?  Now step up—no, face the mountain—there, that’s better!  One, two, three, four...twenty!  And squat.  Back straight.  Buttocks lower.  Lower!  Are you with me? Your partner will now place his leg on your shoulder while you raise it up and down while maintaining the squat position.  One, two, three, four…twenty!  Now you rest.   Ok, again.  Are you with me? 

Almost t...

In the next few weeks, President Paul Biya is scheduled to visit our town of Buea (southwest regional capital of Cameroon—hence the visit.)  To prepare for his arrival, the city is receiving something of a makeover—buildings that are too close to the road or deemed unfit to represent the town have been spray-painted with instructions reading ‘demolish before...’ or ‘paint white.’  Other buildings have already have already reached their expiration date and now l...

Our first night in Buea, we slept on a towel on the tile floor of our new house.   That momentous tile floor marked the beginning of our year in Cameroon.  But that tile floor was quite a challenge to get to.

If you rewind from the tile floor, you’ll see us in the back of a taxi from the Douala airport.  We’re slightly dazed, very excited, and simultaneously taking in the midnight view and asking Walters (YAN volunteer extraordinaire) as many questions as possib...