Back in January, our students wrote descriptions of ‘how things are done in Cameroon,’ and then learned how to share these on the YAN Facebook page.  You may remember some of the topics—how to take a taxi, how to buy goods at the market, how to cook a traditional meal, how to prepare for a soccer game, how the education system works…

The beauty of these descriptions was that they gave students the opportunity to write authoritatively about activities they knew, ...

“We are students at GHS Buea Town, and are here to present a project about water pollution,” Kennedy said, gazing into the camera 4 feet in front of him and trying simultaneously to remember his lines but also look like he was reciting them fluidly and effortlessly. “Water pollution is a major problem in Buea today. People wash all sorts of things, like cars and clothing, in streams that run down from the mountain. Then, people who live downstream carry the polluted ...

Last week, Green Cameroon, an NGO located just down the street from us, put on ‘Green Week,’ a series of environmentally themed lectures, workshops, films, etc. Each day a different topic was addressed: water resources, pollution, agriculture, deforestation.  At the end of the week, participants were invited to join roundtable discussions on each topic with the aim of identifying relevant problems and proposing solutions to be shared with the local council. (We even ha...

Hello to our readers in the United States, Cameroon, and elsewhere! It’s been ages since our last post—over a month, I think, which is way too long—but now that the Easter break is over, we’re excited to be back in action here in Buea.

Clara and my first week back has proven to be a good one. Our neighbors and friends in Buea Town have been stopping us on the road to greet us all week long, and—especially for Clara, who has been out of Cameroon since early March—we’ve been...