Browsing Archive: January, 2013
Posted by Clara on Thursday, January 31, 2013,
Early
on Sunday morning, the power went out in Buea.
Apparently, Sonel (the Cameroonian electricity company) was doing
maintenance for the day in the entire South West region. Rumor had it the lights would be back at 5
pm. Just before 5, we had the first big
rains of the year—usually, the rains don’t come with such intensity until mid
March. Most people I’ve talked to about
the weather attribute the early arrival of the rainy season to climate change. It’s bee... Continue reading ...
Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 26, 2013,
Clara and I are sitting in our living room on Saturday at noon. It has just started drizzling a little bit, a signal that the dry season is slowly shifting into the rainy one. The children who live next door are doing a lot of yelling and crying this morning, and–weirdly enough—the soundtrack to “ The Sound of Music” is wafting through the walls from our neighbor’s television (Clara is thrilled about this unexpected appearance of a childhood/lifelong favorite.) And I’m sitting in... Continue reading ...
Posted by Clara Rowe on Tuesday, January 22, 2013,
A few days ago, Kelly, my ten-year-old neighbor, asked if I could help her with her
science homework. Usually, the visits we
get from kids around the neighborhood are motivated by a love of our pile of
scrap paper and (limited) marker assortment, plus the guarantee their artwork
will get duck-taped to the wall. It was
a nice surprise when Kelly came knocking, school notebook in hand. We sat down together at the table, and Kelly
flipped to a page where she had copied down her assignment:
... Continue reading ...
Posted by Josh on Friday, January 18, 2013,
How do you grow a non-governmental organization? Identify local needs and local resources, and work to fulfill the former while engaging with the latter? Develop strategic objectives and a multi-year plan to see them through?
For the last several weeks, as we have reestablished YAN classes in Buea and felt confident in the teaching that we are engaged in at our 3 local schools, we have started to think about big questions like these. Organizational growth is an exciting thing to think about, b... Continue reading ...
Posted by Clara on Wednesday, January 16, 2013,
On Sunday evening, there was a path of glowing orange
snaking its way down the dark slopes of Mount Cameroon, one of the largest active
volcanoes in Africa. Wikipedia will tell
you that the native name for Mount Cameroon is Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness"), but most people in
Buea seem to refer to it simply as ‘The Mountain.’ Rising 4,040 meters (13,255 feet) from
sea level to peak, the mountain is no small feature. As the
highest peak in West Africa, it attracts attention in ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Josh Nathan on Saturday, January 12, 2013,
Like many teachers anxious about returning to school after a relaxing vacation, we were a bit worried about whether classes would go well this week. However, we have been gratified to find our students engaged and thoroughly excited to see us again and be back to work. At all of our schools, we’ve been greeted by big smiles and happy New Year wishes from students and staff alike. At Lycee Molyko, there was an audible moan of frustration when we told students that they had only 5 minutes of ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Clara Rowe on Tuesday, January 8, 2013,
We’re back in tropical Buea after spending the holidays in
snowy New England! It’s only been two
and half weeks, but there are already new buildings under construction around
town, a new picket fence by the side of the road, and new hit songs on the
radio. (Monday morning we woke up to a
man singing ‘Gangnam Style’ to himself as he mixed cement for the new latrine
going up next door.) Apparently we
changed a bit during these weeks away as well.
The first thing... Continue reading ...
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