Lots of news, including school and a disaster of a trip

I have just read my last blog entry and realised how long it's been since I wrote! Apologies, but I've been working really hard over the last while and we had a trip a few weeks ago that left us all exhausted for a few days. Hopefully I will manage to remember everything I need to.

However, this is a mammoth post to get everything covered!

First of all, I have started teaching at ABC (Acha Baptist College) and I love love love it!!! It was a bit strange as I was more nervous about starting that than I have been about doing any of the other stuff that I do out here, even though I know teaching better than most of the things I do here. ( I mean I basically had to google "accounting" and teach myself what the books should look like.) However, I really enjoy it, especially my Form 1 class. It's really weird thinking about English in such a technical way and I have to check out lots of grammar stuff. I'm pretty good at English and I read a lot, but I have to be able to explain why words are in a certain order and know lots of grammatical terms that I never really had to know before. There are 64 children in my Form 1 class and about 57 in my Form 2 class, and the numbers are growing every few days. The style of teaching used here is VERY chalk and talk, and we've kinda moved away from that, so the way I teach is very different to what the children experience in their other classes and they respond well to that. I let them write on the board, which they literally can't believe and they completely lose the run of themselves when I allow them to pass the chalk on to someone else rather than me picking someone. It's really fun, and now that they've had me for a few weeks, they've gotten over the fact that I'm white (for the first 3 days, only five children actually spoke loudly enough for me to hear them) and they're pretty good now.

It is quite challenging in a way because the ability of the children is so incredibly varied, because of the different standards in the various primary schools, and because of the differing levels of attendance primary school students, and this is all in addition to the usual amount of mixed abilities that teachers encounter in every classroom all over the world. I really enjoy the teaching though and the kids are just so full of personality! It's reassuring to know that all over the world children are the same. I think there is a notion that because education is less accessible in the developing world, all children really want to go to school and learn but it's good to see that children are children everywhere, and there is the same mix of students who love school, and who don't love it so much, of students who always have their homework done, and those who forget things, of children who always pay attention and who prefer to chat to their friends beside them. It's just that education is so important in helping some of these children out of the extreme poverty that are growing up in, and to create a better life for them and for their children.

One thing that is a little strange is that every week the children do what's called "manual labour" which basically means that the clean the school and the school grounds, including cutting the grass, which is done here with machetes. So once a week I face into my class with every student having a deadly weapon under their chair, which was a bit disconcerting for a while, but I've gotten used to it now.

Most of the other teachers are pretty nice, even though I don't spend too much time in the staff room, as my two classes every day are scheduled one after the other, so that I can still do all of my other work. It means I can just arrive, teach and go, although I do stay over lunchtime on Thursdays. Plus I have Friday off, which is good if I want to do any travelling.

Having said that, teachers still beat children in school here, and this Monday I witnessed it because one teacher brought in a student to the staffroom, and then hit him. I had never really liked that teacher, and couldn't figure out why, but I guess my instinct was right. And the student did nothing wrong, he was finishing taking notes down from the board, and then when he was finished got up to leave because he doesn't even do biology, so they go off to another room to work on their other subjects, but the teacher told him to sit down, then made him come into the staffroom, and proceeded to hit him right in front of me. I was sick to my stomach, and the teacher is only about 5 minutes older than the student, and unqualified so clearly uses his position as their teacher to pick on other kids, because obviously the student can't hit back. I complained him to Max, who is the discipline master, and I don't care how unpopular it makes me with him, I am going to officially complain about him any time I see that, and if speaking to Max doesn't stop him, then I will go to the principal. I know that officially in ABC they're not supposed to hit the kids, and there's a disciplinary protocol, which he didn't follow, because I WILL NOT stand by and do nothing. That teacher makes my skin crawl!

Anyway, on to more pleasant things.

So obviously, there has been so much activity lately getting everything ready for the children to go back to school, organising books and schoolbags and uniforms and everything else they need. It's lots of fun buying all of those bits and pieces, and getting the children to come in so we can give them all of their things. We have been giving rice and palm oil, but now I've been able to convince the rev that we should buy vegetables every week instead, because they are more expensive, and every family will buy rice and palm oil, but they wouldn't necessarily buy vegetables. Plus it means that I can give lots of business to Emmanuel who runs the gardening projects, and who helped me out a lot with the orphanage in Fundong, because he has a stall at market and he really does have the most delicious vegetables there, so it's nice to be able to help him out too.

I've been doing tons of admin which has been pretty tedious, but it's all worked out, because the books are accurate, and everything is documented properly. We're even going to open a bank account specifically for the CSP, so then EVERYTHING will be totally transparent and that's the big thing that I'm worried about here. I don't know if I'll ever get the other parts of the organisations financials sorted out but it's more the CSP, as people are donating for specific things there, rather than just donating to the organisation for general funds, but this month there is lots of cash left over in the children's accounts which is good in case an emergency comes up.

The week before last I also started the garden project at the orphanage in Fundong. I will post some pictures (I took about a million). It was brilliant to finally get it rolling because it had been in the pipeline for so long, but we had to wait to get the beds cleared and for the children to come back. It was brilliant to see how excited they got and obviously some of them are not as into gardening as others, but for the most part they got really stuck in. And then when they realised that we were taking pictures, they were all really enthusiastic. One of the funniest things was when we let them taste the herbs that we had brought with us, because we tasted the basil and mint and so then they wanted some too. Of course, we thought it was delicious, but the look on their faces said that they thought it was anything but! I also spoke to some of the children about the youth home project. It's such a big one but hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of work done on that proposal next week, because the September reports should be ready to go on Sunday evening.

Tomorrow I start my teacher training project, which has the potential to suck the will to live out of me. I have heard the stories of Cameroonian workshops and they do not auger well for that, but myself and the platonic husband are off to Bamenda for chicken dinner and a beer for what has commonly been dubbed "date night" which was planned especially so that if the whole thing ever seemed too horrendous, at least I would have that to look forward to. But the big thing is that any teacher doing my course is not allowed to hit a child so if there are 12 teachers doing the course and there are about 60 students per class then that's a whole lot of kids who won't be getting beaten at school, so it'll be worth me running the course for a few hours every month. I'm not really nervous about it, which is surprising me, but I have done lots of work for it so that I do really know what I'm talking about, or at least so that I can soundlike I do.

Because the other two who work in the org are also teaching but at different times than me, I have gained loads of independence, and I'm also now quite au fait with how things work here now, which I love, cos while I needed the help for a while, it was getting a bit suffocating, even though they do really mean well, so that's great, and I really like the atmosphere in the office now, especially I have very definitely drawn a boundary between the office and my palace which is now more comfy because we had lost power on Saturday night and all Sunday, so myself and Daniel fashioned a couch out of a load of spare mattresses, before doing a crazy celebration dance on our verandah when the power came back in time for us to watch a movie, which as you can imagine, caused much amusement to the locals passing by on our road.

This week was really good in another way too. About ten days ago two children came into the office with the toughest story I've encountered yet. (There are lots of awful stories here but his was the first that made me fill up with tears. I'm hoping that makes me strong enough to do this job rather than hard.) Both of his parents are dead, his family is scattered all over Cameroon, he and a sister live with his grandparents who are really elderly, and his grandfather is bedridden, so Honest has to even carry him to go to the toilet. They have a tiny farm that gives them little bit of food, but there is literally no money there. I mean he couldn't even afford pens for school, which is only 100 CFA (15c) at the moment. So obviously there was no money for school fees so since he finished school last year he has not been at school but has been working at timber felling and carpentry. He's only 14, and he's a little dote. I have sponsored his uniform and his exercise books. Only about a third of my students have text books so I'm not worrying about that too much, but he can't start in school unless he has copies. And I negotiated with the principal of our school, who is a very nice lady, and I managed to get him into school. So yesterday there he was, proud as punch in my Form 1 class, to give me yet another reason to look forward to teaching them. He seems to be very bright too, as he answered more questions correctly than some of the kids who have been in my class all along. That's a bonus as I was thinking that getting him into school would at least be a chance to just be a normal kid like everyone else, but he's very enthusiastic and sharp as a tack!

So that's work. In terms of other fun stuff:

A few weeks ago, we all planned a trip to Foumban, which is the biggest Moslem town in Cameroon, or so it is touted. It was the end of Ramadan, and there was parades and processions and horse racing through the streets, and it was all happening on the Friday morning. So in typical fashion for us lot, we arrived on Friday afternoon! We rocked up to the hotel, dropped off our bags and went for food and a beer and then asked to be directed towards where the festivities were taking place. To be met with blank faces. At which point I figured my poor French was letting us down again, until I asked again, to be told that we'd missed everything. Except, it would appear, the celebrations!!! So well what else could we do but roll up our sleeves and get stuck in! We were in a really good bar that was really fun, and we all went plus a really cool Chilean guy who the rev had had out to Belo couchsurfing (I never thought I'd see "the rev" and "couchsurfing" in the same sentence, but he's full of surprises!) and we had so much fun. It was so relaxed and the rain was pouring down outside and Moslems for some reason do THE best street meat, so sporadically, someone would be despatched across the street to come back with a package for us, and we just stayed in having the craic and a few drinks hanging out on really comfy couches. Then we went across the road to our hotel which was a really basic hotel with no running water, so when you wanted to flush the toilet you had to go downstairs and haul up a bucket and showers were pretty horrific etc, but the beds were really comfy. It was above the busiest bar in town though, so obviously myself and Daniel stayed up the latest, (cos we're hardcore, man!), although honourable mention to Simon and Zeph (which might not have been so wise as I'll explain in a minute) who did at least come to the bar with us for a while. We even had a balcony where we took our last drinks at the end of the night to people watch which was really fun. But it would appear that the people of Foumban follow a sort of Islam-lite because they love to party. We would come downstairs at 11 in the morning, and they'd be pounding back the beers. We learned later that the Fon of the area didn't like that you couldn't drink if you were Moslem, and didn't like the fact that you could only have one wife if you were Christian, so he created a special hybrid brand of religion, so that they could drink and marry as many wives as they like!

So far, so good (well apart from missing the things we had actually gone there to see!). It's a bit touristy there which we couldn't understand because the end of Ramadan is supposedly the busiest time of the year, and we only saw 4 other white people the whole time we were there, so we still haven't managed to figure out why EVERY person you meet is an artisan and tries to sell you a mask or pipe or trinket, and Cameroonians might travel a bit but they are not big shoppers. So the next morning we went for delicious food, and reconvened in the hallway ready for some serious palace-visiting. However, because our hotel was above the busiest bar in town, the place was playing music really loudly until about half five in the morning, and then started sorting the bottles at about quarter to six. Myself and Daniel had drawn an exact balance between drinking enough beer to allow us to fall asleep, but not enough to give a hangover, but none of the others are as smart as us, so even though we stayed out later than everyone else, we still got more sleep than anyone. (Yes, sometimes our necks get sore from carrying around our big brains!) Now usually the worst result of this is that people are a bit tired and ratty, but Zeph is an epileptic who needs six hours of sleep for her drugs to be effective. She was here before and had to go home because she kept having seizures and having to go to hospital because they had changed her dosage for her meds, so she could take malaria meds, but they got it wrong. So about ten minutes after we left the hotel, Zeph had a seizure. I have seen a few of them in school, and this one was a pretty severe one. However, the others had never seen one, so they were all pretty shook. There were lots of factors at play (she didn't eat enough, she didn't drink enough water, she drank probably more alcohol that she should have, and she didn't get enough sleep) and it was a pretty long fit too, so because I have the most French, I went with Geneen and her to the hospital. While I was fine about the fit, and not too upset by it, it was the aftermath that was kinda scary. First of all, Zeph couldn't understand what we were saying to her, and couldn't answer any simple questions, and she knew that she knew us, but she couldn't really figure out who we were. And then there was the hospital which was fairly hairy, even by Cameroonian standards. First of all the doctor wanted to give her lots of different things, but thank God Geneen knew exactly what she needed to be put in the drip, so when we had that established, after about an hour and a half, and we got her to a room where there were no sheets, or pillows. There was no running water in the hospital at all, and the pharmacy literally had nothing in it (except the things we needed thank goodness), and it was pretty dirty too. It did kinda hit me after a while, and I think the scariest thing was what would have happened if Geneen hadn't been there, because obviously you trust the guy in the white coat, but he wanted to give her completely different things than what she actually needed. So after a bit, the others came and Daniel despatched Simon to stay as he has some French, and he dragged me away for a Coke, so I got a break, and then I went back to let Geneen leave for a bit and get some food, because in a Cameroonian hospital nursing staff ONLY do medical things, so you have to have a caregiver stay with you to look after you, and buy your food etc, so Geneen had to stay overnight in the hospital with her. While I was there on my own, and Zeph was sleeping, someone died in the next room, so on top of everything, for about two hours, there were people wailing and keening (it's the tradition here) outside the door. One of the longest days of my life!

So the next day myself and Daniel took one for the team because we wanted to make sure that Zeph and Geneen both got to travel in the car (on the way down Geneen, Gloria (a new Spanish volunteer), and Andro (the Chilean) went by bus because we couldn't all fit in the car, because they all speak Spanish so could chat away) and volunteered to take the bus. So the others waited for our driver that we had negotiated with to pick us up, and he showed up four hours late, and we were nearly back in Belo by the time they got on the road, because we obviously left early in the morning and they had to travel at night, which generally should be avoided unless it's by night bus as they travel in convoy, because there are lots of bandits on the roads after dark.

WORST. TRIP. EVER!

However, there's another big festival in Foumban every two years in December that's supposed to be class, so myself, and the boys and hopefully Anita, if we can convince her to stay, are going to give Foumban another shot! We had a really nice night on the Friday, and the others visited the palace while I was at the hospital and they said it's pretty cool so maybe it's worth it.

In other news:

Kosaku our lovely unwitting class clown has left us and returned to Japan. We had a huge party for him on Saturday night but in a classic show of stereotype, he fell asleep early in the armchair after two beers. There were lots of people over at the compound and Kosaku's cook Bridget made her amazing meatballs. It was really fun and the power even stayed on this time until about half ten. Plus there are two new short term vols who are here for three weeks and one of them, Joshua, has a lot of cool music that I intend to rob before they leave. As usual it was the big four left at the end of the night, but I love the way the four of us get on so well, since we are stuck with each other for quite some time to come. We're trying really hard to get Anita to stay till March too, when Daniel's leaving and then Simon will be here until about six months after I go.

This weekend I finally get my passport back with my crappy visa extension that cost an arm and a leg. I only got extended till the 9th of December, in a blatant ploy to bribe more money out of me, but Daniel who at first was told he wasn't getting an extension, got six months because he had a contract thing drawn up, so myself and the rev are going to write up a fake contract for when I have to go back in November. Although now that we have Flo to do the visa stuff for us, it might be a much shorter trip, or there is a chance that she'll come to Bamenda to collect my passport next time as she's coming to drop them off, and we just have to pay for her transport, which is a really good deal!

Tomorrow after we come back from Bamenda, and dinner in the delicious Dreamland, we're going over to Simon's for cards and pre-game beers and then we're finally going to brave the Pelcan nightclub (it's supposed to be Pelican, but the guy who made the sign can't spell very well-it's a common Cameroonian trait-and so now it's called Pelcan) because of all of us, only Daniel has been, with the lovely girl he likes who was volunteering here before, and myself and Simon decided the other night that the time has come, prompted by the fact that the posters around town advertise a cabaret on Saturday night featuring "gust arties" (sic). That's the whole issue with spelling making an appearance again. So we definitely want to check out the guest artistes! I've a really long day tomorrow, so I hope I'll be in the form for it, although tiredness may prompt me to be quite acerbic, which could come in handy as a white girl in the club. That's when the platonic husband becomes the fake husband, as skeazy guys are really not top of my list of favourite things, and some of the guys here are more persistent than most. This characteristic has prompted many discussions about the mindset of these guys. I mean obviously there are sleazeballs at home, but they tend to give up after you cut them dead, whereas the guys here are IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of sometimes. It makes no difference if you make no secret of the fact that you are annoyed with them and wouldn't go near them with a bargepole, they somehow think that if they just stay there long enough, giving enough hassle, and tell you that they love you enough times, suddenly you will say "Oh hang on, that's the magic number! Now that you've said it 118 times I think I love you too. Because all the way through times 1-117 I thought you were just being sleazy, but now I realise you're being sweet. When can we get married?" However, I am sure that the evening will produce some quality moments, and at least we'll have taken a look!

Phew! I think I might have covered everything there. Congratulations to anyone who is still reading!

I hope you're all keeping well and keep the e-mails and facebooks and messages coming! It makes my day when I read them, cos it makes me feel like you are all much closer!

Hugs xoxoxxoxoxoxo