Sorry about the long gap in updating. Things have been incredibly busy here. I’ve been student teaching at our model school which by and large has been a great experience. I teach a class of premiere, which is equivalent to a high school junior.
Here is a bit of info about the Cameroonian education system: there is a primary school very similar to ours, then there is “the lycee” which is like a middle school and high school combined. The youngest kids are 6eme, then 5eme, then 4eme, then 3eme. At the end of 3eme the students take the BEPC which is the first degree you can earn in Cameroon.
If you pass the BEPC, you get to go to the second cycle of the lycee, which is like our high school. The classes continue with 2nd, 1ere and Terminal. At the end of 1ere, students take the probatoire, and at the end of Terminal students take the Bacc. You have to have a Bacc in order to get any government job, really, any salary job or to go to the University. English is a mandatory subject on all of the national exams, thus, that is why Cameroon is demanding more English teachers.
The past two weeks my language teacher has been named Guibertine (we switch every so often so that way we can hear all of the many accents in Cameroon) and she is BY FAR my favorite Cameroonian trainer. Guibertine is the first language trainer that really treats us like adults, so we get to have real conversations instead of “ca va?” “oui, ca va, merci.” She is a German teacher at Lycee here in Cameroon. Last week our topic of discussion was religion in Cameroon and she practices a traditional religion, and that was really cool to hear her views on western religion and the problems it has created in Cameroon. She also told me that Cameroon doesn’t truly have a qualified teacher shortage. It is just that teachers here don’t get paid enough so they all leave to go teach in the Ivory Coast. She told me that she would do that if she didn’t have four sons. (Evidently, it is hard to take the kids with you.) That was a pretty shocking piece of information. It is ridiculous how many well educated, well trained people are from Cameroon, and how very few of them stay.
Guibertine also had a nice little rant about visas to the US, and how it is impossible to keep African Intellectuals in Africa. It is like brain drain on an international level, and it is shocking how much it affects the country. Anyway, it has been a really interesting experience to spend half my day teaching a foreign language and the other half of my day learning a foreign language. French class definitely makes me more empathetic to my English Students, and teaching English definitely makes me more empathetic to Guibertine.
All and all, I’m ready for training to be over. I feel pretty prepared to head to Mokolo and jump right in. I will swear in as a volunteer on the 18th, then travel for three days to get to Mokolo and try to get sort of settled before classes start on September 1st. So, things will definitely change a lot soon. Also, to any of you concerned about the Cholera outbreaks in the extreme north of Cameroon, yes that is definitely a problem in Mokolo, but fortunately, I have a delightfully efficient water filter, so that will not be a major worry for me, so no worries there.
As far as things with my family, things have been going along swimmingly. Both of my host siblings who took national exams this year failed. Armel took the Bacc and Yaounde took the Probatoire, and ironically enough, they both had really really low English scores, so I’ve been tutoring them both in the evenings after we watch El Diablo, which is this Spanish soap opera dubbed in French that everyone in Cameroon is addicted to. Anyway, seeing just how important these national exams are has been a good motivation for me. The system is set up so that at least half of the kids fail, and the English section is usually the most difficult for francophone Cameroon. (I understand why. The test is really subjective and clearly written by non native English speakers. We all got copies of old national exams and there were questions like “what is the opposite of widow” and my personal favorite question came after a reading passage about a child prostitute named Marie. The question was “Did Marie’s mother love here?” Keep in mind, the passage never mentions her mother… So things are a little bizarre and really subjective and there is no national grading key, so there is a lot of luck involved.)
My host family has been really fantastic. I’m lucky that I got such a good one. This weekend we tie-dyed fabric together. Because my mom is retired, she just sits around and tie-dyes stuff. It was a lot of fun. A bunch of other trainees came over to my house to learn how she does it. I can’t wait to see how the stuff turns out once we make the fabric into clothing.
I had my last French test on Saturday, and I finally passed! This is quite exciting. So, now, I am starting to learn Fufulde, which is the most fun I think I have ever had! It involves a lot of “Jam na?” “Jam!” “Jam bandu na?” “Jam koo-dume!” .. and honestly that is about everything I can say in Fufulde now. Still, I’m pretty stoked. A lot of people in Mokolo speak fufulde, so it will be nice to be able to haggle at the market and things like that. Also, Djanabo (my fulfulde teacher) teaches Fulfulde in French, so I’m becoming surprisingly competent with the french language. I still only understand about 75% of what is happening, but compared to the 0% Fulfulde that I understand, it seems like all of a sudden I can speak french.
I think for now that is everything. I hope everyone is doing well, and I assure you all that I am definitely happy, healthy, and learning a lot here. Also, I do enjoy hearing about home, so thank you for the updates.
Love,
Emily
Fun fact of the week: You can have a PhD in Physics and still believe in witchcraft.
