So, I took two weeks of vacation and went to Angela Oguna’s wedding in Kenya, and boy let me tell you, Kenya is great.
There were a lot of differences between Kenya and Cameroon. Mostly, Kenya is really developed. (Trash cans in downtown Nairobi, what is that about?) And, you can tell that Kenya is much more of a tourist country (you can buy your visa at the airport, no one grabs your arm or shouts rude sexual comments at you on the street because you are a foreigner.. that was pretty nice.) And, of course, the wedding was pretty much the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
It’s been really busy since I’ve been back at the Lycee, mostly catching up in classes, grading tests, etc. Lycee Classique is a pretty remarkable place. Since I’ve been gone, (two weeks) they have laid the ground works for a flower garden out front and put a roof on what will eventually be our school cafeteria (the roof had fallen off years and years ago, and the building was an absolute eye sore on campus).
Principal Vandi and I have been getting along really well lately. He’s been incredibly busy. Every time I see him he’s walking around campus with some delegate from the ministry or some strange old french man who is willing to donate money, or he is digging in the new flower bed. Which is “here to teach our students about the culture of their people and to beautify the campus. In the mountains, people must dig out all of the rocks from the soil and cultivate “en terrace”
Then, in typical Vandi fashion, he became very philosophical and symbolic about the rocks “which are seen as an obsticale, but through hard work, they can be transformed into something useful, and more importantly, they can be the foundation for something great.. etc. etc.”
He also talked about how it was important that the students see him putting in manual labor on the campus, which he elaborated on far more than I will here, but I agree with his everyone works hard, even the “big men” attitude.
Right now, I’m very busy preparing for bilingualism week and working on a project with my librarian friend, Moses. Hopefully, next school year we will have textbooks that “vulnerable” (particularly poor or female students) can check out at the beginning of the school year and keep as their own until the end of the school year, much like how high school students have access to textbooks in the US.
I think Lycee Classique is equipped to handle the text books (other schools have problems with students stealing the books and never returning) because we are computerizing all of our school and we actually have a library with a competent librarian who is now in his 8th year at the lycee. As this project continues on, I’ll be sure to update you all. (To give you an idea, my 5eme 3 class has 136 students and of the 136, 4 have the required English text book. Lack of books is a MAJOR issue, and it would be nice to help resolve it at least a little).
But, other than that life is going well. My neighbors are all doing fine. My students are great. (They cheered when I came back from Kenya, and even better, they remembered stuff I had taught them before christmas break!) Life in general is pretty good. I think hoodie/sweatshirt weather is dissipating and “the heat is starting already!” Which, I’m kinda sad about because I just learned how to say “I like the cold!” in fulfulde.
Hope you all are well!!
