Monday, November 19, 2007

Operation Orphanage


Photo is of: a manager telling us about the facilities. Not sure if you can make it out, on top of the walls are broken bottles to prevent people from climbing over.
My class and I have adopted an orphanage to help out. We first visited it, along with the fourth graders, to meet the kids, check out the facilities, and assess what ways we could help. The children lost their parents to HIV/AIDS and may or may not be carrier themselves. There are 40 kids ages 5-15 and can only stay 2 years before extended family must take them in. If there is no extended family then people take them in as "house help" but it is no better than slavery. Before you get your hopes up, no we are not adopting. The president's wife passed a law that no children can be adopted out of the country. My own personal opinion on that is a way to show that things here aren't as bad as they really are to the rest of the world.

Friday, November 16, 2007

International Day




October 24 is International Day, which was started by the United Nations. Each class has to do a dance, skit, or song, there are local dancers, everyone brings a dish to share, and then we all return to our classrooms to show off our displays. Instead of picking a particular country my class explained some of the functions of the UN with posters and then said a sentence or two about it in English and in French. Then we got the whole school rocking by singing the funky version of "Stand By Me". It was fun. The kids on the bleachers--the front row are my students. The two men are Genesis and Hadison in traditonal dress--teacher's aides and so much more! The choir is singing the South African National Anthem--beautiful.

Kenya Campus




On the last day of the conference we were able to go to the International School Of Kenya and check out their campus. It was a huge compound as their school is three times the size of ours. It was very pretty and outside the city. The photos are of Katie and I about to board their school bus; that's Marianne being silly above us. Peter and I are in front of their Canteen which is the same as a lunch room. The last photo is of a man trying to get me to buy a wooden arm guard in case I need to shoot an arrow any time soon. They had a baazar on the campus for us to shop, shop, shop some more. Ask pete about the amazing buffalo and chess board he got.

Massai Market Place




This is the Tuesday Market in Nairobi. It was quite an adveture. Pete, Katie, Jennifer, and I went and had great success. We had an edge compared to the average tourist as we knew how to bargain and weren't afraid to walk away. Here in Cameroon it is like a game, as they have nothing else to do with their day so the vendors want to banter with you. In Kenya they only had

the market two days a week (I think at different locations) so they were a bit more rushed. In the bottom shot Katie is giving Pete tips as they both want some shirts and neither wants the other to cave and give too high a price. At one point Pete was trying to trade the hat we got in South Africa for a Kenya one, but decided to just buy it and have them both. In the end he ended up buying more than the rest of us, though I was warned not to go overboard!

Twin Day



Last week was Spirit Week here at ASOY. On the last day we did Twin Day. At last I was able to get Pete to wear a matching oufit like all married couples end up doing. Actually it is quite common here for entire families to wear the same pattern together.

We are down at the basketball court--the only covered one here in Yaounde.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Banana Trees



Last week we went to the Swaney's to watch a slideshow Katie (she did a great job) made of our Kenya photos. I will eventually get those on the blog. I admired the bananas growing so nicely in their yard. Then a few of us chuckled over the fact that we have gotten used to a tropical environment where people actually do have bananas growing in their yards!

No technology




Aside from being really busy I have not blogged due to lack of technology here. It was out throughout the whole country. Rumors were flying as to why--an underground cable in the ocean, the man trying to keep us down, and an attmepted politcial coup. Turns out we still don't know for sure but there have been demonstrations in other areas that have led to the deaths of several protestors (University students upset that the electricity keeps getting cut) and there was an attempt at a coup against the president last week. Of course everything is hush-hushed and garbled like when you play the telephone game. What does this have to do with these pictures? Absolutley nothing.
I am raising money for a fundraiser to buy things for an orphanage I have been going to. Kids paid 100 cfa (20 cents) to throw a paint-soaked sponge at me. In all I raised about 6,500 cfa--that's right, at least 65 people threw a sponge at me--for charity. Yes, I am wearing an old swim suite OVER my clothes, it's all about image baby.

Congratulations and Happy Birthday!


Yahoooooo! Congratulations to Heather and Bill on tying the knot on November 10!!!!!!!!!! Pete and I wish we could have been there to celebrate your nuptials, but know that it was an awesome event despite us not being there to tear up the dance floor.
Happy Birthday to my dad, Rich! We hope you had a nice meal and some cake as you celebrated your birthday. We love you! Theresa and Pete