1st School year: DONE!

Ok, first a bit of a normal update, and then maybe some waxing philosophical on my first year here. We'll see how it goes.

Last time we left off, Gloria was just returned from her fantastical bike tour and vacation in the east, and had been having internet problems, and an upcoming trip to Yaounde, as well as the last term of the school year. Let's pick up from there.

The last term of this school year consisted of 3 weeks of instruction, and 1 week of exams. And you thought teachers in the US got a long vacation! Mid-may to early september? Crazy. In any case, due to the scheduling of Peace Corps training (more later), I was only around for the 3 instructional weeks, and had to miss exam week. Oops. That meant that I had to give all my exams for computer during week 3, and fill all my grades before going. *Tears hair, bangs head against wall*. This was a little more stressful than usual, because ALL of the classes had to take their practicals at the same time. Usually, I've been able to stagger them so I'm not doing more than 3 classes at once, but this time I had 5, about 160 kids, all in one week. And as you might imagine, the power went off. Classic. *More hair tearing and head-banging*. Made it work though, by a combination of the generator in the afternoon, and a VERY timely visit to Mamfe by the governor of the South-west region. Funny how the power was on while he was here...Oh yeah, and I was up at the school at 5:45 every morning, and stayed until 10 every night. Yeah, that was super fun. Oh, and did I mention I also had strep throat during this fun little week? Yeah, good times. I actually thought I had malaria also, but the test came back negative, yay! *Collapses into an exhausted heap*.

Anyway, managed to get my other exams to be handled by a couple of other teachers (THANKS!), and I headed back out to Yaounde. Why? Well, because there are new volunteers arriving in just a few days (hi guys!), and somebody has to teach them what to do here...and I just happen to be one of those somebodies!

The program for the week consisted of updating the training schedule from last year, seeing what needed to be changed, deleted, or added, and then making sure our LEARNING OBJECTIVES were very good. Like many government organizations, PC is very big on having things standardized and such, and one of their favorite thing is objectives. Gotta make sure they're on point, or you know the trainees won't learn anything. So, newbies: get ready, you will be inundated with objectives over the next three months, and if you're anything like the rest of us, you will absolutely loathe that word by the end of training. But if you're like those of us that are helping with the training, you're just enough of a masochist to come back and work on those OBJECTIVES again...

Moving on...so, planning the training involves spending about a week and a half in Yaounde. Where do we stay? The peace corps transit house, aka the Cas. It's basically like a frat house for PCV's—there's bunk beds, internet, TV, and a full kitchen. So, we kept things interesting by cooking food, drinking beers at the bar across the street (who never once got our bill right on the first try), and watching a LOT of movies. And a lot of Lost. :)

Anyway, got back to post just in time to see the students off before they went home for the “long holiday” (summer doesn't exist here, it's a tropical zone), and now the campus is very quiet. The national exams are taking place right now, so the girls that are taking them are holed up in all sorts of strange nooks and crannies all over campus, studying their poor brains out! Good luck to them!

So, you ask, what am I up to now? Well, a few things are going on. First, the fantastic Melissa is departing from us! We had a great send-off for her, there must have been nearly 100 people who showed up over the course of the night. She went all out for this, even having “Ashwabi” for the party—that's when everyone makes a clothing item out of the same fabric, so everyone is looking the same at the occasion. It's customary for major events here, and it looked wonderful at her party. Especially the PCV's in attendance, who, not entirely intentionally, made outfits that could fall under the theme of “bad 80's prom-wear”. Pictures will follow! After the party, we went out to the local nightclub, where we strong-armed the DJ into playing a mix cd of american music. “Hey guys, remember that one time that we rocked out to 'Semi-charmed life' at an African night club?” Yeah, that happened. Oh, and to anyone who has ever laughed at/with me while I've cranked the Soulja boy...yeah, that happened too. And it was pretty epic, if I say so myself. Def leppard? Yeah, that happened too. Good times...

So, we've got Melissa's upcoming departure (which later on included her receiving a TITLE from her village, a traditional dance done by her, and the wearing of an absolutely preposterous crown), and in other fun things to do, I've finally gone to the farm with my friend Stella! She's been wanting (and I've been wanting) me to go for a while now, so we went out finally, it's about a 40 minute hike into the bush, and she taught me how to plant cocoyams. (Google it). It was a fun day, and good to see how much work goes into people's personal farms here! Nearly everyone in the village has a farm that they work, mostly for their personal/family use, but it is serious business. I was sore for 4 days, and I still have blisters healing! One of the funniest moments was coming back, I was carrying a big log on my head for firewood, so all the village kids were pointing and staring at me as I was walking back into town. And then laughing at me, because my piece was so small! Yes, I was carrying a smaller piece than I could have—but it's a balance issue, not a weight issue! Seriously!

And then there's the internet. I won't go into the whole story (I don't know if I can tell it in a non-violent way), but the good news is that I'm back online, and I think I'll be able to continue in that way for a while now without major issues. And MTN (service provider) can expect some seriously worded emails from me.

What's next? Mid-june I'll head back to Yaounde for a week of medical check-ups and paperwork following my first year. From there, I go to the training program for a little over a month. August, I'll be back to post, and will probably spend the month preparing lessons for the new school year, reorganizing the computer lab, and spending time with friends around here. Trip to the North that I'd been planning will get pushed back to Christmas-time (timing didn't work out like I'd hoped for the summer), so I think it will be a busy, but restful enough long holiday for me.

Package update: HUGE THANKS to mom for rectifying a serious bra shortage (my dog ate them), Dad for introducing scharfenberger to Africa, and Gram for continuing to make my hair soft and shiny. Love you guys!

Signing off, love to everyone, hugs, et al. Teens/associates, have a GREAT TIME at summer camp this year, I'll be thinking of you and missing you! I'm looking forward to full reports when you get back!