May 2006

I have successfully completed one full school year! Things have been going well. My project from the British High Council was approved and I received money for 20 computers. I placed 12 computers at my school and 8 at the grammar school that is owned by the same proprietor. It has made life much easier. All my students are loving them. I have been taking trips to the economic capital of Cameroon – Douala to purchase the equipment. After hectic days in douala it is nice to come home to the peaceful town of Tiko. Bad traffic, Heat, lots of people…. Sounds like Atlanta. J

The past few months the weather has been nice. A small amount of rain helps with the extreme heat and a beautiful view of Mountain Cameroon from Tiko. The two volunteers from Buea which is just 20 minutes west of me have returned home to the US. There are new volunteers arriving any day now. The Peace Corps has asked me to help in training of the new volunteers. It is funny to think I am a veteran volunteer now, feels like I don’t know much.

I don’t have school till September, so I plan to do some travel and help mentor some people with computer literacy here in Tiko. I want to create a Computerized Report Card system. The manual process teachers go through for each student will drive any IT professional crazy. I also will have to teach at a Holiday school in Mbalmayo which is all francophone students. So I will need to start working on my French.

I just returned from a trip from Yaounde I was in training at Peace Corp Headquarters for “Training of Trainers”. I also used some Hilton points and stayed at the Hilton hotel. Which was real nice since I have just came from a small town south of Yaoundé, Ebolowa where I used a bucket for a bath and a pit latrine. What a difference!

Here are some pictures….