A Quick Update

Things have been coming along slowly since I got back from Yaoundé three weeks ago. Here's the rundown on what I've been up to (or not up to) since then:

• Power has continued to be unstable although it's a little better than it was. SONEL has stopped shutting the lights off for weeks at a time at least. Now the power only goes out when it rains. And since we are now in the rainy season that's about every day. Generally it rains sometime between late afternoon and early morning, so often the power goes sometime in the evening or is out when we get up in the morning. They usually get it back on within 24 hours or less at this point, so some days we actually get to do some work if they get the lights on by the afternoon.
• We resolved our problems with our internet service provider, so we're back online for now. When we have power. And when I can find an open computer.
  
• After getting back from Yaoundé I found that my Dean had left the country without programming any classes for me. So, in his absence I've had no classes to teach. Since the power is out so often, this means I end up spending a lot of time sitting around. I've been working on the English class I'm supposed to start teaching before the end of the year - writing all my notes, assignments, etc by hand so I can work without power if need be. The rest of the time I've mostly been reading, doing crossword puzzles, taking long walks around campus in the late afternoon when it's cool, and visiting friends. I taught a few students and locals how to play chess so that's also passed a few afternoons.
• On May 1st I marched in an International Labor Day parade here in town. In Cameroon each company or institution (like the university) makes its employees wear matching shirts and march in a big parade after listening to lots of boring speeches by local politicians. First time I've ever been in a parade. Pictures and description of festivities will be presented in a future post.
  
• When we have had power, I've been trying to get the computers donated by Peace Corps I mentioned in a previous post up and running. Working with my colleague Souaibou, we've managed to fix several and have set them up in the offices for staff that did not have working machines, so they can now enter student data on their machines and then be unable to retrieve it when the power goes out.
• I have also been trying to help rid the PCs in the office of computer viruses, which are rampant here. Somebody picks one up on their USB thum drive in a cyber cafe or someplace, then spreads it to all the machines at school. Been using AVG Free to clean up. That usually gets the job done.
  
• Right now I'm trying to get two or three machines working using various parts laying around and cannibalizing non-working machines. When I get them running I am going to set them up in the library and start teaching my own independent classes. Not sure if it will be individual tutoring, small group classes, or some mix of both. I plan to offer time to interested students since they got cheated out of my Informatique (french for comp sci) class. I also plan to offer evening and weekend classes to people in the community and to other teachers here. I finally decided that since the University has not been giving me classes, I needed to grab the bull by the horns and try to do some work on my own. Onward and upward ... against all odds ... no retreat, no surrender ... sticking it to the man ... you get the idea.
• Next week I'm going back to Yaoundé to help Peace Corps prepare for the next incoming group oif volunteers, who will be arriving next month. I and several other volunteers will help design classes, prepare training materials, and prepare training sessions that we will give to the newbies over the summer ... I mean, over the course of the rainy season.
  

One last thing. After my previous posts explaining that many of my problems were due to the fact that we only have one computer lab here, several people wrote offering to look for used machines or parts to ship here and even offering to start some kind of hardware charity drive. The sentiment is greatly appreciated. The problem though, is that shipping anything to Cameroon from the USA is extremely expensive. The cost of shipping a computer here would probably be more than the cost of the computer itself.

Of course, if someone wants to spend the money and has the parts laying around, we'd be happy to take them, and you can email me if you are interested - maybe sending small things like RAM or video cards wouldn't be so bad. However, I am in the process of developing a grant proposal to upgrade our computer lab that people back home can donate to through the Peace Corps. If and when the proposal is approved I will post a notice on this blog for how to contribute. I suggest that if you want to help, take the money you would have spent on postage and donate it through Peace Corps and I will buy the materials with it locally. Much more cost effective that way. Anyway, I will keep everyone posted if the proposal is approved.

Ok, I hear thunder outside. That means the power could go at any moment. Until the lights come back on dear readers ...