Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Windows 3.1
Alive and well in Cameroon. Some student just brought me an ancient laptop running Windows 3.1 to ask for my help. The miraculous thing is that this old machine was running strong, in spite of what Cameroon normally does to computers. The embarrassing thing was that I had forgotten how to use 3.1 so it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was doing.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Eid
Friday was Eid, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan for Cameroon's Muslims. (Come to think of it, it marks the end of Ramadan for Muslims everywhere doesn't it?). Here they call it "aladji" which I think comes from "el hadji" - one who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca. So anyone here who has gone to Mecca is referred to as "aladji."
Since Cameroonians of all religions love to party, Christians look forward to Muslim holidays and vice-versa. If you have friends from another religion it's normal to invite them to celebrate with you. So, Muslims go to Christians' houses for Christmas dinner, Christians break the Ramadan fast with Muslims, etc. A party is a party after all. Free food! Usually the only difference between parties here thrown by Christians and parties thrown by Muslims is that at the Muslim parties you drink soda instead of beer.
So, Friday night I was invited along with my friends Souaibou, Issa, Adamou, and Mr. Ndaki (all Christians) to the home of a Muslim friend in town to celebrate. He and his wife welcomed us with an enormous spread of food. We spent about two hours stuffing ourselves before heading home, and a good time was had by all.
Religiously, Cameroon is a mixed country. The majority are Christian (Catholic and Protestant) but there is a large Muslim minority which is concentrated in the north of the country with Muslim communities scattered throughout the rest of the nation. So, the two faiths are mixed. Every decent sized town in the country has both Christians and Muslims living next to each other. This is complicated by the persistence of many traditional (non-Christian and non-Muslim) religions as well. Many traditional religious practices are also blended with those Christianity and Islam as well, so if you go to a Christian church, you may well encounter rituals or customs that were part of the area's traditional belief system that have been incorporated into modern practices. So, religious lines can get pretty blurry here.
(A side note: there is a Jewish synagogue in Yaoundé near the Peace Corps office. I had had no idea there was a Jewish community in Cameroon until one night I saw a bunch of Cameroonians come out of the building all wearing yarmulkes. Blew my mind.)
The government here is officially secular, no religion is favored by the state, and all Cameroonian citizens enjoy freedom of conscience. On TV the news shows Muslims going to pray on their holidays and Christians going to pray on theirs. Polygamy is legal here, not just to accommodate Muslims but also those who practice traditional religions that are (usually) polygamous.
In general, there doesn't seem to be too much sectarian tension in Cameroon. I've run into a few Christians who say disparaging things about Muslims in general, and though I don't know too many Muslims I imagine there are those who say the same kinds of things about Christians. But, by and large people here seem to have a live-and-let-live attitude towards matters of faith.
My friends here at the University (which is a religious school) are quite proud of that. When I asked them once if there was a lot of religiously motivated violence in Cameroon, they scoffed at the idea. "What, kill someone because he is of a different faith? That would be stupid."
Yes, yes it would.
Since Cameroonians of all religions love to party, Christians look forward to Muslim holidays and vice-versa. If you have friends from another religion it's normal to invite them to celebrate with you. So, Muslims go to Christians' houses for Christmas dinner, Christians break the Ramadan fast with Muslims, etc. A party is a party after all. Free food! Usually the only difference between parties here thrown by Christians and parties thrown by Muslims is that at the Muslim parties you drink soda instead of beer.
So, Friday night I was invited along with my friends Souaibou, Issa, Adamou, and Mr. Ndaki (all Christians) to the home of a Muslim friend in town to celebrate. He and his wife welcomed us with an enormous spread of food. We spent about two hours stuffing ourselves before heading home, and a good time was had by all.
Religiously, Cameroon is a mixed country. The majority are Christian (Catholic and Protestant) but there is a large Muslim minority which is concentrated in the north of the country with Muslim communities scattered throughout the rest of the nation. So, the two faiths are mixed. Every decent sized town in the country has both Christians and Muslims living next to each other. This is complicated by the persistence of many traditional (non-Christian and non-Muslim) religions as well. Many traditional religious practices are also blended with those Christianity and Islam as well, so if you go to a Christian church, you may well encounter rituals or customs that were part of the area's traditional belief system that have been incorporated into modern practices. So, religious lines can get pretty blurry here.
(A side note: there is a Jewish synagogue in Yaoundé near the Peace Corps office. I had had no idea there was a Jewish community in Cameroon until one night I saw a bunch of Cameroonians come out of the building all wearing yarmulkes. Blew my mind.)
The government here is officially secular, no religion is favored by the state, and all Cameroonian citizens enjoy freedom of conscience. On TV the news shows Muslims going to pray on their holidays and Christians going to pray on theirs. Polygamy is legal here, not just to accommodate Muslims but also those who practice traditional religions that are (usually) polygamous.
In general, there doesn't seem to be too much sectarian tension in Cameroon. I've run into a few Christians who say disparaging things about Muslims in general, and though I don't know too many Muslims I imagine there are those who say the same kinds of things about Christians. But, by and large people here seem to have a live-and-let-live attitude towards matters of faith.
My friends here at the University (which is a religious school) are quite proud of that. When I asked them once if there was a lot of religiously motivated violence in Cameroon, they scoffed at the idea. "What, kill someone because he is of a different faith? That would be stupid."
Yes, yes it would.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Peace Corps Cameroon's Peer Support Network
A group photo from the recent Peer Support Network workshop I was involved in. Twenty-o ne volunteers from all over Cameroon, plus Richard (the older gentleman in the back) who came from DC to help us set things up, PCMO Chad (our staff advisor) and Amadou, who is in charge of Peace Corps's Garoua office in northern Cameroon. Photo thoughtfully shared by volunteer Amber. Thanks Amber.
Black Vampire 2
While in Yaoundé at the end of last month, I ran into Volunteer Kelsey, who was on her way back to America. As it happens, she and her boyfriend Reese (also a volunteer who has since gone back home) were once randomly cast in a Cameroonian horror movie called Black Vampire. They were hanging out a hotel in Bamenda and the filmmakers were shooting the movie there. they were cast on the spot as tourists that get eaten by a bunch of Black Vampires.
I had heard stories of the legendary film, but had never had the chance to see it. When I saw her in Yaoundé I learned that the same director had made a sequel and cast the two of them again. She didn't have a copy of the original, but she did have a copy of Black Vampire 2. So, a bunch of us naturally gathered together at the Case de Passage to watch it.
Reese had a bigger part in the sequel, as an evil white man who was trying to get a magic book that would allow him to control the Black Vampires that were overrunning Cameroon and use them to take over the world (or something ... I guess). We didn't see much of Kelsey. There was a scene where she randomly helps the heroes attack the vampires and kicks one of them when he's down. Then another where she's found on the ground with bites in her neck and is rushed to the hospital. After that we are told only that "Sharon is responding to treatment."
We didn't make it through the whole movie, which was a shame because I could see it was quite possibly the best film ever made. I can only hope that one day it comes to America and we can all rent it on Netflix.
For the inside story on the making of Black Vampire, see Kelsey's pictures and story here.
I had heard stories of the legendary film, but had never had the chance to see it. When I saw her in Yaoundé I learned that the same director had made a sequel and cast the two of them again. She didn't have a copy of the original, but she did have a copy of Black Vampire 2. So, a bunch of us naturally gathered together at the Case de Passage to watch it.
Reese had a bigger part in the sequel, as an evil white man who was trying to get a magic book that would allow him to control the Black Vampires that were overrunning Cameroon and use them to take over the world (or something ... I guess). We didn't see much of Kelsey. There was a scene where she randomly helps the heroes attack the vampires and kicks one of them when he's down. Then another where she's found on the ground with bites in her neck and is rushed to the hospital. After that we are told only that "Sharon is responding to treatment."
We didn't make it through the whole movie, which was a shame because I could see it was quite possibly the best film ever made. I can only hope that one day it comes to America and we can all rent it on Netflix.
For the inside story on the making of Black Vampire, see Kelsey's pictures and story here.
Computer Maintenance in Cameroon
On Friday I finally finished getting the lab in order. Eighteen PCs fixed, loaded, and ready to go for my Informatique de Base class (Basic Computing), which is theoretically supposed to start this week.
Now trying to fix up PCs in our cyber cafe (now out of commission as a cyber cafe but I've turned it into a second mini-lab for teaching). Thanks to Bill, I was able to get four used PCs through an organization run by a former Peace Corps volunteer here in Cameroon who's now a high school computer teacher. He has his students fix up donated computers and then every couple of years brings a shipment here to donate to Cameroonian schools and other institutions. (Thanks to Michael and all his students at West Ottawa High!)
So recently, I've been fixing computers like a fiend. OK, not sure how exactly a fiend would fix a computer, but I bet they would do it my way...
Computer maintenance here is a slow and laborious process. The machines we have are all old, mostly built from parts that have been scrounged together from wherever we could find them. Usually when one machine dies we can swap its parts into another machine, and so by cannibalizing bad machines we can put together a working system or two. Of course, because of the mix of different processors, motherboards, types of RAM, etc, this doesn't always work.
Figuring out what's wrong, hunting down replacement parts, then installing and testing them (and hoping they're not bad as well) is always a big pain in the neck.
And our machines require a lot of maintenance, in part because of their age, but more so because of the harsh environment here. Cameroon kills computer. It has 1) lots of heat 2) lots of humidity (in the rainy season) and 3) lots of dust (in the dry season), all of which are bad for computers. Air conditioning is not usually an option outside of some offices in the bigger cities, and certainly not at most schools.
The worst hazard for PCs here is the power though. Electricity is constantly going out, and when it comes back up the resulting power surge can often fry machines that were left plugged in. Ideally, all PCs should be hooked up to a voltage regulator and/or a UPS power backup (I managed to snag a few for my mini-lab thankfully), but again, given the lack of resources these are often unavailable. In that case, when the power goes out during class I have all my students unplug the machines immediately. This doesn't guarantee that they won't be damaged by normal fluctuations in voltage (since it's unstable even when the power is on) but at least it reduces the risk of damaging the machine when it comes back on.
And of course, very often the power goes out when I'm in the middle of fixing a PC or installing software, or teaching class, so it's just plain annoying as well.
Thinking back to my days in corporate America, I realize now that I was working in paradise from a maintenance standpoint: power was stable and every machine had a backup; the office was climate controlled; computers were pretty new; and if something did break, hey just send someone to OfficeMax to buy a replacement on the company's dime. Here if a part blows I have to go all the way to the capital city of Yaoundé (four to eight hours away) to replace it, assuming the school has the money to replace it, which they often don't.
Yes, in terms of computer maintenance, America is truly the land of milk and honey, with streets paved with gold-filled integrated circuits.
On the bright side, all of this has been keeping me busy. And if you like a challenge it is satisfying to finally get a battered old Pentium 166 running again so your students can at least use it to practice their mouse and keyboard skills.
Such is the nature of service as a Peace Corps Volunteer: you do the best you can with what you've got. As they used to say in Great Depression era America: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
Now trying to fix up PCs in our cyber cafe (now out of commission as a cyber cafe but I've turned it into a second mini-lab for teaching). Thanks to Bill, I was able to get four used PCs through an organization run by a former Peace Corps volunteer here in Cameroon who's now a high school computer teacher. He has his students fix up donated computers and then every couple of years brings a shipment here to donate to Cameroonian schools and other institutions. (Thanks to Michael and all his students at West Ottawa High!)So recently, I've been fixing computers like a fiend. OK, not sure how exactly a fiend would fix a computer, but I bet they would do it my way...
Computer maintenance here is a slow and laborious process. The machines we have are all old, mostly built from parts that have been scrounged together from wherever we could find them. Usually when one machine dies we can swap its parts into another machine, and so by cannibalizing bad machines we can put together a working system or two. Of course, because of the mix of different processors, motherboards, types of RAM, etc, this doesn't always work.
Figuring out what's wrong, hunting down replacement parts, then installing and testing them (and hoping they're not bad as well) is always a big pain in the neck.
And our machines require a lot of maintenance, in part because of their age, but more so because of the harsh environment here. Cameroon kills computer. It has 1) lots of heat 2) lots of humidity (in the rainy season) and 3) lots of dust (in the dry season), all of which are bad for computers. Air conditioning is not usually an option outside of some offices in the bigger cities, and certainly not at most schools.
The worst hazard for PCs here is the power though. Electricity is constantly going out, and when it comes back up the resulting power surge can often fry machines that were left plugged in. Ideally, all PCs should be hooked up to a voltage regulator and/or a UPS power backup (I managed to snag a few for my mini-lab thankfully), but again, given the lack of resources these are often unavailable. In that case, when the power goes out during class I have all my students unplug the machines immediately. This doesn't guarantee that they won't be damaged by normal fluctuations in voltage (since it's unstable even when the power is on) but at least it reduces the risk of damaging the machine when it comes back on.
And of course, very often the power goes out when I'm in the middle of fixing a PC or installing software, or teaching class, so it's just plain annoying as well.
Thinking back to my days in corporate America, I realize now that I was working in paradise from a maintenance standpoint: power was stable and every machine had a backup; the office was climate controlled; computers were pretty new; and if something did break, hey just send someone to OfficeMax to buy a replacement on the company's dime. Here if a part blows I have to go all the way to the capital city of Yaoundé (four to eight hours away) to replace it, assuming the school has the money to replace it, which they often don't.
Yes, in terms of computer maintenance, America is truly the land of milk and honey, with streets paved with gold-filled integrated circuits.
On the bright side, all of this has been keeping me busy. And if you like a challenge it is satisfying to finally get a battered old Pentium 166 running again so your students can at least use it to practice their mouse and keyboard skills.
Such is the nature of service as a Peace Corps Volunteer: you do the best you can with what you've got. As they used to say in Great Depression era America: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
Explosions
For some reason, a lot of things have been blowing up when I plus them lately. Power supplies that had been accidentally set to 110 volts (not by me), monitors, fried RAM and motherboards, power cables that had a nick in them. Lots of sparks and little fires and popping sounds and always the acrid smell of burning electronic gear. Perhaps the gods of fire are angry with me and are taking it out on my computers for some reason. Ashia!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Knowing Just Enough to Be Dangerous
The University where I teach offers several different IT degrees. However, since many of the students have little or no prior computer experience before coming here, many of them are learning for the first time. Some do know more about computers, but since they're mostly self-taught or informally taught they may not have the best understanding of everything they're doing.
What this has meant, as I discover every time I do maintenance on PCs in the lab, is that there are a whole lot of students here who know just enough to wreak havoc but not enough to fix the damage they've caused.
And to make matters worse, last year all of them had the Administrator password. So much for security. Ugh. Hopefully we can keep a lid on the new password this year.
What this has meant, as I discover every time I do maintenance on PCs in the lab, is that there are a whole lot of students here who know just enough to wreak havoc but not enough to fix the damage they've caused.
And to make matters worse, last year all of them had the Administrator password. So much for security. Ugh. Hopefully we can keep a lid on the new password this year.
Busy Busy Busy
Working in the computer lab all day today (or until the power goes out) setting up computers for the start of classes next week. Marie Noelle (one of my coworkers) and I have eighteen machines to configure. Since many of them are screwed up in various ways we're just reformatting the disks and reinstalling everything clean. Yesterday power was out until 4 PM and then went out again at 8, so we only got in a few hours last night. Gonna be a long day. On the bright side while I wait for stuff to install maybe I can occasionally steal a minute to post ... like now.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Blog Love from Bill
Update
Captain's Log. Stardate 10-8-2007.
Have been delinquent in updating the blog recently due to laziness combined with normal power and connectivity problems. In the last three weeks I:
Have been delinquent in updating the blog recently due to laziness combined with normal power and connectivity problems. In the last three weeks I:
- Gave a few computer lessons to a pair of teachers at the college (private high school) that shares the campus with the university. Basic mouse and keyboard stuff.
- Used some of the new spare parts I got from Bill to fix up another machine and upgrade a second in my little improvised computer lab. Still have three or four dead machines to fix.
- Spent a week in Yaoundé for two things. First, Peace Corps Cameroon has set up a peer support network for volunteers and I was asked to join. Basically the idea is to have a list of volunteers around the country people can call if they need someone to talk to. (Being stuck alone at post while suffering through days of explosive diarrhea can get depressing.) Someone from Peace Corps Washington came out and gave us two days of counseling tips and helped us set up ground rules for organization, confidentiality, responsibilities, etc. Second, at my last province meeting I was elected the representative for the Center province volunteers to the Voluntary Advisory Committee (VAC). This is a committee composed of a volunteer from each province, the country director, and various other staff members that makes policies and addresses volunteer concerns. So, basically I'm the congressman for the volunteers in my province. While there I had hoped to do some posting, but the office was filled with other volunteers, meaning that the computers were occupied constantly.
Right now I'm working on some new (used) computers the university bought for the lab, getting them ready for the start of classes. The students are back today and my classes are supposed to start (in theory) next Monday.
It's been raining a lot lately. Water and mud everywhere. Power goes on and off .
That's about it for now. Eventually I will post some pictures and stories about what I did over the break, I swear.
End log entry.
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