Swamped

The last few weeks have been a bit overwhelming. At the moment I'm in the capital doing some banking (money ran out) and running numerous errands. I haven't posted in a while because I've just been too busy the last few weeks. Here's a quick run down on what' has been going on:

• My dean is trying to jam in most of the classes I teach this semester in order to finish them before the second semester. As a result I have been teaching two English classes and two computer classes simultaneously. On the schedule, this has meant I've had twenty-eight hours of classes for the last three weeks straight. 10 AM to 10 PM with an hour for lunch and two hours for dinner, four days a week. (I actually let the students in my night class go a bit early, so it's more like twenty-four hours., but still...) As you can imagine, I'm pretty exhausted and constantly busy. Quite the contrast to last year. The depressing thing is that even with all these hours I may not be able to finish on time. My poor students...
• Had a quiet Thanksgiving with friends. Turkeys exist in Cameroon happily, so I was even able to arrange a nice (if pricey) Turkey dinner.
• Just planned out my holiday vacation schedule. Going to spend Christmas with my host family from training in the town of Mblamayo, then going to visit Bill in Buea for New Year's, and then I'm meeting up with Volunteer Kirk in Yaoundé for a seventeen day trek to the north of Cameroon, which promises to be very different from my post. We are going to visit Waza National Park in hopes of seeing some giraffes or lions or other cool animals. Haven't seen too many yet outside the national zoo here in the capital. (And they were even sadder looking than most animals who live in zoos.)
• In preparation for the trip I've started studying Fulfuldé, the dominant language in the north. More widely spoken than French apparently. So far I've learned that "jam na" is how you greet people, "jam" is the proper response to this and just about every other greeting and most questions, and that "Nassara" means "honkey." (I hear that one in my village all the time. My friends from the north are very excited I'm trying to learn their language (well, was before I got overwhelmed with classes) and have started trying to speak to me in Fulfuldé a lot. I just smile and say "jam" a lot.
• I'm working with a former student from the university to put together a series of health education activities for Nanga's schools and hospital around February or March, so we sat down today and started working out a budget, plans, etc.
• While going to the bank today the motorcade of the President of Cameroon (Paul Biya) passed by while I was standing on the curb. A long black limo and an escort of police cars and motorcycles whipped past at high speed. Surprisingly, since their were police and security everywhere, the windows were open and I got a fleeting glimpse of the Big Man, and his wife Chantal, and her very very very Big Hair.

So that's where things stand at the moment. I'm taking the train back to post tomorrow night. I still have a lot of errands to run but if I have time I will try to write one or two more posts before leaving Yaoundé and diving back into the grind.

The XO

So I see that Nicholas Negroponte's XO project (the "One laptop per child" or $100 laptop as it was billed) has finally come to fruition.

In a comment to one of my previous posts, one of my friends asked what I thought. Having never touched one it's difficult to say. As a toy for affluent western geeks like me it's obviously cool. As a means of spreading information technology know-how around the world I'd say: it depends.

If the laptops are as rugged as they've been billed, and if they can survive the heat, dust, humidity, and unstable power that most poor countries present for a few years, they could be a valuable educational tool for some of the kids who get them. Technically it seem like a neat project.

Heck, given my power problems I wouldn't mind having one.

However, I see some potential problems:

• Many people won't have a clue how to even turn them on at first. You'd have to have people charged with distributing them and providing some minimal level of instruction for how to use them or they'll just sit and gather dust.
  
• Lack of technical people to maintain them if things go wrong. They'll be nice until they break down, or start having virus or driver problems (although not running Windows may save them from some of the virus problems.
  
• Who is in charge of distributing them? How are recipients selected? If a corrupt government (the kind they find in, oh, I don't know, some place like Cameroon) is in charge of handing them out, many or most will go to the children of government officials or their friends (or for that matter the officials themselves).
• What will they be used for? I can see people using them primarily for entertainment - movies, music, games - but that won't really change much in terms of international development. A poor village with no electricity, no running water, dirt roads, and a generally uneducated population may have trouble finding other uses for them.

For all of these reasons I have a suspicion that things may not work out quite the way they've been planned.

Another approach might be to donate or sell them cheap to adults or institutions in poorer countries. Just looking at my own village, there are hundreds of students just at my university who could use a low-power laptop like this to do work during the weeks when we don't have power. Students could bring their own to the lab and I could teach computer classes and not have to worry about power.

Aside from students, teachers and staff here could also use them to keep the school running when we lose power.

And everyone can use them for diversion at night - a rural African village at night with no power can get real boring.

So, for students, professionals, and other educated types who may have some level of technical knowledge, or at least interest, and who are in rural environments where cyber cafes and the like are not available something like this could actually be a great resource. This might bring a quicker return on the investment than only giving it to school children.

Maybe I'll write Negroponte a letter suggesting that he explore this possibility. If I had an XO I could even write it in the dark.

Well, that was amusing

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Yaounde just to work on the computers there, print stuff, etc. I got about half my work done on Saturday and intended to finish on Sunday before taking the train back to Nanga in the evening.

Of course, I woke up Sunday morning and found that the power was out at the Peace Corps office and in the whole quartier. They have a generator but for some reason it was on the fritz. Tried finding a cyber cafe but all the ones I knew were also powerless. The only cyber I found that had power wanted 300 Francs a page for printing (normal rate is around 50) which I wasn't willing to pay, so my work went undone. Oh well. Oh the irony...

Bill happened to be in Yaoundé over the weekend as well by chance, and we got to meet some of the new agroforestry trainees on their way back to training from visiting their posts, so that was fun. Sunday it was just he and I sitting around the case de passage with no lights, no phones, no motor cars, not a single luxury. So, after a fruitless search for a cheap and open cyber cafe we grabbed pizza and beers at a nice little restaurant before I took the train back to post.

Fortunately, SONEL somehow got its ass in gear and fixed our power, so it came on the day before yesterday, then went out again all morning, and then came on again in the afternoon just in time for me to teach in the lab today. How's that for better luck?

Lights Out

Nanga Eboko at Night

OK, I disappeared for a while there. Power has been out in Nanga Eboko for the last two weeks. Lack of power has a tendency to reduce blog activity, hence the lack of posts recently. At the moment I am in Yaoundé taking advantage of the power and Internet access offered by Peace Corps to try to do some work.

I've managed to keep teaching my computer classes by giving theoretical lessons on the blackboard that require no electricity. I learned my lesson last year and this time around split my course material up so that I would have a bunch of lessons ready for days without power and so I could spend all my time doing practical lessons when I do have power. So the last two weeks I've been explaining terminology in more detail, talking about binary, explaining how disks store data, opening up computers and showing students the various parts, etc.

One of my English classes is scheduled in the evenings, so that has unfortunately been a wash since without light in the classroom I have to let the students go.

The private lessons I wanted to give to local teachers are obviously on hold as well.

Since the pumps are electric, the power cut also means I've had no water. Fortunately, I had a number of water cans and buckets filled up when the power went, so I've found that by being careful and cooking less I was able to make it last and even stay relatively clean for two weeks. just before I left they hooked up a portable generator to the school's water pump and got it going so people on campus would at least have water in their houses. I promptly refilled all my containers so now I'm set for another two weeks when I get back.

Sadly, the University's generator, out of commission since March, has still not been repaired, so I've been burning a lot of oil and candle wax the last two weeks. They are trying to fix it at the moment and have assured me it'll be working by the time I get back, but I've heard that before. They tried fixing it several times since it died in March without success, but this time they have some newly acquired spare parts so maybe it'll actually work.

The school has also ordered three portable generators they plan to use to run the offices and some classrooms. They are powerful enough that if one is hooked up to the computer lab I'll be able to run most of the machines and get back to teaching the course properly. They were supposed to have arrived yesterday (while I was en route to Yaoundé) so we'll see what happens when I get back. Even if I don't have power at home, at least I'd be able to teach, which will keep me busy and make it bearable. Forget about getting a cold beer in town though.

Whether they fix the big generator or put the smaller ones in place, they'd better pull off one or the other, or both, because SONEL (the Cameroonian power company) is telling us it will be two months before they can get the lights back on.

TWO MONTHS.

Assuming they actually do turn it back on around New Year's, that would be right around the time the regular dry season outages begin. So I can expect to be without power in my village all or most of the time until about March or April (if I'm lucky).

(WARNING: Offensive language to follow. Children and the easily offended should stop reading now. I never said this was a family friendly blog...)

Fuck. I mean, FUCK. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking fuckity fuck fuck. This blows.

Back to School

My classes finally started again last week. So far things are running a little smoother this year than last year. As with last year I've already had many students who are scheduled for other classes at the same time as mine. This occurs partly because the schedule runs from week to week in order to accommodate the large number of visiting professors who come to teach for a week or two at a time, partly because I have students from different years (normally they are all in the same classes based on their year), and partly because the Deans from the different departments don't seem to communicate very well when scheduling courses that include students from different majors (like mine).

So, things are confused as always, but on the bright side I was much better prepared this time around and was able to hit the ground running. Year two is always easier. You've already done the hard work of adapting to your school and community and had a year to prepare courses and figure out what works and what doesn't. In spite of ongoing confusion I'm finding that my new Dean this year is pretty easy to work with, and since he has a PhD in computer science he's generally pretty sympathetic.

I'm teaching two classes at the moment.

My first class is Informatique de Base (Basic Computing) which is a basic computer literacy class required of all new students. However, since the course ended up being scrubbed early last year, we're starting it all over again for the second year students. My job is easier this year since the new Dean and another computer professor they hired last year have split the course with me and are now sharing the load.

We divided the students by major. I am teaching the students from the Theology, Education, and Nursing programs. The two other professors are splitting the students from the Business and IT program (which is the largest group). In the end we'll all have about the same number of students. I may have slightly more at the end of the day.

The course covers basic operations (turning a PC on and off, using a keyboard and mouse), essential Windows (Menus, Desktop, Windows, Files and Folders, common functions), Office Applications (word processing and spreadsheets), and the Internet (search engines, Email, and security). We'll mostly be using Windows and MS Office but I may get insurrectionary and start showing the students OpenOffice once they've got the basics down. I'm using Firefox for the Internet section instead of Internet Exploder.

Since my courses could be cancelled early or I could end up stuck without power for days, I've learned my lesson from last year and am jamming all the crucial parts of my computer course into the beginning: Basic operations and essential Windows material, Word, and Internet. If that's all I get through, fine. If I have time I will into more detail in these areas and cover Excel and maybe PowerPoint.

I also have some material I can teach on a blackboard, so if we lose power I can still get some work done. I've got lessons on Windows, the Internet, hardware, and computer maintenance in reserve in case I get stuck. If need be I can also do some of the office lessons on the board (for example, I can explain concepts like rows, columns and cells for Excel on a blackboard).

I've also written a short manual for the course with chapters on each of the subjects above using lots of pictures and short, clear explanations of basic concepts and functions. Years of experience writing software manuals for my previous employer came in handy here. Well, except for the fact that I had to write the whole thing in French. Hopefully this will both help them study and serve as a resource they can keep after the class is over.

Since I can't print it and give out copies (school won't pay for it) I put it in pdf form and am going to stick it on all the machines in the lab. Students that have USB keys can take a copy of the manual and print it themselves at one of the office boutiques in town. Since most Cameroonians don't own computers, many towns have small shops (often just a guy with a PC and printer) where you can pay to have documents typed and printed.

My second class is General English. This is a much harder class for me to teach. For one thing, it's huge. I have over a hundred students jammed into a big sweaty mass in one room. For another, I didn't have a background in teaching English when I came here and wasn't well prepared for it. I did some ESL tutoring for Literacy Volunteers of America before I came here, but this is very different. Finally, the students are at different levels. Some speak English well. Others don't know a word. I'm trying to aim somewhere in the middle, but it's challenging.

I've designed the course as a basic grammar and vocabulary review. Since it's only a 45 hour course basic is about all I'll have time for. I taught the first class in both French and English (to try to ease the beginners into it), but switched to total English immersion by the third class. Since I had to go through the pain of immersion during my training, I've decided to inflict it on my students as well. Besides, it works.

So, that's what I'm up to at the moment.

Crisis Situation

The road to Nanga Eboko is bad. Even by Cameroonian standards. It's unpaved almost the whole 170 kilometers from Yaoundé to here. In the dry season it turns to dust and visibility is often nil - like driving in whiteout conditions in a blizzard. In the rainy season (which we're now in) it turns to a sea of mud. Logging trucks use the road through Nanga to carry the equatorial African rain forest to Yaoundé or Douala a few trunks at a time. In the rainy season mud, these huge, heavy trucks destroy the road. And of course, road repairs are not Cameroon's strong suit.

I was told by the volunteer here before me that the road had gotten worse during his two years here, and it has continued to get worse during my time here. The last time I took a bus to Yaoundé we did a lot of slipping and sliding. It's become normal for people to get stuck in the mud on the road or trapped behind overturned tractor trailers for a night or two.

Fortunately, we are on the train line that goes from the north of Cameroon to Yaoundé, so for my last few trips I have been able to take the train (even though that means getting to the station at 3:30 AM).

However, the road has become so bad that most deliveries of goods from Yaoundé have stopped. The train only drops passengers in Nanga, so everything has to be trucked in over our crappy road. I first realized the implications of this when I went looking for eggs and was told that there were none to be had anywhere in town.

Then, on Friday I went to meet a friend in town for a beer and got the REAL bad news: there's no beer in town.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I'm exaggerating. They still had some Guinness but were out of everything else. Bet the Guinness is gone by now too. Ashia!

Crap. Viruses.

In my previous post on the challenges of computer maintenance in Cameroon, I should have mentioned that viruses are a massive problem here. Most people here don't think about security much. Public computers in cyber cafes are usually riddled with viruses, and everyone here uses USB flash drives to store their data. As a result, viruses spread like wildfire. We periodically get contagions here where a new virus spreads to practically every machine on campus.

Since I arrived here I've tried to improve things here by installing Grisoft's AVG Free on just about every machine I can get my hands on, and that has helped a lot. It's a pretty good program, and if you plug in a virus ridden USB key it automatically spots and cleans most viruses.

I've also tried to end the practice of installing multiple anti-virus programs on machines. While many people here pay no attention to security at all, others go overboard and decide that if one anti-virus program will protect their machine, why not three or four? Of course, having three anti-virus programs scanning your system at the same time will probably make your PC as slow as any virus or spyware would, so this ends up being counterproductive. I think they're finally getting that, and so now we usually just have one per machine.

Anyway, yesterday a students came to me asking if I could give him some free software I'd mentioned to him in conversation. I put it on my USB key and plugged into his laptop to copy it over. Later, I plugged into one of the PCs here to do some blog posting and found that I'd picked up a virus from him. AVG was on the machine so it cleaned the infected files, but in the process deleted them all. I made sure to give the guy a copy of AVG free as well and told him to clean his machine. Hopefully he will.

Unfortunately, among the deleted files were a series of blog posts I'd written (I often write them ahead of time and post them later) and pictures I'd selected to go up. I was all set to post tons of pictures of my school and village, but, alas, now I'll have to go rewrite the posts and find the pictures again. Ashia!

Crap. Viruses...

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.

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.

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.