Volunteers needed

United action for children has many projects in progress that benefit the children of Buea tremendously. The trouble is keeping them going when volunteers leave.

After looking at the folders of projects gone by, it has become clear to me that many brilliant programmes have fallen by the way side as volunteers who've started them depart for home. It's sad and frustrating because it's obvious that they were excellant projects enjoyed by many kids. Youth clubs, drawing classes, french lessons and a once thriving football club are to name but a few.

However there is currently a computer workshop in the cyber cafe which seems fruitful enough but there has been no internet at the school since i've been here.
Also there is vocational workshops for elder kids who desire to go on to learn a trade, which i would like to help with if i wasn't so busy with other activities and projects.

The programmes i have chosen to help with are 'remedial reading' and 'school on wheels'. And of course i'm teaching at jamadianle in the mornings and afternoons (more about that in another blog)

Bonnie, a lovely Canadian girl here on her governments' dime, revived the remedial reading programme after two Spanish dudes left and it subsequently dissapated.
It runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at jamadianle nursey school. About 25-30 kids show up who are of all ages and of who are at varying levels of literacy. We play word games with the use of phonics and we practice the alphabet with them and then we read them a story. That's if they're not climbing the walls that is.
None of them know the alphabet and their spelling needs a lot of work but again i experience the absolut willingness to learn and constant effort Cameroonian kids adhere to with respect to education. It's a great, effective programme and i enjoy helping out immensely.

The school on wheels is a project headed by Henry. It involves us packing a suitcase full of flashcards, alphabet and number games, puzzles and drawing books and driving out to the neighbouring villages of Molyko. It runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Tueseday was my first day doing it.

We went to Bockova and rocked up outside this magnificent community centre which looked like it had flown in from the 1970's, it was sooo out of place amongst these humble wee wooden shacks. Henry went to get the keys from the chief of the village as all the while these kids kept streaming towards us "uncle, uncle, teach me, teach me, I can count you know".

It was a truly amazing experience and a wonderful feeling i got doing this. It felt like i was doing something worthwhile and constuctive. I didn't even care how stupid i looked as i danced about singing the alphabet song to a bunch of five year olds, It was cool and one of the wee girls had the most infectious laugh i've ever had the fortune to enjoy. She was hilarious and i hope she is there the next time we go back as she was a wee ray of sunshine who brightened up my week.

So to go back to my earler point about what will happen to these worthy projects when we all leave. Well the wheels come off basically until other volunteers arrive or maybe not if UAC can co-ordinate volunteers to arrive as others leave thus creating a more steady stream of helping hands and not in dribs and drabs as they are now.

I wish the latter can be achieved as i hope i have elucidated to you. These are wonderful, inspirational programmes well worth saving.

www.unitedactionforchildren.org

All these things that I have done

During my two week induction programme i've managed to pack in quite a lot of stuff.

I've seen the whole of Buea and met countless friendly faces and subsequently forgotten all their names (although they usually remember mine, pronounced - Jameson.) Been to bright, colurful and chaotic markets where anything and everything can be bartered for. I've seen the subsistence farmers on the mountain growing maize and bananas.
Wherever i've went to in Buea i've been welcomed with a curious smile and many, many questions.

I've been for a tour of the two schools and met all the teachers and some of the cheeky wee kids to unified chorus' of 'hello, hello'.
I've sat in on the class 5's and met Paul, who i will be assisting during my stay here.

Henry Sako has been teaching me Pidgin (a bastardized version of english mixed with french and german, which is what everyone speaks here) It's a very strange language but it sounds lovely.

I've been speaking as much french as my limited vocabulary will allow me with Henry Enoabane and my friend Ines at the internet place (everyone here is essentially tri-lingual, they speak english fluently, as they do french and pidgin, Henry can also speak his own dialect too which is native to his village, it's really pretty immpressive)

I've been to Douala to get my bags in the very definition of a crazy taxi (the record i've had is 8 people in an old rover estate, madness!)

I've been working out too, i actually do have muscles under my winter coat!!.

I've been to Limbe twice and dined under the shadow of a volcano.

I've also cleaned the house from top to bottom cause it was filthy like you wouldn't believe. It gets so dusty here, so it was probably a futile exercise, made me feel better though.

Not stopped smoking yet though!!! (the 50p price tag doesn't make it any easier either)

Other than that night times are spent reading copious amounts to keep away from 'the couple'. I've been reading like johnny 5 in short circuit!!
Already i've finished,

• Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris
• A spot of bother by Mark Haddon
• The life and times of the thunderbolt kid by Bill Bryson
• The red pony by John Steinbeck

All i would recommend whole heartedly.

So that's more or less what i've been up to, next week will be a whole lot busier as i start teaching five days a week and i'm going to start organizing my music class, Mr Orock says the kids and I should put on a concert at the end of the school term, which would be fun.

Byes x

My Cameroonian diet

Volunteers with UAC get three square meals a day at the Orock house - Breakfast at 7.30A.M,
lunch (which is the main meal of the day) at 2.30P.M and dinner at 7.30P.M. This all runs on Africa time you understand so they are usually 15 to 20 minutes late. This means however we get a chance to watch a snowy t.v with BBC world on or the Cameroon v Egypt match last night(Cameroon got pumped 4-2, i think Scotland would give them a good game) or we may be subjected to that damn Alicia keys song "don't walk". Very big hit here, much to my ears annoyance.

Anyway this is what i've been eating as well as a few wee cheeky things from the bakery when peckish.

• Plantanes - I think they are a distant cousin of the banana, i really don't like them even when fried.
• Bananas - They're so sweet here cause they pick them when they're green. Really nice.
• Pineapple - You can by a giant one for 500F which is basically 5p to you and me. Juicy and delicious.
• Apples - very sweet and good. Can't find green ones though.
• Grapefruit - A bit to bitter for me. But they are cheap and plentiful.
• Rice - Boiled of fried, very tasty and very filling.
• Spaghetti - They cook it weird here, not like back home, i still stick it in my face though!.
• Omlettes - Quite nice when they put tomatoes in them.
• Tomatoes - They are tiny but super tasty.
• Bread - It's wonderful here, so fresh and excellant with a bit of dairylea from the bakery.
• Pancakes - Well good.
• Yams - Uugh horrible, disgusting bland old yams. Not for me, It's like chewing on hardened wallpaper paste.
• Chicken - Nice enough but i'm always weary about eating it cause the chickens roam free here and peck about and everybody (well i say everybody, i mean men!!) 'make water' wherever they please. It's a bit of a potential health disaster.
• Fish - Is soooo good here, I had some right on Limbe beach with the hottest sauce. Brilliant. I've tried carp and barracuda. Delicious.
• Cookies - Every now and then from the bakery.
• Nuts - Every variety you could imagine. These wee kids sell them on the street for 1000f. They're really good. And they come in old Grants whisky bottles which is quite funny.
• Sugarballs - From the bakery for much cheapness, highly addictive and great. Basically what we'd call a jam donut without the jam.
• Water - Sooo much water. It costs about 2 pound for 6 1.5l bottles.
• D'jino - A mixed fruit drink made right here in Cameroon. Very refreshing and it rivals bru in its healing capabilities.
• Mutzig - My beer of choice, big giant bottles of the stuff for 50p. Wonderfull

So that's what i've been putting in my face. I hope that wasn't to boring but it was mainly for my mums benefit who has probably convinced herself that i've been rationing two bananas a week.

You see mother, I have been eating.

Bye. x

Jesus saves me?

Went to a gospel church on sunday after being invited by my friend George - a born again christian. I thought it might be quite hypocrytical to go but on george's insistance and a genuine curiosity to see what it was like i went along. It was supposed to be my day of rest but i thought sod it.

The music was amazing with a full gospel choir and quite a funky band to back them up. People really let the emotion of the preaching and the singing take them. I looked over at george at one point to find him in floods of tears mumbling "i will do anything, i will do anything".

At the end of the show i was ushered forward to sign the visitors book. I thought i was just going to write a nice wee message like 'thanks for a wonderful morning the music was amazing' but when i got up front the girl with the book asked me which church i was with?. I said no church. The girl looked at me as if i were satan himself.

I was not allowed to sign the book as it was reserved for men of god.
It was quite an experience.

Yesterday i have been sick as a god...i mean dog. Woke up with a feeling in my stomach like i was trying to digest a lightbulb!. Of course the hypochondria kicked in and i thought i had a giant tapeworn snuggling up inside me, but no, it was sickness and diarrhoea of the very worst order.
As i write this on tuesday i'm feeling a lot better though.

On lighter news the water came back on yesterday (it's been off since friday). When i switched on the shower i almost started crying as i seen the water arcing out of the shower head. Praise jesus!!!. Never in my life have i ever relished a freezing cold shower more. I also got my laundry done too cause the pant crisis was getting critical.

See you x

Hello white man

Hello Again from sunny Cameroon. Where it's oh so toasty and the crickets are defeaning.

I'm writing to you from a lovely wee internet cafe just outside of Beua town. It's quite high up cause my ears pop when i come here. The girl who works here is called Innes and she is cool and beautiful, we have an arrangement that she only speaks to me in french (which is one of the many reasons i came here, to improve on that wonderful language).

It's been a quiet few days for me here as i've been a little bit ill. I woke up the other day with the feeling my head had been in a vice so of course i thought i had the dreaded malaria, really it was just a mild case of hypochondria though.
In truth the mosquitos aren't bad here as Beua is at a high altitude and the mountain keeps the temperature relatively cool.

Next week i'm going to start helping Paul with teaching three days a week and help the other volunteers with construction the other two. Paul is yet another lovely Cameroonian chap to add to my list of friends. On the weekends he is a tour guide for mount cameroon and he promises he will take me up there. I think it's quite expensive though.

Spent a lot of time with Diane today, she is the girl who started the school with Mr Orock and she is also the namesake of Jamadianle nursery school. She's a lovely girl who i'm sure i can learn a lot from but unfortuneately she leaves in three weeks. So i'm going to be stuck with the couple from hell. God they're so miserabl and negative about things here. Maybe i'm the naive one and i'm the fool for being positive despite many problems, i just hope if i do this kind of work for life that i NEVER turn into them. oh well c'est la vie.

I think it's going to be an impossibility to put photos on this blog as the internet is slower than a panda in a hurry. So what i think i'll do is put them on at a later date, i've already got some wonderful snaps to show you.

Cameroon is an astonishingly beautiful place.

Au revoir.

One week in Cameroon

Well here I am. I've been in Cameroon a week and it's pretty amazing.
It's a big adjustment to get used to the life and culture and crazy roads where people haven't even heard of the highway code, the giant tarantula in my bathroom and of course the humidity and heat.

I've been teaching once which was pretty nerve wracking at first but once i got into the swing of things it was a lot of fun.

The Cameroonian people are amazing and so friendly. They love to hear stories of Scotland, the place where we all wear skirts. My next door neighbour Nelson keeps asking me if i've brought my skirt with me.

This is just a quick post to set up this blog(which is a minor miracle by the way considering how dodgy the internet is here) so i will be back soon with more news.

Toodle pip and i hope it's not too cold where you are

x