Thursday September 30th

September is ending! We are moving into October! That is so hard to believe. I just got back from teaching my last agroforestry class at the refugee camp. We finished up the lessons and did a review of some of the material, and I was really impressed by some of the things they retained from early on. I was really impressed in general actually. In the middle of October, the students, all 70 or so of them, will take the Trees for the Future exam, and then probably in December we will celebrate with a party and handing out of certificates. Part of me is very happy that this class is finishing up. I have been teaching it since March, roughly weekly, and it is a long way out there. It will be nice not to have that responsibility now, and the need to prepare and go out there every week. At the same time, that class has been one of the highlights of my work here, and I will miss seeing and interacting with the students so often. I'll have to just go visit the camp from time to time and hang out.

I am moving into a transition time. Our replacements are already in country, doing there training outside Yaounde. I think they are in week three and will be assigned posts at the end of week four. They will come up for site visit at the end of October. So I am trying to wrap things up and focus on the transition. Now that the refugee camp class teaching is over, I will just be teaching my beekeeping class weekly, working on protecting the trees in my demonstration field, and writing up reports and my postbook for my replacement. I think I need to start tackling the getting rid of stuff aspect of moving out as well, to make the actual moving out when it comes time, a lot easier. It is tempting to keep working a lot, but I think what will be better is focusing on closing up, and taking the time to do it well, as well as enjoying my last moments here.

I had originally asked for a three month extension overlapping with my replacement for those three months, continuing a few projects and teaching classes as they moved in, learned language, adjusted to the area and culture, and could jump into work. I think the overlap could be very valuable in terms of ease of transition and sustainablility of projects. I was granted 1.5 months of extension in my village, after which I will spend the last 1.5 months in Garoua doing more office/research/site visit type work for the program, and then COSing (close of service) the first week of March. I am excited about all of these things...about having a little bit more time in village, about getting to meet and know and work with my replacement, about having a bit of time in Garoua at the end.

And the most exciting thing on the horizon is a visit from my parents in the month of November! I am so excited about it, and showing them everything. I am excited about them seeing my village before I leave it, as well as getting to visit some of the fun spots in the country.

a few more photos on the world map day

World Map Finished

I finally finished the world map I have been working on at the Primary School for the past 10 months or so. Again, this project is the World Map Project created by a former Peace Corps Volunteer. A book has instructions on how to complete it, as well as a grid and then possible lessons or activities you can do with it afterwards. It is a fantastic project. While most maps are color coded according to countries, I decided to do mine geographically, as I always loved looking at the geographical features, of deserts, mountains, jungle areas. Perhaps it would be easier for students to grasp if each country were a different color, or perhaps it will be good as it is, showing the geographical/ecological similarities between different parts of the world. Maybe my replacement volunteer will want to do another one and do it according to countries. Below are some photos. School will pick up again in the next few weeks, as students slowly trickle back in according to how much field work there is. Parents right now are trying to find money for application as well as tuition fees. There is a new technical school that just opened in the neighboring village and some people are excited to send their children there, although the cost just to apply is a bit high.

This photo is for scale, so you can see how big it is.

Here's the group of kids who happened to be congregating around the school while I finished. My favorite is the fat baby.