Semi connected to the world

My bank recently got internet which is really huge. For a business to have internet in Cameroon is rare, and I know that my bank is one of a couple of its kind to have internet. The fact that we have several computers which is also rare. However first electricity is nessesary. Days at a time the strength of the electricity is only strong enough to have one or two computers on, we keep the lights of and don't make coffee (because the coffee machine uses alot of power? I have no idea). Then the internet has to be working. We've had hookup for a month now and gone through 3 modems. If the modem is working, the connection isn’t. This is due to the really crappy internet service providers here. Paying monthy for internet here is about the same price as buying a decent cellphone, or renting my 3 bedroom house with a night guard for a month. Its not cheap at all and yet it is really unreliable. If my french was better I'd be complaining to the internet service providers a lot more. However, since my french isn't that great, I march down to their office to complain but just stumble over my words and I look like an idiot.

The bank got internet for the reason of making international money transfers. So far the internet has increased my email time and project research. The employees like to see their horoscopes everyday. The other day, one read " You should be careful when making financial decisions and transactions in the next couple of days" which the loan officer took serious thought to and vowed to try and keep away from money issues. Hmm we work in a bank... They also love to keep up on football statistics so thank goodness we now have internet for that. I helped them create email accounts (A bigger process than I expected) and afterwards i was like "Okay, you're all set to send an email" and they said "Who do we have to email? I don't know anyone with an email account, maybe you have friends??" And finally everyone and their uncle wants an American visa and all of the applicaitons are online.

When the days with electricty and a good connection shows up on the same day.. its wonderful. And I don't mind being at the bank little longer than usual. The internet is a huge resource for me and its also really nice to keep in touch with people. But if you haven’t heard from me… no news is good news. One of many peace corps mottos

So anyway, we completed out girls and boys camp this weekend. It was originally going to be just girls but it’s a new approach to gender issues, girl empowerment, HIV/AIDS prevention and sex education to have boys and girls together. I think there’s definitely some truth to that. Gender role playing Gender role playing again. This kid was pretending to be a health teacher and he used our penis picture. It was really cute

The French level was way over my head though. A bit discouraging seeing how I was talking to 11 year olds. But when in French class did I learn what the word for sperm is? Or how many ways do you know how to say “to have sex”? What da know, there are just as many ways in french as there are in english. Very confusing. We had sessions on the menstrual cycle, stds, planning their future, gender role playing, reasons to say yes/no to sex etc. We had some very nicely drawn diagrams by Matt and Kate of the penis and vagina. Which they copied down pretty well in their notebooks that we gave them. Some of the kids questions were a little out of the blue, something you can never be prepared for.

Blown up condom game

Condom race with bananas

We played lots of games which was really fun. My first ice breaker was charades. A game I LOVE. So the kids had to think creatively when acting out animals or professions. This was the first shocker… kids do not use their imagination here. Thinking creatively, working in a group, acting out things… nope. Not at all. It blew me away. Even something like draw pictures that represents you. Likes, dislikes, ambitions etc. Nope. Its just not the style of learning. This is also where I’d like to point out another volunteer’s blog post that I think decribes parts of cameroon better than I could. So if you’ve got time, it’s worth reading and so are his other blog posts.

Upbringing:
http://timhartmancameroon.blogspot.com/2008/06/whats-wrong-with-cameroon-ii-upbringing.html

Mentality/
http://timhartmancameroon.blogspot.com/2008/10/whats-wrong-with-cameroon-iv-mentality.html

Reading:
http://timhartmancameroon.blogspot.com/2008/03/whats-wrong-with-cameroon-reading.html

So anyway, other games that we played were lion and elephants where the lion is HIV the elephants are the immune system that protects the baby elephant representing the human body. We had a condom race with bananas. Hot potato with blown up condoms with true or false questions inside… we played that along to the song of “I kissed a girl and I liked it” I thought it was appropriate.

Most importantly kids here know their ABCs of sex. Hopefully you know this too. Abstinence. Being Faithful. Condoms. Stuff like that they know off the back of their hand. However if you were to ask “What is a good reason to have sex when you are married?” or “Why is it easier for girls to get HIV?” “Why do I have cramps when I get my period?” That stuff is not talked about. WHY and HOW TO are the big ones “How to know what I want in my future to wait to have sex” “How to put on a condom correctly.” It just opened my eyes to the way some sex education is conducted.

Overall I think it went well. It was good having girls and boys mixed for somethings. Hearing the girls talk about how they are pressured into certain situations and how the boys as friends could help was really good. It was extremely exhausting though. And here is my praise for all English/science/computer volunteers here in Cameroon….

I would never last 2 years doing what education volunteers do here. When there should be 60 kids in a classroom (still a lot) there are 160. Maybe a dozen of those kids have books. A new level of patience is needed. The style of teaching that volunteers do here takes a lot of effort and time. And when most of the class fails and has to stay back, which is very common, it takes a lot of determination to keep teaching. Kudos to you, I think that you’re all taking on a big challenge and I’m sure you’re doing amazing.