Here is a picture of the Pickens(Pidgin word for kids) inside my house on a lazy Sunday

This is a great advertisement for Compaq computers. This is a 486 machine with 24 megabytes of ram that is covered in dust, but still runs while other newer computers die continuously next to it because of heat, dust and electricity problems. How is this still alive?

Here is market day in Nsei. The market is one day a week and is a big event.

These are all pictures of my trip to the village in the Northwest Province called Nsei.

This is an intersection in the suburb of Yaounde.

Here I am at the teachers conference in a discussion.

Here is a guy in Tiko town, I greeted. He is posing well for the camero.

September

WOW! The summer break went extremely fast. I was first in Mbalmayo helping train the new volunteers. There are 40 some new volunteers here now. I then came back to Tiko to help mentor a few people in computers and worked at a Southwest Province conference for teacher training. It was an extensive 2 week course in Computers for 60 new computer teachers in the province. It was in Buea at a bilingual secondary school which has a better set up than most American schools! I was the head trainer, in charge of the whole training experience. At the end of the seminar the Provincial Delegate came and a television crew. It was a big event! I was on TV.

The next day a friend of mine came in from the US to visit. She is doing a tour of South America, Europe and Cameroon. We traveled all over. I kept her busy. We went to a wedding in Yaounde. We visited Limbe many times, for the beach. Then went to visit a friend in Bamenda, a small village where he grew up. We went horseback riding to a waterfall. It was a good time!

August was non stop rain and I was constantly wet and muddy. It would rain all day and all night. I am glad,now, it is coming towards the end of the rainy season. I have been working on my computer lab since school has started. I have been having electricity problems and have learned a ton about it. I guess, if it always works smoothly you never need to learn. How much we take for granted! I have been shocked many times but no stopping of the heart.

This year I have refined some things that I learned the hard way from last year including...structuring classes, discipline, teaching styles. Teaching is a science that I never realized how complicated it can be. One example, trying to lecture to 100 kids at 2:00pm when the temperature is hitting a sticky 97 degrees. How do you get them to listen? Obviously you are handicapped but there are strategies I have made that have helped. Currently I have 17 working computers, 14 of which are networked. That is defenitely way above average here in Cameroon. I tell my students they are spoiled.

I have been reading a lot at night and on weekends because there isn't a whole lot to do in the rainy season and my DVD player broke on my computer, so no computer games or movies, but I have been able to adjust. I am enjoying NOT traveling now and sleeping in my own bed. Many PC Volunteers travel all over Cameroon. I am lucky to live in a house in a small city. Transportation is most difficult!! Last weekend I went to an Inlet and rented a canoe from a fisherman and paddled through mangroves..It reminded me of the everglades.

I would like to hear how everyone else is doing send me an email.

I have successfully completed one full school year! Things have been going well. My project from the British High Council was approved and I received money for 20 computers. I placed 12 computers at my school and 8 at the grammar school that is owned by the same proprietor. It has made life much easier. All my students are loving them. I have been taking trips to the economic capital of Cameroon – Douala to purchase the equipment. After hectic days in douala it is nice to come home to the peaceful town of Tiko. Bad traffic, Heat, lots of people…. Sounds like Atlanta. J

The past few months the weather has been nice. A small amount of rain helps with the extreme heat and a beautiful view of Mountain Cameroon from Tiko. The two volunteers from Buea which is just 20 minutes west of me have returned home to the US. There are new volunteers arriving any day now. The Peace Corps has asked me to help in training of the new volunteers. It is funny to think I am a veteran volunteer now, feels like I don’t know much.

I don’t have school till September, so I plan to do some travel and help mentor some people with computer literacy here in Tiko. I want to create a Computerized Report Card system. The manual process teachers go through for each student will drive any IT professional crazy. I also will have to teach at a Holiday school in Mbalmayo which is all francophone students. So I will need to start working on my French.

I just returned from a trip from Yaounde I was in training at Peace Corp Headquarters for “Training of Trainers”. I also used some Hilton points and stayed at the Hilton hotel. Which was real nice since I have just came from a small town south of Yaoundé, Ebolowa where I used a bucket for a bath and a pit latrine. What a difference!

Here are some pictures….

How eh dai? I am slowly starting to learn pidgin the main language spoken in my area. It is a VERY broken form of English at times I can’t even pick out a word spoken. I still try to speak some French but have difficulty because not much French is spoken in my area. I have enjoyed these past few months tremendously. I have been very sick a few times not with malaria, but some stomach virus I think. But lately I have been healthy.

I have enjoyed the dry season a lot and even started playing basketball with some locals in Tiko. It is funny the court always has a vast amount of languages spoken at all times, Sometimes French, pidgin, English and other patois.

The bird flu has made it to Cameroon and Peace Corp is keeping an eye on its development. There are chickens running around everywhere here so we have to be careful and make sure all the food is cooked thoroughly.

The second term is almost finished for my school. There are 3 terms and the third term is the shortest of them all. I have been working hard to try to apply to the British High Council for funding for Computers at my school. It is a tedious process and I am still waiting to see if we will be approved. I am optimistic and think that we will get at least 10 new computers. Right now I am working with six, two of the hard drives died on the older computers. So they are really not worth fixing, I am considering them totaled and to be buried.

In Cameroon they have a youth week here. During Youth Week you prepare the students to play sports, Chorus, Traditional Dance against other schools. Since my school is very small we did not win but were very competitive in every category. The traditional dance I thought was excellent. It was so good it could be a Broadway show, very entertaining and unique.

When I have free time on the weekend I usually go to the beach with friends in Limbe. This place is so naturally beautiful you could never get tired of it.

I thank everyone for the packages, letters and emails. I enjoy all them very much. I wish everyone good times and health. Talk soon.

This is a good friend of mines wife with her son. He is dead asleep in the hot humid air of mid day. I don’t know how he does it.

This is a picture of my friends house down the road from where I live. He works at the water company here in Tiko

Youth week, Chorus Competition. Very Good Singers!

Pictures of the traditional dance. Was very entertaining!

This is a typical bar scene in Cameroon

This is a chief of a nearby village at a celebration.

This is a picture of Limbe at sunset.

Unfortunately, I missed the sun. This picture

does not give justice of its beauty but it is a

sample.

Here is a picture of me at limbe at dusk. Behind is the beach but unfortunately you cannot see.

These are pictures at Seme Beach which is a black sand beach that is at the base of mount Cameroon. The man in the middle is a famous singer in Cameroon called pite payee. He was at the beach the same day.

These are all the PC Volunteer teachers I trained with

This is a hike I went on in Bamenda.

This is more difficult than It looks.

More pictures of Bamenda…

More pics of Limbe

A PC volunteer is sad cause his fish is all gone.

Happy New year everyone. Hope everyone had a great holiday. Well it is January now and this is the hottest part of the year in Tiko. It hasn’t rained in some time. But I prefer it cause the roads have no puddles and I can enjoy the outdoors.

My Christmas holidays were very busy. First I had IST (In-Service-Training) in Bamenda which is in the Northwest province of Cameroon. I stayed in a nice hotel which had hot water and satellite television. I took my first hot shower in six months. The weather there is cool because of the high altitude. Afterwards the training we hiked Mount Bamenda which is about 8000 feet. It was a good warm up for what was to come.

Then I went back to Tiko. On Christmas Five volunteers and I went hiking up Mount Cameroon the largest mountain in West Africa. It was a five day hike and easily was the hardest thing I have ever done. Day one we hiked around 7 hours, Day two – 6 hour hike, Day three we made it to the summit and and back down to the camp site 11 hour hike, Day 4 – 12 hours (Was gruesome because everyone was extremely sore from the three days before. Then Day five was a solid six hours downhill with blistered feet and extrememely sore leg muscles. It was well worth it though. I have attached pictures of the trip.

After hiking we hit the beach and I had seven volunteers staying at my place. It was crazy. Now I am back to school and trying to get the students back in the groove again. I appreciate all the packages and wish everyone a good new year. Please write me and let me know how all of you are doing.

Things have been good here in Cameroon. I am starting to get adjusted. I have made more friends and it has made things a lot easier. I somehow found a group of tennis players that I never thought would have existed. They play all the time and are very good. The only problem is it is pricy and on my volunteer salary I might be stretching the limit. One can of tennis balls cost almost 10 dollars compared to 2 dollars in the states. So I play with flat balls all the time. Also Re-stringing of a tennis racquet I have heard is very difficult. I have not had to cross that road yet.

So therefore I have had to adjust my “necessities”. In the US a refrigerator is a necessity but here it is a “nice to have”. That is just one example. At first I said I must have a refrigerator. The mold in Tiko is horrible. It gets on everything clothes, shoes, and especially food. But I have decided to invest my money in tennis instead of a refrigerator for now and maybe purchase one in the future.

Air Conditioning in Florida is a necessity correct? Tiko is as hot as or hotter than south Florida, it is hard to compare since I always had air conditioning. A/C is no where to be found except in hotels and some banks. A Peace Corp administrator came to visit me a few weeks ago in her nice US Government supplied SUV. I got in the car and hit a wall of air that felt vaguely familiar. It was AC! How good it was…. And how soon I forgot how good it felt. There is days here where I sweat all day long. But somehow I adjust and air conditioning does not seem like a necessity. Best 25 dollars ever spent in my life was on my portable fan. The fans goes with me wherever I go in my house.

My job has been a constant struggle. All 400 students scratch and claw to use the nine computers I have that run. I have talked with a sister school of mine and a teacher there uses a book which I am making the students buy for 3 dollars. To not have a book for all students to follow is chaos I have learned. There is no projector so trying to talk and tell all of them to do something is impossible. So the book has been very helpful for me and them. The problem is it has been a struggle to get them to buy the book. But the ones who have purchased the book I have had much better productivity. I let the students use the computers during free periods (Yes, many students have free periods throughout the day). Usually, I have students bring me lunch to the computer lab so they can work on there lunch period. I even stay after school to let students use the computers. Therefore, I am usually pretty busy all day long.

My house I have seen that I don’t live alone. Life thrives in this heat. I have roaches, crickets, frogs, mosquitoes, HUGE spiders, and mice. I have gotten used to them, they are scared of me. :)

Top Things I have found out Cameroonians can do better than me.

1. Football (Soccer)! They are unbelievable at this game. The quality of a match at the junior level is far above the same age bracket in the US.

2. Walking in the dark on a muddy road. As you can see in my picture it can be very difficult to see puddles. I walk about half the speed as Cameroonians. I think they have memorized where every rock and puddle is located. They walk with no Flash light most of the time. The night in Cameroon is truly a dark night.

3. Ability to deal with the heat. I live in one of the hottest parts in Cameroon. I sometimes see people in 3 piece suits and a tie in ninety something degree weather and they are not sweating. I doubt I will ever be able to obtain that one.

4. Patience. I thought I had a lot of patience when comparing myself to Americans. But Cameroonians are in another league.

5. Giving. Cameroonians give me everything and don’t ask for anything in return. I am expecting them to ask for something in return but it never happens. They are truly happy with giving food or whatever little that they have. I get all kinds of fruit and meals all the time.

6. Cutting grass with a machete. I tried a pathetic attempt at this and almost cut my foot off.

7. Cleaning clothes without washing machines. Mud gets everywhere especially during the rainy season. My attempt took me 3 hours to clean one pair of jeans where another could do the task in a half a hour or less.

8. Bargaining. I have seen people bargain for half an hour for 10 cents off of some fruit. They love to bargain.

Front of my house

Teachers at the students club meeting

All the students at the students club meeting

This is my car - it came with the house

This is a nice big puddle I stepped into at night

This is my compound, lots of neighbors and kids

OK so I am starting to get situated at least a little. I have moved into my house which is in a compound with other neighbors so it will be very safe. I have a 3 bedroom place with electricity and running water most of the time. Much better than most volunteers homes. So I am happy. I still am trying to figure out how to eat here. I

do not cook well as most of you know. In Cameroon most people eat at home there are very few restaurants. I have been eating at the owner of the schools house almost every night so far. They cook some good food. I have got my breakfast down, I buy eggs and fruit and bread and it is very pleasant. I eat lunch usually near my school which has fish mamas who sell fish with this long brownish thing that actually tastes pretty good called Miando. I always forget the name of it and am not sure if it is a vegetable or fruit. They have this hot sauce called Pepe that is excellent.

As far as my work goes it is about a 25 minutes walk to work from my home. I can take a taxi but I have actually started to enjoy the walk. My work here has been an extreme challenge. I have 4 working computers, 3 of which are Pentium 1 and the other a 486 machine (Do you remember those?) It brought back memories when I saw it. Trying to run a downgraded win 98 OS is painfully slow. But it works. I am supposed to be receiving more computers soon. But from what I have seen I should expect them later more than sooner.

I have around three hundred kids who desperately want to learn computers. I am still trying to figure out a system to teach the kids. It has been more chaos than anything so far. They all want to stay after school and during breaks on the computer. I am amazed at how much time students will stand and watch another student use the windows paint program for hours at a time. Many students do not even know the difference between a mouse and keyboard while some have there own email accounts. So it has been very difficult to teach material.

They have not complained once about the lack of computers which surprises me. The students are very respectful and always call me sir, usually. The education system here is completely different. The first week of school is just manual labor. The principal had some students clean my yard in front of my house. There is a fixed time schedule but it is really flex. I still haven’t figured out the timing of the whole thing. I am also very free to teach and do what I want. We have had no administration meetings. So I am just trying to figure a plan out that works. I am used to Corporate America where we over plan and sit in way to many meetings so this is the EXTREME opposite.

On another note…. I joined a Country Club in Tiko. Of course it is not American Standards, but it has a huge pool, bar restaurant, satellite television and tennis courts with lights! I was shocked when I found it. I found out it is very expensive… 10 dollar initiation fee plus 2 dollars each month for membership. But it is so worth it. Now the goal is to try to find a tennis racquet and then tennis players to play. Over time it will work out.

On another note, I was riding in a taxi cramped between a bunch of other people heading somewhere and was sweating profusely because of the heat, there was a screaming pig in the hatchback of the taxi that someone had bought for food and I was very uncomfortable and then the driver puts in a Bob Marley tape into the stereo and then all of a sudden I was laughing at my situation. It is funny how little things like that can make you feel better.

There have been three volunteers in my training group that have quit since our initiation. I am not sure the exact reason but I assume they just simply were not happy here.

I am working on putting together a website for my school, mainly due to the fact that we would like to find funding to help the technology level of this school. If you know of any organization or person who would like to help. Let me know. Thanks.

Nice to hear from all of you, keep in touch and thanks in advance to those who send me packages, I always heard from people that getting packages is so great, now I understand completely.

Here we are at the Southwest Province Meeting in Limbe. A much needed break. The black sand beach is beautiful there.

This is Mount Cameroon on my way to Limbe.

This is Long Street the lonely paved road in Tiko. As you can see I have a nice view of Mount Cameroon.

These are more pictures of my house...

my bed.....

This is a picture of my school, we pray and sing the Cameroonian national anthem every morning.

This is my Computer lab, most of those computers broken and are dust collectors.

This is a common lizard you see all over Tiko.

This is a blind musician who arrived at the door one night to play some songs. He is extremely talented.

Well I have finished the training for Peace Corp and I am now an actual volunteer! I swore in on August 25th, 2005. The training was very difficult. We had many hours of French class a day including a lot of homework and exercises to do in French. Near the end of training we had to give a 30 minute presentation in French in front of other trainees and language instructors. The language instructors were there to critique our presentation and we needed a passing grade to complete training. Somehow I passed. Due to many nights with a lack of sleep. On top of French we had to teach at a summer school for training purposes. They received an enrollment of over 1000 students which was way more than any other Peace corps training they have done (Due to the fact that we were teaching computers). It was pretty crazy but it really showed us what the education system is like in Cameroon. There was around 12 computers in the lab and some classes had over a hundred students. I was averaging I guess 8 students to a computer maybe more for some classes. It was an utter failure in the beginning for all the trainees teaching classes and very frustrating. We soon learned tricks to keep the kids focused and manageable to teach. We also had to teach other subjects, I taught English which I never knew how bad I actually am with grammar. Wow.

I lived with a family in Bafoussam that consisted of Monsieur Pele, Madamn Pele, and many sisters and brothers. I never really knew which ones were actual brothers and sisters because in Cameroon, there is no distinction between your immediate family and your extended family. You could have a friend or a cousin and call them your brother or sister. At times there could be more than 10 kids living in the house. They would cook over the fire for all there meals. They had a gas stove but it would be too expensive to cook for so many people. There is electricity at times but it is always flickering on and off and is not reliable or safe. To use my laptop I must buy a voltage regulator which levels the amount of electricity that flows into my laptop cause it fluctuates extremely and can fry electrical equipment. As far as water it is the same situation, some times you have it other times you don’t have it. You do not drink the water because it is very polluted and not clean. So to get drinkable water I have to boil water then have it go through a water filter. A very tedious process but they insist every volunteer do this cause if you don’t you WILL get sick. The weddings, I didn’t realize until I attended one, last all night. It is a fun event full of food, dancing and drinks. The four parents of the couple get together and negotiate what they will receive if they give up there daughter for marriage. The negotiations last many many hours. My family treated me very well and taught me a lot. I have many great stories from living with my family.

Most of the volunteers have gone to Teachers resource centers to teach teachers computers. But I was actually assigned to a private high school. It is in a town called Tiko, just west of Douala. Tiko is a Anglophone province which does not speak French so now have to learn another language called Pidgin. Travel in Cameroon is very difficult. You have to buy a ticket for a bush taxi to a specific destination, but it won’t leave until the bus is completely full. This can mean you are sitting around for many hours. After our training Peace Corp rented a bunch of Bush taxis to get us to our destinations. Each going in a different direction, my bus only had 7 volunteers on it including all our gear. We had plenty of room, we were definitely spoiled. The first few hours of the trip went smooth we dropped off 3 volunteers and were headed to Kumba which the roads are very bad. Many roads in Cameroon are not paved and even four wheel drive will get you nowhere. After a couple of hours on this road spinning out, our bus finally dies. I think the transmission quit. The four volunteers in the bus were beginning French speakers (Including me). We tried to talk to the driver about what to do, with little success. He eventually left to try to get us a part in the closest town. While we waited and waited and waited for many hours waiting for him to return. We were out in the middle of the bush and it was starting to get dark, the mosquitoes were going to eat us alive and we had all our belongings with us. We had no luck with anyone helping us get into the nearest town until this truck came by with barely enough room to fit everything. I had to sit on someones lap but it was better than sleeping in the van and getting eating alive by mosquitoes. This man saved us. We ended up crashing in a motel room in the town and then negotiated a car the next day to take us to our destination. I arrived safely.

Tiko is a 20 minute drive to Limbe which is a touristy area with very nice beaches. Also near is Mount Cameroon, which I plan to hike with some other friends during Christmas break.

After all my training I feel like I am just starting to understand how to live here. Even after 2 years I will still need peoples help. Life here is completely different from everything in the US. Cameroonians have been very kind and helpful to me since I have arrived.

I would like to keep in touch with all of you, let me know how things are going. You can contact me at oneilg13@yahoo.com.

Me cell phone number in Cameroon… 011 - (237) - 521 - 8218.

Here is my Postal address if you would like to send me something. Thanks.

Gerald Stephen O’Neil

PO BOX 270

Tiko, Southwest Province

Cameroon, Africa