I spent the last week in Kumbo, a city in the North West Region of Cameroon, providing a seminar for teachers. Computer Science teachers from all over the division were present. The course took place at the Government Bilingual High School Kumbo (GBHS Kumbo), which had better than average facilities for the seminar. Over the week we covered many [...]
Please login first to post comments.
I have been lucky enough to begin teaching two international ICT credentials: Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and CompTIA A+. A+ teaches “competence in areas such as installation, preventative maintenance, networking, security and troubleshooting.” This is a very new field in Cameroon and thus a very lucrative profession. There is a real lack of skilled [...]
In my free time I have started taking up carpentry. I’ve found that high quality wood is relatively cheap and easy to find here. After working along with another volunteer to build a mahogany coffee table for my living room I became very interested in doing some work myself. Since then I’ve found a lumber yard in town and a carpenter [...]
Over the past few months I have been working with a number of other peace corps volunteers to improve school computer labs. I have visited four volunteers so far and we have worked together with school staff, computer science teachers, and students to repair the facilities. We taught through example, allowing the students a chance [...]
In the North West Region of Cameroon the local cuisine is a bit different than in the South. There are typically many more vegetables and I personally find the food here to be the best in Cameroon. The prominent dishes are achu (pounded cocoyams and plantains served with “yellow soup”) and njamanjama and fufu corn [...]
Over the past three weeks I have completed my first large project in Bamenda: a three week training course for computer science teachers and inspectors. In the class I covered computer hardware and software maintenance and computer networking essentials. I worked with two colleagues: Mr. Asiminde, A Cameroonian who covered database access systems, and Benjamin Ace, a Peace Corps Volunteer [...]
Since arriving in Cameroon I have become very interested in vegetable gardening. I have been experimenting with growing many edible crops here in my new environment, including vegetables and fruit trees. I have planted small gardens at the peace corps buildings in Yaounde and Bamenda as well as at my new house. Here are some pictures of my gardens [...]
After a long period of waiting, I’ve finally been reassigned to a new post. I have been moved to Bamenda, the capital of the North West region of Cameroon. Here I will be working at a much higher level where I hope I can better utilize my skills. My partner organization is the Delegation of Secondary Education for the [...]
For two weeks I traveled to Ngaoundéré, the capital of the Adamawa region of Cameroon, to help another Peace Corps Volunteer with a computer literacy project. Krystina Nguyen (Small Enterprise Development Volunteer) and I worked with some ladies from her womens groups teaching basic computer literacy. We paired up with a local cyber cafe for [...]
My post mate Amanda has been working with a local group of orphans here in Lolodorf on Saturdays and I usually try to help out. She does activities on a variety of subjects from health lessons to life skills to games and songs. Last weekend I headed up with Amanda and we did an activity getting the kids to [...]
This week was Youth Week in Cameroon; school was unofficially cancelled but there was still many things going on. My colleague Narcise and I organised a soiree cutural for the club informatique where the students were able to show off everything they have learned in the club to the other students as well as the staff. For the last [...]
For some much needed technological entertainment I picked up a modded PSP for the holidays, which my postmate graciously brought back from America for me. Right now I have it up and running with an 8GB memory card and a spare battery for when I go without power. So far it has been great, I have gotten [...]
The school year is now officially half over, I can hardly believe it. I’ve been keeping busy teaching, giving exams, helping with the computer science clubs, and just generally helping people with computer troubles. I started teaching at a small one room schoolhouse in Bikoka, right across from my old house where I was living [...]
The first project I’ve finished in Cameroon is a hammock for some well deserved equatorial relaxation. I bought a sheet of strong nylon fabric in Yaounde along with some rope and voila, with a quick visit to my local tailor I had a hammock. I just had them double up the ends and sew it shut with their [...]
Here are some pictures of the Peace Corps headquarters in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. I get to come here to relax and enjoy the big city comforts once a month (washing machines, hot showers, cheese) while doing my shopping and banking. Here I get to meet up with volunteers from all over the country [...]
Here are some pictures of my new house in Bikoka, my new home, a small town about 6 km outside of Lolodorf. I finally have a place to myself which is really nice. I will be living in Bikoka for 3 months while my house in Lolodorf itself is being finished. To get to town [...]
Here are some pictures of Lolodorf, my new home. First up is a picture of Mvan, the busy transit district in Yaounde where I get my bus to Lolodorf. Then we have some pictures of the town taken from a near by hill-top (where the sous-prefet lives), the river, the old German bridge leading into [...]
Here are some pictures of some of my favorite Cameroonian foods: A normal breakfast at my host family’s house (omelets, ginger drink, and dehydrated milk), Beans and Bignets (kind of like doughnuts), Prunes (tastes kind of like artichokes) , Spaghetti Omelet Sandwich, Beans and Macabo (casava, kind of like a flavorless potato), a super special [...]
I wanted to give everyone an idea of where I lived during training, so I took a few pictures of Bafia and my host family’s house before before I left. Enjoy!
I am finally a Peace Corps Volunteer! Last week we had our swearing in ceremony, which was a big to-do in Bafia. All the local Elites were there, all the host families, all the trainers, and of course all the volunteers. There were speeches in French, Pidgin, and Fulfulde (three of the many languages spoken [...]
I have finally come to the end of my training! Its hard to believe I have almost finished my 10 weeks of Peace Corps training, so much has happened over my time here. I have finished my language training and achieved my target language level in French (intermediate-high for francophone posts). I finished a whole [...]
I just wanted to post my mailing address for quick reference: Peter Paskowsky, Peace Corps Volunteer Corps de la Paix B.P. 215 Yaoundé, Cameroon This week I finally found someone to charge my camera battery, so I snapped a few photos of my life in Bafia. As a bonus, yesterday was my host brother’s birthday [...]
This was my first week of teaching at the peace corps “cours de vacance” training school. This week I taught seconde, quatrieme, et sixieme students IT courses. I teach at a Lycee, which is like a combination high/middle school in the US. I was teaching roughly the equivalent of 6th, 8th, and 10th graders. There [...]
I’ve gotten my post! I was assigned to Lolodorf, a small village in the south of Cameroon. It is in the middle of the rain forest – I have never seen any place like it before. The village is absolutely beautiful, it is set by a river and is surrounded by breathtaking mountains. The jungle [...]
I have been in Cameroon for over two weeks now, time has really flown by. I arrived in the capital Yaounde (Ya-oon-day) and went through all kinds of talks (medical, language, cultural), all while getting to know everyone, and being given tons of vaccines. Some highlights of my time in Yaounde were going to a [...]
The Cato St. Communal Garden was my first experience vegetable gardening. We germinated seeds indoors and did some direct plantings as well. We had some raised beds and some self watering containers for our plantings. All together the garden contains: Kale (a gardener’s best friend) Snap Peas Onions Carrots Lettuce Spinach Broccoli Tomatoes Peppers Basil [...]
Speakers have been something I have wanted to build for a really long time, but it took me a few years to get around to it. I found the plans for some high quality and low cost bookshelf speakers and I couldn’t resist building them! I built the crossover circuits myself, they are mounted on [...]
The CMoy amp was my first electronics project, if you don’t count a few blinker circuits and an electronic metronome I built. This circuit is used to amplify the output of an audio device, specifically to drive headphones. This project came complete with a parts list and even soldering instructions, so it was a great [...]
This was my first original design project. I built this my sophomore year of college, before I had taken any design courses! This digital clock uses all digital logic, no microcontrollers were used. The time is generated by a quartz crystal oscillator circuit, oscillating at 32,768 Hz. This is stepped down using a series of [...]
I saw some Nixie Clocks and got me exited to build my own, this project is kind of a right of passage for electronics tinkerers. A Nixie tube is what was used before seven segment displays for readouts. They are basically a light bulb with 10 filaments, one for each of the numbers. They glow [...]
How many entries are we showing above?
For now, we are showing up to 50 entries on each page. Entries that
are too short are filtered out. For more entries, please use
archives.
|
Connect to Peace Corps Journals
About the Journal
Contact Us
Disclaimer:
| |
| Copyright (c) 2010 |
