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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Don't you have anything to say? sheesh




I'm a bit ashamed that I've let my blog become a ghost blog these last few months. The end of the school year brought on lots of monotonous work and frankly, the interesting things I used to be so anxious to write about seem to be life as usual now.

First of all, I'd like to take a bit of time to thank my friends, Ms Anne and Ms Linda and her girls at Kate Middleton. They've sent my students prizes and supplies and even some yummies for myself. In my village, my postmates are holding a 2 week summer camp starting June 15th. Since I have plenty of stuff, I plan on using much of the supplies for the camp. And you have no idea how thrilled kids are about simple things like ink pens and stickers. I'd started putting sparkly stickers on the good grades and students were so proud of them. I couldn't believe that something like a sticker could be a motivation tool. So thanks again and hopefully I can get some pictures of the camp up in a few weeks.

A couple of months ago, I attended a cultural festival in a neighboring village. That's the picture you see above. (thanks to Peter) One of the volunteers was named a "prince" by his village chief. And there was a mass wedding of 27 couples! Apparently my village will be having a cultural festival next month. Of course, you can never be sure... but I hope it works out.

After school ended, I headed to the capital, Yaounde to help organize the new volunteer training. Another group of education and business volunteers have arrived and they begin their training this week. I can't believe a whole year ago, I was in their shoes. I can't believe how crazy time can feel here. In Yaounde, I got to see some of the other volunteers from my training group and we had a great time. We made some interesting food and even had our very own prom. By prom I mean we got dressed up in crazy outfits, chose a theme, decorated, and danced. The theme was Post Apocalyptic Winter Wasteland. I posted one of Thryn's post-apocolypt'ed photos above. It was a good time.

At our provincial meeting, the volunteers of the West decided to climb Mount Batchengou and we lucked out because we had perfect weather and an awesome climb. I'm hoping Gabe sends me some photos of that so I can share.

After summer camp, I head to Yaounde for my mid-service medical exam... so they can tell me what kind of scary things are nesting inside me. Wouldn't it be nice if after a year in Cameroon, I find out there's not a thing wrong with me? Keep your fingers crossed.

And right after mid-service, Elliott will be here! We've planned a nice vacation. I'll take plenty of pictures and maybe I can talk him into posting a visitor story on my blog.

Thanks for the pressure to update this blog. It's good to know people still want to read this thing.