Happy Halloween! Here in Buea, Cameroon, Halloween is not a holiday of much consequence—some people have heard of it, and our Peace Corps friend Nate has introduced to his Cameroonian neighbors the idea of eating candy and dressing up (albeit in clothes from his own closet). Coincidentally, the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Kebir (or “Tabaski”) occurred last week. We have learned that Eid Al-Kebir commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s comman...

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Clara’s last blog mentioned some of the connections we’re developing with our students, and so I decided to follow up by introducing the scholars who are participating in YAN this year. We’re gathering student profiles from our students, and will soon start posting photos and interviews with individual students so that our readers can start to learn more about the amazing kids that we have the privilege to teach in Buea, Molyko, and Limbe. For the time being, though, we present here som...
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Any teacher will tell you that the best part of their job is interacting with students (clichéd, but true).   Last year when I was leading ten-day intensive biology and conservation courses with Ecology Project International, I lived and breathed my students—we spent every hour of the day together (and many hours of the night while walking the beaches of eastern Costa Rica looking for nesting leatherback sea turtles).   As a result, I very quickly came to know each of t...

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Murphy’s Law, for those who have never heard of it, is the idea that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. I’m not actually sure who Murphy was, but I do recall hearing once of a pretty funny experiment that proved his law surprisingly true. At some point, a scientist organized thousands of schoolchildren across Great Britain to butter pieces of toast on one side and drop them from a height of 20 feet or so, and record whether the toast landed with the buttered or the ...

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If you want to leave Buea, you have to go through Mile 17.   Marked only by a gas station and many rusty vans waiting to cram in just one more passenger before departing for any number of destinations around Cameroon, Mile 17 is nondescript but all-important.   From this crossroads, it’s an hour or two west to Douala (our city of arrival and site of my first Cameroonian gutter-pee), five hours southwest to the national capital, Yaounde, and half an hour south to coasta...

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It's been a great week of YAN classes here in Cameroon, and we thought it would be fun to post a few photos from our session on Wednesday at the Lycee Molyko. One highlight: discussing with students the role of social media in catalyzing the events of the Arab Spring Uprisings, and watching students grasp the nuances of the topic and share their thoughts with their peers.









Written by Josh and Clara

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It was a weekend of rain, long walks in Buea (by Clara—she’d like to add that it was more like power walking for 15 miles behind Cameroonians in track suits), and lots of lying in bed with vague bouts of nausea (by me—I won the dubious honor of “who will be first to take a round of Cipro”). We also had a chance to participate in some excellent late-Saturday-night karaoke with our Peace Corps friend Nate and his Cameroonian friend Serge, who regularly transforms h...

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The Government High School in Buea Town is a short walk from our house—after passing the burial ground (if you say cemetery, no one will understand you) and through the market (no okra just now, thank you Mami) we arrive at a hard packed soccer field and enter into the complex of cement classrooms and office buildings.  

On Tuesday morning, we were greeted not only by the usual rumbling of bulldozers working on the town water supply just outside the school premises, ...

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We woke up early on Monday morning, ready for the chain of crowded taxis and overstuffed vans that would bring us to our first YAN class in Limbe. Upon arriving at the Government High School (GSS) an hour and a half later, we were met by ICT teacher Mr. Wilbur, immaculately outfitted in a pink shirt, pinstriped dress pants, and pointed black leather shoes. (Cameroonians like to look good at all times, especially in school.  And in spite of the extended rainy season which m...

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