The last few weeks have been the most hectic yet! Besides the regular classes and make up classes that I have been teaching all year I now have additional responsibilities to make sure I fulfill. Recently I have been running around from one office to the next dropping off interview request letters on behalf of the students and then going back a few days later to schedule the interview. Everything here is a bit of a process so patience is seriously a virtue. During class time, the students aren’t just ‘coming to class’ and having their lesson, they are going out into the field filming for their videos! Some students don’t have reliable partners which leaves me (and sometimes Maddy) to do the filming whether its an interview across town or an introduction on the school campus.

 

As many of you know, the school year is coming quickly to an end meaning graduation is right around the cornor! I have been planning for the YAN Class of 2014 Graduation Party. I really want the students to feel proud of their work so I am in the midst of trying to: find a location; rent chairs; borrow/rent a screen and projector (to show the student videos); organize someone to cook and other logistics. As I mentioned, everything is a process here. For example, you aren’t able to just pick up your phone, call a number and check if a space is open for rental and reserve the place. You must go from building to building, person to person inquiring about the space. Often times, the person isnt even in the office so you need to arrange a time to come back. Then, on top of all this, you need to have a professional letter typed and sealed in an envelope explaining the purpose of your visit.

 

In addition to those activities, I have also been running all across town meeting with NGOs and discussing the possibility of our best students partnering with them for a 4-week internship program. This will give the students a chance to practice their YAN skills while working at a real NGO in Cameroon. An internship is an opportunity for students to work for a short time at an organization. Interns get to help the organization function, and in return they learn about how the organization works. Each intern will be placed with a real NGO working in the area on environmental, educational, and gender issues. During the internship, interns will have a variety of tasks depending on their placement. They could be helping their NGO develop a good website and Facebook page, using their YAN computer skills to support the NGO, organizing an event or countless other things. In return, interns will learn about the NGO’s work and will have an opportunity to develop their computer skills. Interns will also work with me (minimum 1x/week) to support them in their work with the NGOs. Interns will be expected to be at their work place every day of the work week for the entire duration of the month. So far, we have  The summer internship includes a stipend that will fully cover transport, Internet costs, and lunch every day. The internship will conclude with a ceremony and a diploma presentation to interns. To help support the internship program please check out this link:

 

As if I didn’t have enough work on my place already, I decided to add one more project onto my plate. This is the one I am most excited about and has the potential to have a serious impact on the schools and students who have the least access to multi media technology. YAN will be organizing a “YAN Summer Camp” which will take place 6 hours a day over a span of 4 days! My original idea was to just get students who weren’t in the club at Lycee Molyko and GHS Buea Town to join the club for the summer camp…but then I had a rush of new ideas. What about the students out of town, in the village? What about the schools who don’t have computers in villages that don’t even have cybers to go to? YAN will be renting the cyber we have been using all school year in Buea Town for the 4 days of the camp. All of the equipment will be provided by YAN, we are only asking students to pay their transport and bring enough money for a small snack in the afternoon. In the middle of all this ‘internship’ organizing, I decided YAN would also take a few interns who would essentially organize and facilitate the majority of this camp.


House in Bova

Last week, I put together an application so that we can weed out the ‘non serious’ students. I also wrote a letter (like I said, you can't get anywhere without a letter explaining your purpose) to the Principals at the 5 schools I was targeting for the camp. After visiting G.H.S Bokova I was already beginning to rethink the amount of schools I wanted to target. For some reason, I was thinking village schools wouldn’t have too many students – I was oh so very wrong. In Bova, the Principal allowed me to go from classroom to classroom explain the program for a couple of minutes and informing them about the application process. I had previously decided to accept students from Form 3 – Upper Six (the equivalent of  9th grade - 13th grade) and at this particular school each level had 2 classrooms containing anywhere from 25-40 students in each class. I spent less than 5min in each classroom and left the applications in the Principals office. I saw a lot of interest from students. I continued on my moto bike to G.T.C. Bova where the Principal (who is also a Deputy Mayor of Buea) was out of office. I discussed with the Vice Principal about the size of their student population and arraged to come back this week. I was convinced after this school that I would only target 3 schools in total. Lastly I went to G.H.S Tole where I met an empty school compound and just 3 teachers in the administrative block. The last two weeks of classes are known as “rasta week” so unless students have exams or there is some sort of mandatory activity, students are sort of free to do whatever they please. I also arranged to come back this week to speak with the classes and bring applications.

 
Between Bokova and Bova

I am mostly excited about this camp because we will be taking the most exciting, education and important lesson from our year long YAN Club and cramming them into 4 intensive days learning about advocacy, leadership and multi media technology! This club will reach to the far corners of Buea Municipality, some corners are so far they don’t even have electricity. This is going to be wonderful!!


Tole Tea Fields