Miscellaneous Spring Happenings

We only have one week left before we return home for the summer, so I thought I’d do a quick update with some miscellaneous events from the last few months that didn’t fit into other posts. 

As much fun as our bigger trips here have been, some of our favorite experiences have been spontaneous weekend ideas.  One example was a picnic we went on with our friends Anjana, Lara, and Tom (the teacher who’s lived here longest in terms of the expats).  Tom took us to a little spot on the outskirts of Yaoundé that used to be a bar but has since closed.  He knows the old owner, and since the tables and chairs are still outside under the thatched roof, and the grill is still right next to them, it’s a perfect place for a barbecue.  Tom is an amazing cook, so while he prepared beef brochettes and potatoes, Anjana and I (and about ten kids from the area) faced off for some bocce ball. 

Lara worked on her lesson plans and relaxed in the shade. It was a lovely afternoon and a delicious meal.

Now, I mentioned that this was going to be a disconnected post, so I’m not going to bother trying to transition between everything.  Fair warning.

When Brian and I have free time at home, we read a lot, play games, practice our French on Rosetta Stone, and play computer games (well, one of us anyway—take a guess).  One rainy evening, though, we were feeling especially homesick, so we decided it was time to break out the puzzle my parents gave us a few Christmases ago.  It’s of a beautifully snowy Mt. Wilbur and Swiftcurrent Lake (Glacier Park), and we felt quite comforted by the time we finished. 

I’ve mentioned several times this year that I’ve gotten hooked on tennis (Brian’s been taking lessons now, too, although he still needs to learn to serve before we can play together), and a few months ago, some of the other teachers talked me into participating in a doubles tournament at the U.S. ambassador’s residence.  I had a good time but realized that part of what I love about tennis is that it’s a good stress-reliever…and playing competitively is stressful.  The best part of the whole thing, though, was getting to have Patrice as my partner.  He’s the chef at the school’s canteen (and owns a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant in town with the best spring rolls I’ve ever had) and an amazingly kind person.  Patrice has been playing tennis for years and is really talented, but he was so patient with all of my silly mistakes.  Every time I cost us a point, he’d tell me not to worry and that I was doing just fine.  All evidence to the contrary, but you’d never know it from his reactions! 
The photo below isn’t a great shot of us, but I wanted to show how lush the ambassador’s residence is—the whole place is so green and tranquil. 

Another big jump: student council.  I’m one of the advisors for the high school StuCo (as the kids call it here), and it’s kept me busy all year with events, meetings, etc.  They’re an awesome group of kids, though, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.  Here’s the photo of the whole group that we used for the yearbook. 
In the past, StuCo wasn’t taken that seriously here, but this year they’ve made great strides toward making it a legitimate governing body, rather than just the social committee.  Now, that being said, they are still in charge of planning the prom, and a couple weeks ago I found myself suddenly spending way more time than I ever would have predicted dealing with tiaras, party favors, and balloon arches.  The kids decided to try and have the dance at the Hilton this year, which was quite the endeavor, but it turned out great and they were all thrilled.  Our friend Brent agreed to take the photos for the evening, and Brian made me pose for several classically awkward prom date shots.  This is one of the less ridiculous ones. 
This is not. 
Prom was never a highlight of my own high school days, although I remember really enjoying the pre-prom dinners with friends.  From a teacher’s standpoint, though, it was fun to see the kids all dressed up and watch the very tall prom queen and the very short prom king do their spotlight dance.  Pretty cute.

(One quick tangent within an already random post: When Andre (the other StuCo advisor) and I were heading for a planning meeting with the Hilton staff, the roads were blocked because the French prime minister was in town.  We got as close as we could and then parked the car and walked the rest of the way.   Just as we were heading down the hill toward the hotel, we saw the motorcade approaching on the street below.  As they slowed down and finally came to a stop, we realized the PM must have a meeting at the Hilton.  The way Cameroon works, we knew the entrance would be heavily guarded for his arrival.  Sure enough, as we neared the front of the building, we saw guards everywhere and two lines of saber-toting military officials on either side of where he’d be processing in.  Andre has lived in various African countries for the last several decades, and he told me that, in this kind of instance, most of the “security” is just for show and that if we just looked confident they probably wouldn’t bother us.  By now we were late enough for our appointment that I decided to give it a try.  Walking casually, we smiled, said, “Pardon,” to a few of the guards, and walked right by them.  Then we hopped into the middle of the prime minister’s entourage, kept smiling and greeting people with hearty “Bonjour”s, and marched right through the line of raised sabers and into the lobby.  Needless to say we were quite pleased with ourselves. J)

One of the reasons Brian and I were initially drawn to ASOY was the emphasis they put on community service.  There are several groups on campus that volunteer throughout the year, and all of the individual grades are required to do service projects during 3rd and 4th quarters; every Tuesday and Thursday morning, we have an advisory period to plan and work on these.  I’m the 8th grade co-advisor, and this year the kids decided to partner with an elementary school in a poor Yaoundé district called Mimboman.  The school itself is run by a group of nuns, and while they do a wonderful job with their limited resources, their biggest challenge is giving enough one-on-one time to the kids since the class sizes are so huge.  Over the semester, we visited the school for a few hours every Thursday morning (it worked out well because I had the 8th graders for English right before advisory, so we had a longer chunk of time to work with).  Our students played board games with the kids, taught them songs, played soccer and other sports with them, read them books, and just generally gave them as much individual attention as possible.

For our final visit, one of the 8th graders had the idea of making a big banner with her class’s handprints and all those of the kids at the Mimboman school.  It ended up being a great activity because the little kids had never played with paint before, and they were so excited!  First our four girls painted the kids’ hands… 

…then helped them find a place to press it on the canvas. 
The 8th grade boys are a little rowdy, so I decided they’d be more helpful at the washing stations than with the paint.  They did a great job and were really cute showing the kids how to scrub their hands in the buckets. 

Because the Mimboman school is so big, we actually bought two banners, and you can see the whole operation in this photo (plus the Cameroonian flag waving in the background). 
Here I am helping one of the fourth-graders find a place for her hand—it got harder to find a good spot by the time we got to the upper elementary. 
By the end of the morning, even the 8th grade girls couldn’t resist the temptation of playing with the paint. 
And finally, here’s my whole advisory with one of the completed banners.  It was a wonderful morning. 

Ok, last random item: bugs.  For some reason we’ve had a lot of big ones lately, especially spiders.  There have been two recently that were the size of my palm (including their legs, of course).  I’m usually pretty good about killing bugs and not being squeamish, but these are out of my league.  I actually tried to kill one in the spare bedroom, but I missed, and as it ran down the hall towards me, I kept saying, “I got it, I got it,” as I backed frantically away.  Let’s just say Brian had to take charge. 

I’ll try to make at least one more post before we leave on Sunday.  Only a week to go!