A busy week in Maga....
on Mischa in Cameroon (Cameroon), 30/Sep/2010 16:14, 34 days ago
This was my plan for last week:Monday:Meet the new volunteers, take them on a tour round Maroua, answer their questions about the school development programme, and go out to dinner.Tuesday:Travel back to Maga from Maroua (because the road is still a cross between a marsh and a lake, it’s best to assume the trip will take the whole day and be happily surprised if it doesn’t).Wednesday:Go to the village of Simatou to meet with the teachers and President of the School Council, Parents’ Association and Mothers’ Association.Thursday:Teacher recruitment for new RESAEC teachers for our schools.Friday:Go to the village of Sirlawe for a Parents’ Association meeting and to meet with the Mothers’ Association.Saturday and Sunday:Teacher training for the newly recruited teachersThis is what I actually did last week:The new volunteers didn’t actually arrive until Monday evening as there had been difficultly getting train tickets and they only got in just in time for dinner. A torrential downpour meant there was a ten-metre long foot deep puddle blocking the entrance to the restaurant: to get in we had to call a friend to ferry us across on his motorbike.Tuesday and Wednesday went about as scheduled. The school at Simatou had just opened again as the flood waters had dried up enough to give the students access to the school. Despite a large amount of their rice crop being destroyed by hail the parents were eager to start up their activities for the new school year.Thursday had been scheduled for teacher recruitment by VSO’s partner association, RESAEC. This was put on hold, however, because VSO was late in releasing the budget needed. Since recruitment was postponed, obviously the weekend of training had to be postponed as well.My Friday visit to the village of Sirlawe to meet with their parents’ association was cancelled on Thursday evening by the headmaster, who explained that there had been a couple of deaths in the neighbouring villages, and therefore most of the villagers would be going to visit the houses of the bereaved.On the weekend, since teacher training was cancelled, my sister and I decided to leave Maga and go on a touristy trip to the Mandara mountains to the West of Maroua. There was a bit of rain on Saturday morning, and I ended up making the trip to the bus agency with my flip-flops in hand, ankle deep in mud. When we got to the bus agency they said they were waiting for the road to dry out a bit, but that if we came back in a couple of hours there would be a bus then. One hour later there was a torrential downpour. The road out of Maga was closed till Monday.So what have I been up to? Well, I read Wolf Hall (and four other books) without interruption, created a large number of tomato/onion based stews, and when Maga’s water supply was cut supplemented our dwindling store with trips to the well (three small bucketfuls carried on my head equates to one good toilet flush).