I was lucky enough to visit a private school for ages 2 to about 12 (equivalent to grade 6). As with many schools here, it is a bilingual school so children often are fluent in their village language, French and English by time they leave primary school. At this school they take French as a class every day, and all other instruction is done in English. The school is called Devine Elementary Bilingual School and is planning to expand. They are looking for dona...

Martin (he lives at the house where I was staying) and I took a day trip to Limbé, a beach west of Douala (though Douala is on the ocean there is no good beach in the city). Limbé is near Mount Cameroon, the largest mountain in west Africa, and is in a volcanic area so it has black sand. It has a nice sandy bottom and decent waves, enough that some people were body surfing and even real surfing. Though the temperature is usually around 30 degrees, it is almo...

I've been able to see more of Cameroon on the weekends, but haven't posted much of it in the blog so I'm going to try to catch up. A few weeks ago I went to a Pentacostal Charismatic church, a church that believes (according to Wikepedia) in a spirituality characterized by a worldview where miracles, signs and wonders, and other supernatural occurrences are expected to be present in the lives of believers, including the presence of spiritual gifts, such as proph...

I've been in Douala, Cameroon for almost 3 weeks, and it is starting to feel "normal". So this is what "normal" looks like in Cameroon: The weather is hot and will get hotter as we move more into the dry season (the average high is 31 going to 33 in Jan, low is 21 going to 23 in Jan). Most days are cloudy, sometimes completely overcast and sometimes sunny but always with some cloud in the sky. I go most days without seeing another white person. To get m...

So what am I doing in Douala, Cameroon? Other than sweating in the heat and humidity, that is? And now I hear this is actually the "cold" season, it gets so hot in December and January that the locals can't stand it. And I did research the best time to come here! I am in Douala for 3 months to volunteer with an organization (started by a Canadian) called The Humanity Exchange (thehumanityexchange.org - In partnership with local communities, The Humanity Excha...