The First Full Day with the UAC

The last post should really have been called "first evening in Cameroon, as we had yet to experience a typical day with the UAC. The next morning, after waking and having our breakfast at Mr. Orock's house, we learned that this would not be a typical day either, as it was the day of graduation for the students at the Jamadianle School, and in fact the graduation of the first class to go through each grade in the school, 6th graders who started at the school 6 years ago. After a bit of waiting around (a condition we would quickly find was just going to be the norm as nothing was ever really meant to start of time, we took a van to the school, were were were swarmed by hundred of kids dressed in the cutest graduation outfits you have ever seen in your life, full robes, and graduation hats complete with tassels, all in the stunning purple and gold that is the colors of the Jamadianle School and also is present in their day to day uniforms, which include purple bow ties and suspenders for the sharp dressed little boys and gold skirts and purple blouses for the exceedingly put together little girls.

After some time of just exploring the school while everyone just hung out and listened to music, the ceremony began, and in the largest classroom we all gathered to watch the school choir and various groups sing an dance to praise their school and country. As the afternoon approached the ceremony continued on, as it seemed each and every student in every grade received an award or a prize of some sort, including such categories as "most bilingual" and "most cultural family". After these awards drew on for several hours the ceremony ended and the graduation was finally complete, at which point we headed back to Mr. Orock's house for lunch and afternoon celebration.

A little later the three of us had out meeting with Mr. Orock in the UAC office, where we began by discussing our expectations, goals, and all around opinions and philosophy of education, the role of NGO's and their relationship to the government, the importance of reaching all levels of society, the best ways to be effective, and our role in bringing our project in cooperation with the UAC to fruition during the time that we are here, as well as ensuring that what we created would be sustainable and would be supported after our stay had ended. We were very happy to find that our views and the views of Mr. Orock, informed as they were by his extensive experience in this work as well as his deep roots in the area, meshed very well and we found ourselves very much on the same page. From here it was a more simple step to plan out how we would outreach to the surrounding villages, announcing our program to students there and here in Buea that there would be a Summer Holiday Caravan that would pick them up and bring them to the Jamadianle School were we would be setting up the laptops and the wireless network to connect them. We would be meeting very soon with some of the teachers at the school to introduce them to the XO and to work with them on developing lessons to implement with the students, as well as the IT staff at the UAC to ensure the continued support of the laptops during the school year.

We are waiting on Mr. Orock to take the van into Douala to buy supplies and get phones and more local currency, as well as our laptops which evidently have arrived! We are excited about finally having the equipment to show to everyone and to lend some out to the teachers to learn on their own while we are in Rwanda for the OLPC training all next week.

Until Later,

Team DBF