The fourth and final quarter has begun at the American School of Douala. In the first two quarters, my class and I spent the first ten minutes of every class reading a book that was not assigned for class. The goal was to encourage reading outside of class, bring down higher energy levels after gym classes and get our minds focused on the tasks at hand. For the next two quarters, this practice has been replaced by ten minutes of writing. This practice will bring down energy levels and set our minds to task, but it is also an opportunity to experiment with our creative sides. Students are free to write about anything they want or interpret the prompt in any medium they wish – the prompts are only for those who need inspiration.
I write the same prompts with my students in all three of the classes we practice this activity – teachers should always be willing to do what they ask of students. Below are the prompts from this past week and my favorite of the three responses I wrote with my classes. All prompts were written by myself.
The picture at the top of this post was taken by our apartment’s pool this past weekend. It’s a hard life here in Cameroon.
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Monday 7 March
When was the last time you laughed so hard that it hurt?
My sister-in-law Jackie gave the world my niece, Elie, a little over a year ago, and she has learned how to sing the EIEIO part of “Old MacDonald Had A Farm.” It is glorious. Jackie will lead her through the linguistically challenging parts of the song and kind of squeeze Elie, and then Elie will explode and her arms will twist in these impossible baby angles, and it is hilarious. I can already tell that she’s going to be the center of attention wherever she is.
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Tuesday 8 March
[PASS]
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Wednesday 9 March
What is your greatest fear?
In no particular order:
- Nuclear Armageddon initiated by geriatric autocrats
- Collective apathy regarding ecological collapse
- Domestic violence in any form
- Never sleeping on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean again
- Basra, Jakarta, Havana and Honolulu sinking before I can see them
- Never having grandchildren
- Unintentionally using my position as an educator to reinforce abusive power structures
- Lung cancer
- Not reconnecting with my father
- Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Bukowski or Walt Whitman getting cancelled
***
Thursday 10 March
You have been given free plane tickets, $3000, and two months away from school to travel wherever you want. Where do you go? What do you do?
Start in La Paz, Bolivia. Spend two weeks exploring the Amazonian Andes and Salar de Uyuni. Ride a motorcycle down the Road of Death. Continue south into Chile, resting in beach towns along the way. Cross into Argentina near Torres del Paine. Continue south to Ushuaia, the southernmost town in the world. Take a boat trip to the Antarctic coast. Swim with penguins. Return to Argentina and use a motorcycle to explore Patagonia. Visit Rosario and pay my respects. Sing around campfires with cowboys. End in Montevideo, Uruguay. Drink too much wine.
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Friday 11 March
As the new Director of Cameroon’s Ministry of Education, you may require all secondary students to take a new class of your choosing. What is the subject? Why have you chosen it?
Butterflies drift away from hanging vines
with the scheduled ringing of the brass bell,
and chipmunks scurry down chip-paint signs –
leaves mass, then collapse, into the darkness of the well.
Sunlight turns green as it passes through
cord and knots of suspended life,
while condensation drips down, remnants of dew,
into puddles, undisturbed, devoid of strife.
A pair of gloves, used, sit folded on the lawn
and laughing students, new, take glass
to border a seed bed, gentle as fawns
before leaving to laugh about gardening class.
***
certification 
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