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 For the next two quarters, this practice has been replaced by ten minutes of writing.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 16 May
What is your favorite place in Cameroon? Why?
This is a difficult question. Cameroon is full of beautiful places, and to choose one place is to exclude hundreds of outstanding views, busy streets and colorful communities.
My first answer is Ebolowa. Located in the Southern region of Cameroon, Ebolowa is on the road from Yaounde to Gabon. The city is tucked away between severe, steep mountain peaks, each covered in thick, tangled vegetation. The city is a staging area for the lumber industry, so there’s a layer of sawdust covering everything and a crisp smell on every street. What really impressed me about Ebolowa was the food. While most cities in Cameroon have incredible food, Ebolowa doesn’t have a bad taste in it; there is a Spanish influence from Equatorial Guinea and Gabon comes out in well-seasoned fish, peanut sauce and ndole, which I believe is best eaten here. And unlike Yaounde and Douala, Ebolowa is too small to have the sharp edges that define large cities and their citizens. Ebolowa is all smiles and kindness.
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Tuesday 17 May
What do you think is the biggest challenge that Cameroon will need to overcome in order to develop further?
Cameroon’s economy is driven by resource extraction. This is bad. Resource extraction is easy to centralize in the hands of a few, which means that these industries can flaunt regulations and hoard wealth at the expense of the general public. This pattern is known as the “resource curse.” Resource extraction also makes the economy of Cameroon dependent on commodity prices, which is really bad for most people; low oil or lumber prices can destroy household incomes, eradicate savings and make government spending unreliable and difficult to plan. Transitioning away from a resource extraction-focused economy is very difficult, both politically and logistically. The oligarchic nature of these industries means that those who benefit the most from this economy have a very strong incentive to resist any change. Owners of exploitative industries also fund and run the government, and you can really see the effects of this oligarchy in basic government activities: industrial infrastructure (oil rigs, railroads, processing facilities) are steaming and churning along, but civilian infrastructure is and always has been lacking. Converting Cameroon’s economy into one that works for the normal citizen would require a huge investment in these missing links, and without adjusted incentives, the only source of funding for those necessary projects – the elite – will never bear fruit.
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Wednesday 11 May
What is your favorite custom, quality, or tradition in Cameroonian culture?
The reunion. In the village, the chief holds regular meetings where every adult in the community gathers. These gatherings see people airing grievances and addressing concerns, and the chief sits and listens and assists in resolutions if needed. At the end of these meetings, everyone chips in some cash and the chief dispenses it based on need; someone whose harvest was smaller than expected might get a bit of extra money for support, for example. These reunions are also meals, and the meals are huge. Everyone gets to eat, no matter what, even the kids who spend the meeting time sitting quietly in the dark watching the adults conduct business. Every community would be stronger with such a ceremony.
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Thursday 12 May
What do you think is the future of Cameroon? Are you optimistic? What about Cameroon’s relationship to the African Union or to Europe? How do you think these relationships will change?
[Pass]
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Friday 13 May
National Day – NO SCHOOL
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certification 
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