I moved to Douala, Cameroon in November of 2020. Since then, I have taught high school English at the American School of Douala. I’m also part of the Learning Support department and have worked with the Media Team, Student Council, and an NGO based in Douala. I’m generally way busier than I need to be. You can read about my early experiences in Cameroon below. I am updating this page as new posts are made.
29 November 2020
Sunday 29 November 2020 The market. Take a right out of the apartment building, towards the part of town white expats like us aren’t supposed to go near, and walk down the streets. You will hear it first; the soft din of energy that only the tuning of a symphony orchestra before a performance can…
The Walk: Part I
The first of a five-part post detailing a long walk I took over Christmas break. Saturday 19 December: Yaoundé 20:00 A line of clothes, one shirt for each color of the rainbow, flows in a current of wind like Tibetan prayer flags. The woman wedged between me and the window coughs coarsely, painfully, and plays…
The Walk: Part II
The second part of a five-part description of a long walk. Wednesday 23 December: Abang 16:00 I left Yaoundé (again), this time by moto. I rode with my driver to Mbalmayo, a small town, dusty and dark and somewhat ghostly, like Rwamagana, where the volunteers in my Peace Corps Rwanda cohort had completed their training…
The Walk: Part III
The third part of a five-part story of a long walk. Sunday 27 December: Ebolowa 8:30 Emotional and sensory rollercoaster the last few days. Let me remember… On Christmas morning, I walked 20km to Ngoule Makong. The air was thick with fog, giving the windy trunks and snaking vines this otherworldly origin, as if they…
The Walk: Part IV
The penultimate chapter of a five-part story of a long walk. Tuesday 29 December: Mefo 17:00 The medicine I use to treat my chaffing is Faustian. The pain of application is like sitting on hot coals unprotected; this feeling is the antiseptic purging the sore and helping with clotting, but it lasted today for almost…
The Walk: Conclusion
The final segment of a five-part story about a long walk. Friday 1 January: Kribi 11:45 AM I collapsed on a soft bed in an expensive hotel room around 1:00 AM this morning, the sounds of fireworks and beachside cheers humming through the windows. The last 48 hours have been exhausting. I left the worker’s…
Week 23: Writing Prompts
Monday 31 January Write about finding something that was lost. It was dark – not lightless, airy dark, where there is a faint echo of light reverberating off the walls of a lightly-painted classroom, but dark-dark, where photons go to die, deep wet cave dark, dark like the inside of a chest kept in your…
Week 24: Writing Prompts
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…
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certification 