Year 3 – Volunteering in Cameroon

View of Bamenda from Upstation

When I joined the Peace Corps, I could not have imagined that I would be doing my work over a larger geographic area than a small town or village. But sitting here in Bamenda planning ICT workshops for teachers and teacher trainees in a large area of the North West region, I’m finding that it is in fact possible, and even rewarding. It was only shortly after I finished the 2008-09 school year, having taught ICT in secondary school, that I was given the opportunity to move to Bamenda from the West, and open a new teacher training post in ICT. It took some time to set the initial building blocks to start the work here during the first year and there were many challenges—I’ve even extended my service! But with time and patience the work really took off.

The job here is no doubt drastically different from the one at my former post in the West Region. Especially since I moved from a French-speaking region to an English-speaking one! I’ve gone from the constraints of a rigid timetable and consistent class structure at a high school to a very independent workload that requires a lot of self-discipline and working at multiple sites. However, I still feel that sense of gratification after teaching a class, perhaps even more so than before since teacher trainees are so much more eager to learn! I’ve found it very interesting working at a higher level in the Cameroonian educational system. There are both pros and cons, but overall I feel I have more influence than before—which one could argue is better for development.

I maintain office hours at the Delegation of Basic Education and work closely with the regional delegate, inspectors and ministry officials on the direction of the ICT program at the primary school level in the NW, and the design of trainings and workshops in the greater Bamenda area. This also includes the design of ICT training booklets and the supervision of computer lab installations—one of which I have recently completed at the delegation. I also give workshops at Government Teacher Training Colleges (GTTCs) in the area, trying to deliver as much practical instruction as possible. Other activities I am doing include training active teachers in the use of ICT for their work, and there is also plenty of general training, computer maintenance and consultation work to do in the smaller towns in the surrounding area.

It is sometimes not hard to become overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done in what is now appearing to be a very short time, even though I have extended my Close of Service (COS). But with diligence, I think I can make an initial impact, and pave the way for volunteers who will be working on the same project in the future.