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On April 2008 I decided to leave Switzerland and heading to Cameroon to spend six months. The first five months I would stay in Limbe in the Southwest Province doing voluntary work as an assistent in LINUX TRAINING CENTER (informatics school). The last month was reserved for independent plans and I would decide spontaneously where to go. So I left Switzerland on the 7th of december, escaping the cold winter and arriving at a place that was different in every sense. It was hot and the humidity high, no snow, green forests and plantations as far as you can see, the people look different, speak different languages, have different customs, different cultures.
These are the courses scheduled for a week for two sessions a day. One in the morning and the second one in the evening. Once a week the "moral instructions" took place where people were discussing about respect, virtues, behaviour and moral in general. Also once a week the students from both classes have to clean the rooms and the yard. This is the so called "Manual work", taking place on friday. No excuses. Everyone has to participate.
I had to consider that schedule as a guide line and not as a strict and unchangable structure we had to obey. There were too many things that could influence the schedule. The Main thing was electricity which is doubtlessly an essential thing to run an informatic school. Short circuits, open fuses, current fluctuation, power failure and sometimes the influence of bad weather forces the teachers to improvise and change the schedule a little. It was also possible the program could be altered because of a special events. As for example students that were interested in wireless networking, Linux installation or Internet radio had the possibility to join another group during the normal classes to acquire some additional knowledge in the different fields.
Beside the regular schedule, there were some smaller projects that kept the people at the school busy and we had to move on after school and during the weekend. A big event took place on January 10 when the school celebrated its second aniversary and the people from Limbe were invited to come and attend the presentation. A local radio station broadcasted and reported the event. Also the whole event was broadcasted over the Internet as a radio program. No doubt this day demanded a lot of preparations to show the school from its best side.
Another important project was and still is the work for the swiss company Wyona. As Michel was in Switzerland he got in touch with Wyona and discussed about possibilities outsourcing work to Cameroon. Implementing the working environment and doing the first tests were demanding tasks that kept the students busy but were also good real life examples how working in an IT team feels like.
The first encounter with the radio station "Eternity gospel radio" was at the schools' second aniversary. The second encounter was after the school and the station agreed to work together. The school offered them to use the Internet for some hours a week for free and in return we had the possibility to make a 30 minute radio program about "how to use your computers" every Saturday from 12:00-12:30 pm.
A further project is the Wireless connection from the school to the radio station by extending the range of the signal of regular WLAN equipment and Do-It-Yourself antennas. Between these two points is a distance of about 4 kilometers and in between this two points is the hill "Kie". The challenge was to connect this two points and to send the WLAN signal over the hill.
Beside the work, I had the opportunity to experience the cultural aspects of the country. Visiting people, friends, the chiefs of the villages, attending events, celebrations and the church service (Baptist Church). This brought me in contact with many people. And being in contact with the people also arose possibilities like visiting a prison, schools, a monestary, the radio station ... Not forgetting the minute things one encounters during the day when going to the market, buying food at the shops, riding a taxi or a motor cycle taxi. Fighting for 50 CFA (10 cents) when the shopman is trying to cheat you. The same thing with the prices for the taxies. Justice, injustice and selfjustice when thieves come to visit you and many many things more happened during this time.
I only spent three months in Cameroon and had to skip the other three months I wanted to stay. The course of my plans in Switzerland changed a little with the consequence I had to shorten the Cameroon project. I have to pass the assesment exams in April to attend the school in summer 2009. That means there is a lot of preparation work to do and I have to repeat and relearn old school stuff in geometry, mathematics, german and french. This takes a lot of time and I have to find the balance between the preparation work, my friends here and also the friends in Cameroon. We are still in contact via Skype and email and keep us up to date about the things happening in our places.
At this point I want to thank Michel, Chanceline, Caro, Guy and all the students again for the great time I had with them. It was one of the most challenging, exciting and best times I had and I won't forget the things I experienced during this three months in Limbe. It allowed me to see many new things, to have a closer look at things I only knew from the media, to see how the world looks like outside Europe, how life is going at less privileged places and to see it from inside as one of the group. Thank you for this great time!!!