two months already!!!

I can't believe that today makes the third of my stay here... meaning that next month it will be half! I cannot say the same for the amount of work I have done...

Daylife

Walking out of my house, watching the kids going to school at 7:30 am. Don't forget your uniform, or you can't enter the school!
As french teachers complain about their 30 children, they should think about the african classrooms filled with more than 50...


motorbikers cleaning their bikes at the river:


Work

And because some might wonder if i'm working sometimes... What am I doing during the day?
Besides reading reports about compost or task management, meeting people and writing notices, I sometimes go for visits and interviews. An example with Prince Momo, from the chefferie Foto, that i visited last month, and who shows us his fields a month later.

if you remember, here is what the green beens looked like in march:

and today:


same for tomatoes and corn:


what's his secret? COMPOST! he has been making it for years, using corn canes and grass, or organic waste.
How to check if the compost has done his job? by looking at the depth of the earth, as Benoit, my new colleague, explains (he's the one who studied agriculture and who works on waste management, as I specialized in environmental engineering and work on composting, find the logic...)


my colleague Elise, doing her market:


The harvest: corn, green beens and taro, a good dinner in prospect! :)


we take advantage of the visit for sightseeing a little bit:

still about work:
They finally finished the roofs of the "Market A"...


... and bought garbage bins for the dustmen
(note that it was written white on green before, but because these are the colors of the party of opposition - SDF, they had to paint over...)


Back to the fun now!

The best designer in the town, making my loincloth for the Girl's day of the chefferie Fongo Tongo.

Girl Day of Fongo-Tongo:


people were impressed that I made my loincloth with the same fabric that they chose and they invited me to their Gala night next week! :)

The day after, I went to funerals, again, but that time, just for eating ;) and a friend's sister made plaits with pearls all over my head, and now i look like Lady Ponce, the famous "Bikutsi" singer! nice, but when it comes to sleep...





A Sunday at the university

as i was supposed to go to Mount Bamboutos, but the weather was unsure, I decided to visit the campus with a friend.

Dschang and the University from the hills:

the gril dormitories:



inside de dormitories ("parity" is not a common word yet...)

"Amphi 600", a lecture hall supposed to host 600 students...

... according to my friend, 2000 students is common, some coming with their own chair, other sitting on the stairs or standing in the back!

Tennis courts, football and basketball field, the result of the University Games, that the University of Dschang hosted last year:

on the hill: crops, in order to maximize the space:and because the University was formely a school of agriculture...

Monts Bamboutos, where we were supposed to go...
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboutos

and the Climatic Center, from the hills (note that the swimming pool seems to be blue now!)