No, it can’t be true (pt. 1)
You would think if you’re in the capital city of any country things would get a little easier, right? Aw man, say it ain’t so! This is how my day went.
Thing’s started relatively lightly, with me attempting to find the internet spot Sheila mentioned in our conversation last night. The only place I could find was next door, the Kaelly Hotel. Naturally I went over to see if I could get my fix on, but there were problems with the connection. Approximately one “we have a connection,” one “it’s connecting now,” and one “I’ll just try again later,” I moved on.
Next stop, the PC office. Guess I was expecting something a little grander, but it’s not bad. Kind of reminded me of a M.A.S.H. compound. Akilah mentioned that I destroyed her vision of this nicely put together “haven.” Sorry, but I had to call it as I saw it.
What else would the twelve to twenty foot walls with bars on top of them say to a person like me? (Well other than that one.) It was good however, to meet some of those who make certain that PCVs remain safe and are cared for in a nurturing manner (only added a minuscule amount of fluff).
Once I found Akilah, we went over to meet with Tyrone Gaston, APCD of small enterprise development. The conversation was very good, it was kind of inspiring to hear the opinions of someone working directly with those changing the mindsets of others.
Akilah was searching for ideas on what she could do as a TEFL volunteer to have an impact on the business development mentality of her students. His suggestions were some that she can use for her adult class as well. What better way to teach english than with content based lessons? You can get two birds with one stone.
Even mentioned some of my ideas about working with Cameroonian businesses in doing an import/export service. Don’t know why I’m checking into all of this, it’s not like I’ll be here for a while or will even be back that frequently to do something (unless of course there’s an obvious upside that I’m missing).
From there we took a trip down to the library (resource center) to find some manuals that would be helpful for our TEFL volunteer. Didn’t take long to finish there and head next door to C.H.P.; the folks who provide the training for those aspiring to become volunteers.
After a light lunch of rice and beans at the C.H.P. office, it was now time to move on to the downtown area. We intended to go past the U.S. embassy, but we didn’t realize they closed at 12:30pm on Fridays. Oh well, so much being a citizen who gets to your embassy in another country.