Day 3

It’s the last main day of the brilliant trip to Cameroon and the last school we have visited a bilingual high school this morning and we went on a tour of the school and talked to the principal and one of the vice principals of the school.

Mr Wallace found out that the principal was a fan of Boro. There was abut 4000 pupils in the school and 9 vice principlal, 5 for the Anglophones (the people whose main language is English) and Francophones (the people whose main language is French). We went on a small tour of the school and watched a sports parade where a lot of people were doing gymnastics. After that we went to visit a history class.

We were in the class for 15 minutes and then we went into a presentation prepared by the Cameroonians which was very good. Carlton got up and did a dance which is on the school website, and after they performed their own dances which were good and then we exchanged gifts with the pupils involved in connecting classrooms. Katie one of the girls from Laurence Jackson got dragged up to sing.

After we had been there we went to the market and had to tell them when we wanted to buy something so that they didn’t charge us too much. Carlton wanted a football shirt so the driver took us to a cheaper place, but we got mobbed because they all wanted us to buy theirs. It was very scary.

Andrea Elizabeth Carlton and Paul

Day 2

Today we went to the primary school and Carlton and Andrea had their very own fan clubs, with about fifteen kids hanging off thier arms and following them around at the end, Andreas little friends nearly followed her onto the bus. they even stood in the gutter so that they could all stay near her. I dont think that they wanted us to leave them, one of them even passed Elizabeth their address.

We first went to assembly and were greeted by all the kids in one go. It's very intimidating having 400 kids shouting at you all at once. There was a small boy who just stood there eating when everyone else did what they were told, when they were done they all marched into their classrooms singing a song. We then went round the four groups and got talked to by the headteacher of each. After that we went on a tour of the school and ended up sitting in one of the lessons about Health and Food Preparation. When we left there we all got swamped by kids who wanted to take pictures with us, which was when we started getting kids attached to us.

The pictures from today show how popular we were with the children! Tomorrow we are at another secondary school and shopping in the afternoon.

Bye for now!

Andrea Elizabeth Carlton and Paul (and the Laurence Jackson mob!)

First Day!

Hello to everyone back home in England. The weather here is very hot this morning, it rained for a little while but the sun got out later in the day. 

The school that we visited was unbelievable, the school grounds were made out of clay and the sports lesson were played on a clay pitch.  In the classrooms there was a minimum of 75 pupils and the maximum was 90 pupils. We made plenty of friends with a great reception when we got to school.  There are 3730 pupils in the full school. 

We started off with a greeting and attended some classes in the morning.  One group went to maths, chemistry and English and the other went to geography, chemistry and English.

After that we went to a room and saw a cultural show with dances, singing and a fashion show. After that we planted some trees. Andrea planted it in all white which wasn't the best idea.

After we had all been to the school we went to the zoo and saw some crocodiles, lions, and monkeys. The guide was telling us a bit about each animal and said that they would eventually be releasing them into the wild.

We will be in touch again soon. Here are some pictures and a video from today.

Cameroon Facts

Government type: republic; multiparty presidential regime

Capital name: Yaounde

Population: 18,467,692

Area:

total: 475,440 sq km
land: 469,440 sq km
water: 6,000 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly larger than California

Climate: varies with terrain, from tropical along coast to semiarid and hot in north

Terrain: diverse, with coastal plain in southwest, dissected plateau in center, mountains in west, plains in north

Natural hazards: volcanic activity with periodic releases of poisonous gases from Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun volcanoes

Environment - current issues: waterborne diseases are prevalent; deforestation; overgrazing; desertification; poaching; overfishing

Population: 18,467,692

More information can be found @ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/cm.html

Saturday Morning

Braving a very chilly Saturday morning our group were picked up from 3.00am. It took over half an hour to pick the whole group from their homes. The sky was dark and threatening, with a strong risk of snow. After leaving Teesside by 3.35, the group made good progress to reach Newcastle Airport by 4.35. There they met up with three pupils and a member of staff from Laurence Jackson School, our partner in Connecting Classrooms.

Despite the snow storm at 5.40 the plane to Paris made good time arriving 15 minutes early. At 10.50 (9.50 UK) their next flight left Paris for Cameroon - flight AF940, arriving at Douala at 17.23 , before carrying on to their final destination Yaounde landing 5 minutes early - at 19.00 (18.00 UK time). Sunday has gone well and first text messages tell us its been busy, enjoyable, but they are all tired - also did we like the snow - it is 95 F there. What a hard life!

Cameroon here we come!

Following the successful visit to Ethiopia in November 2007, the final stage in our "Connecting Classrooms" adventure has begun.