Well, it is now Friday and I have officially made it through a whole month of teaching!!! (That deserves a big piece of chocolate cake! Or forget the piece and I’ll just have the whole thing.) I feel I have actually taught the students in my care. My science 10-core class has 2 students in it. They are both so sweet. There are 18 10th graders, but these 2 needed to be put in a class where they can get more one-on-one help. This is one of my favorite things about teaching this class; I can take time to help one understand acceleration better while the other one works on something and vise versa. It is fun to build more in-depth relationships with them because of the small class size. I have learned a lot so far about turning forces, velocity, acceleration, ticker-tape timers, among other things. It is a challenge, but it’s turning into a fun one. They have a test next Thursday, so that will be a test of my teaching as well. My Business Math class has 4 students in it and I may be gaining a 5th. Math is easier for me to teach. I don’t have to learn as many things. We just finished 2 sections on gross and net income, dealing with taxes and withholdings. They have a test on Monday. Once again, this will be my test as well. I hope I pass. I am also teaching 5 voice students. So far it is going well. I have no piano students, but 1 beginner guitar student that I am hoping doesn’t out grow me in skills. Coming up in September a fellow teacher has to return to the States to visit his ill mother for about a month and I will be taking over his Geometry 1 class while he is gone. The class size is larger than I am used to and a subject I haven’t studied in a while, I would appreciate prayers as I prepare for that class. I got the chance to sub for a middle school music class yesterday, which was surprisingly fun for me.
Wednesday was the senior girls soccer team first game against the RFIS women, so my colleagues and me. The girls won 10-3. But having only 2 experienced soccer players on our team of 10 we were proud to have gotten 3 goals. I played forward, which meant I ran all over the field and got muddy and got really excited when I even go my foot on the ball. I took a few goal shots, but never made it. After watching me though people were surprised to find I had not played since gym class in High School. I took that as the compliment that is was!
I am finding a routine here that involves teaching, prepping, socializing, cooking, reading, watching the occasional movie or TV episode on DVD, exercising, experiencing culture, worship team practice, correspondence, getting to know students, dance lessons once a week, time for me to enjoy peace and quiet, Sunday evening worship, Thursday bible study, and time for just God and I. Time balance has never been my gift, a shocker, I know. But I am trying to balance and not over commit to things. There are so many needs to be filled and only so many people to fill them. I would appreciate your prayers as I continue to find a pattern and routine in my life here.
So thank you for supporting me, praying for me, encouraging me and even reading this blog. Feel free to post a comment; I opened up so that anyone can.
I will try to post some more pictures soon.
I pray you have a blessed weekend!
Love from Cameroon,
AMY
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Crash course in Taxi riding.
So, my plan is to write on my blog every Friday. However, it is Tuesday and somehow I missed Friday. So this week I will write Tuesday and again on Friday. Today I feel like sharing some stories.
Yaounde Taxis
In my 0.1 km walk to school there are, I would venture to say, 2 dozen taxis that pass me going either way, every morning. The taxis here are mostly yellow cars that can, in American standards hold 4 passengers. When a taxi driver is driving along, his horn is his very best friend, his money maker really. They honk their horns to pick up passengers. So if the driver sees some passengers on the side of the road he will slow down and honk, the person waiting for a cab will say their neighborhood’s destination and the price they are willing to pay. If no price is stated then it will be 200 cfa (500 cfa=$1 US). If the driver is willing to go that place for that price they will honk again and the passenger gets in. If he is not willing, then he will just keep driving. See the thing is there is no rule saying the cab driver can only have 1 set of passengers at a time. He could have 4 different passengers going to 4 different places at one time. More money for him, more work for the horn. My roommate Liz and I were going to this tasty bakery this past Saturday. We thought it would be a fast trip in and out with no traffic. This was my 2nd experience riding in a cab. Liz, fluent in french, hailed the cab and said the neighborhood the bakery was in. The driver honked so we climbed in and were on our way to the bakery for 200cfa. We were soon joined be a mother and her baby girl of amount 2 months, so cute. They weren’t going far. But the driver still was not done, there was still the front seat to fill. So we keep honking and pulling over and moving on. Until we see these two women and slow down, he honks because apparently he approves of their offer. I didn’t even hear a voice, yet he could hear the specifics of what they said. These drivers have the best hearing in the world. I am thinking to myself, hmm, there is one seat and two of them, maybe only one is coming. I am not adjusted to Africa yet with that mindset. I need to switch to thinking, there is never NOT enough space to take someone else. Both these women sit on the small front seat in a very uncomfortable looking position. Finally the car is full so we move at a ‘steady’ pace, then we hit traffic. A huge tree had fallen across the road and on some power lines. When we passed very slowly I noticed about 8 guys hovered around the 1 chainsaw with several wrenches trying to fix it. I had to laugh, 1 chainsaw for 1 HUGE tree that was almost entirely stopping traffic and 8 men for that 1 tool. Finally we got to the bakery, got our goods and some avocados from the lady across the street and we headed back into another taxi and went home. (The taxi that stopped already had 3 passengers, Liz squished in the front with another passenger while I fit in the back.) A 45 minute roundtrip taxi ride for a fee of 400cfa, under $1. Quite the experience!
I have now been here just over 1 month. I still learn new things everyday and have to depend on God everyday. But these are good things I think.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Until Friday……
AMY
Yaounde Taxis
In my 0.1 km walk to school there are, I would venture to say, 2 dozen taxis that pass me going either way, every morning. The taxis here are mostly yellow cars that can, in American standards hold 4 passengers. When a taxi driver is driving along, his horn is his very best friend, his money maker really. They honk their horns to pick up passengers. So if the driver sees some passengers on the side of the road he will slow down and honk, the person waiting for a cab will say their neighborhood’s destination and the price they are willing to pay. If no price is stated then it will be 200 cfa (500 cfa=$1 US). If the driver is willing to go that place for that price they will honk again and the passenger gets in. If he is not willing, then he will just keep driving. See the thing is there is no rule saying the cab driver can only have 1 set of passengers at a time. He could have 4 different passengers going to 4 different places at one time. More money for him, more work for the horn. My roommate Liz and I were going to this tasty bakery this past Saturday. We thought it would be a fast trip in and out with no traffic. This was my 2nd experience riding in a cab. Liz, fluent in french, hailed the cab and said the neighborhood the bakery was in. The driver honked so we climbed in and were on our way to the bakery for 200cfa. We were soon joined be a mother and her baby girl of amount 2 months, so cute. They weren’t going far. But the driver still was not done, there was still the front seat to fill. So we keep honking and pulling over and moving on. Until we see these two women and slow down, he honks because apparently he approves of their offer. I didn’t even hear a voice, yet he could hear the specifics of what they said. These drivers have the best hearing in the world. I am thinking to myself, hmm, there is one seat and two of them, maybe only one is coming. I am not adjusted to Africa yet with that mindset. I need to switch to thinking, there is never NOT enough space to take someone else. Both these women sit on the small front seat in a very uncomfortable looking position. Finally the car is full so we move at a ‘steady’ pace, then we hit traffic. A huge tree had fallen across the road and on some power lines. When we passed very slowly I noticed about 8 guys hovered around the 1 chainsaw with several wrenches trying to fix it. I had to laugh, 1 chainsaw for 1 HUGE tree that was almost entirely stopping traffic and 8 men for that 1 tool. Finally we got to the bakery, got our goods and some avocados from the lady across the street and we headed back into another taxi and went home. (The taxi that stopped already had 3 passengers, Liz squished in the front with another passenger while I fit in the back.) A 45 minute roundtrip taxi ride for a fee of 400cfa, under $1. Quite the experience!
I have now been here just over 1 month. I still learn new things everyday and have to depend on God everyday. But these are good things I think.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Until Friday……
AMY
Friday, August 17, 2007
I'm surving and I think beginning to thrive.
Hello friends,
Well another week has passed. I have now successfully, I do believe, completed my second week of teaching and my third week of living in Africa!
There are parts of life here that I really enjoy: the fellowship around me, the new relationships I am building with staff and students alike, the African children who shyly want to shake my hand (hand shaking is a big cultural thing here—it is polite to shake hands with every person upon entering and leaving a home), the new lessons I am learning about making food from scratch (I made chocolate pudding from scratch this week), and right now I am enjoying the sound of the rain pouring down outside. It has not rained too much here yet; especially considering it is rainy season. However today, I am stuck at work until someone offers a ride or until the rain lets up. This is a pouring rain that is turning the red dirt into a red stream.
There are parts of life here too that are hard to adjust to or things I really miss from home. I miss real milk, not powdered. I miss deep comfy couches, instead of shallow hard ones. I miss real chocolate. I miss having boxed meals to throw in the pot or microwave when I am lazy. I enjoy my new fellowship, but I miss the fellowship with you who know me already and so well.
Yes, there are changes and things to adjust to. But I try not to dwell on those, but rather dwell on God. He never changes. If the saying, “Home is where the heart is” is true, then my home over the last few years has changed so often. My heart has turned toward the people I am with so my homes have been in Wexford, PA, Lakewood, CO, Dewittville, NY, Strathmore, AB and now my home is in Yaounde, Cameroon, West Africa. But ultimately my home travels with me because my true home is in Christ. He is where my heart is. Changes may come, life will happen, God will give and take away, but ‘I will yet praise him, my savior and my God’. God seems bigger in Africa somehow. I experienced this in Kenya too. Perhaps my experiences in Africa are so big and God fills every part of my experiences. I want to share with you a few verses I have been dwelling on these last few weeks. It is found in Psalm 94, verses 18, 19 and 22, “When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,’ your love, O Lord, Supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul….But the Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.” If there is one thing I can say for certain about being here. It is that the Lord my God has me here and he is teaching me to depend on him and him alone as my rock.
I pray God blesses you this weekend and next week. Rest in him, he will revive your soul.
Be Blessed,
Amy
I am not sure if I shared my address here, but it is: Amy Oxendale Rain Forest International School, BP 1299, Yaounde, Cameroon West Africa. I would love any hand written letters you can send and I promise to write back as soon as I get the chance.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
First days in Cameroon
Dear Friends and Family,
So hopefully this will be my first update from Cameroon. I say hopefully because I have been here for just over a week now and have not been able to access my blog page. The server has been blocking it, but I think I got it fixed today. I have wireless internet here, but it is VERY slow and takes a long while to upload things or even get a new page. And my personal account gets charged for the amount of minutes I use on the internet. So I am typing to you in Word and hoping I can soon copy and paste. It is almost 6pm here and I am exhausted from a long day of work, but it is only 11am-1pm for most of you. I am almost done with the day, but you are still going. I hope yours is not as exhausting as mine was. One thing about myself that I have confirmed being out here, is that I do not do well having to sit behind a desk and get things done all day. It exhausts me! Tomorrow is the first day of classes, Aug. 7th. So today I sat and tried to configure lesson plans. I feel good about my math class, but science literally gave me a headache today. I was re-learning torque and moment in the Machines and Movement section. I don’t remember ever learning that, but I am sure it is there somewhere, so I sat and wracked my brain with the students book as my aid to remember that the force (F) times the distance from the pivot = the turning force, known as the torque. So there you have it, my first science lesson. I hope it will get easier as time goes on and as my science mind gets back in shape. I am excited to meet my students tomorrow. I have heard great things about some of them specifically.
I am excited as well to help with the student worship team. I just agreed to do that yesterday. There is another woman who will be leading them in spiritual direction and focus, which I can help with, but primarily I will be helping them work on things musically. I am looking forward to working with them and having a small group to focus on within the larger student body. (When I say ‘larger’, I mean about 100)
I have been meeting lots of new people, which is very exciting, but can also be very draining for me.
I live in an apartment complex called CABTAL that is a gated property with an office/conference building and a 4 story apartment complex. I live on the top floor with my roommate Liz who has been here for several years and can show me how things work. We are getting along great and she is very helpful to answer my many questions. I can walk to school in about 10 min. I live in the capitol city, but we are on the outskirts of it and there are no tall buildings just very small businesses. I feel safe, but I wouldn’t walk alone at night. The climate here is more tropical, just without the forests. They have been cut away for the buildings, but are in the surrounding areas. It is humid here and the laundry and my hair take a long while to dry. It hasn’t rained much so far, only 3 or 4 times. But this month is the dryer part of the rainy season (March-Nov.).
I have a lot of the familiarities of home, but there are also a lot of things to adjust to. I did just get a cell phone and the way the service works here is that I pay only for calls I make, NOT for calls I receive. So I don’t know how much it would cost to call a Cameroonian cell phone from the U.S. but I can give you the number so if you want to call me you can and I will not be charged. The U.S. can give better long distance rates than I can get here. I don’t want to post it here for the whole world to see, but I will send it out in an email update and if you would like it you can email me and ask for it: amyoxendale@gmail.com
Well, I have many more stories and things to say, but I know I can be long winded and I already have taken up a whole page on Word. so I will go for now. but please pray for my first week of school. This week pray that I will remember my sciences from High School and can effectively teach it to these students. I would love to get emails from you. Just typing this makes me feel more connected to all of you back home. I hope this finds all of you well.
I remain here in Jesus' love,
AMY
So hopefully this will be my first update from Cameroon. I say hopefully because I have been here for just over a week now and have not been able to access my blog page. The server has been blocking it, but I think I got it fixed today. I have wireless internet here, but it is VERY slow and takes a long while to upload things or even get a new page. And my personal account gets charged for the amount of minutes I use on the internet. So I am typing to you in Word and hoping I can soon copy and paste. It is almost 6pm here and I am exhausted from a long day of work, but it is only 11am-1pm for most of you. I am almost done with the day, but you are still going. I hope yours is not as exhausting as mine was. One thing about myself that I have confirmed being out here, is that I do not do well having to sit behind a desk and get things done all day. It exhausts me! Tomorrow is the first day of classes, Aug. 7th. So today I sat and tried to configure lesson plans. I feel good about my math class, but science literally gave me a headache today. I was re-learning torque and moment in the Machines and Movement section. I don’t remember ever learning that, but I am sure it is there somewhere, so I sat and wracked my brain with the students book as my aid to remember that the force (F) times the distance from the pivot = the turning force, known as the torque. So there you have it, my first science lesson. I hope it will get easier as time goes on and as my science mind gets back in shape. I am excited to meet my students tomorrow. I have heard great things about some of them specifically.
I am excited as well to help with the student worship team. I just agreed to do that yesterday. There is another woman who will be leading them in spiritual direction and focus, which I can help with, but primarily I will be helping them work on things musically. I am looking forward to working with them and having a small group to focus on within the larger student body. (When I say ‘larger’, I mean about 100)
I have been meeting lots of new people, which is very exciting, but can also be very draining for me.
I live in an apartment complex called CABTAL that is a gated property with an office/conference building and a 4 story apartment complex. I live on the top floor with my roommate Liz who has been here for several years and can show me how things work. We are getting along great and she is very helpful to answer my many questions. I can walk to school in about 10 min. I live in the capitol city, but we are on the outskirts of it and there are no tall buildings just very small businesses. I feel safe, but I wouldn’t walk alone at night. The climate here is more tropical, just without the forests. They have been cut away for the buildings, but are in the surrounding areas. It is humid here and the laundry and my hair take a long while to dry. It hasn’t rained much so far, only 3 or 4 times. But this month is the dryer part of the rainy season (March-Nov.).
I have a lot of the familiarities of home, but there are also a lot of things to adjust to. I did just get a cell phone and the way the service works here is that I pay only for calls I make, NOT for calls I receive. So I don’t know how much it would cost to call a Cameroonian cell phone from the U.S. but I can give you the number so if you want to call me you can and I will not be charged. The U.S. can give better long distance rates than I can get here. I don’t want to post it here for the whole world to see, but I will send it out in an email update and if you would like it you can email me and ask for it: amyoxendale@gmail.com
Well, I have many more stories and things to say, but I know I can be long winded and I already have taken up a whole page on Word. so I will go for now. but please pray for my first week of school. This week pray that I will remember my sciences from High School and can effectively teach it to these students. I would love to get emails from you. Just typing this makes me feel more connected to all of you back home. I hope this finds all of you well.
I remain here in Jesus' love,
AMY
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