Here is a comprehensive list of every singe blog post I’ve ever written. Happy Reading!
Business Class Round III
Apologies for the lack of updates as of late. A lot seems to be going on lately, a lot, for Cameroonian standard. I attempt to think back to 3 weeks before I came to Cameroon, and wonder how I managed to sleep on average 4-6 hours a night, took 18…
Change of Perception
Sometimes, I feel like Cameroon has broken me. Two years in this country have somehow taken away those sympathetic ways that once was a big part of my personality. I am often annoyed when people comment “aww… those poor people” on my pictures from this experience. I no longer “feel…
Two Faced?
Lately, I’ve found myself feeling more and more two-faced: the Wendy online and the Wendy offline. Somehow, most of my friends are not big into social media. Facebook is as far as they go, and even with that, they aren’t very active. I often feel out of place talking about…
Your Majesty
After nearly two years in Cameroon, there are some things that I still don’t understand about the culture, and I likely will never understand. The traditioanl chiefs that is prevalent here in the West region of Cameroon is one of such things. Yesterday, Théo and I met with the chief…
Sarah’s Key
Last week, I read Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. I only wanted to read it because it’s a book based in Paris, I had no idea what the story is about. I read the books in two days and it was one of the more captivating books I’ve read…
Cameroonian Fustration
The events of this week has left me totally frustrated with the way things work in this country. I was always aware of the inefficiency, but I do everything in my power to avoid them. This past week, I’ve had to deal with them first hand. Let me tell you,…
Retail Therapy
As a way to battle with all the Cameroonian frustration that I’ve had to dealt with, I’ve taken up retail therapy once again. The markets in Bafoussam have quite the gem if you are willing to take the time to dig, and deal with obnoxious men who yell ridiculous things…
American Efficiency
Four days since I found out that the Embassy had changed its policy and can no longer clear our container. Théo from RIDEV was in Douala the next day after the news to meet with someone working at the Embassy to learn the process, and in attempt to find a…
Fondonera
In an attempt to remind myself why I started the psychotic library project, I decided to write about my visit to Fondonera from a few weeks ago. Bernadette is the queen mother of the Fondonera clan. She found out about my project online and wrote to the Peace Corps. Her…
New Beginning!
I am excited to have finally moved this blog to a self-hosted address! This new change will allow me to have more freedom in the layout and design. Web design is still a completely new area for me. But slowly, I am learning to tweak a thing or two to…
Celebrating Women’s Day
The Indomitable Lions is the Cameroonian national football (or soccer) team, but the real national sport is drinking at a bar. There are more bars in Cameroon than any other type of enterprise. Even if you find yourself in the middle of nowhere with no food in sight, there will…
Stepping Back: to Grandmother’s House!
Last summer, I had the chance to revisit my birth country of Taiwan. One of the many stops we made along the island was at the Lee family estate in Ping-Tung (屏東), to visit my amazing 91-year-old grandmother. At 91 and without much formal education, my grandmother still speaks 3…
O.M.G. Books!
I am exhausted. I haven’t worked this hard since May 2008. After the ultimate obstacle course, which I will write about it at a later time, the 40-ft container of 23,000 books have arrived in Bafoussam on Saturday at 11am. Since then, the team of volunteers and I have been working almost around the clock during most daylight hours to sort through all these books. In total, we received 617 boxes of books. For the large majority, we had to take them out of the boxes and sort through them by subject and level.
The Ultimate Obstacle Course
I’ve been dreading to write this post on the difficulties and pure ridiculousness that we went through for those 23,000 books to arrive. After the past two weeks, the only thing I want to do is rejoice in the success, not revisit the frustration. However, yesterday I came to the realization that my time in Cameroon remains only 3 precious months. I became nostalgic for these past two years and frankly, quite sad. I need to write about the obstacles in order for me to appreciate the efficiency that I will undoubtedly face in the “real world”. It’s human nature to reminiscent over an intense experience and think of only the peachy parts, yet the details of the trials and frustration is equally important and merits documentation.
A Celebration
After weeks of banging my head against a wall, cursing at inefficiency, and later moving 23,000 books around, we were able to see the appetizer portion of the fruits of our labor on Friday, March 19th, when a small ceremony of book distribution took place in Bafoussam. The Books For Cameroon team – Kate, Siobhan, Connie, Laura and myself – was present at once finally. Prior to this, we’ve been working largely through email or meeting separately. It was great to have all of us in one space and witnessing the books going out to recipients.