LeBron, Other PCV Activities

Conversation on ESPN.com: For Cavs Fans

 

Chad Ford: Has there ever been a longer recruitment for a player than Jay-Z's slow seduction of LeBron James? We've been talking about LeBron and the Brooklyn Nets for years, and we're still at least two years away … but perhaps only two years away.

 

Bill Simmons: … As for Jay-Z and LeBron, it's the most underreported story in sports right now. I don't know what else to say. If LeBron isn't wearing a Nets jersey within the next four years, I will walk from California to New Jersey naked wearing only a 2006-07 game-worn Adam Morrison Bobcats jersey.

 

Other Work

 

At the end of my last post, I mentioned the Extreme North Bike Tour, and a little light bulb went on, and I thought, wouldn't it be interesting if I dedicated an entry to work that other volunteers that I know have done instead of my usual bitching and moaning about this and that and declarations of love for Tina Fey.  So, I'll give you some examples of projects and activities to give the seven people (that's including my two cats) that still read this blog an idea of the wide variety of things that PCVs in Northern Cameroon do.

 

Extreme North Bike Tour – A provincial project that had PCVs in the Extreme North province bike between PCV posts for about 10 days last November to give nightly HIV/AIDS "sensibilisations" in open community meetings.  (It was the third year that PCVs in the EN did the Bike Tour.)  The presentations included a testimonial from an infected Cameroonian, skits, and all the usual trappings that come with Grand North fetes/animations.  The organizational and cost aspects of the Bike Tour were huge.  About 20 PCVs participated, the Country Director personally came and biked the entire tour with PCVs, a bike repair guy from the Yaoundé office was there, and a PC Land Cruiser followed everyone the entire time.  It could be argued that this project was anything but sustainable (not much help or assistance was needed by local community members), and most of the budget was used to take care of the volunteers themselves.  Another negative was that it spurred the PCVs up there to make lame Extreme North t-shirts, which, if I see an ENer wearing one, I snicker.  It deserves snickering.  Overall, the project was a big undertaking, at least seven months of planning, and not a usual PCV project.

 

Soy – Sarah and Ryan in Bibemi have been doing a joint project on the importance of soy, Sarah on the health niveau and Ryan on the agro end.  For Sarah's part, she has been emphasizing the nutritional benefits of soy, especially for kids, to women, since women are the one's who do all the cooking in households.  The amount of protein in soy greatly outweighs other protein-rich food in its nutritional content and price, which is shown in neat visuals that show how many eggs or how much beef, both expensive for most people au village, you have to eat to get the same protein as one kilo of soy.  I don't know too much of the details of Ryan's side of things, I tend to space out when agro's talk about their work, but he shows people how to properly grow the soy, with the farmers hopefully spurred on by Sarah's nutrition talks.  A soy project is a good example of a health/agro PCV collaboration. (Soy can be found in markets here in the North, but most of it in the Grand North is grown in the Extreme North.)

 

Camps – There are different kind of camps one can do, day or overnight.  I think Kate in Mayo-Oulo is doing Arts for Life as a day camp this year just in her village, and Marcel and Katy in the Extreme North did a week-long camp in one of their villages last summer.  (These two were also the main organizers of the Bike Tour, so they seem to like organizational nightmares.)

 

Essay Contest – Whitney in Maroua, the capital of the Extreme North, did an essay contest with a local NGO with high school kids about World AIDS Day last December.  For a holiday like AIDS Day (Women's Day is another example) there is a theme/slogan for the event, so the essay topic had to do with that topic.  The winner got a prize, and I can't for life of me even begin to remember what it was.

 

Inherited Projects – For PCVs replacing someone, sometimes an old volunteer's project carries over to the new guy.  This happened for at least of couple PCVs in my training group.  The financing for projects led by the old PCV didn't come through until the end of the PCV's service or at the beginning of the new one's, so the new guy has had to do the follow-through.  (The examples I'm thinking of were latrine and school construction projects.)  Also, an already completed project needs upkeep, so the new PCV has to continue that work.  An example is in Gounougou, the village near me, where a water project by the old volunteer is now a main aspect of the new PCV's work. 

 

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – WWF loves PCVs.  They were giving away a lot of trees last year, and they used agro-forestry volunteers up here in the Grand North (WWF has been working a lot up here the last couple years) to distribute trees to communities.  They gave out a buttload of trees, thousands, to communities last year and sponsor local community members to maintain them.  ("Buttload" is an appropriate and professional term that should be used as much as possible in meetings with the boss.)        

 

Teaching – As a secondary project, some PCVs, like my post mate, teach English or some other subject at their local high school, where the administration there is always willing to give some hours to a free teacher who actually knows the language they're supposed to be teaching.

 

Animations, Animations, Animations – A lot of work that we do are just various animations that we constantly do throughout our service to a wide variety of groups, students, women, men, people living with AIDS, etc, and a wide variety of subjects.