YES!

I’ve been back from Cameroon for as long as I was in there—two and a half weeks. In that time, I’ve been wondering: What is the role of this blog? What do I have to say?

My blog title was (and is) “Changing (My) Life with French”… which is in great part the work I’m doing with Aumazo… but not only that.

So, today, I’m going to dip my toe in just a little bit and attempt to discover what this blog needs to become.

The theme of this time has been the universe saying YES. Here are a few highlights of my life since my return:

1. People have been flocking to my independent French classes! I’ve got homeschool students and then also other kids and adults, some even via Facetime. I have a deep sense of rightness. And a good bit of income as well. YES!
2. Rachelle Adams (see her website here), my dear friend and colleague who left Barrie at the same time as I did, and I have been invited to re-present our presentation from NTRPS at the CIMW (Comprehensible MidWest) conference this coming weekend: “Building Diversity-Positive Characters in TPRS/CI Stories.” YES!
3. Rachelle and I are offering a 6-session monthly professional development series entitled “Teaching with Comprehensible Input: The Why, What, and How” based on Michelle Kindt’s series in Hershey, PA by the same name. (See description here.) We’ve been looking for a place to hold it, and suddenly we’re getting a YES from a local charter school (soon to be named!). YES!
4. I get to schedule yoga during the day during my work week. That’s a definite YES! And I’m working for Willow Street Yoga Center in exchange for the yoga. Even more YES.
5. The work in Cameroon continues to be impactful and enriching. We are scheduling biweekly Skype conversations with the teachers. The (now 33!) girls are working hard and are begging for more. (I’ll post Jacqueline’s report for Global Giving in my next post.) YES!
6. And now for the most astonishing thing–yet another moment to give me goosebumps about the work I’m doing with Aumazo. A few days after I got home, I walked across the street to talk with Jeanne. She works as a nanny for my neighbors. Since she’s a French speaker, my husband and I had both briefly spoken with her before and had learned that she was from Cameroon, so I was looking forward to letting her know that I’d been in her country. It turns out that she is not only from Cameroon, but she is from Bafang! She grew up and spent most of her life right where I was staying. She went to school at the Collège Saint Paul. What a small world! YES! Today, I went over to the house to show her pictures from my time in Bafang and Bankondji and I brought my friend Hortense, who is also Cameroonian (from Bafoussam). What a joy. 

   

   Surrounded by the warmth of Cameroonian women! Hortense is on the left, and Jeanne is on the right.

   (Hortense’s husband Michel, a lawyer who does civil rights work in Cameroon, treated us to a wonderful meal in Yaoundé on our last day in Cameroon. I first heard about Michel and Hortense in a sermon at my church a few years ago, and have been fortunate enough to become their friend.) 

YES!

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