Busy End of Term

I forgot to mention in my last post about the diocesan pilgrimage to Boyon Hill in Ndu (the next town after Tatum) on Friday, March 15. Many people hike from Kumbo and other parts of the diocese, starting on Thursday. We had many of them spending the night in Tatum. On Friday morning, everyone converges at the grandstand in Ndu for a blessing. Then they walk to Boyon Hill, which is a few miles outside of town, praying the Stations of the Cross along the way. At Boyon Hill there is a life-sized crucifix. When everyone has completed the hike, there is holy mass. This is only the third year for the pilgrimage. I was unable to go last year because of exams in school. This year the mass was celebrated by Bishop Agapitus, the Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda, who is originally from Kumbo.

April was a very busy month. The first week was spent doing mock exams for the TTC, and then the secondary school classes began the second week. The third week, final teaching practice began for the TTC students and that last 3 weeks, with the final week being their evaluation. The TTC students were also finishing their term papers which were due at the end of April and I had agreed to type several of them. Some of them waited until the last minute to submit them for typing. Add to that the problems we've been having with electricity for the past several month. So I spent many nights typing as much as I could while the school generator was turned on for the students to study in the evenings. I was able to get them all done on time for the students to get them printed and submitted, but it was very stressful.

Also, I was appointed to work in the secretariat for the TTC exams, which meant that during all the evaluation phases (classroom teaching, oral exams, practicals, defense of term papers, and written exams) I am supposed to be in the office all day to help organize the exams and to tabulate the marks as they come in. Needless to say, busy-busy-busy.

In the first two weeks of May we finished the classroom teaching, the practicals (Agriculture, Productive Arts, and Home Economics), and the oral exams (Music, French, and General Knowledge). We also had promotional exams for Forms 1-4, Lower 6th (high school), and levels 1 & 2 of the TTC & ENIET. Oh yeah, in between everything else I was dong above, I had to set the promotional exams for all my classes. After the exams I had to mark them, but that was relatively easy.

This week has been much more relaxed. The TTC students are preparing for the defense of their term papers, the Form 5 and Upper 6th students are preparing for the GCE, and the rest of the students are preparing to leave for the long holiday - which means they are having to do a lot of manual labour to clean up the school compound. I got one of the students to dig a path for drainage in front of my house because the rain has been pooling there and threatening to flood the inside.

This weekend I'm heading to Bamenda for a meeting for the GCE computer practicals, which start on May 21. They would start on Monday, but 20th May is National Day in Cameroon (kind of like 4th of July). At the meeting I'll find ot where they're sending me (because they don't send people to supervise at their own schools). I'm hoping and praying that I get posted to SAC in Kumbo, because then it should be finished in one day and I can quickly and easily get back to Tatum for the defense of term papers which start on the same day. Since the meeting is on Saturday, I've contacted the Newburns (the LMHers there) and invited myself to spend the night with them so as to return to Kumbo and Tatum on Sunday evening, before leaving again on Monday afternoon for wherever I'm posted.

I'm going to miss the bishop's visit to Tatum on Saturday for the Confirmation of some of the students at St. Pius X and I'll miss the launching of our choir. Oh yeah, I'm in a choir. It's a new choir formed by one of the teachers. Most of the members are teachers in the local schools (primary and secondary). We chose the name "St. Francis' Choir" in honor of the new pope.

The secondary school is closing on Friday, May 24, with the awards ceremony on Thursday afternoon. That's why I hope to be back from the computer practicals quickly. Then the TTC graduation is on May 25. Then May 27 the GCE exams start; and this year we have the first batch for the Advance Level as well as the Ordinary Level. After the GCE, the TTC has their written exams. So we still have a ways to go before we can call the school year finished.

**Those of you in SoCal, during the long holiday I'll be home for 6 weeks (July 2 - August 16) for a family reunion and some other stuff.

****I thought anyone who reads this blog might like this link I just received - 'cause there's a picture of me in. It's to an article in L'Effort Camerounais (newspaper of the National Bishops' Conference of Cameroon) about an award that LMH & MDA received in October from the US Catholic Mission Association.    (http://www.leffortcamerounais.com/2012/11/lay-mission-helpers-association-and-mission-doctors-association-receive-prestigious-national-award-for-international-mission.html)