Season of Thanksgiving

There is a lot to be thankful this year. And going with this season of Thanksgiving I want to share with you what I am thankful for this year.

I am thankful for Meiganga. My compound. My 7 little brothers and their parents which are mine too. I am thankful for the security that living in a compound brings. I can sleep well at night knowing that there are always 9 other people living with me. I am thankful for work. My 3 savings groups; 1 in Dana (17 km from Meiganga) which will start saving in January whose group name means in Gbaya: 'Working for tomorrow.' My group in Meidougou  is about to finish their 2nd year of saving and finally my group at Centre Socio, an alternative school for girls who learn how to be tailors. I am thankful that the technical high school in Meiganga now has access to a world map that 4 students, a teacher and myself worked tirelessly on for a month. 

I am thankful for my Peace Corps support system. I am grateful that I was able to host Thanksgiving at my house for not only volunteers but my Cameroonian neighbors as well. I am thankful that we had food on the table that tasted like Thanksgiving. I am thankful that I wasn't homesick. How could I be? 10 PCVs and 7 Cameroonians sharing a Thanksgiving meal in my living room. I am thankful for how cheap beers are in Cameroon and that kids will just dance even if there is no music.

I am thankful for my family back home who I get to speak to every Sunday afternoon. I am thankful for my dad's health, my mom's positivity when I have an awful day and my sister who is planning her trip to Cameroon with Ben. I am thankful for being able to celebrate James and Jill's wedding in August and dancing the night away with the Nicolai clan. I am thankful for my new cousin in the Zanrosso clan and being able to catch up while I was home.

I have been blessed beyond measure. Some years I would struggle to say at the dinner table what I was thankful for, but this year the list doesn't stop. Never before have I have been completely comfortable in my skin and content with where I am in my life...so that is what I am most thankful for.

Thanksgiving evening filled with laughter, great food, great company and lots of dancing!

Local Computer Training Center

Meiganga has been my home now for 14 months now. It is a wonderful place to live and work. I am asking now for my friends and family back home to have a direct impact on my home away from home. My postmates, Andrew, Emma and now Charla, have been working on creating a Computer Training Center in Meiganga for over a year now. This project is intended to create a computer training school open to the community. The profits from inscription fees would go towards updating and expanding the capacity of the school as well as, in the future, paying professionals for their time spent teaching. The computer training is intended to increase the technical competency in our village and the surrounding areas, allowing community members to better utilize and understand information technology on various levels. 

This center already has people lined up to use it! If this project is funded, Charla and I will be hosting a 3 day computer camp at this training center for our A2Empowerment scholarship girls. Check out the link on the bottom of this blog. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. If you are able to pass this link along the community of Meiganga would be forever grateful. 

Thank you! Merci! Oseuko jur! 


https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=694-212