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Contact Info
- Jessie Mabry
- Peace Corps Volunteer
- Corps de la Paix
- B.P. 215
- Yaounde, Cameroon
- Africa
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- Or
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- MABRY Jessie
- B.P. 31
- Banganté, Cameroon
- Africa
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- jessiemabry@gmail.com
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- Pictures!
Beginning June, 2005, I will be leaving the U.S. for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. Keep up with my goings-on here.
08 July, 2007
Bigger and Different Things
It's been a while since I've posted anything, but I wanted to let everyone know some news:
As you all know, I'm coming up on the end of my two years in Cameroon. It's been a great experience thus far: The microfinance bank I work with has improved drastically, the school I work with has expanded and hired new staff, I've given classes and seminars to farmers in dirt floor buildings ten kilometers off the nearest paved road and to bank managers and their Peace Corps counterparts in beach resort hotel conference rooms. I've ridden in bush taxis and spent hours waiting on the side of the road, learned how to eat my cous-cous and sauce d'arachide with my hands and finally improved my French enough to understand Tony Parker's hip-hop attempts.
The news is: It's not over yet. I will be staying in Cameroon for a third year. Through a partnership with Peace Corps Cameroon and the United Nations Development Program Cameroon, I'll be staying in Cameroon as a regional office manager for the UNDP's Grassroots Poverty Reduction Program. I'll be in Bafoussam, just about an hour from Bangou, responsible for the West and North-West Provinces. The regional offices accept funding proposals to the Grassroots Poverty Reduction Program and conduct initial evaluations before sending proposals on to the main office in Yaoundé. They also monitor outstanding projects which have received UNDP funding. I'll be spending a lot of the time based in the Bafoussam office but will also get to spend about 20% of my time in the field, visiting projects.
I've just come back from a month's home leave in the States and am starting training with the UNDP tomorrow. From there I'll go up to Bafoussam to look for an apartment and be busy getting settled in there. By the end of this month I should be in the swing of things, as they say.
I'm also hoping to keep more regular posts up here, mainly thanks to the generosity of a good friend and the new (to me) laptop computer she gave to me.
So to sign off for now, I'm wishing you all well and hoping for some good luck on my move to Bafoussam.
Bizous,
Jessie
As you all know, I'm coming up on the end of my two years in Cameroon. It's been a great experience thus far: The microfinance bank I work with has improved drastically, the school I work with has expanded and hired new staff, I've given classes and seminars to farmers in dirt floor buildings ten kilometers off the nearest paved road and to bank managers and their Peace Corps counterparts in beach resort hotel conference rooms. I've ridden in bush taxis and spent hours waiting on the side of the road, learned how to eat my cous-cous and sauce d'arachide with my hands and finally improved my French enough to understand Tony Parker's hip-hop attempts.
The news is: It's not over yet. I will be staying in Cameroon for a third year. Through a partnership with Peace Corps Cameroon and the United Nations Development Program Cameroon, I'll be staying in Cameroon as a regional office manager for the UNDP's Grassroots Poverty Reduction Program. I'll be in Bafoussam, just about an hour from Bangou, responsible for the West and North-West Provinces. The regional offices accept funding proposals to the Grassroots Poverty Reduction Program and conduct initial evaluations before sending proposals on to the main office in Yaoundé. They also monitor outstanding projects which have received UNDP funding. I'll be spending a lot of the time based in the Bafoussam office but will also get to spend about 20% of my time in the field, visiting projects.
I've just come back from a month's home leave in the States and am starting training with the UNDP tomorrow. From there I'll go up to Bafoussam to look for an apartment and be busy getting settled in there. By the end of this month I should be in the swing of things, as they say.
I'm also hoping to keep more regular posts up here, mainly thanks to the generosity of a good friend and the new (to me) laptop computer she gave to me.
So to sign off for now, I'm wishing you all well and hoping for some good luck on my move to Bafoussam.
Bizous,
Jessie
Posted by: Jessie / 10:27 PM 
