Friday, October 17, 2014
Bonamouagno School, Douala, Cameroon
While in Cameroon, we visited a school which a member of the Church, Romeo had attended. His family had donated the land for the school many years ago. The state pays the teachers and for some supplies, but the maintenance of the school is up to the local residents. At some point, the school lost access to water. Toilets and squat toilets deteriorated. Now the school is functioning and students are attending, but there are no toilet facilities, children use a space in the yard, access water through a hole in the wall and are at risk because in the school yard there is a pool of rainwater that collects, running directly from the area used as a "latrine."
Behind the left building there is a hole in the wall, The children reach through the hole to access a water faucet on the other side, where they can wash hands or fill a water bottle.
African children usually behave very well in class. This is a good school, they have a "desk" to write on.
These are the squat toilets or latrines that the children are supposed to use. There is no water connected to them and the doors don't open or close.
This is the teacher's toilet room. I wouldn't go in far enough to take a picture inside!
The trash area by the latrines -- ugh.
Two little girls "do their business" outside the latrines on a piece of cement. This is six feet away from the standing water in the school yard.
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Thank you for sharing this. It's sometimes hard for us to understand the conditions that these folks live in and endure. I'm sure you bring a ray of hope and light to them. What kind of precautions do you have in your area for the Ebola virus. You're not too far from the West Africa area where the great problems are occurring. Have you had to take any precautions so as to not be affected?
ReplyDeleteWhen you enter Gabon at the airport they take your temperature and isolate anyone with a raised temperature. Planes that pass through here often originate in the northern part of west Africa. There are info spots all around-- we assume on television but we don't get any television here. We are careful about hand washing and as we don't each bush meat, that is not a worry for us. The minute there is Ebola here, the Church will move missionaries out, because these countries are so at risk with the concentrated populations that it is not worth the risk for the missionaries and the Church. We just try to stay aware. The couple missionaries in Cameroon are watching -- Cameroon is at risk because of it's northern border.
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