Teaching

What do you do when you have plans to travel overseas and you need to make some money? You go and look for a job. After spending a year at University of Yaounde and failing the examination to go to the second year, I sat down with my elder brother who had just returned from the US and we decided I should get a job and start marking plans to go study in the US. I had given up on the local University after a year of schooling there. It was getting close to the end of August 1983 and secondary schools were due to reopen soon for the beginning of the academic year.
I needed a place to work for a year and save some money before travelling overseas. Teaching at the time was one of the easier jobs to get. With your GCE advanced levels you could get hired very quickly especially if one of your advanced level subjects happened to be in the French language. I decided to teach at Christ the King College Tiko because I could save money easily by getting my food from our home which was just across the street from the school.Also at the time my monthly allowance at the University was still passing(you could collect it for up to two years).
I use to time it and get to Yaounde by Saturday morning and collect the money and make it back to Tiko before School starts on Monday.The rail transportation was the main means of transport at the time and I got used to taking the night train. Sunny Eyabi, a classmate of mine from CCAS Kumba already had a teaching job in the school. I had talk to him before and he said the place was alright. I got the job there by talking to Sister German, she was the principle at the time. I told her my level of education and what subjects I wanted to teach. They needed me to be able to attend daily church service and that was okay with me.
The subjects that she will allow me teach were French language in most of the classes and English language in a few classes. But my primary field of teaching will be French. That is how you get the name "monsieur". Form one and two students do not care about learning the names of French teachers. Throughout the secondary school they just called them "monsieur".
The school at the time ended in form four so I took on teaching French from form one up to form four. I believed that I was the lone French teacher there at the time. The salary was 50,000FCFA. The school had another young teacher at the time besides me and Eyabi. Tafong was his name. He had studied in the commercial educational system and he taught commercial law and accounting I believe. Eyabi was teaching English Language and English Literature and was also in charge of sports.Tafon,Eyabi and myself became very close and we had some fun at the place for the one year that I was there.
The first month that I taught at Christ the King college I lived at home which is just across the street from the school. After I got my first salary Sister German gave me a place at the school campus to live in. I lived there while still getting my meals (lunch and supper) from the house. Mom’s cooking is the best, besides I did not have to pay for the food. Sunny, Tafon and myself used to go out and have a good time especially at the end of the month when we got paid. We would go somewhere in Tiko town and settle down on one of the drinking places. We will be talking and soaking down some bottles.
The year at CKC went bye real fast and by the end of the year my plans to travel overseas did not go through. I ended up going to Dschang in the Western province to spend the holidays with Lydien, my elder sister who was living there at the time with her husband. After the holidays, I returned to CKC and there was a problem. It turned out that Anjey had been taking his girlfriend to the place that Sister German had given me to live in and the Sister had found out(saw them physically).
When I asked Anjey he said that was not the case. He had not expected him to be that dumb to be caught taking a lady to the school campus knowing fully well that Sister German was on campus. Sister German though was very upset and did not want me back at the school. I found it strange at the time but I was not going to be arguing about a teaching job at CKC(you could get a job very quickly teaching anywhere else for the same salary). She paid me for the holiday period(which was a surprise)and I headed home.
The next day I went to Limbe(Victoria)at the time and got a teaching job there. The principle there at the time was Mr Taiwo. They gave me a place to live and I let them know that I planned to be there for about a year. I had made up my mind that if I ended up not travelling, I would take the entrance examination into one of the professionals schools like ENAM(school of that trains magistrates and administrators) or Ecole Normal Superieur(The school that trains teachers).In Saker Baptist College I taught French to form one and two students and English Literature to form two and three students.
There was an elderly guy there that was teaching French to the form four and five students. My stay in Saker was very quite as oppose to CKC. I had to learn how to cook. I was far from home now. Learning how to cook would help me in the future. The idea of teaching was getting boring to me. The first reason been that it was suppose to be something temporary(just for a year was the original plan) and I hated the fact that I was still around teaching while my friends had either gone overseas or had stayed at the university and somehow adjusted to studying there.
I never did finish the school year at Saker and I left there before the year came to and end. I believe it was around June when my brother showed up in campus and said that he had gotten my visa and it was time to go. You do not turn down a chance to move to the US.I parked my few belongings and literally disappeared from the school campus before dawn. Good thing I was only teaching up to form three students. The school could get a replacement for me in a heartbeat.