| Dear friend, I have been thinking about you a lot, and it was with great joy that I received your letter. Actually I am doing well, and so is my family. After your studies, will you make some efforts to come and work in Africa? Or do you intend to stay in Europe? I would love to see you. If you would go to Africa, where do you desire to go? My wish is to see you one day, and why not in my native country - Cameroon? My family is formed with 5 children. Martine is the eldest. She is 14 years old. Then it is me, Steve, who is the second eldest. I am 12 years old and I am in the 6th grade of school. Nr. 3 is Aristide. He is 9 years old and he is in 5th grade. The second youngest is Mesmère, a boy who is 3 years old. The youngest one is Kisito. He is my baby brother who is almost 1 year old. The big gap between Aristide and Mesmère is simply because I lost my junior sister. My mother is 34 years old, and we don’t know our father. Our grand mother who is taking care of us is 62 years old. Everything is going well concerning the studies. I had 12,63/20 and I was the number 17 best out of 54 students. I am preparing my final exam very well. The exam I am taking now is called the First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC), and it is the common entrance exam to go to the college. It is hard, but I promise to do all my best to succeed like “a boy”. I still love mathematics and I wish to study science to become a teacher of science. I love to play with my friends Yerima and Nkol. Together, we play football, and we go fishing in a stream called “Doume”. That name is also given to my village, because of the stream. In my village, Christmas, which is a religious feast, is celebrated in two steps. The first is material and the second is spiritual. For the material aspect, people clean their compound, and buy gifts and dresses. In my family, we made our gifts from local material (root of bamboo and bamboo) like toy cars, guns and houses. Last year I had a toy car made from bamboo from the river, and a house also. For the spiritual aspect, we had two masses on the 24th and 25th of December. I served the two masses because I am an altar boy in my parish. Also people prepare exceptional food these days. In my home, I cook a goat. I love cooking. During the dry season I am not doing well, because I always have headache and bleeding. My family and my community are doing well. I help abandoned mothers. I am having problems with my school furniture because my grandmother is getting tired and my father is unknown. I will now be leaving my pen, but I remain near you in my thoughts. Yours, Steve Frank Bikoul – Doume. |