Hi Everyone! My name is Grace Manning and I am an English and French double major with a Peace and Conflict Studies concentration. My family currently lives in Dublin, Ireland, but is in the process of moving to London, England. Having gotten the opportunity to live around the world with my family in places including France, Canada, Ireland and most recently, the United States, as well as the chance to travel to over 20 countries, I developed a love of exploration and discovery. I hope to be able to share with you my experiences as I study abroad in Yaoundé, Cameroon, West Africa. I am writing this just a few weeks out from my first trip to Africa which seems insane to me! I have never been to the continent, much less to the coastal country of Cameroon, so I am trying to go in with as few expectations as possible. I recently was given my host family, Sandra and Kennedy Muluem and their three children, nine year old twin girls and a two year old girl, and I am overjoyed to get to spend my time in Cameroon with a family similar in structure to my own. I have been dreaming of going to Cameroon since my freshman year, so the program I have chosen through Middlebury’s partnership with Holy Cross is an incredibly exciting one. I can’t wait to meet the other student on the program and to arrive in Cameroon’s capital city, Yaoundé.
Wish me luck and be sure to read along as I start this adventure on the other side of the world!
