Dhuse in Africa

My father, brother and my brother’s girlfriend, Kristen all came for a visit here in Cameroon.  I arranged for a ride to and from the airport in a private car with a friend from Limbe.  He is a Cameroonian and besides driving he helped get the family through customs as well.  With just minor trouble getting through customs we were out of the airport and loading the baggage into the car.  Unfortunately at this point the keys accidently got packed into the car as well.  So after shutting the back hatch we realized we were locked out of the car.

With the help of some by standers we acquired items to try and break in.   We tried for 30 minutes or so to get in, but were unsuccessful.  Finally one of the guys standing around had a master key of sorts and opened the door.  After fending off all the people who wanted money for helping, and there were 15 or so, we were off.  The ride back to Limbe was about an hour long, so my family and I caught up with each others’ lives.

The hotel I found for our stay in Limbe is a little two room place.  I rented both rooms so we essentially had the place to our selves, with the exception of the dinner crowd for the hotel restaurant.   During our stay in Limbe we went to the wildlife center, the beach and checked out my friend Bill’s software company.

We then took the bus to my region of the country.  After a small hiccup with having to change from our bus to a van on a deserted, in the middle of nowhere road, things went smoothly.  We finally arrived at my house and we were all exhausted, so we all decided a nap was in order.  After a short nap we took a trip into town to get lunch and some supplies for dinner.

The next day we went to Bafoussam to do a little shopping.  Bafoussam is the third largest city in Cameroon and probably the ugliest.  However you can get just about anything you want there.  For us we were looking for fabric that we were going to use for custom tailored shirts.  We went to one of the biggest fabric sellers in town, La King.  However when we arrived they were closed for lunch.  So we decided to get lunch ourselves.  We went to a western style restaurant called Narco-Line, one of the nicer places in that city.  After lunch and using possible the nicest bathroom in all of Cameroon, we went back to La King.  We spent a good hour looking through different styles and debating what to get.  Everyone finally decided and after a few errands we took the car back to Bangangté.  Now I should mention here in Cameroon cars travel packed with people.  A small car will have four people in the back seat, two in the front passenger seat and sometimes a person sharing the driver seat with the driver.  We didn’t feel that we needed to travel as the Cameroonians do so we bought all the places in the car for the four of us.

That night we returned to my house, prepared and ate dinner with pineapple for desert.  For entertainment we played Carcassonne, a type of board game my dad had brought for me and used my slow internet.

The next day we took a trip to a nearby village called Banderfam where another Peace Corps volunteer lives.  This village is small and was a great chance for my visitors to see a true Cameroonian village.  While we were there we fixed one of the villages three computers and installed software on another.  Julie the volunteer also took them on a tour of the village while I continued to work on the computers.

After finishing the work with the computers we rode back to Bangangté and went to a restaurant for an early dinner.   After which we went on a tour of the University.  Since it was a Saturday, it was pretty quite.  Then it was back home for some pineapple and a movie.

The next day we tried to make arrangements to fly to the north to go on safari.  However we found out that there were no flights on Wednesday, the day we expected to leave but it was instead on Tuesday.  We scrambled around trying to get tickets but there was no travel agent that would take a credit card and we did not have enough cash to buy the tickets.  After trying some options we eventually gave up.  We changed our planes to go to Yaoundé and then on to Kribi.

The night before we bought our bus tickets, we had to talk the agency into it and ended up paying a bit more for it.  However we did get good seats and thanks to buying an extra place we were not crammed in.  The bus ride went well and once we arrived we took the taxi to the hotel.  We stayed at a hotel right next to the Peace Corps office and transit house.  This was desirable for several reasons:  first, they offered a Peace Corps discount, second there is a good restaurant just across the street, and third, perhaps most importantly it allowed us to make use of the transit house.

The transit house features a full kitchen with all the appliances, living room with TV and DVD player as well as many other things.  We spent both nights watching movies and hanging out there.  Strangely there was hardly anyone there, just one new response volunteer.  This situation actually worked well as when the house is full it can be a bit crazy.

The stay in Yaoundé went very well; we had drinks at the Hilton bar on the eleventh floor with a great view of the city.  We went to a primate sanctuary just outside of town and went to the famous pizza place in the expat district.

The trip to Kribi was a bit less smooth.  With getting ready in the morning we arrived a bit late for the bus and could not get the good seats.  So we were packed in the bus five people to a four seat row.  Everyone that is except my dad whom we bought two places for.  The ride was just over three hours but crammed in it can feel longer.  Though we finally arrived and took a taxi to our hotel; the same hotel I stayed at during the Peace Corps in-service training.  Which like the hotel in Yaoundé offered a discount to PC volunteers.  We had a late lunch and then went into town to buy some souvenirs and fruit.  With a quick stop to the bakery for some ice cream, of course.  After which we returned we walked across the road to the beach; we swam and enjoyed the sunset.  Later we returned to the hotel restaurant for some fruit and to relax.

The next day we went to the famous waterfalls just outside of town.  These falls are one of the few places where a waterfall empties into the ocean.  We walked up to the falls and took a small boat to the base as well.  We relaxed with some cold drinks and bought more souvenirs.  After a few hours we went into town had lunch.  We were all a little sleepy and we decided to go back to the hotel for a nap.  That night we went back to the beach, played in the waves and again watched the sunset.  With the convenience of the hotel restaurant we ate there yet again.  We spent the rest of the night relaxing and engaging in some video chat with people back in the US.

The next day it was time to leave, we took the bus to Douala where the airport is.  I checked into a hotel, where I would stay as the flight out was late and I would have no time to travel.  We had a nice lunch and then my three visitors repacked their bags and got ready for the flight.  We took the hotel shuttle to the airport, they checked in and we said our goodbyes.

Over all it was great to have visitors, we had a lot of fun together.  However being the tour guide and translating for two weeks is exhausting, I am defiantly looking forward to staying at my post for awhile.

See photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2375762&id=22405894&l=b264fa2f70