My Holidays in Cameroon

Happy 2007 Everyone!

Now that the blog is finally up after months of empty promises, I thought I'd start off with a report on my holidays (you know, now that they're over) and by posting some pictures to appease those who've been bugging me for months to send pictures.

For Thanksgiving a group of volunteers found a little vacation chalet in the mountains near the village of Melong, in the Littoral province in western Cameroon. It took me two days to get there, and on the second day we missed the bus. So, after waiting six hours for a bus that arrived four hours late, we then spent another six hours on the bus. At least the road was paved.

For a little Cameroonian travel ambience, here are shots of a street market at one of our bus stops in the West province, on the way from Yaoundé to Melong:


On the way Volunteer Sarah made a new friend:

We finally arrived in Melong at 8 pm. By then we received text messages from the volunteers at the party that they faced a major crisis. They were running out of beer. So, I was tasked to find a bar in Melong and buy a couple of cases to restock. The volunteer I was traveling with and I managed to find a pair of moto drivers willing to take us up there with our beer, so we each saddled up on a moto with a case of beer perched between the handle bars and the drivers' arms, and endured a 30 minute ride through cornfields and up a horrendous, rock strewn dirt road, but somehow we made it up the mountain to the chalet. The beer made it too, which was of course the important thing.

Since we didn't arrive til 9 pm we missed dinner. Fortunately they saved us plates, so I got to eat turkey (they have 'em in Cameroon) and pumpkin pie after all. The food was good and the Cameroonian staff were nice. There was one guy there serving who was wearing a Chipendale's shirt, which I thought was hilarious. A future post will be devoted to the T-shirst Cameroonians wear. Some assorted pictures of volunteers having fun:

Beds were in short supply, so or lack of other options I ended up in the center of a manwhich between Volunteers Jessie and Charles:

Since we arrived at night, I didn't get a look at the place until the next morning, which was a shame because it really was quite a beautiful area. Here's what I saw when I walked outside the next morning:

This is the outside of the chalet in the pictures above:

This was pretty nice too:
In spite of the long and tiring trip there, I'm glad I went. I got to meet several new people and catch up with others I hadn't seen since finishing training. A good time was had by all.

For Christmas, I was so tired after travelling to and from Kribi (more on that trip in an upcoming post) and then getting sick after the trip that I had no desire to go anywhere or do anything. So for Christmas Eve and most of Christmas day I sat around the house and caught up on sleep. Since all the students and most of the staff were gone for the holidays it was ncie and quiet on campus. For Christmas dinner, I cooked a big pot of beef stew and some spaghetti and invited over some of my friends and neighbors and colleagues for dinner. Again, a good time was had by all:

My New Year's Eve was pretty sedate too. I hung around the house most of the day and then went over to my friend Issa’s house, we he and his wife Hawa were hosting. None of the guests drink so it was a non-alcoholic New Year’s. We watched a lot of Cameroonian pop stars perform on TV. Very interesting – alternately cool, funny, and a bit scary.

For New Year’s Day I was invited over to one of the Pastors’ houses for lunch and had a huge meal. I had barely recovered from that when I went for a walk and got invited into another friend’s house. She and her husband promptly shoved more food at more me. Cameroon is like that - enter someone's house and they will feed you, whether you want food or not. We also watched Cameroonian pop music videos, but since her husband is from an Anglophone province they were in English, which made them even more amusing. I learned that if you are unhappy, don't worry, because 'Disappointment will turn to appointment!' So there. Best song lyric ever.

For my New Year's I was also once again reminded that Cameroonians are a ‘use all parts of the buffalo’ kind of people when it comes to food.

On New Year's Eve Hawa served rice (so far so good) with a beef sauce composed of boiled cow skin. Yummy. On New Year's Day at Marie-Noelle's house the main course was ndolé (pronounced en-doh-lay -hard to describe but a little like spinach) and plantains. Of course, a fried fish head was served on the side – there’s actually more meat in there than you’d think. They normally eat most of it. I broke it up and sucked the meat off so it looked like I’d eaten most of it. Some unidentifiable gelatinous stuff was mixed in with the ndolé, which I later found out was cow tendon. It was about as appetizing as it sounds. The trick is not to chew it - just cut it into small pieces and then choke it down and get it over with. Same with the cow skin.

That was about it for my holiday season this year. The students are back on campus so life is slowly returning to normal. Whatever that is. I’m still figuring it out.

Anyway, happy New Year to everyone out there from the country where 'Disappointment will turn to Appointment!'