Crisis Situation

The road to Nanga Eboko is bad. Even by Cameroonian standards. It's unpaved almost the whole 170 kilometers from Yaoundé to here. In the dry season it turns to dust and visibility is often nil - like driving in whiteout conditions in a blizzard. In the rainy season (which we're now in) it turns to a sea of mud. Logging trucks use the road through Nanga to carry the equatorial African rain forest to Yaoundé or Douala a few trunks at a time. In the rainy season mud, these huge, heavy trucks destroy the road. And of course, road repairs are not Cameroon's strong suit.

I was told by the volunteer here before me that the road had gotten worse during his two years here, and it has continued to get worse during my time here. The last time I took a bus to Yaoundé we did a lot of slipping and sliding. It's become normal for people to get stuck in the mud on the road or trapped behind overturned tractor trailers for a night or two.

Fortunately, we are on the train line that goes from the north of Cameroon to Yaoundé, so for my last few trips I have been able to take the train (even though that means getting to the station at 3:30 AM).

However, the road has become so bad that most deliveries of goods from Yaoundé have stopped. The train only drops passengers in Nanga, so everything has to be trucked in over our crappy road. I first realized the implications of this when I went looking for eggs and was told that there were none to be had anywhere in town.

Then, on Friday I went to meet a friend in town for a beer and got the REAL bad news: there's no beer in town.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I'm exaggerating. They still had some Guinness but were out of everything else. Bet the Guinness is gone by now too. Ashia!