Crowd Surfing

Traveling in Cameroon is usually an unpleasant experience at the time, but makes for some good stories afterward. Buses are always at least a few hours late, there are twice as many people as should be in the bus, and sometimes you have to hold someone’s baby or chicken on your lap. In rainy season, you have to get out and push the car through the mud; and in dry season, you can’t see or breathe because all the dust kicks up from the dirt roads. Oftentimes, the buses break down and you’re stranded on the side of the road for hours until the next bus comes by. It’s also usually very hot, but Cameroonians refuse to open the windows because the wind will make them sick they say.

All of these things are expected whenever traveling and I can usually deal with them, but the worst part about traveling is finding a bus at the beginning. For example, upon arriving at a bus stop to catch a bus to the capital last week, I had about 15 people pulling at my arm and my bags trying to get me to travel in their bus. I eventually broke through, but my friend was not as lucky. They grabbed every limb, hoisted her above their heads like she was crowd surfing, and started to put her into a bus that wasn’t even going to the capital! Luckily, I found a nice Cameroonian and told him to save my friend, which he did and we eventually made it to the capital without too many more problems. For people visiting me, no fear – I know how to avoid this scenario now! Apparently, you have to get dropped off before you reach the bus stop, then look for private cars to flag down.

Rainforest of Central Africa

I spent the holidays at the beach and in the second largest rain forest in the world (behind the Amazon) where I got to see chimps! We weren't allowed to touch them because the last time a human touched them without being quarantined first, the chimps got meningitis. But I got a little too close to the baby who smacked me while I wasn't looking. Here he is:


Here is a sunset at the beach in Kribi:


Here are the little cascades that flow into the ocean at Kribi:

Decorating Christmas Cookies

A couple of volunteers and I baked sugar cookies for the kids at the orphanage to decorate. We even had frosting shipped to us from the states! It was a big hit and the kids didn't hesitate to finish off the frosting tubs by the spoonful once the cookies were all decorated.

The Death of a Chef

The old chef, or chief, of Dschang passed away 2 months ago, which meant his successor was finally allowed to leave the compound! Here are pictures of the ceremony.

On the right, you can see the giant blow up tub of margarine. It was strange to see a lot of modern marketing like this at such a traditional event.



There were several different traditional dances. The first of which was not really a dance as much as people walking extremely slowly looking about eerily with their masks.



There were also people prancing about with swords.





The new chief is the big guy in white with the hat under the umbrella:

Coaching a Girl’s Soccer Team in Africa

I started coaching a girl’s soccer team in my village as a women’s empowerment initiative that is much needed in this extremely male-dominant society, but also just to have fun playing soccer again. We play for an hour and a half 2 days/week and every time there are boys on the sideline who practically beg me to let them play. I try to say no to all of them, but sometimes it’s honestly hard to tell who is a boy and who is a girl. By law, everyone at the high school has to shave their head to cut back on lice, so everyone looks exactly alike in their matching Cameroonian #9 soccer jerseys (the jersey of Cameroon’s best soccer player, Eto'o). This also makes it difficult to learn their names, which are unusual to begin with.

Most of the girls show up to play in jellies or other plastic sandals, while others play barefoot. Occasionally, someone will have actual running shoes, but it’s rare as these are harder to clean after a day of running on the dirt field and Cameroonians must have clean shoes for some reason. I will try and post a picture of the team soon!

Cameroonian Gas Station

Is it dry season already

I have been waiting and waiting for dry season to arrive, mostly so my clothes will dry in less than 5 days, which is hard to do when it pours every single day. The last few days, however it hasn’t rained at all – precisely when I actually needed it to rain. A few days ago, I went to fill up my bucket with water from the tap outside and nothing came out but a few precious drops. Apparently there was something wrong with the pipes. Every day since, the technician said he was going to come, but in true African style, he didn’t come for 4 days. Thinking he would fix it sooner than later, the only thing I did to find water was to strategically station my 5 buckets around the yard to hopefully catch the rain that never came. Meanwhile, dishes were piling up and I started rationing my drinking water until I finally decided I needed to search for water. I armed myself with some of my buckets and set out to find a water source in the village. As I was wandering around I luckily bumped into the technician on his way to my house! I’ve never been so happy to someone.