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.