It really seems like a year has passed since I last "updated" you all. That
much has honestly happened. Let's see how well I can remember everything.
Well, December found us (Kim, Kat, & I) with extreme cabin fever. We really
wanted to get out of Dodge, er, Lassin. So we planned accordingly. We would
leave on the last Thursday of school after class let out, and we would set
out to see the world! And even though we didn't end up leaving until Friday
morning or seeing the world, we let nothing curb our enthusiasm AT ALL.
Thursday night/Friday morning was spent packing up ol' Silvy, Kim's old,
silver, hard-top, on-its-last-leg suitcase and all our respective backpacks.
We were going to enjoy this trip no matter what happened. Friday morning, we
tramped down to the taxi park clad in jeans hauling all our stuff. The day
before, I'd been told that it would just be best if I ate the rest of my
2010 meals with Kim & Kat. So this morning, defeated, I carried my bag of
white, breakfast bread to the market with francs to supplement it with
chocolate, biscuits, and ching ching all 'round. The night before, Julianna,
one of the sweetest people in Lassin, had brought us fufu & fried agusi
(pumpkin seed swimming in palm oil: very tasty!). I ate my fufu with avocado
and shared some with D. We had way too much fufu to know what to do with-aka
we gave it away. Anyway, we found a taxi & the four of us piled in,
completely pumped for our adventure across Cameroon. First stop? Kumbo of
course! This was pretty much the most important stop since I needed onions
so bad from Moneygram (onions is Rose lingo for cold, hard CASH). Oh! Funny
story. Well this taxi ride was one of my first experiences with dust. The
roads in rainy season are just awful to drive on, BUT the roads in dry
season are covered with at least a few inches of loose, orange dust. This
dust will find its way into a taxi or suitcase or person through the tiniest
of openings. It's great. Our trip Kumbo also found us with some interesting
cargo, and I'm not talking about taxi mates. Two pretty big bags of bong (I
think that's what they called it?) traveled with us most of the way to
Kumbo. Also great. Okay, so after taking a bike to the post office (3 more
packages! Thank you Mom & Gma Anne!), walking to Pastor Josiah's house
(pastor of our church here in Lassin), loading up on holiday goodies from
the boxes, taking a bike to Moneygram/the supermarket, then BACK to the taxi
park, we were all almost ready to go to Bamenda. The roads to Bamenda are
much better than those to Lassin. So, in that respect the trip was better.
There are even some paved stretches of road which means a lot less dust. But
I think we must have gotten on the oldest "Taxi Bus" in the business.
Bamenda is just on the other side of these big hills. In order to get to
Bamenda, the Taxi Bus had to climb these hills. It barely made it. Once we
started up the hill, the driver had to stop what seemed about every ten
minutes to replenish the water in the radiator. One time when we stopped, he
didn't wait long enough for the pressure to decrease before opening the cap.
Hot water and steam came shooting out in all directions! By this time, all
the occupants of the van were very angry at the driver for putting them
through this and not maintenance-ing his vehicle before the busy holidays.
We made it to Bamenda, but he couldn't even take us all the way to the taxi
park-the van was in that bad of shape. He pretty much made us get out on the
side of the road (we were very, very close to our stop, though). After a few
minutes, our Bamendian contacts, Mercy and Rita, met us. Mercy is the wife
of Felix who Kim met through the installment of her village phone
antenna-like you know what that means. Our time in Bamenda was very nice. We
got a total change of scenery, TV (Kat was ecstatic about the Disney
channel), ice cream, internet, new hair-dos, free lodging, malaria (haha!
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I contracted it in Bamenda, 7-10 days before the onset
of symptoms.), ATM use, and good company. One thing I did not get was a
shower. All I can say about that is: mercy. I think my favorite part of
Bamenda was the hair-platting line of the market. Or maybe it was the cold
or frozen drinks and snacks we enjoyed. Yeah, I think both. The
hair-platting line is a pretty long aisle of the market with nothing but
women and girls standing or sitting on stools doing nothing but braiding
hair. It was really awesome. When we first arrived, I was kind of annoying
because all the women were staring and trying to get us to go to them for
their services. We finally found the ladies Rita was looking for and I got
to sit. The women starting braiding Kim and Kat's hair at about 1 pm in the
afternoon, and we didn't leave the market 'til 7 or 8 that night at least.
It was a long day, but they had beautiful, yet painful, braids to show for
it. Sunday night we carried/rolled our things to the taxi park ready to
embark on our next leg of our adventure. This time, we'd be taking the night
bus to Yaounde, the capitol of Cameroon. This would be one of my favorite
stops on our trip. I slept like a baby on the bus. Only because Divine was
nice enough to let me have his window seat. I conked out before the bus even
rolled out of the park. I have learned some funny things about night buses.
The seat number that is written on your ticket means nothing. Sure, you
might be sitting in Seat 55, the information given on your ticket. But, then
again, you might be sitting in Seat 54, Seat 12, or Seat 74. Or you might be
sitting on some luggage in the aisle, someone's lap, or even the floor. If
you're not quick to claim your seat, you may not have one for the ride.
Also, about half-way through the drive to your destination, night buses
always stop at a sort of night market. The first time my sleep was
interrupted by this, I was pretty startled: What the heck is going on?!
People actually want to eat at this time of the night?? Crazy. The second
and third times were old news. My first few goals in Yaounde were to find
lodging, go to a bakery, and take a shower-in no particular order at all.
So, we found our way to the SDA Union office hoping they could help us.
Fortunately, they are located right across the street from the best bakery
in Cameroon-Calafatas Boulangerie. Wowsers, that place is awesome. After
picking up some breakfast, we just lounged in the lobby of the union office,
dozing on and off after their staff worship. We waited to see the president
for about 3 hours. Turns out that their hotel units were booked. They helped
us find a taxi across town to the Baptist mission, SIL. Now this place
looked so nice! It's a huge gated community filled with Americans and
Canadians and even Cameroonians.
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