We are in Maroua, a very dusty town in the North Province of Cameroon. We had planned to leave tomorrow, but now will leave on Monday as Sarah has caught a traveler's bug.
Our experience here in Cameroon has been tremendous to date, and would be difficult to capture in a blog posting. For me it is a homecoming, yet many years removed; for Sarah it is the opportunity at last to see the faces and places she has heard so much about, while calibrating expectations and actuality.
Anyway, here is a brief recap of our time here to date:
Thursday 2/5/09
Hectic departure (when is it ever not?). Overnight flight to Zurich on United.
Friday 2/6
Glassy-eyed travelers wander the Zurich duty-free shops. Zurich to Douala to Yaounde on SwissAir. Claude, his son Jacob, and Mdme Enga meet us at the airport; we are delighted to be met by old friends. Stay in CTC apartments on high school compound.
Saturday 2/7
Boulangerie Elysee for pain chocalats, then Hilton for coffee. La Dolce Vita (cafe above Elysee) for lunch. Then several hours on the phone reestablishing connections and making plans. Meet up with Phil Burgess -- he looks good with a goatee! Restaurant La Salsa (run by former owners of Le Samovar) for dinner, then Las Vegas bar for drinks. Meant to go to Safari Night Club, but I had planned poorly and was already out of money!
Sunday 2/8
ICF church at Hilton. American Club for swim. Erkerts for lunch -- delicious vegetarian Cameroonian food. Then Maison Blanche for a fish dinner with old friends: Benoit (our former day guard), Augustine (our former cook), Tabi, Claude, Jacob, and Mdme Enga. Plus Augustine's latest girlfriend. Everyone excited to see me, but much more so to meet ¨the new Madame¨. Augustine insists that I cannot cook a thing and that he will have to teach Sarah his secret recipes, especially for Cheese Toast.
Monday 2/9
Errands about town, then hectic packing up. Caught the 6pm train from Yaounde to Ngaoundere, with our own two-person sleeper car. Sarah was perhaps expecting a little more from the first-class dining car. So was I after we both got sick from eating there.
Tuesday 2/10
Arrived Ngaoundere after a few hours of fitful sleep bouncing about the train cabin. Immediately boarded a 30-person bus for eight-hour trip to Maroua. Met Hollingsworths for dinner, but I was poor company as came down with food illness from train. Stayed at Baptist Mission, a German-run place with typical cleanliness and efficiency.
Wednesday 2/11
I awoke feeling 80 percent better; Sarah woke feeling 100 percent worse, as the train food had bided its time with her. We had arranged a tour to Roumsiki, but had to postpone it. We both spent the day in bed, recuperating from our travels and last few hectic weeks. Meanwhile, outside it was a national holiday for Youth Day, so were constantly serenaded by the sounds of parades and young people expressing various themes on ¨We are the future¨.
Thursday 2/12
Sarah still sick. Guide to Roumsiki getting grumpy as I continue to delay trip. Of course, he has upper hand as I have already given him gas money for the car. Spent the day running errands: fetching things for Sarah, changing our flights out of here, getting a haircut, updating blog. Full circle, full stop.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment